Work for the Workers

May 1st is traditionally Workers' Day; somehow it seems appropriate, given the amount of knitting I have on the list.  I'm still working on the Sick Day Pi Shawl.  It's now too big to take on the train as I only get two rows done per 40 minute journey.  The final section is a repeat of rows 14 - 19, which can be repeated up to fifteen times.  Now, as there's nearly 300 stitches per row, that's a lot to repeat.  I'm nearly at the end of the third repeat and was ready to finish it all off, before realising that I actually like knitting it, I still have yarn to use up and I've got a Skype call planned for Tuesday.  My friend M will have to share my time with the shawl.

Then there's the secret project A to be done for 13th May and two gifts I want to knit, the yarn for which I ordered yesterday.  Then there's the sweater I want to knit with the yarn I've bought recently-ish, plus another two sweaters which look amazing, but I don't have the yarn for.  That doesn't include the lace shawl that I'm halfway through, the project I finished a couple of weeks ago which needs weaving in and blocking, and the somewhat languishing socks in the WIP bin.  Or the red wrap which I've just remembered.

And, of course, after seeing my friend J's post I've cast on a Hitchhiker 

Hitchhiker by Martina Behm - Yarn: Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball

This afternoon I've spent some time in the garden, now we finally have some sun.  I started re-reading my MA dissertation earlier this week, and it wasn't quite as hideous as I remember it being.  So, today I spent some time out with my favourite purple pen, making notes for the next draft.  Of all my purple pens, I find it odd to have a favorite, but I do.

Yarn - Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball in the colourway Goldfish.  Something about being in the sun brought out the colours beautifully.

How did you spend May day? And was there knitting involved? 

In which I never learn

This yarn was specifically bought to make the Easy as Pie shawl.  

In anticipation of knitting the shawl, I went to the place which was my LYS in the pre-London days, to buy a pair of 4.5mm needles and a pair of 3mm needles.  Somehow I managed to leave both behind on the counter, and the shop had to send them on (after some conflab about whether I’d paid for them, and how they were sending it on as a goodwill gesture).  When the package arrived, both pairs of needles were 4.5mm.  I should have known then that things weren’t going to go to plan.

I found that the easy as pi shawl, well, wasn’t.  I don’t know what it was that I just didn’t get; according to the comments on Ravelry, it’s a really easy knit.  It just wasn’t really doing it for me.  Apparently the rows were supposed to have an odd number of stitches, but row 4 appeared to increase by an odd number, meaning the following row would have an even number.  Then there was some note I made myself about not being able to do a YO K2tog and still end up with only one stitch in the centre of the shawl.  Maybe I'll try it again in the future with a clearer mind. 

So I decided to the panorama stole (Ravelry link) instead.  The pattern is written for double knit yarn, but I thought I’d mix it up.  Since the stole isn’t dependent on a particular gauge or size, there was no reason why it couldn’t be knit in a different yarn, especially if the sequins gave a bit of sparkle to the stole.  Who says that knitting can’t be a bit glam?

The sequins, although lovely and sparkly were a pain in the proverbial when trying to tink back; just imagine a button getting caught on a button hole as a coat is ripped open.  There were also more knots than I would have liked; three, all in a fairly short space of yarn.  Somehow, during Kate Atherley's opening talk at Joeli's Kitchen Retreat, I totally missed a knot and had to undo a couple of hundred stitches to make it right, and then had to make the unpicked stitches right as I hadn't re-knit them properly. 

The pattern is a fairly simple repeat of garter and stocking stitch - with an eyelet row for interest.  Knitting it on the train got me attention from a couple of people.  There was an older lady who did a comic triple take when she saw I was knitting.  Then there was a young girl who listened as I explained in simple terms what I was doing.  It must have been the sparkles that caught their eyes. 

And then, 109 stitches into a 337 stitch cast off, I ran out of yarn.  Or at least, worked out that I wasn't going to have enough yarn to last the distance.  We've been here before.  I still haven't learned to leave enough yarn for the cast-off.  So, that was nearly 400 stitches I had to undo, ready to cast off again.

The problem with blocking it, was how long it ended up.  From tip to tip, it was about six foot - one whole foot longer than I am tall.  (My husband did try to take a photo; it was better in my head than it was in reality).  It made photographing the stole somewhat difficult. 

