Stops Along The Odyssey Trail...

Awesome indie dyer Countess Ablaze is spending a year dying yarns inspired by The Odyssey and I'm utterly enchanted. Updates are at the end of the month and while I dutifully knit along on my project out of march's selection I thought I'd show off my socks from January and February.

That bottom ball is from January and has the stunning name of Death Was Quick And Marriage A Painful Matter. The base (the base of both yarns in fact) is a lovely merino, nylon, mohair mix. It has great definition and, after a good wash, a lovely halo. I loved the rapid colour changes and decided to pair it with the Top Down Strie pattern from Sock Architecture to see what fabulous chaos the purl bumps could bring about. I think these might be my favorite socks right now.

February's ball wonder is the equally stunningly named I Follow The Wide Fame Of My Father and has wonderful tones of berry reds, juicy purples and charcoal black. Pleased with the stitch definition the mohair brings to the table I thought I'd try some cables. As both of the cabley sock patterns I had my eyes on were by Louise Tilbrook I tossed a coin and cast on the Beltane Socks. And without bragging too much I think I can say my instincts were correct. The definition of the yarn made sure the cables didn't get lost I the variegation. Probably my second favorite sock right now, though they are getting a bit warm for the time of year.

As for Marche's update? Well like I said at the top I'm still working on that one. It's a little bigger than some socks but here is a preview of the fabulous colours:

Big Boy, Soxa Tank and Lacking Subtlety

Last year I fell in love with a woman in a steampunk outfit that combined stunningly deep, saturated, and eye catching shades of orange and purple. The colour combination burned itself into my brain and I had to force it into my wardrobe somehow. Luckily my wardrobe is used to being stuffed with colour choices that display a complete lack of subtlety or sense. 

 

The pattern I eventually decided on using for my experiment in eye-catching was Bonnie Nurnberger's Soxa Tank from Knitscene Summer 2014. I didn't think I would be able to pull it off with purple short shorts (or indeed pull off purple short shorts) but it does make both an attractive sweater vest and tank. And those are two wardrobe pieces I'll always love. 

Lace Front, contrast edging

So once I had the pattern there were two problems to overcome. One is that the pattern is straight up and straight down. I am considerably top hevey. Before I cast on I made reams of notes all trying to solve the problem of how to insert my breasts into a flat tube without resembling an overstuffed sausage. I contemplated bust darts but I couldn't convince myself that they would look good against the all over lace pattern so instead I took the easy route, adding increases and decreases at the side seams to give me more space were it was needed. 

back in reverse stocking stitch 

My second (and last) dilemma was the colour. I knew exactly what colours I wanted so it was just a case of finding someone who could pull off the bright, amazingly saturated colours I was after. I saw Easy Knits, one of my favorite dyers, at Fibre East and came home with a bunch of his Big Boy. Big Boy is a delicious mix of exmoor blueface, alpaca and nylon so aside from the great colour it has amazing definition, a lovely halo and is both hardwearing and machine washable. 

By way of a summary I'm going to give ratings out of five for the three things I mentioned in the title. Big Boy gets 5/5 for being absolutely perfect, Soxa Tank loses out at 4/5 for a lack of bust shaping, and Lacking Subtlety gets 79/5. Because why not. 

Plague-ville Scarf

This project started life as braid of fibre. Irrisistably called Oh, go to Plague-ville!, the braid was part of the Vespasian themed collection in Countess Ablaze's Twelve Caesars Collection. I was eager to throw this on the wheel and went for some low twist fulled singles...

The twist wasn't as low as I wanted and the consistency wasn't as even but the entire process of fulling - sloshing the yarn from hot water to cold and throwing it about a bit - was incredibly fun and the colour is amazing.

Like with the spinning I felt I had to work with the yarn as soon as possible but I had other projects on the needles. Unfortunately just before Christmas my Grandma passed away. Knitting and the act of moving my hands is something that's always managed to help me cope. I craved for simple movement and the lacy front of the tank I was working on wasn't cutting it. So the night I heard the news I bought the pattern Quaker Yarn Stretcher Boomerang and started knitting the soothing, predictable ridges in soft singles.

I cast off on the train back from staying with my family. I never know really how I'l feel about these simple comfort knits knit in times of stress and sadness. Will I feel like I can never wear it, or will I be able to forget it's origins? With this scarf it's neither. I remember why I started knitting it, but I still love it. It reminds me that good can still happen after all.

The Sock Report

A little over a year ago I declared my intention to knit seven pairs of basic socks using the Houdini Sock construction. Why? Well I wanted enough awsome fitting hand knit to last a week (after which point I wash them, obviously) to keep my feet toasty warm in winter.

