Update on EVERYTHING

Holy strewth batman has it really only been a week (almost) since I wrote on this blog???? So much has been happening here. Major news first: my viva went really well (I loved it, my supervisor told me that the report he saw about it was excellent). So now I’m nearly officially a Dr- I just need to complete all the changes my two examiners suggested and send it to my internal examiner. And then some paperwork. I’m also quite tired still from all the stress leading up to the viva and the late nights after the viva while I was with my friends from the Uni. So I have no idea where htis blog post will go. I just feel the need to get it all out before I can get on with everything!

Right. Onto the crafting.

Cross stitch- I finished the ‘make today amazing’ cross stitch. I appear to have gone wrong somewhere- the edge stitches are out but it’s not noticeable and I’m not fussed enough to work out where the mistake is.

I then started this next one. It will eventually say ‘Hello!’, but I’m also kinda loving the ‘Hell’ that is somewhat currently going on! Not enough to leave it on hell, but it’s amusing while I work on it. This one is definitely more time consuming, but it will be wonderful when finished. If it’s done by the next time I go back to my parents, I can finish it in its hoop then (it should be). It will be mine in the end (I just love the colours!) When this one is finished, I will start the wolf one. Very Exciting too! (Then I’ll get back to the stockings. Promise…)

Knitting- so the rainbow cardigan is still waiting for me to get around to frogging the shoulder shaping. I’m guessing that will probably happen at the weekend now, since that’s my first big window of opportnity to do things…(I really should be sleeping now since I’m so exhausted). I don’t have any socks on the needles (shock horror!!!) but there is the scrappy pillow case which is slowly being added to. Technically that’s also not on the needles as there isn’t a square on-going, but semantics. (Picture of the rainbow cardigan with a button option I talk about later on)

So since the rainbow cardigan was in time out, I started cockatoo brae’s sleeves to take on the train- I couldn’t take nothing after all, and I *thought* I could remember the needles I used on the gauge swatch about a year ago (mistake #1). I also didn’t take any socks, just in case (mistake #2).My gauge is wayyyyyy off (well, according to the delights of working 4ply. I have 24 stitches at 3 inches. Gauge should be 28 stitches at 4 inches…) I haven’t quite given up on cockatoo brae with these needles- I will try washing the sleeves I have done so far, to see whether I just need to wash it to get gauge (slim chance but just in case…) If I still don’t get gauge, then I’ll try larger needles on one sleeve and turn that into the gauge swatch. (Pictured with buttons which I talk about later)

Naturally I learnt/figured this gauge issue while in York, with the prospect of a 5 hour trian ride back to Bristol (longer than normal due to track works between Parkway and Temple Meads. Great…). Answer: go yarn (and needle!) shopping. My first plan was to get some sock yarn since I had my 2mm needles from when I started cockatoo brae. Of course, first plans don’t survive contact with the enemy, and I ended up getting 6 hanks of aran weight yarn and a sweater pattern… I’m knitting with in a mostly mottled brown with flecks of orange and blue in yarn. Not my first choice, but they only had two of that yarn and I needed more than that!(Yarn picture later on)

My original plan was to come back to Bristol on Saturday, so that I had Sunday to catch up on sleep, go shopping etc…unfortunately I missed my train and my friend I was staying with suggested I stay another night and go back on the Sunday. A quick check of the train times said that if I caught the 9:33 I’d be back in Bristol by half 2, leaving plenty of time to go shopping before the shops shut at 5 (Sunday remember). So I happily cast on for my sleeves (two at a time, remember!) and set about starting the Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, (there’s always an unfortunately, isn’t there?), there was a problem with my 5 hour train ride on the Sunday, and we got stuck for 3 hours outside this piddly little village because some idiot had stolen the copper cables of the line, so the signals were down. So, long story short, I finished my sleeves, didn’t have any scissors to cut the yarn (nor did anyone nearby)(note to self: acquire that nifty cutter thing that looks like a pendant), and missed the opportunity to go shopping that day. *lesigh*. On the other hand: finished matching sleeves! (I’ll discuss the weird sizing things with this pattern later, otherwise we’ll be here all night!)

