Knits

Okay, not so much. I forgot that I’d finished the ballband dishcloth sometime back in December. I think I took it with me on a work trip (to London maybe) and finished it up and forgot about it. It is one of I-don’t-know-how-many for my mom. She won’t use the very first one I made because it’s too pretty (yet the very first thing I ever knit, the scary cat, she happily gave to the cats to play with so it will look very shabby when the Smithsonian asks for it for the shrine to me they will eventually make hahaha). She wants some that are light coloured ’cause she likes to use bleach.

 
Good ol’ ballband dishcloth — Diagonal rib dishcloth — Tulip Rows dishcloth

The other two are for my friend, Louise. I mentioned previously that she said she’d like some, but until she had done me the big favour of going to collect my expensive cat, they weren’t really on my radar so over the weekend I made the green and periwinkle ones. The green is just a diagonal rib stitch pattern from a stitch dictionary. The periwinkle is the Tulip Rows Dishcloth; it didn’t really come out how I expected. I tried various techniques to even out my yarn overs (one is from a knit stitch and the other from a purl stitch), but nothing seemed to work. As a result the tulips look lopsided, but it’s still interesting.

I have not made progress anywhere else. I think I finally got myself sorted with the Marigold socks pattern and will work on that today. The Textured Tunic is sort of stalled since I need to keep trying it on to see if I need more decreases at the top of the bust and the process of putting half the stitches on scrap yarn and then moving them back is tiresome!

I sort of have startitis mostly because I’ve been going through my stash to clear it out some more. I’m being a bit ruthless and trying to remove things that I may like, but am unlikely to do anything with anytime in the near-ish future. I’ve added a number of other yarns now to my Destash page in case you’re interested (three bunches of Posh Yarn!) (my Ravelry page has a few more things I haven’t quite got around to adding here). I haven’t given in to the startitis bug yet because I want to make progress elsewhere, but it’s sorely tempting to make that Regia into some plain socks since it should knit up quickly. The bug may bite at the weekend if I don’t make much progress in the next couple of days.

Oh, I forgot I had bought these buttons when I was in California at The Swift Stitch. I thought they were really cute and different, but I have no idea what I’ll do with them! They had 6- or 8 different styles in each motif plus a couple of other motifs (cats, dogs, and something else).

Speaking of cats, Trigger is doing loads better. She’s back to being a pain in the arse. She’s still got 2.5 weeks of medication to take and hopefully this time around it will kill whatever bacteria is causing the wound to become infected. Thanks for the good kitty vibes as she needs them because I don’t want her to have to keep going through this — going to the vet for annual shots is already traumatic enough for her.

We’ve had a hot weekend here. Obviously I mean hot by British standards, but they’re also my standards ’cause I do not cope with heat AT ALL. I wonder if this bright, sunny weather is going to stick around more than beyond this weekend. It’s been a terrible summer. We had some really great weather back in April and when I went to Ireland in June, we totally lucked out and had amazing weather; if it wasn’t for that trip back in June, this summer would’ve been a total bust really. It’s a real shame because now that the summer solstice passed way back in late-June, night comes far more quickly and there really hasn’t been opportunity to actually sit out and enjoy the warm, summer weather with a pint or glass of your favourite (alcoholic) beverage.

Well yesterday I managed to get into town to return some jeans that didn’t fit despite being the EXACT same style and size, just a different colour dye, to the one’s I have that fit me perfectly. I was so annoyed as I only have one pair of jeans that fit me. I’ve got a couple pair of cords that I can get away with although they are a bit big. While in town I actually decided to shop for meat and produce at the Covered Market. Let me tell you, I am a convert. I used to always shop for produce at the weekly Farmer’s Market back in Monterey. Oxford offers one twice a month, but it’s at a stupid hour (in the middle of the day like 11-2 or something) on a Thursday so pretty much only those who live or work in the city centre can go. I’m not really sad about it because I did actually happen to pass through it once and it looked awful. Yesterday I bought a ton of vegetables and four organic sausages for about £6. That is dead cheap. I grilled most of the veg and all the sausages up for a late-lunch for me and the boy. I am still stuffed. So I am going to try to haul myself down there every week with my reusable shopping bag(s) and get some fresh produce and maybe some meat.

