I got a parcel with a skein of Posh Yarn Arabella in it yesterday. Arabella is a cobweb-weight merino/cashmere blend, and it is to die for. I just want to snuggle it like a little kitten. The colourway is called Wistful, and it is beautiful shades of grey and pale blue and silver. Yum! Now I just need to find a shawl pattern that is worthy.
That's the trouble with really nice yarn, you see. I have it, and then it is just to nice to knit with. What if I mess up the yarn? What if the pattern doesn't do it justice? This is why I hoard my Posh Yarn and make so much out of boring yarn. And is possibly why I take so long making things.
I've nearly finished the first of my stripey Monkeys. I've got part of one repeat and a rather short toe left to do, then I'll be good and cast on for the second sock. Much to my amusement (and dismay!) I took advantage of my sexy new knitting toy - a set of scales - and discovered that once I finish the second sock I will actually have enough yarn left to make an entire second pair of socks. Maybe I should train myself to like longer cuffs so that this doesn't happen again!
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
Friday, 3 October 2008
It's good to be a Knitter
I walk to and from work. It's about 35 minutes in either direction, so good exercise for me every day. Now that it's autumn in this hemisphere, my knitwear is really coming into its own. Last night I walked home bundled up in my Dr Who mitts, my Tapestry scarf and the red hat I made last year. Today I walked in wearing my Calorimetry and my tiger-ish Jitterbug socks. I am fantasizing about mittens, gloves and more hats. And let's be honest, more scarves. I really need more scarves. I don't yet have any made out of cashmere, for example. Shocking! :D
I realized this morning while doing my daily round of blog reading with breakfast that there is a reason my brain is telling me to make more socks. It's the 3rd of October. More accurately, it is the third day of Socktoberfest! I have never participated in this before, but I think that now is a good time to start. I have 3 pairs of socks on the go, plus another half-a-dozen or so that I want to cast on. I think that socks and I have a weird relationship, truth be told. I love wearing handknit socks. I love giving people handknit socks. I love the thought of knitting socks, and I love having socks in my bag to knit. I don't really like knitting socks. They get incredibly boring by the time I get to knitting the heel flap. I like the way toe-up socks fit, but all my favourite patterns are cuff-down and I'm too lazy to convert them. I could probably avert the heel flap boredom by using a different heel, but again there's the lazy factor. Oh well. I shall keep knitting socks, knit the occasional toe-up number when I'm going nuts over heel flaps, and be bored occasionally. It's better than not having handknit socks!
I realized this morning while doing my daily round of blog reading with breakfast that there is a reason my brain is telling me to make more socks. It's the 3rd of October. More accurately, it is the third day of Socktoberfest! I have never participated in this before, but I think that now is a good time to start. I have 3 pairs of socks on the go, plus another half-a-dozen or so that I want to cast on. I think that socks and I have a weird relationship, truth be told. I love wearing handknit socks. I love giving people handknit socks. I love the thought of knitting socks, and I love having socks in my bag to knit. I don't really like knitting socks. They get incredibly boring by the time I get to knitting the heel flap. I like the way toe-up socks fit, but all my favourite patterns are cuff-down and I'm too lazy to convert them. I could probably avert the heel flap boredom by using a different heel, but again there's the lazy factor. Oh well. I shall keep knitting socks, knit the occasional toe-up number when I'm going nuts over heel flaps, and be bored occasionally. It's better than not having handknit socks!
Monday, 29 September 2008
I wonder...
Periodically I go through phases of wanting to rip out many of my knitting projects. I wonder if it's connected to my lack of a camera. Perhaps not being able to show my progress makes me want to destroy it. Or maybe I'm just thinking too much after an afternoon of post-dentist napping. Who knows?
But yes, I have been frogging again. I ripped the Branching Out Scarf a while back. The pattern/yarn combo just wasn't working for me. I think I shall use the glove to make some mittens, because really, who doesn't need silk mittens?
I decided yesterday that I was going to just finish the heel of the neverending sock, since I was home alone with a pile o' yarn and Captain Jack Sparrow. So, I slogged and knit and picked up stitches and then disaster struck. The bloody pattern doesn't line up. I just spent 6 months of my life working on a sock that needs to have the pattern redone to be symmetrical. Oh, I ripped that puppy out. The sock is no more, I am not going to be attempting it again, and the yarn is in the corner thinking about what it's done.
