skein

Ebay strikes again

He likes them. 

Kim Hargreaves

I see that Kim Hargreaves site is up and running. Great designs!  Bad news though, kits only.

I emailed them last week, received a reply yesterday.

Now bear in mind that I was complaining about the kits only option, and that they would be overlooking potential customers by not offering a patterns only option:

'Thank you for your email. Sorry we have not been back to you before now, the response we have received has been overwhelming'

Looks like I'm wrong!

I love at least three of these designs, and still might be tempted to buy one. I can always knit it twice, from the kit and from the stash. 

Not much knitting done this week either. The commute has been crap this week, delays, signal failures, overcrowding - so I've been late for work and not had a chance to knit on these socks, see how little they've grown.

I've a feeling that I'll run out of wool and will have to knit a shorter leg. These are being knit on 2mm needles, with 70sts, whereas I usually knit his socks on 2.25mm needles, with 64 or 68 sts.  I think that I'll do his favourite eclectic heel (fits him great, and uses less yarn than the traditional heel flap and gusset). I can always decrease after the heel is worked, and continue on larger needles for the leg.

Hamilton's back is nearly finished.  The colours are totally wrong in this picture. That isn't yellow, it's lime green. That isn't red, it's a lighter raspberry.

I love knitting with this cashsoft. Still think it looks like a deckchair, am getting increasingly worried, as MrC keeps complimenting me on the pattern/colours/stripes. There's a mistake in the last raspberry/pink stripe which I've just noticed, drat!

More socks

Many thanks for the comments concerning my hand. It's ok, doesn't hurt, I can knit, I can type... I even managed to wash up without too much trouble.

I've been working on Lucy. This really is a quick knit.  I took less than a week to knit both sleeves and the fronts, and this wasn't a productive week, knitwise. She's all sewn up, just needs a couple of buttons, and a photo.  Must try to do this during the week.

I've started another pair of socks. These ones are toe up, for Chris, in bright yellow and black striped sock yarn.  I'm trying the cast on method from my new sock book. I'm not sure if I like these increases on the toe, although I approve of the blunter toe.

We've had e-bay fun this weekend. Chris, the e-bay virgin, started browsing the categories on Friday, and spent the whole w/end on e-bay.

Fortunately, he was outbid  on the 100% polyester suit, a size too small for him.

Unfortunately, he wasn't outbid on the osh kosh dungarees! In anticipation, he's  taken to wearing his clogs around the house and wants me to knit a multi-coloured striped jumper.  Is this his mid-life crisis? I think that I'd prefer the affair with someone young enough to be his daughter! He's mentioned a multi coloured jumper twice now. I'm pretending that I haven't heard.  I have two packs of black all seasons cotton somewhere in stash for his next jumper!

Happy St George's Day!

I hope that your day is going better than mine. It started off wonderfully. Had a full night's sleep, plenty of knitting done last night and this morning. Finished the fronts of Lucy last night. Started the sleeves this morning. I'm worryingly short of cotton tape, and at the moment have 1.5 balls left, and another 10cm to the armhole shaping. Yikes. 

That isn't the bad part of my day (nothing fatal!).  I was rushing around mid afternoon, multi tasking in a small kitchen.  Making coffee, putting away the groceries, heating soup and buttering bread.  Rushed through into the living room with two bowls of scalding hot soup, stumbled,  spilling the soup on the floor and over my left hand!  Arrghh! So I now have a swollen throbbing left hand that hurts very much, unless it's in a bowl of cold water. I can bear it for about 10 seconds before it needs another plunge into the bowl.  Can't knit or type! If I get the hand really cold (as in half frozen and well below body temperature) the pain disappears, so I have 30 minute reprieves!

So this post will be short, I can't type well with one hand.  Here's a couple of photos of my Lucy in progress.

(it's chucked on the floor but I hardly feel capable of rushing around rearranging it!)

Not as scraggy as this, honestly!

