Knits

Well, I’m back home. My UK home. Not that I have a house back in the US, but you know what I mean.

It was nice to visit with my mom and sister over Thanksgiving and for my mom’s birthday. I even went and saw my dad down in Los Angeles which was quick, but nice. It was an odd sort of trip because I felt tired the entire time no matter how much sleep I got. It ended up that I didn’t do too much at all — no drive down the coast (or up), no real “sight seeing”, not even any clothing shopping like I had planned. I did a bit of knitting and bought (for me) quite a bit of yarn and knitting accessories. Despite not doing much, there’s actually a lot to show and say so I’ll split it up into a few posts.

First, the knitting. I showed you the two completely finished items in my last post — Clapotis for my sister, and Charade socks for me. I still have to write up the full details. I knit another Little Cables Hat for my friend who picked me up at the airport and drove me to my mom’s. I didn’t get to give it to her since she left very early the day after Thanksgiving so I’ll put it in the post (or actually will ask my mom/sister to do so since I left it behind). I also knit one of the Victorian Cabled Wristlets. I could’ve easily knitted both of them, but I’d only brought half a ball of yarn — the other half I had used to make a swatch to decide whether to purchase a sweater’s worth. Hopefully I can knock out the other one this weekend (if I can find the swatch). I love this wristlet — the yarn is sooooo nice and makes me sad I didn’t discover it before it was discontinued. I did buy a sweater’s worth though, heh.

 

I also started some house socks for my sister - there’s only toes to show so I’m not showing. I also started a pair of Marigold Socks for myself with my Piece of Beauty sock yarn in Sweet Grass. This yarn is so pretty. It’s the newer yarn that she’s dying and it knits up much nicer than the previous yarn. I liked the previous one, but felt like there was no elasticity in it (or I was pulling it all out) whereas this is just right. It also has this nice sheen that doesn’t seem to show until it’s knit up. They’re moving pretty swiftly. Another pair I wish I could’ve done two at once, but as I started them as a project to knit on the plane, I didn’t want to risk losing my cable needles.

 

Oh, and finally, a picture of my cardigan on me. You only get a picture of the back side of me since I rarely can take a nice picture — I always gotta pull faces or do a stupid pose.

 

I have lots of stash enhancement to detail, plus books and other related purchases. Plus some photos from the few times I did get out.

I also barely got online (my mom has my old computer which is just dead slow as is their connection) so I am trying to catch up on blog reading which isn’t easy since I was behind before I left! Hope you’re all well.

 

I’m nearly at the halfway point. Hopefully the TEN TO TWELVE HOURS I have to spend on the train in the next two days will help me get that much closer to 100%. The picture is just after the second straight section, but I’ve now finished 5.5 straight sections.

I am not sure, but my tension changed a bit the other day when I was sat up in bed knitting versus on the couch. I was having a terrible backache so I propped myself up and kept knitting. The stitches I did are much looser. But that could also be because I was on some mild pain killer and was perhaps a little more out of it than I realised hahaha.

I am taking other knitting projects with me for the long train journey. The Charade socks, which are getting closer to being 100%, and an unnamed project as I’m not sure yet.

Oh! The cardigan is done! Washed and blocked and ready to go. I was going to wear it to work today, but didn’t. I need to sort out something to keep it closed since I opted for no button holes. This was, of course, intentional as I want to use a stick of some sort. I dunno. We’ll see how it works out. Anyway, Noro Silk Garden is a bit scratchy when you work with it, but my-oh-my how it softened up with a warm water soak and some rose and mandarin organic hair conditioner (thanks Prince Charles!). I’ll take it with me to California next week so will get pictures there since there’s never any light here these days.

Oh, and I bought some destash yarn from another raveler. It’s not quite the colours I thought so I’m a bit disappointed. I’ll have to take some photos to see if anyone else might like it. It’s not horrible, but not as dusty as I thought. I dunno, maybe in some daylight it will look better, but again, NO LIGHT.

Right, I’m off to bed rather early for once as there’s no snoozing tomorrow morning since I’ve got a taxi and train booked.

