KIP

Knitting in Public (normally), or in my case, Knitting in a Public House.

That's all the knitting time I get at this time of year, as the only time I spend in one place for more than 10 mins is either behind the bar, or asleep. That puts a serious crimp on the kinds of knitting I can work on.

Requirements for pub knitting:

• no chart required
  
• can be dropped at a moment's notice to serve drinks, collect empties, adjudicate arguments, etc.
  
• washable yarn, as it will end up smokey and possibly beer-y over the course of several evenings
  
• easy to fix, as customers will 'help' on a regular basis
  
• easy to explain, and with a minimum of embarrassing connotations....

So, Devan was good:

• there was very little in the way of shaping for the first part, and then an easily memorised sequence of increases and decreases
  
• the work is in stocking stitch, and it's very easy to reclaim dropped/missed stitches

The finishing of Devan is NOT good:

• too much counting, and the potential for disaster if someone decides to grab one end of a circular needle.

Chantelle has stalled:

• I'm test knitting the pattern and noting anywhere it needs clarified, fixed or generally rewritten
  
• the lace is a 10 row repeat, and isn't fun to fix
  
• there are, at last count, 400-odd stitches on a circular needle, and despite markers it can take a while to work out where you are if you have to stop in a hurry

Flora has stalled as well:

• I've done the easy bit: a scarf with one point and seed stitch edging
  
• I've done the (slightly more complicated) knitting of the flower (very clever construction, by the way)
  
• I haven't got the solid-colour yarn I want to make the final version of the flower
  
• I can't sew up said flower, attach buttons etc from behind the bar. Something is sure to go wrong, and more than once.

So, I'm hunting pub knitting again.

Today I started the centre of a new venture for me: a square shawl along the lines of a traditional Shetland shawl. I'm working on 4mm needles with sock yarn, so it should be fairly cosy, but I've no way of knowing how big it will end up with the 3 x 50 g balls I have available. Maybe I'll work the edging in another colour....

Progress so far:
(picture tomorrow when the camera's batteries have charged up...)