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!

Blueberry not Blackcurrant

No progress on Rogue - it's not even cast on yet. The pattern isn't even printed out yet. I've been trying to get on with the Blackcurrant Ice Cream top. I keep making mistakes with the cables and not noticing for ages, then having to rip back. I had to rip out 3 inches yesterday! But that's nothing, the day before I knit about 7 inches altogether (not in one day, right enough), realised I'd made a mistake, ripped back and got thoroughly confused trying to put the stitches back on the needles. So I got annoyed and ripped the entire thing. This must be the fourth or fifth time I've started this top. At least it's my fault the past few times. I was so gutted when I found the error in the chart the first time, then when I couldn't fix it quite right the second time. Now I've got my head round it though, and mostly I'm working from a chart in my head, rather than the one in the magazine. It's a shame about the error cos it's a really nice pattern. Here's a photo of the progress so far:


This is going to be the back. For the front, I'm not going to make those bobbles on either side - they look a bit too nipple-tastic when it's held up against me. Oh, and I've also made it a bit longer by continuing the cables for a few rows more than they were meant to. It seemed very short for me, it's better for me to have it too long than too short - I'm more likely to like it that way. It seems like it'll turn out to be a suitable length now.

I like the way this yarn is knitting up, even though I've no clue what it is. The ebay listing said it was wool, but in the UK that's often used just as a way of saying yarn. It doesn't feel like wool or cotton, but it doesn't feel like acrylic either, at least not 100% acrylic. It's plied kind of like a bit of string, and I'm not really sure how to describe the feel of it. Not as rough as wool or acrylic, but definitely not as soft as cotton. I think I'll have to take it somewhere, maybe a yarn store or something, and see if anyone else knows what it is. I never wash my hand knits in the machine anyway, or rub them, so it would never get a chance to felt, but it's bugging me that I don't know what it is. Oh well, I like it anyway. But I'm going to have to rename the top to Blueberry Ice Cream - the color is just not blackcurranty at all.

Finished sweater

I've finished another sweater!



The pattern is from The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns by Ann Budd. It's a set in sleeve sweater with a crew neck. I really like that book. This is the fifth sweater I've made from it. It's made with Sirdar Flash in Sunset, I think it's called. I've already ordered the Peacock color from ebay so I can make another.

I seem to have been going through a bit of a finishing phase recently. I sewed up this and Mariah, both of which I had had lying around for months. There's just something about sewing things up . . . I don't know what it is, because it doesn't take that long really. I feel really weird now cos there's nothing waiting to be sewed up any more. Nothing. It's all finished. Knitting isn't quite the same without something calling from the bag in the corner to be finished up. Oh well, I've got two, soon to be three projects on the go just now, so they'll all be waiting to be sewed up at the same time soon, I expect. Those are the Blackcurrant Ice Cream top, the Peacock sweater (when the yarn arrives, next week hopefully), and I was going to start Durrow, like I said in the last post. However. (By the way, this happens a lot with me, there's always a 'however')

I swatched for the pattern, being really good and swatching in the proper stitch pattern and everything, and it was going good. I had gauge on stitches and rows. But the color wasn't quite right. I had imagined the yarn as more of a dark wine red, and when it knitted up it was more of a scarletty red. Too bright for Durrow, I think. I'm thinking that pattern will look best in dark wine red, black or navy. Or another dark color. But this yarn is quite bright and cheerful. SO I was knitting it up, thinking I was just going through that phase of 'could I be knitting something better', then suddenly I remembered a pattern I'd bought ages ago, after seeing Purl Friday's finished one - Rogue. This seemed perfect. But I didn't feel right just changing pattern like that. So the swatch sat there for a few days while I pontificated. I kept staring at it, thinking, I bought this to make Durrow! It wouldn't be right to just change - besides, I'd already told everyone, in real life as well as here, that I was going to make that one. But I think I've decided. The yarn wants to be Rogue. It told me so when I was swatching (stop looking at me like that, you know yarn does that!). So I have to let it be Rogue. If I try to force it into being Durrow, something terrible will happen (by the way, you should also know I can be a little over dramatic). So pictures soon of Rogue progress, and I figure that leaves me free to go shopping for yarn for Durrow! Yay!

Mariah!

Finally, after months of procrastination, Mariah is finished!




I love it! This pattern is soooo beautiful, and so much fun to knit. It was designed by the fabulous Jodi Green, and I saw it on Knitty when it first came out, and fell instantly in love with it. I spent ages looking for the perfect yarn, then came across 4 balls of some obscure yarn in a charity shop. This one I still have the ball band for - Touch of Class luxury DK by Coney. Acrylic, wool and nylon. I saw it sitting there and thought instantly - Mariah! So of course I snapped it up, and started knitting immediately. It took me ages to get round to sewing it up though, and I really regret the time it sat there in the UFO pile when all it took was a little sewing. I'm so pleased with it now it's finished. It's a fantastic pattern (did I say that already, lol). I can see it's one I'm going to come back to in the future. But next up is Durrow, another pattern by Jodi. She's so talented! Cables seem to be a recurring theme in my knitting right now, but I'm not fighting it. My pictures don't really show off the FO to its best. It doesn't help that my t-shirt is showing through!

Stuff I've done recently (imaginative title!)

Knitting news. I've finished the front or back of the Blackcurrant Ice Cream top. I need to block it before I knit any more though cos I'm a bit worried it's going to be too tight. I held it up to me and it looks like it's the right length, and it'll go on if I make it that size, but it seems a bit clingy just now. So a-blocking I will go, and I hope it goes well, cos if not it means I need to go a-frogging too.

