skein

Olympic knitting plans

I just can't resist joining the ravellenic games, especially as it's on our doorstep this year.  We keep hearing horror stories about how the capital will grind to a halt with the influx of visitors to the Games,. how the transport system will collapse, even our postman was talking about provisional plans to deliver Special Deliveries between midnight and 4am (hope those are shelved...).  I will be attempting to get into work each day, at regular hours regardless.  Knitting will keep me sane!

Decisions, decisions. 

I'v chosen my team, and have gone wtih Team GB, feeling a little patriotic, 

The ravellenic games (calling them RG from now on!) will begin with the opening ceremony and end before midnight on 12th August.  That's not a lot of knitting time.  There are LOADS of events!

I shortlisted them down to 17.  Not bad, but I have to work and two of the events would surely take me longer than a day to complete - namely the sweater triathlon and the shawl sailing.  

Another cull is necessary!

My second shortlist:

1) baby dressage

2) colourwork cross-country

3) cowl jump

4) hat dash

5) holiday hurdles

6) home stuff hammer throw

7) mitten medley

8) shawl sailing

9) sweater triathlon

In addition to that lot, we have exhibitions, where we can't earn medals,  three categories.  British Cricket is all things British, Panhellenic Glory, all things Olympic and Yarn Bombing, self explanatory.  Not sure I'm up to doing these though!

Projects can be entered into multiple categories, so I could, for intance, knit something for Christmas and include it in another category, such as hat or home stuff.  Feels a bit like cheating....

And my final (at the moment) shortlist!  Dependent on yarn and pattern selection of course.  Some time in July will be spent training!

1) baby dressage.  We have an office baby due at the end of the year!

2) cowl jump.  Cowls are pretty popular at the moment, there's a stack of them on ravelry.

3) hat dash, have a kit on its way.

4) mitten medley (or fingerless mittsn)

5) home stuff hammer throw.  Would love to kit a teacosy but might have to settle for dishcloths

and finally the Big Stuff:

6)  Shawl sailing OR Sweater triathlon.  There's a Stephen West shawl I wish to knit for a certain Mr C's birthday in December, and I have a yearning to knit another Hey Teach!  cardigan. My last one died a death in too hot water!

All i have to do now is wait and look for patterns.  Can't wait!

 

June knitting and July knitting goals

I intended to post shawl progress, but I seem to have misplaced the shawl photo!  

The list ofr June was a bit shorter, in the hope that I'd finish it!

Finish:

1) My fifth garment, Flagstone.  Done!  

And worn!

2) Plain socks, one to go.  Done! 

3) Different Lines shawl.  Done!  Not blocked and I've misplaced the 'off the needles' photo, so here's a nearly-done shot. 

Continue:

4) the crochet.  I'm goijg to try to have a day each week when i sit down and do squares.  Done! 

Start (but I'm keeping this easy, not finish!):

5) Sixth pair of socks.  Another palin pair, in a tiger striping yarn. These will be for Mr C's birthday at the end of the year.  Done! 

6) My sixth garment for Intsweoedo2012.  Done!  Long way to go though.  I'm 17" from the cast on (it's top down) but have another 10" to go. Plus sleeves.  Lots of 4ply in dark navy, not much fun. 

 

So that means I've managed ALL of my goals for June, very pleased!  

Now for July.

1) Block and blog Different Lines shawl.  

2) Finish Opal Tiger socks. I'm hoping to finish them in June!

3) Finish Madrigal cardigan. Not an easy goal, as it's 4ply.  I can't tell you how many times the stitches have slipped off the addis and I've had to frog back the lace pattern.  Last night I changed to lighter coloured bamboo needles. MUCH better! 

4) Crochet some more squares. 

These are my goals for the majority of July.  Not much, eh?  That's because the Olympics start on the 27th, and I'm saving up knitting energy for that!!  I just can't resist joining the ravellenics games this year.  Of course pigs might fly and I may finish Madrigal earlier and have to cast on something else, or I might get bored with just a few things things on the go and have to cast on a commuting project, but I'll leave options open.  I think I'll save the Olympic knitting plans for another post!

 

Flagstone

My fifth garment for IntSweMoDo2019!

Not a great photo, you can't see the patterning!  It's quite difficult to see detail on the back of the camera!

I finished it several weeks ago, but needed to sew the buttons on!

Pattern:  Flagstone

Started: May 6th

Finished: June 21st (that's the buttons holding things up!)

