skein

August knitting and September knitting goals

So, how did I do in August?

Blog:

1) Ocean Breeze - done!

 

Finish:

2) Mr C's socks.  Done!

3) Stripetastic Shawl - done! Just need to block it.

Continue:

4) Garment. Done, but frogged!  I restarted this, but the row tension was way out, and with the fronts being shaped by short rows, I thought it wise to give up. Garment is now Put Away.

 

Start and finish

5) The Stitchnerds August KAL - done!  Just need photos.

 

6) Fail! I had no plans, but went with some socks. They're either going to be for MrC or my youngest brother. I'll see how the pattern goes, Not sure if my brother would want mismatched socks, but I know Mr C will!   Started but not finished.

 

Start:

7) Done!  I've started another boomerang scarf, This time it's using Tosh DK which has been in my stash for a few years. I have two skeins, bought originally for a toddler garment, but the colour was a but grey (for their mums, all would like bright and girly, alas).  I love the colour, Pinky grey wth blue bits,  No photos, but hopefully one this week once it's grown a bit. The pattern is G'Day boomerany by Stitchnerds. A lovely easy pattern (again!)

 

Overalll quite happy. A bit of a shame about he garment, but hey, it's nearly Autumn so I wouldn't get much wear out of iit, Soon!

And now for September.

 

Blog:

1) Stripetastic

2) Quaker Yarn Stretcher boomerang.

 

Finish:

3) Socks for Mr C or brother S.

4) G'Day boomerang scarf.

 

Start and finish:

5) Stitchnerd's September KAL. It's Deep Stash KAL, and I've pulled out some koigu to knit another boomerang. Thinking Norwegian Memories or Welsh Blanket.

6) Inspiration knits September KAL, Knit Nights shawl, I have FIVE yarns shortlisted!

 

Start:

7) Tincanknits goldfish cardigan. Well, if I can't knit an adult one, I may as well try a toddler one! 

 

That's seven goals. It doesn't include the socks and the scarves I want to start for MrC...It's going to be a busy September.  That's not including the eight birthdays / anniversaries!

Bank Holiday knitting

I didn't do as much knitted as I had planned, isn't htat always the case? 

Friday evening I finished my boomerang scarf, Quaker Yarn Stretcher, fully intending to block it on Saturday (as in, wash and lay flat on the bed with a few pins, nothing too taxing) but didn't get around to it until Sunday. Of course on Monday it poured down, so no finsihed photos.  A very easy, enjoyable knit, and a great way to use up stash.

That's Noro Silk Garden Sock, just a few yards short of an entire skein (that's the good thing about these scarves, you can knit until you have to cast off).

Saturday was instead spent stash rummaging, just a few little boxes, but I decided to try to tidy up a bit of my ravelry stash, which is out of date. Lots of yarn given away or used, and lots just thrown into a box!  It took the entire day - had to have a feel fo each yarn, as you do, and then onto ravelry to look at patterns for that weight/yardage. 

I did a little knitting on my other shawl, Stripetastic. That bottom border was tedious! I kept knitting two stitches together and not realising until I checked my knitting, 50 sts along.  But the good news is that, on Sunday morning, I cast this one off too!

Kauni EQ, bought whenthe Yarn Harlot first started the Kauni frenzy. I sitll have another 250g hank plus lefotvers from the first!  It's great for shawls thoguh, so pelnty of patterns to knit with it once it's been back in stash for a whilse.  It needs a good blocking to stop the roll on the edges.

I've also started a pair of socks in Opal silk/wool (label long lost). No photos, it's early days, just cast on! I'm going to attempt fraternal again, msmatched stripes...

I've pulled out a few yarns to play with whilst stash rummaging.  A few more balls of sock yarn (just se;f striping, nothing exciting), and some 4ply for shawls and scarves.  Goddess Knits sock, some turquoise sock (but with a bit more blue in it), some silk cashmere blend and some koigu.

