I've got the blues...

First of all, an admission - Juju, I am awfully sorry but you won't be getting that sweater for Xmas after all. Despite my best attempts, I can't get my tension to settle down at the moment and I have decided that this is one of those times when it is best to step away from the project and pick it up at a later date. For the rest of you, Juju is my sister and I am being a coward and announcing it here rather than calling her and telling her. Now I am going to need to find her another gift, a good excuse to go and do some shopping!

Which shouldn't be too hard as tomorrow is 20% off night at Libertys so I am sure that I will find something there if I have a good look around. For those of you that won't be able to make it, here's an air of Libertys at Xmas - the decorations from the centre bit of the store.

They really are lovely - they are made from paper (or maybe card) and they swirl around a little - due to the hot air circulating, I guess. Anyway, they are lovely Xmas decorations.

I dont' think that I shall be indulging too much though as this arrived in the post yesterday:

Yes, it's Magpie aran in Prance. A lovely dark purple. And yes, it is a colour and it is for me. To be precise, it is to make the Fiddlesticks 'C'est la vie' shawl. You can see it here. Looking at the picture, it really doesn't look like the kind of thing that I would go for - in fact the husband looked at me as though I was crazy when the pattern showed up in the post.

But, I have tried it on courtesy of Dawn who brought it to Libertys for us all to drool over. Polly and I nearly came to blows over it - it was so lovely. Dawn knitted it in the Magpie Aran in (I think) Coffee Bean, a lovely orangey brown colour. Anyway, I tried it on and fell in love. It has a real weight to it and drapes beautifully. I have to have it.

I will have some interesting knitting content one day soon. I am not the most inspired knitter at the moment and have decided to let that be ok until after Xmas. Then I shall start knitting properly again. Until then I am going to knit things where tension is not a huge issue and I am going to cut myself some slack. My tension has been all over the shop and that has really got me down - I would love to be one of those people who have spot on tension. Instead I am as tight as they come. I have tried to relax but I find it hard to keep my tension neat when I try to knit loose - so then I don't like the way my knitting looks. My last resort may just have to be to try to teach myself to knit continental or to hold my needles differently. Or something.

I think that a mixture of the days shortening, the cold, my car being broken into and having to help the husband to do his expenses (blah!) is all getting to me. I think I need a big cup of tea, 2 chocolate digestives and some cashmerino aran to cheer me up.

Bits and bobs

Today I sent off my membership form to the Debbie Bliss club. I saw the beret and cravat that make up the kit at Ally Pally and I thought that they were lovely. The fact that they were made from alpaca silk only made them nicer. There was even a young fashion student there who wanted to buy the beret and I spent half an hour trying to convince the poor girl that she should take up knitting. She declined but I decided that I liked her nevertheless when she said that she thought that I was 26.

I like that idea.

I have finished the scarf in the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran - but no picture today as I haven't sewn in the ends yet... I will put a picture up tomorrow hopefully, once it is blocked and looking all Cristmas-gifty.

Oh, and I thought that I had posted about this yarn but I can't seem to find any mention of it my archive, so I guess I didn't. When I was in the US for the last time, the lovely Wendy gave me some of this:

It's beautiful. It the Filature Di Crosa Millefili Fine. It shines. Really shines. It is just the softest, silkiest yarn I have come across in a long time and I have completely fallen in love with it. I have some in a lovely chocolate brown and some in a variegated colour with brown, rust, cream, beige and grey. I don't know what I am going to knit with it yet. I have visions of a slim fitting jumper of some kind in the chocolate with the cuffs, bottom and neck in the variegated yarn. Doesn't that sound gorgeous? Although there is a pretty pattern for the yarn here - I could do that instead.

Not that I am running short of things to knit at the moment. I am trying not to buy any more yarn at the moment although someone mentioned that there was a yarn sale at one of my LYS soon so that intention may not last as long as I would like.

Pah humbug

Arghhh. Sometimes I feel as though my knitting adventures are nothing but a series of failiures. I keep starting on projects and somehow something nearly always manages to go wrong. What upsets me is that so many of the mistakes/errors and weird occurrences are clearly down to me. The number of pattern errors/knots in yarn and other oddities is miniscule so the 'blame' is clearly to be laid at my feet.

