That's October sorted

Well, my books arrived:

Amusingly, the postman rang the doorbell as I was halfway through a row of knitting.  (Garter stitch if you're that interested). 

For the fun of it, I made a list of big things I want to knit for me, once I've finished my dissertation.  Honestly, it can't come soon enough! 

That, and the fact that there's nothing on my birthday list so far which isn't related to knitting, means that October is pretty much sorted.  I just need to get there first....

Tuesday

You know I said I wasn't a fan of sod's law ?  Well, in looking to try and cost up how much the Kaffe Fassett mystery knitalong may cost, I found lots of websites - none of which had the colours I wanted in stock.  (That, and the cost of the yarn is making me have second thoughts).

In other news, I may have got a bit tipsy over the weekend and ordered some knitting books.  I did only plan to get one on wristwarmers (they help make the arthritis easier to deal with), but was spurred on by my husband saying 'if you buy that one, I'll learn to knit'.  Space has been cleared on the bookshelf for their arrival and in clearing up yesterday, I found another project bag.  That counts as a result.

But actually, today's post is about something different - a book I read on my Kindle sometime last month: Knit for Health and Wellness by Betsan Corkhill.  In it, she divides knitting projects up into different categories, including projects which teach you new skills and projects she classes as 'free knitting' - that is, knitting for the process of it, without really caring where you end up. 

Interestingly, both the above are projects which have come with me to the Royal Albert Hall for this year's prom concerts.  My free knitting project is the Innocent smoothie hats.  They all have a basic pattern, but I make it up as I go along as regards the colours, stripes, stitches and adornments on the top.  I've lost count of the times I've planned a hat in one way, and halfway through, I realise I've knitted something totally different.

Some of the completed hats: (Late afternoon light and I couldn't work out how to switch on the flash)

Some of the uncompleted hats, on the stitch holders, waiting to be sewn up and finished:

And then, Saturday just gone at the Last Night of the Proms, I was trying socks, knitting in the arena whilst waiting for the concert to start.  (These are the same socks I tried in Nottingham and then again over the Bank Holiday weekend last month.  I'm very tempted to try a toe up pattern, before I get a total block on this pair).  Far from being a free knitting project, this was a 'learn a new skill' technique - namely magic loop knitting - knitting in the round.  Now, whilst I'm not a proficient sock knitter, I can tell there's something wrong with this ribbing:

Whilst the first pair of socks I knit is likely to be rubbish, I'm too much a perfectionist to keep this.  Every time I put the socks on, I'll know, so I'll be ripping out.  Again.

The man next to me in the arena seemed very interested in my socks.  (The ones on my needles, not the ones on my feet).  Wasn't I bored of knitting something on such small needles? (2mm needles are the price I have to pay for knitting loosely).  I could buy socks at M&S for five pounds (yes, but not in this colourway) and do knitting circles still exist?  It did kind of help that one of my friends was a couple of rows back, doing some Fair Isle.

No photographs of me getting in the arena, but I did get a screenshot or two from the concert.

(I have no idea why we're looking at each other - but this is Geoff/Jeff who was interested in my socks and a lovely person to spend the concert with.  Next to him is his wife and in front of me is Clive, a long time prommer). 

And another, slightly better one:

I've tried to work hard today, so when the new knitting books arrive, I'll have lots of time to make them welcome.

The KF KAL

So, this arrived in my in-box this week:

So, it's after the dissertation is due in, I love Rowan yarns and I've heard a lot about Kaffe Fassett - win!  For those interested, the shopping list is here and the Rowan shade card is here

The project is written for a small cushion, large cushion or Afghan, in four colour sets:

Pastel

Brown

Red

Turquoise

I've not worked out which one I want to do and which colour set I want to used.  On one hand, it's my birthday at the beginning of next month and an Afghan would be a lovely gift to knit myself as a birthday present.  On the other hand, with twenty balls of yarn per Afghan, retailing at around £8 each - I'm not sure the combined generosity of any birthday money is going to foot the bill.  Sure, there's the option of buying the yarn bit by bit, but sod's law says that the one colour you want will be out of stick at the precise moment you want it.  

For the record, I am not a fan of sod's law. 

Spot the Difference ....

AKA - Why you shouldn't pack your knitting bag in a hurry.

I've recently taken a step back from knitting the little hats for Innocent Smoothie bottles as A) it was starting to get boring and B) I need to sew some hats up before knitting any more. Whilst I'm happy to knit on my commute into work, I draw the line at bringing needles to sew things up, for fear of injuring one of my fellow travellers. Yes, even the people who stand in the doorways and don't move up when asked. My knitting implements are better than that.

So, I've done a couple of other, quite small knits with fairly instant gratification, like Kevin. 

But, as I was travelling back into London yesterday morning and have got used to the needles between my fingers, I'm back to the hats again. The longer needles have a habit of hitting the window, or have other people get in the way of them.  Seriously, if a train isn't that busy, why would you choose to sit next to the person wielding metal pins ? To counteract this I bought a set of 3mm circulars, but they're just fiddly, as they're slightly smaller than my hand. 3mm needles are slightly too small once I've finished the ribbing, as the knitting two together at the end is a bit of a tight struggle. So, I've decided to go up by a quarter of a millimetre for the body of the hat.  Everything hat related is in a big Cath Kidstone Tote bag, ready to be plundered when I have a train journey.

These were the needles I brought with me today - see the difference ? 

Yeah. 

Luckily, I'd also brought the circulars, as I didn't know how busy the train was going to be, and therefore how much elbow room I needed. (The fact I didn't take the right paperwork to the British Library gives a relative comparison how much thought I put into both knitting and academia). I don't think the guys behind me commented on me sitting at a station taking photos of knitting needles, my Spanish isn't good enough to tell. All I will tell, is that this is the first time I've been glad of the 3mm circulars, just please don't tell them I said so.