skein

End of year FOs

Nope, not finished, but I've had this mad idea that I can finish the Wavy scarf and Donna by 31st December.

This is how much of Donna I have to do (plus sewing in this side; of course I've already sewn the other sleeve and side seam)

I've altered the pattern very slightly - the sleeves are 2x2 rib, and 3/4 length.  Navy blue yarn though,  a real pain to photograph.  The sewing up has to be done in daylight, so I have until mid afternoon, I reckon.

The wavy scarf has this much to do

i.e. 3/4 of a skein of Silk Garden.  Once it's gone, the scarf's long enough.

I had a bit of a heart attack reading my emails tonight - some lists have posters wishing everyone a Happy New Year already!  Had to check the date, I really want to finish these two things off so that I can sit and knit on a few new things on 1st January.

Survived Christmas

Another Christmas out of the way!

We actually had a very quiet and relaxed Christmas, so relaxed that we didn't bother with eating at the table, just sat on the soft in front of a dvd.   Lots of alcohol, lots of turkey, too many mince pies and chocolates.   No pictures, I was too busy playing game boy to recharge the batteries, or knit, for that matter.

My knitting books still aren't here, hopefully by the end of the year!

Then we had a stressful two days at Chris's parents.  It's just hard being cheerful and jolly when you've got a massive hangover, and when the grown-ups start worrying about how drunk you are, and what time you'll get back from the pub.  And more turkey. 

We're back now, and I'm sitting here with no food in the house, limited milk, and (still) lots of biscuits and mince pies to keep us going. I crave savoury stuff after all of this sugar!

Hardly any knitting, but I have finished some toddler socks in left over yarn

Train knitting, when I wasn't on the game boy or asleep.

I've picked up the wavy scarf in noro silk garden again. Despite the rib not showing as well in this yarn, it does look sort-of wavy, although in artificial light you might just have to squint at the photo to see the waves.  (Everytime Chris sees this, he pretends he's seasick, it really does look more pronounced than this). 

(I have a picture of Billy wearing a silly hat, but I doubt he will thank me for it. Also a few around-the-christmas-tree shots at C's parents, but I look like a red-eyed devil, so these are not going public EVER)

Back again to knitting, I have 3 days to finish off this scarf before the year is out.  I'm looking around at my yarn, debating what to start on January 1st.   The DB Maya looks beautiful (found that, still no sign of the alpaca silk though) and it might suit a top down jumper.  And Yvonne has given me a skein of laceweigh cashmere, with which to make a lace scarf (and the little bag it came in is very useful as a portable WIP carrier), so I'm spoilt for choice, just must finish a few things first!

Hope everyone had a merry Christmas, though maybe not as merry as ours!

Merry Christmas!

It's 6.30pm, presents are wrapped, gifts are given, wine, brandy, mulled wine, vodka, port, champagne, turkey, veg, mince pies and lots of orange juice are bought, we're just sitting here twiddling our thumbs waiting for the Big Day!  In fact, my presents aren't here, they will definitely be delivered by that efficient Amazon.co.uk at the end of December.  I can wait, plenty of knitting, lots of dvds to watch.

I'm sort of hit a knitting dead zone.  I'm not interested in finishing either Donna (well, I've still not found that last sleeve amongst the mess) or the color on color scarf.

I've got a pair of socks on the needles, just manouvering the second garter stitch short row heel at the moment:

in yarn kindly donated by Polly, of course.

I've also had a yen for starting another shawl (or two) and have made minimal progress so far.  I really want to keep a check on the time it takes to knit a shawl, as mine are put down, left for months, then picked up again and knitted on with gusto. 

Heirloom knitting - frost and ice, from the Simply Stunning collection in KSH.  Extremely easy to remember the repeatable lace pattern too, so great for commuting (when I go back to work ... on 4th January)

Still not enough temptation, I may start a cardigan with some red felted tweed (blurry photo of a ball of yarn follows)

And some more socks in this colour (Joslyn's fiber farm again)

And Fibertrends Shoalwater Shawl   - another simple lace pattern.  Yes, I want to knit shawls, but nothing too taxing! With this yarn, which will show the feather and fan type patern well:

Lots of red, isn't there? Must be the seasonal influence.

