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WIP Blitz

The last, oh, while, I’ve been feeling quite determined to finish off all the knitting projects I have sitting around partly done.  Which is good!  Right?  Right.  It feels like I’ve done more knitting this year than I actually have in terms of finished projects (though the Knitting Meter in the side bar tells me that I’ve knit 2023 yards in the last year… and I’m only putting entries into that when I either finish a ball of yarn, or a project).  But maybe that’s because I still have seven projects on the go.

I had planned not to start any new ones until I’d finished several of those I had lurking.  But well, best laid plans and all that.  Mum asked me to make a couple of things for her, and then I finished my basic “portable project” socks, so I just had to start another pair for that purpose, didn’t I?  And now Christmas is fast approaching… eek!  Still, I am feeling more organised and purposeful about the whole thing.  My knitting, I mean, not just Christmas.  And bizarrely, I think a lot of that is because I finally made the decision to (temporarily) frog my Ishbel and restart it – probably after Christmas – on larger needles.  I checked my gauge again, and I had 23½ sts / 4″ where I should have had 20sts.  No wonder it’d come up so small, and the knit fabric was probably a bit too dense.  I shall swatch again with 4.5mm and 5mm needles and see how it goes.  Whether I’ll end up running out of yarn again I don’t know, but I’ll give it a try, anyway.  I’ve weighed the re-wound ball, and it’s as it should be, so I assume the yardage is correct too.  But the best thing is, I feel much better – obviously that one had been hanging over me without me even realising it!

Now, I know I’ve said this a thousand times, but I’m going to knuckle down and sew up my two “UFOs” – the jumper and the cardigan.  I’ve decided that the pieces of the mohair jumper really do need blocking before I sew them, since mohair is so floaty, but at least now I have the table sorted out and ready to sew on.

So my plan is to finish my Gap Year Travels shawlette / scarf (which frees up the needles for whichever cardigan I go for, I believe), and also my Menace jumper (block, sew, crochet, block again).  Then to start my Christmas knitting and… just keep knitting until I have finished stuff!  I reckon that’ll work.

Cardi Decisions

Originally, I made the title of this post “Cardicisions”, which looked like I was trying to choose a vehicle, and then “Cardecisions”, which looked like I don’t know what.  So in the end I decided to discard all unclever word mushing and be a little more clear.  There!  Aren’t you glad?

The point of all this is, I’m trying to decide on a cardigan to knit – I just lost my favourite one (shop bought, never fear, but still!), and even though it was a very plain v-neck raglan in fine yarn, I’ve decided to knit a replacement rather than buy one.  Needless, I hope, to say, I won’t be knitting a direct replica!  I have:

  1. A kilo of black 100% wool DK. I’m not sure what the yardage is, but I would hope it’ll work out to “plenty”.
  2. Rowan #40. There are also lots of free patterns on Rav, but I’d like to actually make something from a mag I’ve paid out money for!
  3. a size 18-20 upper bod (so don’t want anything that’ll make me look even chunkier!).

Unless anyone knows any free DK-weight patterns that are knit in one piece1 and have some kind of interest to the fabric2, I’ve narrowed my choices to either Lichen3, Sadie4, or Autumn Leaves without the applique leaves, because, wtf?!  Orrr, there’s Celtic, but my Mum thinks it needs the tweedy type yarn and the cables would be lost in plain black.  Opinions?  I also completely adore Juno, but I’m not sure if it’d suit my body shape, and hadn’t been planning on making a fitted cardi this time. Maybe one day!

Anyway, because I’m indecisive as ever, it’s poll time! (Or leave a comment, etc etc).  I’m actually going to crosspost this entry to LJ and DW (I know!  Crossposting twice in as many days!  What is the world coming to?) so if you’re reading this there, you’ll have to come over to my blog to vote in the poll.  Should you want to, of course.  Participation entirely voluntary, refunds cannot be guaranteed.

[poll id=”4″]

All opinions much appreciated.  I’ve got other knitting to finish, so I won’t be casting on straight away (probably).  So I might even see if I can get this into the sidebar so it’s showing up for a few days.

ETA 7/11 – Eeeek! The lovely Noxie has let me know that non Ravelry members can’t see those links.  Sorry about that – I thought the pattern info pages were open to all.  So I’ve added photos of the various cardigans.

1 Because if I’m going to knit something from elsewhere then I want it to be for a really good reason.  Like no seaming!  Mmm, seamless construction…
2 Like I said, not a plain replica. I don’t want to pass out from boredom while knitting. Some kind of cables or texture.
3 All over cables might end up rather bulky, of course. I suppose I could always knit a (dun-dun-duuuuuh) swatch?
4 Maybe a bit lacy for the winter though? On the other hand, bound to be a faster knit…

LJ & DW

For the first time in forever, I’ve made a post to Livejournal and Dreamwidth (the same one, crossposted). I’ve been meaning to for ages, but I kept stalling on how to divide things between there and here, and… oh, you know what, there’s no point in me repeating myself – I explained it all in the LJ-DW post. I’ll just leave the above link, and that’ll do (pig) for today’s post here as well. That was nice and easy!

