I Do Love Me a Good Rainbow

On Friday night, I met friends for dinner - after being reminded by a colleague to actually go home at some point.  Everything you read about unrealistic expectations in the NHS are true.  I can't do all the stuff I'm expected to do and leave work on time every day; it's as simple as that.  

Jane, K, L and I will meet up every so often for a catch up, and putting the world to rights.  We had to grab K before she disappeared down the Proms rabbit hole.  She sings in several choirs and is a season ticket holder; it's how she met her husband.  I've been to three last nights (one in the seated area, two in the arena - of which one was on the grid.  Trust me, it's a big thing to be on the grid).  Annoyingly, the proms I really want to see are in Iceland, so no idea if I'll get to the last night this year. 

So, we chatted about all sorts: work expectations, Proms, holiday plans, IVF, running, knitting, cherry coloured velvet.  As usual, there was the usual swapping of stuff; I got Guide badges, turkish delight and the loan of a book.  Whilst we were eating, we had the amusement of watching the staff blowing up balloons and trying to work out where to hang them - all in rainbow colours for Pride.  It was only as we were planning on leaving that we realised, as four Brownie leaders, we would be brilliantly placed to help, but it was far too amusing to watch.  Although, it did bother me that the red balloons were in the wrong place:

Within Guiding, I am known to my Brownies as Rainbow Owl.  I love the colours of the rainbow - so totally loved walking down Oxford Street (one of Europe's busiest shopping streets) and seeing all the rainbows.

Please forgive the photo quality; the camera on my phone isn't great - and the light levels were dropping. 

Liberty's of London displaying their rainbow flag

Tea!  (I've walked past this shop so many times - still haven't been in).

 

With a pun my dad would have been proud of:

I loved this shop, whose rainbow coloured display was allowed to spill out on to the pavement: 

Rainbow coloured pavement! 

Even the bus stops wanted to get in on the act:

As I've nearly finished my current pair of socks, it's time to cast on another one.  (I'm attempting the Yarngasm Box O Socks challenge - so far at two pairs of socks, out of twelve.  I need to get the needles going.

The next pair is going to be my version of Hermione's Everyday Socks (blog entry with pattern here and Ravelry link with downloadable PDF here) but toe up.  I've not got the courage to knit a cuff down after my first attempts; I'm happy with what I know.  It would seem that at least one person has already had the same idea - so I won't have to re-invent the wheel.  After her attempts to improve the rights of elves I think she would be an ally of the LGBTQ cause, so of course rainbow coloured yarn would be entirely appropriate.  But which yarn to use?

• Top row: Austermann Step: Ennis,  Esslinger Wolle: Regenbogen-bunt; Opal - Mein Sockdesign: Feuervogel

• Middle row: West Yorkshire Spinners signature 4 ply: Rum Paradise -   Regia 4 Ply - Clown (discontinued); Opal - Funny Sparkle: Witty

• Bottom row: Opal - Mein Sockdesign: Over the Rainbow; Opal Schafpate VIII: Blickfang; Zauberball: Frische Fische

• Far right: Owl About Yarn: Rainbow

What's your next project to cast on? 

Running to keep up

Love Knitting has a Frog or Finish challenge running; the yarn version of put up or shut up.  If it's something that's working - get on and make it work and finish it up.  If it's not working, get rid and make it into something that is.  This may have been running for just January, but I'm going to take it into the rest of the year.

So, I was all keen to get on with this, and get rid of the neon scarf thing I started in March 2015, using the initial section of the gallatin scarf.  

The original neon scarf, before ripping out

Whilst was fun to knit, the fabric is too stiff and it's highly unlikely that I'll ever wear anything quite so bright around my neck - even if the 80s do make a come-back.  So, it's time to hit the frog pond and free-up a set of needles.

At the same time, I'd been sort-of-training for London Winter Run.  My running hat is 100% acrylic, and I don't particularly like it as a result.  So, the plan was to get the neon yarn knit into a new running hat.  Hopefully being a higher percentage of natural fibre would make it more comfortable to run in.  And what better place to début a new running hat, that at a winter running event? 

It sort of did and sort of didn't go to plan.  I ripped out the scarf, as it was.  I did some editing of the yarn.  I did a gauge swatch, I did the maths and started knitting.  Then had a major flap about whether I'd left enough ease and whether it was going to be big enough, so ripped it out and started again with four more stitches to the row.  Four.  Freaking.  Stitches.

Had I not had the freak out and rip out, the hat would have been done in time, even if it didn't properly fit.  As it was, the 10k was finished before the hat. 

Before the run - with the acrylic hat

At the end of the run

The new hat

I did try a photo of me wearing the new hat, but it basically looked like I was wearing a condom on my head.  I've not run in it yet, but it feels like a good fit. 

You'll notice that the hat has a decided absence of pink.  I'd love to tell you that I don't have anything against the colour, but that's a lie.  There's very little in our flat which is pink, and it's not a colour I choose to have around me in swathes.  I don't dislike pink as a colour; I simply loathe the fact that it's become the colour of gender stereotyping. 

