FO Friday- double edition

Yes, that’s right everyone, two new shiny finished things to show off 🙂 I am clearly very productive over holidays!

Firstly: the pillowcase. Technically this isn’t yet finish-finished, but eh. The knitting is all done, so I’m unilaterally deciding it counts.

Now it’s done, I’m going to take a break from scrappy knitting (at least, knitting with my sock scraps. I’m still working on the other scrappy project, because that’s not really scrappy.) I need to build up my scrap collection again before I do myself a pillowcase. In mitred squares. But in a while. 🙂

And my second finish: the wolf!!!!!!

I am soooooooo glad this is finally finished! In the end, I raced to the end- there is a lot of backstitching in the bottom left corner, and I did a ‘will I finish or throw it accross the room and ignore it for three months’. Luckily, I finished first. I’m completely ignoring the mistake I made with the wolf whiskers- they’re supposed to be done in a different colour, but I can’t tell the difference between thin blue and thick blue lines, and I’m not fixing it now. Now to find a frame for it- it’s 6 by 8 inches so I should be able to find a suitable photo frame for it. Now, onto the next cross stitch project 😀

FO Friday- March goals edition

Another month gone…where are they going??? So, before I get inot the goals, firstly I want to show off my new finished things.

Socks! Who doesn’t love socks? This pic is of them drying after they’ve been worn for the first time, because I had to wear them straight away!

This pair have afterthought heels, which I really dislike because of the kitchener stitch…

And secondly, another sewn card! (Note: I say another…it’s been quite a while since the last one I did. These are done by punching holes in the card with a large stabby needle, then sewing them in a set pattern with a smaller needle and metallic thread. The companies which produce the cards are form-a-lines (for the A6 size) and…I thought there was a sister company for square cards but I can’t find them again so maybe I imagined it or something…)

This is for a couple I know who are getting married in April. I had to change the pattern slightly so that both hands are holding top hats- in the original design the hand on the right had a handkercheif. I’m very pleased how this came out in the end.

Finally: a bird! This is a generic one done to see how large they are when finished- I think it might be a smidge too large for the planned use, so I’ll have to go down to embroidary thread and *very* small knitting needles (1mm I’m thinking)

So, the March goals I had:

1) Finish my mother’s first pair of socks. Done! The ends are even woven in, that’s how done they are:)

2) Carry on the wolf cross stitch. Done! I hit 75% at the weekend, so go me!

3) Sew the wedding card. Done! See above 🙂

 

4) Get gauge on cockatoo brae. Done! Sleeves are half(ish) done! More up to date picture of sleeves so far:

5) Stick all my sock yarn (not the stuff for project bird socks) on ravelry and find projects for them. Done! See my ravelry account. (Link opens to my stash page filtered to only include yarn with projects associate with it in a new tab). Obviously, this isn’t all my stash, but it’s all my sock yarn here in Bristol. Bonus: I actually also added all my yarn here in Bristol (including my handspun, although I’m not convinced I’ve done that bit correctly…), and found patterns for almost all of it (including my mothers bird socks). This brings me to a total of 28 projects in my queue, of which 26 are socks…

So, next months goals..

1. Finish the sleeves on cockatoo brae
2. Carry on with the wolf cross stitch (I’d like to finish but think it unlikely given that this final quarter is more complicated than the last and I only just hit 75%)
3. Knit up and write a blog post about afterthought pockets. (I want to in the end do a series on different pockets, and I figure that an afterthought one is probably the easiest to start with…)
4. Knit another pair of the bird socks (or at least get the first one done. I’m planning on doing the socks in their pairs, so this next pair will be cardamon main colour and bluetit cuffs, heels and toes).
5. Bonus: start knitting something with my handspun… This one is slightly terrifying, because it’s my handspun…But I also know that knitting it will allow me to see what’s going on with the yarn a lot more clearly than just eyeballing it! Bring it on! (I reserve the right to not talk about how bad it is if it’s truely awful…)

 

 

 

WIP Saturday- February/March goals edition

So, firstly, the WIP Saturday potion of events- I actually did some on the wolf!!!!! Go me!!!! Not as much as I’d’ve liked for an afternoon spent solidly stitching, but I’m biased because some of that was backstitching, and some was stitching so I could do more backstitching (which I think I hate more than getting on with the backstitching), and some of it was not progress because in my mind I was further along than I actually was and so I had to catch up…

But! I have (nearly) reached the top left corner, so I’ll call that a win. Technically I haven’t stitched the top left corner, but that’s only a technicality, I’ve stitches all around it!

It is officially more than 50% done now- all the to-bestitched stitches are on the left of the centre line (and quite a bit further over on the top, but eh).

I’ve also started the sleeves (a.k.a. two gauge swatches) for cockatoo brase, but one of them is currently washing so I can’t show you that.