I also bought this salt and pepper shaker set. I realised I don’t actually have pourable salt and pepper though. BUT IT IS SO CUTE.

I cast on for a modified-modified Cathode. As I was browsing around Ravelry (I swear my addiction is getting less) I saw a version of Cathode sans giant collar and in a solid yarn. I liked it. It actually ends up looking quite similar to the Split-neckline cap-sleeved tee in Fitted Knits. So I am knitting that to look similar to the Ravelry users version, but even further had to modify it because the yarn I’m using isn’t quite as chunky. *fingers crossed* I’m nearly at a point where I can slip it off the needles and see how it’s going.

I may actually cast on for some Pomatomous socks tonight as I’ve been meaning to for a couple of weeks now. I’m going to do them toe up and, hopefully, two at once. *more crossing of fingers* I’ve also got another ball band dishcloth on the go as I was re-teaching someone how to knit on Friday night and thought that it would be a good project to re-learn on since it is relatively simple and an object can be completed relatively quickly even by a slow knitter.

Hope you’ve all had a good weekend. Mine was good even though this morning as I went to change my bed sheets I found the following:

NOT IMPRESSED. Luckily it was actually between the top sheet and blanket.

I know, big whoop. I don’t really know why I’m on such a dishcloth kick right now. I guess it’s because they’re quick (get them mostly done in a night) and satisfying really. It’s not really using up my stash in a hurry, but it is decreasing the numbers slowly while making usable things. Maybe I should just knit a bath towel hahaha. The above is the Lacy mock cable dishcloth.

I’m still addicted to Ravelry, but am getting better at not spending endless hours there even doing the volunteer editing thing. I added a lot of my stash and still have more to go; I may get around to adding some older projects too.

I’m home again because I started seeing flashing lights last night. It was like power surges or light bulbs popping, but it’s all in my head (I hope). I get migraines, but usually they are absolutely throbbing pain with a bit of light sensitivity and the only thing to do is take some meds and fall asleep until it passes. This is, hopefully, a migraine without the pain although it’s been going on for more than 12 hours. It’s not so bad this morning, but last night it was sort of constant until I went to bed at close to 1am. I say it’s hopefully a painless migraine because the other alternative is a retinal detachment which sounds absolutely disgusting and frightening. I am not a squeamish person, but when it comes to things involving the eye, I am. I wear glasses even though I could easily get contacts because putting something on my eye freaks me right out.

Oh I am into the single digits in my blog reading so that’s good. And, via Ravelry, it’s rather exciting to see people add my Flutter-by socks to their queue (I can’t see who has them queued). There is one person actually knitting them and has posted some in progress shots and that’s totally exciting and humbling. I can’t wait to see how others turn out.

I’m just gonna jump in here with this. You know how they say a huge majority of women are wearing the wrong size bra? Well, I thought I was NOT in that category because I had been happily wearing whatever size bra I had, but a couple years ago decided I needed lots of new one’s so off I went to Victoria’s Secret and requested measuring. The girl measured me and it turned out that I was wearing the right size. Awesome. In the last year or so I’ve lost a bit of weight, well inches really as I’m slimmer, but more buff, but the top of me doesn’t really seem much different in size; a bit curvier, but that’s about it.

For months now I’ve been trying to find some bras as mine are definitely in need of meeting the bin. I went to several shops, tried on a bunch which were okay, got home, tried them on again (a couple I’d bought specifically because I thought they’d work well with certain cuts of tops/dresses) only to find that for whatever reason, they were incredibly uncomfortable and ill-fitting so I took them back. Now, in the UK shops don’t constantly have sales - they happen 2-3 times a year and that’s it and every shop does it at the same time. I thought I’d go to this Victoria’s Secret type place and have a nose around. I found two bras in my size and took them to the fitting room. One of them I was spilling out from and the other was baggy. Argh. So I thought “Right, I’m going to get measured and ask for recommendations of bras”. I go out to the attendant and talk to her and she looks at me like I’m nuts and says “Have you ever had a fitting here ’cause we certainly wouldn’t put you in that size”. I hadn’t so I signed up and had a seat for 10 minutes*.

