Almost twenty years in the making.....

This weeks UFO finished.... I started this knitting in about 1998 - it was going to be a fringed coat - Why I have no idea, and somewhere as I had knitted up the back, divided for arm holes, and was about to go over the top and back down again I obviously decided I didn't like it so much. It was as patterned above and then I had done circular flower type blobs with embroidered stems - it wasn't looking good!! I think I was trying to rescue something I just hadn't thought through, so it got bundled away needles wool and all and stashed until I was looking for wool to knit an Icelandic jumper and it re- emerged... I kept revisiting it and it traveled through our various house moves...

Finally almost twenty years later I had another look at it. The dimensions were wrong, as it had been intended to be a coat the back was very wide - too wide for a cardigan or jumper back but not wide enough for a back and front!!! In the end I unpicked the embroidery and I pulled most of it back. I didn't have the pattern - if in fact I ever did... but it was easy to copy and I decided it was wasting away so anything I made would be better then all that lovely 100% wool sitting doing nothing. I found a pattern with similar tension and looked at stitches needed and carried on from the pattern line up using plain black, I used half the stitches for the back and the rest for two thin fronts - I divided for the arm holes and attempted a rounded neck... luck rather then management! Then once a basic shape of a cardigan emerged, I picked up stitches along the front sides and knitted long ways copying the pattern until I had the width I needed to make the front the right size - this is the first large scale knitting I have done since I put this down 20 years ago so I was a bit rusty on shaping and detail. I knit both the sleeves at he same time - I think they grow much faster that way and they match, I wasn't sure how the wool would last - I copied the pattern again and made them increase until they fit the arm holes I had created. I added the waist and neck band and surprisingly it all came together as a wearable cardigan - its a bit nanaish but then again I am a nana!!! Its almost 100% wool with some mohair and a tiny wee bit of synthetic when I ran out of blue and needed some from my stash... the buttons came from my button tin - I didn't have matching ones so I made 7 different ones from layering different sizes on top of each other so the mismatch perfectly. Its cosy and warm and another completed project. It has also rekindled my passion for knitting so I'm looking for a new project!!

Scotland part 2

The second half of the week continued in much the same vein. We had one rainy afternoon which was actually quite nice to be holed up in the house with the rain lashing the windows. It probably wasn't quite so nice for the two visitors that came on their bikes but they're tough cookies - and its only water- but I did feel sorry for them having to cycle six miles back down the track in the wind and rain, but given Scotland, it wasn't as bad as it could be. The big quest for the 2nd half of the week was to find some deer antiers! The chap that owned the house dropped in to visit - he was a very friendly fella and was chatting about how this was the time of year when all the Stags lost their antlers (he collected them and sold them) so after that we were on the serious lookout. It's always been Fred's mission to find some dropped antlers.... The Monro baggers continued with the mission to bag the remaining three Monros... there is discussion as whet...

Vigo

We left the ship to explore Vigo. Its a much larger place then we expected... although tbh I hadn't given ut a lot of thought. Its a real mish mash of old and new and having got a map from tourist info we decided to follow the walking trail to the Monte Castro... the highest point of the town. Most of the town was pretty much as everywhere else... lots of traffic... lots of people... one or two interesting buildings and a lot of shopping. We headed to the art gallery - this has been a year of gallery visits so we we seen o reason to change now. The Museo de Marco is housed in the towns ex prison building and its very grand. In fact, I think that on this occaision the building might have been more interesting than the art.... Although the visiting exhibition by Susanne S D Themlitz was strangely compelling. It was a huge varied collection of eclectic items... found, salavaged, manipulated and arranged in lots of ways - weirdly inspiring - and mostly enjoyable to look at...

Funchal

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira. An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed. First of all the weather is really splendid. Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds.. Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm. Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs. In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill. It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town - completely over everybody's house... So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty b...

Planet Ruby Starrs

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