Six month knitting recap

Well, it looks like I haven't made a post in about six months! I'd be surprised if anyone is still around to read my little corner of the internet. I could blame ravelry for my absence. But maybe I'll try and make a new resolution. One update a week, minimum, and keep track of the weeks crafting activities. Because this blog isn't really for my own enjoyment, it's also here so I can show other people (who aren't on ravelry) what I'm making and how I'm doing.

And so, a brief summary perhaps. Since August, I've knit a fair few things.
From a swallowtail shawl for myself. It was about time really. I'd had knitted two, one for my sister and one for a friend's birthday. This one is in a sock yarn, so it's machine washable (still needs to be blocked) and is also a bit bigger than the other two. Still very small for a shawl, more a scarf really.






Also made some socks on commission, these are in a cashmere blend yarn from theknittery.com and were made for Julie, Sean's mum's best friend. She requested a pink yarn and I picked this one, partly because some of the sale proceeds go towards breast cancer research, of which Julie is a survivor. They look rather strange, but that's because of Julie's tiny size 5 feet.




My cat went missing. He was gone 7 days. Previously, his longest absence was 3 days. Upon his return, he barely shifted from the pictured position for nearly a week. He still refuses to confess as to his whereabouts during that week.






I also knitted most of a jumper. That's it there, on the left. Unfortunately, it soon looked like the picture below. Mostly because I tired it on. It didn't fit. I'm now on the shoulders. That really isn't much, considering it's knitted top down.
















Also made some knitted earrings. They do have hooks on them now, just don't have a decent photo of that. These things are brilliant. Not too heavy to wear, and take about an hour from go to woah and so are perfect for last minute gifts. The pattern is free in the current knitty.com magazine.





I got this off two of my spindles. Not entirely sure why I had the same fibre on two spindles, but there we go. The skein is only about 80 metres and has been gifted to a friend who's about to take up some lace knitting. It's good for a practice swatch at the
very least.





My sister gave me this lovely new spindle for christmas. It's a square resin whorl from butterflygirl.etsy.com and it's part of a club. It means I get a new spindle and 100g of fibre for December, January and February. The fibre for December was a white blend of alpaca, silk and cashmere. It's like patting a cloud! I'll be keeping it unspun till I have a particular project in mind. I'm not wasting it! I'm also really looking forward to seeing what January's parcel looks like!


I finished this shrug on the 31st of December. I really wanted to wear it to the new years eve party. The body of it was cast off on and seaming started on the 29th, the edging cast on on the 30th, and the edging cast off on the 31st, with the seaming finished about 2 minutes before we had to leave.

I'm never ever doing deadline knitting again if I can possibly help it!






I also finished the cutest pair of booties in creation. Again, these were on commission, using the left over yarn from the Julie's bedsocks (above). There's weren't for Julie though, but for a friend at my SnB, who recently acquired a neice. I hope they fit!












And that's what I've been knitting in the last six months. Enjoy!

MIA

Ok, I'll admit it. I've been away for a bit. A bit you say? A BIT?! Well, if by bit you take me to mean nearly three months, then yes, a bit. You can all blame ravelry for this. But then, you can't really see it right now unless you're already in. Just now it's still in beta and thus not open to the general public. It has been sucking my time tremendously though. What with piles of forums, easy to browse patterns, being able to track what people are up to and so on, why wouldn't it suck my time? All in all though, it's been sucking my time away from my knitting budget.

So you'd like to know what I'm up to, now that you know I'm alive? Well, here we go.

These socks here?


They've been frogged. I really wasn't happy with them, and they didn't fit too well. Instead, I knitted these:


They were much more fun to knit, if a little frustrating at times. I certainly didn't get gauge and had to make the adjustments as I went along because maths is one of my big hurdles. They should fit their new owner though! The mini-cables are so very pretty though, and here's a detail shot of them:


So that's one of them so far. I'll leave it at that for the moment and update again soon with more of my exploits of the past three months! If you check the sidebar, you can see little progress bars showing what I'm actively working on at the moment. Enjoy!

Finished Object!

I now have another finished object! I have completed the Alpine Lace Scarf from Victorian Lace Today.

It measures 19" by 62" and was blocked on the spare bed in front of a heater. It's winter, and I wanted it done as soon as possible!



I'm going to miss this stole though. I mean, I still have it, but it has been my constant companion for months. I'd memorised the pattern so I could pull it out, work on it and shove it back in as required. It's suffered the most appalling abuse knitted lace has ever been subjected to: it's lived loose in my handbag and uni bag, been squashed by wallets, phones and laptops, gotten keys and ipods tangled in it, had tea spilt on it, nearly been dropped in the bath (don't ask...)



It has done something else though. I really enjoyed knitting it. While I haven't cast on anything new as yet, I am really looking forward to my next lace project after the mystery stole. I need to cast off one more project before I'm happy with casting on another.

I did order the triinu shawl pattern however, so that's next on the list. If you want to see a photo of that one, let me know. It's a rather expensive pattern, but it's beautiful and it's a challenge!

As for the other challenge, the mystery stole, I finished clue 3 last night.


Let's see if I can catch up! Onwards to clue 4!

(edit: taking a short lace break currently)

Rambling...

Well, I haven't been well, hence the lack of lace.

It's also been bloody cold of late so I decided to knit myself a pair of the fetching gloves from knitty.com. Or at least a variation of them. Mine have 6 repeats of the cable at the cuff, two at the knuckles and the thumbs are a tad longer. I knitted nineteen to the dozen to get them done by Friday night too, with the plan being to go see Pirates 3 with a group of friends and I didn't want to have cold hands.

