skein

Whilst there's daylight

I've been working on Suzette. As usual, my anticipated 14 or so hours of daylight over the weekend to work on Suzette dwindled right down to not even half of that time. I always forget about the tasks that I have to do at weekends - food shopping, washing, cooking. And late mornings as the body clock resets to a more reasonable getting up time.

Progress so far is 48 rows (out of 230) of the body.  Not bad.  I've had a good look at the knitting, and I think that the camera flash makes the patterns stand out much more than in real life.  Hey, but it looks better. The heart pattern, for example, is not as obvious as in the photo.

And a close up of the pattern:

I'm pleased to be knitting this, though after next week it might get put on the back burner!

Clapotis

In the end Clapotis had a very light blocking. I've lost my blocking pins, so I used wires and gently stretched these out and used a few safety pins to keep it pinned out.  Very nice.

MysteryShawl2

Looking inside the cone, I read the label. 'Waxed'.  Oh dear. I'm using 3mm needles because the yarn looks quite fine. 
So into the sink went the shawl.

Hot water and soap.  A bit of a blocking and we have this:

Looks nice, but it's terribly small.  There's a lifeline after the first clue was knitted and it's only 3 inches of knitting.  I've seen posts from people who have 10 inches of knitting after clue 1! So it's on hold until I think about whether I ought to start again, with larger needles.   

And Chris's new socks are a very tight squeeze to get on his feet (over his instep). I'm a couple of inches past the heel and they're fine when on, but it's getting them on that's the problem. Again, I may restart these, and increase to 56 from 52 sts.  Not a great knitting weekend (but I love Suzette!)

 

Clapotis

Clapotis is very nearly finished.  I've been dragging this along as my commuter knitting, and, believe me, it's become very cumbersome.  Last night I had one last knitting session, and I'm pleased to say that there's only ends to sew in, blocking (maybe) and one length of stitches to be dropped.  Karaoke does not like having stitches dropped.  I had to unpick every row.  Other than that, it's a nice yarn.  A number of people have asked me which Noro yarn this is.  I've even found it difficult to think of this yarn as Not Noro.  One grumble: out of seven 50g balls, three had knots near the centre of the ball, as if Southest Trading were trying to make the 'Hey, let's add 2 more yards to this ball!  Stuff the colour sequence!'  Very annoying.

Clapotis, unblocked, folded in half.

I've decided the bias knit waistcoat, in colinette yarns, wasn't working. I've not enjoyed any of this knitting process. I also would never wear a long waistcoat. What was I thinking?  So it's chucked.  More free needles.

I've cast on for some socks from the Stahl Limbo DK yarn that I bought at Sandown this past weekend.  For Chris, who seemed very pleased that I'm knitting him some more socks. It's probably the colour that's got him going.

My new commuting project. So nice to have something small in the bag again.

I've also, finally, cast on Suzette. I'm not sure what to call this type of knitting. It's certainly not intarsia (that technique was binned in the eighties, along with my wedge hair cut), nor is it fairisle.  Colourwork? Is that a word?  It sort of covers New Year Resolution # 8 (where I actually use the word 'colourwork').  I've had the yarn for this since the book was published.  One inch knitted. So far, so good.

In stash acquisition news, I've two new books.  Noro revisited, by Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton, is a huge disappointment.  I only like the cover jacket (and Tista, a child's cardigan). Maybe in a few weeks this book will grow on me. Maybe not. Definitely look before you buy!  Louisa Harding's The Design Collection more than makes up for it, some really classic designs that will suit her yarns very well.  Oh dear.  I forsee more yarn purchases at The Knitting & Stitching show!   I've had a despatch email, so it looks as if the exhibitor's guides are in the post. Can't wait!

Clapotis & other knitting stuff

I wish someone would come up with a great blog title generator.  It's the part I dislike the most!
I think the coffee morning at Peter Jones has worked wonders for me, as I've finished the main pieces of the diagonally knitted modular waistcoat,
started in May.
Good news: I didn't run out of the paler Iris colour.
Bad news: I am running out of the tagliatelle (and can't remember which bloody shade it is!). If you look at the front, you can see modular triangles at the bottom of each piece; I might frog the back triangles and replace them with Isis yarn, then use this tagliatelle for the side bits.  I'll leave it a day or two before deciding.

I've finished the shrug.  I don't like it!  It needs blocking though, so I will try it on again and see if I like it better.  I keep trying to pull it closed.  You know how when you're a child wearing an unbuttoned cardigand and it's hanging off your shoulders?  The exact same annoying feeling, I'm afraid!  The one skein wonder is fine, as it's more fitted and won't fall off.  If I don't like it, it will go into the Christmas pile!

Unblocked. Thrown on the floor.

And... this is coming along well.
This is the Karaoke from Get Knitted. Very like noro, just a  tad lighter and softer. And this is variegated, though the shades are mainly solid colours, with the variegated ones quite subtle (this is probably the most diverse).

I'm on the straight section now, and have finally started dropping stitches. Whee!!

As you can see, I'm not using markers for the stitches to be dropped, but relying on my eyes to spot the twisted stitches,  which you can see fairly clearly in this photo.
This is my commuting knitting, so should go fairly quickly. Stay tuned!