Stunning organisation

I read on someone's blog recently (it may have been the Yarn Harlot, I kind of lose track who I'm reading on Google Reader sometimes) that they have decided that they waste far too much time prevaricating over which stashed yarn to match with which pattern and thence end up being late for appointments or nearly having to travel with No Projects! Shock! So what they did was print out their queued patterns, put them in freezerbags with the appropriate yarn and fill a storage bin with them all. Then, when you need a new project, just put your hand in and see what you get, like a lucky dip. What a genius idea, I thought!


So here are my selections which are now parcelled up and some ideas for the next bucketload.




or the very similar






Using Lorna's Laces Shepherd's Sock in Vera (70) - a mix of blocks of magenta, khaki and stone. (Actually have just wound this and it's going to be quite bold colour blocks so glad I'm doing a sock without complicated stitches on it).


Frootloop using Sparkleduck merino/nylon in a hot pink semi-solid.

Nutkin using Colinette Jitterbug in Lichen (75) - sort of dark yellow. Although I am quite tempted also to use that yarn for Goldengrove.

Galder using Nimu Yarns' 'Tussmorker' (with two dots over the o) in a purple / blue colour from a 2009 sock club.

Hedgerow using Posh Yarn Esme in Keep Smiling Through, which is a muted sandy tropical sunset sort of a colour.

Love Bugs in Wollmeise Merino Superwash 'Walk the 'red' line' from same sock club.

I have a big skein of laceweight Touch Yarn which I'll probably use for an Aeolian,

(although it will probably end up this big...)

But the Vernal Equinox Shawl is also rather tempting.

I like the Torreyana too, but I think it looks best in some shiny worsted as below:

Tea Leaves Cardigan in Manos del Uruguay Silk blend in that rosey blend with flecks of green and gold.

Urban necessity gloves in Misti alpaca sock in a russety grey.

Knitty's Annis is on the next list:

And the Pea Vine shawl which is not yet released but on the way from Knitspot.

Other socks (if I can ever face socks again) are Rivendell, Ellington and Kalajoki. And the Vinterblomster mittens. Love.

What do you think? Any patterns you hate? Any suggestions for better ones?

I think I need to give up work and just knit!

Big Catch Up

We got some last minute tickets to see U2. Here is The Claw with whirligig searchlights.

The work police have reclaimed my slightly bending the rules long-term-loan work laptop because they might need it in case of a big swine flu outbreak, so I had to pony up the dough and actually buy one for myself (first time ever!), so I bought a pink one. And an ipod. Which is also pink. Matchy matchy!

I'm not at all a pink person but these guys just were calling to me! Actually girls - the laptop is called Mary-Lou.

So, here are the WIPs:

The Third Time Lucky Debbie Bliss Yoke jumper. If it's wrong this time, just tough! Nearly got to the point where you separate for the arms.

Progress on the cable cardigan:

Sorry about the selection of colours here - I don't think the camera was loving the end of the day light.


And interlocking leaves socks all finished!

And now I have to show you the masterpiece of DIY:



Sock blockers from wire coathangers! I saw this on a blog ages ago and actually it works really well. Take a coathanger and pull the middle of the bottom wire down, and then fold back one of the angles and voila. Sock blocker!

Adjustable for different sizes with a bit of brute encouragement, and with hooks pre-formed for hanging. I am inordinately proud of these! Really must get out more....

Cake

Look, I've made my first yarn cake. Yum! The Man acted as a very good swift until the football started and then attention waned and we ended up with a massive tangle which took half of NCIS to unpick. But Cake!! Why are yarn cakes so satisfying? Is it the squishiness? Is it the diamond shapes? Is it the promise of creating something professional-looking from your I'm-a-real-knitter-now properly wound skein?

So this yarn is from the Socktopus sock club March parcel - Artist's Palette yarn Sweet Feet, 80% merino and 20% bamboo, in a beautiful angry sea slate grey/blue. I'm not doing the sock club pattern, this one is Interlocking Leaves from Knitty.

Also found this handmade yarn at a craft fair yesterday at Petworth House:

It's a very autumnal looking blend of wool and silk with a few metallic sparkles. Not sure I approve of metallic sparkles in yarn but they are very subtle in this one so I'll let them off.

