Just because

In the spirit of silliness, and inspired by your comments on my last post, here are the latest adventures of my hungry Pomatomus sock.

Considering an apple

YAY A MUFFIN. Socks like muffins.

Tea tastes best in a silly mug

I promise I'll have something other than these socks to show you next time, but thanks for indulging my madness!

Choices

There is something extremely liberating about waking up early and then finding out I don't have to work until this afternoon. All those hours that were previously scheduled and spoken for now open up ahead of me with possibilities.



I could clean the house, or go running, or start writing a novel, or something. But I think I'll just sit with a larger-than-usual cup of tea and plow through the rest of this gusset.

(I don't think there is a flattering way of showing a sock at this level of completion - is there?)

Glorious

It's summer here! We've been enjoying the beautiful sunny weather the last few days, especially given the unpredictable nature of weather here. This may be the only summer we get, so I feel obligated to experience it to the fullest. This means exposed limbs, sunscreen, iced coffee / tea, windows thrown open wide... and picnics!

Yesterday, we cycled up through Holyrood Park, and spent the afternoon picnicking on the grassy slopes.



One of the best things about Edinburgh is the possibility to escape to the hills right in the middle of the city. The gorse is blooming brightly, ducks and swans abound, and we even saw a kestrel hovering, on the lookout for rodents / lunch. (But didn't get any photos of it. Ah well).



I've gone for walks here many times, and fancy myself quite capable on the hiking front, but this is the first time I've cycled up - apparently my cycling muscles are non-existent! (Seeing as I can't remember the last time I rode my bike, this shouldn't be surprising. Still, it was difficult.) In any case, the outing forced me to make sure my bike was still roadworthy, so next time I take it out there will be less work to do. I'm hoping this is an incentive to bike more often.

Miles and miles of i-cord

A while back I showed a wedding-craft teaser, trying to be enigmatic about its possible purpose:



I thought I'd be able to show proper pictures of the finished product in wedding context, but as it turns out nobody took any pictures of our i-cord table numbers. So here's one out of context. It got a bit bent out of shape when someone shoved it in a box post-wedding, but you get the idea.



We made 6. DH measured, cut, and twisted the wire (incidently, the same green garden wire we used to make our Christmas tree.) I did the i-cord out of some leftover Cascade 220. Teamwork! Yay! I don't recommend this wedding craft, really, unless you have a knitting spool/loom large enough for the yarn you want to use. My knitting spool is a bit small for worsted weight, so I just did plain i-cord manually, and it got a bit tedious. Still, I'm happy with how they turned out.

And we didn't stop there! Haha. We also made our initials to go on top of the cake. This time I used thinner yarn, and it was much faster - the letters are pretty small compared to the numbers.



Cake in context:



I think we managed to represent our shared love of making stuff pretty well.

Happy Friday, everyone! Go see some more FOs at Tami's Blog.

WIP update

Last month I wrote about my plans for knitting on my honeymoon. I thought I'd bring two sock projects and a shawl - in the end, I didn't even bring the yarn for the shawl. The two sock projects are going well, however.

First up are my yellowy-orange fish socks.


The ubiquitous Pomatomus by Cookie A. - I'm really enjoying the pattern so far, though I know if I stop paying attention I will easily cause a disaster. I am about to start turning the heel on these, and so far I haven't made any mods.

Next, some boring boring man socks. (Not socks for a boring man, though!)


The yarn is actually dark green. I intended to make Mr Pitt's Socks by Kaitlyn Wong for my husband (husband!). These are a close approximation. Amidst my frustration at having to restart several times, I completely ignored the pattern which begins with 2x2 rib for the cuff, and did 1x1 instead. This isn't a weird mod or anything, but it's strange for me since I'm not a fan of how 1x1 rib looks when I knit it, so I don't usually do it without being asked! (Yes, I should really try out combined knitting which may fix my problem - maybe some day I'll get around to that, but today is not that day.) Anyway, not a big deal, but just a little bemusement from me.

More WIPs at Tami's Amis!

