One skein + 2 hours = a F.O!

I had a new fireplace fitted today, and as I live in a tiny house I thought I'd better go and sit in my garden whilst the guys were working. Unfortunately my garden offers little in the way of entertainment so I had to find a way to amuse myself. I thought about doing the other pocket for the dress, but I need to concentrate for intarsia so I thought I'd better do something simple. I bought a skein of Colinette tagliatelle from my LYS on Wednesday (no comments about yarn diets, please!) and decided I'd make a start on Aurora from Jelly Allstars. I didn't bother with a swatch, and just cast on, laughing at my recklessness (I know how to live dangerously!). Amazingly enough, after a couple of hours it was totally finished and despite my gauge nonchalence it fits the little badger perfectly. Looky:

And check the smile - she actually likes it!

In sock knitting news I got an e-mail from Dee today, saying that the next posh yarns sock club wool has been sent - I can't wait!

And to answer Lyonheart's question, the polly pocket dress is from this book. It's a lovely and easy pattern but head bangingly dull to knit ;)

Polly pocket dress

I've finished knitting the front and back of this dress and despite numerous attempts to photo it, it merely looks like a dark blob. Still, I have done one of the pockets and it proved to be much more willing to strike a pose. See?



I haven't done any intarsia for a very long time - I think the last time was when I was a teenager, and so this was effectively a new experience. It wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done, but I think the biggest problem has been the yarn. It's Rowan Denim, and so there is no give at all. It's fairly neat, but I'm hoping that when it has it's shrink wash it will tighten enough to improve the appearence of any slightly dodgy bits.

And as I know someone will ask, I have also taken a picture of the back. Clearly I haven't weaved (woven?) the ends in, but you get the idea of how it looks.



There's another pocket and the edgings to do on the dress and then it will be done. I'm hoping to try and get it finished this weekend, although there will be football watching and beer drinking too, so the dress may get slightly neglected if there's cause to celebrate!

Knitters Graveyard

You know the place that DPN's crawl off to so they can die in peace? The place where stitch markers huddle together for warmth? The place where, on a dark and stormy night, you can hear the wailing of lost row counters? The place that you know exists but you can never actually quite find it?

Well, I have discovered its location, and it is on this astral plane, not the parallel universe I had previously presumed they were falling into. I have been tidying today (a most un-badger like activity), and have discovered 12 dpn's, 2 row counters, 1 tape measure, countless stitch markers, 4 beading needles and 9 sewing needles, all of them between my side table and the wall ,which is a gap of mere millimetres. Those pesky knitting implements will try anything to escape and so I now have them safely confined in my knitting bag. I wonder how long they'll stay there before they make their next bid for freedom....

Have you seen this duck?

He was last seen running down the road, shouting about starting a new life in Surrey.

The mug shot:

He should be considered armed with DPN's and dangerous....

Get thee behind me, Colinette

Just as I decide to stop buying yarn, Colinette announce an open day. I can feel my willpower disappearing at a rate of knots....

No sex please, I'm dieting

Well, I went to the open day at Angel Yarns on Sunday and bought a couple of goodies.




There are two balls of DB alpaca silk (the colour is lighter than on the photo, a nice teal shade), a ball of Lana Grossa sock yarn, AY hand dyed sock yarn, Lucy Neatby Celestial Merino (colourway sugar maple), AY 4 ply angora, 3 balls of KSH (again, the colour is not really accurate, it's a very pale greeny grey), Rebecca baby and Kids, "Cool socks, Warm Feet" by Lucy Neatby and a crochet hook!

I'm now on a yarn diet until the Knitting and Stitching show at Ally Pally (stop sniggering, Pictish) and so am going to be knitting from stash.

The first stash project is the Polly Pocket dress from "Miss Bea's Seaside" book. It's knitted in Rowan Denim, whichI've never used before. I got gauge straight away, which is nice, but am not really enjoying it so far. The denim is rough and splitty and the dye that comes off on to my hands is irritating me, even though it washes off easily. The pattern is dull as dishwater and if it weren't for the fact that Baby Badger has expressed an interest in having the dress (I want it, mummy. Knit it me!), I'd have probably abandoned it before now. Sigh.

And those little baby knits I mentioned in a previous post can now be revealed, as they have both been gifted.




The pair on the left are made from the leftovers of the posh sock yarn, hothouse colourway and the other pair are knitted from Regia but I've lost the ballband and can't remember the what the colour's called (muppet that I am)!

