WIP WIP Away!

It's been a while since I've done a WIP Wednesday, so I figured it was about time to get my act together and admit that every single project I am working on at the moment involves only the knit stitch...

I'm working on these ridiculously ugly socks in Opal Rainforest Hummel for my brother-in-law for Christmas. These colours scream 1970s kitchen appliance in a way that's completely not retro chic. I'm actually questioning whether I can even give them to him - they ares so very very ugly.

They're going slowly but surely; they'll get done soon.

I also knit a hat: a Rikke, to be specific. I love the knitted fabric and I know the hat is designed to be  slouchy but I think it might a bit too big. I have enough wool left over to make another one, so I am. I'm using eight fewer stitches in the second one (96 rather than 104). 

Why, you ask, would I be knitting a hat where the seasons are changing and the weather is becoming warmer? Well, firstly, I live in Melbourne so there is no guarantee that the changing seasons will result in warmer weather. I regularly have to put the heater on in the summer! It's mental. But the real reason I am knitting a hat right now is because...

..I'm going away! My university have given me a travel grant to do some archival research in the UK and I am jetsetting off very shortly. It's all been a bit of a whirlwind - I got the grant only six weeks before the conference date, so it has been a mad rush to renew my passport, book flights and find someone to housesit my place and look after Lucy. I leave in just under four weeks and I am SO EXCITED. It feels a bit weird that someone is going to be living in my house and playing with my stuff but I think I'll get over that really quickly when I have my first glass of wine on the flight. 

I haven't told Lucy yet, though. I don't think she'll take it well...

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...

WIP Wednesday: The World Cup's Almost Over Edition

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I am in a fantastic mood today because I just had another chapter of my thesis okayed by my supervisor, which means I am halfway done with the writing up of my loooooooooong ongoing research project. THIS IS FANTASTIC NEWS!! The thing with long-term research projects is that you work and work and work and work and work and work but often don't see any result from your work except for pages of notes and increased knowledge. Both of these are vital for writing the thesis yet (unfortunately) neither are submittable in their original form. To have not only words on the page but words on the page that are of a good and convincing quality feels fantastic and like one day I might actually get this thesis done.

Of course, in order to get the chapter done I spent a lot of time sitting at my desk. A lot of time, like ten hours a day. When I put on my jeans to go to the footy on Saturday, I noticed a definite difficulty in getting the zip up. I have worked too hard on maintaining my fitness since breaking my leg to lose muscle tone just to get a mere postgraduate qualification, so yesterday I started working at a standing desk.

The kitchen bench is the perfect height for me to work at standing. This is how I work, with Word open on my laptop and my notes and reference materials on my iPad. As I have said here before, I held off on getting an iPad because it felt so unnecessary and decadent. An iPad is unnecessary and decadent but it makes nearly every part of my life easier. I imagine I feel the same way as my grandmother did when she got a washing machine and no longer had to run clothes through a mangle - pure unadulterated joy. My iPad is now my my fourth most loved item, behind Lucy, Sam and my football team. If St Kilda lose again this weekend, it's moving into third place.

My World Cup socks are slowly progressing, much (it feels) like the World Cup itself. Surely it has to finish soon. I swear it has been going on forever and is possibly never going to stop. That said, I am knitting awfully slowly at the moment! Hopefully by the time I finish the foot and find my darning needle, the soccer will have finally stopped. Fingers crossed :)

WIP Wednesday: Enough with the bad photos of socks edition!

The weather has been unseasonably warm of late. Ironically, it has been quite a bit warmer in the two weeks leading up to winter than it was in the two weeks before summer. Tragically, the political party in charge of my formerly great country don't believe in climate change. I cry; I weep; I despair.

I also knit! My year-long attempt to wrestle my sock WIPs to a reasonable number is finally drawing to a close. Thank God, because I am getting seriously sick of these stupid socks. I want to start new ones. Lots and lots of new ones (but one after the other. Not at the same time this time!)

At the beginning of today, there were three socks still left. These photos SUCK because they were taken very late in the day when the light was fading. I sometimes still surprise myself without how bad at this blogging malarky I actually am. I am a really terrible blogger. But I do do it with love...

First up, the boring burgundy socks.

Look at them, being all boring and burgundy. But, the good news is I am at the heel of the second sock so they are at least 50% done. Boring boring boring.

This sock is not boring - in fact, it's the complete opposite. The pattern is Austrian Socks from my all-time favourite sock book Favorite Socks and the wool is the lovely Patonyle.  As you can (blurrily) see, the pattern is really gorgeous.

However, I am just not going to get these socks done. There is cabling on every row which means I can't knit while watching television which means that I am never going to work on this project ever. I did these 24 rows over 12 months ago and I have not touched them since. I want these socks finished because I would love them but I am not going to be the one to do it.

Finally, another pattern from Favorite Socks: Go With The Flow. I'm up to the heel(s), so I just need a some time watching a movie so I can turn them both.

