Consistency (in blogging as elsewhere) is clearly my middle name.

So - well, Sally and JoVE re the silly youtube thing - can't remember where I found it. Has the hallmarks of a web-wander from Kris's blog, land of the entertaining link, but I'm not sure. I wouldn't know how to find such things independently, honest!

Anyway - Felix, I really will post further mess tomorrow (when it is Tuesday). I am meant to be having a massive clear-up, including hoovering under the bed (Clare says it's vile; I protect myself by not looking). We'll see what delights I find for everyone. The whole tidy side/messy side is played out in our whole lives, works at the dinner table, on the sofa (where I nest with projects surrounding me. Where's the camera? I ask - on the sofa says the long-suffering C). 

I've decided not to feel guilty, c'est moi, and I am now officially middle-aged and unlikely to change such ingrained habits. Neither of my parents is very tidy, Mum perhaps worse in the creating-piles dept (or at least she was when she was stressed out working-woman). There was a famous occasion when Dad went spare (not uncommon for any of us in our household, we row, rather than stiff-upper-lipping like proper Brits should) over the massive piles of crappy post in the hall. Eventually he threw it down the garden path; whereat Mum stepped delicately over it and went to work. 

I must say I quite like her style! (Dad's wasn't bad, either; at least it wasn't passive-aggressive!)

Anyway: knitting. I have been. What is more, I have Swatched. Against my nature, but actually quite fun, I've been finding! Here is the evidence:

The pink is in progress (2/3rds done perhaps?) to be a Lace Ribbon Scarf a la Veronik Avery in Knitty, except I've used a laceweight and done fewer pattern repeats across. I plan a knitted on edging to fan out a bit at each end. This is for Torie, the beautiful Lil' Miss Chievous the Burly Babe, who's had a recent unfortunate incident involving a disc in her neck. She is now Officially Bionic, with a prosthetic disc, and plans to channel Isadora Duncan in the way of neckwear (though more safely, I trust). Hence: 

My other swatches are for Pinnacle Chevron Rib, seen in Molecular Knitting's scarf here and charted here by Angela Hahn of Knititude, where she has a plethora of patterns using interesting stitch patterns and -often - not wool (or at least compounds of wool and Other, suitable for the Souther Hemisphere knitter). Lutea Lace Shell and Wave skirt, both in recent Interweave Knits magazines are hers. I'm going to use some dark sheep yarn, from New Zealand for this - and plan on a plain jumper (or maybe cardigan) with shaping by changing needle size. My swatch includes 2 needles sizes here:

which doesn't quite do justice to the beauty of the yarn.

Then, i've been wittering on about doing Knit in Chunks by Miss Twiss as she says, a sort-of knock-off of the Pringle sweater that has influenced so many designers (even Lion Brand, I gather!) I'm actually going to do KIC but using cables from Silver Belle, Debbie Bliss's freebie contribution to the 25th anniversary issue of Vogue Knitting. I don't like that overall nearly as much, but I do enjoy the twisting cable. See the green swatch above (started at the bottom with 6mm needles, then 5mm, ended up with 4.5mm, so that's what I think I'll use, certainly for the cable around the bodice so that it doesn't stretch too much sideways). It perhaps looks plumper in the cable in the 5mm, so may use that for the vertical cables that have less pull on them.The yarn is Rownspun Aran tweed, discontinued and available for £3.50 a 100g skein from the wonderful Cucumberpatch in Stoke.

Have I already written about all this? I feel I may have...

Maria - how's the Socks that Rock? I have never met this yarn in person, but a massive (£1800AUD) order has been sent by Australia to BMFA, the dyers, so I hope to soon (no, didn't order). I have, however, ordered some yarn from my mate Barb of Lost Flock Fibers on Etsy - some called Good Dirt I couldn't resist! What a name!

My current knit-while-Clare-practises-Poi-at-the-foreshore, or knit-at-groups project is my bodged-together pattern socks here: 

I'm rather enjoying the spiralling effect. This is the Glacier Lake colourway in Down Home sock from Knitivity, which I'm finding a beautifully, intensely dyed great work-horse of a yarn.

I prefer to buy yarns like this from Ray and barb, knitters I've met online with small operations - STR seems a bit too popular for me! (Inverse snobbery? Discuss!)