Gauge swatches, gauge swatches everywhere and not a thing to knit

I have recently made….2.5 gauge swatches for jumpers. And then a little thing that’s alsmost a gauge swatch but I don’t care about gauge (so just a swatch???). And I finally got around to washing and blocking this gorgeous shawl.

 

Shawl first!

This is a Manos del Uruguay something (it’s in my ravelry but eh). It was very smooshy when it’s finished and I’m *really* hoping its wash didn’t stop that, but it really needed blocking so I’m kinda on tenterhooks here. It’s white and purple and green and I love it.

 

Double knitting! One of the members of my spinning group said that she wanted to learn double knitting, so I (foolishly?) piped up to say that I knew and I’d happily teach a class on it. So then I had to relearn how to double knit bc it was a while ago (ravelry says May 2017). It’s an amazing technique and now I’ve done some again I regret having abandoned it for so long (but not that much because I have no immediate plans to do something crazy like a double knit blanket.)

 

2.5 gauge swatches! The one on the left is for a 4ply jumper (full disclosure- the *pattern* is for a 4ply jumper. The yarn I got is 5 ply according to ravelry, so we shall see…). I swatched on 3.5mm and 3mm needles and I really hope one of them is good for gauge because the idea of knitting  sportweight yarn on 2.5mm needles when the pattern says gauge on 3.5mm needles is slightly insane, however much I’m getting sued to the idea that I knit *very* loosely!

The top right swatch is actually this really nice green for a cabled aran weight jumper. That swatch is on 4.5mm, 4mm and 3.5mm needles and I think (measuring the pre-washed swatch) the 3.5mm needles are on gauge.

The bottom is half a swatch- I want to see how this chunky yarn behaves after washing before I continue the swatch. There’s no point carrying on with these needles if I’m wildly out, but it’s currently on 5.5mm needles which is one size down from the suggested needle size so I’m hoping I get gauge on this (or close enough to justify continuing this swatch).

 

I currently don’t have anything (interesting) on the needles because I only have one set of 3mm needles and I don’t want to tie them up in a project at the moment because so many of them will likely need it (the next shawl I want to do, a different other shawl I want to do, hopefully that 5ply jumper….). Lets cast on a pair of socks, that seems like a good idea 🙂

Advertisements

More new stash

Ok, fine, I admit it. I’m just feeding the stash beast at this point. But, in my defense, it was a new yarn shop, and you have to support your local, right?

So, firstly, some more sock yarn! This will (theoretically) become Christmas socks, but…

The purple contrast for toes, heels and cuffs is actually this really bright pink, and there are specks of ‘fairy lights’ in the green yarn. Christmas tree socks! Which, knowing me at the moment (knitting has kinda fallen by the wayside…), may get done over the Easter break…

Other theoretically) socks yarn!However, this stuff has sparkles, so I’m thinking maybe another Age of Brass and Steam. Or some triangular shawl thing I can wear. But I’m not sure how big I want to make it. Which isn’t a problem since those are made up from the middle out. I can always make matching handwarmers with the extra I guess 🙂

And finally: Slytherin fibre!

This is 100g of BFL/bamboo/nylon which I’m currently thinking I’ll spin quite chunky and knit…something. It’s for a friend, so I’ll have a sneak peek through their ravelry and see what they like. And then probably not spin it for another few months…

So yeah, that’s me. Not really crafting at the moment, but still feeding the stash!

All the socks!

Well, not quite. But close 🙂

Firstly, I finished my Socktober socks!!!! Ahead of schedule!

So this pair was a bit of an eye opener. I still had this idea that *of course* I could churn out a pair of socks in a week- after all, I managed 4 days when I was house hunting in York and that had two very long train rides and evenings/mornings completely free. *facepalm*. I now have a social life, and work, and I cycle everywhere rather than get car rides. This comes back to my ‘breathe’ thing. I am wildly optimistic about what I can do, and I have to figure that out for the sake of my sanity.

 

Secondly I finished another pair of socks.

