As you may have noticed, it's only been a month since my last update! I'm actually catching up on keeping track of my life, finally! This post is going to include a few things that should have been in earlier updates, but because I've mostly been living at Stephen's house, rather than my own, I haven't had everything available to take photos etc. After that, I should be up to date as far as last weekend. I'll be doing a separate post about that, as last weekend was Bakewell Wool Gathering!
FO's
I feel as though I haven't finished very much, but then I remind myself that this is only a month of knitting this time, so I can't expect to have finished everything!
My most recently finished project is a pair of socks for Gemma. I always enjoy knitting for Gemma, because I know that the appreciates, and uses the things that I make for her.
As usual, these socks are knit according to my own internal sock pattern, which involves 3&1 ribbing, a reinforced heel-flap, and size adjustments according to whoever I'm making them for. The yarn I've used is Regia Design Line Jazz Colour by Erika Knight, in the colourway "Somethin' else".
Stephen's parents came down from Shetland to visit for a few weeks, and his mum brought me a giant ball of bright neon yarn. I really wanted to knit something up with it before they went back to Shetland, so that she would get to see what it looks like, but I was struggling to think of a project to begin with. I don't have any babies in my life anymore, as my nieces and godchildren are all growing up with alarming speed! and I wouldn't use anything this bright to make charity knits. Then I was idly browsing Ravelry one evening, and saw a pattern for a Japanese Knot bag. By the next day, I had this!
The pattern is Japanese Knot Bag by Louise Higgins, and the yarn is King Cole Melody Super ball DK , in the colourway "Fruit Salad".
When Stephen's mum saw the knot bag, she asked if I could make her something to carry her iPad in. So I measured it up, and got knitting. This took me just a couple of days. I'm annoyed with myself about the strap though, because I've managed to twist it before kitchener stitching it, so it now has a permanent twist in it. Fortunately, Stephen's mum doesn't mind, and because I deliberately worked it all in stockinette so that it would roll up on itself, the twist isn't really noticeable unless you know it's there.
I didn't use a pattern for this, but it's a really simple construction.
WIPs
So far this month I've been very good at resisting the urge to cast on All The Things, so I've only been working on 2 projects, other than those that I've finished.
I had hoped to finish this before Bakewell, but because Stephen's printer isn't working, I'm having to rely on reading the charts on my phone, which is too small to see them clearly, and the screen goes dark after 60 seconds. So instead I've been copying the charts by hand into a notebook, but my handwriting is abysmal, so it's very easy for me to make mistakes. Which I definitely have!
Firstly I tried to put in a lifeline before starting the lace section. With astounding lack of foresight I managed to thread the lifeline through every one of my stitch markers. I decided after this to just not bother with a lifeline, and to risk making mistakes in the lace section.
The lace section on the right of this photo is correct. You can't see it clearly, because lace never looks great until it's blocked, but you can at least see that there's a nice symmetrical shape to it. The lace repeat on the left is a mess. One row went wrong, and I didn't notice until 4 rows later. I can't bring myself to rip out 5 entire rows of beaded lace, especially without a lifeline! and right now dropping back just that section is beyond my concentration span. So I've put this to one side until I can decide if I'm just going to live with the mistake, or if I'm going to bite the bullet and fix it.
With a bit of luck, and a lot of diligence, I might just about get this ready for Nottingham Yarn Expo next month.
The pattern for this is Hazy Daze by Boo Knits, and the yarn is Tuxedo Lace by Penguin Soup, in the colourway "April Showers".
Yes, it's going to be another pair of socks. Yes, it's purple and grey yarn, so obviously they're going to be for Gemma too. I figure that with 2 young sons, a very boisterous dog, and a husband who works a fairly physical job, Gemma already has plenty of laundry to do, without always trying to be sure that she has at least one pair of proper wool socks clean when she only has 2 pairs. 4 pairs should make life a little easier when planning scouting weekends, and family romps around the countryside.
My usual sock pattern, and the yarn is Ice Yarns Super Sock, and the colourway doesn't appear to have a name or designation, at least not one that I can find on the ball band.