Well, I said I had a couple of toddler-sized things to knit. When I went off to spend the night in London for two nights I took a rather extraneous amount of knitting with me and as I stated, I did very little of it. I did cast on for the toddler-sized hat, but once again found that I generally have to start a hat on DPNs and them move to a circular before moving back to DPNs to do the decreases so I didn’t get past the cast-on for that. However, last night I re-cast-on and knit 2/3 of the hat before I had to head to bed. I finished it up this morning in no time. I’ve been sick with a cold since Thursday afternoon so couldn’t be fussed with pissing about with the camera to get more colour accurate photos. Read all the details on the Little Cable hat on it’s own special page.

I’ll probably make another for the other toddler that needs a hat, but I think I will use up the remaining yarn from the above for the ribbing doubled up with white and then double up the white for the rest of the hat. Maybe I’ll be able to knock that one out tonight too.

I finally completely finished that first sleeve of my cardigan and I love it. It’s probably a bit too fitted really, but I kinda love that since I’m past the days where I go out in baggy clothes. It will make it better for laying as the peanut butter of my layer sandwich — a fitted long-sleeved t-shirt inside and a coat on the outside. I’ve also finished the increases on the body and have maybe 2-4 more inches to go including the edge and the second sleeve. Because I briefly had amnesia with the first three balls of yarn, I’ll have a few ends to weave in, but for the rest of it I’ve done the sexy spit-splice. Despite knitting this sleeve three times, I’m really happy with it — it’s my first sleeve ever!

My friend, A, who is in Brussels doing her PhD sent me a belated birthday gift which included Belgian Chocolates (of course, and if she hadn’t she wouldn’t be my friend anymore haha) and a sachet with a lace kitty on it. If you didn’t know, Belgian lace is kinda famous. She also sent this other thing with some cute little apples embroidered on it. I didn’t know what it was at first and a co-worker said a shower cap.

 
Trigger disagrees. It’s really meant for a jam jar. I’ll have to take a picture of the cute little embroidered apples another day.

I originally wrote the bulk of this post this past Saturday… and then didn’t post it so I’ve now re-jigged it and added some headers just to break it up haha.

Acquired: yarn

I found a shop here in the UK that had the right dyelot, was £1.05 cheaper than the other place, and included free shipping. I ordered from them (Fabstract); they were fabulous actually. I emailed them to ask about the yarn and quickly got a reply. A number of other places that I emailed I’ve still not heard from. WTF? Who doesn’t want to sell a desperate woman yarn that costs £6/ball? I know that’s not even close to the price of fancier yarns, but still.

Unfortunately the Royal Mail staged yet another postal strike (these have been happening since mid-July). The shop got the yarn out in time and it even made it to my door, but there was a different postman delivering to my house and it got returned to the depot instead of hidden on my porch so I only got it today. =(

Over the weekend I did finish up a sleeve as I wanted to see how much yarn a sleeve required. Unfortunately it came out way too wide since I wanted a full length sleeve (the picture in the pattern shows a 3/4-length sleeve). I ripped it back and added in some decreases in the forearm. I tried it on. Damn, not right. I started the decreases too late and then decreased too rapidly. It looked okay from the front, but from the side it was like a weird wing, so I ripped that out too. I think I’ve got it now, but haven’t had a chance to finish it up — maybe tonight.

Other knits

Saturday morning I woke up at 6.45. I don’t even wake up at 6.45 on days I have to go to work! I didn’t actually get up though, I stayed in bed and snoozed; and despite wanting to snooze more, I couldn’t. I got up an hour later because I had knitting on the brain. I wanted to finish up the sleeve (literally 4 rows and a bind off before I realised I had to rip it out the first time). I was also thinking of all the things I want to and/or need to get started… the C for my sister, a scarf for me, the hat I’ve not finished, at least two toddler sized hats and maybe some booties to go with them, and something like the hourglass sweater. Plus socks. I’ll probably get a start on the toddler-ware today. I really need to clean my flat at some point though.