Looks like I'll finish Lucy this month, will be up to date on the 1 wip a month and the stashbuster knitting!

 

toilets

No knitting progress so far this week. Far too busy drinking.

I received an interesting book which I must investigate further (and nicely wrapped!)

Yet another sock book!  Delivery was prompt - ordered on Wednesday evening, received on Tuesday! Jill's already ordered one.  As soon as I finish my 6 sox kal I'll have a go at knitting a pair using these cast ons and techniques.

I leave you with a non-knitting couple of pictures of the pub toilets from last night.
Pity the ladies doesn't have a little picture.
   

Off home to eat, sleep and do a little knitting!

Weekend Knitting

As usual, my knitting plans weren't quite as productive as I predicted.

Finish the second sleeve of Agnes.

I need to pick up some more yarn from the office, but there's only another dozen decreasing rows to knit.  Only the front to go now! 

Finish the first 6-sox kal sock - done!  I'm not sure if these will be favourites. At the moment (pre-washing) I do not like the opal uni. I'm hoping it will soften up, as per usual, in the wash.

Not the best side!  I need to sort out the colour changes a bit more (manually tighten/loosen the sts) as I really wasn't paying much attention to this sock.

Finish the back of Martha (ha!)

Early photo:

Progress over the weekend:

Looks a lot, but I'm not even done on the increasing up to the armholes!  It will be another week of taking this along on the commute each day, see if I can finish it this side of summer.

Finish the back of Hamilton (another ha!)

What was I thinking?  Actually, we went to the cinema today (The Interrpreter) and I took along Hamilton. Big mistake. When the lights went down I couldn't distinguish between the pale pink and pale lilac. What a waste of knitting time. 

I've changed the colours, incorporated the new lime green and coral pink into the stripes.
This was the original colour plan:

Lilac with beige/pink stripes (and I thought I'd knit two row stripes)

Latest colour plan (this is the one that Chris likes, and I'm a bit iffy about - the deck chair look)

The colours aren't that true on my monitor. That really is a lilac and not a grey colour. The coral isn't as red as it's showing and the pale pink isn't as pale as here!

I love knitting with this stuff, and think I'll carry on knitting the jumper. I need to get the whole back done before I make up my mind if I like it.

My plans for the week?  Knit the fronts of Lucy (my stashalong for April) and finish the backs of Hamilton and Martha. No socks this week! 

And if you want a laugh, I've posted a light-hearted list of things that I would like to knit this summer, excluding socks or shawls, right hand side. It's imcomplete; I stopped at ten!

Ribbon Edged Cardigan

Have I mentioned that I love the Debbie Bliss Cathay book? 
There are several designs which I like, including this one:

 

Note the bits of ribbon poking out from the sleeves, and up the middle. A sort of floaty chiffon.  Not in a milliion years, thinks I, will I want to wear a cardigan like this. Until yesterday morning - the commuter sitting next to me had a jumper on edged with chiffon!  And it looked really good.  I will have to think again about this design.

I'm way behind on my knitting plans (yes, I make plans: on Thursday night I should have finished the first 6 sox kal, and tonight I should be finishing the second sleeve of Agnes) so no photos, I'll knit like the devil tomorrow and hopefully have some photos on Sunday.

I've got a new (non-knitting) toy.

My first mp3 player!  I've gone for a really tiny model which I can hang around my neck.  Audible here I come!

And check out Tracy's blog - don't you all want to knit Gemma now? I do!  I even want to knit it in the same colours!

Stashbusters

I've gone and joined another kal!  It's   and I will be knitting a wip a month using stash, for 3 months!

As we're already halfway through April (and I have a lot of wips on the go!), I am going to declare April's Stashbuster as Lucy.  OK, the stash if pretty fresh, but it's a quick knit, and I stand a chance of finishing it before the end of the month.

May's Stashbuster will be from stash, Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere (tell me that's the correct name; I am so confused now that Rowan have their new RYC yarns!).  Own design, a striped cardigan or jumper. 

