What Should I Knit Next?

The new year will be here in no time and Christmas knitting will be over. Though I got most of mine done early, I’ve also been working on commission stuff (which is mostly done) so I’m going to take some time in January to knit something indulgent and just for me.

Since I give anything away that I knit except for shawls, I think the choice is obvious. But which shawl?

I bought a skein of Wollmeise from Loop in London just before I left the UK as a goodbye England gift to myself. It’s still sitting and waiting for me. It’s a nice rich terracotta colour, though I’ve also been told it’s the colour of baby poop, because my friends are awesome. In either case I love it and it’s a solid colour which means I can pick something nice and complicated.

The Options

Maple Leaf Knit Shawl

by Natalia @ Elfmoda

This choice is kind of obvious. I do, after all, have a vested interest in maple leaves since I moved to Canada so recently. It would be appropriate in the colour I have. I don’t think this pattern would be too difficult but at the same time that could make it quite boring.

Damask

by Kitman Figueroa

Look at this thing. I’ve had it in my queue since 2012 and I’ve had the pattern nearly as long. It’s intimidating with lots of lace and cables and bobbles, but I’m so tempted. This is the most likely option if I can convince myself that I am capable of making it.

Tiong Bahru

by Åsa Tricosa

This is a nice balance between complicated and easy. It doesn’t look too difficult and it does have large swaths of stockinette so it’s not as intense as the Damask, but though I love this pattern it hasn’t been in my queue nearly as long. I still want to make it, I’m just not sure whether it’s the time.

So what do you think? What would you choose for some nice indulgent knitting?

One Lovely Blog Award

How lovely is Bonnyknits? (Spoiler: very).

She nominated me for this very cute award. Thank you! It feels good to know people enjoy reading this blog as much as I enjoy reading others.

You should go check out her blog immediately. She’d be on my list if she hadn’t nominated me anyway.

These are the rules of the One Lovely Blog Award:

1. Thank and link back to the person who nominated you
2. List the rules and display the award
3. Include seven facts about yourself
4. Nominate around 10-15 other bloggers and let them know about the award (their About page is a good place!)
5. Follow the blogger who nominated you, if not already. (Optional!)

Seven Facts About Polo

• I was born in the southwest of England and grew up on a small crazy island sticking off the coast.
• After visiting Canada multiple times since I was 18, I finally emigrated six months ago.
• I have a first class honours degree in Linguistics and Philosophy.
• My first and biggest passion is reading and writing: I used to cuddle books instead of teddies.
• I love strong flavours. As a kid I would take sips of vinegar.
• I’ve had OCD most of my life but it’s almost under control now.
• My day job is at a call centre and I love it because they let me knit.

So here are the people I’m telling you to go check out because they are super awesome.

If I’ve got your pronoun choice wrong, I do apologise – let me know and I’ll change it.

Lovely Bloggers

1. Gladeridercrafts.  Very talented, very sweet. Always has something interesting or nice to say in her blog and her comments.
2. Photosophiaus. This is my good friend Sophie. She is reponsible for my knitting addiction. She’s also very talented and a constant inspiration (though she doesn’t knit/crochet much now).
3. Kerry writes the most lovely posts with interesting tidbits and good photos.
4. Hardknitlife always has something new to say and is a very talented knitter.
5. Soknitsome is another blogger who I’ve grown to adore lately. Very friendly and her posts are great.
6. Little Church Knits posts wonderful things and wonderful photos. Make sure you bundle up if you click on her; it’s snowing on her blog right now!
7. Ways to Knit Forever always has something good on the needles.
8. Bamcrafts has excellent posts and often has new patterns on the go. Good ones.
9. Crosstitchery is a blog full of ideas and charming notions. Love visiting it.
10. The Sock Monkey knits a lot of socks. Some of those socks are from his own patterns. I really love socks too.

Honestly, I’ve been lacking in energy thanks to NaNoWriMo and the weather change. I haven’t been blogging consistently and I haven’t been visiting my old favourites. Thank you for making me miss it, Bonnyknits. I’m going to be clicking through all you guys and my reader all day now.

