skein

More lace

I'm certainly on a knitting roll this week!  I had a mad weekend, knitted loads, found time on Saturday between knitting, food shopping and cleaning (minimal) to go outside and take photos of my Summer Braids, and blocked my Mystery Shawl Knitalong which was finished last week!

It was hit and miss. I had to move the bed aside as this is a circular shawl, ended up getting the hairdryer out at midnight to get it bone dry otherwise we would have been treading on the pins!
Blocking.  I couldn't use my Early Learning play mats as I only have 4!  It was too wide for the bed so floor and carpet it was.  I've lost my fishing line and usual tin of pins, so had to resort to the back up tin of pins.  I'd quite like this to be blocked so that the points had three pins, not one pin, and would be slightly rounded. Oh well, next time.

Ocean Tide from Goddess Knits, part of a Mystery Shawl Knitalong several months ago.
Yarn: Jamieson's Ultra, a lace weight wool. Colour is Opal, very pretty and not quite solid.
Needles and yardage - who knows?  I'm going to start writing these things down!
Here's a selection of shots on the bed (best background for the lace)

Beginning

Middle

End

And more gratuitous shots!

Now for the Mystery Stole KAL clue 1, later today!

On a finishing roll!

A few more things off the needles.

Angel Sweater by Oat Couture
Yarn: Sirdar Bamboo (approximately 3 balls, but as I was knitting from frogged yarn, I can't be sure)
Needles: 3.75mm
Size: smallest, 6 month size
Started and Finished in June 2007.
Dawn's personal adjustments:  The sleeves are knitted by casting on a lot of stitchs and decreasing in steps.  I prefer to do short rows, so that I don't have a stepped edge to sew into the cardigan.

Summer Braids Cardigan by Cabin Fever

The front door shot is closest to the true colour. It's amazing how difficult green is to photograph. Add it to the reds and purples!

Pattern: Summer Braids Cardigan by Cabin Fever, a favourite, as I've knitted this one twice! It's knitted all in one piece up to the armholes, then divided into fronts and back. The sleeves are knitted top down, in the round, and the underarm stitches are eaten up in the knitting when you start the sleeves - a no-sew cardigan!
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Rialto.  A dk weight yarn, similar to Jaeger's Extra Fine Merino. Wonderful to knit with.  I chose this colour because it was Project Spectrum's colour for April/May. better late than never; my choice for the colours for Feb/March was blue, and it was the Forest Path Stole, still on the needles! 
Dawn's adjustments: I altered the rate of decreasing on the sleeve, as I either have super short stumpy arms or the pattern is written for someone with very long arms.  My last Summer Braids had peculiarly shaped arms, with very frequent decreasing as I reached the lower arm and realised that I had a substantial number of stitches still to decrease.

June Plans aren't going as well as they ought to be.  I've still two pairs of socks and a garment to start and finish. As this is the last week of June, it's unlikely I can do this!  I'm going to give in and instead knit a few things for Brigid's Kisiizi Appeal. Just look at what she's received already, gorgeous stuff. I have a few things on the needles already, good for lunchtime and commuter knitting.

Forest Path Stole update

A long overdue update!

I've sadly been letting this lapse, despite my fabulous new Addi lace needles. So this weekend I've knitted away on this and added another 4 tiers. I'm now up to tier 19, my original stopping point.  But now that I've heard how it's not too stretchy for blocking, I'm definitely going to go the whole hog and knit another 4 tiers.  Just not this week, I need a break!  My stole is working out at about 66" unblocked (that's including the seed stitch top border approximation) but I can't see it stretching out a lot lengthwise. I think that the edge treatment on the seed stitch side triangles isn't particular elastic. 

The stole is looking exactly the same as at tier 15!  Oh well, here's a few shots anyway.

See! It won't fit in the frame anymore!

Another close up.

And here it is in its entirety.
Four more tiers to go!

