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.

Confessions of a yarnaholic

A couple of weeks ago I had an email from a magazine saying I had won some yarn from Rico. Lovely I thought, not really remembering entering a competition (I often just enter all the competitions in a magazine as winning stuff is always nice). When I got home I looked the competition up and found that I had won a one-sixth share of 4 miles of yarn (I did some maths, that's about 500g of DK), in one of the six colours shown. The yarn arrived last week, and while Rico's merino is divine (and hard wearing - I have used it a few times for baby things), the yarn was a smoky rose colour, which I was never going to use. I put the yarn in the cupboard, and it promptly fell out again.

The straw that broke the camel's back! Beautiful yarn, but not my colour

I own a lot of yarn. There is yarn in almost every room in the house (the bathroom and downstairs toilet are safe). I have sweater quantities, and boxes of odd skeins, acrylic and wool. About 2 years ago I went through all the yarn and stopped tallying up the mass when I got to 5 kg. Since then the yarn pile has not gone down, and is quite a lot bigger. I get a lot of yarn for magazine commissions, and I always end up over-buying when I am designing something, and there are always more projects in mind than time on the needles.

This morning something snapped and I decided that today was the day: some yarn has to leave the house. As I want the space quickly (before I lose the impetus) I have gone down the eBay route, and over ten lots I have listed just shy of 4 kg of yarn. 4 kg! And that was just the stuff that I didn't have to sort through or make big decisions about, just the stuff that was taking up space. There's plenty more that needs to go.

Over the next few weeks months I am going to be a bit more considered before buying more yarn (I don't need more sock yarn), and will hunt right to the back of the cupboards and see what is really there. eBay might be busy with yarn for a bit... it really is time to liberate the yarn.

Eurovision

I never really *got* Eurovision, I didn't watch it as a child, and when I was at university I was quite happy to give it a miss. But after university a school friend who had moved to London started hosting a Eurovision party every year, and some of those parties are among my finest memories. Even after I moved to the north I would always put Eurovision on the calendar at the start of the year and book train tickets to go down and see them for that weekend, even attending when I was many months pregnant (as was the host; comparing bumps is always fun!) with my daughter. And then a couple of years ago my friend announced that she and her family were moving to the country, Cornwall to be precise.

Cornwall to is too far to travel for a weekend from Durham. The train takes all day (nine hours) and the plane doesn't take much less time once you have to travel at each end. So for the past few years I haven't done anything for Eurovision (last year I spent the day in the office writing my PhD thesis; I listened to Eurovision on the radio; it's not the same without people, barbecued food and visuals!) and I've missed it.

Sweepstake preparation

I decided that this year would be different, and yesterday we hosted our own Eurovision barbecue. There was plenty of food and drink, cupcakes and brownies, bunting and a sweepstake, and a lot of small children running happily around the garden. And it was lovely. Only a few people stayed for Eurovision itself, as small children aren't generally compatible with late nights, but those of us that watched enjoyed the show (the digital effects were amazing! And yes, half of us were doing handcrafts while we were watching) and my son delightedly supported Australia, who he'd drawn in the sweepstake, even though he had no idea what was going on. 

The party bunting came out to play (I made it for my son's second birthday from play foam,

grosgrain ribbon and staples! It's wearing surprisingly well)

Cupcakes and brownies. What's a gathering without cake?!

Now we've done a practice run, maybe next year we can do something bigger! Are you a fan of Eurovision?

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I was blogging every day in May, but skipped yesterday as I didn't have time, and have decided that I am going to stop. While I have enjoyed writing more posts than usual, I have started to feel that the posts are getting a little repetitive! If you want to read what I posted in the first half of the month, follow this link.

F is for Friday and feet and failures...

Friday! The day before the weekend. I have managed to stick to not knitting, and have been occupying myself with lots of other activities: baking, crochet, and printing out things for Eurovision tomorrow!

First up, baking: one large batch of cupcakes and a batch of brownies. The brownies went perfectly. The cupcakes created havoc in the kitchen - I dribbled mixture everywhere while spooning the batter into the cases (and that was without any assistance from my kids), then exploded icing sugar everywhere when making icing with the Kitchen Aid. The worktop is still rather sticky...

Second: feet! My chameleon is finally back on track. Today I finished one leg and have started the second. I have no idea whether the feet are correct (I didn't realise from the picture that the chameleon has toes, but apparently he does), but I have done one and the other three will match.

Thirdly: printing failures. I order a couple of new printer cartridges earlier in the week as ours had finally totally run out. I excitedly loaded them into the printer ready to print some bunting for Eurovision tomorrow night (I am taking it seriously this year!), and the black one doesn't work. Boo. So I got as far as half an Albanian flag before giving it up as a bad job (it also turns out I was printing out bunting from last year's contest).

Not the best Friday, but onwards and upwards... What do you have planned for the weekend?

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I'm blogging every day in May. I you fancy reading along, follow this link.

Never not knitting

Last year in the knitting world the words to the Dr Seuss book Green Eggs and Ham suddenly started appearing everywhere, but corrupted to describe the actions of a knitter:

"I will knit on a boat, I will knit on a train... I will knit here and there, I will knit anywhere!"

