January « 2009 « Spacecrafty

January 31, 2009

[Meg] Mmmm!

Filed under: Meg's amazing lack of willpower, Work in Progress — Meg @ 8:11 pm

First stash purchases of 2009! The first three are Shelridge Farm’s Soft Touch Ultra in Robin’s Egg (1), Apple (2) and Cornflower (1), purchased from the lovely Alice at Socktopus with a gift voucher I got for Hogswatch (yay!). The final one is Artesano’s Alpaca in Maroon (2), which I purchased at iKnits, partly as retail therapy after a horrible morning involving the Misery Line (Northern) and the dentist.

The Apple is going to be pair of socks, although I haven’t decided which pattern yet and the Cornflower and Robin’s Egg is going to be whatever colour-work item I decide to do. Right now I am contemplating Endpaper mitts but there’s a beret I quite fancy as well. We shall have to see!

And because we briefly had sun today, I took some photos of the February Lady Sweater now that it is finally at a stage where it’s not a crumpled mass on my needles. It’s going quite well. I’m planning to knit about another inch of the lace on the body and then switch to the sleeves as I don’t want to leave them till the end. I might modify them to be a bit more tapered but will need to go have a poke about on Rav and see what others have done before I do that.

I really like the lace pattern – the first row went a bit wrong but the next round has clicked it into place and now I can watch tv while I knit it and I’m def. going to knit the actual baby version for my wee cousin when I’m done with this one. That kid is going to drown in hand knitted clothes, if I have anything to do with it.

Comments Off

January 18, 2009

[Meg] New Year, New knitulations

Filed under: Finished Object, Knitting — Meg @ 11:45 am

So, it’s over halfway through January and I am on a finishing things roll (hold the mayo). For one thing, as of last Wednesday I am done with my MSc. thesis. Yup, one hundred and eighty five pages on online communities and social bookmarking was printed out twice and handed in, two days before the deadline.

I can now knit without guilt and a constant soundtrack from the Daleks of Procrastination (Pro-cras-tin-ate! Pro-cras-tin-ate!) in my head. Hallelujah!

So to continue on with the theme of finishing, have a couple FOs.

The High Street Hat in the RCY Cashsoft that I was bemoaning leaving at home in my last entry had to be frogged because I had mucked up on the yardage. So I turned it into a Fidget instead and it became the last thing I cast on in 2008 and the first thing I finished in 2009 as I knitted it over New Years Eve. It needs to be properly blocked – I steam blocked it originally but it has now returned to pre-block curling but has definitely been useful, what with the weather recently!

And finally – and aptly! – the Leftover Vest I started the last time I was At Home with the Daleks of Procrastination was finished in between writing the last bits of my thesis. It’s not completely finished as I still have to weave in all the millions of ends inside but I have worn it once already and with the exception of having to tweak the ribbing on one arm and finish all those ends I am actually quite happy with it. It’s certainly decreased my stash somewhat!

I was, after the rush of finishing, down to two wip on the needles. One is my Cheshire Cat stole, which is a back burner project because I like to knit on that for long periods of time without distraction and the other is the lace ribbon scarf, which is my current commute project and is growing nicely.

Of course, this two wip state of affairs was doomed to last though as my two goals for 2009 can now be be started with the finishing of my thesis. To wit:

Knit a garment that actually properly fits (the vest is a little bigger than I planned) and actually uses up some of the yarn I have in garment sized amounts.
Learn to do colour work!

Goal number one is responsible for the latest wip on the needles. I have cast on for a February Lady Sweater in Debbie Bliss Stella (lilac) on Tuesday, in thesis finishing celebration and am currently coming up for the end of the raglan increases. I will take proper photos once it gets to the stage where it’s not one giant scrunched up thing on my needles. I am rather amused by the fact that I will be knitting it during February and with any luck, will have it finished by the end of Feb.

I haven’t decided what I’m going to do for the second goal. Probably something small in the mitts/hand warmers range, so I have been scouring through Ravelry and amassing a small collection of possible patterns.

Comments Off