2 FO, 1 WIP and 3rd Time Lucky?

Since it’s FOFriday, here’s Bricked Up (my version of Brick by Brick from Michaela Moores) in a lovely burnt orange BFL:

I wore them the other day since it’s still cold here (although things may warm up soon, they say).  The combination of knit and purl, and the lustre of the BFL, brings out the colour very nicely – I’m quite fond of them, which is a surprise.

Now, as promised/threatened, here’s a project in bright hand-dyed sock yarn.  It’s Unleaving from the latest Knitty:

It’s not that bad, but I think it’s destined as a charity donation because I’m not hugely keen on long scarves at the moment.

As for the WIP, I’m knitting Amelia by Julia Frank from Rowan 51, which is a risky thing to do at the best of times.  I’m using Patons Cotton DK, which is highly mercerised, so the project is very probably doomed.

A while back I made the mistake of hand-painting some BFL laceweight.

I love the colours, but what to do with it has become a problem.  I started Semi-Precious from a previous Knitty, but the lace pattern was too obscure.  So I tried Demiluna and that didn’t look right either.  The yarn was just about to be binned when I came across Carie Harling’s Old Man of Storr Shawlette.  Will this be third time lucky?  Ironically, I named the colourway Smart Step.  I hope the eponymous racehorse does better.

And a small confession.  On things Rowan, I was passing an LYS in York and fancied a squeeze of Fine Lace.  It’s lovely stuff, but the colours are a little on the drab side for me.  The staff were very nice and friendly, but I didn’t buy any Rowan (although I wouldn’t rule that out for the future).  I bought some Lang Jawoll Magic sock yarn.  Why?  Because I’ve never bought Lang before.  Of course.

Turned out nice

It’s always nice when something turns out better than expected. My monster isn’t, it’s actually quite endearing.

You’ll notice the assymetric sleeve stripes. That’s because I miscalculated the stripe pattern for the yarn I had, or vice versa. Just makes it a bit special, no?

This is all that was left of the Bilberry shade:

I had a good 75g of the Fuchsia which wasn’t really the point of the exercise, but never mind. I’m wearing the sweater right now, and I think it’s going to be a favourite.

I’m working on a my second Hedera sock at the moment, which is my only WIP. I’m in one of those phases when I can’t make up my mind what to do next. I’ve some rather nice BFL laceweight so I expect another two shawls will eventually materialise. I swatched a little of Plume as part of my annual crochet project, but put it aside. Then I started Ysolda’s Pear Drop and was going great guns until I noticed a dropped stitch. Feeling totally ashamed I ripped back to the miscreant, and then kept on going. Perhaps I’ll have another go.

I’m definitely in the mood for a half-circle shawl, I’m just not sure which one. Perhaps I’ll make something up along the lines of EZ’s famous Pi shawl, like so many others have done. Perhaps not. Any suggestions?

Carried Away Casting On

I love casting on. I get an amazing feeling of satisfaction from a nice tubular 2×2 rib edge:

Anything else, like a cable or long tail, is just a necessary chore. I even use tubular cast on for socks, like my second of 2012 which is the delightfully simple Monkey by Cookie A.

I was talking about sock construction to a knitty friend and mentioned that I hadn’t yet knitted any from the toe up. Which of course meant my third of the year had to use the technique. I picked Cat Bordhi’s Darjeeling from Clara Parkes’ book and went over to YouTube to watch Cat’s tutorial on Judy Becker’s Magic Cast-On. It looked nice and easy in chunky yarn on large needles, but was a bit fiddly on 2.25mm with 4-ply. I gave up my first attempt in frustration but went back to it later with more patience. And so more socks:

At this rate it’ll be 12 pink socks in 2012.

For provisional cast on I tend to start with a crochet chain of spare yarn. So when I read a good blog post on a variation of Turkish cast on for shawl tabs I just had to try it. And try it again.

I suffered a little “startitis” and I have two shawls on the needles. The first, which was the original culprit, is Autumn in New York. Only it’s Spring in Old York:

I had 200g of Noro Silk Garden Sock in my stash, bought for a gift which I made in some hand-dyed instead. I had been looking for something which would show off the best of this wonderful yarn. I came across Andrea Jurgrau’s design on Ravelry and went over to her blog to read all about it.

I’d forgotten how nice it is to knit with SGS. It just slips through my fingers and says “Knit me! Knit me more!”. I couldn’t put it down. But it’s a large shawl and may take a while to finish.

Thinking about the cast on technique, I had the urge to practice it again. I’m trying to use up my early hand-dyed yarns, hence I started Vlad:

I’ve called the project Edward. There’s more silk in this yarn and it’s knitting up a treat too. This one is a reasonably sized shawlette, so it’ll be finished soon I expect.

It’s certainly a mild spring here in York. If you needed a good reason to visit either now or at Easter there’s the award-winning Ramshambles in, of course, the Shambles …..

….. with my hand-dyed laceweight in the window and an excellent selection of yarns inside. The shop is open every day of the week. As if you needed an excuse!

First shawl of 2012

Having decided that 12 socks and 12 shawls were a bit too much for 2012 I got a move on with my first shawl last weekend. I’m not too strong on common sense this month, that’s for sure.

It’s in Perplex, my hand-dyed 4-ply baby alpaca. I’m a bit strange about this yarn: it’s so gorgeous I can’t part with it. I’ve just dyed another 400g, and I really should put them up for sale, but I don’t think I can.

Here’s my shawl:

It’s Alice by Marie-Adeline Boyer and it has a sister, Cassandra. I have a skein of Perplex in lilac which will won’t get sold and will get knitted up fairly soon, I think.

As for socks, I chose Cookie A’s Monkey for my second of 2012. I can understand why there are over 15,000 Monkey projects on Ravelry – it’s a nice easy design. The first sock is finished:

and I’m turning the heel of the second.

One bright note in the last two dreadful weeks is that my yarns may appear for sale in another shop (the one in the street that’s been voted the best in England).

First socks of 2012

Well, I finally finished my first socks of 2012, and just within month one. The design is Hummingbird by Sandi Rosner in Clara Parkes’ The Knitter’s Book of Socks.

Bright Flight

I had quite a bit of trouble concentrating on the design because I was watching some interesting television. So there was a lot to tinking. In fact one night I think I got a net total of one round completed after going back about five. Still, they look good and show off my hand-dyed yarn nicely. I’m very pleased with them.

But I’ve got to get going on the second of my 12 socks in 2012 and it’s definitely going to be from Knit.Sock.Love. Maybe Hedera or perhaps I should do Monkey since it’s so popular.

And I’d just like to say a big thank you to all the bloggers I follow, and all the knitty bloggers I sample from WordPress. You’ve made the last three weeks much better than they might have been with your lively and stimulating posts. And a huge thank you to Fiona Hirst of Grace and Jacob in Barleycorn Yard, York: she may have convinced me to try spinning again!

Sunshine on Black Friday

I finished my Gingko shawlette:

which used the first of my recent batch of hand-dyed yarn. There’s plenty left so I think a pair of stripey socks may materialise some time in the future.