Christmas socks

My Christmas knitting has begun in earnest. Today I cast on for a pair of socks using one of the skeins of Blue Moon Fibers that I got in the mail last month. I started by casting on for the Herringbone socks from the Winter Interweave Knits which arrived in the mail today.

I cast on for the smaller size but soon realized that it was going to be too small to fit over the heel. I could have cast on for the larger size but since I was finding some of the slip stitches fiddly and time consuming I decided to use a different pattern.

Since I have yet to knit a proper pair of Monkey socks I cast on this quick and charming pattern. Second time was the charm. I'm really happy with how the yarn is striping in this pattern and how quickly it is knitting up.


Poor Vinnie didn't get any attention today, though I did add a few more rows to the green shawl. This should be a month of many projects, though the abandoned sweaters will likely not be worked on.

Green Thing

I said that I would post a picture of my green shawl when I was half way through the center section. This evening I finished the third ball and attached the fourth so I guess I have to share a picture:

Despite being a flash picture this pretty accurately captures the colours of the yarn. It still looks like a long strip of knitting but that probably won't change until it is off the needles. At least I think my 6 balls of yarn should be enough for the center section. I'm not sure how far my hand spun border yarn will go though...

In other news I've been offered some black worsted yarn for Vinnie. I've knit one of his legs down to where the black attaches and I'll probably knit the other one tomorrow. Then I can knit the red part of the cape and the white bits of his clothes. By that point I should have the black and be able to finish him off (perhaps with a bamboo DPN through the heart).

Yay!

I made it through the month and managed to post every day. I think I will try to keep posting every day or two since I still have a bit of a blog backlog. One of these days I will press gang Ken into being my photographer (unless he wants to be my model instead).

Today's knitting was all about the toy. I now have two arms, a trunk, a head and two ears (not pictured). Thanks to a trip to Fabricland for some stuffing these bits actually look like body parts; for a while they looked like monochromatic deflated balloons.

I've started on the first leg. The only problem I can foresee at this point is a lack of worsted weight black yarn. I will either have to use a few strands of sock yarn held together or I will have to spin up some of my black Alpaca. Decisions, decisions.

Almost over and newly cast on

Then end of November is upon us. At this point there is no hope of the abandoned sweaters being finished (or even worked on) by the end of the month. I have also failed to post the sweater I finished some time ago but which has yet to be properly photographed. Also the hand spun sweater and the two Urchins deserve proper photos.

Some, but not all of this may be rectified tomorrow. Today I spent a little time working on my green shawl but most of my time on a new project. I bought the pattern and cast on for Vincent the Vampire. I've never knit a toy before and this one has so many charming little details.
The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn and since I have the white Faulklands that didn't get used in the sweater I'm using it. I'm pretty sure that a dig through my stash should yield a black yarn of this weight. I will have to go out and buy some stuffing, though.

So far I have the trunk knit and half of the head. This should be a reasonably quick knit. It should also be a good gift for my nephew (who I'm pretty sure doesn't read my blog). Depending on how long this takes to knit I'm tempted to make an extra sweater for the toy; vampires have casual Fridays too right?

Plugging away

I've not made much progress on my shawl today, though I did manage to snap a photo before the sun set, which was at 4:14pm according to Environment Canada. It is big enough that it is hard to really stretch it out on the circular needle. I had to settle for stretching out half of it.

Mostly I've been knitting away at the green shawl. After 9000 stitches it is 4 inches wide. It has so far used up two of the six skeins I dyed. I may end up dying another skein or two to get the width I'm looking for but I'll wait until I'm closer to the end to decide. I'll also wait until its at least half done before I bother posting a picture. It really only looks like a long green strip of knitting at the moment.

Shawl progress

A quick post after spending an enjoyable evening at the Ariadne knit night.

Today I managed to knit an inch and a half on my green shawl/blanket. Most of this progress was managed while waiting for my number to be called so I could get Quebec plates for my car. (I can't believe how few people bring something to entertain themselves in such situations. Even before I knit I would pack a book to keep myself from dying of boredom and frustration.)

I spent most of this evening working on my Cliete. I've just started the 7th repeat of the chart and looking at the available yarn I'm pretty sure there won't be 9 repeats. If I'm lucky I might get 8 repeats out of my remaining yarn. Judging by its current length that might be enough. I will probably only spin more yarn if I run out mid repeat (or mid row).

I only have a hastily taken photograph but it gives a vague sense of the length and the way the yarn is producing the occasional stripe. Tomorrow I'll be sure to grab a picture in natural light and with the shawl more stretched out.

Long rows

Today I knit a couple of gauge swatches for my green shawl/blanket. I'm usually a big fan of tight gauge so I assumed I'd be knitting on 4.5 mm needles. I found, though, that the mill spun yarn has no drape and I needed to go up to a 5 mm needle to get a fabric I like. I'm still finding it stiff but I'm hoping that a good soak in some Euclan or hair conditioner will make this yarn more relaxed.

Part of the problem , I think, is that I have gotten used to knitting with handspun which has a lot of drape. Another part of the problem is that this yarn still has some excess dye in it, as I discovered when I washed my swatches. I'm hoping that washing this dye out and adding some conditioner in will give the yarn and the fabric a nicer hand.

Now that I know my gauge (5.5 stitches/inch) I'm facing casting on some 360 stitches. This will be the sort of project that makes you go to bed before finishing one more row. My orange shawl is the same since it is now some 320 stitches wide and growing. I may have to cast on for some mittens or some socks or another hat just to have something that shows progress when I work on it.