I think it might be returning

I can't say for sure, but it does seem like my knitting apathy is starting to fade. It was weird that I kept knitting throughout this time, but then, it wasn't just my knitting that I was fed up with, it was everything!

So, I started making a hooded top for my nephews third birthday in April. I'd thought about it for a while, and took a while to find some yarn that I liked. I chose Lion Brand Jiffy as it's chunky, feels nice, is machine washable, and comes in a good range of colours. I'm going for a red top with gray sleeves.

I hoped I'd get near gauge with this yarn but I didn't. Going up a needle size got me closer, but not near enough. Normally, I would see this as a challenge and launch into rewriting the pattern to suit my gauge, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I was hoping to cheat and make one of the larger sizes, with just a crazy hope of it working out. I asked for help on the Ravelry forum to help me work out what to do since my brain wasn't playing. I was warned off doing anything stupid and I listened. I love Ravelry.

I took this project with me when I went to my parents house over Easter, hoping to make a start. My Dad helped me work out the gauge issue. It's nothing I couldn't have done myself under normal circumstances, but I was glad to have some help. We worked out that stitch-wise, I could actually use one of the larger sizes, we calculated that it would work out (give or take half a cm). Length-wise, the pattern gave a schematic of each of the pieces and their measurements which meant I could use the measurements of the right size. The only bit to worry about is getting the increase and decrease spaced correctly, especially for the sleeves. Everything seems to have worked out for the back, I finished that over the weekend.



I sat down last night and rewrote the sleeve appropriately (well, here's hoping). I was also encouraged to find myself making additional changes to the sleeve to make it better (for me). Now, **that** is progress. The sleeve uses moss stitch for the cuff, then stocking stitch for the rest, and is knit on straight needles. Now, because I'm not sure of length of my nephews arms, and because the pattern shows the cuffs as being folded over, I want to avoid having an ugly seem. I'm not sure if my nephew will need to fold the cuff - so I can't predict which side to put the seem on. I therefore decided I'd do away with having a seem on the cuff at all! I'm going to knit just the cuff in the round, then change to knitting in the flat for the rest. I think I've taken everything into consideration that I need to, will just have to see if it works out.

I've made a start on the first sleeve, just a few rows into the cuff. I stopped to write this. But what I **should** be doing is writing a report that needs to be done by the end of the month and I've only got today and tomorrow free. I've also got some other non-work work to do...not sure how much of anything I'm going to get done. Best make a start though and at least get dressed (I'm sitting writing this in my pyjamas and dressing gown)...then have another coffee...and then see where all my other avoidance tactics take me :o/

Trying to make progress

I'm trying to get back into my knitting. First, I decided to make one of those soap jumper things - where a bar of soap is completely knit into its jacket, the theory being that as you use it, the wool felts and shrinks with the soap. I bought my boyfriend a pre-felted one for Christmas and have jealously watched him use it. He didn't think that much of it actually, but I want to try for myself.

I've been planning on making myself one for a while, and had plans of cables and fancy things. A very very cheap ball of Rowan Big Wool (I think it was - 99p in Dunelm Mills!!) spurred me to action over the weekend. Couldn't be bothered with cables when it came to it though (not a good sign). I did however make things more interesting by attempting to avoid having to do any sewing. I used the magic cast on (didn't need to look it up, I remembered how to do it after just playing round with it a few months ago to see how it worked!!), magic looped it on my Denise interchangeables (3 of the longer length cables joined together), decreased straight into the icord, then attached the other end of the icord to make the loop handle by picking up alternate stitches from near the top of the main body, and casting straight off - a complete experiment that turned out good enough. Just need to try it out now :o)



Can't say I was particularly inspired though. Curses.

I also read my first ever knit-lit over the weekend, The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood. I'm generally more of a fantasy person, but fancied a change. It was a quick read but not very inspiring (which I was hoping for). The characters felt too manipulated, with extreme problems and just didn't feel 'normal' or easy to identify with. Fairly disappointing really :o( Maybe I should have read some reviews or something rather than buy something on a whim. There's a lesson there. Either that, or it's a great book and my mood is just making everything seem rubbish.

