These seeds are cursed!

So I thought it was about time that I gave an update about my Seeds of Change jumper. I’ve finally got a sleeve written and knitted up after much procrastination and one failed attempt. Here it is!

Ok, it’s not a terribly exciting picture (and it’s a bit blurry) but considering how long it’s been in the making, I think it merits a bit of a showing off. Look it’s even got a bit of a bell curve!

My initial attempt looked a bit trapezoidal, so I frogged it and went back to my notes from Knitty. They didn’t seem to be helping much, until I realised I needed the 3rd article from the series! Check it out here.

And incidentally, if you ever thought to yourself when you were in math class ‘When am I ever going to need to use Pythagoras theory?’ …well now you know! Seriously I think I’ve used more ‘real’ math in knitting than I’ve ever used in my life (adding and subtracting doesn’t count, cos everyone has to do those).

Back to the sweater. So I think it’s been almost a year since I originally started this project. And I thought that I might get lucky and finish it up by the end of the month. Except being me, I had to go and check that my calculations and math had actually been worth it, so I sewed in the sleeve (why make 2 mistakes when you can get away with just one?). Except it looked terrible. For some reason that I still can’t figure out, none of the seams seem to line up properly. I tried fudging a few rows here and there but there just seem to be too many on one side and too few on the other. Even though they’re identical in shaping (well, the sleeve is anyway).

I considered leaving things the way they were but it was much too stressful. So I’ve unpicked all the seams (and the border I crocheted around the neck. Which maybe isn’t a bad thing, I might come up with a better idea for that) and I’m planning on blocking all the pieces separately. I’m not really sure if it will make a difference in the grand scheme of things, but at least I can say I did all I could even if it still insists on going pear-shaped.

So I guess the fact that I’ve done all the hard maths-y parts that I can say I’ve actually gone and designed my own jumper.  Yay! I’m so proud of me, even if it does end up looking hideous. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that blocking might help though. Stay tuned to see what the final result will be!

Absence makes…everyone forget about you!

I know, I know. I’ve not written anything for ages. Would it help if I told you that I had been busy with the knitting?

I finally finished my Gran’s cape. Only about 2 weeks after when it was due

I’m not entirely sure I’m happy with it, on account of my yarn wasn’t as white as the one photographed for the pattern, but I imagine that they touched the photo up and had special lighting and everything when they took it.

I haven’t really been working on too much else to be honest, on account of being introduced (by accident!) to a series called the Wheel of Time. I’ve only read as far as book 3 (of a 12 book series) but have been engrossed the whole time! I’ve been trying to track own book 4 but I’ve not found it in my local bookstore, and applying to jobs right now kind of takes precedence. Yes I’m unemployed again, but with a mind to move onto something more engaging than my last position. But I mention the books because I can feel a strange need to design patterns based around ideas from the books.

My favourite character is Perrin and I’ve decided if I’m ever in an alternate universe set in the past, I’m heading straight for the nearest blacksmiths.

But back to my yarny crafts. Since last posting I’ve also spun a couple of hanks of yarn. I’ve only got a picture of the yarn I called ‘Stone Mountain’ on account of not having finished up the second yarn completely.

The colours reminded me of looking at a mountain from a distance, which is why it became Stone Mountain.

I’m really quite pleased with the way this came out. I got a new spindle and found it so much easier to work with than the one I originally purchased. My yarn is still a bit slubby, and it’s going to take a few more practices to consistently get any thinner than worsted weight but I’m much less reluctant about the idea of buying more fleecy goodness. I like the ‘plaits’ of yarn to work with the most so far I think.

Well that’s all there is to report for now. Hopefully I should be better at keeping this updated, what with being home before 8pm (if I even leave!) so hopefully I’ve not been too forgotten about.

See you next time!

