WIP Wednesday- giant socks edition

So, err, hi again! *waves awkwardly!* Radio silence for over a month! Wow. So much stuff has gone on here since then! I am now working for the University of Bristol, and have somewhere to live. The commute is somewhat annoying (have you seen how hilly Bristol is??? Scary.), but apart from that, life is pretty good. I’m still getting the hang of working life and everything, so I haven’t been doing much else. Although I have found a new knitting group that meets on the first and third Wednesdays of the month (I’m writing this yesterday, on Tuesday), and a bike volunteering project starting next Tuesday to go to, so I’m starting to do more things.

I have still been working on Christmas presents, in particular a pair of very nice patterned socks, which I (naturally) paired with a far too busy yarn for the pattern.

Ahh well, it all looks good. My friend is a very happy Hufflepuff, so naturally I found the closest yarn to yellow and brown I could find. And then because she has giant feet (note to self: only befriend people with small feet from now on, they’re much easier to knit socks for!) I did the ribbing in blue (because I am totally a ravenclaw).

If I’d been thinking properly, I would’ve done the toes and heel in blue as well, but I didn’t think about that. So far one sock is done, and I’ve just finished past the heel on the second sock. Why do large socks have to take so long to knit?????

(Re-)start it Sunday

So, having finished my bedroom desk project, it’s now time to start a new one!

And what better thing to do than un-earth an ancient UFO and give it some more TLC? (By ancient: the last time I showed progress on this cross stitch was April 2015!!! Has anyone here even followed me for that long???)

But here it is: Stained Glass (round of applause please!)

This was originally designed as a SAL, judging from the layout of the pattern I have, but I doubt very much that I ever even attempted to keep up with it! Then we got the last 4 pages all together because the shop was shutting down. I still have a few other patterns from LoveThy Thread to do…*whistles innocently*! Maybe when this one gets done!

There is also a second half to this post, because I promised MrsCraft more stash acquisition photos (and because I rather maughtily started a new project…). When I bought the buttons which will hopefully be used for my cardigan, my mum suggested I pop upstairs to have a look at the sock yarn. How could I say no to such an offer???

So, naturally, I bought some sock yarn. Two zauberballs, and a skein of Head over Heels (Stylecraft).

 

And then, when I got the zauberballs home, one of them jumped stright onto my needles (after glancing through my sock books and settling rather forcibly on a pattern). And really, who am I to say no to such an insistend baby pair of socks??? (These are now being called fish socks for reasons I have yet to figure…)

The head over heels yarn may or may not become the reindeer cowl from twistedyarn…I am as yet completely undecided about that. It’s a very pretty pattern, but I already have one cowl I pretty much wear all the time and I’m not sure that I’d ever use it. We’ll see. At the moment it’s content to sit on my desk and be petted every once in a while!

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!)