skein

Heading towards the end of the Christmas Knitting

I've set a personal target with myself to finish off the Christmas knitting by the end of November. I'll be out and about tomorrow night, which leaves me with 3 evenings and 1 day to finish the gift knitting.

Finished gift #12
Debbie Bliss cashmerino2 booklet, striped cardigan.

I made only two changes, and that was to knit the bottom half, up to the armholes, in one piece (reducing the stitch count by four stitches to accommodate the seam stitches), and knit the sleeves in the round. These help to eliminate seams, not something that I'm fond of in very tiny baby sizes.  At least give me a good length of mattress stitch, not a piddly 2 inches!

Nearly finished gift #13
Acrylic Doll.  Yes, I stuck to my guns and knitted on this over the weekend (which was so horrible to knit with that it took me a lot longer to knit than if it had been washable wool or nicer acrylic).  I found out that metal is far easier to knit with than bamboo.

Not quite finished.  I need to stuff the doll, sew on hair, embroider eyes and lips. Probably an evening's work, but I think I can manage this part as it's the home stretch!

Oops!  Here are the clothes - nickers, cardigan and skirt. And if I'd read the pattern before I started that skirt, it would have been half the width and taken half the time.

The pattern is in the the book Toys to Knit by Tracy Chapman.  Now I can't vouch for the other knitted patterns in the book, but the ones I chose (clothes and various body parts) nearly all had errors, usually stitch count errors. NOT good!  I also didn't like her method of knitting the doll in bits - arms and legs were strips of knitting with seams, body and head had two bits joining. Not good when you're stuffing it with toy filler and those seams  stretch.  Cute photos of the toys, but in my opinion go out and buy another toy book not riddled with errors.

Halfway finished gift #14 (the last!)

Just another ribbed sock for Chris.  I'm very tempted to not worry about this one being finished by the end of November, because I'm pig sick of knitting big socks.

Especially as I haven't knitted up any of my Posh Yarns Sock Club yarn, and I've just joined another two sock clubs - Fyberspates and Red Bird Knits.  Oops.  And Victorian Lace is full of lace inspiration.  Oops again.

No Camera

I've finished another Christmas gift and left the camera at home! Never mind, this means that I'll be able to take more photos, but in daylight, over the weekend. It's the one thing I dislike about the winter months, these shorter days.  I go to work in the dark and come home in the dark, not much fun.   It's the striped cardigan from baby cashmerino 2.  I worked in one piece up to the armholes, then to and fro. The sleeves were worked in the round (not much fun when they're baby sleeves), though I didn't bother doing top down sleeves this time.
This means that I've only one (large) sock and the knitted doll to go before all my Christmas knitting is finished. The deadline is by Thursday, and then it's just finishing off stuff before the end of the year.  I have 4 birthdays in December on top of Christmas, so I don't want to have the last minute panic knitting.  I might make some extra gifts of course, depends on how the UFO knitting goes.

Think of me this weekend. I'll be working on the knitted doll and her clothing.  The yarn is Wendy dk acrylic, and it's just horrible to knit with. Squeak, squeak, squeak. It's slightly shiny as well, oh joy.  I went with this because you can buy a pack of 500g from Knitwell for under £12, 20 x 25g balls of various colours, ideal for this sort of thing. My only gripe is that there seems to be one skin colour, very pale pink, practically white!  I've finished the body and arms and am now working on the head.


I've based the doll on this pattern, but I've worked it in the round rather than in pieces.
One project I will be really pleased to finish. I'm not yarn snob, I've worked on blends before and 100% acrylics, but this stuff is more than horrible, it's sheer torture.  Washable wool next time!

Baby knitting and photos

Actually, it's part of the Christmas knitting. A pink baby cardigan, in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, from the baby cashmerino 2 booklet.  I'm knitting in in one piece up to the armholes and then will work the fronts and back separately, and knit top down sleeves.

Here's a picture of a very enamoured dad in the hospita;.