We're off t'pub tonight, meeting up with a couple of friends and Chris's brother, Arno, to swap presents.  I'm trying desperately to finish this heel, so I have some knitting for tonight, when we stumble back in the flat at 2am.  (Of course, I hardly ever knit in such a state, but I'll always try a few rows, to check out my co-ordination) .  We don't see anyone Christmas day, just plonk ourselves on the sofa and drink lots of alcohol.  No pre-Christmas housekeeping, nothing.  Just laze all day. 

I wish everyone a happy,  merry (in our case) and stress free  Christmas, and hope that the knitting fairy bestows many knitting  related gifts on you.

PS and Polly, that you survive Christmas. A little bird told me that you are working harder than Santa's little helpers!

Three more days to Christmas

I'm finally starting to think of C-day.   I have only one present to finish, no photos unfortunately, until it's finished and given to the recipient!

All others are wrapped up.  Phew!  Back to real knitting again!

I've had a few days off work, and have knitted some moccasins to be felted, for Billy.  The joke is that he'll open these at his mum's house, and they are enormous!  Chris will put a little note inside, saying that I've allowed room for growth, that he knows they're huge, but best not to say anything for fear of offending me.   I wish I could be there - he'll initially think that I've knitted him some naff jumper, then when he sees these....

Black J&S aran weight yarn, bought a cone in their sale, and I have at least 2/3 left. 

Just to show how huge they are, here's a picture of Chris wearing them (11" feet)
(note the socks also)

Apart from these, I have no more pictures - the color on color scarf is stalled, I'm just not enjoying this (and I happen to know that Chris has ordered me a Simply Socks, by Anna Zilboorg!)

As usual, my pressies won't be here until the end of the year, so I will have a bumper birthday with double gifts.  I don't mind the wait, I've got Chris 24 - third series, which will be my Christmas viewing.

I hope you've all finished your gift knitting.  One year, when I was still at Uni, I decided to knit my little sister a tunic top, from a Pinguoin 4 ply yarn, slightly fluffy, very red, and all stocking stitch.   No idea of how long it would take me, ended up knitting throughout the night to get it done.  It was a horrible learning experience, and although I'm usually juggling knitting near Christmas, now I will admit defeat and either buy something, or give them an iou at Christmas.

As Chris so very kindly wound the moccasin wool into balls (the moccasins were knitted double) and I've got the felting book out now, I think that I'll start some felted mittens, and we can have a felting session in the washing machine after Christmas.   We went for a pre-pre Christmas drink last night, and my poor fingers were freezing on the way to the pub.

Beaded Socks

Last night, a few vodkas drank, I started messing with the computer.  We've had continuous problems with the printer software, and I thought it was a really great idea to start deleting .exe things at 3am this morning.

About an hour ago I tried to download some photos, and the download wizard isn't working, my camera is not recognised, windows auto-installer is trying to install some sort of creative imaging stuff and we don't have the disk. My camera has managed to take a couple of split digital images also!   But, I've perservered, and can still download, albeit in a round-about manner.  And I've done some computer housekeeping at last (better than dusting and hoovering any day).

I've finished the beaded socks from the six socks kal, even managed to get some outdoor shots, with the sun making a brief appearance.  I love this yarn, it's from Joslyn's fiber farm, pure wool and wonderfully soft!  It's not machine washable, but these socks are mine, for lounging around the house in.  BTW, Polly,  have you seen the photo on the kal group page?  These look pretty similar to your socks!

These are practially glowing!  Not as white as this, but the sun was bright and low.

These socks have already made their appearance here, but it's interesting to see the difference in colour.  Polly kindly donated the yarn, and it's been a pain trying to capture the true colour.

Artificial light

Natural light

And while I'm on a role here's another one skein koigu shawlette, knitted a few weeks ago, but blocked yesterday.
Blocking indoors:

And outdoors:

Amazing how different things look!  I prefer the colour shown in the artificial photo, but this is not for me, it's  for Chris's mum,  I chose a lighter koigu shade which will go much better with her wardrobe.

