2 weeks to Christmas…

…so let’s get on with the presents, shall we? The scarf has now been blocked, so looks rather more appetizing than the pile of knitting it was last week!!! The bit which is pulled in is because there are some cables in it, so it’s a lot tighter than the other section. I think that if I do it again (and I’m very tempted), I’ll skip that section.

The hat has also been proceeding apace. The twisted rib was surprisingly alright (I suspect the size of the needles might have played a part with that!) and the body of the hat has now been started, and is racing along. Which I am slightly alarmed by as I was rather hoping to be knitting it on the train on Thursday…it may not last that long. Alternative ideas, anyone??? (Something other than socks???)(and not the other Christmas present) (Or the scrappy blanket for that matter)hmm, maybe a double sided blanket…(knit in squares, don’t worry, I’m not that insane…)

I currently have three projects on the needles right now. Firstly that lace hat, with 3mm needles. I also have a pair of socks on the needles(2mm), and my scrappy blanket(1.5mm). I am rather amused that the thinnest yarn gets the largest needles!

I’ve also been steaming along on my scrappy blanket. I’m loving it, although it is getting a little heavy these days 🙂 That’s what comes of knitting it on 1.5mm needles, I guess!

I finally figured something out the other day, which I thought was worth sharing with you all (aren’t I lovely? ). This pattern involves picking up stitches, which is all well and good until you realise that picking up the second stitch (which is nice and easy to see before you start picking stitches up…) becomes rather difficult as it tries to hide (it’s involved in a k2tog on the first row, so you can’t really blame it, I guess!). BUT, if you stick your darning needle in the stitch before you start picking stitches up, it can’t hide anywhere! I figured I was a genius when I realised this!

I’m planning on doing one more stripe to add to the blanket, then calling it done (it’s not as though I won’t keep adding random hexagons at odd times just because 🙂 ). I’m also thinking about my next scrappy blanket, which may or may not involve me dipping my proverbial toe into pattern creating waters… Wish me luck!(But is going to need my 2mm needles, so I’m going to have to finish my socks before I can start, and then not start more socks…maybe I just need more 2mm knitting needles…)

‘Tis the season to be blocking…

Firstly, Sami’s blanket! The blocking has been finished, and it’s been readied for wrapping. I don’t want to actually wrap it up until I know what’s happening to it (if it’s going to be taken to Japan in luggage, I should probably find a vacumm pack bag to shrink it down some…), but it has been prettified now 🙂

The blanket of doom is finished!!!! I think the entirety of KnitSoc here knows how much I dislike it, but last night while I was there I embroidered the name, and the year 2016 (I wasn’t about to announce to the world that it took me more than a year to make the thing…), and now its blocking (again, taking up the entirety of my floor…).

It won’t be properly finished until I go home and can use my mum’s sewing machine to back it with something soft (she’s going to buy the backing material, so I don’t know what she’s going to get).

Having finished that, I then started on an advent calender I’m making for the friend who got the blanket. Last year I bought both of us a tea advent calender, which was a disaster because most of the teas were green and fruity teas, and neither of us liked those. So this year I’m making the advent calender out of a crochet garland pattern(ravelry link here), and stuffing each of the bits with a ‘proper’ tea bag.

And of course, I’ve still been working on my aunt’s Advent calender scarf. I’m now half way through (I’m at pattern number 13, and if I recall correctly, there are a few of the later patterns I decide to skip), so hopefully this will be finished soon! (Maybe itll be being blocked next week…)

I was looking up what I said about this pattern last year as I was making the other Advent scarf, and found my old blog post about work of the year. That kinda fell down last year when life got massively hectic over the summer, so here’s a word for next year: breathe! One way or the other, the PhD is going to be over, and while my back-up plan of staying in academic (which was going over to America…) has been shot out of the water, I still hope to stay in academia, my PhD expects me to be able to, and if not, I can always move back in with my parents while I sort my life out. So whatever happens, however hectic life gets, I need to remember to breathe, and that knitting helps me to relax, and nothing is permanent…

The blanket is done!!!!!

Well, blocking anyway. I am ridiculously impressed that I’ve made another blanket (so’s all of KnitSoc too, so I’m not the only one!)

What I learnt from this: take a couple of days away from ‘post date’ to find ‘finish by date’. This was supposed to be posted tomorrow, but it’s not going to be dry *facepalm*. Although things are still a little up in the air about what my friend is actually doing- she may come up and see me, so I wouldn’t be posting it anyway. So let’s hope that I remember this when I do need to post things…

I also need to think about floor space when deciding on whether or not to rent a room… if I knew my housemates better/there wasn’t a resident cat, I would be more inclined to block this in the sitting room, but hey ho! It’s not like I’m planning on blocking anything this big again (except the Dick Bruna blanket, hmm…) I think I need to think about that more

I’ve also been keeping up on my NaNo project. I haven’t yet done today’s (v is for violin), but there are a few big ones (v, y and z) which is annoying because I’ll be doing the whole work thing again next week so I’m not sure if I’ll have the time to do them. I’ll give it a good go, and try not to beat myself up if some of them take two days!

On Friday I also started knitting another Advent scarf. People may remember that I started one in blue and black mohair for my aunt last year, only to learn that she dislikes mohair… so I’m making her one this year in green non-mohair yarn. I’d forgotten how fiddly beads are, but hey ho. Theyre a better option than nupps…