We popped around today for a very quick visit, en route to the cinema. We're trying to keep away, give them some space in this first week, and the baby was sleeping but I managed to take a few photos

From the camera phone (nice to know it works!)

From my camera

She's adorable. The very small baby hat I knitted her fits!  I'm really surprised, it was tiny, and I knitted another two larger hats as well just in case.

I expect I'll finish this cardigan in a few days. We're going to watch 24 tonight (which means several hours worth of knitting, can't stop at one (or two, or three!) episodes.

Wristers and acquisitions

Malabrigo yarn, approximately 50g (which is half a skein).  3.75dpns. I adapted the original free pattern to include half a thumb, added about 4 more rows to the top 2x2 ribbing, and did a couple of fake cables on the wrist ribbing.

Isn't the colour gorgeous?  I think it's Forest (but the label seems to have walked).
I've 2.5 skeins left, so another pair for me will be on the needles shortly.

Chris's parents will be travelling up to see the new baby today.  We've not had a proper baby photo yet, just one post c-section (where all you can see is the baby's head) and one with AC looking a bit worse for wear.  I bought some yarn about 6 months ago to knit a girly pink and cream striped cardigan,  so I'm quite pleased with my 'prediction'!

I've also been, ahem, acquiring a few things.
First off is not yarn!  I'm going to try my hand at a new hobby! I've knitted Christmas washcloths, which go down well with nice soap, wrapped in a little cellophane bag.  I've decided this year to try to make some soap.  Well let me tell you, I'm not going down the  traditional road, where I have to use lye, and mix it with water!  Sounds too dangerous for me, even though I've got Chemistry O and A Levels, it's one thing mixing stuff up in a lab, quite another in a home environment.  So it's heat and pour. Sounds really simple.

This is a starter kit. You just melt the bars (one's clear, one's opaque) and add colour and fragrance, and there's a couple of soap moulds included.  I'll be making basic square soaps for starters, I think.  I also bought a bath bomb starter kit with moulds, colour and fragrance.

Now the yarn
Colinettes new Jitterbug sock yarn.

Top is Mardis Gras, bottom is Florentina. More sock stash!

And finally, a new book

I love it!  There's nearly 40 patterns, triangular, circular, rectangular, and loads of scarves, with loads of typically English photographs of stately homes and green rambling countryside. I just hope that XRX have got their act together this time and ironed out most of the errors, after the fiasco with A Gathering of Lace.   And at £14.15 it's a bargain - hard back, glossy photos, loads of pattern - I'd highly recommend it. This weekend I'll be trying to resist casting on any more lace. Must finish this gift knitting first!

Christmas knitting

I've nearly finished two more gifts - wristers.  This is a quick easy pattern for fingerless gloves.
Pair number one were knitted exactly as per the pattern, but instead of aran/worsted weight I knitted with some dk yarn on 3mm needles to give a firm fabric.

These are for someone with tiny hands and will look fine on their hands, but for a laugh here's a couple of photos of them on my rather large hands. A hand model I am not!

The pattern is a 2x1 rib for 3", then plain knitting and increases for the thumb gusset, and ends with 2x2 ribbing on the top (so the wristers don't flare).

I'm nearly finished the second pair, same numbers but I'm using a worsted weight yarn, Malabrigo and 4mm needles. I'm adding this to my list of favourite yarns, it's so soft and wonderful to knit with.   This second pair of wristers are a little longer in length, and I've added a thumb, and have about half a skein left. This was from Stash Yarns, and I'll be looking out for more on Saturday (for me this time).

Aren't they divine?

Once these are finished, there's just three more items to knit for Christmas

Chris's socks
A knitted doll
and .....

a baby outfit

...

for a girl!!   Yes, AC had a lovely baby girl this morning, by caesarian section. Overdue by 13 days!! So all of you at Stash on Monday who thought it might be a girl - you're right! 

Still no baby

Day 10, half an hour until day 11.  Antenatal on day 12.  We're hoping (for parents to be and grandmother to be) that the baby arrives soon. 

