Happy New Year

HNY yarn crafters!

Knitting took rather a back seat in 2011 because I was busy with dozens of new hobbies including learning Chinese, taking up running, learning to sew, going out and socialising more, etc etc. Now I have all these new activities in my life I shall have to be very organised about making time to do everything as knitting is really important to me, especially when I think about my lovely yarn stash that I might as get rid of if I'm not going to use it, otherwise it will just be a huge sanctuary for my pet moths.

Let's have a quick review of how 2011 ended. I wove in the ends on the Embossed Leaves Socks, I am wearing them right now and they are my favourite pair of hand knit socks ever.

I finished Joe's Autumn Hat and Scarf and gave them to him at Xmas. I think he really liked the scarf and so he should, it is huge and has cashmere in it. He talked about wearing it in bed and I would be fine with that, if he gets some use out of it and it keeps him warm then I don't mind where he wears it.

The Sunshine Sweater has moved into the Finishing Basket as I am now sewing it up. I could do with losing a few pounds if I want to wear it this summer.

The Emergency Baby Blanket is about 40% done but I don't like it very much and I feel as though I might have to knit something else for my business associate's baby.

Finally, 2011 ended with the news that another baby is expected this year by someone close to me - it's not public knowledge yet so I can't say who it is but the occasion demands a lovely baby blanket that's on a par with the very best baby blankets I've ever knitted so look out for that over the coming months.

Have a great knitting and crocheting year ahead, readers!

A bit of panicky pre-Xmas knitting

Hello dearies!

I am alive and knitting. Because we are well into December I have realised that I need to get my shit together ahead of Xmas. I did nearly all my Xmas shopping online I think it was yesterday, and I just have a few knitting and sewing projects that need to be finished - and in some cases, begun - in time to put things in the post. Should be no problem, right? HA HA HA HA HA.

The one I'm panicking about the most is as follows. A business associate of mine had a baby girl, ages ago actually, and I promised I would knit something for her. Naturally I came over all ambitious and the first thing I tried to knit was an extremely fiddly intarsia dress from one of those hellish Vogue knitting books. Here is how far I got. Excuse the horrible photos. I have no longer got time to mess about taking nice ones.

It is four-ply yarn and incredibly splitty. I don't really like that shade of pink (it's much less horrible in real life but still looks like boiled ham). Worst of all, that little bit you see there took absolutely forever. I am really not joking. I pulled it out the night before last and realised I didn't have a hope in hell of finishing it this year.

I decided to start on an alternative baby project. Something QUICK. Because I am a complete fool, I thought 'quick' could still include four ply knitting but maybe this time I could do Fair Isle instead of intarsia. See how stupid I am? As though I can knock out a 4 ply Fair Isle cardigan in one night or something. I spent the whole of last night knitting, until about 2am, and came up with this:

I did not stop because it was 2am and I was making fearfully slow progress, oh no. I stopped because I realised my tension was off. The Fair Isle section was way too tight, there was no way it was going to stretch around a baby. Went to bed in despair.

Got up this morning and went to work, feeling worried. That's when I remembered my Emergency Baby Project that I keep at the office. It is a super-simple and small basketweave baby blanket. It is DK weight yarn on 4mm needles. It is in not very attractive pink acrylic but hey, this is an emergency. I took it out and had a look at it. Not bad. Managed to do a bit of work on it while doing some work related reading this afternoon. I think this is what the baby is getting. No time left for messing around. This is simple to make. Bang it out, give it a wash when done and thread a ribbon through the eyelets around the outer edge. Will have to do. Is just about achieveable within the time.

It will look a bit nicer than this when finished, I promise. Well anyway. Even if it doesn't, that's what I'm making. I am now glad that I keep emergency easy projects at the office.

Knitting 101

I wish I had seen this when I was first learning to knit. So helpful.

Autumn Hat & Scarf for Joe

I have knitted very industriously this week. Joe's Autumn Scarf is in the Finishing Basket already. It is made of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran which I know is prone to pilling so it will need a shave every once in a while - just like Joe, heh heh. It is so soft and cosy. It needs a light blocking to make the woven-in ends settle down and also the yellow fringe needs trimming because it is very slightly longer than the oatmeal-coloured end. Here it is!

I've also made a start on the hat.

Beelzebub lives

Hey everyone, I bet you thought I'd been eaten by moths didn't you. Well, I live on and I am still knitting. Here's a quick news update.

Moths

I still have moths. They are the bane of my existence. I think it says something that when I sat knitting at my desk last night, I was extremely surprised that not even one came fluttering around my lamp and monitor. I am forever dropping my knitting and clapping my hands, trying to kill them. Sometimes I succeed. I think all the practise is giving me faster reflexes. The one good thing about the onset of winter is that the little fuckers will go into hibernation for a few months. I still have not managed to pinpoint whatever part of my clothing or yarn stash they are using for food, and since they are not living on fresh air, that is a lovely surprise that still awaits me.