FO: the Shawl of Happiness

In my month's absence from the blogosphere, my whole family descended on our neighbourhood, I got married, went on honeymoon on a boat, got some more freckles, and came back. We've been back for almost a week, and I'm still trying to remember what passed for routine before the wedding stuff took over. All that to say, I have a long-overdue FO to share.

My wedding shawl! I didn't have the presence of mind on the day to request that our photographer get some shawl wingspan shots... But here are a few photos that show the shawl in its appropriate context.



Pattern: High Seas by Kieran Foley

Yarn: Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace



Notes:
I added an extra lace repeat to make it a bit longer, but otherwise didn't do any modifications. The pattern is very clear, despite the complicated lace chart; stitch markers between chart sections saved my life. Also, I obsessively used lifelines every half-repeat. I did make plenty of small mistakes, but since none of them were massively terribly, I never bothered ripping back.

Before blocking, the shawl was about 130 cm long. With blocking it stretched to almost 2 m along the longest angle. If that makes any sense - it's a parallelogram, and I measured it across its whole length, not just one side. I'm sure there is a better way of saying that. Whatever.



The shawl kept me warm in the chilly Scottish spring - although part of that was probably my adrenaline and excitement keeping me heated. We did have perfect weather, though, or as perfect as you can ask for in Edinburgh. That is, it only rained while we were inside. Pretty much. In any case, I have since used the shawl as a scarf, and I know I will get plenty of use from it that way in the future.



Photos are by Rod Irvine.

More FOs at Tami's blog!

Golden scales

Oh hello WIP Wednesday. Been a while! I've finally got something new on the needles.

My sunny pomatomus socks have been a welcome contrast to the gloom and rain over the last few days.



After spending many months on my wedding shawl with its long rows and very long repeats, this sock feels speedy in comparison. Had I started these socks after a relatively simple project, I'm sure they would seem much more difficult. Funny that. I haven't finished one pattern repeat yet, but it still feels like I am making progress.



Go see some more WIPs at Tami's blog!

gathering wool

I'm at the point in wedding planning where I am so ready to be done with emailing and phoning people to sort out logistics. In all honesty, I've been tired of that since I started, but I'm really sick of it now. Although I still have some more telephone tag to play, I can't do it on Easter weekend, so I'm distracting myself with fun planning.

Yarn planning! The best kind of planning.

We're going on our honeymoon starting the day after the wedding, and we'll be spending many days on a boat. Honeymoon knitting follows logically in this progression, so I've compiled a few too many projects to take with me.


First up, socks for my will-be-husband. I toyed with the idea of making him wedding socks, but that never materialised, so honeymoon socks it is. He requested simple and green, so I'm going to make Mr Pitt's Socks in basic workhorse Regia.

I've also got some socks for me planned. The yellow-orange yarn shown below is now reserved for Pomatomus by Cookie A for me. I have had my eye on these socks for years. I saw a yellow "goldfish" version on ravelry ages ago that convinced me mine should be yellow as well.



Thirdly, I think I'll bring along a shawlette project, to make a change from socks. Annis by Susanna IC has been on my radar since it came out, and I've never made a shawl in that shape before, so I think I'll try it. As for yarn, I have some lovely blue and green Yarn Yard Cairn that I bought soon after moving to Edinburgh and haven't found a project for.

Hurray! It feels good to plan something that I actually have control over and doesn't rely on other people phoning me back or sending me (or failing to send me) necessary documents. (Sorry, does that sound bitter? :P)

finished?

My wedding shawl is done! I think. Bound off, removed all the lifelines except one, bunged it in a bath. (Perhaps more like "placed gingerly" in a bath...)

Braaaaains

Not going to lie - it looks a little small, even though I knitted one more repeat than called for. I'm optimistic that blocking will make it expand to fit my imagination, but if it doesn't, I've still got a lifeline in there and plenty of yarn left, so I can add some more lace.

Lumpy pre-blocking shot

I love watching the transformation of blocked lace, and I'm very excited about this piece in particular. It is definitely the most complicated lace I've ever knit, so I hope it will be worth it. Exciting times, people!

still life with tulips and pint glass

Witness the first time I've bought cut flowers in recent memory or possibly ever. I love tulips, and wanted to see how long they would last in a vase with water, in preparation for making my wedding bouquet next month. We don't own a vase, but that's nothing a trip to the charity shop won't fix for next time. Until then, a pint glass works fine. (Obviously, we are very classy folks.)



