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Flowers on the keys

Flowers on the keys, a photo by kotaatok on Flickr.

My flows

The Rumpelstilskin Challenge

This year as like many other years I am trying to stash down, go cold sheep basically de-clutter my stash down to a realistic and manageable size.  I joined the Rumpelstiltskin Challenge back in 2011 and I decided as part of the get back into the swing of things to continue with this challenge.   

The aim of the challenge is to make the use of what you have to at hand. Spining gold from the straw at hand.  So far I have worked through the knitting basket in the lounge room.  I have made two pairs of socks and working my way on a third pair of socks.  Don't tell the Yarn Harlot but I am actually ahead and on target for my Christmas knitting.  I am attempting to get a head of the game and not have a horror December like I did about five years ago where I was still knitting on a present in the early dawn hours of Christmas morning.  Never again.  If I can manage to make one or two items per month for the Christmas List I will well ahead of the game. I am planning to have a goody box for each member of the family so there will a range of pressies for them bit like a packet of liquorice all sorts.

Today I cast on the third pair of socks, Kalajoli socks.  The pattern is very nice and since I have managed to do so much of the sock today I am sure that this pattern will be a repeat again this year. When I can almost do one whole sock in about three hours it definitely rates my repeat knitting list.

The biggest problem I have at the moment is that we haven't had a great amount of life so photos  have been impossible to do.  I keep trying but I keep getting foo bared by the weather and lack of light.

Soon as I get enough light I will be staging a photo shoot to update my Ravelry projects pages and to have some new photos for the blog. I also want to play with my camera.  I need to learn all the settings and all that since it is a wiz bang digital SLR.

First Day out of the New Year

Last year you could count on one hand the number times I left the house for a non medical appointment.  This year as part of the resolutions goals is a determined effort to get out of the house.  So Hubby had strict instructions to take me for a drive.  The camera was charged.  We had a lovely time out and came home just as it got wet and windy.  While sitting in Morrisons carpark waiting for him to pick up a few things for dinner I played with my newish camera and got photos of a sock I completed last October.  It was one of the first things I completed since picking up the needles again after the long lay off.

Waiting in Morrisons Carpark

The Sock is Jaywalker by Grumperina. The yarn was part of the stash additions I picked up from Yarndale in September 2013.  That was one of three outings I had last year.

The yarn is Lang Yarns Jawoll Magic Dégradé and of course I would like some more for the stash. 

New Years Resolutions

My new years resolutions tend to be goal orientated.  Daughter gave me one with her own personal sock bag challenge.  I am of course going to jump back into the 12 scarves in 12 months.  I have to get the Christmas pressie stock pile back up to scratch as the cupboard is completely bare there is nothing in the stockpile of just in case.

I want to get back treadling more frequently so I am aiming to be using my wheel at least one night per week. This year I want do some stash downing not just with balls of wool but also with fibre.  Apparently this is known as going COLD SHEEP. Rh has been giggling muchly about this phrase.  Since I am stash downing and wrangling control of the stash I have also signed onto the  'Unf$%k Your Habitat' bandwagon.  I am doing the modified version for the chronically ill,  At the moment I am interpreting the rules as 20 minutes on one area or chore per day.  I have even managed to get the rest of the household to sign up to the program as well.

Daughter also gave me another goal for this year that I start my Christmas knitting early. Boxing Day she puts in her next years Christmas order so I can get onto it early.  Hint Hint.  Not only that she did the big wonderful puppy dog eyes on New Years day and I ended up knitting a scarf hood for her finishing off the short deadline just in time for her to catch the train back to York on the 4th.  I just have to get a photo from her of her wearing said item.

I have already started this month sock three times. Really just confirming that I can not use double pointed needles for sock. I am not a magic loop knitter for socks.  For other projects yes. Socks Nope.  The sock has been kicking my butt so of course I have cast on some lace just to totally confuse myself between the two charted patterns.

The shawl I have cast on is not that complex but it has as a project helped me to get back into lace knitting.  Of course I have to make it slightly difficult for self as I am knitting this one in acrylic. The intended giftee of this project is currently residing in a care home so easy wash options was the necessary choice for the material selection.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year

For 2014 I am working on so many hopes but the key one is that I hope to keep improving health wise.  Daughter has been home for a short University Christmas New Year break.