These were started a long time ago (December 2017 apparently…), but I wasn’t in any rush to finish them- they were convenient as my Uni knitting group project until I reached nearly the end and I didn’t want the kitchener stitch mess in my knitting group so I swpped them out for a different sock project there, and then never actually got around to finishing them. No rush 🙂 Then I took them to my spinning group yesterday and was suddenly reminded how close I actually was to finishing them and churned them out 🙂

 

And finally, I started a new pair!

After my spinning group I went round a friends house to, err, ‘Netflix and chill’, or rather ‘Netflix and craft’, I was knitting, one friend was knitting and the other friend was cross stitching. So natrally I needed a new pair of socks to take with me! A quick search through my queue (lovely thing, can’t believe it took me as long as it did to actually put in all my stash and find projects for everything on ravely 🙂 ) found this yarn and an easy pattern I didn’t need to print off. So I got a nice easy project to knit while watching tv with people. (Basically, yesterday was amazing and involved a lot of sock knitting and some spinning)

Socktober- an update

So, we are now (almost) half way through Socktober, and I’m ahead of schedule! Woot! So I finished the first sock…Wednesday, I think it was. And it fits, and I love it, and it’s amazing and the pattern rocks.

Due to an inadvisibly busy social schedule however, I wasn’t able to start the second sock until yesterday, when I was so tired I defaulted to my usual toe and had to throw it out. I did start it again today at my spinning club, and got a decent chunk of the foot done (no pic because it’s dark now, but you can imagine really). IT’s a fun and engaging little knit, and I’ll definitely be doing this heel again if not the pattern (atm I don’t want to redo it, but in the future, we’ll see how things go).

Sock-it Sunday- test knit edition

So I got the sock pattern to test knit on Sunday, and I was very well behaved and didn’t start it until Monday. Then I dived right in, and didn’t really surface until today. It’s been a very strange feeling, following someone else’s pattern, with all their indiosyncrasies (John increases for the toe the other way around to literally every other person I know, which was weird and threw me for a loop (I didn’t)), but fascinating to see my own unconscious biases about the ‘correct’ or ‘wrong’ way to do things.

The pattern itself is cute and easily memorised (mostly). So much so, that I accidentally went past where I was supposed to start increasing and had to frog a few rows.

I was supposed to start at 3.25 inches from the back, here I am closer to 3.

And here I am with the heel turned!

I love this heel. It’s a gusset and short row heel, and I had to frog because apparently I am unable to count, but it only involves wraps (or the German replacement I use) on half of the heel, and the other half you just turn and work back again. I was very skeptical, but it works and I think I will continue to use this heel later on in other situations. 🙂 Just not in self-striping yarn bc I absolutely hate the random colour change that results from heels. I’ll keep sticking to afterthought/contrast heels for those.

If you click on the pic for a larger version of this, you’ll probably see the pattern a bit better. It’s a very subtle travelling cable thing. (Very precise, I know 😉 ). I love it, it’s simple enough to really get into it, but interesting enough to keep me entertained (think similar to Hermione’s every day socks).

The only thing I’m not very happy about is how little I’ve managed to do…I remember when I could bust out a pair of socks in a weekend, and here I am pootling along slowly. I kinda want to make these socks longer than normal too, which may involve increases for my thighs…*facepalm*

Ahh well, I’m off to go knit some more.

Let’s pretend it’s Frida, because I have some finishes!!!

Two, to be precise.

Firstly, I finally got around to doing the heel on the socks! Go me!

I can now give them to my friend on Tuesday, (assuming she’s there…) If not, they’ll keep I guess. No idea what to do with the left-over yarn, maybe list it for destash on ravelry. I don’t mind it (but it is a bit splitty), but it’s completely different to the rest of my sock yarn so I don’t think it’ll really fit into any of the scrapy blankets I’m doing.

The other project I’m calling done is the pocket.

Peacock feather! But rather than the blue and green normally associated with them I decided to do the whole thing in silver and gold. There was a bit of an explosion with the silver glitter but I sorted it out. It’s also shedding glitter everywhere, but hey ho. That’s what glitter does really 🙂 Now, hopefully I don’t lose my scissors any more…

A finish, an almost finish and a new start

Firstly: the finish. I finished the seagull! It isn’t finish-finished yet- no doubt it’ll be added to my pile of Christmas things to deal with later. Unfortunately, the other cross stitch I brough to do is my mother’s, so either I start that and kinda ruin the surprise (she’s the only one here who would notice, so clearly I’m a double muppet at times).

