skein

Holiday weekend. Day 3. Agnes and Martha

End of the bank holiday weekend. Last post!  I'm back to three a week!

Good news - the knitting of Agnes is FINISHED.  I only have the seams and ends to sew, and ribbon to buy.  This has been a long project. When Rowan Vintage Style  was published (I'm thinking October 04) I went to Libertys in my lunch break and bought the yarn for Agnes and Suzette (a fair isle cardigan).  I started Agnes immediately, but she's got pushed onto the back burner so often that I never thought I'd see this day.

the seaming will probably take an evening, but what's that after seven months?

I'll try to get into town this week to buy buttons for scoop and ribbon for agnes.

Meanwhile, (until the third bottle of red wine) I've done half a dozen rows on Shoalwater shawl and picked up Martha

Lots more 4 ply knitting. 

Holiday weekend. Day 2. Scoop & Agnes

Scoop
After attaching sleeve #1 to the body, I realised it was going to be quite long.  So last night, I took scissors to my Scoop, and cut the sleeve off. I chose to do this just before the start of the armhole shaping, so that I could lose the length in the straight knitting after the increases had been worked.

Sleeve #2 was finished this morning and sewn in place this afternoon. All seams are sewn.  Still to do: sew in the ends (seems like a lot for a single colour garment!) buy buttons and press. Later, when I've had time to buy buttons.  Looks like my stashbuster for May will be buttonless until June, same as Lucy!

Scoop, looking forlorn and unfinished.

Agnes
This won't beat me. If Polly can knit a man's jumper in 4ply soft, then I can knit a woman's short sleeved jumper.
I've spent hours on this today, and have beaten it into submission. Up to the armhole shaping, hooray!  I'm positively looking forward to the moss stitch section!
This is a poor photo - I tried to pin it out to show off the pattern (this baby wants to contract like ribbing, and will need a firm pressing when she's finished).

Here's a photo of what the finished photo should look like (I'm using the same shade, see what flash photography does!)

I'm just dying to get back to Martha.  Look at this finished, beaded version! Fabulous!

Holiday weekend. Day 1. Scoop

Scoop progress.

Sleeve still on needles.  Working hard at stocking stitch.

Front borders and neck border knitted. 

Must buy buttons.

Agnes is stalling.  Another *@!***@! 42 rows (no, nothing to do with hitchhiker's) to the armhole shaping. Each row seems to be taking longer.   Back to knitting. Will check back tomorrow evening.

It's a holiday weekend (and a quick post)

And that means more knitting time.   The weather today has been 28 degrees here in London, very pleasant, but a killer in the office and on the underground. I swapped over to the overground at Waterloo and completed my journey in an air conditioned train. Bliss.

This weather isn't going to last, but it's spurred me on to finish some things pronto.

First in line is Scoop.  I'm on the sleeve.  Finished the other front and this far up the sleeve, as at 22.25 bst.

This is stashbuster #2, due to be finished by 31st May (oops, no buttons!).  So miles of stocking stitch tonight, then I'm on the finishing slope!  Can't wait, but the weather will have to cool.

I'd also like to finish Agnes, just to get it out of the way!  It's been on the needles for about 7 months now, I'm five inches away from the armhole shaping, and then it's just a few more inches of pattern, and onto moss stitch.

And the last sleeve of Hamilton.

I always do this - have several things nearing completion, then several new things on the needles. At least I can start June with a few FOs.

I'll report back tomorrow night with progress, fingers crossed!

Distractions

Look at what arrived on my desk last week!

Phildar stuff

and more

from Strands of Lanark.
Now I usually order the Phildar magazines directly from Phildar, but thought that I'd try out strands as the magazines come with an english translation.  The lady there is lovely, very friendly, and the goods were sent special delivery and arrived the next day. Great service.

Last night I picked up Hamilton again.
The armhole depth was a tad too long. The sleeve cap was too short. The crocheted neckline looked disgusting.
I've unpicked the top of the sleeve, the neckline and both shoulders.

I've ever so slightly lengthened the sleeve top (really, just a few rows), short rowed the cap shaping at the top, and grafted the live stitches onto the shorted fronts and backs. It looks a lot better, and I've probably only lost 4 rows off the armhole depth, in total. I've taken a chance with live sts, but this is a lightweight yarn and it's no big deal to unpick and cast off the sleeve stitches, if it needs the extra stability.  It's taken me less than an hour, but I needed the few weeks break before I tackled it.

So one problem out of the way. Next decision is sleeve length. I think that I'll cut off the bottom 3 inches and have shorter sleeves (I can always add an extra long border).

