Out of alignment

After a crazily busy month, this Sunday is a day of rest and I can't emphasise enough how much it is needed.
In the past month we have been to three weddings, I have a new job and just as an example of the business yesterday we helped load the van for the company who runs our LARP (it is the main event of the season next week) and then had friends over for the evening. A day off is very welcome.

It is going to be an especially relaxing day for me as I dislocated and broke my little toe yesterday, so I am currently on the sofa with it elevated, and have been informed that I am to not move from this spot. Why yes, there are pain killers in my life, thank you for asking.

A full day of knitting sounds perfect to me, though there are some hiccups.
The shawl sample I am knitting for easyknits is one thing where there is a hiccup. The pattern is Orbit and it is my first attempt at a circular shawl. It is pretty, the yarn is lovely, and everything was going swimmingly. Until I thought to myself "gosh, there are quite a few rows to go, and not much yarn left". So I weighed the yarn and it came in at 11.4g, with more than ten 500+st rows to go.
I knit doggedly on (after having PMd the designer) and lo and behold, I have run out of yarn.

That is on hold while I wait for Jon to get back to me.

I think today may be a day for continuing to knit my Orchid Thief. With a fair wind, I may be able to get close to completion.

I am supposed to be knitting a water bottle carrier for the event next weekend. The pattern calls for cotton yarn and so I am double stranding dishcloth cotton with some leftover Rowan Tweed I had kicking around the stash. The truth of it is, though, that I hate knitting with dishcloth cotton, so I am disinclined to do anything to it.
Is having a broken and very sore foot an excuse for knitting exactly what I want instead of what I ought?

First cooking post

The title of the post promises knitting, spinning and cooking and so far there has been a distinct lack of food posts. That is mostly because I have been making old staples, easy food that doesn't take a massive amount of time to cook. In a future post I will link to some favourite recipes (this is another link free mobile post).

About eight years ago I started getting a veg box delivered in a desperate attempt to get myself to eat more vegetables. When I was growing up while my mother loved vegetables my dad only really liked sweet corn, and I think that made it acceptable for us as children to not bother developing a taste for vegetables. I've been trying to reeducate my palate ever since. 

The theory behind the veg box was that the vegetables would arrive and because I hate waste I would be forced to eat them and hopefully over time learn to like them. 

And to a massive extent it has worked. My fidelity to veg boxes has waxed ad waned over the years based on my financial situation at the time, but right now is a veg box phase. 

And cauliflower is the bane of my life. I don't much like it, we often get them, and every time one arrives B suggests cauliflower cheese. The whole point (to me) of eating more vegetables is health, and so to slather the cauliflower in a cheese sauce twice a month kind of defeats the purpose of eating the bloody thing in the first place. I tend to suggest things like a daal with phanch phoran, but we have run out of both the right daal, and the spice mix, and so I had to get creative. 

Thus last night we had roast cauliflower fajitas. I roasted the cauliflower with a chopped yellow pepper and a sliced onion coated with a teaspoon of oil and a generous coating of fajita seasoning. We then wrapped this with salsa, sour cream, guacamole and salad in tortillas. 

The cauliflower mix took about 20 minutes in the oven and I was amazed at how good it was. It's another one for the list of 'dishes where you don't miss meat' for me, and I think it will become part of a regular rotation for us. 

In knitting news things (sock, orchid thief, blanket squares) have been mostly pushed to the side. I signed up to help easyknits make some samples for an upcoming pattern book and the yarn arrived earlier this week. 

The pattern is a circular shawl and this will be the first one I've knitted in fingering weight yarn. It's currently the size of a large doily and over 200 stitches. 

The yarn is easyknits deeply wicked. I am

Not sure of the name of the colour way, but the colour is so bright and vibrant. In the skein I hated it a little but the more I knit with it the more I find it really cheerful. 

I also sneak in a mitred square for the blanket every now and then. They're so little and cute and brainless for when I'm exhausted. 

Startitus

I tried to resist. I really did, but I have somewhat given in to my natural inclination to start All The Things. 

