Try Not to Snigger

I'm just passing through as it's too hot to breathe. Of course, when I say that it's too hot, we are talking about 30C or 86F. For many of you reading this, that's sweater weather. Meanwhile there is actually a weather warning out about the heat. Amateur weather forecasters are having fits about thunder and hail, most of which seems to be destined to miss us which is a shame as I love a good thunderstorm. One commentator has even muttered about a tornado which is sort of implausible. There are a lot of tornados in UK. They're not usually that big, but they're still there. The Met Office (government weather office) have a video on it.

Small but comparitively frequent. Yes, people from places like the USA can snigger at this as well. 

Anyway it's still too hot to be reasonable. Houses like mine are designed to keep in the heat, to garner every crumb of warmth and lock it into the rooms. This is an absolute blessing for nine months of the year and can even be a bonus during summer if it's a colder one. It is not currently a blessing.

Yesterday, because I love the men, I baked a cake. However, did I mention the heat was getting to me? I added ingredients in the wrong order, I'm fairly sure that I should have whisked instead of beaten and I suspect that I added at least twice the amount of vanilla in the recipe. It sank like the Titanic. 

The men had some last night and said it was great. I had some tonight and it really wasn't. I may try the recipe again if I can find the whisk, but I'll aim for a better reading of instructions. I may make Cherie's microwave chocolate cake tomorrow.

I finished my brother's/brother's partner's scarf. 

It came out at roughly 60 inches long (152cm) and 10 inches wide (25cm). It's interesting as the pattern from Mission for Seafarers has 200g of DK yarn, cast on 40 stitches, plain knit until you run out of yarn, and stipulates no wider than 10 inches and no longer than 60 inches and the scarves so far have come in at around that size. This is random yarn from Temu. 

I thought it was in 50g balls, possibly aran weight and bought four to make a scarf, casting on 36 stitches and using 6mm needles. The above scarf took one ball. I checked back and I think I may have made something of an error. The package was described as 80% wool, 20% acrylic and when I looked further, it recommended a 4mm needle, but I think that would have made the fabric far too dense and stiff for a scarf. As I was looking further I saw that it was described as '200g, 2 pieces' which I would normally take to mean two balls of 100g each. Upon reflection, though, I think it was two lots of 200g. I bought it in two colours to allow them to negotiate over who wanted what colour, and because, as I said, I thought they were 50g balls, I think I may have ended up with over a kilo of yarn. I'm far from convinced that it would knit as DK, though, as I used 6mm needles and it's turned out fine. I've started a second scarf in that colour, which will still leave me with 400g left over which may end up as scarves for the Salvation Army. 

This leaves me with the other colour. 

I love this colourway. And the scarf is wonderfully light and soft and warm. I absolutely could make a blanket, using the same needles and casting on four times the number of stitches. I don't think that it would take long to knit up, either and I would adore a blanket from this. But I wanted to give more than one colour to my brother/his partner and if I try and make a blanket out of the leftover yarn of both colours, I think that it would look awful. I'm considering my options and I can postpone the decision as tomorrow I'm knitting for sailors as it's Sunday and it will take a while to knit up the scarf. 

The weather should break tomorrow, son fingers crossed that I'll have more to talk about. 

Hugs and good health to all.