Frugal knitting one step too far?

I have a hoodie that I finished in March last year.

Now, it’s a little shorter than I would have liked as I was running out of wool fast and the zip length also kind of determined the length of the hoodie.

If it were a bottom up hoodie, I’d rip back the hood and the flipped up hem (in contrasting yarn) and add a contrasting button and neck band and use the grey wool to add some ribbing/garter stitch to the bottom.

As the hoodie was knit top down though, this isn’t as straight forward….

why do i want to alter it and not just knit a new one? cost!! and it’s perfectly good wool-in fact i really like the wool… hmm. your thoughts would be gratefully received

resisting the frog

After the great workshop (awful classroom) with Jared Flood, I think I got scared of my cardigan, so it’s been hibernating since, I couldn’t even look at it as I thought I might have to rip it out and start again. The other week I got brave, pulled it out the bag and got dad to try it on and I do think it’s going to be ok! I haven’t knitted any of it since though, for 3 reasons:

1. I haven’t knitted much (1 pair of socks, 1 sock knitted and frogged) at all this summer and knitting was beginning to become the big elephant in the corner.
2. I need to wind a skein of yarn into a ball
3. I thought my pattern notes were in my weekend bag in the loft. Turns out they’re still at my parents.

The elephant has been conquered. I have knitted a pair of fingerless mitts, which I am now however tempted to rip out as the yarn would work for a hat I’ve seen and love (I have a small stash) I am desperately trying to resist frogging them. The fact they don’t have a thumb gusset is making this weakening my resistance :S

I shall wind some wool today/tomorrow in anticipation of my pattern notes arriving soon.  Maybe I should spend some money on some yarn too to prevent the frogging urge further-although still tempted to reknit the mitts with a thumb gusset-much much more user friendly.

The tale of Rowan Polar

Bought for a hoodie for myself… it was going to add too much bulk to my slimmed down self though. also not 100% sure about the colour for me.

an unfinished hoodie

unfinished hoodie from front

bought extra wool and it was then a finished sweater for simon, but was a bit skimpy and bulky again!

it was then made into something of a mystery parcel for Tom.

A brown paper wrapped box

YES, another hemlock ring blanket

and a candle flame shawl for my grandmother’s 80th birthday present. It now sits on the back of her chair

moving on/loving it

The golf club covers I knitted for my dad went down a treat. I just need to grab the photos off him to share with you!

I finished one project of doom and now love it! It’s my second hemlock ring blanket in the yarn that was a hoodie for me and a sweater for simon first. The yarn is perfect for the end project. I need to block it, photograph it and post it off to Tom-I told him it’d be ready for summer. OOPS! The weather is gorgeous, but the need for an Alpaca blanket is not high.

I finished a pair of Opal Hundertwasser socks. They weren’t appealing on the needles, but on my feet and in my shoes, I love them.

I’ve also started my first proper lace project. As in lace pattern, in lace weight wool.

Found myself saying I’m loving it AGAIN, so I think my literary skills are failing me. Hopefully some pics next post

surprising find

I went to see Cats (the musical) in Leeds on Saturday afternoon. I am very pleased that we got a show guide, as lo’ and behold knitting gets a mention.

“PRODUCTION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
…
Leotard Painters Penny Hadrill,
Nicola Killeen
Knitting                 Trevor Collins
…”

It really made me smile and the knitting was funky too. Mind you, the show as a whole was just amazing. Bodily perfection in lycra, vocal gymnastics… It couldn’t have been better =)

I’d finished a pair of socks in time to wear them-got to keep warm. The socks, still not photographed  had been finished, ends sewn in and everything a few days earlier, but after wearing them I decided that they were too short. The downside of a sewn cast off is pulling it out, but that done, the ribbing ripped back to the pattern and having lengthened them, I’m as happy as I’ll ever be with them. One of my first posts here was about colour and I mentioned my love of colour, but that I wasn’t sure about multicoloured yarn. I fell foul of the magpie syndrome. This sock wool looked pretty in a skein-gorgeous in fact, but I bought it on the internet and there were no knitted up versions available to see how the colour placement worked out. For socks which are red, with shots of bright blue and lime green, they’re decidingly boring and lack the pizazz I was hoping for now they are knitted up. I really do think socks is one place you can get away with mad colours, but it’s the placement of those colours that can make or break it?!

purple

I am holding my breath when it comes to this hoodie. I changed my mind on the contrast cuffs. One arm down and aesthetically it is very pleasing. However, I am going to be about a quarter of an inch shorter than I would’ve liked in the body because I am running out of yarn. I have ripped out my swatch, maybe I can get a few more rows with that, but I also need to be able to have enough to sew the hems in and the armpit lil holes shut.

Our sofa arrived safely today-moving the old sofa out yesterday was not a safe operation, as Sy fell, pulling the sofa that was upended on top of himself. The war wounds don’t look very impressive though as we were good and iced them (+ drank vodka to numb the pain)

I think lots of knitting will get done on this sofa-you can see the slidey outy seat on the left-it pulls out further too =) I was all prepared to have to grow to like it in situ, but “I just love it” , Sy sums it up.

