Yarn along

Joining in with Ginny once again.

This week I have had an elastic baby (see here) so knitting and reading time has been limited to the brief moments when she has been with Daddy or big sisters, or else taking the shortest of catnaps. This means that knitting has to be something mindless, an easy pattern held in my memory, soft silky yarn to soothe my emotions. What suits this purpose? The ongoing baby blanket. I set a target of one skein per month into this project and February's target will soon be met.

Reading? I finished The Woodcutter shortly after posting last week and so I picked up The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. It's quite heavy going though so I have also opened up My Antonia on the kindle. Only thing is every time I settle to read the little elastic girl wakes up......

Hoping to find time for more knitting, reading, and checking out all the yarn along posts but now the little one is calling again :)

-x-

The cure for startitis

I finally found the cure for startitis. No more barely worked pieces lurking in cupboards and baskets. None stuffed under the bed, or by the side of the bathroom chair (top tip - knitting whilst the littlies are in the bath, they're happy, you're happy....), or in the glovebox of the car. No casting on items that will be too small for the wearer before you even finish. If it doesn't have a deadline then it doesn't get started.

You want to know my cure?

Although it might not work for all of you....

Well here goes......................

Are you ready.......

Although warning you, you might just dissolve into a gooey mush.......

 

A beautiful, smiley, cuddly baby!

Since Ivy came along I finally realised that you can't spend much time knitting with an elastic baby. One that doesn't like to be separated from mama unless within complete eye distance, and still with a high level of communication going on. This baby means that what little time I get to knit needs to be spent productively. Think of item, cast on item, work on item, cast of item, use item. Two or three at a time is fine, more than that - no chance of completion....ever! 

So want to cure your startitis and knit more productively? Go get yourself an elastic baby.

By the way - the playmat? Nothing to do with me. Jen's partners mothers friend (or something like that) sent one down for Jens baby and when I professed how cute it was she sent another for Ivy. How kind was that? Acrylic yarns, DK and/or eyelash type held in 4 strands, and then worked up into a giant granny square. It's one of those things, you know, you look at it and know how it's done, but you're never going to do it. Granny squares - yeah. Giant granny squares with 4 strands of yarn and a mega sized hook? No chance! It is very cute though.

Oh well, the elastic baby is fidgetting once again.

Let me know if you try out the cure ;)

-x-

Today was all about......

turning these:

ArwenMakes sparkle sock, Wollmeisse We're different sock, Manos del Uruguay Silk blend DK

into these:

Rubbish colour representation, check above for shade :)

All wound by hand, think I need to get myself a swift and winder.....

but anyhow, now I'm ready for February!

Especially as I finished these at last:

Hard work trying to get a photo of your own feet, especially in slightly too long socks!

Basic ribbed socks in cheapo Cesana Zettl which actually looks pretty nice and feels ok 'ish although a little rough on the hands when knitting 90 rows straight.....

Loving them, nice and masculine, and with a good amount of stretch on my footballers legs! Think one of the males in the family are going to love these too. Now which male to gift them to......?

Sorry for the short and sweet post, bed is finally calling :)

-x-

A February plan

So the plan for this month :)

Well the big knit/WIP is of course the baby blanket in beautiful Manos Silk, really itching to get back to that one. I think the enforced break has broken the "boredom" that bigger knits often end up in. I really wanted to keep going after that first skein but knew I would burn out the love pretty soon if I did. And anyway, there was those socks to contend with (which are up to the heel as I type, another day I think...).

The socks for this month will be OLD JOE'S socks, the new pattern from Stephanie Pearl McPhee, aka Yarn Harlot. Do you follow her blog, wonderful stuff. The socks are for my lovely man himself and after much deliberation,  which meant taking the skein out, admiring it, and putting it back in the box before pulling it out again, I have decided to go with my only skein of dark blue Wollmeisse sock.

 Did I mention I love sock yarns, especially handpainted, and especially less readily affordable available ones? I hope the man appreciates how lucky he is to be getting to wear THIS yarn on HIS feet! Why does his look so funny capitalized? HIS his His?

The gift knit is going to be the Sallah cowl which I'll put away for Helen.

Still deliberating over the yarn for this one. I was planning on the lovely ArwenMakes sparkly sock which I acquired over here, or the one skein of Fiberworks Spirit Trail Helen (see why - Helen for Helen, yes?). 

