Knits

Please ignore the cat fur. Everything in my flat is covered in cat fur and it is impossible to get rid of it. As un-environmentally friendly tumble dryers are, I really miss having one and as soon as I actually have the space I will get a basic VENTED one to help wick away the cat fur from things like sheets, towels, blankets, duvet covers, etc. on occasion.

Anyway, that’s Dream in Color Classy in Gothic Rose. Definitely doesn’t sound like the sort of colour I’d normally go for… rose!? But it is very nice. Deep, rich burgundy with a whole slew of complementary colours. I am going to attempt to knit another cardigan. I knit a swatch last weekend (see above) and washed it only to release that I couldn’t find my pins to block it. I bought some more, not as nice, but 3x the price!, and blocked. My gauge is off by one-half to one-full stitch. I think it should be okay because the weight and a better blocking should sort that out. I probably won’t actually cast on for a couple weeks as I’m really busy this week and have a sock or two to keep me occupied.

I’ve got some work travel this week which I’m not looking forward to really as it requires getting a train at stupid-o’clock which means waking up at even-stupider-o’clock. However, I am taking some time off to go to Brussels for the weekend so that will be loads of fun plus a guaranteed 10-12 hours of knitting time. Hopefully I should be able to accomplish SOMETHING in that time.

Several of us met up yesterday for a knitting group. I cycled and decided to try to avoid the roads. I apparently can’t follow directions if they do not involve roads. I went way out of my way and had an adventure. I made it and managed to knit and have turned the heel and started on the cuff for the Kansas Harvest sock. I feel rather clever for figuring out how to make the grain bits of the pattern not appear upside down since I’m knitting toe-up… I’ll share that later although it really is dead simple. Before we were done knitting it started chucking down with rain. It let up enough that I dashed out in it and managed not to get too wet. It rained the rest of the day and into the night. Today we’ve got 30mph winds…

I wish I had some nice pictures from the gardens to share with you, but the rain drove me away before I could take any. After next weekend I’ll definitely have some pictures to show you and hopefully some will involve actual knitting.

Have a happy week!

I didn’t exactly hit “mark all posts as read” since I am a bit too nosy and didn’t want to feel out of the loop. Instead I scanned posts and looked at pictures to see what everyone’s been working on. Of course I found a number of things that I went “oooooooh I want that” so they are now favorited in Ravelry.

It is moving into Sunday evening and I have been exceedingly lazy this weekend. I know that’s what weekends are for, but the weather has been nice enough (albeit windy) that I should have got out of the house and into nature. There’s always tomorrow (although considering the recent events in my life, I can’t really say this now as it doesn’t sit well).

So that’s Cascade Pastaza Paints in the fetching name of 9824. I bought it the day after my sister died to make something in her memory. She always loved greens, more the lime and grassy greens, but if something came in a five shades and one was green, she’d pick the green one. I have to say I’m the same way. It reminds me of Lion & Lamb minus that fishy smell since it has no silk.

I certainly didn’t need either of these sock yarns. The one on the left is Lucy Neatby Celestial Sock Merino in Honey Pot (mine looks totally different to the knitted/wound example). It is the colour of the grape vines in the autumn — purples, golds, yellows — gorgeous. I kept picking it up and putting it down and finally said “F it, I don’t need, but it’s beautiful and today is about me” because it was. It was a hard day exactly one week after Kristal died and I was getting my hair cut, buying some clothes, doing the things I normally did when I’d go home for a visit, but I was also taking in some donations to the breast care centre and seeing friends who knew my sister and felt her loss too.

The other is Misti Alpaca Handpainted Sock Yarn (Ravelry link as it’s not on the Misti site yet) in another clever name… 04. It’s a blend of alpaca, merino, silk, and nylon. This is completely out of normal choice of yarns in terms of colour, but something about it just appealed to me. I think I might actually be knitting a plain pair of socks to let the yarn shine. I bought this the same day as the Cascade above. We (me and my mom) needed an escape from the weirdness of going to the Crematorium to sign the papers so we went for some food in the north end of Santa Cruz which of course was next to the yarn store — The Swift Stitch.

