Intrique...

Spotted this in a thread on the Ravelry forums, it's sort of neat, but... doesn't the yarn get dirty? Or are everyone else's floors cleaner than ours?

FO: September Socks

First pair of completed socks for the Sock Knitters Anonymous SOCKDOWN! Here are my September Socks:

Pattern: Make-Up Socks by Kristen Kapur (a pattern from The Joy of Sox)

Yarn: Fyberspates Sheila's Sock in colourway Russet. Bought online at Fyberspates.

Mods: None.

Project: online at Ravelry.

A Thief in the Night

It was a busy week last week. In the strange world of academia deadlines are prophesied as long-distant events that will one-day come to pass. And so they stay, forever in the future, until... like a thief in the night the long-foreseen deadline is suddenly upon you and people are finally prepared to dedicate some moments of their precious time to writing a few words for that paper you hope to submit later in the week. *sigh*

Still, I've survived and I think I must now have caught up on the majority of sleep lost during those stressful evenings of no knitting and a lot of typing. And, thanks to Saturday's KnitCafe, I almost feel like I might have caught up with some of the knitting too....

1) The September Socks are all done bar the sewn bind off. They need a bit of blocking really to smooth out the tension down the sides a bit and I'm somewhat less excited about them than I was when I started them. I'm not sure what's changed, but they just don't quite sing for me the way I thought they might.

2) I have my first bit of potentially actually usable handspun. Just 15m of the stuff, but it's much more even than the previous attempts and I think it's also pretty balanced. Very, very happy with this.

This had spent a long time sat on the spindle waiting to be plied but I just never got around to it until I found this post on What I've Learned Along the Way. Really impressed with the effort gone to here in order to produce a really nice summary of all sorts of spindle spinning bits and bobs. Anyway, I watched the Andean Plying video by theartofmegan and, right then and there, decided it was time to ply.

My plan for this wee bit of yarn is to craft myself a wee lavender bag as stolen from Eskimimi who in turn stole it from Mooncalf (both very lovely blogs). I've got a big bag of lavender in my sewing pile so it sounds like the perfect combination.

3) My 'Summer Scarf', the Lace Ribbon Scarf from knitty is blocked. It's way too long I think, so I need to try it on and see if I want to rip some of it out or not. Also, it's wider at one end than the other (about 1.5" wider) - I guess it was worked over that period where my gauge was changing quite dramatically. Still, noone will know, and perhaps the flaws mean I shall have to keep it after all...

Perhaps I will finish some projects soon, it seems I have not yet learned the lesson about how increasing the number of things started has an impact on the size of the finishing pile :)

WIP Wednesday: September Socks

This week's work in progress is still my September Socks/Socks for September:

They're actually progressing quite well. They were held up for a while as I've been at a conference and got zero knitting done on my travels but now the heels have been turned and before you know it I'll be halfway up the leg (hopefully). Although the pattern is getting a little more repetitive as I progress, I am still happy knitting away as I'm certain these will be lovely socks.

PS - Yes, I do know September is over. The socks were for *starting* in September, they'll be finished in time for leaf fall if nothing else :)

WIP Wednesday: Christine's Cable Mitts

So, on Monday I mentioned that:

1) I have an issue with startitus at the moment

2) I'd cast on a project that wasn't quite ready to be declared yet

So here it is...

This week's work in progress is... a pair of fingerless cabled mittens!

I ditched the original idea for a picot cast-on (too bulky) and replaced it with a twisted german (my default variant of long-tail) cast on. This is much better although mine is perhaps a touch tight on this project.

The pattern is improvised, I'm writing it as I go and I might make it available once I'm done. I've taken a cable I found in one of my knitting books, altered the row counts a bit and then transposed it onto the fingerless mitten pattern I used with this yarn last time. I've shortened the cuff rib and am considerably lengthening wrist/arm portion before starting the thumb gusset. The cable is knit in a (slightly more contrasting than intended) colour using the first method for intarsia in the round described on Let Me ExplaiKnit. So far, so good (except the colour which I am both personally unsure of and also unsure the recipient will like - she chose the purple, I bought the pink later and it was the only colour the market had that went with it even vaguely although I have since discovered a much paler pink is also produced, I suspect this would have been a better match - the yarn doesn't rip well so I figure if the pattern works I can always knit another). Like the original fingerless mitts, this is a pretty satisfying quick knit because of the relative bulkiness of the yarn.

So that's my home project, as mentioned yesterday my portable project is still the Socks for September which are progressing very nicely at a rate of around one chart repeat (10 rounds on both socks) per day.

Both these projects can also be found on Ravelry:

• Socks for September
• Christine's Cable Mitts

Merrily We Sock A-Long

Last Tuesday I started my September Socks, my first attempt at participation in SOCKDOWN - a challenge to knit a pair of socks a month (except August - everyone needs a break now and then) as part of the Ravelry group Sock Knitter's Anonymous. The options for September were:

1) Any pattern in black or white or both (but not grey).

2) September's mystery sock pattern in black or white.

3) Any pattern by Kristen Kapur

Now I really like Kristen Kapur so I picked the lovely Make-Up Socks and off I went. I cast on and knit two toes on Tuesday and then started the charted section of the foot, all was going well - by Saturday evening I had two repeats of the chart on each foot. And then I realised, the reason I couldn't see the pattern emerging (and I was beginning to think this should definately have happened by now, was that I had overlooked something very simple in the chart. This symbol here:

It's a symbol that means knit on the right side, purl on the wrong side. When knitting in the round (as for a sock), one is always working on the right side. Which stitch had I been doing?

*coughs* Why that would be a knit stitch.

Ooops. Not sure why I'd ended up knitting those stitches, it's not the first time I've knit from a chart and it's a pretty common symbol :) Still, at least I spotted it, so on Saturday night I ripped back both socks and by Sunday morning I was ready to go again. This morning I finished the second chart repeat on both socks (again) and they look much, much better:

What lovely socks these will be!

September Startitus

Something about the 20-somethings of September must breed startitus. I was just going to write a little blog post wondering how I got from having all my projects under control, even being an entirely monogamous knitter for a while, to this...


Six projects on the go, plus one I haven't actually put into Ravelry yet because I cast on over lunch today and I'm not sure I'm happy with the cast on yet. Plus a hat I'd love to start (yarn currently sat on my desk at work) and some sock yarn in the post...

And then I realised, when was last time I blogged about startitus? The 24th and 29th of September last year... it's an annual event - does that make it OK?