skein

At last!

A long weekend + ITV3's Detective weekend = Finished Baby blanket!

My original plan was to wash and block this at the end of October (baby isn't due to arrive until 4th November-ish) but that curling garter stitch border, and the way that the little garter square in the centre was bagging worried me; what if the edge still curled and the centre still bagged post blocking?   

So the steam iron came out and the baby blanket had a little pressing.

The borders and centre behaved (though the borders are looking a bit wonky!).  Now I can put this away for 8 weeks until I want to wash it.

Yesterday I cast on this new baby outfit which will be my knitting at the stash flat.

That's Dale of Norway's Baby Ull, my first time knitting with it. I love the pattern books (ordered three) and love the yarn. It's superwash and very soft.
This cardigan is knitted in one piece up to the start of the yoke, where the two sleeves are joined and the pattern changes from a lacey patter to a cabled yoke. I like that sort of no-seam knitting.

I've been watching the competition comments - so far no-one has guessed the exact number, but we have two people who are drawing!  Either side of the correct number. You've still time to guess, until Friday!

Happy 2nd Blog Birthday!

Skein is two today! 

In honour of Skein's birthday, I've treated myself to a new mp3 player

Creative's Zen V.   In fact my old Muvo died at the weekend, and I needed a quick replacement for the audio books that I listen to on the commute, when I'm sock knitting.
I also finished my koigu socks

Toe up, with an eclectic heel and garter rib on the legs. Those tiny strands are what's left! I used 2mm needles on the foot, for durability (as if any socks that I knit will ever wear out!) and 2.5mm ebony dpns for the leg.

That leaves nine projects on the needles. They're gradually being whittled down. Three are UFOs/on hold, which leaves six projects. I anticipate that bloody boring baby blanket being finished over the weekend. I worked out how many stitches I have to knit before the cast off, and it's over 20,000.  I have no idea how long that will take - 10 hours?  We're at the stash flat, but that means that I spend a lot of time running around shopping, cleaning, cooking, washing up and getting distracted by my magazines and books. I tidied up my old Interweave knits a few weeks ago, and started putting stickers in (colour coded - socks, shawls/scarves, accessories, baby, garments) which was great fun but rather worrying. I don't just have Stash Acquisition beyond life expectancy but also Wishful Wips beyond life expectancy! Oh dear, and I haven't even started on this season's yarns and patterns.

In honour of Skein's second birthday we shall have another competition.

Question: How many posts have been published on this blog in those two years (including this one!).

Closest answer will win some of Dawn's stash. In the event of an actual draw (!) winner will be picked out of a hat. 

Here's a clue:  It's between 200 and 300!

***Added later ***
I forgot to add that I'll end the competition on Friday 2nd September - that means you've got a whole week to guess!

Knitting break

I've been working on the koigu toe-up socks, and hoped that I might have them finished by now. Well no.  We went to visit my brother this weekend, and got bogged down with a few family get togethers.  Knitted on the train journey up there, and for a few hours in the early evening, but unfortunately their evening lighting system is not knitter friendly; they turned off the overhead lamp and put on dingy side lamps!  As I was trying to socialise as well, the knitting took second place.  Chris and I were so enthralled with a massive plasma screen tv and thousands of Sky channels that we stayed up for hours after everyone went to bed watching tv and drinking vodka.

Sock progress so far: both feet knitted, and this much garter rib on sock number 1:

I'll finish these by the end of August. We'll be over at the Stash Flat for the bank holiday weekend, and I'm hoping to finish the baby blanket (hoping, but I have 38 every increasing rows to knit!).

A few small FOs

Mid August, but my July Project Spectrum is finished!

Yarn: Lorna's Laces in Blackberry
Pattern: Heartstrings Anklet Coronet
Needles: 2.5mm dpns.
Loved the pattern. The top of the foot has a nifty ribbed pattern.

And more for baby. AC the pregnant one has asked for a white plain wool hat.  I've opted for Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK weight.  I had enough left over to knit some cute bootees.

The hat is just a plain stocking stitch hat with a ribbed edging and tubular cast on.

The bootees are from Zoe Mellor's 50 Baby Bootees to knit. A book I'd overlooked first time around but I found one in Amazon's marketplace going for a song and couldn't resist.  The slip on bootees aren't very practical, I know, but might suffice for the first week or so. Just gorgeous to look at.

I'm now working on the next socks on the list, koigu socks.  These are toe-up (I don't want to run out of yarn) and I started these as two socks on two circulars, but I've quickly realised that this method is not for me.  Especially when the yarn is stuffed in each sock, they weigh a tonne! (well 100g).
So they're now separated, and I'm an inch  off starting the eclectic heel, great for high insteps where a short row heel on its own is a little tight.

I'm using 2mm circulars, but aim to knit the leg on my new 2.5mm ebony dpns from Scottish Fibres, can't wait!

Another swap, and holiday knitting

Before I forget, there's another exchange starting, still open for sign ups!  It's the International Scarf Exchange, and all it entails is that you knit a scarf for your secret buddy to their specifications and that it's received by 1st November.  Of course you can include few gifts for you pal if you wish to.   The rules are posted on 10th August entry.  This is my second time around, I received a great package last time.

Holiday knitting
Not a lot done on holiday.  Within a few days I realised that 3 pairs of socks, a shawl and a shrug (last minute decision) would not be completed in 10 days. 

So I pruned the holiday wips and these

 

were put on the back burner - koigu toe-up socks and Chris's LL socks in Argyle.

The patterning on the Argyle is looking quite stripey:

Not at all like the wound ball.

