slow going

I feel like I was a knitting speed demon a couple of weeks ago, and it’s all come grinding to a halt. I’ve (yet again!) fallen behind in the mystery sock KAL. I’ve only just started Clue 3, which is the heel, and I’m really enjoying knitting a heel flap again after all the short row heels I’ve been doing lately! I’m a little disappointed in my yarn choice though. It’s not the yarn itself that bothers me, the Zettl Valbella is a fairly decent workhorse yarn, but the colour. Even though the designer said that the pattern might work better in a lighter colour, I chose an inky navy blue, and the more I knit the more I’m disappointed in how the dark colour obscures the pattern detail, and there’s a lot of detail in these socks! More than once I’ve been tempted to frog and restart them in another colour, but the fact that I have no idea what other colour I’d like to see this in, and that it’s taken me a month to get this far stops me every time. I’m hoping that they’ll improve after blocking and wearing them…

There hasn’t been a whole lot of progress on the self patterning socks either. I knit the heel and a couple of inches past it sometime last week, and I’ve only managed a couple of rows here and there since then.

There’s a rather strange ridge on one side of the toe of these, which I think was caused by my provisional cast on being much too loose. These were cast on for cinema knitting, and I didn’t notice the ridge until enjoying a coffee about half an hour before the film (The Descendants) by which time I was in no mood to frog and restart, so I forged on thinking that it might come out after a bit of blocking.

I did a little bit of a test block when I got home and the ridge doesn’t seem to have gone anywhere, but I love seeing how much of a difference blocking can make. The stitches on the foot of the sock were really quite uneven looking because I was using frogged yarn that was still all kinked up, and you can really see how the stitches have smoothed out after a quick block. The sock that I’d frogged only got as far the heel, so the post heel stitches on this sock are nice and smooth again, but I didn’t think that such a small detail could make such a big difference! I have absolutely no intention of frogging this sock again, so I’ll just have chalk it up as a character ridge and hope that a multitude of wears, washes and blocks will even it out over time.

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a little bit more

I haven’t only been busy with silk, I’ve also been having a whale of a time playing around with dyeing wool.

I’ve been thinking of resurrecting my little etsy shop. I’ve been dabbling with etsy on and off since 2006 or 2007, and I had a little go at selling handdyed yarn a couple of years ago but was never entirely happy with the colours I was producing. I think I’ve learned a lot about dyeing since my last effort, and I enjoy the dyeing process so much that I don’t think I’m ever going to get a chance to knit up everything that I dye. Some of it might as well go to a good home!

  

Straight out of the dye pot on the left, reskeined on the right. I’m not sure how repeatable this colourway is as I was just experimenting, but I think I remembered what I used so I’ll have to try and recreate it sometime.

This skein is a glorious 2ply British Blue Faced Leicester in a fingering weight. BFL is hands down one of my favourite fibres. It’s so delightfully soft and has the most beautiful silk like sheen. I was a little bit unsure of ordering this 2ply base yarn, but I’ve completely fallen in love with it. It’s wonderfully poufy and lustrous, and I’m not sure how hardwearing 2ply socks would be, this yarn would certainly make a lovely shawl.

I also dyed a wonderful tonal grey which I love and which is definitely repeatable, or as repeatable as handdyed yarn can be.

There’s more, but I think I’ll stop there. This post is far too pic heavy as it is!

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colours

I’ve been dyeing up a storm over the past few weeks. This is a selection of of mawata silk squares which are fast becoming one of my favourite things to play with. I thought I was doing quite well at varying my colours, but a quick glance above tells me that that’s not really the case! I seem to gravitate towards blue most of the time, but it is my favourite colour!

I had a go an ombre/gradient dyeing one of my squares, and although I do love the resulting effect I think I’m going to have to experiment with different methods as the straight forward dunk in and pull out has messed up the neatness of the layers a little.

 

I think I’ve become more than a little obsessed with mawata. I’ve no idea what any of these are going to become, or even if I’m going to keep them all, but I’m definitely having lots of fun playing around with all these colours.

