Yarnalong – June 2018

It’s June. I am in the middle of testing for a server migration but I have run out of brain before I have run out of work day, which is not ideal when you are trying to troubleshoot script errors and file permissions.

But it is also Yarnalong time so that’s a nice break.

Knitting:

I am almost finished the repeats of Chart B in my Byatt shawl, which is exciting. I still have some of the MC left over so I am debating doing another chart repeat before going into the final chart which is all CC. I have another two repeats within the chart to go before I make that decision so we shall see. It is already pretty big and I am looking forward to the lace chart.

It’s been a very soothing knit, actually as it’s mainly garter stitch with increases and the occasional slip stitches and then two rows where you have to engage brain for a bit.

Reading:

While I was on holiday in sunny Spain and could do nowt but reading, knit and migrate between swimming pool/buffet/balcony (it’s a hard life but someone has to live it…), I managed to read three new books:

The Husband Hunters: Social Climbing in London and New York which was a very interesting look at the influx of American Heiresses into the Upper Classes in the UK and Europe in the late 19th/early 20th century. Includes Winston Churchill’s mother, Jennie Jerome.
Take Six Girls: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters – a biography of the Mitford sisters, who are, as the author says, a social experiment that can never be repeated.
Meet The FrugalWoods – A blog spin off book from the FrugalWoods. I enjoy the blog so I did enjoy the book.

I have also, in what seems to be becoming a additional section to these posts, made another cleaning product recipe from Fresh Clean Home, which was the liquid toilet cleaner. I am pleased with it as well – it uses xantham gum (which I own because I should avoid wheat for ibs reasons but like baking) to help make it cling to the sides but does mean that you start off with a very unprepossessing lumpy horror that then miraculously resolves with the application of a handblender!

So far I am very happy with all the recipes I have tried from that book, so would definitely recommend it if you are interested in making your own cleaning products.

Helical beeeeees and a sock FO!

So last summer, I went to Stockholm with friends and had a wonderful time. And one evening, while wandering the streets of the Old Town after dinner out, we stumbled across a Yarn shop. So of course, we immediately went back the following day and ogled their lovely yarn and I came home with two skeins of Stockholm Woolery Merino in yellow and black for some bee inspired socks. Several cast on attempts happened but never with any particular success – wasn’t happy with the stripes, wasn’t happy with the colour change and so on.

Fast forward to now and I have finally started my bee themed socks with the spur of the Year of Techniques book. They are helical stripes (which I have totally fallen for as a technique) with an afterthought heel. They’re meant to be my holiday project when I go away next week but I’m on holiday now, even if I haven’t left Brighton yet. 😉

I’ve put in the first afterthought waste yarn already, so hopefully I’ve placed it right so once I’ve done the length of the foot minus the toes x2, it will all fall into place.

Of course, if I have new socks on the needles, that must mean I have finished the last pair? One would hope so and in this case it is true! My 80s-tastic rainbow swirled Riverkats are off the needles and blocked! Whoop, whoop!

I’m really pleased with these – it might be a little too warm to wear them right now but they are made with yarn I bought while in Paris on our first wedding anniversary trip last year and are off the needles just before we go on our second wedding anniversary trip. Aside from the zig/zag issue on the first sock, the second sock went much quicker and I would definitely knit them again.

We’re going to a resort on the coast of Spain this time, so probably won’t find any yarn shops this trip but at least I’ll have one pair of socks to knit while I am there with my helical bees.

I’m also taking yarn to knit a Byatt shawl – one skein of Stranded Dyework’s Oasis I’m Spook (bought at a showcase at my local yarn store last LYS day) and one skein of Truly Hooked’s Sparkle Sock in Jade (Bought at Yarndale last year). I’ll use the Stranded Dyeworks as the Main Colour and the Sparkle for the Contrast. Quite looking forward to starting it.

Once Upon A Sock – May 2018

onceuponasockovalstripes

Behold! One completed sock and one almost completed sock! My Once Upon a Sock offering this month.

I am just at the end of the gusset decreases on sock number 2 and the zigs are zigging and the zags are zagging so I am optimistic about finishing them fairly soon (I have a long train journey and some at-home holiday time in the next couple days) which means that I can start digging out the yarn and needles for my actual holiday knits!

