Happy New Year and lots and lots of pairs of socks

Another year is drawing to a close. I do not know where this year has even gone - it has been a blur of work, work, sleeping and then more work. I have been going at life pretty relentlessly since January which (honestly) has sucked a little bit sometimes. It all seems worth it at the end of the year, though, when you see how much you have done.

One thing I was very pleased with this year was my Christmas knitting. My dad got some socks made out of Regia Design Line by Kaffe Fassett, that were completed way back in November (this is his photo since I gifted them without taking a photo because I am a terrible blogger).

Sam and his brother got matching-ish socks made out of Regia Pairfect. With this yarn, the ball is divided into two identical halves, separated by a section of yellow yarn. Weirdly, even though I made these two pairs of socks exactly the same way, on one pair I had to use the yellow dividing yarn to finish the toe and on the other I did not. Regia's inconsistency with yardage strikes again.

The final pair I finished on the 23rd of December. I made Sam's parents his-and-her spiralled socks using two colourways of Patonyle. I (modestly) think they look great.

So, I got lots of pairs of socks done in time for Christmas - four of them for adult males - without stressing out but with a lot of hard graft. That is seriously the most boring story ever! However, it does fairly accurately capture my 2015. Here's hoping that 2016 is a bit more fun but with just as many socks. 

Happy New Year!

WIP Wednesday: This is the scarf that never ends; it just goes on and on my friend!

This last week has been the coldest week in my city for many years. As anyone who has read this blog for any period of time knows, I hate the cold. There is nothing more likely to make me take to my bed like a Victorian maiden than a forecasted week of temperatures at 10 degrees. Urgh. This, combined with a wee lurgy I've had for the last few days have combined to make me pretty much the most disagreeable person on the planet in the last few days. I'm cranky, short tempered and likely to stab anyone who irritates me with the nearest knitting needle.

Fortunately for humanity, I have largely been working from home. Unfortunately for me, I still haven't finished the stupid stripy charity scarf. It is the scarf that never ends! Here is the latest progress:

It hardly looks different to last week :( I am seriously starting to feel like it may never get done.

Last week

Three weeks ago

To alleviate the boredom, I started a Magic Ball Monster Stock. A magic ball is a ball made up of short lengths of yarn tied together and wound into a ball, which is then knitted like a normal ball of wool. My lengths were 2.2 metres each and joined using a weaver's knot. That's probably a little short  for each length (each sock takes about 160m to knit, so that's a lot of ends!) but it was pretty fun to knit. I just did a little magic ball as a test run and used it all up in two days. Now the project goes on hold until I get some more scrappy ends, which means...

..I need to start another sock (my inability to finish my stripy scarf seems kind of more obvious now...)

These are for a requested Christmas present and I am excited to be knitting for someone who really wants what I am going to make. 

Now, to finish the damn scarf...

FO Friday AKA Let the sock fest begin: Patonyle Colour-block Socks (2015 FO #7)

A few weeks ago, I blogged about a cowl I had made out of leftover 50g balls of Patonlye. I don't know if it came through but I was incredibly pleased with myself. Not only had I used up all the balls that were each too small to make one pair of socks, I had a great, very wearable scarf that is soft and comfortable and warm. Winning! But then, I looked at the leftovers of leftovers (please imagine this stage as I did not take photos because I am a terrible blogger who still does not understand how blogs work) and the balls seemed just a little bit too big to throw away. I pulled out my trusty digital drug dealer scales, and yep...

[picture 10 teeny balls of wool on a digital scale with a display that says "55g"]

..almost enough for a pair of socks. Clearly I couldn't throw away enough wool to make an entire pair of socks! So I grabbed the 7g of Needfood merino sock yarn I had leftover from my Tennis Scarf and started knitting.

Et voila! A pair of socks.

I knitted these toe up, two at a time so I could use up all of the (damn) wool.

I ran into a slight problem when I got to the heel because I couldn't find my copy of Favorite Socks (I use the heel from Priscilla's dream socks)...

..so I just bought another. I know, consumerism, consumption, excess, etc., but still! I'm usually really good about this stuff. I save up my veggie scraps to make stock with, I use an environmental toothbrush (which, btw, I think everyone should use. Not only are they better for the environment than a regular toothbrush, they're cheap and the packaging has pictures of pandas all over it! Pandas are great) - I think on balance, I'm doing okay (I did not realise how guilty I felt about buying a second copy until I started writing this paragraph! The things you learn.)

