Knitting hell

I have Knitter's elbow.

Enough said.

Making Monday

Natalie over at The Yarn Yard has started making monday blogs. The idea is you post about things you have been making on Mondays. I would have joined in the last two but all I seemed to be making was a mess with three children at home on school holidays.

This week however I got my finger out and have been finishing my boneyard shawl, Stephen West, the designer, is a genius. He specialises in making the simple look stunning. I have been hoarding some rainbow Kauni yarn for ages and although I have planned to do lots of things with it I have never started anything with it. I have started on a Stephen West knitalong and the first clue was disappointingly small so I decided to do another one of his shawls and picked out the Boneyard and grabbed the Kauni. Well it was addictive. I couldn't put it down. The yarn is very moreish, just one more to see the next colour change....

The result is a stunning shawl in a beautiful rainbow.







I couldn't wait to show it off so here are some pictures of it pre-blocked. I have also not quite finished the picot edging I added but you can see how it will look in this picture...



What did you make today?

Quick update and Progress Widgets

Well I didn't get very far with the knitting and crocheting week did I?

I have had a bit of a play with my widgets - ook missus. I've added two different progress systems.

The first is a simple bar chart affair - nice and clear but not very gadgety. Also - this one will need me to manually updated by me.

The second one is a bit niftier and feeds directly from Ravelry. I really like it. It takes all the projects I have in progress listed on Ravelry which is kind of embarrassing as I have a lot... So - although this one is, at the moment a little revealing, I think this will work better. It does mean I need to make sure that I have all my Ravelry projects up to date - which is a good thing.

What do you think of them?

A Tale of Two Yarns

This is post one of the Knitting and Crochet Blog Week 2011. A week in which knitters and crocheters around the world blog about the same topic every day for a week.

Today's topic is 'A Tale of Two Yarns.'

Being the statistically-driven person I am I was stuck about what to choose to talk about so went to Ravelry and downloaded my stash into a spreadsheet. Yes, yes - once a geek, always a geek.

So - according to my statistics I have two clear favourites in my stash and I shall discuss my love affair with them.

The first yarn is Cascade 220. I do like this yarn - a lot. It is a comforting, thick yarn. It comes in every colour you need and is thick. According to Ravelry I now have 34 skeins - whoops! I gave up individually listing each colour and bunched them all together. Being a worsted weight it knits up really, really quickly so is brilliant for hats, scarves and christmas stockings...





I did buy a whole heap of it with the intention of making my hubbie a Tom Baker Dr Who scarf but I couldn't bring myself to make it. So - I have lots sitting in my stash that I am gradually using.

I find it lovely to knit with - a really solid yarn which does exactly what it says on the skein. There is a reason why it is the most popular yarn on Ravelry.

The second yarn is The Yarn Yard's Clan. I am lucky in that I live fairly close to Natalie of The Yarn Yard so often get to see the yarn at shows local to her (and me). Occasionally I make it over to her house too and get to see the dyeing in progress. It endlessly fascinates me and the colours she produces are simply stunning. They are saturated and beautiful. I joined the Yarn Club about a year ago which for a while was giving me a monthly dose of Clan - so I got to build up a collection of colours I probably would not have chosen at all. It's fun to have someone else selecting your colours for you. As you can see I have a small stash:



It is lovely to work with and just begs to be made into socks. Natalie sells them in 65g skeins which means they are ideal for buying to mix the colours. Colourwork is gorgeous with it. I have to say one of my favourite socks is a fair-isle sock made out of a very dark grey and an orange variegated. I love it - so effective. Looks like a stained-glass window:

SIPs

SIPs = Socks in Progress

I have been sorting out my socks. Since starting the 12 pairs in 12 months challenge I have become rather fixated on socks. Planning what patterns and yarn to use. Casting them on, admiring them, having fun. The problem is that I have not always completed each month's challenge, the end of the month comes round and I have to start new ones for the new month.

This means I have lots (more) unfinsished socks. I have begged them all up to try and shame myself into finishing some. But - it's the beginning of the the month again and a new sock needed to be cast on - shame on me!

So - let the shaming begin (this has become quite a theme of my blog...)


Yarn: Opal
Pattern: Plain 2x2 rib
State: Approx 60% through Sock 1


Yarn: Regia (I think)
Pattern: Vanilla
State: One complete, one not started


Yarn: Not sure
Pattern: Vanilla
State: Sock one approx 40% done



Yarn: The Yarn Yard
Pattern: Vanilla
State: Sock one complete, approx 25% of sock two


Yarn: Schoppelwolle
Pattern: Vanilla with stocking stitch curl top
State: Sock one complete



Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug
Pattern: Vanilla
State: Sock one 50% complete


Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug
Pattern: Vanilla
State: Sock one complete, sock two - 30%


Yarn: Ermm - pink shiny stuff
Pattern: Baby
State: Sock one complete, sock two - 20%


Yarn: Remains of schoppelwolle flying saucer
Pattern: Baby
State: Sock one complete



Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug
Pattern: Vanilla
State: Sock one complete - but I think a small child has worked on it so need some darning


Yarn: Yarn Yard Clan in Daffodil
Pattern: Vanilla
State: Sock one complete


Yarn: Lorna's Lace
Pattern: Vanilla
State: Both socks complete but one toe has come undone - so need to fix it - not even worn them yet!


Yarn: Yarn Yard - Magic Carpet
Pattern: Vanilla
State: About 50% of feet done



Yarn: Schoppelwolle
Pattern: One vanilla with a frilly top, the other circle sock
State: Sock one complete, sock two - approx 30% - going to have to buy another ball or have mismatching socks - whoops.


Yarn: Sassy Stripes
Pattern: Vanilla
State: Sock one complete - sock two cast on - but may frog it and restart so it will count as a 12 in 12mths sock


Yarn: Yarn Yard - Cairn
Pattern: Toe up gansey sock
State: About 30% through sock one


Pretty shocking line-up huh? The awful thing is I have a few more somewhere and it does not include the first of this month's socks - a Leyburn in Regia Kaffe Fassett.