Socks No. 3 and Knitting Block

Remember the Hermione's Everyday Socks I wrote about in the last post?  Well, they are all done and have been done for a couple of weeks now.

The lace shawl is almost finished too.  I only have to knit up the edging at the end and graft the remaining stitches.  Normally I would estimate this to be a 1-2 day job, but the world got a bit crazy and now I suspect it might be a while before I'm done with the thing. 

You see, I'm suffering from a stress-related knitting block.  There's a housing revolution on the horizon.  My 'lovely' landlord renewed our lease for another year, then three weeks later announced that he's selling the place and we will have to move out at some unspecified date.  Just after I finished planting all the flower bulbs for the spring!  We're having crowds of strangers 'viewing' the place and the whole situation plays merry hell with my sense of privacy and security.  I'm a total worrier and my mind keeps tormenting me with all kinds of scary scenarios.  As a result, I found myself unable to even touch knitting needles since the bomb dropped.  It's funny, knitting is supposed to relax people but I feel almost physical repulsion when I as much as think of sitting down with some yarn.  Do you guys ever react this way or is it just me? 

I suppose I will be able to get back to some straightforward projects as I get accustomed to the situation but my creativity is dead and buried until things get sorted out.  I'm truly pissed off about this because I was just about to start designing an aran sweater.

Life, eh? 

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...

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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!

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:

Rather nice, don't you think?

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

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...

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

Much better!

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. 

Sock Yarn Bonanza

Over the last 6 months or so, I had been dying for sock yarn.  I've never made socks in my life but I so wanted to learn!  Besides, I was tired of DK weight yarn and eager to try something new. 

Unfortunately, no matter how strong the need, facts were against me:

- I was going through a tight spell financially, and sock yarn tends to be rather costly

- even if I had the money, the selection in my  LYS is rather poor.

To get around these obstacles, I first tried to recruit my Mum's help.  She lives in Poland, so she has access to some rather attractively priced fibres.  After a few weeks, my package arrived:

This is cotton/polyester blend.  It should be great for warm weather lacy socks.  I'm also tempted to turn the coral red skeins (I've got three) into a little pullover...  We'll see how it goes.

Some more time passed and I finally had extra money for yarn shopping.  I raced to my LYS and bought this lovely thing:

As you can see, I'm already swatching for gauge.  The yarn is a very posh mixture of superwash wool with a tiny bit of synthetic fibre added for durability.  It costs almost 10 euros/100 g, so it's pretty expensive in my book, but this is what you can usually expect to pay for sock yarn around here. 

Unless, of course, you find a yarn sale.  Sometimes I have to travel for work and when I do, I never miss the chance to check out local craft shops.  This baby...

...was a steal at 5 euros/100g and it's destined to become socks for my Better Half.  He's not particularly enthusiastic about the idea, but I bet I'll be able to turn him around.  Or else...

Anyway, soon after that trip I found even better bargain.  A discounter in my area got some yarn in stock and after seeing their rock bottom prices (2.50 euros/100g) I went haywire and bought a kilogram of delicious, fingering weight wool/polyamide mix:

AND I might acquire some more - if only there's anything left...

I can definitely say that my hunger for sock yarn is temporarily satisfied.  I am a proud owner of 1.7 kg of suitable fibre.  Now the only thing left is to knit all those socks...

3 piece set and pricing commissions

Recently a friend of mine showed me this picture and asked:

'Can you make this?'

'Sure, why not?'

I puzzled over the pattern for a few days and once I thought I had it figured out, I bought some super-soft acrylic yarn and set to work.  After a week of leisurely paced knitting, I had this:

Colours were slightly changed as per my friend's request, but otherwise I think I got it pretty close, don't you?

I was promised pictures on a live model but they are slow to materialise, so for now I only have flat (and not so great - apologies!) shots.  I'll be sure to post the pics here as soon as they arrive, and believe you me, the little girl looks adorable in her new clothes!

Flower on the hat is stitched on permanently...

...but the rest are only tied on, so they can be moved around.  On poncho, I placed them to hide the seam but they might look even better elsewhere.

It was my very first attempt at a triangular shawl and as you can see, I don't yet have full control over the angles :).  I didn't bother with writing a chart, I just improvised all the way.  To a degree, the shape was forced by the stitch pattern but there might be a way to get around it.  I quite like the irregular look though, so fighting geometry will be left for another day.

The set was such a success, that I almost got a commission to make another one.  Almost, because eventually the project fell apart over price.  I requested 35 euros (around 6 of which I would have to spend on materials) and to tell you the truth, I think it's a very lousy pay for three days of fairly intensive knitting.  Yet, my prospective client was not prepared to accept the price tag. 

Not that I'm terribly heartbroken.  Knitting the same pattern twice is boring and 30 euro one way or another doesn't make any difference to my budget.  Still, the whole situation got me thinking.  Is it even possible these days to make money knitting?  With workers in Asian sweatshops churning pieces out for pennies and general public simply not giving a crap?  I'm inclined to say 'no', but perhaps you have different experiences?  Please share!

PATTERN:

Improvised from the picture found online (see link above).

Fingerless opera gloves

When I wondered whether or not to start a knitting blog, I seriously worried that I won't have enough projects to write about.  I shouldn't have.  Turns out I have an ever-shifting though never-shortening queue of FOs to present.  There are three or four designs from before the blog was born that I would like to show you, but how am I to do this when I also have a permanent backlog of at least two recent works?

Oh boy, I wish all my problems were of this caliber... :)  Anyway, here's another fresh creation:  fingerless opera gloves.

Made to order, they were practically built around the future owner's hand.  Some ripping was inevitable, but not too much and once the first glove was finished, it was a matter of simple copying to complete the pair.  A satisfying little design, with the result turning out even better than I expected.

I wanted a really snug fit, so the gloves are crocheted in the round only from fingers to wrist, higher up I worked flat, adding snap fasteners along the edges.  Very sophisticated.

You can't exactly see the opening on pictures, and this is because this time I managed to push the unpleasant duty of photographing my FO onto somebody else.  My victim helpful friend is skilled in the art of taking nice snaps, with pretty props etc., but not a yarnoholic herself so construction details that I find really clever did not catch her eye (or lens).  Since I'm not turning this design into a publishable pattern, I figure it's ok if my pics are little vague.

PATTERN:

I really liked these gloves on Etsy*, so I borrowed the stitch and improvised my own construction.  Does this make the pattern mine?  I'm not quite sure.  What do you think, guys? 

* I was going to post a link here to the specific listing, but I can't find it anymore even though I trawled through ALL crochet lace gloves on the site.   It must have been sold, or de-listed.  Instead, here's a link to the original picture reposted elsewhere.