Pond Clearing latest

Saturday saw us back up at Motcombe on pond clearing duties. Since our previous visit on Wednesday the wind and rain had broken up the duckweed in the inaccessible part of the pond and sent it out into the open part. Because it was much thinner than previous and the wind was not so strong it didn't come towards the bank as quickly as before so it was a one woman job. By the end of the day I had removed about as much as it is going to be possible to remove. It's not going to be possible to eradicate the weed altogether but by regularly scooping out a few net fulls it should be kept under control.

Mark meanwhile spent the day working to clear scrub and brambles around another pond so that we can get in to clear weed from it. This pond has marginal and floating plants which are being swamped by Fairy Moss rather than duckweed.

The weather forecast for this week was not promising but as Monday seemed to be one of the better days, at least early in the day, we decided to go back and get on with the second pond.

Mark spent some time finishing clearing scrub while I scooped a bit more duckweed off the first pond and then we set to on the Fairy Moss. This is a very different kettle of fish to remove. The duckweed is smaller, lighter and obligingly drops to the bottom of the net. The Fairy Moss on the other hand is larger and more bulky and hangs over the edge of the net. It does drift a bit but not so readily as the duckweed and this fact together with the presence of other vegetation growing in and on the pond is going to make it difficult to get under control.

I have to say though that the Fairy Moss looked beautiful. With the water glistening in between the thick succulent leaves it resembled the yoke of the top that I am knitting in moss stitch using a leaf green yarn with a silver thread running through it (Louise Harding Jasmine in Leaf Green). I think that whenever I wear the top it will remind me of this pond.

We called it a day earlier than usual because of the forecast for rain (we had stuck it out through a couple of heavy showers) and got packed up and on our way just before it started to rain. There was a torrential downpour and the roads very quickly became quite treacherous.

Bad Things & Good Knitters II

When I wrote about When Bad Things Happen to Good Knitters: An Emergency Survival Guide yesterday little did I know that I would have to turn to it for help so soon!

My WIP has a keyhole neck line and the instruction I came across last night stumped me. The pattern said to "knit 30, cast on 9". I looked at the knitting, thought about it for a while and came up blank but instead of panicking I turned to Edmonds and Moore and very soon found the answer. Turn the knitting, put RH needle between first two stitches, knit and put stitch back on LH needle. Simples!

I hadn't intended to talk about my new project so soon but since I'm on the subject.. I'm knitting the Thai Top featured in Issue Four of the Knitter. It has a keyhole neckline and moss stitch shoulders and cap sleeves. The original was in Sublime Soya Cotton DK but I'm using Louisa Harding Jasmine in Leaf Green which knits to the same tension. After using Sirdar Denim Sport Aran for my last project this yarn is divine to work with. It's composition is 48% cotton, 39% bamboo, 10% silk & 3% polyester. The garment is knitted on round needles - a first for me. I had to resort to Bad Things... to find out how to join the circle and then I had to frog a couple of times at the beginning. The first time because I put the knitting down after the first row and then picked up the needles the wrong way and the second time because when I changed to larger needles I turned the knitting into a mobius strip. Since I got a few rows on the needles it's been a breeze - well until last night anyway and with a little help from my friends that wasn't a big issue after all.

Bad Things and Good Knitters

Earlier this year I bought a copy of When Bad Things Happen to Good Knitters: An Emergency Survival Guide. Written by two New Yorkers with over 100 years of knitting experience between them this little book is a real gem. It's packed with good advice and tips and not just for when things go wrong e.g. the way you insert your needle when decreasing determines the way the decrease will slant so no more struggling to remember whether to knit in the front or the back of a stitch to make it slant to the right or left. It's really helpful for decoding pattern instructions particularly where the pattern assumes you know what to do and you don't!

The chapter on finishing off is brilliant. I followed their instructions when joining up Mark's jumper. I was really pleased how the shoulder, side and sleeve seams turned out. From the public side it looks like a knitted stitch rather than the groove I normally get. I didn't get such a good finish with the sleeve insertion but that wasn't the fault of the authors. The stepped cast off at the top of the sleeve didn't fit well with the straight edge of the arm hole so I struggled to make if fit and therefore couldn't follow their instructions easily.

