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February knitting and March goals

How did I do?  I think I had some stiff knitting for February!

February goals.

1) get buttons for Otello. Done!

2) Finish Charm - done!

 

3) Knit a small birthday gift, probably a cowl - done! Decided to knit a new baby gift instead.

4) Carry on with Foolish Virgins. I aim to knit charts 5 and 6, and make a good start on chart 7. Done!  I'm over halfway throught chart 7 now. I'll be blogging in a few days about this.  Need to take photos!

5) Start another shawl, number three - done!  And it's going to take me far longer than two months, I think!  Creatures of the Sunless Sea.  Blog progress post this coming week!

6) Start some plain socks - done!  Not much progress though, they're emergency knitting.

7) Start some patterned socks done!  But these are on hold. the knitting mojo has vanished for this project. I'm not frogging them, and may pick them up soon, you never know!

Photo is on camera card which is with Mr C at the moment ...

I've also started a few other things, not blogged about yet, toddler sized, but these will be (hopefully finished in March, then I will blog!)

March goals.

1) Foolish Virgins. Finish chart 7, repeat chart 7 (for the second half), knit chart 6 and start chart 5.

2) Creatures of the Sunless Sea. Finish repeat of chart C knit Chart E and get going on the central section.  I have the rest of the day to get started on this (even if it is still February).

3) Finish gifts for my great niece Miss E.  I've knitted her some socks, and am partway through knitting  the ribbon edged cardigan by Debbie Bliss.  Lovely cashmerino again.

4) Start and finish garment #3 for IntSweMoDo2010.  I have found some Manos Silk Blend today, and want to knit Moonstone, though I already see that I may have to adjust some elements. I will be mattress stitching not back stitching, and there will be normal edge stitches in pattern. Not sure about the facing on the front either.

5) Finish plain socks

6) Try to knit a little on the patterned socks, through gritted teeth. Note, not finishing, but possibly finish sock #1?

7) Let's see the way the wind blows.  I may start something small, I may not.  I may start a small shawl. Who knows yet?

Another stiff knitting month!  Good job I love knitting!

Marvels of the Sunless Sea proress

This is my third shawl for 10shawls2010. And it's going to take a loooooonnnnnng time to complete!
The shawl's made in two halves and grafted together.

The order of knitting is:

Bottom edging, border patterns (168 rows), half central panel (68 rows).  Knit the other piece, graft together, knit side and corner edgings.  So that's a total (excluding the edgings!) of 472 rows!  We all know how long edgings take as well.

Sunday tea time I'd finished the first chart of the border patterns, all of 35 rows!  437 more of the stole, less edging to go.  8% of the body of the stole.

A few setbacks this week as well.

1) I dropped a stitch on the edging. For the moment I've just threaded through some yarn to hold the stitches.  I think I didn't pick up a k2tog, rather than the yarn being broken, so I may just sew it down.

2) mid week last week I realised I'd made a mistake (I don't mark rows off, and knitted a partial wrong number row at some stage). I had to tink back, stitch by stitch, four rows. Painful!

3) I snagged and broke the yarn.  I've done a spit and rub and it's joined now but thicker...

Now each bit is meant to tell a tale and Hazel Carter does lovely descriptions as the knitting unfolds. 

Chart B is comprised of Ribbonfish and part of the Berried Anenomes. So far, pretty obvious (but I see me getting lost in the pattern at some stage!)

Since Sunday I've completed chart C as well!  This photo was taken at night, without flash, so there's a certain blurriness about it.  It's a cream yarn, but not as yellow as this! Of course the chart is at home so I can't remember which patterns are which!

 

I'm going to try to knit 15 rows each day. A tall order, and it's still going to take me at least another five weeks if I do that!  I'm gettijng used to the yarn too, it's a single ply and quite soft, a bit thick and thin in places. I've only ever  used J&S cobweb before, and thought that was much harder to knit with - but I was knitting with black cobweb, an old Shetland pattern which had old terminology!

Hooded Striped Top

As an easy carry along project I started a baby hoodie this week.  Bought some lovelyl baby cashmerino from IKL last weekend (no blues in stash) and started this on Sunday evening.

I intended this month knitting a birthday cowl and instead gave the recipient socks, but this counts as a birthday gift too!  It's for baby Ralph, born 6th February.

Pattern:  Hooded Striped top from Debbie Bliss Babt Cashmerino 

Started: 14th February

Finished: 20th February.

Yarn: baby cashmerino, pale blue and cream

Needles: 3mm (I would have gotten tension with 3.25mm but wanted a smaller garment, so he can wear it before the Spring).

