Magenta in bloom

All of a sudden, a little sun and somehow, everything seems to be coming out in bloom. When I parked the car on my way to the library the other day, I couldn't help but notice this magnificent strong magenta coloured rhododendron. There were so many flower heads it was really quite stunning.

Unfortunately I only had the camera on my phone so the pictures aren't as crisp or as tonally balanced as I would have liked, being such a bright day, but they manage to capture enough of the colours and the grandness of this plant. I had forgotten how BIG these can grow if they have the room - me walking backwards into the car park to get more in the photo (no zoom - sigh).

But it doesn't stop there, it keeps on going....... I think I was at the other end of the car park by this stage :-) It was slightly bigger than I could fit in but truly an impressive glory in pink.

I wished I had worn my magenta ishbel beret and I would have blended right in! But being pink inspired after so much sock green, I'm now working on a matching magenta Ishbel scarf - the small version first in 4ply/fingering weight and then I'll work my way up to a larger matching teal 2ply/laceweight version. I've nearly finished the first stocking stitch section and I'll soon start the vine stitch section. Now I'm familiar with the pattern from the beret, I'm hoping this will flow easily straight away - well, here's hoping:-)

I think this will be a warm scarf/shawl but not too bulky for spring. Not much to photograph as yet but I'll keep you posted.

Finally, I'd like to wish my sister a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! and I hope you enjoy wearing your chic, stylish, terribly fashionable teal ishbel beret:-))) Enjoy!

Magenta Ishbel Beret

At last the magenta Ishbel beret is finished and blocking. This one has really fought me all of the way, I'm telling you. And I was wondering why when the laceweight was such a pleasure to knit. But I think, after a few days taking back lots of botched up knitting, and trying to reknit that I've worked it out.

Everything was fine until I started to decrease. Then I moved down to dpn's as the stitch count got too small for the circular. It seems the YO at the end of the last dpn kept 'dropping' the last stitch and when I went around the lace row, the pattern was out by one stitch. After all the ripping back, I carefully started to re-knit the pattern keeping this in mind and damn if the same thing didn't happen again! Even when I was looking for it! This got to really frustrating levels of crapness by late evening but I persevered and eventually got it cast off. Whew.

So why was the green teal beret not such a pain? Because I used two circulars instead of 4 double pins and the stitches couldn't fall off. Lesson learned.

I made one modification to the band - a picot edge instead of the straight edge. If you want to try it, just substitute the purl row with *YO, K2tog* for the whole row and you get the picot edge when you fold the band over. I thought it would work well with a bold coloured beret. If its going to be in your face anyway then why not:-)

Now all the hassles are over, I am beginning to warm to it again. I do love the colour and the picot edge and although the lace looks more dense in 4ply, it is still a very elegant pattern indeed - despite my sabotage attempts!

Although this is pink - and I love pink - I still think I like the green version better. I never really got into lace shawls and scarves before as they seemed to be long term projects and very time consuming at that, but I can see the appeal of delicate 2 ply yarns stretching out into wonderful cobwebs of pattern that are so elegant and sophisticated in their design and finish. A lovely sheen of silk and maybe beads? Mmm. I can see some more lace in my future.....