skein

Clapotis & other knitting stuff

I wish someone would come up with a great blog title generator.  It's the part I dislike the most!
I think the coffee morning at Peter Jones has worked wonders for me, as I've finished the main pieces of the diagonally knitted modular waistcoat,
started in May.
Good news: I didn't run out of the paler Iris colour.
Bad news: I am running out of the tagliatelle (and can't remember which bloody shade it is!). If you look at the front, you can see modular triangles at the bottom of each piece; I might frog the back triangles and replace them with Isis yarn, then use this tagliatelle for the side bits.  I'll leave it a day or two before deciding.

I've finished the shrug.  I don't like it!  It needs blocking though, so I will try it on again and see if I like it better.  I keep trying to pull it closed.  You know how when you're a child wearing an unbuttoned cardigand and it's hanging off your shoulders?  The exact same annoying feeling, I'm afraid!  The one skein wonder is fine, as it's more fitted and won't fall off.  If I don't like it, it will go into the Christmas pile!

Unblocked. Thrown on the floor.

And... this is coming along well.
This is the Karaoke from Get Knitted. Very like noro, just a  tad lighter and softer. And this is variegated, though the shades are mainly solid colours, with the variegated ones quite subtle (this is probably the most diverse).

I'm on the straight section now, and have finally started dropping stitches. Whee!!

As you can see, I'm not using markers for the stitches to be dropped, but relying on my eyes to spot the twisted stitches,  which you can see fairly clearly in this photo.
This is my commuting knitting, so should go fairly quickly. Stay tuned!

Peter Jones

Saturday was Peter Jones knitting day. Lecture, reviews of the latest books and yarn, yarn to play with, friends to knit with, coffee, water, pastries and a lovely light room.

Felicity, Jacinta, Amelia, Rachel (Jacinta's daughter) and Mary.

There were sample garments there as well.  Not many that you'd want to take home.

We couldn't quite work out who the target knitters were:

Mary putting on a brave face.

And Mary modelling this one. 

It's two sleeves plus capelet.  Actually not too bad, though Mary wasn't too keen on the oversized bobbles that will catch on everything. 

On the plus side, I want to try a few embellishments this year - there was a beaded kidsilk haze cortage on the table which was fabulous. 

Jill kindly brought along her Louisa Harding Accessories book, plus a few of the yarns. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.  Well worth a look.  I've ordered the book from Get Knitted.

Fall Foliage socks

60 sts on 2.25mm. 
Cherry Tree Hill Supersock knits like a dream, and the colours are bright and clear. (In fact the autofocus wouldn't work on the camera, and I'm sure it's the dazzle)

Check out Tracy's Fall Foliage for a different slant on pooling colours.

In the post.
What? More stuff, so close to the Knitting & Stitching Show? 
'fraid so! Courtesy of Get Knitted, this arrived today.
Karaoke, which is a nice aran weight noro substitute. The start of Clapotis.  I hope I'm not making a dreadful mistake in not marking the stitches which will be laddered. I can't even be bothered to purl them. 

And finally, another little lace book:

This has been on my list for  a while and is now in print, with translation if you don't speak Icelandic, at Schoolhouse Press.  Some very nice shawls and stoles in this one, I can see another shawl in my future.   

Autumnal greetings!

Yes, Autumn has officially started, time to put away all thoughts of Summer and start thinking of my Autumn knitting. I can't believe how I feel about knitting at the moment. This ought to be the best time for me.  This is my favourite season. New season books are out. I can start knitting with wool again as the weather cools down.  I can start knitting quick knits for Christmas - scarves, hats, mitts, shawlettes. Yet I'm not inspired to knit at all.  I have several projects on the needles and practically all of them are set aside. I'm trying to analyse this.  We have our annual knitting show in a few weeks at Ally Pally, and I'm actually a bit anxious about buying more stash when I have so much already.  Last year's plan was fairly effective, though most of the purchases are still in stash.  I bought a few packs of yarn (Debbie Bliss and Jamiesons), but most of my purchases were odd skeins of yarn, which meant I could get everything home in a big basket.  This year I'll try to stick with this plan again(!) and maybe buy a lot of sock yarn, lace yarn, those delicious variegated yarns which look better in real life than on my monitor.  I've just bought my tickets for the show online. Thursday 13th October if anyone else is going on this day.

