Earthy socks

Pattern: Plain socks
Needle: 2.5 mm
Yarn: Crazy Zauberball, and gift from the wonderful Ru



This is my usual pattern for plain socks that are dyed in such a way that the colour changes are interesting enough on their own.

Cachoeira

Pattern: Cachoeira
Needles: 2.5mm
Yarn: Yarn Pirate Merino sock yarn, in a colourway that I've lost the tag for
Photoshoot: Opposite Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, across the Thames from St Paul's Cathedral. All pictures taken by my long-suffering boyfriend, who found being stared at by the tourists a novel experience.



I really, really enjoyed knitting these.

I cast them on while away from the majority of my knitting stuff, and had simply grabbed my usual sock needles - 2.5mm circulars - along with the pattern and the yarn. 72 stitches around is waaaay too much for my legs and feet on 2.5s, so I decided to decrease down to 64 stitches around over the course of three pattern repeats on the leg. I really liked the end result, with the 'waves' on the sides of the leg for the last three pattern repeats just touching at the end.



This was also my first attempt at something I'm planning to make a theme for the next year, which is to actually photograph my knitting in an interesting manner. Whether that means an interesting backdrop, or simply making the effort to take proper pictures of the finished object, it makes no difference - I just want to get them photographed!

So, last weekend, while I was down near Borough Market on the Southbank, I directed my boyfriend in taking these. I think they're a pretty good start.

The things we love

It's pretty impressive, sometimes, that we forget to listen to ourselves.

I think that most people, by the time they're in their mid-twenties, probably know themselves fairly well - or rather, they know what they like, some of the things they don't, and a bit of what makes them happy. So why, knowing these things, would someone just stop doing something that makes them happy?

I barely touched my knitting needles between the end of March and the beginning of June. I didn't finish a single project, I started a project I could care less about and still need to frog, and somehow - somehow I forgot about why I did this incredible thing with sticks and string.

Knitting grounds me. The familiar feel of needles in my hands and the slight friction of yarn over my left index finger relaxes me like nothing else. I can't even remember what I did before I started knitting, to have down time at the end of the day. To compose my thoughts and sort out the thoughts in my head. How did I forget this thing that makes me a calm and reasonable person? That means I can face my day without going mad?

I picked up my needles again on the 6th of June, and started the Luna Moth Shawl from Elann.com using some beautiful fingering weight 100 percent alpaca in a gorgeous grey-brown that one of my younger sisters had gotten me for last Christmas. As I watched the repeats get longer and the bulk of the yarn go from the centre-pull ball into the mess that is lace, I could feel myself finding my centre again.

The shawl is drying next door, on the spare bed in my flat.

Moth wings, drying on the bed

It's beautiful, and better pictures will follow to show just how lovely; the yarn is perfect for showcasing the pattern, and I'm really proud of this one. It's for me, to wrap myself in on cold winter nights and to keep the chill off in the changeable English summer. It's to remind myself not to forget the things I know keep me sane.

Burning embers

There's been some knitting going on over here. Quite a bit, actually. I seem to have gotten into a knitting zone, where I'm burning through projects that I've been working on for ages. These are a pair of socks, my own pattern, that were made as a birthday gift for someone... who will be getting them over six months late, when I'm back in the States for Christmas.

The yarn is Colinette Jitterbug in the Sahara colourway, and I loved knitting with it. I'm definitely going to get more when I have the chance, and would highly recommend it.

Obsession

Recently, I joined a gym (it’s going well. I haven’t yet had an episode where I do the cross-trainer for 15 minutes and then have to go sit on the bathroom floor for half a hour trying not to be ill into the toilet. [This is what usually happens after I start doing exercise again after a long time]). I’m aiming to go a minimum of three days a week, and a maximum of five, although I’ve decided that if I want to do yoga on the weekend that doesn’t count towards my gym visits.