And that describes my actions pretty well; I always have some knitting on me, just in case I get caught in a queue, or in traffic (obviously not when I'm driving!), or with a spare couple of minutes. I knit while stood in the kitchen waiting for pasta to boil and while watching television (I can do basic knitting without looking, and more complex knitting if what I'm watching isn't too involved). There are very few occasions when I do not knit.

Kitchen-knitting

But about an hour ago I cast off the final stitch on my latest commission. And I will not be knitting again for a couple of days. My recurrent knitting-related finger injury has returned, and requires at least four layers of micropore tape to make knitting bearable, and I have developed an ache in one wrist, so rather than pushing it and doing further damage, I am stepping away and not knitting.

I really should learn not to stab holes in my finger while knitting 

What does not knitting entail? I'm not really sure. I can't remember the last day I did not knit on - possibly when I was in hospital having my daughter a few years ago, possibly longer ago than that. My default non-knitting option used to be reading, but that's hard with two children to look after! I do have some seaming to do, so that will be done first. Then I might get some pattern cutting done. But when I'm out of the house and at a loose end? Who knows?! I wonder whether I can still crochet...

Seaming can be done with an injured finger

Wish me luck!

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I am blogging every day in May. If you want to read all the posts, follow this link.

Yarning Along: Getting strange looks in coffee shops

This week has been all about finishing things. By the end of the week three children's garments will have been cast off, blocked and have made it to the post, but as they're all for magazines you'll have to wait a while before I can show them to you. Yesterday I decided that I would go and sit in a coffee shop to get a garment finished rather than sit at home and stare at the housework that also needs doing. As the decision was rather last minute (I had my knitting and wallet in the car and little else), I had failed to bring my book (After You) out with me, so popped into a discount book shop to see if anything took my fancy.

I'm quite happy to read while knitting, so long as neither the book nor the knitting are too complex, so with that in mind I browsed the shelves to see what I wanted to read. Having dismissed the fiction shelves for being too cheesy or later parts of a series I hadn't read the earlier books for, I saw the biography section and Sue Perkin's autobiography immediately jumped out at me - look at the cover, isn't the design fab! So simple, yet so distinctive.

Spectacles is excellent, and I'm really glad I chose it. It's currently living in my bag along with my West Yorkshire Spinners Yarn Shop Day socks, which I'm also enjoying. I am trying to knit a bit less this week, but it is always useful having a book and some knitting in my bag, so the socks will be my out and about project, and when I'm at home I'll be catching up on some paperwork and getting on with my sewing plans to give my hands a break.

At home I will also be finishing After You. The plot got rather dark about midway through, but is starting to become a bit less so now, and I'm looking forward to getting to the finale. I will say though that in hindsight I might have been happier just reading Me Before You and imagining Louisa's exploits after that point!

Linking up with Rachel for this week's Yarning Along.

Tips and tricks: The afterthought lifeline

Sometimes when I'm knitting something goes wrong and I have to unravel a whole section (usually a sleeve when I've got the increases/decreases wrongly spaced, or the heel of a sock that has gone awry). If I'm not too far from the beginning I'll usually unravel the whole thing and start again, but if I'm confident that the section before the error was correct, I use this method, which I have dubbed the afterthought lifeline method of unravelling. Rather than tink (un-knitting each stitch one at a time), you pick up the correct stitches from way back before you start unravelling, then rip back to a fixed end point.

You will need:
Your knitting
A spare needle (the same size as, or smaller than, the needle you are knitting with)
A little patience

Step one: Work out where your knitting was last correct

Here the sleeve had the incorrect decrease rate so was too tapered. The last correct round is near the top of the sleeve, but after the yoke had been completed.

Step two: Pick up your stitches

Run your working needle (or a spare in the same size. If you're using the working needle you'll have to pull it out of any live stitches) through the right hand leg of each stitch in the row/round you want to pick up. Take care to pick up only stitches in the row you want, and not the rows above and below, also make sure you do not split the yarn - this makes it very hard to unravel later.

If you're working in the round, the final stitch will not be level with the first stitch as knitting in the round makes a spiral.

A good check that you've caught all your stitches is to count them. If you don't have the correct number, take a look along the needle and see if you've skipped one somewhere; the easiest stitches to miss are edge stitches and stitches at the ends of rounds.

Pick up the right leg of each stitch

Continue picking up all the way to the end of the round; if you're picking up in the round the

beginning and end will not quite line up

Step three: Unravel

Pull the working yarn gently to unravel the stitches. Wind the yarn back into a ball as you go to stop yourself getting into a tangle. Keep going until you reach the row of stitches that you ran the needle through. Pull the final row back very gently as you may have the odd stitch that catches.

If any stitches catch take a close look at how the stitch has caught. If you've accidentally split the yarn you may be able to give the yarn a little tug to release the stitch, but if it's a more significant catch, slip the stitches you have already rescued onto a spare needle and gently release the caught stitch; you can also use this method if you have accidentally picked up the odd stitch from the wrong row/round.

Unravel quickly

Unravel the final row slowly

Step four: Knit

At the end of the previous stage you will have a row of stitches ready to be knitted. The stitches should be mounted as shown below, with the right leg at the front. If that's not the case, knitting through the back of the stitch should fix the stitch orientation.

Correctly mounted stitches

I hope that has helped at least one person! With practice you should be able to use this technique for knitting that is more complex than basic stocking or garter stitch. If you have any questions, post them in the comments box.

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I am writing a blog post every day in May. If you'd like to read them all, they can be found here.