notes from the weekend.

I sat in the garden in the morning sun with some knitting and a book,

I cast on for new sock,

and I cooked a roast dinner and baked some yummy pumpkin muffins.

These things are seriously good I enjoyed one this morning for breakfast, along with a mug of apple cinnamon tea. Oh how I love autumn.

The only thing I changed from the recipe was reduce the sugar slightly (I used 1/2 a cup rather than 3/4), but the next time I make them I think they’d be lovely with a handful of chopped nuts or some chocolate chips. It’s a testament to how yummy they are that 21 muffins came out of the oven yesterday afternoon, and only 14 remain today….

Back to the socks, I really can’t decide how I feel about them. I cast them on wanting something plain, and although I like the subtle variegation part of me feels like it’s missing a bit of texture. I’m half tempted to rip back to the cuff and start again with Hermione’s Everyday Socks, but I’m almost at the heel and I’d hate for all of my weekend to have to go to waste!

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back to business

Well hello there, I seem to have unintentionally taken my annual summer hiatus from the blog! The last few months have been a bit of a rollercoaster. Not long after my last blog post I was called back in to my ex-workplace to help out with a project that was close to deadline for a few weeks. And then I got some incredibly tragic news about a friend which just pushed everything out of focus while friends and family tried to wrap our heads around it.

Things are starting to get back on track though, and I’m kicking off my return with a sock for Socktoberfest!

Pattern: plain top down vanilla socks with a short row heel (notes on Ravelry)

Yarn: Rico Design Superba Poems and Regia Stretch Color for contrasting cuffs, heels and toes

Ravelled here.

These socks were an emergency cast on as the Boy was dragging me to the cinema to see Looper (great film, by the way. I thought it was going to be one of those stressful, difficult to watch films but it was brilliant and I enjoyed it so much more than I was expecting to!) and I had… *shock horror*…. no vanilla socks to take with me! I kept the cuffs short so that I wouldn’t be knitting ribbing when the film started. I’ve been caught out with that one before; I always get so engrossed in the film that I lose track of what I’m doing, can’t remember if I’m supposed to be knitting or purling and end up with a couple of mistaken yarn overs and a mess of rib. Not good.

Once I got started, these socks zoomed by and were off the needles in a little over a week. I even don’t mind the fact that they’re not matchy matchy. I initially thought I was going to get a little twitchy about not being able to match the gradients because I forgot to make a note of where I joined the colour on the first sock, but then I decided to embrace the idea of fraternal gradient socks. If these were striped or patterned I would definitely be getting a little bit of twitchy rage at them not being identical, but I quite like it in the gradient, there’s something softer about the mismatch that almost works.

This yarn seems to provoke quite a vitriolic response in the Ravelry comments, but I quite honestly can’t see what the fuss is about. I actually quite like it. It has an almost handspun look when it’s knit up that to my mind translates to something cosy and comforting, and until I get around to spinning my own sock yarn these will do quite nicely. I did want to offer my counter to a lot of the negative comments I’ve seen surrounding this yarn though, so here goes:

• It is on the hairy side for sock yarn, but it’s not scratchy or itchy.

• It’s not soft either so personally I think it’s best for socks, but unless you have particularly sensitive skin it would be fine for a shawl or a scarf.

• It is not plied, it is a single. Because of this I’m not sure how hardwearing it’ll be as a sock yarn, but I’ve used my favourite workhorse Regia yarn for the heels and toes so hopefully it won’t fare too badly. We’ll see…

• It is a little splitty, but not too bad. I’ve knit with a lot worse before. I managed to knit this in the dark at the cinema and worked quite a few inches without working any split stitches, so it can’t be that bad :)

The needles have not been idle this past few months so I have quite a few things to share with you, but I’m going to ease back into things. I know I promised a couple of recipes in my last post, and I will get round to doing them! The pictures are all done, so I just need to sit down and write them up. In the mean time, I’ve got a lot of blog feeds to be catching up on….

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Sunday Best

I’ve just realised that I never really got around to blogging about my Coopknits mystery socks! They got a little glimpse in my Colour Lovers post, but I think they deserve a little more attention because I LOVE them!