It has been wonderful for us to have her home.  Lots of coffee, lots of chats and the house has become noisy again.  Daughter has certainly sparked things up over the last couple of weeks.  She came home just in time for Christmas Eve.  Served at Midnight Mass with her brother. He managed to burn his thumb relighting his candle as he was on duty as an acolyte.  They did the big procession in and we had some of the oldy but goody Christmas hymns. I was so worried that world war three would start on the altar but apparently there was no blood.

As a recognised invalid I get a visit from my own personal special minister i.e. my son.  Hopefully this year daughter will get a chance to become a special eucharistic minister and then we will have three in the family.  His dad is one too but doesn't get rostered on as they seem to think he has enough on his plate with me. Only thing now is to get the eucharistic minister rota maker to talk to the altar server rota maker to make sure that they don't get two different shifts on the same day. The boyo got two different jobs at two different mass times.  He was not impressed.

Crafting wise daughter has helped me with a lovely Christmas pressie.  Ry bagged up 12 balls of sock wool and gave it to me as part of my Christmas gift.  Each bag has a theme challenge and hopefully I will have a full sock draw again. I swear we have a resident sock monster or two in this household beside the boyo.

Rh has no quarms about wearing his mother's feminine lace patterned socks when he is short of a pair.  It seems that rolling them down under the padded collars of his boot shafts. With a pair of long pants over the top none of his mates are going to see his socks.  Rh got a santa sock full of socks so hopefully my lacey pairs won't go walking into his room yet again.

Grumpy aka the husbeast loved his Christmas gauntlets that I knitted for him.  I just wish he would learn his left from his right hand.  Maybe he will do so this year.  Well anyway best wishes and hope you and yours have a happy and safe year.

End of Year review 2013

Well it is that time of year again.  I have given up on making anything else before the Christmas Deadline.  If I attempted to squeeze another project in I am pretty sure I would end up dead.  Either due to winding up my spouse, kids or blowing my own top in frustration.  So I got off the crazy bus and now I am so mellowed out it is questionable if I could breath in a lung machine. At least this year I was not so crazy to have a huge list of items or to attempt to knit a jumper in a short period of time.

As I have been slowly recuperating from yet another dose of flu whatever lergy that someone had to share with me given the depressed immune system thanks to the chronic illness status.

This year has been on the whole micro micro minute baby steps to get back into the swing of things.

Apparently there are three shopping days until Christmas and I can honesty say that I haven't done any shopping at all. Ah the bliss of not being abut to go shopping or brave the crowded streets due to my poor mobility. There is a  plus side to being a spoon.  

So  I finally picked up the needles again during the summer and some projects that hadn't been finished have been finished.  The plan was if I could concentrate long enough.  After falling even further down the sink hole of depression with my forced medical retirement last year I ended up needing a stronger dose of meds that resulted in a period dribbling in the corner.    

Spring helped along with a personal decisional decision to cut the meds back.  Quacks didn't quite agree but I did it anyway and was going ok until September.  Minor setback but didn't end up down the drain I just had to work a little harder to stop myself nose diving.

Ry comes home from University tomorrow so we will have a full house again.  It will get noisy again.  You wouldn't think that one child not being here would make so much difference. Not that either would agree with the noise comment or the label of child.  I now have young adults.  All my kids are no longer in school by gads I feel like a fogie now. 

Wishing you all the Seasons greetings to you and yours.  Hope you have lovely break with your family and friends keeping safe and well.

Hurricane St Jude

It is a wet and windy day here in the UK and I am glad I am not out and about.  We currently have wind warnings for gales force winds of 80 miles per hour plus. So I am quite glad to be knitting away here on another pair of gauntlets.  I made a pair earlier in the month for the daughter just before she returned to Uni for this academic year.

The rest of the family then put their own request for their own pair.  So I have been knitting a manly pattern for the son and the father cause they didn't want lace like the girls.  So we seem to be a mix and match family for accessories this winter.