There was one plus side to my discovery of vile misery. This sock was made from one of the skeins that got mauled by a puppy last Christmas, and had a break in it about 2 inches into the cuff. I ripped back to the unspliced join, eyeballed it, bound off and wound up with an instant coffee sleeve. I get tea and coffee from the Student Union Cafe where I work, and it comes in disposable cardboard cups. Rather than burn my hands instead of using the disposable sleeves, I've been meaning to knit up a few of my own out of sock yarn leftovers. I'd been putting it off because I really loathe swatching for something that small, but hey presto! 60 stitches of ribbing on 2.5mm needles fits perfectly. I have a new FO that is utterly practical, there are no more broken bits of yarn in my skein, and I don't have to work on the sock from hell anymore. I am a happy knitter.
In other news, I'm down to 3 active WIPs, and they are all socks. I finished my most recent garter stitch scarf on Sunday and gifted it to the hub. And because I finished something, I decided to cast on for something new. The plan was to use the Halloween sock yarn to make a shawl, but it's just too variegated. Mum likes socks, and so I cast on for more Monkeys. They fit everyone. Yes, I am working on 2 pairs of Monkeys and one pair of Pomatomus. Both patterns by Cookie A. Aren't I a good little junior stalker? :D
But yes, I have been frogging again. I ripped the Branching Out Scarf a while back. The pattern/yarn combo just wasn't working for me. I think I shall use the glove to make some mittens, because really, who doesn't need silk mittens?
I decided yesterday that I was going to just finish the heel of the neverending sock, since I was home alone with a pile o' yarn and Captain Jack Sparrow. So, I slogged and knit and picked up stitches and then disaster struck. The bloody pattern doesn't line up. I just spent 6 months of my life working on a sock that needs to have the pattern redone to be symmetrical. Oh, I ripped that puppy out. The sock is no more, I am not going to be attempting it again, and the yarn is in the corner thinking about what it's done.
There was one plus side to my discovery of vile misery. This sock was made from one of the skeins that got mauled by a puppy last Christmas, and had a break in it about 2 inches into the cuff. I ripped back to the unspliced join, eyeballed it, bound off and wound up with an instant coffee sleeve. I get tea and coffee from the Student Union Cafe where I work, and it comes in disposable cardboard cups. Rather than burn my hands instead of using the disposable sleeves, I've been meaning to knit up a few of my own out of sock yarn leftovers. I'd been putting it off because I really loathe swatching for something that small, but hey presto! 60 stitches of ribbing on 2.5mm needles fits perfectly. I have a new FO that is utterly practical, there are no more broken bits of yarn in my skein, and I don't have to work on the sock from hell anymore. I am a happy knitter.
In other news, I'm down to 3 active WIPs, and they are all socks. I finished my most recent garter stitch scarf on Sunday and gifted it to the hub. And because I finished something, I decided to cast on for something new. The plan was to use the Halloween sock yarn to make a shawl, but it's just too variegated. Mum likes socks, and so I cast on for more Monkeys. They fit everyone. Yes, I am working on 2 pairs of Monkeys and one pair of Pomatomus. Both patterns by Cookie A. Aren't I a good little junior stalker? :D
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Still no camera
I've finished the heel of Pomatomus the First. I've also picked up stitches for the gusset and started working on that. This sucker just gets more complicated the longer I work on it! I like it, though, and I'm definitely keeping it. Hopefully the second one won't be as much of a puzzle. It's now at a point where I can't carry it around with me (it won't fold to fit into my WIP tube), so it's going to be worked on at home until it's at a point I can carry it. For now, I'm working on the Monkeys. I still really love this pattern!
I seem to have lost the desire to work on my garter stitch scarf right now. That's ok. It's not taking up much room, and I've packed away most of my WIPs in preparation for a series of impending familial visits. This has resulted in lots of progress on things I want to get done, as has been demonstrated in the past!
I seem to have lost the desire to work on my garter stitch scarf right now. That's ok. It's not taking up much room, and I've packed away most of my WIPs in preparation for a series of impending familial visits. This has resulted in lots of progress on things I want to get done, as has been demonstrated in the past!
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
Vexed...
...is a good description of my current mental state. You see, my camera seems to have died. It'll switch on, but the viewfinder stays black and although you can take a picture, it, too, is black.
