Knits

Dudes, seriously. I was pretty happy with this project when I was all done with it last night. And then this morning when I snapped the pictures I had to then dash off to work before I could see how they came out. So I got home and downloaded the pics and they came out pretty good and just looking at the project I’m even happier with it than I was last night.

This was the first project I’ve done that involved cabling for a significant portion of the project; and while the cables aren’t big, chunky, complex things, the number of crosses and complexity was new to me. I just love this and I think my sister will too. She picked this hat out a couple years ago, but I just wasn’t ready to do it (even though I did try).

I need to practice my cabling in general as I do want to eventually make Rogue or something with cable work. I think the heavier gauge yarns do lend themselves to tidier cables, but practice is still needed.

Just poking my head in to let you know I’m alive. I went up north last week on Wednesday, went into my new job on Thursday and trained a new person and met a number of my new colleagues. THEY ARE SO NICE! It’s such a change (not that most of my current coworkers aren’t nice, but they weren’t so open and helpful right off the bat). As far as the other goal of finding a place to live… I may be found a place. I’m trying to decide right now, otherwise it’s another trip north very soon.

On the train ride up I knit a good bit of my mosaic sock. I waited too long to try it on and ended up having to rip out over an inch of it. I’ll be going up a needle size. I then continued to work on the baby chevron sock and got a lot of it done. I even put it on waste yarn and tried it on after I’d started the cuff. And last night I finished it off and bound off w/ (literally) a centimetre of yarn left. And I went to put it on in all it’s gloriousness to find out… it doesn’t fit! How can this be?! I tried it on well after the decreases and cuff were started. If you have a US 8/8.5 foot and ankles skinnier than mine (fat chance) you can have a sock. Otherwise I suppose I’ll rip it out and go up a needle size there too.

And finally, I am tackling Shedir again (third time lucky?) — this time in Rowan Calmer Kiwi. My cables look awful. I hope they straighten themselves out once it’s all stretched out on a head.

Despite desperately wanting to knit, things just aren’t working out right now. I got distracted with Shedir when chatting to my friend and even though I am certain I did whatever I did right, I did it in the wrong place. I’m not all that excited about tinking back 128 stitches. I might just rip it out and start again (I’d only finished one repeat of the cable pattern) and remedy the holes thing while I’m at it. I just find the whole pattern really fiddley and if it weren’t a request from my sister, I wouldn’t knit it.
I really want to knit my sister another hat, but I’m sort of at a loss as to which pattern because she chose some very lightweight wools and I’d really have to double them up which then means I wouldn’t have enough yardage. I tried to start on Shining Star which I had attempted last year, but I was far too much of a novice. It is just so fiddley to get started. I think I might start it on two circulars versus a set of six DPNs (I don’t even have six of the right size DPNs anyway).

It’d be nice if I could figure out what my problem is with that Amelia hat! Maybe some day I’ll actually make it to the stitch n’ bitch and I can seek advice. I’ve not yet undone the too big socks, the scarf is very slow to progress for I don’t know what reason. I desperately want something quick and easy to knit or something to hold my attention so I actually finish it. Maybe that’s a call for the socks to be undone because that was going swimmingly until I tried them on and found them to be way too large…

We got a substantial amount of snow here yesterday. Most of it has gone as it warmed up and rained today. I went to London for work and they didn’t have nearly as much snow as we did. By the time I got there most of it was gone, but it still made for some pretty scenes. This is St James’s Park at the Buckingham Palace end.

– Edited to add –
I ripped out the too big socks and re-cast on. I’ve only done a few rounds of the toe - I’ve got 14 more to go until I start the pattern - but I am so glad I did this because it is really satisfying. I love it! I love the tiny little stitches and the tidy toe the Turkish cast-on provides without any fuss. If I weren’t so tired and in need of a hot chocolate to take to bed, I’d knit those 14 rounds so I could start on the instep tomorrow…

I’m knitting Shedir again. Well almost again - I was maybe 2/3 done when I decided it looked crap and ripped it out. This time I am using the Rowan Calmer as it calls for. I’m only a few rounds into the cabling. I’ve just done a search for others who have knit this pattern and they all came out looking great and stating that they really only did require one ball of yarn - it seems incredible with all the cables.

