Naming and shaming

Today's Messy Tuesday post is dedicated to Felix, the originator of all this blog sponsored untidiness.

I know I posted a photo of my stash corner a couple of weeks ago for messy Tuesday but I feel that the situation down there has escalated to such an extent that it merits a further post. The thing has developed its own topography. In this view you can just see past Unmatched Needle Mountain into Tangled Yarn valley and the treacherous shores and murky deeps of Lake UFO.







Talking of which I thought that if I fished a few objects out of said lake it might prompt me (moved by a sense of righteous shame) to do something about them.*

Pattern: Print of the Wavw
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace
Date cast on: March 2007
Date last worked on: August 2007
Target finish date: August 2008
Sense of shame: monumental



I thought I'd start with the worst transgressor in an attempt to end on an upbeat note. The main body of the stole is complete but I've only knit about 50 (I think) rows of edging out of an estimated 1000+ (my fault for knitting it longer than spec.). Initially I just got overfaced by the thought of picking this up and then I kind of just forgot about it. I've set a target finish date of August 2008. It's not completely insane and it would be lovely to wear this in a sunny September with jeans and a white shirt.

Pattern: Anya
Yarn: Kid Classic, Kid Silk Haze, Kid Silk Night
Date cast on: Christmas 2006
Date last worked on: January 2008
Target finish date: Christmas 2008 (can you see a pattern emerging here?)
Sense of shame: burning



The Anya sweater was meant to be ready to wear last Christmas but progress was interrupted by work on the Peacock shawl and last minute Christmas knitting. I'm not as concerned about this as I am about POTW as I know that whenever I do pick it up it fairly flies along. Christmas 2008 is an achievable target and I'd love to have it ready by the time the cold weather kicks in (which in Britain is ususually in the middle of August, hee).

Pattern: Sheep Yoke Baby Cardigan #2
Yarn: Rowan Pure Wool DK
Date cast on: April 2008
Date last worked on: April 2008
Target finish date: May 2008
Sense of shame: very mild



This only needs the sheep's faces stitching on before I block it and sew on the buttons. There's no particular hurry on this one as the intended wearer is still a work in progress.

Pattern: Thelonious by Cookie A.
Yarn: Louet Gems Opal
Date cast on: March 2008
Date last worked on: April 2008
Target date: June 2008
Sense of shame: deep



I'm afraid I committed the ultimate sin as far as this sock is concerned in that I removed the poor things needles to use for another project. Sock #1 is 75% done and I really like the pattern, it's just that I wanted to cast on these:

Pattern; Merry Jane shoes
Yarn: Rowan Cashsoft DK/4 ply & Rowan Pure Wool DK/Jaeger Matchmake 4 ply
Date cast on: April 2008
Date last worked on: April 2008
Target finish date: May 2008
Sense of shame: blush





These haven't been in the neglected pile for too long so the shame is mainly coming from the fact that until I pulled them out of the bag earlier I had honestly forgotten about them. This is what happens when I don't Ravel stuff.

Pattern: Tatami and Minimalist cardigan
Yarn: Oxford Kitchen Yarns DK in latte/biscuit
Dates cast on: February 2008/April 2008
Dates last worked on: March 2008/April 2008
Target finish date: erm../July 2008
Sense of shame: justly felt





The observant amongst you might notice that these are knit from the same yarn. That's right, a bad case of pattern envy led to me and the yarn fooling around with the Minimalist cardigan behind the Tatami's back. What started out as a brief flirtation has developed into a full blown fling. I suspect that it's going to be curtains for the Tatami although not immediately. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a cheater always cheats. Despite only casting on the Minimalist cardigan on Thursday, by Saturday evening I had two fresh projects on the needles.

Yarn: Artesano Alpaca 4 ply (pattern tbc)
Date cast on: last Saturday
Date last worked on: last Sunday
Target finish date: July 2008
Sense of shame: none (it's for someone else)



I was on the look out for some soft red yarn for a scarf for my mum and this leapt out at me whilst at iknit on Saturday. This is still at the swatching stage. I've started off with the Little pyramids pattern but I need to block it and maybe try out a few others to see what will best suit the yarn.

Pattern: Hopscotch socks
Yarn: Regia 4 ply
Date cast on: last Saturday
Date last worked on: today
Target finish date: April 2008 (strictly speaking I only need to knit one as it's a test knit)
Sense of shame: mild



Although it is knit with brand new yarn bought at Liberty on Saturday (naughty) and knit on new needles as I couldn't wait to get home before casting on (v. bad) this project is somewhat redeemed by being the long postponed final test knit for my first real sock pattern. I finally sat down at the computer on Monday and typed out a good copy incorporating all Katie's comments and corrections and I'm carefully knitting through it now. One good thing about putting this off for so long is that I no longer know the pattern by heart so it should be a much better test knit than if I'd got around to it sooner. Thank goodness that there are some benefits to procrastination.

* Please note that I am but skimming the surface here. I don't actually have time to go through everything that's lying about in a neglected state in my "to do" pile.

Tear ball band in case of emergency

OK so I've caved.*

I tried a little bit of plying earlier and it did not go well. I think that if I take my time and do everything properly I should still end up with some pretty decent yarn from my first attempt at spinning but just one yard of yarn plied direct from the spindle was enough to make it quite clear that that was not the way to go. So, new plan. I'll spin up the rest of the second single, then skein it and wind both skeins into balls, slowly and carefully. I can then ply from the ball without (hopefully) too much entanglement as was occurring earlier when I tried plying one ply from the skein and one from the spindle (did I mention the words hopelessly naive in an earlier post?). I'm still not sure that I'll achieve such desirable things as evenness of twist and nice interplay of colour but it won't matter because the yarn will be for myself.