Whilst I'm on a roll....
I've found the Noro teacosy, pattern from Knitty
A good knit, but if I were to make another Kureyon teacosy, I'd just knit a ribbed hat to plonk on top of the teapot.  It's a bit fiddly to dress, only I'd bother to use it!

Although I've found the teacosy, I'm more worried about losing my knitted Lara!  I did this a month or so ago, didn't like it at all, so it went on top of the stash bag behind the sofa.  On Thursday I had a sofa-stash sort out, and it's just occurred to me that Lara isn't there!  I'm just hoping that it's not been thrown out accidently! (I know, how can anyone throw out a cardigan without noticing, but I was a bit heavy handed with my clearing out, and dumped a whole pile of novelty yarns in the recycling bag last week!) 

Apart from a bit more Christmas knitting (shhhh) I've picked up my J&S Color on Color scarf (not a bit like the original, different yarns, different tension, a lot smaller) and this is the rather curled progress so far

This will be a trial for me, trying to choose colours!  It will be much more scarf size, rather than the over sized not-quite-wrap scarf pictured .

I'll be working on this today, hopefully a bit more progress will be made (although I am winging it on stitch count at the moment, as I'm not prepared to separate the 2ply J&S for the fairisle section!

PS I've decided that the beaded sock photo is crap (out of focus or what!) so here's a better (indoors) view

Another day off work

Tomorrow!  And Santa is coming to Libertys! Hope everyone has their gift sorted.  I had yesterday off work, did hardly any knitting, just lazed around all day. 

I sewed in a few ends, wrapped the Liberty present ready for tomorrow (another day off work), finished off this shoulder wrap (not too sure what to call these things - shoulder warmers?)

Apologies for the auto focus, seems the ribbon and desk are in focus, and the shoulder warmer isn't.  Rowan ribbon twist and the Tuft.   Very quick knit, especially if you're a lazy sod like me and just tie the ribbon on.

I managed to knit a bit more on my beaded socks, finished one off and now 40 rows to the toe of the second.
And another shoulder warmer, from Rowan 36, in Plaid with bobbles (no name, the book's at work, and I'm too tired to google).  Really quick knit, it's knitted double, on 15mm and 12mm needles.  Probably just a few hours work, if you're desperate for something quick and know someone who would wear one of these things (mine are going to 15 and 18yos)

Wave is stalled, a bit boring.

I spent yesterday evening sorting out the colours for the color on color kal
A nightmare!   And I just could not decide on the needles and tension.  I have no idea what paterna persian wool looks like, especially 2 out of 3 strands, or how drapey it is when knitted to a tension of 17st /10cm. 
I tried 3.75mm with the shetland and hated it.  Tried 3mm and loved it, but it's very thin and 22sts/10cm.  As this scarf is knitted in different directions it would be fairly difficult, without poring over the pattern, to upsize.   Doubled yarn yielded the correct tension, but it felt fairly stiff, even after washing it. 

Tonight I sat down and started - final decision is 3.5mm and a loose stitch, but if I don't like it, I will felt it a little bit. We'll see.   
Knitted the first 3 rectangles, but forgot that the middle rectangle is reversed st.st.  Frogged.

Knitted another 3 rectangles, checked my emails to find that there's an error in the row count for these three, so frogged again.  So no progress, no photos, nothing.

I will take time over the weekend to take some more photos,  the second shoulder warmer and the missing teacosy (still not surfaced, despite tidying up my working area stash!) And hopefully the finished beaded socks.  Maybe scarf progress if there is any!

Here's a final shot for Jill, my J&S yarns all gathered up yesterday!  25 shades, not 30 as I'd guessed, still a lot though.   I hope the finished scarf looks more enticing than this photo!

Prolific knitting content

NOT!

We went out on Friday to see the latest Blade (15yo boy and birthday man's request), then for a meal and alcohol, so my knitting was minimal.  Blade is ok, love the action, but I don't think I have ever seen such a pathetic storyline!  You'd think with the mega millions spent on this film that they'd have come up with a better ending. 