Knitting meme, redux

I’m nicking this idea from Welshmillie – I also did this back in May ’07, so it’s fun to see what changes there are since then.

The meme says: “Edit the list, bold for stuff you’ve done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you’re not planning on doing.”  I am also adding bold & italic for things I planned to do previously and have now done, and bold and underlined for things I’ve done now that I hadn’t planned to do before.  Oh, and italic & underlined for things I’m planning on now that I wasn’t before.

Afghan/Blanket
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockingette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn [O.o – I still haven’t come across this]
Domino knitting (modular knitting)
Twisted stitch pattern
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn [but I have spun with merino/soy fibre!]
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colours
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with DPNs
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards [OK, I know what this means now! Maybe one day!]
Machine knitting
Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewellery
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO [Is this on or off? I’ve done a tubular cast off…]
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair [But I knew a woman who did]
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

I don’t know if that’s much of an indication of my knitting progress or not.  I suspect how well I’ve knitted things is more to the point.  But then again, this meme is about trying techniques.  There must have been some that are left off of it, though.  I just can’t think of them.

Digital Housekeeping

I’ve been doing housekeeping tasks on the computer all day1, and I still haven’t even scratched the surface.  Or that’s how it feels – I’ve backed a load of ebooks and photos up onto DVD, and cleared up my podcasts folder… and I still have far too much to do.  I need to grab one of those programs that sorts out all the broken stuff in the registry, etc.  Although I don’t know if I have room to install one.  Oh noes, it’s all so difficult!  Heh.  Shall I just do a reformat and reinstall?  It’s about time I did anyway.  My poor computer can’t cope with much as it is – it’s getting a bit elderly, relatively speaking.  If only I could (no offence, ‘puter) replace it.  Not all of it, since some parts are just fine.  But the most important components could do with replacing or boosting, no getting around it.  Time to start saving up!

1 OK, that’s a slight exaggeration, since I have been out to KnitJam this evening as well, and done a bit of spinning (while waiting for DVDs to burn, but never mind).

Late night blogging

Whoops… I’m really tired today, and I nearly forgot to post.  Wouldn’t that have been a good start to NaBloPoMo.  As it is I have no time to think up anything clever or interesting (as if there’s ever anything along those lines here!), so instead I shall post a photo of one of my recently completed knitting projects:

Handsocks for MumA pair of “handsocks”, aka fingerless mitts, for Mum. Her hands don’t get as painful if she keeps them warm, so these are really useful for that. They’ve completely stashbusted some of my left over sock yarn, so that’s good too.

Look back in confusion

No really though, where did September and October go?  I really had had every intention of posting, if not every day, then most days during these last two months.  The NaBloPoMo theme for Sept was Art, and I had relevant stuff to talk about on that subject… but it just didn’t happen.  However, maybe I’ll fit some of that in anyway.  As for the plan to do one necessary and one fun thing per day during Oct… Er.  I think I did?  It’s probably balanced out over all.

Anyway, now it’s November, which is the ‘big’ blog-every-day month.  Maybe one day I’ll try NaNoWriMo again, or even NaKniSweMo, but for now I’m sticking with the blogging.

Two things

Two things I’ve come across on the wide old interwebs have positively warmed my heart recently:

Man builds cat-sized village for homeless cats.  There’s a bloke who went from not really being a cat person, to clearly understanding who’s really in charge.  Like him, I welcome our inevitable feline overlords.

and

Knit-bombed Boris Bikes.  As the original poster comments, maybe not much protection against saddle soreness, but with autumn approaching, a saddle cosy might be just the thing to ward off the misery of a chilly posterior early in the morning!

Can I just say that I rather love the Boris Bikes.  At the moment you still have to apply online for a key card thingy, but even though I hardly ever go up to London I’m quite tempted to do so.  However, by the time I’m up next they might have rolled out the ‘casual use’ scheme, which I think will mean you can do it all directly at the bike stations.  Loads of people seemed to be using them when I was up to see the Proms.  Marvellous!

Fun things (Part 1?)

Alright, so I said I’d make sure I was doing at least one necessary thing and one thing for fun every day… how’ve I been doing so far?

Monday: Cleaned the bathroom and kitchen thoroughly; knitted and listened to podcasts.

Tuesday: Did my library volunteering (this doesn’t really count as a chore, but it’s a commitment, so I’ll count it!); went out to lunch and then round the Old Town with my Mum and visiting aunt and uncle.

Wednesday: Made a whole slew of necessary phone calls; went out for the day to Rye with Mum, aunt and uncle, and later to KnitJam.

Thursday: Waited in for a parcel and did housework; went to knit & natter at C House, took it easy in front of the telly (and caught up on Holby).