This is incredibly annoying, because I spent much of Sunday afternoon dyeing a skein of sock yarn pretty colours. Now that it's dry, I was hoping to take a photo of the skein, wind it, take a photo of it wound and maybe start knitting with it.
I was hoping to take a photo of the finished cuff of my Pomatomus sock. Nope.
My blog may get a bit dull until I either fix the camera or get a new one.
This is incredibly annoying, because I spent much of Sunday afternoon dyeing a skein of sock yarn pretty colours. Now that it's dry, I was hoping to take a photo of the skein, wind it, take a photo of it wound and maybe start knitting with it.
I was hoping to take a photo of the finished cuff of my Pomatomus sock. Nope.
My blog may get a bit dull until I either fix the camera or get a new one.
Sunday, 21 September 2008
Many, many projects
So, I realized that I have quite a few projects that haven't been blogged about yet. But first, I have a FO to show off! Yesterday I spent a couple of hours in a coffee shop with friends and discovered that the mitts I was making for Weaving Friend were very nearly done. So while watching NCIS last night I just finished them. 
They fit nicely, and since we have the same sized arms they should fit her. Very easy - cast on 48 stitches, K2p2 rib until you get to the thumb, BO 8 stitches and work in rib until the hand's long enough.
The best part, other than making something nice for a good friend, is that I barely broke into the second ball of yarn. So I'll definitely have enough to make the pair of gloves for myself that I'd originally intended with the yarn!
Since I finished a project, I decided that the time was right to start another one. This is actually better than it sounds, because this is one of my Mission:Possible projects. I'd originally meant to make a pair of Anne-trelac socks with this yarn. However, through reading around on Ravelry I discovered that the ankles are very baggy on most people. Since I find most normal socks way too baggy in the ankles anyway (darned skinny ankles) I decided to cut my losses and make another pair of Monkeys.
Yes, this is the third pair I've made this year. But they fit perfectly, they are inutterably comfortable, they look good, and I've memorized the pattern. Oh, and for some reason they are totally adictive to knit. I'm falling back on my bribery method of knitting as a result. "Finish a couple inches of scarf, knit Monkeys. Work on sock of doom, knit Monkeys." Et cetera.
My Branching Out scarf finally got started at the beginning of this month too.
Since Summer of Socks ended on the 1st of September, I decided to rearrange the stash so that the stuff for projects in my immediate queue was out. These skeins had been hanging around since my birthday, and I really wanted to knit them up. Ironically, now that I've got it underway I'm thinking that it may not actually be what I want to do with them. I'm not really liking the tweed with lace effect much.
Finally, this
is, yes, you guessed it, another garter stitch scarf. For anyone who's been wondering what I do with all the scarves I make - I wear them. Of all the ones I've made, I've only given away about 4. And 2 of those were fun fur and one was a special request. Every single other scarf gets worn by me. I wear them almost every day, especially now that it's getting colder. But given that this is London, it's rarely warm enough that I don't carry a scarf around with me just in case. I always have a pair of mitts and a hat with me, and I carry a scarf 9 days out of 10. I find that I just get cold, and even if I'm not cold enough for a coat, a scarf is a marvellous this to wrap 'round me. I spent much of July and August in scarves.
Since I wear them so often, I need lots in many colours and styles to suit my mood. Scarves are fabulous!
They fit nicely, and since we have the same sized arms they should fit her. Very easy - cast on 48 stitches, K2p2 rib until you get to the thumb, BO 8 stitches and work in rib until the hand's long enough.The best part, other than making something nice for a good friend, is that I barely broke into the second ball of yarn. So I'll definitely have enough to make the pair of gloves for myself that I'd originally intended with the yarn!
Since I finished a project, I decided that the time was right to start another one. This is actually better than it sounds, because this is one of my Mission:Possible projects. I'd originally meant to make a pair of Anne-trelac socks with this yarn. However, through reading around on Ravelry I discovered that the ankles are very baggy on most people. Since I find most normal socks way too baggy in the ankles anyway (darned skinny ankles) I decided to cut my losses and make another pair of Monkeys.
Yes, this is the third pair I've made this year. But they fit perfectly, they are inutterably comfortable, they look good, and I've memorized the pattern. Oh, and for some reason they are totally adictive to knit. I'm falling back on my bribery method of knitting as a result. "Finish a couple inches of scarf, knit Monkeys. Work on sock of doom, knit Monkeys." Et cetera.My Branching Out scarf finally got started at the beginning of this month too.
