Resolutions

We're a week (and some) into 2012 and this year I'm challenging myself with three simple resolutions:

This is a follow-on from this years (I think) improved behaviour with regards to yarn buying. I felt like I bought less last year than the previous year... but did I? This year I just want to get a grip on exactly what my stash looks like and how it changes through the year. No promises to use more than I buy or any of that - I just want to *know* what I'm doing^*.

This *should* be an easy one (at least the first half). I've made it to week 7 of couch25k, but as work deadlines have stacked up I've been finding it harder to get out of the office. So... I've put it here. It's on paper and people have seen it and now I have to do it.

A very modern malady - like so many others I find myself increasingly bouncing from one thing that 'needs to be done' to the next. I am ashamed to say that I didn't see my grandmother at all in 2011 (she lives 20 minutes down the road). A hermit no more, I will arrange to see people this year AND I will spend a little more time at home just being me.

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^* I will aim to know what I am doing in this very specific context. Knowing what I am doing in the broader sense is pretty unlikely.

In Stitches: 2011

Another New Year!

I have mixed feelings about 2011s knitting. In numbers, 2011 looks similar to 2010. 19 finished projects (plus a swatching experiment and a mini sock). There were more (documented) failures though - socks that are still in hibernation,^{(rav 1 & 2)} a scarf that was just too scratchy,^(rav) and a shawl where a beautiful yarn conspired to hide a beautiful pattern^(rav). Plus a barely documented (but bitter) failure: a tank top that grew beyond all recognition.^(rav)

Back to the finished projects...

This year I've finished seven pairs of socks: five for me and two for 'him'. I am particularly fond of my Ribbed Ribbon Socks^(rav) - the pattern is simple but effective. Despite my firm assertion that lace socks have nothing on twisted stitches, these are probably my favourite socks of the year.

Other favourites:

• Maeva:^(rav) it took perseverance to get the sizing right, but the pattern looks great, introduced me to a cheap yarn (£2.60 for 100g) and was the first project where I experimented with adding stitches as I got higher up the leg (I have unusually round legs for a not-very-round person, adding stitches allowed me to get a proper length sock).
• Both of 'his' socks:^{(rav 1 & 2)} the slipped-stitch patterns on these are really effective.
• Citron:^(rav) my first (and, to-date, only) foray into laceweight. I love the yarn and it's perfect for this pattern. I've only worn the shawl once (someone do inform me how I fit these into my everyday) but it's gorgeous.
• Hey Te(a)ch:^(rav) this was the first pieced garment that I started and the second I finished (Gwen was the first finished). It fits well, is still a colour I love and is a) totally wearable for the everyday (in summer) and b) machine washable. Love.

And the not so good?

• The tank top of doom:^(rav) Enough said.
• Mallard Mittens:^(rav) These look nice but they don't fit that well.

Hmm... actually, with the exception of the aforementioned failures, I don't particularly dislike anything I've knit this year... I think my mixed feelings about 2011 knitting come from the fact that I feel like I could have somehow done more or better. Either I need to lighten up, or I need to make and keep some knitting resolutions this year!

(Or both).

FO: Cabled Mitts

It's been so long since I actually finished these mittens. The yarn was bought for this pattern two Christmases ago with the intention of a quick gift knit. Now that they're done I'm not sure I have anyone to give them to!

As I discovered knitting the first pair, this yarn is pretty scratchy to knit with and masks nearly all of the pattern. That aside, they're quite nice mitts (I quite like the colour changes in this yarn).

Pattern: Cabley Mitties by Allison Clayton.
Yarn: Stylecraft Brushstrokes Chunky.
Mods: Nothing significant.
Project: online on Ravelry.

FO: Bandana Cowl

Finished with near perfect timing - the bandana cowl (pictured here with my Verity hat, finished at a this time last year):


This was a super-quick travel project: cast on during a flight to Germany. Having arrived, it was colder than expected but a 3 hour lecture slot provided the perfect opportunity to bind off and weave in ends - done!

It doesn't look like anything special but this pattern is a real winner for me. All the warmth of a scarf with no ends to dangle in puddles when I tie my shoelaces. Small enough to stuff in a bag 'just in case' too.