Given how quickly the bad weather has settled in and looking at the weather map pictures on the BBC I am saying that it is not Autumn but rather winter.  I don't think we will get much in the way of white stuff this year but I think we are going to get lashings of rain.  

It may be Guy Fawkes next week along with Rh's birthday but I don't believe we are having autumnal weather any more.  So keep your heads down and don't get blown away in the wind gusts.

Revisiting Hiya Hiya sock circular needles

Back in 2010 I brought a couple of different sized Hiya Hiya needles.These needles are well made and I thought I would trial the use of the 9 inch sock circulars to see if the travelling sock knitting was made any easier.

I cast on and it was over six months later in May 2011 before I finished the second sock.  I ended up struggling again to complete the toe of the second sock.

For some strange reason I cast on another pair of socks using the circular needle again just to make sure that it wasn't for me sometime in late November 2011.  I really wasn't for me.  I have rheumatic problems and during the colder months I found that I was dropping more stitches than I was knitting.  I ended up with a project bag with one sock finished in a pair and the other sock just barely cast on the needles.  One sock hiatus had struck as the project had developed second sock syndrome.  It was a top down sock and the ribbing had been completed moving into the pattern on the second sock before the motivation to continue walked off the shop floor.

Come 2013 after my great hiatus in knitting I was sorting round the various project bags that I had in my lounge room work basket only to find the one sock hiatus project bag.  I was rooting round for something that I could just knit while on the go.  I needed a project for Yarndale in Skipton the outing was my belated birthday present from the family.  It would be the first time I have been out of the house in nine months for a non medical trip and I was going to be in the car for more than thirty minutes so something for the drive there and back was most certainly needed to help distract self from back pain.

Knowing me and long drives I need something to keep the hands occupied but simple enough to enable me to gawk out the window at the countryside.  It was a lovely dry crisp Autumnal day.  Everyone seemed to be out and about especially the Vespa club who seemed to have a run to Skipton on as well.  I saw lots of lovely bikes and even a couple of side cars attached to Vespas. There were some lovely paint jobs on some of the vintage models.

With a little jiggery pokery I managed to deconstruct the pattern instructions from the completed sock as the original pattern had been long lost thanks to either the dog or the cat.  I did a lot of knitting and then some tinkling on the second sock.  Given how much worse my rheumatic issues have become over the last couple of years I would love another one or two inches on the cable.  It is just that little bit two short for my required knitting action.  The tight action makes it painful to knit and I can see why I didn't finish this sock that quickly.  

If you don't have fat fingers and can cope with a tight knitting action I think the needles are well made.  There is no catching on the needle to cable join area.  They seemed to wear well with no sign of any metal degradation after almost two years rolled up in a project.  I just could do with an inch if not two to have enough give for my preferred knitting action.  As an idea I think a short pair of sock circular needles are still a very good idea for the commuting sock knitter.  But for me I need about 11 inches so I don't drop stitches and to relieve the tension in my hands.

End of Year Review 2012

Well Seasons Greetings all.  May you and yours be safe and well.

This year had been a bit of a dark one but for me the light at the end of the tunnel is that there is a new year starting in a couple of days. 

Ry has come home from University for the Christmas holidays and I have finally moved of the nebuliser every two hours.  I have moved through to four hourly and now to six hourly.  Still have the classic smokers cough even though I have never smoked a day in my life.  

Life has to get better and I keep holding onto that thought.  Given how I have been bitten so many times by this and that in the last couple of years I have decided that 2013 will be the year of micro baby steps.  If I can move a centimetre or a quarter of an inch I will be ecstatic about any achievement.

The goal for next year is to be standing, able to walk ten meters and to be compus menus long enough to cope with returning to university next September.  That gives me nine months to get out my current permanent residence the day bed.

Craft wise I am also taking micro baby steps to finish at least one project and then go from there.  I have so many things on the needles that I just haven't finished. I think if I can work the different project bags down to a manageable size I will start to feel better.   There will be some projects I know I will have to frog as I will not have a hope or a prayer of working out where I am up to or have lost the instructions.  Somethings you can't work out if you lose the resurrection sheet.  There is just no coming back to it if the project sheet is lost.