Secondly: the almost finish. I decided to make a pocket hoop to store my scissors, which have this really irritating habit of going missing…So I cut up a pair of jeans I can’t wear any more (I wore out the inseam horrifically…) and stuck that in a hoop with superglue. It’s good enough as it is, but I’m pondering two things

1-what embroidery do I want to do on the pocket? I think it needs brightening up somehow, but I have no idea what. Any suggestions??? I’m thinking sparkly- glitter or beads….or both?

2- do I need to do anything on the back? At the moment it’s bare and I feel as though I should do something, but I’m not sure what. Again, suggestions? Note to self- don’t do the back until you’ve finished the front

And thirdly: the new start. After finishing the seagull I wanted something that wasn’t on plastic canvas and didn’t involve beads. So I rummaged around in my small stash here and pulled out a very small house cross stitch I acquired at Yarndale many moons ago. Stitching on 18 count without a hoop is very fiddly (and there’s so much brown…)

 

This is what it will look like when it’s finished. It’s going to be tiny!Oh, and a bonus thing! I bought some more sock yarn- for a good cause, I swear! One of my friends (tumblr account) is dipping his foot into designing, and therefore needs a sock test knitting. How could I say no? Well, except that the design he made really wants a solid coloured yarn…hmm… new yarn shopping! I was very good and only bought one ball in this purple-grey-blue-brown yarn. Pretty enough for me, solid enough for the socks 🙂

July/August goals

Gah!!! How did July fly by??? (Don’t answer that, I know the answer). Life got crazy busy then for a while, and it’s going to stay busy in August too. Blah. Anyway. July’s goals were (slightly optimistic)

(Yes, this is wildly late. Life has been throwing a ton of stuff my way. Unfortunately, none of it is going anywhere until September. Then normal service can resume!)

1. Knit a pair of socks before my mother’s birthday (they’re interesting so this should be doable)
   Done! Not as early as I had hoped, but they were gifted to her on her birthday and she loves them (even though it’s far too hot to wear them…)
2. Get cockatoo brae to the yoke (the pattern is the other side of the room, but given how much zoomies I had on this last month, should be doable!)
   Haha, nope. Probably won’t even happen in August, given the number of trains I’m going on (as well as the issue I might be having with the gauge…)
3. Finish the plastic canvas ‘Let it snow’ cross stitch ornament (probably the best way to stave off burnout on the wedding sampler is to finish something else…)
   Doneeeeeeee!!!!!!
4. Blog post about buttonbox mods (hopefully will start this after I finish cokcatoo brae, I need to be prepared!)
   Doneeeeeeeee!!!! How does the idea of starting buttonbox before I finish cockatoo brae sound? It might need frogging…
5. Bonus: sew Kita’s pillowcase together…
   Nope. Blargh. I need to just sit down and do it at some point…
6. Bonus: crochet the octopus
   Nope, and no motivation to do it either
7. Bonus: Mildred’s socks
   Nearly! I just need to do the heel now, so naturally I’m procrastinating over it…

 

 

Ok, onto August goals. Easy, tame and relatively mindless are the words of this month. I have lots of train rides coming up, so yay for socks I guess!

1. Finish Mildred’s socks. This is getting stupid now. They are also the last things (on the needles) to give other people, so double incentive to finish them!
2. Sew Kita’s pillowcase together. The procrastination is wildly strong on this one…:/
3. Work out what on Earth is going on with my cockatoo brae. If it is my gauge I’m going to be annoyed…
4. Work out which socks have the most left to do that are mindless for all the train rides (4, or 5 if you count connections as separate trains) (If I finish the Mildred socks this is totally a good enough excuse to start new socks…)
5. Bonus: get to the yoke of cockatoo brae, depending on what is going on with it.
6. Bonus: work out what everyone’s getting for Christmas, and if it’s crafting work out a plan of attack for them…

Ok, hopefully they’re all easy enough to do. Unfortunately, I can’t take cockatoo brae on the train trips, I don’t have much space for yarny things in my luggage on each of them.

