skein

Olympic knitting plans

I just can't resist joining the ravellenic games, especially as it's on our doorstep this year.  We keep hearing horror stories about how the capital will grind to a halt with the influx of visitors to the Games,. how the transport system will collapse, even our postman was talking about provisional plans to deliver Special Deliveries between midnight and 4am (hope those are shelved...).  I will be attempting to get into work each day, at regular hours regardless.  Knitting will keep me sane!

Decisions, decisions. 

I'v chosen my team, and have gone wtih Team GB, feeling a little patriotic, 

The ravellenic games (calling them RG from now on!) will begin with the opening ceremony and end before midnight on 12th August.  That's not a lot of knitting time.  There are LOADS of events!

I shortlisted them down to 17.  Not bad, but I have to work and two of the events would surely take me longer than a day to complete - namely the sweater triathlon and the shawl sailing.  

Another cull is necessary!

My second shortlist:

1) baby dressage

2) colourwork cross-country

3) cowl jump

4) hat dash

5) holiday hurdles

6) home stuff hammer throw

7) mitten medley

8) shawl sailing

9) sweater triathlon

In addition to that lot, we have exhibitions, where we can't earn medals,  three categories.  British Cricket is all things British, Panhellenic Glory, all things Olympic and Yarn Bombing, self explanatory.  Not sure I'm up to doing these though!

Projects can be entered into multiple categories, so I could, for intance, knit something for Christmas and include it in another category, such as hat or home stuff.  Feels a bit like cheating....

And my final (at the moment) shortlist!  Dependent on yarn and pattern selection of course.  Some time in July will be spent training!

1) baby dressage.  We have an office baby due at the end of the year!

2) cowl jump.  Cowls are pretty popular at the moment, there's a stack of them on ravelry.

3) hat dash, have a kit on its way.

4) mitten medley (or fingerless mittsn)

5) home stuff hammer throw.  Would love to kit a teacosy but might have to settle for dishcloths

and finally the Big Stuff:

6)  Shawl sailing OR Sweater triathlon.  There's a Stephen West shawl I wish to knit for a certain Mr C's birthday in December, and I have a yearning to knit another Hey Teach!  cardigan. My last one died a death in too hot water!

All i have to do now is wait and look for patterns.  Can't wait!

 

Of course I didn't do as much knitting as I planned

Friday evening, most of Saturdaya nd Sunday afternoon saw visits from siblings plus neices and nephews, so not much knitting done at all.

 

Red cardigan - not touched

Socks - managed to knit about 3/4 of the first sock. 

Sock knitting not going so well!  I worked out that usually I manage about 1-1.5 hours of sock knitting each weekday, on the commute and at lunchtime, but recently have done no commuting knitting (trains too crowded!) or at lunchtime.   I shall have to remedy this if I want these finished by the end of the month.

Shawl knitting going well, but not finished.  I've completed the pink stripes and am now on the blue big stripe, very boring garter stitch with no short rows to keep me interested. 

I might be able to get this finished by the end of the month.  I have 46 more rows to go.  Not sure yet how to block this, it's going to be an odd shape!

And crochet.

I've doen 30 squares.  Here's the progress at 28 squares.  Amazing how I can't count and have to fudge to connect them up on that final round.

This is destined to be a cover for my bedside table, and it now covers the top.  I've not even made a dent in the lemon cotton yet, so a long way to go!

Oh, and the buttons are on Flagstone, so at least one garment is finished awaiting photographs.  Stay tuned...

 

 

A quick knitting catch up

I haven't really done much this week.  Late in from work and then I start pottering...

I've been workng on Madrigal in the little time I've had to knit.  I've nearly reached the bit where I join fronts and back and work the rest of the body. Sounds impressive, but it's a deep scoop neck, so there's very little kntting on the fronts, to the armholes.

As usual, there's a lack of light in these wet, gloomy mornings.  

See how skinny these fronts are?

Over the weekend I did a little bit of crochet, too.  I prefer doing a batch of circles, then joining them all together.  Sunday I did 24 little circles:

Then we have 24 two colour circles:

And 24 three-colour circles:

Then we have the lemon round.  I have lots to go:

A bit scrappy, but I'm sure when it's blocked a bit it will look ok!