Saturday I spent the day playing computer games instead of knitting, just needed a break.

I managed to finish off the teacosy on Saturday, but between then and now I seem to have lost it, so no photos (teapot is sitting next to me, ready for the knitting shot though).  It's OK, the Noro Kureyon does make it look good and not so twee, but I can't imagine using this often, you have to place the teapot on the teacosy, then tie up the sides, and it's far easier to just pop a regular teacosy on, if you use them.  A Kureyon ribbed hat would make an ideal teacosy though, must think about that one for future knitting.

I managed to sew up one sleeve and side seams on Donna, and start the second sleeve.  Boring knitting though, so it's back on UFO status for a while. I don't know why I'm not enthusiastic about this, the yarn is great to use, it's mindless knitting, and grows quite quickly. Not a good omen if I'm considering the DB Swing Jacket!

My J&S yarn arrived for the Color on Color scarf .  I've ordered 30 skeins!  Most are now balled instead of skeined, but I have about a dozen skeins to wind up before I start on Wednesday. I'd like to have them all wound up before I actually do any knitting, as I'll have to play with the colour substitutes. I'm a lazy person, if some are still in their skeins, they'll not be used initially, and I'll end up with a block of the skeined colours in one section.  Jill's curious as to the colours and how they go together: they don't seem to!  Just look like a mass of colour!  I'm sure it's because there are so many colour groups in this scarf . Usually, if we see a group of yarn in a pile, it's usually complementary colours and not just the whole shade card!

My stash is getting messy around here, which is why I've lost the teacosy.  So I've pruned out the yarns I won't use and quickly thrown them in the bin.  I'm not going to make any more fuzzy or novelty yarn scarves, so this can go, making precious room for the J&S yarns.   And I've decided to go with the wavy scarf on knitty after all, that'll use up some odd balls of Silk Garden, more room!

Just started it, you really can't see the ribbing here.  I've decreased down from 42 to 36 sts for a narrower scarf, and am using 4mm needles for a tighter tension (which hopefully will show the ribbing more effectively).  Not a great pattern for someone like me who likes to knit and read.  The travelling rib means that I have got to always be aware of which row I'm on, and as I'm already prone to making the odd mistake in a ribbed pattern, I've got to check the sts as I go too.

Just starting to travel now...

The six sock kal this month is the beaded sock, and I've wasted a couple of evening this week trying to get the beaded part sorted.
My first attempt at slipping the stitch with the bead at the front was terrible.  The rows were really squashed up, the beads were slipping (especially the 2 adjacent beads) so the actual pattern was distorted.  I bought a crochet hook on Thursday and have restarted, crocheting the beads onto the stitches. Fiddly, but the pattern is better represented.

Brilliant yarn, really soft (don't think it's sock yarn, or machine washable) from Joslyn's fiberfarm.  I have no idea of the content, but it is remarkably soft yarn. If this is pure wool, I'd like to meet the sheep who produced it!  The beads are the Jaeger/Rowan beads, in bronze.  I broke a brittany needle the other night trying to slip the bloody beads, so I'm down to #5, being really careful now!

Here's a bigger picture

This really shows off the beaded pattern.  I've also done a twisted fake cable (forget the name) instead of 2/2 rib.

Mustn't forget the other bobble for the santa claus hat - that's done and just needs cutting. Love this bobble maker, no more using shorter lengths of yarn and putting them through an ever decreasing centre hole. 

A day off work

... and hardly any knitting done.

I'm sure that I'm not the only one who plans to knit an impossible amount of things on days off work (weekends not included).

I have two days off work.
I sat down last night and thought about what I could accomplish in two whole days.

Wash knitted presents, sew in the ends, wrap up.
Finish Chris's Christmas socks.
Start the next Six Socks KAL
Whip up a CIC sock
Whip up a Plaid shoulderette
Knit a bit on Donna (only two sleeves to go, surely it won't wait until Spring!)
Knit a Noro teacosy    (I've already attempted a Silk Garden version of this but it wasn't working out)
Just in case I have hours and hours spare, I also brought home a couple of balls of DB Tweed to knit a swing ribbed jacket,  and a couple of balls of felted tweed to knit a cardigan out of the Rowan Vintage book.

