More Socks, and a Performance

I'm a bad, bad blogger, I know. No cookies for me. I logged in earlier and noticed I haven't blogged since the 21st of February! I've been knitting only socks - I seem to have been going through a bit of a sock phase just now. I finished a pair of 9 to 5 socks, which I thought were going to be a bit plain after the monkeys and pomotamous, but I love them! I love the little cable going down the heel, and overall just think they're really cute. On my first attempt at them, I kept the cables going right down to the toe, cos ordinarily I hate stockinette toes, but they didn't look quite right like that, so on the second sock I did the stockinette toe, figuring I could rip one of them out. I ended up keeping the stockinette toes. This particular pattern just looks better stopping abruptly for some reason.




I'm knitting a pair of brown monkey socks just now. I started them as an easy project to do while babysitting. I pretty much have that pattern memorised now, and can see I'm going to make lots and lots of them.




I tried to knit some drunken bees socks, but that didn't go well. The yarn I was using was a little too thin, and there were gaps everywhere. I frogged them, and I'm going to try again with a different yarn. I think a darker one will work better too, since the red was a bit bright for all the little cables.


I was also practicing for a performance last Saturday. I performed a solo with Isis wings at a hafla (which raised a lot of money for a very good cause), and was totally terrified. I got up to dance (I was midway through the first half, there were a lot of acts), and my legs just turned to jelly. I couldn't stand still and do anything, because my legs wobbled every time I did so, so I had to keep moving and dancing. I forgot my choreography about a minute into the song (which was five miniutes long), and then just had to improvise. I kind of figured that was going to happen though, because my mind was just totally blank from nerves. It went really well though. It was my first performance with Isis wings, and a lot of the audience hadn't seen them before, so they seemed impressed. Phew! The thing about Isis wings is that they do a lot of the work for you, they just look impressive and lovely and shiny all by themselves, so you don't need to do that much with them to do a successful dance. Just as well, really :D

Some WIPs

Immediately after I finished the Monkeys, I cast on some Pomatomus. I've finished the first sock now, and am just past the heel on the 2nd. I'm using the same wool as for the monkeys. This pattern is so much more difficult though. Or maybe not difficult, now that I'm halfway through the 2nd sock, but it's definitely more fiddly. It took me 4 hours to get through the first repeat on the first sock! But it's worth the time spent on it:



I actually cast it on in orange first of all, but then realised (after two long repeats, that this shade of orange is possibly the worst colour that could sit against my skin. It made me look all washed out and yucky, so that got frogged, and I went back to red. Anyone else noticing a theme here? It seems all my projects so far this year except one baby hat is some shade of red or pink :)

Oh, and I changed the toe so that it was in the ribbing used in the rest of the pattern. It looked kind of weird suddenly changing to stocking stitch, at least to my eyes, when the rest of the sock was ribbed. The sole is still in stocking stitch, I only changed the top.

After completing the first sock, I needed a small break from Pomatomus-ing, so I cast on this Chinese fortune cat, also in red:



This is him unstuffed, and without a face. The pattern is from justjussi.com and is so adorable! I hope mine turns out as cute as hers!

Obsessed!

I made Monkeys!




I have this HUGE cone of 100% wool that I found in a charity shop ages ago, and after I'd finished making Wicked, I was looking through the stash trying to find some other firey coloured thing that I could make. I have a sweater in mind, but it would fit in with the earth theme of project spectrum better, so it's waiting till April, which isn't that long really. So, I came across this huge cone, and suddenly realised it's sock weight yarn! I could get a squillion pairs of socks out of it, but it's sock weight regardless of how many billions of yards are in it. So I cast on Monkeys on Monday night, and finished them this afternoon (Wednesday). I got a bit obsessed ;/

I knit for hours and hours yesterday and today, so long that I got about 2 level ups in Knit Wars just for the time alone. I think possibly Knit Wars might be partly responsible for the obsessiveness. I play a lot of RPGs anyway, and levelling up is always fun! I'm Level 4 now, squee! (I'm so going to need to put the button thingy in my sidebar)

Anyway, the socks! I love them! I'd started making them before, but with stripey yarn, and the stripes didn't really work with the pattern. I like them in a solid colour much better. And this yarn is so bright! I had a lot of fun making these, obsessed as I was.

I even swatched the yarn first, and washed it and everything, cos in the cone, the yarn felt a little scratchy. But once it was knitted up and washed with some hair conditioner in cool water, it felt just fine! The pictures are of the socks unwashed (I just couldn't wait!), but even then they're not so scratchy as I thought they might be. So I'll probably end up with lots of red socks from now on! I want to make the beaded shawl from the new Vogue Knitting as well:



My mind's just buzzing with new things to make right now. I just need to remember to get some sleep between all this knitting!