Also witness the open door / window, letting in the glorious weather and record-high temperatures of the last few days. We're lucky to get weather this warm in the summer, never mind in March. Whee!

teaser

Here's a sneak peek of some wedding related knitting I haven't shared with you yet.



Full reveal coming up eventually!

Zauberball puffs

Like everything else, other than maybe shelving books, my hexipuff output has slowed over the last few weeks. I have three lonely puffs to show off today, and they are all made of Zauberball that Pinkundine sent me.



Yes, I know I had an informal rule about only doing two puffs from each yarn... I've broken that rule a few times now, especially with long colour-repeat yarns. A hexipuff is small enough that with Zauberball each one turns out a different colour! Nearly. The pictures don't show it very well, but one of the puffs here is very orange, one is brilliant red, and the other is a lovely sunset gradient from red to fuschia. (I ran out of yarn, so I finished the puff with some other pink yarn I had around, but I think it works okay.) I have more Zauberball for puffs, so there will be purple ones coming as well.

Zauberball is a bit thin for hexipuffs with my gauge, so some of the stuffing shows through a bit. I find this is the case with some of the other yarns I've been using as well. Interestingly, when I used up some different Zauberball in a puff a while back, it was even thinner, so I doubled it, which didn't seem necessary here... I know there can be lots of variation in thickness within one skein, but there seems to be variation between skeins as well.

Still here...

Hello blogosphere! It's been a while, but I'm poking my head in to proclaim that I am still alive, and the blog isn't dead. I haven't been around much because....

I got a job! Hurray! It's only a temp job, but it's in my field and it's much-needed experience (not to mention much needed cash). So far I'm really enjoying it, and I'm trying to get as many shifts as I can in case the work dries up. It's also exhausting - I think I've been working 6 days a week for the last few weeks, even if it is usually part-time hours.

That's what I've been up to. I also had a birthday, for which I bought myself some yarn.



This is Millamia Naturally Soft Merino. I bought it in the SuperKnits sale in January, and hid it under my bed until my birthday, so it was almost a surprise to open it at last. I intend to make Gavotte by Cecily Glowik MacDonald. The lovely Zut gifted me the pattern as an RAK, and I'm keen to start swatching. Once I finish my wedding knitting. Or maybe before.

Speaking of wedding knitting, my shawl is still a fluffy white blob, but I've done 8 repeats of the 9 called for in the pattern, so it is getting there. I may do more repeats, since I have lots of yarn left - I guess I'll see what I have time for.

Lastly, I tried that soda bread again, this time with only a pinch of salt. That did the trick, and this time it was definitely edible.



Though it looks much the same as the first time around. Whew! I think I've forgotten how to blog. I intend to make some thoroughly colourful soup tonight, so here's hoping I have more to write about soon.

Brownies with an orange twist

Can I just say: NOM NOM NOM. Okay. Now that's out of the way, I made some brownies.



These are my latest variation on the Best Cocoa Brownies from Smitten Kitchen. I followed the recipe mostly, but was forced to put this into variation territory when I ran out of cocoa powder part-way through. To make up for having less cocoa powder than required, I substituted some Orange Hot Chocolate powder I had - a few heaping tablespoons worth. (Whittard's, if anyone's interested). Since this has sugar in it already, I reduced the sugar I added separately. I also used less butter because I ran out of that as well - but not significantly less, maybe 10 g less? No noticeable effect.



Result: moist, dense brownies with a slight orange-y taste. Not overwhelming, but quite pleasant. In the future, I may try this with orange zest instead of orange hot-chocolate. I bet that would taste even better.

time for a hex update

Here's the latest crop of hexipuffs. I think I'm up to around 30 in total, but I haven't really been counting. Some time soon I'll try to get a picture of all of them so far.



I really love how the blue and gray ones striped. Puffs are perfect for self-striping yarn. All the ones in this batch are different sizes, though - this is partly because some of the yarn I have is closer to sport weight, and I haven't been making stitch-count or needle adjustments for that. In a way, I like the sport-weight puffs better since the gauge produces a firmer, less loose fabric.

bread FAIL

Yesterday I made soda bread.



