FO's of 2009 - 3. my everlasting bagstopper

As usual I messed up with this one and if you look carefully it shows hint: I seem to have missed a stitch in the lace parts which made the lace pattern off slightly. Hence the four rows of stocking stitch in the middle so I could sort the pattern out - then of course I managed to do it again LOL.

I use this bag to store my mohair and a few odd cones. I really wish I'd made it longer but as usual, I was impatient...

I am actually very happy with this and intend to make at least one more this year and a few next year.

Nightmare times

My emotional life has taken a turn for the worse so I'm back on the prozac for a while but I have been knitting:

I am going great guns on the chunky sweater jacket, I finished the hood and have started both fronts. I was going to do them both together then noticed that there was no definite spacing for the buttons so I am doing the left side first (occasionally working on the right side ribbing). Then its just one sleeve and a pocket to knit and I'm done.

The second style of bedspread square is started. I am using the February square pattern from Hanks Yarns, using 52 stitches instead of 44.

I've also picked the baby blanket up and knit one row, not much I know but at least its a start...

Soap wise I have decided on a vanilla scented soap as I love vanilla sooooooo much LOL. I will make that this week and post pics as soon as I'm done.

Bragging rights

Not knit or soap bragging I'm afraid but I just had to say that I got 98% in my Java assignment. Yay me!!!

It also looks like I might be able to make some soap again soon. I'm out of lavender and while I restock that I can make one of the other batches I want to try at the same time. I've just got to decide which batch I'd like to do most LOL.

Knitting wise I have only done a few rows on my curbing bag and one square but at least I haven't ground to a halt :-) Oh and of course I've added a few things to my Ravelry queue.

Now to start the next Java assignment...

Starting off simply

As I've been doing Uni assignments all week (one down, three to go) I haven't been doing a lot of knitting. I have however sorted out some of the squares for the king size bedspread. I am starting with some simple, no brainer squares to reflect the fact that my brain hurts from all the coding I'm having to do for Uni LOL.

As you can see I've started with a simple moss stitch square with a garter stitch border. I will do two of each colour and then go on to some more complicated squares. I fully expect this project to take a very long time as its one of my TV projects and I don't watch a lot of TV. One day I'm going to get the knack of knitting and reading at the same time, until then I will make do with the large collection of audio books I have accumulated. I'm listening to Eragon at the moment and enjoying it more than I did the film.

My stash has exploded LOL

For someone who only started knitting again towards the end of February I seem to have collected quite a stash of yarn. I know I'm bad but there's all those bargains out there and all these wonderful things to knit and I suppose I am getting ahead of myself when I think "ooooh that would be nice to make such and such". Especially since I have so much yarn for so many projects as it is, some secret, some not.

I know I am throwing myself into only one hobby because at the moment I have so much soap that I can't justify making any more. That and I need a hobby that can take me away from the soap opera that is my personal life but I have decided that enough is enough and I can't buy any more yarn until I have used up at least a quarter of my stash.

This could be difficult because I adore buying new yarn, the looking at all different types, the ideas that I come up with for patterns to use the yarn with and even the excitement of going to the LYS or having packages arrive in the post but

1. I really can't afford it
2. I have to downsize from a three to a two bedroom house soon and I won't have anywhere to store it.

With this in mind I am designing a king size quilt/bedspread, all made from squares I like the look of and mostly made with my collection of Sirdar Click. I think 50 balls should go a long way towards making it don't you?

For those Ravelry members here is a link to my stash. For those who aren't Ravelry members or on the waiting list - what are you waiting for - get your backside to Ravlery and sign up, its a great place to be!

Curbing bag rescued!!!

I know I said I was going to frog it but I left it on the needles for a while and yesterday I decided to see if I could rescue it. To my surprise I actually managed it - Yay me!!

The picture on the left shows it ripped back with a new row started. I'm excited about starting this again because its such an enjoyable project to knit. I just won't use any more 2 ply on it because I really hated the hole where the row started.

FO's of 2009 - 2. Waffle Stitch Fingerless Gloves

My second FO this year was my Waffle Stitch Fingerless Gloves, an extremely quick knit. If I remember correctly I needed them for the next day and knit them up in 2 - 3 hours, the sewing, as usual, took a little longer LOL. My Ravelry notes say that I should have checked the gauge first as they were a little baggy. It was my fault really, I have the good fortune to knit to a standard gauge and for these gloves I upped the needle size from 4.5 to 5mm as my 4.5 needles were in use already with some test knitting.

I do like these gloves and will knit them again, hopefully with some gorgeous and relatively expensive yarn as they take so little ;-)

FO's of 2009 - 1. Felted WIP basket

I learned to knit when I was little, my Nan and my Mum taught me although I don't think I ever finished anything LOL. I picked it up again when I was pregnant with my second son back in 1988. I made 2 baby jumpers (one of them was very complicated) and a large intarsia jumper for myself. Then I hung my needles up until February this year when I got the urge to knit again. I got some needles and yarn and started knitting my (so far unfinished) chunky sweater jacket. Then I got the bug...

This was my first FO, my felted WIP basket/bag. My notes on Ravelry say:

"Basic knitted bag, co 40, garter stitch for 15 rows (first ball of wool). Pick up stitches from the other sides and knit in the round until its about 1/3 taller than you want it to be after felting or in this case until I literally ran out of wool :-).

