Clap!
As I mentioned the other day, I’ve finished my Clapotis [Ravlink] at long long last – it’s only taken me nearly three years! Although to be fair, for most of that it was languishing in a bag with only the first section knitted.
So here are some photos of the finished object, anyway. I haven’t blocked it, as I like how it’s turned out as it is. It’s too warm to wear it at the moment, but as soon as the weather cools down, it’ll be in active service! Should make a change from wearing purple.
And talking of purple(-ish), I’ve been spinning away for the Tour de Fleece. More pictures from that tomorrow, I expect.
Z is for Zips
Even though I haven’t started sewing up the Menace jumper [Ravlink] yet, I’ve been thinking about the other Unfinished Object that’s been sitting around for ages and ages, and that’s my Chunky Zipped Jacket [Ravlink] which is knit from Sirdar Bigga yarn. The main thing that’s keeping me from finishing this is the zip, although I’m also not quite sure whether to sew the seams with the Bigga yarn (which is “Super Bulky” weight), or with a thinner yarn of the same colour. I do have a thinner yarn, and that would make the seams less bulky, I think. But would it show up or be less stable, too? I don’t know! Help! I also suspect that this might not be the best project to try attaching a zip to, when it’s the first time I’ve ever done that. Again, the bulkiness is an issue. What do I sew the zip on with? Thread or yarn? This stuff is hard. Time to get advice from wiser heads, I think. I’ll cart it along to KnitJam next week.
Otherwise, today has been more of a knitting day than a tidying up one, though I have got some of that done. But good news! I’ve finished my Clapotis [Ravlink] at long last. I still have to weave in the ends, and block it (probably… I might leave it, I haven’t decided yet) but otherwise I’m done. Woohoo! Pictures will be coming soon.
All Hands on Deck
I haven’t blogged much recently because I’ve been knitting. Which means I don’t have enough hands to type at the same time! I should at least be mostly done with the things I’m knitting as Christmas presents. Ahem. I might be completely done, who knows? I probably would have been fine, but Mum asked me for mittens which I then had to factor in… and it all went a little bit wonky. Not too much though.
Other than present knitting, I’ve finished my gloves (pictures soon), done a bit of spinning at the 1066 Spinners group, and of course have been Christmas shopping. There’s an open air ice rink in town for the festive season, so Jo and I are hoping to go down there at some point. Although it’s just started snowing today, so I spose it depends how bad that gets. I also did an hour of carolling at the local hospital last night with choir. I really love singing carols, so that was lots of fun. Even though I did have to stand in the front row where people can – oh no!!! – see me! Happily for my ridiculous stage fright, most people didn’t stop and stare: we were in the foyer, so the majority of the people just passed through.
Anyway, I’d better go and have dinner before KnitJam tonight. I’m sure there was something else I was planning to blog about, but I’m sure it’ll come back to me. If not, it probably wasn’t important!
41: A knitty post
Since I don’t think I actually posted here when I finally finished Mum’s birthday shawl, I shall do so now! I was almost a year late giving it to her in the end, so instead of it being finished for her birthday in April 08, it was finished for Mother’s Day in February 09. The border had taken me *so* much longer than I anticipated, and then I had blocking anxiety so it took me ages to screw up the courage to do that in case I messed it up! But the finished result was worth all the work:
Actually, I don’t think I ever put put the project stats here for this, since it was Sekrit Knitting, so here they are now:
Pattern: Wild Flower Shawl by Dee Bamford. [Ravlink]
Yarn: Posh Yarn Sophia 2ply (100% cashmere) in ‘Strawberry Shortcake’.
Needles: 3.25mm circular (Addi Turbo bamboo)
Ravelry Project Page: WFS
And would you believe, this shawl is now almost-famous? Our knitting group was in the Readers Projects section of The Knitter magazine, issue 7, and this shawl was one of the ones we sent off to them to feature. Hee!