Stash Acquisition
I wish to start this section with a disclaimer: Not all of this yarn was bought in the last month! Some of it was bought back in July! So I haven't gone as crazy as it might appear! I confess to having gone a little bit crazy though. When I'm stressed, I get decidedly laissez faire with my money, and I become very prone to comfort shopping. Not a good combination for my finances, but excellent for my yarn stash.
These are 2 of the skeins that I bought back in July, and somehow managed to put away before taking photos, recording on Ravelry, and showing off in a blog post. They're by Chromatic Yarns, the yarn dying business of Hannah, also known for The Corner of Craft online shop, where she sells her beautiful hand made beaded stitch markers, and The Corner of Craft Podcast, where she tells us all about her knitting exploits, while having immaculate makeup and fabulous hair.
I met Hannah at a Knit Nottingham birthday party a year or 2 back, when she was just starting her yarn dying business, and she is definitely my kind of person. I think you can tell that by the way that her Yarn business is named after a spell from D&D, as are many of her colourways. The 2 above are "Vampiric Touch", and "Rage".
More July purchases. This time from Mothy and the Squid. Apparently when she first began dying yarn, Jillian used to dye a lot of rainbow pop colourways. But as artisan craft supplies became ever more popular, a number of other dyers began using very similar techniques, until Jillian felt that the market was pretty much saturated with that style of colourway, so she stopped producing her own, and concentrated on the colourways inspired by nature (in particular, colourful moths and squids, obviously!) that we know her for now.
Back in July this year she decided to revisit a few of her original colourways, then she decided to combine the rainbow pops with one of her new colourways, which resulted in this gorgeous skein of forest greens and browns with a bright splash of rainbow, which is appropriately called "Autumn Rainbow".
The 2 mini-skeins are to be included in my mitred square blanket, and they are the colourways "Peacock Flower", and "Ruby Tiger Moth". All 3 skeins are BFL sock yarn.
Now we're back up to recent purchases. These were bought while Stephen and I were on a short trip to York. At first he was slightly reluctant to visit yarn shops with me, then we discovered that this particular yarn shop (The York Makery) has a shop dog! Then he was very happy, fussing the dog, who was very waggy, and licked his face.
2 momentous things happened in this shop. Firstly I spent a small enough amount that I could pay for it using contactless payment. This has never happened to me before! Secondly, I had to drag Stephen out of a yarn shop in order to visit a historic building before it closed!
Anyway, these yarns are Opal Energy in the colourway "Tatkraft", and The York Makery BFL DK in the colourway "Puck". The DK is to be part of my memory blanket, and yes, I did deliberately look for the most offensively bright colourway that I could possibly find!
I think that Barbara of Ring-a-rosie's has some sort of psychic knowledge that means she knows when I'm going to be up north, and she times her instagram photos of freshly dyed, beautiful, one of a kind colourways especially so that I will immediately run to her shop as soon as I get up there! I think I'm going to make another of Susan Ashcroft's shawl patterns with one of the 4-ply yarns, and the mohair lace. Of course the mini-skeins are for the mitred square blanket. The mini-skeins, and the variegated skeins, are all Marvellous High Twist merino 4-ply, and the bright magenta is a mohair and silk laceweight that Barbara calls Flooty.
I have discovered something wonderful, and it is called KnitCrate!
So, you may, or may not know, that I am a fan of surprises. Especially mildly indulgent surprises. This is why I like advent calendars that give me a month of tiny little surprises every day! But you can't get advent calendars for the rest of the year, which is sad. However, you can sign up for a little box of smooshy to be delivered through your door once a month, complete with a little pattern booklet that details a knitting pattern, and a crochet pattern that you could choose to make with the yarn that you've been sent. You never know what colours the yarn you're going to get will be, so it's a good way of pushing yourself into trying something a bit different if you like that. Depending on which type of crate you choose, you might not even know what kind of yarn you'll get! It might be DK, or 4-ply, it might be merino, or silk, or cashmere... I'm not quite ready for getting that much out of my comfort zone, also, when I'm being sensible, I have to remember that I do have very limited expendable income (I literally only buy yarn and penguins!) so I opted for the Sock Crate, which is always wool/nylon 4-ply, but I can tell you that it is very, very soft!
