Wow

I'm going to have to talk about non-knitting-related things more often. I got loads of comments about the hair problem! It is extremely reassuring to know that I am not the only one who has this problem, and it was fantastically wonderful to hear that Susan (I assume this Susan) has a broom of the kind that I bought, and that it works really well. Now I'm even more eager for mine to arrive (which, sadly, it did not last week). I will absolutely give an update here to describe how it turns out.

And Gill, you're probably right about your interpretation of the 'seven things' phrase being perfectly logical - I only know that when I try to wrap my head around the syntax of it your way, my brain gets a bit woozy. Which probably means that I need more sleep, or it's been way too long since my last linguistics course, or both. Or possibly also that I am dumb. I'm ruling nothing out. :)

Garden Shawl for MIL

I have no idea how I'm managing to zoom along so well on this, but I am. Not only am I now finished the leaf pattern, but I've also finished the first instance of the dew drops pattern and am well into the fern pattern:


Colour me stunned.

Scarf for DH

This weekend I tried another tack with DD. I tried to explain that the scarf knitting was for us to share. While this didn't convince her to let me put her hands through their knitting paces, it did at least allow me to do some knitting on the scarf. I got close to two inches done and then started to get worried about whether we'd have enough yarn using just the one skein. So, with DD's permission, I frogged the whole thing and started again with some massive 12.75mms that I had hanging around, heaven knows why. It's going very well now, and with the huge needles, the fabric has some added interest, more than just your usual garter stitch plainness:

(hm...it doesn't look that interesting in this photo...maybe it's the scale that makes it interesting in person...in my next shot of it, I'll add a hand)

With any luck I'll be able to get DD to help with at least one stitch on this thing before it's done.

Herald tabard for moi

I finally ran the stocking-stitch-only swatch through the machine to see whether the edges stopped rolling when fulled. And...they do!


This meant I could felt the actual tabard as it was. However, despite two successful swatch fullings, I was pretty nervous about that part of the process, but this afternoon I sucked it up and just did it. I put the tabard in a zippered pillow case and put it in the washing machine along with two of DD's rubber balls (roughly 10-12cm in diameter), an old pair of jean shorts and a pair of DH's pants which he has identified for the garbage.

Prior to the passes through the machine, I'd identified some sections of the motif which were 10cm wide and 10cm high so that I could measure them post-fulling to see whether I had correct shrinkage. After the first run-through (with soap), it wasn't quite there, so I ran it again (without soap). After that the shrinkage seemed to be pretty much perfect, so I took it upstairs and started to block it.

Everything started out really well. Everything was blocking to my intended measurements. The back looked great. The sleeves looked great. And then...I hit the bottom of the front.

Wherever this part of the tabard was in the pillowcase, it was somehow 'protected' from the agitation that the rest of the tabard got hit with, because it had hardly shrunk at all. Aieee.

In desperation I wet the bottom and tried some spot hand-fulling. I scrubbed it against itself. I rubbed it between my hands. I wrapped a fancy hair elastic around my hand (it has lots of beads with jagged edges, good for agitation, I figured) and rubbed the tabard with it like crazy. I took the strap off my fancy camera, which has an anti-friction section at the top with rubber spikes all over it, and rubbed that against the tabard like crazy. I did all this a lot, and with serious enthusiasm (a.k.a. 'panic').

I think all this made a little bit of a difference...but it's still pretty obvious that the bottom of the front is bigger than the back. The front is about 4cm longer and about 10cm wider. Oh, and also, the green faded quite a bit, and it now looks kind of grey.



Ouch.

Mind you, I might be able to do some more spot hand-fulling to the bottom of the front, and it's entirely possible that the tabard still looks green and that its current grey appearance is only due to the contrast with the disgustingly green towels it's blocking on. So there may still be hope. But right now I'm feeling a bit discouraged.

Anyone have tips on spot hand-fulling?

Basic Sweater for DD

Well, I did it. I frogged back the rolled hem of the body back to the decrease, cut the yarn and started working with the leftover. Astonishingly, I got two additional inches on the body out of it! Now I'm re-doing the rolled hem with the yarn I used for the original rolled hem:


I've probably got close to fifteen more rows to do and then I'll cast off. With any luck, I'll have very little yarn left over when it's all re-knitted up. Then I just have to weave in some ends, and I'll have another finished project!