 

Mr C is on his own this weekend.  I'm off to visit the family and think I may have over-estimated the amoutn of knitting time I shall have. 

I have Different Lines shawl, with rather a lot of yarn to go.,

I have plain men's socks, with just aobut four inches knitted.

And I have my red cardigan, taking down four balls of Rowan's Handknit DK.    Should hae enough to keep me occupied over one weekend! 

Holiday knitting

 

 I had a great four day break.  Knitted.  Hardly any housework accomplished.  Just how I like it (though a cleaner would be nice). 

I didn't manage to knit a wip per day. Instead I finsihed off my Opal Surprise socks, and concentrated on Flagstone.  Once a sleeve had been completed and I could see the end in sight, i had a second wind.  That second sleeve was done in next to no time.  Even the border went quickly. Still have ends to darn in and pockets to sew down, but I am so pleased to have finsihed the knitting.  I still need to think of buttons, but the finishing shouldn't take that long at all. It's my fifth garment for IntSweMoDo2012.  

Grotty photo. This is a lovely light, yellow green!  We have had, as is usual for a bank holiday, a dismal, dark, gloomy, cold and very wet weekend!

The pattern has a lace cuff pattern, followed with garter stitch cuffs, but I frogged and reknitted with just a plain garter cuff.  I've made them narrower too, and shorter, so tey should sit on my wrists rather that dangle over onto my hands.  I can't see why I would want a summery cardigan with long sleeves covering my hands, they won't need to be kept warm!

NO IDEA what is next. I've wasted a few evenings playing with some Jaeger Siena 4ply in navy, thought it might be good for Candlewick.  Could not get tension at all.  And now know that navy is not the best colour to try to do this cardigan.  Swatched plain stocking stitch, and my tension was horrendously out, even for me!  It was only last night I checked the needles, they're not 3mm, they're 3.75mm!  How on earth could an experienced knitter not notice that big size difference?!  Doh!

I also worked on Different Lines.  It's such easy knitting.  I've put it aside as I intend visiting the family soon and need simple knitting.  As I haven't cast on a cardigan I may well have to take this with me.  

And new socks!  Again, plain ones, using stashed yarn.  It's Opal Tiger, more socks for Chris.  He has some tiger socks, but they rae years old and baggy. 

 

And and and ..... crochet.

I wasted a whole day trying to figure out how ot square the circle as the pattern didn't seem to make much difference.  Best example was where I did a round of dcs in the lemon colour, then squared the circle with double trebles, trebles, and dc.  However, it took longer so I went back to the pattern  - and realised I had mixed up US and UK terminology!  So it's the pattern as stands.  

 

I can't believe I am using up this lemon cotton, I'm sure I've had it in stash for ten years or more!

 

Not much knitting done these past three evenings

This is it.

There's this danger time,when I am between projects, when I get sucked into ravelry and my stash.  I have spent the past three evenings trying to start a wip!

This is some variegated sock yarn, too variegated to show up patterns, and also no nylon (I gave up knitting socks without nylon several years ago, was fed up with them wearing out however tightly I knit).   It has been wound up and restarted several times.  I was convinced it was to be a pair of crocheted mitts, but after several attempts I have had to give up.  Small hook  + variegated yarn = impossible crochet.  

In the end I've gone for a very simple knitting pattern - koigu wristers.  It won't matter if there are splotches of colour! 

My plain sock is not frogged, just on hold.  I'm thinking of reusing the yarn as a pair of mitts.  I'll leave it alone this weekend and see how I feel about it next week. 

On my ravelry searches I've become a little obsessed with crocheted mitts.  I have no idea which is a good or bad crcohet pattern, so I've just been looking at popular ones which appeal to me.  I cast on (now what is the word in crochet?) my first pair last ngiht,b ut think they will be abandoned, not stretchy enough (it's wool cotton).  I stil have the bag of dk yarns out thoguh, might start another pair over our long weekend!

In the process of hunting for mitts, I've found some rather lovely shawls.  In the hope that this is a skill I can master I've ordered some cheap tunisian crochet hooks.   I have one in my stash, and that's a knitpro one with a long cable, so if I do take to it I can tunisian crochet a blanket!  I know it's been around for years, but the only crochet I did in the seventies were long sleeveless waistcoats make out of granny squares!

