FO Friday- Rohan scarf AND some more socks!!!

Well, firstly the Rohan scarf. It was finished just in time for my dad’s birthday, so yay for that! Not just-just, it was finished and wrapped up on Sunday, and given to him on Monday, but still!

I stopped keeping track of how many hours I sunk into this project, but wow it’s a lot! At the half way point it was 28.5 hours work. So about 60 all together probably (maybe more, when I got home I wasn’t speeding along as fast as I could on it, but then again I’d mastered the double knitting part of it, so that was probably quicker, but then again the finishing…). This is slightly more than I expected (I think I was expecting about 50 hours,) but useful for future refernce!

Finishing double knitting involves kitchener stitch. *lesigh* If I’d known that from the beginning…well, I probably would’e procrastinated more about knitting the last few bits, resulting in finishing it after the deadline, so probably a good thing I guess! But because kitchener stitch adds a row of whatever colour you’re using, I was a bit sneaky. You have to split the stitches up into front and back, so I knitted another row (of the cream) while I did that, and then did the kitchener stich in the brown, so there are three plain rows of each colour at both ends. Yay for logic!

I really want one for myself now, which is slightly problematic since I’ve started cincentrating of Christmas presents (and the one more birthday present I need to do…) I’ll probably get over it, I don’t really wear scarves all that much. And I have some pretty yarn earmarked for a cowl, so hopefully that will scratch that itch!

And I also finished my bluetit socks 😀

These are really cosy (and my mum really likes the colourscheme, so now I need to see whether I have enough left to do her a pair of similar socks, or whether I’d need to get another ball of yarn…).

Well, they’re all my finished objects 🙂 Better get back to crafting I guess!

WIP Wednesday- scarf edition

Ok, this scarf is getting really annoying really quickly. It’s brown and brown. *lesigh*. But I’m officially at the halfway point now- it’s just over 36 inches, and my dad likes 6 foot scarves. So I have just as much to do as I’ve done.

This is 28 and a half hours work. And I have to do the same amount again. Why did I think this would be a good idea??? I’m putting stitch markers at this point now so I can see my progress. Ok, what’s on BBC that I can marathon?

WIP Wenesday- catch up edition!

Hello my lovelies! I didn’t mean to be gone so long, I just got slightly overwhelmed by real life! And I really will continue to be until probably the middle of May, so expect further disruption! But I will continue to swing by and see you all as much as possible!

So, what’s new with me? I have a new sock on the needles:

These will be jaywalkers for me, 84 stitches as usual…it’s such a fun pattern, and I really like how my other pairs of them fit so yay for that! Gotta love basic sock patterns which can be done without really thinking about it!

I also have March’s cross stitch started. This is just 1.5 hours (an episode of Mary Berry and one of the Blue Planet. Gotta love the iplayer!!!) I think that measuring the time by episodes of tv watched might be easier than remembering to start and stop a stopwatch, so I’m going to try that for a while!

The scarf will still be measured using the stopwatch- I usually do that while listening to music or watching someone on twitch, so it doesn’t have the same set amount of time as the cross stitch. A while back (the last time I worked on it, before I had my finish the scrap blanket kick) I had to frog back rather a large amount- all the way back to the start of the middle section of it. But I’m now much happier with what is going on with it (which is good, because I have rather a lot of that to go- my dad wants this scarf to be 6 foot long…) We’ll see I guess…

I think that I have finally decided that I prefer the white horse on the black background, although they are both gorgeous! I have an idea to make two wall-hangings out of green and white Rohan horses, to go either side of some door in my eventual home…

Where is the helm and the hauberk?

Yes, as you may have guessed from the title, I am back and working on the Rohan scarf. The cross stitch was actually finished last Wednesday, but then I was crazy busy and so didn’t post about finishing it on Friday (or the post I had planned for the weekend about having multiple projects on the go…lets try again this weekend!) I think that I need to make this longer than it’s ‘supposed’ to be, so it’s going to be more than 40 hours…I’m planning on just extending the celtic knotwork thing in the middle as long as I need to, so it should be relatively easy to do 🙂 Now, if I could only decide which side I prefer…

I have also been working on the socks. These are fairly slow going, and I must admit that I sorta want them finished…I’m not having that much fun with them- it’s interspersed moss stitch and k2togs and SSK and even SK2tog, PSSO. And with a loosely spun single, making sure you get the whole stitch can be challenging But, I have gone past the heel on the first sock now, so yay for that 🙂 (Note for future self: put in the yarn for the heel after the 6th section of moss stitch)

And the blanket is of course being worked upon 🙂 I’m up to 7 hexagons for the month so far, so yay me(the stripy one with the speckled centre was #1) 🙂 I would also quite like this finished…I have plans for my next scrappy thing, which I really want to get started on, but I need this one finished, and my 2mm needles, unless I decide to use a larger size…hmm, that would be an idea really. I’m about 7/10 of the way through this strip, so getting there 🙂 I think I might need to choose one of the blanket/socks and just crack on. I just can’t decide which one it should be!!!

Where is the horn that was blowing?

This will actually be the last WIP Wednesday posts that I make for a while which includes the double knit scarf! It’s going away for a while, since today is the first of February, and that means I start another cross stitch stocking! So, for the last time for a few weeks, here is the scarf:

 

I think that I have finally decided that I prefer the look of white on brown, hmm, then again maybe not… This is now at 14.5 hours, for 149 rows (out of 430). 40 hours total is now looking slightly optimistic, but we’ll see… the top of the horse head is very fiddly!

The socks have been worked on some now!!! I have finally started taking my socks with me when I went on my lunch break, so they get worked on, and I get a little dose of knitting in the middle of my day 🙂 Win-win! (Side note: isn’t it amazing how knitting grows if you actually work on it! Mind bending!)

