Entries categorized as ‘Knitting’
I did sound narky the other night didn’t I? I was tired, smote by hayfever (in Autumn? Yes! Why should Autumn be any different from the rest of the beep beep year?) and just a touch all around crabby. Did it show? LOL. I guess I’m disappointed more than anything. I knit weirdly and therefore slowly. I put a lot of hours into getting my sock away on time to the detriment of getting other things in my life done and I JUST WANTED A PAIR OF SOCKS FOR ME because I’m knitting socks for MIL because she has cold feet and I love her. Don’t worry, I’m laughing at myself here because I sound like a two year old having a tantrum. The only thing is I can’t hold my breath because you won’t see me turn blue and that’s no sort of drama at all is it? Do two year olds really hold their breath in temper? Not having any (human) children myself I don’t know about things like that.
Anyway I’ve recovered my sense of humour due to time and very generous offers from Needle Tart and the lady I like to think of as Mrs Canada. I don’t know why I think of Susan as Mrs Canada, it just seems to fit. The generosity of people you don’t know amazes me and I thank them both.
In knitting news the DB socks are at a standstill. The heel was turned and I was happily knitting my way up the leg when suddenly my little finger felt a bit … light? … airy? That would be because there was no longer any yarn wrapped around it. A break in the wool. So I unwound a bit more from the skein only to find another CUT in it about 30cm along. Unwound more and yet another cut another 30cm along. A bit further and a ply (?) was broken. I joined it there and knitted another 2 rows to yet another break in the wool at exactly the same place, just two rows along. So they are sitting on the desk until the weekend. I will rip back to the original join, check the skein for the next 10 metres or so and then hopefully continue on.
I took the Easter sock to MIL to try on and it was as I feared. The leg is so tight she can’t even get it on over her foot so it’s a moot point as to whether the instep is big enough. I think the sock will be totally discarded due to other concerns I now have.
Still I’ve bought enough sock yarn over the last few months to ensure that I can pick and choose what I want to knit. I’m leaning towards a nice 5ply that I bought from Daphne at The Knittery before she so rudely closed up shop and moved to the States. (That is a joke!) Hopefully I can knit it with larger needles and it won’t take so long! (For Canadians and Americans – 5ply does not actually refer to the number of plies; it’s how we measure the weight/thickness of yarn. I think a 5ply yarn here is about a light sportweight? Stop shaking your head – we’re Downunder and entitled to be a little bit different. Hee hee.)
Categories: Knitting · Rambling · Sock Roulette
The International parcel (which I mentioned earlier) that I had to sign for turned out to be a parcel from Marks & Spencer in the UK with all the bras I’d ordered. I don’t know why, but British bras seem to have more room for the boobage than what the ones I can buy here in Oz do. (WordPress shut up – boobage is so a word!)
However pleased I was to receive the underthings (read: very, very pleased), it wasn’t my sock. I emailed Julie to advise this and she noted as such on her blog. The result? Still no sock and still not a note from anyone saying ‘ooops’. Oh, I know. I, the Queen of Procrastinators, know! The cat’s dying, the husband has run off with the 90 year old next door, Mercury is in retrograde, work is unbelievably stressful, the In-laws have gone to live on a commune – whatever. I really don’t care. Just let me know you’re not going to send a sock.
Actually, don’t bother sending a sock, just pray for rain in my part of the world. I can knit my own socks, I can even buy the damned things but I can’t make it freaking rain and we need that more than I need socks.
Louie the Lemon sends his love.
Categories: Knitting · Rambling · Sock Roulette
You have to love a Public Holiday which is what today has been, although the irony of receiving a holiday in celebration of the Queen’s Birthday when we’d like to become a republic of sorts is not lost on me.
Knitting had stalled during the week as I needed to find the second skein of Grignasco in order to continue on with the Dublin Bay socks. Finally found it this afternoon on the floor at the back of the desk. I suspect I have one or two cats to blame for that but they’re not answering my questions. I joined it where I thought it would match and I may have been a little generous in my allowance because I think the pink gusset repeat in this sock is larger than the other. It doesn’t matter that much to me because it will only be out by a couple of rows and at least there is knitting happening now! So an update on works in progress and a schedule (of sorts):
Dublin Bay Socks – currently turning the heel on the second sock. I would like to have these done by the 15th of the month so that gives me another week.
Easter Socks – one sock completed. I need to get MIL to try it on before I go any further because the leg of this looks awfully skinny. The pattern itself is meant to be quite firm fitting but it’s tight just putting it on over my hand. I went up to 2.75mm needles for the gusset because of MIL’s high instep and continued the leg on them as well but I think the leg will be too small to get over her instep. If I have to rip back it’s not going to worry me as they’re a little too short for my taste as well. So currently on hold.