I keep this brilliant little book in my project bag and I thoroughly recommend it.

I dream in duck weed

On Monday I resumed battle with the duck weed. After an exhausting 5 hours scooping it out I was shattered but clear water was beginning to appear. I took up my weed net again today. I approached the pond with bated breath - would there still be clear water? YES!

The wind decided to give a hand blowing the weed towards the bank. Mark stopped bramble clearing to help with the pond clearing so that we could make the most of the favourable conditions. With both of us scooping out weed we made good progress. By the time we downed tools there was about 80% clear water. Very satisfying!

As ever it seems that the last 20% is going to take a lot of effort to clear as the weed is in a part of the pond that it is difficult to reach. We need a good strong wind to blow in the non prevailing direction!

Finally... it's finished

The jumper I was knitting for Mark that is. It's certainly been a labour of love! I can understand now why Claire in Plan-Knit wool (my LYS) only knits for adults using chunky wool and big needles! I'm glad I only had to knit the smallest size although I did have to add an additional 3 inches onto each sleeve for old orang utan arms.

The pattern is Sirdar 8420 and the yarn I used is Sirdar Denim Sport Aran (60% acrylic, 25% cotton, 15% wool). I bought a pack of 10 balls, enough to knit two jumpers, in a special offer. Now I know why it was on offer! I didn't find the yarn pleasing to use at all. It doesn't feel nice in the hands and the strands separate. I have another 5 balls in my stash for the second jumper - groan. I will get around to knitting it but not for a little while. My next project is already growing on the needles but more about that another day. In the meantime here is a picture of a delighted (?) Mark modelling the finished article.

Weather forecasting

I filmed Richard explaining how to forecast the weather using seaweed. Unfortunately what with the thundering of the waterfall, the roar of the sea and the howling of the wind he was completely drowned out! So here is what I remember.

If the seaweed is wet it's raining
If the seaweed is dry it's not raining
If you can't find the seaweed it's windy
If you can't see the seaweed it's misty
If the seaweed is white then it's snowing

Weekend in Devon

Last weekend we went over to north Devon to visit our friend Richard. On our way over to the West Country on Friday night our headlights caught a hare in the road. It was a narrow country road with high banks so there was nowhere for the hare to run but down the road. It was an amazing experience to follow behind it as it tried to out run us. It must have been running at about 25 mph! Mark tried to encourage it to one side of the road so that we could pass the poor thing but it carried on straight down the middle. After a while there was a road off to the left and the hare turned down it and went haring off into the night!

Mark taught the 6 Jo Awase at an Aiki Jo workshop arranged by Richard in Bideford on Saturday afternoon. Prior to the workshop Richard took us to see Bucks Mills which is a few miles east of Clovelly. It's a very scenic spot and the boys decided that it would be a good venue to shoot some film of them doing aiki jo. So a plan was hatched to return the following morning around low tide with yours truly acting as camera woman.

While the workshop was on I spent an hour or so wandering around Bideford visiting the pannier market and some interesting little shops. I found Mark's birthday present in one. I had a very pleasant time in the shop and because of my interest the proprietor fetched something special from the back of the shop but I can't tell you what it was without spoiling the birthday surprise!

In the same shop I bought a book for Mum and her familiars called Feng Shui for You and Your Cat. I browsed through it in "Velvet and Vanilla" over a pot of tea and it looks really interesting so I will have to borrow it back sometime for a proper read. In the cafe I bought some rocky road cake to keep us going until supper. It was a bit gluttonous as we had had a pub lunch and were going out for a Chinese meal in the evening but Mark and I both felt it was one of the best rocky roads we have ever tasted.

Sunday morning dawned... wet! We went down to Bucks Mills hoping for a break in the rain long enough to do some filming. The boys had decided that it would be good to film the awase that Mark had taught and give copies to the students who attended the workshop to help them remember what they had seen. We managed to film the Jo awase and also the 31 partner practice in between heavy downpours.

Since then we have discovered that my camera records in AVI format and can be edited in Movie Maker while both Mark and Richard's cameras record in MOV format which can't. So I am going to have to get some different software to enable us to create a DVD of the recent filming and also that which we recorded when we visited Diane in Italy.