Ladies, go to a REAL lingerie shop and have them fit you. The girl came in and explained that they don’t fit you by using a tape measure - they look at you in your current bra and see how it fits and then decide. The girl looked at me in my bra (admittedly I was wearing an older one that has definitely seen better days and is a bit stretched, etc.), how it fit, and told me how it should fit. I told her about my troubles with finding bras lately - too tight all over, riding up, etc. - so when she said she was going to get a few different styles for me to try on in a different size to what I was wearing I was shocked. See, I’ve been wearing a 38D for some years. She went and got me a 34E. And OMG the difference. I knew I looked a bit saggy which is why I was after some new bras, but I would’ve NEVER have thought to go down two sizes. And yes, they fit and fit well. They definitely feel tighter, but not uncomfortably so. It’s actually amazing the support. She even said that really I should put on a 32 for some styles, but as I was going down two sizes already, I should wait to get used to the difference before going down again.

So what does this mean for knitting? Well, I’ve not knitted tops yet (several false starts), but I am bad and have never actually measured myself - just based what size to knit on my bra size. So now, before I do another stitch on Ms Marigold or anything else that is to go over my chest, I am going to measure myself. And measure again.

In other news - the pic at the top is my finished Tribble. I also took photos of every single yarn I have and plan to knit with to post on to Ravelry. There were some bits of other yarns I had left and some I got for free and I’ve not photographed them. I am going to put them in a bag and offer it up on Freecycle because they’re just sitting there and will never get used. When I photographed my yarn, I did each colour separately when I had several balls of the same brand, but in different colours. It gives me a better idea of my stash and really drives home that I need to reduce it before I add anything else to it. [Although I did buy some Piece of Beauty sock yarn today to knit something for my sister - it will probably become a very popular item.**] I also bought a book that has some very basic patterns in it which I probably have elsewhere, but it actually uses a lot of the yarns that I have in my stash that I want to use up for practical items rather than knitting something to use up stash and then having something that sits around and doesn’t get used. It was also very cheap.

* I looked at some fashion magazine that had Courtney Love on the cover. It was several months old and was all about her losing about 50 lbs (3.5 stone). Dear god that woman has had some BAD plastic surgery and it’s so obvious! It’s like that weird lip curl Meg Ryan and Krista Miller got done that you just look at them and go “Do they think we don’t know they had something weird done to their face?”

** I’m being vague in case she reads this.

I know it hasn’t been all that long since I last posted (5 days), but I have suddenly become very neglectful of both my blog and my blog-reading. Why is that? Ravelry.

I thought the initial addiction of adding a few things here and there and doing a whole lot of browsing was addicting — nevermind admiring how clever it all is. Then I discovered that users can “adopt” patterns / pattern sources (e.g. books, web sites) / lines of yarn and edit them — as in fill in all the detail, select pictures to highlight the yarn or pattern, etc. Now this probably sounds like no fun whatsoever to a majority of people. However, this completely appeals to my librarian instinct of cataloguing the bejesus out of things. Getting to tidy up data and make sure all the bits and bobs are there? SIGN ME UP. So I have spent way too many hours the last several days doing this.

In addition to cleaning up patterns and a few yarns, I’ve been reading the editors discussion boards. I’ve never actually been big on participating in discussion boards so it’s actually sort of weird to be in this refresh-every-30-seconds-to-see-if-something’s-new mode.

Anyway, Ravelry, definitely addicting. Definitely amazing.

I have done really boring knitting - a ballband dishcloth and a Tribble mostly because they are quick “wins” and to use up some stash. Well the Tribble needs sewing up, but that’s about 5 minutes work. I actually had started on another more plain sort of dishcloth because I am going to teach myself how to knit continental. I’m not going to correct it if it’s wonky (which it definitely will be), but I messed up the pattern so ripped it out because the perfectionist bit of me just couldn’t leave that. Because knitting in a new style is well, new, it’s like learning all over again and going so slow. It’s hard to fight the urge to just go back to English method. I know in the end though that knitting continental will be quicker.

And here’s my new pencil case. It’s a tin case with three compartments:

Ravlery: so addicting I had to add a new category to my blog.

I got my Ravelry invite this morning (I’m n0nnahs there). Despite feeling like total crap with cramps and a headache that was on the verge of a migraine, I quickly explored it and added a finished project JUST TO SEE. OMG. I still need to do a lot of exploring and obviously a lot of filling in information. It’s just so clever. I won’t reiterate what everyone else is saying, but really, so clever and useful.

