No news is good news?

Well, when it comes to knitting it's also quite boring news. ;)

I've been panicking about presentations all day so no knitting was achieved, which was a real shame, because I've felt like picking up my needles all day.

At least yesterday evening the boyfriend and I finally made it to the ballroom dance course that we've been meaning to attend in preparation for our wedding. It was great fun and we are definitely going back!

However, the lack of any knitting means that I have nothing to report. Other than...

Yesterday, while I was looking at ebay, I couldn't resist and I ordered some very cheap 100% wool yarn in grey and in black and some cotton yarn in a bright pink - all from ebay. All that yarn will probably arrive while I'm away, which means that the boyfriend gets to see that I have no self-control whatsoever...

And also, my knitting machine, birthday present by the almost-hubbie, arrived a few days ago, but I haven't had time to upload any pictures OR try it out. I still haven't tried knitting with it, but there are pictures now, so this is it.

I think it looks a bit scary...

Maybe next week I will have some time to make friends with it but at the moment I have no idea whatsoever how to use it!

Nevermind, I'm excited about it anyway. :)

Any other news?

Not really, other than that I'm going to be away for the rest of the week so there will be no more update until next Monday (I'm back late on Sunday). Should get some knitting done on all those train journeys though!!

Take care all of you, have fun knitting, and I'll post some pictures of the knitting I got done during the week when I get back.

Sock!

Now, it's 11.14pm and I'm still working. In fact, I'm not planning to stop working for a good few hours yet, because I have an entire paper that needs to be finished by tomorrow morning. Can you imagine how thrilled I am about this?

Anyway, since I said so earlier I thought I'd post how far I've got with the sock. Today at lunchtime I took half an hour off and I actually managed to do the short-row shaping of the heel. I only made one small mistake, but it doesn't show too much...

Ta-daaaah!
Not an amazing photograph, I know, but it's late... ;-) At least you can see the beautiful heel!!

Nothing much to report...

I managed to knit another few rows of The Sock last night while we were watching my newest DVD purchase - Firefly! I'd seen the series before and I LOVE it, but D needed a bit of converting. I think he is getting into it, though, as it was his idea to watch an episode yesterday evening!

Anyway, The Sock. I have finished the foot, more or less, and am now on the short-row shaping of the heel. I'm so curious how it's going to look! There will be pictures later. :)

The rain we had in the last two days has done wonders for my garden. It was all getting a bit dry and although I tried watering all the young vegetable plants I know that everything has suffered a bit. I'm amazed to find myself saying this, as I ALWAYS complain about how much it rains here, but two days of rain was just what the garden needed. Also, it means that my water butts will be full again.

Oh, and something else yarn-related. I have all but ordered some silk yarn from Hip Knits for my Clapotis. It's on their website and it's a very (!) colourful yarn called 'Giggle', which I think describes the colour combination rather well. Of course now I'm fretting that it might be too colourful for me. You see, I'm not really a colour kind of person. I love my black, and browns, and greys and I can maybe do with some darker shades of red. It's only relatively recently that I've started to like colour and have realised that it's quite fun to wear light or vibrant shades. Although I now love pink for example, I have always stayed clear of yellow, though... Now, there seems to me quite a bit of yellow in this yarn, which makes me vaguely twitchy, but on the other hand, I saw it and it made me smile, and surely you can't ask much more than that from a yarn? It is the right choice, right? RIGHT?!?

Right, and now back to work. ;-)

Hourglass sweater

Well, I've ordered the yarn for the Hourglass.

After much considering and calculating and obsessing over different kinds of yarn and their attributes I finally settled on texere's Kelso Wool Tweed in 'berry'. Not the softest of yarns (although they describe it as soft), but I hope that washing will do wonders. ;) In the end it was a decision based on price and this yarn is cheap (£2.90 for 100g - 185 yds) and I like the colour. I need to save some money, in particular as I have indeed decided to start the Clapotis in a different yarn and am getting more and more convinced that what I want is Lorna's Laces. I might not be able to eat in a month...

Anyway, other than that, not much to report.

Knitted another few rows on The Sock, so the foot is half done now. There should be more pictures soon.

Off to do some work now - yes, I will spend this entire weekend working. At least the weather is not good anymore, so I don't feel too bad being stuck inside.

Wish you all a nice weekend anyway! :)

I'm officially insane

I have joined the Hourglass Knit-a-long (see button on the right).

I can't just finish what I am doing and then think about the next thing. Nooooo, that would be boring and organised! Instead, I have to have several projects going at the same time, and constantly think about more things to add to my collection of unfinished knits. Francoise over at Knitwise was talking about this very thing today. I think it might be a common affliction amongst knitters...

But at least my swatch for the French Market Bag felted in the end. It just needed a little longer, poor thing. ;-)

Which of course means that now there is nothing in my way of starting the bag. Yet another project...

I'm officially insane.

