Postcards from Florence

And some photos from a very hot Florence...

A column detail in the Museo del'Opera del Duomo - potential for colourwork

Art in the very surreal Butterfly House in the Giardinaro Horticulturo (a butterfly house/ cocktail bar hence the surreality...)

Santa Maria Fiore (the Duomo)

Santa Maria Fiore 2

Santa Maria Fiore 3 - I was trying to capture details in the marble design but failing

Santa Maria Fiore 4

Bapistery - floor detail

Bapistery - details above arches

Russian Orthodox Church

View from the top of the Boboli Gardens near the Porcelain Museum

Sculpture in the Boboli Gardens

Boboli Gardens

Sculpture in the Boboli Gardens

I don't tend to take many pictures on holiday but I have lots of sketches of details that might make it into patterns at some point

Postcards from Scotland

As promised here are some photos from the beautiful west coast of Scotland...

A spectacular mountain in Glen Coe

The view driving through the Vale of Glen Coe

The view from the Corran Ferry queue

The view from Lochaline with the white sandy beaches, Ardtornish Point straight ahead and Mull to the right

The very clear waters at Lochaline

Interesting hairy lichen in the Sunart Woods

A heffalump in the Sunart Woods?

Loch Tearnait, near Ardtornish

The ruins of Ardtornish Castle looking over to Mull

Alpaca/Silk Dk from Loch Sunart Yarns and Buttons

AWOL but with good reasons...

I've been away on and off since I last posted which isn't really an excuse but I have been busy as well. A trip to Scotland to see family took me not far from the most Westerly Point of Mainland Britain which also took me to Loch Sunart Yarns where I bought some gorgeous alpaca silk dk handspun which will possibly become a hat. I have taken some photos of the beautiful Scottish coast but sadly not of the porpoises which were swimming off Ardtornish Point at the foot of the ruined castle when we walked up there one day.

Much of that break was spent frantically knitting a sample for my first magazine published pattern (more to come when it's out) which I'm VERY excited by. Submitting for magazines was one of my design goals for this year so I can tick that off my list.

I've also had another pattern accepted for publication which will mean some more frantic sample knitting in the next few weeks! Hopefully this trend will continue and I can mix self publication with 'proper' publication in the future.

I've also just got back from a lovely, if very hot, week in Florence. This holiday was supposed to be about doing virtually nothing so once we found a lovely enoteca, and some very nice restaurants we were pretty much set. We did go to some of the many museums and I did sketch some possible shapes and colourwork patterns in the Accademia, the Bapistery, St Mark's English Church and the Museum of Archaeology - more on that at a later date.

There are some really nice fabric and household linen shops in Florence, and a wonderful yarn shop  but I was very restrained and only bought 140g of pale gold bourette silk laceweight and 390g of DK wool/acrylic blend from Campolmi Roberto Filati (see link above). I did take some pictures of the yarn shop which I'll post once I've downloaded them. I went on the first day they reopened after their August break and there were several yarn starved people in there.

And finally you'll notice the new look on the blog courtesy of M at From Darcy to Dionysus (formerly Dracula) - thank you M. The blog critics over on Ravelry like it too.

So photos of various things to follow and more regular blogging - promises, promises...

FO: Phanessa Tam

This is new design (hopefully) and my latest FO:

I nearly killed my hands and wrists knitting this entire hat in a weekend from design sketches to final blocked piece, especially as the ribbing is on 2mm needles with 4ply yarn. I do like the it and it fits well. Although the photos don't show it there's a subtle butterfly motif on the sides (where the fold is in the picture) which is why it's called Phanessa which has a tangential link to the name Vanessa which is a butterfly genus.

WIP: New design

This is a new design for a wrap and is likely to become pattern support for Dodoknitz!! who provided the yarn. I've not given it a final name as yet.

This is knit in Dodo Sock which has excellent yardage and lovely stitch definition. This particular colourway is a new one I think, designed for this pattern and will hopefully be available as a kit in the future

In other news I have been baking! Himself volunteers at a local primary school as a governor and their brand new PTA ran their first ever summer fair at the weekend. This being England it rained but that didn't seem to dampen any spirits. This was my contribution to the cake stall:

35 iced fairy cakes, a chocolate/vanilla marble cake, an iced lemon loaf cake and at the back a tray of butterscotch flapjacks (I recently discovered butterscotch chips at the supermarket).

Baking for school fairs is something I remember my mum doing when I was little and she ran the parish and school cake stalls. For her it was a more military operation involving bakers delivery pallettes and several trips in an estate car so this was very lightweight.

As Himself wasn't allowed to keep any of the cakes above he's very much hoping that he won the 'guess the weight of the fruit cake' competition so keep your fingers crossed.

FO: A Shawl Without a Name

This is my second sisterly shawl which currently lacks a name.

Yarn Yard Crannog, approx 540 yards or 100g of a 150g skein
4mm needles
4 stitch markers
Blocks to 69" wingspan x 23" neck to tip

Audrey Progress

I posted about my Audrey cardigan a little while ago and haven't really mentioned it since but I did make quite a bit of progress before I got distracted by my new design. This is the top of the left front in the Unst lace pattern which I rather like and is incredibly quick to do. Yet to do: the rest of the back and right front, sleeves, button bands and collar. Quite a lot really but since the weather has warmed up nicely I'm less in need of a cardigan

There has also been progress on my new shawl design. When I showed it in my earlier post I'd only done 2 repeats of the pattern (and was making slow work of it) but I've done some more and here it is with 5 repeats completed and then washed and blocked so I could guestimate size and get this out for testing;

I'm rather pleased with it so far although the photo is not brilliant.

And a final update - Personal Remarks and my Waterhouse Mitts are with a tech editor which for these will be the final stage before being released. No progress on my Tortile Beaded Hat but I promise there will be over the summer.