A bit of a catch up
Oops again: I managed not to blog for yet another whole month, and missed my 8-year Blogoversary in the bargain (thanks for the ‘versary wishes!). So what have I been doing?
Well, I’ve done a couple of websites for my brother and another group in his year at uni, for one of their group projects (no, I wasn’t doing the work for them! They’re allowed to ‘employ’ people for various jobs that they can’t cover themselves in the group). Gave me a chance to do something new-ish with embedding streaming video and audio, and play with some CSS3 as well. Hooray!
Talking of websites… I still haven’t got the redesign for this one sorted out. Really must buckle down and do that. I had to delete the (MT) search script for the blog because it was being hammered with spam and overloading the server… hopefully when I switch over to WP I won’t have that problem. However, I want to get the new design done before I change over (so I don’t have to faff around turning this one into a wp theme as well), especially since I’m going to be running the whole site apart from the photo album through it.
Other than that, I have got some knitting done: I finished Em’s mittens, and I’ve even managed to blitz through the rest of the WFS [RavLink], which is actually Mum’s birthday present… from last year. Ahem. But it’s done now! All except a bit of weaving in, and the all-important blocking, that is. I’m thinking I’m going to evict the cat from the bedroom tomorrow, clear off the bed, and use that for blocking it on. If it doesn’t get dry in time, I can always sleep on the sofabed for one night. I’ve actually been quite organised with my knitting so far this year: I still have several unfinished projects, but I’ve put most of them to one side and worked on just two or three… which has meant I’m finishing, or getting towards finishing things! My final pair of SKP08 socks, and the gloves I’ve had hanging around for ages with just one done are both well on their way. No pictures today, though. Site redesign first! Off I go again to work on that :-)
How many voices, now?
Huh, yeah… you remember how I was babbling about different voices. Or ranges / registers in your voice, I suppose. Well, my chest voice is now still about as much use as it was the other day, but my head voice has taken itself off as well. D’oh! I probably sound rather silly. However, I feel quite a lot better, so yaaaaay! I haven’t gone back to knitting anything because I don’t want to cough over it and make it all germified… although I spose if I do my Pentathlon sock it won’t matter since that’s only for me anyway and the needles should be perfectly washable.
Anyway, here’s what I did get done for Christmas:
Some fingerless mittens as a surprise for my brother, since their flat is really cold! He also thinks they’ll be good for when he’s on his bike. [RavLink]
And some rather less finished….
… mittens for my sister-in-law-to-be (I have got to find a snappier way of phrasing that, but “brother’s financee” is almost as long to type!). I did actually finish this one, but I forgot to take a photo. D’oh. Anyway, I gave her that one as an “IOU”, and as soon as I’ve stopped being all yuck, I’ll get the other one done. At least I now do know that I had the sizing right! [RavLink]
I think they both liked them – I wasn’t quite sure what my brother would think about a (*gasp*) hand-made present, but he actually seemed pretty pleased :-)
Alive, alive-oh
D’oh, I zoned out for a while there. I wish that would stop happening. My next psych appt isn’t until July, either. It was s’posed to be April or early May, but it got put back. :-/ Still, I can phone them if need be, so it’s not that bad.
Anyway, I haven’t been completely unproductive (read: asleep) over the last few weeks. I’ve been reading (I keep meaning to write reviews… I really will do that. Eventually), and knitting, which I shall talk about a bit more in a moment, and doing a bit of work on a fannish website project with Sann. And over the last couple of days I’ve been gradually putting some knitting / crochet books and some more yarn up for sale on eBay. I might even get the non-knitting things I have to clear out up there, if I can get around to taking photos and working out postage. I need a better pair of scales!
