skein

February knitting and March knitting goals

What's this?  It's not even the end of February and I'm blogging my monthly knitting goals?  That's because I'm not going to finish any more stuff in February, so I might as well post my knitting for the month a day early.

February Knitting Goals
Knitting Clubs:
1) knit february's Mystery blanket squares. Done!

2) knit December's Get Knitted Lorna's Laces socks, for Chris. Not done.  These have been stuck at work whilst I've been trying to do other knitting.

Sweater Projects:

3) Finish Chris's Bog Jacket. Not done! That's down to 2 weeks waiting for yarn from J&S and then another week waiting for yarn from Get Knitted. Circumstances beyond my control!

4) Start another garment! Done - but it took me two attempts. My first one, Sigridur from Best of Lopi, was frogged due to tenstion issues.  My second one (not really blogged about yet, is Ingenue from Custom Knits. It's a cherry burgundy colour, not as dark as this. It's also knitting up a bit smaller, so the collar, shown here, is not as wide as in the book. It will be folded in half by the way!

Ravelry knitalongs:

5) I'm combining SolidSocks and SKA this month - Eleanor, in Dream in Color Smooshy Cool Fire. Done!

Not good - only 3 out of 5 completed!  This month I'm going for 10 things, though some are only quick things (like taking photos and blogging!)

March goals

knitting Clubs:

1) finish plain Christmas Congo socks for Chris

2) knit March squares for Mystery Blanket - yarn arrived today, instructions arrived by email tonight!

NaKniSweMoDo projects:

3) finish Bog Jacket,  garment 2 (of 12)

4) finish Ingenue, garment 3

5) start garment 4 (no clue what this will be, yet!)

ravelry knitalongs:

6) another combinatin of SKA and SolidSocks March knitalongs.  Solidsocks colour is green this month, and for SKA challenge I'll either do lace or Cat Bordhi - probably the latter, as I want to try a pattern from her sock book

other knitting and stuff:

7) knit Chris a pair of felted moccasins to replace his worn out ones

8) knit 2 novelty scarves - one is nearly done, but I'll blog about them when they're both done

9) block, take photos and blog about a shawlette which I finished last week

10) Start and finish a smaller project - not sure what just yet.  I may not have time, but am committed to doing 10 things for March!  I would like to try to use up any odd balls left from this month's other projects.

Oranges and lemons

Yes!  Yellow yarn has arrived for the Bog Jacket!   I picked it up last night (after a disastrous journey home - @*!!@* tresspassers on the tracks) and am currently only a  few rows short of reaching the shoulder.  Then it's a case of putting the centre neck stitches on waste yarn, and working each side separately (only as far down as the armholes).  I'm thinking of changing the stripes on the front - maybe keeping the yellow the same width (7 ridges) but widening the black and orange ones (so they will be lower down on the sleeve).  I'll see how much yarn is used with the garter stitch.

I do like Cascade 220.  I'm going to knit up some felted moccasins soon, replacement slippers for Chris, and have some Brown Sheep and Cascade 220 in stash (plus a half knitted felted clog for me).

Chris loves this yellow.  It's very bright, and on the way home I saw it everywhere - from high visibility jackets to warning signs to Pawnbrokers. 

He likes it so much that he's already thought of the next garment! He wants this yellow, plus navy and something like this:
http://brittanyboutique.com/store/binicsweater.html  - even down to the buttons on the shoulder! 

I'm still knitting the collar on Ingenue - it's folded over so it's quite firm, but my collar width is a good 4" narrower than the measurements!  I do get tension, and the collar would be wider if I was knitting in st.st, but this has a round of p2tog every 4th row, which (in my opinion) would narrow the width, surely?  I'd better have another look at the instructions  I think ..

NaKniSweMoDo #3

(I'm just pleased that I've finally managed to memorise NaKniSweMoDo!)