No modifications though I had a funny half hour yesterday.  Instructions say to pick up 134 sts for hood border, including button bands.  I found it incredibly difficult, all of those stitches.  I went for picking up 2 out of 3 stitches (normally it would be 3 out of 4) and still had to decrease by about 50 sts on the next round.  Only when I cast off and looked at my hood did I realise something was very much off!   The hood is  a knitted rectangle.  You cast off and then fold the cast off edge in half and seam it!  I didn't do that, and that is why I has so many extra sttiches!  I only realised when I looked on ravelry to see what the babies looked like with this odd hood, and reaslised my error.  I have knitted hoods before as well!

Foolish Virgins progress

I've not worked on this the past few weekends, I've either been away or out, so yesterday I picked it up and worked on charts 5 and 6.  I much prefer working on this when there's sunlight outside; it's far too gloomy otherwise and I have to double check some of the colours.  My knitting chair is close to an east facing window, which is brightest in the morning, but somehow I'm always doing other things in the morning and never sit down to knit (on something which requires attention). 
 Just when I went outside to take photos it started raining, so they're a bit gloomy.  I had to turn off autoflash, it was so dim outside - at 2pm!

And here it is in all its glory, so far.  I have chart 7 to knit next, a big cube pattern, and then I'm halfway and will be starting the other end!  I haven't actually read through the pattern, but I presume that's how I'll do it.  Odd, the lace stole I'm knitting is also knitted in two pieces and grafted. 

I've decided to knit a striped backing out of the remants, so the ends are being ... knotted! Don't tell the knitting police!

Charm

Pattern: Charm by Kim Hargreaves.  Let's just say I keep calling this Marth, and spent a good 15 minutes looking at finished Marthas on ravelry before realising it wasn't the same garment!

Started: 19th January

Finished: 14th February

Needles: 3.75mm ( a few sizes down, my garter stitch was terrible)

Yarn: felted tweed, 9 skeins, not 8 as per the pattern! Good job I had a pack of this yarn.

Mods:  shortened sleeves by 2", which is what I usually do. 

Loved the pattern.  I've seen my friend Jill's knitting of this, and she's using felted tweed, pale blue, no flecks and it looks so much neater than mine! I think the flecks make it a little uneven.  I know the flecks drove me mad when I was seaming the thing!

Mine's a little smaller than it should be (needle size!) but it's fine and I can wear it, will just have to hold the tummy in a bit!  We had to go out twice because Mr C didn't notice the bottom was a bit uneven!

 

Second of the IntSweMoDo2010 done!  I haven't a third lined up, but several ideas.  I'm going to leave it a few weeks (until March) and concentrate on the baby/toddler knitting.

How to double your WIPs in one day

On Saturday I met up with knitting pal Jill at I Knit London for a few hours of knitting. Getting ready I realised that although I had lots on the needles, I had nothing suitable for carry-along knitting.

Lace - Marvels of the Sunless Seas.

Intarsia - Foolish Virgins scarf

Stranded - socks

No knitting, waiting for buttons - Otello

Needs seaming (yes, I finished the sleeves!) - Charm

That's five WIPs, but non suitable!

So I've cast on a plain sock, self striping and plain.  Austermann Step. My emergency sock knitting.

But then the lure of being in a yarnshop called!   Despite being on a yarn diet, a skein of Seasilk slipped into my hands! 

 
Buttons for Otello (which were sewn on last night, finally) and blogged on Sunday. One WIP off the list.

Then I thought about a new baby and a 17month baby/toddler, and some baby cashmerino landed in my hands, enough for 2 hats and 2 cardigans.  And a 50g ball of sock yarn for toddler socks!

That's socks, toddler socks, two hats and two cardigans.  I haven't cast them all on, yet, but I can't say I don't have carry-along knitting anymore!

Otello

The firsts garment for IntSweMoDo2010.  Eleven to go!

Pattern: Otello

Cast on: 31st December

Cast off: 16th January

Buttons added: 13th February, four weeks later!

Yarn: Ca D'oro (Louise Harding) , 12 balls.

Needles: 6mm (instead of 7mm, I can never get tension with chunky yarns).

My sleeve caps were ridiculously short!  I think I had this problem with the yarn before,. I've eased in the body(!) and it's wearable.  

The collar is sewn on, and I really should think before I sew things on - it would have been better to sew in on so the seam was on the inside!

   

After seeing the photo I've gone back and tacked it down!

Knitted from stash, as will all the garments for IntSweMoDo2010.

 

With our cold snap this will make a welcome addition to warm weather clothing!

Knitting catch-up

I didn't manage to finish Charm over the weekend.  Of course I never expected too - who can knit two sleeves in two days, not me!  I finished the second front on Friday evening, and cast on both sleeves Saturday morning. For some strange reason I thought I'd knit both at the same time.  I can't say that I'm enjoying it!  I find it fiddly with two balls of yarn, but at least I'm increasing at the same time, no possibllity of getting that wrong, and I won't have second sleeve syndrome. 

