knitelly

Time for a quick update, to show that in between weekends buying yarn, I do actually knit stuff.

First up, My Oh So Beautiful Socks in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock. Several weeks ago, I turned the heel on the first sock, and it became painfully clear that the tent stitch (which shows off the different colours so prettily) combined with tight tension meant too small a sock. Hell, I couldn't even pull the cuff over my heel. I briefly toyed with the idea of carrying on and making the socks for a friend with much smaller feet, but no, the selfish gene is too strong. I just love this yarn and I love this pattern..... so it's been sitting in a bag out of sight these past few weeks, until I can bring myself to rip it out.

In the meantime, I have wound another skein of LLSS to start again and cast on. Since I actually like my very tight gauge for socks, I shall keep using the same needles, but this time increase the number of stitches in the round. Here's a close-up of the pattern.

Now I know that a strong flash and a crumpled sheet does not a good photo make, but I wanted to show you progress on my main project, approx 33 inches of Cozy using two skeins of malabrigo pure merino.

I'm utterly delighted with the shawl so far, although it's much narrower than I'd like (you can see the end nearer the camera is wider from my constant stretching). I'm hoping that aggressive blocking will sort that problem. I'm much quicker with the repeats now, but I don't have much time for knitting at the moment *sigh*, so progress is not as quick as it could be, but I make sure I knit at least one repeat every evening during the week and catch up at the weekend.

According to the pattern, this is the half-way stage, so, having run out of malabrigo, I went back to Stash Yarns on Saturday to buy another two skeins. Stash really is a fabulous shop, and into the bag with the malabrigo fell a ball of Louisa Harding's Grace in plum and a skein of alpaca silk plus assorted circular and bamboo needles. The photo below doesn't really show the colour of the alpaca (below right) at all well (believe me, the flash version is even worse), but it's a deep plum colour. Simply gorgeous.

Remember my plans for a Cozy for me? Well, I cast on the Jaeger extra fine merino aran on straight needles, allowing for the different gauge by adding two more repeats across the needles. Since the wool is black, my intention was always to have this as a portable project, particularly suited to long car journeys in daylight, Saturday afternoons at I Knit London and the like; I even took it to Ally Pally (all that sunlight in the Knit and Relax and Knitterati Glitterati areas would have been ideal, but in truth it never even left the car). Several weeks since casting on, I have barely finished the first repeat. It's not just that on-the-go-daylight-knitting opportunities have not been there, I'm not really sure the gauge is right. The fabric (all two inches of it) is stiff and tight. It could be that I need to knit a few more repeats for it all to fall into wonderfully soft drape-y place, but even B has noticed that I am simply not feeling the love (heh, B's appreciation of knitting is a concilliatory measure to appease me if I'm feeling irritable).

Me: Did you [find the phone charger/call the builders/pay the bill]?
B: Er, no. What [phone charger/builders/bill]?
Me: The [phone charger for the mobile, with the dead battery/builders supposed to be renovating the flat/bill that has "reminders" in red all over it] that I asked you to deal with a hundred times already.
B: Er, no
Me: I told you etc etc..... very important etc etc..... you never listen to me etc etc..... how many time do I have to tell you etc etc..... why do I bother etc etc.....?

Pause

B: Darling, have you bought any yarn this weekend?
Me: Ooooh yes, I went to [Stash/Loop/IKL] and I bought some [Debbie Bliss/Jaeger/malabrigo/Cherry Tree Hill] and..... and...... and...... [more excited chatter]
B: Because the black one isn't working out.
Me: EXACTLY, you're so clever, you're such a wonderful man for listening to me and taking an interest in my crafty pursuits etc etc....... I'm so lucky etc etc .......
B: *sigh of relief*