I went to a work-related conference on Monday and Tuesday and as I was staying over two nights, brought a ridiculous amount of knitting with me which of course meant I barely knit. I started the C and it just looks terrible. I’m knitting it on larger needles than recommended for the yarn since I want it drapey, and it looks good when in stockinette, but there’s something about the way you start C that is just looking really ugly — too loose and messy. I may try less slippery needles and see where I get.

I also tried to start one of the toddler hats, but I always struggle starting a brim up hat on circulars unless there are a ridiculous amount of stitches. I know the circular needle I have will work for the hat once I get it going, but I’ve recast on this evening and after I finish dinner and this post I will get going with it as I need it this weekend (should easily be doable).

Acquired: more yarn

I’ve also bought more yarn. Ugh. Really. I bought some Posh Yarn because the other librarygirl totally tempted me. It arrived and, you know, I don’t know if it’s the colours I chose or what, but I’m not that impressed. The colours look one of two ways: really dull and dirty or too bright, not saturated, but bright. One of the colourways looks okay (the one at the top which is Helena in Poignant), but one is definitely way brighter and more yellow than I like so I might sell that on or return it. I have to decide quick since she only has a 7-day return policy. Maybe it all knits up nicer than it looks in the skein…

 
Emily in Patina (seems okay) — Laura in Holm (don’t like this - anyone interested?)

 

The cat and other things

Trigger went back to the vet because her cheek started swelling again after she finished up her antibiotics. She’s on another course, this time for 10-days, plus some pro-biotics.

I’m still incredibly busy at work and don’t see an end in sight really, but it’s actually somewhat good because I’m enjoying things, just some stuff is falling by the wayside and I feel a bit guilty about it.

Here’s a gross picture… I got some compressed air to clean out my laptop keyboard. It’s still a bit dirty, but not nearly as it was. Mostly it was just matted with cat hair and yarn hahaha.

Oh! I won a blog contest. The funny thing is I didn’t even know there was a contest going on! I left a comment on a science blog that’s part of ScienceBlogs during their 500,000th comment contest. I was one of 50 runner-ups and won a cool beaker mug. It looks like that one minus the DNA logo.

I’ve made risotto for dinner with chorizo. I wondered what else I might put with it so searched for some recipes. I found one that had red wine so I decided to try that and you know, it’s not very good. It’s tolerable, but I won’t make it again — the red wine risotto, not the risotto with chorizo.

Okay, that’s plenty long; I’m shutting up now.

…and nothing to show for it!

Isn’t it frustrating how you can knit and knit and knit and yet you don’t really see any progress? I guess it doesn’t help that I’ve had project ADD this weekend. I’ve mostly worked on my cardigan. I haven’t secured my additional balls of yarn, but I have several good leads. I’m going to finish up the fourth ball and then start a sleeve and see how much cardigan and sleeve I get in order to determine how much yarn I need. I don’t want to get two balls to find out I need three or vice versa. Also, I seriously, seriously need to learn continental knitting because it seems to take me days to purl a row.

I’ve also finally turned the heel on my second Charade sock. This has been sitting untouched for quite some time and I’d really like to get it finished. I need to pick up the gusset stitches and proceed. Hopefully I’ll get most of that done this evening… I’ll first focus on finishing up the fourth ball of yarn for the cardigan as mentioned above.

I also started a hat because it’s hat weather. But you know what, I don’t think I have enough yarn! Argh! I’m using the same yarn I used for the Marigold hat and I’m just shy of 50g since I had to use a bit of a second ball for my sister’s fat head. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a decent sized hat from this even if it isn’t one as long as I’d like. I’m doing another Marnie Maclean pattern - the Lake Park hat. She’s got matching fingerless gloves to go with it too, but I won’t do those.

I purchased my first Posh Yarn this evening. Annoyingly I put the one colourway I wanted in my basket and two others and then decided I didn’t want both of the others so I went back to see the colours to decide which to keep and in those few seconds, someone else snatched up the one I really wanted. Argh. I bought something similar though. I plan on making a mini-scarf with some of it.