Looks lovely, if I do say so myself. I was pretty excited about it, and took lots of pictures when I got it out of the oven.

Unfortunately, it turned out inedible. I'm not sure what happened, since I'm positive I followed the recipe to the letter - this one, from The Really Good Life. Or maybe that was my problem. What made it inedible was its incredible saltiness. I nearly always cut down on the amount of salt in recipes, but this time I didn't. Other people don't seem to have had a salt problem with this recipe, so maybe it's just me... Still, it was so salty that even my dude balked and spat out the piece he tasted. Disappointing! If I try this recipe again, needless to say I'll cut down salt to a mere pinch.



Still, it does look gorgeous, doesn't it. ;)

gray day, bright food

Butternut squash soup. No recipe, just put a load of stuff in a pot, cooked until soft, liquified with the hand blender. I put in too much cayenne pepper, but otherwise it was pretty tasty. Pretend there's a cute little sprig of parsley for garnish or something!

something to show

I've regressed into hermitude since my Christmas job ended a month ago, and have been unable or unwilling to come up with some kind of constructive routine. Basically, I've been sleeping, playing with GoodReads, reading, knitting, eating, watching Sherlock, washing and de-pilling my handknits, and spending enough time on Pinterest that I learned how to make a sock bun. Is it any wonder society finds me unemployable? Perhaps not. So I did have two days of casual work, which is better than none. And I have a job interview tomorrow that I've been studying for. If I think about it, I have been doing things - but imagine what I could have accomplished if I actually kept myself busy. My goal this week will be to do more than one productive thing every day :P

As it turns out, now is the time to do all the wedding things, so I've been working on that. Meeting the caterers, tasting food, ordering rings, tracking down essential bits of important paperwork in various languages - sounds more complicated than it was, thankfully. In addition to my shawl, which I'm knitting away at slowly, I've made some flowers for my hair. They need attachment to clips of some variety, but I'll figure it out. I followed this tutorial, and I'm pleased with how they turned out.



I also bought some wedding shoes, finally. I think they are kind of cute.



So. Progress.

read good

I recently rediscovered Goodreads - I may be the last book lover to start using it. Believe it or not, I signed up in 2010 in my last semester of library school, and proceeded to forget all about it until someone on ravelry reminded me. The situation has been rectified. It's not only great for keeping track of and sharing things you've read, but it's also got an interesting book recommendation feature that I think I'll use a lot. If you're interested in what I'm reading, you can find me here.

To populate my Goodreads page, I spent a while adding all the books I read in 2011 (from my super high tech Word doc master list of reading goodness). This exercise brought to light a theme in my reading habits last year that I hadn't noticed at the time.

In the past, I've nearly always had books on request at the library with an idea of what I'd like to read next. Despite all my expensive librarian training, reader's advisory tools, and the rest of it, I found myself kind of listless about my reading choices for part of last year. I took to picking books off the shelf at random, which is not necessarily a bad way of choosing books, but it wasn't the most successful.

In 2011 I apparently read lots of short-stories from collections that I picked up off the shelf during my randomness reading programme. I usually prefer novels, but this year short-stories were the thing: serious, silly, twisted, and thought-provoking.

Here are some of the collections I perused last year:

The Bears of England by Mick Jackson.
Hilarious short stories about bears. Written as if it were historical, the collection investigates the influential role of bears in all aspects of life throughout English history.

Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro
Love, music, loneliness, the passage of time, chance meetings, cafés...

The Obelisk by E.M. Forster
Stories unpublished in his lifetime due to controversial (that is, gay) themes. Although most of them don't read as controversial now, they are heartfelt, significant, and clever.

My Goat Ate Its Own Legs by Alex Burrett
By far the weirdest collection of short-stories I read last year. Totally bizarre, surreal, absurd, and very enjoyable. I picked it up because of the crazy title and because the corner of the book had a bite taken out of it. (By design, of course).


Notwithstanding by Louis de Bernières
Stories set in a fictional village in Surrey that explore the eccentricities of life there through the ages.

