Knitting

I'll be making my annual trip north next week, and not a moment to soon. The prospect of being somewhere where a cool breeze is a given, and where World Cup enthusiasm is at a minimum (the majority of the neighbours are sheep, they have other things to think about) sounds like heaven. As today has been a hot day, and England won their game, there's a considerable crowd of more or less drunk topless men between here and Marks & Spencer's.

For the most part that has meant a procession of startlingly white beer guts wobbling down the street ahead of owners getting steadily redder in the face and across their backs. I'm not sure what will be worse for them tomorrow - the sunburn or the hangovers. I doubt they'll learn much from either.

I've learnt to stay inside as much as possible post match, so have finally made the tassels for my Kep's. I've been putting this off for months assuming for some reason that it would be a fiddly, difficult job. Obviously it isn't, so I at least have learnt something useful today. One kep is for my brother, who I think might wear it (I've seen him wear odder things) the other one for Dad, who when he saw a picture of the one I'd done for Peter, said he'd like one too.

I will admit this seems unlikely to me, he's been decidedly unenthusiastic about the offer of scarfs or cowls, and a kep is quite a sartorial statement, but I made him one anyway. They're fun to knit (apart from the ribbing under the brim, which is incredibly dull to knit), and I think the next one I make will be even longer.

The cowl in greys was to use up some lace weight yarn, and is sort of a swatch to practice stripes. It's soft, lightweight, and inoffensive and a lace pattern that I love, but the greys don't work brilliantly together, and I need to think more about how I put the shades together. Dissatisfactions aside I find these really useful, and I'm basically pleased with this one.

The current cowl on the needles is intended for someone else, but I might end up keeping it because the row of green triangles has been a mistake. They disappear into the grey in a really annoying way. A swatch would have shown me this, but they were an unhappy inspiration in what was originally going to be a two tone thing. I only realised how unhappy after knitting enough more not to want to rip it back. I'm wondering if putting in some more rows of green will make it better or worse.