KCBW4

Everything is almost right with the world

Posted on May 24, 2013May 24, 2013 by bekswhoknits

I have now completely my first ever provisional cast on.

I’m not sure it should have taken me 45 minutes and involved scissors, swearing, and cider.

So I have the toe of the sock completed and I’ve learnt something.
If you’re going to try a new technique don’t start with fingering weight.

So I’ve now starting on the foot part of the sock and immediately I feel calmer.
Like there was a something missing before.
This sock was chosen as my Team Bee mascot project. I am loving the pattern. It has one tricky row, and the rest is straight forward, I’ve finished one repeat and have got it down pat.

I am loving this yarn. It’s from yarn vs zombies and it is a dream to work with. It’s flying quickly through my fingers and I have to stop myself from pressing it against my face.

I’m no sure I’m loving the two together though.
I think the pattern is getting lost in the colours.
So I’m not sure what to do.
Do I start again with another yarn?
Do I give the provisional cast on another try?
Do I keep going and wait and see if I fall in love with the complete sock?

So everything is right with the world because I have socks on my needle, but I can’t shake this feeling that it’s not quite the right socks.

#4KCBWDAY7 – Looking Forward

Posted on April 28, 2013 by bekswhoknits

So where do I want to be in a year?

I want to have completed my 13 in 2013 project.
I want to learn more crochet and how crochet instructions work.
I want to have finished a jumper or cardigan.
I want to get better at cables.
I want to finally figure out what this pattern is!

I find about things I don’t know how to do mostly when I browse new patterns and it uses a new technique.

So I’ll be interested to see what I’ve learnt in a year and what I’ve made. I’ve already learnt so much about knitting, enough to know I’ve only scraped the surface.

I would like to say that this week has been really awesome.
Thank you Eskimimi Makes for organising it!

It you haven’t already I highly recommend looking up any of the tags for the blog week #4KCBWDAY7 or DayX
I’ve really enjoyed reading and discovering new blogs and meeting all the new visitors to my little corner of the Internet.

I’ve had a blast!!

#4KCBWDAY6 – a tool to covet

Posted on April 27, 2013April 25, 2013 by bekswhoknits

I’m a big fan of two at a time, magic loop, toe up socks.
So much so I think I need an acronym as I write that phrase so often. TAATMLTUS doesn’t really have a ring to it.

When I figured out this was my preferred knitting project I treated myself to a set of Addi Turbos 2.5mm 80cm.

I’ve found even though I prefer bamboo for most other projects, I prefer metal for socks. I have quite a collection of bamboo circulars either in hat length or magic loop length in most sizes. I bought them from eBay when I first started knitting and didn’t really know what I needed.

My addi is slightly bent. But I haven’t knit a pair of socks on anything else since I bought it.
I know how many stitches I need and adapt sock patterns to my needles.

This apparently is how they want to be photographed.

It’s pretty amazing that they’re free! It’s probably so that I can get to work on my mascot project as soon as I finish my deadline knitting.

My addis in action!

#4KCBWDAY5 – and now for something completely different

Posted on April 26, 2013April 26, 2013 by bekswhoknits

Day 5 4KCBWDAY5
And now for something completely different….

This was so much fun. I didn’t think it was going to be, but thank you Knitting And Crochet Blog Week (I still have difficulty saying that) for getting me out of my comfort zone and in front of a camera. This was actually quite scary, not to make, but uploading it for all of you to see (although I do take comfort that it probably won’t be found by anyone but other knitters who are mostly non-judgemental).

So say hi to me and my couch!!
My first ever vlog, where I find out just how often I say ‘pretty!’, that the train noise is actually pretty loud (I’m so used to it), and I really do have a short attention span.

#4KCBWDAY4 – Colour Review

Posted on April 25, 2013April 25, 2013 by bekswhoknits

Hello my name is Bek and I have pink and teal hair. (Hi Bek!)

I don’t think I’ll be too surprised when I actually look in my stash to see that I like a lot of the same colours.

Black, charcoal, grey, and white are staples. Plus tardis blue (and other variations), Port Adelaide teal, pale sunshine yellow, and every shade of pink that catches my eye.

I know that I’m going through a green phase at the moment too.
I’m not very discriminate when it comes to colour.

I am one of the .2% of females who are colour blind. Which does pose a bit of a problem when it comes to buying yarn.
I’ve tended to steer away from picking colours to match each other. If my bloke isn’t with me in the shop (yarn shopping isn’t his favourite past time- just as fishing lure shopping isn’t mine) I stick to self striping yarn, or basic combinations like my last white, black, and blue blanket.
I find etsy shopping easier because there’s less decisions to make holding up yarns and asking strangers if these two colours look the way I think they look.

