Eager

I have a half day today at work.
To me this means an afternoon of going to the gym, doing some housework and knitting.

At the moment when I have a long stretch of knitting time, the only thing to work on is the wedding shawl.

I've posted this picture before, but it's the one I have right now

I am on row 14 of border chart 2, meaning there are 2 more beaded rows, and less than 20 rows until I finish the shawl. That doesn't sound like much, but there are a huge number of stitches in each row, so it's not a quick job.

As with so many projects, when the end is in sight I want to knit this all the time, and I want it to be done NOW.

Ben and I are taking a road trip tomorrow, and we have friends over on Sunday evening, so the chances of finishing the shawl this weekend are not large. But in my brain, there is hope. I don't know why I'm in such a rush to finish this - there is plenty of time before the wedding. I think perhaps because I have a lot of self imposed rules about what I can knit and what I can cast on until this is done. Once it's done I won't worry that it won't be done in time, either.

So, happy Friday everyone. I hope you get lots of crafting time this weekend.

On Shawls

Reading back through past entries, I have some shawls to update you on.

I finished my Orchid Thief some months ago, and finally got round to blocking it this weekend. What can I say? I am not good at motivating myself to do blocking. I think I feel like I'm not very good at it.

It was an enjoyable pattern, though I knitted from the book Brave New Knits rather than the PDF, and there are some issues with clarity. I managed okay, though, and I am very fond of the final product.

I also finished the sample I was knitting for Jon at www.easyknits.co.uk, and sent that off.

I have rather a lot of Jon's yarn in my stash, and so I decided to knit a Wingspan. Not a huge amount to say about this pattern that hasn't been said a million times on the internet already. It's a great pattern, shows hand dyed yarns off beautifully and is easy to knit.

I need to stop taking FO pics over the back of my armchair. They are not good pictures.
This project has already gone to it's new owner.

Finally, I plod along with my Southern Skies. I desperately love this shawl, and it's not far away from having to decide what edging to use. Right now, however its rather a big bunch of beaded blue yarn with many, many stitch markers.

After the wedding shawl is done, I am planning on putting some serious time into this and getting it done.

Catchup continued - hat edition

Since I stopped blogging, I made a couple of hats.

One of them came about because I had a business trip to Russia at the end of November, and I knew it was going to be cold. The cold in Russia is pretty legendary, and while I was lucky with the weather, I was also very glad that I had knitted myself a hat to wear.

I actually realised I needed a hat only about a fortnight before I left, so I wanted something from stash to knit with, and a nice quick pattern.
I chose Knit Night Hat by Judy Marples and it is a fantastic pattern. Quick, easy, really well written, and the finished object is just lovely. From my stash I pulled out a lovely skein of Araucania Puelo. In the UK this yarn is 100% llama, but from what I understand in the USA it is 100% alpaca. It's a DK weight.

The hat turned out perfectly. The llama yarn is amazingly soft and snuggly warm. My only regret is that the picture of the FO is somewhat dark. I must get organised and take a better one.

The other hat I knit recently was in a panic just before Christmas when I realised that the Super Secret Christmas Socks were not going to be finished on time, and I wanted there to be something knitted for Ben under the tree.
So I knit a Capuchine (pattern by Adela Illichmanova)... which still wasn't finished for opening presents at Christmas. I managed to finish it during Christmas day, though, so all was not lost.
Yarn was mostly Freedom Spirit Chunky from stash, until I ran out. Then it was odds and ends from stash all held together.

The pom poms and tassles were fun to do - I haven't made a pom pom since my days in the girl guides! The hat was very well received.

More catch up tomorrow - I will probably end up posting less when I am all caught up, but right now it is really nice to get back into blogging.

Wedding Knitting

It seems that the date for the wedding is getting closer and closer (time passing as it is wont to do, I suppose).

My current plan is to knit a shawl for me, and some matching socks for Ben. By matching, I mean in the same colourway from the same dyer, not similar patterns.

The yarn I chose for the shawl was Fyberspates Gleem Lace in Deep Aqua.

Colour isn't terribly accurate here

It is the most lovely yarn. One thing I will say about it is that when I knit with it, it turns my hands utterly blue. However from some comments from the dyer, I think it should be okay if I leave it soaking overnight in vinegar before blocking.

The pattern is Sheherazade Beaded Lace Shawl by Anna Victoria. I've chosen to go with 6 repeats of the body pattern. This means that the edging rows are super long, and somewhat tedious.

Edging rows, I hear you cry?

Why, yes, the end is in sight. I'm about 14 rows from finishing it, and only two of those are beaded, so I am truly hoping to get it finished in the next couple of weeks. With a good headwind (read, lots of time spent at home) I may have it done in as little as a week.

Colour much more accurate here

The yarn for the wedding socks has been ordered. I'm going for Fyberspates Vivacious 4ply also in deep aqua. We are still negotiating the pattern - we both really like Firestarter by Yarnissima, but from the notes the pattern is a bit of a pain in the arse, so the hunt continues.

Travel knitting is still my Earl Grey socks, and I honestly can't believe how fast they are going. Maybe socks don't take forever if they aren't all in 2x2 rib?

Rubbish blogger

Gosh, I've been a bad blogger. I have left the poor blog unattended for far too long. Still, I'm back now. 

The inspiration for coming back is partly a lot of the wonderful blogs I read regularly, and partly a visit I made to Chester this weekend. Aimee from a podcast I listen to, Knit, Spin, Cake, and Nic from the Yarns From The Plain podcast had organised a retreat. I didn't go to the retreat but I did go over and meet with them on the Saturday, and had a wonderful time. It led me to thinkng about knitters, and about community, and about trying to be less shy with other knitters, and less scared of the community aspects of knitting. So, I reatart the blog. 