Sick, sick, sick little knitter

I’ve decided that I’ve officially lost my mind. I think I’m most definitely certifiable. ‘What brings on this insight?‘ I hear you ask. Well dear reader, despite having projects awaiting completion, I have decided to cast on MORE Christmas knitting. It is absolutely ridiculous to assume that by the time the big day rolls around I’ll have finished the 2 pairs of socks that are currently awaiting partners, and the cape that I only cast on for 2 days ago, but I’m currently trying to figure out how I can also squeeze in a headband, another pair of socks, a lace scarf and maybe another pair of socks if I’m lucky.

Lucky?! Even if I knit solidly from now till Christmas without sleep, social life or eating on What PLANET could I ever get that all done in time??!

I don’t know why I feel compelled to knit so many presents. I’m pretty sure that like all the Christmases that have come before, the gifts of yester year will become a blurry non-memory. ‘Just buy a gift voucher‘ my sensible (and lazy!) self insists. ‘I don’t have time for shopping!‘ the knitter in me says ‘How the hell will I get these presents done otherwise?!‘ How indeed.

I find myself cursing the train driver in the morning at how quickly I seem to have arrived at my destination. I wolf my lunch down in the hopes of getting down a few more rows. I find myself wondering if maybe I shouldn’t go to Stitch and Bitch because less bitchin’ means more stitchin’! (The latter hasn’t transpired yet due to the fact that knitting the foot of a sock whilst alone makes my eye start twitching at how tedious it gets after the first inch in between the heel and the toe. I need to make friends with people with freakishly small feet….).

The only thing keeping me going at the moment (apart from insanity!) is how excited I am at the prospect of being able to cross off projects from my queue, yarn from my stash and the extra room for more yarn I’ll soon have. Call me crazy but it might just happen…

I made it!

Literally!

Ravelympic Haruha Scarf

So admittedly this is a picture of my scarf still in it’s blocking stages, but I just wanted to show off my completed Ravelympics project to the world, along with my medals.

Not only did I manage to finish, but I did it with time to spare after crossing the finish line on 21August. This is a great achievement I reckon and I feel like I did myself proud (I wonder if Olympians feel the same way?).

I loved taking part in this ‘competition’ (for want of a better word. It was the taking part that we did it for. Well that and an awesome jpeg!), but I wouldn’t want to knit all of my projects this way as I feel like I missed out on the actual knitting part of it.

Now that the games are over I’ve gone back to my other WIPs and managed to complete my Jaywalker socks (woohoo!), and have even made a few more triangles for my baby blanket (not that it’s anywhere near finished yet).

I’m going to be going to I Knit day at the end of the week, one of the rewards (along with Ally Pally!) I would get for burning up my stash, but part of me just wants to carry on burning up what I already have, instead of adding more yarn to my collection. However that part is greatly outweighed by the part of me that wants to go, so I’m getting all excited instead. I hope I’ll be sensible about what I get this time though, as I’ve still got a few bits from my last venture that are still unsure of their destiny.

I’ve also managed to use up a small amount of yarn that’s been sitting in my stash since forever too recently, as part of a gift for a birthday. I’m pretty sure that yarn might have been from one of the first projects I ever made (not including the projects made from the yarn that came with my Klutz book). It makes me all nostalgic and annoyed at the same time, as the yarn was used for a scarf which came out too short, and has now visible (to me) mistakes on it. I don’t want to chuck it out though (I’m far too sentimental it seems!), so it will sit in my stash until it is all used up into something else.

Anyway, on with the knitting and thanks for reading!

Ravelympic entry

So to mark the 2008 Olympics, some lovely people on Ravelry teamed up to conjure up the Ravelympics.

The rules: To start and finish a knitted item during the summer games. The only condition is that the project needs to be something that will challenge you (it’s not really that big a deal if it’s just something you can do in an afternoon in front of the TV).

I’m currently competing with Team S&B London in the Laceweight Long Jump and the Scarf Stroke with my project the Haruha Scarf. Only 2 days into the games, and I’m quite proud of how much I’ve completed so far! It currently measures 15 inches unstretched (and I think it will need a severe blocking when I’m done knitting).

