Chores and deadlines

Can I tell you a secret?

I'm really not good at chores.  I'm supposed to be a proper, organised adult, with a 'to do' list, spotless house and a solid plan for life.  I have none of these things.  Sometimes I even feel guilty for not having them.  More often, I shrug and get over the fact that I won't be called the Housekeeper of the Year anytime soon. 

There are so many things I'd rather do!  I mean - look how uninspiring housework is.  You wash and brush and wipe and dust and polish and clean and two days later?  You have to do it all over again.  It's a never ending battle and you have to sprint constantly just to keep up.  Nauseating.  Wouldn't you rather be knitting?  Wouldn't you?

It's simple.  One day I have to be rich enough to be able to afford a cleaner.  Until then, I'll compromise.

I don't negotiate with animal chores.  Critters need to be fed, watered, walked, cuddled (whichever is appropriate at any given moment) and that's that.  All the rest?  I'll do it if there's no way to avoid it (having no clean underwear is a potent motivator).  I'll leave it for later if I can.  I'll try not to feel guilty about it.

Do you want one more reason to chuck housework? 

Knitting deadlines. 

I'm some 2/3 through Oceanspray.  Another 10 (long) rows and I'll be able to start the border.  I need to finish it by July 24 or the secret gift will not be secret anymore.  Anyone wants to take bets?  Or at least cheer me along?  I can do it.  I can do it, right?

My Oceanspray doesn't look like much at the moment, just a shapeless pile of grey (Puppy helped in the photo shoot).  I hope blocking will make all the difference although part of me wonders if silk/alpaca yarn isn't too drapey for this pattern?  I suppose I'll find out soon enough...

If you need me, I'll be knitting on the porch. 

Giant's socks and garden sheep

Remember my latest pair of socks?  They were little on the large side, but now...  guys, my socks GREW in washing.  They grew a lot.  As in - they are some giant's socks now, not mine. 

Look, here's the Giant Sock pictured together with a fitting handmade sock and a commercial sock in my size (just for the joke):

As much as I hate the idea of knitting them anew, I see no other option than frogging the whole thing and re-working them with severely reduced stitch counts.  To start with, I'm going to work on 56 rather than 64 stitches.  I'll probably make them shorter, too... hell, I think I'll change pretty much all there is to change because in hindsight, the pattern does not really work that well with this particular yarn.  I'll use Rebecca's pattern as a springboard, but what I'll end up with, only time can tell.    

I'm also going to start soon because I know that if I leave them be for now they'll remain untouched for years, lurking in some dark corner of my stash. 

That's the Plan.  The Plan may be influenced by two things:

1) suddenly I'm flooded by a shitload of work (you know, work, the nasty stuff that keeps the bills paid and gets you all that yarn.  I don't like it either)

2) deadlines for Oceanspray (end of July) and one more - unbloggable - knit gift (three days from today?  I'll need a Tardis for that one...) are approaching fast. 

I'll keep you posted.

By the way, did I ever mention that my neighbourhood is full of sheep?  Look what I saw through my window this morning:

Apologies for the crappy picture, I had to be very sneaky because I didn't want my SHEEPdog to notice and chase the visitors away.  The more grass they eat, the less there's left to mow for us :) 

Could anyone tell me what breed sheep are they?  I strongly suspect that only meat breeds are kept on my mountain but you never know... 

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.

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?

Hey, do you want to see a sock?

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

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!

Iris

Iris - finished and photographed.

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:

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

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

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

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. 

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

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!!!!!!**

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.

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...

* 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

Assorted randomness

Did you know that if you work on things, they get done? 

Insightful, I know. 

Somehow, I tend to forget that when it comes to finishing projects, nothing works quite as well as sitting down on your ass and putting the hours in (and no, spending those hours on reading crafty blogs does not have the same effect.  Unfortunately.)

Guys, I've been a good little knitter and while I don't have a Finished Object to present just yet, I can definitely report some progress. 

Item A - lace scarf (Iris, if you're curious)

Look, it's growing!

I tackled this unloved and forgotten baby a few days ago and magic happened - suddenly I'm enjoying working on it!  Seriously, while a few weeks back I had to force myself to knit a single 8-row repeat, now the repeats are flying off the needles at lightning speed.  Suddenly I'm not bored by the pattern, thin yarn doesn't irritate me anymore, I'm not even intimidated by the apparent endlessness of the project.  Must be spring or some other charmed vibe in the air.

Touch wood, I can visualise finishing it within a week or so.  IF the magic holds. 

Item B - beach tunic

It's blocking!!!  No, the ordeal is not over yet.  The pieces are not sewn together, I just layered them like that to save space and make sure I block them to the same measurements.  I still need to join the two pieces, weave in the ends and nicely finish all the edges.  Plus, I'm contemplating adding something pretty and lacy along the bottom edge.  A few hours - at least - still need to be invested here, but I can see the finish line.  Just a little further... 

While I'm in my craft room...  hey, do you want to see my stash?

Just a quick pic, to give you a general idea :)  It doesn't look like much but believe me, this shelf is pretty deep and there are tons of yarn hidden in there. 

I get a mood boost just opening the cupboard and peeking in. 

Speaking of mood boosts - if all goes well, pretty soon I'll have a whole lot of cuteness to enjoy (and share!).  Look:

We bought a rooster a while ago, to see if we can raise some chickens for the pot.  He performs his duties admirably, but the ladies are not very interested in motherhood and refuse to go broody.  Technology to the rescue, we invested in this tiny egg incubator and a brooder.  So far so good, keep your fingers crossed for good hatch rate.

15 more days.