skein

Knitting disaster alert!

There I was, happily threading blocking wires through my Stitchnerds MKAl shawl, when I spotted this:

A dropped stitch!  Pulling the wet knitting this way and that as I added the wires meant that the dropped stitch morphed into this hole. 

I tried to fix it. First attempt was a disaster. I threw it in the bin (waste paper bin, not the food bin!). Took it out an hour later to have another go. Well, long story short the hole grew, until it had ran down the whole tail. Just near the increase edge, of course.  So no more shawl  :( It was a quick knit, took 80g of yarn, and I wasn't going to spend more hours trying to fix it.  Bleurgh.

At least the socks are progressing. Both legs and heels done now.

And Stripetastic is growing, slowly.

I'm finally on the next colour!

Sunday was spent looking on ravelry at various cardigan patterns, And getting a few bins of garment stash out. I've decided on cotton, and want to get this done whilst it's still summer. but I'm using Rowan's Fine Milk Cotton, which is a fine 4ply!  Luckily I knit cotton at a terribly loose tension, and I've chosen a pattern similar to Vitamin D. It's by the same designer, but with shorter sleeves 9I don't have much of this cotton in stash). I reckon it's going to be a looong knitting journey. The rows get super long and they're in stocking sttich, with some lace detail.  Hopefully this will be fairly mindless knitting, and I'll be able to watch tv to alleviate any WIP boredom.

I'm sticking to these three WIPs for the moment, and trying to wrok on each one at least every other evening. Ther'll be less progress on individual projects, but this way none will be neglected!

Socks

I'm a creature of habit, and when I knit plain socks this is how I knit them (at the moment!)

1) Self-patterning sock yarn, what I call German sock yarn. 

2) One circular. The current optimal length is 80cm (used to prefer 60cm but I had more accidents with knitting pulled off the needle)

3) Knit one sock, then the other.

In the old days I'd CO 68 for Mr C, and 64 for me, but these days I go right down to 56sts. I CO about 4-6 extra stitches, over the two needle tips, which gives a nice stretchy feel to the top of the sock.  Then it's an inch or two of 1x1 ribbing, followed by two purl rounds, where I decrease the extra stitches. Purling two rows disguises the fact that the ribbing (I change to 3x1) isn't fluid.  The leg is all 3x1.  The foot is plain.

I hardly ever manage to knit the entire pair of socks without having to stop and untangle the mess which is centre-of-a-German-sockyarn-ball.  I never learn my lesson.

And I like to match up the pattern.  It means that when I knit the second sock I can use the stripe pattern as reference, rather than having to measure as I reach critical sock-knitting points.  I also like symmetry!

I started my current SIPs at the end of May, when I went to visit family.  To save time having to de-tangle the yarn I wound it up into two 50g balls. And thought I'd go for fraternal rather than twin socks. And knit them concurrently. Not exactly concurrently, more like leg1, leg2, heel1, heel2, foot1, foot2, toe1, toe2.

Leg1 was knitted at the end of May. I started leg2 last night. Jusst by picking up the second ball and casting on. NO MATCHING UP OF PATTERN.

Guess what?  It nearly matches up!  Not quite though. I'm not entriely comfortable with a nearly-matching pattern.  Will I be tempted to start the heel of the second sock nearly a centimetre earlier, or can I live with it?  They're for MrC (he chose the colour) and therefore I don't have to wear them...

Oh, and I finished Ocean Breeze!  It's RED, looks a little pink here..

Simply Seashells shawl

This was the June KAL for Stitchnerds on ravelry. The theme was 'Use it', as in yarn, maybe maturing in stash, ro something precious.  The yarn has been in the stash for at least several years, and the pattern I chose was Simpley Seashells, which I thought would best showcase a variegated yarn like this.

The actual shawl was finished in June, but it's taken me a few weeks to get photos. Mr C has been boat-maintaing whist we have fine weather. This past weekend though he's been home. Too much working outside in the hot sunshine = heatstroke!

It's a very simple semi-circular shape, plain stocking stitch with a simple lace border.

