Bit of progress...

This week's progress has been socks, and more socks...

First the Hederas. Done! Possibly aided by a couple of Journeys from Hell this week...

And then the Monkeys.

This yarn is a reminder of an extremely nice day, and so I'm very glad it's behaving nicely with this stitch-count and pattern No guarantee it's not going to go berserk on the gussets in this sock - it would suit a sock without such things better, but the legs will be lovely...

I'm working on the Big Black Sweater this weekend...

Big alteration...

... in the plans today; last night the Bug appeared after a day or so AWOL (not totally unusual this time of year but she usually comes in for food), and wasn't putting weight on one front leg; when I looked more closely there was a rather unpleasant oozy hole in her leg... So I put the cat flap on "in only" and e-mailed work to say I'd be in late because I was going to need to take her to the vet's in the morning.

At which point I made that crucial mistake of forgetting that actually she's quite a bright cat when it comes to escapology - so when I got down this morning there was no sign of her. At some point in the night, she'd worked out that if she got a claw caught in the edge of the flap, she could pull it towards her and flee; I should have set it on "no entrance or exit". GAH!

So in the end, I took a day's emergency leave; and waited (and waited) for her to show up. I asked the neighbours if they'd seen her, walked round the block repeatedly, called for her, you name it. At noon or so (by which time the day had seemed endless) she hopped in for some dinner and I called the vet; a few hours later we were home with the inevitable week's course of antibiotics, an injection of anti-inflammatories and a diagnosis of a bite-induced abscess... Thankfully a friend offered to take me there and back... And the Bug already had an appointment for Saturday morning, supposedly for a blood test which might or might not happen depending on how quickly the antibiotics kick in... So she should be fine in a few days; and tomorrow I need to catch up on quite an important work seminar which was meant to be the main point of my day.

I'm very glad my manager is also a cat-owner - she realised all I could do was wait, was great about the fact that I was going to be missing a catch-up meeting and the seminar, and suggested that I could work from home for part of the day if I wanted to rather than taking the whole day as leave. But my concentration was completely shot...

While waiting, I could have put in some quality knitting time, but again, the concentration just wasn't there. Luckily, I unearthed this: a sock started at the folk festival last year, which was then lost in one clear-up and found in another... When I abandoned them they were about halfway through the broad yellow stripe, so a fair amount of progress was made while I was listening distractedly to audiobooks while waiting for the noise of the catflap!



These are my Nymphadora socks, knitted in the Tonks [warning; Harry Potter spoilers under link!] colourway from Opal's Harry Potter range, now sadly discontinued... for this reason alone, I think I might be keeping these for myself. Tonks was a favourite character even before I discovered the library/shapeshifter connection... I bet JK Rowling was aware of it though - it's just too good to be a complete coincidence.

Big announcement

SO, they're finally off! The announcement that even the PM admitted was unsurprising has happened and the phony campaigning can finish.

And the question of the moment - which genius decided that rainbow plastic knitting needles would form the BBC's election logo??

Despite all the election hype or possibly because of it, I think my favourite quote is in Sam Wollaston's Guardian review of last night's University Challenge final - "The dude is Wikipedia with a pulse".

Oh, there was some knitting, too. My Dad had a birthday on Sunday, and socks were knitted. I'm very pleased with these. They're the Maze socks [Ravelry link] from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks and they were very good fun to knit. The black yarn is Hot Socks, bought in Vienna for a song last year; the self-striping is Kaffe Fassett (of course...). I used just under one 50g ball of the self-striping and just over one 50g ball of the black. The leg is mosaic-knitted, and the foot Fair Isle pinstripes.


And apparently he really likes them.

An FO, and a WIP

I have been knitting - but for some reason I seem to be making garments this year rather than smaller things, and they're not as exciting to photograph.