Anyway, I've gritted my teeth and only knitted on this (with a little break for a stranded sock which I've not blogged about yet). I want to finish this off before I start the next big project.

That will be a shawl.  I've ordered three patterns from Blackberry Ridge, plus some of the Thistledown yarn. It only comes in cream and is a single ply. It arrived today!  I'm not some great yarn expert, but it reminds me of J&S cobweb weight, probably because it's a single ply.  I've not got the two yarns sitting here side by side to compare.  The two shawls which I've already knitted for 10 shawls in 2010 have been simple, smaller shawls, so I'm looking forward to knitting something a bit bigger. 

That's Marvels of the Sunless Sea, The Petal Sonnet Triangular shawl and The Lockaminnie Shawl. Better details on the Blackberry Ridge pages. 

I've gone for the Marvels of the Sunless Sea stole, it's a biggish job and will be slow going.  It's knitted in two pieces, and grafted in the middle.  I've already started!

 

Although this just looks like a bit of tangled lace it shows the first three themes, tide, beach and Bladderwrack.  Two pattern repeats done, 12 to go.  I think this will join Foolish Virgins as a long, slow project. At this moment it's patterned both sides, and with this yarn I have to watch my knitting in case I drop a stitch.

I'm giving up on the birthday cowl, and will give the recipient some already knitted socks,  That's because I think I might like to knit something for my great niece.  She's 17 months now, saw her on Sunday and managed to pin her down to get rough measurements.  Who would think that her head's about 18.5" in circumference?  She seems really petite to me!  Her feet are nearly 5.5" around!  So I'm very motivated to knit a few toddler items this month.  I'll have to get the books out over the weekend, plus the baby cashmerino.  Another reason to get Charm finished!

Introducing Charm

This was started on January 19th.  It's felted tweed, and garter stitch.  I practically whizzed through the back in less than a week, but the left front slowed right down.   I didn't have much of a knitting week, last week. I spent the first three evenings knitting a shoulder wrap which is now in the frog pile, and the next two evenings sewing in ends!  As this is for IntSweMoDo2010 (twelve garments this year) I can't let it rest for too long, or slow down!  So this will be the travelling project and the evening project (hope there's good tv, all that garter stitch!)

Progress by Sunday lunchtimie:

 

Back done and front on top, nearly up to the armholes. 

I've been carrying it around with me this week and have now finished this front and am halfway up the right front.  The colour's called Blaze, but it isn't as bright as this.

I'm leaving Mr C to his own devices this weekend (i.e. Dave, sport, football, sport, vodka, comedy, late nights and takeaways) and going to visit the family, and I'm only taking Charm with me!  This is highly unusual, I normally take a few things with me, just in case.  My knitting expectations are still high though, I'm taking the rest of the yarn in case I manage to knit the rest of the front, and two sleeves in a weekend! Oh, and spare needles in case I lose or break one!  You'd think I was going to the middle of nowhere, instead of Cambs!

I'm really pleased to be using stash yarn again. This has been maturing for several years (why do we always put the oldest stash to the back of the pile and use the new stash?) and I have a full pack, but need only eight balls, will have to knit a striped jumper at this rate, with the leftovers!  Last year I wanted to knit 12 garments out of stash, but managed to knit a few with very new, just purchased yarn.  This year I'm going to stick with stash.  I already have two garments lined up for the warmer weather; one is a Kim Hargreaves kit, using Rowan HK Cotton (several years old) and the other is some Rowan 4ply cotton (only a year old but still from stash). 

Foolish Virgins progress

I decided last weekend to knit on this on Saturday instead of Sunday, so that I could take photos on Sunday in daylight.

Not much knitting done this week!  That's because of this, which took up two whole evenings and half of Saturday. Ends.

 

Done.  I've learnt my lesson, I hope, and will try to finish the day's knitting with some darning in of ends!  Hundreds. 

Never mind, you can see that I finished the big chart 2, and have now completed chart 3 (a mere three rows) and chart 4 - cubes!  I liked that one, it's pretty easy to do, though there are still lots of ends. Row one saw me with 21 colours!  I reckon that there's a mistake in the colour sequence too, as the far left bottom triangle colour does not match the top triangle, offset to the right, and all the others do.  I realised this after I'd already started, it can stay!

And now for the front.

 

Lovely. I am so glad to be finished that big chart!  This intarsia isn't as clean as it could be - the yarn is uneven, there are flecks in the colours (I can't tell you how many times I think I've knitted a stitch in the wrong colour, when it's just a fleck of colour) but I love it (so far).