Decaffinated

I finished these socks a few weeks ago but only just got around to taking pictures of them to share... Ooops ;)

These are the long awaited socks I knit for cunning boyfriend. He got the first one for his birthday in February and it took me until August to complete the second one... Bigger ooops *laughs* Luckily he is a very patient person and didn't complain or anything.

Apologies for the terrible, terrible pictures by the way. Bad weather + evening photoshoot + overhead light = truly awful photos *sad face*

Anyway, they fit and are apparently extremely comfortable, so that's the main thing *smiles* After taking this picture, boyfriend seemed to be quite enjoying his stint as a foot model, and threw in a few more poses for your viewing pleasure *laughs*

I used a Knitty pattern called Java socks - something to do with strong coffee I believe.

© Cailyn Meyer

As you can see, the pattern extends down the heel and over the foot - which I knew boyfriend wouldn't like (he has delicate feet). So I only included the pattern on the leg - hence calling these Decaffinated Socks. Comedy gold I tell you *laughs*

The pattern is a really simple 2 stitch cable, with a surprising amount of stretch

Yarn is a simple grey generic sock yarn that works really well for this.

So, despite the photography indicating the contrary, I can confirm that they look great, and according to boyfriend they feel great too *smiles* I of course adapted the foot to include the princess soles that he likes so much.

You know the Friday drill - head over to Tami's, Natural Suburbia and Wisdom Begins in Wonder . Have a wonderful weekend :)

[insert clever title here]*

I'm pleased to have a picture this week that represents some decent progress in both knitting and reading, it feels like a little while since I have had such a good week ;)

As you can see, I have made some progress on my sock - the weather has taken a turn for the worse, temperature-wise, so alpaca socks now seem like an excellent project *laughs* I have another few rows to go before turning the heel.

My other main project is the cardigan I wrote about recently. Despite the long purl rows, not my favourite thing at all, I have completed a fairly large chunk of knitting:

Not bad, huh? It's currently about bust length on me, so I still have a long way to go, but I'm really pleased with how it is shaping up so far.

I love the felted tweed fabric, I can totally see why people rave about this yarn (even if it does cover me in fibres as I'm working!)

And the subtle stripes that I was hoping would work - well, I'm really happy with them. I think it works really well:

Pop over to Tami's and Ginny's for more lovely knitting and reading content, and have a lovely day *smiles*

*yeah, so I seem to be lacking title inspiration this morning!

Stitch Like an Egyptian

At the weekend I went shopping for art supplies - so much fun *laughs* I wanted to buy everything ;) Anyway, I popped into a discount bookshop (The Works, if you're in the UK) as they sometimes have art stuff, and I found this:

It was only a couple of quid, so I grabbed it despite the fact that the extent of my cross-stitching experience is a single heart and a packman bookmark *laughs*

There are some pretty amazing and intricate patterns:

... Neither of which I actually think I'll make, but they're pretty to look at in the book ;)

The pages I was most interested in were the hieroglyphs:

I like simple graphic shapes, especially for cross stitch, so I may well see if I can do something with these!

New Skills

A few weeks ago I decided that I wanted to do some kind of evening college course. I love my hobbies, but knitting, reading and writing can all be pretty solitary (I wish there was a knitting group near me!)

So I signed up for a painting and drawing course. Apart from doodling, I have never explored art and have no particular talent that I know of *laughs*

Regardless, I was excited to give it a go, and last night was the first session. We had to sketch an item from a washing line set up at the front of the class.

I'm pretty happy with how mine turned out, especially as it's the first time I've really sat down and sketched something!

Subtlety

A little while ago I bought 4 balls of Rowan Felted Tweed DK on ebay for a ridiculously low price. Felted Tweed seems to be one of those yarns that people absolutely adore, so I was really pleased to get my hands on some.

However, despite the excellent yardage, I knew that 4 balls wouldn't really be enough for a pattern that I wanted to make with it, so I ordered a couple more balls from another shop. And this is where I include a public service announcement - do not assume you know what colour you have, if you do not have it in front of you *laughs*

Original yarn on the bottom, new yarn on top. Hmmm.

So, I ended up with 4 balls of one colour and 2 balls of a similar but definitely not the same colour. Dilemma time *laughs*


After a lot of searching, I settled on a pattern that I thought could work and be something I would like - Daffodil. I was inspired by one of the pictures on the pattern page, with grey and yellow stripes (by nasseknits)

Of course, I will need to employ my standard modification of adding some increases around the hips so that I can have a button band that buttons all the way down ;)

So, I decided to see if this pattern would work. As the yarns I'm using are so similar in colour, I wasn't sure if the contrast would be too subtle...



I quite like the subtlety - what do you think?

Fjord Span

Wow, busy week was busy! And not in the funnest of fun ways. But, on the plus side, I did manage to finish my Wingspan *grins*

Sadly, as I only finished last night, I can only share blocking pictures and not the fully modelled version, but as far as I'm concerned, it still counts ;)

I love it *grins* I love the shape, I really enjoyed the pattern and the colours are so gorgeous.

Actually, this picture is probably the best representation of the colours:

It took me ages, but I think I managed to capture the wonderful shades in the yarn perfectly - makes a nice change as it is usually pretty tough!

I've mentioned before, but just to recap, this is yarn I bought in Norway. I went for colours that reminded me of the rocks and water of the fjords - it's almost a shame there's no green in there as the country really is beautifully lush, but these colours work so well together I think green would have been out of place.

The yarn is quite textured, it's not a smooth yarn but blocking has removed the scratchiness and now it just feels lovely and rustic.

