44 Vanilla, with a twist

I'm thinking a knitsofacto glossary of 'knitter speak' might not go amiss. The entry for vanilla knitting would say, "simple stitches, little or no shaping, repetitious, can be boring, possible when on autopilot", and would recommend the Rikke hat as the perfect vanilla knit.

When the project I had planned for my single skein of Eco Alpaca proved to be unsuitable Rikke was the obvious alternative. I needed something less demanding than the Villeray scarf I had been deploying as waiting room knitting and Rikke was it. It has accompanied me to my orthopantomogram appointment today. Now that was different!

Don't be worrying about me. I'm okay, it's my jaw that isn't, or rather my right temporomandibular joint. The jury's still out on exactly what ails it - something structural - but chewing, and by extension eating, are proving mighty difficult just now. Sadly this sorry state of affairs has not resulted in any weight loss - vanilla ice cream doesn't need much mastication, unlike salad* - but there's been lots of waiting about for doctors and dentists, knitting at the ready to while away the time!

And the twist? I got to thinking about my Year of Projects commitments**, and the fact that my list of knits is considerably shorter than most folk's, and decided that promising to acquire some new skills might beef my efforts up a bit. Rikke, vanilla knitting with a new-to-me cast on - Twisted German - what could be better? And what a stretchy joy that cast on is! Mastered in minutes - I consulted Montse Stanleybut you could try Youtube - and clearly ideal for hats and, if you're so inclined, socks. Stanley lists a twisted Italian cast on I'd like to try too, and I'm determined to get to grips with Channel Island. In fact there's a ton of stuff I've never tried!

As ever my knitting isn't far from my reading matter. 'The knitted stitch is a knot through whose iteration an unbroken surface is formed from a continuous length, or line, of yarn', to (approximately) quote anthropologist Tim Ingold, author of Lines: A Brief HistoryThis amazing book is captivating me just now. But if I describe it, borrowing from the blurb, as an anthropological archaeology of the line, I fear it must sound like tremendously dull stuff, and it isn't, not at all! Genealogy, walking, weaving, musical notation, circuit boards, crochet ... all can be reduced to traces and/or threads, to lines. And to connections. It truly is a fascinating read***!

Your responses and connections to my last post really touched me, thank you. Informal letters and diaries, a permanent trace, are vital to understanding our past, yet so few of us write them now. Do you? I know I don't.

A Year of Projects post. Also linking with Ginnie for

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As ever a Welcome! shout out to all my new followers and commenters: Suzy at Rustic Vintage Country, Julie at KC's Court, Emma at Ivy Black Chat, KSD of Handeye Crafts, and to the seemingly blogless Jennifer R., Joanne Haines, and fairy nuff, to whom apologies for the previous omission. Apologies too to anyone I've missed this time.

* If anyone has any healthy, mushy meal ideas to pass on they'd be more than gratefully received!

** Another change, Whippoorwill is out and Color Affection is back in ... one of the girls at Knit and Natter has a Color Affection and it is gorgeous, and clearly worth ploughing through all that garter stitch for! By the way, only one of the links in this post are to Ravelry, I didn't want to exclude the non knitters.

*** And so is my perennial favourite, also pictured, Claire Leighton's Four Hedges