Knits

Well then… it’s been a rather busy week. I had another trip to Durham where it was absolutely beautiful on the Wednesday (but cold) and a bit yucky on Thursday although it had started to clear up by the time I was headed back south. Unfortunately I didn’t book a seat on the train which was totally crowded so got booted out of the seat I took more than once; it’s not fun having to stand up for 90-minutes in a crowded, hot, stuffy train when you’re hungry and have cramps.

On Wednesday I met up with a couple of Ravelers — stitchwort who kindly helped rehome four balls/skeins of yarn and lucyvanp who oddly enough actually works in the same building as I will be working in; unfortunately she’ll have returned to Manchester by the time I arrive. I made some good progress on my second Marigold sock on the trip up, but due to the train situation described above, I didn’t knit at all on the way down. I’m just about to finish the turning of the heel so that’s something.

I have finished the Fetching gloves for my co-worker. I really like how they came out. I followed the pattern this time (my previous attempt included several more cable repeats since I can’t read, apparently) and you know, it may be a pattern that uses one ball of yarn, but then you end up with “gloves” that only cover the palm of your hand if you’ve got larger hands like mine hence the extension on both the thumb and top of the glove so that they actually cover a significant part of one’s hand. I like this two-tone effect and may make myself a similar pair — just not in hot pink. Yuck.

And yesterday I received my first instalment of the Zen Yarn Garden semi-solid sock club (you people are of no help — I asked for some telling me no, and I got none). It’s more teal than I could get a picture of (believe me, I have 50 pictures that all look about the same, but none of them green enough — and that hot pink doesn’t photograph well either; you can hear the camera say “My eyes! My eyes!”). The band says it’s about 450 yards so it looks like I’ll get some very good boot socks which I will need in the north.

Speaking of which, my contract finally came through. There’s been a bunch of problems at the university end that were totally unexpected and I can’t go into here, but they seem to be resolved now so things are moving forward. I did speak to my current director yesterday and negotiated an end date so I have that now which is exciting and scary. It’s many, many weeks off, but there’s a lot going on between now and then so I need to start planning things out — even begin packing up things that I know I won’t be needing between now and then. I’m so looking forward to moving up there. It’s absolutely beautiful and the people are friendly. I can’t wait.

And no I don’t mean I managed to sit in front of the computer on Ravelry ALL DAY. I actually left the house rather early for a Saturday yesterday, headed to Bristol to Get Knitted and met up with a bunch of other Ravelers. It was my first knitting outing ever (I mean outside of me and fellow ex-pat getting together on our twosome and knitting). There was a pretty large group, but I only met and spoke to a handful since many arrived much earlier and had settled in to their spots.

Get Knitted is fantastic. I’ve ordered from them online several times and always have great service (they even include a pen and lollipop in your order). The store carries so much stuff and it was nice to finally get to see such a huge variety of yarn and get to touch and select a couple of things without having to guess whether the colour is right on my monitor or not. I was really restrained. I only bought three things: 2 skeins of Koigu KPPPM since I’ve never tried it and it is very pretty, 1 ball of DB Cashmerino Aran in a hideous colour to make some Fetching for a friend, and ordered some Cascade 220 Heathers as they didn’t have enough in store.

We hung out, we chatted, several of us got lunch, and we returned to the store, but my second visit was very short since the train was really only once an hour back (there were two trains an hour, but they were within minutes of each other). It was great to finally meet erqsome and several others I “know” from Ravelry including Robynn (owner of Purlescence), TussahSilk, ORK, YogicKnitter, and WoollyWormhead.

I even managed to finish sock 1 of the Marigold Socks. Hurrah. It came out quite tall - 10″ from floor to top of the cuff - so I’m quite pleased. I even cast on for sock 2 although I had to cast on four times because I am actually pretty incapable of knitting and carrying on conversation.

I’m really tired from sleeping badly. I’ve got some bad PMS/PMT symptoms going on right now so I’m going to stay in my jammies most of the day (all day maybe) and do some knitting on those Fetching (gotta get that wretched colour out of here!), have a nap, drink tea, watch Dylan Moran again ’cause he’s hilarious, and do some laundry as I think that’s the extent of my household duties that my back can handle today. I’m off to Durham later this week where I’ll meet two more knitters, but of course that’s not why I’m going to Durham — it’s work-related and I’m hoping to have a bit more of a peek around to since I hope to be resident there this spring.

And I haven’t forgotten… Thank you for sending your thoughts to me about Trigger. It was a real shock to hear that she has cancer, but what sets me off crying is the sympathetic ear. She’s okay right now and there’s nothing different about her. I’ll have to talk to the vet to ask him more about life expectancy, what I need to watch for, etc. I pretty much immediately decided that I wouldn’t take any drastic measures (i.e. going the route of radiotherapy) as I think it would be all too stressful and painful for her and if she’s content with life right now and I can keep her comfortable, that was a much better option.

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.