One City by Alexander McCall Smith, Irvine Welsh, and Ian Rankin
Stories about Edinburgh by authors who live or have lived there.

Kiss Kiss by Roald Dahl
Weird and twisted stories aimed at adults, but still containing the fun of his works for kids.

Little Red at Last

Guess what I got for Christmas?



It's been described and reviewed all over the internet already, but I'll add my impressions to the mix. As a follower of Ysolda's blog, I'd been looking forward to this book for ages prior to its release last year. (Disclaimer: though I have been an Ysolda fan since before I moved to Edinburgh, I am not a creepy stalker. I feel a bit self-consciously creepy about this it nonetheless.)

Lauriel is the pattern that first caught my eye when I heard about the book, and Angostura is also in my queue for the near future. Although I don't have much use for sweater vests - I'll make a use for them, I'm sure! I have a couple store bought ones from that one summer I had a proper office job, but they hardly fit my unemployed-hermit lifestyle at the moment. Also the dude thinks they are distinctly uncool for some reason. Which has never stopped me, since I'm fairly sure I've never been cool, but anyway. Sweater vests = cool or uncool?

Despite its lovely patterns, the book is actually more interesting to me as a reference for future sweaters in general. I like that in a knitting book - even if I only knit a couple of the sweaters, the other information in the book has lasting value. It will take many hours of perusal and consulting, I'm sure, but I hope to make better fitting sweaters because of it. I've already used the detailed measurement guide and print-out to fill in all my current measurements, though I'm still a bit confused about what some of them refer to - will have to consult with the internet hive-mind on this at some point.

I can't comment on the pattern writing yet, since I haven't tried to follow any of it. However, the first few times I flipped through the book, I got a bit confused by the schematics. Though they are very artistic, at a glance they imply that every pattern is knitted in pieces / flat. Which is definitely not the case. Maybe it's just me, but when I saw them that's the impression I got. However, I can also understand the benefit of showing things like set-in sleeves in the shape of a flat set-in sleeve, even if the sleeve itself is a seamless set-in one. Did that make any sense? Whatever. I get how it works now.

Yay, knitting!

First-footer FO

My Devon socks are my first FO of 2012, given that I almost finished them in 2011. Since they are socks, and they are the first FO of the new year, I've been calling them my first-footers. Not sure what sort of luck they'll bring - maybe a year full of socks?

The light in my flat was terrible today when I was attempting pictures, so these are the best I got. The socks fit, though!


Something weird is happening with the perspective here - my left foot isn't really massively larger than my right...



I used hand-dyed yarn blogged about here. I love the colours, but I do think it is just a teeny bit too busy. If I'd somehow managed to make the blackish parts less intense/contrast-y, I think the pattern would show up better.

The pattern is Cookie A's Devon. It was an enjoyable knit, even though I did them one at a time; I'd forgotten how quickly one sock can go! I'm not too keen on the way the yarnovers show on the foot section, but disappear into the leg section. To be honest, I'd prefer them to disappear in both, like the original pattern photos. I can only assume the model has skinnier feet than I, so hers don't stretch the yarnovers much. If I made these again, I might try using some hole-less increases instead of yarnovers to see how that looks.



Here's to more woolly socks this year! (And more FOs at Tami's blog.)

staying warm

When the wind picks up, I can always hear it whistling through the gaps and crannies in our flat - it often sounds worse than it is. Not so, today:


(Not my video, but daaaamn.)

I did have to go out, and I passed downed traffic lights, slate roof tiles, and other debris on my way. Brrr.

Tea and blankets and knitting on the sofa, lovely at any time, was extra nice this afternoon.

Hogmanay

Happy New Year, blogosphere! Hogmanay celebrations in Edinburgh are A Thing - a 3 day festival to bring in the new year. We weren't in town for it last year, but decided to take in some of the free stuff this time around. Things kicked off on Dec 30th with a torchlight procession through town, followed by some fireworks and burning stuff. (They do like their fireworks here).



See all the twinkly twinkly lights? Apparently there were 6500 people with torches this year. And nobody got set on fire! Amazing. (At least, not that I heard about...) Led by some dudes dressed like vikings, plus several pipe bands, they processed through town up Calton Hill.