So... onto Autumnal knitting. Apart from the new stuff I'll want to start after Ally Pally, I have a few new things lined up (sod the old wips!)

Mysteryshawlalong2 is imminent, must dig out some yarn.  This starts on 30th September, so if anyone wants to join in, now is the time.  Each friday there'll be clues posted, and you have a week to knit that section - for five weeks (of course you don't have to finish this in five weeks; the first mysterhawlalong is still going).

Clapotisknitalong2005.  I've finally jumped on the Clapotis bandwagon and have ordered some Karoake.

Sixsocksknitalong will be starting a new sock pattern on 1st October.  I'm afraid that I've ditched Amble, the August sock. The stitches weren't popping enough for me.  I'd consider this using guernsey yarn rather than regular sock yarn.

A Louisa Harding design in her new yarn.  I have to do this. I've yet to see all of the yarns (or indeed the patterns, apart from online), but the yarns I have seen are impressive, beautiful shades and textures.

Let's not forget a Debbie Bliss design. I have some of her new astrakhan cashmerino sitting right next to me here at work!  A cardigan, but not sure yet which one.

In anticipation of these new, inspiring projects, I'm trying to finish a few things.

The Aurora shrug is slowly reaching FO status.  I've about 30 rows to go, then 76 sts to graft and sleeve seams to sew.  I'm holding out on the final seaming, as I can't decide between purl side or knit side as public side.  I may need a bit of help! I'll be finishing the knitting on this today.

Another few stripes longer.

The Cherry Tree Hill supersocks in Fall Foliage are finished (I was 5 mins late leaving for work this morning knitting the last few rows and casting off).   I need a good photo though, so here's yesterdays:  two socks on two circulars.

Wonderful to knit with.  I had enough to knit a decent sized pair of socks for me (size UK 6) with leftovers. They are nearly symmetrical, a complete coincidence.  They are only nearly and not exactly symmetrical, because of the dreaded pooling on one sock, in two places.  It made my day when someone in the office spotted them and told me that they reminded her of Autumn colours!

Amazon very nicely delivered another new book this morning.

 
At first glance, this looks like a fabulous book.  Lots of stitch patterns and examples of knitted socks using these patterns. Great for someone like me, who can't be bothered to root through millions of stitch pattern books for something suitable.

Yarn: yardage, tensions, thicknesses (4ply, sport, dk, worsted)
Sock anatomy (toe up, top down, heel flap, short row heel)
Size charts (US sizes) and a tension/size chart for number of stitches.
Needle techniques for 4 or 5 dpns, 2 circulars.
Miscellaneous stuff: different foot shapes, troubleshooting, casting on & off etc

Class sock
Different stitch patterns :
4 stitch ribbing patterns, 5,6,8,12 stitch patterns, cable patterns, chevron (for self patterning), fairisle, 4 stitch reticulated patterns, mosaic patterns.

Looks like loads of info in this one book. 

I think Jill will like this book!

A Good Bias II

Progress has been made on A Good Bias.  I've decided (as I have at least two balls with purple) to include the missing colour. It means that the back of the shrug will be fairly dark with purple bits. 
The first half is nearly done.  Just another couple of inches to go. As I've finished another ball, I've put this on hold. I will now work on the other half, up to the same point, and then decide on final colours for the last two inches.

Just about to start on the purple bit.

And socks.  I'm loving this Cherry Tree Hill yarn.  It's really pleasant to work with.
Sock #2 is now past the heel.