Actually, talking of scales, I may or may not have lost weight recently, but I have been eating more healthily. And without having to think about it too hard, either – it’s becoming more of a habit, which is really good. As well as that, I’m going to start doing more exercise again. I had meant to before, but I as part of the whole zoning out thing I was mainly stuck indoors. However, this morning I’m planning to either go for a walk in the park if I can get hold of Ally in time, or go to aquafit and then either the gym or just stay in the pool for a swim. I’ve got to get back into a routine where I’ve got something to get going for in the morning, and having something that I need to leave the house for is better. Otherwise I’m likely to faff around at the computer in my pyjamas until lunchtime! Quite possibly doing something productive, but still – I need that routine of being really “up and about”, and being actually dressed is part of that.
Back to the knitting, anyhow. Let’s see… looking back at those goals I set myself at the beginning of May, I’m afraid I still haven’t finished Mum’s present (I’m going to go and do some work on that in just a mo!). But as I said, I did finish the baby bootees, and I’ve also finished my second pair of socks – the Berlin Muster pattern – for the Sock Knitter’s Pentathlon. I hit my personal targets as well: I wanted to finish in the first 100, and to improve my sock knitting time. Which I did: I finished as number 68, on 23rd May, so it took me exactly 3 weeks to knit them, doing an average of an hour or two a day. :-) Since then, as well as Mum’s pressie I’ve been working on my Fireworks socks, and I’ve now finished the first one after a bit of a hiccup with the garter stitch toe the first go around (it ended up about twice as long as it should have been!). The second one of those is cast on and I’ll now be slowly making my way down the leg whenever I want to work on a project that requires very little concentration for the most part. I don’t have any pictures of that just yet, anyway, but I do have some of the finished objects. Want to see?….
Project 365 #6, Days 35-44: 13th – 22nd Feb
Since I’m still playing catch up, here’s yet another picdump: days 35 to 44 of my Project 365 photos. If you want to see all the photos so far, click on the Project 365 category link, or check out the Project 365 folder in the photo album.
On to the pics (click them for the full sized versions):
Progress from last week.
Last week, I bribed myself by setting a list of goals to achieve before I could have my “carrot” of casting on a lovely new pair of socks. Sooooooo, how did I do?
- – Finish unpicking the cast off of the second Jacobean sock and re-do it with a tubular bind-off (first sock already successfully done, yay);
— Done! And oh, I love them. They’re scrummy and squishy and now fit perfectly. LOVE! - – Finish one repeat of the WFS edging;
— I now have several repeats done, which is sort of good. But not ideal, since I passed my deadline for finishing the thing. D’oh! I’m still plugging away and enjoying it, though. - – Do the finishing for the two pairs of baby bootees (which honestly isn’t going to take long! I’ve just been procrastinating), which means: seam up the flat knit pair, make knitted buttons for both and attach them, make the button loops, sew in any ends;
— DONE. Why do I make such drama in my own mind over things that really aren’t that terrible (such as sewing up one tiny bootee)? Dear self: stop it!! I’ll make another post soon with some pictures. - – Stop mentally flailing over which yarn I should use for the next Pentathlon project because really, I can’t choose properly until I see what the pattern is (although I’m sure I will be posting a short list of my possible choices here like I did last time);
— I’ve pretty much managed this. In fact, I’m not even going to post a short list. I think I’m going to use some YY sock in bright red “Shelter”, since the guidelines say that a solid or semi-solid is best, and light – medium and/or bright colours are suggested. Plus, I already have that one wound into a yarn cake ;-) I’ll make my final decision when the pattern comes online late tonight.
And my prize? Wheeee, I’ve cast on for the lovely Bracket Fungus socks. My version are the Bracket Fungoths, because I’m using YY Hot Pink Goth yarn as the multi colour and I never can resist a good (bad) pun. As I promised myself, I’ve only done the cuff so far because the WFS has to take priority for now, but here’s how it’s looking so far:
Yay!
Project 365 #5, Days 25-34: 3rd – 12th Feb
More catching up! Here are days 25 to 34 of my Project 365 photos. If you want to see all the photos so far, click on the Project 365 category link, or check out the Project 365 folder in the photo album.
