Best Year Ever CKAL: April–June 2017

This year I am taking part in the Best Year Ever CKAL hosted by Nikki of the Tea and Possibilities podcast, and as we're half of the way through the year, here's how I'm getting on so far.

The aim of the KAL is to knit or crochet four things that you love over the course of the year. I had a definite plan at the start of the year, but as you'll see from this post, that plan may have wandered a little...

1. Sara Elin socks

When I last updated you on my progress I had already finihsed one KAL item: my pink socks, which I christened my Sara Elin socks after my blog-reading friend Sara Elin (hello!), and wrote up the pattern for shortly afterwards (the pattern is available from my Ravelry store). I loved knitting these, even though they presented many challenges along the way. And the colour?! How could they not make you smile!

2. A squishy purple shawl
Not the shawl I set out to knit at the start of the year, but I do now have a squishy purple shawl: Dotted Rays by Stephen West. This shawl was a triumph and I adore it! I am still to photograph it properly (the weather warmed up as soon as I cast it off), but will do before autumn, and then it will be added to my regular wardrobe.

3. Sincerely Louise reindeer head
I have wanted a Sincerely Louise faux taxidermy head for a long time, and finally it is going to happen! I signed up to the Sincerely Louise mailing list a few months ago, and when she had a sitewide sale on a little while ago I jumped at the chance to grab a kit. So at some point over the next few months I will be knitting a reindeer head. Woo hoo!

4. A garment for me
There are a few options for this category.

First up we have the Antler jumper. Actually this isn't an option any more. My Antler jumper was a total fail. The gauge was wrong, the yarn was too itchy, and last month I sold all the yarn on eBay. Goodbye Antler.

A Pavement sweater. Amy of the Stranded Podcast knitted a Pavement sweater a few months ago, and it is gorgeous: lightweight, seamfree and a nice shape, this jumper is a top contender. I have three and a half skeins of Araucania Ranco in my stash that is a perfect cornflower blue, but will that be enough, and will the yarn be toon scratchy? Hmm...

A Lush cardigan. This cardigan has been on my to-knit list since the pattern was in testing. I have the yarn (Rowan Baby Merino Silk DK*), but it might be too lovely as I am feeling a little intimidated. Maybe I should grab some less precious yarn (possibly something merino by Drops) and just get on with it.

Something new. The final garment option is something else that may be a little out of my comfort zone: my first adult garment design. I have the yarn (Cascade Superwash 220*), I have the idea, and I know how to write the pattern. But that doesn't mean I'm not nervous about it.

Watch this space to see what I finally decide on...

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Have you been joining in with the Best Year Ever KAL? How are you getting on? It's not too late to join in the fun; if you want to know more, head over to the thread in Nikki's Ravelry group.**

*Affiliate link.
**Ravelry link, you must be signed in to Ravelry for the link to work.

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.

Blog every day in May: I have a cunning plan

Morning!

And suddently it's May. April whizzed past just as fast as all the other months have so far this year, so I fully expect we'll be at Christmas before I know it... Today is a(nother) bank holiday - you wait ages for one then four come along at once, and I'm pretty sure the plan is to lounge around and maybe head out to the local soft play later. I have a couple of magazine projects that need working on too, so those are going to get some attention, and tonight I have my regular knit night (in the local pub with friends), which is always a highlight of the week. What are you doing today?

I have also decided to take part in Blog Every Day in May; a blogging challenge initially set up by Rosalium, and while I don't think it's officially running this year, I thought I would give it a go. Let's see where it takes us. If you'd like to join me, post a link to your blog in the comments and I'll pop over to yours to say hello.

Image from SkitterPhoto on Pixaby

My major plan for May is to get a few long-term projects off the needles and hooks. Last night I dug out my TOFT chameleon and he only needs legs and eyes, which I could probably do in an evening if I find a quiet corner (I have to concentrate on every stitch while crocheting amigurumi, which is why the chameleon isn't finished yet). I have about 100g of yarn left to knit for my Dotted Rays, so that's definitely do-able (especially as the wedge consturction means I may not have to knit very much of the final 50g ball of yarn). And it's my husband's birthday soon, and I would love to be able to give him the socks I started knitting him earlier in the year (an ambitious plan, but possibliy possible, and if they're not done for his birthday they'll definitely be done for Christmas. Apparently there are no photos of these, and no Ravekry page...). And last but not least, I need to finish my Lynda socks for my Knit Night Collection KAL, which finishes at the end of May (there's plenty of time to join in - head to the thread in my Ravelry group for more details*). What are your plans for May?

