Crafty Update

As promised here's what I've been up to apart from reading and selling the odd book or two.

I finally finished spinning the purple fibre that was a gift from my lovely friends in Florida -

Aren't the colours wonderful? I was planning to knit some lacy fingerless gloves with this but now that it's all spun I find I have more than 500 yards of it - way too much to be just gloves so it may be a shawl. Here's a close-up.

Hopefully you can see all the variations in shade from the kettle-dyeing.

I've been carrying on with the Christmas knitting but I had a little setback and accidentally cast on Mobius from Norah Gaughan Book 2.

It is knitting very quickly though, and I'm using some yarn from the stash, so it's not like that counts, is it? I'm hoping to be finished by the weekend.

On the subject of Christmas knitting, Pete asked if I could knit something for his Mum, like a pair of aran mittens and while looking for a mitten pattern I found this -

I know she'd love it but I'm not sure if I could knit it in time. What do you think? It's patterned on the back as well as the front, but it is double knitting weight so it should knit up quite quickly. Can I do that in time for Christmas?

Finally, just to say that I watched Wallander which was on BBC1 on Sunday night and really enjoyed it. The Swedish tourist board must be chuffed to bits - all those lovely scenic shots. I haven't read any Henning Mankell in a while, but I rather recalled a grim, grey urban setting for the books I'd read. I liked Kenneth Branagh as Kurt Wallander - a tortured man finding it difficult to cope with the kind of things his job brings him into proximity with. Well worth a look at the second in the series.