Knitting - April 2004   back to knitting blog

29-04-04

I was hoping to leave it until I had something to show before I updated, but I haven't knitted for about 3 days, so hmmm.

Tomorrow is our College ball, which I am looking forward to, but it's supposed to rain!  I hope it doesn't.  It rained at the one 2 years ago and I was really cold all night.  But there is lots of good stuff going on, which the weather shouldn't affect.  I'm not wearing a dress - for 2 reasons, firstly there is a bouncy castle and I want to go on it without worrying about breaking my dress, and secondly I want to eat and drink my way through the cost of the ticket, and the stretchy waist on my skirt will be my friend in this!  I have a posh corset top though, and I will wear Charlotte  :)  

What else?  I started knitting with the Rio and Zebra and realised they don't go together the way I was hoping.  The Rio is mostly pink, but the Zebra is very variegated, and I think plain and variegated colours only look good together if they're similar colours.  So I ordered another hank of Rio and will go ahead with that.

I'm feeling rubbish at the moment, as my plans for somewhere to live next year have screwed up and it's my fault for not sorting it out sooner.  I will have a room, but it might be a bit lonely, especially as Adam won't be here next year...

25-04-04

Hooray, I have finished something!  The Alien Illusion Scarf is complete and may be seen here.  I thought it was going to be a very quick project, but it's taken me about a month - but I suppose I've been busy and knitting other things.  The day I finished it was the hottest day of this year so far, so it's gone straight into the wardrobe for next winter!  I can get back to Soul now, it's perfect weather for that. 

And I've got another summer project in the works!  When I went to the Colinette shop last Christmas I got 2 hanks of Giotto to make a summer top.  You can see it in my stash (under "a lot of Colinette"), but I'll describe it so you don't have to go over there.  I've got one hank in Zebra, and one in Rio.  When I was in the shop they only had 2 hanks of Rio, and I've never seen it since - it's certainly not one of the official Giotto colours (and it's really nice, very hot pink with a tiny bit of orange).  So I have made up a pattern for a summery top!  It is looking like it will be a quick knit, as it's on 8mm needles.  If it works out well I'll put the pattern up here when it's finished.

Hopefully all the needles for the bottoms up bucket hat will be here soon, and I'll have another summer project on the needles  :)

22-04-04

Has anyone else seen this?  From what I can gather Rowan are now doing a new magazine every season called R2, based on these crazy, messed up and REALLY COOL patterns.  It's knitting but with loads of other techniques thrown in as well to make unique garments.  OK so I know some of those on the link I gave are a bit off the wall, but it's all really fun I think.  And along with the magazine there are 2 new yarns.  New Yarns = Good News.  I'm always up for trying new stuff so I'm quite excited about this, look out for it early May. 

On another note I have now got 4 aliens on my scarf!  I weighed the lambs pride and there is enough to do 5 aliens and use both yarns for the fringe, so that's what I'm going to do.  Look out for a new finished project in the next few days (fingers crossed!).

21-04-04

Sorry I'm being such a rubbish knitter at the moment.  When I'm not studying I'm feeling guilty about not studying, so I've not done a lot of knitting recently.  Hmmm actually I've done seriously little  :(

I hope in the weeks leading up to my exams to get a routine in place where I work all day, and then knit for an hour before bed.  When I work right up until I go to bed I dream about chemistry problems all night, and it's really stressful!

I am going to follow Carolyn's lead and implement a new stash bashing program, since the last one was such an utter farce!  I'm going to do the same as her really - keep working through the projects I've got stashed, and I can still buy more yarn, but it has to be used up straight away instead of stashed.  Don't get me wrong - I don't feel at all guilty about the amount of yarn I have, I love the stuff, I just don't really like having a huge stash.  I want a little one, with only a few projects in reserve.  And then when I buy more yarn I get to use it straight away instead of having gorgeous projects stuck in a bag in my wardrobe.  Hooray!

Also, provided I can finish it in time, I am going to have a pattern in the Chilly Magknits!  That will use up some of the yarn in my stash (and some of it is the secret yarn I bought a while back when the Rowan shop closed, so there's no way you can guess what it is!).  I wrote the pattern first and then I'm going to stick to it as I knit it up, to check it works properly.  I hope it does, the maths took bloody ages!

17-04-04

Summer Bucket hat!

I realised I forgot to share the Rowan Denim info.  I got the darkest colour, which is called Nashville, and really cool!  I am going to make a bottoms up bucket o'chic with it, in Becky's knit along (see the cute button in the sidebar?).

