Tea and Cakes

Wow - thank you for all the lovely comments about the sweater!

I have another finished garment hot on its (it’s? its?) heels. This was almost done when I started the sweater class, and was set aside with just a sleeve to finish.

One finished not so mini mini sweater!

The pattern is the Mini-sweater/boobholder by Stephanie Japel. I sort of followed the pattern, but knit on down on the sleeves and body, decreasing when it felt right and ending with a few rows of garter stitch.

I used 5mm Addi turbos, and the yarn is a 100% wool scottish tweed that came from the Avoca sale last year (thanks Sara and Cheryl!). I’ve used about half the cone, so I reckon I spend about €6 on the yarn. Bargain!

The sleeves are possibly a little too puffy, and I need to get a good button for it, but all in all I can’t wait for the winter!

Of course, now I’ve finished the two items I was making myself finish before I cast on for the hemlock ring blanket I have no interest in starting it at all. In fact, I may even carry on finishing off other items that are on the needles.

Over the weekend I finished the navy sweater, my first fully completed proper adult sized garment.

I have to say I’m very proud of myself.

I love how it looks from the front:

I’m not quite so mad on the back - I’m not convinced I did it right, but maybe I did. Next time I’ll try the shirt yoke variation. I do like that it looks a little bit different from anything shop bought. In a good way.

So, the details:
Seamless Hybrid by Elizabeth Zimmerman, from Knitting Without Tears
Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Blue Ink, 13 balls. Lovely woolly wool this.
4mm needles: Knit Picks metal options and then a shorter harmony wood circular for the neck.
Mods: messed with the percentages a bit to knit it to fit properly.

Big thanks have to go to Aileen, for holding my hand and helping me through during her sweater design classes.

Unfortunately I don’t see the sweater getting much wear at all for a while - It’s really warm, and summer is approaching. Sort of. It’s warm anyway. You know, for Ireland.

Now, I have half a cardigan sleeve to finish and then I can cast on for new and exciting projects!

Right, thanks to some work from my IT Guru, the new design is up and sorted out.

I’ve tidied up the categories a bit, tweaked a couple of things, and made the archives make more sense.

It’s now a lot easier to change the header image, so I can do that more often.

I still need to go into some old posts that have formatting issues and sort those out, but that’s hardly an urgent job.

To come: a lovely long weekend, films, and a finished sweater.

I’m working on the site at the moment. Pay no attention. Colours and image files are a bit off at the moment, I’ll get them fixed sometime this weekend.

Fancy a break now though.

I, Teaandcakes, do solemnly swear that I will complete the Navy Boyfriend Sweater and my Turquoise Cardigan before I cast on for the Hemlock Ring Blanket in the purple Kilcarra yarn.

I accept that I really, really want to do so, and that it is ok to want to. However, I must recognise that the number of almost-completed projects sitting in my knitting basket is getting ridiculous, and that some of these need to be dealt with.

The Navy Boyfriend Sweater really just needs to be cast off, have the underarms grafted closed, and be washed. This is an evening’s work, and it will be very satisfying to see. It doesn’t matter that the weather is getting warmer and there’s really no need to get it finished as it won’t get much wear for many months, or that really it’s pretty much finished anyway so I could just cast on for the Hemlock Ring. There is only a little more to go and finishing it is better than leaving it sitting.

The Turquoise Cardigan just needs one sleeve. Knit from the top down. There’s not even any grafting, and barely any ends to weave in. One sleeve! It’s also in a tweedy yarn, so I can close my eyes and pretend that it’s the purple Kilcarra yarn that I so dearly want to work with.

Casting on for the Hemlock Ring Blanket is an excellent reward for completing two proper garments. It will be worth it.*

Signed, Teaandcakes

*Plus, I also have Cozy on the needles as my portable knitting, so it’s not like I’m lace-deprived.

As you may have gathered from my previous posts, I was up in Belfast this weekend. It was for Sara’s hen party, and little miss smarts here forgot that the location was supposed to be a secret, and posted here on the blog about it for Sara to see. And I think I probably let it slip before then too. Well done, me.

I went up on Friday afternoon by myself, and had a relaxing evening wandering around the city before a swim and an early night at the hotel, which was just what I needed after a long couple of weeks.

