skein

A quick update

I'm whizzing off to see the family this weekend, and it's going to be a longer than usual one, leaving in a few hours and not returning till Monday, which means I don't have to rush back on Sunday evening after eating a huge roast dinner.   Mr C. is prepared for his boy's weekend, though he's trying hard to conceal his enjoyment at complete control of the remote, the vodka, eating what and when he wants to, and going to bed late (read: falling asleep on the sofa).  He has included in the Ocado order his usual 'treats' - that's chicken drumsticks which he cooks on Friday and eats cold all weekend, with coleslaw, and also black bread to go with the vodka. Very odd idea of treats if you ask me!

I've been deciding what to take with me for this long weekend. Not clothes, knitting!  I'm taking the turquoise Winter's Eve sock, will finish the foot of the first one, some Hexipuffs for the Beekeeper's Quilt,  some yarn to knit a baby cardigan, and have cast on another shawl, Shaelyn!  Will that be enough???

 

Meanwhile I have knitted a baby hat.  My neice is due shortly, and time is running out for me to knit a little baby set, plus extra stuff for big sister.   This is a free ravelry download, in multiple sizing and in three yarn weights, sport, dk, worsted.  It's knitted with short rows  Very cute.  The thing that swung it for me was the ravelry photos of cute babies!  Not a great shot, taken late at night in dim light with mobile, I'll save the good shot for the finished hat!

It's Aviatrix, I see more in the future!  This is just a cream one with blue bits on the ribbing.   I would consider doing the purl ridges in blue next time.  A quick knit, once I stopped pottering around the flat finding other things to sort out!

And Chickadee is nearly done, just needs a good wash to get rid of excess dye.

Again, late night photo, but at least the colour is right in this one!

So, it's shawl, socks and baby knitting for the forseeable future! 

Oh, and a shout - it's fast approaching November, and that means NaBloPoMo again, a daily post for November.  Anyone else thinking of doing this?  I just have to knit faster so I have posts!

 

Not socks

I haven't done much knitting over the weekend.  I bought a new vacuum cleaner and spent most of the daytime vacuuming!  This is undeard of in our household.  I even did under the bed and and beside the wardrobe.  This is where my stash lurks, so I also had a little play with the stash whilst it was out!

 

Sock knitting, sock frogging, more sock knitting.  But on Sunday I thought that I'd do NO sock knitting at all.  Time for a break.  Rather than start something new (which is very tempting when the stash comes out for an airing!)  I picked up Chickadee, You heard me correctly.  Chickadee, which has been languishing for far too long,

This is a top down cardigan, and when it was last out I was in the middle of the waist decreases.   Those are done, as are the increases.  I'm now just on plain knitting till I reach the border.   My row tension is a bit off, so I'm doing another few inches before starting the border, which is knitting all in one piece. 

I remembered to take a quick photo before the daylight disappeared!  It's not this blue,  the colour's much more of a dark grey.   I've worked on this for a few more hours since taking the photo. 

 

Then end is is sight!  I may have to lengthen the sleeves a bit, but will wait until the whole lot's finished and blocked (washed or pressed) so I can try it on for size. 

I ought to get back to scok knitting tonight, but I fancy more Chicadee!  It'll be my last garment for 2011, I'll be knitting small things for the rest of the year, apart from one more shawl.  Phew!

 

Semele progress

I've had a few niggles with this shawl knitting.

 

It's knitted side to side.  You start with one leaf, then work a leaf lace pattern along the top and bottom, increasing the depth with a stocking stitch panel.  The increases are every other row for the first repeat of Chart 2, and then slow down to every fourth row on subsequent repeats.  

I carefully weighed my yarn.  106g.   The pattern has you working  repeats of chart 2, increasing until just before the halfway mark.  Then you work one (or more, if you have enough yarn and want a flat middle bit) repeat of chart 2.  The subsequent repeats are decreasing, every fourth row until the final repeat, where it's every other row. 

I did wonder (briefly) how, if I was halfway through my yarn I would be able to knit one whole repeat (24 rows)  and the same amoutn of decreases as increases and not run out of yarn. I presumed there was some funny business with teh final leaf pattern, meaning I'd use less yarn on the final chart. 

 

I was wrong.  As I decreased down, and my  yarn dwindled, I knitted faster. This always works if you're running out of yarn, doesn't it?   After each 24 row repeat I weighed my yarn again. It took about 8g per repeat.     With two more repeats of chart 2, and then the whole of chart 3, I decided to do something I never ever do - I put in a lifeline, just in case I had to frog back.

16g left = 1 repeat of chart 2 and (possibly) one repeat of chart 3.  Only one way to check if I had enough yarn, so I counted the number of stitches on both charts - and chart 3 needed many more stitches.  Eurgh.  I frogged back to the lifeline, and did just one repeat of chart 2, but doubled the decreases so that I would have the correct amount for the final chart.  It means that my shawl has two leaf patterns less on one side than the other, but I'm not fussed, it will be a slightly asymmetrical shawl!

