skein

June knitting and July knitting goals

Aargh!  Typepad, Chrome and BT have all conspired to lose my post. Second time around.

I had a fairly productive June.

BLOG

1 Shell circle cowl - done

FINISH

2 After the Rain jumper - done

3 Self striping socks - done

4 Quick Sand II cardigan - done

START

5 Chance of Showers cardigan - donem except I changed my mind and have cast on Sandshore instead

6 TSS Talisman shawl - done

7 Stitchnerds I'm the Boss cowl -done

8 Baby cardigan - done

9 Baby vest - not done

I did quite well!  The baby vest wasn't even started, but I'd forgotten that this was on my list!  I've finished the baby cardigan and the cowl too.

I'm tempted to make a long list for July but shall refrain.  Those KALs on various ravelry groups look applealing!I've not thought of the ravelenic Games yet, either,

JULY KNITTING PLANS

BLOG

1 Self Striping socks

2 Baby cardigan, Entrechat

FINISH

3 TSS Talisman Shawl,  70% done!

4 Sandshore cardigan (Bamboo Tape, do-able)

START AND FINISH

5 That baby vest I didn't start in June

6 Stitchnerds Cowl, trying to knit through the pattern library stash

START (finishing would be a plus)

7 TSS shawl #2, out sometime in July. This one needs more yardage than the usual single skein shawls, so Ill have to use two colours. Not sure, until I see the sample shawls, if coordinating or contrasting colours will work. It's not striped, but possibly will have a lace border which would suit a second colour.

8 Some Scrap ball socks for me. MrC has declared that he only wants socks which wear like iron, can be machine washed and tumble dried (for when he forgets and shrinks some) so this means more socks are for ME.

That's it.  It seems like quite a short knitting list. Famous last workds!

I'm the Boss

Antoher FO before the end of the month.  Unbelievable! 

It's I'm the Boss cowl,  a very simple pattern. Cast on, cast off, knit, purl, kfb and p2tog. Knitted in Shilasdair cashmere.  Lovely to knit with,  I've been hesitant to knit up this skein because I thought that I only had 50g - but in fact I have more like 190g, and have leftovers!

I'm wondering which cowl from my pattern stash (not buying anything new until I've done one more cowl, at least). Possibly a two colour one??

Quick Sand II

Another Heidi Kirrmaier pattern, my second Quick Sand.   

 

This one's in Summer Tweed, just six skeins.  I had to knit a smaller size, but iin a away that's better. It's more open but I like it a little tighter around the shoulders.  I was still knitting on the back when I broke into the fitth sken. That's when the knitting got a littel faster!  Could I knit faster to conserve the yardage???? 

I knitted both sleeves and decided to lengthen them a bit, as the smaller size has tighter sleeves and that pulls up a bit of the length.  Only a tiny bit left, but I did it!  I didn't add an edging to the fronts, it didn't really make much difference with Quick Sand I, the fronts will still roll with wear, even if they're blocked flat (and in this instance it doesn't bother me at all). 

 

Great for a summer cover up!  

After the Rain jumper

Finally! A simple pattern and great stash bustre, the striped jumper.  Knitted in Felted Tweed, Black and Avocado. Another Heidi Kirrmaier pattern, After the Rain. 

A bit too warm for this sort of weather!

Where does the weekend go?

One minute it's Friday evening, the next it's Monday mornin!

I still haven't taken photos of After the Rain, my Felted Tweed striped jumper.

I HAVE sewn in the ends of Quick Sand II which finally dried on Saturday, but no photos (and it hasn't grown much...

I've also darned in the ends of the baby cardigan Entrechat. Although not a fun knit (the chosen yarn was a bit thin for the tension) I like this design.  There's a bit of a ruffle on the back, whi9ch sorts out the bolera shape so the cast off isn't too tight. It's sleeveless and will make a fine summer cardigan for a baby. Just one button to sew on too. 

That's three things which are so very nearly finished!

I worked on my I'm the Boss cowl - I've worked one repeat, and think I must do at least another two.

I've frogged my Sandshore cardigan (the mesh panel was tkaing too long to fix) and restarted it. I'm being very careful!

I've worked another few inches on the sock leg. Not feeling the love of sock knitting, but reckon that if I do an inch a day I can finally finish a pair of socks.

And. TaDa!  I've cast on a new shawl, Talisman, the first of the Shawl Aociety patterns.  I've gone for Skein Queen's Little Squashes, in fading peach.  (I have plenty of other yarn choices, but he newest has won out).  This is a very simple and plain shawl. I've chosen a gradient, but it will work as well in a stronger gradient, or emen a variegated, I think.  It's virtually lain sotcking stitch, wth some (k3tog, yo, k3tog) into one stitch eveyr so often.  But I'm sticking with the gradient I chose.  What I love about Helen's patterns is the layout, a table format and a percentage.  I'm not sure how accurate the percentage is, I've usually just been curious as to my shalw progress, but this time I'm worried about yardage. I have five 20g skeins, and don't want to run out on the cast off!  I knitted one extra row after the 20% stage with the first of the five mini skeins, so I'm on track!

