One Hundred Not Out!

First of all may I say what a wonderful bunch you all are. So many wonderful and helpful suggestions regarding my toe -ups - thank you. May I just mention here the lovely Linda who loves toe up socks. Linda and I recently went to see Neil Diamond together at the Millennium Stadium. I think she must be the only person I know who would have a crochet chain in her handbag all ready in case the opportunity arose to start a sock!

Anyway I digress. Who on earth would have thunk it! One hundred blogposts - I always knew I could talk the hind leg of a donkey ;) it seems I can write it off too ;-) There's a competition coming up............

Today has seen the third stage of this year's Tour de France which saw an exciting end to the stage and France's Romain Feillu take the yellow jersey from Alejandro Valverde. Tomorrow sees an "épreuve de temps" with Mark Cavendish hopeful of a stage win. Filippo Pozzato of Team Liquigas is tenth in the overall standings - well done!

And how am I getting on you might ask - well I have fallen off my bike a couple of times but I've got back on again and I now think I can manage without stabilisers ;-) thanks to a wonderful woman called Wendy Johnson. I think I love Wendy :-)

Let me explain. The pairs of yo's I had were fine but they involved maths and counting for the second side. I am somewhat mathematically challenged at the best of times. I'm also tired and out of sorts at the moment ( I'm listening to Leonard Cohen which is never a good sign ) and I need a pattern which says "knit x number of stitches on y number of rows till you end up with z" not "knit to next yo pair and do x, y nd z with them and work out how many stitches you should/shouldn't have." I need simple.

And so to Wendy. Simplicity itself. No wraps. Just m1's, nothing else, m1's knitted on 4 dpn's from the toe up. Simple and exactly what I needed. I apologise for the quality of some of my photos but I am sure you want to see them anyway ;-)

See, I've recycled my chain, and knitted 12 stitches.


St stitch for 4 rows, then unzip the chain. Divide between 4 needles, and knit in the round.

Voila - it looks fab dosn't it? I love Wendy :-)

And sideways on - 64 sts and ready to go. *Just* a chart to read now!!!!!!

Et maintenant, la concurrence! Voici une voûte de forêt sur l'aiguille, ou est-ce que je devrais dire le canape. In other words, and now for the competion. Here is a forest canopy on the needle, or should I say canapé ;-) as no Tour de France would be complete without a canapé now would it.

It's being knitted using the lovely asphalt yarn from Natalie, and it's my celebratory bloggiversary prize. Simply comment on my blog during le Tour, and it could be yours. One comment, one entry, the more comments you make the more entries you will have. Winner announced at the end of July. ( it's only on a circular needle for photographic purposes btw, it's back on nice straight needles now :-)

The Intermediate Sprint

There is a little competion going on on the TDF KAL blog at present. This is my extremely feeble attempt to link my projects to the Tour de France in ALL categories.

Express Lane ( my sock pattern ) cyclists have cycling lanes - yes, I know, I told you it was feeble ;-)

Toe - ups ( an uphill struggle ) - apt for the Polka Dot Jersey challenge too which is for the King of the Mountains after all.

Two projects beng knitted in tandem - another cycling link!

The lovely Yarn Yard yarn - the asphalt grey to remind me of the tarmac which Tour cyclists will see rather a lot of ;-) and the green, a reminder of my green jersey project last year ..........

........... a canapé - no Tour should be without one! IMHO ;- )

And finally - I just LOVE France. So many wonderful family holidays to remember :-) especially watching a Tour stage in Brittany one year. Whoooooosh, there it was - gone!!!!!! Life was very much simpler in those days.