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not so ugly after all

The other day I thought I’d try a different way of dyeing roving. Things didn’t exactly go to plan. The first time I pulled it out of the dyebath I wasn’t thrilled with the results. The colours were off and it looked like it had fulled. I let it dry for a while, but hated it a little bit more every time I looked at it. I panicked and threw it back in the dyebath with more dye, but the light was fading by this point and I couldn’t actually tell what I was doing properly, our indoor lights are terrible for colours. When I looked at the roving the next day I was sure that I’d dyed the ugliest roving ever.

A few nights ago I was fighting the urge to cast on for a new project when I already have so much on the needles, so I decided the start spinning this ugly little bundle of wool. Turns out I don’t think it’s quite so ugly after all. It’s spinning up into a pale silvery purple which I’m finding quite pretty. It’s also nowhere near as fulled as I thought it was and is quite a joy to spin!

I finished spinning half of it in only a few hours whilst starting to watch Game of Thones (I heart Sean Bean, although I don’t think I’ve ever seen quite so much rutting and boobies!), and I’m looking forward to spinning the rest up. I was aiming for a thicker single than I usually spin, but it’s proving a bit of a challenge because if my concentration wanders and I don’t actively concentrate on spinning a thicker single then my fingers naturally fall back to drafting for a thinner single. I often hear that spinners reach a point where spinning thick yarn becomes an effort, and it’s certainly true in my case. This single is probably quite uneven as a result of all my concentration wavering, especially towards the end where I started to rush to finish my spinning before the end of the episode I was watching so that I wouldn’t be tempted to start another!

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almost

I finished knitting these socks 5 days ago in a record (for me!) 11 days. I debated posting them in yesterday’s FO post, but I thought that that might be a bit of cheat as they’re only almost finished - I still have so.many.ends to weave in.

I counted them, there are eighty in total. Eighty! Sewing in ends is one of my Most Hated Things so it might take me a while to sew in all eighty. Funny, I don’t remember experiencing this much reticence with the ends of my Stripey Socks, but then again, they weren’t for size 11 man feet. In the 5 days since I bound off the second toe I’ve woven in exactly 3 ends. At the rate I’m putting this off it’s going to be at least another 11 days before I can finally block them and the Boy can pad about in his new socks.

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all quiet on the bloggy front

 

It’s all been a bit quiet on this little space of the internet for the past couple of weeks! The Boy has had a little holiday from work for the last ten days or so, so we’ve been enjoying some much overdue time together. I thought I’d ease myself back into the blogosphere with an FO Friday post.

This one is actually a bit of a cheat, because it’s been an FO for almost a year now, but it’s the last of the FOs that I never got around to mentioning.

Pattern: aira by Lily Kate France

Yarn: Rowan RYC Cashsoft 4 Ply

Ravelled here.

Looking at my Ravelry pattern notes, the only mods I seem to have made are the needle sizes (I used 2.25mm and 3.25mm instead of 2.5mm and 3.5mm), omitting the picot edge to the rib, and working one extra repeat of the chart. The little folds around the crown of this hat are so so pretty. I have to say, I love this hat a lot, but in retrospect I wish I hadn’t done the extra repeat as it does add a little more bagginess and flop to the hat than I would like.

I remember that I was knitting this to a deadline as I wanted it finished so that I could bring it on holiday with me, and I think that if I hadn’t been in such a rush to cast off I would have ripped back the extra repeat. It clearly hasn’t bothered me too much because I haven’t shied away from wearing it for the last 2 seasons, but when I looked at the reverse of the hat the other day I noticed that the end hadn’t been woven in, so it looks like I still have the option of popping it back on the needles and ripping back a little (oh the benefits of being a lazy finisher!)

I’m not sure when I’ll get around to doing this little reworking, I shy away from frogging things when knits are on my needles, never mind when they’re already off. No doubt this’ll be another addition to my ever growing list of “one day” projects, but I do think that this one is worth doing to get this hat from one which I love, to one which I really love.

