Knits

Marigold was just finished. Literally under an hour ago. Okay, the ends aren’t woven in because I want to make sure the length suits my sister and her fat head so when she gets here next week she can try it on and if all’s well and good then it will be totally done. I had to reknit this hat in near-entirety because I dropped some stitches and despite a yarn that is 100% baby alpaca, it’s not particularly “sticky” so it unravelled quickly to a point where I couldn’t reconstruct the lace pattern.

I think I can see why people get addicted to lace knitting. I mean a lot of the patterns look too complex for me (serious ADD issues) and I’m not a shawl wearing girl so it doesn’t really leave much reason for me to knit lace, but this simple pattern was easy to memorise, went quickly, and I really couldn’t ever set it back down because I’d say ‘oh but the next round is easy’ and on it went. I’ll write fuller details on it’s own page, but the mods I did included changing needle size for the main part of the hat and adding an extra repeat because of a length issue. I did have to reknit the crown decrease because the overall length was too short - that’s when I added the extra repeat. However, I had laid the hat down Friday night before beginning the decrease and had the intention of putting in a life line, JUST IN CASE, in the morning, but of course forgot in the morning. I ended up tinking back 7 rows before starting the last repeat. That took AGES. LIFE LINES people - use them when knitting even simple lace. I’ve left the life line in this time in case I still have to add more to the length.

See, the life line. Good job, Shannon, good job.

The yarn is really beautiful and soft. It’s Misti Alpaca worsted weight. I think it barely qualifies as worsted weight. The ball band gives no indication of gauge or recommended needles. It actually turned out to be good that I dropped those stitches and had to reknit the hat as I think the other one was too loose; I much prefer the resulting material. Despite the softness and beautiful colour of this yarn, I doubt I’d use it again for a project - definitely nothing larger than a hat! It splits incredibly easy and if you drop a stitch you have to react quickly unless you enjoy correcting rows and rows of dropped stitches as there’s not much “stick” to this yarn. I do have almost an entire ball left (probably 100 yards) so suggestions on what to knit with that? I have a lot of bits (some very large) of yarn from the hats I’ve made my sister (about 8 now) so I need to figure out what to do with them.

Completely not knitting related, but I thought these honeysuckles were very pretty because of all the different colours. If I dyed wool I’d definitely be finding my inspiration from the way nature blends colours together.

Other news… I owe a couple of people letters. I wrote one today and my writing was absolutely atrocious. I tried to use a regular ballpoint pen and it was hard! I tend to use fine point pens (this one wasn’t) and Sharpies in particular. Whenever I go back to the states I get Sharpies (although I haven’t had to the last couple of times because a friend gave me obscene amounts about 18 months ago). They are beginning to sell them here, but only in red, black, and blue and only regular points. Boo. It’s okay, really, because like everything in the UK, they mark up the price to absurd amounts. You know, if they didn’t mark things up to ridiculous amounts in this country, there’d probably be less poverty… Anyway, sorry for that tangent. I might be able to get the other letter done tonight.

This coming weekend is a 3-day weekend and I think it will be spent hanging out with my boy as after that we won’t really get to spend any time on our own for a month. I’ll get a little knitting done since he has to be put down for a nap in the afternoon ’cause he’s old. HAHA. Like I can talk, I like to nap too, but I can’t “nap” like he can.

Oh, oh, and I joined Sockapalooza 4 - I think, I mean I did, but I don’t see my name in the participants list unless there’s a typo as there are several Shannon’s. Found it - it is under the Beginner’s list since I’ve not much experience and I’m a bit slow. This is the first true knitting thingie I’ve joined. Eep! I’ve just got my secret pal info! I sort of hope I can use something in my stash, but of course I won’t balk at having to buy new yarn since it won’t be staying with me.

Posted by Shannon at 18:24 | completed projects, hats, marigold | Permalink | Comments (4)

This post is going to be long and picture intensive so 1. Apologies in advance and 2. Go get a cup of coffee / tea or glass of wine.