Then there were fireworks and pyrotechnics set up in the monuments on Calton Hill. Okay, so this picture isn't very clear, but you get the idea.




And a bonfire - it started out as a straw sculpture of some dancing figures.

I think I get a kick out of all this celebratory fire because none of it would be allowed where I grew up. Not only are you not allowed to drink in public places there, but thousands of people carrying open flames through the streets? Haha - not likely.

I took some shaky video of bits of it, and have inexpertly spliced them together to make a highlight reel here:


Bring on 2012!

2011: The Year in Knits

The year isn't quite finished, but since I don't expect my FO count to change in the next few days, I'm posting my year in review. I finished ten knitting projects in 2011, which is fewer than 2010's 15 projects... but who's counting? Quality over quantity? Haha. In any case, I wasn't exceptionally prolific this year, but I'm satisfied with what I made. Plus, I started a very long-term project that won't be finished anytime soon - my beekeeper's quilt. Anyway, here are the FOs of 2011:



From left to right, top to bottom: (links to my projects on ravelry)
Idlewood by Cecily Glowik MacDonald
French Press Slippers by Melynda Bernardi
Danube Cowl, by me
Drops design cardigan with lots of numbers in it
Calculation mitts by Natalie Selles
Simple City shawlette by Mimi Hill
Entomology Mittens by Adrian Bizilia
Twisted socks by Jodie Gordon Lucas
Honeybee Cardigan by Laura Chau
Fleegle's toe-up socks

In January, I made some pseudo-resolutions to knit more sweaters in 2011, put some designs to paper, and learn some new techniques. I'd say I mostly managed that - I made two cardigans and a pullover, and published a free knitting pattern (Danube Cowl). As for new techniques, the only thing I can think of is the Fleegle Heel I used for my Team Sweden socks, but it's a pretty cool heel, so I'd count it as a useful technique I've learned.

In 2012, I would like to focus my knitting on filling in my knitwear gaps. For example, most of my handknit sweaters are 3/4 sleeved because I skimp on yarn and am afraid of running out. 3/4 sleeves are fine sometimes, but my wardrobe needs some long-sleeved things. So: goal for 2012 is to make sweaters with long sleeves, even if I need to buy more yarn to accomplish it! Likewise, I only have one handknitted pullover, so I'd like to add one or two more pullovers to the mix this year.

What will you be knitting/making in 2012?

dude

Look what I found in my advent calendar today:



A Tardis! Heh. There's even a blob that I am interpreting as the Doctor seen from the back.

(I don't want to hear about it if you think it's actually a wrapped gift or some other traditional Christmas item :P)

This totally made my day.

A joint effort

We aren't traveling to see family for the holidays this year, so this will be our first Christmas at home in our flat together. That meant coming up with some kind of Christmas tree.

Lucky for us, we both like to make things. My dude came up with a crazy scheme to build a Christmas tree out of dowels and garden wire - and it worked! He did most of it, but I helped. When the modern, minimalist tree was finished, it sat bare for a few days while we thought about how to decorate it. The branches are fairly flexible, and the whole thing is rather small. Then, another brilliant idea from the dude...



Hexipuffs as ornaments! They are very light and small, plus I have them in a crazy range of colours. I put some thread through a corner of each one, knotted it, and then attempted to hide the knot back inside the puffs. When it comes time to put the blanket together, I can always cut the thread and remove it.



I'm sure this isn't an original idea - on ravelry I can find people using hexipuffs for all kinds of things, including ornaments and a hexitree. However, my dear FH doesn't spend all his free time browsing ravelry, so the idea coming from him is somewhat original.

Hexipuff update

I'm still making hexipuffs! Here is the latest crop.



The yellow-orange and blue ones used leftovers from my Team Sweden Socks - I'm pleased with the stripes! The others are from the miniskeins Natalie/Pinkundine sent me. The purple and green one are from the same miniskein; the long colour repeats on such a small object made each into an almost solid-coloured puff. It's hard to tell in the photo, but there is a slight colour change from purple to green / green to purple on each. And the neon stripy ones? Hahaha. They make me laugh. So eye-searing! Amazing.