Pattern: Bandana Cowl by Purl Soho.
Yarn: Malabrigo Twist in colourway Olive (leftovers from my Verity hat, also pictured).
Mods: None.
Project: online on Ravelry.

There's just a smidge of this yarn left, I'm wondering if it's enough for a Calorimetry.

FO: One of a Pair

Knitting on a deadline, part 1 (the completed part) of 2:


I finally cast on the second of these last night, if I don't finish Santa won't be able to leave me any presents :(

Pattern: Falling Snow Stocking by Jennifer Hoel.
Yarn: Stylecraft Life/Special Chunky (I can't remember which right now).
Mods: Upped the pattern from 64 to 80 stitches (this thing is huge) and added an extra chart for the name. Modified the colour transition on the toe slightly.
Project: online on Ravelry.

Well-Travelled

A quick look at my geocaching statistics tells a nice little story:

Four caches, four countries:

• My most-Northerly find is The Mackintosh Church in Glasgow, Scotland and was actually found very recently as it was the venue for the Glasgow School of Yarn where I took classes with Amy Singer and Stephen West. That was, sadly, the only cache I found that trip, as I just wasn't feeling motivated to go out.


• My most-Southerly find is the Maryland Municipal League Geotrail - Annapolis in Annapolis (Maryland), United States. I found that cache in February 2010 when attending HotMobile, a computing conference. I seem to remember nearly running out of time looking for that cache - it was (as always) just slightly further away than I though.


• My most-Easterly find is Not On Rocky Ground (Yuanmingyuan) in Beijing, China. Again a recent find on another conference trip. This was the only cache I found on that trip.


• My most-Westerly find is Blue Hoosier in Vancouver, Canada. This was a honeymoon find, we really loved this side of Canada.

GSoY: Colour play the Westknits Way

It's been a while, but my last post was the first of three about classes at the Glasgow School of Yarn, the first birthday celebrations of The Yarn Cake - Scotland's only dedicated knitting cafe. Of the many classes/workshops on offer I picked three (a 'Hermione Granger'-inspired time turner would have come in rather useful for getting to try some of the others). Friday afternoon's workshop was...

'Colour Play, the Westknits Way'

What made me pick this one...? I love the way colour can be used in knitting projects but when it comes down to it I tend to pick simple one-colour projects. If I ever combine colours I go looking for a combination someone else has done and do my best to match it. Boring... I'm also pretty unfamiliar with most colour-related techniques. I played with stripes for a bit in 2009:

And also tried my first stranded project in the same year:
The next stranded project was quite a bit simpler (I'd learnt something) in 2010:
To be honest I still feel like a complete beginner with stranding - I have another project on the go and I've learnt a couple of things this time around. Here's hoping it'll improve still more in the future.

Other colour techniques.... I've played with slip stitches on a few sock projects this year (I really like the way this looks):

But (prior to this workshop) I've yet to try any intarsia (although I kind of played around with the idea a bit on a pair of mittens I made up last winter):

So, what did we get up to? In this workshop we played around with a two-colour sample. (We didn't talk about colour choices but I did get to see lots of fine examples of things that worked - maybe I'll get out some brave soon.) We started out with some simple garter stitch stripes, something that actually works really well, I'm not a huge fan of garter stitch, but adding some colour definately makes it worth a second thought. To the garter stripes we then added a couple of slipped stitches which then became traveling stitches moving across the sample.


Next stop, intarsia! This was actually pretty straightforward at this scale - I hear it gets a bit more fiddly with more colour transitions... I felt like I'd got to grips with that and so went on to experiment with cables. It's not often you see cables on stockinette and I can see that they might not show so well in a single colour but here it makes and interesting linking effect:


And that was that, the light was fading and that dark blue was increasingly feeling like a poor choice of colour - time to head back to the hostel (and to a lovely haggis and neeps at Stravaigin - eating our solo is often really quite weird but the whole thing was just really pleasant - great service, great food, really lovely atmosphere).

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PS - Stephen West was great too, he took plenty of time to talk us through his samples and to look at the swatches we were playing with. I wish I had his style...

PPS - Project online on Ravelry.