I was a bit worried about yardage - would I have enough for a woman's medium sock?  Comfortably.  I might just knit until I run out. 

Speaking of socks, here's a link to a sock pattern from Nancy Bush's new socks book, Vintage Socks, hitting yarn shops right now.

 

A Good Bias

Love the pattern.  Noro's Aurora is... challenging.  Knots. Irregular colour sequences.  Missing colour. 
I should have listened to Jill, who knitted this .  Jill's Missing Colour was a lime green (I think!).

Spot my missing colour.

 
A blue-violet, completely missing from the first ball.
And just look at the first four colours on the second ball. Dark grey, light grey, dark grey, light grey. Then violet.   
So I've cast on the second sleeve.  I've decided to match colours, at least for the sleeves. Jill also wasn't far wrong when she told me that she had little balls of Aurora scattered around, trying to match up the sleeves. 

So far, so good. 

Can you see how the lace pattern leans?  I'm not sure yet which sleeve with be on which side. I want to add an extra 10 sts to the bottom of the shrug, so I'll play around, see which way looks best (unless someone has some handy tips for biased fabrics and how they drape).
The colours aren't as bright as this. There's no orange or pink, for example, but rust and burgundy.  That's nighttime photography for you. 

A gift!

The very nice postman brought me a gift today! This is part of an exchange with the addsellbuy group at yahoo.  Last week I sent off Kiri, and today, I've received my gift!

This is from Iris, in Germany.  I'm sure that she's made the card, and decorated the bag (which might be a Christmas bag, but IMO it's already a knitting bag! And made the Christmas decoration bottom left, a beaded star.  I'm not sure if she crocheted the doillies or not, I can't see any ends (which in my eyes means that she can't possibly have crocheted them!) and I've had a good look!  Oh, it's so nice getting presents! Thank you Iris!

Knitting Doldrums continues. Absolutely zero motivation as far as the old knitting goes.  I've barely been reading blogs, things are that dire!   

OTN:
CTH Supersock yarn, Fall Foliage.  On the way home tonight, I frogged several inches of sock, back to the disastrous short row heel. Loose stitches, twisted wrap stitches, holes in the gusset.  Even experienced sock knitters have bad hair days.
Back on track. The poor lighting and dark table makes the colours look very dark and orange, but they're not; they're vibrant!

Some Esprit socks. Boring. Stocking stitch. White.  I'm making Chris some toe-up socks to wear with his shorts (one of his pet peeves is dark socks with trainers and shorts. So I'm attempting some white cotton/lycra socks. I have some red Esprit which I'll use to knit a red stripe in the leg of the sock.

Basket shawl using Kaalund lace is FROGGED. I didn't like the lace produced. Maybe with a larger needle.  <sigh>

Ribbed asymmetric jumper.  Front finished (and it looks very asymmetrical,photos later).

Progress on the back isn't too good. .

Martha is the bath knitting (shhh, Chris thinks I'm catnapping in the bath, when I'm really relaxing with a glass of wine, my knitting, and an audio book) . I reckon it's the only way that I'll see any progress with this, now that summer is nearly over.  This is the sleeve.  One sleeve, one front to go!

New project alert!
The Noro Aurora which I bought a few weeks ago, and which was destined to become either a moss stitch bolera or a feather and fan wrap, is neither.  Early stages yet, but I've cast on for this: It's A Good Bias and it's from IK Spring 05.  I really like the 'I do' shrug in knitty, but the sleeves might irritate me (too long, too wide for a sock knitter using dpns).

My plan is to knit one entire ball before I make up my mind on the colours.  Well, that's an absolute necessity with Noro yarns. Good grief, there might be some bright yellow lurking in the centre of the ball!  Not a great idea with this pattern; I want subtle colour variation!

So far, so good.

 

Cotton socks

Another pair of socks finished. These were my commuting knitting last week. A very quick knit.
1) shorter leg than usual
2) 60 sts
3) stocking stitch.