And I do have finished objects.

I finally finished my Saucy socks. Properly finished. Ends woven in, washed, and on my feet actually because I was trying to take a semi-decent picture in the fading light. I won’t add lots of details here since I put them on the project page. My socks differ from the pattern in a few ways:

• I used a finer yarn so it mean to make socks that fit, I had to add a 4th horizontal repeat
• I didn’t do a Eye of Partridge toe, but I did do an EoP heel and I don’t know if I misinterpreted the instructions or the yarn just doesn’t work with it, but it’s Meh
• Because of the additional repeat, I ran out of yarn so I’ve got contrasting toes. Unfortunately my gauge differed between the two socks so the toes are also uneven, but it’s all good since they’ll be hidden in shoes.

All the Saucy details here.

I also wanted a quick project so I knit the 4 Corners Dishcloth (that opens the pattern in .doc). Dead easy to knit. Knit it up in an evening although I didn’t join up the piece until the next day. It’s much smaller than I expected, but it is very cute and quick so it will probably make more appearances for last minute gifting. It also only uses about 35g of a ball of Sugar n’ Cream meaning there’s enough left to use the yarn for a matching cloth w/ another colour (like the Ballband dishcloth). I hope that made sense. Dishcloth details? You got it.

It’s only Thursday, but it feels like Friday. Bring on the weekend. Although… what to knit next?

In the end, despite being reminded three months ago that my domain was up for renewal, I forgot until three days before. I managed to get it sorted and The Boy has managed to take over the parking of it and saved me £83! Hurray! More yarn! ;) So it’s all sorted and I shouldn’t disappear.

I did place an order with KnitPicks for a lot of things. I actually had miscalculated the amount of yarn for the shrug I wanted to make so I deleted that out of the order as I couldn’t justify it right now. I also ordered some Malabrigo from Webs. Hopefully it all arrives before mom and sister leave and they can stuff it in their bags.

The other day I took a break from knitting on the socks and Ms Marigold to knit a dishcloth. I needed something to boost my knitting confidence; something simple, quick, and attractive. It’s even practical! I’ll probably pass it off to a friend on Saturday for something to brighten her new home. For some reason it’s a bit hard to find inexpensive cotton suitable for making dishcloths here. I noticed Michael’s is having a sale through Saturday for 99cents per ball of Sugar n’ Creme so I asked mom and sister to pick up few balls. Firefly has posted a free pattern for dishcloth that uses a stitch pattern I’ve never done so I’ll have a go at that.

Oh, those tulips in the picture… NOT from The Boy. Remember I mentioned that I’d gone to see a recruitment agency and they sent me a check for £50? Well later that afternoon I get a knock on my door and a man with 20 tulips in a ceramic vase is at my door. For a minute I was actually a bit annoyed about it. I thought The Boy was sending flowers (I know, why be annoyed?). Well, it turns out that the agency sent them! I still think they handled themselves poorly at the time, but it’s nice that they’ve tried to make amends and not just completely ignore my letter.

In other news, I had some messy work the last couple of days. I cycle to/from work and well, pretty much everywhere locally. [Aside: on a livejournal knitting group they were discussing some knee high sock pattern that had a small circumference at the widest part. Lots of people left comments with the size of their calves. I thought, "Hey, I cycle, maybe I have big calves too!", but no, I have ridiculously skinny calves! Just over 14" circumference.] ANYWAY… I got a flat tyre. A flat rear tyre. I guess I’m pretty lucky that in almost two years, it’s the first flat on that tyre. It was just a pain to fix. I patched it and thought all was well until I went to go to work the next morning and it was flat again! Argh. So I had to go back into town and buy a tube (couldn’t find any the day before) and put that in. It’s messy work and not conducive to knitting AT ALL.

On Sunday I’m travelling up to Durham. I’ll probably go to a yarn shop not to buy as I have too much, really, but to pet and browse because we’ve got nothing here in Oxford really. It’s good to get a look at things in person rather than always have to buy online, sight unseen. I’ll be packing LOTS of knitting as I have a five-hour train journey in each direction (if things run to time), plus two evenings w/o my cats and computer. What’s a girl to do, but knit?

I was going to mention my yarn winder, but as this post is already so long, I’ll leave it at that.