My plan is to take two new-to-me techniques from the Year of Techniques book and turn some previous holiday yarn purchases into some helical socks with after-thought heels and contrast cuff/heel/toes. I’m hoping to have a little play with the technique before I cast on the full sock as I want to make sure the colours work together as helical stripes.

I am also going to take some sock yarn along that will be turned into my Good Intentions Quarter 3 project, which is a Byatt Shawl.

So hopefully, by the time OUAS rolls round again, I will have several sock related things to show you!

The way we’re doing Once Upon a Sock is changing slightly due to numbers, so you can find us all (and join in yourself!) at the link up hosted by Paula @ Spin A Yarn.

Yarnalong May 2018

It’s May! Not that you could actually tell in my office, where Estates have been forced to switch the central heating back on! I am wearing my Diamonds Are Forever jumper and a thermal vest right now.

But on with the yarnalong, eh?

Reading:

Currently part of the way through Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood. Which is looking at the unsolved murder of early Hollywood Director William Desmond Taylor. It is a case I am quite familiar with but the library ebook services suggested it as the ‘your next book’ so I thought I’d have a read. Not expecting it to suddenly be solved like the Golden State Killer, though! (FWIW, the suspect there was unknown to all investigations but ‘I’ll be Gone in the Dark’ did a lot of background research and helped keep the spotlight on it.)

I also finished looking through A Year in Techniques and I hope to have something that combined two of those techniques on the needles soon!

Also, in the continued making my own cleaning projects from Fresh Clean Home, I am still using the toilet cleaner tabs and they are def. helping with the under the water line cleaning. I have also made the sink scrub, which is working well on the bathroom sink and will shortly be used to scrub the bath! Along with the grout/tile cleaner recipe. Wendy has actually just posted the recipe for her oven cleaner, which is also on the list (I have some oven cleaner to use up first).

Knitting:

I made a pair of Baker Street Wrist-warmers for my MiL, which was a very swift (aran weight, so fast!) and enjoyable knit. More details, plus an embroidery kit I also completed in the linked post. Other than that, I am still working on the current socks (see tomorrow’s Sock-a-long post) in the hopes that I’ll be done with them in time to take new projects on holiday with me in a week! I’m optimistic!

Now off to see what other Yarnalong participants have been up too!

Wrist-warmers and Embroidery

Waaaay back in 2014, I knitted my Mother in Law a pair of basic wrist-warmers as a gift. Fast forward to early April 2018 and a plaintive request for new wrist-warmers was received. So I put my sock down, went stash and Rav library diving and took up some Blacker Classic Aran and Karie Westermann’s Baker Street, a pattern I have knitted for myself before (1.5 times – the half was to replace one of the original pair after it went AWOL – sadly, the pair has since gone AWOL as well, last seen on a train. 😦 ) and thoroughly enjoyed.

It’s a lovely pattern to knit – aside from being in aran weight, the lace is intuitive and very quick and these took me approximately a week of knitting time to complete and then a couple days to block. Of course, no sooner had I completed them, we had what will probably pass for ‘summer’ in the UK but as it has now returned to being quite chilly, they have been posted off and gratefully received and put to use.

They have definitely reminded me to put this pattern at the top of my ‘quick gift knits’ list and I have a couple more balls of Blacker Classic Aran in the stash that may well become future gifted Baker Streets in the future. They took a ball and half for the pair, so at least one more pink pair could be made before I need to break into the other colours in the stash but there’s enough in the stash that I could knit at least another 7 pairs.

Other than that, I have also been entertaining myself with a bit of embroidery, using a cover gift that came with an old issue of Mollie Makes I’d picked up and wanting to do something a bit different while watching a film.

Not having to do any pattern transfer prep definitely sped things up and the pattern itself only required satin stitch, french knots (I was very pleased with my french knots!) and a tiny bit of chain stitch. It was also a ‘just one more stitch’ project so I had it completed within a couple of days.

Always nice to do a project using a skill set I don’t use very often.

I’m back to the socks now though and the second sock has been cast on! Whoooo! I am, of course, paying very careful attention to my setup zigs and zags now!