Next year I will have no trouble going on a cold sheepie or doing a stash down as the only time I ever leave the house now at all seems to be for medical appointments.  2012 will always be remembered as the year I was medically retired but now for 2013 I hope to find a new life were I find ways to enjoy old passions like knitting, spinning and other creative endeavours again.  

Best wishes for all and may you have a great 2013.

Practicing to be Darth Vader AGAIN!

November struck hard and not long after Rh birthday I was diagnosed with having Pneumonia thanks to my daughter bring freshers flu home from university,

Currently doing by great job practicing to play the Darth Vader us oldies know from the original trilogy of Star Wars.  Me and the nebuliser have been great bestest friends for the whole month.  

The black dog meds had started to kick in but thanks to not being able to go to uni due to being a one long hacking cough as I try to keep my lungs in my chest cavity rather than over the floor I have had a bit more of a set back.  I have had to defer again.  When will I ever get well enough to go to class.

I haven't been knitting at all. I can honestly say I have picked up a needle since Christmas.  I have had done some other craft only cause daughter needed running repairs but other than that nada zip zilch.

The Black Dog

Like many individuals I suffer from the black dog also known as depression and anxiety.  It  might surprise some people who have met me in person that I have to deal with mutt.  My black dog comes from a number issues such as PTSD and SAD.  The Seasonal Affective Disorder was a problem in the tropics but when I moved further into a temperate climate it became more of a problem. I am one of these people who need sunshine to be sunny. 

Since the summer I have been in a downward spiral which I tried to ignore how bad I was getting as I was being pigheaded about needing to be medicated again.  I don't like medication I hate medication so I try to use exercise and light to help.  I was being pig headed about needing to be medicated so early in the season.  Normally I can get to January before getting to the point of Ok it is time for Meds. But not this year. In January I can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel with the count down to spring. 

This time the DH organised (cajoled, strongly suggested, frog marched) me into making an appointment and seeing the doctor.  Yeap I really like scoring so high on the depression index (24/28) So it is back on the meds and hopefully we will start to see an improvement in about four weeks when the meds finally start to kick in.

Clear there is a heart beat ! MARK 2

After thinking that I was getting better I managed to get my arse bit.  So after 9 months in a bed I have started to get back.  OMG I have not done any knitting or fibre stuff since Nov 2011 and it almost Nov 2012.  Long story short - developed another label. New label clashes with existing hyper mobility syndrome fibromyalgia and everything else wrong with this lemon of a body.  White Coat Quacks finally worked out a solution medicine wise and I am the mend slowly.

Have had to restart my first year of my degree but I am so happy that I have some of a clue of what is going on while I am working on developing my strength and endurance.  I have become the absolute queen of the Granny Nap and I am still getting confused about days and times.  The meds at one stage created some short term memory issues but we are working on addressing that and it appears that the new meds are not so bad.  I have driven the car for the first time in over 11 months last week and am slowly getting the driver confidence back.  That first trip on the Motorway was a white knuckle ride.

Life has changed yet again for me.  My working life has undergone a radical change and now I am a full time student.  It was a scary move last week when I returned to the university classroom after being a invalid for so long.  So now I am starting a new journey and attempting to find my balance amongst the circumstances of my existance.

Thanks for all those who have sent get well messages and where are you pokes. It has helped in the long term recovery.  I might not have been here without you all and I am so glad I am now able to say thank you.


Best wishes and I hope I get back into the swing of posting with the wardrobe change for the blog.

Clear! There is a heart beat!

As you would have guessed I have not been well.  Many thanks for all the well wishes.  

Basically I had a bad summer fibromyalgia pain management wise which was topped with  the August bank holiday weekend from hell. The after effects of a horrible Bank Holiday Friday night where I did the timber impersonation of falling over one to many times resulted in some more nerve damage to my existing broke list collection along with the acquisition of a frequent customer points card with the Walton Centre in Liverpool. For those who don't know the Walton Centre it is a one of the top specialist neurological hospitals in the UK and is next door to Aintree Hospital.

