socherryknits

The Star Wars scarf is finally complete and blocking. Above is the view as you stare at it, and below is the side view when the text 'magically' appears. It took 2 balls of white and 2 balls of black Cygnet Superwash DK. Having washed a swatch ... well a mistake actually - a swatch implies every went smoothly. I washed the mistake as I couldn't face a 3rd frogging. Anyway, having washed the 'swatch' I have discovered that this yarn doesn't do well in the 40 degree wash as it's label suggests. It went fuzzy. Whether this is due to the high contrast colours I don't know. Maybe it would be fine if it was just one colour *shrug* All I know is that I'm going to have to handwash this after all, despite an extensive search for machine washable DK wool *sigh* Negative aside - I love this. The boy loves it too, and that's the most important thing. Non-knitters are genuinely perplexed by this and have decided it requires lots of maths (it doesn't). Sh...

Oh what enthusiasm my last post held ... to systematically work my way through all the projects which have started to become guilty burdens so that I could be 'organised'. It is probably telling through my lack of posts of late that project fatigue and the reality of this challenge have hit home. To try and not overwhelm I have concentrated on only two projects; Summertime tunic - a project as boring to photograph as it is to knit... and it's a shame as this is a lovely top, and I'll surely wear it frequently once it is done (should Glasgow weather allow of course). The yarn is stunning, with a lovely drape too. But the miles and miles of knitting in the round are testing me, creating a project that is almost as torturous to those around me as it is to me, such is my whining about it. It stuck at 7 and half inches from the ribbing for about a week, no matter how much I knit. The 'never ever ever growing no matter how much I sodding well knit' phase usually prece...

I have a resolution. I realise it's 18 days into the New Year already, but I was thinking about a resolution I really wanted to achieve this year instead of something like not buying yarn in 2008. That just wouldn't work out for me - I would have my knitting needles crossed as I said it. So I have it: 202 days until the start of the Beijing Olympics . In these 202 days I want to either complete or frog the following wips so that I will be prepared to take on the Olympic knitting challenge - which this year will be the completion of Rogue (stop laughing - I can do this!) I have gauged Rogue - I know the needle size I need, the yarn is bought - I'm practically finished already! At the moment I'm working on the 3 projects above - The Force scarf is a concentration/home one, the Summertime Tunic is a knitting group/work one, and the crochet wrap is for when my hands hurt from too much knitting! These blasted armwarmers are practically finished - I'm up to the thumb of t...

... but I didn't want to blog until Earnshaw was done. And now it is! (Yes I am hugging the radiator - it's freezing in Glasgow, and daylight for decent photographs is but a distant memory) Earnshaw has a couple of problems ... ... it is a little wide. In fact I could fit one and half of me in it. It has a breathtakingly strange-looking hood ... ... and the sleeves were a tad long. But it is most definately loved! I can finally blog about The Force scarf for the boy. Currently at 'orce be with you'; it will eventually say 'May the Force be with you'. The idea being that the force is always with you even if see it you cannot... Above is the front view, and below is from the side - it's called Shadow Knitting, and I believe it originated in Japan. I got the idea from a girl on Craftster and thought it would be a great Christmas present for the boy. (Yes I did wrap it on the needles ... ) Whilst tidying away the Christmas decorations, the boy was struck with o...

I've joined the shoulder seams of Earnshaw - it's not a dress! In fact it fits just how I wanted it to. And I finished the sleeves and seamed one! And - because knitty karma is just not that nice to me - the sleeves look utterly stupid. I mean really really weird - I have points at my forearms. *le sigh* So I have a plan. Why, by the way, must I always have to think of a plan? Why can't it work first time? Why!? Anyhoo, I digress... the plan is; to seam up the sides of the jumper, pick up the sleeves stitches and knit down the way. That way I can keep an eye on the sleeves in case they decide to form peaks. Also knitting in the round is a must for garter stitch I have discovered. Mattress stitch on stocking stitch is a beautiful piece of magic, a miracle really. Mattress stitch on garter stitch edges looks like my cat had a go at knitting. To remind me that it's not all bad, and sometimes good things can happen to good knitters; my finished replacement scarf with pocket...

Not much knitting to report - Earnshaw is halfway up the 2nd sleeve now - the end is in sight. The boy has been promising a cool advent calender as I don't take caffeine - which means chocolate. An advent calender with no chocolate is a dull affair indeed ... until ... in the shape of a Christmas tree; 24 Christmas scratchcards!! How totally cool is that!

Even though Pinwheel is still in the naughty corner, it has at least meant that I've been forced to look elsewhere for knitty gratification. I'm aware that with approximately 15 projects on the needles at the moment, I cannot possibly justify casting on something new. Even if I did, the WIPs would be crying away in the [usually ignored] guilt corner of my brain and ruin said newly cast on project. So I've knuckled down and got on with it - the blocking project photographed is a Noro Silk Garden scarf - folded in half to block, as there is nowhere big enough to stretch it out full. It's two colourways striped every two rows. It was knit lengthways because at the time I thought this would be more gratifying as there would be less rows ... that each row took an eon to finish was something that dawned on me later. This scarf is to replace a threadworn big grey scarf my granny bought me a few years back - I always wear it at work to keep me toasty and it has two big pockets...

Ever since the Pinwheel fiasco of late [still in the naughty corner] all my WIPs are taking on a 'blah' feeling. When this is combined with Christmas knitting which cannot be mentioned there was little left to blog about really. My iPod cosy knitted a couple of years ago [with Bernat Handicrafter Cotton] has finally worn from overuse. Sure I could have frogged it and re-knit - but I felt it was time for a new design. And more importantly, time to get an FO out there just to make myself feel the knitty love once more. Ta-da! A lovely snug cosy made from the remnants of the technicolour sock : Schoeller + Stahl Limbo Colour DK sock yarn in colourway 2539 Rainbow. It's so autumnal and the iPod cosy looks much better made from a finer yarn and smaller [3mm] needles.

So it didn't turn out exactly how I planned, but I think this yarn was fated to have another colourway name; Glasgow City Nights. It reminds me of autumn, fireworks, dark evenings and orange city lights against red sandstone tenements. Speaking of fireworks; thank you to the 3 moronic twats who felt it would be just hilarious to light a rocket directly outside our house at 3.30 am. I was unable to get asleep again for quite some time, so busy was my brain furiously penning letters to MSPs. We found the rocket this morning next to the car - I was all for submitting it to Toryglen polis for fingerprinting ... With thanks to the boy for putting up with me and driving me around Glasgow during the 20 minutes of perfect 'evening sky' for some good blog pics.

I've been away from blogging land for abit - partially because the Ravelry forums are sucking away my life [in particular the pinny thread] and partially because I'm not having an awful lot of success on the fibre front of late. Finally Pinwheel has been allowed off the naughty step and is currently blocking [looking to be about 5cm to small in the diameter which I think is totally fixable]. I have taken something good out of this debacle however; I have learned that once I have swatched I should go up 0.5mm needle size to get correct gauge for the 'real' knitting. Clearly I tense up a bit on the waste of time that gauge squares always feel like. [Even though I'm planning on making a big project memory style blanket out of all the squares.] A Christmas knitting gift [photographed in extreme close-up so as not to give the game away - the intended recipient is a reader] went a bit awry when I realised at the final hurdle that I had cast on the wrong number of stitches...