Sunday, August 31, 2014

Year of Projects - Week 9

I actually finished these socks last week, but completely forgot to take a photo, so here they are today instead :)
Just plain vanilla socks knit toe-up and with a fish-lips-kiss heel (basically a short row heel). Didn't end up liking the yarn as much as I had expected, but they fit nicely, and I was very gratified that this first attempt at a non-pattern sock actually turned out well!!! :) I really like the FLK heel for toe-up socks - a lot less hassle than the gusset/heelflap and fewer ends to weave in than the afterthought heel :)

Haven't started neither my September Sock nor Stashbuster #2 yet, but I'm hoping to get started on the former this coming week... just have to make up my mind which of the GORGEOUS Socktopus patterns I want to make first ;) The Stashbuster #2 will probably have to wait until I'm done with at least one of the two cardigans I'm currently knitting ;)

Progress
July Sock (Braided Swirl Socks)
Stashbuster #1 (Dragonfly Elfe)
August Sock (Vanilla Socks)
September Sock
October Sock
Stashbuster #2
November Sock
December Sock
Stashbuster #3
Stashbuster #4
(Stashbuster #5)
(Stashbuster #6)

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

WIP Wednesday - Almost Done!

On the Needles
I supposed to meet my friend last Sunday, so I worked hard to finish the main body of the Terra Linda so I could try it on her... only for her to get sick and cancel at the last minute! Ah well, at least it's almost DONE now! :) I still have the button band to go, but I'll wait and not start knitting that until she's decided whether or not she actually wants buttons (and how many!) Hopefully not too many... I'm not a fan of sewing in buttons ;)

Can't wait to see it blocked - it'll look awesome! :)

I did manage to get started on the second part of Martina Behm's Sleeves though. Almost done with the first cuff, so I can start knitting in the round soon.

Between the Pages
I've just started "Touch of Power" by Maria V. Snyder. ToP is the first book in her "Healer" trilogy. I hadn't even known the series existed until I stumbled across them by accident last week! I'm about half way through and absolutely LOVING it so far. It definitely lives up to the somewhat high expectations I have for her books after having read the "Study" and "Glass" trilogies.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

WIP Wednesday - Meet Jerry

On the Needles
I've been working on a lot of different projects this week. The amount of knitting I get done will probably go down now that I've returned to work, but I've enjoyed it while it lasted :)

The Terra Linda cardigan has seen a lot of progress since you saw it last. I've finished the second sleeve, and am working on the body. The pattern calls for a cropped sweater, but the friend I'm knitting it for would prefer it full length (don't blame her! I can't wear cropped sweaters either), so I still have another 20-25cm to go. Then the button band, and then I'm done! Haven't quite decided whether to actually add buttons to the button band, or just leave it as it is. We'll make that decision when I'm actually there.

I love the texture of the garter ribbing, but it makes for a lot of purling! If I ever am to make this again, I'll probably switch it around so I get to knit the ribbing instead of purling it.


I also managed to meet up with my other friend so I could check out the size of the first sleeve. Turned out that it fit her perfectly, so I could go ahead and knit the lapel and cast off the front! So that's the first third done :)


And finally, when I got tired of the larger projects, I've done some more knitting on my two sock yarn projects. Granted, they're huge projects as well, but each little element is quickly done, so it feels a lot more like instant gratification ;)
The puzzle pieces have turned out to be the perfect travel knitting. I more or less know the pattern off by heart now, so only have to refer to it once in awhile, and each piece takes me just around 40 minutes to knit, which means it fits perfectly with my daily travel! So until I cast on for my next pair of socks, I'm going to aim for one every weekday :)

The sock yarn blanket is also growing, and it is getting increasingly difficult to take pictures of it full length!(Which this isn't, obviously). I absolutely love it, and enjoy seeing it grow. I haven't quite made up my mind how big I want it... it might actually be just about there lengthwise... but fortunately I don't have to decide yet ;)


Off the Needles
Ever since I finished Dave, DH has been making noises that he actually wouldn't mind if I wanted to knit more minions. I wasn't ready to tackle another one of the same size, but then I discovered Kelly Vu's Tiny Minion!