So, back to the knitting. A lonely skein of Noro Iro called to me and I decided to make a birthday gift for my parents next door neighbour. She's in her seventies but you'd never think it. I thought a bit of simple garter stitch would help me get into the swing of things so made my second Long Cut Scarf. All went well, the result is great - as expected. Tempted to keep it for myself. Didn't get into it though - what's wrong with me?



Maybe my next project will help me. I've decided to make my nephew a hooded jumper for his birthday, he'll be 3 at the end of April. Cute kids clothes will surely get me back on track...

My first knitting anniversary

Wow, I can't believe it's a whole year (give or take a few days) since I started knitting! It feels like five minutes and forever all at the same time. I've never had a hobby that's become so addictive, so obsessively long lived, and that I've happily spent huge* amounts of money on!

Having said that, I may celebrate it by not knitting...I seem to be going through a patch where I can't concentrate on anything. I've not knitted anything successfully for a few weeks now. I've either not bothered picking anything up, or just not got into any of my projects. There are so many things I want to make too, it's frustrating, but this feeling isn't confined to my knitting, I'm feeling the same way about everything at the moment. There's a lot going on for both me and the people around me, it's a strange time and one that's got my mind in some kind of close-down.

I even tried to teach myself to crochet a few days ago to encourage myself to perk up a bit. There are loads of great crochet patterns that I'd love to make. I can crochet free-style, by which I mean I can make things that are about the right shape to match the pictures in my head (I've made a pot and a peg bag), but don't know what the stitches are called and can't follow a pattern. Armed with a learn to crochet book, my trusty laptop, and a pattern for a felted skull, I gave following a pattern a go. I started off OK, but things went down hill quickly, and rather than take up the challenge like I normally do, it became clear that I didn't have the energy, and I gave up. I'l try again when I'm in a better frame of mind.

Anyway, enough of that. I thought I'd write about what started me off knitting. It seems like such a tiny spark of a non-event, it's amazing really.

It all started with this



my then new phone, which didn't come with a cover and was rattling around in my bag. I wasn't too keen on that idea as it had cost a lot of money, so I hit eBay looking for a suitable, protective case. I found this



an innocent, fluffy, hand knitted cover. I liked it the best out of the covers available, nothing more than that. I bought it, chose the colour out of the options offered, and someone made it and sent it to me.

Unfortunately, when it turned up, I realised that my phone was a bit bigger than average and the cover didn't quite fit...



I was disappointed, but it was my own fault for not checking the size. I thought about emailing the seller and asking for a price for them to make a bigger one for me, but didn't get that far. As it happened, I was heading to my parents house that weekend, as I showed them the comical cover, a thought crossed my mind. A phone cover would surely be quite easy to make myself, there's not that much going on...is there? I found myself saying 'Mam, would you teach me to knit?'. And that's what she did. She'd not knit herself for years**, but dug out some needles and yarn, taught me to cast on, knit, purl, which side was which so I knew which was a knit row and which was a purl, and I was off. When I got home, I headed off to Hobbycraft after work the next day, bought some supplies - needles, a few different yarns, and made myself this



The phone cover I was after. I think beginners luck had a lot to do with it working out so well. The flap is shaped into a triangle shape through casting off, rather than a more knowledgeable decrease - but how fabulous! I made it (I still use it everyday, even though it's starting to fall apart).

From that point, I started buying books, and needles, and yarn, and yarn, (and a bit more yarn). I was off. I devoured new techniques, experimented, worked out how to follow a pattern, read blogs, looked for help online. It's been great, it had been years since I lost myself in anything like that.

I'm very proud of myself, I can properly knit! I'm quite surprised to find that I seem to be quite a fearless knitter. I'm generally quite willing to try things that sound difficult, work things out, make changes to patterns, or rewrite something completely to suit my needs. I've mastered all kinds of techniques, although still have a lifetimes worth to learn. The most pressing technique for me to improve is the weaving in of ends. I've tried a few different ways but I've not found anything that looks ok, those horrible little ends always seem to poke themselves out of the right side after a while - not a good look. I'll sort it though at some point soon.

It's all so amazing when I stop and think about it. I know my current blip will pass and I'll be knitting again very soon. In fact...maybe I'll just go and have a tinker now...


*huge is likely to be poor estimate, in reality, huge doesn't cover it. A more accurate term is perhaps immense, but lets not dwell on it...
**knitting seems to be contagous as my Mam has started knitting again, or at least picking it up now and then, making kids jumpers for charity - one and a half so far, but she gets me (me!) to do the sewing up.