I had a very unproductive day on Sunday. 
1) Put away my failed Sigridur. The yarn's home is on top of the wardrobe, bottom suitcase (of three)
2) Make my box of odd ball worsted weight felting yarn accessible  (It was at the bottom, behind the front boxes)  I intend whipping up some felted moccasins for Chris - his have worn through and he's having to wear socks and clogs around the flat.
3) Have a rummage in the other 7 boxes to familiarise myself with some of my stash.
4) Have a rummage in the 3 blue bins and 3 vacuum packs of 'garment stash' (not the underbed garment stash, this is just the stash in and beside the wardrobe) to see what I want to knit for #3 garment
5) Have a rummage through magazines - Debbie Bliss, Rowans, Rowan Studios, Kim Hargreaves - to see what pattern for #3
6) Try out the hoover from the boat (as mine needs looking at) - it has a horrible smell so I don't hoover.
7) Get distressed because I can't find a pattern and yarn combination I like.  Too many yarn and pattern choices!

Would you believe it, I get to work this morning, onto ravelry, and find the pattern I want to knit! It's Ingenue from Custom knits, ravelry link here.   It's an aran weight, top down jumper, fairly plain with collar and cuff details.  I tend to wear my plain garments more than my patterned garments, and this could get a lot of wear. 

As I'm still waiting for the yellow yarn to arrive from Get Knitted I might cast on tonight*. I know there's a notice on the website now, btw, but there wasn't for this order nor the last one ...

* I'm off to bed now, and I've cast on Ingenue.  It's in burgundy Jaeger Matchmaker aran, I've knitted 1/4 of the collar. Fingers crossed that this one works out!

NaKniSweMoDo

One down, eleven to go.

I'm aiming for one a month, at least, with a fast start to the year by knitting chunky garments.

So, I started February with lots of optimism.  I had the second garment on the needles, the Bog Jacket.  Garter stitch, a breeze. Except when I ordered the colours for the stripes from J&S the parcel was lost in the post, and I had an 18 day break whilst I waited for the second parcel to arrive.  Chris had wanted orange and yellow for the stripes, but J&S informed me that they didn't do any oranges in the given weight, so we decided on red and yellow.  My shade cards were seriously out of date, so we chose a 'golden yellow' without any idea of what we would get.

Hmmm.  What arrived wasn't red and golden yellow - it was red and orange!  Still no yellow!  In the end I've ordered some Cascade 220 in yellow.  It's not here yet, but I've managed to knit the first orange stripe.  We're getting there, slowly.

This is the beginning of the sleeve.  The yellow yarn is waste yarn, which will be cut, the knitting under the yellow line is one of the fronts.  The knitting above is a sleeve.  In the original pattern the knitting is a square, and the sleeve is elbow length.

I've cast on another 40 stitches, though, so we have full length sleeves.  Rather than have a wide sleeve with no shaping I've tapered with short rows.

 

I'm very pleased that I've marked the wrapped stitches as I've made no notes. I need to replicate the short rows when I reach the top of the sleeve.

My final modification is to do some shoulder shaping.

 

I'm increasing 8 sts each side of the outer marked stitches, and slipping the stitch next to it.

The great thing about photos is that you can spot mistakes - I spy a bit of orange yarn not knitted! 

Onto Sigridur - what can I say?  Garment #3 is frogged.
Sleeves and pockets done.  Tension exactly 13 sts / 4".  But I forget, each and every time, that when I'm lazily knitting around and around on the body of a garment my tension relaxes!  12 sts / 4"!  It was only when I put it on a longer needle that I realised how wide it was - 5.5" wider than I thought!  I think the recent cold spell motivated me to knit third chunky jumper - but I'd only wear it when it was very cold, and the weather is milder now.

So I'll be looking for a nice pattern for garment #3. I have a few ideas, just have to hunt out patterns!

Artesano dk socks

A very quick knit! 

Pattern: Cast on 56sts, 1x1 ribbing for 10 rows, then 3x1 ribbing for the leg. Heel flap and                 gusset, decreasing down to 52sts. Foot is just stocking stitch.
Needles: 2.75dpns
Yarn:     Artesano Hummingbird Alpaca, dk weight
Made for: Stephen
Started: about 12th Feb
Finished: 16th Feb

I much prefer working with this dk weight yarn than, say, a sock dk weight yarn. These were nice and fluffy and great knitting.  I'm slowing working my way through my book backlog, and the current read is Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, a massive 1006 pages - I need all the plain knitting I can find!  This book is too large to read in bed, so I prop it up on my bookstand and knit and read.