So recently, on days when I don’t have anything else planned, I’ve been heading down to the gym straight after work. I’m now getting ‘home’ (as I have to go home to change into my workout clothes – the gym is less than five minutes walk from my flat) between 7:30 and 8 at night. This isn’t really a problem – I have time to shower, throw something together to eat, although my meals are becoming much less inspired, and then sit and knit for an hour or so while watching TV or a dvd.

The key activity that’s been mentioned in that above paragraph is the knitting.

I’m going to a 60s fancy dress party (costume party, for those across the pond) on Friday and need something vaguely hippy-themed to wear. I found out about the party on Sunday, but didn’t have time to go and look for a costume as I had other plans. I dragged myself out on my lunch on Monday (I usually knit on my lunch break) to look in charity shops for something I could turn into a hippy outfit, and found a shirt – in size 8. It was perfect, but clearly some modifications would need to be made as it’s unlikely – barring some sort of body swap – that I’ll ever be a size 8 again.

I didn’t have any time Monday night to start making modifications to this top, so finally got a chance to sit down last night to begin work on it. I’d gone out yet again on my lunch (no knitting) to hunt for white thread, and so had all the things I needed to be able to change this top. Some snipping, some sewing, some trying on and two hours later I have an almost-completed top that I should look vaguely hippy-ish in, especially combined with the lovely necklaces I found at the same shop.

I noticed last night that I was feeling a bit resentful about the top. It was going to look pretty good (and hopefully fairly sexy when finished, as this party is taking place at a bar), but I was a bit angry with it. I couldn’t figure out why I was walking around for the past few days feeling slightly antsy and on edge, like I didn’t have enough time to do the things that I wanted to do and I was having a hard time figuring out why I was feeling this way.

Then, today, I read the Yarn Harlot’s post from yesterday and it hit me – I’ve barely gotten to knit in the last three days. Sunday, I was busy all day. Monday, I didn’t get my usual hour in at lunch, and then was busy all evening. Yesterday I again devoted my lunch hour to the hippy-top and spent my evening free time working on it. No. Knitting.

This was a bit of a surprise to me. I know the knitting has become a big part of my life since April last year when I picked up my sticks and strings and really started making things, properly (as opposed to the year at uni when I made scarves for Christmas, and then walked away). It just didn’t occur to me that it had become so…necessary. It’s how I relax, now. I don’t need to think, much, when I’m doing it. It’s active meditation, a time when I can just look at my hands and be no where else but where I am in that moment. After all, it’s hard to think about work, or money, or stress when you’re being amazed at how the blue is changing into the yellow is merging with the purple to make that really lovely colour as the yarn flows through your fingers.

Clearly, it’s moved into my life in ways I wasn’t expecting. And you know what? I’m pretty okay with that.

Random Friday

1. New job + longer commute + longer hours = less blog posting

2. I spent at least ten minutes today laughing because of toilet paper.

Every morning at my new office, when I go into the loos, there is a new giant roll of toilet paper in the dispenser thingy. You know, the ones that look like a tire? That's a lot of toilet paper. Although there are quite a few women at my office, there's no way that we can go through two of those things a day, so... what do they do with the not-all-the-way-used-up rolls? Build houses with them? Give them away as toilet paper hand-me-downs? "Here, have this. It's perfectly good, it's just... not good enough for us"?

And what does it say about me that this thought kept me occupied for at least ten minutes.

3. I have been knitting things.

These beautiful socks (The Firestarter, by Yarnissima), which I love, adore and wish that it wasn't going into the sticky months because they have alpaca content and my feet get hot very quickly. I also finished them almost a month ago now, and have managed to not wear them before I took a picture. This is Progress.



And this is the lovely Rusted Root, which I'm knitting out of the Rowan Calmer I was originally going to knit Fifi out of (the pattern just didn't appeal in the end). I am totally not getting gauge, but have been trying it on throughout. This has meant some small modifications to the pattern that probably wouldn't have been necessary had I swatched and was actually getting gauge, but it really doesn't bother me at all. I'm so very excited about finishing this one!


