GET ME!!!!

I’ve actually managed to finish a few things:

A Hemlock Ring Blanket:

Rowanspun chunky

A February Baby Sweater (rav link) (and if you don’t know what ravelry is, you and I clearly have nothing in common)

Rowan All Seasons Cotton

and Another:

Rowan Wool Cotton

A Baby Shedir

James C Brett merino DK

AND

a Grr!

Sirdar Cotton DK

Do you know why? I would love to join next year’s sock club at socktopus but after having to go through the trauma of a recent move I discovered that I have waaaaaaaay too much yarn to justify that. It is almost entirely Rowan brand as I only recently discovered the joy of hand-painted yarn. In fact, I have so much of Rowan’s back catalogue it is now listed as a separate item on my contents insurance, along with my laptop, my PA and woodwinds! So, dear reader, I have joined the ravelry group stash knitdown of 2009 and will be knitting my way out of my little treasure trove and into a wardrobe of new socks for my little tootsies.

Now what next? My Hexagon Blanket is continuing, now that I’ve decided to graft-as-I-go. But that is long-term, heirloom knitting. Soo, I have started on my own FLS or February Lady Sweater, based on Mrs Zimmermann’s famous baby jacket as above. I’m doing mine in an old stash of rowan summer tweed – I discovered 13 skeins of the stuff. Jeez.

Based on previous performance, my usual tendency is to start many and finish none, but that seems to have changed recently. Am I growing up? Improving? Getting less manic? More Boring? Never….. Tune in next week Bat Fans, same Bat Time, same BAT CHANNEL!

Every day, in every way, I’m getting better

At least, that is what Frank said that his mother always told him.

It would seem my colourwork has been improving. my first attempt at a properly stranded, in-the-round item was Eunny Jang’s Endpaper Mittens in October 2007. At first i found holding yarn in my left hand a real problem, especially as I was knitting English style in my right and continental in the left. It felt less awkward eventually and I even went on to knit a pair for my sister afterwards.

Eunny’s pattern is great and I wore the mittens most of that winter. I started to wear them this winter (just gone. Going? still here? who knows?) and took them on tour to Germany for a few days. In fact, I am almost certain they made it to most of the Blackforest and back, but for some reason they preferred Terminal 5 to my house, and only one came home :0(

So eventually I started and finished the replacement in February. Woo! my FO rate is improving. And so is my stranded knitting.

So much so, that my gague is looser! *(#&*($&*@(#$! (the newer, more annoying one is on top)

its actually far too loose although I didn’t notice it until I had done the thumb gusset and was past the point of no return. There is one less pattern repeat between the thumb and the ribbing to make sure they ended up roughly the same length. The pragmatic angel on my shoulder says, ‘its fine, they work, the untrained eye will never see the difference, they are mittens of gorgeous lovelyness’. But the perfectionist Devil on the other says ‘Madwoman, re-knit it to match AT ONCE!! before it drives you insane with its un-matchyness!’

What would you do?

Sooooooo…..

Well here are my latest efforts. I’ve added some hexagons from a new yarn: Shelridge Farm Ultra Touch Handpaints. This stuff is amazing. At 6 quid a skein, its affordable and the fabric it knits up is just wonderful.

Shelridge Farm Hexagon

Actually, I bought it at Socktopus in Chelsea. That shop is such a find! I spotted it on Ysolda’s blog last year, but didn’t get round to doing anything about it until a month ago. I sing more or less once a month at a gig round the corner from there so left extra time before the soundcheck to peruse.

At the time the yarn didn’t really have fond memories (apart from that of finding the shop in the first place!) but someone remarked on how beautiful the colours were and was taken ill very shortly afterwards. So, this is a lovely reminder of him. His recovery won’t be rapid but maybe I’ll knit him some socks using it.

A few other pics:

I also picked this up recently at a Brighton market:

I’m not usually into ‘pretty’ things, but I love the collar on this and even the lace is nice. Have I suddenly turned into a girly girl?

So, I’m Back!