I can see colours if I concentrate. But I can’t tell a red or green traffic light from a difference. Telling the difference between shades has always been a problem too. I remember getting in trouble at primary school for using a blue pencil when I should have used a purple one (they looked the same to me). I remember getting in trouble at high school for wasting time searching for a red cricket ball in brown leafs. Once again I couldn’t see the difference. I still have to concentrate watching cricket or else I lose the red ball in the green grass (depending on the shades of course).

It probably influences my photography more than my knitting, because I think I’m getting the colours right but they could be completely different. In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t make much of a difference.

The first yarn I ever bought was a pink splitty yarn.

This is my latest yarn haul from yarnvszombies. I’ve signed up for a yarn club (my first one) which will be fun this year.

And then there’s my football team colours. I will have feminine football merchandise even if I have to make it myself.

#4KCBWDAY3 – Infographic

Posted on April 24, 2013April 24, 2013 by bekswhoknits

I have a thing for flow charts and process mapping.
It’s something that I really enjoy and I’ve always think I’ve been good at finding ways to make things more efficient and (I’m trying not to say cutting out non-value adding tasks but I think I’ve outed myself as a bit of a geek anyway so hell) removing non-value adding tasks.
I like to say laziness is the mother of all invention.

So putting together a flowchart to illustrate my knitting project decision making process seemed like a no brainier.

And I’ve now rambled on which probably defeats the purpose of creating an Infographic.

It’s a wonder I get anything done at all!!!

If I was doing a process analysis on that one I think there’s a lot of non-value added activity there.
But that’s half the fun.

#4KCBWDAY2 – a mascot project

Posted on April 23, 2013April 25, 2013 by bekswhoknits

Think of a bee
You are it’s knees
You waft through me like a summers breeze
Can I come round on Tuesday please
– a Bernard Black poem

Black and yellow stripes bore me. I’m not a Richmond fan, nor am I an extra from flight of the bumblebees.
So picking a pattern to match my house animal I thought would be difficult.

Starting where I usually start, I typed in “bee” into ravelry. (I wonder if they’ve noticed an increase in certain house animal search terms over the last few days. I also wonder how many results Manatee brings up. 9. Nine whole patterns.)

After browsing for a while, favouriting a few patterns, looking at what’s in my stash I usually gravitate towards socks.

Eventually my search screen looks a bit like this.

Hopefully one will take my fancy. In this case I found it.

I check the pattern notes, see if there are any red flags, before downloading it to my iPad and having a good read of the pattern.
It’s one has a couple of new techniques which I’m looking forward to trying out. The stitch pattern is really pretty, plus it has a provisional cast on which I haven’t tried before.

Plus I have sock yarn which is perfect! I am actively resisting not casting on immediately! But more on that tomorrow.

This exercise has become a little torturous. Now I have a gorgeous pattern which I can’t cast on until I finish my Mother’s Day Hitchhiker.
Aawwwwe.
It’s I’d why I can’t look at ravelry while I have a deadline project.

Pretty!!!

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week – Day 1 #4KCBWDAY1

Posted on April 22, 2013April 22, 2013 by bekswhoknits

This year I’m not on holiday (boo) like I was during last year’s Knitting and Crochet Blog Week so I get to participate (yay!).

I am so excited to be participating in the fantastic initiative which is Knitting and Crochet Blogging Week.
For those who don’t know what’s going on (like I did last year, I had no idea it was even a thing until I noticed knitting bloggers mysteriously blogging about the same thing at the same time) Knitting and Crochet Blog Week is a week of posting, where every day is about a different topic. The topics are decided here, and some of them are taking me out of my comfort zone, as well as making me think creatively about knitting.
I still think the best part is reading what other people have to say on the same subject.

Day 1 (4KCBWDAY1) is deciding which of the 4 houses I fit in to.
I could quite easily be a peacock because, well, look at my hair, clearly I’m attracted to bright colours. I drool over brightly coloured yarns on etsy, and day dream about tardis blue, pale sunshine yellow, and every shade of pink.

My Manatee side is me relaxed whilst taking comfort in what I’m creating. Its curling up on the couch with my favourite crocheted blanket, needles gently clicking in my hands.

The curious part of me which wanted to learn knitting in the first place is definitely House Monkey. My Monkey side also keeps me learning new things, trying new patterns, and taking me out of my comfort zone.

But they’re all just parts of me. I’m a Peacock in the Summer, a Manatee in the Winter, and a Monkey when restlessness strikes. I’m always a Bee.

I feel unproductive whenever I don’t have needles in my hand, and I often drift off to sleep visualising the last stitch pattern I was working on. (If you were wondering, rib stitch is particularly calming to visualise, more so than actually knitting it.)
I’ve demonstrated that I’m poly-WIP-erous on many occasions, just as a Bee should be.

Knitting is a way to improve my patience and attention span. Though I still gravitate to quick projects, particularly if one gets too boring.

So I’m proud to be Team Bee!