I find it all the more frustrating because I know that I am capable of knitting well - my tension is generally good (well apart from my 1x1 ribbing and I can live with that) and I can read a knitting pattern quite decently. I am not a knitting guru like so many of my knitting friends, but I get along quite nicely. But oddities just crop up.

Now I shall explain. Polly has been very very kind indeed and offered to resize the sweater that I want to make for the husband. Yes, the one which calls for the Phildar Altitudes yarn that I disliked so much. I was gutted that the yarn was not working out and Polly took pity on me and offered to rework it so that I could use All seasons cotton, of which I just 'happen' to have another 2 bags in the same grey as the one I am using for my Ice. So when Polly said to check my tension for Ice was on target (18sts), I did. And then cried. Because despite doing a tension square, I am off tension. And I have no idea why. I did a tension square and ASC is the easiest yarn in the world to knit with. But I am definately getting 17 sts for 10cm.

Last week I seamed one shoulder, knitted on the neck, seamed the second shoulder and sewed up the sides - here it is.

I can't say I was 100% happy with the way the neck looks where I picked up the stitches. I am probably being just a little pernickity (I am definately a detail-orientated kind of person) but it bothered me. But I still thought that it looked OK.

But now none of this really matters as the sweater is way too big on me - 18 sts to 17 sts is quite a big jump. I have thought of sewing my seams one further stitch in on either side but that will still only reduce it by 4 stitches and I reckon I would probably still need to lose 6 stitches. Sigh.

I have also been working on a Xmas gift - but seeing as the recipient is highly unlikely to check my blog, I thought I would show it here. Last year Jacinta gave me this scarf below as a present before I went off on my first trip to the US.

I love this scarf. Not just because Jacinta made it for me but because it goes with everything, fits under all of my coats and is as comfy and pretty as they come. Here's a close up of the end of the scarf - it's a lovely detail.

Anyway, my mother has requested one, as has another friend so I have the funny feeling that I will be doing a fair amount of k2, p2 ribbing before Xmas. Jacinta told me that she took her inspiration from a pattern in the Vogue Knitting Scarves book. But instead of using the yarn that it calls for (I don't know which one that would be as I don't have the book), she used the Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran. I will not rave about this yarn again as I have done that a fair amount recently. Suffice to say that the scarf is lovely and soft.

I also have a scarf from Pam Allen's Scarf Style planned. I have to say that I love this book, it's really lovely and has at least 5 scarves that I would like for myself. And it has to be the perfect Xmas gift book - so I shall definately be taking some inspiration from this.

And thank you to all of you who sent ideas form Xmas gifts. It looks as though there will be a lot of scarves involved - although I may be tempted by a pair of socks, who knows?

Missing entry

I wrote a long entry tonight and somehow it has vanished. I shall start again but don't have the heart to do it again tonight. Tomorrow.

No battery

Well I did get a fair amount of knitting done the other day seeing as I had no laptop. Then I decided that I would go down and spend a couple of days at my parents' place seeing as my sister is here too. I threw the camera in my bag and only realised when I got here that I forgot the battery.

Not that that would have mattered (after all my father does have a digital camera) - can I remember the password to upload my pictures to the FTP server? Nope. So pictures on Saturday when I get home, I promise.

I have made good progress on my Ice sweater which is just waiting to be sewn up. I really did not enjoy the picking up the stitches around the neck bit, I have to say. For some reason it never quite seems to work as nicely as I would like. Having tried 4 times, I decided that the 5th attempt was going to have to be good enough, whether I liked it or not.

I think that I am likely to call of the fantastic seamstress skills of Jacinta for getting the sleeves in place. Despite the best efforts of Stephanie, this is still not one of my strengths. I am hoping that one more lesson will do the trick. There is nothing more frustrating than spending hours knitting something and then realising that your finishing skills are just pathetic. Especially when you're a perfectionist like me. That bit about 'easing' the sleeve in?? Jacinta, I am counting on you!