Ooh, remind me to do a blog post about my sponsored cycle ride…(preferably before I do the damn ride…)

An update on project birdsocks

Project birdsocks, for people who are new to this blog, is my attempt to knit my mother socks so whe will stop borrowing mine… WestYorkshireSpinners released a range of 9 self-striping socks inspired by various birds, and for each one, they also suggested a solid colour which would work for (e.g) constrasting toes, heels and cuffs. So here I am knitting 18 pairs of socks for my mother.

Two pairs have already been finished and are awaiting her birthday, I aim to have a third pair finished (I figure three pairs of socks makes a good sized present).

The third pair of socks, I duly cast on at the start of June, and then prompty ignored them…*facepalm*. The problem was that I had chosen this wonderful entrelac pattern to really hightlight the colour changes, but I had forgotten how to knit backwards, and with 5 stitches a go the turning of the work was constant, and irritating. Anyway, having gotton around that problem by relearning how to knit backwads, after a few rows, another problem became evident. The thrice-cursed thing wouldn’t fit over my ankle, which was rather irritating, since I love the idea of this sock for scrap yarn. I may try again with an extra stitch in each square and see whether that solves the problem or not.

So, here I was with part of a sock done (uselessly)(it may or may not get frogged, more likely it’ll just go in the rubbish), and a time limit starting to breathe down my neck (my mum’s birthday is near the end of July). What is a person to do??? The answer: take a leaf from ym friend Jon’s book (he’s doing a pair of socks a month this year, in a bid to reduce his sock yarn stash), and knit something relatively vanilla, but with a bit more interest than that.

So here we have the main points about these socks:

toe up, short row heel, predominantly vanilla in a self-striping yarn. Looking at what other people have done with this yarn (very little), there is a narrow band of two colour yarn between all the other bands of colour. So I decided to purl the dark blue bits of that. I.e. when the yarn about to get wrapped around the needle is dark blue (intuitive rules about when it changes colour part way through the stitch), it will get purled rather than knitted. Having done a few sections, it might have been better to purl when the stitch on the left needle is dark blue, but it works perfectly well this way 🙂

WIP…something day? Scatter brained edition

Ok, so, phew, I survived my three weeks of slight insanity. Umm. Crafting kinda fell by the wayside, with the result of it all wanting attention NOW. Unfortunately, my holiday is now over and therefore I have to do the work thing…

Anyway, what has been happening? Well, I was in York at the weekend for Pride, so much knitting was accomplished on cockatoo brae (long train trips are made longer by delays…amusingly, the train ticket I had was a complimentary one due to the delays I had coming back from York from my viva…this makes claiming compensation rather awkward…) Anyway, cockatoo brae is coming along well ahead of schedule! As well as all the rows I planned to do this month, I have started the increases as well 🙂

(Isn’t all the brown lovely. Find the sarcasm in the last sentence…)

This weekend I will be teaching my aunt how to crochet jellyfish for premature babies. Naturally, this means I a) need more yarn(and crochet hooks), and b) need to crochet one in the first instance so I know what’s going on. 4ply yarn and a 2mm crochet hook are fun! Fiddly, but fun.

My mother’s socks have been started…just. I really need to get on with these, but I can’t take them home this weekend, since I’m visiting her…These will become my priority when I finish Mildred’s socks.

Speaking of Mildred’s socks, I have one finished and the other one past the toe. Before Pride at the weekend there were three members of knitsoc in a cafe, all knitting socks, all from the toe up, (two on circular, one on DPNS), in various colours and patterns. It was rather surreal to be sat there, and have someone ask what we were knitting, and all three of us saying ‘socks’ in unison. Anyway, these socks need finishing soonish. 🙂 They’ll be coming with me at the weekend.

Finally, the cross stitch wedding sampler has been ignored. But you can have a picture on what was done before but not photographed. Hopefully I’ll come back to this after the weekend (it’s probably a little bit optimistic to think it might happen before the weekend, given how it’s all going!)

Right, that’s me pretty much caught up I think (except for what I’ve been spinning/knitting but that should end up being a blog post by itself sooner rather than later…)