But ever since I knit that first pair I became a hand knit sock convert. I wear them all year round. I wear them camping to keep me cool by keeping the sweat off my feet, I wear them in winter to bundle up, I wear them when cleaning out the penguins to keep me warm even when the hose pipe inevitably drenches my feet. They keep me cool, they keep me hot and they keep me comfortable when wet. So my goal of seven pairs of socks became an urgent one.

So here they are, pair number seven in Bergère de France Goomy 50. I wasn't impressed with the yarn, my general rule in sock knitting is go German or go home and this didn't change my mind. Not enough twist,  too many broken ends. Still they keep me warm, or cool, or feeling dry. Whatever I need.

I'm not ending my sock adventure there though. Remember the mini skeins I bought at Fibre East? They look like this now:

I used the Sweet Tomato Heel for these and I totally consider The Knitting Goddess an exception to my German sock yarns only rule.

Fiber East Stash Additions

The weekend before last I was volunteering and taking classes at Fibre East. Unfortunately I was too busy/didn't bring a camera and missed out on taking any pictures of the evert itself. Really though a picture wouldn't show the best bits anyway: friendly people, sunny skies, and amazing amount of knowledge going round. And while I didn't get pictures of the bunnies or the sheep to share with you I do have pictures of the new additions to my stash. with some ramblings about my plans for them.

My first purchase was an ashford Flick Carder. It's part of some grand plan I have to spin and knit a hat for Stephen this winter. Hopefully one that he will wear

Then I spent the bulk of my money on this. This is Big Boy from Easyknits.co.uk because I wanted to do a birght, bold version of the Stoxa tank from this summer's Knitscene. The yarn is delicious, the colours are fabulous and I'm always happy with everything I buy from Easyknits. I can't wait to cast on.

And on the subject of bright colours I picked up these beautiful little mini skiens in seven colour rainbow from The Knitting Goddess. I made two equally sized magic balls, one running purple to red and the other running red to purple. I'm making socks and I'm already over the second heel. I've been tweeting about their progress but if you missed the pictures they are on my project page.

On the more naturally coloured side of things I bought some angora. I could not resist buying angora. I adore angora but I don't like to buy it commercially and if I'm not certain it comes from an ethical supplier. Buying freezer bags full of fluff from the National angora Club seemed like a good way to get some fibre from a good source.

I bought two natural shades. The grey, confusingly referred to as chinchilla, and the golden white, helpfully referred to as golden. It's so, so, so soft. I'm spinning the chinchilla to get a feel for how it handles and I'm going to blend the white with some BFL I have lying about to see if I can't get the yardage for a hat and mitt set.

I couldn't resist buying something from The Farm Animal Sanctuary but as I was slowly running out of funds I made do with just this small sample of Wensleydale. No plans as of yet.

My last purchase of the day came from Sara's Texture Crafts. It was red and irresistible and I'm spinning it up on my bottom whorl spindle from Abby's class. It's ravelry project page is here.

That was it until sunday when I set off fully intending to buy a tub of samples from Low Land Legacy. Each sample is 20g and I want to spin each up to practise with the breed and then make it into a somewhat random lap blanket with other breed samples I've accumulated.

That was my good intention. Just to buy that tub. And I did buy it. You can hardly fault me that it came with a pack of free buttons.

Or that I found a bit more money when I was packing up. I'd forgotten all about putting my chage into that pocket. I was determined to spend all of it so I bought some more John Arbon fibre to add to my collection. Some broken merino tops.

Then because they are so cute I spent my last few pennies in some of Jack Laverick's cool ceramic buttons. And I felt very, very poor indeed. But with some cool new craft supplies, and isn't that what counts in life?

Adventures In Gift Knitting

A friend of ours in joining the merchant Navy and I knew I had to send him off with a knit. He was sceptical though. Right until he tried on the mitts - the Men's Hand/Wrist-warmers from Last Minute Knitted Gifts - felt how warm they are and got really excited.

There is nothing better than a good pair of wrist warmers to keep you warm and I hope these keep him safe too as he goes off adventuring.

Commitment Issues

As I've barely had time to blog the last couple of weeks it may come as a surprise to you that I've got myself signed up for a few things. It may not. You know me.

 My first sign up came as a surprise to me. I had my shetland fleece on the bobbin and my Zwartbles, Exmoor Blueface and North Ronaldsay ready to go. I had absolutely no time or fibre to take part in the Knitmore Girl's Spin Along Knit Along right? No time to spin and knit an entire jumper.

