But all the cool kids are doing it....

I don't have much knitting progress to share, but I have some knitting related business to discuss. Scareport (of the Manly Jumper fame) will be heading to Japan at the end of next month for a conference. I'm sending with him an empty bag for yarn and cool Japanese knitting stuff. Basically, I was hoping that someone who passes through this blog could help give me some inside information on yarn shopping in Kobe, Osaka, and Tokyo. I know that 2 of those cities are the top 2 costliest cities in the world, so cheap would be good too. I'm particularly interested in soy and bamboo yarn, and any hints on yarn buying phrases in Japanese would be much appreciated, as well.
There is a lot of non-knitting content in this post, and if you are very squeamish, you might not want to see the second photo. Just a heads up.

In further news, the salad trough is basically sprouting something different everyday. I guess there's not much to say about it, aside from maybe expressing a bit of concern regarding how interested I am by the whole thing. I don't think anyone would be incredibly surprised if I started knitting little outfits for my plants.

As exciting as watching corn grow.

And finally, after reading Stephanie's posts about her recent leg injury, I decided I should go get one too. So, on my way to do a quick bit of shopping before heading into my lab yesterday, I took a massive spill off of my bike. In front of about 400 tourists. As I was flying through the air, memories of my last bike accident (that left me with a broken hand) were flashing in front of me, but despite the acrobatics I think I was fairly lucky. All the bystanders were looking at me with their jaws on the ground, and I'm sure it looked quite spectacular. I did launch quite high up in the air, do a bit of a spin, land on the ground with a roll, only to have my bike (that was till somehow semi-upright and moving) run over and then crash onto my leg. I wasn't even really in much pain until the adrenaline wore off, and I developed a bit of a hobble. It wasn't until I got home that I could really access the damage, and I saw my knee as pictured below. My knee was the worst of it, but my elbow and shoulder hit the ground as well, and I have another less exciting bruise where the bike landed on my shin. Has Yarn Harlot started a trend? Will bruising be this summer's latest accessory?

Where's my sympathy?

Hrmmm, a greensleeve.

How surprising is this?!?! I finished the first Salina sleeve last night. It's just too easy, basically an overgrown, slightly shaped swatch. I will cast-on the second one today, and might even be finished with it by Monday! Hooray! If I can finish it soon enough, and the crappo weather prevails, I might even have occasion to wear it. For all of our sakes though, I will hope this isn't the case. Especially those of us at Glastonbury (man, I have never been so happy to have missed out on tickets!).
Speaking of tickets, I just booked my bus tickets to Edinburgh for the G8 conference gathering. If anyone is around London and interested in going up , the best deal I have found is this. It's £4 each way to and from Edinburgh. The schedule is a bit greuling, 12 hours on the road, 12 hours in Edinburgh, then back on the road for another 12 hours, but I think to miss out would be a real shame. As an added bonus, I don't have to find a floor to crash on. If anyone who reads this is planning on going, let me know, and we can try to meet up. Of course, though the purpose of my journey is primarily political, I might (if I find the time) have to make a detour and check out HK Edinburgh...
Okay, enough about that, here's a photo of my newly completed sleeve trying to get the attention of the lovely Rowan model in her brooch-bedecked Salina. So wistful!

Look me in the eye!

I jinxed it.

So much for my last post's title, it's cold and bucketing down rain now. Aww, man. As far as knitting goes, I did cast on and knit a good 75 rows into the first sleeve of Salina, but I'm not going to post a photo for two reasons : 1) it's just st st, and so boring it might actually kill you, and 2) aforementioned crappy weather leads to crappy photos of knitting. So, you'll have to take my word on it.
I will post some photos though, but not knitting related. There have been some exciting things happening in my salad trough. Look! Something else has sprouted. I'm not sure what it is, but due to the red stem, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's either the red kale, or the red chard. I'm beside myself with joy.

What am I?

That sprout that I posted a photo of the other day was honestly one of about three that were in the trough. They have now assembled an army. Take a look and please excuse the crappy photo.

I am Spartacus! I am Spartacus! I Am Spartacus!

Summa, Summa, Summa, Summatime!

