I Need to Knit a Sweater

It's starting to get chilly.   Like,  properly Autumnal chilly.   It's almost as if the weather is trying to convince me to knit more  The clocks going back this weekend hasn't helped with the 'let's pretend it's not getting into Winter'. 

A lot of people I follow on Instagram were at Rhinebeck earlier this month.  (Of the 29 knitting people I follow, eleven were at Rhinebeck; only two of which appeared not to be posting).  It surprised me how difficult I was finding it watching their stories.  There is something about the knitting community getting together, which is amazing.  Knitters understand knitters in a way that non-knitters never will, and I feel in need of a bit of understanding at the moment. 

Counting down! 

However, I did stay up until the early hours to watch Kristy Glass' Tell Me About Your Rhinebeck Sweater.  YouTube have a new feature called Premiere, so for the first time any recording is played, the people watching it, can interact via a chat window.  The premiere happened at 0100 UK time.  Mr Knitty was on a night shift, so his place in the bed was taken by my laptop.  So, in my own little way I was part of this year's Rhinebeck story.  I did cast on a pair of socks to knit whilst watching, but with keeping up with the sweaters and the commenting, there wasn't time for knitting as well.

Just check the time on the laptop

If you've not watched any of the 'Tell Me About Your Rhinebeck Sweater' videos on Youtube, I'd highly recommend it.  It gives you a change to indulge in other people's creativity and find new patterns and yarns you've never heard of.  The only risk is an increase in your Ravelry queued items!  The videos can be found on Youtube for 2016, 2017 and 2018. 

I'm starting to think about Christmas knitting - both for this year and for next.  Between now and Santa, my sister is due a second baby - so I also want to do some hats for him/her.  (Older brother who was born in October got hats for his first Christmas.  Bump is going to get hats for being born and something else for Christmas.

This may, or may not, have been bought for Bump's Christmas present. 

I've also decided that I really, really, REALLY need to knit a sweater.  There's something about Christmas knitting that's got me wanting to knit everything but what I actually need to get sorted.  I'm also getting a bit bored of knitting socks; the needles are small and my shoulders hurt after too much knitting.  I've been inspired by the Rhinebeck sweaters and I want to get on and knit my own - even if I don't get to New York State until 2020 at the earliest.

Of course, extra yarn for Christmas gifts means that the stash is getting even more out of control than it was to start with.  That's even more reason to knit a sweater; a sweater worth of yarn will clear more space than a pair of socks worth of yarn.  Of course, if I actually start a sweater now - then there won't be time to knit Christmas gifts.  It's the first year I've done gift knitting, so I want to at least try and get it right.

I guess I need to start by casting on....

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Twelfth Night

Now that Christmas is officially over, I'm feeling a lot more Christmassy than I was before it started.  (Of course I am).  After listening to Arne and Carlos' podcast about Christmas and how they prepare for it, I decided to buy their book of baubles.  Apparently it's the first book they published, which explains why they look quite so young. 

If you're a sucker for a freebie, there are twenty four baubles designed by Arne and Carlos that can be found on this website.  Both the instructions and the charts can be downloaded - but they're downloaded separately.  (It took me a while to work this out).  From what I can work out, about four of the freeebie baubles are in the book, and there are about five book baubles which are similar to the freebie baubles.  One of these baubles may become part of a project that I'm planning for around summertime-ish.

The Christmas cards are down

Card decorated by my two year old nephew

The decorations are down.

Baubles of the non-knitted variety

Let's do it all again in another 49 weeks.

Of Cast Ons and Floods

Last night, I fell asleep listening to Arne and Carlos' Christmas podcast - basically the two of them chatting about Christmas and past projects, whilst Arne knits a Christmas bauble.  I couldn't tell you what they talked about, as I fell asleep.  Having listened to about half of it this morning whilst washing up, I'd recommend a listen. 

Now, we're at Christmas Eve.  Apparently, there is a tradition in Iceland, that people are given books and chocolate on Christmas Eve - and they then spend the rest of the evening reading the books and eating the chocolates.  In November, a catalogue of new publications is delivered to every house in the country, the beginning of the annual Christmas book flood. (There's another article here and here - which more or less say the same thing, but still make me feel all cosy when reading them).  This year, I plan to follow the tradition, with these books:

Unsurprisingly, these were bought in Iceland over the summer.  (I also got a copy of Njal's Saga, but didn't think that I could complete it in one night).  It's a lovely tradition, and I might see if my sister will let me implement it with my nephew next year.  

Courtesy of Twitter, I saw the #ChristmasEveCastOn hashtag.  I didn't even know that this was a Thing - but apparently it is.  Knitters up and down the country will, apparently be casting on something to knit over Christmas.  Should I have time to join in, it will be with this yarn:

West Yorkshire Spinners yarn.
Left to right: Chocolate Lime, Candy Cane, Cayenne Pepper

This is West Yorkshire Spinners' Christmas yarn - candy cane. I first heard about it via Winwick Mum's blog as she designed the pattern which is sent out with the yarn.  It was so popular, it went out of stock, with a fortnight wait for more yarn to be dyed.  I got some from Loveknitting - along with the Chocolate Lime contrasting yarn - then got impatient and bought some directly from West Yorkshire Spinners, along with the Cayenne Pepper colourway.  

