WIP Wednesday - Oh my, where did all this come from??

I felt this morning that I hadn't really done that much this week to write about. I've been kind of skipping between projects again, and that's made me feel like I've hardly accomplished anything on any of them. Then I went through my project bags to take photos :)

I've been knitting on three projects this week. I've got an afterthought pair of socks on the go - this pair from the toe up. No photos yet of them though. And I cast on two new scarf projects. I finished the Willow Scarf (I think I said that already in another post) but it's not steamed out yet, so it doesn't count as an FO yet.

The first scarf is another rectangular scarf to work on when the bf's mother comes to visit. I'm using yarn from two cones held double, so it has to stay beside the sofa, and that's the only time I'm on there. Same yarn as the willow scarf - laceweight burgundy acrylic. I got the two cones from a charity shop ages ago, and they've been never ending. This should be the last scarf that comes off those cones though, they're nearly finished! :D



The pattern is Falling Water by Bonnie Sennott. It's a free pattern off Ravelry. I cast on 48sts, (an extra couple of repeats) and it's been going really fast. I chose that pattern because the repeats are quite a few rows long, so I wouldn't get bored with it so easily. That's the plan anyway. I've got to the stage where I've memorised the pattern, and can just read where I am on my knitting, which is always good :)

I also cast on Celaeno by Rosemary Hill, from the 7 small shawls ebook (the first one). This is the first pattern I've knit from that book so far, but there are lots more that I want to make from it. I've purchased the second book too - can't wait to see the patterns she comes up with for it!

I'm using the Sundara fingering silky merino that I won in a blog giveaway from Lina at photoknitdog. It's so lovely to knit with!! So soft and squishy! I'm really enjoying it. I was going to make Elektra from the same book with it, but it turned out that I didn't have quite enough yardage for it. With this pattern, I have a bit too much yardage, but I'm just going to make the shawl/scarf bigger. I've knit up to the point where the pattern says to start the lace, but I'm going to follow her instructions for making it bigger and knit more garter stitch.



I've also done lots of spinning and spinning related stuff. I plied and set the green yarn I'd been working on (it turned out to be merino), and I'm very happy with it. I'll be casting that on soon, as a pair of Deep In The Forest mittens. The pattern is printed and I'm all ready to go!









I was worried that the dark green would be a lot thinner than the light green, but I think it'll be fine. Setting the yarn seemed to make it a lot more similar to my eyes at least.

I also spun and plied all of the pink fibre that I had.





This is corridale - I'm going to make some sort of scarf/shawl thing from it but I haven't decided yet. It turned out to be somewhat of an aran weight - I'll have to search Ravelry and see what patterns are there. I had quite a bit less of the dark pink, so I still have some light pink singles sitting in my basket. I'm going to go back to my LYS and see if they've got more of the dark pink, then spin that up to go with it (there's enough of the light pink left to make that worthwhile)



And so, with all that spun, I was still itching to spin something, so I went back to some cream coloured corridale that I'd spun singles of ages ago. So long ago, that the twist is completely unenergised just now. So I'm plying them up, and I'll see what they turn out like.

And that's another WIP Wednesday! I've been a lot busier that I thought I had, and I've still got 2 FO posts to write :D

WIP... Thursday :/ - Mostly The Afterthought Heel Sock

This week I haven't had as much time to knit as I would have liked :( I've been busy with other things - some of which have been fun, like dancing at a hafla on Saturday night, and some of which have not been so much fun, so I won't mention them :) I did go to see my mum the past couple of days, which is why WIP Wednesday has to be WIP Thursday this week. But hey, at least I'm making myself write something, so I won't beat myself up too much :)

Because it's on youtube already, I'll link to the video of me on Saturday, but I think I'll try to write a more in-depth post for my dance blog, which has been sorely neglected as of late.



I was dancing to "Tribute to Um Koulthoum" by Ahmed Bergaoui.

Anyway, knitting!! I've been mostly knitting on my afterthought heel socks.



I've knit most of one sock. The heel will go where that yellow line is in the middle of the sock (in between two lines of grey.