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one more for the road

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine’s Day! The Boy and I are not big V-Day celebrators, but we did enjoy some delicious steak and red wine, although in truth only a few sips of wine for me. I love the idea of wine (if that makes any sense at all!) but I’m sadly not fan of the taste. I’m much more of a spirits kinda girl, and now that I think about it I’m wishing that I broke out the rum to enjoy with my steak!

I did manage to finish one sock of my rainy day Valentine’s gift pair in time for V-Day, but am only a couple of stripes into the second pair. Perhaps partly due to the fact that I decided to cast on for yet another pair of socks… Including my mystery socks, this makes the third pair on my needles at the moment. This doesn’t seem to bode particularly well for my 2012 resolution to shift a few WIPs before starting new projects…

But the Boy has this whole week off work and wanted to see a couple of films at the cinema. Since I seem to be incapable of sitting through a whole film without some sort of knitting in my hands at the moment, I was going to bring my rainy day socks. Knitting stripes in a darkened cinema isn’t impossible, a large proportion of my stripey socks were knit at the cinema, but it does involve keeping track of the row count in your head as you watch the film, as well as negotiating scissors in the dark and being very careful to snip the right colour yarn, and well, frankly, I really couldn’t be arsed.

Clearly a whole new project was necessary, and self patterning yarn was the obvious answer. All the fun of stripes, and no effort! Perfect! This yarn was originally my first foray into a toe up sock, but has shamefully lain abandoned in the WIP pile since late 2010 according to Ravelry (after that much time does it still class as a WIP? Surely it’s descended into UFO territory by then.)

Although I’m a little sad that I don’t get to see the pattern unravel since apparently I am simple minded enough to be entertained by watching a repeating pattern unfold, this thing is flying off the needles! I only cast on yesterday morning using some plain grey Regia Stretch for the short row toe, and by the end of The Descendants (good film but entirely unbelievable – if I was married to George Clooney cheating on him would be the last thing on my mind) I had half a foot. We went to see Hugo this morning (beautiful film. I may have shed a tear of two… I’m usually pretty anti-3D, but this one really worked. I still hate wearing the glasses though), and after 2 hours of that I’m all the way up to the heel!

Flying, I tell you.

The Boy has to pop into work for a couple of hours tomorrow, so I’m tagging along and will be parking myself in the cafe with my kindle and my knitting whilst I wait for him. I’m quite looking forward to it – nice coffee, good knitting, and a truly terrible book.

I finished Game of Thrones last week, which I really didn’t think was my kind of thing but it was only 99p in the kindle bookstore over Christmas and I wanted to see what the hype was about. I could not put it down and ended up absolutely loving it, but the high death count left me feeling a tad disconcerted so I fancied some brainless reading that was light on the body count. I chose Dan Brown. Granted, there’s usually plenty of death in a Dan Brown book, but his writing is so terrible that it’s usually bordering on comical and I can rarely take it seriously. It’s a been a good few years since I last read Dan Brown, and my goodness, I had completely forgotten how awful he was. Usually, I can get past the bad writing because the story is a bit of page turner (he’s like the literary equivalent of crack to me. A total guilty pleasure.), but I feel like I’m choking this one down. I keep doubting whether I can go on, but somehow I keep on going!

Phew, this post ended up being a whole lot longer than I intended so I’m off to spend the better part of tonight trying to decide which sock to bring along tomorrow…

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rainy days and Mondays

The Boy and I were planning on going to the cinema today, so last night I hurriedly cast on for another simple sock so that my fingers wouldn’t be too restless during the film. But when I woke up this morning the cold that I’ve been nursing for the past week had progressed to the stage where I felt truly rotten and only marginally better than death warmed up, and since I was feeling sorry for myself (I’m not a good patient!) we decided to postpone the cinema for another time. It’s been a horrid cold, wet and grey day, which makes it the perfect sort of day to snuggle under a blanket on the sofa with knitting, books, tea and TV.

I knit my rainy day socks all through Ponyo, and then pulled out my Kindle and carried on knitting whilst reading Game of Thrones (which I’ve become hopelessly addicted to despite my initial scepticism) while the boy played Need for Speed. I’m about a stripe and a half away from the heel now, but I’m still not completely convinced by my colour choice. The colours blur into each other too much.

