Unintentional NaKniSweMo

Ok, so I wasn't particpating in the NaKniSweMo knitalong, but I finished a sweater in the month of November! I started on the 1st and finished on the 25th (and I'm posting on the 30th, so I just make it with all aspects!)





It's my second Rogue Sweater. I bought this pattern ages ago, and made a red one, which I absolutely love and wear all the time. I loved knitting the pattern, it's so well written and a lot of fun with the cables and pocket. Plus it knits up pretty fast. So I decided to make a black one as well.

I used James C Brett Aran with Wool on 5.5mm needles. For some reason, even though I used the same size of yarn, needles, and pattern, this one came out a little looser and the hood is quite bigger and floppier round my head. But that's cool, I can pretend I'm a mad hoody (see 2nd definition on link if you don't know what that is)!

I changed the pattern a little to knit the sleeves in the round up till the shoulder cap, and moved the increase stitches in by a stitch, so the sleeve looks much tidier and nicer than my red one which has some quite bad seaming!

I really like this sweater. I've already planned what mods to make for the next one (3 needle bind off at the shoulder to avoid seaming that little bit, and casting off the stitches at the top of the hood cos grafting them onto the cable section is a PITA) This'll probably be the last sweater for a little while at least though, because it's absolutely baltic here! There's been frost on the ground for the last 3 days solid with no signs of it disappearing. I've been wearing my hats and gloves and scarfs non stop, and I need more warm things, pronto!

Here's a macro picture of the frost on top of my fence, so you can see how cold it is! (Also, somehow I managed to get a bokeh picture with my camera, where the foreground is sharp and the background is blurred! No idea how it did that, but I like the effect and wanted to show it off!)

Finished Rogue!

Yay! Rogue is finished! And I love it!


I love the waist shaping. I've never made anything with any shaping before, so didn't quite know what it was going to turn out like. But I like it.


Two photos of the hood, one for the detail, and one for the colour. The bottom picture has the colour more accurately, but the cables aren't so visible.


I'll definitely make this pattern again. Just need to use up the yarn in the stash before I can buy more aran suitable for it. The pattern was very well written, with every step clearly spelled out (I need that in a pattern!) and I really like how it turned out. I like the pocket too, and how it involved no sewing! In fact, the whole thing had very little sewing, another thing I like in a pattern! So I'm off to use up more yarn so I can buy more eventually to make another one! :)

Rogue, Dancing and Cotton (and Merino, but you've not to notice that!)

I've had a busy few days.

On Saturday I went to a friend's birthday party, which was more like a hafla. Me and my other friend did a bollywood routine at it, and there were other bellydancers, african drummers, and tribal style dancers. It was so much fun! All of the other dancers were amazing, and it was fun to dance along to the live drumming. There was a great buffet (always one for the food, me!), and there was a great atmosphere. The people there were mixed - some dancers, some not, probably about half and half. There was one little girl who wanted to join in with the dancing, and got right up in the group on stage at one point. And she was getting the moves! It was so cute! She was even getting our bollywood moves, but she'd been moved back by her parents by that point so she was dancing away between the tables.

Then I had a rehersal yesterday. The place where I do dance classes on a Saturday is having their end-of-year show tomorrow, so there was a technical rehersal yesterday. It was just as well I went to it, cos I wasn't at class on Saturday, so there were a couple of bits that I didn't know, or had changed. It should go alright tomorrow though. Fingers crossed!

I'm still working on Rogue just now. I've done the front and back, but have changed the knitting order and am doing the sleeves before I do the hood. I always get a definite case of sleeve syndrome, not even second sleeve syndrome, just first sleeve, and I wanted to get them out the way first, and have the hood to look forward to making. I'm about half way through the first sleeve. It's taken ages cos I had to keep ripping it out cos I made mistakes with the row count, and the increases. That's why I hate making sleeves, I always get the increases wrong. I actually got more than half way through this first sleeve at one point, then realised I'd messed it up, way back at the beginning. I was going to just leave it, and I knit a few more rows, but I realised I couldn't leave it like that. So I ripped the sleeve. This was the second time I'd ripped it, cos I'd messed up the row count somehow before that. Now, though, I think I've got it. I'm back to where I was this morning when I started - I've been knitting all day, with nothing to show :( But at least now it's right, even the cables look better, so I'll be more pleased with it when it's finished.

And now for a picture:


My cotton arrived! I'm quite pleased with it. It looks thinner on the ball than I'd expected, but I haven't tried swatching or anything with it yet. I think it'll make a nice jumper or cardi. I haven't decided yet. I've got so many things lined up that I want to make, I just wish I had some sort of time stopping device, so I could make them all at the one time. And I also kind of bought some laceweight merino off ebay as well, but that hasn't arrived yet.

Notice how I left that confession till last? It was hardly noticeable at all, was it?

