The Cable Breaker

It seems spurious to be blogging about knitting, in the wake of the recent terrorist attack  on Manchester.  It's a city I know fairly well, as I spent four years there for university.  I heard about it from Mr Knitty on Monday night, via text message, whilst he was at work.  From there, I watched it unfold via the internet and social media.

Manchester was where I was at university - so it's a place I know and love, inhabited by people I know and love.  All the places on the news; where it happened, where the arrests happened and where the vigils have been held, are all places I have woven into my life story.

It's so horribly sad for the people directly involved and for the wider city.  The heartening thing, as is always the case, that the stories of people helping and looking after each other is greater than the stories of those wanting to cause destruction.  There was (quite rightly, in my opinion) praise for the NHS, some obviously upsetting stories and, of course, Twitter took the mickey in the way that we British do best.

But on to the knitting...

The cable breaker is what I'm naming my current WIP - a Scandinavian style shawl made with leftover yarn from a baby blanket I frogged for being knit in too loose a gauge.  There's no point in having loops big enough for a baby to catch their fingers in.  It took about 16 minutes to knit a row, when there were about 400 stitches.  It's grown since then, and I dread to think how much time I've spent knitting on it.  As it's in a simple garter stitch, it's been a pretty good thing to work on whilst watching Swedish TV - most recently Jordskott.

The needles I'm knitting on, are the third set of circulars that I've used.  The first was a set of Pony bamboo needles, the second was a pair of metal needles (again, Pony, I believe).  The third is a pair of Knit Pros, and so far are holding up.

The first ended up like this:

One broken cable on a circular needle

Great shame really, as I liked the feel of the needles in my hands. 

The second ended up like this:

The second broken cable on a circular needle! 

Yup - that's micropore from the first aid kit.  I was knitting it whilst away earlier on in the year - and needed something to stop the cable from breaking, and all the stitches falling off the needles.

I'm know knitting on a pair of KnitPro Karbonz (thank you local yarn shop) with a 100cm cable - which is doing the job brilliantly so far.  

KnitPro Karbonz in 4mm and a lovely shade of blue

At the penultimate count there were 484 stitches. 

Lots of lovely squishy garter stitch

That increased to 510 by the final count.

The final shawl before casting off 

I didn't think I'd be able to get into the  garden for photos today.  We've had some pretty dramatic storms last night.  I was convinced it was going to start tipping it, the second I went outside.  Luckily, it didn't. 

The garden is mostly a mess.  When clearing it a few weeks ago, we found a nest tucked away behind the ivy, complete with a couple of eggs.  We tried putting it back for the parents to come back, but a couple of days later, the nest was on its side and by today, the eggs had gone. 

After taking photos of the shawl, I had fun taking photos of a honey bee collecting nectar from the overgrown sage flowers.  

The nectar sacs were pretty visible on its legs:

If my overgrown and untended garden helps wildlife - then I can live with that.  It's a good reason to do the minimal amount of gardening. 

I'm going to leave with one of the highlights of this week - and what I suspect will be an iconic moment in British contemporary history; the one minute silence on Thursday for the victim's of the attack in Manchester.