Saturday, February 27, 2010

February's ice and sleet

You know what? I have had about enough of it being February. March can start any time it likes. It has been very cold all week and we have had snow and rain alternately, with high winds from time to time. I don't normally mind winter, but I would really welcome even one day of unseasonal mildness with a bit of sunshine now and again.

On the other hand, February does have a few consolations.

Pink fizz!

J and I celebrated Valentine's day in our usual fashion, with home-made cards for each other. And then he made us dinner and produced some pink fizzy wine, as seen above (it really was pink, although the red candle behind it is making it pinker).

Then on the Tuesday it was Pancake Day and we duly ate pancakes. I've never quite bought the official explanation that we are supposed to eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday so that we can use up any ingredients that are forbidden during Lent; apart from the egg, there's only flour and milk in them, which doesn't sound terribly indulgent even by the standards of more austere times. Although I'm pretty sure that lemons, maple syrup and large lumps of vanilla ice cream would count as luxuries. (We did not put all these on the same pancake.)

My spare time lately has been taken up with a bit of knitting for the Ravelympics. This is an event on the knitting/crochet social network, Ravelry, and the idea is that during the course of the Olympics you take on a knitting challenge. I decided I was going to learn entrelac, which is a technique that produces knitting that looks like it's woven over and under itself.

Since I was just starting out with this I chose to knit Quant, a headband.

Blocked Quant

Entrelac turns out to be much less complicated than it looks. The blocks of knitting are attached to each other at right angles; you start one by picking up stitches along the side of a previous block. Then you join it to the one at the side by knitting two stitches together at the end of each row. (There, that made no sense to anyone who doesn't already know how to knit. Sorry.)

I'm very pleased with the finished headband - it should get plenty of wear, since I have another knitted headband that I use a lot. If I wear my hair up, I can't wear a woolly hat, so this lets me have tidy hair and warm ears.
Obligatory modelling shot

Or it will if I can persuade Pumpkin to give it back.
Pumpkin models Quant

7 comments:

Thimbleanna said...

Awww, pumpking looks so cute! And so do you -- very nice headband -- I love the pretty blue. I've never tried entrelac -- it looks like it's pretty fun to do. Only one more day of February -- spring's just around the corner!

Loth said...

I think you need to make Pumpkin a hamster-size headband of her (his?) own. That would be very cute.

In answer to your query on my last ramble, the Mongolian Barbeque is called Kublai Khan's and is in Assembly Street down in darkest Leith. They didn't have octopus but they did have squid and mussels the night we were in.

Also: if you are into BTTF, you need to meet my children - they love all three movies to distraction.

Pam said...

Pumpkin suits her rug. And I'm fascinated by the book in the background: "Getting Things Done". I'm intrigued.

Unknown said...

I, too, am intrigued by this book. Is it useful for those of the procrastinatory persuasion?

The headband looks lovely on you! (Sorry orange pig)

persiflage said...

What a pretty headband.
And I quite agree that twenty ten sounds stupid. Two thousand and how ever many is much better. Yes I know we said things like nineteen eighteen, but this is different from counting after reaching two thousand.

Jennette Fulda said...

Oh no, I missed pancake day?! At least I remembered that today is Pi day.

Mildawg said...

I love the quant! The colorway you used is fantastic.