Not one, but two Finished Objects!!

This post has been a bit longer coming than I originally anticipated, but I had a couple of WIPs getting close to the finishing line so have hung on until they were done and dusted.  So now I have two finished objects to blog about.

First up is my Berries Snuggle.  This is a three row basket weave throw with a garter stitch border knit from James C Brett Marble Chunky in the MC14 "Berries" colour way.  I started this on 16 April 2017, casting on 105 stitches - 99 stitches for the central section and 3 stitches either side for the garter stitch border.  This was intended to be a stash busting piece - I had two balls of the Marble Chunky, which I bought back in August 2015 when I had been knitting for slightly more than a year.  And then I thought that perhaps it needed to be longer than two balls worth, so when I got to the end of the first ball, I went out and bought a third ball, which I used for the middle section of the throw because it was a different dye lot.

My original plan was to knit the Snuggle for one of my nieces and then knit another one (this time in the "Petrol" colour way) for the other niece.  I have now changed my mind - this one took just over five months to complete, and I really don't fancy starting in on another one straight away.  So I am going to keep this one for me to snuggle under as it gets colder and darker.

My second finished object is my Seaspray Jumper, which I have just finish finished today.  This is a V-neck jumper, knit in pieces, using the King Cole pattern no. 3933 and King Cole Panache DK yarn in the 2071 "Seaspray" colour way.  I started this on 22 October 2016, so it has taken me just under a month short of a year to complete.

This is the second garment I have knit and it was a completely different method of construction from my "On the Beach", which I finished in June last year.  "On the Beach" was a top down raglan - "Seaspray" was knit in four pieces, back, front and sleeves, before being seamed together and then a neckband being added.  I knit the back first and then the sleeves to make sure that I would have enough yarn.  I knit the sleeves in the round on two circulars instead of flat in order to save myself some seaming at the end.  Doing this meant that I did all the seaming before picking up for the neckband, which I then knit in the round instead of flat.  It is done and it fits, and I am really pleased with how it looks.  It hasn't been blocked yet, but I will do that at the weekend.

This leaves me with four WIPs on the needles, but I am only going to show you the one where I have made real progress recently.  These are my Marie Curie socks, knit using limited edition West Yorkshire Spinners Signature sock yarn in the Marie Curie colour way.  These are vanilla socks with the slightly modified garter border eye of partridge heel taken from Hermione's Everyday Socks by Erica Lueder (a free pattern on Ravelry).  This morning I turned the heel on the second sock, so it only remains for me to pick up for the gusset and knit the foot.

As you will appreciate, finishing projects leads on to thinking about new projects and yarn for said new projects.  I have five new projects in mind, and as of this morning's post, I have the yarn for all of them.  In no particular order, the new projects are as follows:

Striped Study Shawl by Veera Valimaki - to be knit in sparkly black (Unbelievawool) and shocking pink (Truly Hooked) sock yarn
Morning Glory by Drops Designs - to be knit in Drops Karisma in the "Bleu Jeans" colourway
Peano No. 1 by Nathan Taylor (Sockmatician) - to be knit in Fyberspates Vivacious DK (blue and grey)
Selbu Mittens by Skeindeer Knits - to be knit in Rauma 3ply Strikkegarn (black and white)
Samwise Socks by Claire Ellen - to be knit in KingBecky Yarn in the "Emerald City" colourway

The Selbu Mittens are a colourwork pattern - part of a mittens pattern club that Elli of Skeindeer Knits is doing - and I bought the Rauma yarn from Ysolda Teague's on-line shop based in Edinburgh.  It is non-superwash and somewhat crunchy to the touch, but it is one of the recommended yarns for the pattern and I understand that it will soften up with knitting, wearing and washing.  Now I just have to learn the Old Norwegian cast-on before I can get started.

In other news, I am enjoying a week off work, which is one reason why I have finished objects to show you.  The thing that I am most enjoying is the peace and quiet.  The office that I work in backs onto a multi-storey car park.  They were doing some repairs to the car park over the summer, which was noisy enough, but then a few weeks back, the outer wall of the level above the entrance collapsed.  Fortunately this happened early on a Saturday morning and no-one was hurt, but it has meant that the noise level has gone up dramatically as they work on fixing it so that it can be put back into use.  Unfortunately in the meantime my colleagues are now having to park in another car park, which is frequented by drunks and druggies, right next to a hotel which rents its rooms by the hour!!