Well actually after the Shetland was off the bobbin everything turned out to be much faster to spin. Not entirely a surprise as I'd spun the shetland straight from the lock and in it's closed up state it was much harder to get through then well behaved rolags. So, okay I have space on the wheel but the fibre? Well we may have ordered a kilo of Exmoor Blueface roving.

That's a kilo alright

Spin along, knit along here I come. I really didn't think I'd be able to use it as a Tour De Fleece goal though. The first day of the tour is a large scale Guiding event which I won't be able to take my wheel too. The last days of the tour I'll be at fibre east. But I have a spindle for a reason so I'm officially signing up to spin every day. A more manageable goal given my commitments.

My Exmoor Blueface spun from the scoured fleece 

And with that first lot of Exmoor Blueface off the bobbin I have to do something with it... as it averages at a light fingering/lace weight why not dye it green, buy some black beads and a specific kind of dental floss and knit the Heart To Heart Beaded Scarf for the Knitmore Girls's Summer Of Lace and Beads. A knit along for knitting beaded lace, why not?

I think I have some kind of commitment issues.

Baby Hats and Knitting Practice

I'm taking the Craftsy class Improve Your Knitting. It's pretty cool, you learn to knit in all sorts of different styles. I've been practising ways to get my English style faster and more efficient and now I'm trying to learn continental style. It's frustrating, trying to get my hands working in a whole new different way. To practice I made a little baby hat using the Umbilical Cord Hat pattern. I'm not in love with my technique but I do love this pattern.

Lerro and a Giveaway

I was lucky enough to get to test Lerro, an awsome new shawl by Lee Meredith. It's a striped shawl that takes advantage of slipped stitches to create cool patterns. The base pattern is in fingering weight with lots of cool patterning but there is also a simple variation - the one that I knit - that can be made in any weight.

I got to test it in aran weight and chose the so soft, so fluffy Artesano Aran. I think I'm slightly obsessed with this yarn actually. There was a little moment at the yarn shop where I couldn't decide which two colours went best together, had a staff member come over the help and after the tenth minute of the chin scratching my Mum just picked up two colours that had been next to each other the whole time and I went with them. Inchard and Walnut.

The knitting was so much fun. The construction is modular so you work on the top edge, then the body then the bottom edge. You cast on 18 stitches and bind off 10. It's delightful. Even I can count to that.

Off the needles it's amazing to wear. I know not everyone sees the practicality of an aran weight shawl But I like to throw them on instead of a jacket when it's just not warm enough to go around with your shoulders bare. Perfect for breezy evenings or when I just can't resist going into the water.

So onto the give away. Part of my reward as a tester was a coupon code of $6 off any Leethal pattern. Lee has allowed me to share this with you. It's enough to buy a copy of the Lerro which includes the pattern for both the simple and full variation of the shawl but you can use it for anything Leethal.

Really simple conditions of entry. One entry each, contest closes midday (BST) on the 25th June and a name will be drawn at random.

All you need to do is post your Ravelry name below (so I can send you the coupon if you win) and if you're feeling up to it tell me which Leethal Pattern you'd like to knit.

Socks, Pair Six

I'm back, my digestive system is back. Let's rock.

I haven't been eating an array of exotic foods during my unscheduled break from blogging so we'll start with knitting. I have been knitting up a storm. Starting with these socks.

This is my sixth pair of the houdini socks worked with a plain cuff. You may remember that I'm trying to knit seven plain pairs of these. Its a resolution that has been working out really well for me lately: slipping wool socks on as I come out of the sea, taking them camping, wearing them as I hose things down and pressure wash. I love that even when they are wet (with sea water or welly sweat) they keep my toes at the right temperature.

Pair six then is knit out of the fabulous, lovely Exmoor Sock that I bought back in April. Onto pair seven...

Me Made May 2014: Week One

Following on from last thursday...

On Fridays I volunteer at the local zoo. Sorting out food, cleaning poo off things. I come home smelling like fish so I try not to wear clothes I like. I do wear wool socks though. Inevitably my feet will get wet and the wool socks mean that they stay warm. These are the Miner's Socks. With the photo taken at the same time as my lunchbox.

TorqEat, of course, on Saturday. Tucking into my indian food in my potato printed cardigan (I didn't wear glasses when I made this. What?). I love this and wear it all the time. It's starting to fall apart now though. I should really think about making another. I think, whatever happens I will wear this until it's nothing but a thread.

On Sunday for knitting group and a walk about town I covered my shoulders with my incredibly versatile, hardly ever off my shoulders Same Thing Only Different.

