Gunpowder, treason and superheroes

Happy November! I love November. I get to wear lots of knitwear, I get to be excited about Christmas without people thinking I'm weird, and I love the way November smells. Is that normal?

Best of all, here in the UK, we get Fireworks Night :D Martin and I went to watch the free display over Poole harbour last night. I didn't take my camera since I was fairly sure I wouldn't be able to get any good fireworks shots, but I really really wish I had, because we were entertained by Bournemouth Carnival Band while we were waiting. 24 men, mostly a little on the chubby side, marching in formation....all dressed as Spiderman. Brilliant.

I also have a FO! The blog's been fairly slow on finished objects in the last couple of months while I've been working on Christmas gifts, but this one's for meeeee!

I was about 80% finished with my Dad's jumper by the end of October when my Mum rang up to say the measurements I was knitting to were wrong. I don't know whether she measured wrong in the summer or I wrote it down wrong from the phone conversation, but it turned out I was knitting about 5" too big, and since it was knit all in one piece with the sleeves, there wasn't anywhere I could steek it without messing up the stitch pattern. I felt like crying. I also felt like finishing it anyway and giving it to my Dad with a big tub of lard and instructions to grow into it. But, I ended up ripping it all out and starting again anyway. *sob*

In the mean time however, I took a couple of days out of my frantic Christmas knitting schedule to grumble and ignore presents and make something just for me. Stuff the consequences.

This is a Plaited Cable Cowl in Colinette Cadenza which I picked up accidentally in the yarn shop in Scotland. (yeah, the photos are pants, natural light is a bit non-existant today) I never really thought much of cowls before now, but it's very useful to have a warm neck without trailing ends while riding a motorbike. And yep, it kept me suitably toasty outside last night.

Back onto gift knitting for the next couple of months, but I'll try my best not to abandon the blog completely. The vast majority of my knitting is being kept secret from prying eyes :P, but there are still a couple of things I can show off...