Yarn: Louisa Harding Aimee. 7.5 balls

Needles: 3mm for the body, and 2.75 for the garter stitch borders

This is a top down garment.  I wasn't that taken with the design of the sleves.  As designed, they are wider, longer and a bit fussier than I wanted, so I omitted the lace pattern at the cuff, decrased more frequently (every sixth row) and made them a few inches shorter.  Instead of stopping at the required stitch count (56 in this case) I went down to 46sts - as it's on the wrist I didn't need such a wide cuff.

Very pleased.  A little bit of lace at the fronts, some garter stitch for trim, a couple of pockets with buttons.  

The next TWO are cast on, but sloooww going!  Wish I hadn't decided on a 4ply cotton!

 

Of course I didn't do as much knitting as I planned

Friday evening, most of Saturdaya nd Sunday afternoon saw visits from siblings plus neices and nephews, so not much knitting done at all.

 

Red cardigan - not touched

Socks - managed to knit about 3/4 of the first sock. 

Sock knitting not going so well!  I worked out that usually I manage about 1-1.5 hours of sock knitting each weekday, on the commute and at lunchtime, but recently have done no commuting knitting (trains too crowded!) or at lunchtime.   I shall have to remedy this if I want these finished by the end of the month.

Shawl knitting going well, but not finished.  I've completed the pink stripes and am now on the blue big stripe, very boring garter stitch with no short rows to keep me interested. 

I might be able to get this finished by the end of the month.  I have 46 more rows to go.  Not sure yet how to block this, it's going to be an odd shape!

And crochet.

I've doen 30 squares.  Here's the progress at 28 squares.  Amazing how I can't count and have to fudge to connect them up on that final round.

This is destined to be a cover for my bedside table, and it now covers the top.  I've not even made a dent in the lemon cotton yet, so a long way to go!

Oh, and the buttons are on Flagstone, so at least one garment is finished awaiting photographs.  Stay tuned...

 

 

A quick knitting catch up

I haven't really done much this week.  Late in from work and then I start pottering...

I've been workng on Madrigal in the little time I've had to knit.  I've nearly reached the bit where I join fronts and back and work the rest of the body. Sounds impressive, but it's a deep scoop neck, so there's very little kntting on the fronts, to the armholes.

As usual, there's a lack of light in these wet, gloomy mornings.  

See how skinny these fronts are?

Over the weekend I did a little bit of crochet, too.  I prefer doing a batch of circles, then joining them all together.  Sunday I did 24 little circles:

Then we have 24 two colour circles:

And 24 three-colour circles:

Then we have the lemon round.  I have lots to go:

A bit scrappy, but I'm sure when it's blocked a bit it will look ok!

 

Mr C is on his own this weekend.  I'm off to visit the family and think I may have over-estimated the amoutn of knitting time I shall have. 

I have Different Lines shawl, with rather a lot of yarn to go.,

I have plain men's socks, with just aobut four inches knitted.

And I have my red cardigan, taking down four balls of Rowan's Handknit DK.    Should hae enough to keep me occupied over one weekend! 

A bit of startitis

Flagstone may not be quite finished, but I wanted to cast on my next garment for IntSweMoDo2012 

I'm leaving Mr C to fend for himself (aka going out with his mates and eating chicken drumsticks and chipolatoes)  probably next weekend, to visit the family.  I always take far too much knitting, but cannot quite bring myself to take just a few wips with me.  I have the Different Lines shawl and I have the Tiger socks.  Plenty of knitting for the weekend. Still....

 

I pulled out some red Rowan Handknit dk and Elann Lara.  The red yarn for a planned cross between Ormond (just knitted) and Mission Falls Trudie Jacket (knitted about seven years ago).  The Lara (in a wonderful green shade) is a sportsweight cotton, and I planned madrigal.

Swatching commenced.  Red is ok to go and I have my Ormond/Trudie knitting underway.  I'm going to knit it in one piece up to the armholes and probably knit the sleeves separately.  One ball down.

It's truly red, not as crimson as showing here.  

The Lara yarn wasn't really working out.  I retrieved the navy Jaeger Siena and tried that, MUCH better to knit with, and even though it's 4ply it looks ok at 24sts/4",   The pattern has a provisional casst on, you knit down from the shoulders, back first and then fronts from the provsioanl cast on.  I was a bit worried about unravelling the cast on (dark navy yarn!) so I've arlready put in on a circular ready for knitting the fronts.  

4" of the upper back done, just plain old stocking stitch.

I've ordered some buttons for Flagstone too, all ends darned in and pockets sewn down. 

This means I have five wips, which is now my maximum.  None are near completion! Better get knitting...

Holiday knitting

 

 I had a great four day break.  Knitted.  Hardly any housework accomplished.  Just how I like it (though a cleaner would be nice). 

