Secrets

I’m not good at keeping secrets. I’m not saying that I would ever tell the personal secrets my friends have told me. The secrets I have trouble with are the happy ones - what people are getting for Christmas, who might be getting a surprise party and who is getting a pay rise. I find these things sit at the front of my mind, waving their hand frantically in the air, like a clever kid in the front row of your class. It’s difficult to ignore.

These past couple of months I’ve been keeping a secret and it has been so hard because I’ve wanted to tell all of you. Finally I can - the Monkey and I are going to have a baby (or Bunkey* as it has unofficially been christened). We are so excited and happy, but also slightly scared! The baby is due on the 7th of December which seems very soon - how are we supposed to learn how to be parents by then! At least with the baby being a winter baby there will be plenty of knitting opportunity.

Anyway, this also explains the lack of knitting that has been going on here as I’ve not been feeling that great. Everyone tells me that I will ‘bloom’ in the second trimester, (how quaint!) so I’m looking forward to that. Expect to see some seriously speedy knitting to make up for the last few weeks!

In the meantime I’ve been knitting a Pomatomus sock in a leisurely manner…

I have also been tagged by Riggwelter for "7 random things about me"

I love doing these things.

The rules:"Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs the 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog (I might cheat on this being a bit out of touch with blogs recently). You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog."

1. I have never eaten an egg (other than in cakes etc) and nor do I intend to. They are just so white and yellow – it’s just wrong!

2. Kendra is my middle name. It means wise. My Dad loves Anglo Saxon names (my brother was almost named Beowulf!).

3. I hate eating in front of people I don’t know very well.

4. I’m thinking about applying for an allotment.

5. I have two goldfish (Raffles and The Professor).

6. I have loads of recipe books but much prefer to make it up as I go along - leading to some interesting meal times.

7. I’m pregnant!

I know it is a bit of a cop out but if you haven’t done this yet please consider yourself tagged!

*half Bunny half monkey…

Free Pattern: Celtic Knot Stole

I’ve finally finished writing up the Celtic Knot pattern. Sorry for the delay, I really have been so busy lately that it’s ridiculous. Thank goodness for bank holiday weekends.

The pattern is finished but in order to fit the charts into a document that would actually be printable I had to cut them up a bit. However, if you want to see the chart of the complete stole I have also uploaded an excel version of the chart. I’m afraid that the pattern is chart based, so I apologise for those who prefer it to be written out. When I have some spare time I’ll try and get round to doing this.

If anyone does knit this please could you let me know if there are any mistakes? I’ve checked through carefully but you know what those pesky little errors can be like!

The pattern is probably for intermediate knitters, but in lace terms it is quite an easy pattern. It requires a crochet cast-on for the border and I’ve done a quick tutorial on this in my post below (just in case).

ETA: Please see the pattern links in the sidebar.

Tutorial: crochet cast-on

I did this quick tutorial as I use this cast-on method in the pattern for the Celtic Knot Stole.

1. Make a slipknot on the crochet hook.

2. Hold the crochet hook in your right-hand and the knitting needle in your left-hand. Hold the knitting needle on top of the yarn (which is held taut by wrapping it round the fingers of your left-hand and passing it over your index finger, I also find it useful to hold the short tail tightly between the middle-finger and thumb of my left-hand).

3. With the hook to the left of the yarn bring it over the needle and through the loop on the crochet hook forming a stitch on the knitting needle.

4. Take the yarn back under the needle to the left.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until there is only one more stitch to cast-on.

6. Slip the loop remaining on the crochet hook onto the knitting needle.

7. Ta da! The method makes a nice knitting edge that looks similar to binding off. For lace try to keep the tension fairly loose (it helps to use a bigger hook than you would normally use for the yarn).