I shall go and wind the last skein of grey hoodie wool…

Oooh, whilst picking up some essentials in a certain supermarket that doesn’t need any more advertising, I bought some foam interlocking gym mats for £7.50. My new blocking boards =)

“where’s my tape measure??”

That’s what sums up this weekend. We’re a household of many DIY tape measures-4 in fact and I have about 3 knitting tape measures, but they keep mysteriously disappearing this weekend. Luckily my knitting ones have not been used for the tiling/plaster-boarding in the bathroom!

My new needle tips arrived yesterday, but yesterday was the day of baking. I had tried a new chocolate brownie recipe the night before-what a gooey greasy mess they were! So I went back to the tried and tested version that I’ve been baking since childhood (usborne’s first cookbook recipe). I had to make 2 batches though, as the first batch were being posted off to my sis’s boyfriend’s for his birthday and one batch fitted perfectly in the box… Today though I abandoned the 20mm dowels and 80% acrylic to knit on 3.5mm needles with 100% wool again. Interspersed with sessions of maths, my hoodie is now beyond the armhole stage (top-down). If I do 15 rows a day on the dowels though, that should be ready to block in 10 days!
Next weekend is a mini ravelry meet-up. I should really cast-on some birthday socks to take to that as the hoodie in a coffee shop is asking for trouble. That and the socks need to be done by the 9th. I’m going to be boring and repeat the jaywalker pattern. Socks would also mean I could take them along to the theatre afterwards-knitting in the interval sounds like a good idea!

Now for the bust-darts maths-oh and protecting my tape measure!

…and breathe!

Well after the bad knitting mood cloud, things are on the up!

1. I’m about to finish the 3rd panel of a 5 panel blanket-think i can cope with the colour.
2. I have more plans (other than destroying it by felting it) for the rowan polar
3. have incidentally ripped back the sweater already-just need to wind it into hanks, soak and dry. (once we have a new bathroom)
4. I ordered the replacement needle for the broken one and added some laceweight into my basket so that I can make the family tradition shawl soon!

frustrating knitting weekend

i am knitting away on hoodie for myself, yet i am living in a state of “oh my gosh I’m not sure I have enough wool”. Then, yesterday evening, I was tightening the new harmony needle on to the cord and SNAP! I’d been holding the wood and not the metal whilst wrestling with the fiddly little key they provide… I have since read up that people recommend using rubber to grip both ends if you’re having problems tightening them. Too late. Getknitted will be phoned first thing tomorrow morning in the hope that they can send me out some new needles asap!

I switched to a long-term project: A cable comfort throw. I counted the number of rows and it wasn’t making sense. I was meant to be on the “create a cable row” yet that had happend 2 rows previously! This morning I’ve recounted and lo’ and behold I’d made the initial mistake 18 rows ago…. I’m just about out of negative equity and on to progress on this project that I’m not even sure I like. Not convinced on the yarn (Sirdar Bigga) or the colour (purple-I don’t DO purple-it was a bargain. hmm)

Oh, AND I’ve come to the conclusion that the sweater I made for Sy is too skinny in the bulky wool. It’ll be ripped out and made into it’s 3rd project. I don’t get on with Rowan Polar in Jaffa. Might as well use it though… I wonder if it’ll felt?! It’s 60% Pure New Wool, 30% Alpaca, 10% Acrylic and says handwash only so fingers crossed.

organisation

Our study/computer/craft room has been in a bit of a mess recently with filing mixing with half frogged projects and “on the go” projects too… So a dark and wet December weekend lends itself to organising.

• I have now emptied out the gorgeous baskets which included amongst other things, batteries, a skipping rope(!?) and our mattress guarantee!!
• The yarn has been sorted, mostly photographed and ravelry‘d the ball band info stored and then the ballbands THROWN AWAY!
• my ballwinder is cooling off after rewinding yarn that was either too tightly wound or falling about in a mess

So, that’s the good bits!

The bad bits are the embarrassment of random pieces of paper with scribbled instructions on them! Mostly these are from over a year ago, when I was happy to print things off without a header and scribble notes in pencil that I just cannot decipher. I have written down the notes that I could make sense of into my notebook and put the rest for recycling. I’m sure a year ago they made sense. Still, apart from the odd ipod cosy I am not sure I would go and crochet mittens again!

Since I started knitting a year ago, I’ve luckily been more organised than in my crochet days… Writing down notes as I go. Spiral bound books are best as the notes are all in one place and the books don’t slam shut.

I have lots of left overs from the initial crocheting that I think are going to have to be knit up as toys or other oddments as the cotton is not a wearable softness… I also have the lovely novelty yarn. Maybe next year when life is less hectic, they could become Christmas decorations…

Talking of which, I shall be digging out our few Christmassy bits and dotting them around this weekend too. I like sparkly bits to see me through the winter months…