It's so weird seeing just the tube of the sock without any heel. I measured the foot of the sock against one of my short-row-heel socks that I have. I figure they should be the same size since the afterthought heel is essentially the same shape, just constructed differently.



For the toe, I was doing the usual ssk, k2tog decreases, but it's been bugging me for some time that when I do these decreases, they don't look the same on either side. I started with the ssks on this sock toe, but it was annoying me how they looked different, so I started experimenting with the decreases as well.

I ended up using a different decrease for the majority of the decreases (you can see the ssks on the first few decrease rows and how it's different from the ones above). I ended up doing a slip one knitwise, knit a stitch then pass slipped stitch over decrease, and I think it looks far more like the k2togs on the left hand side. I think that will be my standard replacement for ssks from now on, because I was evidently doing something wrong with my ssks (either that or ssks are just not the same as k2togs, but everyone seems to think they are, so I figure it must be me) Anyway, that's what I'll be doing from now on.

So, I've still to put in the heel, I'll write about that next week.

I also did a repeat and a half on my willow scarf, but it's at the stage where it just doesn't seem to be growing. I think I've got about another 5 repeats or so till it's done. I'm just knitting a little on it at a time whenever my partner's mother comes to visit, so it'll get done eventually :) I figure it looks much the same as last time, so I didn't take another picture of it.

I'm hoping to get more knitting done this week, I've got a few things to finish for the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup. I also have a bunch of FO posts to write at some point this week, yay!!

WIP Wednesday - Lacy Baktus

Hey, 3 weeks in a row blogging on a specific day!! Go me!! I never thought I could manage even 2 weeks in a row, not really, but it's actually been really motivating. Thinking "Right it's Wednesday, gotta take a photo and blog" has been really helpful for me (I know, it's only 3 weeks, but for me to maintain any kind of routine for any amount of time is pretty spectacular!) And even if I don't blog in between Wednesdays (like this week), it means that the poor blog doesn't get abandoned until I can find the time to take tons of photos of FOs.

So, this week my main project has been my Lacy Baktus:



The pattern is Lacy Baktus by Terhi Montonen. The ravelry pattern page is here. It's a triangular scarf knit side to side, based on the Baktus pattern by Strikkelise: ravelry pattern page for the Baktus scarf is here, with lacy stripes.

It's quite an easy knit, which is why it's been worked on so much this week. I cast it on only 3 days ago, and I've already knit half of it, and am onto the decreases. I'm using a heavier weight yarn than called for in the pattern, a DK yarn instead of a fingering weight yarn, and I'm also using more of it. You would normally get one skein of sock yarn and split it in half to knit the two sides, but I'm using 2 full 100g balls of Stylecraft Life DK Prints. It's 75% acrylic, 25%wool, 298m/326yds to a ball. I'm using colourway 2398 (pampas), which is green with red and blue flecks.



I was going to knit a plain Baktus out of this yarn. I got the two balls of heavier yarn because I knit one from sock yarn before, and I wanted a larger, cosier one this time. But then I was watching the Round The Twist video podcast, and Carin was making a lacy Baktus scarf from handspun, and I thought that the pattern would look really good with this yarn as well. So I cast on, and liked it :)

This WIP will probably become an FO before too long - it's knitting up really fast. The only thing I had to do was to put a safety pin in the side where I was doing the increases (you can just see the silver line of the pin at the bottom of the scarf running along the side, beside the needle in the photo). Before I did that, I was making a few mistakes as the scarf got larger - doing increases on the wrong row, or on the wrong side, but as soon as I put that pin in, I didn't make any more mistakes and it started going super fast. I'm enjoying knitting it very much, I may have to make more of these :)

WIP Wednesday - Willow Scarf

I've seen this idea on a few blogs recently - WIP Wednesday, where you talk/write about something that you're working on. And since I only seem to write about projects when they're done now, I decided to try to implement it on my own blog. I kind of miss tracking the progress of large projects, and it's somehow less satisfying to only have one post saying "look, here's a sweater" and that's it.

This week's WIP is the Willow Scarf. This is a pattern (found on ravelry here) by Vikki Harding of Wild Fire Fibres. It's a rectangular scarf with a repeating lace pattern.