So, onto a recap of my January goals:

1. Finish-finish my preparation cross stitch. Done! (Well, excpet for gluing the felt on the back, but that’s waiting until I go home- probably Easter)
2. Finish the OLAS cardigan. Done! And Kita loves it, and is apparently living in it, which makes my heart do this weird fluttery thing
3. Knit the headband from left over viva jumper yarn. Done! Just realised that I haven’t shown you this before, so have a pic of it now!
4. Bonus: finish the sky up to the top left corner. Done!

 

Score! 4 for 4 this time around! Oh, and I also swatched for cockatoo brae. Still don’t have gauge (I’ve got 8 stitches an inch on 2.5mm needles, and 6 stitches an inch on 3mm needles. The pattern calls for 7 stitches an inch…I’ve ordered 2.75mm needles at 150cm long so I should be able to try it on as I go- assuming that I’ll get gauge on this size!)

So, cookies for me! What’s the plan for next month, I hear you ask? (Well, I don’t, but I’ll assume you asked!).

1. Finish my mothers first pair of socks. She’s coming over on the 17th, so she can try on the sock and I can then get cracking on it’s partner- well I can get cracking now, but when she’s tried it on I can do the heel and leg. I have a plan if this current sock doesn’t fit which doesn’t involve frogging the whole thing, so it shouldn’t take too long to fix if necessary
2. Keep working on the wolf. Ideally I’d like to hit 75% this month, but I’m not sure how ambitious that is
3. Sew the wedding card for April’s wedding…I probably shouldn’t’ve put this off but I only just realised that the wedding is in April…
4. Get gauge on cockatoo brae (and then start the sleeves and realise that my gauge swatch has been lying to me…)
5. Bonus! Stick all my sock yarn (not my mum’s)(including pictures) on ravelry and come up with patterns and an order for knitting them on my queue. This shouldn’t take too long, I just need to sit down and do it one weekend day. (This is probably this afternoon’s job)

This…all kinda feels adventurous. We’ll see how we go I guess. And I’m still learning how much I can do in a month. I think February’s goals felt adventurous, but I still managed to hit all of them (amazing what you can do when you actually WORK ON WHAT YOU’RE MEANT TO BE WORKING ON isn’t it?)!

 

WIP Wednesday- intention edition

So this is more of a ‘I intend to start working on the wolf cross stitch’ post than a ‘look at how much further I’ve got at the wolf cross stitch’, because my life has been taken over by work at the moment. Lucky me!

So have a cute picture of the wolf cross stitch to tide you over until Friday, when you get to see a delightful FO post!

(Yes, the astute among you will notice that it’s the same picture as the last time you saw this…I haven’t been working on this for a while.)

I reserve the right to change my mind and do one of my Christmas tree ornaments as an instant gratification thing before I actually start working on this again…

WIP Wednesday- Catch up from Chritmas edition

Phew! Christmas really went on for far too long this year (last year?), partially due to visiting friends, which generally I had previously avoided. However, it is finally over (or at least will be when I manage to shift this cough), and we can all get back to normal.

So, let’s get back to business! Kita’s cardigan is coming along a storm, I have 37 of the 50 cm before armhole shaping done now (and 4/5 of the buttonholes), although I still haven’t memorised the pesky back central cable.

The sleeves have been completely finished, but that’s a whole separate blog post (remember my issues with getting matching sleeves? Still got that somehow)

And two pairs of socks have been started. One pair you saw last Wednesday, and they haven’t had any more doing to them since then (just a toe and some of the pattern), but there is also a sock which is much further on, so I’ll show you that one instead.

I’ve finally had enough of vanilla socks, but strong stripes like this generally don’t go with intricate patterns very well, so I’m trying variations. This is a waffle stitch (wich you probably can’t see…I’ll try and get a better pic later on)- 3 rows stocking stitch, 3 rows 3×3 rib (3 because I do 66 stitch socks). Repeat ad infinitum…I’m also trying an afterthought heel, put in when the sock foot length is from the tip of my middle finger to the wrist joint. I’ll keep you all informed how it goes 🙂 This is actually my second attempt at a pair of socks from this yarn- I got through the foot and heel of a pattern which involved slipped stitches, but I hated it so I decided to start again. I am much prefering this pattern, and think that (provided I learn how to count to 3 reliably…) this may become my go-to ‘vanilla’ pattern. We shall see.

 

And also, bonus update on the Wolf, even though I haven’t been working on it over Christmas. I stopped timing how long it was taking me, because it was starting to stress me out, but I have done quite a lot more than the last time you all saw it!I’m hoping to finish off the top by the end of January (including all the backstitching I haven’t yet done), but we shall see.

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!

 

WIP Wednesday edition of stress (yes, I know it’s Thursday)

Hi all, so I realised that there is less than three weeks till Christmas, which is something of a problem since I haven’t started the satsuma costumes yet. That’s this weekend plan…Work is also somewhat hectic right now (I got hit with a massive pile of ~400 scripts to mark…), so this is going to be a splurdge and go.

