Green Socks, More Green Socks, and a Hat

Of course, as soon as I decide I am going to blog once a week even if i only say it to myself, I utterly fail.  Another gap in the blog caused by another slightly mad period of work and socialising. Ah, the difficult life of a PhD student.

Meanwhile, I have finished a few things; all patterns I loved and would heartily recommend - for me, they were the perfect balance of enough to keep me interested, but not so much I get frustrated. Mostly cracking on with my attempt to Knit The Queue this year - more on that story later!

First up, one of my hangover projects from last year: Mum's birthday socks, first mentioned in my blog post here and finished three weeks ago. The birthday happened so you can see them now

Pattern: Caretta Caretta, from Socktopus by Alice Yu. Good and well-written, and I love this book generally. A pretty classic top-down, flap-and-gusset heel, kitchener-stitch toe jobby, but with some pretty lacework on it.

Yarn: Rowan Cashsoft 4ply in Toxic (shade 459), from John Lewis in Aberdeen. Lovely and soft, with enough stitch definition to make it all worthwhile - though prone to occasional felted stretch of yarn (I have maybe 3 in the project, but only one was so long I did some cutting and Russian joining).

The second FO is the first thing from my knit the queue plans. I have forgotten how fabulous knitting hats is! Give me a short lace repeat and I'll hardly be able to put it down! After a load of socks, it was lovely to be knitting on something that bit bigger. This photo probably shows off the pattern best - it's a good slouchy shape (which you get from going up a needle size) with some good if sudden crown shaping. I think it's come out a bit big for me round the brim - I'd probably knit that portion on even smaller needles if I could have another go at it. But overall, a winning combination, don't you think?

(Apologies for the PJs - long day!)

Pattern: Pavone by Wooly Wormhead. Brilliantly designed and well-written, as always.
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino (DK), partly bought from the sale bin in Wool for Ewe, Aberdeen, and partly scrounged off my lovely (generous!) friend Naomi. The colour is a petrol blue - somewhere in between the two photos, but leaning towards the first.

And last but by no means least, I've finished another pair of socks! These I loved  - or  maybe it's fairer to say I got addicted to them! The pattern is very moreish, and I loved the yarn, a beautiful semi-solid that my camera struggles to capture. Also, I probably should have pulled my socks up before taking the photo.... oops!

Pattern: Hundred Acre Wood  from Socktopus by Alice Yu (again!). Yes I really do love this book....
Yarn: from The Yarn Yard, though actually bought from The Yarn Cake in Glasgow. I have a bit of a thing for this sock yarn, it is beautiful and sturdy.

The socks are toe-up and had an interesting twisted construction, out of which the leaves grow, which I liked. The heel is flap-and-gusset, which I have never done ona  toe-up. Generally, I loved it - except the not aligning the slip stitches on the back - it took about four goes on the first sock and two on the second as I clearly just like things lining up. I would not do that again in a hurry

I guess I have been kinda productive in my absence! I thought I'd show you my success first - there have been a few stumbling blocks lately. More on that story another time. 

Plan for 2013: Knit the Queue

Last year's plan had an air of self-improvement about it - and one reason for that was knowing 2013 was going to be busy. I'm sitting here in the first few days of January, looking down the barrel of it. The main thing I need to do is The Thesis, but after that there is our wedding to plan, and moving cities, finding a job and then buying a house. Not all of this is definitely happening this year, but it's on the agenda.

How do I deal with stress? I'm pretty sure this will be stress on a whole new plane, but past form suggests knitting, baking and social things. Over the past few days, I have been making plans for the knitting. I heard about mooncalf's Knit the Queue idea weeks ago, but things have been festively hectic and I've only just found the time to sort my queue out. This was definitely a two-way process - both 'I want to knit that - what can I make it with?' and 'I have this yarn - what can I make with it?'. The result is a whopping 25 projects*:

• 2 hats
• 6 gloves/mittens
• 10 pairs of socks
• 3 cowls/shawls
• 1 jumper
• 1 tea cosy
• 2 decorations (hearts and stars)

I have 6 things that need yarn - though 3 of these are acrylic DK jobs so not too much hassle. This was deliberate though - I don't want to ban myself from yarn shops for a year! - but I have to buy yarns that match to a project I want to make. 

The question now is where to start? I'm wondering if I should take January to finish up everything that's still hanging over from last year, but I don't want to start feeling behind. As I'm getting to know my knitting personality, the alternative is that I'll knit the smaller and easier things, to reduce the length of the queue as quickly as possible. The socks are going to be spaced throughout the year, as they are ideal long train ride knitting - something like gloves or a hat I would worry that I could finish during a 12-hour round trip!

My current attitude is to hell with the planning; at least for now, I'll use my queue as a Smörgåsbord of options, and pick what I'm in the mood for, and just crack on.

*according to ravelry, I did only knit 19 things last year - hmmm, I may have bitten off more than I can chew.