There were a ton of ends to weave in but it was worth it to get my free, soft, comfy and waste-reducing socks.

As the title of the blog indicates, I've been finishing a lot of socks lately. There are many more sock FO Fridays to come!

Friday FO: Colour-block cowl (2015 FO #4)

Today I am sharing one of those projects that is really of interest to noone but the knitter and the recipient. You know, like the plain stockinette socks that will be really appreciated and worn till they have holes all over them but look really really boring in a blog post? (I should know - that's the majority of my output!) Today's finished object is the cowl equivalent of striped stockinette sock - it's a striped sockinette cowl.

I provisionally cast on 80 stitches and then knit in colour blocks of 20cm. Once the scarf was long enough, I flipped it inside-out, wove in the ends, flipped it back the right way and then grafted the two ends together, resulting in a simple tube. (For citation purposes, this project was inspired by the look of Turnstile but all design elements are my own). It used 50g each of the blue and white yarns and about 75 of the beige, thus using up almost all of my Patonyle single ball stash (yippee!).

The only problem I really ran into was grafting the last five stitches. They required a bit of fancy needlework and although blocking fixed most of the problem, it still looks a little bit bit wonky. Fortunately, because of the colour blocking, the wonkiness is almost impossible to notice unless you're looking for it specifically, so I'm not too fussed.

Since I finished it I've worn it almost every day. Although the tube means the scarf is double with, it's knitted with 4ply yarn, so I can leave it open when it's not too cold but also loop it whenever it gets a bit chilly. The colours are neutral enough that they go with most of my wardrobe but still very nice in their own right. I am really really happy with the way this scarf worked out and I know I am going to get a lot of use from it.

Please forgive the lack of modelled shots - it was a windy day and I just couldn't not get my hair to sit right! For your amusement, a collage of my failed attempts:

WIP Wednesday: Slow and steady edition

As I started to check what photos I had for today's WIP Wednesday post, I realised I had taken photos of my Patonyle Tempest-inspired scarf, always on Wednesdays, but just never posted them.

Really, it was that kind of project - row after row of the knit stitch, changing colour(s) every 7.5 inches, then continuing to knit.

It was actually a bit of a surprise yesterday when I realised it was actually done! I flipped it inside out...

..and wove in all of the ends...

Grafted the two ends of the scarf together, and popped it in a wool wash bath.

 It was like time-lapse knitting photography. I liked it! I think I need to do it more often on these long projects because sometimes, when you're working on them, it does feel like you're slogging away and not getting much done, even though you actually are. 

Next time: two hats and some booties. Booties!

WIP Wednesday: Lazy and cheap edition

Hello my dear neglected blog! How's things been? I am afraid I've been not paying you any attention because: 

1. I've been having fun.

I went up to Queensland to attend a graduation ceremony, which was a different but good experience.

The graduation was at Bond University, which is a tiny university of only about 4,000 students. Each of the universities I've attended has been huge (50,000+), so it was a completely different experience.

The campus was gorgeous - it seemed like a really nice place to study.

2. I've been super busy at work

And of course, being busy at work means lots and lots of stockinette stitch.

It may look sunny in all of these photos but we all know that a) winter follows summer and b) it sometimes takes a while to get a winter scarf knitted, so I have started this year's scarf early. It is inspired by Turnstile but is not Turnstile because as much as I want to support designers I just could not bring myself to pay $6.50 for a pattern that is just a knitted tube grafted together (although the comments on the pattern are all very positive, so maybe I'm just being precious). With this scarf, I have cast on 80 stitches provisionally and am just knitting any colour I feel like for 7.5 inches (it was supposed to be 8 but apparently I am either impatient or can't measure properly). I am using up all of my odds and ends of Patonyle (terrible sock yarn but lovely for scarves) so it's another stashbuster. All in all, a very pleasing way for me to destress after another 10-hour day.

Back soon, I promise!

WIP Wednesday: Windblown edition

It's a cold, blustery and grey day today in Melbourne, so it is the perfect time to share some photos I took on Monday when the sky cleared for what felt like the first time in two years (more like two months, really, but I was very excited).

See how the branches look like they're reaching out to the sky? That's how I felt. Now today it is grey again :(

Since it is Wednesday, it is also the perfect time to show you what I have been working on this week. About nine years ago, I had this grand plan to make the mittens from Patons #1239 for my mother and sisters. No-one I know wears mittens but I'd just started to knit on tiny needles and the mittens only took one ball each so it seemed like an excellent plan.