Miscellaneous
As I mentioned above, Stephen and I went to York for a couple of days. I would have loved to be able to wander around York Minster for hours, examining every detail, but my body has different ideas on that subject. So after I'd wandered as much as I could manage, I got to sit and knit with this marvellous view while I waited for Stephen!
Then in the York Minster gift shop, they had these beautiful drawstring bags in a fabric reminiscent of a medieval tapestry, and I thought they would make perfect project bags, especially as the roleplaying game that Stephen is currently running for us is based in a medieval-like setting, and my character is proficient in fibre crafts, so I can legitimately knit in character!
Part of my treatment for my newly officially diagnosed POTS is to drink 3-4 LITRES of fluid a day. And you thought that trying to drink 2 litres a day was difficult! I've got myself a graduated bottle with a straw, and using that I can manage almost 2 litres, then I start getting resistant to drinking just plain water. I've always had a love for really good quality loose leaf tea. So now I'm collecting loose leaf teas, and infusions, and pretty tea caddies to store them in, which I thought you might like to see, because there are few things finer than tea and knitting together.
Penguins!
I am aware that there are several penguins in this photo, but the new one is the one lying down with the little chain dangling below him. He was an impulse buy, just because he was very inexpensive. And cute. Unfortunately I've had to remove him from my handbag, because his pin clasp keeps falling off, leaving me at risk of losing him too. So I'm going to find him a new, less risky place to live.
In York we stopped for tea and cake (gluten free carrot cake!) in a little tea shop called The Mad Hatters Tea Room, which was located on the top floor of a charmingly quaint old building. What this translates to in disabled person speak is "dangerously precarious and exhausting to get to, if not downright inaccessible." But the lower 2 floors were a teddy bear shop, that had penguins. Also I'm stubborn, so I mountaineered up the stairs anyway, ate my gluten free cake, and bought a penguin on the way back down. We also got a dinosaur for Stephen, because it kept leaping off the shelf at him.
My wonderful daddy taught me that one should always carry a torch. And a bit of string. I figure that I pretty much have string covered in the form of yarn. To be honest, I do also have a perfectly ordinary mini maglite in my handbag, but that did not stop me from deciding that I desperately needed this head torch when I saw it in the sale from the online store that I buy my cheap fat girl clothes from.
We decided that we hadn't been to the Royal Armouries in Leeds for too long, so we went. There we heard tales of Waterloo, the Tournament at the Field of Cloth of Gold, Duels of honour, and medieval plate armour. In the gift shop Stephen, who long ago chose his online handle as Smaug, and is known among our friends as "The Dragon", found this book. I don't think he's ever done anything more sweetly romantic than bringing this book to my attention.
It's that time of year! I was actually very restrained when I got this, as there was also a bigger hollow chocolate penguin!
I've bought these before, but I can't remember if I was blogging back then.
This is what they look like when in use. They please me greatly :)
Last time I went to visit my sister, she presented me with this marvellous little package. Penguins and craftiness!
I decorated them like this :)
The last time I went to Meadowhall to buy more tea, Stephen came with me, which meant we ended up in the Lego store. They have their Christmas bauble sets in stock, and this year the finally are doing a penguin!
I briefly thought about waiting until December to build my Lego penguin, but then became impatient, and built him straight away. This is the perogative of adulthood. If I have to do grown up stuff like plan, cook, manage finances, and tidy the house, then I have to be allowed the advantage of choosing not to wait to build my Lego.
I think that this year there will be many more Christmas decorations in Stephen's house than usual, (usually there is a single 6 inch tall tree) and most of these decorations will be penguin related.
Now, I think it is bed time. I shall be back again very soon with a report on Bakewell Wool Gathering. Sweet dreams my dears!