2012 Plan: Reviewed

Back in January, I made a plan for self-improvement. While my documentation of progress has been patchy at best - a review of everything once, one books update and several mentioned of the socks challenge - I have achieved the four main aims (though did not manage the four smaller aims - another time maybe).

1. Knit 12 pairs of socks

Done!

Row 1: Blue Vanillas, Thistle Vanillas, Wanidas
Row 2: Red Vanillas, Potamus, Cubists
Row 3: Blue Vanillas II, Rainbow Slant, Mischeif Managed
Row 4: Jazzy Jaywalkers, Helter Skelter, Long Way Round

I freely admit that now, I am addicted to knitting socks. They fit into my life neatly, keeping me entertained on both my commute and my monthly schlep up to Scotland. They can be shoved in a handbag and carried around to fill odd moments of waiting. I tend to have one easier pattern and one more difficult on the go, so that I can pick up whichever I am in the mood for. Given  my recent Socktopus love, it looks like I'll be carrying on with this sock knitting thing for a while yet!

 2. Cook 12 new dinners 

These were:
1. Aubergine Parmagiana, from Jamie's Italy
2. Microwave Risotto, from 100 Veggie Dishes - it's even on the cover of this edition!
3. Pizza from the Great British Bake Off: How to Bake Book
4. Prawn Pasta (Jamie's Italy)
5. Aubergine Pasta (Jamie's Italy)
6. Squash Gnocchi (100 Veggie Dishes)
7. Moussaka, from a book I cannot find anywhere called the Vegetarian Cookbook
8. Vegan Moussaka, adapted from (7) by topping with mashed potato
9. Fish Pie, from a mixture of internet recipies
10. Walnut and Sage Risotto, from the 30-minute Vegetarian
11. Paella (Vegetarian Cookbook)
12. Mushroom and Lentil Pies, adapted from the Seasoned Vegetarian

I enjoyed making all of these things, and some of them will definitely get added to the repertoire. Though it was often more expensive than I thought it would be, I'm hoping that I'm building up a good store cupboard and so it will be cheaper in the future. Some were quick and some took a fair while, but all but one (that's the pizza) were cooked after I'd got in from work. The microwave risotto is probably my favourite, as it is just so much easier than doing risotto in a pan - though it wouldn't scale up very well.

 3. Watch 12 new classic films

1. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
2. Mr Smith Goes to Washington
3. Annie Hall
4. The Apartment
5. The Odd Couple
6. 3.10 to Yuma (1957)
7. The Third Man
8. Dial M for Murder
9. 2001: A Space Odyssey
10. High Noon
11. E.T.
12. Taking of Pelham 123 (1974)

Obviously, all great movies and I very much enjoyed them all. As there are many different types of film there, it's difficult to compare them, but I think for my favourite of the bunch it's between The Apartment and The Third Man - though the former is funny and the second is a film-noir mystery, I I enjoyed them in different ways.

4. Read 12 new classic novels

1. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
4. Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
5. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
6. Hound of the Baskervilles, The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle
7. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
8. Women in Love by D.H.Lawrence
9. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
10. Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
11. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
12. Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

I have tried to select a favourite from these, but it is incredibly difficult; they are all brilliant books in their own way. If I had to pick, it's probably between the Great Gatsby and A Tale of Two Cities, but it probably depends more on mood and memory for it to be a fair measure!

Overall, I have really enjoyed challenging myself to this. As with every year, this one has had its ups and downs, and having some constants through that has made it all seem more manageable. My life has always involved lots of long train rides (they got longer in May when my fiancee moved further away, adding on 2h40m each direction), and the sock knitting and novel reading fitted in well with that. The dinners and films was a lot more stop/start - there was the odd month where I did like three of each and the odd month where and nothing for either - and I think I would have enjoyed those two challenges more if I had spread them out over the year, but enjoyable nonetheless. I would totally do it all again - if I every have a 'quiet year' again....

Socktopus

For my birthday (in July), I bought myself the book Socktopus. I had a good nosey on ravelry and loved the patterns, had a flick through and liked the look of it, and got some birthday money for just such a purchase (I think the tagline was something along the lines of, 'buy something for yourself - though I know you have too much yarn!).

As is the way with these things, they tend to sit in the back of my head and then emerge months later, fully-formed ideas and projects I can imagine casting on tomorrow. This is what has happened over the past month or so. I now have four projects lined up from this book (and that's before I've let the yarn from Harrogate Knitting and Stitching show rest in my head for a while. I know that, alongside these patterns, my brain will sort something out before too long!)

The problem with these fits of inspiration is that it makes me want to cast on all of them. Right now. I can hold back the tide a little, but the problem is that as soon as I get stuck on one thing, I throw up my hands and just cast on something else. And as my maths lecturer would phrase it, these patterns are non-trivial. So now we seem to have two pairs on the needles and another than I am definitely NOT casting on today, if only because the needles I need are in another project.