Fast forward 2-3 hours, and Jerry was all done! Isn't he adorable? And Dave loves that he can carry him around like a kangaroo ;)
Very fiddly because of the size and multiple colour changes, but not actually difficult at all :) I may have to make more. You can never have too many minions.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Year of Projects, Week 7

... I'm assuming week 7, because last I posted was week 4, and I've skipped two. Such is my immense grasp of math! ;)

Anyway, I actually did surprisingly little knitting while on holiday. I'd expected to be pulling out my socks at every opportunity, but as it turned out, I reverted to my old ways and pulled out a book instead! Old habits die hard I guess.

Even so, I did manage to get enough knitting done that I'm now almost finished with my August socks. They're just plain-vanilla, toe-up and with a fish-lips-kiss heel. I quite like the flk heel for toe-up socks! Less hassle than gusset/heel flap, and fewer ends to weave in than an afterthought heel (which has otherwise been my go-to heel for toe-up. It's not even that hard to learn off by heart. By the second sock (so the fourth heel altogether as this is my second pair of socks with this heel) I had it down :)

Not sure what is up next, but probably something out of Socktopus which I just had to buy while abroad. Such beautiful socks! I pretty much want to knit all of them :) Just as well that I got some really gorgeous sock yarn while abroad as well :)

Progress
July Sock (Braided Swirl Socks)
Stashbuster #1 (Dragonfly Elfe)
August Sock (Vanilla Socks)
September Sock
October Sock
Stashbuster #2
November Sock
December Sock
Stashbuster #3
Stashbuster #4
(Stashbuster #5)
(Stashbuster #6)

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

WIP Wednesday - On the Needles and Between the Pages

On the Needles
Still working on my vanilla socks. I finished the first one and am about 1/3 through the second one. Still not terribly keen on the yarn, but never mind :) The fish-lips-kiss heel works really well for toe-up socks. Granted, mine is a bit big, but that is 100% my own fault, as I accidentally knit past the starting point of the heel, and was too lazy to rip back ;) It's perfect purse-knitting though.

Thanks to being on vacation the second set of Sleeves (by Martina Behm) has seen quite a bit of progress. I'm about 75% done with the first sleeve, and love the colours and the yarn just as much the second time around :)

On the other hand, the Thirty Valentines shawl has seen very little progress. I'd have thought it would have been perfect plane knitting, but apparently I get really lazy when on planes and just want mindless knitting rather than check-the-chart-for-every-few-stitches knitting.

Between the Pages
I didn't really plan it, but I seem to be making my way through an informal read-through of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I finished "Voyager" while on vacation and am currently listening to "Dragonfly in Amber" and reading "Drums of Autumn". (Yes, I know I'm reading them out of order, but DiA is my least favourite, so I'm hoping listening to it instead of reading it will improve my opinion of it).

I got lucky :) I found "Things I Learned From Knitting" in The Strand, NYC and obviously had to get it. It wasn't until I got back home and started reading it, that I discovered it was a signed copy!! Awesome! :)

Stash Stories
Souvenir yarn doesn't count as real stash, right? At least that's what I'm telling myself, because I did go kind of nuts while abroad. But fancy yarn is SO much cheaper in the US than in Denmark! So really I saved a lot of money!! Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it :) But Knitty City in New York City and Looped Yarn Works in Washington D.C. are now my two new favourite yarn shops :) I highly recommend both of them. ESPECIALLY Knitty City as the employees are extremely friendly and the entire shop has more of a community feel than a shop feel. One of the employees even took the time to give me an impromptu spinning lesson when she heard I was interested :) :) :)

All in all I ended up with 7 skeins of yarn, 1 Turkish drop spindle, 1 braid of BLF roving and 1 bag of corrigale roving :) I've spun up 50g of the corrigale already, and it's currently resting so I should be able to ply it tomorrow. It's uneven as and totally ugly, but I don't even care - it's MINE :D :D :D

I also ended up buying "Socktopus", and am blaming this entirely on Minding My Own Stitches! After having seen all of her gorgeous socks I just couldn't help myself :) And of course I did need some new patters for all the gorgeous new sock yarn I'd gotten hold of, right? Of course right :)