The rest of the stash enhancement really is dead boring. I got two skeins of Euroflax Linen in Grape and Willow. And then, amazingly, I managed to buy two skeins of Hemp for Knitting AllHemp6 in nearly identical shades as the Tahki Cotton I bought last year. Hmmm I thought it seemed a familiar combination… Green and Blue. Oh well.

Well, hello. I’m finding it hard to get back into my routine of posting here and reading other blogs. I’m slowly getting there. I’m afraid I’ve mostly had to turn a blind eye and hit “Mark all as read” in my feed aggregator as there were well over 300 posts plus the posts that dropped off due to some bloggers setting limits to how many posts get kept on a feed.

I bought a MacBook (basic) when I was in the US. I am not adapting well. I don’t like the one button mouse and all the various combinations of keys that need pressing because you can’t right click. Also, having to hit two keys for forward delete (something I use a lot) is annoying. I don’t know if I will adapt to this since for work I have to use a PC and have, for the most part, always used a PC. Oh well…

So here’s what’s going on with the knitting…

1. I have finished one of the Neighbourhood Tunnels socks and am halfway through the other. I wish I could say I’d finish it up this weekend since it’s a 3-day weekend, but I know me and how slow I knit. Fingers crossed though.
2. I have a lot of new stash to show you. Things I have bought/received over the last two months even though I didn’t need a single bit of it.
3. I am going to have to have a serious think about clearing out some of this stash as it is overwhelming. That is all that stuff you buy as a new knitter not really knowing what you’ll do with it (although this is still common for me) and of course you never actually buy enough to do anything with it…
4. I went to a knitting meet up in the pub the other day. We are planning on having twice monthly meetups — the 1st Thursday and 3rd Saturday of the month. Plan is for the venue to change sometimes. If you’re in the North East and want more details, get in touch.
5. While it is of course getting on to summer, it is a strange request, but a way to make my stash go down… suggestions for reversible scarf patterns, please as I have a lot of yarn I’ve bought for this purpose.

This post needs some pictures so we’ll start with the two sock clubs.

My Zen Yarn Garden Harmony semi-sold sock club (hahaha that is a serious mouthful) went walkabouts. It did finally turn up, but no idea why it got lost. It’s a colour called Sun Kiss which is a orangey pinky blushy colour. It is pretty, but I don’t know if it’s for me although I am certainly able to be swayed. I think really I’m just overwhelmed with all the yarn in my possession these days. The yarn is a 50/50 superwash merino and tencel yarn. My subscription to this is over as I signed up for 3 months.

Next up is the third instalment of the Socktopus sock club. The yarn is amazing. The colours are soooooooooooooooooo rich and beautiful, but again, not wowed by an entrelac sock pattern. Not sure what sort of pattern I’ll make as it seems a shame to do heels/toes in the contrast yarn since it is so divine. The yarns are from Middlearthknitter and are Chaorite (purple) and Azurite (blue, duh).

I also did a trade before I went to the US with Amy of MadelineTosh yarns. OMG I am so glad I went with my gut and selected the Ginger colourway. It is not normally my type of colour, but I am definitely warming to these warm orangey/yellow colours (hence perhaps warming to the Zen Garden colourway). It is so rich and beautiful. I thought it was pretty in the photos, but in person… *gush*.

That is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of new stash. I’ll update again before the weekend is out. Now, seeing it’s just about to become 1pm, I think it’s probably a good idea to have a shower and get out of my pyjamas. I have a good excuse though, I was ordered to go back to bed by the physiotherapist, but I also admit that I am being very lazy.

Hello! Well, I’ve been in bright and sunny California for a week now. It’s actually been pretty nice — generally it’s really foggy for half the day and it’s not been bad really. I’ve sat outside a few times and knit and enjoyed the warmth. I even had to go out and buy a tank top (vest) and shorts today because I didn’t bring anything suitable for lounging in the sun.

Things are going as well as they can. The first few days were really hard — very emotional. Now it’s just hard because I can’t really leave her on her own for too long (mostly because I have to keep my eye on her so she doesn’t fall or something and make sure she takes her meds on time). I’ve completely changed my body clock although about 3 or 4 I feel like I need a nap and then I get tired and ready for bed by 10 or so which is early for me.

