Knits

TO ME! Mwhahahaha.

Okay not really. Although, I’m really not giving anything for Christmas. I gave my sister her Clapotis when I saw her at Thanksgiving and hmm, well I don’t think I gave anything to my mom, but she’s busy spending my inheritance on crazy things anyway. (I’ve asked her to be sure to label the things of value or at least put them all in the same corner so it’s easier to torch the piles and piles of junk she has in her house/garage.)

In the last 10-days or so I managed to finish up 3-pair of Victorian Cabled Wristlets. I am not being patriotic (British or American) in the colour choice, they just happened to closely resemble the colours of the flags.

 
Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Aran in Peacock for me — Rowan RYC Silk Wool DK in Limewash for me — Lana Grossa Bingo in sexy colour 7 for my friend Louise

I’m spending Christmas with my friend Louise and her family and thought I’d make her something. I hope she likes them — she seems to like sort of quirky things like this. They just need a washing. I actually realised after I’d finished them that the set of DPNs I was using got mixed up. Three of them 4mm and the 4th was probably 3.5mm and much shorter; I only realised this when I put them back in their package (it’s yet another set of needles that aren’t different colours for different sizes and unmarked). They’re a bit tight, but the white-ish ones came out rather loose so I thought I’d use a smaller needle with the red ones (also Louise is really petite).

I don’t think I ever finished listing off the other knitting related items I bought for myself while in the States. I got several books:

• Knitting Nature
• Knitter’s Book of Yarn recommended to me by Ava of TwoBlackSheep. I recommend it to you if you’re not a spinner and probably don’t know much about what the real differences between various yarns are; and I don’t just mean sheep vs alpaca vs cotton, but within sheep for example.
• More Sensational Knitted Socks
• Last-minute Knitted Gifts
• Vogue Knitting The Ultimate Sock Book which I didn’t like as it turns out it’s really just a stitchionary and 95% of the stitches in it are from the first Vogue Stitchtionary so it wasn’t worth me holding on to it. I brought it back because a woman here in the UK wanted it so I sold it on to her.
• Sensational Knitted Socks which I already mentioned since it was a kind gift including beautiful yarn from Ava (I think I may be developing a crush).

I had also bought myself a set of Knit Picks DPNs (very nice and sharp) and Options interchangeables (the metal ones, not the ugly wood ones). I immediately put together the interchangeables to start two socks at once and before I even finished a round, one of the cables came out of the metal-join which was very annoying. I called Knit Picks immediately and they sent a replacement cable (it arrived the day after I left, d’oh). In fact, they sent TWO replacement cables and the stopper thingies so that’s nice. My only complaint about both sets of needles is the fact that the different sizes aren’t in different colours so it is easy to tell them apart. I am not a person who carries a ton of stuff with me; I have my pencil tin that DPNs fit into and I’d rather not have to futz about measuring the DPNs to make sure I have the right set if I’ve tossed in two or three sets. I didn’t buy the tags for the circulars as I don’t feel that’s a satisfactory solution for me.

Tomorrow I’m off to the North again, but for a job interview this time. I’ve kept it quiet because I don’t like to jinx things. Keep your fingers crossed for me come Wednesday afternoon. Again I’ll have a lot of train time to be knitting so hopefully we’ll see some progress on that Marigold Sock(s). Amazingly I only knit one or two repeats on my trip to Manchester the other week.

Hope those of you in truly cold climates are with heat and power! It may not be snowy here, but cycling in near freezing temperatures into 15mph head winds is not the way to end your day.

That is about half of the 150 santa’s entering a pub…

That’s how I let my mom know I’d arrived. A friend did an enormous favour for me and picked me up at the airport despite her incredibly hectic schedule as she prepares to fly off to go adopt her baby! Knitting for the wee thing is definitely in my future.

Now, not to overload you, I’ll just tell you about two finished objects today and then sometime in the next couple of days we will document the stash additions and books that I’ve managed to collect in two days haha. Well, a lot of it was pre-ordered before I arrived, but it’s now all in my hot little hands.