I had to put the daylight lamp on this morning to take a phot, it was so dark and miserable and wet in London!  Summer Solstice is coming up and we have such horrible weather. MrC tells me it's also going to be a full moon (no idea who that affects things, but maybe it means we'll have a long day and a light night).

So this week is a very mixed bunch of WIPs,  Socks, cowl, shawl and cardigan.  At least I have a choice as to what to work on. Hopefully a finished pair of socks and a finishd cowl by the end of the week!

 

Knitting blahs

Not such a great knitting weekend!  I seem to have dithered a lot. And frogged a lot!

Glass half empty knitting:

• I forgot to get photos of my Felted Tweed stirped jumper
• I finished Quick Sand II in Summer tweed (that's a glass half full thing) but it's still drying, four days later!
• I had to frog and restart my second sock
• The yarn which I may use for Tasliman shawl didn['t arrive
• I may have to frog my next cardigan becasue the mesh panel cannot be parcially tinked back, the whole lot has to be, and this Bamboo Tape does not do well with smaller needles when i'm trying to catch the p2togs

Glass half full knitting:

• I cast on another cardigan, Sandshore, a top down open crdgian.  I decided to use my Rowan Bamboo Tape for this one, after I'd tried knitting with it. For some reason I thought it would be horrible to knit with (I think I'm remembering those booklets with the weird yarn that Rowan brought out, to appeal to trendy teens, years ago) but I rather like knitting with it.  I hear it grows, so I'm thinking of knitting it slightly shorter. One ball down, and i dropped a stritch on the lace mesh!  I've been slipping down row by row... This tape stretches, so it might be frogged. I do like the yarn and pattern, and it's very easy to memorise the yoke, just raglan increases and the lace mesh. 
• I cast on the second sock. it's four inches now. Fingers crossed again.
• I cast on a cowl, Stitchnerd's I'm the Boss. Super simple. The yarn is again from stash, a skein of Shilasdair's Cashmere Handspun. Butter to knit with. 
• I cast on a baby cardigan, Entrechat, Instead of using an aran weight at a realxed tension, I'm using a dk cotton/silk blend at an even more relaxed tension.  I'm nost sure that I like it, it's looking really sloppy. Never mind, I'll persevere.  The pattern's quite nice (so far) but I think the yarn isn't doing it much justice.  It's Stylecraft's Malibar DK. Now I've used the aran weight, and loved it. It might be a case of the loose tension. I do hope that's it, as I have some bright pink for me!
• The yarn arrived for comparison for the Talisman shawl by Curious Handmade. I'd originally selected some red and some orange yarns. I wanted to see what this gradient looked like before winding any up. It's Skein Queen's Little Squashes in a colour called Peach Bellinis. Now Squash doesn't have that luxurious silk content but it's a lovely merino.  I think that's the one I'll go with. 

So that's the knitting news. I may cast on the shawl tonight.  That'll make five WIPs. EEEEEK!

 

Quick Sand cardigan OFF THE NEEDLES!

It's not such a massive amount of knitting, I only had a bit of a sleeve to go, but pleased to have this finished, so that I can cast on more stuff.

I only had six skeins of the old Summer Tweed, so had to knit a smaller size.  It feels a little short and tight, but I'm hoping that it loosens up a bit with a washing and wearing.  I knitted this with dresses in mind, and it'll look fine if it doesn't grow. You knot it's a bit small when you put it on and the back has to be pulled right down!  Good job knitting is stretchy.  Good job that it's an open cardigan and I'm happy that the fronts hang down the sides.  

Here's a pretty poor shot of the cardigan this morning before I left for work. No sun today!

What's next?

I have the cuff of the second striped sock knitted - and that's all that's on the needles, so it's time to cast on!

I've wound up some purple Shilasdair cashmere ready to knit a cowl, so I need to pick a pattern and cast on.  

The Shawl Society's first pattern, Talisman, has been released. I think it might be a MKAL and relaeased in stages, but I've not downloaded it yet and the chat thread in the ravelry group is scarily busy, and I've been avoiding trying to read it! 

I've already decided on the size - it'll be small.  I thought that I'd narrowed the yarn choice down to two - red-pink or orange, but then the Skein Queen update happened and i seem to have bought a few sets of graduated mini skeins, one peach and one green. They don't have the silk content of the two previous choices, but I may prefer the gradient colours. Hopefully they're subtle. 

And garments!

1) Big Wave  - a sleeves strappy top which might be ok in some stashed Rowan Bamboo Tape (as long as I am very tight with the cast on for the straps, seems this stuff grows, and long strips I do not need.