Secrecy

Lately I’ve been asked to do a lot of knitting for other people. That’s not unusual (as any knitter will know) but this time I’ve been paid for it.

As a result, I’m lacking any photos of projects lately. Though I’m the one that’s knitting these items, they’re not mine. I don’t feel comfortable posting pictures of them. They’re a lot of fun to do and it’s always good to get paid to do something you love but it’s creating a bit of a blank spot on my blog.

I have thought about showing partial pictures just as something to fill in the blank spots here – what do you think? Would that be appropriate?

This won’t go on forever. I have some old projects I need to photograph and get up on here, plus I’m about to finish a pair of socks (I forgot to bring the commission project I’m working on with me out of the house today). There will be some photos of my knitting coming soon.

I Love Winter (Most Of The Time)

It’s getting cold here.

No, I’m not particularly surprised. I’m in Ontario, what did I expect? However despite having lived through one winter in 2011/12, it’s been a while. The bitter wind is a shock to the system.

For a few days we had lovely powdery snow that melted just enough to freeze into trecherous ice and disgusting grey sludge. For a couple of days I got to run through it with my dog, laughing as he barreled through the field with his muzzle in the snow and his mouth open, chomp-chomp-chomping. Then the ice made the journey far less fun.

Thankfully it has melted again for now. I am not bothered by the rain, being a native Brit; I’m used to it. It’s in my genes. Still the recent weather is only a prelude into what’s coming.

I don’t mind. I chose to come here to this gorgeous country. I’m happy here and, most importantly, I have a really warm coat.

That said, I’m noticing a problem: I’m a process knitter. I don’t care much about the result beyond being pleased with myself and admiring the prettiness. Thanks to that, along with a tendency to express my affection with knitwear, most of what I make is given away.

You know what? I don’t even own any handknit socks. My girlfriend, however, owns quite a few pairs by now and I’m most of the way through another pair for her.

I need to work on that but due to a bunch of projects that are way more important, it won’t be happening any time soon.

In the meantime I’ll just have to snuggle up to these guys instead.

Learning to Read Your Knitting

When I started this blog it was with the intention of tracking my progress in becoming a better knitter – or, back at that time, a knitter at all. I found the biggest hurdle in the early stages is learning to read your knitting.

What do I mean by that?

Back when I started knitting and crocheting I had real problems if I made a mistake. I would stare down at the scrap of fabric and have no idea what I’d done or why there weren’t the right amount of stitches in place.

It was infuriating. For a long time I didn’t like knitting at all, preferring instead to stick to my hooks. A big part of that is the fact it was much easier to see the difference in the stitches with crochet, at least for me.

Now when I make a mistake in my knitting I can see where I went wrong by reading the stitches along the row. I don’t think there’s a trick to it – it’s something that comes with making a whole bunch of mistakes! I have seen plenty of images on Pinterest showing different types of stitches and what they look like but unless you’re checking them throughout the process, they’re not as useful as experience. I don’t know about you but I struggle to remember what I saw in an image some time a few months ago!

I guess what I’m saying here is that it’s heartening after all this time to realise how far I’ve come. I don’t look at my lace knitting and burst into tears (most days). I don’t want to throw my crochet out of the moving bus (usually). It’s satisfying to realise that I can read the stitches on my needle or hook.

Can you read your knitting? How did you get to that point? Sheer luck like me or did you study hard to get all that knowledge together?

More Good Knitting Ideas From Pinterest

Though I really shouldn’t be browsing Pinterest while I’m in the middle of NaNoWriMo
, I can’t help it. Thankfully I’m learning a lot of neat tricks in the meantime.

Securing DPN Projects

Personally I lose the sock needles in the bottom of my bag all the damn time. I could just use project bags but I’m rarely that organised when I’m shoving my latest project into my bag for work. I have some fiddly contraptions that work great for sock knitting but most of the time all of those are occupied – I’m a woman of many WIPs.

So this idea from WEBS is really up my street.

It doesn’t involve thinking for more than thirty seconds ahead (good for people like me) and it might mean I lose slightly fewer needles.

Preventing Those Runs on Your DPN Knitting

The Purl Bee comes up with some great stuff constantly. It’s great.