Finally, yet another purchase, but this time a cheap one!
£1.50 and excellent stitch markers! These are tiny hair elastics. I even had a colour choice - pastels, jewels or black and white. Sp cheap I don't care if I lose them, although I can see Chris having a fit - I've already found a few on the floor by the computer, seem to have slipped off the desk!

I don't normally post links to FOs on other blogs, largely because you've probably already visited the blog, but in case you don't read Sable Stasher, check out her Grant Avenue FO!  It's wonderful.

Weekend knitting (so far) again

I'm trying to knit a stashbuster project each month. This month's stashbuster is All Seasons Cotton for the Scoop du jour cardigan.  As I didn't start this until about the 10th, I'm having to devote rather a lot of time to it, instead of doing my usual and flitting between projects. Just so not me.  My weekly goal was to knit one sleeve and one front this week. And I did it!  By Dr Who time (did you see it this week, very scary!) I was casting off the sleeve. 

Take my word, there's a front, back and sleeve!  I've sort of partially sewn the sleeve and side seam (just to get a feel for the FO).

So that leaves me free to play for the rest of the weekend.

What I played with.
Knitted a little bit on the Agnes front (last piece)

Have now started the increases after the waist shaping. Coming on!

Bias knitted waistcoat in Colinette from the UFO pile

This is from the Module Magic book, and is a sideways view (looked pretty uninteresting as a strip, much nicer showing the colours, though they aren't true on my monitor, of course).  Left back finished. Put away again (I dislike knitting with bulky yarns, and can only work on them for a few hours at a time).

And Lace! 
Picked up the Shoalwater shawl again last night. It's really been bugging me that I have no lace knitting on at the moment.  This had died a death, I'm afraid, but fortunately, I'd left it on the needles, and after working out which row I was on I've been knitting away on this for a few hours today. Love the reds and greys on this. I wish that I'd used a bigger needle though, rather than going for a US 7.  This laceweight is thick laceweight!  Never mind, the old shale pattern is showing the variagated yarn to good effect, probably more important than having larger yos.  It should block out as well.

Looking good!  Notice the long denise needle - it's a 40" cable bought from elann.

 

6 socks the finale!

One of the problems with multiple wips is that there doesn't appear to be much progress on any of them. I've stuck to my socks and scoop this week, and I have an FO!

My six socks kal is finished. This is the last sock of the year, a new year starts on June 1st, with a brand new pattern.  (A clue can be found here - scroll to 17th May). Have you joined yet?  Jill says she's too slow.  Jill, you can knit a pair of socks in 8 weeks! 

I realised after finishing them that I've not knitted the toe stripe properly. And the second sock has 4 more stitches on the foot part - I forgot to decrease down on after the gusset decreasing!  I can't tell.

So without further ado, I present the six socks kal (click on the pictures for a bigger view).

Socks #6 a little bit of colour. In Opal solids.  Didn't like knitting with this yarn, but I know that opal softens up after washing.

Sock #1 Cloverleaf rib sock. Lace practice with Trekking yarn (I think!). Nice colours. Nice stitch pattern.

Sock #2 Making waves. Cables with Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. It hasn't pilled at all!
It works - smaller needles, tighter tension = no pilling!  A favourite to wear, so soft on the feet. Knitters, if you have any baby cashmerino maturing in your stash waiting for the new baby, use it for socks! 

Sock #3 Fluted Bannister (ribbing).  Joslyn's fiber farm sportweight (or dk) wool.  It's a shame that the colour doesn't show too well, looks too light and yellow, when there's a lot of spring green in thsi shade. Love it. Love the soft wool.  Cashmerino has additives, this is pure wool and so soft. 

Sock #4 Beaded sock. At a push, these are my favourite socks for comfort.  Again, Joslyns fiber farm, sportweight cream wool. A delight to knit with, and it took away the pain of knitting with beads.

Sock #5 Stashbuster sock.  Joslyn's fiberfarm wool (but not the same as #4 or #3!).  Sportweight-ish.  I wear these a lot. Comfy and a great technique for circular stripes. You knit a third of each row in each colour (there's three being used here) and they spiral, hence the only jog is at the beginning and the end.

Bring on the new June pattern!

If you missed the bbc story about the British troops who filmed a spoof video of Amarillo,  here's a link to the whole song!  I love this song, but it drives me mad, I find myself humming it for hours after I hear it.

Six Socks KAL

I've hardly done any knitting these past few days.  Hamilton is in the UFO pile (which brings some relief to my targets this week) and I've been working on the sixth six socks kal. The heel is worked, and turned, the gusset decreased and I'm now working on the foot. No photos until it's finished!