First off, Clapotis aka The C. Turns out my sister doesn’t know where this blog is (apparently she doesn’t Google my name) so I could’ve just called it by what it is from the start. Anyway, I didn’t get it finished before I arrived. I somehow got a lot of it done though because I thought I was pretty close to the end when I decided to quit dropping the stitches as I went along. In fact, I waited until the end and found out I had hundreds and hundreds of stitches to drop which was no fun whatsoever.

I tried to be sneaky finishing up the last 20 or so rows and my sister went all stealth and caught me. I think it ruined the element of surprise even though when she asked what I was knitting I told her to piss off. =D I finished it up and handed it over without washing it. She likes it and ended up falling asleep with it on and then waking up baking hot. That’s what she gets for being sneaky. I’ll wash it up as it is suddenly giving off that slightly fishy smell silks sometimes do. Yuck.

And I finally finished my Charade socks on the aeroplane. Thank goodness I even brought the first one with me since my mom’s house is like a morgue. I really like these socks. I love the colours in this yarn and despite first appearances, I think I rather like how the pattern and the yarn worked out. I need to write up the full details for both of these projects yet.

I will share one stash enhancement with you. Ava of TwoBlackSheep and I were emailing back and forth and I asked her about a book. She said she had said book and was actually about to give it away to the library, but instead she’d send it to me. How completely generous! So upon arrival at my mom’s I set to opening up all the packages I’d received. There was a rather big box and I thought “Oh god, what did I order and forget about ordering?!” Alas, it was the box from Ava with the copy of Sensational Knitted Socks and this gorgeous sock yarn from an indie shop from her hometown.

 
Yarnsmith’s Casapa

Now, despite my recent post on Knitting Snobbery, I know that for the most part knitters (like all people) are kind and generous. I was completely grateful for receiving a book in exchange for some British chocolates, but to get the added bonus of gorgeous, hand-dyed cashmere and alpaca sock yarn? Awesome. And in the spirit of generosity, if you have been loving Ravelry as much as me and if you haven’t donated already (or can afford to give a little more), there’s a drive to have a whole bunch of donations come in during this Thanksgiving weekend started by an fellow Raveler who’s just very appreciative of what Jess and Casey have given the fibre community. It’s all been kept secret from them and as they’re away, being helpful in another way, they’ll come home to hopefully see how generous a community we really are for a couple of people with a fantastic idea.

Happy Black Friday or Buy Nothing Day (although I think donating is okay for buy nothing day).

Well, if you own the Vogue Stitchionary: volume one - knit & purl and were a bit annoyed that a list of patterns wasn’t included, well you’re now in luck - the nerd that I am has created both an alphabetical list of all 265 stitch patterns, but also lists by the four chapters in the book. I was going to really go nerdy on you and do a proper index - you know, with categories like Flowers or Geometric shapes. I may still do this. Yes, I am a nerd. A library nerd. Anyway, download the index if you desire (it’s in PDF). I hope the editors don’t come after me. Or maybe they’ll hire me to do proper indexes for future printings and books.

Now for a strange question. I’ve looked at a lot of sock patterns lately and wondered about pattern instructions that I find confusing.

Many of these patterns (top down) have a repeating pattern around the leg. When the pattern gets to the heel, many of them suggest you do one of the following when it comes time to do the heel flap (for simplicity I will use 64 stitches across 4 needles):

A. Complete the last round of the pattern as usual then knit across 16 stitches on needle 1. Turn and purl back and continue onto needle 4 and purl 16 stitches so you have 32 stitches on one needle.

OR

B. Break the yarn once you’ve completed the last pattern round and reorganise your stitches so that you have the same 32 mentioned above on a single needle.

Now I am sure sometimes these options are the right options. For example, and I’m just guessing here since I haven’t knit patterns that do any of the following, if the pattern is to continue down the heel flap or the repeat would be offset otherwise. When I knit a sock, I finish that last pattern round and then start the heel flap by knitting the stitches off of needles 1 & 2 since it doesn’t matter if it’s needles 1 & 4 or 1 & 2 since the pattern repeats around the leg. Am I missing something by not doing A or B above? I honestly feel like I must be missing something to make it that tiny bit more complicated.

Oh well.

I think I might look at a new theme for my blog. And trying to figure out the code to clean up the archives ’cause that’s just making my head feel a little crazy looking at all those months. Or I might work on my Ms Marigold.

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.

