befogged

There are, it has to be said, much worse ways to spend a morning. It’s wonderfully sunny, too, so the birds are out in force and singing springy songs as the last of the snow melts away from our garden.

So, the wheel and I have been getting to know one another since my last update, erm, last year! So far I’ve thrown some corriedale (not my favourite fibre so far - it’s ok, and it’s easy to draft, but it’s not nearly as *nice* as other sorts) and merino at it and produced decent results. There’s some alpaca on there at the moment that is looking like it will turn out to be laceweight or not much heavier by the time I’ve plied it (just started the second bobbin… getting there, but it takes a while at such a fine weight!), but so far what I’m most happy with is this:

It’s about 300m of roughly sock weight 2ply Wensleydale from Babylonglegs in the ‘Blue Banana’ colourway. I tried to split the fibre in such a way that I would get a degree of colour-matching between the two plies. It seems to have worked to some degree, although not 100% perfectly, which means I should have some nice gradations of colour once it’s knitted up. I really enjoyed spinning the Wensleydale - it’s got a lovely sheen to it, rather than being a floofy fibre, so it’s a totally different look and feel from BFL. We like variety!

And just to prove that point about the colour gradations:

That’s the beginnings of a Tudor Grace  - it’s probably a more accurate shot of the true colours, too.

And just before I started that, I finished this:

It’s a Logan River Wrap in New Lanark Donegal Silk Tweed Aran. Great pattern for a simple but warm and effective wrap, and the yarn is a real bargain - produced on a small scale in Scotland, excellent service and a good price for natural fibres. It feels rather tweedy at first, but it softened a lot with knitting and still more so with blocking - it’s got a lovely softness and drape now.

Pattern: Revontuli/Northern Lights Shawl, pdf pattern here

Yarn: Colourdrift BFL from the lovely Maylin at Tri’Coterie

A simple but very effective pattern for a rainbow scarflet of a shawl. The yarn is lovely and soft, though it’s actually a little more muted in real life. It still makes for a nice wearable rainbow for brightening up greyer days, though.

I think a close-up of the rainbow may be in order:

Ah, that looks a bit more like actual yarn! The contents of that spindle represent half of that particular roving, so at some point I might end up with enough yarn to attempt plying. I’ve yet to measure properly, but it looks like it’s coming out as a dk/aran weight overall as a single, so I’m pondering seeing if the yardage is sufficient for it to actually be turned into something - it’s not perfectly even, but it’s certainly knittable.

Of course, it would have to be a something I don’t mind being bright orange - it’s a rather more virulent shade than that picture suggests (think ‘Halloween decoration plastic pumpkin of the sort that’s all over the shops at the moment’ and you’re probably about there). Very not like me, but I deliberately picked something very not like me and had huge fun all the same! It’s Corriedale, purchased from Scottish Fibres whose service was excellent, friendly and quick.

We have an oven again! It was installed yesterday, so I came home from work to find it looking all sleek and silver and like it had the ability to bake things. After a couple of months of not being able to do so this is really very welcome! The kitchen has yet to be painted, tiled (both wall & floor) and have doors attached to the cupboards so we can’t really put back everything that previously lived in cupboards on that wall but we can at least use it like a proper kitchen provided we don’t mind having things in slightly odd places.

The rest of downstairs is similarly coming along - we’re still rather plaster dust-y, but everywhere that can be plastered (we also took the opportunity to skim the oh-so-charming textured ceilings) has been (including all the way up the stairs and the landing - the joys of open plan and the continuous decor resulting therefrom!), so we’re waiting for that to dry so it can be painted. We’re also taking the opportunity to replace our back boiler with a combi boiler in a more convenient place than slap-in–the-middle-of-the-living-area, so we are waiting for that to happen before we can really finish off in there. We’ve bought the flooring ready for putting down post-painting (local B&Q refurbished itself and had a 10% day to celebrate, whilst simultaneously having 15% off flooring, so we ordered it before we really needed it), though, so fingers crossed it won’t be a horrendously long time before we are back down there.

