Goldilocks and the three knitting needles

It's half term this week, so knitting has to be easy and portable. So far this week I have finished the first of the pair of socks I shared for Yarning Along last week (I still can't share much, I want to do a big reveal when I have both done), then stole the needles from them to finish my Yarn Shop Day socks, which are done, hooray! The needles then got transferred to my pink striped socks that I'm knitting for the Brit Knit KAL* that is being run by Amy of Stranded Dyeworks.

Finished socks

Why do I keep transferring my needles between projects? It turns out I'm like Goldilocks when it comes to knitting needles: the Hiya Hiya sharps are too sharp (and are being donated to a friend; in combination with my knitting style the needles are lethal!), the cheap needles my Yarn Shop Day socks were on have awful joins, and I've bent one of the tips. The red and blue socks were on Knit Pro Novas and those needles are just right: the tips are not so pointy they hurt my pushing finger, but not so blunt it takes effort to 'find' the stitches. Which is why they are being passed between sock projects (yes, I should just buy some more, I will next time I order yarn). I'll finish the first pink sock, then return the needles to the red, blue and yellow socks, knit the second of those, then use the needles again for the second pink sock.

A bit bent!

Too sharp!

Reading has been slow since last week. I gave up on the book I was reading (Be Frank With Me); I'm sure it was interesting, but the writing style wasn't working for me and I didn't get beyond page 50. Last night I restarted The Lake House by Kate Morton, which I started reading last year, but got distracted from. I'm only a chapter in, but am hoping to make good progress over the next week - Kate Morton's writing style is definitely one I enjoy and I tend to read her books very quickly.

The sign of a good book - an intergrated book mark!

This morning the kids and I went to the cinema to see a kids' screening of Sing which I very much enjoyed. The story is based around an X-Factor style singing competition devised to save someone's theatre, and features lots of characters who find themselves through singing. I found the film cute without being nauseating, and there were plenty of jokes for everyone, so I'd definitely recommend it if you have young children who want entertaining.

Joining in with Rachel for Yarning Along.

*Ravelry link; you need to be logged into Ravelry for this link to work.

Perfect weather for sock knitting

After last week's crazy hot weather, the bank holiday weekend was, as ever, a bit of a let-down, weather-wise. Saturday was stormy, but the bits between the storms were actually quite nice, and a bit fresher than the heat of the week. Yesterday was lovely, but I was at a christening for the morning and early afternoon, then went to soft play with the kids afterwards, so didn't really get to enjoy the sun. And today it has been wet all day. I did get a chance to go for a walk this morning, dressed for summer but with a waterproof and an umbrella, which was actually quite pleasant; the fresh air and peace were nice at least!

One of the highlights of this weekend was seeing a hot air balloon flying over our garden. There was a hot air ballooon festival in town this weekend, which we would have gone to if our free time had coincided with the good weather, instead when we were free the weather wasn't good enough for the balloons to be up. Flying in a hot air balloon is one of the items on my list of things I'd love to do, although I suspect the reality isn't quite the same as my idealised notion.

Flying high, in the sky

Another highlight has been Lego building. My husband bought one of the big Lego Technic sets on Saturday and he and the kids have spent the rest of the weekend building it, and this morning it was up and running and the kids had a brilliant time using the scoops to pick up Lego from a pile on the floor. It entertained them for hours!

Amazing Lego!

After last week's knitting disaster, I've been focusing on smaller projects, and have cast off two socks this weekend. When I cast off the second I stole the needles to finish the second of the striped socks - Knit Pro Novas are much nicer to work with than very cheap needles from the market. I have quite a lot of pairs of socks to finish, so I might make finishing a few pairs my goal for half term (even if it means spending a lot of time at soft play...).

Cast off number one

Second cast off of the weekend

Can I finish these tonight?

Hope you've had a good weekend, whether or not it's been a long one.

