But where's the yarn?

I haven't had much time for knitting between the lurgy and the sewing. However, I'm upto the arm hole of the back of the Anya sweater and onto the moss stitch (which means no more colour work in Kidsilk Haze - yay!).



I'm getting a lot of wear out of my first Kid Classic sweater now that the weather's a bit colder (and I'm under it) so I'm really looking forward to wearing this one.

There's also been a bit of a moratorium on the hat knitting (been busy on the secret project) but I have a few hats saved up from earlier in the year so I should still be able to send off a decent total.

Yarn winding has made it into the news with the discovery of the stolen painting Madonna of the Yarn Winder. It's fascinating to see how the basic design of these hasn't changed over the centuries. It's a more catchy title than the Madonna of the Niddy Noddy.

On the home stretch

More progress on the hopscotch socks, I'm now well into the fancy cable lace ribbing at the back of the leg and it's looking very nice. The stretchiness in the lace rib helps to compensate for all the cabling on the front of the leg so they're not too tight at all (which I was slightly worried about).



Hat #9



Yarn: Artesano Alpaca
Needles: 3mm

Works in progress

Despite spending much of the weekend sewing I still managed to get in quite a bit of knitting on the Anya sweater with the result that I'm already at the armhole shaping.



On the one hand this is great as it means fewer stitches per row, I'm already working on 10 less over the row after casting off 5 stitches at each side. On the other hand I now have to combine decreases with colourwork and it's not straightforward knitting, certainly not something to be done whilst watching an especially gripping episode of Heroes.

Luckily I had some alternative knitting to work on.



Yarn: UK Alpaca DK
Needles: 3mm

The hat is worked in mistake rib and should be wamr enough to keep any smoothie cosy!

Ahead of the game

As I'm planning to do some sewing this weekend I thought I'd better build up a bit of a buffer zone.

Hat #5



Yarn: Rowan Cashsoft DK
Needles: 3mm

Hat #6



Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug and Rowan Cashsoft DK
Needles: 3mm

Hat #7



Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug
Needles: 3mm and 3.25mm

I'm good till Monday now!

Due to an accidental caffeine overdose (I can only take one or two cups of caffeinated tea per day) yesterday I woke up at 3 am this morning with my brain buzzing. After three-quarters of an hour trying to get back to sleep I gave up and went into the living room to watch videoed episodes of Brothers & Sisters and Studio 60 and to work on the Anya sweater the result being that I'm now over two-thirds of the way through the pattern chart.



I have to say that this is knitting up really quickly and I love how it looks so far. And the yarn! This is going to be one of those sweaters where you don't need a coat on top. I think that all the Kidsilk floats from the stranded knitting are going to act like thrums in thrummed knitting making this a super warm, fluffy sweater.

HOTD

Hat #4



Yarn: Fleece Artist sock yarn with sea cell
Needles: 3mm dpns

A plain stocking stitch hat which lets the yarn do the talking.

More progress on the Anya sweater.



I've made a few teensy mistakes, a misplaced bead here, a missing one there (or not there as the case may be), a whole extra row on the back - actually that's quite a big mistake.

Options:

Tink back 20 rows of colourwork with beading (you can't rip KSH - not if you want to reuse it that is).
Knit the front as per pattern and finagle the making up so the extra row doesn't show.
Knit the front with an extra row.

Trouble is, the extra row turns the RS into the WS (and vice versa) which means I have to place a lot of beads on the purl rows (which isn't that easy).

And so, the real solution: Knit to the next colour change, move my knitting from one needle to the other so my RS becomes my WS again and continue knitting as though nothing had happened. I can do the same for the front too when I get to it. There's always a work around in knitting - one of the reasons I love it so much.

Autumn's harvest

After months of wonering if the tomato plants were going to produce any fruit, let alone ripe fruit, they've suddenly come up with a bumper crop - or at least two of them have, the third never really recovered from being blown over during the storms. The question is what to do with them, it's not really salad weather anymore! I think they'd be nice roasted for a sauce (there aren't quite enough for a soup) or maybe in a tart.

Ta da



Hat #3 in RYC Cashsoft DK on 3mm needles with a seed stich rib pattern - the same one that was used for the Sock of Doom in Sock Wars.

Hat #2

No, really, it is a different hat.



More progress on the Anya sweater.



I'm finding it easier going than expected due to the absence of waist shaping (luckily I'm quite straight up and down figure-wise). Fingers crossed I'll have finished the colour work by the time the armholes come up!

A hat a day

The deadline for sending in hats to Innocent Smoothies for their anuual Big Knit in aid of Help the Aged is earlier than usual this year on the 22nd October as I realised when listening to Cast-On last night. I've been a bit behind with my hat knitting this year and so resolved (in the mad way that one does at 1 in the morning) that I would knit a hat a day (on average) until it was tme to send the hats in. This should give me a total of at least thirty hats which is more than respectable.

Presenting..hat #1



I need a slightly smaller circle template for my pom-poms, at the moment they're coming out larger than the hats.

Yarn: RYC Cashsoft DK
Needles: 3mm dpns

On the other end of the knitting scale I've finally made a decent start on the Anya sweater from Rowan 40. I had a go at casting this on months ago, got freaked out by the cable ribbing at the start (obviously Rowan don't believe in leading you in gently) and in the end ripped back because I wanted to use the needle for the Mystery Stole. One Mystery Stole later and I've completed the ribbing (which took the entirety of Shaun of the Dead) and made a start on the chart, which is worked mostly in KSH* and Kidsilk night stranded knitting with some beading thrown in for extra fun. At least the yarn is held double.



OK, they're playing the national anthem on Radio 4 so it's definitely time for bed now!

* Brenda Dayne describes this as a 'gateway' yarn, but I think it's more like the hard stuff.