Not great but still not too shabby for my first fo in 20 years LOL"

I used Freedom 100% Wool from Twilleys of Stamford in 408 Moorland and really enjoyed it. Of course the wool was super bulky so it didn't take long at all - just what I needed to get me into knitting properly. I quite literally used 5 balls to make this (you may see on the photo that I had to use a small amount of acrylic to finish the binding off. At some point I managed to lose the stitch marker for the beginning of the row so I had to guess where the handles went, and of course I got it wrong and then I bodged it when I made them larger but it was bound to happen.

I am still happy with it even if it was a bodge at the end and it gets daily use :-)

The dreaded baby blanket strikes again!

Today was supposed to be about my few FO's but yesterday, just as I started on the second pattern for the baby blanket I realised I had 126 stitches instead of 128! With four stitches each side as the border I now just have to design the rest of the blanket myself because there's no way I'm starting the damn thing again. Cables are out because this project has pissed me off enough already but I'm sure I will find something that works well.

Wraps per inch (WPI)

As I've got quite a few odd balls of yarn I needed some way to find out what weight/thickness they were so I've made a reference table to help me:

UK	Wraps per inch
2ply	18+
3ply	16
4ply	14
Light DK	12
DK	11
(US worsted)	9
Aran	8
Chunky	6
Super Chunky	5 or less

To measure the wraps per inch, wrap your yarn around a large knitting needle/ruler/pencil and measure the wraps in an inch. The yarn should just be touching comfortably, not squashed together or spaced so that you can see the object underneath. As you can see from the picture on the left, the yarn used wrapped 10 times which makes this yarn a D.K./worsted weight.

Its amazing how a walk can floor me

I walked to the post office on Monday to post my first ebay sale, it wasn't a long walk - maybe 1^1/2 miles there and back but a few hours after I got back my sore throat started and it felt like I had the flu.

This is the part where I admit that I have M.E. and obviously crashed from walking... Monday night was spent in bed, Tuesday I managed to sit at the PC for an hour, yesterday I actually managed some washing up, put some washing on the line and worked with a client on their web site. Today I'm still feeling awful but I'm trying to do as much as I can.

On the bright side I made a very quick bed caddy with some of the Sirdar Bigga in my stash, it knit up in just a few hours and I'm using it already.

Here are my notes on Ravelry:

CO 30 stitches. Stocking stitch for approx 2/3 of the drop from the bed, change to reverse stocking stitch until it’s long enough to start under the mattress, garter stitch for at least the same length of the reverse stocking stitch (to hold it under the mattress). Sew up the sides of the pocket and make one or 2 small pockets for the front.

I am not a fast knitter but I knit this up in less than four hours.

amendments - if I do it again I will do a small garter stitch border at the beginning to stop the curl - this time I accentuated the curl and stitched it to stay like that

It took three balls of Bigga and there is a second pocket but I haven't put it on yet

I have also cast on the dreaded baby blanket again, this time using the white Juicy DK. By the way I dread it because of the reason I am making it, the pattern is easy to make.

First ebay sale - Yaaaaaaay

I have just made my first sale on ebay - 250g of the cream Sirdar Snuggly Tiny Tots D.K. I know it might not seem like anything huge to celebrate but hopefully its the turning point in what has generally been a very bad week.

If it isn't then I'm going to crawl into bed and not get out til Monday LOL

Curbing Bag - frogged

I was really enjoying this knit and then I realised two things:

1. I really hadn't thought out the colours I was using very well
2. Using two strands of two ply cotton on 6.5mm needles was fine on the main part but looked awful where the round was finished (can you say BIG hole LOL)

So I decided to take it back to the row before the cotton but as this week is turning out to be one of stupid mistakes I messed it up. So the first curbed bag becomes my first knitting failure of the year and I will choose my colours very carefully for the next attempt.

That leaves me just one wip - my chunky sweater jacket. I think I will work on that for a while before I start another one. I could really do with a nice shrug at the moment. I have a blanket I use when it gets cold but it can't cover my shoulders and arms and still allow me to knit and type. Then there's the teddy I need to make for my nephew and the dreaded baby blanket! Watch this space.

More nice surprises from the postman

Yay, I finally got my Mothers day gift from my middle son. In his defense I asked for this and it did come from the States so I was expecting it to take a while :-) If you look at my quick profile on this blog you might understand why I wanted this so much LOL. Knitting got me off Prozac and also stopped me from going crazy and killing people (insert evil grin here).

Another box came with it too - my newest additions to my extra large book collection. Anne McCaffrey is my favourite author - I have most of her books, Deluge is the third book in the twins of Petaybee series and Dragon Harper is added to the 20+ Pern books I have already. As I loved the film twilight and know that usually the book is better than the film I also ordered the first three books of the Eclipse series: Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse.

I'm a sucker for a well written fantasy book as then I don't have to deal with the real world. Oh and I have a fascination for dragons and vampires too LOL

Wow two posts in one day - I am doing well :-)

Finally!

Finally got my Drops felted slippers finished. I would definitely do things differently next time but I am happy with them.

I have also finally put the baby wool up on ebay and if they go OK I've just about convinced myself to put all of the click up too.

With the baby blanket frogged for the moment because I read the pattern wrong, I only have the sweater jacket and curbing bag in progress at the moment. I'm in the middle of the hood for the sweater jacket and I'm on the sixth lot of curbing for the bag so I suppose I'm not doing too badly.

Whats the betting I will start another project in the next seven days LOL.