Trip to Cambridge

Earlier this week we drove down to Cambridge with daughter to check out her preferred university course. If she gets in she will need a push bike like the one in the picture with a big enough basket to carry all her library books.  How do you like that courtyard building for the just the English department?  I loved their library and I could see me spending hours working in there but I think she liked the other libraries this campus had just as much as well so is likely to be spoiled for choice.

It is day two of the tour de fleece here and so far I have done another four bobbins of the Mocha Blue Face Leicester. So I currently have plied yarn which has been twacked outside in the sun do some finishing off drying with weights.

The lovely weather yesterday also allowed me to get a shawl that I made in January blocked.  I know, I know but we have a shortage of space and waiting for days and days to dry is just not a feasible option for me. Between the cat, the dog, children and the husband something would happen.  So here we are with my Zertzerta shawl project.

Zertzerta

This shawl is made out of first attempt to spin a lace or lighter weight yarn. It goes from cobweb to light fingering in places but I am getting better at doing finer weight yarns. I just need more practice aka the tour de fleece for a period of consistent practice.  The pattern is Hauni and I can not believe how quick it was to knit the second time around.  The first time took me something like a month to six weeks of grief.  This time I did it in 2 days.  If I had more yarn I would have made a larger shawl and I really like how I got the graduated colour on the bottom leaves. It was really worth doing all the individual pins for the crochet bottom edge.  A pain on the fingers but I like the edge effect.

Daughter again modelled this shawl for me and she is doing the typical behaviour when she likes my project of I WANT.  I want it. Repeat, wash and rinse and you now know what is like to live with a teenager it is a bit like a broken record.

Yes the garden is getting rampant again but I hopefully will have some kids to help wack it back into submission soon. Daughter has 3 more days of school next week and then her brother gets off two weeks later.

Since this is not the only shawl in the cupboard that need blocking I am off to block another one or two. I do have to do a few more shawls in the next couple of weeks for graduation pressies so I am between a rock and hard place with time commitments so I can see some midnight oil being burnt knitting or spinning like the clappers.  Now I just have to make a choice about shawl patterns.  I think repeats of patterns I have done before is the way to go but it is a case of which ones.

Wind in the Willlows

"O Mole! the beauty of it! The merry bubble and joy, the thin, clear, happy call of the distant piping! Such music I never dreamed of, and the call in it is stronger even than the music is sweet! Row on, Mole, row! For the music and the call must be for us." The Mole, greatly wondering, obeyed. "I hear nothing myself," he said, "but the wind playing in the reeds and rushes and osiers."  

- Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, Ch. 7.

My Willow Leaf Stole by Linda Choo has finally been finished and blocked. I originally queued this pattern up in 2009 for the the 2010 shawl challenge and just did not get round to it. It was a case of too many patterns and just not enough time. It is third shawl for 2011 but the first one I have managed to get blocked and daughter to model the photo shoot.

It is longer than her arms. We have to do some gardening before we can have a proper photoshoot as it is dangerous out there. The camera also seems to have developed a blurr but that could be due to the sunlight so we are going to try this again later in the day when the day is not sooooo bright.

So I am a yarn snob...

I here by admit that I have a favouritism for natural yarns and in particular wool. Mohair I like to look at it but it has a problem with me it makes me sneeze and wheeze.

My snobbish in relation to natural fibres has increased with my collection of spinning wheels. It just makes sense to spin and therefore use a natural product. I also find spinning to be a very very relaxing activity and it can help bring me down from an almost full blown panic attack meltdown. Wool has some exceptional properties and there are hundreds of varieties. Add to that in addition we also have silk, quivit, alpaca, chasmere angora, yak, hemp, flax, banana and cotton to play with among others.  Then add to the various mixes and we can then talk about the properties that they give to possible projects such as stretch or fall of the finished garment or item.  There are other man made fibres which are based on plant sources but it is necessary to consider the processing it takes to get it and the benefits the final product yarn gives to the knitter or crocheter.

