autumn knits

thimble's loop

ponytail hat by Sheila

devil trap

Sigh. Winter looms.
The only good things about this time of year are coal fires, an extra hour in bed today, hot water bottles and home made woollies.
Purl Bee has some gorgeous free patterns, which is where I found this Shawl Collar loop Cowl. These knitters make me believe in the possibility of perfection and not only that but consistent perfection.
I'm not quite there...but now have a warm neck. I used up the last of my Torridon Croftwools hand-dyed Gotland for the lining - perfect and not at all itchy.

Sheila has been busy making ponytail hats for everyone she knows with ponytail potential - thanks! This is a tried and tested favourite from Knitty but she added the crocheted flower which transforms it. The wool used for this was from another Scottish holiday and a trip to Ardalanish weavers on the Isle of Mull. It actually smells of sheep (clean ones of course). The hat looks even nicer from the front but I got camera shy. I stumbled on the cutest pony tail hat pattern today: the urban homesteaders winter hat. Oh to be six again, I would have loved one.

heart attack jumper

heart attack jumper by Thimble

This started out as a germ of an idea when making the Kate Davies: Tortoise and Hare sweater and somehow ended up as this unique piece of self-expression.

In the Maureen stash (inherited from great aunty Maureen), there was rather a lot of this bottle green wool which may well be as old as me. The school green is a bit intense for a full jumper, but it struck me as a great fair-isle filler.

I had one of those lightbulb moments when I suddenly realised that I could substitute the peeries in the hare/tortoise sweater for ECGs...and well, it evolved from there.

Anyone in the know will realise that the jumper has to be read from top to bottom - the first ECG is normal, line 2 reflects the blood clot blocking the artery (when the ST segments go up); the subsequent lines follow the progress over hours-days (as the ST segments fall, T waves become inverted and deep q waves appear). I thought about doing a flat line, but decided not to kill off the patient.

Purlbee has a very useful tutorial on designing your own fair-isle.

the creative process

It was useful putting the whole thing down on paper before picking up my needles, plus I finally got to use my coloured biros:

heart attack by Thimble

The hares and tortoises (tortoi?) of the original design were replaced with hearts (of course), doctor bags, stethoscopes, medicine bottles and syringes. My original design had capsules, but I realised as soon as I did them that they looked more like eyes and once I saw eyes I could only see eyes....

 ...so not having the heart (!) to unpick all those lines I removed that segment and using kitchener stitch replaced it with this...

...which of course you can see is a line of heart murmurs...

...ok it is a little geeky but no more than this doctor who version of Kate's design (which actually has a hidden runic message in it!).