Round, like a circle in a spiral…

…like a wheel within a wheel.

Ahem.

So, I may be a few years late to the party (hey, I am an introvert, after all!), but I have finally started my very own spiral staircase (it’s a free pattern very similar to the hitchiker).

It feels very apt to finish this year with a shawl, since I started the year with a different shawl. When this is over I’ll start another shawl with my hand-dyed yarn (Christmas present last year). Ahh, so many lovely projects. And no particular rush. Well, except that I want to wear this one already, it’s so pretty! I’ll get there. It’ll probably end up being the first finish of 2020.

FO Friday- multiple projects edition

So I guess I can add one to the 2017 finished object pile- I (finally) got around to sewing on the poppers and buttons to finish it.

I started this (finally) back in June, although it has been mostly finished for a while now- I just had to wait until I went to my parents place for Christmas to block and sew it together. The sleeves weren’t the same length (there’s a whole post coming about sleeves…), but apart from that I’m really please with how it came together. I even didn’t wait to sew the buttons on before I started wearing it as a slouchy cardigan on Christmas Eve! And now I get to wear it as a proper cardigan!

Yes, there are 5 buttons on it. They’re all different colours, but I made a point about matching the embroidary thread to the button colour. It’s so delightfully tacky!

I also finished, blocked and gave my mum’s shawl to her for Christmas. No picture of that because I’m a muppet, but it was well received (along with the shawl pin I got her). In the end I needed to do another 3 inches of stocking stitch before I could cast off and block, but it was totally worth it!

And the seagull! I don’t think I mentioned this when I started it, but I decided that my aunt should have a seagull to go in her beach hut cupboard, and proptly started making her one. It was made and delived on Christmas (it stands if the beak is bent, rather amusingly), and my aunt has decided that it’s too cute to live in a cupboard and only be seen by people who are being nosy, and so will live on the mantlepiece.

WIP Wednesday- wolf edition (with bonus stash enhancement)

Wolf focus again this week!

We were here, at 20.5 hours

My vague original plan was to go up and around anti-clockwise, which I started doing for a while, and then I got bored and decided to move the fabric and head over to the bottom right corner. I’m still having fun with this, but it’s starting to creep towards the ‘I really want this done already’, which is annoying. My normal routine when cross stitch hits the ‘finish me already’ is to stick it in time-out, which I don’t really want to do (because I want it finished…see the problem?). It can stay out for now, mostly because nothing else really needs finishing, so I can concentrate on it.

Anyway, 5.5 hours further along (to a grand total of 26 hours so far on this thing), we’re at here

As I mentioned rather excitedly at the weekend, I’m not only about 7 inches away from being finished on my mum’s Christmas shawl. Excellent news, but no new photo because a) it looks exactly the same as last time and b) I left it at work. Oops. Use your imagination 😉

And now for the bonus stash enhancement: I got myself some new interchangeable knitting needles 😀

These are the addi clicks long tip interchangeables. The 4.5mm needles are missing because naturally I had to try them out 😉 I managed to unclick them within one round of knitting the sleeves, but I think that was because I hadn’t twisted them in properly (they have to go in quite a way, then sideways then pull out a bit). Having rescued all my stitches and reconnecting them, they seem to be working fine now 🙂

And because I can’t just order knitting needles from the online yarn shop, I had to get some more sock yarn too 🙂

This is 400g of sock yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners, in a variety of colours. Socks!

 

I hit 20 inches!!!!

So, I finally got to move the stitch marker up 10 inches because I finished knitting those 10 inches. So now there’s 17 inches left to go, in slightly under two weeks (it needs blocking before two weeks Monday…). How much can I knit this weekend????

This is it folded in thirds (and the edges have rolled in too because stocking stitch).

P.s.- I didn’t get gauge on the cockatoo brae cardigan. I hope it can sit in time out until after I’ve finished knitting this. I really don’t need to start another project right now…

P.p.s.- I just ordered a new set of knitting needles (the addi clicks) from wool warehouse, as well as some more sock yarn. I hope I finish this shawl before I have to use them…

WIP Wednesday- shawl edition

Aren’t you all happy it’s not the wolf any more? Well, the shawl has come on quite a way now- in fact, I’ve finished all the lace. Apparently, despite all my grumbling about it, it was intersting enough to keep my attention.

