skein

Liberty stash enhancement

The title of this post is self descriptive.  Stash. Enhancement. Sales. Liberty. 

I took a 2 hour lunch break and went to Libertys this afternoon.  I think that I was very restrained.  I'm not sure how long this will last though, as I'm sitting here thinking of the bargains that I didn't buy!

And Liberty card holders - you can still get a further 10% discount off your sale goods up to the 2nd of July!!

A pack of Jaeger Matchmaker merino aran in Cherry (makes a change from the usually sombre shades on sale).
  Sorry about the colour representation - this is a bright cherry colour, not bright red!

A pack of Jaeger Mohair Art (because I've never tried it before)
Blue Boy.

A pack of Rowanspun 4 ply
Midnight. 

A pack of Rowan 4ply soft (love it after knitting Agnes)
Buzz (I love these names, though Rowan must be one of the worst offenders for non-descriptive shade names on this planet)

Two balls of Jaeger Shetland (love this yarn after knitting this scarf!)
in Black.

And last, but as we know girls, not least, a pack plus some extra of Jaeger Chamonix. Love this stuff!
Paris.

There's loads of other stuff too. Lots of rowanspun in different weights, polar, the R2 range, summer tweed, the other luxury Jaeger yarn whose name escapes me with 65% cashmere content, some big wool stuff (not too hot on the really chunky stuff).  Not much cotton; the dregs of linen drape and celeste again. Kid classic too.

If I buy any more stuff, it will be more Shetland, maybe some of the Jaeger cashmere yarn (anon), Kid Classic. Choices!

Hamilton, Startitis and Work Experience

Hamilton is not finished yet. I've lots of ends to darn, and four more rows on the bottom edging.  I'm running out of yarn, and my last hope (unless I want to buy another ball) is that I have some remnants at work.  Hope so. Will find out tomorrow if I've chucked them or not.
Hamtilon - the final edging.

Startitis.
There are so many wonderful patterns out there.  I know that I ought to be working on Martha, or Wisteria, or my sockapal2zer socks, or my addsellbuy exchange, but I just can't help looking around for future wips, after all my wips list is well into single figures, and, just as some people aren't comfortable with too many projects, I'm not comfortable with too few.   

So I've cast on this:

It's from stash as well. It's summer tweed, and I'm knitting Glee.

I'd forgotten just how much I loathe knitting with this stuff, at least it will be a quick knit.

Work Experience.
Billy is spending two weeks in the office, on work experience.  Light office work, nothing too taxing.

So for two weeks he has to:
Work a full day in the office (well 9-5)
Commute from Southfields via Wimbledon to Waterloo.
Buy Lunch.

Chris gives him £20 for lunch for the week.  What's a 15yo boy to do with all of that dosh?
1) buy batteries for his cd player (mp3 out of action)
2) skip breakfast, buy a burger at wimbledon station, and eat it (whilst listening to loud music) on the packed commuter train.
3) buy a Macdonalds for lunch.
4) Day 2 - vary the breakfast - try a cornish pastie, eat it on the train.
5) Day 2 - vary the lunch - buy a burger, but from Jennys.

So he's out of money now and full of crap.

He's used to finishing school at 3pm.  Today he left work at 5pm, and should have been back within the hour.   I got home at 7.30 and no sign of Billy.  Only the second day, and he's so shattered that he's fallen asleep on the train and ended up 'in the country'. Arrived back (starving) about 8 pm tonight. 3 hour commute home!

We've suggested that he eats his breakfast before boarding the train (I doubt he'll be on cereal this week!).  It's easy to get complacent with a bright, articulate (sometimes) 15yo, and forget just how much they don't know yet.

Socks again

Whheeeee!  I have finally finished the first of this year's Six Socks KAL - Chutes and Ladders. Only 25 days to knit a pair of socks.

70 sts on 2.25mm dpns.  Rowan cashsoft 4-ply.

These socks are soft, although I can't attest to their durability yet. They look lovely though!

Speaking of socks, I need to knit a couple of pairs for knitting swaps.

First off is for sockapal2zer
My pal this time is blogless. She hasn't given me many clues. As I'm also in the Summer of Lace kal, I thought that I'd incorporate sockapal2zer and summeroflace and knit the go with the flow socks from IK.  Don't Polly's look great?  A good idea?

The second exchange is a round robin, and I have to ensure that my gift reaches my partner in September.  What to knit?  She's German, and probably a fantastic sock knitter, so I'm thinking of maybe knitting a lace (what else?) scarf or shawlette.  That's something that I'll give more serious thought to in a couple of weeks, probably ask you all to vote!