It's hot hot hot out today - hurrah for some British sunshine!

Development

I was walking to knit group last night, and at the lights at the end of the Pantiles did the usual City-worker thing of seeing if I can nip across the road without pressing the button. It seemed not, there was a car roaring down the hill, so I thought sod you speedy, I'll press the button and make you stop. Don't you love how lights turn red immediately at night-time when it's quiet? Speedy duly stopped, and then I got toot-tooted at. The cheek!! The nerve!! Worse, the window was wound down and I was shouted at: 'Don't say hello then!' It was The Man on the way home from football.

(Amusingly he'd carefully measured the pancake batter before he went out and warned me not to use up more than half of it Or Else.)

Knit group was really good fun last night, I'd missed seeing the girls and talking yarn. We nattered about holidays, it seems that quite a few of us have been to the Canyon, and also welcomed in two new recruits, which was ace. They even work in the local crafting shop! (We need to educate them about indie yarns though.) The venue had a salsa class tramping away above us, which I have to start attending again to work off some of this lard (added to nicely in the States). We all cooed over new yarn, marvelled at my Soctopus sock, and I knitted my first ever stitch *Continental Style*. Well gosh. The cuff of the sock calls for knitting with two strands of yarn, alternate stitches, in rib. So, K1 in yarn A, P1 in yarn B. You can imagine the tangle and the frustration of that. So, the best solution was to knit it like the advanced knitters do intarsia or fairisle, with different colours in different hands. Yeah, right, look at me the advanced knitter! (Guffaw.) I think it was quicker to drop the yarns and undo the tangles, but hey, I have one more row to do (and the other sock), and I suppose I should try to figure it out properly one day on a (duh-duh-duuhhh...) swatch.

The Man and I are starting to househunt again. I've seen a few places online, but there's not much about at the moment, people are sitting tight until the prices come back up. I wish I could cut and paste bits of various houses to get the perfect one! There's one that's right place, right garden, outside garage, but the house is just a bit meh. There's another which is right price with 4 beds (pole room *and* craft room!!!), nice enough but wrong place and rather soul-less. I am not looking forward to trying to find somewhere good in this climate. I fear we might be reduced to posting notes through the doors of places that look remotely suitable, but at least that dispenses with the evil agents. Buying the old flat was pretty painless, selling it was a royal pain in the arse. Useless agents, even more useless solicitor. Well, she was part of a package deal with the agents, we should have known really.

I am feeling a bit fidgety to get settled, I must say. The flat we're in is lovely (I felt a pang leaving it to go on hols) but I can't feel totally content until we have a place of our own together. I'm looking forward to having friends to stay and BBQs, which requires a spare room and a garden. It will come, I just need to be patient and keep my faith in the housing fates...

Off on hols (hopefully)

The forecast says more snow for monday. My work friends are all saying, 'Have you seen the forecast? Will you be able to fly?' Well, I bloody hope so!! I'm not missing my holiday for a bit of frozen water.

It's so going to snow again and stop all flights out of Heathrow, isn't it....

The Man has flown out today with his team for his golf tournament pro-am thing, and they started as they meant to go on by having lunch at the Gordon Ramsay restaurant at the airport. I have the rest of the weekend to sort myself out which is good, and it's also Fenella's 30th birthday party on Saturday night. It's a TV/movie theme, and I'm going as Indiana Jones. So I'm doing movie *and* tv! What more can she ask?

I'm going to Arizona to be a cowgirl for a week, and then meeting The Man after his tournament and we're going to see the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley together. I can't wait! As long as I get there OK....

Meanwhile, on knitting news, the experiment socks are finished and I'm onto the Socktopus socks. Excuse the very yellow artificial light here.

As it goes, I have to eat my words. I've started the bed socks and ohmigod that yarn is delicious! Chameleon Colourworks Evolution, which is mechanically stretched merino apparently that's supposed to feel like cashmere but feels almost like silk. The feel of the yarn is so nice that it's made the colour grow on me. I wouldn't choose pink out of choice but the yarn so soft and fluffy it works. So, currently I'm enjoying them. Even if (and excuse my warped mind) the view of the sole does look kinda phallic at the moment. Don't they? (Please say it's not just me.)