Do as I say, not as I do: garment blocking

This morning I cast off a project that I have been working on intermittently for the past couple of months - a Breton-inspired children's jumper. I was really pleased with how it had turned out: fresh and cute, and my daughter loves it, so it should get some wear once the weather has cooled down.

As the sun was shining, I soaked the jumper over breakfast, squeezed the excess water out into a towel and laid the jumper out on blocking mats in the garden to dry. I then went out for the day as planned.

When I got home after lunch I went to the garden to pick up the jumper, and was pleased that it was nice and dry. But on closer inspection it wasn't quite the same as when I had left it. The front of the jumper had yellowed slightly. My immediate thoughts were sun damage (which seemed unlikely, while the sun had been hot the jumper had only been out for a few hours), or some sort of dust. I threw the jumper in the washing machine on a wool cycle, hoped for the best, and posted a photo to Instagram in case any one had any useful advice.

A couple of people suggested pollen, which seemed reasonable as the pollen count has been really high today. I set about googling ways to get pollen out of clothes, and while there are many, many helpful suggestions, most involve using biological stain removers, which won't work on wool.

When the jumper had finished washing I fished it out of the machine, hoping that it would have returned to its original state. No such luck. I soaked it a couple of times in cold water, to no avail, then squeezed the water out and hung it out (inside, on a clothes rail) to dry, hoping that it would look better when dry.

When my husband got home from work he took a look at the jumper too, and quickly concluded that it was indeed sun damaged. And irretrievable.

I have dried knitwear in the sun many times, and never had any problems, but having done some more googling, many yarn companies say not to dry yarn in direct sunlight, but none of them say why. It would appear this is the reason: wool is fragile and scorches easily, so my advice is never to dry knitwear in direct sunlight. And while I'm at it, wear sunscreen; if the sun can do this to yarn, imagine what it can do to your skin.

Happy knitting!

********

I had planned to publish the pattern for this jumper in about a month's time, and should still be able to do that. I shall be knitting a new sample alongside my test knitters. If you fancy testing for me, let me know via the general testing thread in my Ravelry group* and I'll contact you when the test is opened (hopefully next week).

*Ravelry link - you must be logged into Ravelry for this to work.

Yarning Along: Sandal weather

It seems summer is finally here! Today has been clear, bright and warm, and, as the title suggests, I've worn my sandals for the first time this year! Hooray! I've had the washing out, and done some knitting in the sun.

Hot!

Blue skies

My current project is a brand new sock design. The idea for them came to me on Friday, I ordered the yarn on Saturday (along with some new needles), it arrived yesterday and I cast on immediately. There's not much to show yet, but I am really excited about what they're going to become, so I fully expect to speed through them (or the first one at least - I'll be writing the pattern for them between the two).

I'm also onto a new book having finished Spectacles last night (I loved it, but found the final 50 pages a bit slow. Plenty of laugh out loud moments throughout though, and I would definitely recommend it. It is very silly in parts!). I'm now reading Be Frank with Me, which I know precisely nothing about, except that it was passed on to me by Amy, who enjoyed it (I think...). I'm reading it now partly because it's a hardback, which makes it easier to read and knit at the same time, the perfect combination for an afternoon enjoying the sun in the garden, and partly because I like the cover (which looks a little like the cover for Spectacles. Maybe my reading has a theme at the minute).

Linking up with Rachel for Yarning Along.

Not just another Tuesday

I woke up this morning and bounded out of bed, full of energy and purpose for the first time in ages after a cold that has completely sapped my energy. By 7 am I had done some patterns edits, finished the front of a jumper (just a few rows, but still) and caught up on a couple of knitting podcasts.

My normal morning routine features both Instagram and Radio 4 as two of the first things I do. I have no idea why it didn't this morning, but for the first hour that I was up this morning the world was the same as it was yesterday. After I had finished a couple of things I looked at Instagram and first heard of the bombing in Manchester. I promptly switched on the radio to get more information. 