TOFT chameleon

Dotted Rays

Lynda socks

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

Best Year Ever KAL, January–March 2017

At the start of this year I said that I would join in on only one knitalong this year, the Best Year Ever KAL being hosted by Nikki of the Tea and Possibilities podcast. I know I haven't managed to stick to that, and joined in the Sockmatician Sockalong in March, but I did actually complete those socks, so I'm glad I did (and that yarn definitely needed knitting - the finished socks are lovely!). Now we're a quarter of the way into the KAL, so here's a little update.

At the start of the KAL I aimed to knit an Antler jumper, a Lush cardigan, a purple shawl and a reindeer head (if you want to read the whole list you can find it here). That hasn't quite gone to plan...

My list has had a complete reshuffle. Item one on my Best Year Ever KAL is now my Dotted Rays shawl. I am really enjoying working on this. The rows are now LONG - over 300 sts, though now I've memorised the pattern the stitch count isn't critical, so I have given up counting the number of stitches (I gave up when there was a discrepancy between my numbers and those in the pattern; I am certain I am correct, but don't wish to question Mr West's maths...). I am a little way into the third of five balls, and suspect that when I sit down and work on it I will whizz through it. The Easter holidays are coming up, and the amount of mindless garter stitch makes this a pretty perfect soft play knit.

The second item on my list is my pink socks. They do have a planned name for when I release the pattern, but if that falls through I might just go with 'Whhheee!!'. I struggled a bit with these socks at first; they're part of a collection of three patterns and the first two went really smoothly. This pair was meant to be the easiest, but that turned out not to be the case. To make matters worse I started these off as two at a time socks and it messed the gauge up, so I had to start again. But as soon as I had sorted out the pattern and fixed all the early glitches I started to really enjoy them; the spiral nature of the rib means it really does feel like you're going whhheee! as you're knitting them! And the pink is so wonderfully vibrant; these socks have made me very happy.

I am undecided on my Antler jumper: I had been having gauge problems, so when I got to the end of the sleeve it wasn't long enough. I could just about have coped with that, expect that I am wondering whether the yarn might be too itchy for me to be able to wear it. I fished it out this morning to photograph and I am wondering whether it might be salvagable. If not, it's not the end of the world - I am considering casting on a new jumper for myself in the next few months, possibly a Pavement by Veera Valamaki, which looks like it might be a good transitional season jumper.

Have you been joining in with the Best Year Ever KAL? How are you getting on? It's not too late to join in the fun; if you want to know more, head over to the thread in Nikki's Ravelry group.*

*Ravelry link, you must be signed in to Ravelry for the link to work.

Happy Mother's Day

Good morning! Today it is Mother's Day in the UK, and I am up bright and early (the clocks changed last night, so while they say 7.30 it doesn't feel like it!) while my daughter pootles around the living room, enjoying the first proper full weekend of sunshine we've had this year.

When I was small Mother's Day meant bunches of flowers given to the child at school and handed to their recipient a couple of days later, slightly wilted, and a handmade card. There was also usually a homemade cake, garishly decorated with as much food colouring and smarties (colourful chocolate 'beans' coated in a sugar shell) as we could get a way with.

While I was at junior school (7-11) and also a Brownie, the church in whose hall Brownies was held always invited the Brownies and their mums to the service on the Sunday (Mothering Sunday is technically a religious date, falling the third weekend before Easter); this was often a poorly attended service, which meant the chances of being designated flag-bearer were pretty high (I was always very excited about being flag-bearer; at some point during the ceremony each Brownie and Guide unit at the service would parade their unit flag to the front and place it in the special holder where they would be displayed for the rest of the ceremony). And no, being a flag-bearer wasn't exactly a gift for the mother, but it's always nice to watch your children doing things they're excited about!

These days I am a mum, and Mother's Day has become a rather more commercial event, with the shops being littered with balloons, chocolates and all manner of floral gifts, and anywhere that can hosting special afternoon teas. We're not doing anything special; I know that my children have each made me a card (the one from my daughter dropped out of her lunch bag yesterday when I was tidying up), and there is promise of my not having to cook this evening. It's nice to know that I am appreciated, but equally, I am lucky enough to know that I am appreciated as a mother every day of the year.

Having said that I don't want any gifts, I would like a couple of hours peace and quiet so I can get on with knitting on my Dotted Rays. It's my current weekend project and I've just finished the second ball of five. And maybe for someone else to make me a couple of cups of coffee...

