skein

January knitting and February goals

How did I do?

January's goals.

1) finish off SKA's December socks, Empoisonnee.  Done!

Knitting clubs:
2) work my January Mystery Blanket squares.  Done!

 

3) Soctopus club package - I want to get a good start on this.  Unlikely to finish it, but as the club is alternate months, that's ok. Done!  No photos yet, until mid February, when everyone is sure to get their package. 

Sweater project:
4) knit a garment!  Done!  Linden!

Small project:
5) a cowl - the Forest Canopy cowl.  Done!

ravelry knitalong groups:
6) start and finish a pair of burgundy socks for SolidSocks. Failed! I tried 3 patterns, then gave up.

7) start a pair of beaded socks for SKA.  Done!

Six out of seven goals achieved, and, to be fair, the failure was the equivalent of 3 sock legs.  I managed to finish a few pairs of socks which I only intended started, and have made a good start on February's garment.  So overall I'm pleased.

February's knitting goals.

Knitting clubs:

1) knit february's Mystery blanket squares.  I don't have the yarn yet, but I do have the emailed instructions, and all I can say is 'wow!'.  I love the colours and the designs this month.

2) knit December's Get Knitted Lorna's Laces socks, for Chris. The colour is Christmas Conga, and as soon as I opened the package he claimed them as his colours.  He even showed me some other socks in similar colours, which are in his top ten.

The colours are red, green and gold - not as washed out as this!

Sweater Project:

3) Finish Chris's Bog Jacket. I'm nearly up to the cast on for the sleeves (he's having long sleeves, not mid-length, so I need to cast on for the rest of the sleeve)

Again (!) my tension is different - back to 14 sts / 4".  So this is going to be an  *exact* fit!  The length is dubious too, as it'll be stretched, so I'm going to have to add another inch to length to make up for this. 

I have to order some yellow and rust yarn for the stripes.  I'll do it next week, which means I've gone a whole month without buying yarn.  I'm in a few clubs, but these are annual clubs, already paid for and I'm not including them in yarn acquisitions.

4) Start another garment! Not sure what yet, but my plan is loosely that I'll start off the year  doing chunky, then aran, then dk, then 4ply and back up again to chunky as the weather cools down again. So it's either chunky or aran.  Plenty of time to decide, I'll start it after I've finished the BJ.

Ravelry knitalongs:

5) I'm combining SolidSocks and SKA this month - so it's going to be a pink Monkey Toes sock. Probably Eleanor, in Dream in Color Smooshy Cool Fire.

 

That's all!  The Bog Jacket is giving me grief.  I'm going to work on this for the rest of the day, see if I can get to the sleeves. Wish me luck, this isn't my most favourite project (I'm picturing Chris in a short, tight bog jacket, with a yellow stripe up the top...)

Bog Jacket

My second garment for the year.    I'm aiming for 12 garments in 2009, though in the  hotter weather this will include short sleeved summer tops. This is part of NaKniSweMoDo on ravelry. Some people are already finished with garment #3!

Chris has been bugging me, for a while now, to knit him a Bog Jacket, ever since he spotted it in a borrowed copy of Knitting Around by Elizabeth Zimmermann. I've since bought the book (and the dvd) and decided to knit this whilst it's still cold enough for him to wear it. 

What is the Bog Jacket? 
1) all garter stitch
2) square
3) knitted in one piece, you just have to graft the sleeve seams.

When you're halfway up you use waste yarn at both ends of the row. Afterwards you snip this yarn, the bit of knitting below the waste yarn is the body (which now folds together) and the bit above is the upper body / sleeves, you fold it down.   Hard to explain, but I'll post photos as I go. 

Without doing any short rows or casting on more stitches, the BJ as it stands will have half length, wide, unshaped sleeves.  It will be Kimono shaped (no shoulder shaping either).

I'll be adjusting; when I get to the start of the sleeves (after the waste yarn bit) I will cast on provisionally enough sts to make long sleeves (and he as long arms!).  I'll use short rows to taper the sleeves a little.  I'll use short rows for shoulder shaping too, and will probably do the fake side seam stitches.

This design is great for upper body stripes. Except Chris wants a yellow stripe, running along the top of the sleeve and across the shoulders, with an thinner orange stripe underneath, and possibly orange i-cord.  Excuse my Paint picture ...