I escaped the chaos for a little while this weekend, though. Friend Sarah came up on Friday evening for dinner at The Lambley for excellent food with excellent service since entertaining in home is a bit tricky right now, and then Al very kindly dropped us off at the train station at 6.30 on Saturday morning so that we could go to the Knitting and Stitching Show. 

We got to Alexandra Palace slightly after 10 and managed to meet up with a few online friends beforeand shortly after venturing into the fray. I think Sarah and I had more or less oriented ourselves by the time we met Becky a couple of hours later, so were able to lead her astray as quickly and efficiently as possible. There is an incredible amount to take in - Ally Pally is vast, and absolutely filled to the rafters with stalls, exhibitions and thousands of people. I can see why some people go over two days, as it’s exhausting and you do feel like you’re missing bits in the course of one day. I managed to make a few purchases, though:

Yes, amongst two skeins of sock yarn, one of laceweight and a lovely shawl pin from Purlescence that’s a spindle and some fibre. I have never attempted it before, but have been tempted by some of the wonderful spinners on Ravelry to give it a try!

When our feet, and possibly our bank balances, could stand no more it was back to Becky’s, where we met her gorgeous 8 month old twins and generally spent the evening chilling out with the family. Sarah and I knitted a toy each for the babies which seemed to go down well (i.e. both were in mouths within minutes!).

Here’s a slightly blurred shot of the Elijah I made:

I would have taken a better shot avec baby, but as he was christened in pretty short order that would also have involved baby-sick so I decided against it. Good job we made them washable

And back to that spindle… Well, my first ever attempts at using it yesterday evening have resulted in a small amount of decidedly rustic looking thick-and-thin sort of yarn, but it is yarn rather than fibre nevertheless and I am assured that as with anything it pays to persist. It was fun to be learning (well, trying to learn!) a new skill, too, so we shall see how it goes.

Pattern: Spring Forward Socks, by Linda Welch

Yarn: Yarn Yard Bonny, in ‘Fall’

Well. Either my knitting has suddenly speeded up or that was a very quick pattern! It’s a really nice simple-but-effective pattern which zoomed along. The yarn was a pleasure to work with, too - and nice and summery, considering it was decidedly grey and soggy for much of the time I was knitting these!

I was sorting out my overflowing sock drawer earlier and thought now would be a good time to take stock of the handknitted socks I now own:

Arranged in rough order of knitting, clockwise from the striped ones at the top. I thought the differences in wear were useful to know, so here’s the detail. Bear in mind that I’m fairly kind to my handiwork - sturdier socks with nylon in will go on a gentlish wash cycle, ones without are hand washed, and only the really hardy ones like the Lana Grossa and some Opal I’ve used for Alan’s socks ever make it anywhere near the dryer when I use that (Opal, incidentally, softens loads on washing and wears like a trouper even in the tumble dryer. Total workhorse sock yarn.).

Basic Ribbed Socks - 21 months old - the Lana Grossa Meilenweit has held up pretty well. A little worn looking, but would probably hold up better at the tighter tension at which I now tend to knit socks.

Anastasia Socks - 17 months old - still holding together, but the Lorna’s Laces has a tiny hole coming and is bobbling a bit.

Vine Lace Socks - 16 months old - Posh Yarn Lucia. These have bloomed a bit, but still look pretty fresh. One of the best wearing yarns I’ve used, and it involves cashmere. Well there you go!

Corded Rib Socks - 11 months old. Silkwood Sock Yarn. These have a bit of a tendency to shrink in the wash but stretch out to normal size again on wearing. Looking a bit the worse for wear, but not too bad.

Chevron Socks - 13 months old (this is where my memory slipped up in the photo!). The Bright Dyes yarn is wearing ok but not as well as the Lucia, and has lost some of the vibrancy of the colours. Still going strong, though.