Lots of random little things… I’m a maker of lists so you get this in list form. (I carry a little notebook with me everywhere and if I don’t have it I actually panic because I’m so afraid of forgetting things if I don’t write them down.)

1. Snail mail

Domesticat’s Knitterly Letter Swap has proved fun. I sent my letter off and my pal, Debby, received it several days ago. Today I received my letter from Rhoda in Los Angeles. I don’t know if she has a blog, she didn’t mention one. So hurray for good mail! It offset the enormous gas bill I got - it is for a whole quarter but still! Ouch. I guess I may not go on a yarn splurge after all!

Recently I went to an interview with a recruitment agency - it was a complete waste of time because my documents were not reviewed. I was really annoyed about it since I took a day off of work and spent money getting to London. I was also disheartened by the whole thing since it was my first experience with an agency. I wrote a letter to the owner about the experience and requested my travel expenses be reimbursed - £19. Instead they sent me a check for £50! Woohoo! Maybe the yarn splurge is back on. ;)

2. Sunshine

It’s supposed to be a very warm April weekend. Temps in the 20s (that’s Centrigrade before you go thinking I’m a total spaz and find 20*F very warm). When I woke up this morning it was foggy and really didn’t seem like it was going to be sunny at all. Instead it’s turned out that it’s just like home home - morning fog burning off to reveal bright, sunny skies. I’ll soon be going outside and listening to the birds and dull hum of traffic in the distance and knitting - because I can. Hopefully tomorrow The Boy will come up and we’ll go for a walk and take a picnic (I know the secret entrance so we don’t get robbed on entry fees again). I need to get him a sombrero so he doesn’t burn though - poor little (Northern) Irish pasty boy.

3. Getting things done

Last summer I bought a set of nested flower pots… and then I never bought anything other than dirt to put in them. So I got some bulbs and planted those this morning along with some Cat Mint. I’d provide you with some pictures, but you know, it’s three pots of dirt right now. Not so exciting.

I’ve also managed to do one load of laundry and a second one is in the wash. I’ve hung out the first load and amused myself to see that not only do my clothes match my new chair (which Dakota has taken up residence in - there might be a fight in a few minutes), but I even managed to hang them to show off that they match the chair.

Is it sad my clothes and chair match? - How can I really kick him out of the chair?

I’m also determined to get something substantial done on the knitting front this weekend. I may even resort to knitting a dish cloth or two just to feel like I am not totally hopeless.

4. Enhancements

I did get some stash enhancements. And not just the “OH THAT’S SO PRETTY!” kind like I tend to do. I actually bought with projects in mind! My yarn for Sizzle arrived the same day as some yarn I bought from a shop that is shutting down.

Elann Quechua in Aubergine for Sizzle — Jaeger Matchmaker merino 4 ply in Baltic Blue for Isabella. The colour in the photo isn’t quite right, but it’s close - it’s a slate blue. I’ll have to mess with that later.

I also got a second set of Addi Turbos in 2mm and one in 15mm. There was a chunky knit I wanted to do but didn’t have the needles and really didn’t want to pay £12 for the needles for one project. These were £4 so I thought it was okay.

And I did order three books from Overstock.com and had them sent to my mom’s house. She better not forget them when she comes over in a few weeks! I ordered Fitted Knits, Knitting on the Road, and Vogue Stitchionary v.1 (knit and purl). I need to order Favorite Socks off of Amazon or something too since it’s not available here. Some people are selling it on AmazonUK for £30!! That’s $60. No thanks.

5. Other knitting

I haven’t made much progress since the other day. It’s because I was making an inventory of yarn. It’s not very far along. I had a written one, but I wanted to make something with lots more detail and more easily editable. It’s a bit crazy. I’ll share it with you when I’m done. You’ll think I’m such a nerd.

Now I’m off to go sit in the sun. Trigger is here pawing at me. I think she wants to sit in my lap in the sun like we did earlier.

For the most part, every thing I’ve knit has been from a free pattern found online. I’ve knit a few things out of a couple books (Easy knitted accessories and One skein). I’ve bought a few others, but haven’t knit patterns from them. In fact, they’re really mostly for reference, but do have a few patterns. What I’m saying is that my knitting library is very, very small and I’m interested in expanding it by a few books in the hopes I can use up some of my stash so as not to feel guilty about adding to it!