In terms of what I have been knitting, it felt for a while as if I was knitting and knitting and knitting and getting nothing finished. I hate that feeling - it frustrates me no end. But I think I've reached a point with my WIPs where I am starting to finish some significant things, and that feels better. 

I won't post about everything now, I will leave some things for future posts (means there are more likely to be future posts!) but I would like to post about socks. 

Last year, I made Ben some secret Chrostmas socks, and he was really pleased. I was pleased. Everyone was pleased. 

With that much being pleased, I decided to do the whole thing again. At Yarndale with the help of some friends I covertly purchased some yarn (Laal Bear) and cast in with loads of time. So I thought. 

For those who don't know Ben, he is 6'6 and wears a size 13 shoe. This means there are some patterns I've tried for him where one skein of yarn just wasn't enough (this with men's socks is why Jon from easyknits started the big boy range of yarns in 150g skeins). So I bought two skeins. 

Remember, I had loads and loads of time. Months, in fact. 

So I decided to knit each sock out of a whole skein, each skein being 'only' 333yds. 

Ben had also requested at some point that I knit him socks with a princess sole. I felt that these super secret Christmas socks would be a great place to do that. 

I cast on. I knit and knit. I remembered that I hate purling on DPNs. And I knit. 

I hadn't taken into consideration that my job allows me much less knitting time on my commute now. I hadn't taken into consideration the yards and yards of 2x2 rib that I think honestly sapped my soul. 

For Christmas, Ben got a sock and a toe. 

I finally finished the Super Socks of Doom in the middle of February. 

The colour is less accurate in this picture. But they are huge. And he loves them. 

I'm at knit night tonight, and my travel project? Another pair of socks for Ben. I must be some kind of sucker. 

I'm going outside

On December 14th 1911 Roald Amundsen and a team of four men were the first people to reach the South Pole. He, and all his men reached their base safely on the 25th of January.
More famous, in the UK at leas,t is Sir Robert Falcon Scott who reached the pole on the 17th January 1912, almost 4 weeks later, also with a team of four men. On the journey back to their base, all five of them perished due to a combination of exhaustion, starvation and scurvy.

For most of the 20th century Scott was labelled as a tragic hero. His bravery, and that of his team (who doesn't remember the reported last words of Captain Titus Oats, who left the tent in a blizzard to die saying "I am going outside, I may be some time") was considered fact. It was only in the latter stages of the 20th century that people started to question the causes of the disaster.

I have done a fair amount of reading on the race to the South Pole, and find it fascinating. Looking at the vastly different missions, why one failed so monumentally and one succeeded is truly interesting to me. That's why when making the choice between Celestarium and Southern Skies, both by Audry Nicklin, I decided to go for Southern Skies.

For the circular cast on I used TechKnitter's belly button method and found it much easier than the previous methods I've tried.

And I am so very in love with this shawl. My beads arrived yesterday and so I spent the evening on the sofa figuring out beading. I'd already started the shawl, so pre-stringing them was out. I bought a tiny crochet hook for beading, but at 0.5mm it is too small. In the end, I am using dental floss (link to how it should be done here, about half way down the page), but I have no idea what dental floss threaders are, so I am using regular dental floss and a sewing needle. It works, and the shawl will be ever so slightly minty fresh.

It's my first time beading, and look, look how very pretty the little beads are! I am charmed by each and every tiny one of them at the moment.
I should also warn Ben that I'll not be cooking complicated meals or doing much housework for a while. Or going out. All I want to do is sit on the sofa and knit this shawl.
Did you see the tiny beads? Very few things currently charm me as much as those beads.

I am struck by the eternal tragedy that even I am not silly enough to try and do beaded knitting on public transport. This will have to be a stay at home project. That does give me a remote chance of finishing some deadline knitting though.

Commute

I left my travel pass in the pocket of my coat this weekend. I left my coat in the car of a friend of mine in Birmingham. On Monday I took my usual route to work (two busses and two trains) and it came in costing around £15. In order to save money until my pass arrives (it's in the post) I am now going entirely by bus to and from work. 

I could retake this picture but I think the slight blurring shows how delighted I am that my first bus of the day is at 6:33.

I have no idea why getting one bus earlier (usual time of first bus is 6:55) and not getting any trains is as grim as it is, but it is. Trains are faster, less impacted my traffic and the whole experience just isn't as rubbish. 

On the plus side, I love watching the sun rise over the amazing countryside we have here.

On the down side, as I write this on the bus, my feet are sticking to the floor. 

Twelve and a half hours out of the house does not make for leisurely cooking in the evenings, especially as we didn't make a meal plan for this week. 

Last night we had a hodgepodge bake, a more substantial cauliflower cheese with sliced potatoes, roasted onions and sausages. I would have taken a picture, but I was pretty tied and cauliflower cheese (even a variation that's substantial and works as a full meal) doesn't ever really look exciting. 

Still, it was good and would have yielded enough for lunch had I not left it in the kitchen in my hurry to leave the house this morning. 

I finished my orbit shawl. I was so happy! I will block it at some point very soon and post pictures.

I must admit that while the attached icord bind off felt like it would never (ever) end, it gives a lovely edge. 

I am waiting so eagerly for my beads to arrive for Southern Skies. I got a cone of King Cole Merino 4-ply (500g, 2000m, 100% wool) for this project, and it's going to be so very lovely. The other day I actually cast it on and knit up to the point where I would need the beads, so there is about an inch of circular knitting on DPNs just looking at me in the living room. Maybe they'll arrive today?

Maybe my travel pass will arrive today and I won't write rambling blog posts during a combined 4 1/2 hours on busses. I even want the travel pass to arrive more than the beads. After all , my feet are sticking to the floor right now.