Ysolda @ Baa Ram Ewe

I have a pretty epic confession to make. I totally failed to take my camera to this event. I know. FAIL. I do hope that my photos from home (and one scrounged from a friend) will suffice.

First, the book.

It is an excellent, excellent book. It has so much stuff in it that I do not know, and probably should before embarking on proper garment knitting. I do have a tick of never being able to remember knitting pattern names, and so I wrote them on those blue page-marker post-it notes you can see peeking out. Now my knitting pals thinks I'm a bit of a stationary geek! How little they know....

Back to the point, I had already spent a fair while looking through the book, and the two patterns that caught my eye were Lauriel and Skelf (the little red website has photos). The best part was that there were samples to try on and the smaller size was pretty much perfect for me! To my mind, Lauriel clearly goes better with skirts and Skelf would work better with jeans & boots - though both would work with either, I'm sure - and since I'm into skirts at the moment, Lauriel is went to the top of the To Knit List!

It's going to be knit in this: Subline extra-fine merino DK

This was mainly because it was recommended by baa ram ewe (the advice is currently on the front page of their website). It was rather a treat for myself but I justified it. After all, I had a knitting funk on!

And since you only live once, I also got the deeply cute project bag, as you can never have enough and my sweater-sized one is full of the guilt-inducing Grandma's Cardigan (more on that soon!).

And it was all totally worth it: my knitting funk has been knocked for six! It was a great evening talking a lot about knitting with some lovely ladies (photo by Rachel at Reward(ing) Memories)

Trying to Kick the Funk

So, I have been in a bit of a knitting funk of late. Starting things and partway through, deciding they're not the right yarn/pattern combo, so ripping back. Making mistakes and ripping back. Having things not work and ripping back. Realising something is not the right size and ripping back. Running out of yarn and ripping back. It's not been a good month.

So far, I've only had knitting blips for days or maybe a week, but as you can tell it has been going on for a while. Maybe I've been working hard. Maybe I've been having too much non-knitting fun. But this week I have had to face the music: I am in a knitting funk.

I have tried several things to get out of it, and none of them have worked.... yet!

1. Soldier on

The first is a hat where the ribbed band was way too loose. I have knit the Grace Lace Beret before but in acrylic so wasn't expecting the ribbing to be tight (featured as part of Blog Week), but this yarn had enough wool content that it should have worked. It got this far and was frogged.

The next is the lovely angora mittens. I have knitted these until I have run out of yarn, and have just decided they are too big. Frogged, to be reborn when I can face the maths.

2. Buy yarn for the next project, as an incentive.

This is destined to be a Snowbaby Hat by eskimimi (rav link). It involves colourwork and I have never done that before. So, as everything seemed to be going wrong so far, I have not cast it on -- I was just hoping that a little temptation of future work might make me work harder and so things would go right again.

3. Buy stunning artisan yarn with no project in mind.

Both from The Yarn Yard in Making Mischief (above) and Hare (below). Probably both going to become lacework shawls for myself, unless I am feeling very generous. Though they are both stunning, I still haven't quite pinned down a project for either of them, yet. Though there are a lot of 4ply shawls on my waiting list.

4. Buy a random ball of yarn and then fail to knit anything with it.

Though not for want of trying. This has often inspired me in the past, but all I wanted to make some vanilla socks for some quick gratification. It turns out bamboo yarn was not the answer - the ribbing had no grip. Then I tried to make a lovely lace shawl - the yarn was too busy and obscured the pattern (I did have three attempts at the shawl before giving up). Then some mittlets - they just didn't work at all. They were supposed to be doing some scrunching up on the wrist but, whether it was the yarn, the pattern, or the knitter, it just plain didn't happen. Frogged and this ball of yarn is condemned to the Box Of Yarn That Doesn't Exist.

5. Go to a knitting event with knitting friends

Though I think that is a tale for another day...

FO: Lush Green Orchid Thief

Some years ago, I bought a lovely green dress for a wedding and, being I was on a short deadline, I bought a cheapo shawl and shoes to go with it. But I felt this outfit could have a shawl knitted for it, to make it more brilliant for wedding season this year. However, having knit it and tried it on with the dress, they don't match. Also, this dress was clearly bought before the advent of the Cake Diet.

I love the shawl, the dress is being donated to a thinner friend.

Pattern: Orchid Thief by Ysolda Teague, in Brave New Knits

Yarn: Jawoll Magic 4ply in colour 17 (called grasshopper or apple - either way, green). Bought at Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Fair 2010

Lovely pattern, though be sure to check out the errata and the relevant ravelry discussion before struggling on. And definitely, definitely, use lifelines (unless you are a really really great knitter). The yarn is great if a little prone to felting, but I love how it has turned out.