Anastasias – oh Anasastias how I love thee but you’re killing me. 3.5 cm to go on the first leg, then the ribbing and the first sock will be done 18 months after it was first started. Wooo – go me! LOL. These are weekend only socks now. It’s dark by the time I get home these days and I just cannot knit these in artificial light.
Mind you, a visit to the optometrist is in order again. The multifocals just aren’t cutting it so I’m going to end up with my normal glasses and then reading glasses as well. Sigh. I can see me being an old fart wandering around saying “Have you seen my other glasses?”
Next time – a jumper (sweater) that was knitted in 2006 but has never been worn. Because it needs seaming. Yes, it’s on the list. And a scarf for a friend in the Northern Hemisphere. At least I have a few months on that one.
Categories: Knitting
I ended up taking last Monday off work as well as I was purely and simply tired with a capital T. Because I only arrived home on Saturday no-one was really expecting me in anyway so it was nice to have the extra day.
Spain was all sorts of things and I’m still a bit puzzled within myself as what I really thought about it. That’s going to require a bit more thought so I will write about what I did and didn’t like when I start posting some pictures. Today though, it’s all about the knitting.
I only went to two specialist yarn shops in Madrid as I couldn’t be bothered catching buses to the shops which were located out of the city centre. The first, in the Plaza Mayor, was closed for siesta when I first arrived. Siesta is quite an interesting concept – close up shop about 2 or 2.30, re-open at 4.30 or 5 and then trade through until 8 or 9pm. I suppose if you’re brought up with it then you’re used to it but personally it would drive me nuts. I like to go to work and then come home with the rest of the day being mine. Anyway, I went back to the shop after the siesta period but bought nothing. The yarns were gorgeously coloured and it appeared that they were sold by weight but, as I found a lot during my trip, the staff were as helpful as two wooden planks. I enquired about sock yarn and was met with a supercilious look and a flat “NO”. So I just left.
The next shop was actually on my way back to the hotel and the lady who owned it couldn’t have been nicer if she tried. With my minimal Spanish and her minimal English much hilarity ensued during the 20 minutes I spent in there. I left with the following:
From Left to Right – 1 x 100g ball of Mondial Ciao sock wool from Italy. 75% New Wool, 25% Polyamide. Colour – blues and cream/tans. 2 x 50g balls of Oso Blanco Amore sock wool from Spain. 50% Wool, 50% Acrylic. Colour – purples and grays. 1 x 50g ball of Katia Samba cotton from Spain. 100% cotton in mostly yellow. 6 x 50g balls of Katia austral from Spain. 50% Wool, 50% Acrylic in a gorgeous, deep purple.
Obviously the first two are for socks, the cotton for a dishcloth and I don’t have a clue about the purple as yet. I wasn’t sure about the high acrylic content in two of them but it all feels so soft so here’s hoping. The austral advises a needle size of 3.5mm – 4mm but lovely lady went to great pains to make sure I understood her opinion was that it should be knit on 3mm needles. Of course it will depend on what gauge I get but that led me to my last purchase which was the 3mm straights you can see above.
This is the bit I’m kicking myself over. When I’m not knitting socks I knit on straights because I knit what I call ‘tucked’. Right needle under right arm. What can I say? It’s what I learnt from the English lady who taught me how to knit. When you knit this way, the longer the needles, the better. These babies are 40cm long. I can get 35mm straight needles no problem here in Oz but I’ve never seen the 40cm ones before. The kicking myself bit? I only bought this pair. At nearly $8.00 I didn’t think they were cheap and then I couldn’t decide what sizes I should get if I was to limit myself to, say, 3 pair and in the end it all got too difficult.
So what to make with the purple? To me it looks like it’s ‘chained’ rather than plied so I don’t know if this makes any difference. There’s 840m total in the 6 balls and I really can’t tell what weight it is. Looks like the thickness of sock yarn if you ask me. LOL. Any suggestions welcome.
Categories: Knitting · Travel
I tend to get cranky when I can’t do whatever it is I want to do. I went to gym on Monday and had to get off the bike and leave after 10 minutes because my leg was seriously hurting. So I basically cracked the shits for the week and sulked, thereby achieving very little.
I did finish the gusset increases on MIL’s Easter Sock early in the week and turned the heel, only to find at the end that I had two more stitches than I was supposed to have. So, instead of ripping back as any logical person would, I thought it would be a brilliant idea to just knit two extra rows, decrease 1 stitch per row, and then all would be right with the world. Anybody see a problem with this?
Ah, yes. The heel is now 2 rows longer than the instep and it looks weird. It is currently sitting on the table waiting for the inevitable frogging. (See ’sulking’ above.) I hope to get to it today.
Categories: Knitting
Arrived home from work tonight to find a docket from Australia Post advising that I have a parcel to pick up. Not just any parcel; an International, signature required, parcel. Ooooooo. My sock? Please please please! I can’t think of anything else that it could be.