Which brings me to blocking wires. Why are they so expensive and obscure to find?! I’ve currently been using the ’stretch string’ method, but I find that it tends to come ‘in’ at the middle of the pieces needing blocking which can only be remedied by placing a pin to get it back in place, therefore creating a scallop which is what I wanted to avoid in the first place. I’ve searched around for some welding rods, which are considerably cheaper, but not managed to find any at the hardware stores. If you’re in the market to donate any blocking wires get in touch! (although I don’t recall seeing any blue moons lately….)

I’ll be off at my festival (FINALLY) in a few days, so I don’t expect I’ll be able to post for a while, but I hope the next time might show me at the knitted ‘finish line’ with my scarf held high! Until then thanks for reading!

Industry

It’s been a long couple of months at Alterknit HQ with knitting spells arriving and disappearing as quickly as the sunshine in Wimbledon inspired weather. My job’s been making me blue lately and I’ve found myself drowning my sorrows in rows and rows of knitting (far better than rows and rows of something else).

I finally came back to my sweater, after a prolonged absence. Math, is seems, is something I will try to avoid at all costs. But I pushed through and have finally managed to complete the front and back pieces. I’m especially proud of the shape of the vee neck, as I wasn’t sure it would end up the way I had hoped. Admittedly, I’m not sure this is exactly what I had hoped for, but if it wasn’t then I must have been wrong!

The 'vee'

Now if  could only be bothered to work out the sleeves….

Next up on the completed projects list is my North Star Tam, designed by Donna Druchunas. I love it so much. I consider this to be another step in my journey to become a Master Knitter, as I had to learn how to read lace charts. Once I worked out how it’s possible for you to still have the same amount of boxes on the chart representing the stitches, the little light bulb of clarity shone above my head, like the North Star itself Incidentally, if you’re new to charts, the Arctic Lace book is awesome.

I don’t have any quivut, nor do I think I’d be able to afford any any time soon (what with not being paid!) so I used one of my delightful balls of Habu Silk Mohair, that had previously lied to me about it’s yardage. I think it turned out really well.

North Star Tam

I also found out that using the regular bind off method is just not working out for me. I’ve tried using larger needles, trying to ‘loosely’ bind off but it’s just not happening. Lucky for me then that I found out about Cat Bordhi’s ‘Stretchy Cast Off’. It takes longer than the regular bind off (and I’m pretty sure it uses much more yarn), but I luffs it and it has become my saving grace on more than this tam.

There’s been a few more projects on the go but I think I’ll save those to write about another time. Until then thanks for reading!

Burn Baby, Burn!

I just wanted to write an entry because I feel like I’ve made another mini break-through with my stash busting. Woohoo!

I made some baby booties recently, just to use up some of my leftover Rowan Big Wool, and just a few days later found out that there had been a new addition to the family! So I got all excited at the prospect of sending them off, when I also found out that said bambino also had a 2 year old brother. Now anyone who knows anything about small children knows that you don’t gift a new baby, and leave out the sibling unless you want a fit of jealousy and Freudian angst to come out of it. Or at least that’s what I told myself as an excuse to make another knitted gift

I made a hat out of some yarn that had been leftover from a (disastrous) jumper of mine (seriously, if you still have a whole ball of yarn left over when you finish, you must have made a mistake somewhere!). It nearly went all wrong when I got inches and cm confused and started a hat that wouldn’t fit a cherry let alone a small toddlers head, but luckily my brain kicked in around that time and I sorted it out before I embarrassed myself further.

I’ve also been successful in passing on some yarn that’s been in my stash since I first got started. Before I worked out the difference between DK and Aran, I bought some yarn to make a(nother disastrous) jumper, but fortunately I realised my mistake before I got too involved. It did mean the yarn was lonely while I tried to work out what to do with it. Ultimately I decided I couldn’t give it the love it needed, so sent it on to a lovely lady in India and asked that she pass the good karma on.

So, while I myself have nothing to show for my efforts, my stash is a few 100g lighter than 2 weeks ago. Yay stash busting!

Thanks for reading!

Extended edition

It’s nearly April and my draft entry has become irrelevant since I saved it. Perhaps this blog was in fact meant to be monthly?