Second Opinion Required

I just need to know - do you think these socks look stupid?

They're the lovely fan and feather toe-up socks (rav link) but I'm worried that the yarn is too busy for them, and maybe I should rip back to my trusty lifeline and do them plain. however, my knitting mojo is in such tatters lately that I am having an indecisive moment. And I really need this sock knitting this week, with all the travelling I'm planning on doing.

So please give your honest opinion. I can handle it.

FO: Hello Sailor! Socks

Well, they really did have to be called that, given the nautical stripes and the related pattern - Fishnet Socks from The Purl Bee by Purl Soho. A knit designed to be simple, easy and quick, to counter Orchid Thief. However, I got quite distracted with life / work / holidays and so they took me about a month. (also, in my rookie yarn-buying days, I'd bought a single ball of Regia not knowing you need two for a proper pair of socks, and this used it up nicely). My former housemate was excited when she saw me knitting them, exclaiming, 'Summer bedsocks!!' and since she clearly had a gap in her life for them I gave them away.

The modifications I made were to ssk instead of k2tog for the second sock to that the twists went the other way (which worked really well) and to knit the sole of the sock instead of continuing in pattern, to make it more comfy to walk on (which didn't really work, the twisting stopped for the foot). Only my second pair of socks so still learning but much happier with my picking-up and grafting skills. Though I'm hoping the next pair are toe-up, fingers crossed as I hear they're hard to start...

Woolfest 2011

Woolfest is only the second knitting-festival-thing I have ever been to, but it was just what I'm looking for in one. There was a lot of yarn to keep me happy, enough other aspects of the craft to inspire me to try something new, and some very cute animals.

I went with my mum, and we rented a cottage near Bassenthwaite Lake for a week (though I could only stay for five days) - I've been to a lot of places lately so I'll probably do a proper travel post soon. Here's a photo of everything that we bought, and I think it's quite a haul! The natural roving and the two blur rovings on the left are my mum's, though the herdy notebook is mine.

There are two cakes of roving are Waratah Fibres Polwarth-cross for Stephcuddles (here's a better photo just for you):

This is the one I cannot catch the colour on, sparkleduck self-striping sock yarn - the website is under construction but says they will be at Knit Nation (though I won't be) - well worth keeping an eye on as there was a LOT of beautiful yarn there (including some sparkly stuff which I managed to resist). This is going to be the first pair of socks I knit for myself; two at a time and toe-up.

Some blue sock yarn from Laal Bear. Not sure what I'll knit with it yet but it is very cuddly.

I couldn't even wait for a ball winder to start knitting with this; some toe-up socks for an as-yet-to-be-decided female friend. The colours remind me of one friend, but I only knit her some socks two weeks ago. Hohum.

I also bought myself a couple of hanks of merino roving, in the hope that I can learn to spin soon. I guess I've got a lot of knitting skills lined up so it might be a while. And it seems the purple theme remains....

So, now I just need to get knitting. Bring on the wool!

All Quiet on the Knitting Front

Well, not really. Things have been rather hectic in all other aspects of my life; on the rubbish side, deadlines loom at work and I've been under the weather. On the more fun side, I've been on holiday to Prague (lovely) and planning trips to Woolfest, a separate holiday to the Lakes, a trip to a festival in Scotland to attend and various trips to Edinburgh. However, all this Stuff To Do means I can't concentrate on any one thing: always flitting between the bits I need to do at work, evenings spent researching holidays and transport. And this has infected my knitting too. Currently, four projects on the needles, with apologies for the dodgy photos as I was losing the light.

My favourite first: Ysolda's Orchid Thief, from Brave New Knits. Despite some initial twinges of a bipolar relationship of loving the outcome but finding the whole thing rather hard work, I've grown to find the pattern intuitive and the result satisfying.

The second is a pair of Fishnet Anklets by The Purl Bee, mainly making use of a single ball of Regia I bought as a rookie knitter because I liked the colours, not knowing that it makes two to make a pair of proper socks. Fortunately, these are mainly holes!

The third thing is angora mittlets, a pattern based on the stitch pattern from the Darkside Cowl (ravelry link) but the shape of cupcake mittlets (ravelry link). I'm not quite sure I have enough yarn left, plus some sniffles mean I didn't fancy knitting angora *atchoo, so these have stalled. However, looking forward to wearing them with my lovely cowl (a gift along with the yarn from Stephcuddles).

The final thing is a soon-to-be-frogged hat. The band around the head is really loose, and it's irritated me to wear it when I've just been wearing it round the house [for testing, it's not that cold!] and I figure the wool is nice enough that it should be liberated and saved for a better day.

Now all I need is to finish some of 'em!