But my Dad had a birthday on Saturday, and he's appreciative of handknit socks;



These are the Primavera pattern by Natalja - the pattern is in the sidebar of her blog. I saw them on Franklin's blog and thought they looked interesting without being lacy. The yarn is Panda Wool from Crystal Palace, bought from Woolly Workshop at Textiles in Focus. The colour's called Menswear, appropriately enough. I got the socks out of 2 balls with very little to spare, but Dad has size 8.5 feet - if you're making them for someone larger, you'd probably need a third ball...




And here's the current WIP - photographed at The Sanctuary in Hove. Since then I've finished the body and started a sleeve. The yarn is Debbie Bliss Prima, an 80% bamboo, 20% merino mix. Unlike the Panda Wool, which had a tendency to be a little bit splitty, this is very smooth stuff but not quite as hard on the hands as cotton. The pattern is Primrose Path from the latest Twist Collective edition...

I have a day off today; I was intending to go somewhere, maybe to Norwich or Kings Lynn, to do a spot of shopping and walk around in the sun; but after the prettiness of the last few days, it's cold and miserable here this morning, although it's showing signs of brightening up. I think it might be a day for knitting and watching DVDs, and maybe some lugging of boxes up to the loft.

Socks Show

Thanks for comments, and competition entries, on yesterday's post. It really wasn't meant to be a maths thing; although I enjoyed working out the sums. Maths was possibly my worst subject at school. Apart from Art. Which was sad, as they were two of the subjects I enjoyed most and have used most.

Still time to have a wild guess - original post here...

But, this post is about socks; and specifically Socks that Rock from last year's club. First of all - I Knitted All the Yarns Within A Year. I think that deserves recognition... I didn't knit all of them to the designated pattern though... But here they are....

So, top to bottom and left to right;

• Yarn called "Dragon Dance", and pattern called Serendipity, by Adrienne Fong (with club);
• Yarn called "Lucky", didn't go with the suggested Leafling pattern by BMFA because I'd been looking for a long time for a leafy green yarn for the Embossed Leaves pattern by Mona Schmidt...;
• Yarn called "the incredible shrinking violet"; didn't go with the Cleopatra pattern by Yarnissima because I'd been looking for a while for a yarn to go with her "Firestarter"
• Yarn called "Goody Goody"; pattern called "Gumdrops" by JC Briar (with club). This was both the nicest and the worst package of the club; up to then I'd reconciled myself to having to sign off Ravelry for a couple of weeks after the packages were mailed out - this time I was spoiled the day after US mailing, ON the club blog, BY the DESIGNER!. And that was sad, because they are gorgeous socks... But that was the point at which I thought, no, this really isn't worth the money if they can't be bothered even getting confidentiality from their designers.. .
• Yarn called "Tide Pooling" - lovely stuff. Pattern also excellent, by Team Blue Moon (with club)... Lightweight again; I think that's 4 Lightweight, 1 Mediumweight and nothing else...
• Yarn called "Muddy Autumn Rainbow". Pattern "Holidazed" by Anne Hanson. That and "Tide Pooling" definitely my favourite colourways of the year, and this one's Mediumweight, but not enough to get me to sign up again...

I love these socks; but I'm looking forward to the Socktopus club this year!

Pavlovian

... but without the meringue.


I was intending to go to Ely to knit tonight. I got out of the house a few minutes earlier this morning, bought myself a ticket for the Waterbeach-to-Ely bit my season ticket doesn't cover, went to work (long old day dealing with an external contact rather than doing what I had on my to-do list), left on time, Tube on time, train on time (on the way home - the ones to work have been a bit horrible this week), got to Cambridge, train divides, left Cambridge, got off train.


Unfortunately, I hadn't got to Ely at that point.


I only realised halfway home that actually, I wasn't meant to be going straight home... And shortly after that I realised that I am, actually, a robot. By that time, if I'd turned round and waited 40 minutes for the next train, it would have been well after 8 by the time I arrived at Ely; so I stomped home.


