So many projects ...

Well, I'm down to only three projects at the moment, but there are so many others pressing to be started that it is taking a supreme effort to keep to the three.

Lizard Ridge Version 1.5 continues to be totally gorgeous. The first strip used four skeins and is now on a stitch holder, having been blocked. The second strip is nearing the same length. This, of course, is just my way of prevaricating about exactly what shape to make the blanket. It's not intended to go on a bed, so should it be oblong or square? I envisage using it to cuddle up on a sofa, or lying on a steamer chair some cool summer evening.

I am in severe danger of becoming a Noro Ho. One of the projects currently clamouring to be started is the Noro Silk Garden scarf that's been all over ravelry recently. I'm not sure whether it was the Yarn Harlot's version or Brooklyn Tweed's that finally tipped me over the edge, but last weekend I shelled out full price for the requisite four skeins of Noro Silk Garden and am now itching to start. There's also the Rowan Kidsilk Haze calling to be made into a Path of Flowers Stole.

In an attempt to marry stash to ravelry queue I started the Starsky cardigan in Bernat Bamboo, shade Linen, but got half way through the back before realizing the stash amount wouldn't be enough. Some weeks later I got another seven skeins (not in the same dye lot, but I'm kidding myself hopeful that I can use the smaller lot for the collar and cuffs, possibly even the whole sleeves.

For a travelling project I have some self-patterning socks. The yarn came from Franklin's in Colchester and was accompanied by a multi-size pattern which seemed simple. Having cast on the requisite number of stitches for my shoe size (the original pattern is in German but it gives the sizes for UK and US shoe sizes in metric) I cheerfully knitted the cuff, ankle and heel (which took a few attempts, but looked fine in the end) and started to reduce stitches back to the original amount cast on, as directed. It did not look right. So not right I didn't even take a photo.

On looking at the pattern again it seemed I had never had the right amount of stitches to begin with. After a rather restless night I finally grasped the nettle and frogged that sucker right back (sob!). Fortunately for what remains of my sanity I worked out that the original number of stitches cast on was perfectly correct for US size 7/8 feet, but only in Toddler sizing. For adults rather more stitches were advisable.

It's nice yarn and I'm back on track, so I shall continue. I just need to finish Lizard Ridge (eight out of 24 skeins used thus far) or Starsky so I can start something else big.

Finishing projects

Somehow I recently ended up with two scarves (same pattern, different yarns), two hats (different patterns and yarns) and a pair of socks all on the needles concurrently. There were sound reasons why, but that's still a lot of unfinished knitting to have lying around.

The first Palindrome scarf (so named because it looks the same whichever side you're looking at) was in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky left over from the Big Bloke Sweater. I thought that the four left-over skeins would be plenty but it looked too short and had to be put on hold while I tracked down the fifth and final skein (thank you Julie H., whose ravelry stash I raided). Meanwhile I'd started another one in a slightly lighter-weight yarn, since it's such a good TV project (simple enough not to need looking at most of the time but interesting enough to keep one's attention).

One of the hats was a Koolhaas in a yarn I'd bought only one skein of, despite having made it umpteen times before and knowing full well it requires two. Having bought the lovely baby wool while in the UK I ran out and ended up having to get the necessary second one sent to me in America, as it appears not to be sold this side of the Atlantic. Since this is such nice wool and I have made a lot of Koolhaas Hats, maybe I'll actually keep this one for myself. (I made one during my UK visit, which was acquired by my 16-year old French nephew, started a second which I couldn't finish due to the lack of the crucial second skein, and then set off on a third, which was quickly finished and will be winging its way back to the UK for my mother-in-law whenever I can get my act together enough to write a note, address an appropriately-sized padded envelope and go to the post office.)

The other hat was my second Shedir, using the second skein of Rowan Calmer. Since the first one took slightly more than one skein I made the second had smaller and guess what? It won't fit on my melon of a head. I looks more like a yarmulke than a fully-fledged hat. Know anyone with a tiny cranium? Since I love the crown of this pattern so much I will probably end up buying one more skein of the yarn (where have I heard that before?) and making the third one for my own use. In which case, maybe I should get a different colour ... This is how I end up with many small hanks of wool left over.

The socks were a pattern I'd been longing to do, only to find the whole short row thing really annoying on five 2mm needles. I also made a mistake at an early stage of the first sock but couldn't be arsed to change it. The idea of breaking up the stripes of self-striping sock yarn and turning it into blocks of colour was a good one, but the process wasn't enough fun for the result. I forced myself to make the second sock and now they'll do for cold winter nights, after some serious blocking.

To make up for the disappointment, and to celebrate the receipt of some unexpected money, I splashed out on 24 (count 'em, 24) skeins of Noro Kureyon in shade number 40, for the making of a Lizard Ridge blanket. Ever since Jackie made one in a very restrained colour I've been lurking on ravelry, looking at the many versions of this. Originally I had intended to pick up bargain priced skeins in all sorts of colours, like the original version, but I realized that the one shade version is more to my taste. The pattern author's one-colourway version is knitted in a single, large piece, which is too much of a nuisance for me to contemplate. With Jackie's advice I've compromised and am making long strips instead of squares. The yarn is a complete joy to work with.

Stash-busting

What joy can compare to using up left-over yarn, or stuff you bought because it was on sale/looked nice/called to some yarn-obsessed part of your soul/wanted to support your Local Yarn Store (LYS)? OK, family, friends, professional success - I grant you these things have their pleasures, but I am here to extol the joys of turning left-over stuff that's clogging up your house into wonderful hand-crafted items of beauty. Some of them could even serve as Christmas presents.