I did eventually climb up the scaffolding in my front garden last night, but I wasn't terribly impressed with the view. There is a pulley system up there though, so we could hoist up a basket with food and have a picnic, but we would also then be almost directly in front of our upstairs neighbours' window.
More excitingly (for me, anyway), some of the seeds I've planted have sprouted. Now, I'm sure the eagle-eyed among you will notice that these sprouts look remarkably like cress. You would be right, and I'm sure you would then think that there's not much exciting about getting cress to sprout. I don't care. I'm just so happy something that I put in earth has decided to ascend. I didn't just plant cress seeds however, the seeds are a mix of salad-y stuff that I bought at the Chelsea flower show called Jekka's Choice Herb Salad Mix. Specifically, it is land cress, red Russian kale, salad rocket, red Chard, and spinach. I can't wait to see what sprouts up next!

The giant sprout will devour us all!

I did get a bit of knitting done last night on my sock, as you can see below. The self-patterning yarn is so much fun, just when you are about to get bored of the colour you are knitting, it changes! I think I will cast on the sleeves for Salina by the weekend, and maybe even have one finished by next week... Am I being too optimistic? Perhaps.

Sock progress

I will leave you with some photos of what I did last night. Every year that I've lived in Cambridge, I've gone down to the river to watch the St. John's College May Ball fireworks (because they're the best of all of the May balls). This year, I was a little bitter because I was supposed to actually be IN the May ball, but it was still nice to be out on the river with loads of people. So, here you go!

The hot air ballon at St John's May ball

Wow!

OOOOOooooooo!

Ahhhhhhh!

The view from the river.

May bumps, moss stitch and construction!

After a long weekend partaking in the celebrations that mark the end of May Bumps the start of May Week here in Cambridge (yes, I know it's not May, and I don't understand it either), I was in a right state. They don't call it 'Suicide Sunday' for nothing. Luckily the sun has been shining, we have been having fantastic weather, and my college's rowers did us proud. Sadly, I'm not going to any May balls this year, but the general feeling of summer finally arriving and the fact that the undergrads will be clearing out soon are both very welcome.
Interestingly, I awoke this morning to what sounded like galloping horses in my front garden, which I was not excited about because I had stayed up fairly late to do a bit of knitting. When I looked out my front window, an intricate network of scaffolding had been erected. I have yet to discover the purpose of the scaffolding, and we had no prior warning that it would be there, nor do we know when it will be gone. Needless to say, I think we will be having dinner al fresco, and at a slightly higher altitude than usual.

Nobody told me!

Staying up a bit later did prove fruitful, as I finished the front of Salina! Hooray! I really love the collar/lapel, as you can see if you read on. Everything else is so straight forward, moss stitch edges with lots of st st in between. I need to start on my more complicated project, the Anthropologie cardi.

The front of Salina, wondering where the sun went...

This is the fun part, the self-shaping lapel. It's just made by adding one more stitch to the moss pattern, but I think it's clever. It also saves me from having to knit a separate one and then sew it on, so more power to it.

Salina's beautifully simple lapel

ooooo.... Shellsock!

Okay, my sock doesn't have anything to do with shells, but I've been listening to a lot of New Order lately, and I have that song stuck in my head.
I know when you woke up this morning thinking 'I wonder how the sock La Donna is knitting is coming along', you thought you were asking in vain. You were wrong. The sock is coming along fine thanks to the one-two punch of Big Brother and Nip/Tuck last night, added to the fact that we had leftovers for dinner. They still don't take the place of Desperate Housewives, though. Anyway, I'm liking the way the pattern is coming out on the side that I've posted a photo of here. The other side is a bit weird, and all the dark bits keep lining up and making squares. I'm still very excited about the fact that it seems to be going okay. I'm trying to convince the sock's intended recipient to be just as excited, but he claims his lack of knitting knowledge makes that impossible. Sure.
One more thing... Does anyone else who knits socks kind of feel like they are knitting a teepee?

A foot rises out of the darkeness...

Another webring

Sorry to keep doing this, I just applied to another webring. PLEASE!!! Scroll down for knitting content.

New Web ring

Wrestling an Octopus?

Not so much... My first attempt at knitting in the round with DPNs wasn't so bad. It took a moment to get used to, but it gets less and less like juggling after a few rounds. I also tried out some short rows business for the first time for the toe shaping (using this tutorial). I chose the Short row toe because I liked the way it looked, but I have to say, although I do love the way the shaping looks, I wouldn't recommend this method for self-patterning yarn because you get some crazy patterns that don't match on each side of the toe, since you knit the top first and then the bottom. A better idea would be a toe that started in the center and got bigger radially, like the other two methods in that tutorial.
So, here's the toe so far with a few rows into the foot. I'm using this pattern for the sock. All Hail Wendy!