Friday: Did housework, sorted some paperwork; watched TV and knitted.

Saturday: Went to the vet, the chemist, the cash machine, the local shop and the post office (whew!); went geocaching along the seafront and found six caches, watched SCD then had a massively early night!

Sunday (today): Filled out a health cost help form (must remember to book my eye-test when/if that comes back), cleaned the kitchen; done a bit of knitting and listening to podcasts, and might pop out to do a geocache in a mo.

All work and no play…

… makes Loopylou something something?  Except it’s not like I do work in the traditional “going to work” sense, so never mind.  The reason I’m vaguely on this topic is that the theme for October’s NaBloPoMo is “Play”.  You can take any possible meaning of the word: playing an instrument, the play’s the thing, the play of something (light on water, for example), or simply playing a game and generally having fun.

I’m a couple of days late in starting, but I shall go from here.  I think for the most part, I’m going to try for the latter interpretation and make it my goal for the month to do at least one serious thing and one fun thing every day, then blog about it here.  That should mean I’ll get necessary things done, but also get a little reward in as well.  I might end up incorporating other meanings of the word, but we’ll see.

I think I’ll also finally play around with a new blog design (or two?), which comes somewhere between the categories – it’s something I’ve been meaning to do, but coding is fun so it’s not going to be any great hardship!

NaBloPoMo Sept 2010 – Art

NaBloPoMo Sept 2010Although I’m a couple of days late in starting, I’ve decided to have a crack at NaBloPoMo this month.  The theme is art, and I reckon that one way or another I’ve got plenty to say about various arts and crafts, so let’s go for it.  Tomorrow, for example, I’m going up to London to watch a couple of Proms.  I don’t know if we’ll have time to take in any other arty culture, but there will certainly be knitting done along the way!

August IComLeavWe

IComLeavWe has rolled around again, so hi to anyone who drops by from that :-)  I’m going to be a little late in starting this month, because I’m going to be out for most of tomorrow (technically today already, eek), and I might be sleeeeeepy when I get home.  In fact, I should be in bed and sleeping now, so I’d better get going.  I may get a chance to jump online when I get in tomorrow, but if not, it’ll have to wait until Sunday.  I can do double then.

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Days of summer

Wow, and there goes another month – I did so well blogging all through June, started out in July…. and then Real Life took over!  What a shock to the system that’s been ;-)  Seriously though, it really has been a pretty good summer.  The “busy day” to come that I mentioned about two posts / six weeks ago way back on 5th July was the day that I had an interview for a volunteering “job”, and I’ve been doing that ever since.  Not every day, I mean.  Just once a week.  I’m really enjoying it!  (I’d better not go into specifics just yet.  I’ll check with them first if they mind me blogging about it a bit.  I’ve been almost-burned with that before, when a manager at my job up north told me I should remove all references to work.  And none of that was specific stuff about the company at all, if I remember rightly, and certainly didn’t name anything or anyone.  Just occasional anecdotes about colleagues and work life.  So, double-check first, blog later!)

Other than that, I’ve been going to the Bipolar Course, which is nearly over now.  That’s also been really good.  I hadn’t been going to choir for a while because I’d been ill, but I’ll be going again when rehearsals start back up in September so I’m looking forward to that.  And I’ve also taken up Geocaching!  What-y What-ing?  Well, in case you haven’t heard of it, it’s a sort of a cross between orienteering and treasure hunting, done with GPS.  In my case, I use the GPS thingy in my phone rather than a dedicated device, and it’s been spot on every time so far.  It’s getting me out and about and giving me a reason to go for walks, and it was surprising the first few times how much glee and satisfaction I felt when I found the caches.

Right, I must be getting on.  I’ll try to remember to blog more about geocaching, update my knitting and spinning stuff… um…. oh, and talk about Pirate Day, Promming,  and how much I liked the BBC’s new “Sherlock” adaptation!  I think that’s about it.  Probably.


July ICLW!

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Whoops, I’ve just realised that yester-today* is the start of IComLeavWe for July.  So a quick hi to anyone who drops by – I am still here, but I’ve been so busy spinning and doing other Actual Real Life things (shocking, I know) that I haven’t remembered to blog.  And now I’m off to make today’s tally of comments.  Better get to bed after that – it’s late!

* technically yesterday, since it’s now past midnight, but still within the same “day” for me since I’m still up!

Productive day

I did lots today, and even managed to get in a nap this afternoon.  Well, I’d worn myself out!  Of course, when I say “lots”, that’s “lots for me”, but still.  I’ve been to see the Flower Festival at Mum’s church with her.  Technically it’s over, but she has the church keys and all the displays are still there.  Then I went to the dentist (everything fine; see you in 6 months), did tiny a bit of shopping, came home and cleaned up a storm.  Whew!  And since I’ve also got some spinning and knitting done, I’m feeling quite accomplished.

Tomorrow is another busy day, so I’m off to bed now.  I’m expecting to sleep well!