In checking both balls of yarn, I was quite happy to see:

Despite coming from different shops, THEY'RE THE SAME DYE LOT!   (This makes my life so much easier).  I don't know whether to do a pair with red toes and cuff and a green heel, or green toes and cuff and a red heel, or cuff, toes and heels in all red or all green.  There may be enough for all combinations.  (Winwick Mum managed to get two pairs from one ball). 

Before then, I need to clear the spare room, do a final shop (I think this is the third final shop), make the chilli for Boxing Day.  Mr Knitty has done his bit to help clear up, by finishing the pizza in the fridge, to give me more fridge space.  The Prosecco and orange juice are both chilling in the fridge ready for tomorrow.  It's taken some time, but I'm starting to get a bit excited about this whole Christmas thing.

What does your Christmas Eve bring you?  Are you all chilled and out and ready, or doing a last minute mad rush like me? 

Merry Christmas. 

Christmas-ish.

Alright, I swore I wasn't going to do and Christmas knitting, and I was only sort of right. To clarify, I did not specifically knit anything for Christmas presents. What I did manage, was to sew up all the baby hats I'd knitted for my ninja nephew and get them ready to be gifted. Everything had been knitted over the summer, but then left at the 'nearly finished' stage. You know, that low point between the fun of knitting and the joy of seeing something finished - also known as sewing up. Luckily, the commuter trains were quieter than normal in the week running up to Christmas. Even more luckily, I work in London where nobody speaks to anybody else on the train,even if they're brandishing a darning needle and sewing up baby hats! Just to check that everything was safe to shove in the washing machine, I did just that on 23rd December, blocked the hats and left them overnight to dry, to wrap them before going to work on Christmas eve. 

The yarn is left over sock yarn, which I managed to intercept from knitting/Guiding friend K, as she was passing it on to knitting/ Guiding friend Goo. Neither of them minded. K got rid of yarn, Goo was given other bags of yarn to make pom-poms with her Brownies and I got sock yarn for a sock yarn blanket. 

Yes, a sock yarn blanket. 

It was only after reading a leaflet which came with one of the knitting magazines, possibly around the time of Princess Charlotte being born, that I realised my yarn had a higher calling. I still have some of the sock yarn left over, so if I do ever make a sock yarn blanket, I can look at it and remember the baby hats made for my nephew. 

The pattern was part of a layette set. The pattern was a fairly simple rib with a one stitch selvage, followed by stockingette stitch, until a set of descreases for the brim. I found it easier to ignore the selvage stitch and do a simple 2 x 2 rib, and then increase by one stitch when it got to the stockingette section - so that I had the right number of stitches for the decreases. All in all, a very simple pattern, which I would knit again. 

Also a really easy knit to take with me to Japan to do on the plane and shinkansen. The red, white and black one was knit in a park in Ueno on my first day in the country.  The black and white one was knit at the top of Tokyo Skytree.  The pink, grey and yellow one (Opal yarn) was knit on the train to the airport home. 

I did attempt a jacket as part of the layette, but I could not seem to get guage without using really small needles. My worry was that I'd knit a fabric so stiff that baby wouldn't be able to move in his/her clothing. There's less of an issue with knitting hats. Babies grow so quickly that the hat will fit *sometime*. As it was, they all ended up a slightly different size, so he's well kitted out for the winter.

I wasn’t going to get caught up in this ‘Christmas knitting’ thing.  I swore I wasn’t going to get caught up in it, and somehow I have without realising.  Maybe I just wanted an excuse to buy more yarn ?  (For those interested, Red Lion acrylic in red and white, and a white Stylecraft eyelash yarn.  Bet you can't guess what I'm going to be knitting with that!)

I Have A Plan, but having looked at the pattern yesterday it didn’t make as much sense as I wanted it to, and apparently involves Swiss darning.  Swiss darning!  I’ve never darned anything in my life.  Yet. 

I would do it this evening, but the in-laws are visiting today and all tidying up that I’ve done has somehow managed to be undone this last week.  That leaves Sunday, in amongst packing to go away and buying Christmas presents, and blocking the shawl from York.  And decided which knitting projects to take away, copying the patterns and swatching to know which needles I should take; that’s going to take at least half a day!

If the worst comes to the worse, I’ll stay home from midnight mass.  Or darn in church, and thereby give away the secret.  Or darn on the train and risk stabbing myself horribly.  This is the one advantage of knitting with acrylic – no need to worry about blocking time. 

It will all work out fine,  because if I don’t get this sorted for Christmas 2014, I’ll be well ahead for Christmas 2015!