June Knitting.
Last night whilst sorting out a couple of typelists, I noted my (ambitious) June plans.

Finish my six socks kal socks. 
Finish my stashbuster for june.
Finish Shoalwater Shawl. Frogged.  I doubt I'll finish Wisteria in 4 days.
Finish a plain pair of socks. Frogged.  Again, no chance in 4 days!
Finish Hamilton. Ooops. Hamilton's been resting, and then we had a mini heatwave.  It's cooler today, so hamilton is out of the UFO pile and on the sofa.  I have edgings and one sleeve to knit. I'm up to the armhold shaping.
Proof.  I am sick to the back teeth of looking at this jumper.  Cannot wait to finish her off, pack her away until Autumn.  I'm off to knit on her now as I need to do the seaming in daylight.  There's a slim chance that I can add her to my FOs this month.

shawls

A month or so ago I felt smug grand.  I'd resisted the rowan edgy exchange, didn't sign up for any secret pal exchanges and had a very clear view of what I wanted to knit and when.

Fast forward to the present.   
Hamilton is languishing.  Martha is untouched.  My six socks kal is stalled.  I've joined summeroflace and mysterystolealong, promised to knit more socks for my socka-2-loozer pal and joined another exchange from the addsellbuy group (and that pal has filled in her questionnaire in german! Must swat up on my rusty o'level german!).

I have unsubbed from the Mysterystolealong.  My stole was far too wide, unblocked, for me to continue.  So it is frogged.
argh!

I have cast on for Wisteria.   I'm puzzled by the rating for this shawl:moderately experienced. I think it's easy!  The pattern is a two row pattern - well, one row pattern then one row knit!  The increases aren't gradual, they are stepped, every eight rows, when the pattern shifts over a bit to accomodate the extra stitches. Maybe that's the difficult thing?  Can't see why, as the pattern row is still *exactly* the same as before.

(Commuting) progress so far:

I've done 10 increases so far out of 27. Being the anal person that I am, I've can see that the number of stitches each strip increases as per an arithmetic progression, so I've calculated my shawl progress as 15.4% (body only, it has a simple top edging not included!).  Not bad, for this week's commute!

More on the exchanges later on this week (I need to sit down and think about what I want to knit, and how to incorporate lace into my gifts, as this is the Summer of Lace).

 

Stashbusters June

My last stashbusters project is finished! 
The Fiery Bolero from IK Summer 05.  It's not blocked, as it's far too hot here in London today to think of getting the iron out. 


Knitted in DB Cotton cashmere.  It splits, but I love the finished knitting.  I'm not too sure about this bolero.  The arms seem to be long and thin.
This is knitted from the centre back, increasing gradually until you have the full back width.  My knitted cast on looked staggered, so I chose to cast on all of the back sts and shape using short rows.  Same for the increases for the sleeves - I cast on the whole sleeve length and then used short rows for the shaping.

Stashbusters May (finished in June) Scoop

Stashbusters April (finished May!) Lucy

Three projects, over three months, from stash.  What a wonderful idea, and many thanks to Dani for hosting this.  It's helped keep the stash under control, and I have three wonderful FOs to prove it (although the bolero is a gift for someone).

 

Mysterystolealong (and not much else!)

My knitting's not been as productive as I would have liked. I seem to be in a knitting slump!

My DB Bolera is *nearly* finished.  Needs a dozen or so ends sewn in, and a good pressing.  I suspect that I haven't picked up enough stitches around the shaped fronts, as these are curling, ever so slightly.  I don't like the shape and don't think it will be a great fit. Thankfully, it's not for me! I'll send it off next week, see if the recipient can email over a photo.  When it's done,I'll post a picture, and you'll see how odd it looks. The arms seem really narrow! Jury's out, thought I do like the yarn (debbie bliss cotton cashmere) even if it's a little bit splitty.

The only thing that I've been working on (and at a snail's pace) is the mysterystolealong.  I'm on the third section, and imagine that I will still be on the third section when the fourth is posted in two weeks time! This section is about 400 rows long, I've knitted 26 rows so far. 

Not much detail, I'm afraid. Can't wait to block it!

You may have noticed that I have a lot of Joslyn's fiber farm yarns in stash. That's because I joined her quarterly shawl club, and monthly sock club. Sadly, I've realised that I am not knitting these yarns up as fast as I would like, so I've cancelled my subscription to both.  However, this was already being processed and turned up yesterday (Royal mail, don't you love them?  8 weeks to arrive!) - wool/mohair sock yarn. Look at that sheen!