I do like some non natural products but the acrylic content has to be low. Yes I suffered through having to use poor quaility 100% acrylics in the 1970s and 1980s which were incredibly hash on your hands while leaving you with a garment that was uncomfortable to wear. It makes sense to have some nylon in sock wool especially when you are actually knitting socks.

Sock wise I have to start pair number 2 out of 26 for 2011 as it is now the second half of the month. I was going to knit a pair of Bee socks for Ry but she was a super stroppy teenager in the middle of the week and I decided I was going to be a selfish knitter for the next pair of socks.  I have finished the stump sock but we have had a very overcast and dark day and therefore no photos. I got up late at 10am cause it was that dark I still did not feel like the sun was up. I  have my new pattern for me as supposed to cast on a new pair being the 15th but I can not find the yarn I want to knit it in. Must do some stash diving.

A Cat observing the Zauberball in 2010.

Currently I am working on a shawl called the Garden of Alla Shawl by Suzy Crancer, my version of this pattern I am calling Masha'allah. I am using Zauberball Starke 6 that I got last year.  I had been saving it for another shawl project but I am also  a member the Village of the hopeless over committed group on Ravelry. The January event for the group is to do the long colour repeat project or using handspun. Well I have already used some handspun in my first shawl for 2011 and now I just wanted to use some of the Zauberball and this pattern looks good in a long colour repeat. Hopefully we will get some sunlight soon as I want to get a stack of photos done.

All Laced out...

I think that I am officially laced out at the moment.  The push for the shawls last week is probably the cause of this laced out feeling.  Since graduation last week I have not really done much knitting wise.  I have found that I have been looking at  sweater patterns and daughter has been nagging me to get on with some sewing for her.  I just have not had the time to go and play in the coal bunker as I have been caught between work, graduation and graduation parties.

This week we have had a bit of a downer as one of the cats, Zaffy, who liked to play in my yarn and drying dyeing succumbed to a very sudden illness and has had to be sent off to kitty heaven yesterday.  The house is so quiet without her crazy antics and even the older cat is missing the bat out of hell who used to annoy her.

I have managed to score another Philip Poore spinning wheel recently and so I will have a new Wendy, travelling spinning wheel to play with at knit camp.  Can you believe it we have less than 3 weeks to knit camp?  I have been ordering some fibre to replace my Tour de Fleece activities. I think for next year I need to get myself into a fibre club such as one by Debbie of the Hue and Dye blog organises through her online shop.

Blocking like Crazy

After knitting a number of shawls I just had not got round to blocking them.  Why the old factors of time and space along in the case of one shawl total disappointment and a fit of rage.  That shawl was going in the bin I had thrown it across the room as I was  so cross with it.

On Wednesday I blocked them.  On Thursday I roped the daughter in for a fashion show and photos. I actually got the photos uploaded and the project pages on Ravelry were updated.

First Cab of the rank is the RavTav Bitteroot that we knitted as a KAL back in March.

Next on the photo parade is April KAL with Zoec - the Haruni.

The Haruni redeemed itself from the corner of shame when it dried.  It was a miraculous stretching effect that occurred when the pattern opened up and suddenly this shawl was growing and growing to a lovely size.

We have survived

It was a mammoth week in the Atok household this week.  We had exam stress and  nerves, 16th Birthday  Day events, end of school muck-up followed by her leavers dinner and that was just for the daughter.  Daughter was well and truly described as completely knackered. After getting in on Saturday morning she crashed out.  Unfortunately, the rest of us who were just as busy had to keep soldiering on but she was our sleeping beauty who just snoozed on through Saturday and Sunday.  The first week post exams I think the kid is not planning to do anything but sleep and read.

So it will be a week before the reality of the world comes to my 16yr old and then mother will introduce Chores and the necessity of working for a living.  I managed to finish and sew up her birthday cardigan on Tuesday night with approximately 2 meters left of the last skein.  There were a couple of moments when I thought it would be all curtains.  I was so sure that I had foobared that I was starting to think about a contrasting colour for the button band.  I went back to the font of all knowledge and checked out other projects where they had knitted a similar size and used summer tweed.  Yeap six skeins.  Would I have enough left thanks to my minor adjustment of lengthening it.  I counted again and again and even got J to double check my calculations  Seemed like I had actually got it right.  The maths said that I would be ok. It would be close but I would be ok.

