Ingleside

I have finally, after months of toil, finished my beautiful, exquisite, Ingleside infinity scarf.

The scarf is named for the yarn - the delicious Miranda 4ply, in the colourway Ingleside. I was extremely excited to find a building of the same name in Cambridge, although I agree this isn't immediately apparent in the photos.

Knitting the scarf was rather like deciding to poke myself in the eye with a blunt stick. Indeed at times, I was tempted to do just that, my needles being so readily at hand and all.

You see, I was rather taken by the idea of a 'true' twisted rib scarf. By 'true' twisted rib I mean that all the knit stitches and all the purl stitches were worked through the back of the loop. This is time consuming (and as far as the purl stitches are concerned, a bit fiddly) but it creates a really really beautiful fabric. I'm so glad that I stuck it out, however tempted I might have been to just let this project languish in the UFO pile. 

The scarf can be looped double to make a warm cowl. Although the weather doesn't quite require that these days, I'll be glad of it come winter time.

All that's left to do now is enjoy!

I have been busy with my sewing machine....

The machine used to belong to my mother (who incidentally, does not know the first thing about sewing). She 'taught' me how to use it during a brief spell in the eighties when she had the madcap idea that my sister and I could make our own hair scrunchies.

Hence I won't claim to know how to sew. Indeed, my first attempt to make these pretty little drawstring bags was hampered by my inability to stop the machine from sewing backwards.
  

The advantage of my lack of ability with the machine is that I have low expectations and am therefore delighted with any result that yields a usable finished object.
 

 
I am able to overlook wonky seams, uneven stitches and a host of other imperfections. Another advantage of my lack of sewing ancestry is that my family will marvel at anything made by one its own that is not a hair scrunchy. In fact, I gave one to my sister for her birthday and she liked it so much she has already requested another. It's got a lining! She exclaimed delightedly. I can't tell you how happy that made me. Simple pleasures truly are the best.