However, you have to see the projects I'm working on first, oh, and the one that I finished during the week.
FO
This is what this project looked like when I did my big round of photographs last week.
And this is what they look like now!
It's Socktober! This means it's practically a legal requirement for me to knit some socks. I also needed something brainless and portable to be working on when the giant beaded shawls weren't an option. So these were cast on on the 5th October, and cast off on the 16th.
The pattern is what I call my "Work-a-day socks", and uses the Fish-lips-kiss heel by Sox Therapist. The FLKH provides a sizing method, and a heel-turn method, which can then be used with pretty much any stitch pattern you choose. I use a 3 & 1 rib for my basic socks, with stockinette on the sole. What I especially love about the FLKH method, is that it has a convenient section just above the heel that I can use for the increases that I need to accommodate the vast difference in size between my skinny feet, and my fat ankles/calves.
The yarn is King Cole Zig Zag, in the colourway Thistle.
WIPs
This is my main current project. It's the Celestarium shawl that I cast on back in February as part of an epic Shefknit year-long KAL. I of course cast mine on at the first available opportunity, and then left it in a project bag for over 6 months, totally untouched. When I picked it back up again it took me about 5 rounds to decide that I wasn't happy with the work that I'd done back in February, so I frogged it all and started again. Much happier with it now though.
In case it's not clear, this project is a giant beaded circular shawl, and each bead represents a star in the night sky, visible from the Northern Hemisphere. Obviously only major, and largely static celestial bodies are depicted, otherwise this would be an impossibility, but the creation of this pattern is still in my opinion a pretty impressive feat!
I'm finding that it's messing with my head a bit right now though. The logical part of my brain is well aware of how much my yarn consumption will increase as the circumference of the circle increases, but I'm looking at how much of the first skein I still have left, and how many charts I still need to work, and wondering how this can possibly need 1200m of yarn!
The yarn by the way is Sparkleduck Galaxy, in the colourway Figgy Pudding. These particular skeins are a little unusual, because not only are they 150g skeins, they also have gold sparkles rather than the more usual silver. The beads were bought at Bakewell Wool Gathering last year, and they are size 6, round, gold, but I don't know the make. I chose them because they are such a perfect match for this yarn.
My next most active project is this scarf. You may recall that this is one I've designed myself as a beginner project for learning how to work lace and cables. This is the test knit, and sample to be photographed for the pattern. I'm hoping to get it ready to release this winter, but I won't make any promises on that, as I'm not really in control of my own productivity. Whenever I try to be, my body starts saying "TroLLOLLOLLOLLOL!"
The yarn I'm using is Sublime Yarns Lustrous extra fine merino DK, in the colourway Inkling.
It may not feel much like it right now, but over the summer it was really hot and sweaty at times, and I didn't want to touch any of my wool based projects for fear of felting them. Mostly during that time I worked on the baby blanket you saw last week, but I wanted something smaller for working on in the cafe when the girls met up for a knit and natter. So I grabbed the nearest ball of mostly cotton DK, and my favourite crochet hook, and made another square for the Memory Blanket, even though that was supposed to be on hold over the summer.
The yarn for this square is Rowan Purelife Revive, in the colourway ironstone.
This is another blanket square, and I don't know if it will be used for it's original purpose now to be honest, but it will be used somehow.
I couldn't make it to Shetland Wool Week this year for a number of reasons, but mostly because we would have stayed with Stephens parents, except they are currently staying with us here in Sheffield so that they can visit their new grandson (remember in the last post I said that Stephen had become an uncle?) This is relevant because this year at Shetland Wool Week there was a community project being worked on to create blankets for the From Shetland With Love charity. The idea was that visitors would knit a square, in any yarn, any pattern, then sew it into a blanket when visiting the wool week hub. Sad that I couldn't contribute, because I wouldn't be there, I contacted the organisers to see if I could make a couple of squares and send them up. I began working on my first square while waiting for a response, but I haven't had a response :( So instead this will probably become a little charity project of my own. I'll make random squares when I have spare yarn, sew them together, and donate the finished blanket to a cause that needs it.
This is an experimental spinning project to see how stripes turn out when spun in this fashion. I've split 2 braids into sections of roughly equal length, and I'm spinning them alternately to create singles with long colour changes, then I plan to chain ply the singles. Hopefully this should result in a yarn that has purple sections, white sections, and short barber-pole like sections where the 2 colours are plied with each other. Then we'll see how it knits up after that!
Both fibres are custom blends by Countess Ablaze, in the colourways Ice Queen, and Gothika.
Finally, this is my Alberta Shawl. I think I might have knit about 4 rows of it since I last showed it to you. So my grand intention of having it finished by the end of the summer has not worked out. I am currently doing my best to insist that this is not an issue, and I can knit whatever I want, at whatever speed my body lets me, and it's not a big problem if some things don't get finished when I wanted them to.
The yarn is Fyberspates Gleem Lace, in the colourway Peacock.
Penguins
Yes, here's the bit that I'm reliably told you all like the best! Much of the colony this time have been rescued and sent to me for re-homing by my amazing and wonderful friends. I don't know what I've done in a past life or something to deserve you guys, but I am genuinely grateful!
These are Mercury and Taylor, my Fat-Bottomed cruet. I don't usually name my penguins, unless they come with names already, then they tend to get descriptive names (Fat penguin is basically spherical, Freak Penguin has great big scary eyes), or they are just called "Penguin". The microwavable penguin that lives in my bed is called "PengWing", because I'm childish. Anyway, these 2 have names because look at those butts!
