Startitis Saga

I did mention that I wanted to get down to 8 WIPs this month, right? Well, I just started 2 new pairs of socks, getting my total up to 10 WIPs. So I'm going to have to do a hell of a lot of knitting to do in the next 2 weeks. Did I also mention that I have an exam on Tuesday and will be working 10 hours a day starting Monday? Of course, procrastination from studying is doing wonders for my knitting progress.

I finally succumbed to the wonder that is the Monkey sock pattern. So far I never saw what all the fuss about this pattern was about. It seemed like a pretty standard lace pattern to me and I just couldn't see why it'd be so insanely popular. Well, I've been converted. :D


This is how far I got this afternoon, avoiding studying for my investment and financing exam. Everything that's being said about the pattern, is right. It is addictive, and it's also fast and intuitive. Since the pattern is only 64 stitches around, I decided to go with a thicker yarn (Colinette Jitterbug) that I could knit on 3.25mm needles. The colourway is Kingfisher and as with all Jitterbug colourways, I'm absolutely in love with it. In fact, I even like Jitterbug colourways made up of colours I usually don't like.

Yesterday I also worked with another favourite yarn of mine, Thank Ewe's merino sock yarn. I have never worked with a yarn this soft and squishy and I love it more the more I knit with it. The skeins are also a very generous 540 yards and its owner is incredibly nice, also doing custom orders.


The pattern is a simple slip stitch pattern and while I'm not completely happy with it, I can't quite bring myself to rip back either. We'll see.

In an attempt to avoid studying last weekend, I also finally made a needle case for my DPNs. So far I had them in a box, which I sectioned off with cardboard to separate the sizes. It turned into one big mess, because the cardboard wasn't holding up and I always had to get the box out of my bookcase when I needed a needle or wanted to return one. It just wasn't working out.

So instead I turned this


into this.


My woodworking skills leave something to be desired so it didn't turn out as well as I hoped it would. The outside of the case is made from 8mm plywood, the partitions from 3mm plywood. Then I painted the wood white and decoupaged coloured napkins onto it. I still want to pretty up the white top, but I'm not quite sure how yet, so I'm using it the way it is for now. And it might not be the prettiest around, but it's doing its job perfectly. :) I now have all my DPNs on my desk, can grab them anytime I need to and don't need to go digging through a box where I can never be sure wether I actually grabbed the right needle or not.

Also, sorry, new feature isn't ready yet, since I decided to brush up on my CSS skills and make a new banner for this blog while I'm at this whole coding stuff, so it's going to be a while longer.

Running Around in Circles

I'm not. But my Mum will soon. :) Her birthday is at the end of the month and even though I won't see her until the middle of August, I already finished her present. I feel very proud of myself for not waiting until the last minute. :D



I'm not modelling them because my Mum's feet are roughly an inch shorter than mine, so these just very barely fit me. They are Anne Campbell's Circle Socks (PDF link) and were a very quick knit, as well as a pleasure to knit. The pattern around the leg goes very quickly even though you need to knit more rounds then usual since the slipped stitches pull in the length.

These sliped stitches also cause the pattern to pull in slightly and after a first try I was worried that the leg wasn't wide enough, so I knitted these toe-up instead to give me a bit more time to work out a strategy. ;) In the end I simply switched from 2.5mm needles for the foot to 3mm needles for the leg. Worked out very well.

My Mum has been ogling this yarn whenever she's been in my apartment, so I decided to use it for these socks, especially since it turned out that the colourway wasn't one I liked anyway. ;) It's very useful when your Mum's colour likes are just opposite your own. No matter what the colour, the yarn can always be used.

In contrast to last year I also already have a box for the present, made from some paper I had lying around.




Next post should be about a special new feature I'm planning on starting here on the blog. If I can finally get the html to comply. :D

Yarn of the Month

Yesterday, I was working on a lace swatch with some new yarn.


Looking closer at it, it looks an awful lot like the Shetland Shimmer Scarf I posted about a while ago.

Truth is, I ripped the beginning of the scarf.


While I really like the pattern and the yarn (Elann Peruvian Baby Lace) on their own, there are just a few things wrong with using this yarn for this pattern. Since the project is a lace project, IMO it should look delicate. This is already somewhat difficult with a garter-based pattern, but the fuzziness of the alpaca, as well as the lacking depth of the solid colourway only exagerated that problem. In addition, I was using the yarn doubled up, so that made it even worse.

