Sock it to me

Finally I have finished my second pair of socks! It really was a struggle at the end to get there, as I wasn't in love with the colour choices I had made, but thanks to a looming KAL deadline I pushed on.

I ran out of my contrast striping colour just above the ankle, which really didn't matter so much as by then it wasn't contrasting anymore. Lesson learnt, next time I need to check a lot further in to the striping yarn before settling on a contrast!
The mock lace cable stitch I used on the leg is excellent, easy to knit (no cable needle), looks effective and gives a lovely squishy stretchy rib to the sock.
So I'm not in love with them, but I've learnt a lot along the way. The fit is excellent thanks to learning about knitting a gusset to accommodate my fat ankles! The heel fits much better than the afterthought heel I previously tried (although I think again that's mostly down to the gusset). Learnt a great mock cable rib, and a new bind off 'Jenys surprisingly stretchy bind off', which again is easy but so effective.
I've also learnt something about joining a KAL. It worked well for me by having a deadline to meet, I know these would have been cast aside when the striping yarn ran out otherwise. I didn't get any sense of being 'cheered on' as I've seen people comment, conversely I find it hard to ignore those who completely go against the spirit of the thing by entering items they clearly made before the KAL commenced. Not even smart enough to edit the dates on their project pages connected to the entry. Clearly just in it for the prizes, and I'm finding it hard to keep quiet about it, but at this stage, I know better than to stir the crazy when it comes to internet groups!

I've joined the next KAL already, with a Christmas gift theme, although I'm not sure what I'm going to knit on for it! I have been trying out a few Christmas decoration patterns and thinking over what I might do with them, and I still have two shawls on the needles to, so keep knitting!

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Knitvember

Is it the cold weather? Is it lack of other distractions? Is it an addiction? I don't know, but I have gone knitting crazy of late. Which also means I've been spending hours on Ravelry queuing up even more things to knit! Having been home with a cold for a week has provided plenty of Harry Potter watching and knitting time too!

There's the socks from Knitabulls Podcast KAL, these have been a learning experience. I've only made one pair before, and then used an afterthought heel. This time I tried a short row heel, and I tried it over and over, for some reason I kept stuffing it up and ending up with an uneven number of decreases. After a few goes, I settled on good enough and knitted on:

As the colour change progressed in the yarn though I didn't like them, it looked like the foot part and the leg part were two different socks? So I bit the bullet, and have now pulled them back to before the heel. In searching for a new heel style, I discovered 'gussets' so I pulled back a bit more and knitted a gusset and short row heel, making a much neater and better fit. Now I'm continuing on up the leg and including the stripes to try and make the colour blend better - I'm not sure how many more stripes I can squeeze out of the purple yarn though.

Then I cast on a new hat for myself, the Elfunny Beret by FadenStille. The pattern states for an average sized head, of 53.5, mine is 60, which means ‘one size fits all’ sit on top of my head like a fez. I was in need of a new hat for winter, one that properly covered my ears, and use a yarn that I don’t find itchy. I generally don’t have any problems with any yarn mix, until it’s a hat, then my forehead is incredibly itchy!

Using two balls of Patons Click, from my stash (yay), I increased the cast on by 10% to 88, adding a full graph repeat, cast on with 4mm and changed to 5.5mm for the lace work. I kept getting a bit lost on the lace chart and making errors, mostly down to reading it from the iPad, and watching a movie on the same iPad-meaning I read the chart line, then close it to resume movie. It would have been a very quick knit if I hadn't needed to pull back a number of rows to correct an error, I must learn how to use lifelines.

I blocked it using an upturned large soup bowl on a dinner plate! Fits great, I'm really happy with it.

Then an even quicker knit was the Gaptastic Cowl by Jen Geigley. I bought this yarn in Stockholm with the intention of trying a Wellie Warmer pattern out, but I wasn't happy with they way they knitted up. I immediately frogged them and found another use for the yarn so it didn't add to the stash! This will be for a friends birthday. I would definitely knit this again, as it makes for a super quick gift knit, although I don't enjoy knitting on such large needles - I used a 12mm circular. I also found it difficult to successfully hide the join of the two balls of yarn, so next time I would look for single skeins of enough length. This one used two balls of Drops, Andes.

Then more stash matching to my Ravelry queue, and I cast on the Olympic National Park Shawl, by Very busy Monkey. I had three balls of Drops Alpaca in the stash which is so lovely and soft and I think will make a lovely shawl. I have no idea what I originally bought it for!

Just incase that wasn't enough, I went for one more cast on, another shawl. I managed to match up two more balls from the stash to cast on Dream Stripes by Calliau Berangere.

