Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Urm...

Okay.

Not a whole lot to see here, but I know it's been over a week since I last posted, and a new post was probably overdue. That said, not a whole lot has been happening here in Insanity Central, so I'm not quite sure what to tell you that's not going to have you moshing your keyboard, falling asleep with boredom, or praying I somehow manage to impale myself on a 14" 2.75mm needle.

(Does it bother anyone else that needles still mix metric and imperial like that? Anyone? Or am I just being anally-retentively nit-picky again?).

I digress. (I do that a lot). Back to the boredom.

Right. I did not call this post "Progress Report #2", as may have been expected, because there is precious little visual evidence of any progress. I know I've been knitting. I've also been frogging. And casting on new projects (as WIPdown 2012 sneaks closer to premature death). But there's not a whole lot worthy of a blog-post, or the label 'progress'.

Also, I think my lack of posting may also be because I've been feeling a little bit guilty.

Last Wednesday I was a bold girl. Remember the massive stash I was telling you about? Well, I added to it. And not just a little, either. The fact I've plans for everything I bought, and some was to add to specific stashes to finish items I didn't have enough yarn for, only makes me feel a weensy bit better. Possibly because I have almost 36 years of experience that tells me that, spectacularly good as I am at planning, I've a tendency to fall down at the follow-through phase. We're talking an extra kilometre of yarn here, minimum. I have no self-control. Which at this stage in life (and given that I'm planning on quitting smoking at some stage in the next few days) is kinda worrying.

Anyhoo, back to the knitting... yeah, the knitting, let's ignore ALL mention the crazy girl may just have made regarding recent additions to stash she swore blind she wasn't going to add to this year and we're not even out of feckin' January yet.

This week, I cast on my Echo Flower shawl (with stash yarn! STASH YARN!). I've been meaning to cast this one on for a while. I've a habit of knitting multiples of things once I find a pattern I like, so wanted something different and simple that would still challenge me. This successfully wrecks my head does both.

It is a beautiful pattern. I was all happy when I saw it was only an 8-row, 12-stitch repeat, cuz that would make it all memorizeable and quick to knit and stuff. And it is predominantly a very very easy knit. Except for the rows where you've to make the flowers. Which are taking me forever as the shawl increases in size.

You have to knit 2 tog tbl, then without dropping those stitches off the needle, make nine stitches more. Then a double decrease of sssk (yes, three 's's) immediately after, when your sitches are so tight they're starting to groove your Harmonys. Strangely, when you get into the body of the shawl, it becomes knit 3 tog, no mention of back loop, and it's WAY easier (possibly because there's more stitches either side, so more wiggle room, more 'give').

See Exhibit A below:


Okay, so you can't really see it. But trust me, close up it's pretty. And so worth it. They're just a little fiddly, and not what I'm used to. And I've a few wonky flowers in there. Like the one where I made 11 stitches instead of 9 (how the hell do you do that, when it's already so tricky just to make the 9 stitches required?). I panicked, and worked 'k2tog, k2tog' on the last four. When I obviously should have done ssk, ssk, given the direction they're slanting (God no, I wasn't ripping back! Ha!).

Then there's the one where I only made 7 stitches (much more understandable) - simply fixed by a M1 after the first and before the last on the next knit row. I know there's another one I screwed up too, but I can't remember it, or what I did to it. I'm sure it'll all become clear when I'm blocking it! At this stage, the multiple nupps required for the border hold no fear for me, even though in over 6 years of knitting I've gone out of my way to avoid them.

So to sum up - beautiful pattern. Simple idea, fiddly to work. Rows 2-8, TV knitting. Row 1, not so much. Tricksy flowerses. Tricksy.

ETA: Big shout-out to UnderMeOxter, who basically guilt-tripped me into doing this post when I had planned to be otherwise knitting. Thanks a bunch. :oP
(ah no, you're grand really, I'd been kinda procrastinating on doing this all day. You were just the kick up the arse I needed!). :o)

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Progress Report #1a...