Image from Aleksejh on Pixabay

I know that incidents such as this happen with alarming regularity around the world, but they generally feel different. But Manchester feels closer, both physically (it's only 2 and a half hours away) and emotionally. The idea of a bombing that directly targets young people is hard to deal with, and today the world I inhabit feels less secure than yesterday. I hope all your loved ones are safe.

And yet life goes on. Next week is half term, so this week I'm focusing on pattern writing so that I have samples to knit next week. But a few thoughts in the quiet moments will be saved for those who have lost their lives, and those that are still missing. Stay safe.

A wedge too far?

For the past week I have been working on the final wedge of my Dotted Rays shawl, hoping to finish it this weekend. On Friday evening I got to the end of the final wedge, leaving just two rows and an i-cord cast off. I knew I was cutting it a little fine with the amount of yarn I had - the penultimate wedge used a little under 50g, and the final ball of yarn (which I started on the second row of the final wedge) weighed about 54g, so it was going to be tight.

I weighed my yarn, then knitted the final two rows. I weighed the yarn again. The i-cord cast off meant that for every stitch cast off you have to knit three stitches; I did some quick (late at night) maths and concluded that I would not have enough yarn. I stuck the shawl back in its bag and went to bed.

The following morning I rummaged through several bags to stash to find 11g of purple yarn that would finish the shawl off nicely. I had lots of purple, but it was either too sparkly, too variegated, too speckled or too pink. I had a think and decided that rather than buying more yarn (and risking it not matching), the final two rows before the cast of weren't critical, and that I could get away with pulling them out, then doing the cast off two rows early.

I sat down and carefully tinked back the 525 sts of the previous row, then, for no particular reason, weighed my yarn again. Never trust maths done late at night: there was enough yarn! I swore a bit - delighted that I had enough yarn, annoyed that I can't do basic maths (I'd missed out a factor of two - I did think 11 g was a bit much for a cast off, even a 500 stitch I-cord cast on).

I carefully re-knit the row I'd just unravelled, and over the course of the day cast the shawl off (mostly while sat at soft play while my son was playing). And by the evening I had cast the whole thing off, with just a little scrap to spare.

An out-and-about cast-off

The final few stitches

The shawl is beautiful, the gradient is perfect for it, and there was virtually nothing left from any of the shades (the shawl weighs 270 g and there was 1.93 g of scraps left at the end). I'll share proper pictures later in the week (if it ever stops raining), but here's a little peek for now.

Cutting it fine? Or a job well done?

Have you finished anything this weekend?

Yarning Along: The final wedge

This weekend I tried my hardest not to knit so that I could give my hands a bit of a rest. I managed a whole 48 hours without knitting, and haven't done as much as usual this week either, and my hands are thankful for that. Not knitting meant I had time to get the sewing machine out, and while I didn't manage to complete the two projects I had wanted to do, I did finally finish the curtains for my daughter's room, which I bought the fabric for in October and cut out in March. That project had been pushed up to the top of the to do list as the mornings have been getting lighter and I was getting bored of having to unpeg the blackout linings every morning... The curtains do still need hemming, but I'm pretending I need to leave them to relax for a few days to stabilise at their natural length before I do them (in truth curtain seams are long and by the time I had done them I was bored!).

I've been focusing on knitting for me now that all my commissions are out of the way, and my current favourite is my Dotted Rays. I have just started the final shade of purple and am on the final wedge, so this is nearly done (does anyone else speed up as they get towards the end of a project?). The project isn't very photogenic at the minute as it's all bunched up on the needle, but that can't be helped.

I finished reading After You this week, and while I enjoyed it I much preferred Me Before You. And I have made no progress on Spectacles this week, but know I will enjoy it when I next have an early night. The other non-knitting thing I am excited about this week is the arrival of my La La Land DVD, which was a birthday present (but hadn't been released in time for my birthday); I loved seeing it at the cinema and can't wait to watch it this weekend (and then several times afterwards - the cd of the soundtrack is in my car on repeat).

Linking up with Rachel for Yarning Along.