Speaking of mini-scarf, have you all seen this? The Pidge. It’s all over the Ravelry knitting forums. Apparently they quickly revamped their website to remove mentions of the actual yarn they’re using (Karabella) and pictures of the people “hand knitting” the items. They are actually knitted on a loom of some sort and, according to some people who are experienced with said loom, the stitch pattern they use is a very basic one and thus it takes maybe an hour or so for someone to “knit” the mini-scarf. I mean, more power to them really since they’re getting press and people are paying several hundred dollars for the convenience of a simple item, but I think their information is rather misleading.

Other things I’ve managed this weekend:

• Photographed & listed several items of clothing on eBay that I decided to get rid of back in August — many of them still with tags or otherwise unworn.
• Baked a butternut squash for the first time. Half of which made it into risotto; the other half will be made into soup this evening.
• Usual household things like laundry although you really probably couldn’t tell since as much as I tidied, I also made a mess.
• Watched Reality Bites for the first time since the mid-1990s. It really made me feel like I was back in Santa Cruz.

Trigger is on the mend. She’s not really amused by the twice-daily antibiotics, but the swelling is almost gone. She is impressed with the high frequency of mushy food and/or food with some chicken broth on it.

Oh yeah, I cut off most of my hair last week. Actually I paid someone to cut it off for me because I’d look bald-ish if I’d done it myself. That’s my signature pose.

I’ve fought it. I really have. I’ve fought this onset of autumn not because I don’t love autumn (it’s my favourite season), but because summer forgot to happen. The most summery weather we had was back in April for a week or two. We had a few days here and there during “summer” that were like summer, but there was never a continuous string of nice days. Now the days are noticeably shorter, the temperature has plummeted, the leaves are falling, and the air is crisp. Ah well…

I had another good week. I went to a staff conference (all of our organisations across the UK and Ireland) and received two mentions in the opening address as well as being asked to stand up. Only one other person got a mention and that was a colleague in my office. We are obviously rockstars. It’s really because I’m heavily involved in the two largest (inter)national projects our parent organisation is doing.

Anyway, it’s been another week of not much knitting. I’m getting close to putting in the heel on my second Charade. I also started Cosmicpluto’s easy raglan cardigan v.2.0 in Noro Silk Garden. This is the first time I’ve actually knit with Noro and it’s a little rough (luckily I’ve had very little straw and *fingers crossed* so far no knots), but it’s not terrible at all. The colours are very pretty, but not as dark as they seemed in the ball which is slightly disappointing, but I’m find with it. I think this will look great with my jeans and chocolate brown corduroy trousers. The only problem is that I think I may be a ball short. I want full length sleeves (the sleeves in the picture on the pattern look to stop mid-forearm) and I want to be sure it’s long enough. I am nearly to the point where I separate out the sleeves and I may very well do those before continuing with the body.

I did do the test knit I mentioned before. It’s a cabled hat and somehow my row gauge went completely bonkers so what should’ve been an adult-sized hat. So now I have a toddler-sized hat which I think I’ll give to my friend for her daughter. I messed up one of rows in the cables early on and didn’t notice for ages. I’m not talented enough to ladder down in a cable so I left it. The pattern is by Amy O’Dell and is now available in her Etsy shop.

Since Jaeger yarns have been discontinued it’s obviously been flying off the shelves since retailers are tending to sell it at about half price. I got a ball of Extra Fine Merino Aran in Peacock and knit up a swatch. It’s held up very well living in the bottom of my backpack the last two weeks. I went ahead and bought A LOT of it, but in Juniper. I also bought some Rowanspun Aran in Hardy which is a nice oatmealy colour. Thanks to the autumnal light, I couldn’t get a true colour shot (I also didn’t try really hard).

 

It’s my birthday on Monday so tomorrow The Boy is going to take me to Kew Gardens. Hopefully fellow expat and her wee daughter will come along too. Watch out for pictures of flowers and Henry Moore sculptures soon. And hopefully more regular updates. Apologies for the lack of comments and replies to your comments/emails — I’m way behind on lots of things.