Knitting confidence

Another finished item to report. I've made my Mam a hat for mothers day. Not sure how long it's going to be until my family get fed up of me making them things...but I'm still thinking it's nice to get something that you know someone has worked on, over numerous hours, with just you in mind.

At some point last year I made my Dad a chunky black hat with earflaps. I keep getting reports that my Mam keeps wearing it, and that she wishes the earflaps had a button on them so she could fasten them under her chin. I've never seen her actually wearing it, but the pictures in my head are horrific!! I decided that I'd make her one which is a tad more feminine and fulfills her earflap/chin fastening requirements - not to mention improving the pictures in my head....

So, after I mooch around Ravelry (it's been a while since I looked anywhere else!) I found the perfect pattern in 18 Seconds Before Sunrise. It has lovely cables, earflaps, i-cord chin ties. Perfect! Well, almost perfect...

...there was one thing about the pattern that I definitely wanted to change - the cables were all in stocking stitch, even though they extended from partial cables. I decided that I wanted to continue the stocking stitch, as well as the reverse stocking stitch, down through the earflap so that it looked seamless.

Once I read the pattern, I discovered that the hat was created first, then the earflaps added as a kind of afterthought and the stitches picked up. I instantly decided that I did like the sound of that and wanted to knit it all in one go as one piece.

It took me a while to work out how to achieve both of my pattern changes. I wasn't sure how to go about earflap inclusions - knit the earflaps from the top down on a provisional cast on and graft it onto the main hat? knit the hat top down and just continue on with the earflaps? knit the earflaps bottom up and join them to the hat on the cast-on row? That last one is actually the way I did it. I then had to look up and learn how to make the increases in the right directions so that the earflaps grew wider from the i-cord in an neat way. This tutorial was spot on: www.knittinghelp.com/videos/increases, I used the M1L and M1R. Worked brilliantly.

I know it's not brain surgery, but I was chuffed with myself to discover that I actually have the skills to do this. Then I thought about it some more and I realised that I do seem to do it quite a lot - just small scale stuff, but I often tweak patterns. Almost without thinking. The whole thing reminds me of a conversation I had with my Mam a few months after I started knitting. She's knitted forever but was stunned that I could make up my own patterns (my first knitted things were made up designs, it took me a while to build up the confidence to follow a pattern). She has always followed a pattern to the letter, never made any changes or improvements, wouldn't dream of it. It kinda surprises me that she thinks like that.

Anyway, I've wittered on far more than I meant to. Just wanted to log that I was chuffed with myself - for future reference. Oh, as well as to show my finished mothers day hat!

Knit Picks interchangeables, a change of heart - and other stuff

I've decided to slowly build up a custom set of the Knit Picks interchangeable needles. It would be silly of me to buy a full set when I don't use small needles, and I'm not sure I'd ever be able to decide between the wooden and the metal tips. Building my own set means I can mix and match.

I was spurred on after reading a discussion on Ravelry where someone suggested buying single tips of each type to try them out before buying a set. Not sure why I didn't think of that myself! I went straight to the Get Knitted and bought a pair each of the tips, and a couple of cables. I was gutted when they arrived (after a few more days than I would have liked) to find that they got my order wrong and sent two sets of the metal tips. I sent two emails over the course of a week to try and get the correct needle but didn't hear anything. I'd only used Get Knitted once before and had heard really good things about their customer services so I was getting annoyed and impatient to say the least! Am desperate to see what the wooden needles look like in real life, and have a project ready and waiting to jump on them! I eventually found the note on their website saying that they'd been having email problems, which calmed me down a bit and made me a little more sympathetic to them...although I'm still really peeved. I rang them up on Friday and she said the correct needles would be sent that day - I hoped they would arrive in the post on Saturday, but they didn't. Grr.

One good thing I found about the stuff that arrived correctly was that you get two end caps and locking pin with each cable (all for 99p!). Although this was all shown in the photo on the website, it wasn't included in the description, so I assumed you would just get the cable. Bonus. This helped with my decision.

Even though I'm not Get Knitted's greatest fan just at the moment, I have just sent them another order, including more cables and needle tips. It's not like I can go to any other supplier as, as far as I'm aware, they're the only ones who have them in the UK!

