Knitting

Ok, see that wasn't so bad.

At least I broke the seal, ripped off the plaster and got back on the horse by posting in a insomniatic fit the other night. It's all good.

I have been staring at the link to this blog on my desktop with fear and trepidation for ages. I know it's something I really want to do, but really haven't been able to give it the time it deserves. Also, after reading all the amazing blogs out there and see how well everyone is able to communicate. Like I said, Loser. But I am working on it. It's a like a blogging rehab program ....

I will start out this update with what I have been knitting over the past few months. As creatively stunted as I felt earlier in the year, I have made up for it a million times over. I have a knitting up a storm and have a wish list of projects I want to do that is a mile long, let's hope my wallet will stretch as far! I have developed a serious addiction to luxury yarn. I have actually been spending more on yarn than on handbags and cocktails!! You can see the gravity of the situation. I figure if you spend hours, days, weeks handmaking something you might as well go for the best yarn you can afford! Also, there seem to be so many amazing patterns out there, and I intend to do them all! But let's back track and show you what I have been doing lately..

I will work backward. So, my friend Becky gave birth to a lovely little boy and here's the cabled (of course, I really can't help myself) blanket I made in a lovely deep Sky blue from Debbie Bliss, Cashmerino on 6mm needles.

It's lovely and soft, and long enough to wrap around the little 'un or put in the pram. It was a huge success and the new mommy and daddy loved it. Again, this is a blanket of my own design and I would be happy to share the pattern.

The next thing I knit was from the new Rowan New Shapes book, which is really great if you are thinking of getting it. So many stylish and easy, chunky knits for this season. That and the new Rowan Magazine 42 and I am overwhelmed with ideas...

I knit this pattern, named 'Sage', but instead of using Big Wool as directed I used up some wool I impulsively purchased at Loop earlier in the year. I had one of those reactions to Blue Sky Alpaca yarns that really makes grateful I learned to knit. It was so saturated in colour (a gorgeous anthracite grey) and so soft, I literally couldn't put it down. So I bought all 5 skeins. Even though I didn't have a pattern in mind. Yeah, I do that. Most of the time it works out... ha ha When I saw this pattern I knew it was the perfect one for my seriously soft and luxurious alpaca yarn. Luckily the gauge was the same knit on 15mm needles, but in my frenzy of finding just right pattern (finally!) I didn't clock that a ball of the fuzzy alpaca gorgeousness only yielded half as many yards as the Big Wool. Huh. Nice one. Well... a quick search around and I bought 4 more skeins. It's really, really a good thing that I love this shrug/wrap so much as it didn't end up being the cheap 5 ball project I was hoping for.

I have been obsessing about knitting some socks for ages. I love how crazy and excited sock knitters get (and you know who you are) when talking about socks so I thought I would give it a whirl. I can't say I was an instant convert, but it was really fun and they knit up surprisingly quick. I usually shy away from anything requiring me to use needles less than 5mm because I have the shortest attention span in the world. I stuck it out and voilà, I made a pair of socks for my honey!! Despite the hairy turning of the heel and sorting out the whole grafting thing, it was much easier than I thought. I will be trying it again, and this time using that monkey socks pattern that seems to get everyone so excited. This time it was just the standard pattern that came with the socks, but I used two circular needles (3.5mm) instead using Regia Silk Colour yarn in the blue colourway you see below. I can't even tell you how cool self-striping yarn is. It's like magic!

Here's the finished product and the happy recipient modeling them...

Tonight I am going to start on a new scarf as the weather is turning crisp and cool again. I picked up two balls of the new Rowan Cocoon this weekend. So soft and nice, mohair and merino. Yay! I am thinking of a striped scarf, in two shade of grey...one more like shale the other with black overtones, in an intricate cable pattern. I love cables so much it's obscene. I really had to restrain myself from putting cables into that shrug above. I can't help tweaking patterns, but this was the first time in ages that I actually knit something without tinkering around with it. Like I said... very short attention span.

Hope you had a great weekend!

A.