And then there was a knitting update

Two blog posts in one weekend? I'm on a roll.

I seem to have got quite a lot of knitting done since I last did an update (OK, so that was back in June, so hardly surprising).

My Fantastic Purple Cardigan is nearly all knitted, I just have to sew the seams and knit the edging. I blocked it on the spare bed one week and it took up loads of room, as it seems to have come out rather large. That's a good thing though, as it's meant to be a baggy cardigan.

I got frustrated with the Mini Mania Scarf and ended up frogging it. I'd wanted to knit it to use up odds and ends of sock yarn, but found that linen stitch was hurting my wrists if I did it for too long so decided to give up. Plus, all my machine washable sock yarn leftovers seemed to be variations on mud colour (have I really knitted a whole pile of mud colour socks?) which didn't make for an interesting scarf. Instead I have started a Sock Yarn Leftovers Blanket using mitred squares. The pattern is more of a recipe into which you add in whatever weight yarn and needle size you want. It's very easy to follow, and this is a great project to pick up when I need something fairly mindless to knit, such as at knitting group where I'm busy talking and drinking wine, or when I'm at home watching TV with subtitles (anyone else enjoying Les revenants?)

My Aeolian Shawl is coming on well, I've just started the edge pattern, although there still seem to be a LOT of rows to go. I've really enjoyed knitting this and, apart from a blip last week when I did four rows wrong, it's been fairly straightforward knitting. It is quite time consuming, as it's now at the point when it takes about 45 minutes to do a knit row.

On a trip to our nearest proper yarn shop, Mrs Moon, with a friend back in May...

I bought a couple of balls of Rowan Cocoon to make a scarf as I wanted a nice straightforward pattern for TV knitting and to take on holiday with me. I finished knitting this in the hottest week of the year - because what more could you want in 30°C than a chunky knitted scarf?!

Not sure why my ribbing looks a lot more even in the photo than it is in real life.

That was a really good shopping trip, as I also found in the sale a copy of a book I'd wanted for ages, Little red in the city, which has lots of info inside about knitting to fit your size and shape.

Think that's all for now.

Startitis

I appear to have got a bit carried away with starting new projects, although there is a reason for the craziness, especially now I have more knitting time. I started off working on a Mini Mania Scarf, which is looking good, but the linen stitch was making my hands hurt if I did it for more than an hour, so I needed another project to work on alongside it. I decided to cast on a different lace shawl, as I was struggling with the South Seas Stole pattern, so decided to switch to something else. One of the other librarians on our knitting librarian jaunt in February was wearing a beautiful Aeolian Shawl, so I have started one of those instead. So far, so good, although it turns out I can only knit lace when I'm the only person in the house and nothing else is happening (other than the Cazalets on Radio 4), which has limited the amount of time I've spent knitting it.

I thought a nice contrast to the lace would be some aran, so I cast on Velvet Morning, which I'd planned to knit after acquiring 9 balls of Araucania Toconao in a sale from Norfolk Yarn whilst on holiday in Norwich a couple of years ago. I then acquired three more balls in contrast colours in an online sale from Stash Yarns later on.

This is lovely squishy yarn to knit with and feels wonderful. I got gauge and happily knitted away, until I checked gauge again on the Fair Isle section and realised I was way off. So, having got this far, I had to go back and start again.

 Although it turns out the variegated colour works better on 5mm needles as the pooling's been eliminated. I'm really enjoying knitting this, and using the two handed Fair Isle technique I learnt on a workshop at Get Knitted in Bristol back in 2009. I can still remember how to knit continental!

 Whilst the Fair Isle is OK for TV knitting, it really wasn't suitable for taking to a conference (too many colours, too many balls to consider alongside taking notes, and lots of aran not a great idea for on the train), so obviously I needed to start another project. This one needed to be small and portable, so I went back through my queue and chose Froot Loop, some socks that I've been wanting to do for a while. I got my 4 ply boxes out and chose some stash (funny how that's easier with the actual yarn out, rather than going through my stash catalogue). I matched it with some cheap n' cheerful Woolcraft Superwash Sock Yarn (they must have spent ages thinking up that name), purchased at the Knitting Box in Barton-upon-Humber. Actually, I'm rather pleased with the yarn, as it's nice to knit with and the colours are great.

So, I have somehow ended up with four projects on the go. Oh well, they all seem to be progressing well and variety is the spice of life...

My birthday!

I am now so old my nephews can't count as far as my age (they did try). That is REALLY old. Fortunately they were on hand to help me blow out the candles on my (first) cake:

This year my birthday fell on a Saturday, so I hopped onto (several) trains and headed up to Nottingham for the weekend. On the Saturday we walked in Bramcote Hills Park where there were plenty of leaves to play with.

and some beautiful views.

Afterwards some of us may have been accidentally diverted into Yarn, where we bumped into a crowd from Knit Lincs on a shopping expedition. The nephews had gone home with my brother (for some reason they don't find yarn shopping an exciting prospect?!) so my SIL, Mum and I had plenty of mooching time.


I bought seven skeins of Mirasol Hacho, to make Suri, from the Mirasol Collection Book One. Yarn diets don't apply on your birthday, right?

And then, when I went into work this morning, one of my colleagues had made this:


Birthday cake no. 2!! This one is lemon (the first was chocolate). Between the two of them there were 16 candles so I have declared that I am 16 (again). And I'd booked the afternoon off work, so spent it having lunch with friends, then showing them round the area. Oh, and maybe eating some cake too.

I've been making impressively fast progress on my Irish Hiking Scarf:

I seem to be knitting much faster these days. I also seem to be developing a thing about cables as I've finished off Noah's tank top for his birthday in December.


Thank you for all the birthday greetings I've received - in the post, by email, on Facebook and on Ravelry. I've been a bit overwhelmed by the number but I *think* I've managed to reply to everyone. Apologies if not...