This has been a great kal. And the good news?  It's been extended another year!
It's self explanatory - you knit six pairs of socks throughout the year. The patterns are posted every two months, and you have two whole months to finish them and take two photos - one of your socks-in-progress and one of your finished socks. Everyone posting a photo before the deadline is entered into a draw to win a prize.

You don't have to knit the socks!
You don't have to knit the socks before the deadline!
You don't have to post photos!

It's just for fun. I joined when the second sock was underway, but decided to knit each sock anyway.  They're all different. I think we've had beaded socks, ribbed socks (a ribbed pattern, rather than 2x2 Boring Rib), cabled socks, lace socks, the stashbuster socks and these ones, colour-work socks (for want of a better word) .

It's a great time to join now.  You get to see all of the wonderful knitted socks before they are deleted (yahoo and space and all of that stuff) and have a few weeks before the new kal starts. 

And a closing photo of lunch here at work today. Salo (pronounced like gala but with an s) which is cold pork fat, eaten with some brown bread. As unfathomable to me as black pudding is to Russians (or Ukrainians, as my colleague insists it's a Ukrainian dish). Yuck. I did not partake.

RIP Saints

I'm typing this in the company of a very depressed Chris. Southampton, the team he's supported all of his life, was relegated today. 

Now that we've given up smoking, and had a suitably long period of substituting food for fags, we're ready to slim down a bit. Chris, lucky sod, has only put on a stone. I have fared much worse.  We are both couch potatoes, but now that the weather's warmed up, we'll try to get in a little more walking. We can easily add another 30 minutes per day, it all adds up.  So today we went out walking by the Thames.  I had to take my DAB radio (in case we had an accident and couldn't get back in time to listen to the match). 

We passed the scene of Norwich's defeat 6-0 this afternoon. One of the other two teams relegated.
Fulham FC
(see how Springlike the day is!)

We walked for miles.  A great way to spend the afternoon, however, no knitting!

Knitting targets.
On track, nearly!

Six sock kal - sock leg

This week I'll be knitting the heel.

Scoop du jour back as my May Stashbuster project.

This week: fronts.

Hamilton sleeve.

This is so disappointing. 
1) sleeve is far too long, and I think that I'll have to add a crochet edging.  I'm thinking of cutting off six inches and having 3/4 sleeves, but will decide when the other sleeve is knitted and the jumper tried on.
2) sleeve top is weird.  I'm positive that the body is a set in sleeve, but the sleeve is practically a raglan shaping, until the last 4 rows, which have more shaping (as a sleeve cap would).  However, if I line up the stripes, I have 15 sts for the top of the sleeve which must be sewn against about 40 rows!  So I've decreased the rate of decreasing and left the sleeve top sts live, for elasticity.
3) the armhole depth seems a bit large (which might explain (2)).
4) hate the crocheted edge, and the curling stocking stitch (but this is unblocked, it might sort itself out)

I need to measure this jumper again, see if I can shorten the armhole, shorten the sleeves. Ack!  I'll put it away for a few months I think. (gives me more time to finish some other stuff). I'm sure that somewhere in blogland there'll be another sort-out-yer-knitting-problems kal in the near future.

Agnes is not quite up to seven inches (more like three!) so I will work on this tonight.  Next week, another seven inches!

Back to work knitting.

Knitting targets for the week

I've got loads to finish this month, if my wishful thinking list is anything to go by.

Finish Agnes
Finish the 6 sox kal sock
Finish Hamilton
Finish Scoop du jour.

In order to accomplish this(!) in only three weeks, I've set myself weekly targets.

By the end of this week (by Sunday bedtime) I should have finished:

7 inches of Agnes's front. 1.25 inches done. 5.75 to go.

The leg of the last 6 socks kal. Ribbing nearly done.

The first sleeve of Hamilton. Not going so well.

And the back of Scoop du jour. Going very well, just an inch left before the start of the armhole shaping. That blob in the centre is a safety pin.

There's only one evening and two weekend days to go.  I'm thinking to myself that the Scoop and the sock will certainly be finished (just the leg and back, mind) but Agnes and Hamilton are flagging. I'm taking bets now. I can see me doing a lot of May knitting with nothing to show at the end of the month!  I have the Kim Hargreaves kits tempting me. And the sock yarns.  And lace!  I haven't knitted lace for months. I've promised a work colleague one of those one skein koigu scarves. It would be nice to give it to her before our hot summer starts (someone mentioned a heatwave on the way)

Off to knit!