June's Stashbuster will be from stash also, but a quick knit. I'll think that it will be Soleil, in stash cotton (not yet found, but I have plenty that will knit up to that tension). Whilst looking in the nearby stash, I'm dismayed to find a whole pack of glace that I can't remember buying!  It's the same shade as the contrast glace for Lottie (shade 811, tickle).

Go on!  Join us! Knitting to a deadline, with stash yarn!

In knitting news, I'm knitting rather a lot of garments, again. Socks, Lucy, Agnes, Martha and Hamilton. Not much done this week, I've been shattered.  I have managed to finish the back of Lucy (as this must be finished in two weeks for the Stashbusters)

This looks very red, but it's not, it's a bright pink!

I've forgotten to post a picture of my 6 sox kal sock.  Now should the wording go across the fronts and backs, or across the sides?  I've placed the heel so that the wording is on the sides.  Hope it doesn't look too crap. Cosy toes, or toes cosy, depends which way you look at them.

Bright, aren't they?  I'll be working on them tomorrow, as Martha has replaced socks for commuter knitting, if I'm lucky enough to have a seat, on the rare occasions when the district line is running smoothly.  Speaking of socks, Lisa is recommending another sock book.  Not that I need another book, but I've gone and ordered it sight unseen.  More when I receive it!

I've restarted Hamilton,  incorporating the new colours that I've bought.  It will look very striped, these colours contrast more.  I have the stamp of approval from Mr.C, not sure if that's something to worry about or not. He doesn't have any colour sense at all.
Hopefully I'll get a few photos of the colours this weekend. Hopefully, the colours will work out and I won't look like a rugby player in pastels.

Martha

Thanks for all of the nice comments about Plaza!  I don't waste time, and now I've started Martha.  Not much progress so far, but this is 4ply.  There are quite a few Marthas in blogland, and there's a KAL, but I'll see how I get along first. I tend to be unfaithful to my wips, which is why a jumper a month is a challenge for me.  I would rather work on three jumpers and finish them in 3 months.

Martha so far (close up, it looks like I've done more knitting!)

Also, Lucy. This is a  quick knit. I'm not too happy with my decreases 'in pattern' as Rowan likes to put it. I couldn't quite make up my mind if I should add yarnovers or not.  The fronts will be better!

Lucy so far.

And while I'm moaning about knitting instructions, I just hate it when the tension is measured over pattern, but I then have to wade through the instructions that set the pattern (in multiple sizes) before I can start a tension square. 

I've also made some progress on the 6 sox kal, but typepad is refusing to allow me to insert any more photos!   Arrhh!

Now to my new acquisitions from John Lewis on Friday.  I forgot to take my camera into work today, so here are the shades

Enough rowan cotton glace to knit (lottie, without the butterflies) in these shades (the lighter one is the edging)

Enough Sienna to knit something simple (not quite decided yet).

It's quite alarming to think of my summer knitting wishlist! It's in double figures now! Must knit more. Must knit more...

 

Plaza

is finished.  A week to knit, a week to crochet the collar edging. 
It's not even pressed; this cashcotton knits up so evenly!

A close up of the embellishment

The buttons were a surprise. They're the Rowan semi-transparent coloured buttons. They look pretty cheap and tacky, but when they're sewn on the garment, they take on some of the colour of the garment, and really really go well with this colour.

My April knitting plans seem to be on track.

finished to rodeo socks
finished Plaza
Started the next 6 sox kal - photos soon
Finished one Agnes sleeve - photos soon

Just the second sleeve of Agnes, and starting Martha. 

However....

I went to John Lewis yesterday, bought the buttons for Plaza, some more needles, and yarn.  No photos yet (it joins the office stash) - a hint: enought for two more wips! And a few more colours of cashsoft; a lime green and coral pink colours, much stronger than the pastels. Looking even stripier!

And I've just lost the Grand National.  Merchant's Friend and ... Innox! 

Off to ponder my next wip.