A chronicle of derpitude and a gorgeous free pair of socks (2013 FO #4)

Chronicle of derpitude

I do not know what is going on inside my brain at the moment but I have turned into a derpy, scatty vacant-minded idiot. Yesterday, I locked myself out of the house on an eight-degree night and had to wait over an hour for my spare keys to arrive. The worst thing is even though I had both books and knitting it was too cold to knit and and too dark to read! Completely the worst. This morning, I went to the library and left my keys on the loans desk, then spent five minutes staring at my car door trying to figure out how to get inside. Just then I had a shower and shampooed my hair twice instead of using shampoo then conditioner. I'm going to get some multivitamins or something because this level of absentmindedness is terrible!

In happier news

I have a new finished object to share with you: my Ocean Wave Socks.

These are made up completely of leftovers - the Ocean Blue Socks (Rav link), the Ishbel I knitted in Hamilton Island (what a divine place!) and Sam's Anniversary Socks.

I used this technique I saw on Christi's blog to knit the heel, talked about here.

It actually made a really-fitting and handsome heel and it meant I could easily continue the spiralling pattern I was using but it was a bit fiddly and did mean more ends to weave in, so I will probably only use this technique on socks where striping is vital to the sock.

On the subject of weaving in ends, I actually finished knitting this sock during Finish It February. However, because it was made up of lots of leftovers there were lots of ends (felt like about 300, probably really 40) and it has taken me this long (two months!) to weave them in. I hate hate hate weaving in ends!

But now they're done and I have a lovely new pair of socks that were effectively free and have the added bonus of making me feel smug about how thrifty and crafty I am. Win win win.

Now let's just hope I can go through the next few days without doing something really stupid like locking myself in a cupboard or forgetting my pin while standing at an ATM with a queue of people behind me...

Hot days need warm hats: 2013 FO #2

There are not many things in life nicer than the first morning of a long weekend where the weather will be delightful, nothing is planned except fun things and there's lots of time for knitting and watching movies. Seriously, it's totally the best.

I finished this project a few weeks ago but I wasn't happy with the photos and wanted to take more photos that made me look like less of a grump! But honestly, since I am such a lazy blogger if I waited for that to happen I wouldn't be sharing the hat with you until next Finish it February, so I present you with my latest seasonally appropriate FO - my smooshy alpaca hat (nothing says warm woollens more than a record-breaking heat wave! Please note this hat was modelled while I was wearing a bikini).

As I said last post, I've had a pile-on of deadlines recently. Generally when that happens I get this unstoppable urge to START ALL THE THINGS!! It's like when my deadlines feel unmanageable, knitting provides tangible proof if you just keep working at something, progress is made. Plus, searching through boxes of yarn and browsing Ravelry for the perfect pattern are really, really good methods of procrastination.

So, a few weeks ago when the START SOMETHING NOW bug hit, I pulled out all of the boxes under the bed that contain my yarn. I grabbed some books off my shelf and started matching project to wool then I had an amazing lightbulb moment - I had a hat that I started during Cast On Mania but never moved beyond the ribbing. Why not finish that off instead of starting something new?

And so I did. It took me two days of not very fast knitting to get it done. Why do I  not make hats more often - they're so fast! 

Because I am lazy, I knitted the ribbing section in the same size needle as the rest of the hat (Elizabeth Zimmermann did it like that, and if it's good enough for her it's good enough for me). I added an extra repeat of the cable section to get a longer hat - it's more of a cap as written. I omitted the icord feature because (have I mentioned it?) I'm lazy and it's a decorative rather than functional feature that I didn't think my gorgeous fawn hat needed. 

I love the way the decreases on the crown kind of swoosh the whole pattern to a close. This is a lovely hat and one I can see myself making again - but next time, with better photos taken of it.

Happy weekend!

Gail (Nightsong): close and slightly smelling like feet

Finish it February powers on with yet the discovery of yet another project that is embarrassingly close to being finished.

On 1 January 2011 (over two years ago!) I unravelled the yarn from this bag that I never ever used and cast on for a shawl I'd been wanting to knit forever, Gail (Nightsong). I knit and knit until I ran out of yarn but I didn't want to buy any more because it seemed to counteract the frugality inherent in using repurposed yarn in the first place, so I grabbed the yarn leftover from these socks, figuring that I could overdye the project when I finished. Then I ran out of that yarn and, rather than make a decision as to what I would do to conclude the whole thrifty mess, I bundled up the whole project into a bag and hid it at the back of a drawer.

Fast-forward for today when I was looking for yarn to start a hat (ummm...not technically finishing but I'm on a deadline which always makes me want to start all the things) and I found the shawl again. The socks I made with Wendy Happy are seriously the most useless pair of socks I have ever made in my life. The yarn is very silky and smooth which feels nice in the skein but is awful to knit with PLUS it results in a sock that was all floppy (that's the technical knitter's term, I believe) so the socks continually fall down, meaning they never got worn. They suck. So, in order to get the yarn required to finish the sock, I hacked them up. It felt so. very. good. Plus, I now have lots of yarn (that admittedly does smell a little bit like feet...) with which to finish the shawl.

The one solitary row I now realise I have left to complete.

Hopeless, Belinda, hopeless.  Argh!! (although on the plus side, I avoided casting on for a hat. Yay for Finish it February!)

Dreaming of jumpers and wearing pyjamas in the afternoon

Finish it February is inspiring all sorts of strange and wonderful feelings in me. After finishing my Herbivore on the weekend I realised my 4.5mm tips were free, meaning that after *mumble mumble* years I am in a position to start the hood of Old Blue. 

I seamed up the shoulders, diligently using mattress stitch to match up the cables perfectly. This is completely the wrong way to seam the shoulders but it's the only seaming method I know and so mattress stitch it was. 

On a side note, I had to go to hospital again today for another check-up. Yes, I know I amazingly lucky to have access to the wonderful affordable efficient health care system I do and I am not complaining at all but Oh. My. God I really really hate hospitals. So within about forty seconds of arriving home at midday I had changed into my pyjamas and have been working in bed all afternoon. I'm not the only one who deals with traumatic situations by retreating to bed, right? Healthy coping mechanisms - I has them.

After joining the shoulders I picked up stitches from the fronts and the back and started knitting the hood. I'm so excited with this photo - it looks like there's a chance that the massive investment of time, money and yarn that I have put into this project may actually result in a wearable item of clothing.

Fingers crossed!

In other news

I took this shot while taking a walk yesterday. I think there are very few sights that are as wonderful as a clear summer Australian sky - what an amazing blue. 

First Finished Object of the Year! (2013 FO #1)

I know the faces of most of the knitbloggers I follow very well, because they're always modelling their creations.

They seem so natural, posing in their handknits, while the thought of being the model of a photo shoot when I've been in the library all day and my eyeliner's smudged and my hair is a mess makes me what to do this:

But I'm trying!

Little by little...

(although next time I will check my eyeliner before heading outside!)

Pattern: Herbivore

Yarn: Madeleintosh Pashmina in Thunderstorm, all but 2g

Notes: Knitted using my digital scale to measure the weight of the yarn at the end of every repeat to get as big a shawl as I can from the skein.