It happened after I blogged on Saturday. I was swatching away for the Ink cardigan (please excuse the lack of links this post, I am blogging on the move again) and my eye fell across a copy of Brave New Knits that my friend lent me. So I idly flicked through to The Orchid Thief, which has been in my queue forever and is beautiful and by Ysolda. Then I casually went across to my stash, and I lazily picked up some yarn. 

The next thing I knew this had happened:

The yarn is more burgundy than this photo shows. But I am now nearly done with the repeats of chart 3, with only (only! Ha! We all know that's where the yardage is) the edging to go. And I love it. 

So I acknowledged my slip and promised myself I would finish the socks. This happened yesterday. 

They don't quite match but considering I didn't try to make them match, it's not bad. This is the fifth pair of socks that I have made for him indoors, and I feel we have reached a point where he is very understanding about my desperate need for more yarn when he is gifted socks fairly regularly. It's a compromise I can certainly live with. 

But on the train I hadn't any other knitting with me, and so I knit a couple of little mitred squares. 

I am so utterly charmed by them. Absurdly charmed. So I plan to knit more, and in a good few years will hopefully have a sock yarn blanket. Eventually. I am not being unrealistic about the fact that this will take forever. 

But I still needed some train knitting. 

Yes. More socks. Yarndale is coming up, and I think more socks will help smooth that along rather nicely. Links to yarn and pattern next post. No one is going to look at this picture and go 'wow, best pattern ever, what on earth is it?' Principally because you can't see the pattern yet. It's a toe. 

When I get back (I am away for three days at a wedding) I will need to cast on a shawl for a sample I am knitting (more details later) and I do want to actually cast on for Ink. A friend and I have agreed to do a KAL for it. So if there is time, I should at least aim to finish The Orchid Thief before I cast anything else on. 

What are the chances?

Lazy weekend

This is a mostly lazy weekend for us. We were at the wedding reception of a coworker of mine last night, and we are attending the weddings of friends for the next two weekends, so we scheduled some much needed down time.

As such, I felt it was the perfect time to start a new project. I've had a 500g cone of King Cole Merino Blend 4 ply in my stash since a birthday trip to Texere earlier this year. It's this lovely shade of grey, and I have been indecisive as to what to use it for.

I finally decided on Ink by Hanna Maciejewska. I bought the pattern and realised that I didn't have needles small enough. The pattern recommends 3mm and 3.5mm needles, and while I have 3.5mm circs, the designer also notes that she is a loose knitter. I am not. I am a ridiculously tight knitter.
Thus today I swatch.

I am not a fan of swatching. Once I have decided on a project I want to be knitting it, like yesterday. But I always end up with sweaters with a mildly disappointing fit, so swatching it is. And maths. And measuring myself. So today I will swatch and wash the swatch and dry the swatch and contemplate the swatch and measure myself and then contemplate the two together. Yes, I am muttering under my breath over here.

In other news the sock progresses, and I skeined some of my handspun.

It still amazes me on every single level that it actually looks like yarn. Real, live yarn that I made myself.

The blue is about 200 yards of roughly DK weight, and that's enough to make an actual something. No idea what yet. I'm happy for it to just sit in my stash for a while looking exactly like proper yarn.

Blogging from a bar

So today I am blogging from the pub. I'm using the blogger app and I hope it works. I want to try to keep up blogging at least a couple of times a week, and that means blogging on the move this week (nice try app, changing the word 'move' to 'love' there, but I caught you).

I have been progressing on the socks. I promised myself that I would pass the heel of the second sock before I cast anything else on, and I achieved that this morning. 

Yes, the red counter top of the bar I'm in looks awful with the sock on it. Needs must, I'm afraid. And you can see still my provisional cast on down by the toe. Still, past the heel. Now hours of mindless 2x2 rib until I run out of yarn. 

I figure this to now be a commuting project, or a project for when I am exhausted and my brain won't function. 

I have been thinking about what else to knit. I want something more complicated, and my current WIPs aren't really speaking to me. I am thinking of a sweater. In fact, I am almost decided on Ink by Hanna Maciejewska (apologies for the lack of link). I have a cone of very pale grey King Cole 4-ply sitting in stash that I think would work very well. I will swatch soon. Yes, I swatch. 

I think I'm also going to spend some time reading Knit to Flatter by Amy Herzog which I got a couple of months ago. I see maths in my future, but a sweater that fits well is worth it. 