The yarn is a silk beurette, and wasn't too stretchy, so I opted to pin out alternative points.

 

 

Shawls...

A flying post.  I've hardly done any knitting this week. By the time I get in from work, chill, eat, chat. chill again, I have hardly any time left to knit. 

I've been playing catch up with my Stitchnerds MKAl, but can't show any photos!  I'm nearly there. clue 2 is almost done, and then it's just the final clue. Hopefully the weekend.

Striptastic hasn't changed much, either!  I've worked antoher few rows, but no colour change yet. I swear the CC is getting lighter though.

I'm hoping to have some time to knit on this over the weekend. 
And finish Ocean Breeze. Not worked on all week. The rows are long, Cumulus and silk are other slippery on my needles, and I'm too tired to concentrate. Rather wait until the weekend when I'm a bit more refreshed. But here it is all crumpled up. (I can't tell you how many times I've picked it up and it's nearly fallen off the needles)

I love the way the beads weigh down the knitted fabric. Such a shame they're nearly invisible to my mobile phone camera!

So it's more shawls this weekend, I WILL finish at least one!

Shawl knitting progress

1) Simple Seashells has been blocked, but not photographed.

I blocked out alternate points, but had an odd number, so the ends are not symmetrical, I can live with that.  It took forever to dry, had to take it all off the bed and carefully lay it on the floor, and be extra careful getting out of bed!

2) Stitchnerds MKAL - clue one done. I've gone from this

to this

That's becasue I pulled out a section of the centre of the ball so that I didn't hjave to bother to keep weighing it - and pulled it out from underneath, so it got into an awful muddle. After two evenings and one morning I decided to bite the bullet and restart with my first choice of yarn.  I wouldn't care, but I keep pulling out chunks from the middle of the ball, Still doing it! 

3) I've started Stripetastic. Not much to see here.  I couldn't decide between cream or black as the solid yarn. I've goine with black, so at the moment it's quite dark.  Wait until I get to the lighter colours though!

 

 

4) Still working on my red Ocean Breeze shawl, I have nine rows to go!

So this week/weekend I shall try to finish Ocean Breeze AND the MKAL, and take some photos of my blocked shawl.  I really should try to get some sock knitting done...

 

Mysteriosa shawl

And my second finished shawl!

It's Mysteriosa, a MKAL which drove me mad to knit but I really like the finished shawl. I loathed the p2togtbl. I loathed trying to pick up twisted stitches...  this was definitely a product rather than a process knit!

It's also a pleasure to use up stash!  I had a cone of Rowan Donegal Tweed, which has been in the stash for a few years.  It's not quite a colour I'd usually use, but I didn't have a lot of choice for a 4ply yarn. Lots of single skeins, and a few packs, but I wasn't keen on breaking into a pack for 200g of yarn,

It's worked top down, stocking stitch section, garter stitch section, a bit of colour, then the biiiig lace holes, and more colour to finish.  I chose not to work the optinoal attched I-cord at the top of the shawl, as I didn't have enough yellow yarn left, and there wasn't such a huge difference when using the main colour (and I wanted it DONE)

Very pleased!  One more to block, two to finish (and one isn't going too well, the wound ball collapsed into a heap and I'm going to have to spend the whole evening re-winding).

Another shawl started

This time it's Stitchnerd's Mystery KAL. 

It's only three clues, and takes about 350 - 450m of yarn.  Suggested yarn is space dyed. Who knew what sapce dyed meant? I didn't!  It's easily identifable from the sample photos, but add in the 're-skeined' card and I'm lost! 

So Friday night I went stash diving (again).  I've culled my stash over the years, and what's left, in sock yarn anyway, is pretty organised.  I narrowed it down to four yarns, Two had enough minimum yardage, two were slightly under.

First attempt was in a toning colour. What looked great in the skein looked muddied in the knitting (and I didn't take a photo before frogging).

Second attempt was some Wollmeise.

Way too busy!  I think this might look better as the shawl grows, but I gave up after a few repeats.

Third attempt was Lorna's Laces Shadow. I thought it might be subtle, Ravelry is a great way to check out how specific colours in specific yarns knit up.

