Finished!

A finished object yay!

Very proud of them. 

Now what to finish next?

updates on WIPs

So how am I going...

Well the second sock on my rainbow socks just turned the heel this morning. My aim is to have the gusset started and a good chunk done today and then see what I can get done tomorrow as I'm not headed out anywhere.

My paintbox cowl was frogged as I really wasn't happy with it and didn't want to waste the yarn.

My sweetie socks have been frogged because I checked the size and they're too small. The patter I used was quite tight so I'll pick another one and go with it instead.

No other progress to report. I'm happy though, by focusing I've managed to make a huge amount of progress on my first pair of socks. I'm excited to get them finished and then I can start on another pair and try and blast at least one other project off the needles. I'm thinking either my cabled scarf or my moss stitch cowl as that's something I can do without paying attention to it.

Just keep knitting ;)

Hey number 1

Sock one is officially complete! Sock number two is already 3.5 inches long so my aim is to get to the heel flap as quick as possible as that's what slowed me up last time. 

Knit knit knit! :)

 

So focus...

Well it's just over a week since I posted saying I was going to focus more on my old projects to get things cleared off the needles.

I'm pleased to report that one project has been frogged and one sock is passed the heel stage! Look:

I measured the sock this morning and there's only 2 and a half inches left to go before I start the toe decreases (yes I've done more than is shown in that picture) so I think I know what I'm doing tonight after the hairdressers.

It feels good to have very visible progress on a project and I just love how the heel turned out with the striping.

Oops I did it again...

Oh sweet blog you're as neglected as my many many WIP knitting projects!

It's getting a little silly not and I've set myself a challenge to finish as many as I can before I'm allowed to cast on anything else or even wind any more yarn, because if I do that I know I'll want to cast on something straight away.

I have two projects I really want to get onto needles so I'm definitely not allowed to start one until I finish one.

So time to admit it, here's my WIP list:

• Self Striping socks (my first WIP to be tackled I think)
• Sweetie socks (vanilla latte pattern with gorgeous yarn painted by my LYS)
• Big reversible cable scarf (think this will be my second as it should take long and it's stash busting, win/win)
• gray gaptastic cowl (this one 3rd I think, again shouldn't take too long and it frees up a cable for my interchangeable set)
• Trillian (this is going to be my travelling project I think so I don't mind too much if it takes awhile)
• Pogona (I really love this and I'm ready to start the next section of it. Again not a bad travel project and isn't too difficult to knit up in chunks)
• Cowl test knit - I must be honest. I'm not loving this and have no motivation to knit it which doesn't help. Thinking of frogging but feel bad for doing so. 

So these are just active(ish) WIPs! I do have lurking UFOs hanging around which I will figure out what to do about at some point in time but above is my focus at the minute.

If I finish at least 2 of these I can start my Americana tshirt that I want to make which will be my first real (to me) item having only done shawls so far.

I shall love you and leave you and go do some work now.

Cakes all around

There's something about yarn when it's caked that makes me think it looks professional. I've had fun playing with my yarn winder but when you drop the yarn it is definitely not fun to fix!

Not done too much knitting recently. I am behind on a knit a long so I need to catch up but I won't have the first chance until Friday night. Mostly garter stitch but using short rows so it is interesting.

Bank holiday

I'm looking forward to the long weekend to hopefully get some serious knitting and video game time in.

My Trillian is almost back to where it was when I frogged it, I should be done tonight which would be great news, I plan to take it to knit-n-natter on Saturday as it will take much less concentration than my Firebolt did.

Speaking of the Firebolt, I need to frog it again. The pattern increases are 7 stitches from 1 stitch which can be quite tricky to do. I'll crack the pattern I just need time to think about it so I'm thinking this is my Easter Sunday/Monday project.

I'm actually quite excited for the yarn winder I ordered to arrive, I'm hoping it'll speed up my current knitting projects so I can get onto new patterns and learn some new skills. I love my Trillian for it's mindless knitting but I'm learning nothing from it and I'm not really learning much from my Firebolt. The last time I learnt new techniques was in the Mandy Cowl I made (shown above) that was such a fun knit and took less than a week as I blasted my way through it.

When to frog and when to accept the defect?

We all know the pain, you're so far in to the pattern and something happens.

This weekend I have restarted a Firebolt using Malabrigo sock 4 times and I've also had to frog my Trillian as I dropped a stitch in the lace section and to me it threw the who pattern out.

Normally I'm not such a perfectionist, there are at least 3 yarn overs in my Hitchhiker and I know I made some mistakes in my Shade Loving Shawl. I think I'd just like a pattern to go right for once.

When do you restart versus accepting its not quite perfect?

I've popped a picture in of the yarn I'm using for my Firebolt. It's gorgeous yarn and even better my LYS stocks it.

Knitters block

There are certain things I know I don't enjoy and that's definitely stalling at least one project.

The first is the shawl lace rows of (k1,YO) they slow me right down and cramp my hands and just plain frustrate me so as my Light and Up has come to this section it has stalled.

My other blocks include terror of thumbs in mitts (explains why I have two stalled sets of mitts now) and the fear of having to stitch together a cowl done on flat needles.

What blocks do you have?

Current knitting projects

So I guess the first place to start is what I'm currently working on:

Trillian in Crazy Zauberball (blue/purple/green) this project is shown in the photo.

Light and Up in BlueToothToaster Sparkle Sock Yarn (pale blue with purple flecks)

Marywarmers in Nerd Girl Yarns Bored Now (black and green)

Multicolour armwarmers in RICO self striping yarn (blue, pink and white flecks)

Yes this is many projects. I also have a couple of others on needles too that I really need to finish. I'll start posting photos as I progress.

Resurrection of an old blog, however do I do these things.

Things have changed a little since that last post, I did in fact build the PC, it's my pride and joy. I've also rebuild my boyfriends PC since that time and I've spent many a good hour playing League of Legends, Starcraft 2 and Guild Wars 2.

One of the main changes in my life is that I had to quit WoW due to starting work full time and being unable to commit the time to it and I have since picked up knitting as a hobby.

I'd quite like to turn this into a record of my knitting and ideas and problems I discover along the way.

I learned to knit a very long time ago but had long since forgotten how and when I picked up needles again in October 2012 it was amazing how quickly things came back.

So look for me trying to keep this place updated, with pictures and struggles along the way as I try to learn new techniques.