Happy Mother's Day!

P. S. If anyone is interested, I am doing ok at the monogamous knitting. I have one pink sock and my Dotted Rays is keeping me company when the pink sock is too tricky!

Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2017

The weekend before last I went on another yarny adventure (my second in three weeks having been to Joeli's retreat, which is pretty good going!), this time to Edinburgh Yarn Festival. This was a real treat as I had thought that I wouldn't be able to go as my husband was going away that weekend, but his plans fell through and I got to go! I decided to post a photo an hour to Instagram for the day, so have lots of pictures to share here now. Here is my day at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival.

My day started way too early - I managed to get up even before my alarm went off at 5.50am. As I was up so early, I had time to make and drink a coffee, and wound the next skein of yarn for my Dotted Rays, just in case I finished the skein I was on (which seemed pretty unlikely as I had about 25g of that skein to go, but it's always good to be prepared).

6.10am: First coffee and yarn of the day

I had planned to get the bus to the station, hence the very early alarm call, but in the end decided to drive and park so I wasn't left hanging around waiting for a bus in the evening. This meant plenty of time to get breakfast at the station, and a bit of knitting while I waited for my train to arrive.

7.05am: At the station: coffee and breakfast

The train from Durham to Edinburgh takes a couple of hours (and is a very scenic route as it runs along the coats for large sections), which I spent in the company of knitwear designer Katya Frankel, which was lovely. I also browsed through my copy of The Simple Things magazine (I love this magazine and love to have a copy with my while I'm travelling; I am clearly their target audience - there was an advert for the knitting shop Loop in there!) and did a few more rows on my Dotted Rays.

8am: Magazine reading on the train

I arrived in Edinburgh and was greeted by my friends Lynda and Leigh (Leigh makes excellent knitting bags, you can check out her shop here) who I joined for (another) breakfast, before finally making our way to the show.

9.37am: Second breakfast

10.40am: I have arrived!

When I arrived at the Festival I was on a bit of a mission; I wanted to get two skeins of red yarn to make a scarf, two Portuguese knitting pins and some buttons for a cardigan. I had been warned by many of the people that had gone to EYF on the Friday that it was incredibly busy, that the marketplace was rammed with people, and that if I wanted to buy particular things, I would be best off heading straight for the stall and buying straight away. Taking this advice I headed straight into the marketplace when I arrived and started my search. Saturday was (fortunately) a bit less busy. There were a lot of people, but not so many that it was overwhelming, and there were lots of spaces in which you could take a break and breathe for a few seconds.

I saw a lot of beautiful red yarn: Phileas Yarns, Travel Knitter and Easy Knits all had yarns that I loved. Dye Ninja was my favourite though; there were so many beautiful, intense saturated colours on the stand. I loved all the shades of blues and greens too. Having a definite plan made browsing a lot easier; I saw a lot of things that were beautiful - everything The Wool Kitchen had for sale was so vibrant and cheerful - but having a plan meant I wasn't tempted to buy things I wasn't necessarily going to use (and I have plenty in my stash that may never be used, so don't need any more!).

1.30pm: Drooling over the Dye Ninja stall

I could only find one stall selling buttons, but it was a good one! Textile Garden had loads of tiny glass pots with a huge variety of interesting buttons. Obviously I was drawn to the novelty section... I have no idea how I resisted the octopus buttons!

Buttons = essential purchases

One brilliant thing about Edinburgh Yarn Festival is the podcast lounge: a large seating area where you can sit and knit, chat and eat (including picnics; which allows more money for yarn!). I sat in the lounge for a few hours over the course of the day, catching up with people I know well, people I've met before, people I know of through Instagram and meeting new to me knitters. Everyone was very welcoming, and it was lovely knitwear-watching as so many people were wearing amazing knitwear!

2.25pm: A little sit down and knitting time

I left the Festival around 3pm, and enjoyed a walk through the city with friends, followed by afternoon tea and a bit more knitting. I deliberately tried to take it pretty easy as I know that overdoing it when I go away for the day tends to knock me for six. Finding a peaceful cafe was very welcome after all the hustle and bustle of the festival.

3.30pm: A walk through the city

4.05pm: Afternoon tea

5.05pm: Still sitting and knitting

I caught my train home a little after 7pm, and slept pretty solidly almost all the way home!