FO!!

Woooo hooooo! I have a finished object. Yes, I have finally finished my Opera scarf. I have to say that it is a very fine scarf and I really am rather pleased with it. I did toy with the idea of putting it in to the 'Xmas pile' but it is screaming to be kept. Just for me.

First of all, surely you can see that it is very me? Very dark grey/silver. To be fair, the yarn was only available in grey or in light pastel colours so no one can say that I have avoided the bright colours again :D

Here's a close up of the scarf.

It really is the easiest pattern and the only thing that I think I would change if I knitted it again would be to make it a little wider. The scarf that I am wearing above is made from just one ball of the Blue Sky Alpaca silk yarn - so all in all, I think that this is a great little project.

I went to Libertys a while ago and Jill was there with 2 knitted scarves that she had completed - both of them whilst away on holiday. I wish I could remember what yarn they are in but I am having a complete blank. The green scarf is made from yarn that Jacinta brought back from the US for Jill.

The purple scarf is made from yarn that I brought back from the US for Jill.

Detecting a theme there? Well we had both been to Knit Happens.

The husband is taking my laptop away tomorrow and I will be stuck at home all day. The good side to this is that I should get a fair amount of knitting done - as long as I don't get distracted by the house work that is...

Xmas panic

Arghh... it's Xmas knitting time and I am seriously lacking inspiration. I would like to knit something for most of my family and the in-laws too but there are only so many scarves one can cope with in one 2 month stretch. But it has to be said that scarves are 1. reasonably easy 2. likey to be appreciated.

I can't felt due to my washing machine - so that means that bags are out - based on my previous experience of lining bags, I don't think I will be doing any knitted bags that need lining. Hats are a difficult one too - after all not everyone wears hats or likes them. Socks - you may have noticed that I have not mentioned my sock recently. It's slow progress.

Come to think of it, I am going to go and pick that one up. Polly is our sock teacher (we being Jacinta and me) and I have not done the 'homework' that we were set about 2 months ago.

If you have any suggestion as to good Xmas ideas, please please share them. I need the inspiration!

Slow knitting

I don't seem to making as much knitting progress as I feel I should be. And I am really not quite sure why.

One reason seems to be the classic poncho from Blue Sky Alpaca.

This is one side finished. I still have a side to go and I have to admit that almost makes me want to cry. First of all it is a pattern where you cast on at the point and work to the top. Which means you cast on 4 stitches and work your way to 184 sts. It's knitting death by slow increases. And I have found that it is impossible to knit this without having the pattern next to me.

It works on a 12 row repeat but I just can't see the logic of it - sometimes you slip one, sometimes you knit into the front and the back and sometimes you yarn over. If you think that I am exagerrating, ask PhylPhyl. She'll tell you. We have discussions altong the lines that we could rip it all out and knit 4 pairs of socks with the yarn. Trust me, if I am talking about ripping something out to make socks, it must be bad.

Here's my 'travelling knitting' - it's what I take on the tube/bus/train when I am going places.

4 points to those of you who shouted 'It's an Opera scarf', once again from Blue Sky Alpaca using their beautiful Alpaca & Silk. It is not intentional that I should have 2 projects from the same company on the needles - but I saw the lovely Blue Sky Alpacas Opera scarf knitted up when I was at Knit Happens. It screamed 'I am born to be a Christmas gift!' so it's on the needles. I really love it and my real concern is that it is in 'my colours' and I am going to find it hard to give it up. This is not the only Xmas gift I am going to have that problem with but more on that some other time. By the way the Opera scarf is a free pattern that you can find here:

Finally, to keep the 'tour guide' aspect of this blog up - here are 2 pictures from London - no reason really except that they both made me smile.

As I was on my way to meet Kristine when she was over a couple of weeks ago, I was suddenly surrounded by a gang of apes, this is not usual for London, trust me. Turns out they were launching some new Nintendo Donkey Kong game. It did make me laugh.

And here's a giant Iris. It was standing outside the Tate Britain. I am not quite sure it was there but I liked it.