Alhambra Scarf (and Mr Purves)

... and so the Alhambra scarf saga draws to a close. For anyone who has not been following it through the four thrilling months, this is a pattern by lace wizard Anne Hanson, knit in the buttery-soft Malabrigo sock in the colourway Botticelli Red. 

I have waxed lyrical about the colour (which like all reds is troublesome to photograph), but all along I knew it was not perfectly suited to my colouring. Since taking this online quiz, I have become rather evangelical about seasonal colour palettes, and this rusty red is definitely not flattering to Deep Winters. Fortunately, it looks lovely on my mum, and so this scarf has found a happy home on her neck.

Beautiful scarf, gorgeous pattern; slightly boring photos. So I thought I'd brighten up this post with some other snaps of one of my favourite Edinburgh fixtures.

This shop, on St Stephen's Street, is a glorious mystery to me, and I go out of my way to walk past it. It is only open for one half day a week, and caters for a decidedly niche market. Still, if you're in need of an oil lamp, and you're in Stockbridge between 1 and 6 on a Saturday, Mr Purves is your man.

Two Skeins of Sock Yarn

I started and finished a shawlette, and I didn't even tell you. How rude. It's the one on the left; I'll get some proper pictures after I've blocked it. On the right is the tiny pile of yarn that is all that stands between me and finishing my Alhambra scarf. So very soon I should have two FOs to show you, or, to put it another way, about 880 yards-worth. It seems my knitting mojo is definitely back...

Slow Scarf Success

I have been making creeping progress with my Alhambra scarf. The pattern is not thrilling, but it is satisfying in a geometric way to watch the yarn overs and decreases curl apart and curve back together. Since I memorised the lace pattern, I can easily pluck it out of my bag to work on it in snatched moments waiting to get somewhere, waiting for people to arrive, or waiting to go onstage, such as here, in the peculiar Green Room-cum-nursery we used for the Vagina Monologues.

All of those moments have added up over two feet of scarf.

The last scarf I made was right at the beginning of my knitting career, and was an agonising 2x2 rib that so tested my newly acquired skills it made me want to garrotte myself with it. This is an altogether more mellow experience, partly because it is probably for myself (I am not sure it is a good colour on me, so it may end up around the neck of a more autumnal friend) or at least does not have a deadline, and partly because, well, I have just got better at knitting since then. It is nice to feel I am making progress over all in this craft, even if the foolish mistakes I still make sometimes obscure this fact. It is also nice not to have to worry overly about gauge - as long as I end up with a rectangle long enough to wrap around my neck who cares about the exact dimensions? Talking of gauge and mistakes, I have another tale of woe to blog about soon, but for now I think I shall just revel in simple, forgiving scarf-making.

Maybe I should just work on expanding my hands

Look at this mitten in progress. Isn't it delightful? The pattern is the Squirrel Sampler Mittens, an endearing folksy design from Hello Yarn that extends to little acorns across the palm:

Aw! The braids, the picot hem, the yarn (that colourwork stalwart, Jamieson's Spindrift) - what's not to love?

Except that it's MASSIVE.

Yes, I was on my way to another Monster Mitten. I did check the gauge, but evidently not very carefully. I was knitting these on 2mm needles - that's 0 in US terms, not so much a number as a yelp of pain - and I think I was in denial that I might need something smaller. Fail, fail, fail. I'm going to work on my Alhambra scarf for a while and sulk. Hmph.

The Perfect Red

I once met a guy at a party who told me that he worked for Pantone, and that his job was the quest for the perfect red; I believed him, like a big twit. It is true, though, that people have long been searching for the perfect hue of this elusive and desirable colour: red was the most fashionable shade for silk in Renaissance Italy, and as such is rather important for my PhD. So many of the words associated with the colour seem magically charged to me: madder, crimson, carmine, alizarin, cinnabar, cochineal, ruby.

I have been working recently with a resplendent red yarn, pictured above. It is Malabrigo Sock in Botticelli Red. I hadn't been aware that Botticelli was known for his reds; perhaps it is a reference to this denizen of the National Gallery's beret.

My pattern is the Alhambra Scarf by lace-genius Anne Hanson, so-called because it draws inspiration from 'the pinwheeling arabesque motif of the kind found in Islamic art and architecture throughout Andalusia and southern Spain'. I love the swirling geometric shapes it produces, so different from typical leafy lacy prettiness.