And here are my very modest purchases: 200g red (Nanny Ogg's Bloomers, with a donation to the Alzheimer's Research UK, in memory of Terry Pratchett) merino/silk blend DK from Dye Ninja, two Portuguese knitting pins from Textile Garden and a mini skein from Easy Knits (which will be added to my sock yarn blanket). I didn't buy any buttons as I couldn't see what I wanted (cats), but have since bought some bird buttons from Textile Garden, and they are lovely.

My lovely purchases

Did you go to Edinburgh Yarn Festival? What did you buy? Will you be going next year?

Two steps forwards, one and a half back...

This week hasn't been great for knitting; while I did finish a cardigan on Tuesday (minus the buttons), I did have several days where progress was definiely in the wrong direction.

My Dotted Rays shawl that I cast on before going to Joeli's retreat wasn't perfect - the i-cord tab at the start was a little messy (possibly twisted?), and the i-cord edging had the odd error, but nothing too untoward, so I merrily added a few more rows one evening, then did a stitch count and it was all wrong! I had totally forgotten to do the increases. Normally I would have carefully unravelled the work to get to the last point that I knew was correct, then rework what had been unravelled. I tried the careful unravelling, but the short rows made it impossible, and before I knew it the shawl had been returned to a ball of yarn. Ah well, at least it was free of errors!

I started the Dotted Rays again and my second attempt is much tidier. And I'm paying a lot more attention to the pattern, so there shouldn't be any more mistakes (probably tempting fate there). It's growing a lot faster now as I understand the pattern, and have started using markers to work out where to turn the work. I think it might now get knitted quite quickly as the yarn is lovely and I'm certain I am going to love the final shawl.

The pink socks I showed you last week are also no more. The lace pattern was perfect for the leg, but required a lot more work on the foot section. I've unravelled them and will put them back on the needles this weekend once I've rewritten the pattern.

Thank goodness I've had some lovely plain vanilla socks on the go. My SockmaticianSockalong socks are progressing really nicely. I have just finished the first sock and it looks great. I decided to make them a bit 'Sockmatician-y' by working 2 x 1 rib for the cuff, which is what Nathan said he uses. I am trying to make the second one match, but this yarn has a lot of short colour changes, so it might not happen...

I am off to Edinburgh for the yarn festival this weekend. While I'm there I'll be trying to keep up with a special photo an hour (#EYFphotoanhour) on Instagram (I don't think it's the official date for March, but I thought it might be fun), and I'm certain I'll have lots to post here next week. This week has been a tiring one, so while I am giddy excited about going to a yarn festival, a huge part of me is looking forward to being able to sleep on the train! I do have a shopping list so I avoid getting carried away: 200g red semi-solid to make a huge squishy garter stitch shawl (I need one, I decided yesterday), some dark wood buttons (and some featuring cats; the request of a small child), and a second Portuguese knitting pin so I can do colourwork. If you see me there, feel free to say hello. I'll be the tired-looking one!

And while I remember, anyone waiting for the books read in February post, it's not happening; I read one Famous Five parody in February, and that's not really worth a whole post - I'll tag it on to March's.

I feel a new shawl coming on...

A couple of weeks ago my friend Fay showed me beautiful shawl she had knitted, a Dotted Rays by Stephen West. It was beautiful, and a really nice shape, so I immediately decided that I needed to make one for myself. Fay has just started dyeing her own yarns under the name Bea and Rose (you can find her on Etsy, Facebook and Instagram) and she has some lovely colourways. A couple of weeks ago she had a little sale, so I picked up a really pretty skein in shades of purple and grey with the intention of making the Dotted Rays.

Obviously I had plenty of things already on the needles, so was never going to cast on immediately. Last week I looked on Ravelry at the projects associated with the pattern and saw this one*; it is perfect. I added it to my favourites for future reference, thinking that it was a project for one day, as I don't have anything in my stash that would work.

But then on Saturday I had a thought. I do have something in my stash that would work; it would in fact be perfect: at Yarndale a couple of years ago I picked up a 5 x 50g purple gradient set from WooSheeps that I've never found a use for. This is that yarn's moment. Suddenly the Dotted Rays shawl has been accelerated up my to do list and the yarn is wound and ready to go. I cannot wait to have it finished. It's making me so happy that I've decided that it's going to be one of my #BestYearEverKAL projects (no, I haven't decided which one I'm swapping out, but as the Antler jumper is currently on the naughty step, it might be that one).

*Ravelry link; you must be signed in to Ravelry for this link to work. Joining Ravelry is free and an excellent resource for all things yarn-related.