I headed north to Durham on the Sunday with plenty of knitting in tow. I made sure I had a variety of things to work on so I could knit depending on my mood. I knit on my socks on the way up - I hadn’t knitted on them since I turned the heel. I didn’t get very far - just one pattern repeat - before I decided to try them on. Folks, I’ve had to put them down, again, because somethin’ ain’t right. This is the first pair of toe-up socks I’ve knit. The pattern is written top-down, but I’ve followed a combination of toe-up patterns to determine what I need to do and where.

Here’s the problem. I cast on and did the toe as described by Misocrafty. I increased to 72 stitches - the pattern is a multiple of 12 - and knit the instep and foot until it was roughly 2″ shorter than my foot. I then followed the recipe for the heel from Nautilis by Anna Bell and the Generic Toe-up sock pattern because it was written in a way that made more sense to me as a novice toe-up knitter. Now, when I stuck my foot in to try it on, the thing was very tight. It could’ve done with a bit longer in the foot as the heel turned out a bit shorter, but it’s not that bad. But around my ankle (the gusset area) it is so tight. None of the recipes said to increase (in fact, the generic pattern says to pick up a few extra stitches to close the gap, but to be sure to decrease those) and that just seems wrong. Maybe I’ve totally misread something? I’d like to see a good side-view picture of a toe-up sock to see what the gusset looks like.

Has anyone reading done a toe-up sock? Did you have this problem w/ the heel/gusset? I can see that I probably need to add in an extra repeat bringing the stitch total to 84, but how? How would I go about increasing from 72 to 84 stitches? It just seems weird to have it go from foot / heel straight into leg without the taper you get doing top-down. Any and all advice is truly appreciated! I like this toe-up sock thing for the most part, but there are things I’ll change the next time around…

Up next, I started the Marigold hat (no relation to Ms Marigold, heh) from Marnie MacLean for my sister. I was nearly done when I realised that I hadn’t remember to bring DPNs to finish the crown. I’d actually tried to knit the hat on DPNs from the start, but I only have aluminium needles in the right size and the stitches kept slipping off. Anyway, it didn’t matter because I was too tired when I was in that second-to-last round of the last pattern repeat and I messed up. I started tinking to fix the mistake, but again, too tired, and I’d dropped the stitches which quickly unravelled the lace pattern and I couldn’t salvage it. Argh. I ended up ripping it out all the way to the band and started it again last night.

I kinda like green… Falling leaves socks, Ms Marigold, Marigold hat — The view from where I sat knitting until my fingers got too cold and I needed lunch

I didn’t actually touch Ms Marigold. And on the train ride home I didn’t knit a single stitch because I’d had two nights of very bad sleep and was feeling absolutely shattered so I dozed the first two- to three-hours and then I think I must’ve just stared into space the rest of the time as I listened to music.

Now Durham is absolutely beautiful. People are enamoured with Oxford and I honestly don’t know why. I guess it’s the history, but in terms of how it looks, well it really isn’t spectacular. I suppose it probably is when compared to the US, again, because of the history. However, the city centre of Oxford is ugly. It’s generic, it has all the same shops as you find anywhere, it’s dirty, it has three pedestrianised areas except that two of them actually allow traffic (one is the bus / taxi route through town and the other is a car park). The pretty bits, the colleges, are hidden behind walls and gates that only University members can enter. The rest of Oxford is total shite. Now Durham, it’s city centre is no different in terms of shops, but it’s buildings are beautiful, it has truly pedestrianised streets and a central square. It has hills and views and river that you genuinely want to walk beside and sit beside that isn’t littered with rubbish and obviously highly polluted. It was stunning. I loved it. It was a cold, wet, grey day and I just kept thinking how much I absolutely loved it and would move there in a heartbeat if I had a chance. It’s still not my preferred place to live (that’s Scotland), but it is so much better than Oxford. So much better. Nicer people, nicer buildings, nicer views, cheaper cost of living, etc.

You can see my full set of Durham photos on Flickr.