Very pretty 🙂 So, now all that is left is miles and miles of (mostly) stocking stitch, with some faggot stich to keep things vaguely interesting. So far I’ve done 22 inches, which is actually quite a lot since the pattern in total calls for 59. Much better than I was expecting 🙂

So, another 37 inches to go (I take that back, that is quite a lot…) in just under 5 weeks. (Including blocking. I’ve learnt my lesson where that is concerned). So, say 4 weeks to do all the knitting, that puts me at 10 inches a week. *slightly nervous giggle*. Ok, that’s totally do-able, right? There’s a train ride back to Salisbury in there, and I don’t need to hide this project from my mum, so I don’t need to worry about secret knitting. Ok, I’ve got this. (Excuse me while I nervously procrastinate and cast on a new cardigan…)

Start It Sunday- Shawl edition

So, those of you who were here last weekend will remember the 400g of white DK(n/b: I previously called it 4ply for some very strange reason) my mother bought for me to knit a shawl for her with.

Firstly, a comment about the pattern. This is NOT an easy pattern to read. It has lace on both sides (rather than on one side, which is much preferable), and it doesn’t have a chart. 96 rows of lace typed out. Great… Good thing I have many stitch markers… And one other thing. Three of the instructions are yfwrd (yarn forward), yrn (yarn around needle) and yon(yarn over needle). These do not all mean ‘create one stitch by wrapping the yarn around the needle in the conventional manner. The yon means to create a stitch between a purl stitch and a knit stitch in the usual manner. Yfwd means to create a stitch between two knit stitches or two purl stitches (the only one of these I would call a standard instruction). Yrn apparently means to bring the yarn from the back to the front by going under the needle (as in, you do this all the time between purl and knit stitches, why does this need an instruction???). So between a knit and purl stitch, you need to do a yfwd yrn. Maybe this is just me, but it seems like a lot of overkill. Ok, rant over now. Onto the pretty pictures 🙂

Have a pretty picture of a lovely pile of my stitch markers because I had to move them around and they looked amazing 🙂

Now onto the shawl itself. I have finally managed to work out what is going on with the pattern in general, which has sped things up some 🙂 This is after 49 rows, (and I don’t know how many tinkings…)

Testing, testing, can I get pictures to work now?

So, I know, I completely didn’t post last week. I tried to, but the internet here refused to let me upload pictures, so I left it, and completely forgot to try again later. Oops! So I scrapped that post, and then wrote this one. Let’s see if pictures work now!

So, remember the last time we met, I kinda gave up on the idea of knitting both the mittens for my dad (he loves the idea, which is great 🙂 )? Well, it turns out that that was a good idea, as even the larger size was too small! So I now have to knit another pair of mittens, this time with some more stitches and rows of ribbing. Which is great and everything, as it’ll mean he has a pair of handknit mittens which he’ll actually wear! But I’ve massively had enough of that patten and yarn right now! So what I’m thinking is to give myself a bit of a break, work on what I want to, and then maybe in the beginning of July start the pair properly. And hopefully by them figure out what to do for everyone for Christmas!

I also haven’t done anything else for the OUAT SAL, which is really annoying, as soon I’ll be three designs down, having done just a small part of May’s chart! However, this isn’t because I’ve lost interest, but rather I started another SAL, and have been enjoying that. Here is my progress so far on Stained Glass:

I’m stitching it up on 20-count aida, since I have decided that I don’t particularly like even-weave. When it’s done, I’m thinking of spending the following year colouring it in brightly, using blending filament to add some sparkle 🙂

I have managed to finish my other housemates card, as well. This was giving me kittens, for some bizarre reason, as she isn’t leaving till the end of July! But I am now glad that it’s done, even though it was lovely to stitch.

My aunts birthday is the last one I’m making anything for, and so I decided to carry on the elephant scheme! This is Suzie, the elephant-kangaroo hybrid, and Nelly(well, one of them had to be Nelly!) her finger puppet daughter! I think that they are utterly cute and adorable, even though Suzie’s legs were really awkward to stitch- my advice? Just go for it!

I have also been doing some knitting- I finished another pair of socks! Yay! I now have 8 pairs with (you guessed it!) another one on the needles! I did these two at a time, as I wanted them to completely match! Pretty successful plan, even if I do say so myself!

Naturally, I’ve already started another pair, which are probably going to be exclusively knitted on trains- I’m going to be travelling around a bit in the next few weeks, and I’ve been to Manchester yesterday for a conference. Very interesting.

I’ve also started (ad nearly finished) a shawl- Glitz at the Ritz. I’m doing it in a nice purple colour, with silver beads. It’s gotten so big that there isn’t any point me showing you a picture- all it look like is a puddle of knitting! I can’t wait to finish this and see what it looks like properly!

Well, that’s all from me that I can think of (yay for pictures working again!)