What have been your favourite book purchases? There are a number of books I’ve thumbed through and are very well laid out and pretty, but don’t really contain anything I’d knit… not at this stage anyway. So what books have you bought that you’ve knitted several patterns out of?

Oh and if you have any ideas about what I might make out of this, I’d love to hear. I think I have 4 skeins of the green, 2 of the ivory and 2 of the indigo / blue. Can’t tell you the yardage off the top of my head though. It’s a silk / rayon blend. I got it pretty cheaply and really because I just loved the colour of the green (avocado!) and indigo - it’s no longer made so I’ll have to make do with what I have. The picture on the left w/ all three colours is more true to the colours. It’s quite thick and thin as you can see from the closer view.

All three colours in my stash - Close-up of the green

As you can see, I’ve put the contrasting colour onto both sleeves of Bad Penny [apologies for showing you my lack of six pack and that I am wearing a black bra, but obviously I didn't go out in this top, but one that required a black bra]. I had to remove the original bind off and re-do it with a larger needle. The Lana Grossa Rotonda has zero give so despite using a 3.75mm needle to bind off stitches created with a 2.5mm needle, the result was too tight. I ended up using a 4.5mm needle and it just fits. Weaving in the ends of Rotonda is difficult too because it’s very slippery - any suggestions so it stays put? It also twists like crazy, but I’m sure much of that is down to my technique (still knitting English style - throwing the yarn - versus Continental). Ooh if I could get one of those things like they put on phone cords so they don’t get all crazy-twisted then I’d be set! Don’t steal my idea.

I’m in the process of putting all the body stitches back on the needles so I can continue knitting the body and see if I need a SIXTH ball of yarn. I know I’m busty, but I’m really surprised at the quantities indicated in the pattern versus what I’m finding thus far. I don’t really expect to gain much length with blocking since it’s a cotton and rayon blend, but maybe I’m wrong? I pretty much have zero experience with blocking.

Earlier today I was really frustrated with these sleeves as I thought I might end up taking off the contrast colour completely, extending the sleeve slightly with the main colour and then adding the cuffs again. I don’t really like cap sleeves ’cause I have flabby arms and I find that they creep up a lot and end up bunching up in my armpit. Maybe it’s because I’m ridiculously fidgety as well… But after fixing the bind off, they seem fine. And should I ever actually get my butt into the pool, my arms will slim down a bit anyway.

I’ve put myself on a yarn diet because I have more yarn than I can do anything with at the moment and the mounting clutter is starting to send me into panic attack mode. Also, it will do my finances good. The only exception is if I have to buy more yarn to finish a project (e.g. the sixth ball for Bad Penny and possibly a fourth for Ms Marigold). I can trade yarn, but I’d prefer to sell it off so I can put the money towards debts - every little bit helps, right? I put an auction up on eBay for some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky and I’ll see if I can’t sell that superwash wool I tried to sell awhile back.

I have also found out that the baby my brother and girlfriend are expecting is a girl and that it’s due in late-June so that gives me more time than I thought. I might knit the dress from the Debbie Bliss Baby Knits for Beginners book. I’m still working on my Falling Leaves socks. I take those to my work Stitch n’ Bitch. (Apparently my co-worker / friend has told her husband that I do a majority of both! I’m so embarassed about the latter.) I’ve got a ways to go on them yet and wish I could just get into a good rhythm. As I expect that I may be at home all weekend (as in not out with The Boy), I may get a lot done. It would be nice to wear them before summer gets here! Like a lot of places, we’ve suddenly snapped back from the definite beginnings of spring right back into winter. There was actually some snow on the ground this morning. Snow! In Oxford!!

And just because I’ve probably managed to traumatise you with the picture above, here’s some tulips from The Boy. He gave me two bunches of flowers in the course of a week.

Recently I went back to California for a week. In that week I purchased ridiculous quantities of yarn despite having ridiculous quantities of yarn at home that have been waiting to be put to use for many, many, many months. Seriously, most of that yarn in that huge inventory I did, still waiting. I find that I get bored with patterns rather quickly so I give up or something new and shiny catches my eye. My knitting is getting quicker, but it still needs a lot of improvement in terms of speed. I really need to learn how to knit the continental method because throwing the yarn really is slow.