Blog overhaul

Spring is sprung, British Summer Time is with us, so it's time for a colour change at Skein!  I've gone green, with a touch of blue and pink. Best news of all though, courtesy of the wonderful Tracy, I have a new banner!  Looks wonderful!  And goes with any mad colour scheme I can think of (though I might need a new red one in December!)

Isn't it wonderful?

After the good comes the bad.
This

has endured a slow painful death.  I managed to lose some of the stitches (lifelines? moi?) near the end of the row, and tried for an hour in half light to fix it.  This is an easy to read bit of lace knitting, and if it had happened anywhere other than the end of the row, I may have tried a bit harder, but I wasn't enjoying the knitting process, and this is my excuse to put it away! 
Never mind, I've joined two new yahoo groups.
Mysterystolealong,  where we get instructions each Friday.  I only decided last night to use the J&S Laceweight yarn, but I've caught up with the last two weeks clues already (I think next week's is the Big Knitting).

Here it is at lunchtime today (finished clue 1, about to start clue 2)

And I have the Summer of Lace to think about (like the button?  This isn't the one that was voted best, but I like it!)

I've not decided on a pattern yet, but it will be one of these yarns

Clockwise, from top, a rich purple, pale grey, loden and burgundy.

The Fiery bolero is coming along. I've finished the body and am now picking up stitches for the border. This is a peculiar little thing. I'm knitting the smallest size for a friend's daughter, but still, the armholes seem awfully small to me.  I keep looking at the model in IK, and either I've gone drastically off tension, or she's wearing one that's too large.  I think Debbie Bliss would normally class this as something for a 2yo!

Stashbuters May

Finally!!  Some photos of Scoop, my May Stashbusters project, using Rowan's All Seasons Cotton.
Started 10th May, finished 2nd June.

No hanging-from-a-tree shot, there was a curious onlooker outside!

Love the buttons, love the neckline, love ASC. Love Scoop!

Caterham Yarn House

What a fun day!  We all met up at The Yarn House, in Caterham.  I have to confess to not much knitting, and too much wandering around (only bought 3 balls of alpaca and lots more addis)
Wendy and baby Seth turned up. He's really grown!  Jacinta was rather distracted from her knitting too.

We tried to attract custom by pitching the wheel outside

That's Tess spinning, with Jan standing and Jill and Sheila sitting chatting.

Yvonne was to be found doing her usual stuff, winding skeins, with Les.

In knitting news (nope, no photos) I've finished the first chutes and ladders sock. The fiery bolero is stalled. Not because I'm bored (how on earth can I get bored with a short sleeved bolera, in the smallest size?) but because I've left the yarn at work.  Only the right front bottom shaping, plus edging to do, then this is finished, and I can get back to ... Martha!
So I'm knitting on the Shoalwater shawl tonight.  I'm on the third (of probably four) pattern repeat, but it's still looking small.  The jury is out until a bit more knitting is done!

Fiery Bolero & lace

I've decided to stick to just three things each week.  My middle aged brain can't multi-task or multi-wip much these days.

At the moment I have my six socks kal for commuting

My Shoalwater shawl for lace.

My DB cotton cashmere bolera for plain knitting.

Progress is slow, but much faster than knitting a dozen things.

The fiery bolero is moving along. One thing that is really peeving me about db cotton cashmere is that I keep splitting the stitches, and only noticing 10 rows further on.  I've had to leave one split stitch, and have pulled the threads through to the wrong side.

The bolero is knitted in one piece, with a shaped back.  The pattern as written has you casting on the central back stitches, and then casting on at the beginning of each row a number of stitches, using the cable cast on (I call this the knitted cast on).  IMO this gives an obvious stepped shaping, so I've used short rows throughout, to shape the back, sleeves and (so far) the left front.  I'm leaving the front sts live as well, will just knit on for the border ribbing.

This shows the back, and the left front and short sleeve.

And this is the left front and sleeve, the stitches on the needle  are the bottom edgeing of the left front. I know, it looks like it's a set in sleeve armhole!

Lace
Summeroflace to be more accurate.  I've had a yearning for lace recently, and have even picked up my shoalwater shawl again.  I couldn't resist another yahoo kal!  At least this one isn't specific, it can be anything lacey, which suits me. So far, it's only the Shoalwater shawl, but I have plenty of shawl patterns and laceweight yarn in my stash, biding time!

Progress pic (this is coming with me tonight to Libertys, wonder if I can ensnare another  shawl knitter?).

I've only got another couple of pattern repeats to do - that's 96 rows until the edging, but it's still really small. One of the hazards of lace knitting: when to finish. I know how much these things can grow in blocking!