I found this idea on how to prevent the little ladder in your socks/mittens/etc when you’re knitting with DPNs. I don’t suffer from this quite so much any more but occasionally I notice I’m still seeing runs up the side and it makes me do a sadface.

Though I haven’t tried this yet (my current main project is knitting on circulars), I can see the sense in the idea and will be trying it out next time I pick up one of the many pairs of socks I have on the go.

Okay, Pinterest can be a total time-suck… but it’s also really useful.

What Do Bored Knitters Do?

This isn’t much of a riddle since I already know the answer. They take the fur brushed off their rather ample cat and tug it out into a makeshift yarn (with no spindle or wheel), then they knit it into a small square. You know, just for kicks.   Or is that just me?

The Season of Knitters

It’s getting cold outside.

Winter is not only coming; it is here. Walking the dog involves more and more layers each day. On Saturday morning we watched in alarm as the rain slowly turned to snow, the first fall of the season.

I should not be surprised. I’m in Canada now, it’s kind of known for being cold. I’ve had problems in the past trying to convince people that it gets super hot during the summer months thanks to its reputation. Yet still I am grumbling as I hunt down my hats and raccoon-shaped gloves and shivering as I brave the morning weather.

There’s no option to stay indoors. I have a dog and he is a bundle of energy. Van is a Golden Retriever less than two years old and he needs – and deserves – a lot of exercise. I do not get to avoid the cold. That’s probably a good thing. Avoiding the cold means you don’t get to see the stark beauty of the season. You don’t get to wrap up in as many layers as you can fit beneath your jacket.

You don’t get to enjoy various knitted goods to the best of their function.

That’s the cowl I received as part of the Buffy swap a good few months ago. It’s beautiful. The yarn is so soft and it’s super warm. In this shot I’d been walking for about an hour already so I was warming up at last, hence it being draped around my neck instead of wrapped tighter. When it’s wound twice around my throat it is the perfect height to keep my chin and nose warm.

Plus it has spiders on it.

There’s something comforting about being out in the cold when you have knitwear to keep it out. I love the feel of wool against my skin at this time of year. It makes the coldness worth it.

Though I have to say… this looks even more inviting.

 

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Potential in Yarn Form

The best bit about buying a new skein of yarn is the potential.

Some knitters and crocheters buy all of their yarn with a certain project in mind. They go out and find a pattern, then purchase the yarn that fits. I admire the people who do this consistently. Though sometimes I can do it (as with my Brandywine shawl), it is not my natural state of affairs.

The other knitters – like myself – bumble into a yarn store and grab whatever shiny thing they see with only vague ideas of what it might turn out to be. I did that recently.

This is Cascade Heritage Silk. I’ve used it before and enjoyed it thoroughly so could not resist trying it again. I purchased two skeins from Kniterary with the vague intentions in using them for socks. Stripey socks, in fact. The blue in the bottom variegated one matches the solid one perfectly.

Then I lost my favourite pashmina.

That is the pashmina in question (bonus Grand Canyon). It has been with me for at least five years and three countries. It is big and warm and goes with my winter tendency to wear a lot of red. I dropped it in the mall and didn’t notice until much later.

Now I’m considering making a big stole with it instead that I can snuggle up in at work. Usually I don’t wear knitted scarves since I like being contrary (and much prefer woven fabric around my neck), but this silk is luscious and could make something lovely.

Excuse me while I spend the next forever browsing square stoles on Ravelry to figure out how to turn this yarn’s potential into something beautiful.

International Yarn Bowl

Look at this beauty!

I have some wonderful friends. Some of them are vaguely aware that I like things to do with yarn despite me being so quiet and subtle about it (ahem). It was my birthday last month and this lovely hand-made yarn bowl arrived from Spain two days ago.

The lovely person who sent it (my friend Frankie) lives in the UK – we went to university together and bonded over X-Men. So she ordered if from the UK to be sent to Canada from Spain. This is quite the international yarn bowl.

Since this is my first yarn bowl I was excited to use it. Turns out they’re incredibly handy as well as being cute, especially when you have cats who like to lie in awkward positions and get tangled up in the yarn (I’m looking at you, Sean). I am definitely a convert.