4. Poetry Friday

When You are Old

When you are old and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

--William Butler Yeats

Dirty, dirty knots

I've recently been knitting some manly-type socks out of my single manly-type colourway (navy blue, with very small and subtle flecks of other colours). I'm using Trekking (XXL) for the first time, and all the way through the first sock I was very impressed. The yarn is not splitty, it doesn't get caught on my very pointy needles (KnitPicks circulars), it runs perfectly through my fingers onto my needles - I was happy. I was thinking that I'd definitely be buying it again, especially as I like using superwash wool for socks I'm making as gifts. After all, I know that I'll hand wash anything I make for myself (I think my flatmate is getting used to seeing wooly goodness dry in our bathroom) but other people tend to just throw things in the washer.

So. Happily knitting along, and finish sock one. I start sock two, and after no more than five rows (and possibly less) there is a knot. Oh well, one knot in a skein, that's no problem. Bad placement, really, five rows in, but I'm in a waste-not-want-not kind of place and so I do the starting-new-ball jig and continue on. Then, horror of horrors. There is a second knot. And this time, it's not in the best place ever. It's just as I'm about to start turning the heel. I've done the starting-new-ball jig again, but with the starting position where it is I'm a bit worried about how the join is going to wear.

To be honest, I'm a bit irritated now. The yarn is lovely, it is a squishy as ever, but two knots in a skein? I know I haven't been knitting for decades, but I've never had two knots in a skein before. It just seems...well. Like I've gotten the end bits of something. Like my skein is the pieced together remnants of several other skeins that they just didn't want to throw away. It's not horrible, just irritating. And means more weaving in at the end, which is my least favourite part.

I think we should start a coalition for no-knots.

Expressions of love

Well, I finished my Grandmother's shawl for her 90th birthday well in time for the event. I say well in time, but actually it was a bit of a struggle. It needed to be done, blocked and dry, for packing on the 23 of December as it was also a Christmas present. I managed, but barely and with serious effort. Here it is though, and I'm pretty impressed with myself, to be honest.


This shawl took me a month and a half of knitting around 3-5 hours a night. (That's me outside my Grandma's place in Colorado, on December 27th - it was a bit chilly.) It was my first large project that succeeded, even a little bit, and is beautiful. I know there are mistakes in it, but this is the first thing that I've made that I've looked at and gone 'Wow.'


Pattern is Mountain Peaks Shawl by MimKnits, and it's a fantastic pattern that has been very well written. I used Handmaiden SeaSilk in Woodland, which was a wonderful yarn. As a side note though, the colours were much darker than they appeared on my screen when I was ordering - something I'm definitely going to keep in mind for next time. All in all though, I really enjoyed my first proper lace knitting experience, and can't wait to start something else.

My Grandma really loved it as well - she sat staring at it for a few moments and then disappeared into her room where there was much blowing of the nose.

A new obsession

I got my Ravelry invite last week, and I've discovered a new obsession.

It's wonderful! Seeing all these beautiful FOs is inspiring, and makes me want to sit around knitting all day. Thank you so much to the guys who designed the site, it's fantastic. So all I've been doing the last few days (well, since I got my invite. And I was so excited that I finally got my invite I can't actually remember what day I got it. I just logged in immediately, after going 'Squee!' for several seconds.) is looking at knitted things. And yarn. And knitting patterns. And I've signed up for a sock club. And fallen in love with this beauty (I want to be this designer when I grow up). And, and, and.... Just so much more!

This is soooooo not going to be good for my credit card. Poor thing is going to get worn out soon!

Ocean

I haven't yet managed to actually make anything more complex than a sock with the knitting (although, to be fair, socks are quite complicated. Lots of little fiddly bits.). I attempted Askew from Knitty, but that turned out...um...hey look! A big squirrel! Isn't it cute!

And there have been a few other things that I've liked the look of, but nothing really screamed YOU MUST KNIT ME NOW to me as I surfed the net or paged through IK. Yes, there were some thing that I thought, 'Hm. That's lovely. I'll have to knit that. At some unspecified point in time.' And then, oh and then. Then Knitty released their surprise patterns. And I've fallen in love. With this:


It's the Emerald Seas pattern by Hilary Engebretson, and I adore it. I adore it to little, bitty pieces, and want to immediately cast it on my needles and knit for a week straight and not go to work because I want it right now this second. However, I can't afford the yarn, especially with my plans for August - much travelling and dressing up like a ninja to hit my friends.