I like the yarn, and would knit with it again.  The wool content isn’t as high as I originally thought, but that didn't matter in the end.  The sequins were threaded on to a separate thread, which was then twisted round the yarn.  So, if there were sequins in the way, it was easier to chop the sequins off, rather than cut the thread.  The yarn also differed slightly in thickness throughout, which made me worry that I'd snap the yarn unintentionally. But overall, liked the yarn and liked the pattern and would use both again. 

So what have you been knitting recently?  

Happy Easter

Easter this year has been spent on the South coast, visiting my grandmother.  We've been backwards and forwards between our guest house and the care home where she's staying.  (It's easier for her having shorter visits, especially with the amount she's been sleeping this weekend).

In between times, we went down on to the beach - something I've been doing since summer holidays down here as a kid

Lusty Glaze beach, Newquay

We found the meaning of  'sky blue' 

Mr Knitty got a dune buggy toy in his Kinder egg this morning - so it had a play on the beach too:

We saw some mussels on the rocks.  In my pre-vegetarian days, I loved picking them to take home and cook.  Now, I just love the colour combinations and patterns:

We went exploring in a cave.  Luckily no monsters.  Sadly no treasure left over from the days of smugglers and wreckers:

Of course, hiding in caves is much more fun when you're a grown-up:

Mr Knitty & I

I tried to take arty shots of me and my knitting - in the wind:

Playing with knitting in the wind

For a while, the sun shone:

Until we went inside, and were treated to the more traditional Bank Holiday weather:

Because I felt like it

I may have claimed last week that I didn't have any yarn to make another sick day pi shawl.  In actual fact, I did.  Somewhere in the stash were two balls of green worsted weight, two balls of black and three balls of a beige-ish colour - all Brown Sheep Lamb Pride 

Instead of doing another pi shawl, I decided to make a Meema's felted marsupial tote bag, from the book Stitch and Bitch.  Having knit with Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride wool before, I remember it being slightly scratchy and therefore ideal for felting. 

The design is pretty simple; knit a rectangle in garter stitch and then pick up stitches round the edge, and start knitting in the round.  If you've ever started a shawl with a garter tab cast on, it's a similar principle, just with a bigger tab.  I knitted it with 8mm needles, rather than the 10mm needles which were recommended, as A) I'm a loose knitter anyway and B) they were the largest circular needles I own.  I didn't do a gauge swatch and when I measured afterwards, I wasn't too far out.  Slipping the first stitch of each row made it easier to pick up the stitches afterwards. 

After picking up the stitches from round the edge, I had, what I thought was, a clever idea of increasing the stitches to make the bag bigger.  In reality, my bag looked like a hat and the knitting seemed to go on forever.  The stitches were tight, and it wasn't fun to knit.  There are pictures of me with the bag on my head; I'm too vain to post them.


Luckily, I'd kept the base black and the sides green, so when it came to ripping out, it was easy to see what should stay and what should go.  As I was rushing to work on Thursday morning, I couldn't find my darning needles to put in a lifeline - so instead tied a loop on the end of the sock yarn, and used a crochet hook to pull it through.  Whilst I'm still not a fan of the colour pink, it doesn't half look good next to the green and black. 

All of this (and the above photo) was done on the train on the way to work, with a rather sturdy man squashing me up against the window.  He was replaced by a slightly less sturdy man; I'm sure he farted somewhere between Peckham Rye and Denmark Hill. 

Somehow the ripping out and starting again worked.  I am strongly of the opinion that yarn knows how it wants to be knitted.  Once I'd started again, the stitches flowed beautifully, everything was easy to knit and I could see progress.  Quite a lot of progress, actually.  After Friday's journey in to work, a meeting in the evening and the journey home, pretty much all of the green bit was complete.

When adding the black at the top, I nearly made a rookie error, of knitting in the wrong direction.  The pattern was pretty, but the change from one colour to the other felt lumpy when I knit it. 

Next time, I'd like to try this pattern on the outside of the bag

I made one modification; adding a strip across the top for the popper to go on.  Instead of casting off 22 as the pattern said, I cast off 7, knit 8 and cast off 7. The 8 knitted stitches were then put on a stitch holder. When the main body of the bag was complete, I picked up the 8 stitches and knit a garter stitch flap, to sew the popper on to.  The 8 stitches were slipped on to a needle holder and picked up later.