I’ve managed to squeeze a lot of knitting in lately. I’m not sure if that means I’ve been hiding away from the outside world more, or if the grim weather has just been the perfect opportunity to hide away with a pair of needles and yummy yarn.  Either way, there’s lots of new projects to see and read about.

One of the first is my 1930’s style sweater. I’m not sure how true it is to the original pattern, there wasn’t a photo, only an artist’s impression. I made some changes to the  pattern because I thought using 10mm needles would result in a fabric the was too loose, even on 8mm needles it still seems a bit floppy.

I like it mostly, but I think I made a mistake with the crochet edge. The pattern didn’t specify the hook size needed and I think I used 6mm. In hind sight I think I should have just gone with 8mm like the main body. I thought about redoing it, but I don’t have enough yarn and it doesn’t look so bad.

I finally finished up the black beaded scarf I’ve been working on seemingly forever. I decided in the end to call that project ‘Sloth’. It took so long, and I spent ages trying to avoid working on it, hence ‘Sloth’.

I made my cousin socks for her upcoming birthday and for the Selfish Knitters KAL on Ravelry. I love the colours in this but if you look closely you can see that the socks are fraternal twins only, rather than identical. (which is why I only took a photo of one!). It also meant I got to use up some of the oldest sock yarn in my stash

I did ruin my yarn diet a little though by buying some Noro yarn to make what I have dubbed ‘Ponchirto’. The yarn didn’t stay in my stash long, I finished the project the same weekend I bought it, but I’m still kind of annoyed that I couldn’t stick it out. But anyway, the pattern was for ‘Ponchette’ by Bonnie Knits, but I figured it would kind of make a cool skirt too. (Poncho + Skirt [Ponchskirto] = Ponchirto!).

 

I learnt how to do Purl long-tail cast on for this. I didn’t expect it to have made a big difference but it was a really good result. I figure I could take this with me when I go camping. I bet it would make a good pillow as well as keeping me snug when I’m chillin’ (no pun intended) in the evenings.

Speaking of camping, I finally bought my sleeping bag. It’s so exciting, I’ve never had one before so I had to try it out as soon as I could. I could fit about 3 of me in it but I still think it’s great! Needs a pillow though

Next a tale of woe. My ‘Scat’ that I made with my Christmas yarn was dismantled to make way for an alternative project. Too many people laughed at it and I lost the confidence to wear it anymore

All is not lost though. I kept the pom poms and made a pair of Super-Comfy Slippers instead. I like them a lot and think they’re much nicer than my store bought pair which only make my feet feel sticky and not necessarily warm (eughh). I forget I’m wearing them after a while too.

(Do you like my socks? I know it seems like I have a pink stripe obsession with this pic but it was just coincidence)

I’ve made some progress with my baby blanket too. It’s plodding along, I’m pretty sure that years from now when it’s done there’ll be a little bambino to gift it to.

Finally, I cast on for Wisp. I got a bit bored of my Kool Aid dyed shawl and Wisp is so easy to memorise. It’s my ‘Sheffield yarn’ and I’m really pleased with the way it’s worked in this pattern. I’m actually trying to talk myself out of buying any more Kidsilk as I’ve got plenty of lace weight to get rid of already.

I think the yarn and pattern complement each other really well in this project. I’m hoping to get some shell buttons in purple to finish it off. I even found some crushed velvet ribbon too that I can use to make the ‘hood’.

I’m looking forward to starting up some new projects too, I’ve got so many plans for the rest of my stash, it seems almost cruel that I can’t knit any faster.

I hope this entry makes up for the lack of news for a while but thanks for reading and hope you’re back soon.

The Uber Entry

I know, it’s been ages since I updated my blog. I’m still trying to get used to how everything works here. But anyway, I thought I’d write an uber post to make up for it

First up, Lilith is FINALLY finished! And since a picture paints a thousand words, here’s 2!

 

This is Lilith in shawl mode, and below is Lilith in shrug/cardi mode

Ok, it’s not exactly finished because I haven’t sewn the buttons on yet but the knitting part is finished, and I wore it as a scarf the other day so I think it should count!

