Thursday WIP

The last few weeks have given me a chance to be a lady of leisure. I have got a job now but I don’t start until Monday so I’ve been taking the chance to knit as much as possible.

I’m one of those knitters who needs to be watching something while they knit. As a result I’ve managed to watch in the last three weeks (just in knitting time, not including movie visits):

• All of Wonderfalls. I love Caroline Dhavernas.
• The recent remake of Carrie. It didn’t suck.
• The Little Mermaid!
• Three eps (and counting) of True Detective.
• Jaws which apparently I’d never seen.
• Children of Men which I’ve seen many times and love.

Lately I’ve finished a pair of pink socks that I’ll be posting about on Monday, but since then I’ve started knitting a new pair from some alpaca sock yarn given to me in a swap. I wasn’t sure how to manage the colours since I don’t often knit with high contrast variegated yarn but it turns out it set my muse aflame.

It’s really, really busy. Look at it.

As a result I’ve started writing my own pattern for them. I had to figure out a way to break down the business of the yarn a little and I couldn’t find a pattern that suited me so I made one up. I’m pleased with it so far.

The pattern is simple but not boring to knit.

I could tell as soon as I got through the ribbing that I wasn’t going to like it in stockinette. I had to think quickly about what to do. I looked on Knitting Fool which is my go-to thing for stitch patterns but none of them really did much for me. In the end I took inspiration from Ant’s Nest and did something similar but less likely to make me associate it with ants.

Because I really hate ants.

 

With the contrasting yarn for the heel.

The yarn is Paca Peds, an alpaca-based fingering weight (sock) yarn that comes with a 25g mini-skein of yarn for the heel and toe which I didn’t notice at first. I’m about to start the heel so I’m excited to see how it turns out. I think it will help to break up the irregular colours of the yarn too.

Now to watch episode  four of True Detective and get some more of these socks done before I have to start life as a working person again on Monday.

Knitting for Love

Someone once told me the story about their aunty giving them a new pair of socks every birthday. They told it with that particular tone that is usually accompanied by eye-rolling, insinuating that I should know exactly how boring that gift is.

I asked them if they thought their aunty knitted their socks. The response was non-committal; they didn’t know.

It strikes me that receiving repeated knitted gifts would seem… I don’t know. Boring. Lazy. Predictable, maybe. But if a knitter sits down and decides to knit you something, you know what that knitter is showing? That you are worth her time. That you are someone she thinks about enough to start planning your present weeks or even months in advance. When a knitter gives you socks, she is expressing affection and dedication and a wish for your feet to be warm.

There is a term in knitterly circles: knit-worthy. It’s the label granted to giftees who show proper appreciation and understanding of their hand-knitted presents. If you are not knit-worthy it means that you have somehow shown a lack of gratitude or care for your gift. There are people in my life who are knit-worthy and there are many who are not.

Does this make us selfish? I read on Ravelry once that someone’s partner thought a knitted gift was just that: it was taking the opportunity to do something the knitter enjoyed without thought for the recipient. I don’t think that’s true. I don’t always knit for people I love; I also get them things they asked for or just things I think they would like. But I also knit for them. Not because it is an excuse to knit (okay, slightly that) but also because I love that person and want to take the time to express it properly.

Sometimes I worry the people I knit for don’t understand that and think I’m boring or lazy or selfish. Then I remember that anyone I decide to knit for already knows me well enough to get it.

It also means that I struggle to knit for people I don’t know well. It stresses me out a lot and feels wrong.

What do you think about knitting for love? Do you think it’s selfish or just the opposite?

A (Nerdy) Day in Durham

It’s one thing to meet someone with one similar interest to you; it’s quite another to meet someone with lots. That’s how I feel about quite a few people I’ve met in Newcastle since I moved up here a year and a bit ago. I never expected to meet people who share both my love of comics and my love of knitting/fibre in general but I have multiple yarn/nerd friends up here and they’re all wonderful.

One of these friends is Rachael. We met at my first or second trip to the Knit Studio for the Saturday knitting group (currently suspended) and hit it off, eventually deciding that we needed to hang out outside of the knit group.