Other stuff on the needles - a small simple shoulder shawl, a plain pair of socks, and two garments.  Hope the needle cables and yarn comes today!

Post has arrived- I have my Get Knitted longer cables!  No sign of the J&S yarn for Chris's Bog Jacket though, and it's over 2 weeks now.  They've said that they'll ring me back. This means that I can cast on the body of my Sigridur, garment #3, but the BJ - garment #2 - is still on hold.

Still waiting for yarn, so here's some sock progress.

I popped home this weekend, hence no blog post. I took lots of photos of my little shawl only to discover I'd already shown better photos of it a few blog posts ago!

So what's to photograph?  I took home a few projects but really only worked on one - some Artesano Hummingbird alpaca dk (I think it's Hummingbird), knitted up as socks for one of my brothers.  Fortunately he has a smallish shoe size, narrow feet and legs, so these will work up quickly. 
Cast on 56 stitches on 2.75mm, 10 rows of 1x1 ribbing, then leg of 3x1 ribbing, traditional heel flap and gusset, decreasing down to 52 stitches and a plain foot.

Sock knitting on the train, sock #1

 

This is the progress so far. Sock #1 was finished by Saturday evening - and I had to reknit the heel and gusset.  Sock #2 was in the few hours knitting I managed on Sunday.

I don't know how these will wear, but I'm sending some spare leftover yarn home with them, for darning! They are very soft, very warm and very thick.  I want to get these done quickly, just found out today that my brother's bearded dragon died this morning, he's devastated.  The poor thing (bearded dragon, not my brother!) was off colour yesterday, but really, all the symptons were for it shedding its skin, not being terminal. It wasn't that old either.  This brother is a particularly sensitive soul, something like this will affect him deeply and really knock him back.  I took some photos yesterday (of the Bearded Dragon) so I shall see how it goes and if he wants the photos emailed up to him.

My garments are very near stalling.  The bog jacket is awaiting yellow and red (!) yarn for stripes.   I'm also waiting for some longer cables for my knitpicks, then I'll be able to get the BJ onto a longer circular, which will make easier knitting and enable me to show it spread out. 

I need a long cable for my Sigridur jumper as well.  I've knitted one sleeve, am halfway through a second, then it's the body.  It will be a squash on an 80cm needle, so I'll wait until I get a larger one.

If neither yarn nor cables turn up today, then tonight's knitting will be finishing off that second sleeve of Sigridur and the socks above.  I do have some socks otn for Chris, and the small shawl as emergency knitting!

ETA:  post arrived - NO J&S wool (ordered two weeks ago) and NO cables from Get Knitted (ordered on Tuesday) grumble grumble. 

Eleanor Socks

These were suck a quick knit!  Remember that I tend to work on several things at once, so  finishing these in 9 days makes them quick - and they were a pleasing knit.

Pattern:  Eleanor by Monkey Toes. This is a ravelry link, the designer died suddenly and her website no longer works.
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, Cool Fire
Needles: 2.50mm circular, changing to dpns for the foot (no reason, I fancied a change)
Modifications: none, except for working one more pattern repeat on the leg.

This had joined Juta's stocking as being a great lace pattern which is so easy that you can carry it around with you without having to refer to a chart or instructions. 

Smooshy's a great sock yarn, too, it really makes smooshy socks. My other knitting has been Rowan's Glace, a cotton yarn, Jamieson's chunky shetland and now Gjestal Naturgarn No.1, so Smooshy feels very soft and luxurious after these 'harsh' yarns.

A great knitting project.  I have another two pairs of socks which I want to finish in February - the ones I'd planned to knit (Lorna's Laces GK December yarn for Chris) and ones I didn't plan on  - some dk alpaca socks, cast on this morning on the way into work. These will be for my brother, who needs warmer socks for his arthritis.  I bought some alpaca socks last year at the IKL day, and he loved them, commented on how much warmer they were than the other handknitted socks (which were wool and he'd thought were the best until the alpaca socks). These are long overdue!