Wicked!

I finished Wicked!




I love it! It didn't use up quite as much stash as I thought it would - only 2.75 balls of Wendy Aran, so roughly 550 yards. So I've still got a ball and a half left over, but I'm so pleased with this top! I suppose I could have made it with long sleeves, but I prefer the short sleeve ones that people have made, so I kept that look.

I made a couple of modifications to the pattern. Originally, I cast on 128 sts, for the 40" version, but that was way too big. The next size down had 124 sts, which doesn't divide by 8 for the cable rib pattern, so I cast on 120 and increased by 4 on the 1st row after the cable rib. I made the body longer to about 12.5" before I added the pocket, then I added another inch of stockinette before the bottom ribbing, as the pattern had the pocket hitting right on the ribbing, and I didn't like that. And I also changed the bottom part. It was supposed to be seed stitch instead of ribbing, but I did the cable rib again. The sleeves as well, the pattern calls for just going straight into the ribbing, but I knit a few rows first, 5 I think.

This was my first top down sweater, and I tried it on sooo many times before I was finished. I'd definitely make more though, because of the ease of adding shaping.

Ooh, this also counts as my first Project Spectrum project of this year. I've been on a massive joining kick recently. I joined Knit Wars, just in time for getting xp for finishing Wicked! And I've also been joining random groups on Ravelry (I'm in 49 now, which isn't much compared to some, but still seems like a lot!).

Quick Note

Doh! I just realised that although I get an email when someone comments, I can't just hit reply to that email and write back. So probably every email I've tried to send throughout the lifespan of this blog has not gone through. Sigh. I apologise if you've commented and I've been a total blogger noob and seemed to not reply. I probably did and it just didn't go through. You'd think I'd have read the address on the emails before now and realised it said "noreply", but no, apparantly I am the worlds biggest internet noob. So I'll try email everyone that I've tried to email before, but it might take some time. :)

Scheherazade done and Wicked begun!

Schehrazade is blocked!




It's HUGE, at least lengthways - I had to clear a big space on the floor to get a decent photo, and even then there was still crap in the way :( (I'm having a few issues with the whole spring-cleaning thing that's going on. Please ignore me while I have a tantrum or two)

But I have to say, I think this is the most beautiful thing I've ever made (all thanks to the wonderful pattern). I really want to make it again, in some proper laceweight. The yarn I used was really thin cobwebby 2 ply, so I think it's a bit thin widthwise.

Some close ups:




I really need to try take better pics of it.

So anyway, I've been working on Wicked for the past few days. I'm using the last few balls of the Wendy Aran that I made Rogue with. I wasn't sure if I was going to have enough for the pocket, but then I got down past the shoulders and realised that it was going to be far too big. I totally forgot all about negative ease :) So, it got ripped back, and I'm making a size smaller. Now it fits fine, but I'm trying it on every inch or so cos it's my first top-down sweater and I'm totally paranoid about shaping. Right now, I'm past the pocket and have done some shaping for the hips, but I've got a feeling that might need to be ripped back and re-shaped. I'm just not confident right now with shaping. I guess I'll need to get over it though, since this arrived from amazon the other day:



I do have a picture of wicked just past the chest, but I'm not posting it cos my bf took it and I look lopsided and weird :)

365/08 22-28

Erp! This should have been up last week, but I've been busy, and the bf's been eating up the bandwidth, which makes it impossible to upload pictures. Blogger doesn't seem to like uploading if the other computer on the lan is doing anything internety :( Anyway, while he's sleeping, here's last week's pics.



Tuesday 22/01 - A pretty picture of some stones in a dish.



Wednesday 23/01 - In my plans, this was going to be the picture I took on Monday (when I didn't take any). The church hall where I practice dancing. I'm practicing Isis wings right now (as well as sword, but I can do sword in the house), so all that space is pretty useful!



Thursday 24/01 - Oh no! I don't seem to have a picture in my folder for this day! I was so sure I'd taken one :( Grrr, that means two days this month that I forgot!



Friday 25/01 - Tupac eyeing up my bf's dinner. Honestly, this is what he's like every time we eat, and he just will not stop it. I think he got sent out the room soon after this pic was taken.




Saturday 26/01 - A pretty sparkly thing for dance day. This is a close up of a large glass necklace I own. No photoshopping or nothing, just a close up.



Sunday 27/01 - You've seen this pic already - the baby hats for my cousin. I washed them before I went down to drop them off the next day, so this is them after drying. I wanted to test the machine washableness before I gave her them. This is also the day she was born, so it's a good pic for that day. :)



Monday 28/01 - I'd actually gone to visit my parent's to give them their anniversary present. They've been married 30 years now! This is the cards they got from various people.