Over the last few days I had been on the lookout for a much shinier, slinkier yarn and couldn't find anything I liked and could afford. The Cherry Tree Hill Cascade Fingering looked like a great candidate, but $56 a skein is just a tad out of my price range.

Then yesterday, my July paket for the Yarn of the Month Club arrived. I fell in love with the Panda Silk from Crystal Yarns immediately and swatched with it for my Shetland Shimmer. It's slinky, it's drapey, it's shiny, it's a winner! And at about $9 a skein very affordable. Now, of course, I only have to decide which colour to use. The one I have is Jade Tones, but I also like Berry Tones and Plum Tones as well as the new one coming out in fall, Granite Tones. But since I have too many projects going at the moment anyway (see yesterday's post), I still have some time to decide.

I joined the Yarn of the Month Club only last month and I'm really excited about it. :) For a few $ (for me it's less than $10, including international shipping), you receive about 5gram of 4 different yarns, usually belonging to one theme (in June it was 'cotton', this month 'bamboo'), which is enough to swatch with it, without having to buy a whole skein. Especially for me, living in Germany, it's often difficult to get my hands on the non-European yarns and I won't find them in any yarn shops here, so I'd have to order online. And as much as I love the online buying options, sometimes nothing beats just being able to touch a yarn before buying it.


June (from left to right): Noro Matsuri, Zaol Olive, Mirasol Samp'a and Rowan Purelife

While I wasn't that happy with the June yarns since they were all cotton and mostly DK weight, I am much happier with this month's shipment.


July (from left to right): Crystal Palace Panda Silk Print, Pagewood Farms Yukon, SWTC Bamboo and Blue Sky Alpacas Brushed Suri

The Panda Silk is definitely going to be a Shetland Shimmer and I could well imagine the Yukon to be a very nice sock yarn with 70% merino, 20% bamboo and 10% nylon. The SWTC Bamboo would look great as a summer top, I think. I can't really imagine knitting anything out of the Brushed Suri since it's incredibly fuzzy (when I wound it up, I couldn't even see the strands of yarn anymore, only the fuzz!), but it's still interesting to see a yarn like that.

Promiscuity

I never claimed or wanted to be a monogamous knitter. I need different projects for different times of the day, different multitasking options and different brain capacities. Today, however, I was an absolute slut.


I not only have 5 projects going at once, no, I actually worked on all of these today in one fashion or another. The sock on the right only needed a bind-off and the ends woven in. The little cuff in the middle, I only started today and the toe on the left is an experiment of mine. The lavender bit is, of course, me trying to reach my monthly goals of finishing 4 squares for my Log Cabin blanket and the bit of lace in the middle is a swatch with some yarn I just received.

And when I was trolling through Ravelry this week I found so many projects that I wanted to cast. on. right. now. that my queue is back to 4 pages. And I'm not allowed to look at it, because when I just did I could barely keep myself from casting on a multidirectional scarf with some Rowan Tapestry from my stash.

On one hand I'm glad that my schedule isn't as crazy as last month, so I actually have time to knit and cast on new things (not that I didn't do that in June, but it was always with a bad conscience :D), but this way I can't get anything done! I knit two rounds on one sock, then switch to a couple of rows on my blanket square, suddenly feel like knitting some lace and add a couple of stitches to the swatch, only to get bored with it again and go fiddle with my own pattern. The idea of being allowed to knit one thing only is giving me heart palpitations and even now the one thing keeping me from casting on something new right now is that I'm typing.

I just hope this startitis gets better soon...

June and July

I only met one of my goals this month, but I'm still feeling pretty good about it, because I used up lots of old yarn and managed to decrease my stash, despite the yarn buying.

June

(1) really finish the centre square
done!

15 / 35 squares. 43% done!

(2) seam squares that are finished together
nope

(3) finish the knitting part of my Knitting Needles Knitting Bag
nope

(4) knit the Odds n Sods Socks
nope :D

July
(1) finish 4 sqaures of Log Cabin Blanket
(2) knit a pair of socks for my Mum's birthday
(3) get down to 8 WIPs max

I started a couple new projects and decided to drop some others, but more on that on a day when I'm not almost falling asleep on the computer. :)