2) Chance of Showers cardigan in Rowan Panama.  This is a summer cardigan, in finer yarn, so if I ant it for this year I need to get a move on!

3) Sandshore cardigan.  I would knit this one in Stylecraft Malibar, a cotton/silk blend, but not sure which weight. I have orange aran weight and pink dk weight, which would be knitted a a looser tnesion. Erring on the side of orange. It's a pale orange and more suited to summer than winter.

4) baby stuff. I wnat to knit a cardigan and possibly a vest. My niece has not one but tow firends having babies (and still teenagers, sadly) 

Plenty to get on with this weekend. At the very least I'll be casting on a cowl, a shawl and a cardigan! 

 

Shell Circle cowl

A lovely, quick, easy project.  It was one of the many projects which I took with me when I went home to visit my parents.  Finished in no time at all!  Despite being an easy project I found a few, ahem, Dawn's designer modifications where I'd either dropped one of the p'tog stitches, or omitted a yarnover.  I blame my family, too much chatting!

Knitted in Sekin Queen's Crush DK Cherry Pink, it's soft and bright,  I've been knitting with a lot of cooler coours recently, so a spot of bright warmth was a nice change. 

Knitting catch up

I've not done much knitting this first week of June. Too much time spent zoning out in the evenings ro pottering around, or even a spot of cleaning!

BUT I'VE FINISHED MY FELTED TWEED JUMPER!  The weather forcast for Sunday was sunny, so I knew that I only had Saturday to knit this.  I'd already frogged back five inches of the sleeve which needed lengthening.  I figured that that amount of sleeve seam needed to be tidied up and that I could live with the rest looking a bit ragged!

It's now drying,

 

Not much other knitting done. I've (re)cast on the second sock for me. I've finished the frist sleeve on my Summer Tweed Quick Sand and started on the second.  It's not that much knitting to do, The sleeves are 3/4 and the yarn is thick. It's a case of picking it up when I get in instead of flopping down in front of the tv and going into post-work zombie mode!

What next?

Well, I've been stash diving - just a little bit, in one bin.

I've picked out some Shilasdair Cashmere, just one skein, which has been in my stash for a number of years,  It's not enough for much, but I should get a cowl out of it. 

I've also been rummaging around for some suitable yarn for my MKAL shawl pattern.  The pattern shows two versions, One uses two colours and the other uses a Gradient yarn.  I'm thinking of just knitting one solid colour, but might change my mind when I see what others are using.  At this point  I've gone for 'summery' yarn. Either bright or light, and not too woolly.  I've narrowed it down to some Knitting Goddess alpaca/silk/cashmere blend in orange, and Skein Queen wool/silk blend in reddy pink.  MrC of course said 'orange' and I am tempted.  This KAL starts later on in the week, so I'm going to concentrate on my cardigan first!

Speaking of garments, I'm also tempted to cast on another garmetn. I see that Heidi Kirrmaier (the designer of my most recent garments, including Vitamin D) has a quick knit sleveless top just released. Usually I don't knit summer tops - I have plenty of thinner , non knitted tops - but it's so tempting. I have some Rowan Bamboo which might suit.  I've also got the Rowan Panama out and have some Stylecraft Malagar to hand, I used this last year, it makes a soft, drapey garment, is nice to knit with, machine washable and is cheap.  

I expect that this time next week I'll have a few more new things on the needls, that's if I ever make up my mind!

May knitting and June knitting goals

I feel like May was a great month. Didn't do that much knitting, I tend to only do a little bit nwo during the week, work is too tiring :) but manage weekends.

BLOG

1 baby  hat - done!

FINISH

2 After the Rain jumper - nearly done!  I need to partially reknit that sleeve and finsih it all off

3 Lightwaves shawl - done

4 DK socks for me - done

CONTINUE

5 other socks for me - done (nto finished though)

START

6 another Stitchnerds pattern - done - a cowl.  I've finished this too, just needs ends darned in.

7 another cardigan - done - Quick Sand,  And over the Bank Holiday I've knitted the body and half a sleeve!!

Wow!  OK, a litttle sleeve issue not quite done, but otherwise a very good month. 

Let's hope that June is as productive

BLOG

1 Shell Circle cowl

FINISH

2 After the rain jumper.  It might not be so bad now that the weather is cold and I'm not thinkign of little summer cardigans!

3 Self striping socks for me., One down, one started.

4 Quick Sand cardigan 

START (finishing will be a pleasant surprise)

5 Chance of Showers cardigan

6 Curious Handmade Shawl Society MKAL

7 Stitchnerds - not sure what yet but I have lots of patterns to knit up!

8 Baby cardigan for Matilda

9 Baby vest for a not yet born baby

I think nine things are enough!