Major Achievement Day

(Apols, this should have been posted on Wednesday.)

It is amazing how a country like Britain, bearing in mind the latitude, can still be brought to a standstill by a little bit of snow. 6 million workers didn't go in on Monday, and quite a few didn't go in on Tuesday either. Ah well, who's complaining about a three day week?

We were down in Brighton on Sunday seeing this little one.

(How cute do they both look there??)

It was snowing, but not settling, but it's deceptive down on the coast, and by the time we got on the road inland it was getting pretty deep. We had to drop off The Man's cousin at his mum's before heading off home ourselves. We just about made it to his mum's, driving very carefully on ungritted roads, but once we left to get home to T Wells, half a mile from her house we couldn't even get up a hill (the wheels were just spinning and gripping nothing and we were drifting sideways towards a ditch, and you know how The Man feels about his motor...) so we had to backtrack and beg a bed for the night. Which turned out fine because the next morning we could do this!

There were absolutely no trains running, the entire south-eastern network was suspended, so Monday was a guilt free day. I could have limped in on Tuesday but the office closed at 12 so I would have been there for two hours, so I'm glad I cried off that one too. There is still snow and ice at home, and lots of snowmen in the park and children being dragged around on sledges by their poor longsuffering parents. The enforced stay at home meant that I got lots of knitting done (finished that blimmin babycables jumper on Sunday night!!) and also got to the hairdresser's but also meant unforts that our knitting group was cancelled last night (boo) and the Man's football has been cancelled a couple of times so he is grumpy and fidgety in the house and I have to warn him not to act like a two year old. Men, honestly.

Which reminds me, have you seen this? Too funny!

Man Chocolate

So anyway, back to work today. Nothing much happening here but the Major Life Goal that I have achieved today is signing up for a Life Coaching course. I've been fannying around about doing one for ages, trying to justify the expense, and one has come up with a good course but double discount offer as it's a newish starting up company, and I've negotiated even more of a discount (if you don't ask and all that) so I'm doing it. The rationale is that if I start now, I have some experience as and when I may be off work or working part time for whatever reason (babies) so I can earn myself some pocket money. I'm not envisioning this as a full time career (although if it takes off that would be ace), but I want to use my degree (psych) in some capacity as it's something I really enjoy. I will be needing some practise clients btw, if anyone wants to volunteer! (Not family or close friends though - god can you imagine?!)

So, due to the train taking fooooreeeeeeveeerrrr this morning, I am onto the cuff of Sock le Seconde, so hopefully will get that completed tonight on the way home. I am working out a pattern for felted egg cosies for easter, and might finish the one I started yesterday tonight, so then What Shall I Knit?? Here are the options:

1. Socktopus Club sock (which are pink bedsocks and not stoking my boiler to be totally honest)
2. Tank top in the green yarn I got in Sweden (home brew pattern which will take some work and swatching (gah, swatching))
3. Lace scarf in the Touchyarns laceweight (yum!) which I am scared to spoil (plus I haven't decided on a pattern yet)
4. New beret hat for mum. She has a brown one she knitted in the 60s or 70s which is very on trend but also getting a little tired, bless it. I think there are some really lovely ones out at the moment and she deserves something nice.
5. Pole shorts. I have an idea for these, which may require some planning but if it works might be quite amusing.

I need to decide because I need something to take to the States with me next week! Although as I can't knit on the plane I wonder how much will get done, so perhaps the socks would be the best option.

Speaking of not being able to knit on flights, How Will I Cope?? Are there any really good books out at the moment that will keep my wandering pressurised dehydrated mind amused for ten (count 'em, ten) hours? Or should I just take a sleeping pill and be done with it? Answers would be gratefully received!

Also, how many brackets can I use in one post? Just shows that eating only salad for lunch is not so good for constructing fluid and lucid sentences.

New recruit

Firstly, the exciting news, that The Man has become an uncle! He has a little niece. Aw. More news on that as it comes in.

