Category: Blogathon

Decision!

Having made the single-pair-of-hands realisation, I’ve just had a bright idea. I shall still keep working on Fetching in bits as I feel like it, but for the main part I’m going to focus on my previous FOs, and talk about those. Pretty much everything is from before I was using this for a knitting blog, so it’d be kind of cool to give them posts of their own.
Up first, My First Socks! (Probably. Unless I go for my first actual knitted things.)

[Listening to: Show 14 – The slow clothes mov – David Reidy – Sticks & String Podcast]

You know what?

I think I kind of underestimated how difficult it was going to be to knit and blog at the same time. Note to self for the future: I only have one pair of hands.
What was I thinking? *headdesk*
You know what else? I sent an email to the PoshKnitters list yesterday about my ‘thoning… and it hasn’t turned up in the group that I can see. Huh. I think I might try again. Hopefully everyone won’t end up getting the same thing twice. Because I am shameless in my quest for sponsors! Even when there is only… er… Wow, just over 6 hours to go. I think I had better send the mail again. You never know, after all, and the list mod said it was fine with her.
(And in case it works this time and anyone comes by – hi PoshKnitters! :-) )

[Listening to: Show 14 – The slow clothes mov – David Reidy – Sticks & String Podcast]

Forest Canopy

Forest Canopy pattern set-upI can’t quite remember if I’ve mentioned this here yet, but I have cast on my Forest Canopy Shawl. This isn’t the best photo – it wasn’t good light and for some reason I couldn’t get the focus. Maybe I should have zoomed in or something? Anyway! What you can see here is about half of the set-up section of the lace pattern. I’ve now completed the set-up section and I’m about to start the first body repeat.
Project stats:
Pattern: Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl by Susan Lawrence.
Yarn: Posh Yarn Eva 4-ply (55% silk, 45% cashmere) in Tuscany.
Needles: 4.5mm (bamboo straights for now, to change to a circular when it gets wider)
I’m actually kind of confused about this pattern. Not about the knitting of it as such – the pattern looks straightforward enough in terms of knitting the stitches. But it’s the construction of the shawl that’s stumping me. It’s not making sense in my head. You see, the pattern describes it as a “top-down” shawl. To me, the top of a shawl is the widest part, the edge that goes across the shoulders. Am I mistaken? Because the shawl starts out with… um… I’ve forgotten how many, but only a few stitches for the cast on, and then you increase from there. That would indicate to me that I’m knitting from the bottom point upwards.
I would have just assumed I’d got confused with what top-down meant. But. When you’ve knitted the desired number of pattern repeats, it then tells you to knit the border along the bottom edge and follow the directions to get the scalloped cast-off, etc etc. It doesn’t say anything about casting off the top edge and picking up along the bottom. Yet, if I’m starting with a pointy bit….. argh! Perhaps I’m missing something vital about the shape of the shawl because I haven’t yet started knitting the main pattern. I know I’m not knitting from a corner, either, because I’ve got the centre stitch right where it should be for knitting directly up or down.
Can anyone give me any clues? Anyone? Help?

Oh! Excitement! I won!!!

Duh, I know what I wanted to say! I AM A WINNA! And stuff like that. To my huge excitement, I won the prize draw that Kris ran on Bockstark Knits for a handmade sushi pattern project bag (kind of ironic, since fish makes me ill, but I’m quite happy to look at the stuff, after all! *g*) and a skein of German indie dyed sock yarn. Bweeeee!
I am a happy bunny. Tired. But happy!

[Listening to: Sticks and String – Show 12 – ]

Um, um..

What?
*faceplants*
My energy went away again. I’ve completely lost track of what I was doing. Heeeeeeeelp!
Who am I again?
(You know, I think part of the problem here was that I started at 2pm… so unlike the bloggers who started right after they woke up, I’d already been running around flathunting with my brother’s g/f for several hours. Why didn’t I think of that beforehand and have a lie in? D’oh!)

[Listening to: Sticks and String – Show 12 – ]

And relax

I feel a lot better now I’m eating. It’s the wrong time of day completely to have a meal, so I haven’t eaten all of it yet (I did go for the quorn sausages, new potatoes and baby sweetcorn – yuuuuuuuuum), but I’m feeling more energised. I think moving around cooking and so on helped a lot as well.
So anyway, now I’m still nibbling at that and listening to this podcast – it’s definitely one I’d recommend if you don’t already listen and are into knitting casts. The link is over on the right in my Blogroll under Podcasts (funny that).

[Listening to: Show 11 – A long thread – David Reidy – Sticks & String Podcast]

Fetching so far

Fetching wristwarmer cuffFetching is progressing nicely, and it’s an absolute pleasure to knit. I have found the cables a bit more fiddly that others that I’ve done in the past, for some reason, but it is a nice straightforward little pattern, and is coming out beautifully. And as you can see, the Posh Yarn Sophia 6-ply (in Mute) looks utterly scrummy.
FYI, the project stats are:
Pattern: Fetching by Cheryl Niamath, from Knitty (Summer 06).
Yarn: Posh Yarn Sophia 6-ply (100% cashmere) in Mute.
Needles: Set of 5 4mm DPNs.
I’m now, by the way, further up than shown in this pic – I’ll take another one when I’m significantly more along with it.
But for right now… I think I’m going to stretch my legs around the flat a bit, and get something to eat. Which reminds me, I wanted to make a shout-out to my lovely encouraging monitor, Lisa – thank you for your support! And I wish I could go and get some fresh air, but it’s ‘orrible and rainy, and 3am, so I guess that’ll have to wait til the morning. Food first, some stretches, then a shower. That’ll do me for now.