Stash: the stash I mentioned in passing two blog posts ago finally arrived. But before the pics, I need to share the backstory to these two sweaters with you all. One of my friends got me into this fanfiction where one of the main characters(Remus Lupin) is a knitter, and knits a cardigan for his partner. It’s oversized, cabled and is grey with flecks of colour throughout. Ever since I read about that cardigan, I wanted one (maybe not oversized, but the rest of it sounds amazing). I figured that finding the right yarn would be the hard part, and then I’d find a pattern (I cannot possibly imagine a world where there are not millions of patterns for cabled cardigans in every conceiveable yarn weight). I didn’t tell anyone about my desire to find this yarn, it felt too personal. It was between me and the yarn. And it was hardly a pressing urge, I have plenty of other things to knit! Then I came to Bristol and walked into the first crafty store to explore how good it is, and there, right in front of me was a ball of Wendy’s aran in ‘dollymix’. Cream with flecks of colour throughout. Perfect (Ok it’s not grey but it still works perfectly). Now to find a pattern. I scour ravelry, and find one possibility. *facepalm*. Ok, one is fine, it’s all I need. I mention this to my friend, along with a link to the yarn, and she sees a similar colourway- this one blue with flecks throughout. It’s called Lupin. Talk about fate! How could I not knit them a matching cardigan in that colourway??? So I order 3 balls in each of the colourways, and they have arrived. Now just to find the time to knit them… (No pic of these in the end as I can’t get my camera to take a pic remotely true to colour. I imagine that ravelry has plenty :D)

 

Other stash- buttons! So the other thing I love about York is the button shop. I needed a button for the jumper I had just bought the yarn for and buttons for cockatoo brae. I wasn’t sure about sizes for the jumper button, so I got two and figured that I’ll find a use for the one I didn’t use. Then at another shop I found different contenders for buttons for the rainbow cardigan. So now I have two sets of tacky buttons to try on the tacky cardigan (friends words but completely true!) Again, I’m sure I’ll find a use for the buttons not used! I also nearly bought another set of buttons with the express point of finding a cardigan to go with the buttons, but I managed to resist the temptation of being ordered not to. Does anyone else find that as soon as someone tells them not to do something, you immediately want to do the thing??? Picture of the two potential buttons on a sleeve of the jumper.

Right, that is me now all caught up! Phew! What a ridiculously busy week! And the new students arrive soon, so now rest then!

WIP Thursday- cardigan edition

And  a question.

But first, about the cardigan. I’ve been getting on well with it (it’s too hot to knit the main project in the sitting room, so this has been getting some love).

I’ve nearly finished the left side, so I figured that finding buttons would be good before the project stalls as I can’t knit the buttonholes before I know what buttons I’ve got. That combined with heading into town made an excellent excuse to pop into Franklins. Lovely shop 🙂

So I settled on these buttons (so bright and colourful!)

The problem is that they are a bit too big for the button band. While I was there, my mum suggested that I just knit the button band on the other side a bit bigger, since this buttonband would be hidden…which it will be, but I’ve also knitted up the neckline and that won’t be hidden. *facepalm*. So now what I’m thinking (and the question is: does this plan make sense???) is that I have three options.

Option 1. IF the buttons fit on a 3 stitch buttonhole (I’m planning a straightforward cast-off/cast-on buttonhole), then I can increase the buttonband to 4 stitches (it’s 3 on the pattern), and then use 2 of those stitches and 1 from the main body to make the buttonhole, and then on the first decrease at the neck edge get rid of the extra stitch in the buttonband.

Option 2. Knit vertical buttonholes. I’ve never tried this before, but I can’t imagine it being too bad- actually, this might be a right pain because of the colourings of the yarn. Maybe not this one then…

Option 3. My mum has to go to Southampton soon(ish) to find an outfit for my sister’s wedding. If I go with her, I can look through a bigger button selection in the John Lewis there. Alternatively, when I go back to York for my viva (very excited!!!!!!), I can have a trawl through the button shop up there.

So, what does everyone else think? Any other options I should think about?

Cardigan: the home stretch

I finally feel like this cardigan is nearly finished (after more than a year!)

I had to pick up for the button band on Sunday, and picking up 95 stitches evening is rather difficult! I make it slightly easier for myself, by adding stitch markers and even intervals:

Instead of picking up 95 stitches, it became a case of picking up 12 (and one part of 11) stitches between each of the stitch markers!

I also went and got some buttons, what do you think?

I got 7 (without reading how many the pattern suggested), and having tried 6 and 7, I decided that 8 would be a good number. So I went out and got another 2 (so I have a spare). I can’t believe how nearly finished it is now!