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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WIP - most of them imaginary!

Things have been a little slow on the creative front of late, my rotator cuff injury is still hanging around and limiting my crafting hobbies severely. Humph, life without crafting is boring, and I'm discovering expensive, having spent many days of my last four weeks in Stockholm shopping instead of drawing or knitting!

My only drawing from 4 weeks in Stockholm! The growing Elk foal, Skansen.

I have started this Mohair Bias Loop (pattern by Churchmouse Yarns and Teas), in fact I've started it 5 times, but I've got a really good feeling about attempt number 6! Lucky number 6. I have discovered my tension with kidsilk is dreadful, not consistent at all. I finally reduced the number of stitches by 20% to get it back to the correct length (rather than reducing needle size, which A. I didn't have as a circular, and B. I want this open and not overly warm). Having finally settled on this size being correct, it's only taken a couple of nights to get halfway, so should finish this pretty quickly - I want it to take on holidays soon so there's a definite deadline.

Mohair Bias Loop in Rowan Kidsilk Haze Glamour

The tension issue has made me a bit nervous, last year I bought some lovely green mohair for a jumper for myself, the first adult jumper I would knit in 20 years! I was keen to get onto it for this winter, but now very worried about what sort of size or shape it may end up! I may have to knit up a few more scarves in mohair and work on this erratic tension.

I have also been carrying around this lovely ball of greenness for the last four weeks (ambitiously thinking I would finish the mohair loop, and a shawl during the four week trip). Having finally decided on a pattern for it, I'm itching to get started. I bought the yarn at 'Svenska Hemslöjdsföreningarnas Riksförbund' - The National Association of Handicrafts in Sweden. There was some confusion when I bought it as I asked what ply and length the skein was, the sales assistant was perplexed, it seems its a yarn for weaving, but I really like the colour and texture. This skein has done some miles already, I bought it on a previous trip, took it home to the UK, then took it back at the beginning of August, then home mid August, then back for another two weeks, and now back in the UK. We will have to plant a forest to repair our carbon footprint when these years of travel finish! 

(I wound this by hand, very proud of how neat it is!)

I've chosen 'Birch' by Rowan, after seeing a completed shawl in 'Wincent Garner' in Stockholm, when buying the kidsilk haze glamour there for the bias loop. I never would have picked it from the rubbish photo Rowan used on the pattern - really what are you supposed to get from this image? The perfect shawl to wear camping in your pyjamas perhaps?

image from knit rowan.com

  

I had gone round in circles trying to find a pattern, I blame Ravelry that I've become obsessed with trying lace knitting, especially shawls, and started buying lace weight skeins of loveliness. However hours of searching for patterns would result in lots I wanted to knit, but almost none I would consider wearing, at least not in public. Lets face it, people tag you as nanna for knitting in public, wearing a shawl would be the end! From the thousands of them being knitted up on Ravelry though I gather they must be more commonly worn in parts of the US (or perhaps they all wear them at home?). I did try a few on in Stockholm though, wrapping them more like scarves, and now can see that there are some that can be worn in more modern styles.

Ultimately I do want to work my way upto Celestarium, by the very talented, Audry Nicklin (over at Bear-ears.com, photo courtesy of Audry's website). 

I don't care how nerdy it may be, a knitted representation of the night sky from the pole? Awesome, bring it on. Since first seeing the pattern I have been on the search for just the right yarn, in the same amount of time Audry has written a pattern mapping the Southern Stars, and is about to release her first knitting book. One of us is much more productive in the knitting front! 

One final note of shawly nerdom, this one has made it into my Ravelry queue too, I may have to gift to a friend who I think would wear it way prouder than I. For some reason I can't resist the idea of knitting it though.

'Bigger on the inside' by Kate Atherley, photo by Amy Singer (available on Ravelry) 

With some yarns or patterns, resistance is futile.