Mastering the arts of sock knitting and sock levitation.

Duh duh duh duh dutdut dut dut duh da dut.. My Salina!

So you were wondering what's going on with Salina? This is how much of the front I've finished. And as goes with most humans, though she looks quite lovely, man is she boring! So boring, in fact, that's all I'm gonna say about it for now. I'm sure there will be more excitement when I get to the collar.

The front of Salina... suspiciously like the back...

Buttons.....

I'm posting these next photos so I can make links out of them, so please disregard them...

shello

dinky

linky

The Bandwagon

I just joined this webring... I think.

UK knitters webring

Errr, put a 'sock' in it.... (I'm sorry)

So, I got my exciting sock yarn yesterday, and it kind of feels like a cat's stomach, so I've been petting it a little. Let's hope I can part with that feeling enough to knit it into something wearable...
And, more excitingly, I finished the back of Salina last night, even though I was being hypnotised by the knitting and could hardly keep it together to do the shaping of the neck. But it's finished, and I have proof. Knitting a ladies (ie- dainty) sized jumper is so much more rewarding than knitting a man's (ie- monstrous) jumper. Besides, my delicate sensibility is offended by such blatant vulgarity in sizing.

What's this? A finished back to Salina... How exciting!

New Opal Sock yarn in the mire

Broke-y Can't Stop

Okay, I have to admit that I've just won some double-pointed needles and some sock yarn from E-bay. I've decided that I need to have some smaller projects as well as jumpers going. Is that because I've lost my mind? Perhaps. But the yarn is so cool, it's self-patterning Opal sock yarn, so you can get a sock that looks like this without having to change yarn or anything. Plus, I'm interested in trying to knit a sock. And it all cost less than £8. What?
Also, I'll give you some progress on Salina. I used a tubular cast on again, because it's so lovely, and 3.75 mm needles for the moss stitch, then switched to 4.00 mm for the stockinette. I'm following the directions exactly for the XS size, but since my needles and yarn are larger, am expecting to get a S sized finished product. I've posted photos below.
In other news, I'm pissed off at the writers of Desperate Housewives for playing their faithful viewers so hard. If you watched the finale on Wednesday night, you will know what I'm talking about. How many days until next season begins???

Salina...

Close-up of Moss St and edge... check the flecks.

Flowers and Beer

The Chelsea Flower show was amazing, I was even inspired to buy some seeds to plant myself... I'll let you know how that works out. Got to catch up with some folks in London, the weather was amazing, I had an all around awesome time. Check out the photos below, and if you'd like to see more just email me, and I can send a link to my Kodak gallery.
I returned home to find my house had been invaded by a swarm of Irish people, most of them drunk by this point after having visited the Cambridge Beer festival. Luca also came into town again with 3 of his posse, and we did have a knit-school session. It was pretty non-stop all weekend with the visitors, and one particularly unlucky member of the Scareport family took an unexpected dip in the river Cam. It was awesome to see everyone, and I had more fun than I've had in ages.
If you're not interested in flowers, keep scrolling for knitting content!

the Spiral Garden

the Moat and Castle Eco-Garden

the Merrill Lynch Show Garden

Fleming's Nurseries Float Show Garden

The Peace is Special Garden

Black Hyacinths

A massive stack of flowers in the Great Pavilion

The Roald Dahl Foundation Chocolate Garden (actually smelt like chocolate)

Hanover Quay Garden (designed by Diarmuid Gavin)

The Chelsea Pensioners' Garden

Getting Swatchy!

Enough about flowers! Since I finished the Manly jumper, I have started into both of my new projects at once. I swatched out the Chartreuse Florence cotton to a pattern I like for my Antropologie rip off cardigan , but please ignore everything to the right of the cable (that's what I get for talking and knitting at the same time). The colour is more like in the photo of just the yarn. I also swatched the Adriafil Point I bought ages ago so I can make Salina from Rowan's Vintage Style. It will require some finangling, but it should be a relatively simple knit, and go fairly quickly on those bigger needles.
I usually only knit one project at once, but since I think the Anthro knock-off cardi will take a good while and a lot of concentration since I have to make up the pattern, I wanted to have something I can knit while I watch the finale of Desperate Housewives.

Swatch of the cotton yarn from Florence, after washing. Knitted on 4mm needles, the colour is actually a much brighter chartruese, but this shows the stitches better.

Swatch of the Adriafil Point Angora mix, knitted with 4 1/2 mm needles. Tweedy!