Hopefully not to any great trumpets or fanfares… This is purely for me. To keep a record of all the things I’m doing. I’ve been rubbish the last year or so, for various reasons, life just exploded on me. And Ravelry of course affected all things knitting, so I never really got round to posting anything on this page.

Anyway, my knitting has gathered pace: I’ve started to get into the swing of finishing projects, mostly because they’re intended as presents for people. I’ll post pictures of new stuff later, but for the time being I want to upload my current project, the real reason why I’m posting again…

That’s right. I’m being highly original and knitting myself a blanket.

I’m using up mostly any DK I’ve got in my stash, but most 4ply held double works if I use the right needle. I’m finding it peculiarly satisfying, I’ve noticed the urge to nest recently. Not sure why, maybe just a part of growing up, or even growing down as some people would put it.

There is something restful about having a project to return to, something that is always there to provide interest. Its particularly nice because as I include new hexagons, each different yarn reflects a different story or episode. So the blue you can see here is from my first foray into designing – the remains of some top-down baby hats I knitted at Christmas (in RYC DK merino), often a bit fuzzy after something fizzy.

The pink is from my first ball of Manos Del Uruguay from my favourite LYS, and I have very fond memories of it: Boxing Day 2008 I sat with some friends from New Zealand watching a NZ flick and some pavlova (very Kiwi dessert, so they tell me), knitting myself a scarflette.

The green is some Cascade 220 from Loop, and was purchased to make a present for a new, very dear friend and his daughter.

So this blanket is probably going to take me most of this year (can’t see that i would want to knit a wool blanket in the Summer) but will hopefully be a labour of love. I’ll post pictures periodically to keep up my interest and motivate me to finish, and I will do my best to tell the stories that fit each shape…

FURY

PICT1698

Originally uploaded by Liz Swain

I am being driven round the bend by this lace shrug, named convertible. Go find it on Ravelry because I am too annoyed with it to link it properly.

I’ve already completely frogged it twice.

AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH

oh well

Well, I’ve already failed in my aim to post every day, but I have been discovering some wonderful new things everyday:

Flight of the Conchords. Possibly the funniest thing I’ve seen since the Mighty Boosh (which was about 4 years ago now). Go check them out.

iKnit. Possibly the best knitting shop I’ve been to. Ever. Its more about the location and the atmosphere of the shop, although they have a fantastic range of bamboo needles and yarns. If you can get to Vauxhall train station, you should pay them a visit.

Sweet Paul. Possibly the best food photography sight I’ve seen (but I’ve only seen his). There are some very inspiring photos of cakes on there. Do you need to know more?

Cupcake Bakeshop. Possibly the best baking site I’ve seen. This crazy woman does nothing but post about cupcakes with wacky tastes and colours.

And I’ve started knitting this:

Its called convertible and you can find it on www.knitty.com. Its a gorgeous lace shawl which can be buttoned in a variety of ways. It’ll be perfect for me if I can knit enough repeats without frogging it too many times, but its been a b*gger to start. I’ve used a provisional cast-on as the yarn I’m using is much more fine than the original and I’m not sure I’ll have enough, so I figured this way I can always add more to the ends. There are some gorgeous examples on Ravelry too.  Anyway, enough of my ranting, its late – I apologise if this post seems incoherent! night.

excitable

Ever been so excited about how close you are to finishing a pattern that you just have to keep going until the end?

It doesn’t happen to me very often, but its a little like reading a book you really love – most recently it was the last of the Northern Lights trilogy. Well anyway, I’ve recently started Ysolda’s  Gretel. I completely miscounted the tubular cast on and got 3/4 of the way through before realising I had to frog it back. Anyway, I cast on again a couple of days ago and basically stayed up until around 3am finishing it. Perhaps it was the challenges the hat had to offer – learning how to cable without a third needle, a tubular cast on blah blah. It made me realise that the reason I stop halfway through so many projects is because they aren’t challenging enough, or perhaps, interesting enough. There simply isn’t enough reward in continuing. Its also made me wonder if that applies in other areas of my life. Anyway, has anyone else had the same problem or found the same solution? Has anyone found a different solution?