Knitting on an Island

I Have Been Knitting - Honest!

Th normal end of term madness continues two weeks and counting. Next weekend I will be on the mainland visiting with my kids and helping Daughter to move out of her Uni digs - I can't believe she has been there a year already!

There isn't much to show on the knitting front really as again the main focus of my knitting is not to be shown at this time, but I have finished something!

Waving Lace Socks fro Interweave's Favourite Socks book

The yarn is Stash Up Yarns Supersock Merino in Black Jack Fig colourway on 2.5mm bamboo Dpn's

Lovely yarn to work with - and it washes well too - not to mention the yardage! I have nearly half a skein left that will go together with some Willy Wonka Bamboo merino to make these..

I have cast on and these will be my traveling project.

The only other thing that I can show you that is on my needles is this

Glee from those lovely ladies at Zephyr Style - I think I have 4 of there patterns queued on Ravelry.

I'm knitting it in Elann Esprit  which has built in stretch so I am omitting the waist shaping. I have also made the neckline a little less deep as I am not positive that it won't gape ( due to the stretch in the yarn) but we will see.

It is my watching tele knitting ( stockinette in the round) I even knit it by candlelight last week - very restful.

My other knitting involves charts, laceweight and beads so I shan't be trying that by candlelight any time soon!

Have a good weekend :-)

When a Good Idea Goes Bad

Hi everyone! Sorry to gone so long - we are into mad school mode here with exam invigilation, reports, network rebuilding et al - only 4 weeks or so to the end of term so i'm hanging on in there.

As usually happens at this time just about everything I am knitting is stealth stuff that I can't blog about, but recently I had an idea of a little Tshirt top to wear to work and well my local LYS had Rowan cashcotton on sale so i couldn't resist.

I had the idea for a top down, square necked, raglan with a little bit of lace around the bottom to make it a bit more feminine.

I knitted a swatch, did all the calculations and cast on and knit like the wind ( to quote Brenda Dayne). Only problem was I went wrong somewhere in my calculations and the wide neck was MUCH too low and it looked really odd with a cami underneath. So I decided to fill the neckline with an lace insert to preserve my modesty.

This is the result

The fish pin is there to show where the neckline should have finished. The insert was a disaster! It gaped and it just looked wrong so I reluctantly decided it was going to have to go - not the insert - the whole thing!

So I bit the bullet, took out the insert and frogged the whole thing back intending to go back to where the the fish pin was indicating I need to be.

Mmm, I ripped and I ripped and I wound and I wound and finally I got to the bottom of the sleeves and blast if I still didn't need to rip some more :-(

Executive decision - I was not going to rip the sleeves as well I was fed up of ripping.

So I put the stitches on to some waste yarn and tried them on - part of the beauty of top down -  and soon realised that not only was the top too wide at the neck , it was actually too wide full stop.

Second executive decision - This is now going to be a Deep V necked cardigan. 

SO here it sits, waiting for me to find time to carry on, I think it is going to be a completely plain, V necked cardi with waist shaping, hip length, with thin garter stitch edging and button bands.But then again it may not - hopefully it will tell me I'm wrong this time BEFORE I finish it.

Have a good weekend I'll be playing with laceweight and beads and crochet hooks while I work on a new stole pattern for Knotions - don't worry I haven't gone over to the dark side - the crochet hook is for the beads :-)

Finally ! - Photos!

I still haven't got my sticky mitts on a copy of the Knitting in the Sun book, But Kristi - the editor - has magnificently come through with a couple of photos she took herself while hanging around on the photo shoot.

First up Provence

Knited in Rowan Calmer on 4.5mm needles this was a snip to knit. and the colour that they sent me sealed the name - It reminded me so much of the lavender fields of Provence what else could we call it :-)

The second design took a little longer to knit ;-)

Bordeaux

Lornas Laces Helen's lace yarn ( 50% merino 50% silk) - colourway Manzinita

3.5mm needles knitted in two halves and grafted together in the middle.

Named not for the French city but for the beautiful ancient harbour ( 11th century I think) only 5 minutes walk from my house. 

The perfect place of a summer evening walk 

Have a good weekend :-)

Let me Present....

Published this week - I'm told it should be in Barnes and Noble in the next few days - it is already available on Amazon.

I have two designs in it, a tank with a pretty lace edging

and a stole in Lornas laces Helen yarn ( no this isn't the real yarn - its actually a deep wine colour)

As you can see the designs are still under wraps at the moment - but once I have the photos from the book I'l show you the finished items :-)

In the meantime - I have more news for you and I am so excited about this!

Over the last few months I have been collaborating with Laura and Kelly - the gals who are the Unique Sheep.- and the end result is this

It is going to be so much fun! The gradience yarns are so beautiful ( though you could use a plain one if you want to).

We are going to be Raveling and Plurking along with the KAL and it all kicks off in early July - do say you will come and join us ;-)

Emma

I haz a new design :-) - sorry been reading too many lolcats ;-)

Unique Sheep Eos laceweight cardigan - colourway Blue Jeans

Knitted on 4mm needles.

Size shown 44" bust.

Available here free!

Things at work are still manic and my evenings are spent manically knitting around and around on the final huge rows of a pi shawl that you will get to see later in the year. 

Meanwhile, spring is well and truly sprung over here, the bluebells are out and the grass is growing two days in one.

The dehumidifiers are gone, the floors are going down in the next few days and the builders tell me they should be gone by the end of next week. Once the rooms are done I'll post some before and after photos :-)  Right! off to knit another one of these 700+ st rows....

Phew! Week one over

I have never been so glad to see a weekend.