I'm using 2 cones of lace/cobweb-weight yarn held together to make more of a fingering weight yarn, on 4mm straight needles (yes, I've resurrected my straights for this, and I'm quite enjoying it!) It's making a nice fabric, not to thin or flyaway, which it definitely would be with one strand of yarn.

It's acrylic, but the lace is still showing well, and I've used this yarn and needle combination before, so I know it'll look even better when it's steam-blocked.



Lots of people think you can't block acrylic, but steam-blocking does open it up and make it look a lot nicer. You just won't get the big size increase that you can get by blocking wool. Whatever the knit size is, that's the size it's going to stay. But you can still make it look really nice with steam-blocking.

To block acrylic, I just lay the scarf out flat and hold my iron a few inches over it (NEVER directly on the fabric!!!) then I press the steam button. I get the fabric nice and saturated with steam then take the iron away and lay it to the side (VERY important, I always take time to think during this process, and make sure it's away, I don't want to burn myself!) then I flatten the scarf out a bit with both of my hands, stretching the lace out so the holes open up.

This scarf is about 3/4 done. My rule of thumb with scarves is to hold it between both hands across my body so it'll be about the size of my wingspan (the same height as me, I understand, though I've never actually measured myself and tested that theory) I don't tend to measure it out very often. I used to religiously measure out 60" or whatever the pattern said with a tape measure, but really, does it matter if it's an inch or two or even ten off? If I can hold it out between both hands without folding my wrists or elbows in, then it's done to me. I'm either more lazy or easygoing about this stuff now, I'm not entirely sure which, lol!

This project is my couch knitting. Because I'm using the two cones together, it has to be beside and slightly beneath me or the cones fall about everywhere, so I've got them in a paper bag beside the couch, and I pull the yarn up from there. It means it's less portable, but I can get a repeat or so done at a time and I can see progress.

I've technically memorised the pattern, but I still get halfway through the repeat and need to check the chart. It doesn't seem to matter what half I finish, the first or second, I still need to verify where I am with the chart. But since it's not one of my portable projects, that doesn't really matter, I suppose.

I'm enjoying working on this in my piecemeal fashion, doing a few rows at a time whenever I can sit down long enough. I started this back in March, so it's one of my more longer projects, but I'm enjoying it very much.

Dipping My Toe Back In

Hiya :)

Gosh, it's been nearly two months since I last wrote here :( I've been having some issue with confidence and general motivation, so it's been hard for me to take photos and write about what I've been doing or making. I think I'm coming out of it now (fingers crossed!), and I've been really missing this little place on t'internets!

I have been knitting a lot of things, I just need to get around to taking pics of them all! I had a brief spell the past couple of weeks where I couldn't knit anything - I hurt my elbow ironing :( Too much repititive motion lifting the heavy iron up and down for 2 1/2 hours trying to get it all done. I've learned my lesson though, I'll never do that much ironing again (if any,lol!) It was so hard not to knit anything, but it just was so sore if I lifted my arm anywhere near my body or straightened it, and I didn't want to injure it any more than I had done already. I'm back to knitting now, but not too much at a time. My arm still hurts when I first get up in the morning, kind of a dull ache up from my elbow, and sometimes throughout the day, so I'm taking it easy for now!

I couldn't believe how many things I use my right arm for - just about everything! I couldn't even lift the kettle at one point to make a cup of tea! :( And I also couldn't believe how I just cannot sit and do nothing. I get so bored and antsy, it's quite ridiculous. So I read three big books instead :)

Let's see, I've got a few photos of my knitting on flickr, what is there?

I made a couple of pairs of socks from self-striping yarn:





The yarn was Fortissima Socka Mexiko, bought from Twist Fibre Craft Studio. I did a short row heel with the yarn from the other end of the ball so that the colour repeats would keep going. I like these socks, but I've decided that I'm really not a fan of the short row heel. It's fun to knit up, but it just doesn't sit right on my feet :/

I made the World's End Fingerless Gloves by Deborah Gall of the SavvyGirls podcast. I love this design, as soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted them! My pic is a bit rubbish, very overexposed. It's only on flickr because I liked the effect. I'll take better ones soon :)



And lastly I have pics of the Rippenschal scarf that I made. This pattern is by Margarete Dolff, and is another one that I wanted as soon as I saw it.