First, I started 2luvcrew for my soon-to-be bridesmaid's birthday ion March. I saw the yarn on The Yarn Yard website in May, and knew it had to be used for her. The ideas fermented a little and voila! - yarn and pattern matched. It's a lacework pattern of hearts, in case you can't tell.

This pattern has five different lace charts, and I've got this far and got stuck. I'm meant to be working the Heel Transition Chart over some stitches and the Heart Pattern Chart over the rest, but I can't get the numbers to add up. One for a day when I have a lot of brainpower - fortunately I have plenty of chances.

So I decided to cast on something that needed a little less concentration. My mum's birthday is at the end of January and she does love socks so I cast on Caretta Caretta for her, in Rowan Cashsoft 4ply bought from John Lewis in Aberdeen. I've had my doubts about the lacework pattern - is it just me, or is there something slightly dodgy-looking about it? - but finished one sock regardless.

I've not done the beads which I think would lessen the dodginess, and I think the effect is also much reduced when done over the entire sock... or maybe I'm just hopeful!

Next on the list is Hundred Acre Wood, which is covered in little leaves (or are they trees?), so this colour of Yarn Yard Yarn seemed entirely appropriate - this time bought from The Yarn Cake, Glasgow, in earlly November. Wound and ready to rock for a while now, but planning to cast on as soon as I finish one of the others.

And then possibly one of my (weather-)geekiest projects to date - Vorticity Socks in this yarn: Storm by Wharfedale Woolworks (which the lovely Steph had dyed for me). In a nutshell: vorticity is a property that storms have by the bucketload. I am very much looking forward to using this yarn - it has a good lot of bounce.

So despite my knitting a LOT of socks in 2012, it looks like my 'sock thing' is going to continue well into 2013.

FO: Long Way Round

Hope you all had happy Christmases and that you got to spend quality time with those you love. Here it has been business as usual: another week, another finished pair of socks. According to Ravelry, I did finish these two weeks ago but have been waiting for the thin winter light to flesh out a little. Of course, this being the UK, it didn't happen and I eventually gave up waiting and deployed a daylight bulb.

I'm pretty chuffed; they are so comfy and work brilliantly as bedsocks. The casting on and binding off were difficult, but inbetween these were easy as pie. It does take a moment to get your head around the fact that you're knitting socks flat and sideways but it's totally worth it; I love the way the pattern shows off the yarn. I might make them again using the Zauberball used for the pattern, as that looks great too. I'd make them longer in the leg, though. As the top has ended up a little uneven, I might use a little of the remaining yarn to knit a cuff. Sometime....

Pattern: Longitudinal from Knitty First Fall 2012 [rav link]
Yarn: Lang Yarns Jawoll Magic Degrede, bought in Vienna Apr 2012
Mods: None, although I would make them longer in the legs (by casting on more stitches). Possible future addition of cuff by picking up stitches from top edge.

Harrogate Knitting and Stitching 2012

I know, I said I wasn't going to go this year; I have work to do, after all. Plus I've been for the last 3 years on the trot and by last year, I'd felt the shine had begun to wear off. However, then I got my hospital appointment through (before you ask, it's nothing major, fear not!) and it was the Friday morning of the show and frankly, I tend to feel a bit sorry for myself after these things and not be productive so I thought what the hell. Let's do it.

And of course, purchasing yarn did make the teeny tiny owie from a blood test go away.....

Sparkleduck Socka (80% merino, 20% nylon) in Double Trouble

Colinette Jitterbug in Adonis Blue

Skein Queen Entwine in Beauty Berry

My whole must not buy single skeins of sock yarn went out of the window FAST. I had no plan, no idea what jumpers I want to knit next year - or indeed what I should knit next year at all - but I do enjoy sock knitting and am certain there will be some of that in there somewhere. I did get a couple of other bits and bobs but as they're mostly involved in Christmas presents I'll have to keep schtum for a little bit longer.

It was a good day all told, and it did feel like it had the shine back on it, though I'm not certain I'll go next year as I have a lot of other plans. More on that story later ;)

Whaur the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond

Just a quick post to share some of the better photos from my holiday to near the Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond, where we rented a cottage for a week for some much needed rest and relaxation. Though it was mostly grey, as soon as the weather turned beautiful we were up and at the Loch as early as we could manage. It was a beautiful, still day, and the fog was still clearing away.

We did an 8-mile bike ride to the next town up the loch, where we got a slightly different view of Ben Lomond (the mountain). Cycling is something we both did in our youth and so I haven't ridden that far in about 10 years, and OH had never ridden thar far (or indeed on public roads at all!), so it was an experience and we enjoyed it, though we did wind up with pretty sore bums and would have liked it if less of the path was near a major road (talking was difficult with the noise).

All in all a beautiful day!

Seriously though, the rest of the week was so grim weather-wise that the photographs don't really sell Scotland as the excellent country it is, and quite often I didn't take any as the light was so grey. This did mean we spent a lot of time curled up with the telly and films in our cottage, so I got quite a bit of knitting done.