Sunshine Sweater

The Sunshine Sweater is coming along! It is synthetic yarn so I don't fear that the moths will eat it. As you can see from these rough photos taken just now, the front and back are knitted and the neckline has been attached. I am now working on the sleeves. That red yarn is temporary and gets taken out later, you'll be glad to know.

I have recently lost some weight and if I keep that up then I should be able to fit into this sweater in due course. I am excited by the thought of being able to fit into sweaters that I bought the yarn for back when I was a skinny size 10.

Joe's Autumn Scarf

Since the moths arrived I've been very keen to reduce my stash and I've had quite a lot of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran hanging around in bags and boxes for a long time, so I am turning it into a cosy scarf for Joe. Possibly I may make him a hat and gloves to go with, we'll have to see. This is a single rib scarf and I think it will eventually have 11 blocks of colour in it. It is coming along well.

In other news, I'm making a slightly unpleasant acrylic pram blanket which is at the office, for those times when I need some absolutely brainless knitting to get me through a long phone meeting, and I have made a little tiny bit of progress on that Jalapeno sweater that I've been working on for about three years.

I bought a couple of knitting books recently and I have plans for new projects! Specially now that I'm keen to use up my wool stash.

Okay, so the first book that I bought is this one by the marvellous Nicky Epstein:



I bought it because I have been thinking for a long time about making a blanket. When I saw this book in Waterstone's I was initially attracted by those fabulous looking blocks on the front cover and even more attracted when I saw that inside there's a pattern for making a spectacular blanket called the Academic Blanket that uses those blocks. It is really something else, look:



I can't wait to make it and am totally obsessing about what yarn to use as I work on Joe's scarf. I can see that there are a few aspects of this blanket that need taking very seriously if you want it to look as good as this dramatic picture. Firstly, the yarn has to be perfect. It has to be lovely quality with perhaps the very slightest hint of a sheen. The colours have to be extremely subdued. The colours have to be perfectly balanced, for instance if those plain-knit panels are too bright you will throw the whole design off kilter. The sewing-together has to be perfect. Finally, the various 3D motifs have to be plenty large enough to fill the whole block that they're attached to and they have to be exactly, perfectly placed. Going wrong in any one of these aspects will result in something like a large, lumpy dishcloth. I therefore deduce that this is in fact an extremely difficult blanket and not for the non-perfectionist.

As if that were not enough, there is a most delightful bag in the same book that is made of blocks with giant wheel-shaped ruffles attached to them. I love it so much and want to make one for my sister, it is just her sort of thing. So I hope to have pictures of one or both of those projects to show you in due course.

The other book I bought was this:



I have decided there's no reason why I can't have a shawl. They do look a bit funny with jeans, possibly, but I don't have to wear jeans all the time, do I. I wished I had one the other day when it was not cold enough for a jacket but just a little too cool for my light top. If I chose a neutral colour and a nice shape then I'd get lots of occasions of wear out of it, day-to-evening sort of thing, as well as being able to use it at home. This book has lots of lovely shawl patterns which I'm enjoying browsing. I want something big but not blanket-sized, probably rectangular (I'm less keen on the triangular ones where a point hangs down in the back) and possibly with a fancy edge. We'll have to wait and see.

That's all my knitting news for today! I am glad to be back and I'm looking forward to lots of knitting now that the summer is drawing to a close.

Moths

Terrific. I have moths. Isn't that just fantastic.

I had to go and buy a vacuum cleaner, I thought I wouldn't need one again because I've got rid of all but one rug in favour of hard floors.

I wonder where they are making their home, the little buggers. In what corner of my enormous yarn stash. Fantastic. So that's what I'm doing for the next several months. Obsessively cleaning and waging war on moths.

Sunshine Sweater

Right then, here's what I'm making. I'm calling it the Sunshine Sweater because its real name is just a long string of numbers. Number 486-T7-517, to be precise. It is from the Phildar Women's spring/summer collection of 2008 and that's how long the yarn has been in my stash. I think I mentioned that I wanted a non-wool yarn to knit with, and this is ideal. Phildar Sillages is 100% acrylic, a very light, loosely-woven acrylic tape, soft as a cloud. Here is the model shot of the Sunshine Sweater, from the Phildar catalogue.

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I am a bit unsure about sizing, having been bitten by Phildar patterns before, so I will play it carefully and keep measuring and in the meantime I'm following the pattern instructions for the largest size I can make out of the 11 balls of yarn that I have.

Here's where I'm up to, making nice quick progress on 6mm needles.