The Koigu will hopefully be a scarf for the Stitchnerds September KAL, deep stash. I think this was bought from IKL, possibly before we ever visited the shop, possibly before the shop existed!

Bad news on the cardigan front though. Change of Seasons is in the naughty corner.  Second attempt gets the correct stitch tension, but my rows are way out. This is quite common for me, I knit short stumpy stitches!  As it's a summer cardigan, and the weather's cooling, I have not motivation. Love the yarn (Rowan Fine Milk Cotton) and the colour, love the pattern, but not for me at this time.

So time to cast on again!  I'm thinking of other Stitchnerd Boomerang patterns.  Great for carry along.  Either Norwegian Memories, though no idea of yarn yet, or G'day, with Tosh dk from stash.  I'll decide tonight.  It feels very strange having nothing on the go (the socks are just emergency knitting!). 

 

Ocean Breeze shawl

Presenting Ocean Breeze, finally blocked.

A lovely KAL,  Lace, beads, silk, fluff.  I used Cumulus as the fluffy bit, Handmaiden Seasilk for the silk bit and size 5/0 triangle gold beads for the bead bit.

 

This has been sitting around waiting to be blocked for weeks. After my last blocking experience, where it all ran horribly, I was wary of strenuous blocking, and as I insterted the wires I checked each section for runaway stitches!  

This is a crescent shaped shawl, and instead of pinning out the points so that they were gently rounded, I opted for wires, putting them through three of the YOs in each point.  In hindsight I would prefer the pins in this instance. But it was soooo easy to slip the wires through the yarnovers!

Now MrC is a little averse to modelling shawls.  He agreed to a pink Herbivore, and loved the shape so much that it went on his Christmas list, but he really wasn;'t keen on this one. I think the beads and lace were a bit too much for him! I managed to get one shot, with his hood up...

 

I still have a lone end to weave in, seem to have missed this until I saw the photos!

Love it!

Plain socks for Mr C

I started these at the end of May!  No reason why they  have sat here for so long, except that I kept finding other things to knit, and a few times I had to untangle (and cut!) the yarn a few times, desptie having wound them into centre pull balls!  My fault, I have this very annoying tendency to pull out a chunk of yarn from the centre and it invariably gets tangled. I think it's my way of showing progress, or lack of!

Now if you remmeber, I'd planned to knit these as fraternal, mis-matched socks. They are, but very nearly identical, typical!  

The next pair of socks for Mr C will be put away, for birthday or Christmas gifts.  These aren't my best. as Mr C observed when modelling: not a pair that could be entered into a show!  Not once but at least three times I managed to pick up an extra stitch, didn't realsie for several inches, and then just dropped the extra stitch leaving a ladder!  I do hope that a few cycles in the washing machine will even them out somewhat!

 

Introducing Quaker Yarn Stretcher

I started this Quaker Yarn Stretcher a few weeks ago, for some lunchtime knitting, but it's been on hold until this week whilst I finished MrC's socks.

It's DEAD EASY.  A simple stocking stitch scarf with the odd reverse knit row for texture. It's the August Stitchnerd's KAL, any boomerang shaped design.  You knit until you think it's big enough, or you're nearly out of yarn, and then cast off.

The yarn is Noro Silk Garden Sock from stash. Hopefully I'll get a decent sized scarf out of it.

Indoors

Looking quite toned donw.

Outdoors (well, by the office door as there's people outside!)

looking very vibrant!!  Amazing what a touch of natural light does!

Indoors again, but close up and under the light shows yet another colour variation

This is what those self striping yarns were made for!

 

Chance of Showers

Well, yes, there is a chance of showers here in overcast London, but this is the name of my new knitting project too.

I've spent months deliberating about which cardigan to knit. I've joined a few KALs but not felt that must cast on right now feeling.

A few weeks ago I had yet another look at Vitamin D. It's such a popular cardigan, and everyone seems to love it. What's been putting me off is that I don't think the style would suit me.  Yet I think I'd like wearing it!  So I popped over to ravelrt and checked out her patterns.

