The Curious Case of the Monogamous Knitter

I've you've followed this blog for any period of time you'll know that I am not a monogamous knitter. But recently this appears to have come to a head and I have so many projects on the needles that none of them seem to be making any progress (and when I want a set of needle tips or some notions I can't find them as I can't remember which bag they might be in). So this weekend I decided that I would choose a project and work on it until it was finished.

I chose my Sockmatician Sockalong socks as they need to be done by the end of the month in order to qualify for the competition (a deadline is a great way to encourage me to actually work on a project). When I started on Saturday morning I had just finished the toe of the second sock. Every time I sat down to knit I picked up the socks and added a few rows. By the end of Saturday evening I had reached the heel, and I rattled through the rest of the sock on Sunday, finishing it on Monday evening (a bit of effort required there as I have mislaid all my tapestry needles. I found a few large darning needles, but nothing appropriate. I did eventually remember the pile of magazine freebies and located a needle that would do, and a cute tin. Both the tin and needles are now in general circulation, so I fully expect to have lost them in action within a week.).
 

I'm really pleased with these socks. They match to the stitch! And the colours of the yarn (Arne and Carlos sock yarn from Regia in the colourway Island) are lovely. I wore the socks all day yesterday and the fit is great. Hooray!

Having finished the pair of socks, I decided to stitch the buttons on the cardigan I finished last week, especially as I had a needle to hand. The buttons are from Textile Garden, and feature cute little bird silhouettes. My daughter had requested cat buttons, but I couldn't find any that would coordinate with the yarn (MillaMia Naturally Soft Merino Aran in Ochre**); she is yet to try wearing the cardigan as the weather today has been rather too wet to do a photoshoot, so I don't yet know whether she'll agree to wear it... The cardigan is a scaled-up version of my Barley Twist Cardigan, which I'm hoping to release in the next couple of months.

Two projects finished, time to pick up another. My pink socks have been stalled for a little while so I picked them up this morning and have worked the whole gusset today and will definitely have the heel done by the end of the day. I still haven't finished writing the pattern, but I do now know what I'm doing, so this pair should be finished up pretty soon. Maybe monogamous knitting is the way to go!

As it's Wednesday, I'm linking up with Ginny for Yarn Along.* I am currently reading Me Before You by Jojo Moyes and really enjoying it. I watched the film on Netflix at the weekend and so far the book is very similar. A girl in her twenties gets made redundant when the cafe she works at shuts down and she takes on a job working as a companion to a quadriplegic man in his early thrities. I cried my eyes out during the film, and I imagine the book will have the same effect.

What's on your needles at the minute? What are you currently reading?

*I went to grab the links for Yarn Along and Ginny has decided to stop doing it on her blog. So this is the last Yarn Along (which I was always a little erratic about anyway), but I will keep sharing my reading along with my knitting.

**Affiliate link. See the Disclaimers and Policies page for more information.

A week in the life: 19th March 2017

This week I have mostly been... a bit poorly. Nothing major, 'just' a sore throat, but enough that I've been going to bed a couple of hours earlier than planned, and getting up as late as I can get away with. And as a result the days have been shorter and I feel like I haven't got a huge amount done. Not nothing though, here's what I have achieved!

Working in a sunny spot

There has been sunshine! And while I did have work to do so couldn't go out and revel in it too much (it's still not warm, in spite of the sunshine), I did manage to find a sunny corner to do some work in one morning this week, which was lovely. I also treated myself to some new pens; my favourites are cheap Bic biros, and I was delighted to find a pack containing pink, purple, green and blue ones. No more notes in boring colours for me!

Pink socks and A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Second

My pink socks have been on and off the needles several times, but I think this time they are right. I'm now knitting them one at a time as knitting two at a time was affecting my gauge. The colour is wonderfully uplifting, but this is as much progress as I've made on these socks this week as I haven't finished writing the pattern, so some rounds require more brain power than my brain has seemed capable of this week. I really hope to finish the pair next week.

I am on to the second book in the A Series of Unfortunate Events series, and while I'm enjoying them I am not getting through them as fast as I thought I might. This may be a rare occasion when I liked the film (TV series) better than the book. The TV series is more fleshed out, while the book is very much the bare bones. I will read them all, but might be on a bit of break as soon as I've finished the second.

