I’m back at work until Wednesday. It is as thrilling as you might imagine because work is like a ghost-town, complete with tumbleweed. But, it does mean that I am free to putter around the library, update this blog, stalk patterns on Raverly (I might have tripped and fallen into the bargin bins at John Lewis, more on that in a moment!) and bemoan the fact that I forgot my knitting at home. I have the bag, the second ball and the notions but the needles and the item itself are still at home. Oh, epic fail!
Hogswatch is over and done with for another year though (yes, technically, Hogswatch is tomorrow but I move it back to Dec the 25th personally.) and the knitted gifts went down a treat! Hooray! Next year, I am starting them earlier though. Gah. And, now I can blog them!
First up: not technically a Hogswatch present but a significant portion of my extended family were born in December (myself included) and a large majority of them have managed to wedge themselves into the days spanning the 5th to the 8th of December. I don’t knit gifts for everyone though and in fact, only did so for one person this year. My aunt got a Fidget [Raverly], which I knit up very quickly in a skein of Blue Sky Alpaca’s Organic Cotton and finished off with three wooden buttons I picked up at John Lewis awhile back.
It’s a lovely pattern – mindless so ideal for commuting and watching dvds. I think I got through most of the second season of the IT Crowd with this one and the yarn is just, mmmm! I still have a bit of the skein left, so will have to find something to knit it up with.
Next up: Juliet Scarf (Raverly) from Louisa Harding’s Knitting Little Luxuries in Angora Pure for my mother. I had a bit of a problem with this pattern – I couldn’t get the pattern to click when working off the written instructions but once I shifted to the chart, it went a lot smoother.
The pattern reckons you can knit a 37 inch scarf and the rosette out of one skein. I say otherwise. I knitted to gauge without the rosette and got 27 inches, which I blocked out to 30. I could have undone my cast off and started with a second skein but I decided to leave it as it was and just did the rosette out of the second skein because it was a good length for an underjacket neck warmer.
The final item was the Rocking Strat Socks I posted about earlier. They were great to knit (aside from the length required for my dad’s feet) and sent my dad into raptures and requests for more socks in the future. They’re a pain to get an action shot of though, hence the lack of one. I tried and tried but none of them came out well enough.
We actually spent Hosgwatch internet-free, due to a wiring problem and I made serious inroads into my Cheshire Cat Stole, having now crossed the halfway point and coming to the end of my first ball of yarn. Yay!
It’s definately at the point of being too awkward to knit on the move though, so I’ve cast on for another High Street Hat, which is the item I have accidentally left at home today. Bah! That one is being knitted in a lovely dark blue Rowan Classic Cashsoft Chunky, which I “accidentally” bought yesterday in the sale at John Lewis.
Other things accidentally bought in the sale include ten skeins of Debbie Bliss Cathay in a beautiful plum-red and four skeins of Rowan Classic Pure Silk DK in silver. I’m planning to knit the Lace Ribbon Scarf in the silk and stalk Raverly for a pattern for the Cathay, which should take up a bit of time at work today!
Heh, my list of projects for 2009 is filling up rapidly! I am going to try knit more of my stash up and put a bar on buying yarn in 2009, which will hopefully mean more finished objects and posts here!