The wrong side looks pretty cool too :)



I made this from a blue acrylic yarn, possibly Robin DK but I'm not sure.

Wow, that was a longer, more involved post than I thought I would write! It all comes flooding back! :) I'm planning to take more pictures, and get more involved in the online world again :) See you all soon!

WIPs and Patterns

I think doing lots of small projects is helping my knitting mojo come back. That and browsing all the fab patterns on ravelry. :D I have more than my usual number of WIPs on the go just now, but it seems to be working out fine. Yesterday I worked on some socks, and managed to finish the first one:



Pattern: express lane by Diane Mulholland
Yarn : Rennie 4 ply pure wool
Needles: 2.75mm (my gauge seems to have tightened or something recently, I've had to go up a needle size for socks)

This is another pattern that I had printed and had been sitting in the hello kitty folder for ages, and since I'd enjoyed making my last pair of socks, I pulled that pattern out, and got to work. And it's fab!! I love the pattern. I've made a few mods - I'm doing a figure 8 toe cast on, and a reverse heel flap a la widdershins, and I'm only doing the lace on the front. The first one knitted up really quickly! I made it mid-calf length. The trouble with toe-up socks for me is that I'm always tempted to continue right up to the knee, but that takes too long! I think I've made this one just right.

I've been making the feather and fan comfort shawl too, but mine is going to be more of a shawlette.



I'm using a random laceweight that I found in a charity shop a while ago, and 2.5mm needles. That one's going ok, but it's getting larger now so the rows take a little longer. Not as long as if it'd take if I decided to make a full shawl though! Just as well I'm into the triangular type scarf just now :D

I've also started the josephine crocheted gauntlets which I came across on ravelry and also have been meaning to make for ages, but I'm only a few rounds into those, so there's not much point in taking a picture yet :)

There's also the vest that I'm trying to design for myself, and have just got hung up on the numbers. I don't understand why, cos when I do it, it'll be easy enough, it's not going to be complicated or anything, but my brain just doesn't want to do it just now. So it's in the corner, but it's still a WIP, it's not been abandoned yet!

Oh, and I found these pattern booklets in a local charity shop too!



I didn't buy them all in one go, but over the past couple of weeks. I feel kind of weird taking them up to the counter, cos it's a young girl who's been serving recently, and I'm sure she must just be like "why on earth would you want those old things?", but she's nice though, and probably isn't thinking that at all, I'm probably just projecting my own issues, but anyway, I was well chuffed when I saw them! They are kind of old fashioned with the edgings being on tablecloths and doilies and all sorts, but they seem easy to adapt to modern usage. And I love pineapple crochet designs, so I was very pleased when I saw that one!! (I managed to keep the squee to myself though, and not totally freak the poor shop assitant!)

There are a bunch of other things I want to cast on right now, and normally I'd get a bit freaked out about having so many things on the go, but I've decided just to go with the flow. Compared to other people anyway, I don't even have a lot of WIPs! And I'm sure I'll go through a finishing stage as well later on, so they'll all get finished really quickly, and I'll feel really productive! :D

Plaid Scarf #2

Here's a pic of my 2nd Shades of Plaid scarf.



The details again: The pattern is from the CrochetMe book (amazon link) and is the Shades of Plaid (ravelry link) scarf by Julie Armstrong Holetz. I did my single crochet instead of chain variation, and it's very warm. Just what I need right now :)

I really like this scarf, even if the pic of it is a bit crappy :/ I'll try get some better ones, because I think I like this version better than the green, yellow and brown one. The colours are quite accurate in the picture, very tartany.

As soon as I finished this scarf, I wanted to make another one, but I'm stuck in xmas knitting garter stitch scarf hell just now ;) Well, it's not too bad, but there's a lot of knit stitch going on. I'll definitely make another at some point, it's my new favouritest pattern evaaar! :D I'm thinking about doing one in two colours with slightly different stripe variations. This pattern definitely has my colour imagination going. I keep envisioning different combinations and variations, and I think I'm going to end up with tons of them ;)

Small Warm Things

Oh my goodness, it has been freezing here! I know it's December now, but still! The weather forecast predicted a big snow on Thursday, which didn't appear :( I looked out of the window on Thursday morning expecting to be inundated with snow from the way the forecast was, and it was raining!!! I was very upset, I wanted to make a snowman! Still, at least with the rain, the temperature has gone up a little. It's now more like 0 degrees Celsius, rather than -4! My gas and electric bills are going to be so huge, the heating has been on all the time more or less.