The origins of this sock come from the fact that while I was knitting my stripey green and grey socks I asked the Boy what he thought of them, and he very nearly commandeered them for himself. Does that happen to anyone else? The Boy seems to do it quite frequently these days. Anyways, he graciously allowed me to keep my green and grey socks, and suggested that he might like a blue and grey striped pair instead. I’m at a loss over what to get him for Valentine’s Day, so decided to knit him his striped socks as a gift. A belated gift, no doubt, but it’s the thought that counts, and he’s used to my knitted gifts being belated ones by now. Better late than never!

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another mystery

It’s been a while since I joined in with a mystery KAL with the SolidSocks group on Ravelry, but I couldn’t resist joining in for this mystery. I acquired some 9 inch circular needles last month and am giving them their first run with these socks. I’ve been wanted to try these needles for a while, and I have to admit that they do take a little getting used to. I’ve found the last two fingers on my hand cramping a little as the tips of these needles are only 5cm long so there’s nothing for my fingers to grasp onto. It is getting easier though, either because I’m starting to get used to the short needles, or (more likely) because my fingers have started to grasp onto the sock as the cuff has grown. I can’t say I prefer knitting with these over my usual magic loop (yet!), but it does feel nice and freeing to be able to just knit round and round instead of magic looping.

It’s also been a long while since I did a nail of the day post. I’ve been very lazy with my nails lately, but I had an evening all to myself at the weekend so I felt like pampering myself a little. Since I really love what I ended up with I thought I’d share!

Two coats of Revlon Smokey Canvas, which is a gorgeous cool grey nude, topped with a holographic glitter top coat. I immediately regretted applying the glitter because I loved the simple chic look of the Smokey Canvas, but I’ve grown to love it. I’ve been wearing glitter on my nails quite a lot lately though, so I think I’ll give it a miss for my next mani.

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this winter’s favourite.

Every year I seem to go through a phase where I am completely obsessed with one of my knits. Although I love and wear all my knits, during this phase there always seems to be one that I reach for the most, that just seems to effortlessly go with whatever clothes I threw on that morning.

Last winter it was my McCafferty, and the year before that I was all over my Ishbel. This winter I fully thought it would be Casey. As I was knitting Casey I was completely drawn in by how soft and big and squishy it was, and as much as I love it, this year my go-to knit has definitely been Baktus.

ack, vacant expression AGAIN! Must work on that….

There’s something about the simplicity of the colour and the style that make it so easy to wear with anything. When I first made Baktus I was all about hiding the knotted ends behind the point of the triangle like I do with all the rest of my triangle scarves. I don’t know when or why I started knotting it in front, but I like it.

I think I need to invest in some sort of sweater stone or shaver though, it’s definitely showing signs of being loved and pills are forming, particularly at the ends. I keep hearing horror stories about lint shavers and razors cutting through knitwear or not working at all, so I’m somewhat hesitant to invest in something!

So, any recommendations for what your favourite knits are, or what you do to keep them pill free? Do share, I’m in need of pill-removal advice!

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ticket to the frog pond

I have a couple of projects that have earned themselves a ticket to the frog pond.

The first one is Gush. I can’t even remember that last time I picked these up to work on, but the last time I blogged about them was back in August. I’ve already frogged these once because of a gauge issue, but this time around it’s because I’ve completely forgotten where I am in the pattern, and being too lazy to decipher where I left off I’ve decided it would just be easier to rip and start again. Anyone else do this? I’m very much a serial offender. Must work on that.

I remember that the main reason I stopped knitting Gush was because I was working the socks 2-at-a-time which was making all the stitch shuffling that was going on in the pattern just too much effort. It’s a shame really, because I love the colour of the yarn, and from the finished socks I’ve seen the pattern is really quite lovely. I’ve managed to get my hands on some 9 inch circular needles though, so my plan is to begin again using those, which should make all those shuffled stitches a lot easier to deal with!