And then I found that I was unable to locate the perfectly good photo I'd taken of last night's socks anywhere on the PC, or on the camera... So I went to hunt for the socks...


Oh well. At the weekend, maybe.

And now I know...

... why Mr Gaiman has always seemed so eerily familiar.
ETA: The second "conversation" in the comments bears reading... I can almost hear the tone of amused tolerance...

But back to I Knit tonight - I think they'll just bar me from there soon on the grounds that I have no home to go to and they're scared I'll be camping out on their one remaining sofa... Actually, I didn't intend to go this evening; but it was demolition and suggested reconstruction on a colleague's cardigan/hoodie time, and there was no time at work. Didn't get a lot of knitting done myself, but I did finish the last pair from the year's Socks That Rock yarn from the Rockin' Sock Club (looks like they're all signed up for next year...) on the train home. And they are lovely. They're in the Mediumweight, which is beautiful stuff.

Blogger is, however, unhappy with the idea of uploading photos. Or at least, this photo. So you'll just have to believe me that this is a nice pair of socks.

I'm intending to have a line-up of all the club socks for a post this weekend, at which point I'll hope Blogger is a bit happier...

Tomorrow night I'm hoping to get to the group at Ely (promiscuous with the knit, moi??)...

A purple patch

After all that talk about how my basic colour choices are changing; I've reverted to type...

I finished these on my week off at the end of August; on the way back from hunting elephants in Norwich with Rosie, actually. And I still haven't blogged that. But I finished these socks just before the train got into Ely, and had half an hour to wait, so I dug the other one out of the bag, put them on, photographed them, took them off again, put my shoes back on... and the woman on the bench next to me didn't turn a hair. The Yarn Harlot talked about this phenomenon on Saturday, but my most extreme experience with it is represented by this photo and this post. Two women and a small child lying on a blanket on the Backs, waving their sock-clad feet at King's College Chapel and being photographed; and not one single person of the many who passed asked what we were doing. OK, Cambridge is quite a strange place at the best of times, but you'd think basic curiosity would have motivated someone... Follow the link to the post for Anne's free pattern. (Actually, Anne, I've just realised that your socks were rightfully mine - they match the sweater I was wearing there terrifically well...)

Back to these socks though.

Pattern is Firestarter, from Yarnissima (a free pattern, worked toe-up like Yarnissima's others).

Yarn is Socks that Rock lightweight, May's club yarn from the Rockin' Sock Club

Needles 2.25mm

On Sunday, I intended to spend the whole day writing my management assignment - I've been doing a course at work which has been 12 full-day courses over the last 7 months, and finishes off with a 3,200 word assessment; which is due in on the 19th. I sat there, and sat there, and couldn't think of a thing to write for hours. So I thought maybe some theta brainwaves were called for (you had to be there on Saturday, you really did), and I couldn't even concentrate to knit, which was just weird, frankly; so I got the spinning wheel out, and picked up some purple roving I dyed in August with the odds and ends from Jan's birthday present, and followed Samuraiknitter's brilliant instructions for dealing with roving, and made something which looks more like actual yarn than anything I've made on this wheel so far. Pics follow:

Not perfect, as you can see... about chunky weight, 133g and 100m; but I'm ridiculously proud of it. So proud that it deserves a tryout on the Tranquil Face, despite his current marjoram haircut.

I have the impression that if he could talk, he'd be saying "Duuuuude"...

And I woke up at about 4am on Monday morning with three of the eight answers to the questions in draft in my head; which just proves this theta business works. (And has no sense of timing - today I finally managed to write these ones up...)

Back again...

Long time, no blog; once I got back to work after Easter it was full steam ahead there for the last couple of weeks before recess, and I was spending evenings getting ready for a long weekend away at my folks' - for my nephew's baptism and to visit my lovely cousins in Hexham. Here's a pic of my brother, sister-in-law and Baby A in the church - the shawl was much admired by the ladies of the parish. Baby A himself was so unimpressed by the whole business that he slept straight through his baptism, but woke up to observe a huge buffet and a beautiful cake... [At the precise moment this picture was taken though, he'd discovered the pocket in his trousers, which was obviously much more interesting than the cake his Auntie Catherine had decorated so well...]