I have been climbing out of the repeat roundabout where I have had of hospital appointment after hospital appointment again with the occasional short stay. Hello wasn't I just here just before, hang on which hospital am I supposed to be at. There was a recent Friday where I had six different neuro-consultancy areas all have a poke and prod at me thankfully the appointments were all at the same hospital and some how they were organised one after another. That is not a normal occurrence with the NHS.

I have almost finished the workplace occupational health assessments and the associated risk assessment processes for all my employers which meant that on one occasion I was three different hospitals all on the same day. Could you all just not have the same report from one occupational health service and save money? I have a occy health needs assessment next week in North Manchester but hopefully that will me for a while with a return to the regular routine consultant appointment schedule with the various consultants who have been scratching their heads with my treatment plan.  The quacks have knocked something together which seems to be working touch wood.

Knitting wise aint got anything done as I have been struggling to use the hands but that has improved thanks to occupational and physical therapy. I have almost got full hand control it is just the pinkie and ring finger of my left hand who are a little dodgy. In the middle of this drama, the academic year started again and it looked like I would not be able to do the crafts course due to the health issues but I am still hanging in there just and starting to get life back together with normal mundane chores of life like work, kids activities and household things like getting the dishes washed.  The occy health assessment next week is for the course to get the support I need to stay on course.  So life is getting better and thanks again for all the messages and I am working through crowded inboxes (email, ravelry, google, pin interest).

New Meds

The thought of summer free time sustained me through many months of the last academic year but I was deluding myself. I thought. I just thought. That is where I made my mistake. I made it by thinking that I could actually think about a time when there was not some drama lama invading my consciousness.

Yes I have felt like I was falling falling.

Since April I have been on new meds as the recent skin issues have acerbated something I have had for over 20 years.  My spoonieness has been confirmed for the last 9 years when I started to limit my actions due to my condition.  But right now I have not had any action or activity in my life as I have had several quacks (medical professionals) play around with my medication regime. It has been so bad I have not been able to work. Shock horror me not lerking in the workplace how will the library not fall down. A great side effect is that I have been seeing lovely things in my induced granny naps. Things like this blue hippo. I would not mind if I saw him again in the flesh as it would mean either I was in Paris or New York. Either place for a short visit would be nice..

Dreaming really odd things!

The side effects of new meds is I dont feel like I am getting much of anything done in life from the list:

• housework (optional of course), 
• university work (not optional they pay the bills), 
• work pdp (must maintain certification to maintain paycheck thus not optional), 
• children (they never stop being demanding), 
• knitting (to many things to do and not enough time), 
• family commitments (not meeting them so yet again I am in the dog house again with the family)
• associations (not being a very good executive member)
• doctors ( struggling to get to appointments and do everything they ask)

ZZZZZZZZ  sorry I am supposed to get something done.  I  think I will just turn over and have another 20 minutes. when I wake up I might even knit a row which I will probably have to rip out later.

Startitis Part 2 2011

To try and combat the startitis I thought I would work on an old project which has been waiting for a skein or two to finish it off. During that bush turkey impersonation of trying to find something to cast on with, I found the two skeins I had been looking for and so I did some garter stitch knitting. I stuffed it up. I stuffed up garter stitch how the heck I did it I just do not know.  I should of known that I needed to walk away from the knitting as I stuffed up some lace which required me to do some wrip wrup wripping back. oh NO!  It was not just a tink but a frog and recaston job which only did about 6 times before someone else in the house (the dearly beloved husband) suggested I look for something less complicated what about that stuff that goes back and forth and it is all the same stitch (aka garter stitch).  I swapped and still managed to stuff up my knitting.

Red Buttersoft DK

I probably need a good cuppa tea and some scones with jam and cream. The Red Buttersoft project is a cardigan that I started in Scotland last year with another pattern. When I had finished the whole lot and blocked it up there I did not like so it was frogged.  I love the wool but the old pattern just was lacking.  So I changed to another pattern which is a one piece knit across the body that produces a seamless short sleeved cardigan. I had got so far and then I could not find the final two skeins.  I had got as far as almost all the back done. This short sleeved cardigan is designed just to keep your kidneys warm when working in a slightly chilli library. I think the red is lovely as it is semi solid so there is movement in the colour.  I just have to get my knitting mojo into action and finish it.  Now that I have the skeins found that is more likely to happen.. I also have a project that I have to finish for the end of the month for daughter before she goes back to school in September. I have a bit of work to do and I have still got a case of startitis. The count so far is four different weights of lace, 3 sock patterns, a hat, mitts and everything else in the workbasket which has not been finished for the last 12 months. 

