May Contain Traces of Knits

In which S rants about knitting, school, and life.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Plethora of WIPs

School has been trying to bury me alive with homework. (And I've been watching through Torchwood, but let's not talk about that right now.) Luckily, around this part of the globe we get a week off from school in mid-February. I guess it's sort of like spring break in the States?

Anyway, this doesn't mean unlimited knitting time for me, but I certainly don't mind, as I'm going to London for five-ish days. And you can now take plastic or wood DPNs on the plane, so I won't be bored to death. Yay!

This is what I'll be working on:

Regia Cotton

That's two balls of Regia Cotton. I'm going to knit the Bayerische socks by Eunny Jang from it. Mm, cables. (What do you mean it's a bit complicated for my second pair of socks? :D I can follow instructions with the best of them.)

Speaking of socks, here's my first pair:

Jaywalker

Or, well, the first sock of the pair. I'm sure you can all recognise the pattern. :D (Jaywalker by Grumperina.) The yarn's Regia 4-fädig Crazy Color in a colourway (leaving out the U in colour was killing me) I very much want to call Ravenclaw in a display of Harry Potter geekiness. My sister already asked for a pair, and these are going to Mum because they're a bit too big for me. Oh well. The needles I'm using are 2,5mm (US 1½-ish) bamboo DPNs.

That's actually only the first sock of the pair. I'm already past the gusset on the other one, so it should be done by next week.

I'm also working on a top-down raglan sweater, using this recipe and a terribly simple cable pattern down the front.

Sweater-in-progress

The yarn is the cheap-o stuff you can buy at supermarkets around here, but it's surprisingly nice anyway, and I love the antique rose colour. It's on a 3mm (US 2½-ish) circular. I'm a bit stalled at the moment, because I finished the body and realised that the rolled hem looks like hell, so I'll have to rip back and knit some ribbing. At least now I know I can do ribbing at the neck without it looking too weird.

Speaking of weird, that waist-shaping looks horrible lying flat, but fits my body pretty well. I'm not sure if the fit is perfect, but I'm knitting the sleeves before making any decisions.

There's one more thing I want to share right now, and it's this:

Rowan Biggy Print

It's a ball of Rowan Biggy Print. I bought it so I could make myself a hat, and grabbed the biggest needles I could find, and knit it up. I ran out of yarn just as I was starting the decreases, and also realised the the fabric was like bloody cardboard. Now, the needles I used were huge by my standards, a whopping 10mm (US 15), but apparently I need nearly 20mm needles. I would go out and buy some, but the LYS I like the best isn't actually terribly local. To get there, I have to take a bus or two and a train, and walk about one kilometre. Uphill. That is very useful for keeping impulse purchases to a minimum, but now I can't be arsed to go and get needles, so now the Biggy Print is sitting in my yarn basket looking forlorn. I wonder if I could knit with two needles held together...

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Friday, February 02, 2007

I feel rather like a one-person AA meeting.

Hello. My name is S, and I'm a knitter.

Actually that's not exactly true, but my actual name has a tendency to confuse people. (It's Finnish, and even though I live in Finland I have never met a person who could get it right the first time without having to ask me about hyphens and vowels and things.)

This is me:
The one-day hat

There are a few things you can deduce from that photo:
1. I'm quite young. (Sixteen, actually.)
2. I look rather silly. (That is me being cuter than usual. Yeah. Tragic.)
3. My photographic skills are nonexistent.

Things you can't deduce from that photo, and aren't really important anyway, but I feel like sharing:
1. I'm currently in our equivalent of High School, and it keeps eating my life.
2. Most of my friends have always been older than me, and since the age of twelve have preferred the company of aunts and uncles to that of my cousins when confronted with a family affair.
3. I have a bad habit of talking too much.
4. I can't usually tell if my grammar sucks or not.
5. I own a typewriter and listen to too much music.
6. I have a weird thing for picot edging, double-pointed needles and cabling.
7. I was taught to knit at school, and I hated it. I only picked up the sticks out of free will sometime last autumn.
8. I probably wouldn't be a knitter with a healthy stash now if there were no knitblogs or podcasts.