Firstly: wolf cross stitch! Another 4 hours added, bringing the total to 20.5 hours. This is quite a bit less than 1/4 of the whole design, so my last estimate of 80-100 hours might be slightly optmistic. But then most of the surrounding is half cross stitch, so that should be faster…I’ll leave that as my official estimate for now, I think.

Second: sleeves. Still going strong. I think I’ve pretty much got the hang of the cables now, so that’s good 🙂 I am still checking the charts, but much less than I was. So yay for that!

Third: mitred square blanket. This is so easy to pick up and put down, it now has 7 squares. Lovely garter stitch squishyness 🙂

Fourth: umm…yeah…so I saw the abandoned cockatoo brae, and decided that I had to sort that out there and then (I was procrastinating on doing the hoovering). So I re-swatched, and have decided I need to move to 2.75mm needles. Which is what the pattern calls for. Using the suggested needle size for a project feels really weird, but ok. (This is why you need to gauge swatch people. Even if you usually knit so loosely you have to go down a size, sometimes you don’t. Just go with the flow…) (Full disclaimer: I haven’t actually measured this yet. But pre-washing, I was hitting the 7 stitches an inch (I know, I really shouldn’t measured a larger part, but oh well)). Needles are 2.25 and then 2.75 (I think??? It’s either 2.5 or 2.75, whichever I have).

Fifth: the Christmas shawl. Well, I got last week’s 10 inches done, but not really this week…ok fine, I managed 6 of the required 10 inches. Which I’m trying to not stress over, because I have quite enough other things to stress over! And I should be able to easily make up the time (assuming I stop knitting on other things…)

6 inches is a lot!!!!! So now I have 10 inches and then 11 in the next two weeks…riiiiight. Completely believeable…

WIP Wednesday- wolf edition (again!)

Ok, so this is the third week in a row I’m talking about the wolf…next week I’ll probably move onto something else (barring any major surprises!) But some good news: I’ve found the bottom right corner! And I’ve done some back stitch (enough to put me off it again, however much it’s worth it in the end!)

So, we were here, at 12.5 hours

You can’t really tell, but the bottom right brown bit is very nearly the bottom corner(I think it’s like 2 stitches off). The brown bits are branches, and the white snow is actually a combination of two shades of grey. Awkward much…

Anyway, 2 more hours of work put us to here:

Having reached the bottom right, I’m now swinging up and then around. I may change my mind and move off in a different direction, but for now that’s the plan.

Another thing about me and cross stitching- I park (leave the threads there to come back and stitch in later), but only after a while, and I can’t plan to park right from the off. It has to happen naturally. And it doesn’t always happen. *shrugs*. Just one of life’s strange things I guess!

After those two hours, I decided I should probably do some of the backstitching, in a bid to not leave it all to the end.

So I spent an hour and a half filling in some of the bottom right backstitching.

Ok, so I didn’t spend the whole time back stitching, but I think I did a decent amount before I got distracted- and I pretty much did all of it that I could do, given where the gaps are. So in total so far, I’ve done 16.5 hours. Pretty good really, even if I do say so myself. My new guesstimate for how long it’s going to take me is 80-100 hours. Let’s see how we go!

WIP Wednesday- Wolf edition

As previosuly mentioned, I dislike doing the same project for consecutive weeks. However, FO Wednesday doesn’t really work and I’d rather introduce my new knitting project at the weekend when I have more time and hopefully more words! And then maybe another blog post about modifying knitting patterns, again if I can find the time at the weekend…

But anyway, back to the wolf. Last time I had reached this far, at 9 hours

Then one more hour’s work (while waiting for my friend who was staying with me to wake up), gets me to here:

(Technically I think this might have been 2 hours, but I also think that I added an extra hour that I wasn’t actually stitching in last week so I’m calling it even). Then another 2.5 hours to here

Much better! So this is 12.5 hours work total. I’m calling this roughly 1/8 finished, since there are some stitches not yet done in the bottom right but I’ve gone to the left of centre. And I havent done any of the backstitching yet…that might be what I focus on this weekend…lucky me…But totally worth it!

WIP Wednesday- wolf edition

In the last week and a half I have somewhat been focussing on the wolf. Mostly because I want to get it done so I can start the wedding sampler. Great motivation!

So I was on 2.5 hours here:

Another 1.5 hours got us here:

Then 2 and a half to hereAnd finally another 2 and a half to here

So 9 hours total. I may have been slightly optimistic when I thought 50 hours, but we shall see. Most of the background is half stitch which will be faster, but then of course there’s also some backstitching and french knots to do. Lucky me… Does anyone else want to guess how long this will take me??? I’ll include a picture of the finished item as well, so you can see how much I’ve done roughly as a percentage.