Following his surgery, my dad has made an excellent recovery, and is now preparing to begin his chemotherapy next week. I have stayed up here in Newcastle with him, and I'll be back every other week over the course of the next 3 months for each treatment session.
I've been staying here for over a month now, and we've settled into a little routine, with plenty of time for the many appointments and errands that we've needed to deal with, but also with plenty of time each evening for watching a movie, or a few episodes of Blacklist, and getting some good knitting time in. As a result, I'm really quite pleased with my progress so far in 2017.
I've set myself a resolution to reduce the number of WIPs that I have. Not counting spinning projects, or projects intended to be long-term, I started this year with 18 works in progress. Not only that, but last night I was reading through some of my old blog posts, and I realised that 4 of my outstanding items were also on my WIP-down list in October 2014! I really do need to get them finished soon!
So let's get on with the regulars, and see how I'm doing:
FOs
I felt the need to knit some premature baby items to give to charity, just as Trish would have been doing at this time of year with the yarn left over from her Christmas knitting. I cast these things on in December, and finished them on the 3rd of January, so this little set also counts towards my 2017 WIP-down. I use this pattern a lot, for both charity knits, and knitting clothes for toys, it's very easy to adjust and adapt, but this particular version is knit exactly according to the pattern. The hats are knit just off the top of my head, from a sort of internal basic hat pattern.
The cardigan pattern is the Jack & Jill - Premature baby jackets, by Mariana Mel. The yarn is Peter Pan Moondust DK, in colourway 3010.
I felt it was unfair of me to knit a new cardigan for my younger niece, and not also make something for my older niece. She loves pink and girly (she also loves pirates, and adventuring!) but I thought she might like this very pretty cardigan design. It doesn't count for my WIP-down, because I didn't get it cast on until January was already upon us. The pattern is Dirghagama Girls Cardigan, by Henriette Roued-Cunliffe, and the yarn is Sublime Yarns Extra fine merino wool DK, in the colourway "Frappe".
This definitely counts for my WIP-down, because this was the entirely selfish project that I cast on for my holiday in Whitby back at the start of November, and completely abandoned as soon as I got back until after all of my Christmas knitting was finished. I'm particularly enamoured by the way this colourway has pooled on this project, those bright green criss-cross patterns, and the alternating grey and purple triangles, I just love it!
The pattern for this is called Trailblazer, and it's from the book Knit, Play, Colour, by Louise Zass-Bangham. The yarn is a 4-ply merino and silk blend by Ba'tat Hand-dyed yarns, in the colourway "Herman Munster".
This is my final finished object for this post, and it's also the WIP-down project that I'm most pleased to get finished so far, because despite being so small and simple, this has actually been on the needles since November 2015! I simply had no urgent reason to finish this, so it was put to one side while I worked on other things. In case it isn't obvious, this is a phone cover. It's simple moss stitch, which I think looks gorgeous in this colourway, with a cable motif that is called Endless Knot Cable, by Melissa Walshe. The yarn is King Cole Zigzag, in the colourway "Emperor".
WIPs
I am continuing to work on some older WIPs, but I only brought a handful of the smaller WIPs up to Newcastle with me. I'll need to pick up some more the next time I'm back in Sheffield. This is the last of those that I brought with me. I cast these on immediately after Bakewell Wool Gathering, and put them to one side when I went to Whitby, mostly because separating stitches for fingers while under the influence of a few glasses of gin didn't seem to be a terribly wise move!
The pattern for these is Wood Elves Gloves, by Christelle Nihoul, and the yarn is a roughly 3-ply merino and sparkle handspun by Emstead Leicester Longwools, in the colourway "Enchanted Forest".
Perhaps I should feel bad for casting on new projects, but I can't feel bad about this one. When we've been visiting the Oncology day unit for various pre-chemo procedures, we noticed that there seemed to be a large number of owls featured in the decor. So I asked what the significance of the owls is, and it turns out that they are the unit mascot. Of course this means I want to knit a little family of owls to add to their collection. This is the first of at least 3 that I intend to make.