A couple of weeks ago we decided to go to Durham to see the new yarn store (The Woolly Workshop) and to go the comic book cafe (Dark Matter Cafe). SUCH A GOOD IDEA. I bought some lovely Cashmerino from the yarn store – yes, the one that made the baby hat/booties – and marvelled over the sheep model outside it. We went TWICE to Dark Matter Cafe because their peanut butter hot chocolate is utterly divine and we could not resist going back for more.

As Rachael said, THE FACE(s) OF PURE JOY!

Rachael is the one with the blue mask and fabulous hair; I’m the one with the rather dashing jawline and sparkling whites.

It’s so refreshing to go to a place where you feel comfortable and like you’re in the majority rather than the minority. People were sitting playing Pokemon and making awful Pokemon/Doctor Who puns. The walls were filled with posters and interesting comic art. These were our people. I wish I’d had somewhere like that to go as a teenager; I woulda been much happier.

Plus it’s super pretty.

Of course we got a little knitting done whilst enjoying our drinks. Rachael is making her first socks; they’re amazing because she is an over-acheiver when it comes to knitting new things, seriously. And I knitted some more of a scarf I’m making out of some beautiful blue silk.

Left: Fishnet lace scarf. Right: FABULOUS first sock.

All this in the beautiful surroundings of Durham which is one of my favourite places in the world. Sure, you go home with super sore muscles from walking up and down all the ridiculous hills but it’s gorgeous and full of interesting things as well as the famous Cathedral which is older than my brain can compute and drenched in history.

Just look at that. So cool.

It’s days like these that fill me up with happiness and inspiration. I’m lucky to have such interesting and awesome people in life. Since today I’m going to eat lunch with another fellow knitter/nerd (hello Jen!) I’m feeling especially pleased with my lot in life.

Except for that part where I’m still waiting to hear back from the Canadian Embassy. Hurry up, guys.

At least I have fun things to do and nice people to see while I wait to go home!

I’m insane.

Lately I have been knitting big things. I’ve knitted a large amount of gorgeous yarn into a lovely dress for my friend Lucy in return for letting me kip at her house for a while as I got settled in Newcastle upon Tyne. It took a few weeks and it was a tad monotonous towards the end but totally worth it for how fabulous Lucy looks wearing it.

I knitting my niece something for her birthday which will not be appearing on here until she is wearing it.

At the moment I’m knitting my sister a jumper. This is the only picture you’re going to get of it until it’s done and on my little sister. She’s one of the best people I know; smart and funny and a brilliant mum to her little son Jayden. It’s her birthday in April and I’m not able to be there because of my new job so I’ll be bringing this jumper with me when I visit just afterwards.

 

Yes, I did take a picture in my little cubby hole at work from the laptop. It was my lunch break and my camera is broken.

Because I am insane, I have not used a pattern for this. I used Knitting Fool to work out how much to cast on and I’m going from there. I’m knitting at a very loose gauge with silk and merino (with sparkly bits!) and I’m going to do a lace panel down the side.

The yarn was bought from The Knit Studio and was hand-dyed by a local fibre-artist who happened to be there when I purchased it. I’m not a fan of pink but this, I love. I will find out the name of the artist and link in a later post.

Next up I’m going to knit some socks. Smaller but just as many stitches!

 

What I Do In My Free Time: A Picture Post

I knit Dalek washcloths and discover that knitting bobbles is a pain in the arse (but worth it).

From the pattern EXFOLIATE!

I make smoothies out of vanilla organic low fat yoghurt, frozen organic blueberries and cherries, plus a big slightly overripe banana. Oh, and cardamom and cinnamon which these days I put in everything, especially milk.

I knit socks for my girlfriend. These were done a while ago and are much prettier in person; unfortunately my camera is shite. It’s Tosh Sock yarn so very soft and comfortable, or so I’m assured. I didn’t use a pattern and successfully did kitchener stitch which made me rather smug.

I continue matching my nail varnish to my knitting projects.