Not a lot of knitting was done last month - but I did get one very long-term present finished. Over the last couple of years I've completely lost the urge to stitch, but I started this for my cousin Kevin's wedding to Kate which, as the observant will note, happened just over two years ago...

So long ago was it, in fact, that they've been way more productive than me, and now have this little chap, Baby O... in a hat knitted by his mum (who's on the waiting list for Ravelry...)

We had a lovely couple of days mooching around Hexham (despite having to shelter in the bandstand because of hail!), and a very nice lunch at Bouchon - Baby O got breadsticks and pieces of pepper while we ate duck gizzards, sea bream and Toulouse sausages...

All the knitting I'm making progress on is for other people, and secret - or in the post to its destination... Except this:

Embossed Leaves sock by Mona Schmidt, from Favorite Socks, in the current Rocking Sock Club yarn (STR mediumweight, in "Lucky") - I've been looking for the right yarn for this pattern for a while... For the first time ever, I may have SSS with this pair - my brain and hands find the cast-on extraordinarily difficult, although the result is very good. I'm going to have to take it on my daily commute - if it's the only thing I have to knit, I'll get on with it...

I haven't been completely hermit-like after work though - the lighter nights have perked me up somewhat, as usual, so my colleague B and I have been over to IKnit a couple of times - last Thursday night's was so busy that Gerard borrowed my camera to document the sheer number of knitters ...

including a couple of familiar faces...

It was great. Am hoping to be there again on Wednesday, at Ely on Thursday and in Hove on Friday - have yarn, will travel...

Monkeys, and the benefits of evil twin-ness...

Thanks to everyone who commented on the last post - I'm still feeling slightly smug about the shawl...


But on with the next thing, and the amount of time I have to knit on the train is making itself felt in the speed I can knit smaller items. I made a hat on Sunday night and the Monday morning train (can't show you yet); and then started a pair of Monkey socks halfway down to London on Monday. Progress each evening:


Monday:




Tuesday:




Wednesday (about 6 rows to go - will explore grafting on a train this morning, but have some waste yarn with me in case that's an insane idea!):



I'm loving this yarn - and may have best part of a pair of Christmas socks for my aunt by the end of the week, if I continue to get a seat in the evening...

Evil twin-ness - I've been meaning to post this for a couple of weeks. Jan and I have a standing joke about this - it seems that we both discover things at about the same pace, and have the habit of turning up when we meet with a pair of socks at the same stage of completion in the same yarn, or ordering the same needles from the same shop in the same week... When I had my week off at the end of October, I went down to Brighton, and Jan gave me a very beautiful pair of ear-rings as a good-luck-in-the-new-job present. The day before, I'd ordered a pendant/brooch from luckygirltrading. When it arrived....

Scary, eh?

A bit of a sort out

Thanks to a very kind friend (thanks, Suzanne!) I made it to the glories of Dunelm Mill at Huntingdon this morning. They didn't have quite what Suzanne was wanting, but they did have a lot of other interesting things - her girls are going to love their PVC ice-cream-pattern aprons when they're done - and when we eventually found it (having given up), the chest of drawers on their website looked as good close-up as it did on the site. After an unnecessary amount of to-ing and fro-ing, we got it into the car and brought it home... I am a bit of a fan of the FLYLady, although you really wouldn't guess it from the normal state of my house; but I do like her dictum that you can do anything for 15 minutes. I went for 15 minutes on that, and 15 minutes on finishing up something urgent... and it seemed to work - here are the stages starting from 0 minutes...

And because this sort of thing always fascinates me; the things in the drawers...

1: the ballwinder, underneath that is a spindle. When I find my yardage-measuring-thing, I'll put that in there as well...