So anyway - several things to show you. The first picture is only a fraction of the amazing gift Jillian sent me. It includes a nice grass bag, two skeins of Claudia Handpainted in Blue Fields, a set of Rosewood DPNs, some hand lotion and chapstick, and that cool “blooming” tea. She also sent the Kittyville hat she knit for my sister (which she has worn most days since it arrived last Wednesday) and a thing of coffee and biscuits. Mmmm.

 
Claudia Handpainted in Blue Fields

I’m so impressed not only with the generosity of knitters, but people in general, whether you know them or not, whether you’ve talked to them every week or only exchange Christmas cards. I’m generally pretty grumpy about people, but it’s good to know that most people are kind and have heart; I need to remember that more often, not only when there are bad times.

I also started the Neighbourhood Tunnels sock from the Socktopus sock club so I could knit it on the airplane. I’ve just started the heel flap (I actually haven’t done much knitting since the plane ride). The picture shows the yarn a bit brighter than it is. To me the pattern seems to be obscured by the yarn, but maybe that’s down to my technique. My yarn overs don’t seem to be creating very large holes (and I’m not knitting through the back loop). I think maybe I’ve changed how I do yarn overs although I can’t figure out how they might be different. I was going to follow the pattern as written, but because I was in a rush to get these started to take on the plane, I didn’t do the toe as stated so it’s probably going to be a bit wonky.

Oh the Laburnum socks are still going (starting the cuff on sock two) and I saw other people also had problems with them biasing so it’s something with the way the pattern pulls.

Time to go do some more knitting and relaxing before bed… I’ll be back soon with an actual finished object.

Yes, more yarn arrived this week. This is the second instalment of the Socktopus Sock Club. It’s Shelridge Farms Soft Touch Handpainted Ultra (that’s a mouthful) in a specially dyed colourway called Arcade Fire (yes, after the band). It came along with a pattern designed by Erqsome called Neighbourhood Tunnels (Ravelry link, but seen on her blog too) inspired by a song of the same name. Those who splurged on more than the Essentials package (yarn and pattern) also got a copy of a specially printed Arcade Fire CD which has a cool story behind it.

The colourway is orange. And red. And pink. And turquoise. And purple. It is definitely not a yarn I would be drawn to if it were up to me. It’s part of participating in something like a sock club where you don’t really know what you’ll get other than yarn and a pattern. You could love it or you could hate it. I am going to actually try this yarn with the pattern and see how I get on. I admit that the first instalment I wasn’t taken with the yellow/gold yarn and then I started knitting it and thought how much I’d like a whole bunch of it ’cause it’s so pretty so my mind may be changed with this yarn too.

And I am actually expecting one more bunch of yarn this week… but I didn’t buy it! I traded it so it’s okay right?

Hmm, no I’m not going to Vienna, nor have I been recently (ever), and I have nothing to say about the sausages…

Anyway…

I’ve spent the last two days at home, occasionally checking my work email and replying or doing things as needed. I’ve been laid up with some serious migraines. I spent the majority of yesterday in bed with earplugs and a pillow on my face — one of those buckwheat filled ones ’cause I like the weight of it on my face (note, however, that I do not like the weight of my cat on my back when I am in a horizontal position). The only reason I got out of the bed was due to hunger and the fact that my body was beginning to ache. I tried to do some knitting, but ending up ripping said knitting out no less than three times because it was too big, too wonky, and then it turned out the pattern really wasn’t showing up like I expected.

Which leads me to slip stitch patterns like the Eye of Partridge (EoP just because I can) heel that can look oh so nice on socks. Essentially that is what the Aquaphobia sock is w/ a little cable up either side. I thought my Claudia Handpainted would look fantastic, but the pattern just wasn’t showing up. The two times I have done an EoP heel, they’ve looked, well not so great as in I didn’t think the patterning popped like I’d seen it on so many others. Is there something to my technique? I’m slipping a stitch and knitting it the next round, how hard can this be? I’m slipping purlwise, maybe I should slip knitwise, but I don’t want twisted stitches. Is it just me?