And of course the scrappy blanket 🙂 This comes with me to KnitSoc, and also if I want to be knitting, but don’t have the mental capacity for the scarf. Which has happened a few times- mostly while watching Death in Pardise. Great show!

I’m going to try and count how many I make each month, which I’ve never done before, so I could well forget! Feel free to remind me if you’re interested! Lots of yarn ends have been used up in this project, I’m looking forward to finishing it so I can work out how many ends I’ve used up 🙂

Where now are the horse and the rider?

This is a fly-bu WIP Wednesday post, I really should be researching for job applications (anyone want to hire a maths PhD with a love of yarn and crafting???).

Firstly, the Rohan scarf continues apace:

I still can’t decide which one I prefer! Usually, it’s whichever side is facing me!!! I’m also really loving this yarn (DK Life), and I’m tempted to buy enough in natural colours for a yoked sweater. It’s 75/25 acrylic/wool, but feels really wooly 🙂 This is now at 9.5 hours, with a total of 102 rows done, out of 430. So, if I stay at this speed, I need another 30.5 hours work left. Let’s see if I manage to speed up any with this as we go…

I also (surprise surprise) have a pair of socks on the needles. Well, I have the toe of the first sock on the needle. This yarn is loosly spun single, so it’s going to felt something terrible. But, the socks aren’t for me, and I didn’t choose the yarn, so hey ho. On the other hand, it is absolutely gorgeous to work with! If I didn’t know the fibre content, I’d’ve guessed it contained silk! But it’s ‘just’ 75/25 wool/viscose. Gorgeous stuff! I’m having to resist the very strong urge to buy enough of this yarn for a sweater…but I know I’d never use it, so I’m resisting 🙂

And of course my scrappy blanket is still going strong. This isn’t getting much love these days- it;s my usual ‘out and about project, so it mostly just gets worked on on Friday nights at KnitSoc. I already have plans for a garter stitch entrelac pillow cover when this one is finished, so there’s no need to panic about the state of my sock yarn scraps! And besides, even when this is officially finished, I’ll still add the odd hexagon here and there!

Right, I’m off to research more jobs…there will be another post about process/product knitting this weekend 🙂

At dawn, on the third day, we ride!

So the Rohan scarf has begun! This is it about one and a half hours into the third attempt (we will not discuss the first two…)

And the back

I have recently started recording how long projects take me. Mostly for curiousity, but I expect that I’ll find a way to analyse it! Which is how I know that this is 1.5 hours work. I have an app on my smartphone (I can’t believe I actually just typed those words…), which can have multiple stopwatches on the go, and name each of them (very useful!). So all new projects from here on out will be recorded. (If I remember!) Fingers crossed that I remember to start/stop each time!

The scrappy blanket continues. This will be the last row of hexagons to be attached (finally!), so I’m trying to get through them. This is my take-around project, as the colourwork on the Rohan scarf is very complicated, and I can;t take it anywhere!

Eek! I can’t belive this thing is nearly finished!!! And then I’ll start a new one! Gotta use up all those scraps!

Not the modifications post

So, it turns out that I need to think more about the modifications I plan to make to cockatoo brae…expect that post later. Maybe a couple of weeks. Because…

I got more yarn! This has a plan. A very solid plan. Working out presents for my dad has always been awkward. So, this year I finally did the sensible thing, and asked him to pick from a small number(4) of scarf patterns. I offered:

1)A star wars double knit scarf. This one apparently was too busy for his tastes

2)Fellowship of the ring iconic scene scarf. I really thought that he’d like this one, but the fact that it’s sideways put him off

3) One ring scarf. This was a firm favourite, until I showed him the one that he did pick. I’m not quite sure why this one loses out to it but I must admit to being pleased. As well as already having knitted this, there is a LOT of stocking stitch. In the round. I’m not sure how long I could do that for!

4) Riders of Rohan scarf.(edited to provide correct link)This one won. I’m not sure exactly why, maybe he fancies himself a rider of Rohan in a different life…

I tried to not influence his decision at all (after all, I do want him to wear it!), however, I am happy that he chose this one. I haven’t knitted it before, and it seems interesting, but not too complicated. (I may do the star wars one for me later, just for the challenge…). I’ve never tried double knitting before, so I’m looking forward to giving it a go on something fairly straightforward 🙂

The problem is, I asked him what colours he wanted (homestly expecting the iconic green and white. How could he not want that???) to be told brown and brown. *sigh*. Well, he didn’t tell me, he showed me the shades he wanted from his current (shades of brown and brownesque) scarf. The first two shades he suggested were brown and a reddy brown almost exactly the same when viewed on greyscale…not going to happen. So then he suggested a sandy brown and a darker brown, which I agreed to.

Then came the hunt for the right yarn. I knew I wanted tweedy (I considered Rowan felted tweed DK but ditched it because of how expensive it would be…). I went around all the yarn shops in York (Ramshambles is closing if anyone reading this is also in York. They don’t have much left, but there may be a few nice things), and found this:

(The white is more off-white, something akin to cream). This met with my dad’s approval, and so the knitting can commence (this will delay the cockatoo brae plans more, but oh well. I think I need to spend more money and work out how to fudge dye lots for that one, so we’ll see…). I’m planning on using a 3mm needle, because I knit loosely, and double knitting is loose as well. My current projects are on 1.5mm needles and 2mm needles. This is going to feel large my conparison! Knitting can commence as soon as I find a set of 3mm needles (either straight or circular). If I have to go into town again to find a set, I will be rather annoyed…now, do I have any other needles than my interchangeables, and those that are being used already??? (And if so, where are they???)

Which one of those scarves would you have chosen? And why? If you have any alternatives from other fandoms, I’d also love to know about them. It’s too late for my dad though, he’s getting this one.