What's motivated me to get this finished is that I've joined another knitalong, which starts on Friday - the Mystery Stole KAL.  I've joined a few other Mystery knitalongs, but these have been Goddess Knits KALs (where you pay to join, only a few $$, which covers the cost of the pattern), not Pink Lemon KALs (which are free).  Nic mentioned this in Stash the other Saturday, and at the time I didn't give it much thought, but it's been simmering away in my subconcious, until, on Friday, I finally googled and discovered that the KAL designer's other stole patterns have been on my wishlist for a while.  I love this pattern!

You still have time to join!  The knitting starts on Friday.  I've found that I lag behind on these KALs, I'm not one of those eager beavers who try to be the first ones to finish the weekly clue on the same day as it comes out.  I lag behind sooooo much, that I've just blocked the MysteryShawl KAL from several months ago! Post and photos in progress...

Not doing too well on the socks

but the Angel Sweater from Oat Couture is going well!

I went to visit the family last night and stayed all day today, so I did lots of knitting.

Here's the Angel Sweater with sleeve #1

I've now finished sleeve #2, sewn in all the ends ... to discover that I've not sewn the sleeves in symmetrically!  So I'm going to have to hunt down the end of the sleeve I don't like, unpick it and re-sew it in again. That can wait until the weekend.

A nearly completed garter stitch scarf, a Handmaiden Silk Spun kit bought at Stash.  I've a few of these gathering dust in my stash!

Great train knitting for the journey back to London tonight.

Another sock disaster - second time around Fleece Artist merino in Burgundy: too wide!

And finally, good news on the knitting front.  Niece C is knitting a patchwork blanket (which my sister informs me was originally going to be a cardigan for me!).

Here's a close up of the blanket

And the dolls (including Monkey!)

Notice the book open in the top picture? That's a book which I took for my sister, and her daughter has snapped it up, wants to knit a blue mermaid!

Winners and Losers

There's plenty of knitting going on at Dawn's, but sadly most of it has been abandoned. I like having a few things on the needles, and as the number of WIPs dwindle, I usually enter this phase where I don't know what to cast on next, and end up casting on several things at once, and not liking any of it.

I finished the Summer Braids cardigan last Thursday. The photos from Friday before work were dreadful.  I think it's a mixture of funny early morning light and no time to play around before work.
  This is a close up of the cardigan. It is NOT this yellow!  That's the sunlight!  I'll try next weekend to get outside midday and take a decent shot. 
My June Plans are a little behind, aren't they?
With less than half the month to go, I still have to
1) work 3 more tiers of the Forest Path Stole (I've worked one tier, but there's no point in a photo as it looks *exactly* the same as the last photo taken).

2) sockapaloozer pal #2 socks.  I've cast on Go with the FLow, but guess what?  I'm not too keen on them!  They're currently on hold. I like the colour, I like the pattern, but I'm not sure on this pattern with this colour.
 

3) Socks for me.  These are cinema knitting, plain, top down socks in Fleece Artist merino sock yarn, in Burgundy.  We're off to see Zodiak in half an hour, that's over 3 hours of knitting, if you include the adverts.

4) Another garment for me. I've not given this much thought yet, there's half a dozen waiting in the wings (ie at the top of the Stash pile, easily accessible)
5) Baby garments
I've started a baby cardigan for Brigid's Kiziizi Baby Clothes appeal.  No photos, as it's the lunchtime knitting at work. Plain, top down raglan in  some stashed Jaeger aran weight yarn.

I'm also on my second attempt at a summer cardy for baby O.  My first attempt was a loser. A baby bolero.  The armholes are huge. The sleeve tops are at least 2 inches shorter!

My second attempt is working out, although it looks very wide!  I'm holding off frogging until I get to the chest, where I'll be dropping a needle size and decreasing.

I'm going to try to finish this one in the next few days.

Sockapaloozer Embossed Leaves socks

Not the greatest photographs of my completed Embossed Leaves socks, from Favorite Socks, but the best that I could manage at 6.30am, in the mad rush before work!