In other news, I’m still homeless for my move in roughly five weeks (sweet Jesus that’s approaching fast). Other things are falling into place although I’ve been met with a bit of a surprise regarding my work permit. Nothing big, just thought it was something I could put off until the summer. I’ve also had more trips to the post office in the last week than I’d generally like to make. That said, for the most part it was painless which was nice for once. My doorstep has also been busy with the receiving of great things (including the above picture of the Zen Garden Sock Club instalment 2 — colour Aubergine):

 
Both from Natural Dye Studio: BFL DK sock yarn in Ruby Fire — Ariel lace weigh silk flamme in Sweetness

I know, it’s a lot of pink goin’ on for someone who doesn’t like pink really (I have a pink t-shirt). The Zen Garden is a pretty dusty coloured pinky/purple and I quite like it. The other two lots of yarn aren’t really for me so it’s fine, right? The BFL sock yarn I had a really hard time photographing — it’s pretty much a wholly unrepresentative picture hahaha.

However, the Thin Mints? ALL FOR ME. I have already eaten a sleeve of them. I am a pig.

Ava is a goddess. Not only did she sent me TWO boxes of Thin Mints at my request, she’s a knitter so she had to include something knitterly. You might recall that last year she gave me a sock book she was going to toss and two beautiful skeins of yarn (in exchange I sent her a bunch of chocolate bars and uh, lip gloss). Well this time she sent me a supercute cardigan pattern - the Rockstar Jacket from Alchemy Yarns. So cute! Now I’ll have to find yarn for that. Hmmm…

It’s time for another headache tablet and a lie down. Fun times.

PS There was an earthquake in the north of England early this morning. I didn’t feel it. I’m slightly sad about this, but then the news stories do provide a lot of really amusing quotes from English people who are always being very decent and stumbling out of their homes in their dressing gowns.

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.

In approximately 3.5 months, this will be the view I take in as I eat my lunch and knit. I got the job.

I just need to await the official offer letter before giving my notice (3 months), then await a new working permit which may mean a trip back to the US to be issued with a new visa. I’m not sure about all of those details yet, but will investigate in the New Year. I’ll be living up Durham way. I’ve got a lot of planning to do in terms of finishing up my current job (catching up on 3.5 years of not documenting hahaha) and planning my move. In terms of where I’ll actually live, again it’s early days and I’ve not got that sorted. Annoyingly my current tenancy agreement comes to an end in early-March and the soonest I’d leave, if everything goes smoothly, is end of March and starting my new job in mid-April. I’ve already had a couple offers of places to stay over those weeks here in Oxford if my landlord won’t extend my agreement by a few weeks.

Anyway, it’s a great opportunity and I’m really looking forward to living up north. It is really far north. I didn’t really realise how far north it was until I looked up the latitude (54.7674 if you’re interested). Edmonton, Alberta, Canada is pretty close to about how far north Durham is for a North American reference. Damn, that’s far. And yet I still want to live somewhere in Scotland. It’s beautiful up there though and I can’t wait!

Just to keep things knitting related, I mostly finished My So-Called Scarf (that’s the old in-progress pic, but since it’s all the same and I can’t get a good pic, you get that one again). Need to give it a wash which I’ll do today. I’m trying to decide what my next large-ish project is going to be. I’d like to make a simple, boat neck sweater a la Breton Girl from the Fall 2007 Knitscene. I just like the shape, not the stripey-ness and would like to use the Malabrigo I got to make it. However, I don’t have that magazine and while I’m sure the pattern is actually really simple, I’m not capable enough to make it up myself. Anyone know of a similar pattern or can point me to a resource that will allow me to put together something like this? What I really like about that sweater is the neckline.

I also participated in a not-so Secret Santa Swap that was UK-based. It was a “trade from your stash” swap so the only required costs were postage. I got some really nice Fyberspates Alpaca sock yarn from Nic. I am definitely going to have to trim down my stash and not add to it with the move in the very near future.

I don’t think I’ll have anything else to post in the next couple of days so have a Happy Christmas to those of you that celebrate the season of Santa.

What a good morning to have stayed home to work! I got my first ever sock club package this morning. I tore into that thing so there’s no picture of the very shiny envelope adorned with Socktopus stickers.

Sorry for the dark photo, but I’m in a bit of a rush! Got a train to go catch soon!

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