This scarf got frogged since I couldn’t be bothered with the lace any longer – it wasn’t pretty enough to hold my attention. I knitted a different thing with the yarn which I shall be sharing at a later point. I also plan to write up the pattern which is quite simple but I love it.

The nail varnish is called ‘Keep It Real’. Yeah, man. Innit.

Yes I did hunt down the perfect colour to go with this yarn.

Me and my girlfriend buy fish to stop ourselves adopting a cat instead.

Honestly though we’d have got the kitten if he hadn’t been adopted while we were busy watching Hunger Games at the AMC. Which was fabulous by the way.

Saturday I am going to Kniterary (The Little Green House in Whitby) and buying the yarn for my first sweater, plus some more of the cotton above for another project.

Now back to knitting a washcloth decorated with leaves.

Finishing Things

Since the start of the year I have been finishing things.

I finished the blue granny-square blanket for the apartment. A vast and snuggly expanse of crochet for our new apartment.

I finished a pair of socks made from Tosh Sock in the colourway ‘Fjord’. It really does look like little fjords, the way the yarn plays out its colour.

I finished a small green bracelet with a simple cable design.

I finished a tiny pair of handwarmers whilst watching Supernatural from the rest of the Tosh Sock since I was loath not to use it.

I finished a pair of socks with Cascade 220 yarn (my first time with it!) for a good friend. No pictures because she must see them first.

And it’s not just knitting/crochet that I’ve been finishing. I’ve read books:

• The Hunger Games Trilogy (again),
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte,
• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss,
• Changeless by Gail Carrigan,
• Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire,
• Stories, a book of short stories compiled by Neil Gaiman,
• KnitLits One and Two by Linda Roghaar and Molly Wolf,
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald,
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, and
• Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

More than a book a week since the year started alongside all that knitting. And I’ve loved all of them, since I’ve decided to stop finishing books I don’t like.

I finished a short story about an angel and I’m pleased with it. This may not seem like much but I have been suffering from crippling self doubt/writers’ block for the past two years and have been unhappy with anything I’ve dared to write.

Despite rarely having internet, I finished a few coherent blog posts.

And now I’m finishing this one.

Obsessive Knitting

There’s a few times in every person’s life where she says to herself huh, maybe I’m just a little obsessed. Of course it could just be me, the person who has made various outlandish trips to meet famous sci-fi type people, though at least I stuck to one country for that. I’ve known people who disappear overseas or on cruises to do the very same thing (i.e. my girlfriend, one of the reasons she’s awesome). So I’m thinking the obsessive nature is a pretty common phenomenon.

Some call it passion, some call it being supremely geeky. Some people juggle geese.

 So two years ago if someone said around 35% of my waking thoughts would be about fibre arts and I’d spend hours with a couple of sticks and some string in my hands, I would probably… not have been that shocked. I may have raised my eyebrows in mild surprise that my obsessive nature would go that particular way but that would have been the extent of it. I’m aware of my personality enough to realise I can latch onto pretty much anything, given the chance.

To give you some perspective on that, previous fixations have been on Victorian England (that’s still quite high up there), playing ukulele and guitar (again, still a big one), Alexander the Great, raccoons, paganism, Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and coffee. I don’t mean I was addicted to coffee, I mean I went through a stage of being fascinated with it.

This is not a new thing either. When I was a kid I spent a good few weeks telling everyone I was a Golden Eagle. Well. I squawked at them. Mum was usually standing nearby to explain my very odd behaviour. I still remember her telling me not to try and fly out of the top floor window (we lived in a flat/apartment) and laughing that she thought I’d be that stupid. I did nest on any drain I found in the school playground. And that was before I was considered the weird one; go figure. My friends just joined in. Being eight was awesome.

Flapping my wings and attacking small prey (something I was never particularly adept at, being naturally quite slow) was not a lasting obsession. Some have been. Some last years then taper off. Some go in months. Some nestle themselves tightly into my mind and refuse to go anywhere. Some, like knitting and playing my instruments and writing, become a defining part of my personality. I can tell that happens when I begin building my future dreams around them.

