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!

FO: Simple City

Yarn: Artisan Yarns Superwash Sock in Lavender's Dilly

I saw this yarn a good long while ago; our eyes met across a crowded stall, and I was away; love at first sight. I was obviously going to buy it, despite [trying to] be on a mission to only buy yarn I had a project in mind for, no matter how tenuous the idea was.

Some time later, I saw Eskimimi's Simple City [ravelry link], and decided it would be a match made in heaven. While many other projects were more pressing, I built the idea of this perfect yarn and perfect project up in my head. The pattern is brilliantly designed, straightforward to follow and beautifully laid out. I heartily recommend it to all but the 'complete novice' knitter - and the fruit salad of stitch markers, courtesy of Stephcuddles made any counting pain-free.

This huge build-up meant that, when I finished, I was a tad disappointed. No angels sang. No trumpets sounded. No knitting fairy furnished me with an idea of what I should do next.

However, in the intervening three weeks, I have fallen in love again; it is the perfect match of yarn, pattern and personality. Though I need to learn how to wear it in a less-of-a-mess way!

FO: Dalek

After much agonising and procrastinating, the Day of the Dalek has finally dawned.



Pattern: Extermiknit! [Ravelry link]

The pattern looks like hell on earth, but once you get into it, it's really not that bad! I had a crisis (on and off for about 8 months) about i-cords but once I asked for help and made myself do it (only thing I took to a Knit Night) I was fine and finished. There is a provisional crochet cast on that I also needed help with. This did mean he spend waaaay too long in this state:


Needles: 4mm dpns

I would definitely recommend knitting it in the round, but I hate sewing things up so I guess I'm biased!

Wool: Acrylic DK from Leeds Market.

The shop is on the right, if you do in through the doors on the corner of Vicar Lane and George Street (I think!). The right sort of wool for such a project - I bought two 100g balls (red and dark gray) for about £2.20 and used some white acrylic I had lying about. And I have loads left, enough to knit at least one more Dalek. Maybe there could be an army of them...?

What I've been doing lately...

Visiting idyllic castles (Bodian in Sussex).

Enjoyind the British countryside in not-very-British weather.

Pottering around gardens (Nymans in Sussex).

Remembering how much I love wisteria.

Walking in a bluebell wood

Falling in love with Edinburgh. Again.

Watching Spring arrive in Edinburgh

Indulging.

Learning that teapots grow on trees.

FO: Spring Forward (Blue)

This is my first pair of socks, and I may have bitten off more than I can chew with Spring Forward. Don't get me wrong, lovely well-written, simple pattern; it was just a little too much to learn picking up stitches, turning the heel etc. while doing a pattern. So, if you're new to socks, find a plain vanilla sock pattern and then knit these.

As with any 'first', there were trials, tribulations, and times when I just ran off to more experienced knitters, but overall I enjoyed the process. The yarn I chose was really easy to use and reasonably priced - King Cole Merino 4ply in Slate Blue, from Baa Ram Ewe, Headingley.

I joined the two balls of yarn using a Russian join, supported by this website and the ever-patient Steph. It was a little confusing at first but actually is a great idea and worth persisting with.

Yeah, slight second sock syndrome though - I did the join well into the second sock as you can see, and there was snow on the ground. That second sock only took two months. But again, worth it in the end - knitted for my Mum, she was really touched and proud of how I'm coming along as a knitter (though, since she taught me to knit, maybe a little worried about what she started!!)

FO: Spring Ishbel

It would seem blog week has thrown me all out of whack. I finished two projects that week and still haven't blogged about them. And there's all sorts of knitterly topics I have in my head or things on the horizon.

So to Ishbel.

(taken using flash)

I really, really enjoyed this pattern. Though the lacework meant it was needed a fair bit of brainpower, as I got into the swing of each row I found I could at least watch TV or a film. I used to live with a lovely fellow student, now teacher, and I saw the yarn and thought of her instantly. I showed it to her online and she make squeaking noises. Another day, I showed her the pattern and more squeaking ensued. And so her birthday present idea was born in my mind.

(taken with no flash)

I used Zauberball in Flowers (aka Floral Language, aka Durch die Blumen), bought at Harrogate Knitting & Stitching Fair way back in November. I cast on between Christmas and New Year, and after a couple of train journeys was making good progress; it was looking good, knitting up quickly, and the green was peeking through and making me rather excited.

However, there was a go-slow when the lacework started - the rows became too long to take it on the train, it became too difficult to do socially, and I was so crazy busy that my knitting time at home almost vanished. I took it to a fabulous craft day with ewenique and this really sparked my love of it again, especially as she gave me a coincidentally matching project bag 'for Christmas'.

Initially, I knitted the small version, but then I had only one stripe and loads of yarn left so I tinkered about a bit and managed to do the pattern section: ABABAC - first two rows of D - E. And trust me, that is literally as much as the yarn would allow (at least at my gauge) - there was a lot of cunning lifeline placement! The two skills I learned were lifeline placement and blocking by myself - so proud of it I even took photos of the blocking stage...

But the best part by far was giving it to my former housemate. She was so genuinely touched that she could not stop thanking and hugging me. This cheered me up so much after a few rough days that it made all the trials worthwhile.

WIP Wednesday

I don't normally do WIP Wednesday, but I realised I haven't given an update about what's on my needles in a good long while, and I have some time to blog on a Wednesday. A match made in heaven. So, apologies for the godawful photos, a long day at work means I have looked whistfully out of the window at the beautiful sunshine but not actually been able to take any knitting photos in daylight.

Today's news is relatively exciting - there is a Beautiful Thing afoot.

Well, at least I hope it's going to be a beautiful thing - the pattern is Eskimimi's Simple City, a beautiful thing - and the yarn is Artisan Yarns Sock in Lavendar's Dilly (mentioned when I bought it and during Blog Week). I'm still not quite sure the whole parcel is living up to my expectations, but they are rather high so maybe that was inevitable.

The other news is about this wee fiend:

I know that it doesn't look like much, but the body has been in that state since at least September. That is some serious hibernation. And that provisional cast on was done about this time last year. Pretty lame, if you ask me. Though, as of Knit & Natter last night, there is also a plunger arm:

Of course, I didn't say it was attached....