On to the pics (click them for the full sized versions):
Zooooom
- I’ve had THE most awesome final / “reveal” package from my SP11 pal, Janey. THANK YOU JANEY! :-D I shall write more and post pics later. And email Janey to gush a lot. Yes.
- Due to Circumstances Beyond My Control, I haven’t been able to send out my own final SP11 parcel to Katie yet. Argh. Actually, it looks like I won’t be able to get hold of one thing I was looking for anyway, so I guess I’ll have to give up and get it sent asap. Although asap might have to be next week, the way things are looking. I reiterate: argh! Sorry, Katie :-/
- It’s a year today that I was in that car accident (my car was hit). Therefore, a year since I last drove, since after that (a) my poor car was squished, and (b) I was put on meds that mean I’m medically disqualified from having a licence. Which in turn means I’ve got a free bus pass, so it’s not all bad.
- I was kind of under the weather again last week. Mainly, I’m annoyed. I have things to do! Therefore, I’m now running around like a… crazy running around thing. Pick your metaphor. Off to the shops soon. Hey, fresh air! That’ll be novel.
- Site revamp still not done. Well, it is. I just haven’t applied it to the actual site and uploaded it yet. Yeah, not done.
- What with the not-well thing, I haven’t got as much knitting done as I’d like, either. I do at least have one FO, but everything else that’s Christmas knitting? Um, not yet. Must knit faster.
- I have sorted out pretty much everything (I think!) that I’m going to destash, however. Looong post all about that coming v soon.
- Xandermog is poking me in the leg with his sharp pointy toes. Owwwww.
- Aaaaaaaaaand the child upstairs seems to be banging something echo-y and metal on the floor. Oh, someone please make it stop!
- I might just be having a bit of a manic Monday (haha, oh dear). Shall have to watch myself, and try to do some relaxing stuff once I’ve got the must-do things out of the way. Note to self: breathe.
Autumnal Spring Cleaning
I’ve been having a really good clear-out over the last few weeks, and I’m starting to feel less mentally cluttered as well already. I’ve even eBayed more of my yarn. I know! Can I really be breaking my hoarding mentality? Well, no, not if you look at my bookshelves (MY books *clings*) and, uh, the remainder of my yarn stash. Not to mention the contents of my wardrobe and drawers… and a couple of suitcases… However, I am going to eBay some more stuff. Not yarn this time (although I might be able to persuade myself to part with a couple more skeins), but things like my spare Palm cradle (never used) and serial cable (not used since approx 3 computer upgrades ago)… oh, and I’m sure there are some other things. I have also sorted out more clothes and knick-knacks etc to go off to the charity shop. I think I still have more to do there, though!
Unfortunately, I’ve been a bit stalled on the whole thing because I’m still ill. Bleuch. I left the flat yesterday for the first time in about 2 weeks (alright, maybe my mental health hasn’t been ideal: being stuck indoors ill was threatening to push me into a ‘down’, but I think I’ve caught it in time) because I had to go to the Post Office, and stopped in to speak to the pharmacist on the way. She reckons I have bronchitis or a chest infection, and what with being asthmatic already, I’ve been told to go to the doctor tout de suite. I know, I know, I should have gone a week ago. I am Procrastination Woman. In this case, that’s particularly stupid of me since it means I’ve been propped at a weird angle in bed for several days since I can neither sit/stand up or lay down normally and breathe comfortably. V annoying. Oh well. I have an appointment this afternoon. I’ll be fixed soon. On the plus side, this whole thing seems to have sorted out my insomnia / wonky body-clock thing that I had going on: I’m now tired / sleeping during the actual night again, instead of being awake all night and tired or asleep all day. Hoorah!