The floppy bag - before felting

I didn't know whether to felt at 60 degrees, or 90 degrees.  Both would work, but I didn't want the bag so small that it couldn't be used.  I went for 60 degrees, shoved into the washing machine along with a pair of jeans.  When it came out, there were a couple of places where I think it would benefit from some hand felting. 

The completed bag, after felting

I also knit the handles in garter stitch, rather than stockingette.  I didn't want the top of the bag to roll over at the top.  The top of the bagbag itself works in garter stitch, the handles possibly don't.  The next time, I would do the handles in stocking stitch, so that it rolls in on itself and makes a thinner handle than the one I have now. 


Would I knit this again ?

Heck yes! 

Why did I like it ?
Simple and pretty quick to knit.  Way of using up yarn, which may be too itchy to wear next to the skin

Why didn't I like it ? 
Nothing I didn't like about the pattern.  Didn't like the uncertainty of knowing which temperature to felt the bag at.

What would I change ?

Possibly make it bigger, and would definitely try felting it at 90 degrees.  Did make an adaptation with the tab for the popper.  I'd also try and do the section at the top in reverse stocking stitch, to get the pattern between the two yarn colours.  I'd also stick to the handles in stockinette stitch. 

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... 

Tie it up in an ending

When I bought this un-marked skein of yarn in Sweden in April, I never thought that I'd be wearing it back in Sweden, before the year was out.  But that's exactly what happened.

Mr Knitty was supposed to be working on New Year's Day, until he wasn't.  Since we didn't celebrate Christmas together (he was on nights), we decided to go back to Sweden for New Year.  The original plan was to go back to Stockholm, until we found that flights to Copenhagen were cheaper, so we went to visit friends in Southern Sweden instead.

Knitting for the trip was the stockingette section of Eyeblink (Ravellry link), started on the train to the hotel we stayed in, the night before we flew.

In the last gripping instalment of the scarf, the yarn had snapped after I'd finished the cast-off and I didn't have enough to weave the ends in.  The solution to this was to knot the good yarn to the snapped yarn and felt the two together, giving me a tail long enough to weave in properly.  True, I wasn't expecting to be doing this in a hotel room at gone 11:00 at night, but sometimes needs must.

We saw 2016 in at the Malmö fireworks.  After being used to the London fireworks for so many years, it was very strange to be such a small event.  I was expecting to be waiting for hours beforehand.  Friends of mine were planning to arrive at quarter to midnight.  Oh, and they had Land of Hope and Glory, in Swedish.  The guy next to us was bobbing up and down, as if he were at The Proms.  

I have no idea what the words mean, but friends tell me that they had been re-written for the event and were very pro-immigration and welcoming to newcomers.  I find it slightly amusing that it's the total opposite of what it actually means in English.  If anyone is able to give a translation, that would be really helpful. 
New Year's day was lovely.  We travelled from Malmö to Lund and had a walking tour.  (Only one row on the train, as I found a knot and had an impromptu splice of the two ends, by felting them against my jeans.  Thank goodness for 100% wool yarn).  I got to meet-up with more friends and introduce them to Mr Knitty.  We ate pizza, played games and generally had fun.

The day after, Mr Knittiy and I had a look round the Malmö museum.  I bought a postcard of a woman knitting, to give me a 5k coin for the locker.  We took photos of the windmill which appears in the opening credits of The Bridge  

And I wore the scarf again:

Knitting on Top Of The World

We're back from Japan.  Arrived back home yesterday, still feeling groggy and not really that keen on doing the sensible things like unpacking and putting stuff away. 

I may have over-bought on both yarn and origami paper.  Most of the origami paper came from Daiso for Y108, the equivalent of 55p/ 89 cents.  My plan is to fold a whole load more paper cranes and send them back to Hiroshima.  I have enough for several hundred; after a fit of insomnia at 4:00 this morning, fifteen cranes have already been folded. 

I did manage some knitting, during train journeys and flights - and waiting time for said train journeys and flights. 

Knitting on the train between Fukoshima and Hiroshima

The best knitting, as far as I'm concerned was at the top of the world's tallest tower - Tokyo Skytree  I was knitting in the queue to get tickets from the Tembo desk to the Tembo galleria (the highest point of the tower).  Only I was half way through a row as we got in the lift, so I had to finish it at the top. 

Knitting at the top of Tokyo Skytree

Literally, knitting on top of the world. 

