A FO!

Not my shawl, I'm still waiting for yarn. I finished a new garter stitch scarf, this time from aranweight Posh Yarn. Just one skein of Elinor Aran in 'Three Foxes' let me knit up this loveliness:

Isn't it pretty? And given the grotty weather we've been having, I suspect I'll get plenty of wear before the summer.

Well, crap.

I ran out. 26 stinking rows before the end of the shawl. See?

And for an idea of how close I actually got:

Fortunately, a couple of Ravellers answered my desperate plea on the Posh forum. I've got two skeins of similar colourways being sent to me tomorrow, so (postal service permitting) I should be able to finish this week.

Thank goodness for Ravelry.

My current shawl project is Ene's Scarf, a Nancy Bush pattern originally written for laceweight yarn and tiny needles. I decided to knit it up in a fingering weight for added warmth. First point for Ravelry - lots of other people have made a similar decision, so I could easily browse through other project and estimate the amount of yarn I needed. All good, I had a lovely pair of Posh skeins equalling that amount. Lovely grey-green-slate cashmere, mmmmmm.

I started knitting. The first chart was eating yarn, since the pattern is a bottom-up triangle. I was worried about running out, but no worries - there's a support group on Ravelry for this very shawl, and one clever lady had worked out the row-by-row completion percentages for the whole thing. Chart One is a full quarter of the knitting, so I stopped worrying. Then the worrying started again, because I got halfway through my yarn but not halfway through the knitting.

Running out of yarn would be a real problem with this shawl. Unlike top-down triangles, the triangle shape doesn't exist until the whole thing is finished. Running out would leave me with a weird wedge-shaped gap at the back of my neck. And because I'm using Posh yarn, which is all one-off batches in limited numbers, there was no way I was ever going to be able to get more.

Or so I thought. Third point for Ravelry - I was able to search through other people's stashes of this yarn by the colourway name and locate two other ladies with skeins from the same batch! I contacted one, who had used hers up, to see whether she'd any scraps left over that I could have. She did, and I've now got an extra 2 grams of yarn on my knitting table. (Thanks, C!) I'm waiting to hear from the other, who had a whole skein, to see whether she'd be willing to trade me.

In the meantime I'm knitting away, crossing my fingers that the extra two grams will be enough to get me to the end. I should know by the end of the weekend - I'm at 80% knitted!

Farewell, April

That was without a doubt the least productive month I've ever had, needlework-wise. I didn't finish a single project! I did finish two major pieces of coursework. We also spring-cleaned the flat. Still, I'm disappointed not to have finished anything.

Not to worry though, 'cause May is already off to a much better start! These Franken-Mei socks were supposed to have been done yesterday, but I ended up having to run errands over lunch. These were the oldest WIPs in my pile, so I'm really glad they're finally done. And they fit well, which is even better.

Pattern - Kai-Mei from Cookie A's fabulous book 'Sock Innovation'

Yarn - DkKnits Technicolor Dream Toes in 'Frankentwined'
Needles - 2.25mm DPNs

Mods - none

As an experiment, I tried knitting both socks at the same time on two sets of DPNs. I wanted to see whether making progress on both would help encourage me to knit faster. FAIL! It was incredibly disheartening to watch them go so slowly. Of course, the fact that cuffs contain a combined total of 13 inches of ribbing really didn't help much. Yawn. The lace pattern on the foot was intriguing, as was the shaping. I might use the construction again with a more intuitive pattern.

One funky result from finishing these - I've now reached critical handknit sock mass. If (when!) I knit another pair, I'm going to have to start ditching purchased socks to make room for them in my sock drawer. :D

Plans for May:

- finish at least one of my shawls-in-progress so that I can cast on for the new Goddess Knits Mystery Shawl guilt-free

- finish the current scarf
- finish the blue laceweight I've been spinning for two months!

Not really getting anywhere

I'm working on lots of things right now, but they are all in the dull in-between parts, so not really blogworthy. But taken as a group perhaps they will be more interesting? Some highlights:

• I've abandoned my spindle and am planning on getting rid of it. It's fun, I love spindling, but my damaged elbow can't manage the weight of the spindle in addition to the fine motor control needed to draft. It's a shame, but I'm not risking further damage to my dominant arm.
• I've finished the gussets of my Franken-Mei socks and might actually get them done this month.
• I've cast on for yet another garter stitch scarf, this time using my perfect red yarn. I needed an antidote to complicated yarn projects and coursework.
• I really love carding.
• I cast on for a laceweight sweater, 'cause I'm crazy like that. After knitting three rounds, I've abandoned it until I finish some older WIPs.
• Apparently if one works with raw fleece one is supposed to get a tetanus shot. My mother tells me I'm overdue for a booster, so Fifi-processing is postponed until I can make an appointment with my doctor.
• I'm about a quarter of the way finished with a batch of blue Falkland singles. I think I'm going to 2-ply them, but I might n-ply to preserve the long stretches of colour. Or I might just leave it all as a singles. It'll be laceweight whichever way I finish it!
• I've started a new piece of embroidery. It's one I've had materials stashed for for about three years and never gotten around to starting. Gorgeous folksy flowers on a grey/green linen. There's a complementary piece to go with which I also have, but I probably won't get that one started for a couple of years. Let's be realistic here. :D

Long weekend

Despite having to work on Saturday, I still ended up having a long weekend thanks to Monday off and a half-day of classes on Tuesday. Although much of that time was taken up with a total time-suck of a wordgame, I spent a great deal of time knitting.

Ergo, new shawl:

It's made from the handspun I finished recently. I have about a yard of the stuff leftover, thanks to the joys of the modular pattern. It's the first heavy shawl I've made for myself, and came in handy today. It's getting warmer in London, but still jacket weather. It's also heavy shawl weather!

A few thoughts:

• Ruffles look great but are a total pain to knit and cast off. It took me four hours to finish the cast-off.
• Garter stitch doesn't need blocking if the yarn is squidgy enough.
• Garter stitch really doesn't need blocking if the ruffle contains half the total yarn. I predict that two weeks of wear will stretch it to double the current size, which is already bigger than any of my other shawls.
• Worsted weight shawls don't work as scarf alternatives unless I want to look like a linebacker under my jacket.
• There's a lot of room for variegation in a semi-solid fiber/yarn.
• Knitting with handspun is much more exciting than knitting with commercial yarn.
• I need to spin more.

Handiwork at its finest

For whatever reason, I was struck yesterday with the urge to fetch out my handcards and start carding Fifi into rolags. It's fun! I did a fairly careful job of picking when I was washing, but the carding process is getting a ton of plant matter and bits out. My plan is to spin up a small sample of chunky yarn to try out woollen spinning, then knit it up into a pair of mitts. Once I've gotten my hands accustomed to not-worsted, I'll do the lot up as an aran-weight and knit a blanket.

Ambitious, me? Maybe a little - but I am trying to make things for myself!