In knitting news, I have got some work done on my WIPs. I really must remember to make a couple of posts about my current WIPs and recently completed FOs to spring-clean that off my mental to-do list. Mainly I’ve been working on “Mmm, Refreshers”, which is a Christmas gift. Can’t say anything else about it in case the recipient trundles over here. You never know with my friends and family *peers around suspiciously*. I’ve also done a bit of “WFS” (likewise, Christmas), and some of my Fireworks socks… which are for me me me, so there. Obviously I finished my Tête à Fetching (wore it when I went out yesterday), and I’m really chuffed with the response – some people have said they like it and want to make it, it’s in a few queues (and one in-progress!) on Ravelry, and I even got a really lovely comment from Cheryl Niamath who designed the Fetching gloves. :-) I’ll get the scarf pattern written up soon-ish as well, but I want to make a wider version of it for Mum first. Once I’ve finished something else, that is.
I actually think my WIP tolerance has been reached. If I cast on one more project, my head would explode. I can cope, just about, with the number I have going at once right now (8 plus 3 in hibernation) because I have a definite Christmas deadline for, um, three of them. Although I have at least two more things I wanted to cast on for gift knitting as well. Oh dear. But I’m not going to think about that now! The thing is, those gift knits are the ones which are taking priority, and the rest are pushed to the back-burner. Some more than others – I’m still working on my various pairs of socks (for me) every now and again, to give myself a break. It seems to be working. But anyway, like I said, I’ll make a proper all-about-my-WIPs post a bit later.
I didn’t find my gloves, by the way. So far I’ve been wearing my Fetchings or my Hurry Up Spring fingerless ones, but I’ve wound a skein of Yarn Yard Merino sock into a ball to make some new ones – I think I’m going to make cabled ones with that. And I did crumble and get ones of the glove kits, so I’m going to make a pair with that too.
Yay, gloves! I’m not allowing myself to cast on for them until I’ve finished a couple of my current WIPs, though. Preferably the Christmas gift ones, since those have a deadline!
Hmm, was there anything else I was going to say? I can’t think… oh! I remember. I found a (the) Holiday Gift KAL-CAL. Just what I wanted! I have duly signed myself up. Um. Oh yes, and I’ve been working on my next (final? I’m not sure if I’ll be sending one more package or if I’ll split it into two – Katie, do you have any preferences?) SP11 package. Mwahaha. Etc. ;-)
Right, that’s enough being upright for me for the time being. I’m going back to bed for a bit to listen to the radio / podcasts while knitting, then I shall get up again, have foooood, and get myself off to the doctor’s. TTFN!
Tête à Fetching
I finished my Tête à Fetching – woohoo! Here’s the project info:
Pattern: Tête à Fetching by Me (inspired by Cheryl Niamath’s Fetching gloves, from the Summer 06 Knitty).
Yarn: Posh Yarn Sophia 6-ply (100% cashmere) in Mute – approx. 1 skein.
Needles: 16cm 4mm circular; Set of 5 4mm DPNs.
Size: Medium (22″ head)
It looks a smidge larger on Angelique-the-Head than it really is, due to her being slightly scaled down. However, it’s easier to take photos of hats on her than on myself, so there we are. Point is, it fits me perfectly, and I love it!
What’s more, I’ve even written the pattern up and uploaded it just in case anyone else fancies knitting it themselves. I knitted it in DK weight, but like the Fetching gloves, you can use an aran weight to get a thicker, warmer fabric.
PDF download – left click then save:
Tête à Fetching ( downloads)
I’ll link it on Ravelry as well, because I can. And hey, if anybody else does have a go at this, let me know – I’d love to see what other people might do with it. I might be making another one for my Mum for Christmas, this time in Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk aran. She wants a pair of Fetching (Fetchings?), you see. I should have enough yarn to make either a matching hat or scarf (post on that coming soon!) to go with them, I just have to ask her which she’d prefer. I don’t think I have enough for both, unfortunately. Luckily, since she asked me for the gloves, I can check back with her about a hat / scarf. This is not her Sekrit Xmas pressie!