Baby boom

For some reason, my life currently seems to involve a lot of babies. Friends left, right and centre are dropping sprogs and several aquaintances are also reproducing at a frightening rate. As a result of this I have been knitting baby things over the past few days. I can't show any pics, as several of the recipients read this blog, but after the knitty bits have been gifted I'll post photos.

However, all good blogs need photos, and so these are my new shoes I bought today







A Next clearence shop has opened up just over the road from my house, and so I went and fought all the natives to get to the bargains - these babies were a fiver! I love new shoes :)

I should have been a Blue Peter presenter

I made me a swift!

I started by using these instructions, but as I went on it mutated into my own design - it's a great deal sturdier than the original and is easy to dismantle and store. I've been winding skeins all day and giggling about how much fun it is, sad but true!

I also finished the other posh sock



Pattern: My own one size fits Badger pattern (1x1 rib for 1", short row heel, flat toe)

Needles: Inox grey dpn's 2.5mm

Yarn: Posh Yarns sock yarn, colour "Hothouse" (exclusive to sock club members)

Next time I get a package from posh yarns, I think I'll try their free pattern. It's such lovely yarn to knit with that I'm really glad I joined and can't wait to see what the next colours are going to be!

Another sock

This is the first Hedera



And I have been buying more sock yarn too. This little lot is from Curious Yarns, and the colours are (from left to right) Ocean, Forest Walker and Sanctuary. Ocean is a lot more green than I was expecting, I thought it was going to have more blue in it. I do still like it, but Sanctuary is my absolute favourite. The colours are so dusky and subtle, absolutely stunning.





And I have a new toy to play with too - there will be pics of that little baby next time...

Modelling pose!

Metis modelled:

And a piccy of the flarey sleeve too

There has been a lot of knitting going on here over the last few days, and a lot of sock based trauma. I'm presuming that most (all?) of you who read this blog have got here from Angel Yarns forum, and so will know what happened to my posh sock and hedera. If you don't, then you can read the story here. I would rewrite it, but I don't think my nerves could cope with yet another retelling of the saga. I have finished the first Hedera sock now, but it's too dark for photos, so I'll try and post one tomorrow. I've also cast on for the second posh sock, as I hate having single socks hanging around the place. So far I've never fallen victim to second sock syndrome, and I'm hoping it stays that way!

It's a posh sock!

Looky what I made



And from another angle so you can see the short row heel



Now, I know this isn't Hedera, but I do have a good reason (honest) for knitting this sock. when my laptop died the pattern for Hedera was on it, and so I had to stop. The same day the laptop broke my first package from the posh yarns sock club arrived. I wasn't too keen on the colur, and truth be told I'm still not that fussed about it, but it is sooo soft. It's a blend of 70% merino and 30% cashmere and is very nice to knit with. It glides along the needles without being too slippy and knits up very evenly. my only gripe is that it isn't spun tightly enough for my liking, and so it splits quite easily. It's fine if you kep an eye on it, but I like knitting socks whilst watching TV and so there were a few points that I had to stop and fix split stitches. Still, it's a small gripe about an otherwise fantastic yarn.

Metis is finally blocking, and I'm hoping it will stretch in length just a teeny bit more than I originally planned for as my belly really shouldn't be exposed to the public ever. It covers me well enough, but when I stretch it rides up to show the wobble gut and it aint a pretty sight!

B%$&#$dy computers!

I've not posted for ages because my laptop died. It needed a new hard drive and so I was without the internet for nearly a week. When you're used to having the web at your fingertips it's so frustrating to suddenly be without. Anyway, the good news is that it meant I had more knitting time. I finished this:



I think I want to fiddle around with the neck band a bit more before I class this as an FO, as I knitted the band the way it was written in the pattern but didn't like the way it looked. At first I thought it was my knitting, but after I had ripped it and redone it a few times I decided that it was the pattern that was at fault not me. Ideally it needs a crocheted edge, but as my crochet skills are virtually non-existent I don't think I'll manage this. To be perfectly honest, the neck looks quite nice as it is, apart from one tiny little blip which I've highlighted in this picture (click on the photo to make it easier to see):



it's not very noticable, but it would bug me just knowing it was there. It's from when I rejoined the yarn to the centre stitches having knitted one of the shoulders and I pulled the yarn a bit too tight. I'm thinking I might knit a corsage type thingummy to cover it.

Anyway, I'll get on with blocking it so there should hopefully be modelled pics next post!