And this is how much yarn is left, not even enough for a hexipuff!

My 10th and penultimate shawl for 11shawls2011, just needs blocking!

 

Two steps forward and one step back

Apart from a  minimal amount of housework (negligible, really) and the odd supper cooked, I've spent the weekend knitting. 

Not much to prove though!
I've worked on my turquoise sock
Finished the leg, and worked the heel flap.  And realised it was going to be too wide, and where I'd dropped and picked up the reverse st st stitches was a bit too messy for my liking (I'm not fussy either),  So.  Frogged the lot! 

I've since reknitted most of the leg.  Knitting progress = -heel flap -1/3 of leg.  Negative progress!

Sunday I did one repeat of my Semele shawl before Mr C went over to the boat for a manly Sunday watching sport.  We took a few photos of it against the window, so that the lace pattern would show up nicely.

This photo only shows the split stitch (which I will doctor when finished) but in real life I spotted a little wiggle of the lace panel, where I'd k2tog when I ought not to have done so.   I decided to frog back to the mistake, and a few extra rows (it takes me a few rows to pick up running stitches!) - meaning nearly that whole chart repeat! 
Progress on this is now nearly four repeats.  I'm getting to the centre of this sideways knitted shawl, maybe a few more evenings.

 

That's it.  Not a happy bunny, especially when I'd love to clear the decks for next month, which is NaBloPoMo, and I need to do lots of little, quick things to do a daily blogpost!    My first great-nephew is due at the end of the month, so I need to get a few baby things on the go too. MUST KNIT FASTER, AGAIN!

 

Socks and more socks

I've not done much knitting this week, the commute, though short, has been overcrowded and no seats, and lunchbreaks are a bit manic!  I feel as if I have done nothing all week, just pick up dropped stitches and repair mistakes!   Garment, shawl, 3 pairs of socks and beekeepers quilt makes for too many WIPs for me so I'm culling one.

 

It's this one.  A brave idea, knitting two socks at once, but it's dreadful knitting and I'm not enjoying any of it.  the stitches are all uneven (where I've been picking up stitches which were split or dropped)  and it's slow and fiddly.  

Bye-bye Flying Saucer socks!

Now what to do with the yarn?  I am not winding it up separately, so I may just knit a pair of fingerless mitts with the yarn doubled,  hope it makes a mad pooling pattern!

The Little Child socks are still going well, though I keep messing up the very simple textured pattern.  I've accidentally deleted the photo I took on my mobile this morning, but I'm workign the gusset decreases now.

 

 

And new socks!  These are beaded socks, Winter's Eve.  I've made a few mistakes with these too, so much wasted knitting time!  But I'll persevere.  These will be for SKA October challenge.

Pretty beading on the cuff

I'm going to try to finish the first purple sock, and get the leg and heel and gusset knitted of this sock over the weekend - and do some shawl knitting!  

 

 

 

 

Petrouchka Socks

My first foray into SKA Sockdown 5!

Pattern:  Petrouchka socks

Yarn: Enchanted Knoll Farm EFK Superwash in Emerald Lake

Needles: 2mm

Started: Sept 1st

Finished:  October 9th

 

This is my September offering for the SKA challenge.  We have to cast on in September and cast off by 31st October.   I wanted to get these ones finished before casting on the next ones!

The pattern was fun and fairly simple, if you don't mind travelling stitches.  Caoua Coffee was one of the SKA September designers. 

One pair down, and I have another three pairs on the go!

New socks on the needles

The problem with knitting socks is that they go slowly, especially if you have several pairs on the go at once!

Currently I have the Flying Saucer ones, which aren't goin that well.  I keep dropping stitches and splitting yarn.  My tension is all over the place too!  I'm much better with one sock on the needles.  It's amazing how a little tiny bit of difference in tension sends the identical stitch pattern awry. 

I can truly say that I am over this knitting two socks at once malarky.

Onto the newest socks.

I'm combining Solidsocks October colour (purple) with SKA October (texture) and knitting another pair of socks from the Knitting Vintage socks book, Little Child's sock. 

Believe it or not I had no solid purple in sock stash, and had to order some from Violet Green!  It's a purple colour with more red than blue.  More obvious under tungsten lighting, it looks practically burgundy.  Yet my purple t-shirt stays purple!

 

It's a very simple pattern; 2x2 ribbing, then some double moss stitch, more ribbing and I've just completed the stocking stitch section.  Next is more texture, just 38 more rows to the heel!
Oh, and I have more SKA socks lined up - some beaded ones this time!   I'm going to try to get a lot done by the end of the month.  My niece freaked me out a bit on Facebook, she has just 6.5 weeks to go to due date, so I need to get some baby knitting done in November, fingers crossed the baby arrives on time, not early!