There is kind of a plan in all this casting on though. The socks are a good small portable project, which now the heel is turned, I can work on anywhere, without a pattern and pick up and put down without a problem. The KAL goes until the end of November so that won't be a problem to finish them, and it will make sure they are finished! The National Park Shawl requires constant pattern watching, and is a perfect chance to give something more complex a try while I'm home to focus on it. The Dream Stripes is a really simple increase pattern, which I've cast on ready for the next travel trip, and or when the socks are finished.

I'm trying very hard to resist casting on for Christmas gifts and ending up with panic knitting, like last year! Instead I'm going to focus on chipping away at the stash, and perhaps there will be some finished objects that then become presents.

Enough typing, I've got knitting to get on with!

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New York New York

I was very lucky to have a weekend in New York, on the way home from the work trip to Orange County. I was so excited, and although it was only a weekend we visited a lot of the highlights. Autumn colours, pretzels, outdoor skating, yellow cabs, lots of coffee, miles of walking, visiting iconic stores such as Tiffany's and FAO Schwarz, we rode up to the 86th floor of the Empire State, and so much more!

I've always thought of it as somewhere I wanted to visit one day, now I think it's somewhere I certainly want to go back to!

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A different type of Autumn

This week we are in sunny California, and amazingly, this is what Autumn, or Fall, looks like! This is the view from my hotel room, how very spoilt. It's even been warm enough for people to be swimming in the gorgeous resort pools, in the middle of the day when the sun is overhead anyway. I had to go buy sunblock! I seriously can't wrap my head around the fact this is November (maybe that sounds odd coming from a native Aussie, but I've gotten used to European seasons now).

So it's been rather odd, that I've been sitting out on the cabana by the pool, knitting socks! This month I've joined my first ever KAL (knit a long for the uninitiated). I'm still trying to understand the online knitting world, discussion boards etc on Ravelry, and decided to get into it and give it a try. I have become addicted to watching video podcasts about knitting, which led me to find Knitabulls, who have a group on Ravelry of 4000 members! Knitabulls is the lovely Diane, who appears to have a very laid back approach on the whole KAL rules - some other groups I've previewed seem to have long complicated rules and conditions to even join the group, never mind enter anything.

The November KAL is Socks, something I've tried only two times so far, one pair successful the other a total failure, here's hoping this time around goes well. I had to dig out my Knitting Master class book again to get the Invisible cast on right, so knitted up the toes at home before coming away, then I got this much knitted on the flights!

Wow did I get in a mess though, trying to take yarn from the inside and outside of two balls of wool within one bag. I spent more time unraveling knotted yarn than knitting I think, but loving the effect of the self striping against the solid.

I may have overestimated how much knitting I would need for my trip though, I brought these socks, yarn for a new winter hat, some boot toppers that I've started but want to start over, and my shawl to finish the lace edge! Of course, I've spent more time queuing up even more patterns! Somehow there's just never enough hours to knit is there?

 

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Skansen tropicarium or 'When Lemurs attack'

Just before leaving Stockholm I revisited Skansen's tropical section. I've been once before about 18 mths ago, and it's taken me till now to get over the last visit. Let me explain. I love Lemurs, they are the funniest things to watch, especially on a cloudy day when the sun suddenly pokes through, and every Lemur stops, sits cross legged and faces the sun with their eyes closed. It's like the weirdest yoga class you've ever seen.

So when I first read about the tropicarium, and that as part of it you walk through the Lemur enclosure, I was so excited. It's quite a large enclosure with a winding path with stairs upto the next level to exit, and there are a lot of Lemurs in there.

All looking so innocent

Excuse the blurry selfie, but this was me, full of excitement when I first entered the enclosure. The Lemurs seemed quite happy to completely ignore my presence, and I pulled out my sketch book to draw, and things went down hill, quickly. Despite the warning signs everywhere about not feeding them, clearly people do, and reaching into my bag, and some rattling paper set off a signal to every Lemur in that enclosure that I had food, and they wanted it. I found myself in the ludicrous position of running back and forth and literally in circles trying to outrun a pack of Lemurs! They were an organised gang, some took up place blocking the exit door! All I could think of was they would run up my legs, scratch or bite - but that I absolutely didn't want to hurt any of them stopping that, so the only solution my brain presented was 'run in circles why I think about it'.

I did get out, no Lemurs were harmed, but I was a shaking mess! Of course it's now a hilarious story, but I was terrified at the time.

So fast forward 18mths and I decide to head back, mostly to draw the Sloths. On my last visit they were hanging around looking like this:

On this visit, they were all asleep, curled up in balls.

'Jub Jub' was still there, in exactly the same spot.

As for the Lemurs, I'd convinced myself that you didn't have to walk through the enclosure, but turns out you do (if you want to see the rest of the exhibits). So I but my big girl pants on and walked through. By halfway all bravery had gone, and I found myself attempting to use a 5year old child as a shield. Thankfully neither of us were attacked, but I don't think I'll be going back again.

 

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