Thursday 2 March 2017

Are You Playing This Game?

The weather has run the gamut from nearly spring to the depths of winter this week.  Don't know how to dress from one day to the next.  Which is certainly a tiny wee annoyance compared to all that's happening around the globe these days.  Is it me or is the world getting crazier by the minute!

Play is a bit of a theme for this little post.  I really wish I was more playful.  I'm told I was a serious child so I don't think I was ever what you'd call playful.  Though I do love jokes and laughing and playing games.  Come to think of it, maybe that counts as playful.

Anyway, I could say I've been playing with wool this week.
 More of the Stylecraft Special Dk yarn arrived and I've been working out how to knit that scarf blanket I've been talking about for over a year.  Its' time is now...finally.

First I had to get out the needles and choose which ones to use for this wool and this project.
I have a set of needles that I found at a thrift store a few years ago.  Someone had made a lovely little needle keeper out of felt and cotton and the needles looked very well used. I love having in my hand something that I imagine a farm wife in this area had put together and used.  All these metal needles are made in England.  I chose size 4 1/2 mm.



Then it was auditioning which stitch to use.  It has to be t.v.friendly because this is going to be my night time stitching.  This is a swatch showing seed stitch. Okay but the back and forth, k1, p1 can start to drive you crazy after awhile and I can't imagine knitting a whole blanket with it.


I've wanted to learn and use a linen stitch for ages so I copied the simple two row pattern from the internet and gave it a go.  It makes a fairly dense weave on one side with a seed like stitch on the other side.  I wasn't that keen though I can tell this would make anything knitted in it very durable.



I remembered I had a knitting book of afghans and looked through it.  This one caught my eye.  It
was simple stockinette stitch but what I really liked was how they knit the blocks into a scarf and then sewed them together just like my plan.  They embellished the joins with crazy stitch embroidery and also used duplicate stitch to create simple designs in some of the blocks.  It's been years since I did that; I liked to embellish the girls' sweaters when they were little.  But who knows if I get that far. 


So I'm off. I've cast on 38 stitches and will knit 6 inches before changing colours.  I've worked out the colour rotation...ooh hope this all works.

Now about that game mentioned in the title....

Do you play 7 Little Words?  I wrote about it a few years ago and thought I'd mention it again because I'm still enjoying it.
The creator of this little game is Christopher York and it is still enjoyed by millions six years after he invented it.  Not exactly crosswords, or scrabble or sudoku, you'll have to give one a try to see what it's like.  Matching syllables to form words is a bit challenging but seems to be more fun than other word games.  I do one or two puzzles a day, sometimes working them out immediately and sometimes getting stumped.
You can find free daily puzzles at the 7 Little Words site.
Do you know of any other games like this?  Let me know; I may not be playful but I love playing games.

Here we are looking another weekend in the face, this the first one in March.
Hope there is something playful or to play with this weekend for you.

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