The weird thing is the last round before the cabling begins - it requires you to make a purl stitch by picking up the horizontal bar and purling it. I did exactly this and for some reason there are little holes every place I made one and all the other finished hats, or even in progress hats, I looked at, do not have this little hole! Maybe I should’ve purled through the back loop, but it didn’t say to so I didn’t. This did happen the last time I knit this too. I guess it’s just a ‘design feature’ in my version.

I tried to do the cabling without a cable needle, but found it difficult with such small stitches. Also I’m knitting it in black (hope the cables show up well!) which means I need good light to see what’s going on. Having to use another needle for the cables makes it all very tedious and slow-going, especially because some rounds all but 8 of the 128 stitches are involved in a cable.

I’ve got another cold. Not a happy bunny about this as for once I’ve got a lot going on at work that I’d actually like to be getting on with. And of course I also can’t concentrate enough to knit. Boo.

I have been trying to be good and not buy more wool as I have so much of it already and I’m not one to have tons of different projects going, but being in London yesterday for work, right behind the John Lewis on Oxford Street, I couldn’t resist. I’d been considering some Noro Silk Garden for a mini-Clapotis, but had read a lot of bad reviews about the downhill turn this wool has taken since it’s gained popularity - twigs, straw, rough, unevenness, lots of knots - so I was hesitant to buy it online as I usually have to do. John Lewis had it on the shelf so I got to feel it (a rarity for me when it comes to wool shopping as there is really nothing in Oxford) and see the colours for myself. It felt pretty soft and looked good so I bought four skeins. I also bought two skeins of Debbie Bliss Donegal Aran Tweed. I want a whole pile of this wool to knit a cabled jumper! It is so pretty!

I gave up. I cast-on again for the Amelia Earhart cap using the Rowan Wool cotton. It is so messy looking and I only knit a few rows! I definitely need to practice my flat knitting. I am really terrible with purling and it shows. I still have my scarf to work on and I definitely want that finished before I head to Prague in a month. However, tomorrow I may cast-on for Shedir again and maybe even some socks. I really want to try knitting two socks at once, but have had trouble finding a toe-up pattern that doesn’t call for a crochet cast-on. Anyway, I think I found something. Will post about it later. I think the whole Amelia cap thing has frustrated me too much and I’m tired so heading to bed after a bit of a tidy in the kitchen. So early for a Saturday…

While I knit more than I realised in 2006, there were large gaps of time where I didn’t knit at all. I hope to knit as close to daily as possible this year.

I’m knitting a number of hats for my sister again. We both went and chose a number of yarns and she’s selected two patterns so far. I’ve started on Shedir from the Knitty Breast Cancer issue (PDF), but using Rowan RYC Silk Wool DK instead of Rowan Calmer.

First, I’m finding the cabling very slow going which I’m finding very frustrating. I started the hat a couple of weeks ago and even though I haven’t been knitting as frequently as I’d like due to social commitments, I could’ve knit a couple of other hats in the amount of time I’ve knit a third of this one! Next, the wool is really nice and soft and squishy, but despite it having near identical gauge to Calmer (Calmer is 21sts x 30 rows and Silk wool is 22sts x 30 rows according to ball bands), the cables aren’t popping as much as I’d like. Perhaps it’s also the colour, a dark foresty green, but it’s sort of disappointing. Or perhaps it’s a combination of the colour and fibre content (silk and wool, duh) versus the content of Calmer (cotton and acrylic) so it makes it fluffier even if it knits to the same gauge.
My sister chose this particular pattern so she’d have something to wear when they go out for nicer occasions. Perhaps I should just rip this one out, despite the hours of work that have gone into it, and buy the Calmer in black perhaps and start again. I’m sure she’d be happy with it how it is, but I know it could look better. I think I’ve already made my decision… riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip. Sigh, that’s what happens when one is a perfectionist.

Maybe in the meantime I will start my scarf - the Cinnabar scarf from the December Magknits. I’m going to knit it in Rowan RYC Silk Wool in a creamy colour. I might even cast on for that tonight.

I got a big plastic-coated box to store some of my wool in. I have a lined wicker basket, but that’s grown too small and it’s also exposed to all the dust and cat hair in the house so I’ll put as much of my wool into this new box as I can and leave the wicker basket for current projects (those are lying around on various flat surfaces hehehe). I’m also handwriting myself a wool inventory. Yikes.