Case in point: there was quite a lot of lovely wool/silk mix yarn left over from a seriously cabled sweater I designed a year or two back. There was also a pattern for a hat I wanted to try using that weight of yarn. Next thing you know I had my first Utopia hat done. (I say first because they're so much fun I am already on my third and am looking at more stuff designed by the wonderful Smariek.)




Another case: I wanted to make a lace hat and saw someone wearing a very nice one. Despite stalking following her as she walked from the train to the car park I couldn't be sure whether or not it was machine-made and felt impelled to look at patterns on ravelry as soon as I could get to a computer. Having found something along the right lines I cast on using left-over Rowan Cashcotton from the Après Surf Hoodie. Not many days later I had a nice, if not very stretchy hat, although it made it over the medicine ball I use to model hats, so it's at least big enough for even a pretty large head. (It wasn't quite the pattern I'd seen on the train though, so the search continues ...)

Henley (sort of) Perfected

The button band just annoyed me too much. I was compelled to try to right it. After unpicking the stitching attaching the bottoms of the neckband pieces with only a few wrongly snipped pieces, it was frogged back to the buttonhole row.

Things go fuzzy after that. I remember re-doing the band, finding I still had more stitches after the buttonhole row than before it, frogging, re-doing the band, maybe doing it a third time, possibly even a fourth, definitely doing the I-cord, stitching it back together and only then realising there were seven buttons but only six buttonholes.

Whether or not I stopped counting how many times I tried to get this right out of frustration or self-preservation is moot. It was so late as to be early when I gave up, packed everything in the bag to go with us for a visit to old friends the following day and drifted into an uneasy sleep.

Fortunately, with the morning came sanity clarity and I pinned the button and buttonhole sections together before using the buttons as a guide to mark where the buttonholes should go. We made a late start, during which time I re-knitted the buttonhole row so that buttons and holes were in line. When we got to our friends' place (I mentioned that they're old friends, right?) I did the last couple of rows of stocking stitch and the I-cord bind-off before putting buttons through holes, checking all was in line and finally sewing the neck edge back together.

Hoo-bloody-ray, it is done. Sadly, the sewn section is not quite as neat as before, but the button band is so much improved that it's still a better garment now.

Henley Perfected

Having really enjoyed making, and now wearing, Connie Chang Chinchio's Après Surf Hoodie, I decided to make her Henley Perfected. The yarn is 50:50 alpaca:silk, Blue Sky Alpaca Silk, and I got it for a decent price and in a wonderful colour.

As ever, my tension is not quite the same as Connie's and I ended up shelling out for 2mm Addi Turbo Lace circulars, which are fine enough to be bloody annoying challenging.

The Henley Perfected has a lot of stocking stitch to start with, with means it comes along pretty quickly. Just as you're getting bored with alternating rows of plain and purl (yawn) along comes the lace pattern. Trying to make all increases and decreases within the pattern rather than at the very ends of rows is also challenging bloody annoying, but the result's not bad.

The only part I take issue with is the button band. Unless I got the directions wrong, which, let's face it, is pretty likely, you cast off two stitches for the underside of each buttonhole but cast on three stitches for the upper side, leaving more stitches on the needle after making the buttonholes than you had before.

I gamely did this and even I-cord cast off, sewed everything together, blocked the neck and wore the thing, but I still think it's wrong. So wrong I will probably have to undo the stitching, frog back to the button holes and re-do the damned thing. If only I were this much of a perfectionist in almost any other part of my life, but no, I save it all up for handicrafts. Bah!

And of course, the cat had to help. When I blocked the back, on a very damp towel, he insisted on settling on it. There is no way that was comfortable, he was just being a typical feline.

Knitting Pusher

My colleague with the long, skinny feet, who was able to take my unexpectedly long socks off me, has joined the tribe of the obsessed.

First of all she made a headband in garter stitch that her roommate now wears, then she used the rest of the original ball of yarn to make a scarf. Now she has used multi-colour wool to make a really long scarf. Isn't that an impressive early effort?

The next stage of the process of turning her into a fully-fledged knitter is to teach her to purl. With knit and purl mastered you can do everything. Everything is just a variation on those two stitches, or combination of them. Ribbing? Alternating knit and purl on the same row. Stocking stitch/stockinette? Alternating rows of knit and purl. Cables? Hold some stitches to the front or the back while you knit others, then knit the held stitches. And so on, and so on ...

I blame the Yarn Harlot

The wonderful Yarn Harlot was recently in my old home town of London, adding to my high regard for her by writing about the place so well that it made me proud to have lived there and also very homesick.

On top of that, she showed a knitted Dalek that someone had brought to her talk at Lindley Hall and I just had to make it. My friend Katie, who despite 1.) living in London, 2.) being a knitter (currently not so much, but she claims she'll re-start) and 3.) having my serious suggestion she go to the talk, completely missed the opportunity. She redeemed herself by tracking down the pattern in record time.

Naturally, Exterminknit is on ravelry too, so I could look at what colours other people had used. For me, the classic is red with black spots. I remember them as being the ranks. Black with gold was the chief. Clearly, there is a whole sub-culture of Dalek denominations that even I am not quite sad enough to spend too much time exploring online.

The Dalek fits one of my requirements for day-to-day knitting projects in that is is easily portable. Sadly, it has too many parts where a little attention is required, making it harder to fit in a quick row while waiting at the doctor's office, or while reading on a train. Bobbles, colour changes, ribbing with colour changes - it all takes time and occasionally glancing at the work.

The whole thing took less than a week, although that included a weekend where very little else but knitting got done. At the very least, it made 'Im Indoors laugh like anything, and that's always good.