Knitting/crochet/yarn in general has been at that state pretty much since the start.

I don’t know what it is about it. I’ve been thinking about it, you see (hence this entry). Perhaps it’s because I am drawn to colour quite a lot and yarn comes in such fabulous varieties. People at the new knit night I attend here have already pointed out that my nails are generally painted to match my yarn; not a deliberate thing, but not that surprising to me either. Colour is awesome. At college I went through a stage of wearing startlingly bright rainbow clothes 85% of the time. I’ve toned it down a bit but I still own neon yellow underwear and spent much of last summer prancing about in a floor-length ruby-red skirt. Colour makes me happy.

Or perhaps it’s the texture which is equally important to me. Or the fact I can feel that sense of accomplishment when I finish something. Or that I seem to be pretty good at it naturally, though that’s also due to how many hours I put into any obsessions I may have at any one time. Or maybe it’s because the community around fibre-arts, online and in the ‘real’ world, is amazing. The people are fantastic. I’ve never met a knitter, crocheter, cross-stitcher etc that I didn’t like.

Whatever it is, my knitting obsession is here to stay. I doubt any time soon there’ll be a day where I don’t spend a good portion of it thinking about fibre.

At least I’m not alone!

A New Year

There’s been a lot of changes in 2011 for me, the people around me, and the world. It’s been a memorable year but generally not for the right reasons. It ended on a high note though and I have great hopes for 2012.

So what happened to me last year?

• I lost one gentle, relaxing job and started up a harder, more stressful job for the same pay.
• People around me fell ill or faced the possibility of illness.
• I got IIH, an unpleasant condition that meant I had to put off moving to Canada for three months.

Most importantly, though,

• I moved to Canada!

Yep, that’s right, after years of wanting I’m finally in the land of mounties and maple leaves. As I type this I’m sat in the mountains of British Columbia surrounded by some absolutely lovely people (and cats). Finally I’m where I want to be. In a few days I’ll be moving to Oshawa in Ontario where Nari and I will be looking for jobs and an apartment together. It’s like a dream come true and believe me, it’s a dream I’ve had for a long time. Pretty much as long as I remember.

None of this has anything to do with knitting or craft on the surface but believe me, internally it does. Because of all the shifts and changes in the last year I’ve spent a lot of time concentrating on getting better at knitting. I’ve learnt a lot of new skills and I’m proud of how far I’ve come.

New Skills

• Long-tail cast on – which I now use for everything
• Stockinette stitch – or rather, how to do it neatly.
• Knitting in the round
• Jeny’s surprisingly stretchy bind off – perfect for ribbed things
• Simple lace (usually lace rib)
• Increases and decreases of various sorts
• How to find and use vintage patterns

Major projects completed

• Mittens for Tamara
• Headband for my big sister
• Socks for Nari (my first complete and functional pair)
• Crochet shawl
• Hat for mum
• Escapism mitts for me (my proudest achievement so far)
• A beret for Jen

The majority of these were made in the tail end of the year while I was lying in bed or otherwise compromised with this delightful illness. I’m mostly better now and coming off my pills (although it is technically incurable) so I’ll be working soon and will have less time to knit. I don’t intend to let this stop me.

I’m going to post tomorrow about my major knitting resolution for 2012.

How has your year been?

How to Knit in the Round

When I started knitting I didn’t really get it. Same with crochet. With both of these crafts it finally clicked when I started in the round. It seems to flow much easier and I seem to find it less awkward to keep track of where I am in a pattern. I’m sure there are a lot of people who would much rather knit straight but given the choice, I’ll usually pick something knitted in the round.

There are a few methods of doing this, which I’ll lay out here. I am not comfortable enough with some of the methods to be able to instruct from scratch, so I’ll provide you with the links and resources to learn as quickly as I did.

Double Pointed Needles

These are needles that do not have the stopper at one end. They’re pointed on both sides – hence the name – and they’re usually quite a bit shorter than regular straight needles. They’re used a lot in knitting socks.