Overall, I'm really happy with how this project turned out *smiles*

You know the Friday drill - head over to Tami's, Natural Suburbia and Wisdom Begins in Wonder . Have a wonderful weekend :)

Things...

Things I enjoy doing...

Knitting/fibre crafts
Reading
Writing
Paper crafts

Hmmm, there is a bit of a sitting down theme here *laughs* Sometimes I do spinning standing up though, does that help?! Oh yeah, and cooking, that's a standing up activity too.

Things I do not enjoy doing...

Gardening - however, I spent much of the weekend doing just that *sigh* Primarily due to the fact that my lawn was verging on becoming one giant dandelion.

Event planning - this activity has been the basis of my days at work recently. The amount of variables always stresses me out.

Attending events that I have planned - which is the agenda for the next few days. I find it too hard to relax, but I'm working on it *laughs*

So,

I shall be back on Thursday, when things shall return to my comfortable pace of knitting and reading. Although not at the same time, I still haven't quite mastered that ;)

Seaweed of Endor

I'm glad I saved up a couple of finished objects to keep me going through a few Fridays, as I have barely worked on my wingspan at all the last few days and therefore it is not finished for today *laughs*

While I was on my blogging sabbatical, I finished my green cowl...

I love it *smiles* I think this is the first time I have knit the same pattern more than once, but it's such an easy and effective project that having the same thing in a different colour felt like a good idea. 

Excuse the scrunched up arm picture - trying to get the whole cowl in when taking a self portrait wasn't easy *laughs*

As with the other version of this I made, I almost prefer it inside out, I love the texture of the 4x1 rib from the wrong side. It could probably do with a bit of blocking to help it lie better though!

And, because I think it is cute - as a hood:

*laughs*

I know I have bragged about the yarn plenty of times before, but here it is one last time ;)

These gorgeous colours come courtesy of yarn dyed by cunning boyfriend. He was so impressed with my first Kool Aid dyed yarn that he wanted to have a go himself, and this is the result. I love the range of colours and the way it looks, as I may have mentioned (a fair few times, I can't help it, I love that he made something that I could make something beautiful with *sappy smile*)

Ok, enough of that ;)

The yarn was named Seaweed of Endor, so this is now my Endor cowl.

As it is Friday, I am linking up with the lovely ladies at   Tami's, Natural Suburbia and Wisdom Begins in Wonder . Have a wonderful weekend :)

About That...

So much for project monogamy *laughs*

I do also have projects on the needles aside from the Wingspan I mentioned yesterday, I just haven't been working on them. Somehow, posting about knitting only one project for a week immediately made me cast on something else ;)

To be fair (not like anyone is counting anyway!) this technically was a WIP, as I finished the first sock of the pair months ago and have only just got around to casting on sock 2. This might have something to do with a) the fact that I now much prefer knitting 2 at a time, and b) alpaca socks just aren't a summer project for me *laughs*

Project Monogamy

Surprisingly for me, I have only been working on one project this week. It's pretty close to being finished now that I'm on the last wedge. I'm really enjoying this knit, watching the yarn change through its colours is fun, and I'm a big fan of garter stitch when there is enough of a pattern to keep the interest *smiles*

Of course, project monogamy leaves little to write about on a Wednesday *laughs*

As for the book - I'm currently sticking with my young adult dystopia theme, with The Maze Runner. I enjoyed the story but I have to say the writing is not the best. Definitely not up to the high standards of some of the books in this genre that I have read. Having said that, I do plan to read the rest of the trilogy, so it can't be too bad!

Pop over to Tami's and Ginny's for more lovely knitting and reading content, and have a lovely day *smiles*

Busy Weekend

You may think of me, through this blog, as someone who likes reading and knitting - generally pursuits enjoyed in a sitting down position.

You would be right.

And yet... Somehow, yesterday, I ended up doing this:

A day out with cunning boyfriend's children ended up with me attached to a rope harness, clambering across wobbly bridges, tyres and tightropes!

Not my element, I must admit, but it was pretty good fun. Boyfriend and his eldest went on the advanced, high up course, and the youngest and I tackled the smaller, less terrifying course *laughs*

In itself this would be a feat of physical exertion most unlike me, but earlier in the day we'd been to another activity place where we were spies infiltrating a terrorist missile launcher. Lots of fun, but a surprising amount of climbing, crawling and laser avoiding *laughs*

Unsurprisingly, I'm a little stiff today!

Presents :)

Today is the 1 year anniversary of boyfriend and I getting together. Sappy, I know, but any excuse for presents, right? *laughs*

Boyfriend is excellent at present buying, and I'm very pleased with my goodies...

A couple of small/silly ones, because I am a big kid at heart *smiles* I love my bubble kit - so many differently shaped implements to have fun with ;)

Boyfriend bought the little package of bouncy putty for one reason only. Close up of the package...

He was so amused by the fact that the little pouch actually says "in envelope" that he just had to get it. It made me laugh so much that I have decided that more things should be packaged in envelopes, and state this information clearly on them *laughs* Ok, maybe you had to be there ;)

And the main present, Stitch 'n Bitch Superstar Knitting *grins* He bought me the first book for Christmas and knew how much I liked it, so decided to get the follow up. I'm very pleased with this, I like the way the books explain things, and there were a couple of tips I noticed last night that were so obvious and so simple yet I'd never even thought of them.

There are also a couple of patterns that I will probably make, especially the one below. I love it *grins* I'll change the length of the arms though... Those aren't entirely flattering for shorties like me ;)

Of course this will have to wait until I have got through some of my ever increasing stash (none of which fits this pattern unfortunately!) but all the more incentive to get through what I have ;)