Knits

Hello! Well still busy here. I was meant to go back to the UK yesterday, but I’ve extended my stay for two more weeks and may extend it further. I’m anxious to go back to the UK and finish moving and start my new job, but obviously I’m also anxious about leaving.

While it’s been sunny, it’s not actually been very warm especially when that strong breeze comes up. It’s been coming up pretty early in the day too so by the time I’ve done all the little things around the house and the morning fog has burned off, the breeze is up and it’s too cold to sit outside. Can’t win. We got a teeny, tiny bit of rain as evidenced by the raindrops on the tulip above.

I’m so restless that I’ve not done as much knitting as one would hope with all the sitting around I’ve been doing — waiting for phone calls, waiting for my sister to come out of appointments, etc. I did however knit a Kittyville hat for her oncologist who is about to give birth to child number two. It came out kinda big, toddler-sized, which I think is actually nicer since newborn hats don’t fit for long. So why a Kittyville? Well the oncologist and nurses always like the hats she comes in wearing and the cat one is pure sister — everyone loves that one. I thought it would be a nice memory for the doctor to have a hat knit by me for her baby that is part of my sister too. It came out really cute with the patches of calico colour. Yarn is Di’ve Butterfly.

Not much else to report. Time to go have a shower, finish up the laundry, make a couple of calls, and then go visit my sister (she got admitted to the hospital w/ mild pneumonia on Sunday). Hope you’re all well. At some point I should catch up a bit w/ blog reading… I’m sort of scared to look at my feed as it’s gonna have a ton of unread posts.

Hello! Well, I’ve been in bright and sunny California for a week now. It’s actually been pretty nice — generally it’s really foggy for half the day and it’s not been bad really. I’ve sat outside a few times and knit and enjoyed the warmth. I even had to go out and buy a tank top (vest) and shorts today because I didn’t bring anything suitable for lounging in the sun.

Things are going as well as they can. The first few days were really hard — very emotional. Now it’s just hard because I can’t really leave her on her own for too long (mostly because I have to keep my eye on her so she doesn’t fall or something and make sure she takes her meds on time). I’ve completely changed my body clock although about 3 or 4 I feel like I need a nap and then I get tired and ready for bed by 10 or so which is early for me.

So anyway - several things to show you. The first picture is only a fraction of the amazing gift Jillian sent me. It includes a nice grass bag, two skeins of Claudia Handpainted in Blue Fields, a set of Rosewood DPNs, some hand lotion and chapstick, and that cool “blooming” tea. She also sent the Kittyville hat she knit for my sister (which she has worn most days since it arrived last Wednesday) and a thing of coffee and biscuits. Mmmm.

 
Claudia Handpainted in Blue Fields

I’m so impressed not only with the generosity of knitters, but people in general, whether you know them or not, whether you’ve talked to them every week or only exchange Christmas cards. I’m generally pretty grumpy about people, but it’s good to know that most people are kind and have heart; I need to remember that more often, not only when there are bad times.

I also started the Neighbourhood Tunnels sock from the Socktopus sock club so I could knit it on the airplane. I’ve just started the heel flap (I actually haven’t done much knitting since the plane ride). The picture shows the yarn a bit brighter than it is. To me the pattern seems to be obscured by the yarn, but maybe that’s down to my technique. My yarn overs don’t seem to be creating very large holes (and I’m not knitting through the back loop). I think maybe I’ve changed how I do yarn overs although I can’t figure out how they might be different. I was going to follow the pattern as written, but because I was in a rush to get these started to take on the plane, I didn’t do the toe as stated so it’s probably going to be a bit wonky.

Oh the Laburnum socks are still going (starting the cuff on sock two) and I saw other people also had problems with them biasing so it’s something with the way the pattern pulls.

Time to go do some more knitting and relaxing before bed… I’ll be back soon with an actual finished object.

I know it really does seem like I’ve fallen off the planet what with the lack of updates and responses to comments, etc., but I’m still here. Last week I was absolutely knackered every evening. I’ve always been a napper, but I’ve recently been in a period where I only tend to take a nap at the weekend rather than when I get home from work so I was a bit surprised to find myself taking one EVERY EVENING last week. I had to force myself back up to eat dinner and stare into space rather than sleep until midnight and then wake up and not be able to get back to sleep. Do you remember that Seinfeld episode where Kramer suggested sleeping for 4 hours and being awake for 6 or something along those lines because he was more efficient? Well, that’s how I am - I need 4-5 hours of sleep and I’m good for about 8 hours.

