FO: Monkey

Finished and blocked! One pair of Monkey(s) by Cookie A [My Ravelry Page]

They’ve been done for about three weeks but it’s taken me awhile to get them photographed and uploaded.

Otherwise, I actually don’t have a WIP on the needles at the moment because I just frogged it – perfectly nice pattern, just wasn’t really catching me so I’ve frogged it and started looking for something else. Have found the new pattern but can’t say anything because they’re a present. Heh Heh.

Blanket for Mummu (or wow, I’m bad at updating)

Ravelry makes me lazy. I’m over here for anyone who’s curious.

So my current projects are herringbone socks (which look like a pretty good ayof using up the odds and ends of sock wool) and a blanket my mum and I are doing for my grandmother.

Since we don’t live together, we needed a pattern that could be put together easily enough and would be convenient to do on the go and we opted for a domino knit blanket. Step one: explaining what domino knitting was to my mum, how the squares go together and so on.

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FO: Cabled Rangoli Hat

I’m on a roll, hold the mayo! Cabled Rangoli Hat by Desi knitter in RCY Baby Alpaca DK, which was another accidental yarn purchase along with the Pure Cashmere.

It took about a skein and a half and took about two days worth of knitting time. I had a few problems with the written instructions on the pattern – the cables went a bit wrong for me towards the end and I ended up with odd numbers of stitches but I haven’t completely figured out what happened. I was also knitting it on 80 cm 3.5mm needles in magic loop because I don’t own any 40cm circs and that’s given me a bit of a stretched ladder on the joins but that’s my own fault and it’s not that massively noticeable when it is on my head.

Now to finish the second Monkey (we have passed the heel!) and then I need to consult my Ravelry queue to see what I have planned/the yarn for next.

FO: Fetchings

Look at that – I accidentally tripped and fell in the bargain bin at John Lewis on the weekend and came out with three skeins of Debbie Bliss’ Pure Cashmere in pale blue. I was determined that they wouldn’t be sucked into my stash because I am trying to knit the damn thing back into some sort of order (and decreased size!) so I went poking about on Ravelry and decided to turn them into a pair of wrist-warmers because I accidentally left my arm-warmers Oop North over Christmas. Woe!

So I cast on for a pair of Fetchings yesterday and finished them today. I am wearing them as I type this and they’re lovely! I may have to nip back to John Lewis tomorrow and snag some more yarn and knit another pair as a gift!

Still on the needles: the second Monkey but the heel is about to be started so I’m hoping to have them done and blocked by the weekend.

Currently listening to: Radiohead – Jigsaw Falling Into Place
via FoxyTunes

WIP: Monkey(s)

I hope you all had a fabulous festive break. I certainly did! I spent most of it curled up in an armchair, trapped under a cat at my parents house Oop North. It was was quite blissful and filled with knitting. My mother loved the Jaywalkers in Jitterbug Lagoon I knitted for her present and I managed to extract my dad’s foot measurements from him so I can knit his delayed present socks.

It’s a three hour train trip from London back to the bosom of the family so I cast on for Cookie A’s Monkey and worked my way through the majority of the leg of the first sock before I got distracted by eating, drinking and eating. They’re the first pair of lace socks I’ve attempted and I love them – the pattern is long but easy to memorise and I get a lot more done when I can’t just abandon them mid-repeat.

The yarn is Fyberspates‘ superwash merino that I got when I had a sock club membership and I love the colours, particularly how they come out in this pattern.

2007 is drawing to a close as I type this and my knitting resolution involves posting more and knitting my way through my stash! Hopefully, the two will work together. Here’s to an excellent and FO-filled 2008!

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Now playing: Death Cab for Cutie – The New Year
via FoxyTunes

Allliiivee

Uh, I realise that the last time I posted I made dire predictions about my future involving becoming tangled up in yarn. These predictions didn’t entirely come true but I fell silent and victim to a series of hilarious events that are commonly known as “flat hunting”, “packing” “moving house” and “oh god, unpacking.”

Anyway, Jam and I now share a flat as well as a blog and our combined yarn stash is mildly horrifying. Whether we make it through this flatshare without strangling each other with yarn will of course, remain to be seen.

Have some photos of knitting related things from my period of silence.