 

Look what I won!

As a member of Sock Knitters Anonymous (SKA on ravelry) and as someone who posted cast on and cast off posts for one of the monthly challenges, I was eligible for  a prize.  And I won one!  (I never win anything). 

It arrived a week later, all the way from Maryland, courtesy of SheilaR (on ravelry).  I could choose a yarn from her Etsy shop, and chose a colour called Strawberry Fields,  guess I am going through a pink/red phase!  

 

Wool and stitch markers. how lovely! 

As for knitting, I've been working solely on Ormond, hoping that I won't run out of yarn. I have just over three balls of wool left, with two sleeves, a left front, half a right front and back neckband to knit.  I want all fingers collectively crosses, please!!

Where did the weekend go? And let's talk about stash organisation

The sum total of knitting done this weekend?

 

 That's just over an inch of garment, and a few rows of new sock. All from Sunday afternoon!

Saturday I had a late start, stayed in bed reading till 9.30am.  Up, showered, breakfasted, pottered till 11am.   Then I thought it would be a good idea to venture into the stash.  I needed to cast on the third garment for IntSweMoDo and had no idea which one to do next.

 Should I go for a thick winter yarn? This past week has been mild, and until Friday I toyed with the idea of starting summer knitting.  Friday was a bit cooler, and I very nearly took home the  Lopi which lives in the office.  I didn't, decided that possibly an early Spring garment might be better - after all, I'll probably finish it at the end of March, when the weather ought to be warmer.

My stash is 'sort of' organised.  I have culled so much of it in the past three years (at least five large black binbags have been sold, swapped or gone to the charity shop) and I've been in several kals involving lots of shawls and garments.

I have boxes and vacuum packs and toy bins. 

Box 1 - german sock yarns (those that are mw and usually can be dried) for gifts, mainly.

Box 2 - Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock and Fleece Artist sock yarn

Box 3 - Those skeins of sock yarns without nylon.  I now use this for hands, head and shoulders.  Not feet, it wears out too quickly.

Box 4 - Laceweight yarns

Box 5 - Non laceweight yarns suitable for lace or shawl knitting - these are the yarns which are not sold as sock yarns, usually very luxurious fibres and possibly sparkly.  From 4ply to aran weight.

Box 6 - Marion Foale 3ply merino (Yvonne, what did you do with yours???), Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino and some chickadee.

Box 7 - a large box, full of miscellaneous 4ply odd balls, quite a lot of shetland and 21st century yarns.  All great for mitten knitting.

Bin 1 - winter wool packs for garments - chunchy (a few!) and aran

Bin 2 - winter oddballs in heavier weights with the a few Jamieson's thick jumper kits which iddn't fit into bin 1

Bin 3 - wool packs in dk, sport and 4ply.

Bin 4 - lighter weight odd balls for transeasonal accessories.  And about four cones of Kauni!

As well as these I have vacuum or packmate bags - one has my sock yarns with nylon (but not German), others are for Wollmeise, Koigu, baby (that's oddballs suitable for babies, nice colours, m/w), more aran weight oddballs for winter accessories, Felted Tweed.

There's a suicase on the top of the wardrobe full of thick yarns - though it's been a few years since I opened it!  I kow there's some unpsun Icelandic in there, not sure what else!

Summer stash (cottons and very summery type yarns) are vacuum packed and stored away until the Spring. 

Work stash is much diminished, it's now contained in one pack,  much of it is Lopi and some Magpie.

Anyway this stash diving on Saturday lasted from 11am to 6pm!  I started sorting out some of the bins, as I tend to dump yarns in one of them instead of putting it away in its box. No rush, I love a good rummage in the stash! 

I had a shortlist for the next garment.

Debbie Bliss Rialto dk

Jaeger EFM dk

Elann Peruvian Highland Sport in red or aubergine.

After shortlisting, I went onto ravelry for inspiration. This took me from 6-11pm (with an interlude to cook and eat!)  I wanted to knit from both yarn and pattern stash.

I finally settled ont he Rialto, and Monday Morning.  Swatched. Just before bed I had a look at the pack of Rialto as I had a sneaking suspicion the two extra balls had gone AWOL.  And yes, they are AWOL!  I cannot knit a garment from 10 balls.  Until I find the extra yarn it's down to one of my two other yarns. 