Plain striped socks

These are a surprise for Mr C's birthday in December, so he has to try them on and not look!

Pattern: none, just top down sock on 60 stitches, heel flap and gusset.

Needles: 2.25

Started 21st August, finished 29th September

Yarn: Opal Magic from stash.

Not his usual colours (orange, red, yellow ...) but bright so they'll do!  Didn't have time to press them so they are a bit uneven still, but catch the sun whilst you can!

 

A few new projects

Really new projects, but I'm trying to keep up with ravelry, and I keep forgetting cast on dates!

1) New socks.  Not on my October goals, but I realised that I didn't have a carry along commuter project, so I've cast on some plain socks.

 

This is Flying Saucer yarn!  It's double stranded so I'm knitting two socks at once.  Feasibly you could wind two balls of yarn and knit one at a time, but it would be tedious to say the least, better to cast on two socks and finish two at the same time.    They of course will match perfectly.   I keep catching myself counting the number of stitches before a colour change, to see if they match up (they do!).

I like this yarn, it's a superwash merino/nylon blend, and very soft.  I wish I'd bought more when I visited IKL, I'm not sure if it's a one off trial or if Gerard will be stocking it in the long term. 

Since I started knitting socks several years ago, I've changed my preferred knitting style from dpns to one circular (usually just a 60cm one, not a longer one unless there's more stitches or detailed patterning and I'm worried about the stitches falling off the needle).  It's a great way to knit socks on the go.  I've tried two circulars but often end up with one on the ground, when I pick up the wrong working needle.  The only thin I don't enjoy with one circular is casting on.   And it's worse if you're casting on two socks at once, fiddly!  Once you're past the first few rows though it's fine,  just have to remember to keep the two socks separate!

 

Shawl number 10 for 11shawls2011 is on the needles, and is progressing very slowly, I've had to reknit these damn leaves several times.  Always my mistakes, not reading the pattern properly or dropping stitches and thinking it would be very easy to frog back just the faggoting lace pattern - not! 

This is purple, not blue.  It has also been frogged back 15 rows when I spotted a weird gap in the lace!

It's Semele, using the very gorgeous sparkly IKL (not just) sock club yarn.   So far I'm keeping up with the club offerings!    I'M WRITING IT HERE IN CASE I FORGET:  I HAVE 106G OF YARN,  HALFWAY POINT IS 53G.   

The hexigons seem to be flagging, but that's because I've been sock knitting, acquiring leftovers for the blanket.

Looks cute, I just hope it looks cute when I join it. I tried joining three hexagons and they look a bit gappy, but I'm presuming that once all are joined it will be fine.  That's all Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, so far.

I'm about to start two more sock projects, one is for the SolidSocks kal and it's a lovely shade of purple from Violet Green, another lovely soft sock yarbm cakked Christobel.  The yardage is 400m/100g yet the yarn seems quite plump (I'm using their description, it suits!).

Weird, my mobile phone takes a more realistic purple colour, indoors, than my camera does outdoors! 

The second pair of socks are for SKA on ravelry - and I want beaded socks.  I'm waiting for a pattern to download before I decide on yarn and beads.

A  lot of knitting this month!!

 

 

 

September knitting and October knitting goals

I've just had to edit the title so it says the correct months!  

 

Not quite, but nearly!

Finish:

1)  Polka Dot Stole.   Done! 

2) Plain Opal Magic socks. Done!  Need to blog them though.  They were finished just in time, on 29th!

3) Gentleman's Lozenge socks from Vintage knits.  Done, and I love them!

4) Chickadee!  Oops.  Not done!  I've been sock knitting instead!

 

Start:

5) Socks for SKA on ravelry. Done!  One sock done, one to go. 

6) My 10th shawl for 11shawls2011.   JUST started, and it's one leaf! More when I manage to do a bit of progress!

7) Something small.   Started and finished, very pleased with this. It's for ravelry group SolidSocks and the colour is red.  Bleeding Hearts

 

So, six out of seven goals met, but not bad! 

I can't really believe that it's October already. 

October goals

Blog:

1) Plain socks for Mr C.  His birthday isn't until October, but I tend to knit these early,  I'll try to get a photo of them on his feet, but he'll have to not look!

Finish:

2) Chickadee.  Yes, must finish this one. I thik wth this warm spell, and the lure of socks, it's been neglected far too long.  We apparantly have snow due this week (from 29 degrees on Friday!) so that might give me a nudge.

3) SKA September socks - one done, one to go.

4) My 10th shawl for 11shawls2011, not even blogged about yet!

Start:

5) My 11th, and final shawl, for 11shawls2011. 

6) SKA October kal. I have resisted looking at the threads for October...

7) SolidSocks for October.  It's purple, I have purple sock yarn!

Lots more knitting to do, and I need to crack on.  My niece is due to delivery my first great nephew in November (she who said after Miss E was born three years ago that she would NEVER give birth again, lol!).  I want to knit baby stuff!