They were a birthday gift from the lovely Carey. I was a bit overwhelmed by this to be honest, because Carey is a friend I don't actually see all that often, and I don't even expect gifts from my family, so for this to show up out of the blue just because she thought of me when she saw them brought tears to my eyes.
My favourite mindfulness colouring book! Another birthday present, from the very lovely Liz, and possibly one of the best creations in the world in my opinion.
This fellow appeared in my house without warning or explanation. I had no idea who was responsible! I had to put a call out on social media to discover the identity of my mystery penguin benefactor. It turns out that this was another "saw this and thought of you" moment from my very good friend Cis, who had simply forgotten to message me and let me know that she'd posted it through my door! Cue another round of baffled, happy tears about why people would do such lovely things for me!
I made this myself! I sewed! With a sewing machine! I broke 2 needles and had to hand sew the final edge.
Even this though was largely thanks to the kind thoughts of a friend, who spotted the fabric in a local haberdashery shop and immediately let me know!
The plan is to make a bigger one to be a knitting project bag, but I decided to do a small scale practice run, and make a dice bag, because I'm a great big geek. I don't know if that comes across among all the crafting and the cuteness, but it's true.
HE'S SO HAPPY!!!
So, that geek thing. Turns out that tabletop roleplaying has changed a bit in the 6 years since I was last part of a regular campaign. Instead of piles of paper, pencils, and the GM carrying around an entire library of reference books, everyone now keeps their character sheets and gaming books on laptops. My main laptop is more of a desktop replacement really, a bit big for carrying about on a regular basis. So I decided to splurge on a little notebook style laptop (which is great! I can update my blog from my bed when my body is being recalcitrant! I've now even been able to put the big one away most of the time, without a permanent laptop table in the way, our front room looks much bigger!) Anyway, little laptop needed a protective case for use during transport. An inordinate amount of time spent searching the internet narrowed my choice down to a purple flowery case with a handle, or this fellow. Most people said I should choose the one with the handle, but Stephen pointed out how much the happy penguin would cheer me up, even though he doesn't have a handle, and that I would only end up putting the laptop and cover in my knitting bag anyway, so it didn't really need a handle that much...
Stephen was right of course :)
Glass penguins are really hard to photograph!
I was given this by my sweet friend Lottie, because I am the penguin mother!
Due to reorganisations within the company they work for, Stephen and our friend Kate have recently had to move offices. During the move, many strange items were uncovered. Stephen claimed this penguin for me. For reasons that I shall never quite understand, it is apparently a requirement of his adoption that he lives on top of a bottle of gin. So here is Gin Penguin, looking rather stern, perhaps because he's got a bottle of Bombay Sapphire up his bottom!
Many of my friends are great fans of lego. I think my sister and Brother-in-law might actually own more lego than our local lego store. It's not unusual for lego related items to appear on my facebook feed, and recently my friend Sally showed me some lego items that she found in mystery mini-figs bags. That very night I dragged Stephen to the nearby lego store intending to buy as many mini-figs bags as I could afford until I got the 2 penguin items. Before buying piles of lego at random though, I asked the shop assistant if there was any way to tell which bags might contain the penguins. She brought out a bag from under the counter and told me that during break times the staff often sit in the back and poke at the bags to try to work out what's inside them, so they have a few put aside that they are pretty sure are particular figures. Unfortunately, only one of the penguin related figures was available, and this is the one.
This is the other one!
I shared a photo of the lego wildlife photographer on facebook, and mentioned that I couldn't get the penguin costumed boy. So Sally was especially wonderful and sent me one of her penguin boys all the way from America! Another round of "my friends are so good to me!" tears ensued.
Can you tell all of these last few photos were taken on the phone camera, because these penguins have entered my life since I did my proper photographs, and I don't feel up to getting all the gear set up again just now?
Remember Heather, who I mentioned a lot in my last post? Well Heather volunteered to do something amazing for me this year. She took away a huge pile of my old dancing and goth kit that I know I will never be able to make use of again, and she arranged all manner of ways in which to sell those things on to people who could make good use of them. I could never have had the heart to do this myself, but it needed doing to be honest, I invested far too much into my dance outfits to be able to just give them away for free.
Last week she surprised me with a pile of cash that she'd raised for me with all of her effort. She is a total hero!
Most of the cash is being saved for use at Bakewell Wool Gathering this weekend, then my holiday at Whitby at the start of November. But I decided to have a mini splurge with it straight away, and I bought myself a penguin cushion, and some new snuggly PJs for winter evenings on the sofa with my knitting. The somewhat startled looking Pug cushion is Stephens, I just thought he deserved to be in the photo as well :)
Stephen went out to buy wood for the fire, and came back with a singing and dancing penguin for me! See, I have the best friends, and the best boyfriends in the whole world! And I love winter, because there are penguins everywhere!!!
That's all for now. All being well it won't be too long before I'm back, because this weekend is Bakewell Wool Gathering, and I am unusually flush with cash thanks to the incredible efforts of Heather. Then I'm off to Whitby with several of the many lovely friends who I've mentioned during the course of this blog, and there I intend to drink a lot of wine, and gin, and sit in a quaint little cafe with my knitting for long periods of time, and eat a lot of tasty food, and enjoy time with some of the greatest people on this planet :)