Next up are my Hearts socks. I think I left these at the heel flap back in October/November. I picked them up again a couple of weeks ago in an effort to free up some needles before starting anything new, and I’m actually really enjoying knitting them. I don’t want to frog at all, but the problem is the fit! Once on, the fit is great. The issue is getting them on - it takes a good minute to wrangle the sock past my heel. I did toy with the idea of carrying on regardless,  but handknit socks should be a joy to pull on and off, not an effort. Besides, I know deep down that I would rarely wear them if I have to manhandle them on my feet, so frogging is really the only sensible option. I’m having to psych myself up to frogging though, I’ve almost a whole sock now and part of me still feels like it’s such a waste to frog back!

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spring cleaning

I know it’s still winter, but I’ve got a small backlog of half written blog posts and finished projects that I never got around to photographing and blogging about, so I’m going to “spring clean” all these things that are cluttering up my head.

First up is this circle scarf that I knit waaay back in November 2010 (excuse the vacant expressions!). It’s big, and snuggly, and oh so warm, and it got me through all that snow that we had here in the UK that winter. It’s still my go to scarf for ridiculously cold weather, and I’ve even resorted to wearing a second scarf underneath it on a couple of occasions!

I had every intention of writing up a pattern for it but unfortunately I’ve left it so long that one year down the line things have gone a little bit fuzzy and I don’t think I made any pattern notes (or else I’ve lost them)! I’d still like to write it up one day, but it’s going to have to be unvented first.

The first time I wore this scarf there were inches of snow on the ground and I was walking to a Mandarin lesson. The streets were quiet, big fat snowflakes were falling around me and and it was so bright and pretty. I was bundled up in wool and cosy and warm and happy, so this scarf will always be a favourite of mine for having those memories tangled up inside it!!

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done at last!

Pattern: My own

Yarn: Zettl Valbella

Ravelled here.

I feel like these socks have been on the needles for forever! I started them back in November, and the first one lingered on the needles for a while, but the second seemed to fly off the needles! This was the first time I’d used short rows for socks, and I used shadow wraps for the heels and Priscilla Wild short rows (thanks Leah!) for the toes.

Shadow Wraps

  

Shadow wraps were fun to work, straight forward, and the wrapped stitches are ridiculously easy to spot. I did blog about this short row heel a few weeks ago, and I still have the same issues with it. Perhaps it’s the position  of the short rows in a sock heel, but in order to avoid having large gaps I had to wrap the stitches again on the return row and this leaves a rather large messy ridge on the inside of the sock. It doesn’t bother me too much as it’s on the inside so can’t be seen, and it’s not something that I can feel when I’m wearing the socks but it is quite bulky. Again, I think this is from having to wrap the stitches twice, so perhaps working shadow wraps in their normal way doesn’t create such a pronounced ridge. I’d definitely like to try this method again to see how it works in a project that isn’t socks (Stripe Study Shawl, here I come!).

Priscilla Wild Short Rows

  

So here’s the thing. I would never knit a short row heel on a top down sock ever again. On a toe up sock, great idea. But top down? No. My usual sock toe involves decreasing until I’m left with 18 stitches to kitchener together. It seems my brain took a holiday when I decided to work a top down short row toe and the fact that there would be 72 stitches to kitchener didn’t occur to me. There’s also a weird little bump either side of the toe which I’m not a fan of. But no matter, I’m telling myself that this was an excellent exercise in short rows!

So, Priscilla Wild short rows. I didn’t find them as much fun to work as shadow wraps, but they are just as easy and straight forward to work with the added benefit of being much neater on the inside of the sock. In fact, the only negative that I can find for this method (aside from them not being as fun!) is that the wrapped stitches are not as easy to spot as they are with shadow wraps so I felt like I had to concentrate a bit more on the return row of these.

Out of the two methods, I’m not quite sure I could say which I prefer. I feel as though the sensible option would be the Priscilla Wild method for the neatness on the reverse side, but there’s something about the shadow wraps that I just seem to enjoy more!

 

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