View from Tokyo Skytree; Mount Fuji is somewhere in the distance

The yarn purchases will be covered in another post - but there was some.  Come on, this is Japan - home of Noro, there was no way I was coming home empty handed.  Turns out that it's the home of other lesser known yarn brands too.  

Dinner on the last night was in the Tokyo Bay area, which was just beautiful.

Tokyo Bay

Then on the monorail to the airport I found a new definition of over-eager - trying to knit standing up on a train, with a 16kg rucksack and no hand holds.  It didn't last more than a few rows:

Knitting on the monorail

The item I was knitting in that photo is now waiting to be sewn up, again another blog post awaits.

Now if you'll please excuse me, I think it's bed time. 

I hope this works...

Given that I am currently in Kyoto, it's no real surprise that parts of my internet are now speaking Japanese at me.  Problem is, I don't understand - so I'm clicking a lot of buttons and hoping.  If you can read this, then my method's clearly worked.  (Pictures may be one step too far; we'll see how it goes).

I started with a couple of days in Tokyo.  Love the city, totally confused by the metro system.  Stations which are marked as interchanges can have walks between them of several hundred metres.  My friend (and tent buddy) C and I went to the Tokyo Museum, where we saw, amongst other things, a whole load of the most beautiful gowns:

Just look at the detail:

Then travelled to the World Scout Jamboree in Yamaguchi, where we started the experience by avoiding a typhoon tropical storm.  The weather was possibly the hottest I've ever experienced, and it's certainly the most I have ever sweat in my life when taking the tent down.  Seriously, sweat in your eyes stings like billy-o.

Husband then flew out to meet me and we met up in Hiroshima.  Although there is lots we saw in Hiroshima, it would be ignorant to ignore the one thing for which it's famous:

The A-Bomb dome, as it's known.  This is the closest building to the hypocentre of the atomic bomb which was dropped in 1945.  The decision was made to keep it exactly as it was.  Personally, I found it far more creepy and evocative at night.

Now, if London lives off coffee, Hiroshima seems to live off cranes.  (Its residents probably drink a lot of coffee too, given the number of drinks machines we saw out and about).  Cranes are a symbol of peace and you will see them everywhere in Hiroshima.

So, in the name of being creative, I learned to make my own, using this tutorial on Youtube. 

Which I then hung up at The Children's Peace Monument with the assistance of our Brownie's mascot - Brownie Bear.

Knitting has also happened - mostly whilst waiting for planes or trains, or on said trains and planes.  I've got five baby hats and a layette which I want to get done by the end of this trip.  I'm two and a half hats in, minus the sewing up.  We've got a long journey tomorrow, so three hats is possible.  I'm saving the layette for the plane journey home.  I can't help thinking that the Japanese class knitting in public as 'something strange that foreigners do'.

Here, have some photos of Buddhas in beanies:

The weekends appear to be running away with me....

I don't quite know what's happening to the weekends at the moment. A couple of weeks ago, it was spring and now we're mid June. I may have blinked once too many times. 

I went to visit my sister; we went swimming and shopping and to the theatre, and walking in the hills. When you see the number of shades of green that are possible, you understand where Noro get their inspiration from:

I didn't tell my sister this; she was already a little put out at me knitting in the car, rather than looking at the view.  (As a side note, I've never bought Noro yarns in the UK.  Cannot wait to go find them in Japan). 

Even the grey clouds had a kind of beauty to them:

Not quite fifty shades of grey - but certainly more than one

We had lunch overlooking Sugar Loaf Mountain, which I'd only previously known through song lyrics No photos for that one, you'll just have to have the lyrics.

Other people may have seen trees against a light green/yellow field.  I saw a Fair Isle border to something or another:

There was also a yarn shop.  (I only found it as it was next to the pub where I was waiting for my sister, on the Friday evening.  I wasn't actively looking for a yarn shop, it just happened)

Yarn shop, of course, meant yarn:

Which then got taken, a few weeks later, to Switzerland...

Where I laughed about the place names:

And went for a hike up a mountain with some German scouts:

And I generally reminded myself what it's like to be outside London:

This is the route we took - the village at the bottom is where we started out.

This is where we had our lunch

Julia, one of the German scouts took photos of almost every waterfall, so I did the same too!

Of course, there was knitting - but that's for another time.