Yes, as hinted at earlier, I have ordered emergency sock yarn for my Sockapalooza socks (the relief is almost tangible - time's a wasting and I still haven't knit a single stitch!). My sock pal wasn't too specific about colourways or fibres, only stating a disinclination for wildly variegated yarn and a vehement dislike of purple, which is a shame because there are some great purple socks yarns out there (and indeed in my stash!).

However, I took another peek at her blog today and discovered that she's very much into aqua at the moment and is yearning for cooler climes. This then, in the colourway Ocean Forest, should be perfect. I'm quite excited about knitting with this as I've not used Fyberspates before and it looks absolutely lush**. Pattern ideas are nudging rather than leaping out at me but the gauge looks like I should get plenty of stitches to the inch which makes for plenty of choice.

Talking of patterns I want to knit, I have finally bought the yarn with which to make me a pair of these (which I have been coveting for ever so long). Whilst I was online buying the Sockapalooza yarn my hand 'slipped' and I also purchased a skein of Colinette Jitterbug (another thing I have been coveting for some time). It's in the colourway Velvet Plum which just sounds gorgeous.

Finally, some yarn that I already have my sticky mitts on and some actual knitting.

I popped into the my LYS to see if (by some strange chance) they'd started stocking any sock yarn other than Artesano Alpaca Hummingbird (which is lovely but a bit hot for summer in Florida). They hadn't but I got into conversation with the owner and between me not managing to say "sorry, you don't have what I'm looking for" and feeling guilty because I'd come in a few times recently without making a purchase*** I ended up buying two skeins of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk with the idea that I could possibly use it for the socks if the spinning didn't work out. I know, what was I thinking??



However, it is lovely yarn and I think it would make a beautiful open lace scarf for someone (not quite sure who as yet), possibly in the Chalice or Oriel lace pattern from the Harmony Guide vol. II.

And a sneaky look at the second half of POTW.



I'm 11 repeats in with 10 to go. I still haven't done the maths on how many stitches I'm going to have to pick up along the long edges for the border but there's still plenty of time to work that out.

* Alas I only read Katie's rallying pep talk (in the comments on the previous post) after I'd bought the yarn. I totally appreciate the support but really I'm very relieved to be off the spinning treadmill and also rather excited about the new yarn arriving.

** Very excitingly you get 425m in a 100g skein - that must be enough for two pairs of socks surely. It's the gift that keeps on giving!

*** It's a small shop so not the sort of place in which you can browse anonymously, it's usually just you and the owner which starts to get embarrassing after about the sixth time you go in without making a purchase. This is why I love Get Knitted (that and the free lollies etc.).

Rekindling the flame

There's nothing like a weekend away to put the spark back into an ailing relationship. I'm talking of course about myself and the Print O' the Wave stolewhich has been more or less languishing in a plastic bag amongst the UFOs since mid-March. I was reminded of its existence a fortnight ago when I "borrowed" the rosewood circular needle that was holding its stitches to knit the top-down baby raglan. Things were looking pretty grim for the POTW at that point and I even considered ripping back and knitting another Kiri after the fabulous debut of my first one at the Summer Ball last weekend (where it more than held its own against a fabulous Lady Eleanor's stole knitted from Rowan Tapestry - mmm I want one of those!). However, I held my hand. I had knitted more repeats of the POTW and it was looking better than I had remembered. The wave pattern of POTW holds up really well against even strongly variegated yarns and it was looking pretty good.

The final factor was the secret life of stitches feature on last week's Cast-On - frankly I was guilt-tripped into giving this poor abandoned UFO some one-on-one attention and showing it a good time. After all, if I took no other knitting I would have to concentrate on it. The weekend started well with an early dinner at a fancy(-ish) restaurant before I went to catch an evening train which I figured would give me a good 4 hours of knitting time. Turns out we got a bit more than that as I ended up arriving in Manchester Piccadilly (via Worcester, Birmingham and Crewe) at 1.20am rather than the scheduled 10pm the previous evening. Still, lots of knitting time and the POTW got some admiring attention from the nice people who befriended me at Worcester and who travelled with me for the rest of our journey.

On Saturday the POTW got a trip out to south Yorkshire. Mum and I had a great walk around Gargrave during which I spotted four curlews (a first for me and pretty exciting) and gathered some wool (more on the wool gathering in a later post). After the walk we ended up in the fabulous White Cottage Tea Room - I couldn't find a link but it's easy enough to find if you're in Gargrave and it's so well worth a visit - (not a cafe, a tea room!) for a shared blue Wensleydale and apple chutney toastie and the most wonderful chocolate fudge cake.

Next we went onto Skipton where I managed to buy two great skirts (the irony being that we had chosen a day out in Yorkshire over the Trafford Centre because I really didn't need to buy any clothes), one an absolute bargain. I also got some great sheep's wool fat soap from the National Trust shop with the cutest packaging which is going to be a pressie for someone so no photo at the moment.

Anyway, the POTW has absolutely blossomed under all this attention, more than doubling in size and it's looking great.



I finished the first half after 21 repeats and left its two ends (I cast-on provisionally rather than invisibly) on two lengths of yarn whilst I used the waste yarn from cast-on edge of the first half for the second half too. I really didn't think I'd get this far so I was lacking crochet hook as well as waste yarn, however, I've discovered that it's pretty easy to work the crochet cast on straight onto the needle using a second needle (or the other end of your circular) and your fingers.