Startitis or Olympic standard Nana Napping

Since Monday all I have seemed to do knitting wise is cast on and cast on repeatedly.  Yes the symptoms are in for a case of startitis.  The differential diagnosis process has led me to believe that this condition had struck again.

Symptoms:

• more sets of needles spread around the preferred seating location along with paper patterns, needle rolls, project bags and sssh! swatches.
• more pdf files on the desktop of the laptop which is located on the left arm of the preferred seating location  also known as mother's couch in this household.
• all the sides round the couch have work baskets that been dragged out from their lounge room hiding places and are creating a trip hazard for the rest of the family.
• a worried dog looking over the pile of headhog frames (what else to do you call dpns when there is a sock cast on them).  The dog is worried cause he is thinking how the heck to I get to my food bowl and will she kill me I walk out with one of her projects around my neck or leg again.
• repeated mutterings of "german long tailed stretchy cast on, turkish twisted cast on, garter tab cast on".
• although the knitter concerned has short hair she has a dpn holding her fringe up off her face as this hair has been twisted up out of the way as it was annoying her.
• The knitter is muttering about a lost dpn which she had just a minute ago and can not find anywhere totally forgetting about the one that is holding up her fringe.
• a number of half completed projects which show absolutely no further progression even though one or two of them only need seaming or two french knots so they could cross over from works in progress to completed objects.  As the two simple french knots have not been done it is definitely not finishitis.

Mutley on the other couch

The causes of this condition.

Now the causes of startitis is pretty well unknown as it seems to randomly strike but this week's dose I am blaming on the new medication regime. Yes really. I am. The pain quack, the blessed Saint Anesthete, is trying to find me the new optimum dosage for my fibromyalgia and I have been having a new cocktail combination in my dorsett box. I don't remember much of Wednesday day between 10am and 6pm. Not much at all and I had to tink back my knitting. As one of key knitting commentators whom I actually pay attention to says "Good friends dont let friends knit drunk". Ms Pearl-Mcphee (aka the Yarn Harlot) advises it is never a good thing and I so agree to the point where I want to amend this advice phrase to "Good friends dont let friends knit drunk or as high as a kite".

These are not the needles I am looking for.

So of the side effects of the new medication combinations beside complete out of body moments is bouts of confusion. Did I or did I not cast something on from my never ending ravelry queue and extensive xmas list? No I have not got any lace on the go at the moment totally forgetting about the three projects I have cast on in the last 24 hours. As I have fallen asleep yet again I have dropped another newly started project onto the floor and out of my line of sight.  Where are all my needles?  Confusion is reigning the couch.

I think I am going to apply to compete in the granny napping world championship and then the Olympics as I believe I am starting to get into the elite sports standard.  Do you think the Australian or Republic of Ireland Olympic committees would consider this lump for the nana napping events? I could do the sprint as I am getting under the 1 minute time splits. This is where you take medication with a cuppa and go to sleep before you have a chance to pour the rest the cuppa down your gullet or even return the mug a level surface. Side effect is the potential to spill hot liquid down your front but I could also do the hurdles too. The ability to take medication, fall asleep holding your mug upright and not spill any hot liquid on yourself. Some days I stumble but that is where my fencing jacket aka duna (translation: douvet) comes in handy as it help to protect my skin from liquid burns but I normally end up washing it and its cover a couple of times a week. Why yes my couch (mother's couch) is set up as a day bed and I routinely have a duna around me even in Summer?  We are talking the English summer here it gets terribly wet and cold. I probably would not be selected as I expect that I would fail the drug testing mainly due to the steroids I take to keep breathing.  Cherio now I am off to take my constitutional siesta. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Thinking of Autumn

Today's socks are definitely at touch of autumn in their colouring. They are the well loved pattern called Nutkin. Originally they were going to be for me but then halfway though the middle of the first sock I acknowledged that they were going to be a little tight on me. As the next person in the house who they could fit had gone to bed I could not finish the first sock off that evening as I needed to check the length of the foot.