The pattern is Owl Puffs, by Jenna Krupar, and the yarn is just little bits of left-over double knit. Although as you'll see later, I may have also bought some inexpensive new yarn that I intend to use some of to make this fellows brothers and sisters.
One of the likely side-effects of dads chemo is increased susceptibility to the cold. Dad is a pretty hardy creature, but it's pointless to let him suffer when it's so easy for me to make a nice hat and scarf for him. So we went to the nearest LYS and he picked out some yarn. I'm making him a classic cabled beanie, with a contrasting folded brim. The pattern is adapted from the Irish Hiking Hat, by Blackhorse, and the yarns I'm using are Wendy Pixile in colourway 3376 for the brim, and Stylecraft Life DK Vintage Look, in the colourway Indigo for the main part of the hat. I'll be using both of these yarns to make a matching scarf later.
Stash Acquisition
I'm trying to be good and not spend money that I'm going to need for travelling between cities on buying yarn, but there's been a couple of inexpensive things I've bought for specific reasons, plus one bargain I couldn't miss out on, and one middle of the night comfort shopping online incident.
This is the Jarol Heritage Tweed that I bought for making the warm comfy socks I needed for cold days in the woods, or walks on the beach with Sybil the adorable pug. Inexpensive, but it has just enough wool content to actually really keep you warm. The colourway for this is "03".
This was my bargain. 10 balls of Sirdar Snuggly 4-ply for just £10! That's a sweater quantity for me! For a tenner!!! I can't decide between a lovely, drapey, long-line garter stitch, cowl neck sweater, or a long, intricately cabled cardigan, but this is going to become one of those patterns. Oh, the colourway is 0444, in case you're wondering.
This was my moment of weakness and comfort shopping. One night when I couldn't sleep, and I'd allowed myself to think too much about recent events, and what is yet to come, I distracted myself with instagram, and saw a new batch of "Fizzy Blue Raspberry" was available on sparkle merino sock. I didn't even engage my brain before I found myself on the Mothy and the Squid Etsy page. It was more-or-less the definition of "shut-up-and-take-my-money". While browsing the page in search of that purple and turquoise speckled beauty, I also spotted "Dark Star" on sparkle sock, and my finger slipped on the 'add to basket' button.
These are what we bought when looking for yarn to make dads warm hat and scarf, and more owls for the Oncology day unit. That's 3 balls of Wendy Pixile, colourway 3376, and 1 ball of Stylecraft Life DK Vintage Look, colourway "indigo" for the hat and scarf, 2 balls of Hayfield Bonus Glitter, one in colourway 222, and the other in colourway 226, and 1 ball of James C. Brett Misty, in colourway R8 for owls, and other similar silly projects.
Penguins
I have to confess that not all of my penguins can be included this month, because there's a few down in Sheffield that I forgot to photograph, so they will have to wait until next time. Still, I don't think there's any real lack of penguins to show you...
See!?! There was a bit of a theme to my Christmas presents. Basically Gin and Penguins. Represented here are gifts from dad, Kelly, Stephen, my sister and her family, family Milbanke, Liz, and Ferret.
There was a fair amount of chocolate too. But even that was often also penguin related. This one was from Cis and Steve.
Yes, I did manage to make myself eat them! No confectionary is so cute that the need for chocolate will not over-rule my reluctance to bite it's head off. These were from Krissy. Her kids (2 of my godchildren) also gave me penguiny gifts, but they are among those still in Sheffield to be photographed another day.
One last thing...
Yasmin spotted a link to buy these, and it needed to be done. In case you're having difficulty reading what's written on the mug, it says: "I'm not anti-social, I'd just rather be knitting than talking to idiots."
Quite apt I feel given how much of my social media is currently filled with discourse on the subjects of Brexit and President Fart. But talking (or writing) about knitting is also fine :) Although I really must apologise for the continued poor quality photos.
Be excellent to each other my dears! Back again soon.
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