Swatcher's block. Cake cures everything, right?

Thursday was when my throat was at its worst, so while I tried to do some work at home - swatching - it just wasn't working. I decided to call it a day and went for a walk instead. As is often the case, a bit of fresh air made a huge difference, and I sat in a coffee shop for a bit knitting a swatch that did what I wanted it to, while eating a delicious bakewell tart.

Hot cross buns are always a winner

I know hot cross buns are available all year, but I only ever buy them around Easter. They're one of my favourite breakfast foods, especially when toasted. I'm sure I'll be enjoying plenty more of these over the next few weeks. At home when I was little we used to make hot cross  every Good Friday, and I think I might reinstate that tradition this year; nothing smells better than freshly baked bread.

Splish splash!

The weather this week has been a bit of a mish-mash, but my youngest was delighted when our walk to the shops on Saturday involved a fair portion of muddy puddles to splash in! These wellies have been a delight, and get many admirers while we're out and about; this weekend was their final outing as they're getting rather snug. We bought some new Paw Patrol ones, but they're just not as good.

Anyone for lemon cake(s)?

We had guests yesterday, so I picked up some cake while I was at the shops. Apparently I had lemons on my mind as there was definitely a theme! The lemon fondant fancies are my favourites and I always make sure I pick up at least one box while they're available. I am still baffled as to why Mr Kipling don't have three lemon ones in a regular box; the strawberry ones are just weird!

Homemade lemon drizzle cake

The lemons became a lemon drizzle cake, which is one of my favourites. I always use the recipe from Gorgeous Cakes by Annie Bell (I've just looked it up and it might be out of print. Boo.). I know several of my friends have bought copies on my recommendation, and I haven't had any complaints yet...

Monogamous knitting makes things grow faster, apparently

Yesterday I decided to work solely on my Sockmatician Sockalong socks as I want to get them off the needles. I went from the toe to the heel yesterday; apparently working on one item at a time means you actually feel like you're achieving something. Maybe I should do that more often!

What have you been up to this week?

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.

March, already!

The year has gone far too quickly, I've blinked and suddenly it's March. March has lots of exciting things in store, starting with the weather and the emergence of Spring: even in the past couple of days I have noticed more sunshine and lots of colour arriving with the early Spring flowers and the newly replanted flowers at the bus stop near my house. I also have several new patterns coming out this month, so look out for those, and I'm planing on hosting a KAL in my Ravelry group later in the month too. And I'm going to Edinburgh Yarn Festival next weekend, so lots to look forward to!

Today is Wednesday, so I thought I'd link up with Ginny for Yarn Along and show you what I am reading and what's on my needles. I have finally acquired the first few Lemony Snicket books. As there are thirteen in the series I decided that I would resurrect my Kindle (which I bought before my son was born, used a lot when he was small, and then stopped using as I wasn't reading fast enough to get through all the books I was given for birthdays and Christmas every year) rather than add more books to our over-full bookshelves. I did briefly consider buying the lot in one go, but it would have cost rather a lot of money, so I bought the first one, and am planning on buying the later ones as I want to start reading them, or picking them up in charity shops as I find them (I found books three and four this weekend). I'm two-thirds of the way through the first book and am enjoying its dry sarcastic dark humour immensely. The project that I am currently spending most of my time on is a pair of pink socks (in West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply). The pattern is my own, and I'm really hoping to get it out by the end of the month. The pink isn't a colour I would usually use, but I bought the yarn in the depths of winter as it made me smile; the yarn still does and I am really enjoying knitting with it.

I also cast on a new pair of socks today. This morning I was listening to the latest edition of the Sockmatician podcast, in which he announced a sockalong (#SockmaticianSockalong) that is running for the whole of March. I know I said I wasn't going to join in any KALs this year, but I am certain I can get a pair of vanilla socks knitted by the end of the month! The yarn is an Arne and Carlos design for Regia and has been in my stash since last summer (I'd forgotten about it, and was delighted to find it in my stash this morning). Am I being overambitious to think that I might be able to finish these socks in time to wear them for Edinburgh Yarn Festival next weekend? Probably, but I shall try.

What are you looking forward to this month?

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