I should learn to read the pattern introduction properly as it did warn me that the foot was 8 inch diameter. She jumped at the thought of this pair of socks being for her incredibly long foot. I am a 8.5 to 9 (27cm to 27.5 cm) shoe depending on the style while daughter come in starting at 9.5 (28 cm). She has skinny ankles and long thin feet where I have a very very good grip on the ground. I am 9.5 inches round the ball.

That is a long foot as the legs are 4inches.

Daughter has been wearing the round the house unblocked and I have finally managed to get a photo on them. There are little flicks of colour in the brown but she loves brown so it is a win win. There was just a little bit of crispness in the morning that indicates that autumn is on its way. While I have to get some more sock knitting done I also have to do some lace knitting cause I am getting WAY bored can you tell I am channelling some teenager lingo. Off to go an rattle round in the stash and look at patterns on ravelry.

Zig Zag socks

So that is another pair of socks down.  I really did not like the colour changes in the Zig Zag. Now have half a ball of it but I will be good and use it. I have a test knit and it is the right weight. I don't think the colour change will be supportive for the cables in the pattern but why not have a test knit to prove that variegated yarns are not suitable for the pattern. I could be completely wrong but it somehow I don't think I will be.

The stash down is continuing as I am now looking at what yarn we have left and what I can use it for. I also need to get some items done for the autumn. My God woman England is the middle of the warmest three days of the year and you are already thinking about autumn.... I  know I know but you have to be prepared. I am also planning to catch up with my A-Z knitting but I need another knitting project which is not 2.50 mm needles.

Stash Down 2011

This year I have been doing a bit of a stash down attempt. Basically I looked at my Coal bunker and thought that i should reduce the amount of items I have in it.  I have fabrics that are 20 years old sitting there waiting to do something about it.  I want to get the shelves down considerably so I am not overflowing.  Some of the stash has been shared with a local charity shop as I was honest with self that I was never going to use it at all.  Part of my stash includes fabrics stashed by my grandmother.  Nothing like inheriting stash.

So far this year everything has been knitted, sewed or crocheted from the stash. I have mainly only done minor purchases such as lining for daughter Carnaby skirt and buttons. These purchases have not ended up as stash but rather helped the stash to enter into the wonderful world of being finished projects. The one yarn purchase I have done this year was some crochet thread so I could do a surprise project for the daughter.  This project is currently on the back burner since daughter is on holidays so I can not seem to get anything done without her putting her sticky beak in.

After the tour de fleece I have a lot handspun which I will be using for projects but when I sorted out the coal bunker I noticed I still had a lot of hand spun which I had not found a use for.  So as part of the stash down I want use up my hand spun as much as possible.  The Moorlit fleece which is a now a nice yarn will need to get a decent photo before I knit it up into a cardi for hubby. This will be his Christmas pressie this year.  I still have the 500gms of BFL in a Mocha which I will have to work out what I am going to use it for.  There Shetland braid from Wonkyknitter which I had in the stash which was spun and then knitted into a Haurni shawl.  I have blocked it but I will need to re block it as I wont ask the children what happened.  We have reached August and I have not done a major yarn purchase it is amazing.  

Sock yarn wise I am almost getting to the bare cupboard situation. Currently I am knitting some socks in some King Cole Zig Zag that I had in the stash which I had regretted purchasing. The stash down attitude has helped me to use this yarn cause I had in the past gone meh, not that keen to use.  The yarn has too short of yarn colour change and I am not enamoured with it.  Additionally I don't think the yarn is particularly sympathetic to the pattern and it would have probably better knit in a plain coloured yarn. As I am knitting my H pattern in the yarn which is top down design I a suddenly hit upon a solution. Don't make the socks for me.  Make them for someone who will like the colours.  Simples! My sock foot is suddenly shorted from a size 8.5 to a tiddly 3.5.  Sanity back in check and the feeling of absolute relief when I get the first sock done.   But I still have a second sock to finish.  Must knit this second sock now to brake the chance of a large hiatus or the dreaded second sock syndrome.