This is my preferred method for knitting socks and mittens/gloves. It looks a bit fiddly but once you realise you’re only ever knitting on two of the needles, it becomes much easier. The only problem is trying to avoid the obvious line through the bits where the needles switch, something I haven’t quite got the hang of yet. I learned through YouTube videos such as this one, though if you search for ‘knitting on double pointed needles’ a lot of tips and tutorials come up.

The most important thing with knitting on DPNs is that you don’t get the first stitches twisted. If you do, your sock is going to look more than a little strange and will be rather unwearable!

Circular Needles

These are needles specifically designed for knitting in the round; they’re generally used for larger projects than socks etc. They’re two straight needles attached to a flexible cord which comes in a variety of lengths.

I recently used a 16″ circular to knit my mum a hat, shown in the previous post. I also used the same needle to knit myself a headband using an offcentre rib stitch which I’m sure has a name but I have no idea what that would be! It was entirely improvised. Knitting on circulars is quite useful because you can slip the project down onto the cord when transporting. I’ve never had anything fall of circular needles, unlike DPNs; I have also used circular needles to knit straight just for the portability factor.

Have a look at this tutorial or this video. It’s quite a simple process, possibly the simplest of methods knitting in the round. All you need to bear in mind is picking the right size!

Magic Loop Knitting

This is the newest method for me. It’s where you use one long-cabled circular needle and knit small projects in the round – for example, I’m using this to knit mittens. You split the stitches down the middle with the cable. It’s very clever. I understand a lot of people prefer this to knitting with DPNs.

I only tried it a couple of days ago and for some reason I’d expected it to be a lot more difficult. It wasn’t – it was easy peasy! Me and a friend were watching TV so I didn’t want to watch a video on youtube which is my usual method of learning a tricky new skill in knitting. Turns out I didn’t need to: this tutorial from KnitPicks was more than enough.

It may look complicated and confusing but I promise it’s not. I’m not sure I’m completely sold on it; I still prefer knitting on DPNs but that’s a personal preference. The best thing about knitting is that there are so many ways to achieve the same or similar effects and it’s fun to try each of them out when you’re learning to know your own preferences.

So how do you do it?

What have I been knitting (& crocheting)?

Escapism Mitts

Pattern: Sojourn Mitts (Ravelry)

Yarn: Old Maiden Aunt’s Alpaca/Silk

Started: November 9th 2011

Finished: November 14th 2011

I started these mitts when my lovely best friend sent me a skein of this gorgeous yarn. I couldn’t help myself from casting on even though it’s almost Christmas and I have lots of gifts to knit. It was also a bit of a difficult time emotionally, hence the title ‘escapism’: it distracted me from the lovely imbalance of hormones in my head thanks to my medication. I wear these all the time. Dad even said they look professional, which is sweet even if inaccurate. There are plenty of mistakes but that’s what makes them not mass-produced. I would recommend this pattern to anyone.

Motherbot Hat

Pattern: Sockhead Hat

Yarn: Some random purple variegated sock yarn

Started: 1st December 2011

Finished: 5th December 2011

A christmas present for my mum. I was going to knit her socks, but then she asked for a hat. I’d already bought this yarn (I lost the label, hence unable to tell you the brand) so I found a pattern that fit the weight. This is a slouchy pattern but my mum has quite a small head so I decided to reduce the pattern quite a lot. She really liked it. We’re not so much with the waiting to give presents in my family…

Beretion

Pattern: The Columbia Beret (Ravelry)

Yarn: BC Garn Baby Alpaca

Started: About a year ago

Finished: November 2011

It’s not that I took months to make this relatively simple design. It’s that I had real trouble picking something suitable for the lovely soft yarn. It’s laceweight, which I equally adore and fear, since it seems somewhat harder to make into a finished object. This beret is quite appropriate since Jen wears one frequently. I’m assured she likes it. 🙂

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I know all of these pictures are dubious in quality. Unfortunately at the moment I only have an iPhone to take photos with and soon I won’t even have that – I’m giving it to my mum when I go to Canada in a week. However I know I’ve got a camera somewhere. Just gotta find it!