Anyway, do let me know what you think of the hat – any problems, issues, vast donations of wealth…. ;-) This is the first pattern I’ve put up, so constructive criticism can only help any future efforts! Encouraging “I like it” comments are also, of course, extremely welcome! Thanks :-)
Composing Knits
I’ve discovered something kind of interesting. To me, anyway. 
You see, I’d decided I wanted a hat to go with my Fetching wristwarmers. This meant applying the stitch pattern and cables used on Fetching to a hat. Well, with a couple of small variations – aren’t there always? What I’ve discovered is, I approach knitting designing in the exact same two ways I have of approaching music composition.
Usually when I make a hat (or scarf or bag or whatever), I almost completely improvise. Often, I don’t even swatch, I just rely on the fact that I know that I’ll get this approximate gauge with those needles and that weight yarn, and base my number of cast on stitches on that. I’ll keep to approximate guidelines – just like staying within a key (or its relatives) – but otherwise I’ll wing it from there… sometimes even in terms of stitch pattern, although not always. If it works out well, I might go back and record what I’ve done on paper later on.
This time, I used what is actually my other method of writing music: I take a motif that I’ve worked out on an instrument beforehand, then decide on a key, key sig, and orchestration, and write everything else straight down onto paper out of my head. I’m pretty sure I know how it’s going to sound, but there’s sometimes the odd surprise *g*. Along very much the same lines, I started the design for my “Tête à Fetching” hat by taking the motif of the Fetching wristwarmers cables / ribbing which I have already knitted and therefore am familiar with the look of it. I swatched, I calculated, and I wrote out the provisional pattern on paper, including variations which didn’t occur in the original motif. Now, I’m knitting it:
I’ll let you know how it goes, and with luck put the finished pattern up when I’m done!
Long Day
It’s been a looooooooooong day… and why I’m not in bed already, I’m not really sure. I’m running on caffeine fumes, or something. It was my uncle’s funeral, so we’ve been to Norfolk and home again (5:30am start, most of the day spent in the car…. ow my back). 
On the plus side, because I’m not allowed to drive at the moment, I got some knitting done. Um, yay? So yup, I have another couple of inches done of my Whitby sock. There would have been more, but I was pretty tired by the time we were on our way home, so I slept for a couple of hours. I feel a bit guilty about that, cos Mum and M were having to stay awake and do the driving. But then, I didn’t sleep well last night because my brain was in ‘oh no, what if I don’t wake up in time’ mode.
The funeral was fine, and it was good to see all my cousins, even if the circumstances weren’t exactly great. I even met up with a cousin I haven’t seen since we were both 2, and a couple of others that I might not have met at all. I have a lot of cousins. The ones who are all my age are actually my first-cousins-once-removed (the children of my first cousins) due to the generational wonk my family has going on. *g* One of these is my cousin B, who is great, and who I’m hoping to keep in touch with more regularly – we’ve been saying we will, but crucially this time we remembered to exchange email addrs! Hopefully I’ll get the chance to go and stay with her at some point so we can have a proper catch-up.
Back to the knitting, I’ve been doing lots of other things as well. I finished my first Hedara sock:
And the kitty-face baby hat that I’ve done for a friend’s expected new baby:
Aaaaaand finally I’ve finished off the HP Slytherin scarf I’ve been making for Sann for, oh, years (it was the weaving in of the ends that I stalled on). Hoorah!
Yaaaaay, finished objects! I feel like I’m on a bit of a roll now: I’m determined to finish one of the jumpers that’ve been lurking for years as well (see sidebar). I had resolved that I wasn’t going to cast anything new on until I’d finished at least one project, and now I’ve finished two and a half… but… finishing one of those flippin’ jumpers will feel like a real achievement. So that’s my next plan, along with continuing with the other things I have on the needles, of course! I really must remember to post on here with pics of the other things I’ve done recently as well. But not tonight. Now, it’s bedtime. Zzzzzzzzzz………
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