Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Stretchy cast off*

*yes I know that in some parts of the world this is a "bind off" but I say "cast off". So there! :-)

And this is the third time I've attempted this post, Blogger was really playing up all of yesterday. It's not helped by the fact that my laptop seems to be slowing down. It's about two years since I bought it, and it was second-hand then so I'm not entirely sure how old it is. I've just acquired some defragmenting stuff from Download.com so hopefully that will solve some of the problem...

Stretchy cast offs have really hit it big at the moment. Monkey and I have been trying to finish off Cranberry.

We've joined one shoulder seam, picked up stitches and done our 2x2 neck ribbing. Then we wanted to make sure it would fit over my head (cue rude comments from Monkey about big-headedness). Hazel recently used the decrease cast off for her Fitzgerald jumper, which looks fab. She'd come across the same thing I had, in Montse Stanley's Handknitter's Handbook - the tubular cast-off is recommended for casting off ribbing but this just looked too involved & I didn't want to take the time to learn it! (and Monkey was more interested in eating his banana). Then Lucia mentioned a stretchy cast off on her blog (this one aimed at the cuff of toe up socks) with some good pictures of how to do it. And then Pixie Purls mentioned the Italian cast off on the latest episode of her podcast. So stretchy cast offs are obviously a hot topic at the moment!

I've also taken the tonsillitis opportunity to really get into the 3x1 ribbing on Tubey:


Will I finish two jumpers off this week? Probably yes. I went to my GP yesterday and I have officially got tonsillitis. So hopefully the Erythromycin will do its job and it'll soon be gone (I was disappointed that the tablets weren't bright red this time though, I'm sure that's what made the difference last time). I am feeling better though, last week I kept falling asleep all over the place and this week I usually fall asleep only at night! I've also been signed off work until next Tuesday which means more knitting time too! ;-) The really big bummer in all of this was that I felt rotten on Saturday so had to cancel my house viewings and I couldn't get to Knit Lincs. I hate missing knitting group and then I had a phone call yesterday from the estate agent and one of the cancelled viewings has now had an offer accepted. It was a house I really liked, but evidently other people did too. I've booked some more viewings for the end of this week though, so fingers crossed...

Meanwhile, instead of going to bed at 10.30 on Saturday night, I had an overwhelming urge to try out Magic Loop on my new Trekking XXL. So I did.

4 comments:

KnitYoga said...

Cranberry and Tubey both look great and I can't wait to see them both complete! So which cast off are you going to use then??? Sorry to hear you've got tonsillitis again. Hope the ABs kick in soon. Just go and buy some Smarties and take a bright red one same time as the AB and that should do the trick! I'm interested to know how you're getting on with the Magic Loop.

MissLucy said...

Hope you get better soon! And finishing two sweaters in a week - how exciting is that! They both looks fantastic!

Seahorse said...

:p to the tonsillitis. Hope you continue to get better quickly. I love the colours you are using for Tubey.

Mary Anne said...

Monkey looks so adorable in that photo! Your Tubey is looking great and the Cranby sweater too.

Problems with Blogger: Here are two sites you can check out (sorry I can't provide the actual link but you can cut/paste these sites into your toolbar).

The first is a google group for Blogger where people talk about issues (and there are lots):
http://groups.google.com/group/blogger-help

Then there is the Blogger form:
www.bloggerforum.com but ironically, it is not available right now.

One thing I have found is that if I delete my browse cache and clear the disk space, Blogger sometimes allows me to upload photos. Also, it seems easier to upload photos if you leave them on the left side of the screen instead of trying to centre them for some reason.

Another solution I have is to eat some chocolate. I never helps with Blogger but it soothes my nerves...