2 skeins of koigu, afraid I don't know the shade as the labels are long gone.  I did my usual cast on instead of the funny ribbed cast on, as my tension was a bit off, and there's nothing worse than tight ribbing on socks.  I didn't follow the pattern for the heels and toes either (which cleverly mimic the leaf pattern) as the koigu was gaping a bit on the 2.75mm needles.  I frogged the first toe (where I'd worked out how to reverse the patterning to accommodate the extra half pattern repeat) and just knitted a plain toe on smaller needles. These socks are *nearly* done.  I found out that I'd grafted a few sts on one toe in reverse, so I have 2 purl sts presenting. This will need to be sorted out, but hey, I have 2 months!

The next sockapaloozer sock is on the needles, just. I'm a sock saviour, so these are for pal #2.  After much changing of minds, I've settled on Go with the Flow, again from Favorite Socks.

This is the cuff; I've another inch of main pattern knitting done now. The yarn is CTH supersock, from the Woollyworkshop sock club. I think the colour (it's a Potluck shade) is great for these socks, just a little variation. The lace reminds me of water, and I'm sure this shade of Potluck is a watery one (again, lost the label!)

My knitting seems to have slowed down, and I feel that I'm not making much progress on my June goals, though I have a cardigan on the go for baby O, another pair of plain socks for me (cinema knitting, and did I need it!  Pirates of the Carribean is very long!). Summer braids is going slow too, this is lunchtime knitting, and I haven't had much time for longer lunch breaks (such as now, blogging rather than knitting).

Brigid has put out a request for 0-5yo knitting, going to Kisiizi, so I shall turn my attention to hunting out some wool for this in the next few days.

Ravelry

I'm sure most of you have already read blog posts about Ravelry. I've just joined over the weekend (and only know two people!), so haven't had much time to look through the site, but so far, everything that I've seen has been fabulous. 

It really helps if you have a flickr account. You can register and not pay, with limited uploads of photos each month, or pay and have unlimited uploads.  Ravelry will upload your flickr photos with a few clicks of the mouse. 

I've just added my current wips, and what's really cool is that most of the yarns are already listed, so I can just click on the search button and my yarns came up!  As did most of the patterns. You can see how many people have used your yarn, or your pattern.  You can log your stash, your future queued knitting, see other peoples stuff.  I could spend hours looking at everyone's wips and fos!  If you haven't put your name down on the waiting list, now's the time!

And one more thing - Audible have a few of the Yarn Harlot's books on audio! At Knits End and the Casts Off.

Summer Braids Cardigan progress report.

Summer Braids really ought to be finished by now.
Unfortunately, I've spent the last two evenings playing with my new toy. I've been looking at basic knitting machines for a while now. Ever since Ally Pally, when I spotted an LK150, which is similar to the Bond machine from the 1980s. I wanted something which knitted handknit yarns, and was lightweight and portable. This fits the bill. A quick phone call to BSK and two days later it's here.  It's a pretty basic model, and I intend using it for boring stocking stitch pieces only.  My first attempts have been baby garments, just to practise on.  I can tell you now that it's probably quicker to handknit a tiny baby garment! The actual pieces take no time at all (once the machine's threaded up correctly!) but there's the sewing up and edging to be done. I think I'll probably use this in the long term for larger pieces of stocking stitch, or if I need to run up some quick strips for blankets or felting. 

I'll stick to handknitting when in company, though. I can still participate in conversation (and be heard) when I'm handknitting, but this requires more attention from me!

Summer Braids has therefore travelled to work with me, and will be lunchtime knitting until it's finished.

See, just that little bit of sleeve left!

I've finished the Embossed Leaves socks for my Sockapaloozer pal (number one pal, I have another pair to knit).  Unfortunately the photo was awful, so I'll have to take another one next week.

Meanwhile, I'm ready for the next pair of socks. I'm not sure if these will be for me, or for my Sockapaloozer pal #2.  I haven't decided on a pattern, but the yarn is Fleece Artist merino, in Burgundy. Just look at these colours.

The yardage is very similar to Koigu (my Embossed Leaves socks) and I only just had enough yarn for those socks, so I'll have to keep them shorter and maybe lace over cables.

I'm feeling positively saintly over my diminishing number of wips.  The same can't be said for my stash though. I've been quietly logging it, and it's overwhelming me a little. The crunch came this week, when I pulled out the under-bed stash. Not much, I thought, and it's only in three drawers...