Pattern: UK Sock Knitters March Mystery by Rachel Coopey

Yarn: elephantjuice Super Sock 4ply

Ravelled here.

Coopknits is a sock genius. I’ve admired her gorgeous patterns for a while but this is the first one I’ve knit, and now I just want to cast on for all of her designs. I just can’t get enough of those crisp textures and twisted stitches!

I will admit that when I first saw the charts for these socks I was a little overwhelmed, but the actual knitting of it is very simple, and once I figured out what was going on it became very intuitive. Although there were a more than a few little lapses where I didn’t pay enough attention, or became too engrossed in my book and to do a little bit of tinking!

The only change I made to the pattern was to the toe, where I carried out my usual practice of decreasing every other row until about half the stitches remain, and then switching to decreasing every row before grafting the remaining stitches. It just gives me a toe which is ever so slightly more rounded than a standard “decrease every other row” toe.

On the whole, I really couldn’t be happier with how these came out. I’m so pleased with the yarn too. It was a bit of an experiment so I had no idea how it was going to knit up, and was really curious about how the little splashes of orange would look in a finished knit. It turned out nicer than I could have hoped, and the orange adds a bit of lively interest to the grey.

For a long time while during the knitting of the first sock I worried that I was going to run out of yarn. I was using a slightly underweight skein that I’d decided to keep for myself, so I was keeping a very close eye on the scales to check whether I’d hit the halfway mark before the end of Sock 1. I panicked in a moment of weakness and dyed a backup skein, but I needn’t have bothered because I ended up with a fairly healthy 10g leftover. The practical side of my is telling me to pop it into my pile of scraps for future darnings, but I’m very tempted to use it for a little hexipuff!

I’m not entirely sure that these socks will ever need darning though, because I’m being strangely precious with them! I’m usually so eager to pull on a pair of freshly knit socks and go trampling about outdoors in them, because there’s something so undeniably cosy about feet wrapped in all those little handmade stitches. But for some reason I’m shying away from wearing these lovelies inside of any shoes or boots, and instead am quite content to pad about the house in them, and admire them sitting on the radiator. I’m sure the novelty will wear off soon, but for now they’re my Sunday Best.

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so near and yet so far

I feel like I haven’t been making much knitting progress lately. I started a little swatch a couple of weeks ago, but it hasn’t progressed beyond a rectangle because I need my 4mm needles, and they’re currently still occupied by…

… my Stripe Study shawl, which is still slogging along. I’ve knit all twelve contrast stripes and I’m now about two thirds of the way through the border, but even though I am so close to finishing, I can’t seem to bring myself to knit more than a few rows at a time. I still love this shawl, but my current feelings towards it are echoed exactly in Pinkundine’s recent post. At the risk of repeating what she has already written, the rows are just so long now, and there is none of the excitement of short rows or stripe segments left to break things up. It’s just become a bit of a slog, and if it wasn’t for my current rush to free up these needles it would probably linger on for quite a while!

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WIPs & KALs… acronyms, ahoy!

My current muddle of WIPs. The ever present socks in progress and my current love, the Stripe Study Shawl.

I could have sworn I bought a red with a hint of orange for the contrast stripes, but the more I look at it the more it seems to be just straight up orange. No matter, it all works with my beloved grey.

Although I cast on for Stripe Study a couple of weeks ago I shied away from working on it much as I knew it would consume me and shunt my twisted socks to the background if I let it. However, since we’re all agreed that the foot is the fly-by home stretch, I felt that since I’d turned the heel it was “safe” to finally plough on with some lovely garter stitch. Oh, how I love garter stitch. It has such a rustic, squishy cosiness to it. Delicious. The pattern is a whole lot easier than I thought it was going to be, although it’s been a while since I worked on anything other than socks so the 4mm needles felt awkward and clumsy in my hands at first.

I had a brief dalliance with some other short row methods (shadow wraps and Priscilla Wild) since I’m not usually a fan of a standard wrap & turn, but ended up ripping them out and going back to basics. The wrap & turn method included in the pattern really is the best match for this project. I should have listened to Veera!