And here they are done
Turned out I didn't need them. I came down the the flu on Friday afternoon and so didn't really get to go anywhere. I spent the night curled up feeling sick instead. I'm really quite irritated about that. I finished the gloves at 4:30 with an hour to spare before I had to leave. I've also done appallingly little work on the lace because I just cant concentrate. Instead I'm doing more work on the pinwheel jacket. I'm past halfway on the edging and then I have 1 2/3 sleeves to go. It's good, mindless knitting and it's getting me closer to finishing the pinwheel, something I'll be very happy about. I'll also be happy when the lace is done, but my lace mojo just isn't flowing.

It's amazing how things start to pile up. I have a huge pile of stuff, including the pinwheel jacket and the lace, I also have a few projects planned, like a hat I'm designing for a friend's baby, a jumper for me, and I have some sock yarn to arrive early next month because I signed up for the tofutsies yarn club over at ecoyarns.com.au. I'm looking forward to all this, I really like knitting socks. There's something extremely satisfying about wearing you knitted yourself, even if it's something small.

I just realised I haven't done nearly as much spinning as I would have liked by now. Dammit.

And there's uni work to do...

I think I'll go curl up on the lounge with my mindless knitting instead for the moment. At least until I feel better.

edit: photo added on 22 June. Yes, they're fuzzy. They were fished out of the boot of my car post-camping trip for the photo to be taken.

Finished Object!

I have finished a garment! The shrug mentioned in previous posts (pattern found here) is now adorning my shoulders and it's very nice indeed. The tencel yarn feels wonderful against the skin too.

As for the things I've learnt while knitting it, well there are a couple.

1. Don't knit late at night (i.e. after midnight) when stressed and very tired. That's how you get "lace pattern adaptations") Following advice, I continued on with the 'adaptation' and it looks just fine
2. Do not, under any circumstances, continue knitting past that "adaptation" on to your first ever attempt at raglan shaping that's also to be done while keeping the lace pattern correct (that's right, that really easy lace pattern you've already managed to foul up). That's how you develop your skill at fudging the edges! However, it did turn out just fine anyway
   

All that considered, I'm still very happy with it. I did use different sized needles to, if not match the gauge, at least make it fit better than it would have otherwise. Sleeves knitted on 5mm, body on 4.5mm and ribbing on 4mm. All hail the knitpicks options set!

Also, the panic mentioned here? Not required. I didn't need that extra ball of yarn from a different dyelot. It's now sitting around waiting for something to occur... Perhaps a mini-mobius scarf... The yarn is certainly soft enough

And here are some photos for your pleasure, courtesy of Nikki


All things considered, I'm going to call this one a win

Bedsocks on request!

Someone requested a photo of the bedsocks and so, here they are! I knitted them on the spur of the moment, without regard to swatching or yardage checking... hence the orange ankle on the left foot. I think it's kinda cute, so I'm leaving it like that, even though I could put a new cuff on the right sock. Anyway, I knitted them a tad big and so they're really comfortable for wearing around the house. They knitted up in less than two days. It took me two days, but I did have uni on...



And while I'm here and posting photos, here are a few more, of more socks and lace in progress!

This is my new sock. Knitted in some kind of recycled yarn I picked up of ebay. No composition listed but it feels like it's mostly cotton. But it's coming along nicely. I'm not working on them exclusively, as I'm also working on this:

I'm on the 14th repeat of the double rose leaves, but I'm not yet halfway there. However, I have reached the point where I can knit without the chart! It only took 160 rows to do it...

Once again, sorry about the quality. If you like, I might get hold of a family members camera and fix it up.

And a First! My first knitted object from my own handspun!

And here is the finished mini-scarf! I knitted it to use up a few skeins I had lying around, spun up from a samples set from Wendy Dennis of Tarndwarncoort, but I really wanted to knit them. I hadn't any idea how big it was going to be because I didn't swatch, check my yardage, weigh it, or even have a look at the wpi. And despite all that, it knitted up wonderfully!

The pattern is one I wrote for a friend of mine, Wendy. She wanted an easy shawl pattern that could be knitted till you ran out of yarn and she could put ribbons through. While it's hard to tell with this one after I blocked it to within an inch of its life, there is a border of eyelets up the sides of the triangle too. Hers is being knitted in a varigated red mohair. I might put up the pattern here if anyone would like it. It's easily adaptable, and I'm planning on knitting a bigger one with lace motifs all over it. And no, I didn't swatch the pattern either. She asked me for it after 10pm when I was amazingly lacking in yarn and needles in my vicinity. Either way, it worked!

Anyway, it's really not very big, It'll just go around my neck for stopping those irritating down the back draughts and it's the perfect size to go around my head. While I look like I just stepped off the Amish farm, it will stop my hair from getting singed while fire twirling!

Finished!

I have finished one of the projects on the UFO list! That being the pair of striped socks! They were knitted with Online supersocke self-striping yarn. A yarn I have decided never to use again. If I want stripes, I'll do it myself! At least then I wont have to deal with finding knots in the yarn without enough of that colour left to have a full stripe.

I'm a tad disapointed with the cast off though, it's still a little tight (these are toe-up). I tried Elizabeth Zimmermans sewn cast off, but it wasn't any more elastic than my standard cast off... I'd appreciate any suggestion!

Note: this is also the first pair of socks I have ever knitted. I feel proud! The next pair of socks in the pipeline will be made with that red handspun mentioned two posts ago. I found the same wool in a lovely orange colour. That'll make for some lovely striped socks!

Note II: sorry for the appalling photo. It's 1:10AM and I'm using the camera on my phone.