Categories: Knitting · Sock Roulette
It’s such a gorgeous Autumn day here – very still with clear blue sky and lots of sunshine. Most definitely I’ll be out in the garden this afternoon, making plans for what I’m going to do over Autumn and Winter.
At the moment I’m not speaking to the Anastasias although they probably don’t want to talk to me either. “Just how many times can you make the same mistake idiot? Give us to a more capable knitter!” Yes, a couple of rows tinked back again. I know WHAT I’m doing wrong (knitting the stitch and previous YO together when I should be knitting the 2 stitches together BEFORE the previous YO) but once the mind goes into auto mode, zoom, we’re back to doing it wrongly. I blame the Dublin Bays as that’s how their pattern works!
I knitted a pattern repeat on the new socks but wasn’t feeling the love so ripped back to the toe and switched patterns. The new one is Up, Up and Away (Rav link) and is coming along quite nicely.
They look very narrow but I can get them on and MIL has slender feet so I have no doubt that they’ll fit as long as I get the instep high (wide?) enough.
Categories: Knitting · Rambling
Libra
It really is wonderful when all the day’s connections point to having a fun and happy day – and this is exactly what today has to offer. All you need do is to ascertain what it is that will make you the happiest and then go about doing whatever you want to do and include whoever it is that makes you happiest too. There is a strong social pull tonight as well as a leaning towards a romantic sort of night – so why not combine them both! (Courtesy of The Age)
What would make me the happiest is to have the knitting go right and be able to stay home and do it. I dropped down to fix the mistake as per last post, knitted it back up and continued on to the next needle. 1, 2, 3 … 19. 19? There’s 18 stitches per needle (or should be). I have actually learnt something though. In the past I would have automatically presumed I’d miscounted, continued on my merry way and discovered a few rows later that I *had* actually counted correctly and now had a mistake to fix a number of rows back. So I immediately recounted and yes, sigh, 19 stitches. Looking back, I found it was the same mistake that I’d made on the previous needle. Drop down and fix yet again.
I started another sock in a lighter yarn so I’d have something to knit at night that I could actually see. Changing the pattern to knit toe-up, I allowed 40 stitches for the increases and started with 13 wraps (Turkish Cast-on). Brilliant! 13 x 2 + 40 = 66. Yay for me. Except for the fact that the pattern calls for 64 stitches. Hmmm. It wasn’t that much of a disaster as I just increased x 4 until I had 62 stitches and then a further 2 on the sole only. Also, the pattern is mainly stocking stitch. It’s just annoying to be making these mistakes.
Categories: Knitting
I wanted to knit last night. Something. Anything. I didn’t want to cast on the second Dublin Bay sock. Actually I didn’t want to cast on for any sock at all, I just wanted to knit. So I picked up the Anastasias. Counting, checking, looking.
Yes. A mistake. Bollix. Yarnovers hate me. So I put it down and went to bed.
Categories: Knitting · Rambling
Yes, it’s Monday again. Such a lazy weekend and very much enjoyed. It rained most of the day Saturday; a good opportunity to laze about and not do much at all. The garden appreciated the rain as well as it’s been quite some time since we’ve had decent showers here.
MIL’s first Dublin Bay sock is finished but not without its hiccups. As well as not knitting after having a couple of G & T’s, I need to stop knitting dark coloured yarn at night. I simply cannot see the detail any more. As well as that I’m tired and therefore more prone to making mistakes.
I found this out when I picked up her Anastasia socks which have been sitting in the basket, untouched, since about May 2008. Thinking that I would start knitting socks from different pairs alternately to stave off boredom, I did no more than 5 rounds when … ooops. A mistake back on the first round I knit. I swear I was counting, I swear I was looking but there it was. Nothing too difficult to fix, just 20 minutes wasted. So I’m trying to work out whether I can use that to justify casting on a third pair in lighter coloured yarn.
As I’m away for the month of May I will miss MIL’s birthday, H’s birthday and Mother’s Day. I was thinking about knitting MIL a scarf to leave as her birthday/Mother’s Day present but realistically I’m just not going to get there. I don’t want this year to be like the last time I went on holiday. Between cooking for Husband, wrapping up everything at work and then burning the candle at both ends for four weeks in Europe, I came home more exhausted than when I left. So maybe I *will* put another pair of socks on the needles.
MIL has long, slender feet i.e. no meat on those bones at all. Consequently, in winter, her feet get cold easily. She currently has only one pair of socks. If I could get the Dublin Bays, Anastasias and another pair finished in the next 7 weeks then surely I’d be No 1 DIL? OK, I’m the only DIL but that’s irrelevant! Still, that’s 4 1/3 socks in 7 weeks. Could be interesting.
Categories: Knitting · Rambling