::sigh:: Life is just so hard sometimes. :P

Cable cable bo-babel

One of the things I find frustrating about knitting is that, well, I don't really know anyone who lives near me that knits. Most of this is because the majority of my friends are guys, and although there is photographic proof that there are men out there that knit none of my guys have been bitten by the woolly bug. Instead, they just look on with amusement when I whip out whatever I'm working on at our dnd sessions on Saturdays. So there are no experienced people around that I can ask when I'm unsure if I'm doing something right, or pretty sure that I'm doing something wrong.

Since I pretty much learned to knit from several books and being shown the knit stitch at college, this makes learning new techniques pretty interesting. Pretty interesting in that 'Someday, I will look back on this and laugh' way as I constantly have to destroy what I've done because I can't figure out why it's not working. The first pair of socks I made, I ended up having to make three socks to get two that, you know, actually matched. The second pair? I did the cuff on the first one approximated 26,579 times before figuring out what was going wrong. Which makes me a bit hesitant to attempt this:


This is Fifi from French Girl Knits. Now, I like a challenge, but those cables? They terrify me. And I still haven't decided if I actually like the top or not. There's something funny about it cutting off mid-boob. Is it supposed to make them look more pointy? Because that's what it seems to do in the photo. It's the current Sexy Knitters Club KAL (knit-a-long, for you non-knitters) and I think that I might have been so excited to be able to post pictures (before my camera died, anyway) and ask questions that I had a teensy MUST JOIN NOW reaction. So now I have the pattern and the yarn (Rowan Calmer, it's nice. Very stretchy. The yarn balls remind me of those squeezy stress balls.) but still haven't decided to knit it yet.

Partly because I'm a bit stuck on socks right now, and partly haven't made anything this big yet. I tried the Askew I mentioned earlier, and had to frog the whole bloody thing because I'm still getting the whole concept of row gauge. It looks like it could be a dress. Not so sexy. But mostly, I don't know about knitting it because of the cables. I'm working on some socks as a birthday gift right now that have cables in, and it's taken me SO LONG to figure them out without helpful pictures and help that the thought of trying to cable over more than one stitch freaks me out! So we'll see how we go. I have enough sock yarn to protect me for months, so maybe I can just ignore it. It'll go away if I do that, right?

Gotta knit a little more...

I think that the knitting bug has well and truely bitten, as I've now moved off socks and onto the 'hard stuff' - in addiction, cost, and difficulty level!

I decided to make my first actual garment, that will require me to actually care about my gauge and mistakes. I'm making this:

Askew, from the new Summer 2007 Knitty.

I'm very, very, excited. Me being me, of course, I'm using a totally different yarn (the only info I can find about it is that it's a Rowan Classic blend with 50% merino and 50% wool, which used to be on the GetKnitted website), and I've also changed the straps because I thought that they looked too big when I was staring at them. The yarn is fantastic, and I'm definitely going to have to work more with silk/silk blends in the future...possibly for this. Which may or may not be next, depending on how Askew goes.

I would show you a picture of my beautiful yarn, and the half (YES! HALF!) of the top that I've finished but...my camera is still sulking, for what reason no one can tell, and still isn't working. However, I'm going to have to bring the top into work to block (oh, the good things about working in small offices. All those bizarre behaviour patterns are just, you know, normal!) as I have No Room in my tiny, tiny studio flat. Also? The ancient hoover just isn't up to cleaning the floor properly, so that's out, and Matt might get a tad bit pissy if he has to sleep on a wet bed due to knitting. So what this means is that I might be able to take a picture of it with my work camera so that all of you can revel in the beauty that it will be.

Well, as long as I've done the evil maths right, and it actually fits, and doesn't fall apart, and, and...many things. Aren't you So Excited?? I know I am.