Choosing a new project involves lots of ravelry time, looking at patterns, then projects and yarns. I get out some stash, have another look on ravelry at which patterns have been knitted up in the yarns I have out and sometimes I eventually make a decision!   I wanted to use some cotton, get in a quick summer cardigan before the swool packs come out of hibernations.  

I put a few patterns into my ravelry cart, one of which was Vitamin D - but when I checked out I'd deleted this one in error - and had bought Chance of Showers! It's a similar shape to Vitamin D, but with short sleeves and a different construction.  I found some Rowan Fine Milk Cotton in a lovely shade of green and cast on. 
I'm now knitting very quickly, in case I run out of yarn :) Not really, but I won't hang around with this WIP, I'd like to wear it before the end of the summer!

So far I'm on the second ball and still on the yoke. It has short sleeves, but those wide fronts, and I only have seven balls. Gulp.

Stripetastic - coming along

Knitting is progressing, slowly, It's a case of 'just one more Kauni Special Effects stripe', and I'm now at the point where I need to make up my mind if I want to start the edging or not. The criteria are either when you have 1/3 of your yarns left, or when you think you are nearly there , size-wise, or when you reach a new colour.  I have enough yarn, but think it could do with being a bit bigger, so I'm planning to knit the yellow and stop and resassess before starting the organge. The boder has about 25% more stitches, so I shall count the number of stripoes and see if I can get a border out of, say, the oragne and red, and possibly  the next colour (violet?). Or another option is to rewind the ball into a central pull ball and use the opposite end for the border.  I'll decide over the weekend.

I haven't worked on this since Sunday, and should have taken a photo on a sunnier morning than this, had to put the light on to get the phone camera to focus!

I'm knitting the shallow triangular version, which has extra increases at the edges, so it is wider but shallower.  Such a pleasant, easy knit, with the self striping yarn doing all of the work.

July knitting and August knitting goals

It's not been a great knitting month!

I had eight goals, and managed only five (and one of those was chucked!)

So, let's see

Blog:

1) Mustardseed shawl.  Done!  

2) Mysteriosa shawl.  Done!

3) Simply Seashells shawl Done!

Finish

4) MrC's socks! Fail!  Though i haven't worked on these much, and I ony have the feet to go.

 

5) Ocean Breeze shawl Done!  Needs blocking. I need ot pluck up courage after my blocking fail of #6 ..
..

Start and finish:

6) Stitchnerd's MKAL. Hmmm, Finished the knitting, failed at blocking when the damned stitches ran....

7) Another stitchnerds pattern, Stripetastic, Fail!  Though it is coming along.

Start:

8) A garment. NEED A CARDIGAN! Done!  Though only just started it.

 

 Soooo let's try not to make such grand plans for August!

 

Blog:

1) Ocean Breeze, just needs blocking.

 

Finish:

2) Mr C's socks. They've been on the needles since May!

3) Stripetastic shawl

 

Continue:

4) Garment. It might be slow going,  4 ply and all that..

 

Start and finish (this is where the fun begins, as I have NO IDEA what I'll be knitting!)

5) The Stitchnerds Augush KAL> Theme is Boomerange shaped shawls, Not really clear on what one is, but I shall find out!

6) Joker card - think I need to look at the August KALs on ravelry. I haven't had time yet.

 

Start:

7) Hmm, another MKAL?  SIvia Harding has one starting at th end fo the month, I may or may not join. It involves beads.

 

Seven goals. I feel like I want ot have ten. Twist Collective is out, and there's patterns there I love (but will wait and see how projects are looking before I decide). I'm going to try to keep my WIPs down to four or even three. Then, nothing gets forgotten about. And I'm trying to do a bit of knititng in my lunchhour, I used to do far more hours per day 0 on the commute, lunch hour, stayed up later. But these days I'm like a squashed sarding on the Overground/Jubilee line, and have to make an effort to sit down and knit at lunchtime.  It'll be interesting to see if it makes a differernce to my output.