What to do when you're waiting for yarn

I ordered the J&S shetland yarn last Monday, when we were snowed it.  This is needed to knit stripes on Chris's Bog Jacket.  No sign of it yet, and socks just aren't doing it for me at the moment (though I've finished one Eleanor and most of the leg of the second Eleanor).

Sunday I cast on Little Scarf, a Christmas present - yarn included was Dicenra Designs Handyed alpaca merino.  I've established the pattern, so this will take over from commuter sock knitting when I've finished the Eleanor socks.

All photos were taken in dim light, so the colour is not right!

You can just about see that it's a very easy pattern, once memorised.

I've also started some plain socks with the Get Knitted Lorna's laces sock club.  This was December's offering. Another one due this month then we have just two more of the year to go.

Red, green and gold, believe it or not!

Finally, the urge to cast on garment #3 has been building. 
When I was hunting for the shetland chunky for Chris' Bog Jacket I discovered a suitcase full of chunky yarn. Wheels of White Buffalo unspun, a pack of Jamieson's chunky in an orange/black tweed and lots of Gjestal Naturgarn no.1, a chunky weight. 

Tonight I hunted down my Best of Lopi and have cast on for Sigridur using green as a main colour with cream and black for the yoke:

It's not as contrasting as I'd like, but it's what I've got, and in this cold weather I fancy a jumper.

I hit tension straight away and I've knitted two pockets tonight.  Weird, this is garment number 3 this year and all have been chunky!  I think I'll go onto aran weight next.

Mystery Blanket February squares

It's great at the beginning, most of the squares and colours are new, so it's a big surprise!

This time around we're getting the square numbers, but no names (so as not to give away the theme).

Square 19 this month is exactly the same as square 16 from January. 

This square is growing on me, I think because I've now memorised the pattern, and don't have to keep looking at written row by row instructions. There's an easy lace bit, and an easy beaded and cabled bit.

Square 22 was the same as January's 36, but instead of navy/cream it's navy/red.

This was a great one to knit - some simple intarsia, beads and texture.

The remaining three were all new.

Square 18

The pink swiss darning was a nightmare!  I also decided that I wanted to launch into the first rows of each square instead of knitting one row (cast on equivalent) .  The ones I've already knitted were ok, apart from this one, so I cut it off, reknit row 1, frogged (upwards!) the next two rows and then had a row 2 which was grafted. Took me all evening and the results are scrappy. I'm not reknitting it though, this will be my mistake!  Hopefully it won't be that obvious when the blanket is finished. I've determined that the pink darning is yucky because it's over a stitch which is distorted due to the intarsia, so next time I'm doing the pink as intarsia and then swiss darning over it. Should look better.

Square 23

Loved knitting this one - beads, intarsia and swiss darning, ,but quite symmetrical and easy to knit. 

Square 38

My least favourite - soooo many ends!  And this is cotton glace, so not as friendly for sewing in ends as wool.  Hope there's nto too many of these ones! I need to tidy it up too, the stitches look terrible!

So far, my favourite square is from January.  I do dither over these things, but today, it's square 37:

Socktopus om shanti bed socks

These were finished in February, but I've waited until now to post photos, just in case anyone still hasn't received their packages yet (but I think everyone must have by now!)

With my plan to knit from stash I'm trying not to buy any new yarn this year.  I have a few exceptions:
- 2 knitting shows (there are more, but I'm limiting myself!)
- 2 yarn shop visits
- emergency for finishing a project (like the bog jacket!)
- clubs which I'm already committed to.

So it was nice to receive my wonderful Socktopus package, complete with lots of nice lotions and potions for feet pampering.

Pattern: om shanti bed socks
Yarn: evolution, which is a stretched merino, making it very soft.
Started: 21st January
Finished: 30th January
Needles:2.5mm on foot (they're toe up) and 2.75mm on leg.

The yarn's buttery soft, sport weight. Ideal for bed socks, though I don't think I'd like normal socks knitted from this (mind you I own one pair of dk socks, prefer 4ply for me).  The knitting up of this yarn reminded me a lot of cascade's fixation (yes, it's cotton but the feel and elasticity were similar).  I'm not keen on knitting with fixation and nor with this one, but I love the bed socks.