Rogue Progress

Rogue has been positively zooming along. I do have a picture, but blogger's being stoopid. Today I've knitted from the top of the pocket, to finishing the back. (I didn't have anything else to do today, so spent all my time knitting). I love this pattern. It's so much fun, and so well written. I'll probably do Eris as well, by the same designer, but I've got about five things lined up after Rogue. I'll be repeating the blueberry sweater next, for my MIL. That should go pretty fast, since I've already done it once. I also want to do loads of other patterns, from sites, magazines, books . . . I'm going to be very busy. If I listed all the patterns I want to make here - well, I could do it, but it'd take too long, and I'd probably spend all my time updating and changing it. So I'm only really thinking about what I'm doing now and next, not letting myself think about anything else. Well, not much, anyway. It's hard though, when I keep looking at yarn and imagining what I could make with it!

Anyway, back I go to Rogue. I can't keep myself away from it. Did I mention that I love this pattern?

New Knitty Up

Yay!! The new knitty is up!! I've just been looking through the patterns, and there's a few I'd like to make. I was going to post pictures, but there's actually quite a few, so I'll just post links. You all probably know what they look like by now anyway!

Coachella
Tangerine Twist
Sophie - but probably without the split in the neckline
Coupling
Breeze - probably a bit longer
Sweetpea
Wisp - I was just looking for a mohair scarf pattern to use up stash yarn - how did they know???
and I really like Prickly Girl but that would involve maths to size the pattern up to fit me. Maths is scary, but that top is so cute!!! Oh, the dilemma!

But before I get to all those, I'm making Rogue. I've got past knitting the pocket now, but I still have a bit to go before it's joined to the rest of the sweater. This pattern is lots of fun to make - it's knitting up really fast cos its Aran weight wool (it seems like all I've been using lately is 4 ply, so it's a welcome change). Also, I like how it's all completely spelled out in easy chunks, and I can tick them off as I do them. I like ticking things off, it makes me feel like I've accomplished something!

Payback from the Knitting Gods

Oh knitting gods, I have been unfaithful! And I accept your smiting. The lesson is learned. One big project at a time, thou shalt not be adulterous. Please accept my humble offerings of yarn and bless this humble WIP.

I have been smited. I started Rogue before finishing Blueberry, got halfway up the kangaroo pocket, held the sweater up against me, and realised it was too big. Huge. Boatlike-like is not the word, more starship-like. There was no way I could ever wear it like that, I'd be swamped.

My fault, of course. I don't seem to know what size I am. It happens with just about every project, I either start it too small, or too big. Very rarely have I started a sweater, and picked the right size - in fact, right now I can't think of any that have been the right size first time off.

So I have decided this is payback for not finishing the blueberry sweater when I KNEW I should. It's been at the back of my mind bugging me for days. All that it needs is to be sewed together and a collar put on, how difficult can that be? I know that if I start it now, I can be finished by tonight. Yet I hang back, not wanting to sew up a few lousy inches. But, knitting gods, I heed your warning. See, a photo of Rogue in mid-rip:



And tomorrow I shall post a picture of a finished Blueberry sweater. Please accept my humble apologies, and believe I'll be a more monogamous knitter in future.

(P.S) I'm not really insane, honest!

Late For The Party

I've been shopping!

I got some acrylic/wool 85/15 yarn from a charity shop, enough for a sweater (even though I already have about five projects lined up in my head) and a couple of magazines.


The new Knit Today - I love that magazine, and all the patterns in this edition look like stuff I might actually make! You know when you get a magazine and it has 2 great patterns, then the rest are stuff you KNOW you'll never let anywhere near your needles? Well, this one doesn't have any of those for me. I know other people will have different tastes, but I liked all the patterns in this one - even the baby ones are nice, and I never really pay attention to baby patterns, not having any babies to knit for.
And on the left, that's VK from Winter 1989. I was looking through it and, OMG, big boxy colorful (intarsia) patterns were big then! But there's a few I might make (smaller, less boxy, less colorful ones), and it's interesting to look through it to see what knitting was like 17 years ago!
I saw a Jean Greenhowe book as well, but was trying to be good and frugal, and I thought I don't knit toys so I'd leave it. I'm kicking myself now, well, the insane collector part of me is. Maybe I'll go back see if it's there still. I don't know. I've still got stuff coming through the mail that I'm waiting for. Do I really need another book that I probably won't make stuff from for years, if at all?


I also bought some old sci-fi novels. I love the old style sci-fi books, the thin ones with the cool artwork on the front. They're just so full of imagination, and I spend nearly as much time looking at the cover as I do reading them!

It's just a shame I can't read them while I'm knitting - too fiddly with little books like that. But I did discover podcasts! (I know, where have I BEEN?) and have been listening to Cast On while knitting the blueberry top. I'm going through all the old episodes, and was listening to the one with the Rogue sweater, where she describes the big craze in 2004! Where have I been? I only just discovered blogs last year, and I'm only starting my own just now! Still, that's me, always the last one to the party! We'll just say I'm fashionably late, huh?

Oh, speaking of podcasts, is there anyone out there who knows how to put buttons onto the sidebar in Blogger? I can't figure it out. I can get links up there, I can get pictures up there, but I want a picture that is a link, if you know what I mean, so I can put one up for Cast On. If there's anyone out there that could tell me how to do it, I'd be so grateful, I just can't figure it out!