Since Summer of Socks ended on the 1st of September, I decided to rearrange the stash so that the stuff for projects in my immediate queue was out. These skeins had been hanging around since my birthday, and I really wanted to knit them up. Ironically, now that I've got it underway I'm thinking that it may not actually be what I want to do with them. I'm not really liking the tweed with lace effect much.Finally, this
is, yes, you guessed it, another garter stitch scarf. For anyone who's been wondering what I do with all the scarves I make - I wear them. Of all the ones I've made, I've only given away about 4. And 2 of those were fun fur and one was a special request. Every single other scarf gets worn by me. I wear them almost every day, especially now that it's getting colder. But given that this is London, it's rarely warm enough that I don't carry a scarf around with me just in case. I always have a pair of mitts and a hat with me, and I carry a scarf 9 days out of 10. I find that I just get cold, and even if I'm not cold enough for a coat, a scarf is a marvellous this to wrap 'round me. I spent much of July and August in scarves.Since I wear them so often, I need lots in many colours and styles to suit my mood. Scarves are fabulous!
Saturday, 20 September 2008
Treasures
This morning the post came, and two lots of things that I had ordered arrived with it! The first parcel only came from Reading. I ordered it on Thursday from Scandinavian Knitting Design, an online company that stocks, umm, Scandinavian yarns and patterns. A friend found them, ordered a bunch of stuff and recommended them to me, so I went to have a look at their website. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that they stock Kauni yarn! This stuff is very, very cool. It has unusually long colour repeats and was made famous when the Yarn Harlot knit a rainbow cardigan from it. I've been thinking about knitting a variation of the cardigan for a while now (in better colours, of course), but was loath to try and buy it from a Danish website. Finding it available in the UK was a real treat. So I've now got one skein of the black/purple/grey colourway that I'm going to turn into a shawl for a good friend. 
This was another one of those cases of trying out one skein of a new yarn before committing to a sweater's-worth. And it was also my last earned skein from the Stashalong!
Of course, I couldn't just get a single ball of yarn. I went to their sale section and was thrilled to find some lovely
shawl pins
. Since I seem to be going nuts for shawls right now, it made sense to get something to replace the DPN I'd been using instead.
The other parcel came from the US and was some yarn that I'd ordered a while back when I unexpectedly came into a bit of money. I'd been looking for some Halloween yarn online and found this seller on Etsy. She had a collection of monster-themed sock yarn that looked really fun - so I bought it! It arrived today and is just great. Frankentwined
is purple and green and is probably my favourite of the lot. I'll be making some socks out of it, once I can find a worthy pattern. Monster Stash
is probably going to become a pair of Rock 'n' Weave Socks. I love this pattern and have been looking for something to make it in for a while. Bestitched 
may wait, since I don't know what it will suit. And Socks o'Lantern 
is going to be turned into a Halloween shawl for my mum, using the same pattern that my Noro Triangle did.
What fun! Must finish up some other stuff first, though. There may be a few new-ish projects that haven't yet been blogged about...
This was another one of those cases of trying out one skein of a new yarn before committing to a sweater's-worth. And it was also my last earned skein from the Stashalong!Of course, I couldn't just get a single ball of yarn. I went to their sale section and was thrilled to find some lovely
shawl pins
. Since I seem to be going nuts for shawls right now, it made sense to get something to replace the DPN I'd been using instead.The other parcel came from the US and was some yarn that I'd ordered a while back when I unexpectedly came into a bit of money. I'd been looking for some Halloween yarn online and found this seller on Etsy. She had a collection of monster-themed sock yarn that looked really fun - so I bought it! It arrived today and is just great. Frankentwined
is purple and green and is probably my favourite of the lot. I'll be making some socks out of it, once I can find a worthy pattern. Monster Stash
is probably going to become a pair of Rock 'n' Weave Socks. I love this pattern and have been looking for something to make it in for a while. Bestitched 
may wait, since I don't know what it will suit. And Socks o'Lantern 
is going to be turned into a Halloween shawl for my mum, using the same pattern that my Noro Triangle did.What fun! Must finish up some other stuff first, though. There may be a few new-ish projects that haven't yet been blogged about...
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