Today, I've spent most of the day in bed with a cough, cold and general lurgy.  What I'd really like to knit is another Sick Day Pi Shawl just to see how easy it is when ill.  Ironically, despite the size of my stash, I'm not sure I've got any yarn... 

Not going to plan

Since it’s the end of the working week, I think it’s perfectly acceptable to be hitting the beer cellar. (Other tipples are available). Please join me in raising a glass to knitting projects that didn’t always go to plan. 

Last Friday, Mr Knitty and I had tickets to see a live recording of The Last Leg  (If you get the opportunity, go). The Plan was to knit something in the queue. 

As an aside, Adam Hills must be a brilliant person to knit socks for. If anybody’s going to benefit from hand knitted socks, it’s going to be somebody with two very different feet. 

 Anyway. I had some un-labelled yarn from Sweden and a pattern which is basically knitted until you get to the end of the yarn, so can be as big or as small as you wanted.  I bought the yarn because I liked the colours, and the mystery of it having no label appealed to me:

The yarn with no name

And, because I didn't have a clue how long the skein was, having a pattern which didn't rely on having a specific length of yarn, also appealed to me.

The problem with having a skein, is that it needs winding into a ball.  Trust me, if you try doing this, ten minutes before you need to leave the house to catch a train, it's going to get messy.  It took Mr Knitty and I two days to sort it all out, by which time the waiting for the TV programme was well over.

(Seriously, I wanted to give this a standing ovation).

Once I got knitting, it was lovely.  I'm crediting the train delays earlier this week as a major factor in this getting finished so quickly.  As is the way with self-striping yarn, it's kind of exciting to watch the colours change.  And, oh my, the colours were beautiful.  Muted, autumnal and beautiful.  It was almost like watching the seasons change, as I knitted:

Scarf on my desk at work

Close-up of the colours

I did worry that I was going to get pooling, but I got to the end of the yarn before the rows got too long.

Then it came to binding off.

There's always the problem when using circular needles to knit flat, that you're not always sure how long the live edge is.  In my case, I didn't know how much yarn I needed to bind off.  For this, I used the Russian Lace bind-off to give a bit of elasticity.  (First learned in Kate Atherley's Sick Day Shawl) 

Got about a third of the way through and realised that there was no way I was going to get to the end.  No problem, we all misjudge from time to time.  Ripped out the bind-off and tinked back the row, before trying again.  This time was better; I nearly got to the end before realising there wasn't enough yarn to complete the job.

Yup, just a few centimetres of yarn to bind off eleven stitches

I appreciate this is a fairly personal definition of 'better'. 

So, one more row ripped out, and I was able to bind off properly. At this point, I wasn't that fussed about stitches being twisted or not. I just wanted the thing done, so I could get on with the next thing.  I got to the end, I had yarn to spare.  Everything was looking good, until I pulled the yarn through the final loop...

The snag at the end of the Rainbow

Here's to knitting projects which don't quite go to plan.

Cheers. 

Mojo no show

Have you ever had one of those times when the bounce has gone out of your bungee?  When things don't work out the way you want or need them to ?  Because I've been a bit like that.

Firstly there was theatre.  Since finishing my MA in September last year, the last thing I've wanted to do is anything related to the theatre.  The new season at The National Theatre was released; I was only excited by one show.  Admittedly I've seen two of them elsewhere; Waste at The Almeida in London (too long) and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom at The Royal Exchange  in Manchester (would watch again).  But still, for a new season of a well established theatre, two is not a great hit rate. 

Then, there's the knitting.  It was sort of chuntering along, sometimes going right - often going wrong.  I think the number of times I ripped it back and started again was somewhere in double figures.  It was almost as if the yarn didn't want to be knitted into that particular pattern.  I don't know how many times I'd ripped back to start again, but it was somewhere in the double figures.  It always seemed to be somewhere between 100 and 200 stitches, which is a lot to start again.  Yes, I did try tinking it back, but have you ever tried to tink back a YO k2tog?  It's not something you do to keep you sane!

So I made a silent agreement with the yarn.  I'd find something else to knit it into, if it didn't mind me finding another yarn to do the current project with, and we seem to have come to an agreement.  So what started off as this:

Has now ended up as this...

(scraps for a scrap sock yarn blanket) 

...and has now been re-started as this:

I'm now somewhere well over 200 stitches which is the best indication that this yarn wants to be knitted into this project, which makes me indescribably happy.  

Last weekend, I went back to Sheffield, to see Blasted at Sheffield Theatres.  As I was walking in to the auditorium there was a moment when I got that tingle down my spine, when I remembered why I loved theatre and gave up two years of my life to study it.  At the end of the play, I remembered what amazing theatre feels like.  It gave me sparks of joy, which is what I'm going to call the neon project, which I want to wear when I go back next month.

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.