Autumn draws in...

I've noticed of late that I've been mainly knitting in autumnal colours - lovely rusty coloured tweeds and copper cashmere blends. There's a skein of dark brown merino dk looking at me from the 'planned projects' box and some stunning Crannog in the same colours as Lime trees as the leaves turn with the changing season just arrived.

I've never really noticed this seasonality in my knitting before. I'll quite happily knit mittens in July and floaty lacy shawls in January with a varied palette through the year but this year Autumn seems to have had quite an impact.Maybe it's the very wet and grey few weeks that we've had in Manchester that makes me want to have the wonderful Autumn colours on my needles even I can't see them on the trees through the drizzle.

Today though the sun is shining and it's one of those crisp, cold Autumn days that are perfect for walking up hills and ending up in a pub although sadly other duties call instead.

Some knitty Autumn colours for you...

On the top there is a new design in progress and one that I'm so far very pleased with. I saw a woman in the post office in a beautiful machine knit lace cardigan so when I got home I started trying to swatch it out. One thing led to another and I started to design a new pair of fingerless gloves. So far this has involved me learning how to do a no seam picot edge as show in SillyLittleLady's blog tutorial here and unventing a no lean central double decrease (I'm sure it exists properly but I worked it out without referencing anything). I don't have a name for this yet so if you have any thoughts...

I've been making...Personal Remarks

So this is my latest shawl - Personal Comments

Knit in Wollmeise and Yarn Yard Clan, this turned out to be larger than I'd planned (no bad thing) at 56" x 26"

It's currently being tested by two lovely Ravellers (thank you Kerry and Heike) and then will be tech edited and released.

The name comes from my sister J who is one of the few people in my family who can wear red successfully. The Wollmeise yarn seemed like a very J colour so I thought this should have a J related name. When I was growing up my sisters were very influential and pretty much brought me up. One of the life lessons J taught me was that making personal comments about people was wrong and spiteful something that I try (and sometimes fail) to bear in mind in adult life. So this one is my J shawl and might, just might, be the first in a series of sisterly inspired shawls.

And some more pictures...

A quiet week on the knitting front

Having put Pergola out for test knitting and finished my husband's socks I seem to be struggling to get started on anything. I could finish the stripy jumper I've been working on for months but it's August and I can't seem to summon the will to work on a December jumper (Rowan Scottish Tweed Aran).

I have started a Persephone Scarf in Claudia's handpainted silk lace in the Copper Pennies colourway. The pattern looks well written and Mim Felton patterns are always a joy. Her Adamas shawl was the first laceweight shawl I made and I loved it although don't wear it very often.

I have frogged the cabled shawlette as I wasn't enjoying it any more but I do think there's a pattern idea lurking for me in shawlettes, cables, deep ribbed border...

I have another stole/scarf pattern in the sketching stage. The two stage borders are planned but now I need to decide what to do in the middle. I think it will be called Pavillion, or possibly Vignette - depending on what I do with the middle section.

However today is not a knitting day. Today is a tidying the house and going to the village fete day. The local village fete has homemade beer, wine and jam competitions and hopefully a good cake stall so possibly village fete haul pictures later...