I didn't manage to knit a wip per day. Instead I finsihed off my Opal Surprise socks, and concentrated on Flagstone.  Once a sleeve had been completed and I could see the end in sight, i had a second wind.  That second sleeve was done in next to no time.  Even the border went quickly. Still have ends to darn in and pockets to sew down, but I am so pleased to have finsihed the knitting.  I still need to think of buttons, but the finishing shouldn't take that long at all. It's my fifth garment for IntSweMoDo2012.  

Grotty photo. This is a lovely light, yellow green!  We have had, as is usual for a bank holiday, a dismal, dark, gloomy, cold and very wet weekend!

The pattern has a lace cuff pattern, followed with garter stitch cuffs, but I frogged and reknitted with just a plain garter cuff.  I've made them narrower too, and shorter, so tey should sit on my wrists rather that dangle over onto my hands.  I can't see why I would want a summery cardigan with long sleeves covering my hands, they won't need to be kept warm!

NO IDEA what is next. I've wasted a few evenings playing with some Jaeger Siena 4ply in navy, thought it might be good for Candlewick.  Could not get tension at all.  And now know that navy is not the best colour to try to do this cardigan.  Swatched plain stocking stitch, and my tension was horrendously out, even for me!  It was only last night I checked the needles, they're not 3mm, they're 3.75mm!  How on earth could an experienced knitter not notice that big size difference?!  Doh!

I also worked on Different Lines.  It's such easy knitting.  I've put it aside as I intend visiting the family soon and need simple knitting.  As I haven't cast on a cardigan I may well have to take this with me.  

And new socks!  Again, plain ones, using stashed yarn.  It's Opal Tiger, more socks for Chris.  He has some tiger socks, but they rae years old and baggy. 

 

And and and ..... crochet.

I wasted a whole day trying to figure out how ot square the circle as the pattern didn't seem to make much difference.  Best example was where I did a round of dcs in the lemon colour, then squared the circle with double trebles, trebles, and dc.  However, it took longer so I went back to the pattern  - and realised I had mixed up US and UK terminology!  So it's the pattern as stands.  

 

I can't believe I am using up this lemon cotton, I'm sure I've had it in stash for ten years or more!

 

Opal Surprise socks

Whee!  Four days off work and a good bit of knitting accomplished.

 

Mind you, only one FO so far,  these socks.  I had four WIPs on the go - socks, garment, shawl and squares.  I decided to work on one WIP per day.  Day two was socks.  I'd only worked about an inch of the second sock, but surprised mysefl by knitting an entiree sock by tea time.  Hadn't realised how quickly they would knit up.

 

Pattern: top down plain socks, 56sts with a 1x1 twisted ribbing and then plain all the way down. 

Yarn: Opal Surprise

Needles: 2.25mm

Started and finished:  May 1st to June 3rd.

 

I've already cast on the next pair for back to work commuting!

 

May knitting and June knitting goals

Eek!  Where has the time gone?   Wher is my knitting mojo?  

Needless to say, I have not managed to accomplish much this month!  Bad back, and the office is so stifling that I get home in the evening and crash out in the chair.  I am hoping to improve for June!

So the list of failures first...

May knitting goals:

Finish and blog:

1) Deco, my third garment for IntSweMoDo2012.  Done! 

2) Ormond, my fourth garment for IntSweMoDo2012.  Done!  It's even been worn a bit in the warmer weather when I don't have a coat. 

3) Lorna's Laces Glenwood socks.  Done!

Start and finish:

4) My fifth garment for IntSweMoDo2012.  Fail!  I have sleeves, border and pickets to do.  

5) A hat.  Fail!  Not even started. 

6) FINGERLESS MITTS!!  Done! 

7) More  mitts.  Done! 

8)  Plain socks Fail!  Second sock is just started. Need to get a move on. 

9) Can't quite make up my mind 0 fail!  But I have started, a Different Lines shawl.

Start:

9)  Wait for it ....   Crochet!  Done!  Well, started something, just.  It's the Flowers in the Snow
 squares.  

I've managed just six out of nine things, and most of those were little things!  Must do better in June!

 Finish:

1) My fifth garment, Flagstone.

2) Plain socks, one to go.

3) Different Lines shawl.

Continue:

4) the crochet.  I'm goijg to try to have a day each week when i sit down and do squares. 

Start (but I'm keeping this easy, not finish!):

5) Sixth pair of socks.  Another palin pair, in a tiger striping yarn. These will be for Mr C's birthday at the end of the year. 

6) My sixth garment for Intsweoedo2012,  I had planned to do a bit more 4ply, but will wait and see if anyting else grabs my attention first.  I need to get most of it finished if I'm to keep up with my 12 garments. 

And that is is!  I think I will keep it stress free.  If I decide to cast something else on, so be it, an added bonus!