More haste ... less speed!

Although we have been together for nearly 13 years, I don't think that I have ever knitted a sweater for Ian. I've thought about, spun and sampled for them, but none seem to have come to fruition as yet. The dingy image above shows some recent sampling, which is now slowly being translated into a garment.

One of my favourite stitches is a k2, p2 moving rib. It can be knitted on smallish needles, yet gives a fluid warm fabric. It is great for mixing colours. The stripes are still visible, yet meld just a little. Here is an example using some of my handspun:

The other thing about it, is that it comes up to the same widthwise tension as garter stitch.

So, having acquired some wool, roughly 4 ply thickness that is in three distinct brown shades, I have been designing. Together with some ancient Rowan Donegal tweed colours it is taking shape.

The sample above was just to tell me whether the colours worked. Certainly my photography didn't! We are going away to Cornwall for a few nights, and this will be with me for the long train journey down to Penzance and back. I will be able to measure it against Ian and sweaters he has with him, what more could you ask for?

Of necessity, this trip was planned months ago, long before we had any inkling that the Art Room would be moving into larger premises. I will be missing out on some of the good stuff, and some of the nitty gritty, but hope to come back more able to help out.

This past week has been very busy. The other Mary was out in schools running sessions making pots for Diwali. I was running most of the open studio sessions, and making sure that the pots were dried out, and packed into the kiln for firing. I was glad that I didn't get to cope with the masses of children that came to the free event at Long Eaton town hall yesterday. There had been about 160 children there during the day, from 10.30 - 13.30.

And now it is time for those of a nervous disposition to look away!

On Wednesday, round about 16.40, I was leaving the Art Room (at 16.00 my 4 New Deal workers had left when the session ended). I brought my bike round, and as I was closing the heavy metal gate my left hand got in the way.

Now I know why Ravelry asks for a favourite swearword when filling out the profile.

Mine is roughly this: tsc#*=#, which you could well have heard had you been there.

This is how it looked this afternoon. Most of the swelling has gone down, and the other side isn't quite as black as it had been. This image makes it look much better than it is in reality.

It doesn't throb as much as it did, but is still much warmer than my other digits.

It limits what I can do. The feeling is now rather like a chilblain, but it is getting easier to touch it. For the first few days drying my hand was the worst thing I tried to do.

BUT I can still knit, not for as long as usual though!! I have been typing with only the index finger of the left hand in use. The others, and the thumb make a protective fist. This makes me even slower than usual in everything. I don't think that I'll make that mistake again. It all happened because I didn't want the metal gate to clang as I was tired.