I've setted for the Elann sportweight in aubergine.  And Deco.  Coincidentally the slipped stitch pattern is the same as on the Monday Morning cardigan, just with less sts inbetween the slipped ones.

So far so good, though I'm a bit concerned that it might be on the snug side.  I can't tell at the moment, and trying to measure such a narrow strip is difficult, it's a bit stretchy!  The swatch was fine ... bt my swatches sometimes lie! This isn't going to be a fast project on 3mm needles, either! 

Fingers crossed that I am now set for IntSweMoDo2012, garment #3.  Oh, and the other new project is just a pair of plain socks for my brother. 

My stash tally for February was -2510 yards!  I didn't buy one single yard of yarn.  Not that I'm going on a yarn diet or anything so drastic; just trying to use up some stash.

February knitting and March knitting goals

I didn't quite manage my February goals, but it was a shorter month!

Blog:

1) My last pair of mittens for NaKniMitMo12.  They're Polska.  Done here!

2) Urban Troubadour shoulder wrap.  Done!  

3) Hexipuffs!  Fail!  A miserable three completed all month.  Think I've lost the will to knit these.

Start and Finish:

4) My second garment for IntSweMoDo12.  Done! It's Acer.

5) A hat.  I have a kit.  Done!

6) Another hat.  Done!  It's a Noro hat and Mr C has adopted it.

7) Some fingerless mitts. Fail!  I have cast on though.

8) Some socks.  Done, the ghastly socks for Mr C.

Start:

9) Some more socks. Done!  I'm about halfway through the foot of the first sock.

 Overall, pleased.

Now for March.  It's going to be more of the same, I think.  Keeping up with the 12 knits for head, feet, hand, body and Other!

Blog:

1) My Hall of Fire tam, which needs a good blocking. 

Finish:

2) My pink socks for SKA. These will be the second pair for the year, but the others were super thick (aran weight) and went quickly.

3) The fingeerless mitts I;ve only just  started in February. I'm using remnants from the Urban Troubadour (and possibly the Hall of Fire Tam)   Making up the pattern as I go. My fourth pair this year, so I'm ahead on the knits for hands!

Start and finish:

4) My third garment for IntSweMoDo2012.  I have NO idea which one I'll knit. I fancy some lighter weight yarn though, and am looking at the dk wieght stash.  Is it too early to think of a summery colour??

5) My third pair of socks.  These will be plain ones.

6)  My third hat.  I fancy the new crocheted hat that Woollywormhead is bringing out this month.

7) My second Other.  I hae no idea what to knit yet, but I have had emails from baby Polly's babushka in Moscow asking if I might like to knit something else. I am waiting to find out what they would like!

8) My third Other.  Not a clue what to knit, yet.

I am having a rest from Hexipuffs.  I've gone off knitting them.  I will concentrate on the other knitting goals for March.   What's frustrating is that I usually haul some of the stash out on the weekend before the start of the new month, just to dip in and see what I might want to knit with.  This month I haven't, and I shall have to wait until Saturday to stash dive. I get in too late, and am too tired to do much more than cook, eat and do a little knitting on workday evenings.  This is good. it means I can dedicate tonight and tomorrow to these pink socks and (possibly) the new fingerless mitts!

I leave you with a photo I found on the computer.  These are two cute cardigans I knitted a looonng time ago. These girls are now 25 and 22!

The bottle green cardigan was a favourite of mine.  Pingouin yarn and pattern book was from Ries Wools in Holborn and was knitted for the older girl, poor youngest got the hand-me-downs!  I can't remember the stranded jumper pattern, though I can rememer knitting it. I suspect it's a Rowan pattern.

 

 

Knitting Doldrums

I seem to be making no progress at all on any of my WIPs at the moment.  

Out of the four on the needles:

Boreal is knitted, and needs finishing. No knitting to be done on this one.