2: a purple box (thanks, Jan!) containing my smaller DPNs and a small number of circular needles which haven't made it to the Big Purple Circular Case, which is squished underneath it (thanks, Nina!)

3: the next half dozen sock projects

4: skein of laceweight (Cherry Tree Hill in Fall Foliage) I can't bear to consign to the lace box in the loft; three balls of DK weight self-patterning - maybe a Baby Surprise Jacket?

5: the current Guilt-Inducing WIP bag, and a bag of oddments of sock yarn...

6: the next two blankets. The Hemlock Ring Blanket hit me hard...

7: St Brigid. She will be finished this winter. She will, she will...

Anyway I'm really pleased with it; and it was as a result of a bit of a windfall (thanks, parents!)

The question Not To Ask around here at the moment, though, is 'what happened to all that crap you took out of that corner'? Because I'm going out to knit at the Lamb with EJ (who is living rather than blogging at the moment), and I still have a very belated birthday present to sew up, and I've only got an hour, and I'm not listening, anyway!!

The aim with the chest though is to finish up the WIPs which are out in the living room in baskets, and start on the ones in the chest, and gradually getting to store WIPs in the chest. Bwaahahahaahahahaha, I hear you cry. But I have an ulterior motive for this. Have for some time. I just can't tell you.

A second kiln

So I was walking to the station on the way back from buying the steamer, with it perched precariously on my bike basket, when I bumped into an ex-colleague; after the usual pleasantries he asked what was in the box and I said 'oh, I'm doing some dyeing and I need a second steamer'. And suddenly remembered that awful Barclays ad with the woman who took out a loan for her second kiln, and cringed inside...

But it is a very beautiful steamer; made in Thailand, which you can guess from the jaunty angle of its handles... and a double-layered one, to boot... you can get an idea of the size when you realise that's one of the larger Le Creuset kettles, but thankfully it's extremely light. And pretty, did I mention pretty?

So Anne, Carole, Claire, Debs, Jayne, Rosie and Sue came over in the afternoon, and we dyed; in several phases as there was really only enough space for three to work, but we're all grown-ups


(in theory at least)... If you want to see what Anne has in that bowl, go here...

Here are some skeins drying out (and yes, that is blue sky out there! after a downpour as people were arriving, it all dried out quite nicely)



And here's Jayne posing with her mad laceweight - watch this space for what that might eventually turn into:



I did my usual and mopped up a bit of everything that was left with a skein (of laceweight BFL in this case): here it is hanging on the line in an attempt cunningly to disguise that Garden Design casa Knittingonthegreen is brought to you this year by Tomasi di Lampedusa.


Here it is in Exhibit A mode on the patio table
and lurking in its natural habitat in the honeysuckle/bindweed combo by the washing-line...

After all that, Sue, Rosie, Debs and I went off to Helen's Open Studio, just down the road (my Serene Face pot came from there - here's a pic of it a couple of weeks ago:



We were chatting - and she was talking about her... second kiln... (she is not, I hasten to add, anything like the Dreadful Barclays Woman...)

After that, Sue and I went to the pub for gin and tonic while waiting for our Thai takeaway (thanks, Sue!)

I finished MS3 Clue 2 - but the sheets are washing at the moment - I'll pin it out and admire it later on when they're ready to put back on the bed! I'm probably mad, and wrong, but I'm thinking 'dragon' for the theme at the moment...

The sock has fared less well.

I don't know whether it's knitting lots of lace, or just the 'mediumweightness' of this yarn, but I seem to be knitting socks for the Three Bears at the moment. The first one was at least 12 stitches too big, this one was at least 6 - so I'm now working on 2.5mm needles on 48 stitches, and fully expecting to have something that even Baby Bear couldn't get his foot into... It is, thankfully, not only gorgeous yarn but also very forgiving of repeatedly being ripped out... This time I did at least entertain two yoof at Cambridge station with the frogging...