I'm knitting with black, not grey. The orange will be rust and the yellow will have a tinge of orange in it.
I'm using Jamieson's chunky yarn for the main body, so it's very thick.  I don't have any orange / yellow shetland in my stash (I'm thinking that I would like to knit the jacket in one type of yarn) but will order some from J&S, as Jamieson's have discontinued this yarn.  I'm trying not to increase the stash, but I think, in this instance, it's unavoidable (and will be knitted up straightaway).  I'll just buy what I need and not look at any kits or other yarns!

Garter stitch is a square stitch - for 10 stitches you get 20 rows, or 10 ridges, which makes it ideal for this type of knitting, I count ridges to measure. So imagine my disappointment on Monday evening, just before going to bed, when I count my ridges - 30  - and realise that instead of measureing 8.5" it measures 9.25".  So I measure my stitch count and realise I'm off by nearly a stitch for 4"!  That's not a lot, but this is chunky and the body is knit in one piece, and that difference in stitch count amounts to 31/2" in width. 
Off to the frog pond.
I'm reknitting it with 11 sts less on the needles.  I've not quite caught up with where I was before I had to frog:

but I'm making good progress

Can't say I love the yarn.  It's multi plied and I keep finding loose strands.  It's difficult to spot them in artificial light, but I'm getting pretty fed up of having to tink down to catch a thread.  It's great book reading knitting.  Should zoom along swiftly, I think.

Forest Canopy Cowl

Another FO!

This time it's the Forest Canopy Cowl.

Started:20th January
Finished:21st January (yes, a quick knit!)
Needles: 4.5mm (5.5mm for the edging)
Yarn: Manos Silk Blend. I think the colour is 7032 (I've found a label; whether or not it belongs to this yarn I don't know)

Modifications:  The pattern begins by saying that you will come very close to running out of yarn, and if you're squeamish, either cast on 8 sts less or work a few rows less of the top cast on border.  I chose to do the latter, so this is a snug cowl (but I usually wear cowls fastened with a shawl pin to make them snug).

Right.  Anyone in the UK, using Manos Silk Blend, do not worry about running out of yarn.  The pattern is for 50g of MSB, and I've only come across 100g skeins over here!  I need not have worried.  I should have read the pattern properly before taking these measures!  As it is, with 8 sts less, I used 48g of yarn.  With our 100g skeins the excess could go to a pair of wristers.

It's a great pattern, lovers of the Forest Canopy shawl (and you are many - I know at least two knitters who knit this pattern often!) will love this.   It's for dk yarn, but as the pattern is an 8 stitch repeat it's highly adaptable to other yarn weights. Another good reason to knit this!

Godiva socks

January SKA socks (ravelry link).  January's challenge was either beading (technique), or any online magazine sock or a mystery beaded sock.  I chose to knit a beaded sock, and chose Godiva by Lucy Neatby. 

Started: 2nd January
Finished: 22nd January
Yarn: Natural Dye Studio Angel - silk, baby alpaca and cashmere. Can't beat it!
Needles: 2.25mm circular

The silver and turquoise beads are rowan/jaeger beads, about size 6 (not the smallest ones) and the other beads are some anonymous ones I had in stash.

I quite like this way of adding beads - purl a stitch, slip the bead near to the work, purl another stitch. 

These are destined to be bed socks, they're just so soft!

Miscellaneous photos

My knitting since Sunday has been minimal. 

I spent Monday evening redoing Neutral Tailoring's collar.  The pattern has you short row and then do a 3 needle cast off centre back of collar.  I hated the look of the join, and think that I did too many rows. It's been maturing since I finished.  I've frogged back about 8 rows each side of the centre and grafted (in moss stitch!) the joins. Much better, though I could have frogged back even more, I think. 

Last night I finished sock #1 of Godiva socks, started at the beginning of the month for SKA (ravelry).  No photos until they're done.

I've also been crocheting - a granny sock blanket from sock scraps.  I seem to have thrown away a lot of scraps but certainly have enough to start it off.  I don't need any btw! I can use some whole balls if necessary.  I wanted a rectangular blanket, so I've started off with two granny squares sewn together, then I'll just carry on around and around.  It's bright, so far!  No photos, I need daylight!

