Knits

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.

My knitting-fu has had a bad week. I started the other Little Cables hat I think four times. Each time I managed to cast-on the wrong number of stitches. And I decided to double up the yarn I was using, but didn’t change the needle size so the resulting fabric was a bit stiff… I decided not to care and then I realised that I’d actually totally messed up so I have to start nearly over again, but I’ll use bigger needles.

I also started the C I dunno, four, five, six times? It just was looking awful around the edges. I figure out a few reasons for this:

1. The yarn was too thin for the needles so I changed those
2. The method of slipping stitches at the edges and how I purled that first stitch turned out to be an issue. I was slipping the stitch and then bringing the yarn between the two needles to purl the second stitch. This was creating a horrible looking bump. I have now (on another item) been bringing the yarn under the needles and voila, no bump.
3. The increases create an ugly bump so I will be doing a different increase.
4. I decided the yarn just wasn’t going to work at all, even with a change in needles.

I’ve decided that, despite the expense, I will get the recommended yarn. It should be here in the next couple of days (I ordered it Friday).

I was determined to finish, or get close to finishing, my second Charade sock this weekend and I was about 1.5 inches into the cuff when I decided to do a comparison with the finished one to see how I was getting on. The heels looked rather different. I started counting stitches and somehow I managed to forgot to decrease EIGHT more stitches before starting the cuff. Argh. It fit of course, but I knew it would drive me nuts and also end up being too big so I had to rip that out. It’s having a time out right now.

And the cardigan, no progress - I seriously have 7 rows on the body and the second sleeve. I gotta do this! However, I wanted something quick and easy (not that stockinette isn’t easy). I got the second part of that in the next project I selected.

The weather has definitely become chilly and I wanted a good, warm scarf to wear since I finally got rid of the store bought one I’ve used the last three years. I chose to knit the My So-Called Scarf in some Debbie Bliss Maya — one of my first yarn purchases. The pattern is dead easy to remember and I don’t really find it fiddley as others have suggested. My problem really is that the only needles I have in the right size are ridiculously long aluminium needles and they’re a bit cumbersome and so slippery that it’s easy to drop stitches off the end. However, I cannot believe how slow this thing is moving! I worked on it a good part of yesterday and today and I’m only halfway through! A single skein of the Maya has got me 30″ of scarf though so a second skein will be perfect leaving me one skein to do a hat or something else with. I do hope that this yarn softens up once washed as it is pretty scratchy. Also, I never knit with red yarn so now I totally understand the difficulty in photographing reds! The colour really is amazing though.

I’ll have to set all these projects aside this week though when another parcel of yarn arrives. My friend bought the Lobster Claw mitten kit from Morehouse Farm Merino and I will actually be knitting the mittens for her daughter. I said I’d get them done for her birthday because I have no concept of time. The birthday is a week from today and I don’t have the yarn and pattern yet (it’s in the post). Oops. Hopefully they go fast since they’re toddler-sized!