I just need to think of a storage solution for them as I'm going to be case-less. I'm going to look into fishing tackle cases as they are generally cheap, often take the form of a neat, zip closed binder with a number of transparent, sealed pockets. Sounds perfect for circular needles! I just need to find a nice looking one...

So on to knitting progress!

I eventually finished my scarf. It's a short, button closed affair and I love it! The softness and gorgeous coloured yarn works out really well. Very happy, although could have done without the numerous froggings of other patterns, I could have knit the scarf 3 times over, easily!



I also made birthday gift for one of my friends. It was an early gift, her birthday isn't until March, but she was calling in over the weekend so I thought I'd save the postage and give it to her early. I also wanted to see her reaction...but curses, she didn't open it but said she'd keep it for the big day. Ah well, I wasn't going to force it.

I used Noro Iro which is a very beautiful yarn. I made a narrow scarf which set the striping off wonderfully, and made some flip top mittens to go with it. I was very impressed with myself regarding the mittens. They're the fiddliest thing I've worked on, especially as I didn't have any suitable needles to magic loop them, so had to use the dreaded dpns. My boyfriend was fascinated with them, I regularly caught him staring at me working on them. He had very nice things to say about the finished article too and was really appreciative of how much work had gone in to them. Aww. He wasn't too happy that it took me a whole evening to do the sewing and weaving in of ends as I needed the main light on in the front room which is very bright and spangley. Ah well, I finished in time to settle down and watch Jools Holland in our more customary mood lighting.







I've come to a stop with my shopping tunic. I'm two thirds done and am at the point where I could try it on. With some help from my boyfriend holding the needles, I wiggled into it and stood in front of the mirror. We were both in complete agreement as to how TERRIBLE it looked. It's supposed to be quite fitted, but this thing is far too tight, and being quite chunky it makes all my bits that are quite big enough look HUGE. Disaster! To try to salvage something I'm going to play with my swatch and see how much it grows in the wash. I've made two of the same size so I can compare after one has been washed and blocked. Too fed up to face it at the moment though.

I've been doing a bit more of my PIF knitting too, but keep needing the needles for other things. This is one project that will come along much faster once Get Knitted send me the RIGHT needles!

I also got to the free limits of Flickr this week. 200 photos! After much thought, I invested in a Pro account but didn't really want to. I'm quite happy with having a Pro account for my general photos, as I have a lot of friends and family I share them with. I don't want to put all my knitting stuff on there as it would take it over. After getting frustrated that I was taking photos and not adding them to Flickr (and Ravelry), I decided I would be happier just biting the bullet and spending the extra money. Happiness over frustration...and it's not *that* expensive...although all these things add up.

Well, I think that's enough rambling for now, I need to do some stuff round the house - although the weather is so lovely, I’m fighting the urge to curl up and have a snooze in a sunny patch - cat like.

This and that...

I can't quite remember the full conversation, probably because of the shock, but the other day, my boyfriend said he didn't mind how much yarn I bought...! *sharp intake of breath* ...so long as I didn't keep it in the front room. I just wanted to log that for prosperity. I've been stopping myself having a huge yarn splurge all week!!

I'm toying with the idea of buying some of those beautiful knit picks harmony options interchangeable needles. It's a difficult one as they're not an ideal solution, and I've already got my pink Denise interchangeables, which I love dearly when it comes to functionality, but they're not the most aesthetically pleasing little things.

The thing is, the majority of the harmony needles are in sizes smaller than I generally use. At the moment I'm going through a 7mm needle phase and my hands seem to like this. They were hurting the other day when I was working on 15mm, which surprised me as I've found bigger sizes to be kinder to my hands in the past. It might be something to do with the type of needles too - my favourites at the moment are my 7mm addi turbos (80cm - the 40cm ones in the same size have a shorter needle body length and are less comfortable). The length of the needle in my hand is comfortable and I like how slippery and shiny the metal is. Would the harmony ones have the same comfortableness? Also, 7 of the 9 needles are smaller than I would use - unless my hands suddenly change their minds about what they can cope with. So that's only TWO pairs of usable needles (although I'd probably use some of smaller ones on the left when knitting in the round). I'd also probably buy some of the larger needles separately (on an as-and-when basis) which takes the price up by quite a bit. I looked into buying the bits I'd use separately, rather than starting with the full set, but it would cost even more, and Get Knitted don't seem to sell the end caps and cable keys separately - so that would be a bit of a problem. You small needle knitters have it so easy!