So, over the weekend I've been sorting and scanning family photos.  My parents sent down some photos to scan and enlarge, and I thought, if no knitting photos then I might as well post some people photos!
Anyone of a certain age will remember the days before digital and mobile phone cameras. Photos were few and far between!  I used to frequent photo booths as a teenager, and have found a stack of small photos (hair brushed and big, full make up, plucked eyebrows, too much lipstick, 4 stone lighter - at least - and very vain!). 

Baby Dawn and mum, 1961
  

Toddler Dawn and Grandma (she's either knitting or crocheting!) 1961-62. 

 

Dawn with a dolly's cot (can't remember this at all)

 

Dawn's school photo.  I have no idea how old - about 7 or 8?  Late sixties. I took a non digital photo of a photo album page, years ago.  I scanned that photo and cropped the photos of me! Yes, my mother cut my fringe!

 

Dawn in 1970, aged 9 with brothers and dog.

Teen years - these were photo booth photos!

1977 aged 16. That lipstick was a deep red, a Mary Quant lipstick chunky pencil! Plucked to death eyebrows!

 

Too vain to wear glasses as well!

Here's a knitting related photo of Chris that I've found.

That's when he had more hair and less belly!  That jumper was John Lewis's children's aran, completely acrylic and horrible to knit with. He loved the brightness, and that when wet it weighed hardly anything and dried really quickly.  I had to reknit the collar twice, it kept sagging.

Back to knitting!

Linden

 

Pattern: Linden
Yarn: Cascade Pastaza, shade 6003 red
Needles: 5.5mm
Started:  4th January 09
Finished: 17th January 09
Modifications: none, though I found the collar too long at the back so frogged about 4 rows each side of centre.

This is an odd shape - both fronts start off the same width as the back!  So it overlaps at the front.  Not easy to photograph it nicely, but it's so snuggly and wraparoundable.  A bit like knitting three triangles!  I took some photos this morning, and Chris took some more this afternoon of me wearing it.  This shows the width of the fronts!  Some of these photos were taken without flash with shadows making the knitting look terribly uneven - it's not!

 

The colour is RED.  Not orange, nor even a red-orange!  It's a much deeper red. 

The sleeves are a little bit shorter than bracelet, and have a nifty turnover cuff. Although there is shaping, the overall look is wide and rectangular.

The cabling detail is lovely, and easy!  Just a cable every 8th row, yet it looks more complicated, doesn't it?

The collar's a bit odd - it's much better on than on a hanger, stands up to warm the back of your neck.

Overall I'm very pleased.  I tried on Yvonne's at IKL and loved it, it's like having a wearable (ie stays on shoulders) blanket!

I'm not sure what I'll knit next. Chris wants a bog jacket, and I have someblack Jamieson's chunky, otherwise it's another chunky for me, I think.  Toss up between some Louisa Harding chunky yarn or yet more Jamiesons.  I'll think about it for a few weeks and get on with some sock knitting, meanwhile.

Debbie Abrahams Mystery Blanket Club 2009

The first installment is always the most exciting.  We have no idea what the theme will be, the colours, the designs, the techniques.

I imagine that everyone has their patterns and yarn by now, so here goes, the photos!

I can't guess the theme yet, but the yarn is Rowan Glace, and there's lots of sparkly beads!
Debbie's not going to name the squares this year, so no clues from the names.  They're just numbered.

Square 15

Techniques:  Beading and Swiss darning, with a little bit of knit and purl texture.
This was a lovely square to knit, fairly mindless and I didn't have to refer to the instructions much, it's fairly intuitive.  It's one of the prettier ones this month.

Square 16

Very easy to knit, though the colour combination isn't my favourite. 
Techniques:  Two colours on one row (can't really call it fairisle!), a bit of purl texture.

Square 17

Techniques: beading, lace and cabling.
My least favourite design, though it will be fairly easy to remember after I've knitted a few. The actual lace and cables are very simple, so I don't know why I disliked knitting it so much.  It seemed to take forever to knit, a sign I'm not enjoying it!

Square 36

Techniques: beading, bobbling, intarsia, texture and sewing!
I loved this square, both to knit and to look at. 

Square 37

Techniques:  beading, cabling, two colour work (if you can call it that!) and bobbling.
I quite enjoyed knitting this square, despite all of those bobbles! Mine aren't very round, and I've knotted the back of each bobble and trimmed it down.  Ok there's a knot, but it's fairly discreet.

Last year I had a square which I loathed knitting, and I think that square 17 might be 2009's dreaded square!