It's been so cold that I had to make some small things to keep myself warm. Any excuse, eh? ;) I did want to make some more sweaters, but it's too cold. I want small things that are quickly finished and can be put on to keep me warm.

I made this scarf:



The pattern is from the CrochetMe book (amazon link) and is the Shades of Plaid (ravelry link) scarf by Julie Armstrong Holetz. It's my new favourite pattern ;) I've already made another, but I don't have pictures yet. It's great for stashbusting, and I love the tartan-y effect. Must be my Scottishness showing through!

The pattern calls for making a mesh then threading a crochet chain through it, but my chain wasn't big enough for my mesh holes, so I single crocheted (double in UK terms?) into the chain. That made it big enough, and also made it super super warm. I wore my other one out yesterday, and it definitely kept the chill away! I can see I'm going to make quite a few more of these. I keep looking at them and thinking of new colour combinations for it!

I also have become obsessed with cowls. I don't know why, two weeks ago I thought they were the silliest thing ever. I mean, why not just wear a scarf?

But then I made this



and have now decided that they are great. This one is the Darkside Cowl by Sarah Fama, and it's available as a free download on Ravelry.

I love this also. I love how it keeps my neck warm, and yet is not bulky at all. I'm getting a new jacket for Christmas (shhh, I'm not supposed to know, really!), and I keep thinking how great this will look with it.

There was a kind of convoluted process to getting to make this. I have this other yarn that I was trying to think of what to make with it, and saw another cowl pattern which I thought would be perfect, but the pattern got lost in the yarn. So I started looking through the patterns on Ravelry trying to find another one. I didn't find one for that yarn, so I've ended up having to design my own. But then I looked at my yarn on the shelf and saw this gold yarn. I remembered seeing the Darkside Cowl pattern and it just clicked that the two would go well together. It knit up really fast, about a day overall, and I'm very happy with it.

So now I'm designing a cowl for the other yarn that I originally intended to use, and when I was tidying my stash yesterday I came across another two yarns that would look nice as cowls. Some wider and floppier and some tight like this one. It's a bit scary, this sudden obsession, but I might as well go with it. Because of Christmas etc, the new cowl pattern probably won't be written up for a little while, but I'm planning to write it up and put it up for free. Eventually. ;)

Now I'm off to make more small warm things :)

Luna Lovegood Scarf

I'm a bit obsessed with crochet scarves right now. Here's the latest one:




Luna Lovegood Scarf by Pinkleo. She doesn't seem to have a website that I could find, but she's on ravelry, and the pattern's on craftster.

Again, I love this scarf! I haven't even seen the film it's from yet (I know, what kind of Harry Potter fan am I!), but the pattern came up in a ravelry search. It's made side to side, starting in the middle then working outwards, one side at a time. The scarf just seems sooo Luna Lovegood though, KWIM? I had to make it, she's one of my favorite characters.

I used some yarn I found in a charity shop - this time it's not random! It's Hayfield Memories - 50% viscose, 30% acrylic, 20% nylon. I knew when I bought it that it would become a scarf, but this pattern just seemed perfect for it. I need to take better photos though :)

Acacia Galore!

I tested out this great scarf pattern recently, and loved it so much I made two! (the link takes you to the ravelry page where you can download it for free). It was designed by Moggle, and her blog post about it is here. I'd loved the pattern since I saw a pic on her website. I'd been waiting for it to come out anyway so I jumped at the chance to test it. Here's my pics:





The purple one is made from Sirdar Country Style DK using a 4.5mm hook. I had a little bit left from one ball:



The white scarf is made of 2 strands of 4ply mystery yarn (probably acrylic) from the stash, held together, and using a 4.5mm hook again. I want to dye it with some burgundy dye I've got - I say I'll do it soon, but it seems whenever I say here that I'll do something soon, it gets left to the side for like, a year. So, my intentions are to dye it, I'll say that much, then it might get done :)

Yeah, so in case you couldn't tell, I really liked this pattern. Now go make one yourself, although I warn you, you'll be addicted too :)

The Adventures of Treenah (complete)

Treenah is finished! And what a journey it was. Before I get into the long saga, let me just say that I love this scarf, and the pattern! Thank you to Megan Marshall for creating such a great pattern!