I had an interesting French lesson yesterday. We were discussing how the French's perception of the English and the English's perception of the French is somewhat around the wrong way. I was surprised when over there last week at how little socialising was done, and people didn't talk about their weekends, or ask if anyone wanted to eat lunch anywhere other than the staff canteen, or go out for dinner or a drink after work. The English have this idea of the French in a permanent sloshed-up eating environment, very jolly and welcoming if they like you, but in fact they are quite private people. I suppose that's why the office is still composed of individual cells, rather than open plan. It's open plan here in London, and people chat about their weekends and home life all the time. Even though the English are supposed to be very straight laced and reserved, and never let on if there's a problem.

So, clearly I'm learning a lot of grammar in French class at the moment. Ahem. Next week we're translating Asterix et les Normandes. To hell with the subjunctive tense!

I am romping through Sock le seconde this week, just about to turn the heel. I have another two inches on the second sleeve of the goddamn baby cables jumper, then I can decide what to do with the sleeve lengths and finish the blimmin thing. It's been on the go for so long it kinda smells, having been chucked into so many travelling bags and pushed around the floor for so long, so I think it requires some wet blocking so I can wash it at the same time. I fear the garter stitch will stretch for yards, so perhaps that will solve the sleeve length problem!

After that - well, I have the choice of the Socktopus socks, trying to design myself a tank top, or designing some felted egg cosies for easter. I think the latter takes the priority really, as they need to be done and put on the website. It would be ace if I could knit them on my flights to and from the States, but BA (yes British Airways I'm talking about you - google alert me!!) still subscribe to the ban on knitting needles. But they allow pencils, which is a more sturdy long pointy wooden thing, and therefore could potentially do more damage. It makes no sense and makes me cross. Actually, I could knit the egg cosies on pencils, they need to be big for felting. I've seen someone blog about doing just that. Might make matching the gauge difficult for people following the pattern though!

Right, back to the paperwork. Happy Year of the Ox.

Big pictorial catch-up

So, as previously noted, I've been doing a bit of travelling. The week training in Paris was quite draining and as I've done quite a lot of sightseeing there before on other trips, I was happy to chill out in the evenings. However, one night I did venture out to see Sacre Coeur, which was very beautiful despite being in a less than salubrious part of town.



And another night I visited an old school friend who lives just outside Paris. It was of course lovely to see her, but also nice to see another old friend - a picture I painted when we were all 21, adapted from another painting (I can't remember what it's called though!) where I changed the characters to become myself (in the window), Sarah (on the settee) and Clare (being elegent and matriarchal in the chair). There are some glaring problems with the painting, the arches over the window don't match and the nets aren't level, and the cat (based on an old family cat) is proportionately too large, but there are also some pretty good bits, and I'm still quite impressed with my 21 year old self for persevering and finishing the thing. I think it took a couple of years to do in the end! It's nice that Sarah framed it and still loves it.

One thing I was trying to do in Paris was to finish some knitting projects, which I failed at miserably. I think I only did 8 inches of one sleeve of the baby cables jumper!

I have a question to you knitters though - for the sleeve that's done, what about the finishing? At the point I've got to, it should be bound off. I'm not sure it's long enough for me (clearly I'm a gorilla), so should I just do a plain garter stitch cuff, or should I do another cable repeat (which might make it too long)?

I think it only needs another inch or two, and I prefer my sleeves a bit longer so they cover the backs of my hands.

So, decisions.

Anyway, here is the yarn that I bought in Gothenburg - 300g of a sprucey dark green supersoft merino from Deisy Designs.

I also got some black cotton Paris yarn from Drops to make those hot pants, and (why, for the love of god, when I've joined the Socktopus club this year?) some more sock yarn. And some dpns that look like Knit Picks but are called Knit Pro, in the same layered multicoloured laminate.

Some other things from Paris - an Asterix comic book in French, and a very small Eiffel tower to go into The Man's new office fish tank. Obviously.

Oh, and I wanted to show you this, which The Man's mum gave us for xmas. The initials, I mean, not the cooker hood. They are just plain white plaster, but you can paint them. I was thinking of painting them gold, or perhaps (a bit too ambitious?) gilding them. What do you think?