Needless to say knitting six identical mittens got real old real fast so I ended up with no completed pairs but lots of teeny tiny partial balls of Patonyle. I didn't want to throw the balls out because Patonyle but there wasn't enough of any one colour for a pair of socks, and besides the dividing of the wool into smaller balls meant I had no idea which way the faux fair isle sequence went. One ball became a baby hat and a pair of fingerless gloves, one ball got given away but the third has been balefully staring at my from my sock yarn stash every time I open the lid to the box. Last weekend, a solution came to me:

If I pair the wool with a solid colour of Patonyle, it will not only mean I have enough yarn to make a whole pair of socks, it doesn't matter that the socks won't match - it will be in a random "stripy" pattern rather than in the faux fair isle of the original ball. I'm making it for a woman so it is zipping along and I am very chuffed with the whole thing.

On the subject of wind, this is what my cat has looked like for the last two days:

She is completely discombobulated! She thinks the wind is attacking her every time she goes outside, so she comes inside for refuge. However, when she's inside looking out she can't see the wind so then becomes convinced it is no longer windy and goes outside, only to be attacked again. It's heartbreaking but at the same time, really really funny (yes, I am clearly going to hell!). 

It must be hard to be inside Lucy's tiny tiny cat brain...

2013 FO #17: Advance Australia Fair socks

I can honestly not believe it is the second-last Friday in 2013. Where has the year gone? I feel like I have so much 2013 left in me to live!!

These socks were actually finished way back in July for my dad's birthday, but the man is an international traveller and I never managed to organise it so that the socks and he were in the same place in the same time. Last weekend I trapped him with the promise of editorial assistance and homemade brownies and finally managed to gift him the present that was ready to be given so long ago. 

They fit perfectly and he seemed to like them. They were knitted in Patonyle (colourway 3333) so I was happy to make them because knitting with Patonyle is a dream - it's so soft - so all in all, a massive (if very delayed) success.

Cast On Mania Day 4: Daybreak Mitts

I am pleased to announce that this blog's regular scheduling has been interrupted. Instead, I present you with:

Every day this week I will be starting a new project. Every project is to be made with yarn from the stash and all of them need to be finished in two months or less.  It'll be fun!  Clearly crazy, but mostly fun.

Today's post is brought to you by McDonald's Cheltenham because I blew through my entire month's data allowance in 2.5 weeks. I didn't think I'd used it that much but I have been doing a lot of procrastination, so really it's a good thing that I can't use the Internet to distract me from actual work any more. However, it does put a bit of a spanner in my week of CAST ON MANIA.

Yesterday I wrote about the socks I am knitting for my sister. I have two sisters and if you have sisters then you'll understand that you can't make something for one without making something for the other because they notice and remember and get incredibly shirty. Everything is remembered - they're like elephants in that way. So to head off any dramas today's project is some mitts for my sister using the yarn left over from the Daybreak I made her for Christmas.  Last time I tried to improvise a pattern using Daybreak as an inspiration it did not go well, so this time I am using weezelana's Mitt Envy as a template. If I sat down and put some serious time into them I could finish these mitts in about four hours. However, I suspect that it might take me a while to get these finished given the amount of predicts that I've started already this week...

CAST ON MANIA.  YEAH!

Finally done! 2011 FO #4: New Start Shawl

Last year when I left one job and headed down a new pathway in my life, I started a new shawl.  It's only taken me nine months (!!!) but it's finally done:

As per usual, Lucy helped out as best she could during the blocking process.  

Finishing this shawl did cause me to evaluate the last nine months.  I certainly have not achieved everything I wanted - my work, though interesting, is infrequent, leading to weeks where I am crazy busy intersected by days watching repeats of Friends and Sex and the City.  I have lost weight, but not as much as I wanted.  Overall, even though I have some way to go, I am certain that I am on the correct path and heading in the right direction. Yay me.

Enough navel-gazing - here's the vital statistics:

Pattern: Bitterroot Shawl from Knitty

Yarn: Patonyle, three full skeins in black.  This sock yarn is terrible for socks, but perfect for a lovely, soft, drapey shawl.  Go figure.

Notes/modifications: Knitted the size large exactly as written.  The pattern was clear, easy to understand, and completely stress free.  A very nice project.