I also bought the Mason-Dixon Knitting book. I knit my mom a dishrag / wash cloth or flannel (depending on what side of the Atlantic you’re on). Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of it and had to leave her or my sister to weave in the ends as I had to get on a plane back to the UK! Making the dishrag was actually part of me teaching my sister to knit. We didn’t get very far as she wasn’t feeling well and had to go back to bed. However, she’s apparently practising and getting better! Hurrah. I’m sure she’ll out-knit me soon enough.

I did knit a sock, however! My first sock. I had a lot of problems with the pattern as it was written for an experienced sock knitter and I was not one. There was an error early on in the pattern and the author rectified that quickly, but when I went back for further clarification, I managed to offend the author. Oh well. With help from another knitting forum and the bit of help the author provided, I got it figured out and finished the sock. It does need the end at the toe weaved in, but I want to tighten up the kitchener stitch a bit more. It needs a mate yet, but I needed to get on with a bit of Christmas knitting before I can do that.

Prior to the sock I knitted a single baby bootie. This I did entirely intend to make a partner too, but when I got to the bit where I joined the two sides up with the kitchener stitch, well that’s when a very ugly flaw in the yarn appeared. As annoying as it is to find a knot in hank / skein, generally it’s workable, but this was not only a knot, but shredded strands falling on either side of the knot. In retrospect, I should’ve cut the yarn either side of the knot where it was in good nick and knot it back together, but I just persevered. It was messy and ugly and really irritated me so I didn’t make it’s mate.

Note that this post is actually about 10 days old. I just didn’t have time to add that fantastic photo so I didn’t post it. Forgive me. I have lots of other knitting to do yet.

» Read the rest of this entry …

Wow, so it’s not that I haven’t been knitting, because I have, but wow, I am very lazy or something. I can’t believe that it’s actually been over three months since I updated here. That’s absolutely awful. While I haven’t completed a whole lot, I have had several stabs at various things. I am trying to knit nearly everyday lately. I haven’t done well with this so far, but I am knitting four to five days a week so that’s better than not knitting at all!

So I have nearly completed Fetching from Knitty. I say nearly because I get selective dyslexia when knitting and misread the pattern and did too many cables. I ended up actually being quite pleased with this result, but it meant that I had to do a bit more improvisation to the pattern. I finished the first glove with the same number of rounds as the pattern called for. Despite trying it on several times before I got to the bind off row, once I bound off and put it on, I decided I didn’t like the length. It hit too low in my palm so I unbound and added a bit more length. However, I am dumb and didn’t record what I actually did in the end so when it came to doing the second glove, I had to eyeball things (and do some counting), but it came out a bit shorter - hence the ends not weaved in because I need to rip it back and add another 6 rounds I think. Oh also, cables were new for me so I’m not sure if it is because of the all the extra cables, but I ended up needing just over a skein of yarn whereas the pattern says you will use up almost exactly one skein if you use your gauge swatch.

I also a knit a baby hat for a friend. It is the baby hat from One skein by Leigh Radford. I made a few mistakes, but they weren’t too visible. When I first gave the hat to my friend, I think she was tired and not feeling well because she didn’t seem very appreciative. However, a couple weeks later, when it was closer to the due date, she said the bag was going in the bag to take to hospital so the baby could wear it home. In fact, baby wore it when he was only a few minutes old!

I started a second one of these hats, but the needle slipped out during a decrease round and I didn’t notice until it was too late. I tried to salvage it, but it didn’t work so I just ripped it out.

I’ve started on a scarf, but honestly they bore me so much that I put them down as quickly as I start them! I also am playing with some silk-wool blend yarn I got, but it’s fuzzier than I expected it to be so the pattern I was trying to knit with it might not work since it’s got a bit of lacy detail. Started another Nautilus cap too to wear under my helmet when cycling as the weather has finally decided to get cold. My sister has said the caps I knitted her in the spring are beginning to be worse for wear and has asked me to knit some more for her. We’ll go yarn shopping when I visit in a few weeks.

I’d say I promise to update more regularly, but as I don’t think there are any readers of this blog, it won’t matter! It’s for myself really. And I’ll have to add the details about the two items above - yarn, needles, etc. - when I think of it.