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Monday 27 October 2014

Knitting on two fronts

Contrary to my usual habit, I'm working on two projects at the moment.

The first is the result of my recent obsession with Shetland lace.  I saw this video...


...and fell in love both with the northern accent and the fine knitting.

I don't wear scarves or shawls but luckily, my sister does.  The pattern I chose - Ardrum Scarf - may not be 100% authentic Shetland but it's free and it's close enough to what I wanted.  I forked some serious cash out (I could have two sweaters' worth of acrylic for the price of two lace skeins) and ordered this beauty:


It's a lace weight mixture of wool and silk and it will be a bitch to wash but my oh my, isn't it smooth!

I'm some 1/10th into the scarf.  It knits nicely and requires no particular skill, although it DOES require constant attention.  I mean it, brain on 100% focus all the time.  I still have a premonition that I will make a mistake at some stage, focus or not.

Anyway, here's my progress so far:


Of course it looks all crumpled up at the moment, lace needs blocking to reveal all its glory.  A picture against the light shows some of the lacy texture, but even so there's not much to show off with, not yet.


With such a complicated knit on the needles, I needed something simple for mindless knitting when there are too many distractions around.  I still have oodles of sock yarn so I cast on for Everyday Hermione's Socks.  I'm resizing for 60 stitches - I did start with specified 64 but the sock looked huge and I had to rip it all up - but even with the mods it is a very straightforward knit.  I'll be starting the heel flap any minute now.


I'm itching to finish those projects as soon as I can because I want to make a nice, warm sweater and I'm NOT going to cast on a third project to be worked simultaneously.  Realistically though, it will be some more weeks before the scarf is done so I'll probably have my sweater in December, if that.  Oh well...

Monday 20 October 2014

A Bagful of Yarn

I don't know about you but around here getting the car through a technical inspection is a cause for celebration.  Since my Other Half did all the repairs himself (I'm! So! Proud!), we still had some car money left - rather than giving it all away to assorted mechanics - and I was able to treat myself to a bag full of yarn.

a bag full of yarn

The bag contains enough fibre for two sweaters, which chimes nicely with the changing season.  It's bloody cold around here, y'know?  The gloriously red aran should be just the thing to remedy this. 

red aran yarn

Believe me, the image does not do the colour justice.

I'm not a massive fan of aran sweaters but recently I've come across a few nice patterns that I can actually picture myself wearing.  Plus, I've had a curious, aran-themed interaction with a local knitwear supplier which may have (and didn't) resulted in a commission, so I thought it best to be prepared.

You see, I live near Galway and a stone's throw away from Aran Islands themselves.  THE Aran Islands.  There are plenty of tourist-oriented knitwear shops nearby and they inevitably attract my yarnie interest.  I'll leave a detailed analysis for another day, suffice to say that I've come across an interview with one of the local entrepreneurs where the lady (which shall not be named) complained bitterly of advanced age of her knitters.  Aran knitting, she claimed, is a dying art so hurry up and buy your sweater!  Always ready to help out, I emailed the lady and offered my services.  It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, partly motivated by genuine interest and partly a test of her sincerity.  I even offered to knit her a sample garment - hence the yarn. 

The lady never got back to me, so I guess aran knitters are not so scarce after all and the aran yarn I bought will be warming my own back, eventually.

The other yarn is some very soft, very fine acrylic, the same stuff that I used for my opera gloves a while ago.

white acrylic yarn

I got my hands on a copy of Alice Starmore's Tudor Roses book and I fell hopelessly in love with the Elizabeth I pattern.  Seriously, I HAVE TO have this pullover.  My yarn is rather finer than specified and Ravellers warn that the pattern needs some serious mods so I predict a long tech editing session before any knitting begins.  I'll get there eventually.  Possibly next summer, or one after that, but I will have this sweater.  

In other news, the Puppy is as always extremely interested in all my activities, including the photo session.

border collie close up

She's over a year old now, so technically not a puppy anymore, but tell me one thing - doesn't she model like a pro?

Happy knitting, guys!

Saturday 11 October 2014

Socks happen

I'm proud to announce that my first ever pair of socks is finished!

So is the second, actually, and the third pair is already on the needles - it seems that knitting socks really is addictive.

The first pair I did was for myself - I figured that if sock knitting turns out trickier than expected, I should be the one to wear the imperfect results of my efforts.  No need to worry, really.  The first few rounds on DPNs were a bit awkward, but after ten minutes or so I got back up to my usual speed.  A week later I had this:

knitted socks

Rather nice, don't you think?

And I DID knit two of them - here's proof:

knitted socks

I knitted from a pattern (see details at the end of this post), and a very simple one, too.  I needed to understand how a sock is constructed so I could design my own in the future.  I think I cracked it, but I am yet to test this theory. 

My second pair of socks was destined for my Other Half, and as per his request, I used the same pattern again, only somewhat bigger and in more manly colours. 

While he was quite happy with the socks, at first he flatly refused to model for images so I thought I'll be reduced to rather crappy photos on the washing line...

knitted socks

In the end, though, he relented and let me borrow one of his feet for a photo shoot.

knitted socks

Much better!


knitted socks

I had some problems with the second sock syndrome, mainly because both yarns were cut and knotted - a disaster in self-striping yarn!  It's almost impossible to accurately estimate where exactly the thread has been cut and to rejoin it so colour progression is not disturbed.  In consequence, neither pair is exactly identical.  I don't much care with household knitting, but if this was a commission or a gift, I would have been seriously pissed.  It wasn't the cheapest yarn, too, which only proves to me once again that more expensive does not always mean better. 

I will update soon with my works in progress (yes, works!  I finally broke the old habit and cast on two projects at once!): the aforementioned socks no. 3 and a gorgeous lace shawl I've decided to tackle as a result of my recent obsession with Shetland lace.  Also, there is a bagful of new, beautiful yarn waiting to be photographed and bragged about, and a new FO that was gifted away but the new owner promised to produce some nice pictures for me.  Check back soon!

PATTERN:

Nice Ribbed Socks by Glenna C.  A simple yet effective knitting pattern, it is very well written, easy to follow and FREE.  Glenna's blog, by the way, is also worth recommending - my knitting-related reading list is relatively short, but she's made the selection.