skein

In preparation of hot weather

Because I don't have much space I have to rotate my winter and summer wardrobe twice a year.  This usually ahppens (in the SPring) either at Easter, or, if the weather is still cool, at one of the May long weekends.  This year it was going to be in May, so last week's heatwave had me rummaging around for any hot wether clothing that I'd not put away last year.  Summer coat, lighter weight trousers, a sleevelss top, the one summer cardigan I had left out (bright orange) and sandals - at 6.00am! 

Last weekend I did the Big Swap.  Emptied the wardrobe and shelves and drawers of all clothes, sprayed with moth killer spray, vacuum packed winter stuff and got out the smmer stuff.  Takes up  much less room!  I've also started the process of washing winter accessories and woolly cardigans.

This week it's cooler, so I'm relying on summer cardigans to keep warm on the way to and from work...

Which means not much knitting. 

But I do have some knitting to report.  I've mentioned before that I'm in a cople of yarn clubs, and that I never knit up the yarn!  Not any more.  I've found an ideal pattern for the gradient mini skeins.  It's an old pattern, which I've had in my library for years.  Veera Valimaki, Stripe Study Shawl.   A garter stitch shawl with short row shaping in the CC, and a wide bottom border in the MC.  It's great if you use a gradient as the CC.  My first choice of MC was a red/orange vaguely variegated yarn, but on reflection I opted for a colour which didn't contrast as well with some of the gradient, but would make a better (for me) border.

Here's a scrunched up photo taken over the weekend.  Unfortunately last night a good bit slid off the too short needles.  I unpicked the last few inches of each row at one end, but it looks terrible,  I couldn't get the same tension when reknitting (so some rows had too much yarn left over and others didn't have enough),  only unpicked the last three inchess or so, and had the loop ends lined up against the last worked stitch, meaning that the inconsistencies in the yarn tension lined up.  I'm not grogging back whole rows but will have another go at this unpicking. I'm going to unpick mor stiches and not line them up, so any irregularities at the beginning of where I have to reknit are spread out... we'll see how well that goes!

Socks

I ought to have clled these the Socks of Doom.  They took a lot of knitting, Probably two pairs of socks worth. 

I reknitted one leg a few times - kept dropping stitches and wasn't hapy with how they were picked up.

Attempted to knit Vanilla is the new nlack heel.  Failed on the turning of the heel at least twice, and frogged the whole heel each time.  I eventually went of r a short row heel, but even this was disastrous, large holes!!  I'm leaving these as is.  From past experience, where I've has holes in short row heels - especially the Priscilla Gibson-Roberts version which has a hole at each end of the short rows - that these holes are much less noticeable after a few machine washes.

Grafting the toe,  Ended up trapping the yarn tail, couldn't free it and not enough length to finish the grafting, so had to cut one of the strands of yarn to finish. 

THEN DID THE SAME THING WEAVING INT HE YARN END ON THE LEG!

AND the second leg was 1.5" shorter than the first! 

I started these in Feburary, and finished them in March - which is when I was feeling poorly and couldn't concentrate.  I nearly threw them out, but mrC insisted o keeping them.  he says that they fit great and that the uneven leg lengths don't seem to unbalance him :)

 

Hamlin Peak progress

Although I don't feel as if I'm knitting much these cays, there is progress.  I HAVE FINISHED THE KNITTING ON HAMLIN PEAK!

This has been, surprisingly, a fairly quick knit.  I started it on 22nd March, and finished it last night,, 10th April.  Two weeks and five days,   That includes other knitting, stash diving and ravelry browsing.  I also had to frog back several inches jsut before dividing for the sleevesm  My fault,. A combination of using too short circulars, and not putting the knitting away. It fell off the needles at one edge, and when I tired to hook it up the damn yarn broke.  

This was old stash, some Summer Tweed in Lilac, not a colour I'd choose these days, but it shouldn't clash with my summer wardrobe.

Sorry about the photo, taken this morning before work, with the curtains still closed!

 

I think, for summer cardigans, I prefer ones wiht less front, so that I don't overheat,  But this was a great pattern,  Very easy and I like the increases,  It's like a M1L but you knit into the front, not the back.  I jsut insert the righthand needle into the strand, front to back and knit it.  They eyelets are not as open as yarnovers but provide a little interest in a plain stocking stitch cardigan.

The only bit where you have to think is after dividing for the body.  There's back darts and side increases,  I'm not entirely convinced that shaping is necessary. Thi isn't a structured garment and the yarn I've used is Summer Tweed,

Now where's the warmer weather?
 

 

Chocolate overload

Happy Easter!  We've been snacking for several weeks now, and we still have two Easter Eggs to scoff, as well a more crisps and ice cream.  I don't weigh myself, just go by  ho tight my clothes are, and this morning I can tell you that my tights felt tighter!   I can see how easy it is to put on a stone or two and not notice if you're wearing loose indoor clothing! 

usually at Easter I'll start washing some of my warmer woolliesm but the weather si still so horrible that I'd  not be able to dry them 9and might still need them!) so that's been put off until the next long weekend.  Instead, i've spent the entire weekend catching up on sleep, stuffing my face, doing a tiny bit of cooking and cleaning and knitting.

 

Most of the knitting has been monogamous, working on my cardigan.  I've finished the body, which is no small feat as it has increases at the fronts until you cast off. And I'm really slow knitting Summer Tweed.  And I managed to tangle two skeins whilst trying to wind them.

Summer Tweed is alo terrible if you're trying to ink and reknit, or pick up stitches. I dropped a lot of stitches off the needle (too short!) adn tried crocheting up the stitches near the edge. Broke the yan. had to tink back really long rows which took forever. 

This is old stashed yarn, and wouldn't be my colour of choice nowadays, but it's wearable,  I'm now on the first leeve, ideal knitting for weekday knitting, when i'm tired and apt to doze!