Yarn Over Cable Socks - 7 months old. I’m sorry to say it, but the HipKnits Merino has worn by far the worst of the lot, and obviously these socks have had much less wear than some of the older ones. These are fuzzy to the point of losing some stitch definition, and just generally look very worn. Still very soft and comfy, so I suppose at some stage I might use my remaining skein for slouchy socks with a simple pattern that won’t be obscured by fuzz.

Spring Forward Socks - er. About 3 days old. The yarn was great to knit with, and funnily enough shows no signs of wear whatsoever yet! This could be because they’ve yet to be worn, of course…

I have made a Liesl:

The colours are a bit more true here, though:

And just to show the feather and fan pattern off a bit more, and because I rambled for ages without an image in my last post:

What I don’t have at the moment is photographic evidence that it fits me like a glove, so unless you happen to know me personally you might have to take my word for that. It does, though. It is toasty, too, being made from Manos del Uruguay wool and silk blend.

I had to do a fair amount of maths to make it work, since the pattern is written for aran and chunky yarns and the Manos (which is Really Quite Lovely) is more of a DK, but it looks like my mathematic skills haven’t quite deserted me yet. Probably the knitted garment with which I’m happiest, over all. Wooyay!

Well, the shawl I started while we were in the Lake District in March got rather put off thanks to the Swallowtail knitalong, but here she be, finished and blocked:

A detail shot, which also gives a better idea of the colour.

Pattern: Diamond Fantasy Shawl, by Sivia Harding

Yarn: Handmaiden Sea Silk, in ‘Paris’

The yarn was an absolute pleasure to knit with - silky soft and with beautiful sheen. The jade areas are wonderfully irridescent, although I think if I buy it again I’ll choose a solid or semi-solid shade to really make the most of it.

The pattern took a bit of getting into, but again was great to see taking shape and makes a really pretty smallish shawl. Very happy with this knit, although I’m buggered if I know what’s driven this sudden interest in shawls!

Thanks to a Ravelry knitalong on the Posh Yarn knitters group, my poor Diamond Fantasy shawl has been languishing a bit these past two weeks. On the other hand, I have made a Swallowtail Shawl:

Needless to say, I’m really pleased with it I’m surprised how quickly this knitted up, too - it’s seemed to fly off the needles of everyone who was knitting it.

Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl, by Evelyn A. Clark, from Interweave Knits Fall 2006 .

Yarn: Eva 2ply in Serenade, from Posh Yarn. One small business that delivers such beautiful products and excellent customer service that I can’t recommend it enough.

This is the first pattern I’ve knitted that I can actually see me making again - it’s just a really satisfying knit. I added a few repeats of the budding lace chart to make for a slightly bigger shawl, so I used about 10g of my second skein of the Eva (I should have about enough of that left to make a lace scarf, I think) - it’s still a rather nice scarf size, though.

I am still on it. Honest.

Not entirely sure what happened there, other than that of work, knitting, reading and blogging, the latter always seems to be the first thing to slip. Er. Sorry about that. Must Do Better.
Since I last wrote, I’ve turned 30 with a predictable level of fanfare (i.e. barely any), although we did tour the Galleries of Justice (Reputedly one of the most haunted places in the country. It would certainly be a rather spooky place to find yourself in the evening, I must admit!) and see Nottingham from on high (we’ve temporarily acquired a stonking great big wheel in the town centre, which gives amazing views across the city) on the day itself.

I’m still knitting, of course - I’ll spare you the multiple upload (you’ll have to find me on ravelry.com for that), but here’s a couple of recent projects:

Yarn: Hipknits Merino Sock in “Chocolate Cherries”, Pattern: ‘Yarn Over Cable’ from Sensational Knitted Socks.
So soft. Sooo soft. Between the raspberry ripple colours and the softness of the yarn, this has proved rather like knitting with and wearing warm ice cream, if that makes sense. It does to me, anyway!

Yarn: Sublime Kid Mohair in “Vellum”. Pattern: ‘Muse’ from the Very Gorgeous Sublime Kid Mohair Book