ONLY TWO SOCKS REMAIN! It's taken me six months but I'm finally where I like to be - working on one pair of lace socks and one pair of plain socks. Now, just to tackle the four blankets I have on the go...

WIP Wednesday: New socks edition

Before I get to my new project, I have something exciting to share:

My first capsicum! Unfortunately, when they start to grow capsicums look like butts but still - how exciting! I planted them too late this year to end up with much of a harvest but, since I now know how easy it is to get capsicum seeds (use the seeds from grocery store capsicums - thanks Jamie!), I'm going to plant them much earlier this year.

I finished another pair of socks (pics coming soon once I've found a male to model them) and I figured I'd been so good in finishing off pairs of socks that I had earned the ability to start a new project...more socks. I was so excited to be working on something new that I have zoomed through the foot part of the pair.

It helps that these are for a woman so there's only 64 stitches in each round - that 8 stitches really does make a difference! I've only got 60g of yarn so they'll either be ankle socks or I'll do a cuff in a contrasting colour. Sock knitting is such fun :)

WIP Wednesday: a sock and a blankie

One day I am going to stop talking about it and actually do a photography course, because until I came inside and uploaded the photos I had absolutely no idea that the light was shining behind me in such a way that it washed out all of my photos.

Despite the massive overexposure, you can see that the blanket is very satisfactorily heading towards its eventual conclusion. I work so much with 4-ply wool that I forget how fast thicker wool knits up and how enjoyable it is to see such measurable progress every day. I think I will have the knitting (if not necessarily the border) finished by next week.  As soon as I do, I'm starting my next TV garter stitch baby blanket - an Op Art in Bendy Luxury.

Next is a pair of socks I started a few weeks ago out of some divine Mountain Colors Barefoot from the stash in Copper. The pattern is the Go With The Flow socks...kinda. I have modified them to knit toe-up instead of toe down so used my favourite toe-up toe. I also kept knitting in stocking stitch after the toe increases were done until to where my physical toes finished (about 2cm) before starting the lace pattern. These socks are my third pair from Favorite Socks, which has to be honestly one of the best value knitting books I have ever bought.

I've had a pretty good week knitting-wise, footy-wise, weather-wise and work-wise. I almost don't want to tell anyone that unless I jinx it! Here's to hoping my current run of loveliness continues...

WIP Wednesday: My cat is the boss of me edition

Another Wednesday, another round-up of all of the things I've been working on. I am actually blogging this from my bed because, in the epic power struggle that is sitting my desk chair (it's Lucy's bed at night, she doesn't like it when I use it during the day), Lucy is currently on top. My aunt said to me this morning "You know you're the alpha cat of the household, right?"

Sure I know it, but does Lucy? I am starting to think not.

I was really hoping to get my blue fluffy mitts done this week (not least because it's been bloody freezing the last few days!) but catastrophe struck:

I broke my 3.5mm KnitPicks needle. Again. This is no exaggeration the fifth of these needles that I have broken! It's ridiculous. I never have a problem with any other size except for this one and my yarn store doesn't stock the nickel-plated tips. Grrr!! 

However, I quickly replaced one blue project with another and the Baby Surprise Jacket and I have been spending some quality time together:

As you can see, I'm not great at random striping. I should definitely have this one finished by next week and I'm looking forward to going shopping for some very cute buttons this weekend!

Finally, I've been working on my sister's Endpaper Mitts. I'm up to the thumb increase, so over 50% done. I'm a bit worried because it's really clear in the knitting where my tension has changed - what looks like a line in brown is just me knitting one row a whole lot tighter than the previous row. I'm hoping it'll block out - blocking fits everything, right? Right.

Now I should be leaving my nice warm house to go to uni but, well, I don't want to. It's cold and wet and dreary outside :( Sometimes being a grown-up sucks. 

WIP Wednesday: Mitt Madness

I am really struggling with daylight saving, and my struggling I mean I think I might be incapable of ever remembering that it exists. I got home from lunch, settled down to work and then, when I looked up a few hours later, the sky had darkened to such an extent I had to put on the light. It wasn't even 5 o'clock yet!

It's been mitt madness at Chez HereIKnit over the last week. The Endpaper Mitts are coming along nicely - I'd forgotten how addictive stranded colour work is ("Just one more row..."). The Bilby Yarn is perfect for this type of project because it's very 'sticky' - you know the inside of the gloves will slowly felt with wear, making them even more warm. I am struggling to maintain my tension with two-handed knitting, though (which you can see a little bit here with the white diamonds on the right glove) but I'm hoping blocking will fix everything.

In the time it took me to move these gloves and put the second gloves down, all of the light had gone!

So I fiddled with the settings on my camera software to make it brighter so you could see how much I've done. My skills with photography are truly a gift.

I'm pretty chuffed with these! Plain mittens are just as easy to make without a pattern as plain socks are (like durr, I can hear every experienced knitter everywhere saying). I'd have done more but it's really hard to work on dark navy mohair yarn at night, so these only get worked on during the day.

Now, back to work - deadlines care nothing for daylight savings.