June 13, 2016

Hurrah hurrah! Can has hap book! Arrived in the post this very morning. Now tackling the longest tubular cast on ever and wondering whether I should try the backward yo purl technique in an effort to make all that ribbing a bit more even than my usual ric rac.

June 14, 2016

Phew. Worked tubular cast on with 4mm needles by mistake - I took the wrong size out with me and couldn’t not start. But picked up the loops with a 3.5mm which made things easier and am continuing on the prescribed needles. Working non-zig-rib which appears to be much more even than my usual version although, having only managed three rows so far it’s a little difficult to be sure. The colour, avocado, is scrumptious as well as being chloris.

June 19, 2016

About to start the third ball of avocado, on row 34. I have different coloured markers to show where to wrap and turn so I can keep track of which is the right side (facing me when the pink marker is to the right). Also using a removable marker (aka safety pin) to show where the current phase of short rows began. That way if I forget which row I’m on I can work it out using the number of stitches between the two markers.

June 20, 2016

Hit the first tuck! And, astonishingly to me, having not counted the stitches since first casting on, I actually had 679 on the needle at the end of the ribbing. Phew.

Had 10g of the third ball of avocado left.

I think different coloured (as well as sized) needles helped with the splitting process.

June 21, 2016

After consulting various images (particularly this one) I have decided that the scree, pale blue/grey, is to be replaced by granite, darker grey.

The reason being that the latter was acquired to be part of a prospective bullfinch hap but having seen the two greys together it seems swapping them would be better for both birds.

I’m assuming granite is discontinued, like the paisley which will form the breast of the bullfinch. And the bullfinch itself… 37% decline in numbers over the last 50 year. But that’s another hap.

June 22, 2016

Yikes! 5g of stone left after the first tuck. And there I was thinking I might have half a ball of each tuck colour left over. Onwards!

June 23, 2016

Such a surge of relief when, zipping up a tuck, the knits and purls add up properly. Finishing the second tuck, and will probably start the third, whilst waiting for the first referendum results to come in.

June 24, 2016

Today I mostly just want to crawl inside my knitting.

July 1, 2016

Some notes about grafting:

• I still hate it:
• But a Nut-Hap is totally worth it;
• It’s like suturing a giant flatworm after a major operation;
• Having two different colours for the two different sets of stitches makes the process easier;
• The felted tweed is a good yarn for grafting - no splits or tangles;
• The fact that my knit stitches were mounted the “wrong” way round doesn’t seem to matter/show much;
• It’s going to take a very very long time.

July 2, 2016

Hmm. This greenfinch must have had an albatross somewhere in the family. Grafted, soaked and now lying damp in the humid air it measures a rather spectacular 7’ (2 m) in length by a rather emaciated 9” (23 cm) in width. But that’s what it wants to be and who am I to argue with it. (Yes, I stayed up very late into the night grafting… just one more set of stitches… I’ll go to bed when the album ends… when the next album ends… silly to stop now… got into a rhythm… etc) And besides, the high aspect ratio means it’s designed for effortless soaring and long distance flight. I could do with a bit of both right now.