Although I'm changing my mind even whilst I type and now thinking Sallah cowl for Jen in the sparkly sock as she looks so good in those jewel reddish tones, and something else in the Fiberworks for Helen at a later date? Whatever, the Fiberworks is definitely Helen's, but I really want to get to knitting with the sparkle yarn.....

Instant gratification/to wear/pleasure knits? Well instant gratification includes instant decision making so no idea on that one yet, but I am leaning towards the February baby sweater from the Elizabeth Zimmerman almanac. Well it's definitely the month for it. And I do have a choice of two babies to knit for :)

Well I can't get started on these until I finish those pesky January socks can I? Although I will admit I kind of enjoy knitting them when I get past the heel turning, it's that final dash down the home straight isn't it? So anyway, there's my plans for the month ahead, anybody want to share there's?

-x-

End of the month

So how did the month go? The plan was - one pair of socks, one gift knit, something for pleasure/wearing/instant gratification and one big knit WIP. Well, yay, I did it! What, you don't believe me? How could I possibly catch up when yesterday I said I hadn't yet cast on the second sock? You want to see? Well here you go......

The gift knit:

Multnomah shawl in KnitPicks Stroll Hayride

The big knit WIP:

One skein worth of baby blanket.

The socks:

Lacy rib socks

Hmmm, not quite got the colour right, try again:

Nice colour and fit don't you think?

The pleasure/wearing/instant gratification knit:

Tofino surfer hat.

What's that you say? I didn't mention working on a couple of those things? And those socks don't look like the ones I blogged yesterday? Well I did start late due to that awful flu illness we all had. And I did say I had a sneaky plan just in case ;)
The Multnomah shawl and the lacy rib socks were both longstanding WIP's found lingering during the stash sort out and relocation. Both cast on many months/years ago but both finally finished earlier this month.
The Tofino surfer hat was cast on at the beginning of the month as a quick make for Heather after her proper winter hat disappeared, although now it has been rehomed with the lovely granddaughter after she tried it on and "loosened" the knit.See how big it was when Heather got it back for a few moments?
The second of the actual January socks is cast on and at round 30 of 90 from the top down, so I'm going to carry on blasting along with them until they're done. Hopefully I'll be at the heel by this evening.....

So anyway, I reckon that's a pretty good first month for my year long goal, don't you?
Back tomorrow with February's hopes and plans.

-x-

Yarn along

Joining in with Ginny over here.

There is only one thing I'm picking up at the moment - the January socks. I think it's a losing battle though, no way I'm going to have the pair complete before the end of the month. Sock one completed last night, sock two shouting to me to cast it on. But as I said earlier - I have a plan......

Current reading - Woodcutter by Kate Danley. I love this book, which is probably why the socks aren't flying along. It's a tale of all the mythical Fae folk and fairytale creatures. A battle to take over the twelve realms of human and magic with only the woodcutter to protect them all. The reviews mention the one dimensionality of the Woodcutter and yet I feel that the lack of emotion and background makes him the ultimate hero, intent only on protecting the kingdom. The story combines all the characters we remember form childhood, Rumpelstiltskin, Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, but in a very much grown up setting, with a heavy focus on the "dust trade" and it's effects on the senses of human folk. I'm almost at the end of this book though and will be sad to see it's end. Any recommendations for similar tales would be very welcome :)

-x-

Not a present present post

This is so very late isn't it? A Christmas present post! I never did share did I?

You know that all presents given with love are just so wonderful right?So I really didn't mind that no-one picked up on the heavy, heavy hints I left. Yo know - webpages left open on Knit Pro interchangeable sets, a lovely blanket kit from an online store, yeah, you all did the same ;)

But the gifts I did receive were pretty much there.

This came from Helen:

Available here (or Amazon if you don't mind all the tax stuff!)

The commemorative edition too so lots of colour photos - lovely. Guess what I'm hoping February's project will be......

This came from Emma:

Available here

I was clicking through the John Lewis website and mentioned to Helen that it was cute and wouldn't you know it, there it sat on Christmas morning. Really really planning on using this gift and creating a lovely banner for on the mantel wall.

This came from my man himself:

Hmm, did I ever mention my husband also share my OCD type personality traits. Only his manifests itself in the need to obsessively collect things of a type. So it seems he thinks he needs to buy every spinning wheel he sees. He has no idea what he's buying but does have an ultimately trusting personality, hence this wheel DOES spin wool......! Me,well I've not even had a proper look at it yet. Still longing to get to grips with Wee Peggy upstairs when I can loosen the elastic that connects the littlest girlie to me.

Did you all remember to share your crafty gifts?

-x-