So, as I said in the last post, this yarn is machine washable, but it shrinks in length (and not width) during the first wash.  The unwashed tension matches the tension required for the pattern (20x28), but obviously it will need to be adjusted as it will have a different washed tension.  I was going to make a swatch and wash it, but on the ball band it says that the washed tension will be 20x32.  I'm going to trust them!  I'm too busy to check!  So I think altering the pattern will be easy - I'm just going to add a few rounds on the brim and mid-section.  For the crown (I will be making the L size by the way), I will need to add 2 extra rounds to make it the required diameter, and I will just add these between the decrease rounds. 

So that's my plan!  I don't have the right size circs (I will have to get a Denise set maybe, I'm fed up of buying new ones for every project!), so I've ordered them, and will start as soon as they arrive.  Woohoo!  I will of course say if my hat works out after a wash, and if it does I'll post details of what I did to change the pattern on my blog.

A photo of the yarn is in my Stash page.

While we're on the denim theme, has everyone seen the new magazine Rowan have published for their denim yarn?  It's called Denim People (I think) and looks great.  I have ordered a copy which should come with the circs.  I have only seen little pictures of the designs on the internet so far, but from what I can tell a lot of them look fab, so I'm sure I will be making 1 or 2 of them.  I've not used this yarn before, but I'm expecting to love it, just cos I love all my battered old jeans so much!

15-04-04

Hello all!  I hope you all had a nice Easter, I had a lovely time at my parents relaxing and getting ready to study hard.  Thanks to everyone who let me know about the tagboard and pop-ups, as you can see the tagboard is no more.  I'll have to put a to-do list up there in its place, or something equally motivating!  I've already put countdowns there instead, I seriously hope they won't cause pop-ups as well!

OK well I know I said I'd update while I was away and I didn't, that's because there was progress, which needed photos, and the internet was too slow to upload them.

I am still only half was through Soul, the Alien scarf and the knee highs, but I started and finished both Sophie and Meema's Marsupial Tote!  Hooray!  As info for Audrey, who asked, I had a little ball of cascade left over from Sophie.  Audrey said that both her and her sister needed an extra ball, and I think that I am probably the weirdo, not them, as the pattern says you will need extra for longer straps (and I could have made the straps several feet longer with the amount I had left!).

Anyway, details and photos are in Finished Projects, so go and look!

I also when I was in Birmingham I got some Rowan Denim to make a Bottoms up Bucket O'Chic.  It shrinks when you wash it so I'm going to have do to a few calculations (stabs in the dark) before I start.

06-04-04

Well, in my last post I said I would try and do another Alien before bed, hmmm that actually took me 4 days not an hour!  Never mind!  I'm going to my parents tomorrow, I will still have to take work with me, but I won't be working as hard as I am at the moment.  And so I hope lots of knitting will get done.  I am now halfway through Soul, the Alien scarf, and the knee highs - I can't be bothered to resize pictures, so go and have a peek at them full size (woohoo!) in their galleries. 

I am mildly concerned about the Alien scarf.  The pattern calls for Brown Sheep Naturespun, and I'm using Lamb's Pride instead for the green - the problem is that Lamb's pride has less yardage per 100g and so I was worried there might not be quite enough.  I weighed the remaining yarn to check, and it might be ok.  I will probably either have to do only 5 (not 6) aliens, or make the fringe just in black.  We'll see.

I will update when I'm away I'm sure, but just so you know exactly what the plan is, I'm taking home the three half-done projects, and also the purple cascade for Sophie and the Brown Sheep for Meema's Marsupial Tote (from Stitch 'n Bitch).  I would love to come back with them all finished, what will actually happen is I will return with 5 incomplete projects instead of 3! 

Next important point:  Comment and let me know if you get any pop-ups when you visit my page.  If you do, it's the tagboard, and I will remove it, cos I'm paying for this website so no one has to see any pop-ups.  I only realised this was happening recently.  It's only there for a bit of fun anyway, I won't miss it.  Thanks!

And finally....new Knitty!  I think it's good, and you can't seriously complain for free!  I really really like Frill, it's very pretty.  I might make it, if I ever feel like I've finished enough stuff to justify it.  I also like Grace, and Julia's Honeymoon tank, that's a lovely shape.

Right, I'm off to look at past paper question on Molecular Interactions (which I'm sure you wanted to know!)  Let me know about the pop-ups or lack of them!

01-04-04

No one April fooled me today!  Adam pointed out that he manages to fool me most days, so there wasn't much point making a thing about it!  Outrageous, but sadly true.

Knitting has all but ground to a halt this week.  I finished the first knee-high sock, and really have to start the next one soon, or it will never be started, you know how it is with socks.  I have done another Alien on the scarf as well, so 4 more to go.  Sorry I don't have anything else so share, but I've been studying quite hard, and feel guilty when I stop, hence very little knitting.  But I'm going to my parents house for a full week over Easter, for a proper break, and I hope to get some serious knitting done then, hurrah! 

I'm going to do an hour more work, and then try and do another alien before bed.