All of that was way more detail than you needed. I’m obviously still tired hence the rambling more than usual.

With all the sleeping last week, I did very little knitting. In truth part of it is because I am bored as everything I’ve been knitting is in the round with no pattern to it - just an increase or decrease here and there. If I were a faster knitter, I could’ve finished these things. So instead I kept browsing through my Stitchionary: knit and purl v.1 for a pattern for my Sockapalooza 4 pal socks. I cast on and started knitting a sock more with the intention of swatching and trying out a variety of patterns. Since I’ve chosen a very variegated yarn, a slip-stitch pattern would work best. I tried three patterns before deciding on one. I meant to take a picture, but when I was nearly done ripping it out, I realised I forgot to take the picture! DAMN. I’ve decided on the Butterfly pattern - the slip stitch version as I know there is a lace version too. It goes pretty quickly so hopefully I’ll be able to finish them up soonish.

Quick comment on the Stitchionary… it’s a nice book that’s divided into sections of pattern type - e.g. Knit & Purl, Slip stitch, Lace. My problem with this book is that there is no list of the patterns contained in it and there’s 270-something patterns so this is really quite frustrating. I was browsing another stitch pattern book and came across a couple of patterns I liked, but wasn’t sure if they were in the Stitchionary. So what I plan to do, and this is definitely the librarian in me coming out, is create a list of all the patterns in the book so I can reference it. I’ll make it available on this site for others, too.

I’ve finally finished uploading all my pictures from my family visit - a few highlights below.

Rosslyn chapel (yes the one mentioned in The Da Vinci Code — Obligatory shot of Stonehenge — An elephant’s rib cage at the Natural History Museum of Oxford University¹

I also did get some new yarn from the Yarn Chef on Etsy. It’s so scrummy! I haven’t had time to take photos of it or all the yarn my mom and sister brought over for me. The weekend was way too busy and too dark and wet. Maybe it will be bright enough when I get home tonight seeing it’s still light at 930pm these days!

A couple more pictures and I’ll let you get back to your normal lives…

My sister’s (semi-)Kittyville hat and a flower she stuck in it — My favouritest band, Travis who I saw Sunday night in Reading. Oh they are so cute and put on such a great show!

The full set of photos from the family visit are available in a set on Flickr.

Oh and I am almost caught up w/ all my blog reading! I was almost there and then a bunch of new posts hit Newsgator. I will also be catching up on any comments left here!

¹ I will likely make a whole post about this museum as it is my favouritest building ever.

—Warning: extremely long post!—

I’ve been knitting. A lot. I just haven’t written about it. After knitting the giant kitty for my friends, I started knitting some hats for my sister. She’s been battling breast cancer for 3.5 years now and has pretty much been in chemo that whole time. She lost her hair the first round of chemo, but it grew back and it was nearly to her shoulders when the cancer flared back up and she had to be put back onto the chemo that makes one lose their hair. I didn’t know how to knit that first time and couldn’t make her any hats, but this time around, well, I sort of know how to knit.

When I found out she was going to have to lose her hair again, I immediately thought to knit her a kittyville hat. Funnily enough, within a week she emailed me and asked if I could knit her a hat with cat ears and maybe another beanie type hat. Even though her asking spoiled the surprise, it was awesome to have her ask because she’s about 100x more stubborn than me when it comes to asking for things. So knit I did.

I had her go to a yarn shop and find some yarn that she liked - colours, textures - and tell me what they were so I could try to get them here (she’s in California and I’m in England). I was able to get some of them, but others I had to find substitutions for. Oh and it doesn’t help that there’s not actually a decent yarn shop near me so I have to order online. I got the yarns in and started knitting.

I really wanted to knit Shining Star by Kate Gilbert, but this proved to be way too complicated for me to even start. I think I’m ready to try it now though after the other hats I knit. I had a lot of problems along the way with most of the patterns. So in the end I made the following (pictures and details under the cut)…

• Kittyville (web version with modifications)
• Nautilus
• Cosy cashmere
• Odessa
• My own poor design

» Read the rest of this entry …