End of summer pictures

It is coming up to the end of summer, although to be honest it has felt a bit to me like summer is on its way out ever since the solstice. This is why a tiny amount of knowledge of solar cycles is a dangerous thing and also why I always decide in December that winter is over and it is now spring, which really it isn't.

I imagine you're all very jealous of my Feature Plug Socket

Someone was kind enough to buy me orange flowers. Excitingly they match my orange candle and orange picture. My orange picture is from TK Maxx and my orange candle is from the New Atlantis Bookshop near the British Museum and is a spell candle which will bring me prosperity. It hasn't done yet but that is because we have not finished burning it down. You have to do these things properly and not rush them.

That jug is part of my Denby Arabesque collection. Actually it is the only part but one day I may find another bit

One thing our garden produces in great quantities is blackberries. This is actually a moral failing as I am not sure they are there deliberately, in fact to be completely honest I think they are weeds, however, we eat the blackberries, so they earn their keep and I leave them alone.

It'll be fine when it's blocked. 12 pages of charts, go me

I dangled my City Stole in the tree so you could see it more easily, it didn't work, so you will have to take my word for it that it is going well. I am near the end of Chart 2 and I am enjoying knitting it very much. It is dangerous however as it makes me think I can knit lace, then I will go out, buy laceweight, download a shawl pattern, knit one row, then succumb to misery and despair and be on this blog moaning.

The terrible consequences

This is what happens when you try to take artistic photographs. You get your balls of wool wound round trees and rolling about in the undergrowth and have to go retrieving them and picking the leaves off.

Look, I just like rainbows, is that so wrong?

You may remember a very long time ago I became annoyed by Jane Brocket suggesting in her knitting book that you should crochet a throw and spend almost £200 on the wool to do so. It is not as if she is the only person who has ever suggested this so I should not have been annoyed, also it is not as if she came to my house personally and laughed at all my acrylic and KnitPicks cheapo wool, however, I do get irritated by the All Fibre Arts Must Be Done With The Best Materials And Hang the Expense idea. Thus I decided to crochet my own throw out of cheap acrylic in a thrillingly transgressive manner and at a cost of only about £22. I am on the last colour and the end is now in sight, I feel I have crocheted summer into this nice bright throw, and I may even have sufficient energy to do a border around it. I got the pattern from Attic24 as the one in Jane's book has slightly more pointy ripples and you need flowing ripples for a rainbow (look, you just do). If you have the urge to spend a lot of money on a woolly throw, however, I do quite fancy this one and I can see why Noro would work well, so I point it out to you in case there is anyone reading this blog who has not spent all their yarn budget up to 2020 (there are variegated acrylics as well though so you probably could do it for much cheaper).

It is not quite the end of summer yet though, I think we have time for a few last hoorahs.