From the top: My current WIP, a pair of Jaywalkers in Colinette Jitterbug (lagoon) for Christmas knitting, a pair of completed Jaywalkers in the lovely merino from White Willow at Etsy (seen in my last post), Hand dyed Merino from Fyberspates that I plan to turn into a pair of Monkey(s) for myself, my shiny swift (purchased shortly after my dire predictions came partly true.) and the WIP photo of the French Fancy (Simply Knitting July ’06) I pretty much finished last summer and then procrastinated on finishing. It’s all finished now and I’m just waiting for photos of the lovely wee one it was knitted for wearing it.

Additionally, I’m now on Ravelry and you can find me there as halcyonday.

Socks I have known

Most of them, at least.

So I knit a lot of socks because they fit in the bag easily and they’re easy to mess about with. Also, they make you feel like a proper knitter.

This is almost all of the socks I’ve knit and represent long months of accumulated sock-wisdom.

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Mmm, yarn purchases

I have been a tiny bit trigger happy in regards to yarn purchases recently. My co-blogger has been tutting at me a lot but it was all totally worth it when all my recent purchases arrived in one fell swoop and made a moderately awful week so much better. There’s just something special about getting a package of yarn that has been carefully dyed by hand. And all the little touches! I got two suitable for socks sized stitchmarkers out of this batch of purchases and a recipe. And they all have lovely personal labels. I like to know that I’m helping someone do something with the stuff they love.

Left to Right: Preschool Merino/Nylon sock yarn from the lovely Yarnchef (which came with a beautiful stitchmarker that you can see on the label and a recipe card for minestrone), 200 yards of lace weight pure wool from Shunklies, who is based in the UK and Snapdragon 100% Merino sock yarn (with tiny elephant stitchmarker attached to label) and the lovely retro-style pinup girls sock bag from White Willow (plus, my current wip sock)

There’s was another purchase but I can not say anything about it because it’s going to someone who reads this blog. Mwahaha!

And in other, non-I have no willpower news, I have started my first cuff down sock. It’s…interesting. The heel caused me some considerable problems and I found it very awkward to knit but it’s getting there. It’s using a bit of a skein of Natural Dye studio’s sock yarn that Jam gave me when I first started attempting socks and the pattern is Grumperina’s Jaywalkers. There’s not enough to knit two socks but I’m treating this one as a test run so that’s okay.

Now I’m off to ball up those skeins, so if I never post again, would someone come untangle me? I have a suspicion that a visit to Homebase will be in my future so I can make my own swift.

Sockses!

Look! Socks! Plain and simple: toe up, short row heel and knitted in Rowan 4 ply. I actually started them back when I moved to London but there was a bit of sulking and ignoring (noticing a pattern here?) when I managed to cast off too tightly on one. But my co-blogger (the silent one :pokes her with a knitting needle till she posts: sigh) came round this weekend to help me do some spring cleaning and we ended up sorting out my piles of WIP/almost FO and finishing some of them off.

I’m wearing them right now and they’re lovely and warm.

I’ve also recast on for the cardigan with the correct maths and look forward to a more successful attempt this time. I’ve also managed to locate a pencil in the depths of my pens and have plans to sketch out some possible patterns for the accidental yarn purchases I made recently (once my fingers defrost, brrrr!). :rubs hands:

And, my online shopping was delivered this evening. There’s an awful lot of things in there for baking, so hopefully there’ll be some more posts on that front coming up soon. I’m even investigating the interesting world of vegan baking, so stay tuned for that one.

beads and woe

Woe, I had to frog what I’d done on the top down cardi because I’d screwed up the maths on the conversion from Aran weight to DK and not even the magic of top down raglan could save me. After sulking for a few days, I frogged it and rewound the skein.

I plan to recast on with the new maths once I get my Denise Interchangeables to co-operate and let me clip an extra length onto the needles I want to use, so it’s definitely not the last we’ll be seeing of that cardi, dangit.

What I did do while sulking was take advantage of my always growing collection of beads and make some earrings for my flatmates’ birthdays (conveniently both in the same week). I’m very pleased with both sets.

I also endeared myself to many people at work by making these Green Tea and Almond Biscuits and bringing them in for the library and the education department. I was rather pleased with the way they came out and look forward to trying my hand at a few more green tea powder related recipes. Mmm!