Felting and Clapotis musings

Well, I've recovered from my state of shock over finishing the Ballet T yesterday morning and I'm back to my normal self. I even managed to wear the t-shirt yesterday, despite the stifling heat (which taught me that despite Rowan calling this yarn 'all seasons', it isn't really meant to be worn when it's something like 30 degrees...). Of course today it's much cooler and raining too, so it would be a much better day to wear it. But then, I might still do that!

Yesterday evening I managed to knit another few rows of The Sock, but no more pictures yet.

This morning, I finally threw the little swatch that I made with some blue 100% wool Hermit yarn in the washing machine. I bought the yarn off ebay a while ago and I'm hoping to use the yarn for a French Market Bag (knitty), but so far it's being obstinate and refuses to felt. I've run one 30 minute cycle on 90 degrees and have just thrown it in again for another 30 minutes. We'll see...

While I'm waiting for that to happen I am sitting here, drinking my third cup of tea this morning and, instead of contemplating starting today's work, I'm musing over my half-finished Clapotis.

Truth is, I haven't liked the yarn I've used for a while now. Or rather, I like the yarn - quite a lot, actually - but I don't like it on the Clapotis. The colourway of the Noro Silk Garden is too drab, too dark and muddy in colour, and also too stripy. Now I am contemplating frogging the whole thing (and my heart aches just thinking about all the hours of work that went into it), and using the yarn for a cardigan. I saw some lovely cardigans in the Noro Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton Pattern Book. I particularly like Karsro and Marielund, which, as far as I can see, would both be possible with the 500g (10 balls) of Silk Garden that I have.

But this still means frogging my Clapotis... My heart bleeds and I suspect my fingers would too if I decided to go ahead. I've found the yarn quite rough to work with and dropping the stitches was quite difficult because the yarn felted together really easily and the strands didn't want to let go of each other. But what is there to do? I am more and more convinced that I wouldn't wear the Clapotis much as it is and I still have quite a long way to go to finish it so it does not seem worth it.

Also, then I would be free to start Clapotis over in a different yarn, one that is softer and has smaller stripes. Maybe I should go with the recommended Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb after all - I LOVE the look of that yarn but have never seen it up close because it is so expensive.

Decisions, decisions...

Finished Ballet T-Shirt

Erm.

You know I received the All Seasons Cotton for my Teva Durham Ballet T-Shirt yesterday but couldn't post any pictures of the yarn because I didn't have time to upload them? Well, here is the yarn after all:



Well, yesterday afternoon I decided that I needed a break and cast on for the ballet t-shirt. I got gauge instantly, which was a relief because I hate this part and have been known to be rather lazy about it.

Round and round I knit and before I knew it I had a half-finished t-shirt. So quick!

At that point I decided that I should better take a picture to make sure I had proof that this hadn't been started ages ago:



That was last night.

This morning I finished the last few rows. I even added the optional 6 rows because I thought it was too short. Then I weaved in the ends and put it on. It fits like a glove!

Pictures to proove it:


Front / side view.


The back of the t-shirt.


Close-up of back.

I still can't believe that:
1) I got gauge instantly.
2) I started and finished a project in aprox. 4 hours.
3) I have managed to knit something that just fits!

The whole t-shirt was knitted on size 10 circulars, with just under 4 balls of Rowan All Seasons Cotton in 'Dusky' (which, sadly, I believe is discontinued), double-stranded.

And another place...

Another place that sells Kool Aid in the UK and is a bit cheaper than Cybercandy: Koolaiduk.com! 045p a packet is still not totally cheap but it's getting there! :)

Kool Aid

Whooooohoooo! I've just ordered Kool Aid! Thanks to the help of the Woollywarbler I've been able to order it from a shop in the UK that she has discovered. It's called Cybercandy and is situated in London.

This means that I will finally be able to try dying my own yarn!!

Also, and totally unrelated, since I'm posting anyway I might as well post the newest picture of The Sock after all...


No comment. ;)

Progress

My new favourite pasttime, otherwise known as The Sock, is progressing nicely. No picture this morning because I have no time to upload them - otherwise there would be a weird picture of the toe of the sock on my foot, which, I assure you, was very uncomfortable and awkward as I was straining to balance on the edge of my chair, holding my leg up, and trying to take a picture at the same time. But really, although there is progress, there isn't that much to see. I'm knitting the long tube for my foot, so it's just knitting round and round and round. Watching the stripes appear is still fun, though. :)

I also have a new dream project. It's the Spring Fling Tank from the Blue Blog. Why do I always do this? I have enough projects on the go as it is (Clapotis, Cozy, The Sock) and yesterday afternoon my All Seasons Cotton arrived for the Ballet Top, so I will be able to start on that (pictures of the yarn later or tomorrow). Also, the yarn recommended for the Spring Fling is GGH Esprit, which is only available from the US (I found it on The Knitting Zone).

I shall NOT buy more yarn, I shall NOT BUY MORE YARN!

I'm hopeless...

And to make matters worse, after seeing a lovely sweater yesterday in The Naive Knitting Blog I now want to make a sweater.