I haven’t done a lot of knitting (or spinning, and certainly not crochet) lately. And by lately, I mean… the last 18 months. Or thereabouts. But in the last week or two I’ve picked up a couple of projects that’ve been languishing and started work on them again.
First of all there’s a hat for Miss RA. Whether or not she’ll wear it is another matter. She doesn’t seem too keen on keeping hats on! Anyway, this is it so far:
And the other thing I’ve picked up again are the mittens for Mum’s shoebox project. I didn’t finish them for last year’s box, so I figure if I do them now then I can be ahead of the curve for this autumn.
I’ve been thinking I should also get at least one of the jumpers that are laying around in bits finally sewn up. Yeahhh. I’ll get right on that.
Hooray, I’ve finished my Gap Year Travels shawl. I cast off in a different colour, which was totally a design feature and not because I ran out of yarn twice (if you believe that, etc etc), ends are sewn in, and it’s currently awaiting blocking – I’m going to leave it pinned on the table overnight, I think. I do believe I’m quite pleased. Pictures tomorrow!
Today has been a day of variety, which has been nice! I started out by going up to the Christmas fair for Mum’s church – I got there quite late on, so I helped clear up and carry the remaining stuff back up to the church. I got a few nice cards and nick knacks for gifts, so that was a worthwhile trip. Then I walked with Mum back to her house for a drink and then a lift home.
On the way up to Mum’s place, I stopped off and did a geocache that was en route. It took me a bit longer than I’d planned due to me being disorganised with my stuff, but it was still a speedy one. Not a micro one this time, but a still small one. So not big enough to put the travelling monkey into, yet. Poor monkey! I’ll move him on soon, by hook or by crook!
After visiting at Mum’s for a while, we came back here and had dinner – stir fry followed by cupcakes! Then Mum went home and I’ve been knitting and watching Strictly Come Dancing. I’m still working on the Travelling Woman, but hopefully I’ll be done soon. Maybe tonight? Maybe tomorrow.
And then I’ve been playing with Blip.fm – I’ve put a widget linking to my account there in the sidebar, and I think it’s possible to play some tracks directly from here? I’m not sure, I’m still figuring it out. That’s not what I’m using it for, anyway. Mostly I’m listening to the songs my friends have playlisted. Is that even a word? Probably not, but I know what I mean, and I’m sure you do too. Anyway, I thought I’d put the widget up here because in the first place I can, and also because I’m trying to get all my web stuff better linked together. Integrate my web presence. Oh how pretentious. ;-)
Today is my lovely friend Noxie‘s birthday, so much love and happy returns to her! We originally met through both being fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and are still friends twelve years on! Isn’t the internet grand?
As for me, I’ve spent the day plying and knitting again – some progress made, nothing finished as yet! Hopefully I’ll have more to report tomorrow.
I need an editor to stop me from making horrible puns, don’t I? But it’s true, today I have been applying myself to plying two bobbins of handspun together. I haven’t done the whole lot yet, and there won’t be pictures because this is for the Limegreenjelly Christmas swap. Which means I don’t want my partner to see what I’ve been working on for her, mwahahah… eek, hope she likes it!
Other than that, I’ve also been (still) working on the “Gap Year Travels” Travelling Woman shawl… and I can’t remember if I mentioned this, but I’ve called my particular version of it Gap Year Travels because the colourway of the yarn I’m knitting it in is called Byron Bay. Which is somewhere I visited while travelling in Australia on my gap year. Anyway, I’ve nearly finished the shawl – ten rows or so to go, and I don’t think I’m going to have enough of the yarn left. Fortunately, I do have some solid blue that goes with it well enough that I can use it to finish off. I hope! If that doesn’t work, well, I put in that lifeline, so it’ll be easy to rip back without dropping any stitches. If a bit of a nuisance. But then I’ll definitely have enough yarn to finish off the edging chart.
In other news, marmite rice cakes are delicious. That is all.
When I’ve not been out (Tuesdays is the day I volunteer at the library) or on the computer today, I’ve been industriously knitting away on my Travelling Woman shawl. I’m determined to finish it soon! I am a little worried that I won’t have quite enough yarn, but I put a lifeline in so that I can rip back to the middle of the previous patten repeat (if you know the pattern, this is the logical place) if need be. No pictures yet, but there will be once I’ve finished. Go go go!
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:
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”.
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!
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 Leaveswithout 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!
Autumn Leaves cardigan
Celtic cardigan
Juno cardigan
Lichen cardigan
Sadie cardigan
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…
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.
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:
A 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.
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!
I’ll probably come up with a really excellent topic for the letter H in a day or two, but right now I can’t think of a thing. Well, maybe I’ll be inspired while I’m writing, you never know! And if I do think of something in a few days time, I can always slot it in as the next “extra day” entry.
Well, since I don’t have anything specific to talk about for this, I might as well have a ramble on about life in general. I’ve been over on goodreads.com updating my booklist. Rather annoyingly, since it’s only been three weeks (and where did that time go?!) I have a gap of about a week where I can’t remember what I was reading, but I’m sure I read something. At least one more book, in fact, because I remember thinking that I’d had another one to count into May’s total right on the last day or two of the month. Maybe I can ask my Mum or brother if I mentioned reading any book in particular around that time. It was definitely something I finished, too. Hmm. And probably something I had on my Palm already, not something recently loaded on, since I know which ones of those I’ve read. Gah, frustrating! Did I re-read something on a whim, which is why it’s not sticking in my head as something new? I don’t know!
In terms of reading, I think I need to make an effort to finish some of the eight (!) books I’m part way through right now. That’s just too many. I bet I can finish at least one before I go to bed tonight. I’m more than half way through several, or they’re not that long to start with. Or I could read one more of the short stories in the David Weber anthology. The doorsteppers will necessarily take a bit longer, but I keep putting off reading them in favour of other books. I need to start treating them like I am my knitting: no more casting on new projects / starting new books until I’ve finished the ones I have on the go already. And talking of knitting, if I listen to more audiobooks (including finishing the one I have in progress), I can do the both at the same time!