It was suck it and see time and I would not be kidding that when I describe the tension as palpable it was.  The old heart was in my throat and I was estimating how many stitches I was getting per foot of ribbing and looking at how much I had left and how much I was appearing to use for each row of the button bands.  It was a sigh of relief and a double check of the pattern to see if I had anything left that I had not knitted.  It looked right but I just had to check cause I had worked myself into a lather about this project.

To celebrate making a non lace project I decided to cast on a shawl.  Yes I was deluding myself that the cardigan was not lace as it was not a shawl. In response to my delusion about having a break from lace I therefore promptly cast on another lace shawl.  I have made 6 lace shawls already this year and it is just the end of June.  I am definitely on track for the 10 in 2010 shawl challenge.  I will have to continue to think about the next challenge for me .

ETA:  To add the photos now that she is consenting to model her cardigan for me.

Haruni

In the last 12 months I believe that I have over come my fear of lace and I would describe myself as a lace knitter now.  I have done a fair bit of lace knitting and seemed to stopped crocheting lace.  But my current lace project is the first one I have been disappointed in..... is it that I have become more technical in my knitting or just that I am not getting the bang for my buck that I have got out of other projects.  While I have knitted for many years I still consider myself to be an average knitter and try to set goals for improving my skills.  I have cast off the Haruni  and I would warn anyone the icord knitted bind off takes hours. Some how all my crochet hooks have done a wonder off some where in this tip of a house.

The Haruni is shawl number 5 so I am halfway down on my New Years challenge for 2010.  I have another couple of shawls to knit.  I think I have about 10 shawl project bags already made up and my ravelry queue has about 250 shawls.

For next year I am trying to sort out which will be my next challenge.  I know it is not already half way through the current year but I think that I am well on track for this years challenge and I dont feel that challenged. When I started the challenge I thought I would be but so far I have not been.

The options for next year is between cables and colour work. I have knitted cables again this year and I just disliked it so much that I have not done another cable project since then.  It is either sort out the cable dislike or the fancy colour work dislike. I have done fair isle and interstarsia before liked the outcomes but not been really enamoured with the technique. I think I have a project for the colour work as I have recently queued a duck patterned pair of socks.

Christmas present wise - well I have six months to go but I have to finish graduation presents off and I only have about month to go for the mass graduation weeks. So I need to get a wriggle on. I also have to sort out my fibre for next month as I have signed up for the Tour de Fleece.

It is now June...

Well yet again I have been surprised by my workload and the continued demand for my services in my paid work.  Add to that the household and other organisations that I am involved in  so life has been a little busy.  But last weekend was a wet long weekend and I actually got quiet a lot accomplished. So much so that the mammoth tinking job was finished and actually finished the shawl.

Yo Mel,  Calling on Mel  Guess what I have some photos .  A couple of months ago the lovely Mel suggested that I provided some photos on my blog.  So a bit of shout for her is necessary.  Lets just say that I tend to be challenged by the organisation required to have nice photos and attach them to projects.  It is actually so bad sometimes items get out the door and I am left waiting for recipients to give me a snap shot. I just have to stop doing last minute rush jobs .....  LOL  that is never going to happen.

This shawl is some Babylonglegs DK in Goblin which I saw at the Ravelry day in Coventry and just had to had cause it was the greens that my Ry would just love. As some lovely commentators mentioned I knit an awful lot of green, yeap I know she has a real green fetish. It has gone past an addiction it is a compulsion which she has great enjoyment in collecting even more green.  I have made this for her birthday, later this month, and being her mother I can guarantee that I most certainly have not let that surprise out the bag cause she would never read a blog in which her mother was talking about anything let alone knittting.  Way uncool.....  Actually at the moment she is pouting cause she thinks that will encourage me to give this shawl to her.  She currently thinks that I am swapping it with someone.

