skein

Tide

NaKniSweMoDo #8 is finished!

Pattern: Tide by Louisa Harding
Started: 2nd July
Finished: 25th July
Needles: 4.5mm
Yarn: Glisten (sparkly!)

Modifications:  About 2" longer in length (in the patterned bit, loved knitting that!).  Otherwise I stuck to the instructions.

The yarn's a weird sparkly ribbon yarn, quite slippery.  I couldn't darn in the ends my usualy way, and ended up (shhh) knotting them together and trimming them off!

As usual we have odd poses too. In this one I'm doing my usual, talking (to Chris, on his way to the boat early Sunday morning)

Milkweed Shawl

A lovely pattern!

Pattern:  Milkweed Shawl (ravelry link here)
Started: 19th July
Finished: 25th July
Needles: 3.5mm
Yarn: Fleece Artist Somoko, in Polar Sea

A lovely, quick pattern.  I started it on Sunday evening, finished the knitting on Friday, and that's working on other things as well.

It's all garter stitch, with a very simple and easy to remember lace pattern.  Similar in size to Ishbel, so if you're into smaller shawls and love Ishbel, I'd give this one a go.

By the same designer of Flirty Ruffles scarf.
This yarn was originally intended to be knitted into a pair of blue socks, but when I started the knitting I just didn't like it very much. Turns out it's not Fleece Artist Merino (which I love knitting into socks) but Somoko, which is a different composition - merino, kid (whatever that is) and silk.  It makes lovely shawl knitting though!

Three Drunken Maidens socks

Pattern:  60sts, top down, short row garter stitch heel.
Yarn: Get Knitted's sock club - Three Drunken Maidens in Lorna's laces sock yarn.
Needles: 2.25mm
Started:16th July
Finished: 26th July

Such a lovely knit.  This was the final offering of Get Knitted's sock club, six unique colours of Lorna's Laces Shepherd's sock.  I still have a few colours to knit up - this has motivated me to finish off the rest.

I didn't wake up this morning with NO wips. I spent most of Saturday hunting the stash looking for yarn for my next garment for #9 of NaKniSweMoDo.  Of course I was sucked into temptation, and ended up pulling not one lot of yarn from my stash but four!  (It would have been five, but I put the Glace back).  And then I cast on, before finishing these socks!

It's Krista, a summer top.  The Yarn is Elann's Coto Canapone, a blend of cotton and hemp.  It's a bit like knitting with string!

Should be a very quick knit. Except I  have some Elann's Sonata, Rowans Pima Cotton DK and Fine Milk Cotton sitting here, tempting me! Oh, and the next round of sock knitting!

Tide and Milkweed

I've not been blogging this week though I have been knitting!  The problem has been our horrible rainy weather - at 7am and 7pm it's just been too gloomy to take photos.  I tried on Thursday night, no luck.  It rained on St Swithin's day, and so far it's rained for the following 9 days - only another 31 to go.

Sticking to just a few projects is paying off.  My Lorna's Laces plain socks are going well (though no photos yet) - one sock done and the other is halfway down the foot. 

Tide is also going well. The knitting is done!  Just that horrible finishing off to do.
Sleeves attached, one side and sleeve seam sewn, the other side to do.  LOTS of ends to weave in, though I'm also knotting this as the yarn is quite slippery.

There's only one button on this, and it closes with a loop. Instead of making this afterwards and sewing it to the cardigan, I managed to knit a loop on the cast off row, though I can't remember how I did it!  It's great though, now extra ends to sew in and it looks tidy.

It's daylight, the sun is out, but I took these in the shade, and the colour looks so dreary!  Here's a sunny photo.  I can't see the sparkles on my monitor, but they're there!

I fully intended knitting some blue socks this month, but when I cast on I just didn't feel the (sock) love.  Usually this happens when I don't like the yarn/pattern/needle combination, and I'll hunt around for another combination.  Instead, I thought I'd use the yarn in a small shawl.  The Milkweed shawl is ideal - it's small, only uses a skein of sock wool and it practically knits itself, it's so easy.  I cast on on Sunday evening and cast off on Friday - and that includes knitting on Tide and my socks.

Here it is in its unblocked state.  I'm only going to block it very gently, to flatten out the bumps and open up the yarnovers a bit.
It's slightly darker and more blue than shown.

and a close up

I've  been calling this Milkwood all week, wondered why I couldn't find the pattern on ravelry.  ETA: eek!  I even titled the blog post Milkwood!

Now this means, should I work on my LL socks today, tomorrow morning when I wake up I will have no knitting on the needles!  This is a first!  I'm really looking forward to stash diving for a new project.  I intend casting on a pair of socks, a small shawl (loving these at the moment) and my next NaKniSweMoDo - number nine.  I haven't made up my mind what to knit next though - I have a bin full of summery yarns next in line, so I shall tip those out and have a play.