I've been plodding along on the Christmas knitting. I started off with 14 gifts to knit, now down to 9.

And then we have
2 chenille washcloths

Another (the last novelty) scarf. I may have already blogged this one - I'm so excited to be finished! Feza scarf #3

This one is in shades of green.

And finally a pair of socks, for Chris's father, in Regia Silk Color (browns and greys)

A pleasure to knit.

That leaves 5 more gifts
Another pair of socks for Chris (sock #1 is nearly complete)
Two pairs of wristlets/fingerless gloves
A baby cardigan when the baby is born
A cardigan.  Change of mind. This is now going to be a knitted doll for one of my sister's children.  She's not a very conventional 9yo, so I may have to knit a doll with purple hair and alternative outfit. The only reason she wants the doll is because it's been around since before she was born, and I suspect it's her blankie equivalent.

We had a wonderful Yarn Tasting at Stash Yarns tonight.  Lorna's laces. And of course the LL followed me home

A very dull night-time picture, but the yarn isn't. From left to right some Shepherd Sock in a very bright Girly Stripe colour, Shepherd Worsted Lakeview (for another scarf I suppose),  Swirl DK Mixed Berries, and more Shepherds Worsted in shade Baltic (I have this in the sock yarn too, in stash!).  The latter was bought with Chris in mind, but, alas, he thinks it's not colourful enough for him, so maybe me?

Baby stuff delivered

but the baby seems to be happy where he/she is!  Baby was due on Saturday, and we're trying desperately hard not to phone up and see how things are (i.e. have they just forgotten to phone us to tell us they're off to hospital!)

I'm really looking forward to knitting something that isn't white!

Dale cardigan and Dale hat; EZ baby cardigan (from Knitter's Almanac) and plain hat (but we think this is too small, so I've knitted a larger hat, in the photo below); slip on bootees from 50 bootees to knit book; Oat Couture Auntie's Afghan - not white, thank god.

A larger plain hat and the oh so cute baby bolero from One Skein.

And last but not least (my favourite) some tiger socks from sock yarn remnants.

Now to wait for the cuter baby to make an appearance. 

Still here, still knitting

with nothing much to show for it. I think November will be largely Christmas (and birthday) knitting.  I'm dying to start something bigger than a scarf or a pair of socks, but I'm trying so hard to stick to Christmas knitting and current projects.

I've been fantasising about knitting cardigans for this cooler weather - today I went hunting for the winter woollies and  can't find them!  I've obviously been ruthless in storing them at the back of a cupboard (these vacuum packed bags are brilliant, but just the very fact that they shrink your woollies down to a quarter of their usual size means that you can hide them very well). 

No baby news yet, baby was due yesterday. Can't wait to see which sex this one is so that I can knit a colourful Christmas present. (AC requested white garments, and I've stuck to that request with just a few exceptions).

I've one finished scarf to show. This is Misti Alpaca Chunky purchased at Stash a few weeks ago. It's a free pattern from Misti, and a very quick knit.

Another sock on the needles. These are destined for Chris's father.

Toe up Regia Silk, with an eclectic heel, 2mm dpns on the foot, progressing to 2.5mm dpns for the leg.  I'm enjoying this yarn, very soft to knit with. (In fact, I've nearly finished the leg now!). Will have to invest in more of this.  The colour doesn't grab me, but these are for an 80yo man who likes browns and greys.

I've spent the whole afternoon (need the natural daylight) trying to fix the errors in my holiday shawl.  This is the Orchid Pi shawl, a circular shawl knitted with some Joslyn's fiberfarm merino laceweight, which I'd started July/August whilst on holiday. 

I'd knitted the double decreases as left sloping decreases (sl1, k2tog, psso) instead of centred double decreases (sl2, k1, p2sso). This meant correcting 12 rows, on a pattern which repeated 18 times in the round.
I'm not sure how clear this is, but here's the incorrect double decrease

Here's the corrected double decrease

And here's the shawl on holiday

It's not much bigger now, but ready to work on when the Christmas knitting is done, roll on 1st December!