What else?  Well, I have got my 1.5 stone award so am currently 11 stone 10.5lb.  I have moved my target weight down to 11 stone 4lb, which will make a total loss of 2 stone, so have 5.5lb left to lose.  This may well take some time, but if I can do it before Christmas, that would be really good.  Mentally, I am doing reasonably well at the moment, but the clocks haven't gone back yet so it is still light when I leave for work and when I get home again.  When I get back to work, I am going to chase up HR about this year's flu jab as staying healthy physically will probably help with staying healthy mentally.

I also have some things to look forward to in the near future - a day trip to Lincoln, a meal out with my best friend (who just got engaged), the yarn festival at Bakewell etc - so am aiming to remain positive.  In desperate need of a cup of tea, so will finish here and go put the kettle on.

All the best to you and yours, and may the frog steer well clear of your crafting.

A new knitting adventure

It's very bad behaviour, I know, to say that I'm going to post more regularly and then leave it nearly a whole month. My only excuse is that I had a new knitting adventure coming up and I kept putting off posting until I could write about it. Now it is over, I have no more excuses.

What did I do? Well, on Saturday 2 September, I drove 130 miles to Purlescence at Leckhampstead in Berkshire, just outside Newbury, to do a knitting workshop. This was an early birthday present from my parents which I had been looking forward to since the end of July. The workshop was on double knitting and the teacher was Nathan Taylor aka Sockmatician! I have been watching Nathan's podcast for some time now and had become very interested in his preferred knitting technique of double knitting. This was encouraged by the fact that one of my knitting friends is currently knitting a blanket of double knitting squares from the Geek-A-Long.

My only concern was that the joining instructions talked about the long tail cast on, which is one of my least favourite cast ons - I'm generally a cable cast on knitter. So I packed up my DK yarn, my 4mm interchangeable tips and 2 different cables (having spent at least 20 minutes looking for my 4mm fixed circulars, only to realise that they were already being used on the project in my handbag!) and set out on the 2 hour plus drive. It was a smooth enough journey and I got there just after 1pm (for a 2pm start) with enough time to eat my lunch and chat with another attendee, Jo from Bristol.

Then we went inside. Purlescence is based in a unit on a farm, so one room is the workshop space with yarn round the walls and the other room has a sitting area, a shop section for books, needles and patterns and a place for making tea and coffee. I was definitely ready for a cup of tea at that point and there was also homemade cake - I had a brownie later on.

While waiting for other attendees to turn up, I looked at yarn and chatted with Nathan and the attendees who had already arrived.  And then the workshop started.

I am not going to tell you everything about it because that wouldn't be right, but I had a really great time.  Nathan is a lovely guy and a really good teacher, and he explained the theory and process of double knitting very clearly.  He also showed us lots of his own works to whet our appetites.  The long tail cast on element was different for double knitting and much easier than I had anticipated once I got to grips with it.  The workshop was a three hour session and it definitely required concentration, although Nathan was right on hand if you got stuck or made a mistake.  There was a lot of laughter and some bad language as we worked our way through the charted pattern, and I think that we all had fun.

I managed to finish my sample piece, although the workshop did overrun slightly, but as it was the end of the day, it didn't matter too much.  And here it is!

It isn't perfect, but I think that I've got the hang of it now.  And so afterwards, I bought yarn to knit one of Nathan's patterns (when I've cleared a couple of WIPs off my needles!).  The pattern I have chosen is one that he showed us at the workshop - Peano No.1  It is a scarf pattern based on a fractal, and being double sided, will be very warm.  The yarn I bought was Fyberspates Vivacious DK, and my scarf is going to be quite subtle, rather than in your face.

So on one side, it will be grey with a blue pattern, and on the other, it will be blue with a grey pattern.

Nathan's self-proclaimed goal is world domination by double knitting knitters and to that end there are still places on his workshops at Nottingham Yarn Expo (11 and 12 November 2017).  And if you are at the Yarn Expo on Saturday 11th, you may well see me there!

And to finish up, after the workshop, I drove to the nearby Travelodge where I stayed overnight - they have very firm mattresses in Travelodges - before driving 130 miles home on Sunday morning.  And yes, I do have more knitting to talk about, but will leave that for the next post, which I hope will arrive in a more timely manner than this one.  Oh, and I am signed up for a brioche workshop in December, but that will be at my LYS.

All the best to you and yours, and may the frogs steer well clear of your WIPs.