Anyway, enough about that. I've actually started to make some headway with some knitting for me! I've not actually made myself anything to wear yet! I'm making myself the Shopping Tunic from Twinkle's Big City Knits. Annoyingly, the pattern only goes up to a 33" bust, so I've had to do a bit of guess work to make it a little bigger. I'm also using a different weight yarn as I need it to be machine wash. I love all these gorgeous yarns, but my hands can't cope with hand washing big items, so I need to think carefully about that in my choice of yarn. I've gone for Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in black. It's cheap, machine washable, and actually feels really nice too. I used this converter to help me recreate the pattern to my new gauge. I just hope it works out.

I'm also knitting myself a scarf. It's been a bit of an epic as I've tried and failed a few patterns. I've frogged it so many times I'm not sure the yarn can take much more. I've ditched the My So Called Scarf pattern as I made too many mistakes which I found really difficult to fix - especially with the thick and thin yarn I'm using. I've finally gone for Misti Chunky Ribs & Ruffles Scarf, it looks ok...but not great in this yarn, but sod it, I can't rip it out again, it's this or nothing!

Last weekend I finished a belated birthday gift for my neice. She's really into Harry Potter so I made her the Dark Mark Illusion Scarf. I was really pleased with it but couldn't really tell if she liked it or not...



I've also started my PIF knitting, but haven't got too far, I want to finish my top first.

I think that's all for now.

Free Pattern: Camera Sock

This is a finished object that I’ve not blogged about until now. It just made it on to my finished item list of 2007 :o)

I made it one cosy evening between Christmas and New Year while I was staying at my parents house with all the family around. I used leftover yarn from my Christmas knitting – and about an hour later, I had a fab sock to keep my camera in! I got the camera from my lovely boyfriend for my Birthday in November but it didn’t come with a case and I really want to look after it well and keep it safe.

I made the design off the top of my head, I knew what I wanted it to look like – long and ribbed so that it was snug and self-closing – and so I could hold the camera strap without the sock falling off. It worked out better than I could have hoped!!

Like all my other projects, I put it on Ravelry. Someone left a comment asking for the pattern – so here it is.

Let me start with a warning, I didn’t make any notes when I created the sock, so these notes are done by memory and analysis of the finished item. I’m a little concerned about the decreases – I’m fairly sure I’ve got it right, but won’t know until I knit it again (which I plan to do, maybe in stripes).

This is a quick and easy knit and needs no joining, just a couple of ends to weave in – bonus!

Size

• To fit a camera 4 x 5 x 11 cm (give or take a few mm)

Stuff you’ll need

• Less than 50g of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky (didn’t take very much)
• Set of 7mm double pointed needles, or a long 7mm circular needle (I used the latter and the magic loop method of circular knitting – great instructions here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtBSmxGomPk)
• Spare 7mm needle for cast off.

Gauge

• 15sts = 10cm

Abbreviations

• Sts – stitches
• K – knit
• K2p2 – knit 2 purl 2
• K2tog – knit 2 together

Instructions

• Cast on 20sts using the thumb method, or other stretchy cast on – great instructions here: http://www.learn2knit.co.uk/knitting/cast-on.php (basically after a bit of negative ease so that the sock stretches around the camera – I measured the circumference of my camera to be 17.5cm, so using 20sts at the set gauge will make it stretch a bit)
• Join round making sure the stitches aren’t twisted and place marker at the beginning of the round
• Work in k2p2 rib until work measures about 17cm (or about 6cm longer than the length of the camera) [20sts]
• Then knit about 6 rounds [20sts]
• Next round: k2tog, k2, k2tog, k4, k2tog, k2, k2tog, k4 [16sts]
• Next round: k2tog, k2tog, k4, k2tog, k2tog, k4 [12sts]
• Next round: k2tog, k4, k2tog, k4 [10sts]
• Next round: cast off using three needle cast off on wrong side (great instructions here: http://www.crazyauntpurl.com/archives/2005/12/one_bassackward.php)
• Weave in ends
• Put camera in sock and enjoy!

That’s about it!

[Edited to amend decreases]