I’m still not completely sure what I think of Belfast - it was strange seeing Dunnes Stores right next to BHS, and O’Briens Sandwich Bar right by the City Hall with the statue of Queen Victoria in front of it.

Saturday morning I did much the same - a wander and then a sit for a nice pot of tea in the Linenhall Library. I forgot to document it, but my teapot totally looked like it was the sort to spill tea all over the table, but turned out to be a perfect pourer.

At lunchtime I met up with Diane and then the rest of the group, and we headed out for a delicious lunch, then back to the hotel, off to the Belfast Wheel,

and then on for cocktails, a delicious dinner, and then the rest of the night!

Sunday we went out for breakfast and a quick spot of shopping before heading back down to Dublin.

Sara’s sisters did a wonderful job of organising everything, and it was a lovely weekend.

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Side note about knitting:

I picked up the boyfriend sweater again to find that I really don’t have that much more to do, so I’ve been working on it over the last couple of nights. It’s dark here, and it’s not easy to photograph anyway, so you’ll have to take my word for it that it’s looking great, fits well so far, and doesn’t have too much further to go. (The neck looks a bit small here but that’s only because the stitches are all bunched up on a 40cm needle.)

In Belfast I also cast on for Cozy from Knitty in a 4 ply cashmere yarn. I wanted a soft, light, warm wrap that I could use as a sort of small blanket on aeroplanes and also squish up around my neck as a scarf, and I think this is going to do just the job, although it’s hard to tell at the moment:

~~

Now, after a weekend away, preceded by a full weekend of work, 3 weekends of guests, and a different weekend away, I’m quite looking forward to spending the bank holiday weekend at home. Although maybe there are some last minute deals out there…

Blogging from the top of the Belfast wheel. City hall below.

—- ?Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Tayto’s look different!
Also, the police have guns.
It’s nice here though. I haven’t really explored, just taken a bit of a wander, had a swim at the hotel, and now I’m enjoying an early night. I need one.

—- ?Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

This is the lovely new Docklands Station in the city. It’s very nice. All clean looking. It’s not where I meant to end up though. I was meant to end up in Connolly, the bigger station that the train to Belfast leaves from, and the station that 90% of the trains that go from my nearest station go to.
Grrrr.
So, I had an unplanned walk to get on the train. Not the end of the world really.
Being cunning, I’d reserved my seat. Someone was sitting in it though.
Grrrr again.
Assertive hat on, I politely explained that he was in my seat. Then I kind of ruined the assertiveness thing by apologising and saying that I really liked window seats.
That sorted out a gentleman has sat beside me who kinda smells.
Good thing I love train journeys!

—- ?Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Wow. I’ve been busy.

So busy, that I completely failed to pass on the very exciting news that Stoolball has been officially recognised as a sport.

I’m from Sussex, where Stoolball is from, and played. I learned it at school, and it was one of the very, very few sports that I enjoyed and didn’t completely suck was ok at. So, I was very happy to see it getting proper sport status. Very exciting.

We’ve had visitors for the last 3 weekends, which has been lots of fun.

There have been walks in the mountains (both ones we hadn’t tried before - one good, one not so good), visits to the park to wander and look at the deer, the pope’s cross, and the enormous and prominently situated American ambassador’s residence.

Plus food and drink and chats of course. Lovely.

And, I passed a milestone. A very important one.

My first home in Ireland (once I moved out from living with my lovely relatives to whom I am eternally grateful for putting me up for so long) was an absolute kip. Seriously. It was a horrible flat with a crappy landlord, and I don’t know how I lasted there for the 4 months or so that I did. (Also, D - thank you for rescuing me). I still shudder to think of it.

Anyway, so I’m living there, and staggering home with friends one night from the pub, with chips (it wasn’t the nicest place to cook, or, come to think of it, eat in), when I mention that I don’t have any salt. I don’t use salt a lot, hadn’t bought many kitchen cupboard type items (which was a good thing the day I got home from work to discover that the landlord’s builder had been in and had demolished the kitchen leaving rubble everywhere).

So anyway, back to the story. We stopped off at the 24 hour shop to buy salt for P’s chips. My housewarming gift. A tub of saxa salt. Now I’ve been baking bread regularly I’ve been using more salt, and, seven years after I received it as a gift, I’ve finished the salt. I was kind of sad. That salt held fond memories for me. It was my welcome to Ireland salt. Does this make me a local now?