Swedish Fish mittens are abandoned. I didn't like my fish, think I prefer darker fish and possibly just one colour.  So no knitting here either (but will be restarted, possibly not as mittens but as fingerless mitts)

Beekeeper's Quilt is also on hold.  I've been knitting remnants of Lrona's Laces and felling fine about htem.  Then I thought I'd try a hexipuff in this Easyknits Little Guys. loved it, but they are bigger hexipuffs.   Seemed like a grat idea to make a beekeeper's quilt out of this yarn (and it might be warmer).  I've knitted nine now, but am having second thoughts (!)  Though I love them, I would have to buy more yarn to make a blanket.   I wanted this to be knitted from sock yarn remnants or sock yarn in stash, so I'm thinking of going back to the original hexipuffs and just working on these,  This weekend I'll get them out and have another look.  So no knitting here either!

Urban Troubadour is not abandoned, but I'm keeping the boring ribbed section for February!

Leaving my newest MIP, Polska!  I cast on on Sunday using Wollmeise. 

Wednesday night I was nearly finished with mitten #1, and took a long look at my mitten. 

This is a regular pattern, and with regular patterns I like symmetry.   The mitten is a 10 st repeat, but the pattern is worked over 72 and not 70 sts.  There's an odd 2 sts of the pattern at the beginning of the round which means that the pattern is offset by two stitches.  I hadn't really noticed it much (though didn't like the way that the pattern was broken off at the end/beg of the round) but as I neared the point of the mittens it was much more obvious.  Not so much here, I've frogged a few rows, but the white circles are offset to the left.

Perfectionist I am not.  This time though it was worth restarting!  My circles were also not quite right,  I think it's because I was twisting strands every 4th stitch, if necessary and this is distorign the top row of the circle.  I may be wrong but will see in the new MIP.  Otherwise it is manually tweaking this errant stitch so it's more obvious!

So bye-bye mitten. 

The mods I'm making with this one:

* working the pattern over 70 stitches instead of 72, so it's just one continuous pattern with no interruptions

* on the first pattern row I'm omitting the white top of the circles and leving these as blue,

* when I get to the dreaded working with three colours pattern I shall turn the mitten inside out and loosen up a bit. Although the first mitten fits, if I pull the knitting it is noticeably tighter on that central pattern.

So, for one weekend day and four evenings I have this progress photo.  In fact last night I spent the whole evening trying (and failing) to rewind the cream Wollmeise.  I am left with a tangled mess.

Here's hoping I get these finished. I so wanted to knit four pairs this month but shall stick at three. Instead, over the weekend, I shall hunt out yarn for the next garment, and rummage through the sock stash for sock inspiration.

Choosing a sweater pattern

With Boreal off the needles, albeit not quite finished yet, it's time to think of the next sweater for IntSweMoDo12.

Usually I have a good idea of what I want to knit next.  As I'm getting close to finishing one garment I start planning the next.   Not this time though.  Mittens have been on my mind this month.

My decision procress this time around:

1) out of stash

2) and aran weight

3) on to flickr and ravelry, to see (roughly, as it's not up to date) what aran weight woolly yarns are in my stash.

4) Shortlist of yarn I fancy for the next one:

    Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in olive

    Kelso Tweed in dark olive, plus one skein of red

    New Lanark aran in bramble

with the Cashmerino being the oldest in stash and  New Lanark the youngest.

I have more but have excluded the Jamieson kits, the Noro and some Jaeger (not enough yarn, should've bought more in the sales!)

Now to find a patttern.

5) ravelry to the rescue.  I have books but looking through them all would take me forever.  Best to look online.

I choose the following search options.

Cardigan, knitting, adult, weight (aran),  yardage and tension.  I don't mind purchasing an individual pattern, otherwise it's from magazines or books I already own.  No room on the bookcases for more books!

For the Kelso I want a plainish cardigan as any texture will get lost in the tweediness.  Yardage is a bit short, around 1500 yards at a tension of 15-16sts.  Nothing too summery, this is very much a cold weather yarn, both in colour and woolliness. 

Kelso favourites. Acer is leading.

Acer by Kirsten Kapur (though I might have been swayed by the lovely green!)

KPS neck down cardigan.

New Lanark:

Central Park Hoodie

Top Down Raglan Cardigan

Cashmerino Aran.  One contender, something I've liked for ages, and I see is now free from the Patons website,  Must Have Cardigan.

 Now there may be additions!  Looking at this list, after a month of stranded knitted it looks as if Im going for simple st st or simple cables.   Which one I choose depends on whether or not I can locate the stashed yarn!  I believe it's in a yarn bin next to my wardrobe ...