I know, two posts in two days! This will be a short one, I promise. After the disappointment of having to frog my metallic Miss Potters though, I had to share this -
An actual real live finished object! One WIP down! And stash used up too! Woo hoo! Back on track!
(okay, not even remotely, but any progress at all is being welcomed with open arms at this point!) :o)

Monday, January 16, 2012

Progress Report #1

In all honesty, I think 'progress' may be overstating it slightly. When last we spoke, I was full of plans, with organised stash, pattern print-outs in folders, and needles for every task. So I've had an active week, right?

Well, no. Not really. For some reason, any available knitting time seems to have evaporated over the last few days, and it's really only today that I'm getting a chance to get any decent knitting done.

My first choice had been to tackle a 'stashdown', a project that would use up some yarn without me having to go buy more. A nice pair of gloves, the pattern for which I'd used several times before and am in love with. Except this time I decided to make some amendments. BAD idea!!

The finished article looked ikky, didn't fit right, so has had to be frogged. The lesson? When a pattern is already perfection, don't mess with it any further! On the plus side though, I've still technically managed to ditch some stash, as this yarn does not frog AT ALL well, and couldn't possibly be used for anything else. So I'm down about 70 metres! Yay, stashdown! Kinda :o/

Plan B is to find another actual full mitten pattern (not the fingerless kind - I loves them, but as the weather is rumoured to be heading for -8 degrees C next weekend, I really need the full-fingered kind!) and appropriate yarn from stash, and get cracking. Though I also have to finish my Purple Jaywalkers and continue with my fab and groovy charcoal tunic, which, while slow going, is coming along quite nicely-
 Yes, my photography skills are crappy, I think we've covered this before. Plus it's kinda tricky to photograph this dark a grey. But them there is bobbles! BOBBLES! I made me some bobbles! So one 'newly aquired skill' aquired, just nupps and brioche to go, and that'll be all three of my 'improvements in techniques' targets met.

So to sum up - Week One: half of one sock done. One mitten frogged. Learned to make bobbles. Starting to think I may have overstretched myself slightly with my original targets! Oh, and discovered that a whole bunch of the shawls I have earmarked for 2012 completion are to be knit in sock-weight yarn, so don't yet qualify for the 2012 Lacealong. Give it time though. Maybe around July!

As I said though, no knitting time the last few days, and for good reason - my babbiest of babby brothers turned 30 (man, I feel old, I used to change his nappies!), so there was much celebrating to be done. Happy birthday, Andrew. No, I won't have your hand-knit socks done for you this week, but at this rate, you're looking good for Christmas... :o)

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

I have HOW MUCH YARN?!?

All the New Year knitty resolutions were starting to have an impact and got me thinking - why not be a lttle more organised with my knitting? WIPdown I need, as I've UFOs dating back four years. Lacealong would also be good, as I've a bunch of (a) laceweight yarn and (b) shawls in my queue. Stashdown also good, as I don't have a vast disposable income. I do, however, have a vast stash. So Step 1, check stash. How much do I have?

Holy crap. 46.6km. That's a lot of yarn (and I'm blaming the laceweight!). So what to do?

Well, I decided to make A Plan. A quick and straightforward plan. I would peruse my stash, match it all to patterns, and get cracking. Simple, right? Well, four days later, I've only just completed the planning phase. And with the exception of the mitten tops I just grafted over a coffee, I have managed absolutely NO KNITTING TIME in that period. So far, The Plan does not seem to be working too effectively.

Here's why. Long long ago (okay, up until last August), all my stash lived, and had always lived, in one easily accessible place (a massive wooden trunk in the bedroom, which Himself was not allowed to open, under any circumstances, lest it give him heart failure). Well, then I split from Himself, and had to transport all my stash to my dad's (who was, as you can imagine, delighted! Well, okay, not so much. Though he has since become fascinated by the transformative powers of the blocking process. He'll sit and watch for ages. And check on it to see how it's drying. Aw! Anyhoo, I digress). Much less space. Bulk of stash living in attic. Until last Saturday.