Heart & Sole socks

This is the third offering from the Socktopus club.  (All photos can be clicked to enlarge)

Yarn: Yarn Yard's Toddy, in a lovely clear red (though this makes it very difficult to photograph!)
Pattern: Heart & Sole socks by Ysolda Teague
Started: 1st July
Finished: 11th July
Needles: 2.25mm

This is a toe up pattern. After completion of the toe, there's some sole shaping: decrease each side of the sole, increase each side of the centre of the sole. The stitch count remains the same but the chevron style shaping gives the sole a curved look.  Once you reach the start of the gusset increases, you stop the shaping on the sole and start increasing for the gusset - but at the bottom of the foot rather than the sides.

Modifications:  Not really a modification, but I started the toe with my favourite and easiest toe up start - the Turkish cast on.

After knitting one foot I frogged it. In my opinion the sole shaping is a waste of time, it didn't 'hug' my foot any more than the normal foot would, and I hated knitting it.  I did do the gusset increasing on the bottom of the foot, increasing into the stitches below (as I felt that this is a flat enough increase, and quite invisible).  Because of where you increase, you don't need to do a heel turn.

Cuff:  I knitted 3 rows of garter stitch before doing the picot cast off.  I think it gives some symmetry to the one purl round at the start of the cuff.

The yarn's lovely to work with, these photos do not do it justice! I have more Toddy in stash ...

Knitting catch up

I'm trying to keep the number of wips low.  The more wips, the less chance I have of finishing things.  It seems to be working, I'm whizzing through my knitting!

NaKniSweMoDo #8 is going well, though I'm not a huge fan of ribbon type yarns.
Back completed

Left front completed

 

and I'm halfway up the right front. I've added several inches in length, and at the moment it looks quite long, but I'm hoping that when it's seamed and worn some of the length will be taken up in width!

One of my July knitting goals was to start and finish some blue socks. Well, you know what?  I just didn't fancy knitting blue socks. Although the Fleece Artist merino is gorgeous, and I've used it plenty of time in the past, right now it wasn't grabbing my attention (a bit like those alpaca socks which have been on hold for months).  So it's been frogged, and I've started some Lorna's Laces socks.  Just plain socks.  This shade was part of the Get Knitted sock club which has now finished.  It's called Three Drunken Maidens and is wonderful and bright.

I've enjoyed this club.  Over the years I've been a member of quite a lot of sock clubs. Some have kits, some are just yarn.  This had just been Lorna's laces sock yarn, but each colour has been great.  When I've knitted all of the colours  up (only half done!) I'll post pictures of all the projects. So far it's two pairs of socks and a crocheted scarf.

I haven't quite given up on that blue sock yarn, though.  I think a small shawl might be in order - at the moment it's the Milkweed Shawl, by the same person who designed the Flirty Ruffles scarf. I quite fancy lots of plain knitting at the moment, and that's what I'll do. I bet I cast on over the weekend!

Oh, and I have some gorgeous red socks finished, but that's for next week!

Mystery Blanket July Squares

Nothing new at this stage, though a colour variation on one square.  Some of these photos aren't as vibrant as they ought to be - blame the strong sunlight!

Square 6, beads and bobbles

Square 7 beads and sequins.  This is the one that has different coloured sequins, pink this time.  Much easier to knit, I suspect it's because I started off with the beads and left the sequins until the last moment. I also threaded a whole bunch on at one time, didn't worry about counting them first.

Square 32, intarsia (easy) and swiss darning (a nightmare in the pink!)

Square 33, fake cables, lace, beads.  Not one of my favourites to knit, but I know the pattern, so it'a a good carry-along.  This is a lovely deep red not as orange as shown.

Square 40, a few bits of fairisle.  I don't like knitting this square, at all!  I think it's the ends.  It isn't the easiest to sew up either.

this month we could sew strip 1 to strips 2 and 3.  This is when I realised I'd sewn strip 2 upside down!  I spent an hour trying to unpick it, managed to cut the square yarn,not the seaming yarn (and halfway down the square!). Managed to unravel the bottom of another square.  I then realised that I'd darned in the ends into the seam, so I'd have that to contend with too.  I gave up, and spent another 2 hours reknitting and joining the top two squares. My mistake will stay!  I will also attach strip 6 upside down, so that the colours are symmetrical. Urgh!

It means I have 3 Old Golds (bottom) and 3 purples (top) in a diagonal row.  