The shrug is on hold now that I'm back (too many wips!) but I managed to finish one front - it's got long ties at the front, hence the odd shape.

The holiday shawl is also on hold! The last dozen rows have the wrong decreases!  I'm unravelling each double decrease as I come to it - there's 18 or so - so this is on hold until I finish my other shawl OTN.
Here's the flawed shawl before the fatal incorrect dble decreases.

It's Joslyn's fiberfarm laceweight yarn, the pattern is Orchid Leaf Pi Shawl. 

Finally the Fleece Artist socks.  I've been collecting Fleece Artist 4 ply, but haven't yet knitted with it, and I was in for a treat. I knitted these toe-up, in case I ran out of yarn, and used 2mm circulars for the foot, and 2.5mm for the ribbed leg.

In progress (note the non alcoholic beverage).

And finished.

I'm looking forward to my next Fleece Artist socks.

I make a point each year of popping into the LYS in Christchurch, Honara's yarn shop. It mainly stocks stuff that I'm not really interested in, lots of novelty eyelash yarn, which I'm terribly slow at knitting up.  I always find something though, and this year I came back with this lot:

Some Twilleys Denim Freedom, a small crochet hook (yes, I thought I'd finish that shrug and crochet the edging whilst on holiday!) and some novelty plastic coloured crochet hooks, in larger sizes, which should fill a hole in the crochet hook stash.  This currently resides at new stash place #4, Chris's parents house! 

Lace swap!!

I was going to post today about the new designs in IK and Rowan 40, and my August aims and knitalongs.

But...

The postman brought a wonderful surprise today!  My lace swap gift.  What a fantastic surprise and what wonderful contents!

Where to start?
We have a skein of Habu Soy yarn, 2930yds, more than double the expected yardage. It's wonderfully soft and luscious stuff, and with this yardage I'll be able to knit a huge lace shawl.  Then we have, not a pattern, but a book!  It's Gossamer Webs, the history and techniques of Orenburg Lace.  Now that's something that I've not tried yet, can't wait to delve in and read this.  A funny sheepy card and some mints from Vermont (already sampled by myself and a work colleague).  A lovely little book of hand altered polaroids (they look like photos of actual paintings) of Ann Arbour, and last but not least, some stitch markers.  Not dangly at all. See?

I can't wait to use them.  My exchange partner is Beth, and you can read her blog here. Many, many thanks Beth!  You've made a knitter in London very happy! I think I frightened everyone in the office when the postman came in with a package for me!

I've yet to post out my package, still gathering. The yarn and pattern are here, thanks to Get Knitted and Woollyworkshop -  and this is all you need to know!

Knitting swaps and clubs

Several years ago I participated in a secret knitting pal exchange which was for six monthly parcels. Great fun, but quite a commitment to create six interesting parcels,  usually including either Christmas or Easter and possibly a special birthday parcel. 

I'm always on the lookout for new one-off exchanges, and usually find them after membership has closed!  Last month I struck lucky, though.

 

Yarn Aboard II (which I keep referring to as Yarn AbRoad!).  This is a travelling box, which I'll unpack and then repack and send it on its way to my secret recipient. I have no idea when it'll turn up, but the idea is to have the box  posted off within five days. I have the contents sorted on this one! 

The Lace Swap.  This again is a secret round robin, I've already heard from the person who'll be sending to me!  Can't wait. I have yet to organise a package for my pal, but she's already had a secret email from me!

I've also joined Posh Yarn's sock club, and a surprise package was waiting for me when I went back to work yesterday. 

Cashmere/wool blend and very soft. This will be staying in the skein until I prune the projects.  My pre-holiday very optimistic list of sips & wips are still on the needles, and I need to whittle this down a bit before embarking on more new knitting.  IK and Rowan 40 were waiting for me at the stashflat last night, and I'm impressed with both magazines (more in a later post I think!).

I'm blogging at work, and of course the holiday knitting pics are at home, so these will be in another post, but I do have a very boring photo of the very boring baby blanket that I'm knitting. Another 36 rows until I start the border, which is written out in longhand, so that will be a barrel of laughs too.

Can you tell that I'm not enjoying this knitting? I prefer a pattern!

I'm back!

I've only been away for just over a week, but it feels like a month!  Must be down to no contact with tv, www or newspapers. Although I've turned most of my yahoo groups on no-mail, I've nearly 400 emails and nearly 500 bloglines feeds to catch up on!

As usual, the holiday knitting and reading didn't quite go to plan.

Books to read:3.  Actual books read:2 (not bad!)
Audio books to listen to:5.  Actual audio books listened to: 1.5
Socks to knit: 3 pairs.  Actual socks knitted: 1 pair.
Lace knitting: stalled at the third chart due to incorrect double decreasing. I have to run down 10 rows to correct all of these decreases. There's something like 18 corrections to do, and I've done about 4.

I've this idea that I can just laze around and knit all morning, afternoon and evening. In reality we spend time socialising with local friends, maybe having the odd walk along the beach or over the head (Hengistbury Head), going to the pub or just snoozing.  Cuts into knitting time, I can tell you.

This is the view from Hengistbury Head down onto the huts.

And this is Chris on the Head, standing rather too close to the edge for my liking.

Dotted along the Head are these lovely seats, donated by families in memory of departed relatives to enjoy the view:

The new addition to the Head - four Galloway cows who've been purchased to control the grasses and encourage more wildlife and wild flowers.

And finally, the view from our hut in the evening.

Back to knitting in the next post, when I get my act together and show the meagre knitting content.