Spitting Yarn

Last night, DB’s godfather invited us to attend the bonfire night celebration held in the communal gardens where he lives.  The fireworks were spectacular.  Probably the second best I’ve ever seen.  The best, incidentally, were in Lewes, East Sussex who have a long, rich tradition of Guy Fawkes celebrations.  Following the foiling of the Gun Powder Plot and the burning of seventeen of its protestant martyrs, the annual bonfire celebrations and remembrances got out of hand, endangering homes and citizens, so bonfire socities were formed to keep the annual bonfires and fireworks under control.  Each town locality had a society and they organised flaming torch-lit processions to their respective communal bonfire.  Each society dress as smugglers, wearing a coloured stripey gansey and a cap (good knitting angle!). 

If you’re ever in the area on 5 November, you must go.  The whole town crams into the picturesque streets of Lewes to watch the torch-wielding, stripey jumper-wearing procession.  The Cliffe Society (black and white striped jumper and red cap), whose bonfire and fireworks I attended one year, continues the tradition of burning a Guy (or in Cliffe’s case, an ‘enemy of the bonfires’).  I think it was Osama Bin Laden the year I went.  I wonder who it was this year?

In knitting news, I finished off Sugar on Snow / Snow on Peas this weekend. 

It was a fun and easy knit, and I love the baby cables.  The thing looks particularly great as a collar, and I love my hot pink leaf ties.  While it is an easy knit, I still managed to misread the pattern, thinking it said to knit 6 repeats after the eyelet round (rather than 6 rounds of the repeat), so I need to do a bit of unravelling and then cast off again.  I can tell you that if you knit 6 repeats after the eyelet row, the thing looks utterly ridiculous as a hat, unless you think the walking egg timer look is forward fashion.

My foolishness excepted, I made some other changes to the pattern.  I didn’t want to double up my yarn (Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in colourway 208) and I only had 4.5mm needles, so I cast on 104 stitches rather than the stated 68 for the adult size.  That worked out perfectly for an average lady size head.  If knitting it for a man (I’m not sure you would, would you?), I’d cast on at least 112 stitches.  

On Friday a parcel arrived that I had been eagerly awaiting.  Claudia from over at The Crafty Weasel, mentioned in a meme that her favourite cereal was something called Count Chocula (I can’t believe it has it’s own Wiki entry!), and so introduced me to the world of US novelty and seasonal cereals. 

I think Count Chocula is only available in October, which makes it all the more desirable.  Claudia was sweet enough to part with one of her treasured boxes of cereal, and I have already gorged myself on it this weekend!

Thanks so much, Claudia!  I think it’s my favourite cereal now, too.  (That’s convenient, what with it being available for only 4 weeks of the year, and not at all in the UK.)