Today I also really need to sew in a zip. I've been putting off sewing in this zip for months, and I don't know why. The actual object has been sewed up for ages, I'm just really crap at sewing things, I prefer knitting them. But I'll definitely sew it in today, then tomorrow I'll have some exciting pictures to put up. There, I need to do it now, cos I've said so in public. Another thing this blog will be good for - getting me to actually do stuff.

On Saturday I went to my dancing classes - they were all excellent. Bollywood was really hard, I missed last week, and she crams so many moves into one lesson. I really need the practice time in between classes otherwise there's just no way I would get any of it.

I also went to a hafla in Tayport. I'm not sure about the etiquette of posting pictures of real people on the net so I'm not going to. Better safe than sorry, I don't want anyone getting annoyed at me for plastering their face all over the net. So you'll have to make do with my description instead. It was a small-ish hafla, with just a few performances. But there was a great atmosphere. Sometimes smaller haflas are good for that. Big ones can be a bit colder sometimes, not so much mixing of people. But this one was really good. The performers were all great, it looked like they were having so much fun. There was a buffet too (Food! always a good thing!). Yum! All in all, it was a great night, and I had a lot of fun.

Sorry about the lack of pictures today, I'll try post more tomorrow. Now off to block! (Ooh, I hope it goes well!)

7 random things

Yesterday I kind of tagged myself on Jodi Green's blog to do the seven random things meme. I figure it's kind of a good way of getting more about myself on the blog. It's hard to know how much to put about myself out here. I mean, most people who have knit blogs seem to put photos, names all sorts of info on their blogs, and I think that's what makes some of them so interesting to read. But I don't really know how much I want to put out there myself. I'm kind of (well, very) shy in real life, and I guess that influences my hesitation to put my real name or photos of me on the blog just yet. Maybe later I'll get more comfortable with it, and you'll all be bored to tears reading about my mundane life (ooh, I just got an interesting typo - mundance). Anyway, what all that was leading to was, that I figured this meme would be good cos it'd be more personal info, but not too much, you know? Here goes:

1. I hate getting water on my face. It causes a lot of problems, more than you'd think. For years I refused to wash my face, it's only recently I've started being able to use baby wipes rather than soap and water. I swim weird cos my head has to stick out of the water, and I eat fruit weird cos I have to wipe my face in between each bit, for instance when eating a big piece of melon and the juice gets everywhere. I also hate slime and reckon I must have blennophobia. Ug, if anyone ever does come to read this blog, you're just going to think I'm totally strange now. And you'd be right!

2. I can speak and read Japanese! I went to uni to learn it, but I ran out of money, and they wouldn't let me finish my course. But I can get by in Japanese.

3. I love reading. I have five bookshelves, not quite all full of books, but I've got more at my mum's house too. I'll read anything, fact, fiction, cereal packets, but my favorite books (at the moment, it changes often) are science fiction and war stories.

4. Red is my favorite color.

5. I can windsurf too! I used to work at a watersports park and took advantage of the half price classes. I've got a certificate and everything! I had problems the first few days cos I hate water on my face, but my body just learned to balance really good really quickly. The feeling of the wind pushing you along is amazing! I wish I lived nearer a lake or something so I could do it more often.

6. I love cute characters like Hello Kitty and Miffy. I went to the Miffy's 50th birthday exhibition in Edinburgh yesterday, and it was great. Look

Tribal Miffy!


Miffy doing a veil dance! :)

7. I like chocolate, all kinds of chocolate. (Ok, lame, but it's quite hard actually to think of seven random things).

Now I need to think of seven people to tag. I'm very new to the blogosphere and I feel kind of weird tagging people. But I guess part of the reason for starting this blog was to get into this kind of thing, and get involved in the communitah, as it were. So I'll tag seven people today, and put a proper post on tomorrow!

Knitting and Crochet progress

Progress has been made on both the knitting and crochet fronts, but it's been a bit of a slog. The Rasta Blankie is still growing.


Colors are still a bit off, but you get the idea. I'm going through that phase I get with every big project, wondering if I like it, or whether I should just rip it out. But I've learned that I go through this phase, and I try just to ignore it now. It still nags away at the back of my mind though (am I wasting my time making this? Could I be making something even better?).

So I cast on a knitting project for when that nagging voice gets too loud. 'Blackcurrant Ice Cream' by Jean Moss from Knitting Magazine, April 2005. It's a lovely pattern. I'm making it in a navy blue 4ply, and I think it'll look really nive when it's done. But. (There's always a 'but', isn't there?) The pattern works in chart form. Difficult, but not a bad thing really. I cast on a few times trying to figure it out. Well, it wouldn't be a bad thing if there wasn't a HUGE error in the chart. Two of the cable patterns have garter stitches going up the back of them in the bottom half! Now, I know from looking at the photos in the magazine that it's not meant to have them. And I know from looking at the top part of the chart that it's not meant to have them. Luckily I had only done a few rows before I had to rip out and do it again, this time making the corrections as I go along. Here's the photo of the current progress:


And yes, that is I-cords at the bottom! The way it's made, it looks as if the cables continue off the bottom into cords. So that's the good thing about making this pattern - I learned to make I-cords! And they're so much fun! It was hard to stop at the required 5". I wanted to keep going and going! (Yes, yes, I know I'm weird!)


So all in all, progress is being made, difficult though it sometimes is. It's all a learning process, isn't it? That's what I'll keep telling myself.