Elsewhere pt 2

Nu soffläge. 

Yarn goodies

My boyfriend berated me for buying more yarn earlier this week. He thinks I buy too much, I don't. Not a surprise really since I buy yarn at a higher rate than I can knit. But I think it'll make up for the times that I don't buy yarn, and maybe wont be able to buy yarn. And sock yarn isn't stash.

So, I had been to the dentist and since my teeth were good I decided that a little, tiny bit of a reward was appropriate (especially since I could basically see into the yarn shop from my dentist's office). I bought two skeins of Araucania Ranco Solid, one in brown and one in a rusty red/orange. Not my usual colours, but lovely nonetheless.

I'm considering knitting a Catkin from these (which is why I didn't go for the green or blue colours, they wouldn't have gone with any other colours available, and a blue and a different blue isn't what I'm looking for in Catkin) but I might wait until I can get some Madelinetosh Light as that's what the pattern calls for. I'm thinking a blue and grey, or green and cream.

For the Araucania I'm thinking socks. Long lovely socks for Anna.

And that purchase put me over the gift certificate limit of the loyalty program thing the shop has, so soon I'll also have an extra $50 to spend on lovely things.

Japanese Feather and Fan and silk-love

After the Swallowtail I cast on for Japanese Feather and Fan. It turned out amazingly large and gorgeous. I don't have a lot of good photos of it, and the best one is of the blocking.

I didn't block aggressively and hardly even used any pins.

The yarn is from Moseley Park, one of my favourite yarn places from Australia. The yarn was a 100% silk in the Fugo colourway. Handyed I believe. Either way it was lovely to work with, and think it has started me down a long long path of silk knitting.

I'm still new enough at knitting that I'm still working out what my favourite materials to work with are. I know I love metal needles, and quite dislike wood. While finishing this shawl on my KnitPro Nova needles, I started a Piper's Journey with the 4mm Symphony wood from the same company. I basically finished the Feather and Fan just so that the needles would be free for my new project.

Later I convinced my partner that he should really buy me some Signature Needle Arts needles and they are the best. 

But I know I prefer non-acrylic yarn, and most of all wool. I have only worked with pure wool once, but that was a real delight. I use mostly fingering weight/sock yarn, so that's often superwash. But it's alright. But silk is becoming a favourite despite being slippery.

Swallowtail

 

I finished a while ago. I use it quite a bit, and it's very warm and soft. The yarn is quite stretchy and it is much smaller than when originally blocked. But you can kind of stretch it out whenever.

Nupps are fun, but fiddly. I'd love to do another pattern with nupps, and have been eying Nancy Bush's Knitted Lace of Estonia for about 3 months, but haven't yet bought it. I'm hesitating because I'm not sure how many of the patterns I would actually make in the end. But maybe as a finish work present. 

computer rebirth

Yesterday I restored my computer to factory settings. It's been struggling for years, and the last week or so it has been an absolute pain to use. It's understandable that it's been feeling a bit grumpy lately. It's about four and a half years old, and it hasn't been treated well.

I hope I backed up everything I wanted to keep, and I think I got everything important.

I wish I could say it works like a dream now, but it doesn't. But it works, which is the important thing.

Shawls

I decided on the Swallowtail. It's working out ok. It's my third lace shawl and by now I'm getting better at reading the knitting and not needing to follow the chart blindly. This is very useful as I seem to make mistakes in almost every repeat. A missed yarn over here, a misplaced decrease there. But now I know what it's supposed to look like, and it's easy enough to just fudge a little here and there. Will put in a lifeline before continuing with the next repeat.

The yarn ... is interesting. It's certainly not very soft to knit with, and actually quite stiff. The yarn that I ripped out from the first attempt was much softer than the unknit yarn, but I'm getting quite used to the stiffness. I also know from swatching that the yarn will be soft and lovely once it's been washed.

I washed the cardigan yesterday afternoon and it's drying on the dining table. Not the best place to block, but the bed was hardly an option. I'm a bit disappointed as the cardigan now looks like it's going to be too big. Hopefully it's my imagination, but it would be a pain if it didn't fit. Oversized cardigan would be ok though. It might be the yarn (superwash), and maybe I should have washed it in the machine.

baby sweater

I've found the solution to the sweater problem. My mum send me some acrylic yarn for my birthday that I had no idea what to do with. But then the solution came to me! I'll knit a sweater for my little niece. It'll be excellent. I'm really bummed though that I can't get the pattern for Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket.  It's not the in the Knitter's Almanac, the only of her books that I have.

Tennis and TVs

When we moved in to our new house in February we decided to throw out our TV.

I know, we're crazy.

This has been great in all ways. When we had a TV all I watched was "crap". Things that were on when I was sitting in front of the TV. I still watched the shows I was looking forward to on my computer. I now have time for reading, knitting and doing a lot more satisfying things in my spare time than when I watched the dumburk every afternoon.

But there are a few weeks of the year when a TV is a very good thing indeed to have. Tennis week! I love the tennis and I look forward to all the Grand Slams and whatever other tournaments they show on TV. I have a very soft spot for Nadal (though Federer is a fantastic player to watch) and I keep up with where he's playing all throughout the year. Australian Open is on for the next two weeks, and they play in my timezone, so I don't have to miss a single match.

And all I get is the radio.

Feather or Swallow

Tossing up between two shawls at the moment. I'll be able to finish the cardigan today (not counting blocking and buying and sewing on buttons), but right now I'm itching to cast on for a shawl.

Trust me though, I've started binding off the body of the cardigan, and have 25 rows of ribbing to go. I'll finish the thing today.

Then:

Japanese Feather and Fan Shawl (IzzyKnits) in a winter blue silk/linen ColourMart yarn. Or,

Swallowtail Shawl (Evelyn A. Clark) in a light gray Cashmere/Merino/Nylon/Viscose ColourMart yarn.

I've swatched in the gray, but if I decide on the silk, I'll have to do a swatch for that. The ColourMart yarns are oiled for machine knitting, and require some serious washing before you see the end result. They recommend doing this with the finished object, but since I've never used this yarn before I want to know what washing will do to it.

I sneakily printed both patterns at work, and I guess it all comes down to what I feel like in a few hours when I've weaved in the ends for the cardigan.

Next projects

I am almost, almost done with my Georgia cardigan. So now I'm considering my next project. I suddenly want to start another sweater straight away, but should probably do some smaller projects in between.

My sister wants fingerless mittens, so have found a nice pattern (Merlotto Mitts). The problem is that the pattern is for a medium size mitten, and my sister's hands are even smaller than mine. So, I'll either try to resize the pattern, or find another pattern. It's just that this is a lovely pattern! It also has cables, something I haven't tried yet.

My boyfriend have requested fingerless gloves and we picked a pattern for it (Ringwood Gloves). I'm changing the cuff to ribbing, and making the fingers shorter.

A friend of mine wants a pair of socks. I have yarn, but am slightly over socks just right now. I'm considering buying a circular needle for magic loop, to see if this makes it more interesting.

I want to do another shawl, but can't decide which one I want to make first. And I almost bought yarn for a sweater just now. But no. Not now.