Next I made a Nintendo Cosy. It was a perfect weekend project made all the better that I spent it at home doing nothing but knitting and watching a Clint Eastwood movie. The movie was a bit random (I didn’t know Clint Eastwood sang!) but it was good quality entertainment. I think it was called ‘Paint your Wagon’ or something along those lines. There were goldmines, wild west and songs

I changed the pattern for the cosy though, because it seemed like it would be too big when I started. In hindsight, it’s a bit smaller than maybe it should have been, but definitely a better size than the original. Why would I want a Nintendo Cosy? No, I don’t worry that it will get cold, I just want to protect it from scratches and fingerprints whilst I transport it. It’s also cheaper than buying an ‘official’ case. Also, note for anyone thinking to do something similar, don’t use wool because it might create static (apparently. I don’t really know these things, I just saw it on a forum, fortunately before I started using the other yarn I was going to use).

No, I haven’t sewn buttons on this either, but in my defence that’s because I don’t have any!

Okay what else?

Oh, I made a ‘Short and Sassy Magic Shawl’. There’s nothing really magic about it other than the fact that I used a Be Sweet Magic Ball to make it. Because I wasn’t sure how much yarn I was going to have for it, I cut the fringe pieces first, and in a moment of inspiration I figured I’d cut the strands from all the different colours to keep the theme going. I wasn’t sure what I thought of it when I started, but once I’d done a couple of colours I was quite impressed

and a close up…..

There are no buttons on this.

And last but not least, I made a pair of Dragonscale Mitts. As I told the recipient, no dragons were harmed in their making (but the angora in the yarn did make my nose itch. For a yarn that’s so beautifully soft and delicious, it’s a bit annoying to knit with sometimes. And I have another 4 balls of it in my stash…)

I have requested a picture of them being modelled, but I guess it’s still in make up.

So all in all, I guess my stash busting is going pretty well. I’m a bit perplexed about why I have a whole skein of yarn leftover from my Lilith project though, I think there was an error in the pattern. It’s not so bad, I’m pretty sure I can find something for it. I also had a random thought whilst I was cutting the fringe for my shawl. Magic Balls are just lots of different yarns of a similar weight knotted together and they’re a bit outside my usual price range (but for a good cause. They support African communities. ) . So, my thinking is, all those silly odds and ends that I have that are too long to throw away and too short to do anything with could all be combined to make one entirely Alterknit ball! All I have to do is work out which ones are best together.

Well, I guess that’s all for now, hope it won’t be ages till I write my next entry.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

When will it end?

Ok, it’s been quite some time since I’ve had the chance to do a proper entry but life, it seems, doesn’t want to hang around long enough to let me catch up.

There’s not too much been going on on the project front, because of the life reason mentioned above, but I have managed to get onto the last part of Lillith. So hopefully my next entry will be one of finished victory. Woohoo!

I’ve also noticed that most of the projects I’ve been working on lately are ones that require lots of patience and aren’t the sort of thing that’s only going to take a night or two. In light of this realisation I thought I’d check out my project queue and see if I could find something I could knit up really quickly. It turns out my queue is quite lacking in that department. So let that be a lesson to all you people thinking of buying more lace weight yarn before going on a yarn diet. I’ve got some great plans but they all require time and love which I just can’t give them at the moment

On the plus side I have got a bit more organised about things. I printed off all the patterns waiting in the wings so that when I finally decide I want to cast on it can be ‘full steam ahead!’ (rather than ‘oh maybe I’ll wait till tomorrow when I turn my computer on’). I even got some nice binders for all the loose bits of A4 floaing around. Now if only I could fit another book case into my room….

Oh yeah, I just remembered, I did get 2 projects completed in the time I’ve been away. One was my second green sock and I made this head scarf to

a) use up the leftover yarn and

b) to use when I go camping in case the whole experience makes my hair a bit rubbish. (I’m so excited about it!)

Well anyway, that’s all for now. Thanks for reading!