Well, I'm halfway through my two days off. The only thing that I've finished are the socks! 

I've started the beaded socks, and spent the whole of yesterday evening threading 216 beads onto the yarn, counting the remainder to ensure that I have enough left for the second sock, casting on, starting the beading.  I'm using the slip a stitch with the bead in front, and it looks crap.  As there are adjacent stitches with beads, and adjacent rows with beads in the same stitch, I am finding that the beads are either slipping, or the vertical length is compromised by the slipped stitches.   These are on hold until I can get my hands on a small crochet hook (hopefully tomorrow at Libertys).   These buggers also made me break a brittany dpn.

I've knitted most of the first sleeve of Donna, with the help of a good book. Hopefully, if I don't get tempted by the felted tweed and DB tweed, I will be sewing this sleeve in place tomorrow morning.  Then it's off to Libertys for a little bit of communal knitting time. 

Colour on colour scarf KAL starts next wednesday, and I'm hoping that when I go back to work on Friday that there's a blue J&S parcel waiting for me.   I don't think that I'll be too worried about the shades that I omitted from my order, looks like, from the bank debit, that I've ordered 25 skeins of different colours, approximately double what I had planned to use.  Maybe I can make two?

Just one photo - Chris's Christmas present (modelled by a lazy git who wouldn't get off the settee).   Stahl Mexiko dk on 3mm bamboos.  Nice yarn to knit with, and he reckons that they feel good too.

A few more Christmas FOs

Phew!  I'm coming to the end of my Christmas knitting!   My previous list of what-to-knit is pretty much scrapped, I'm afraid.    By next weekend, everything will be washed, wrapped and despatched, so if it isn't done by then, hard luck.

That Santa's hat, which is going to a 2yo if finished, down to the pompom.  I bought a pompom maker (innox) this week at Libertys, no instructions, just a pattern booklet, but Google is everyone's friend, and I found an instruction page out there on the www.  MUCH easier to make the pompom in two halves and then join, something that hadn't even crossed my feeble mind.

Eskimo is attrocious to use as a pompom, it's shed all over the place, I'll have to make sure that the parents of the Santa hats don't leave the 6 week old baby alone, with the hat on and the pompom dangling dangerously close to a mouth whose primary use at the moment is to feed!

I've cheated in this photo: the pompom isn't attached, and won't be until I've washed the hat (thankfully all machine washable) as it's apt to disintegrate in the washing machine, I think.

Looks like I had a case of camera shake today!

On Friday I worked on a couple of small bags which I will fill with girly things, hair accessories, tiny soaps, and whatever else I can find that's girly and fluffy.

This one is for a 6yo, verrrry girly, blond, blue eyed, tidy tidy, and lives in pinky barby stuff.

Some All Seasons Cotton, from stash, knitted double, and the new R2 glittery yarn, knitted double.  Really fiddly to sew up, and I've had to put a big press stud in the centre to stop it gaping.

The second bag is for her cousin, who's 5, not so girly (but she does like to get similar pressies, as they're rivals big time) with a wild inquisitive character, and Destruction is her middle name.  If you were to meet this girl, you'd think that she'd stepped out of a victorian photograph, a very old fashioned face, long brown wild and wavy hair, and you'd be amazed at how she can turn into a little whirlwind in a matter of seconds. I doubt this bag will be in one piece by the end of Christmas day, but it will be well played with.

This is DK cotton, some purple Lurex and some purple eyelash.

I'm still working on Chris's dk Mexiko socks, one down, second to the heel now.  As a birthday treat for Billy, we went out for an early meal yesterday, then to the cinema.  The Nandos treat went out of the window pretty quickly, the place was packed at 6pm on a Saturday before Christmas. We went instead to a Malaysian restaurant, so he had noodles instead of Chicken and managed to eat the whole bowl with chopsticks.  What's amazing is that we could have gone with set menus, as the table next to us did, but the size of the meal was enormous!  Two little girls had the biggest tray of dinner that you've ever seen in your life, and managed to down most of it (except the veggies).  We'll be going back soon to try this out, but much later in the day when we're starving!
Chris chose the film.
It was a 15 (Billy turned 15)
It was a film based on one of his favourite authors (Ian Banks)
Johnathon Ross loved it.