It's a bit stripey for me!  I haven't reached the stitch count yet though where the stripe pattern is disturbed, so it's still on the needles in case I change my mind.

The fourth attempt is the keeper, though it looks as crazy as the Wollmeise here!

I've tried to take close-ups so you can't see the shape and my phone brightens and lightens when I do this.  The yarn's Fleece Artist Basic Sock Merino and I'm not sure which colour this is, possibly Hercules, though the label is long gone!

I'd say it's dark jewel colours.  It'll make a smaller shawl, but I can always do some serious blocking if needed.

Oh and Stitchnerd's latest shawl pattern is now released.  It's a striped shawl, taking full advantage of those yarns which have long colour changes or gradient yarns. Or even oddballs of plain yarn. It's Stripetastic. I have some Kauni Rainbow, fully matured in stash...

Mustardseed Shawl

Finally,  the finished shawl!

It's a Booknits pattern, and therefore has beads, though they aren't showing up in the photos. They lend a nice drape to the shawl.  They're steel grey triangles, quite dark, so I don't know why they're not as obvious as they are in real life!

It's a crescent shaped shawl, worked top down, starting with stocking stitch, with the odd reverse stocking stitch for a bit of texture.  I worked an extra repeat ... and ran out of yarn!  I had to work a few less border rows. And beads, I had to scramble around on the floor to find a few dropped beads to finish, talk about cutting it fine!

This is how I'll most likely wear it, over my shoulders with the long ends flipped back.  It was a bit too sunny when we first tried to take photos, and I wore it comfortably indoors whilst we waited for a few clouds.

I'm really pleased with it.  I thought that it might turn out a bit small (hence the extra repeat) but in future I'll trust the designer!  And of course I could have blocked it out more to embiggen. 

Whee!

 

 

June knitting and July knitting goals

Well I've had a great knitting weekend, seemed to do a lot of knitting and finishing, but overall I'm afraid that June wasn't quite as productive as I thought it would be!

Finish:

1) Mustardseed shawl.  Done! 

 

2) MrC's socks. One leg done. Fail!  NO progress at all on these.

 

Continue:

3) Mysterion MKAL shawl.Done!  I had to do a lot of catching up knitting in htat last week of June!

 

Start:

4) MKAL1.  Another shawl, this time it's by Kirsten Kapur in her ravelry groupThrough the Loops. Fail! I started clue 1 and didn't like it, so it was abandoned at the starting poat.

 

5) MKAL2. A garment!   Fail!  Another one abandaned before copleting clue 1!  I even found another MKAL which started last week and didn't manage to even choose yarn for that one.

 

6) MKAL3.  Another shawl, Ocean Nreeze by noo Knits. Done!  As in, starting it. I haven't kept up with the clues.  I've just finished clue 2 and alre today the final clue,. clue 5 is out. But I'm counting this as a knitting goal met!

 

Added later - 7) The Stitchnerds monthly KAL, this month was 'Use it' and I did!  It's Simply Seashells, using some stashed yarn (at least several years old).

 

So three things not done, out of seven. Hmmm. I will AIM to EIGHT for July, but some will be simply a case of blogging!

So for July

Blog:

1) Mustardseed shawl. The shawl is blocked and we took pjhotos last weekend.

2) Mysteriosa shawl. Just need some photos. If it rains it means that MrC will be at home and can snap some shots, otherwise he's off to the boat in fine weather to do maintenance. With British summers you have to take advantage of the dry weather!

3) Simply Seashells shawl - needs a light blocking.

Finish:

4) MrC's socks! 

5) Ocean Breeze shawl.

Start and finish:

6) Stitchnerd's MKAL. When I decide what yarn I have which is space dyed!  I really don't get how I'll be able to tell if the space dyed yarn has been re-skeined!  I think I might get it if it hasn't...

7) Another stitchnerds pattern due to be released. Stripetastic. It looks as if I may have to beuy some yarn  for this one!

Start:

8) A garment. NEED A CARDIGAN!

 

Crikey, a lot of knitting (again)