April 2015 – polka-dots & sparkles

Finished object 8&9 – nurmilintu

Posted on April 27, 2015 by bekswhoknits

Remember that shawl that I posted without taking a good picture of first?

Well I have my photo!

Isn’t it just lovely??? Megs of course but also my shawl!!!

The pattern is nurmilintu and I just finished another, this time for myself and also in my own hand dyed yarn.

Blocking it made such a difference. But blocking with cats? When they’ve taken one of your blocking mats to be their new scratching post? Not fun.

At one point Tina ran off with a pin in her mouth and I had to chase her through the house so she didn’t hurt herself. In the end I locked them in their room (formerly the spare room) pinned it all out and then put it outside and once it got dark then put it into our bedroom and closed the door.

That’s the problem with open plan houses. No place to block your shawl with two nosy kittens.

I’m still not entirely convinced that the lace panels are correct. Either due to me not being able to count or the chart being wrong, but I don’t really care.

It’s colourful and warm and soft and it won’t leave my neck for at least until I finish the picot scarf that’s nearly off my needles.

Finished object number 7 – sucky socks which turned into unsucky socks

Posted on April 15, 2015April 15, 2015 by bekswhoknits

I hated knitting these socks.

Sure the yarn was squishy, the colours were pretty and the pattern was simple enough.

But the yarn was low twist so it kept a splitting, the colours pooled badly, and I stuffed up the pattern really early on in the sock and didn’t want to go back and change it.

So they’d been languishing on the needles for a while as I worked on other projects.

Then the needle I was using for Olivia broke (4th needle that has broken on that project!), the stitch pattern on the shawl I had on the needles wasn’t working for me, I didn’t feel like crochet and I didn’t want to start a new project.

I had already turned the heel (fish lips kiss style) so I picked them up again. Told myself that I would knit until the end of the football game and then bind off. By the end of the game they weren’t really long enough when I tried them on my foot but I was so sick of the bloody things I just wanted them finished and was not at all prepared to spend any time doing the usual ribbing required of a sock.

So on a whim I figured an I-cord bind off would add some extra length, plus give them a bit of extra stretch and stability around the ankle.

(The socks have been strategically photographed to not show off my giant pattern fail!)

I freakin LOVE these socks now!!!!

The fit perfectly under low topped converse which I practically live in.

I don’t mind the mistakes because they’re under a shoe, and the icord bind off makes the yarn colours look great.

I am definitely going to use this bind off for socks more often now. Plus no time consuming ribbing.

Finished object 6 – the specialest of shawls

Posted on April 9, 2015 by bekswhoknits

I was gifted the most special of yarns.

Keri (of whendidibecomeaknitter) sent me a skein of her hand spun.

It was sent with a knitted dalek and a Canada Mug (which I use most mornings and I now know most of the words to Oh Canada) and a very precious skein of her own hand spun yarn! From the date on the original photo it has been in my stash since 2013 just waiting for the right pattern to come along.

Well in the end I devised the right pattern.

After casting on 5 stitches I repeated the following two rows.

Row 1: Knit 1, Knit front & back, knit til last 3, knit 2 together, knit 1

Row 2: Knit til last 2 stitches. Knit front & back, knit 1.

Then every now and again I would do a row of yarn over knit 2 together (while following the increase at one end, decrease at the other pattern).

It still needs blocking to even out the 4 rows of yarn over-knit 2 together to end the shawl. But the kittens have stolen my craft room and so now I don’t know where to block anything.

It’s also awkward given my blocking matts have become their scratching pads.

I really don’t want to put such a pretty shawl onto a cat scratching pad!!!

Firstly it was awesome to be gifted some hand spun yarn! It must have taken so long to spin and ply and wind. Seriously just the effort alone is awesome and a wonderful gift.

Secondly as a novice spinner it was really interesting to see the imperfections, the quirks, and idiosyncrasies of yarn that has been hand spun. This isn’t to say that it wasn’t fantastic quality, because it was and is! But seeing hand spun up close is going to help my own spinning (once a part is fixed on my wheel).

So not only did I get a lovely gift which resulted in a fantastic finished object, but I got a lesson in working with hand spun yarn.

Reason #7482929 knitters are brilliant people.

THANK YOU KERI!!! You’re the best!!!!

Unbreakable

Posted on April 1, 2015April 1, 2015 by bekswhoknits

This week – I can’t even begin.

There’s just been so much going on.

If you want a better articulated version of my week visit TeaTimeTails.

The one thing that’s kept me slightly sane has been the prospect of a long weekend (which means football!!!) and the sage advice from the latest Tina Fey produced TV show ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’.

Like nearly every other person who’s written about this series on the Internet, I watched it all in one night and have a really strong desire to watch it all again.

If you don’t live in the US, or pretend you live in 90210 like we do to watch US Netflix you may have not have seen Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt but the basic premise is this. After 15 years of living in a hole with a cult leader, they’re rescued and instead of returning her life before, Kimmy takes her Unbreakable spirit and starts a life in New York.

It’s not all smooth sailing. It is a television show and there is a narrative to drive. Naturally there’s conflict and hard times and Kimmys strategy is one that I’ve employed this week.

“You can handle anything for 10 seconds.”

10 seconds at a time. Then another 10 seconds. Then another 10 seconds.

That’s been this week. 10 seconds at a time.

The theme song is also catchy as anything. So that absolutely had to go on a cuff. With a little 10 as a secret reminder to take things 10 seconds at a time.