Sunday I dressed for practicality again and head down to the allotment. Making things a bit more interesting, and keeping the hair out of my eyes, was the chequered headband.

A-line skirt  (this isn't the best picture of it admittedly) made to be a wear everyday kind of thing and really does get worn all the time.

And to round off the first week I wore my reconstructed teletubbies t-shirt. It's just how I roll good sir.

Bunny Nuggets

We had a bit of a long weekend which I'm following with a bit of a short post (forgive me) about last week's normal sized weekend and the mischief I got up to.

It started on friday night with a pressing and slightly inexplicable need to knit a Bunny Nugget out of some of my leftovers. Bunny Nuggets are a cute little stuffed bunny designed by Rebecca Danger and the pattern is free. Apparently they inspire impulse knitting in some of us. But apparently they don't like to be alone. Some how by Saturday I'd started a Bunny Nugget production line.

I'd knit the body, with slight variations on the placement of the decreases so they don't all look the same, I'd knit two ears, then I'd add them to a pile. Once I had five knit up I started sewing them together and tucking in ends. For my next trick I made five identical pompoms and attached them to the bunny bottoms. After that it was time to apply the faces. I needle felted contrasting colours on in a variety of expressions. Then all that was left was stuffing and sewing.

I assume most readers have never seen the inside of my flat. Let's just say that I have more than enough cute, cuddly stuffed animals. Stephen's Office however is ripe for the... invasion. And that's how Stephen went to work with five noisy, naughty bunnies who adopted their own people and now play about the place.

And Now For Something Completely Similar

The genesis of this project lies in the ability of my knitting group to enable each other. I asked if anyone else was doing the Ravellenic games. Nobody was or, at least, nobody intended too. After I talked about it, a little bit incessantly, one of them decided to knit the understated Same Thing Only Different. Being different myself I decided to copy her.

The pattern is more of a recipe really. You plug in your yarn and choose between options and get a poncho. You have to have your thinking cap on a bit while knitting. One part of the pattern told me to knit for x inches but didn't say where to measure from. I removed all doubt by knitting until my yarn ran out. 

The yarn in question was the last two balls of Crystal Palace Kid Merino I had in my stash. I bought it years and years ago to make a lace shawl before I realised that it was a bad idea in black lace weight mohair when I've never knit a lace shawl before in my life. It works well here though. Light, stylish and a little bit rebellious. Like me. Only not light, I ain't a small woman. Or stylish. Or... well I'm really enjoying wearing this anyway. 

Miner's Socks

Home meany do I have now? I've knit 1, 2, 3, 4, and now five pairs of these Houdini Socks with a plain cuff. I want seven plain pairs before I go onto patterned socks.

The yarn is Regia Snowflake and I've named these Miner's Socks because they reminded me of coal and shale. Perhaps a little gold too. 

John Arbon's Spring Clean, Part 2: The Three Bags Full

So there I was at the Spring Clean, vegetarian quiche in my stomach looking for something to buy. Whatever did I do?

Clearly the answer was dive straight into of wool. I filled a couple of the green carrier bags with fibre. I went for fairly small amounts of breeds new to me. That way I get to try them out without worrying about how to use up a full fleece.

I got some Zwartbles and Exmoor Blueface at £1 per 100g and the North Ronaldsay (I know I spelt it wrong above, forgive me please) for 50p per 100g. I'm really excited about trying these. Especially the Exmoor Blueface considering how much fun it is to knit.

My main purchase of the day was a whole jumper's worth of yarn. At least I intended it to be a whole jumpers worth of yarn. It's probably going to be a lot more than that. I wobbled between buying enough of the Knit By Numbers (so gorgeous! Amazing colours, fabulous lustre) to knit Lauriel or enough Excelana to knit Laika.

Just as I was nearing a decision Stephen pointed out the yarn above to me. It's called Excelite, it's a 3-ply, and it's a 70/30 mix of Exmoor Blueface and BFL. I bought five skeins (2443m) for about £20. That's a Laika and a bit and it's already swatched.

Clearly there was something about the colour. I also grabbed an very similar coloured skein of Exmoor Sock. To knit socks with.

My last purchase was two skeins of this white merino lace weight. Stephen liked the look of it because it was organic and who am I to deny him really? Stephen bought a pair of alpaca bed socks for himself and one for my Dad. So altogether we bought 2 pairs of socks, two skeins of lace weight, enough yarn for two pairs of socks, enough yarn for a jumper and then some and some cool fibre. Good shopping trip then!