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Wednesday 26 January 2011

FO: Humanity Mittens

Apologies for the quality of the picture, it was late at night and there was a birthday deadline the next day!

Pattern: Humanity Mittlets. (ravelry link(

Yarn: King Cold Merino Blend Chunky in Navy

Needles: 4mm bamboo dpns.

Generally please with my cabling skills (first time for everything!), but I'd used a bit of the yarn for another project, so ran out and made the thumbs shorter. Turns out, this is a good thing, as it's useful in some guitar-playing way.

This project was made for my housemate, who I've been stressing about (and probably being fairly passive-aggressive to), in a kind of I-cannot-believe-he-thinks-it's-acceptable-to (for example) leave a panful of curry on the oven uncovered overnight, use my baking things for cooking, or use my kitchen scissors to cut his hair. However, while making this project, I thought about this. Maybe I do have high standards but, even if that's OK, I cannot possibly pull him up on everything and I definitely cannot change his whole attitude. So, I'm just going to do it all; clean up what I can, when I can, because if you do it regularly it doesn't get so bad. And maybe just buy new scissors when he moves out...

Friday 14 January 2011

FO Friday (sort of) - Heart Scarf

So, I finished something - the heart scarf! And just in time for my trip up to Edinburgh this weekend. And I promise you, I did finish it on Thursday night, so it could've been a legitimate Friday FO, but I forgot my camera cable - d'oh!!


[it's the fourth pattern in a knitty special for breast cancer awareness; all the patterns come in one .pdf, so you have to scroll down a bit.]

Yarn: Cygnet Seriously Chunky, four balls from baa ram ewe (my lovely LYS)

Needles: 9mm straights, plus a darning needle for the grafting

Generally, I love it. It's so chunky and snuggly. I can pull it over half my face while walking through the harsh Scottish winds. I love the colour, which is much less `striking' against my purple coat than the one I had been wearing. There are matching gloves in my head, and maybe a matching hat, but who knows if these will get done before the weather gets warm!! I haven't blocked it and am umm-ing and aah-ing about whether I should, because I like that it's dense, but equally you can't really see the pattern when I'm actually wearing it.

Oh, and I messed up the grafting. This is the first time I had done it, so I had the brilliant knittinghelp.com video on while I was doing it. This did mean that I failed to watch what I was doing, and in my tiredness and confusion failed to remember which way was knitwise and which was purlwise. Note to self: do not try to graft at 11pm at night. But this comes into the category of things that are `errors only I will ever notice'.


Well, and now you.

Saturday 8 January 2011

New Year Confession

It would seem I'm addicted top starting things at the moment. I haven't finished a project - like properly finished - in a very long time. There are some many of them, I've categorised them. So, my knitting resolution for the week: I Will Finish One Of These Things For FO Friday.

1. Going along nicely


My heart scarf is going along OK. It is large wool which is easy and satisfying, so this is the first piece and I'm three out of eleven repeats into the second. Then they just need grafting together. However, I would like some matching gloves that I cannot find a pattern for, so I'm going to desgin it - scary! But there is a first time for everything. And at least I have the wool:


2. Stopped due to lack of brainpower

First, my Spring Ishbel. It went up to Edinburgh, and I really enjoyed it all the way there and all the way back. But, when I got home, I'd started the lace pattern and the concentration and long rows do not fit very well with my knitting at home (do little bits between tidying / eating, while watching TV or listening to the radio). So this shall be deemed my Journey Project.

Then there is a Christmas card that didn't get finished. It's perfectly lovely, but I need some good light to tell the shades of brown apart and brainpower to put a branch in the right place, relative to the robin. So, this shall I shall finish in my lunchbreaks this week.

3. Stopped because it went wrong

I'm making myself some properly warm flip-top mitts, because Yorkshire is cold and so are my fingers. Especially when I start walking to work. But as I'm walking, my fingers warm up and so I pull off my gloves. Then they get cold, so I dig them out of my handbag and put them on again. And then the whole sorry saga starts again. And this is especially sad because this is the reason I started knitting, really. Someone got me some for Christmas some years back, and I loved them and wore them until they were mostly holes. I hoped someone would buy me some for the upcoming Christmas, but no-one did (despite hints). So, I went to my high street to get some for myself, and then I understood why no-one had taken the hint: Prohibitive Cost. But then I thought surely I can make some for myself for less than that!! Hence, I learned to knit. And I started them, and made the mitts bit. The flap I made was too small though, and while this is not the end of the world, the mitts do work at keeping my hands warm almost well enough that I can't be faffed making the flaps. I just need to bite the bullet.



And then there is the long-hibernating dalek. I have tried and failed to make the appendages several times, to no avail. And also, I have something that looks a lot like a dalek anyway. I need to bite this bullet too, but I might do it at a knitting night, since I can't run away from it there!!

4. Stopped due to lack of resources / knowledge


I have finished knitting the cranberry bolero, but it needs blocking. I have only ever blocked hats. There is a blocking party on this afternoon though, so I can use the skills of the excellet Steph.

Cross stitch kits I'm going to turn into cards, but I left my card-making stuff at my Mum's.
A kit I got for Christmas and am determined to finish (unlike so many of these things I've had in the past), but I cannot find my white thread. The shop awaits.

And then worst of all, I really need to do things about two birthdays. And not ones I can wriggle out of: my Mum and my housemate. I have the stuff for the projects (socks and mitts, respectively), except some of it is at my Mum's house (awkward when it's for her present!!) and I need to print off the patterns. And, should I really start anything new this week? I'll need to make a list of 'Current Knitting Projects' as well as that list of Future Knitting Projects in my head. I'd best not think about that too much though!!

Hope you've been enjoying your FOs!!