On Saturday, I was in the attic finally putting away the boxes of Christmas decorations. And I thought "sure while I'm up here..." and The Plan was born. The bulk was transported downstairs (kinda fun tossing yarn bags out the attic and watching them bounce down the stairs! Just sayin'.) where further perusal took place. See, I'd selected yarns on the basis of "ooh, pretty!", and not because I necessarily had any clue what I was going to do with them. But I figured I'd have a better chance of actually completeing stuff if I was at least loving the yarn I was working with.

So onto Sunday. By this time, all yarns had been appropriately labelled and packaged, and most were then transferred into a newly-emptied, newly cleaned, rather large drawer under my bed. (It had been filled with my brother's computer crap, but he kindly took that out of the way. I think out of fear that if he left it, I'd start knitting stuff out of the miles of cables he had living there. A fear not entirely unfounded). Then I started matching yarn to patterns, and sorting accordingly (I've a nice handy 5-drawer unit that lives at the end of my bed, too, for the stuff I need immediate access to).

Obviously, this process needed new labels, new folders, new punch-pocket plastic sleeves, and more labels. That took care of Monday. The end result? I have nice neat folders (two, one for WIPs, one for Stuff to Do). Might need to buy more plastic sleeves. And maybe little coloured labels that I can stick on a pattern once it's been DONE. (Yes, I am that easily amused). I know where all the yarn is, and what I'm going to do with most of it.

So in brief (ha! too late for that!) I have ten current WIPs that I will DEFINITELY finish before the end of 2012 (not counting my Socks Scraps Blanket which (a) I haven't started yet, and (b) will never end, as I'll always have sock scraps). I have, give or take, 35 projects on my "to-do" list. And, if all goes to plan, by year's end I'll be 20km down on my stash (and that's actually not including the yarn I'll be using to finish off current WIPs, so I'll be further down again!).

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me! Doable, no? Hey, wrong answer!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Yet more shawls...

...but oh, they're so pretty and satisfying, how's a girl supposed to stop knitting them? Especially in this weather, when you need something snuggly warm to wrap around freezing necks and shoulders?

First up I have my most recently finished article (blocked yesterday morning), Holden by Mindy Wilkes (available free on Ravelry). I knit it using Noro Kureyon Sock, which, as usual, I bought on impulse because I spotted one pretty colour in there, then spent the whole journey home convincing myself that it was really kinda ikky overall, but cast on out of spite anyway, cuz damn was I gonna get my money's worth out of it!

Again, as usual, Noro did not let me down, and the resulting colours and knit look really rather cool and groovy. I think.


The colours are fairly vivid, and a couple of pattern mods (an extra scallop, a little extra garter stitch on the edge) really got every last bit out of the yarn (10m-ish left over!).



Very happy with it, and larger than shawlette-size too, for added bonus!

The next is an altogether more delicate creation; this one is Ethereal, by Lakshmi Juneja (also available for free on Ravelry). This was knitted in my current favourite 'shawl yarn', DROPS Garnstudio 100% Alpaca.
Heaven in 4ply form, a dream to knit with, blocks and holds its shape beautifully, and while light, is incredibly warm. I cannot recommend this yarn highly enough.


As you can see, the bloody thing is huge, I could barely fit half of it on the bed, but it was knitting heaven! Plus I may have kinda lost count of the number of repeats I was supposed to do. Ah well!


The yarn colour is gorgeous, a mix of purple and turquoise, my camera skills as usual do not do it justice. Has to be seen in person to appreciate it truly!

Next up - currently working on a pair of mittens, and then I'm thinking maybe - just maybe - an actual garment. Which will probably take me the bulk of a year to complete (given my crappy-ass attention span, for one!), and all past experience points that way too (several jumpers started over last few years, as yet none completed). But I promise I'll keep you up to date. Row by painful row! ;o)