Some more bits - moose things from Sweden! I had some more groovy things, but they've been given away as presents. A big swag bag of moomin things for Clare, some xmas decs for The Man's mum (special request), and another of those candle convection whirlygig things with moose on for mum.

So, we have a moose tray and coasters, and a branch pot stand, and a whirlygig thing with snowflakes on. I love the expressions of the moose on the tray.

Right, we now have a SPOILER ALERT!!!!!! Anyone in the Socktopus club who has not yet received their January parcel please look away now.

This was a very fragrant parcel as it was full of foot spa goodies! The pattern for the socks looks pretty complicated, I'm glad we get two months before the next one. Yikes. Well, they always say that a challenge is good for you.

Pictures

I've finally got organised with the camera so here goes with some pics.

Firstly, our alternative to a Christmas tree (because we don't have time or the space this year), which cost me all of £6.49 at Argos, because I had all the bits to put on it (lights, ribbon, some bits and pieces) - across the mantlepiece:

Then some sock pics of the first completed sock:

I think the shaping worked quite well from a fitting point of view, but not sure it is very beautiful to look at (not helped by being modelled by my pallid calf). The cable at the top is called 'trellis'. I think there are too long, but can be boot socks. They fit which is the main thing!

And lastly the latest pair of bootees.

Don't you just love the way the sole curves? So cute!! These ones are going to Shanghai for a work colleague who is relocating. His wife is due in Feb, and they go at xmas. Brave girl! Pattern is from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies, but I added six yos in row 9 to make eyelets, and then an i-cord lace. Apparently this means they are rare bootees that actually stay on.

Hope the Christmas jollities are going well for you all!

TMI

There are things on my ipod I swear I never put on there. Samantha Fox's Touch Me (I want to touch your body)?? Good grief! Where did that come from?

The Man and I seem to have arrived at new levels of sharing. Last night, walking back from the gym, he said he'd had a tuna melt for lunch. Tuna, he thinks, seems to gives him wind. 'Oh dear', I said, 'you'd better not eat it any more.' 'Oh no', he replied, 'it entertained me all afternoon.'

Such insights into the male psyche I seem to be getting lately. I'm not sure if this is good (being open with each other) or ruining the mystique. Or whether blokes have any mystique to ruin...*;)

So anyway, The Sock is progressing quite well. I am trying a new technique of some increases around the end of the short rowing, where the foot is widest but the basic shape does not really increase apart from for the short rowing for the heel. This might be better demonstrated by a picture:

I had to rip the heel out once because I'd clearly forgotten how to short row, and there were huge lace-like holes everywhere. So, the best way I've found so far is to:

1. Double wrap and pick up both wraps
2. When you've picked up the wraps, unravel them so that you have three loops lying next to each other around the left hand needle
3. On knit stitches (ie when you've picked up the wraps and are about to knit them all together with the main stitch), knit through the back loop
4. Pull the wraps really tight as you go!

As you can see I am still mastering the picking up of the correct stitch when the short rows are finished to get rid of that joining together hole. I always seem to have to go back and fix it at the end with a needle and thread. Hey ho.

I'm also experimenting with doing some ribbing up the back of the ankle for a bit of shaping. We shall see what happens with that.

Ooo, just done some googling and it seems there's another short row method which uses backwards yarnovers, so I think I will give that a whirl and see what happens. (Another load of links here, but some don't work any more.) Yay for the internet!

This made me laugh out loud today in Lombard St:


Slight close up of the funny bit:


Knitting news - second pair of socks done! Yay! I'm more pleased with the toes on these, and the short row heels are better. I did Wendy's easy toes from here, and picked up a tip from somewhere to tease out the wraps and stitch so they're separate, then knit through the back of the knit stitches (but not the purls), and this seems to give a less gappy result. But I'm still not overwhelmed with short row heels, although the technique is very smug-making. *:)

Next work in progress started, which is the Minnie cable edged bolero by Louisa Harding, from June's Knitting magazine. I had a cunning plan to knit the pieces all together to save on sewing up, then realised the whole cable trim is knitted separately and sewn on at the end. Including trim around the cuffs...