Still on the topic of the Stripe Study, Nat over on Misadventures in Craft recently blogged about a Stripe Study KAL that she and Crafts from the Cwtch have organised so I’m going to be joining in with that. There’s an FAQ about the KAL here (far too many acronyms going on in this sentence!), so if you fancy joining in then head on over to find out more! There’s even a discount code for Nimu Yarns for all you bargain hunters out there.

And on a completely non knitting related note, but you all know how I love to flash my nails, here’s what I’m currently sporting. I’m ashamed to say that my last mani only came off the nails at the Easter weekend (yikes, a whole month with the same mani! Gross. I am most definitely ashamed of my slobbish approach to nail grooming). I don’t think it’s a colour I would have normally picked up but it was given to me by my bestie when she was having a clear out during a house move. She said she never wore it because it was too bright for her, and although it doesn’t look too day-glo in the bottle, my goodness was she right. This pink looks a little muted in the photo but in reality it’s almost bordering on neon. I do love it though. It’s a perfect warm weather colour, although there’s very little of that happening in the UK at the moment. Incidentally, my bestie’s 2-year old daughter calls nail polish “nail badges” (although I at first I though she was saying “nail badgers”. Yeah, I can be kind of slow like that.). How adorable?!

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lazy days

I’m having a super lazy Saturday. I spent some time catching up on some Playful Day podcasts whilst I painted my nails, and I LOVE how my nails turned out! They’re gold scribbles on a baby blue base.

I have a heel for my mystery sock.

And I’m thinking of casting on for another mystery sock, despite being so woefully behind in the other one, in some of my hand dyed yarn. This skein is a complete experiment. I was dyeing a semi solid grey when I accidently tipped a whole pot of grey dye stock all over the yarn. Luckily the darker section doesn’t look too bad, I dunked it in water immediately so it’s blended out somewhat.

I did then decide to dot some orange dye around to see what it would look like, but I’m not entirely convinced that it’s going to knit up too well! I’ve a feeling this would have looked better with yellow instead of orange, but I won’t know until I try. The pattern I have in mind for this has quite a few cables and travelling stitches, but now I’m in two minds about whether to knit this up as plain vanilla sock instead. I probably shouldn’t because I’ve already got a vanilla sock on the go, but I’m just so indecisive!

And just because I love my nails so much right now, and I really like the way the gold looks in the sunlight!

Hope you’re all having a great weekend!

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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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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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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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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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Spiral

My Spiral Cowl came off the needles back in December, but I’ve only just gotten around to photographing it.

Spiral Cowl by Keri McKiernan

Yarn: Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend

Ravelled here.

This started off as a gift for one of my best friends, but gradually morphed into a Christmas gift for my Mum since she’s a big fan of cowl. Instead, the Flutterby mittens went to my bestie after I spied the book that inspired the pattern on her bookshelf.

Spiral would have been a quick knit if I hadn’t taken an almost month long hiatus from it to concentrate on the mittens, but it was still a relaxing knit which allowed me to enjoy quite a bit of reading throughout. (looking back at my pics of Spiral as a WIP reminds me that I’m yet to post my Amsterdam trip photos! That shall go on my to-do list…)

I made a couple of mods to the pattern. I’m not a fan of picot edges so changed it to a garter stitch edge. I also increased one stitch after the border, which allows you to knit the cowl in one continuous spiral rather than working a pattern repeat over 7 rows. If you’re ever going to knit this pattern then I’d definitely recommend this mod. It really frees you up just knit and not have to count rows or pay any attention to a pattern. Just keep going round in a spiral until it’s long enough or you get bored. Much easier, and much more fun!

The Manos yarn is an absolute dream and I loved every moment of knitting with it. It’s soft, has a wonderful sheen and is sooo warm. I’m a complete sucker for semi solid yarns, so I adore the subtle colour variations within the skein. I probably wouldn’t rush out and start buying it regularly, but for a once-in-a-while indulgence it’s definitely a winner.