If you consider that this is either vacuum packed or in those compression bags, there's an awful lot of stash here.  Mostly in packs, or a garment's worth, mostly bought in sales.  And it's only the underbed stash!  You can see that there's no colour scheme going on here, I like all colours! Gotta start knitting...

Summer Braids Cardigan progress report.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!  I'm now on the second sleeve, maybe another 40 (decreasing) rounds to go.  I've sewn in most of the ends, so all that's to do once this sleeve is finished is sew on the buttons. 
The sight of sunshine on Saturday encouraged me to work solely on this over the weekend. It will be nice to get this finished and put away for autumn.  And to start on something else. I've been very restrained, for me!
Debbie Bliss Rialto is a great merino to work with. The colour I chose is not so great to photograph.

May knitting and June plans

Not quite as successful as I'd have liked!

My original May goals were
1) Finish the gift socks for May.
2) Socks for me. Yarn: not decided. Pattern: not decided.
3) Finish Summer Braids before the summer starts!
4) Knit another five tiers, at least, on the Forest Path Stole, which would bring me to tier 15.
5) Baby cardigan
6) Finish my ISE4 Diamond fantasy shoulder shawl.
7) Not that I'll start this yet, but here's another stash acquisition! 
Kim Hargreaves Peace cardigan, in cotton dk, Ice Water  Finsih the Mystery Shawl.

And the reality: (all photos are clickable, if you really want to see them up close)
1) Gift socks  - SUCCESS!

2) Socks for me my Sockapaloozer pal - FAILURE! I'm still on sock #2, three rows to the heel. Here's a progress pic. They're the Embossed Leaves from Favorite Socks. The pattern's very addictive!   Rather than knit a stocking stitch heel, I've gone for a heel stitch heel flap, as this is Koigu and not as robust as a wool/nylon blend.

3) Finish Summer Braids - FAILURE!  But at least I'm on the sleeves now, so the end is in sight.

4) Another five tiers on the Forest Path Stole - SUCCESS!

5) knit a baby cardigan - FAILURE!  Not even otn! 

6) finish my scarf for my ISE4 partner - SUCCESS!

Diamond Fantasy Shawl, in Seasilk (Ocean)

7) I was a little excited about my new Kim Hargreaves kit to mention goal #7, but it was to finish my Mystery Shawl, aka Ocean Tide - SUCCESS!  it needs blocking (a lot; it's quite small)

in Jamieson's Ulta, shade Opal.

Overall, I'm quite pleased, especially with the Forest Path Stole progress (it's like having teeth pulled!) and finally finishing the Mystery Shawl, which has been lying around for months now.  I'll be blocking this in the next few weeks, I suppose. I need to clear the floor and move the bed over for a circular shawl.

And what next, for June?
1) finish the Embossed Leaves socks for my Sockapaloozer. I managed to knit the whole leg last night, so these can be finished quite quickly (that's if no other knitting beckons).

2) another four tiers on the Forest Path Stole.  Much easier now, I hope, since buying some Addi Lace needles - they're fantastic!  Smooth join, pointy needles and they're slightly scuffed on the surface so not as slippery as Addi Turbos. 

3) my sockapaloozer pal #2 socks. I'm a sock saviour, which means a second pair for pal #2. No ideas yet of which socks to knit.

4) finish Summer Braids. Should be pretty easy if I can find a decent book to knit to.

5) some plain sock knitting - socks # 12 for the year.

6) start another garment. I've been looking through the stash and have quite a lot of spring and summer yarns at the top of the stash pile waiting to be knitted up. 

7) baby knitting!  I've been trying to knit a baby garment for two months now, with no luck, so this month I'll try to achieve this!  Baby O hasn't had a new cardigan in two months, she's outgrown most of the other ones. 

I'd like it known that no knitter was harmed or stressed in writing these lists. I LOVE making lists!  Pre-blogging days I used Excel, and mapped out not just monthly goals, but daily goals! It's just a bit of fun, challenges me to pull my finger out and get knitting!