Why is it that the first week of term is always so manic! Computer equipment that was working perfectly well when you leave it at the end of term seems to have gone into a sulk because you haven't used it for a couple of weeks :-(

Add to that the fact that we have done a big upgrade and I have a whole new management system to learn and things are to say the least hectic.

None the less - I have managed to do some knitting ( the only thing that is keeping me sane).

My workmen arrived this week as well and my kitchen and lounge are now drying out - the dehumidifiers are huge! ( about the size of my three seater couch) I dread to think how much electricity they are burning ( it says they are set to 6 kwts!) We took the precaution of taking a meter reading before they started so that if it is a huge amount we can claim it back from the insurance.

I have finished the Aeolian shawlette - no photos yet it's soaking prior to a good blocking so I will try and pop back later in the week ( I need to charge the camera battery too)

I am also partway through a test knit on a pi shawl that I have designed for the girls at the Unque sheep using their wonderful Gradiance yarns - peacock colours - fabulous - nuff said.

I have also had an email from Kirsty ( the editor of Knitting in the Sun) to tell me that the book is being released on the 11th May and Barnes and Noble are not only stocking it , but are going to give it prominent positioning during the summer. I have two patterns in the book, a tank/ camisole and a stole - I will post pics as soon as I am able :-)

Meanwhile let me leave you with   a pic - more flowers in the garden ( sorry all you people still suffering with snow)

Have a good weekend

You've Got Mail!

And I don't mean the electronic kind - though I would like to extend a thankyou for all the lovely comments that winged their way into my inbox in the last couple of days :-)

No I mean the proper delivered by the postman stuff. In this case a box of goodies from the Unique Sheep gals

Don't they all look beautiful!

Starting from the left, the first 6 are their gradience colourway called Peacock in Luxe sock weight yarn 

This is destined to be a pi shawl that I have designed for them that will be available later on this year.

The next 4 is another of their gradience colourways - this is a treat to myself - it is the daybreak colourway in Eos 50% silk/ 50% merino laceweight and is going to be a full sized Aeolian shawl. I intend to start with the yellow end at the neck and sweep out to the purples at the edge - I have some beautiful copper beads that will go great in the middle and I am on the look our for some gold ones for the beginning and some smoky iris coloured ones for the edges - quite when I am going to have time to knit this I'm not sure - I already have an all black Aeolian shawlette on the needles, a Tshirt design half done, 2 sock patterns to write - oh and the skein of yarn at the end - that's for another design for their Fetish club ;-)

I really wish I had been able to capture the depth of the colours - they are much deeper and richer than my camera would have you believe.

Ok nose back to the grindstone - need to get some of these designs done!

Blogiversarry!

Only just realised - today is my blogiversarry! 13th April 2005 was my very first post :-)

I started with a knitting post and I intent to continue with one today :-)

The last few days I have been working on a couple of things and I have actually finished a couple too.

First up a pair of socks.

Tetris socks - based on - yes the Tetris game. This is my last pattern of three for the Bleeping socks KAL on Ravelry. the pattern is a freebie and you can download it from Ravelry.

I used a ball of  Regia Nation color yarn to create the coloured stripes, but you could use any of the self striping yarns that has a fairly long colour repeat or even a mix of scraps.

Next up an Easter present to myself

Shetland Triangle shawl from Wrap style

4.5mm needles and 1 skein of Fearless Fibres Superwash sock yarn - colour Chastity

Lots of pinks and corals and yellows, 15 repeats, 72" wingspan - 36" spine 

A real spring/summer colourway - I love it :-)

So, how have I spent my blogiversarry?

Hubby and I are having a right royal clear out and we spent the whole day chucking out, recyling and passing forward vast amounts of "stuff" - Isn't it amazing how much rubbish we seem to collect....

Add to that a pleasant hour spining froghair silk on Beth and Kung Po chilli chicken with a nice bottle of Chardonnay and my bank holiday weekend is complete. 4 more days of holiday and I will be back to school for the last term of the year - It is going to be a busy one! We have a new server going in tomorrow and we will need to rebuild every machine in the place when we get back - phew!

See you on the other side ;-)

Spring Has Definitley Sprung

Not much to show on the knitting front - it is all stealth knitting at the moment :-(

Still, I have finished the Knotions Cardi - just need to reread the pattern to make sure it makes sense and I have finished the last Bleeping socks KAL sock design for the Ravelry group too!

so as I can't show you any photos of my knitting I will have to leave you with some photos of my garden in full spring glory

The Lilies of the Valley are up

The yellow daisy bushes are massing

The Rhododendrons are in full bloom

As is the Damson

and the Californinan Lilac

and if you look really carefully in the grass......

there is the odd nodding violet :-)

Have a lovely weekend 

Whoosh!

And another week has flow by!

We are approaching the end of term here and all the madness that usually engenders.

Add to that the fact that daughter is home on a flying visit from Uni and obviously, the knitting suffers :-)

I have been knitting frantically on the Knotions cardi to the exclusion of just about everything else - I do have a sock on the needles that I am trying to do a couple of rows a day in my lunch hour at work to keep the work madness at bay :-)

I have turned the heel on the first sock, but I haven't had a chance to get a photo of it.

The yarn is from an Etsy seller Stash Up Yarns - Black Jack Fig colourway lots of grapes and warm browns and pinks plus a hint of bottle green.

The weather has taken a complete down turn we have gone from beautiful spring sunshine to high winds and rain - It's freezing again and here I am knitting on a laceweight sumer cardi!

I hope the weather is better where you are - have a good weekend - our clocks go forward on Sunday - :-(