Wednesday 10 December 2014

knit one...purl one...


My Dolan beret is finished. Apart from threading  through the yarn ends, but that will only take a second. (You can probably see them sticking out like a little tail at the back. You can also peep at our inherited old lady wallpaper on the bedroom wall.) Now my head will be toasty and warm when the icy winds blow. Apparently there's a weather bomb on the way...

I love this pattern it's very simple but with just enough interest to not get bored. You can easily make one in an evening if you happen to have one to spare. Or like me, pick it up when you have a few minutes to quietly work a couple of rows. I like the random patchwork quality of the different blocks of pattern and the texture they introduce. So I've started another one to add to the gold and the grey ones. A true navy one in the same Blue Faced Leicester wool. I might just have to make a neutral one as well in Ecru, then I'll be completely set for winter. That should be enough. 

Ooh, but don't you think that fair isle could work with this pattern too? Imagine the colour combinations I could use...

I've been reading American Bloomsbury and flew through the pages until I reached the last few chapters then I began to dawdle a little. Partly because I didn't want it to end and partly because it's a biography and everyone started to die off. Sad but true. I loved it for the insight to the American Transcendental writers lives. For the descriptions of nature and life that echoed the European Romantics, for the true romances and infatuations and that it directed me to lots of books that I want to read, or re-read. So it's not so much of an end but a beginning. 

books that I now plan to read:
  1. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
  2. Walden :: Life in the woods by Henry David Thoreau
  3. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
  4. The Maine Woods
  5. Cape Cod. Last three also all Henry David Thoreau
...and what I plan to make next:  Some cute little fair-isle Christmas tree decorations using this free pattern. Don't you think they would make perfect stocking fillers?

I'm joining ginny for yarn along...coming?
debx



14 comments:

  1. oh, Debby! I was feeling sort of in a knitting rut, and now I'm ready to cast on cast on cast on!!! (I think I can steal some yarn from a couple projects that are out since the tree is in front of the yarn closet!) Love the hat, love the ornaments, love love love!!! enjoy the rest of the week!!!

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    1. Oh hi Steph. I can't imagine you ever being in a knitting rut. I'm so glad that I helped get you out of it. Happy knitting,debx

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  2. beautiful hat and yes I can see some fair isle flirting the edge :) I tend to take pics without burying in the ends too :) I'm quite impatient!

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    1. Thanks Karen. It would work so well, wouldn't it? I was so excited to photograph it that I forgot all about the finishing off. Hence the blurry photos too.
      dx

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  3. Yes, I say yes to fair isle, it would be so pretty.
    I love your beret, you have the perfect face to wear it with style Debby.
    That is an impressive list of books. I haven't read Walden since high school and might just have to pull it off the shelf.

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    1. I think so too...I can't wait to have a go now. Thank you Tracey. I long to read it too.
      debx

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  4. love that hat, i might have to add that to the list

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    1. It's such a nice one to make that I think I'm getting addicted to them!
      dx

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  5. Beautiful hat! And happy reading! You'll have to let me know if you ever want to read some Latin American classics, (literary or non fiction--my college days were filled with the former, my professional life with the latter).

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    1. Thanks Erin. I'm a bit obsessed with these hats at the moment just made the fourth one! I would love some recommendations, maybe literary to begin with. Thanks, debx

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  6. love the hat...the color and the pattern are wonderful.
    i like the walden book... i read the book last year.
    have a nice weekend,
    hugs and love,
    regina

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    1. Oh thanks.That's a coincidence about the Walden Book Regina. We'll have to compare notes when I've read it too.
      Have a lovely rest of the week.
      debx

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