skein

Hexipuffs dilemna

I fully intended to knit 20 hexipuffs this month.  Howevr.  Sometime in hte middle of the month I picked up some Easyknits Little Guys and tried a hexipuff.   Loved knitting with this woolly wool and loved the hexipuff.

But the hexipuff was significantly larger than the ones Ii've previously knitted.

I thought I might change hexipuffs, and knitted mr.   I thought I could make a little dolly blanket out of the ones I'd already knitted. But this is menat to be a stashbuster blanket, not a 'let's buy new yarn to make a blanket' blanket.   Hexipuffs have been on hold this past week, until I could gt them all out and ponder.

 

These are  the January huxipuffs, minus three more large ones which were still in my bag.  Total 15 hexipuffs.

 

And herels the progress so far (minus the missing three!)

So I'm going back to small ones (which take less stuffing too!).  I will have to find something to do with all  of these Little Guys now. A few mittens earmarked. 

 

Three socks

Chickadee is still on hold.  Just because it's been a bit warmer this week and I fancy knitting socks not a woollen cardigan.

So, my three socks are progressing, slowly.  I thought that I'd have finished three odd socks by today, but I'm not doing too well!

We have two gussets for Petrouchka and Lozenge socks:

and one whole Bleeding Hearts sock.

I've also started (just) a sock stash busting project.    It's the Beekeeper's Quilt!   It's very early days, just a few hexagons knitted so far.  I'm going to knit this totally out of sock stash - and hopefully  just sock remnants.  It will not be a colour coordinated blanket. but more of a memory blanket, of the socks I wil knit this next year, and some from previous years if I can find the leftovers!  I'm still deciding on cast on and cast off methods - do I prefer the little purl bumps showing through on the cast on edge or the smooth cast of Judy's magic cast on?  Do I knit a few extra rows to commpensate for my  off row/stitch tension ratio?  All of these are different in tiny ways but I'm not too fussed at the moment, as the differences should be lost amongst the many other hexagons.   It's a bit addictive! 

These are some Lorna's Laces leftovers. 

Now that I've pulled the project out to take a quick photo, I'm afraid I shall be knitting a few more hexagons tonight!

Mitred Crosses blanket

 

Pattern: Mitered Crosses blanket

Started: April 10th

Finished:  August 24th

Needles: 4mm

Yarn:  Noro Kureyon, shade 89, pink purple, five balls from stash

            Cascade 220,  Lavender, seven skeins

Although it has taken me four months to finish, it's actually a fairly quick knit. This is a  good portable project, just garter stitch mitred squares, and garter stitch rows. 

 

Because of the very slight difference in thickness of the two yarns  I had to wash and block each square to stop the Noro from bunching in the middle. This is not something I have ever done before, and not something I intend to do again!   I would far rather just steam block each bit, and seam.  Mind you, the Noro had been lying around for years.  Needed a wash!

I chose to join the blocks as per the instructions, picking up stitches on the edges to be joined,  then doing a three needle cast off, right sides facing. it leads to a little ridge in between the squares which I quite like.

 

Love this project, it's ideal for Noro and so easy to knit.   And proceeds for the pattern were for Japan.  Good on all points.

 

Mitred Crosses progress

It's done!   I've spent the little knitting time I've had this week knitting I-cord, dullest knitting in the world, as far as I'm concerned.   Last night I stayed up extra late (and slept in for work this morning!) to finish it all off and sew in the ends.

Tada!

Poor mobile photo very late at night.  I'm going to try to take some photos this weekend, hopefully our wet weather will improve enough for me to go outside and lay the blanket on dry grass.

This means I have four wips on the go - Chickadee, which has been neglected since the interesting bit has been knitted, two socks, and one lace stole.  I'm going to try to keep my wips down to four, see if I can finish something before casting on anything else, it's very tempting!

Mitred Crosses progress - row 3

Another row is completed,   I have just one more row to go, and that's only two rectangles.  Then the I-cord. 

Getting bigger! 

I'm hoping to have the last two rectangels blocked by the end of the weekend. Soon!

 

More Mitred Crosses progress

It is slow, but I'm getting there!  I don't enjoy this bit, so I mix it up with lots of other nice stuff, like knitting.

Row 2 consists of two rectangles, squares with extra garter stitch bits attached.  Which means I have to do just one join.

 Then I can join the two rows!

 

Halfway there, apart from the edging.

Mitred Crosses blanket progress

It's progressing! 

I wanted to finish all the squares with crosses in this month, and some of the garter filling rectangles, which I've done.

I have 54 garter stitch ridges to knit, then I start joining. I'm going to wash this and wet block, in tows. The Noro has been lying around for years, and it's a little thicker than the Cascade, so blocking will help iimprove the look of the blanket too.

After blocking I'll join the rows together and probably knit I-cord around the edges as in the pattern.  Hopefully this will be finished next month!

Meanwhile, as I'm going to be starting the Westknits Mystery shawl KAL on Monday, I'm going to try to work on my Hamamelis this weekend. Cria's second sleeve is estblished, good tv knitting.  A nice simple knitting weekend ahead of me!

Mitred Crosses progress

I've finished square number seven   That's my June progress done.

Just another three cross squares to go, and then some rectangular shapes to fill in the blanks,  sewing up and edging and it's done.  Getting there.

Mitred Crosses progress and this week's knitting goals

This is going  rather slowly, not because I don't enjoy garter stich or mitred squares, but because other things, such as In Dreams, have been sucking up the knitting time! 

 These are three I did earlier:

Love these colours.  I'm aiming to try to knit about four squares each month, which means that it will be finished in August!  Mind you, if I don't get waylaid by Other Projects it might be July!

Here's this week's square.  Mobile photo, taken last night (not that  a daylight photo would have been any better, it was so gloomy yesterday).

I decided this month that I'd break my knitting goals into weekly knitting goals. I'm not quite at the daily list yet though!   Just so that I can keep track, especially as I have a few longer term  projects.

This weeks goals were met!   By Sunday afternoon I'd:

* knitted a mitred cross (mind you the cross part was already done)

* knitted 10 rows of In Dreams.

* knitted half a sock

* finished the sewing up of my Cameo cardigan

* finsihed some Andrea Mitts to go with my Andrea shawl.

That meant I could sit down and think about my next garment!  I rummaged around in the stash and came up with some Rowan Glace in Hyacinth, and Louisa Harding Aimee in a pale green.  

My loose plans were to line up the Glace for  another Kim Hargreaves design, Christine, but (so frr) my tension is off, 22 instead of 24 sttiches.  I'm not sure that I want to drop down to really small needles!   The Aimee has been designated for Devonshire, a cardigan int he latest twist collection.  I've nearly managed to get tension for that one.

This week's goals  are

*mitred cross #5

* foot of first sock

* another 12 rows of In Dreams

* start a garment

* start s ahawl - oops, didn't mention that one!  i have the yarn, and I have the pattern, it's a simple one to counteract my In Dreams lace, beaded knitting.

 

 

Mitered Crosses progress

Nope, not finished!   I finished the first square a few weeks ago,  but needed to block it out a bit, as the thicker Noro cross was making the centre of the square all wonky!

 

I'm using Kureyon in the centre (which will all be the same colour) and Cascade 220 for the borders, in Lavender.  Very pleased with the results.

Of course, this means progress posts will be rather similar!  So I may just blog about his once a month, to show the growing blanket!