As per normal I had the some difficulties with my swatch it down right lied to me. So I had to fudge some of the charts to meet my metre-age issues.  I can count.  My family knows I can as they hear me every time I cast on when I repeatedly check the number of stitches I have cast on.  Sssh  I am casting on.  God or what ever is their deity help anyone who feels that they will be silly bugger and help my counting with a number interjection.  I have sharp pointy things and I will impale them on these items.  But I somehow keep stuffing up my calculations about appropriate yardage to complete the pattern in gauge.  I can do algebra and calculus but I can not do this calculation.

Travelling Woman or should I say Women!

Well I thought it was time that I got down to work and started to tackle the Christmas Knitting List. I had ordered some yarn from Christine at Knits in the City for the Husbeast's next waist coat. I needed a quick knit and I had some lovely Rowan - RC luxury cotton DK in the stash and though of Ry. Ry's favourite colour is green and I had picked up a couple of balls just case it was a pretty green. Why is it the way that as soon as you like a yarn they discontinue it - Rowan does it all the time!

So I had several shawl patterns thanks to my trolling on Ravelry and was planning to do the next Beginners Lace Knitters KAL next time it started. The KAL voted for September and what do you know it is a Travelling Woman. I had this pattern in my library so I thought it is a good as time as any to start on. I know it was a little early for September but the Beginners Lace Knitters group is pretty flexible about when and how you do things which I like. After casting on last week I go into work and find out that Kate is leaving next week to head off to teaching college. So since it was a quick knit so far I pulled out the stash bag again and found that I had two balls of Artist Palette Butterly. This DK is perfect for a quick knit shawlette for Katie as she goes off to start her new life as trainee teacher.

So at stitch and bitch on Tuesday night I cast on the second Travelling Woman. Perfect time as the initial part of the shawl is straight stockinette. I thought this was a good idea since I would not be able to do a chart and in theory I would be just knitting while chatting. After a couple of attempts and rips I got the shawl cast on. Wednesday night I had completed Chart A repeats and Thursday all done, time to cast off. I think with Ry's I am going to do a couple of extra repeats of Chart A and this will make it slightly longer shawl which is necessary since the girl is so long.

So I think officially I now have the lace bug which is handy as I have been stumbling round trying to find ideas for the Christmas list. Looks like a couple of lace shawls will be flying off the needs at high speed.

Weekend Lace Wrap finally Finished

After some ups and downs I managed to finish the Weekend Lace Wrap there are a couple of creative adaptations which I am going to keep as I just can not be arsed to fix. I am so over this knit if I worked on this item any more I think I would have thrown it into the kitty litter. It is pretty but I am not ready to do lace again in a long long while. Lace is still my hoodoo guru.

I have cast on a BSJ on and finished it one night. I then cast on a second BSJ in rock bright colours. The news about the bush fires at home as me on tender hooks I just can not sleep as we are worrying about people at home in Oz. We are wondering if Uncle and his family are safe. We also have friends in the key area who no one has heard from. I just can not sleep.

Hey Mr Postman!

I finally got a chance to block out Evie's BSJ (aka Pink BSJ) and while getting this sort Mr Postie dropped by and delivered this seasons Rowan Magazine. There are couple of things that I would not mind but the chance I will get to knit these things for myself might be a bit of wishful at the moment.

While waiting for students today at work I hand wound the blue buttersoft DK that I ordered the other week and I also managed to print out a pattern from Ravelry called Weekend Lace Wrap.

When I was online today again in that period of waiting waiting for a student I saw some loverly yarn called lavender and sunshine and will need to find it again. I so want but that is not going to help me cause I can not remember whom I was looking at when I was on one of open access machines. The problem is that on the open access machines you only have limited ability to access websites and this means things like logging in to social networking type sites does not work. On the train home from Liverpool I cast on the Weekend Wrap as I am planning that this project will be a wind down after the mantic frantic activities of the fine art students whose dissertations are due in soon.