It occurs to me that I have posted at least one picture of a WIP with a pint and now I am blogging from a bar. Yes, it is true, I like real ale. It has only been a couple of years since I started drinking ale, and I like it a lot. There are so many small breweries starting up, at least two pubs in my town that brew for example. I think it's wonderful, and exciting, and I feel like I could draw parallels between small beer producers and small indie dyers. 

If you also like real ale, I would recommend the app untappd. It's free and lets you log what you're drinking and (if you like) where you are drinking it. It even gives you badges. Incentivised drinking seems silly, but as with everything else I think moderation is key. 

On the subject of ale, I would recommend a project of some friends of mine who are reviewing every bar in Leeds city centre: www.leedsbeer.info

So I shall post this blog and await my other half with my sock and a pint. 

Socks, spinning and why I'm a bad Domestic Goddess

Since returning from LARP, I've been mainly trying to catch up on sleep. The 10am-2am LARP schedule can be quite punishing, and I always have some trouble getting back into a normal sleep routine on my return.
I have, however been doing some knitting and some spinning.

I've finished one of the socks, and have made a start on the second. They aren't going to match, but I was aiming for the longest socks I could get. B tends to wear hand knit socks at LARP, and it is useful when they are long enough to go over the top of his boots. When the ball weighed about 65g I used the balance at work to split the yarn into two and knit the first sock until I ran out of yarn. On trying on the sock it looks like had I knitted much longer I would have had to consider some calf shaping.
I love the yardage on this yarn (it is Wendy Roam).

I have mostly been spinning though. The heat we have been having means my hands are slightly damper than usual (nice, right?) and that makes knitting less comfortable.

I've been spinning the blue/green 70s merino. I have finished the spinning, getting two and a half bobbins of singles.

I've plied one of te full bobbins, getting about 85m of yarn.

My spinning is still somewhat uneven, but the yarn certainly looks okay. I'm hoping to ply the rest tonight, and am hoping for about 200m. Enough to make a cowl or a hat, but in all honestly I think I'll mostly be looking at it for a while. And stroking it. And feeling a little smug.

Next up I am torn between spinning this:

which is 35g of 70s merino from Mill House Designs, or this:

which is 100g of superwash BFL from easyknits and is so beautiful I want to wear it like a crown.
I'd like to try some chunky yarn, so may experiment with the purple merino for that.

I can't actually recommend Jon over at easyknits highly enough. Every time I have dealt with them he has been friendly and professional and his yarn and fibre are simply delicious. If you haven't already, check out the web page.

Today has mostly been a day of domesticity. We have cleaned the fridge, defrosted the freezer and hung some curtains in the living room (thank you Arianwen!). I've lived here for nearly three years and have only just gotten round to hanging curtains. I'm not the most adept of domestic goddesses, it must be said. I have also learned today that when I put things in the freezer, even if I am certain that I will recognise whatever it is when I come to use it, I will not. I have a bag of something that is either cookie dough or mushroom sauce. And that is one of the most identifiable things in there. It is perhaps less than ideal.

I've reread The Millennium Trillogy by Steig Larson recently, after getting copies of the films. I had forgotten how good the books were, and would highly recommend them. As with so many people, it is a shame that Mr Larson died as early as he did.

Live Action Roleplay

I've been a little quiet these past few days, and that's principally because I've been in a field doing another of my main hobbies, live action roleplay, often abbreviated to LARP or LRP (for the traditionalists). LARP is a somewhat nerdy hobby full of fantasy and adventure, and I've met a distressingly large proportion of my friends there.

Photo credit Steve "The Flasher" Mitchell

The system I go to runs four main events per year in the summer, and any number of smaller events through the winter months. It's a fantasy LARP, meaning you might be interacting with goblins, ogres, fae, deamons and various other fantasy races.

Photo credit Tom Hughes

Incidentally, that shawl is Baskerville (link to my project) by Beth Kling. I must get a better picture of it sometime soon.

This past event there was a tea party, there was a rigged election, and my character nearly died. Only the once, though, and that isn't bad going for me.

I'm looking forward to the next event in six weeks time.

In the meantime, I need to get on with the socks I'm knitting, and try not to give in to my tendency towards startitus.