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Sunday 28 June 2015

Shawl addiction

My friends, shawl addiction is a terrible thing, especially from the blogging point of view.  Shawls take long time to complete - laceweight shawls, that is, and my brand new obsession seems to be confined to just that kind of yarn.  They also look like nothing much before blocking. If the shawl in question happens to be grey, the battle is lost before it even begins.  There is no way in hell I could possibly take a pretty/interesting picture of a grey shawl-in-progress, on a cloudy Irish day, with a smartphone.

shawl in progress

See?  A boring, shapeless pile of mostly stockinette, because in this particular pattern - Oceanspray - all the fireworks happen at the end.  I've actually finished the plain stockinette bit and now bravely knit through part two: stockinette with an occasional yarnover or k2tog.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining.  I'm enjoying the simplicity, daydreaming a lot and caressing the softer-than-soft yarn. 

I swore I'd never let 'posh' yarns steal my heart but I have to confess a little love affair with silk nowadays.  I found a place that sells laceweight with high silk content for next to nothing so I bought over a kilogram in grey, cream and yellow/orange. I'll probably buy more, too, as soon as I spot a bargain I can't resist.  I have enough laceweight to last me a decade but I'm on a binge.  Please don't judge me.

Anyway, I'm under a self-imposed ban on sweater knitting.  See, I quit smoking last February, after 15 years of heavy puffing.  NOT the easiest thing I've ever done, but it looks like victory is mine.  My lungs might be grateful, my waistline, however, does not like the change at all.  I've put on tremendous amount of weight (so much that for a while I seriously thought I'm pregnant!), despite significantly reducing calorie intake.  To tell you the truth, I'm horrified by my new shape and I refuse to knit a garment to fit the huge, flabby me.  There'll be no sweaters until I can step on the scales without screaming.  Howgh. 

Shawls it is, then.  Oceanspray is for my partner's Mum, whose 60th birthday will coincide with her upcoming visit next month.  After that?  Normally I don't wear accessories, but all that lace I knit for other people got me greedy.  Let me tell you: next shawl is mine! 

Any suggestions for a cool, free pattern?

Saturday 20 June 2015

Hey, do you want to see a sock?

My wee orange socks are all done.  Let me present socks no. 5:

knit socks

Pattern:  Simply Sweet Toe-Up Socks by Rebecca Bailey.  They are sweet indeed, and simple, even if you're attempting any of the techniques involved for the very first time.  Oh yeah, I learned a bunch of stuff with this project.  Let's see.  These are my first toe-up socks, also first time using magic loop method. 

The pattern is written out for 64 and 72 stitches and I went for the former.  If I ever knit this design again, though, I'll resize to 60 because...


That's where my toe is if I stretch the sock ever so slightly.  Despite going down from 2.75mm to 2.25mm needles, using thinnish yarn and frogging quite a lot, I ended up with socks that are simply too big.  They're wearable, but definitely not perfect.  Perhaps as an extra, to put on top of another pair? 

I'd give them away but I know neither a man who would wear those colours nor a woman with feet this large.  See, I'm size 41 so I'm guessing you'd need a foot size 43-44 to have these fit comfortably.  Oh well, lesson learned.  If your sock looks massive when you're knitting it, it will most likely stay this way when you're done and NOT FIT YOU.  Who would've thought...

On needles these days - Oceanspray.  I've barely begun and already had to frog a day's worth of knitting because I spotted a forgotten yarnover 20 rows on.  Depending on how you want to view it (glass half-full of half-empty kind of choice), this either doesn't bode well for the future or used up my quota of mistakes for this project and guarantees success.

Luckily, I'm loving the yarn.  Silk and baby alpaca, what's not to love?  It'll probably be a nightmare to care for but my goodness, isn't that thing soft! 

Stay tuned for updates!

Monday 15 June 2015

Iris

Iris - finished and photographed.

Iris scarf

I am slightly disappointed with the result.  It's not that there's something wrong with the design, it's just that I imagined it would look different.  It's too narrow, for one.  I should've noticed before I knit almost two running metres of the thing, shouldn't I?  I thought blocking will make all the difference.  It did not. 

Also, edges curl which narrows the shawl even further and pisses me off to no end because I really don't like the look. 

Pictures taken on a really windy day:

Iris scarf

I tried to anchor the shawl to various pieces of greenery to stop it from moving around...

Iris scarf

...and in the process discovered that it is almost exactly the shade of red clover:

Iris scarf

I may be a crappy photographer, but I have the coolest props:

Iris scarf and a newborn chick

Chicks hatched between Wednesday and Friday in a dramatic - if slow - process that kept me glued to the incubator for most of the time.  7 out of 10 hatched successfully, which is a decent result for first time breeders, isn't it?  The last two really struggled to get out of their shells, getting stuck for hours halfway through the unzipping stage.  Eventually we helped them a bit and I'm pretty sure this saved their lives. 

Iris scarf and a newborn chick

You have no idea how fervently I hoped that the little fella wouldn't go to toilet on my scarf...

Friday 5 June 2015

Mission (almost) accomplished

Sometimes I am almost willing to admit that I do not lack self-discipline*.  Remember my three WIPs from recent entries?

NO. 1 - FINISHED!!!!!!**

crochet beach tunic

Finished, blocked, done, almost forgotten about.  Not my favourite project in the world, although I'm reasonably satisfied as to how it turned out in the end. 

Lace-up sides result solely from my impeccable fashion sense and have nothing to do with any sizing problems, nothing what-so-ever.

crochet beach tunic

They DO look nice though, don't they? 

PATTERN: my own improvisation, 100% cotton, +/- 300g, 3 mm crochet hook.  I don't like it enough to give it a proper name. 

NO. 2 - FINISHED

Believe it or not, my knitting mojo held and I finished Iris a good few days ago.  It's stretched for blocking now, waiting for any half-decent weather that would allow me to snap some pics. 

BTW, I almost ruined the shawl at the very last step.  A new (to me) bind off technique, described in a tutorial as stretchy and perfect for lace, turned out to create an edge that is very beautiful and...  completely inelastic.  It is also impossible to undo without destroying the yarn so now it's either some very complicated knitting surgery on lace yarn or ignoring the problem and letting it stay as is.  Bound off edge in this particular project is short, so it doesn't look quite so bad.  I think it will pass muster, but only just.  In the end, no harm done, but my joy at finishing the knit is tainted. 

NO. 3 - 90% done. 

On hold for 24-48 hours.  Not my fault.  Too boring to explain. 

Anyway, I'm damn proud of myself.  I really, really, really felt like ditching all those WIPs and starting something new.  I deserve a medal.  Or a cake.

Or a teeny, tiny, super quick sock...

sock in progress

* Do not ask me about cleaning, though.  Or sweets.  Somehow my self-discipline never stretches that far.
** Relief directly proportional to the number of exclamation marks