Knitting With 100% Cotton - Not my favourite type of knitting!



Before I cast on for the Not So Warm Coat, I had already completed the back and both sleeves for this sweater - also a Sally Melville design. I knit it with Louisa Harding Nautical Cotton. I love the colour, but cotton does not make for pleasurable knitting, and also it does not block like wool! I can see myself wearing this in summer with a pair of black linen - casual drawstring - pants, as it is meant to be loose and cool! It would be fine for now as well, but for a bit we need to part company! The yarn has a real twist to it, so it was 'splitty' and 'rough' on the hands. It is a mercerized cotton (not sure what that means) and it does have a bit of sheen! I have three balls left, so it might become a scarf, but then again it might just linger in the back of the stash! The colour is good with my white hair and it is from my stash, so all is not lost!



I saw the beautiful tulips on Cornflower's blog, (I tried to link to the blog, but it would not work properly) and so I thought I would show you a photo of my tulips this week. If you wish to go to Cornflower's blog and I think you will enjoy it as much as I do, go to http://cornflower.typepad.com/domestic_arts_blog/ I also have included a few things on the hearth - actually my DH did the editing and he left the photo larger than I probably would have. The little statue - can you call something you bought at Costco for under $30 a statue - is of a little boy reading a book to a little girl. When I saw it, I immediately had to have it, as our son used to read to his little sister before she had acquired that wonderful skill. I would hear her calling him to read to her and he would often sit for a few moments and read the book she had chosen. Such sweet memories for me, as they are both grown adults now. The little dog to the right of the photo looks like our older Cairn, Isla. She is also fond of sitting on the hearth from time to time or sleeping there too. The little statue does not sit in the middle of the hearth. In winter, it is to the left of the hearth and once it is summer, the statue goes out into the garden! There is a little piece of wrought iron there that is a nymph tickling the nose of the moon. This used to be a mirror from my grandmother. I have no idea where the little round mirror went, as I never saw it, but I love the little piece - again sweet memories. The rock that is sitting there is from France. It was in a vineyard that grew grapes for the making of Chateau Neuf de Pape - I hope I am spelling that correctly. I like red wines, and that is my all time favourite, so my DH was on a wine tour in France (it was with a wine society we were part of and I could not get time off work) so he brought me that stone back as a souvenir. Those stones/boulders are very important in the ripening of the grape - they gather heat during the day and then slowly release it during the night, so the grapes have a larger number of heat units! It is a bit early in the day to speak of wine, but I will perhaps have a glass this evening.

I had our dogs give me the SnB daily calendar for Christmas. I want to share the page for January 25! It talks about how Victorian knitter were so into making stockings, that they even wrote a cute thyme about it.

To knit a stocking, needles four,
Cast on three needles, and no more,
Each needle stitches eight and twenty,
Then one for seam stitch will be plenty.

Now if my math skills are still working it would mean that 75 needles would be on the needles in total. I seem to remember seeing lots of the older stocking with cording to keep them up! Perhaps because I have a slim ankle and leg, I cannot use more than 64 stitches on 1 mm needles or the stockings are just too sloppy. Of course, we do not know the weight of yarn or the size of needles, but it seems like a large sock to me.

Now I am knitting a vest from Sally Melville's second book. I am making it with a beautiful blue wool and cotton by Rowan. Oh so soft, and such wonderful stitch definition. It is stockinette stitch and no frills, but I only have 7 balls (each ball cost me $2.00) and so the vest was the choice. In the photo I had planned to use some of Jo's gift yarn, but she sent me quite a bit more, so now I want to knit something that would use the majority of Jo's yarn.I saw some buttons while searching through Schoolhouse Press that will be perfect for this sweater/vest. Scroll down the page and you will see the type of buttons that are on the sweater in the picture. I think there are some wonderful buttons at that web site.



I will finish off today by sending you a little plant. These primulas are in the shops now for under $1.00. This beautiful yellow one is the most perfumed, and many have no perfume at all. It will linger in the house for a few weeks and then be put out in the garden. In a few more weeks, I will buy up half a dozen plants and plant a big planter to put beside the front doorstep!