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!

Sock Sunday

I am, quite frankly, amazed that I’ve managed to do any knitting at all this week. Deciding to blow my Friday evening and knit at KnitSoc was a major contributor to this, although I am kinda regretting it now…ahh well. The maths is nearly finished…

The bluetit socks have been my main focus (easy, portable and technically a deadline before the scarf (oh my word don’t ask me about the scarf…)), although I have slowed down quite significantly on them due to stress related neck/right shoulder pain. I’m assuming stress related because otherwise I’ve done something really bad to to my neck/shoulder muscles and I really don’t want that. Either way, the best course of action is probably less stress and try not to use the muscles too much, especially when they get really sore. So less knitting. Hey ho.

But anyway, the first of the bluetit socks is nearly finished.

The heel is eye of the partridge, which I actaully really like the look of (although knitting it was really awkward- any tips on keeping tracking of which row it is???). There are small holes on either side of the heel flap though, which is somewhat annoying, but that’s the teething problems of being a test knitter I guess! I have a potential solution to try on the next sock. 🙂

Sock, err, Monday

So I had this amazing idea to have a Sock Sunday post, where I talk about the socks I’m currently knitting, but then yesterday I got sidetracked with a picnic which only ended at half 9, so you’re getting a Sock Monday post instead!

I currently have 2 pairs of socks on the needles…*whistles innocently*. It was completely accidental, I swear!

So I’ve had these socks started for a while

I’m using a pattern from ‘Socktopus’, a book with 17 patterns in (well, 16 and a vanilla pattern). The pattern is technically top down, but I’m just following the pattern toe up instead. I’m using an afterthought heel as well. It took a while to figure out what the chart was telling me about the leg chart (no written instructions, just a chart…), but I managed to figure it, so it’s full steam ahead now.

Then the other day I agreed to test knit a sock pattern with contrasting toe/heel ribbing, so I have a second sock on a different needle. Meet my blue-tit socks:

These are temprarily on hold while the designer works out some kinks about the heel, but so far it’s been fun knitting a different pattern.

I clearly need to get more sock knitting needles (and project bags…)! Having multiple pairs of socks on the go is such fun!

FO Friday- socks edition

More socks have been finished! Ahh, the delights of easy projects while stressed about writing up a thesis and job applications…

But hey, there is never a down side to more socks 🙂 Unless you don’t have the space in the drawer for them all…

Oh, and taking decent pics, I guess!

So, onto the socks: these are more jaywalkers, modified so I can do them toe up (I really do dislike cuff-down!) 2mm needles, 84 stitch pattern, yadda-yadda. At some point I need to write the toe-up pattern, as my friend who’s just starting to knit socks wants to knit some jaywalkers. Or she could knit them cuff-down. It would be a good experience for her…

More socks have been cast on (as mentioned on Wednesday). Again, I’m modifying a pattern to knit them toe-up, rather than cuff down. Fingers crossed they go well 🙂

WIP Wednesday

A bit of everything here really!

The cross stitch is still on-going- can anyone spot what this will be when it’s finished? Not really very Christmassy I think, but still rather nice!

This is at 3.5 hours- I’m now trying writing down how long I’ve been watching programs while stitching. It seems less stressful for me than using a stop-watch, even though it’s doing the same thing. So far I’ve watched the BBC dancing awards for the ballet (Oh my gosh, so amazing!), the ballet of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (abstract enough that I don’t need to keep watching to pay attention, and nice enough music to stitch to!), and another thing on the BBC iplayer which is a competition about people and their connection with their dog. Fascinating stuff, even if I don’t have a dog! Makes them seem tempting (I am much more of a cat person!). I’ve also been watching Robot Wars while knitting, but I may stitch for the final! The sooner this stocking is finished, the sooner I can get back to my dads scarf ready for his birthday! Still have quite a bit to go on it.

I have (naturally) started a new pair of socks- this time I’m using a pattern from a book, which means they aren’t all that portable, but that’s alright. I should probably slow down with all the socks- I have 22 pairs now, that seems slightly excessive given how small my underwear drawer is!

I’m not sure what yarn this is- there’s a niggly feeling at the back of my brain that says it’s the old ZigZag(50-50 wool/nylon), but I really can’t remember anything about it. Ignore the ball band- I used the one from my last socks to hold it together.

Besides, this scrap pillow cover can be my portable project 🙂 It’s coming along nicely, although I haven’t yet worked out how many more squares I need to add to the length, it’s definitely going to stay 7 squares wide.

I have also been working intermittently on the brown and brown scarf. This section in the middle is really boring, so I’m trying to power through it, but it’s difficult to want to pick it up, when the pillow cover is bright and colourful! This is nearly 26 hours work, and I’m not quite halfway (this is 32 inches, my dad wants 6 feet plus…)Ahh well, I still have nearly 2 months to finish, and when my thesis is submitted I’ll have more time to work on it!

Any tips on working on projects you don’t really want to? When I hit the half-way point it’ll be much more fun I know, it’s just working on the last few inches before I hit half-way!)

Catch up post of everything

Well, it has been a while since I was last here! Life has been particularly busy, and so I’m going to stop waiting for the right day to post things, and just have one large post of everything I’ve been doing, craft-wise. There are many pictures, so enjoy!

Firstly, I have finished Nikita’s socks:

The yarn is actually much darker than this, it’s jsut difficult to get a decent pic! So you can have these sub-standard ones instead! Very happy these are finished, and definitely won’t be using this yarn for socks again (it’s Louisa Harding Pittura, and I think it’s designed for shawls).

I also finished March’s cross stitch stocking. (This was actually finished a while ago, I just never got around to posting about it).

I’ve forgotten how many hours I spent on this (still tweeking how I keep track! I’ll get there eventually!), but it’s rather cute! Next time I’ll also try to leave more space at the bottom for finishing…oops!

So they’re my two finishes. My dad’s scarf is still on-going, but that’s rather boring and looks just as it did before, just bigger. So no new interesting picture of that.

One new start: a mitred square pillow cover- I’m making it the same size as one side of a pillow case, and then will sew it in place when it’s finished.

I’m making it out of yarn I used for my socks (plus two rogue squares), and when finished Nikita will have it. I’m making it for her so I get her sock yarn scraps (ahh, the delight of introducing friends to the wonders of hand-knit socks!). This is a standard mitred squares pattern- 43 stitches, central 3 stitch decrease on alternate rows. I’m decreasing the row after picking up so the decreases happen on wrong side rows as I don’t like the way they look. This blanket is using my 2mm needles, so naturally I had to buy another 2mm circular for my socks! It makes perfect logic! I just need to wait for it to arrive…

I haven’t yet started my April stocking. That will happen at some point this weekend (it’s on my to-do list, at any rate…). I just need some suggestions as to what to watch while I work on it, since the Great Pottery Throw Down is finished, and I’ve watched all the Blue Planet episodes which were available on the iplayer. Anyone got any suggestions on things to watch? Prefrebly on the iplayer, but if I can access them from a UK computer, I’m up for trying them at least!

I’ll also try to not leave it 2 weeks before coming back, but no promises! I have about 2 weeks before my thesis deadline, and that naturally takes precedence! I’ll also update my WIPs page, but that definitely won’t happen until after the thesis!

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…