A tedious film, especially for plebs like me who prefer action, thrillers, special effects when I go to the cinema.   Even Chris thought it underplayed the menace and doom and gloom that he'd expected.   I managed to knit a sock leg and catch up on the zzzzzzzz anyway.

Colouroncolour kal.
I have spent hours and hours, sitting here in front of the computer screen, tabbing between different sites which have the Paterna Persian Wool shade cards, armed with the book and my J&S shadecard.    About 4 pages of notes (spreadsheets with colour numbers and what I think are the equivalent J&S shades) and I have reduced the number of shades that I need down to a reasonable 15 or so. 
I have a hectic day at work, and put off ordering the yarn until 4.55pm, 5 minutes before the lovely ladies of J&S close for the week.   And when I phone through, I can't find my latest notes, detailing the final choice!   In a panic, I pick one of the sheets up and just start reading out shade numbers, thinking as I go that I just can't order all of these, the list is enormous, so I omit the occasional shades as I go down the list.   Right.  I have no idea how many I've ordered, or what the colours will be, or if I've ordered duplicate colours.  I may find that I have no pinks or reds, or not blues, or greens.  A nice surprise this week when they turn up!   A lot of people are using the actual paterna yarn, but I think it'll be much more of a challenge my way.  I have no colour sense at all, just none.  I might have to do the bin bag treatment, and just pull a colour out of the bag and start knitting.  Can't wait though!

Liberty Christmas evening

Liberty had an open evening tonight,  from 7 to 10 pm, by invitation, with wine (I think, could have been champagne, I didn't partake) and a 20% discount throughout the store, so I decided to pop in on my way home for a quick look at the yarns and to see if any of the hardened knitters had turned up.   What a surprise!  We're not the only people on Liberty's mailing list!  There was quite a queue outside,  everyone clutching their invites.

Yvonne, Jill and Sharon knitting calmly downstairs in the Art Bar Cafe.   Upstairs was just heaving with drunks! Well, that's an exaggeration, but certainly heaving with lots of people milling around on the stairs, lots of newbie knitters pondering over the (chunky) yarns, what needles, how many stitches, where's the pattern.   I briefly saw Polly and Amelia with a little bit of stash, but it was impossible to linger in leisure.   

In the end, I only spent £35, less than I would usually, even when one of the staff told me that this was probably non-repeatable discount.  Four balls of Rowan DK, some Lurex, their new sparkly R2 yarn (hardly a ball of yarn, just a few yards wound on cardboard) , some more Plaid and Kid to make a shoulderette (bound to come in useful for someone for a present) and more beads. Oh, a pom pom maker - pom poms are must-haves this season, allegedly.

You see, I have enough project yarn for this winter.  All planned out. 

Anyway, only one finished item tonight, finished on Monday evening.  In Katia Danubio Style, crayon colours.  It's 76% wool, 24% nylon, fluffly and having knitted with it, I can't imagine any use other than for scarves.  The colours here aren't (per usu) true.  They look as if I've put an orange filter over my camera.

And here is a practise photograph (practising with different flashes, don't know what the little symbols mean)

I've hardly done any knitting tonight, started a bag from 25 Bags. (Third row on the left).  It's meant to be in felted tweed with lurex, but I'm knitting it in dk cotton and lurex. It's for a 5yo and I think she'll love the purple more than any of the felted tweed colours.  Only an inch done,  not finished yet Jill!

On other yahoo kals,  the six sock kal has just released the next pattern.  Something to start this month after Christmas Knitting is over!

And I've joined another kal.  From Scarf Style (the best scarf book around, imho). It's gong to be fun substituting Paterna Persian Wool, which I think is a tapestry yarn.  This scarf is amazing, it uses over 40 colours and is multi-directional.  Even J&S doesn't have the vast ranges of colours that I need, so I will probably go for a colour theme, once I've studied the book. Start date is 15th December!