It’s that time again! I think we are probably in the minority in being big fans of Eurovision and seem to have forged a tradition with a couple of friends to have a small party to celebrate each year. The last few years we have tried to theme our gatherings on the host country, so last night for Germany I was wearing red black and gold, and eating salami, sauerkraut and pretzels amongst other things washed down with wheat beer. Possibly a bit too much wheat beer using this mornings headache as a guide! I happened on a great honey and mustard dip to serve with cocktail sausages and vegetable crudités – 2tbsp mayonnaise, 1tbsp honey and 1tbsp Dijon mustard. It got a thumbs up all round here so give it a go.
I’ve managed to not even mention the music yet. We had actual money on Denmark to win. If only I’d put my £2 on Azerbaijan at 200/1. With such a dull song we were bemused to say the least. There was also a disappointing lack of gimmicks and unnecessary key changes in the final last night. I had a soft spot for the Jedward song, even if their performance of it was terrible. Less said about Blue the better, but it was a huge improvement on our recent offerings and good to see us in the top half of the leaderboard again. Others amongst us thought that Moldova were robbed. I didn’t.
Now back to the main business of knitting. As a thank you gift for taking photos for our friends’ civil partnership, I was given some money for yarn and indulged in some Wollmeise Lace Garn in two shades of green. I ran a strand each of teal green and pesto green together and knitted Niobe from French Girl Knits by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes. It was a bit fiddly starting the sleeves with a quite open lace pattern in fingering yarn on 8mm DPNs, but once it got going this was a really quick knit and a lovely fit with minimum shaping. I really like the raglan shoulders on me and will bear this in mind when selecting future patterns for sweaters
Having got the bug for lace knitting, I thought I’d like to have a go at a more traditional pattern for a tablecloth. I have bought a book originally printed in the 1950’s and am going to knit up a lace pattern using 4-ply rather than crochet thread. The main reason for this was I thought it would be easier as a relative beginner in lace and it is very difficult to find appropriate quantities of crochet thread in colour. The introduction to the book made me laugh as is was very particular that patterns should ONLY be knitted in WHITE COTTON or LINEN if you must, as to do otherwise would NOT be TRADITIONAL! I will revel in my delinquency whilst tackling this one!
I have also just finished another pair of socks from Knitted Socks East and West, this time ‘Tatami’ in Misti Alpaca Handpaint sock yarn, colourway ‘Blood Lines’. The colourway does not quite have the same impact as ‘Birds in Paradise’ I used for my Lacy Baktus scarf, but I am happy with them overall.
I have found a pattern for some socks with a great stitch that I think will really show off the misti handpaint well. I have decided to use the left over ‘Birds in Paradise’ to adapt the pattern and make a pair of cuffs. They will then go with my Lacy Baktus and woolly fascinator I made for the civil partnership.
Plenty there to keep me busy!