I've been trying to see which squares are left to knit (so if you want a surprise don't read any further)

1 more sequinned square, but with different coloured sequins - blue?
5 more envelope squares (like square 6 above, but in different orientations)
3 beaded envelope squares - like this one but differing orientations and colours
1 more hypnotic one, like this one
1 more breast one, possibly pointing upwards
1 cable and bead one,
1 green and yellow striped
and a mystery central one!  We had this one in the final package last year, wonder what it will be this time around?

Today's the day that we should be receiving our Rowan magazine.  I had a look at a preview (very grainy, before the 'official' preview) a few weeks ago and wasn't impressed. Today, I've had a  look at the preview here and am very impressed!  It could have something to do with the weather (today it's cold and wet, so warm woollies look enticing) or with the fact that there's a lot of felted tweed in this issue.  This is highly unusual.   First glance is usually 'so-so' and it takes several readings before I start spotting stuff I like, but this issue has over six that I like the look of. I can't wait! 

Hey Teach! NaKniSweMoDo #7.

Pattern: Hey Teach!
Started:13th June
Finished: 10th July (though the knitting was finished on 1st July - it took me that long to sew it up!)
Needles: 4mm
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece from stash, four skeins.

Modifications:  lengthened the st st section by about 1", and the lace top part (before armhole shaping) by about 1".  Lengthened the sleeves by about 2-3".  I positioned one button hole on the ribbing at waist height. 

It's an easy knit, though I ended up knitting the back twice (had to reknit the st st section as my tension way off to a different size, and also the top lace section, from the armhole shaping). The sleeves were never going to be as short as in the pattern, but I thought I might do 3/4 sleeves, changed my mind when I'd knitted one, and made them elbow length.

This is number 7 this year, for NaKniSweMoDo09.   I'm doing well!

Knitting catch up

I have loads of things on the needles at the moment, but seem to be making no progress!

I went home this weekend and chose to just take fairly simple knitting with me - garter stitch dishcloths and the Socktopus sock.
Spoiler - if you're in the Socktopus club and don't want to see the yarn/pattern, then don't scroll down!

Dishcloths - finished.

Pattern: Grandmothers's Favorite Dishcloth
Started: 2nd July 09
Finished: 4th July 09
Yarn: Rowan handknit dk from stash (hence odd colours)
Needles: 3.75mm(small for this weight yarn, but this allowed me to knit a little looser, easier on the hands)

Tide:
I haven't really worked on this much, but it's looking good!

You can see how this yarn unravels.  One reason why I didn't take this with me at the weekend. 

Debbie Abraham's Mystery blanket - no photos, until it's done.
We've got the last two squares for strip 1, which means I can sew this strip to the other two.  One down, four plus seaming to go.

Hey Teach - still needs seaming.

and spoiler ...

Socktopus sock

...

With modifications.
I'm not doing the sole shaping which is meant to hug the foot.  I knitted one sock up to the heel, hated the shaping on the sole and frogged it. I can see no difference in how it fits on my foot.  I did do the gusset shaping as instructed. It's ok, but if I were to knit this again I'd do the increases in the usual place, at the side of the gussets.   I also added some rows of garter stitch before doing the picot cast off, it seemed to balance the cuff better.

Love the yarn by the way - it's Natalie at the Yarn Yard's Toddy in a lovely red shade. 

Not a great representation, it's much nicer in real life!

Plans this week:
* Seam Hey Teach and find buttons.
* Knit the five blanket squares and sew strips together
* Finish the Socktopus club socks.

If I manage these three things I'll have finished 4 of my 7 knitting goals by 12th July!

NaKniSweMoDo catch up

The knitting part of Hey Teach is done. This is number 7 of 12.  Just buttons and seaming and it's finished!  I'll probably do that next weekend.  It's been more knitting than anticipated,  the back has been knitted twice (i.e. frogged and reknitted) and the sleeves were partially frogged too.  I thought I'd knit 3/4 sleeves, had a change of heart and went for elbow length instead, had another change of heart and went shorter, about 2.5" longer than the short sleeves in the pattern.

The colour is purple!  Not as blue as in this photo. Blame it on the evening light.

Now onto number 8. It's cast on and it's Tide, by Louise Harding, knitted in her Glisten yarn which is a type of ribbon yarn, not my favourite to knit with.  It unravels madly, it's slow knitting and my tension is to pot!  I could of course put it in a bag, or in a pop sock, but I can't be bothered.

 

One more thing about this yarn ... ... ... it's sparkly!  I don't know if it's that obvious in this close up.

It's been on my list for ages, so I'm pleased that it's finally on the needles.  At the moment I'm liking the knitting, but this may change, once the novelty has worn off, and I'm on the boring stocking stitch bit!