WIPs

A busy day today. Nipped out to the health food store then got down to baking a cake, making hummus and straightening the house for this afternoon’s guests. A contingent of our youth group met here today and thankfully Tai Chi Man helped with getting the bathroom spiffed up and putting away dishes.

By the way, the cake was awesome. Triple layer vanilla sponge cake with strawberry jam and lemon “cream cheese” frosting between the bottom layers and fresh strawberries and more frosting between the top layers.

Once we’d had our discussion, movie and potluck supper and everyone had left, it was around 6 – loaded the dishwasher for a change and sat down to update the WIPs. First the temperature scarf received two wine coloured stripes for 30 degrees on Friday and Saturday. Second, I pulled up the tab on my iPad for Silver’s sock class and finished the second short row heel on my “two toe up socks on one circular needle.” Now all I have to do is work around and around for the cuffs for as long as the yarn lasts. Third, the cardigan. I have been studiously avoiding this again but made myself pull it out of the bag and do a couple more rounds. Then put some of the stitches onto another cable so that I could try it on to check that the yoke wasn’t turning out huge. Seems ok, thankfully.

Now it’s 9.20pm and I just remembered that I have to water the outside plants in their tubs. It wasn’t as hot today – maybe 21 – and we had a lot of blustery wind, clouds, and even a few spots of rain this morning. But wind dries out the plants as much as sun.

Another week ends, another one starts. Hope yours is wonderful.

 

May heatwave

I’ve just knitted the first nine days of May on the temperature scarf. Two orange ridges for 17 and 19 degrees. Two paprika ridges for 20 and 23. And introducing a new colour to the scarf, RED for the 25-29.9 bracket. Five glorious days of 26 to 28 degrees.

It isn’t going to last, and that’s ok, I wouldn’t want it to be blazing hot for a solid four or five months. And I don’t want my scarf to be the same colour every day either!

 

Back to the cardigan

As I am currently immersed in Game of Thrones (the books and TV series) I feel like calling this cardigan Godswood. It is foresty shades of green and brown so why not?!

I have finally picked it up and worked on it some more, being careful to make sure that my stitch count is divisible by eight for the colour work pattern I’m doing. With a circular yoke sweater, you have some radical increasing (or decreasing if you’re knitting bottom up) and those rounds have to be on plain colour rounds.

Three increase rounds have now been completed and I think it’s time to move up to a longer cable.

 

organising

I had a free afternoon today so went through my knitting stuff. I have a lot of magazines, partly from when I was subscribing to Interweave and Knitters, and partly from someone destashing their magazines a few years ago. I decided to keep all the Interweave ones and a few of the others that had patterns in that I might actually make one day. I found a few books that I’m happy to part with too. And even some yarn leftovers. I filled two boxes and I’ll take them to the knitting retreat later this month and see if I can recoup some of my expenses by selling off my stuff.

Then this evening I sorted through the pile next to my end of the sofa. I frogged the Tomten jacket – didn’t like how it was going and wasn’t sure whether I had enough of the brown and blue yarn for it. The mystery crochet hat that I made a couple of months ago also got frogged – the gauge was way off, it was supposed to be an adult hat, and it was more like a rather stiff and unstretchy child’s hat, and so it is now a ball of yarn again. I found a mitten made in brown James C Brett Marble that I designed many moons ago – never did make the second one, and lost the notes for it – so that is also now a ball of yarn again.

I’m down to three neat and tidy project bags, with the extraneous supplies returned to the downstairs room. The two socks on one circular, which will be my portable project. The temperature scarf, which is only a row a day. And the cardigan. I thought I would pick it up again and hate it, but in fact I don’t, so I will find out which part of the pattern I reached and plug away at the yoke. It’s definitely a longer term project but with the weather warming up I don’t really need it until the autumn.

 

 

2013 temperature scarf – end of April update

April was a very variable month with a low of 6.6 Celsius (peapod green) and a high of 22.6 (paprika). One third of the way through the scarf.

 

Hopefully a better photo

Le Weekend Shawlette blocked and ends woven in.

 

Le Weekend Shawlette FO

It took me a lot longer than a weekend but it’s done, it’s been washed and pinned out to dry in my usual blocking spot (a low traffic part of the living room). One of these days I shall get some foam pads and rustless pins!

I received an email this week about the knitting retreat I’m going to in May and they have a show and tell night on the Saturday so I may take this along for that.

What a difference it makes when you use a different weight of yarn. The Queensland Collection Brumbay is more of a DK and the original pattern uses a sock weight wool. The designer used 70 grams, I used 160!

Anyway I’m pleased with it but now that it’s done I shall have to turn my attention back to the cardigan…or not.

 

Le Weekend Shawlette

A very quick update before I pick up my knitting and do a couple more rows before the boys finish their archery class.

Le Weekend Shawlette – lace chart done – now onto the body of the shawl. Very close to the end of my first skein. These 355 stitch rows are really eating up the yarn.

ravelry pattern page link

 

Knotty Knitter

I had the chance to tag along on a drive to Penticton today. Tai Chi Man needed to go there for work so he offered to drop me near Main Street so I could check out the newest yarn store (possibly only yarn store) there.

The Knotty Knitter is at 416 Main St and they describe themselves as “a cheeky little yarn boutique.” Because of my British pronunciation, it took a while for me to figure out that if you pronounce ‘knotty’ with a typical North American vowel sound, it sounds like ‘naughty.’ It doesn’t work the way I say it though – knotty with a short ‘o’ and naughty that sounds more like norty.

They have lots of good quality yarns from various companies, and I was glad to see it wasn’t all wool. I love this – Queensland Collection Brumbay, which sounds like it should come from Australia but is made in Italy. The fibre is 72% cotton, 20% viscose, 8% linen and comes in beautiful multicoloured hanks. They didn’t offer to wind it into balls for me so I shall just have to do it myself by hand. I’ll also have to resist starting another project as I feel I should work exclusively on the cardigan. But I think this will become a shawl of some kind.

Talking of the cardigan, it is no longer a fiddlehead fern cardi, as I decided I hated the solid striping and frogged it. I am hoping that my new effort will look better – it has stranded, slipped and purled rows that help to break up the colours somewhat – and it is now a circular yoke rather than set-in sleeve cardi!

No photos to show of that yet.

 

Quickie part 2

I’ve had a lot of home time today so have knitted over three inches of the front since this morning. I am striping the front yoke differently and I have to say…it’s growing on me! I hate knitting something with the feeling inside that I won’t like the result and may end up frogging, especially when there are so many short lengths of yarn involved. However, I think it’ll be okay, as long as the size is fine. The armhole depth looks small so after I have finished the armhole increases I will try it on and make sure there’s enough room in the armpit area! (I think armscye is the correct term.)

Because my gauge was a half size, I have to follow the stitch count for size 44″ in the book but knit the length (rows) for the size I want (40″).