First, the pictures.



This is the yarn I tried to do it in at first. I've spoken a little about it already in this post, and my difficulties with crochet in this post. Once I got over my initial difficulties with crochet (although I'm still having trouble with gauge in general), the actual making of the scarf went by really fast. However, this happened:



That's supposed to be the same dyelot. Yup. So as those were the only two balls I had of that yarn, I gave up totally sick of it, ripped it out, and started again with another yarn. I was not going to let this scarf beat me! After that, it took only a few days to finish.



And here's me wearing it (indoors with a t-shirt on :)



And here's my wig head wearing it:



The yarn I used was a random acrylic from my stash, but it opened and flattened out nicely after washing it and laying it out flat. I made the middle part a bit longer, because of the way I like to wear scarves, and only 'cast on' (however you say that in crochet-speak) 33 (stitches) because of my gauge. This was again what I would call a DK weight yarn, but I'm learning that there are apparantly two different types of DK, and this would probably be called worsted in America.

It's really warm and lovely to wear, and I'm very happy with this scarf. I would definitely make it again, and may well do :)

Still working on the WIPs

I'm getting further along in my 3 projects. Stargazer just needs to be blocked and sewed, but I'm procrastinating. I don't know why. But I'm NOT letting myself cast on another sweater till its finished. Otherwise it'll sit there for ages till the next one needs sewed too. I know what I'm like :)



My garter stitch shawl is now 42" along the top. It still needs more though. I'm not even counting how many stitches I have cos it'll depress me. One row now takes AGES, but it's good for watching subtitled Japanese series with. I've been watching Egao no Hosuko and At Home Dad - I have to admit, I have a somewhat serious crush on Abe Hiroshi - swoon!



And I'm halfway through Treenah! It's actually really fast once you get going, and the lace pattern is quite easy to remember. I went up a hook size at the lace part, to make it more drapey, and also to widen it, cos the lace pulls in more than the treble crochet. It's still a little thinner, so when I make this again (which I think I will, defintely, it's such a great pattern!), I might make the middle part thinner then increase the stitch count at the lace part. This picture is of the first half blocking out, cos I wanted to see how it blocked. I'm using a 80% acrylic, 20% wool yarn, cos I didn't read the pattern properly before I bought it, and didn't realise it would need blocked. It blocks out fine with just wet blocking though, although maybe one day I'll iron it out or something. It doesn't really need it though. The only thing was that it was hard to stretch out and I'm not sure if it'll stay stretched. A wool yarn would probably be easier to stretch and stay blocked.

50th Post Free Pattern! The Sparkle Scarf!

My 50th post! And so I thought I'd put up a free pattern. The Sparkle Scarf!

I came up with this pattern in between Mystery Stoles, while looking for something quick and easy to make. This certainly is easy - only one line to memorize. Here's a close-up of the stitch pattern:



Materials:

I used a spare ball of mohair I had lying around (on 6.5mm needles) - the yarn looked almost grey all wound up, but as it knitted into the pattern, it suddenly seemed much brighter, and well . . . sparkly, hence the name.

Finished Size: Mine is only 7.5 inches wide by 3.5 feet long, I'd normally knit it longer, but that was all the yarn I had. I like it anyway. Of course, you can knit this pattern as long as you want, and it'd probably look good in a variety of yarns. Anyway, enough waffling, here's the pattern:

Cast on an odd number of stitches so that it's as wide as you want. I cast on 29 sts, which gave me the 7.5 inches. Your own gague will depend on the yarn and needles you use.
Row 1: *K2tog, YO* rpt till last st, K1
And rpt till the scarf is as long as you want it or you've almost run out of yarn.
Cast off.

Hope you like it!