Late again

No surprises there then, I'm late again with the work in progress post for this week.  I've been very tired this week and a touch out of it (though my body is adjusting to another new medication, so I'll let it off).  I have finished the knitting on the baby cardigan, though I think it needs one more row on the ribbing, so I'll have to go back and undo the casting off.  Although it's a nuisance it will look better and I only skimped in the first place because I was worried about running out of yarn.





Other than that I'm plodding on with my lace cardigan, I'm finally half way through the body but I was right to think of this as a long term project.  Mind you, as ever, actually knitting the cardigan, instead of leaving it to its own devices, might help.



I shall illustrate this post with a couple of recent pictures from the garden (since I have no new project photos), which is looking thoroughly overgrown after all that rain.  Some of the nasturtiums have already reached three feet, climbing up through the ceanothus.  The great tits and other birds continue to fill the garden with movement and chirruping, you can see even in just a week how much they've grown up.  I love to watch them "sun bathe" (for want of a better word) stretching out all their feathers to their full extent in the sunshine and pressing their bodies flat against the ground, or the tree, as two blackbirds were doing earlier in the week.  This morning the great tits were sunbathing on the shed roof, an excellent location as they were well camouflaged.


Verdant chaos

WIP Wednesday

I've remembered to post on the right day this week, which is a start.  I'm currently recovering from doing a lot of cooking in preparation for my sister's birthday, which was this Sunday, everything went down well including making a proper (non-packet) jelly for the first time ever - and mercifully it did set!



Meanwhile I'm still ploughing through my Pomme de Pin cardigan, it's now at seven and a half inches long, only ten and a half left to go, although I will try it up against myself as it gets longer to check it doesn't become too long, as I'm not especially tall.  Luckily I'm still enjoying knitting with the alpaca and getting the hang of the lace pattern and I can just about knit it in front of the television.



The improved weather has been such a relief and has provided lots of opportunities for watching the fledgling birds on the bird feeders, especially a whole group of great tits who spend hours on the feeders and a beautiful juvenile robin, who is yet quite to get the hang of the feeders.  I managed to get some photographs of the birds, by sitting very still in the garden holding the camera focused on the feeders and clicking away, although the slightest movement sent them flying for cover.  The juvenile robin, however, was most interested in what I was doing in the garden and spent a lot of time looking at me from the safety of the holly bush and chirruping away.  I do enjoy watching the birds and I'd recommend it, especially if you aren't well as it is a low energy, very cheering occupation.

WIP Wednesday (only a tiny bit late)

Thelonious sock by Cookie.a in Elle sock yarn, which is sadly discontinued, I'm sorry about this as it is a lovely yarn to knit with, has a good stitch definition and a lovely spring to it.  This pattern does require concentration, though I have now got the essential idea of the pattern and I'm thoroughly enjoying myself.  Sometimes it is good to do something that requires focus; it is almost a tutorial in living in the moment.

Since I have unfortunately been experiencing a lot of anxiety, with periodic panic attacks, lately so having something outside myself and worrying and anxiety is wonderful.  In addition to the usual relaxations of feeling the yarn flowing through your fingers and material forming on the needles and the miracle of turning yarn into fabric and creativity in general.

While we're on the subject I found this post from blogger, designer and knitter Karie interesting and liberating on the subject of creativity.

Sock Swap

Lately I've been lucky enough to take part in the first ever sock swap on the Ravelry group "British Banter" and today was the day we opened our parcels.  It's also been my first ever sock swap and it's all been very fun, encouraging one another along the way as we knit our socks, then seeing them all unwrapped.  I made the teal lace socks I have already posted on here and received the following beauties in Lorna's Laces Shepherd's Sock in return.  My feet passed a very comfortable day in the new socks and I have washed them so I can hopefully wear them tomorrow as well!



Here's to the next swap!

WIP Wednesday

I am working on a baby cardigan this week, trying to come up with a prototype for a top down raglan sleeve baby cardigan that can be made in 4ply or sock yarn, preferably in under 100g, so that I can use some of my stash of machine washable sock yarn for baby knits.  After a bit of a wrestle with standard baby sizes, positive ease and Barbara G Walker's invaluable book Knitting from the Top I am a good way through the raglan increases.  I started this project this week because I needed some simple stockingette stitch knitting with which to relax, all my other projects were getting a bit too complicated.  It also makes a handy project to take out and about with me as it requires relatively little attention at this stage, providing I don't go on knitting it longer and bigger than it needs to be!



Although it is blue the cardigan is for a little girl and will receive flower buttons and hopefully some flower style eyelets around the bottom of the cardigan, before the hem, something like this.  I was inspired by the forget-me-nots in the garden, though I could not get a blue that was quite right, this Sandnes baby wool was the closest appropriate yarn.

The green scarf I started ages and ages ago is finally finished.  Well, I say finished, I still have to Kitchener stitch on the end and then block the whole scarf.  The Kitchener stitch (in garter stitch just to make things more interesting) is my next task when I have finished writing this.

WIP Wednesday

Nothing that exciting to show you this week, sometimes that's how life goes, just working away on the same projects.  I've this minute finished the purple lace socks and they are currently in the sink having a soak, I also finished the turquoise Wollmeise lace socks and sent them off to their recipient (in the Ravelry group British Banter's first ever sock swap).  Since I seem to be very much into socks at present I can see a new pair coming into my future very soon, possibly Cookie.a's Thelonious.



Meanwhile I am working away on a cardigan in turquoise Drops Alpaca, in the shade (prosaically named 7240m) I have been dreaming of using for ages, making Pomme De Pin cardigan by Amy Christoffers, a cardigan I knew I had to knit immediately as soon as I saw it.  At times it felt as though the 24 rows of K1P1 ribbing with which the body commences would defeat me, but I am through it and beginning on the lace pattern, although prepared for it to be a long haul project.



The weather has suddenly warmed up, inside two or three days I went from cold to too hot and my body is struggling to keep up with the change in temperature.  But the roses are thriving on it and have finally flowered.  I am out everyday photographing them and watching their progress, while in the pond a group of frogs have emerged from the undergrowth and are sunbathing, part submerged in the water.

WIP Wednesday, after a hiatus

Sorry for the break in blogging, we were left for two weeks with no Internet thanks to BT's incompetence.  I'm feeling rather pleased with myself for managing to sort things out with them, though it has meant a lot of time phoning call centres in India.

No Internet has meant getting more knitting done, I've made some more stay on baby bootees, this time in Drops Baby Merino.



And I've made a start on some purple lacy socks, a variation on Duckies, in Sandnes Garn Perfect (bought at Scandinavian Knitting Design), a yarn I am highly impressed with.  It is soft, soft enough for baby clothes, but also feels hard wearing, thanks to the 15% nylon it contains.  It is the sort of yarn I would use if I were making a jumper for a small boy as I think it would be soft enough not to be proclaimed itchy, but tough enough to survive tree climbing, mud pie making etc.



I have invested in sock blockers and I must say they do make socks look good in photos, very pleased with them, they're by Knit Pro and weren't too expensive, among the cheapest I've seen.

Finally I have mainly been working on these socks for a sock swap I'm taking part in on ravelry, they are Edgewood by Rebecca Blair in Wollmeise Twin, a yarn that looks good and makes a lovely fabric, but is very inelastic and not that much fun to knit with I have to admit.  Thankfully I've almost finished the second sock so should be done in time to post them.