Yarn - cotton sock yarn, label lost, but Jill reckons it might be rodeo.

Apart from the heels (short row garter stitch heels) I've managed to match the stripes on the socks.

And so to another sock!

Just started but I'm impressed already with this yarn. It's Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn, purchased at Get Knitted.

I've lost the label (again!) but I think this is the Fall Foliage.  What appears as blue on my monitor is actually a vibrant purple. I'm knitting these toe-up, just in case the yardage is a bit low, I don't want another Celestial Merino panic. 

The new sofa knitting

We've a new sofa!  We've been making do with a backless sofa for the past four weeks.  IKEA finally got their act together and delivered the new sofa this week.

Chris chose this one all by himself.  His original purchase was a red sofa (of course!) but it now seems that this colour was never in stock, so we have a dark blue sofa.

Except that this colour + this material = dust collector (according to Mr. C).  So when I arrived home on Thursday, there was the sofa, complete with 30 year old horrible throw, a remnant from the seventies.  This photo really doesn't do it justice; it's yellow, orange, brown and floral.  We're keeping the orange cushions from the old sofa which doesn't help.

I rushed out to Argos on Friday lunchtime and bought another throw. The description was Berry, but it's rust.  It's not ideal, but this is an emergency.

He's not looking too happy, is he? Not as bright!

Which brings me onto my next bit of knitting.  We want arm covers for the new sofa.  I can't imagine anything fluffy, furry, woollen or acrylic, so it's going to be denim yarn. I have a 2lb cone from Elann which has been in the stash for a few years.

Just started.

Boring computer knitting.  Note the ebony needles in case of dye transfer (none on my fingers, though this is allegedly similar to Rowan's denim yarn).

 

Decisions (and Fall Knitty)

I've decided that my Knitting Brain wants to knit socks, socks, a bit of lace, a lot of lace and no garments.   That's why I'm slumped.  There's nothing wrong with Martha or the Asymmetrical ribbed jumper, but I just don't want to knit cardigans or jumpers at the moment. Rather than force the issue, I'll spend the weekend finishing off the individual pieces (Martha's first sleeve, Asymmetrical's front) and pack them away for a month or two, see if I am inspired after a break.

Fall knitty's out today as well.  This issue is far more appealing to me than the man's issue. .

What do I like?  At first glance, there are several designs which look knittable.  I'm not sure if some of these designs look knittable because of the appealing photos (bloom, bubby) or that the yarn is readily available over here without me having to recalculate to substitute (arisaig, blackberry, flora, edgar).  And a pair of koigu socks (2 skeins).  A Good issue, this one.

On the needles (very uninspiring)
Plain socks for me, lost the sock band, but they're cotton blend.  I suspect the second sock will be fraternal. I can't see a repeating pattern in the first sock at all.  Correction, I've just started the repeating pattern as I near the toe.

And another lace shawlette. This one is the basket leaves shawl pattern, originally printed in Interweave knits, but now available as a Fibertrends pattern, adapted for different sizes (shoulder shawl, small shawl, large shawl) and different yarn weights.  I'm using some kaalund laceweight yarn for this one. The first yarn (probably kaalund, felt the same but again, I#ve lost the ball band!) was too variagated to show off the lace pattern. This is more of a subtle variegation, lavender with bits of green. The photo isn't showing the lace pattern at all, but at least you can see that the colours are subtle.

In the pipeline
I also have two new patterns which I'm very interested in knitting, both fibertrends, one's a shawl and one's a scarf.

Fuschia Lace scarves.  I can see myself knitting these in some fine dk yarns. Great for Christmas presents.

And Spring Blossoms shawl.  I just love symmetrical patterned designs. I don't much like knitting them, but I like the effect. 

Which reminds me that I have some Robert Powell shawl patterns which I want to knit. Looks like I'll have a lot of SHIPs (SHawls In Progress) on the needles!