Anyone see a theme here?  I keep thinking uniform/clothing, but only because 36 and 15 look like jacket fronts!

Linden progress

I've been pretty monogamous to Linden this week.

I knitted the back last Sunday ( a great day just knitting)

Tuesday and Wednesday evenings I managed the left front

Friday evening and Saturday afternoon I finished the right front.

This is such a relaxing knit.  The cabled border and garter stitch edge (not really obvious in these photos) is knitted on.  Once I finish the sleeves (which are shorter sleeves, 3/4 length) I just have to seam it. 

I'm having a break from it for a few days and knitting on Debbie Abraham's Mystery Blanket, more later on when I manage to finish the squares - I'm on three of five. It's different from last year's blanket. This is in Rowan Cotton Glace, has lots of beads, buttons, bobbles so far. 

I've also been through the sock stash this morning and I've pulled out a dozen skeins of sock yarn for a crocheted sock blanket.  The only thing putting me off is havening to wind the balls up, but I'll start it as soon as Linden is finished.  Next week possilby!

Linden

January's garment.

Cast on: Sunday 4th January.  A whole day's knitting and I managed to finish the back!  It's just stocking stitch, a triangular shape with the top lopped off.  I like the double decreases at each side, not invisible, but they are an extra little feature.

I cast on for the left front Tuesday evening, and finished that off tonight, which is good going as it's the same shape and size as the back, but with a great cable near the front edge.  Once the front decreases have been made, the cable is knitted for several repeats to fit around the back of the neck. A cool collar, not at all subtle, a great big stonking stand up collar.

It's good comfort knitting.  The cable pattern looks quite complicated but it actually has just two cable rows in the 16 row repeat - the rest is stocking stitch.

One more front to knit and two shortish sleeves and it's done! 

I'm planning on knitting 12 garments this year - cardigans, jumpers, t-shirts, vests, all from my stash, in an effort to reduce it a bit.  Don't get me wrong, I love my stash, but it's humongous now and I have trouble finding stuff, even though it's tagged and logged. I regularly stash dive for sock or accessory yarn, so that's not a surprise,  but the garment and shawl stash has been untouched (except to log it and put it away) for several years now.

Over the holidays I created a spreadsheet to log the number of balls, length and weight (not physically; most of the stash is photographed and tagged, so I could do this virtually).   Some of my stash is in cones and large laceweight skeins, so I created another  spreadsheet and broke them down into 50g balls,  which increased the number of balls by 250!  Then I colour coordinated the rows into the various yarn weights - lace, 4ply, sport, dk, worsted, aran and chunky.  And then I broke down the stash into types of project - garment, scarf, shawl, socks, and mixed lots.  Urggghhh. 

8 years worth of sock yarn

5 years worth of scarf yarn

10 years worth of shawl yarn

10 years worth of garment yarn

5.325kg of mixed odds and ends yarn - for small stuff - that's about 106 50g balls.

I have 5 vacuum packs of yarn not logged.  Probably about 100-120 balls of yarn.  This is but a drop in the ocean when it comes to the rest of my stash which is logged!

Of course this is approximate.  I'm planning to use some of the sock yarn for blankets, and I'm going to get the knitting machine out to knit up some plain garments and blankets.  This year I'm going to try to keep track of how much I'm knitting and how many balls. It's early days yet ...

Empoisonnee socks

My December SKA socks (ravelry link)

Pattern: Empoisonnee by Yarnissima.
Started: 25th December
Finished: 2nd January 09 (my first FO of the new year)
Needles 2.25 circular
Yarn: Wollmeise merino Im Kalten Polar
Modifications: none!

It's a toe up sock.  You knit a short row toe, then the foot, and start increasing for the gusset.

Then it's up the leg

Finishing with the cuff.

The only horrible bit was the 28 rows of twisted 1x1 ribbing under the cuff (no point in continuing the pattern!), and of course a lot of the cuff is 1x1 twisted ribbing.  I've knitted most of the sock with the knitpicks metal circulars (easier for cable manipulation) but for the ribbing I changed to the wooden circulars, I was in danger of piercing my finger!

I tried to capture the colour, I really did.  Two camers, auto, manual, flash or no flash.  I've even tried different times of day. No joy.  The colour is much deeper, and very jewel like.  Rich teal, rich blue and rich wine.   It's lovely. Amazing how my camera(s) have eliminated all trace of teal and have lightened the colour significantly.