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socks & stuffies

 

I finally picked up Sophie again, and although the body and leg appeared surprisingly quickly I seem to have lost momentum again. I think I’m putting off the picking up of stitches. It’s not that it’s hard to do, it’s just that I don’t particularly enjoy doing it! I’ve also been a little over zealous with the stuffing. I find it hard to  know when to stop, which is very apparent by the stretched out stitches on the body and leg. Sadly I was too keen to bury the ends, so there’s not much I can do about it now! I might try steam blocking when (if!) I finish to see if that will even things out a little.

 

There’s also been very little sock progress as I’ve been distracted by spinning, but I’ve got some catching up to do with Sherlock so I’m anticipating a good chunk of knitting getting done whilst I enjoy that. Mindless stripes and t.v. are made for each other!

 

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flutter on by

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! It’s all been a bit hectic round at chez EJ so I didn’t manage an end of year round up. But I am kicking off my first blog post of 2012 with an FO!

The Flutterby mittens are done and gifted and were very happily received.

I was running late (as usual) on the day of gifting, so all these photos are a tad rushed and the mittens are still damp from blocking, but hopefully it doesn’t show too much!

Flutter Butterfly Mittens by Mimi Hill

Yarn: Sirdar Country Style 4 Ply in Cream & Navy

Ravelled here.

I love these mittens. Love them.

It’s one of those patterns which looks a bit more complicated than it actually is, and as a result progress is quite speedy. It does take some concentration though, as colourwork invariably does, and knitting these mittens in a moving car on the afternoon of a British winter is not a good idea… trust me. After finishing the first mitten and cockily thinking that I had things down pat for the second one, I thought I’d be clever and get a bit of gift knitting done on my birthday trip to Yorkshire. Never mind that it was too dark and fiddly to read a chart in the car, I’d done this before!

No.

I’d completely forgotten about the rather large and beautiful butterfly who sits in the palm of the second mitten. The next day all my smug feelings of how I was pretty much on track for finishing these on time were wiped clean away when I picked up my mitten in daylight and realised my error. Cue much swearing and frogging.

But aside from that little incident, this was a fun project to work on. I don’t often knit colourwork because it often requires more concentration than I like to give my knitting, but after these pretties I may have to rethink that mind set.

I didn’t modify this pattern at all, other than knitting the cuff in twisted rib because it looks neater. If I was to knit these again however, I think I’d knit the cuff on smaller needles and work it for a bit longer, it was a bit too short and loose for my tastes. I’d probably go up a needle size for the body of the mitten too, as although this pair are a perfect fit for their recipient, my hands are not as dainty as hers and they’re too snug a fit for me.

I was furiously trying to dry the mittens on the dashboard heaters in the car… it didn’t work!

Mittens and gloves are definitely things which are in deficit in my stash of handknit goodies, so I’m going to make an effort to knit more of them in 2012. I was a little disappointed when I looked over my Ravelry page and realised that I’d only finished 13 projects in the whole of 2011! In contrast I have a whopping 7 projects which were started and then abandoned, so I’m going to make a concerted effort to finish the projects that I start.

I’m not actually a fan of New Year and never really make resolutions, but I admit that I do still get seduced by the idea of a clean slate at the beginning of the year, so my plans for 2012 are more socks, more mittens, more spinning, just more of everything except unfinished projects! I also want to design and dye more and be much more active on the Ravelry forums. I’m afraid I’m a bit of a lurker, which probably has it’s roots in the fact that I’m really quite shy, but I think it’s time to break out of that and try and participate a bit more, especially since I joined some really lovely forums towards the end of 2011. So what do you guys have planned for 2012?

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halfway (almost…)

Just a thumb short of being half way through knitting these mittens…

They’re actually a surprisingly fast knit, I just seem to be taking my time over it. I’ve restarted with different yarn since the last time these mittens appeared on the blog. Once I reached the decreases for the top of The Mittens Take 1, I realised that they were definitely too small. They looked freakishly narrow. Serves me right for not swatching. (although I still didn’t swatch for these Mittens Take 2!)

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