Japanese short rows

The two-colour hat is jogging along. It now looks much the same as before but slightly longer so I have spared you an update photograph. Instead I will share something else I have been working on.

I found a great tutorial on Japanese short rows and have been doing a bit of experimenting on my latest pair of socks. I found all the safety pins a bit cumbersome but very helpful for a beginner. I'm sure that once I have practiced a few times I wont need them anymore, but it is nice to be able to clearly see which loop needs to be picked up.

I definitely think I am getting a more even result than I normally do with wrapped short rows. With wrapped short rows one side of the heel seems to be fine, but the other side is a bit sloppy. I might have a go at the yarn over short rows as well, just to compare, but so far I really like the Japanese method. I am looking forward to trying it out on something other than socks too.

The yarn I am using is Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Socks That Rock Lightweight (100% merino) in colour Sunstone. It is a really nice yarn to knit with, very soft and comfortable. Their website is very dangerous, in the process of looking looking up those links I have found two new colourways I am keen on - oh dear.

Also the new Interweave Knits and Vogue Knitting magazines arrived this morning, so I am going to enjoy reading them while I eat my lunch.

Terribly British

In celebration of all the good weather here we have been out decimating the garden this weekend. We had a large goat willow near our boundary with next door which was starting to lean on their greenhouse so on Friday a couple of tree surgeons came and removed it, and gave the Eucalyptus and the smoke bush a bit of a hair cut too.

This was the view from our back door on Thursday before all the action:

and here is the view this lunchtime:

The tree surgeons were very quick and tidy, although it was rather hair-raising watching them climbing the trees with chain-saw in hand! P has also been hard at work at the weekend chopping down and pulling up some of the other rather over-grown stuff, and is now onto renovating the lawn which is currently partly bald, and partly brown and crispy.

After all the excitement we decided it was time to actually enjoy the garden and so on Saturday night went shopping for some food to cook on the barbecue for Sunday lunch. Sunday dawned rather grey, but neither of us are particularly good at letting go of an idea once we have latched onto it, so we bravely forged ahead, got the barbecue out, lit it, and put the food on. Then the rain started:


There is something so terribly British about barbecuing in the rain, so many happy childhood memories of summer holidays with iffy weather :-) It is all part of the fun really. Luckily it stopped raining and the sun came out just as the food was cooked and we had a lovely meal, beef burgers with onion and chilli made by P in rosemary rolls made by me, very yummy. We finished it all off with a trip to RHS Wisley to enjoy someone elses garden.

Knitting

In amongst all the gardening I have been doing a bit of knitting:

I am practising my two-handed two colour stranded knitting. I have just about beaten my left hand into submission now and am starting to get a bit faster and more even. I thought this would be a good practice project before I launch into Alice Stamore's Henry VIII. It is going to be a double layer reversible hat, but requires a bit of imagination at the moment.

Comments

Thank you all for your very kind comments on the Patchwork Sweater. I will definitely look into writing the pattern up, though it may take me a while to work out the logistics of making it fit a wide variety of sizes!