Author: bryonyramsden

Necia invited me to join Shelfari and I did cos it is good. Then I tried to make her my friend on there – not as easy as facebook. I deselected all my email addys and YET, IT STILL SENT A BARREL LOAD OF INVITES :/
Hmmph. So apologies if you have an email in your inbox from me and shelfari and you have run out of space and hate me 🙁
😀

Ok, if I frog a sock, does that give me the right to start a new sock? I’m already itching to cast on for something else :S I really really really want to start some Monkeys with STR Cobblestone County. REALLY want to start some. I’ve frogged some Charade socks in Posh Yarn Emily because the colourway didn’t quite pull in the pattern. Both the yarn and pattern are fab, but just together, they didn’t work, and I want to find an alternative with a BIG strong pattern really. I think. Ack I really need to clamp down, but I can’t help it! They are calling, calling, calling. I think I will do what Ruth says and just cast on for it 😀 What is the point if I don’t enjoy myself, as Rebecca has quite rightly said?! 😉
Oh, and to make up for the lack of knitting pics, and to satisfy Rebecca seeing as she has enabled me to be who I am, here is a cat picture. I haven’t talked too much about Joe really, but he is the most affectionate cutiepie the world has ever seen 😀 He doesn’t appreciate me using the laptop, so I often have to break off typing posts early while he comes to take over my lap. He then proceeds to mulch for England (he’s practicing for the Olympics – sometimes he mulches for at least 10 mins, looks like he might fall asleep then gets a second wind and begins again). Then, the cunning little bugger, he starts to lean towards one side while against my chest so that I am forced to bring up my arm and catch him. He’s too heavy to hold up, so I end up cradling him like a baby, while he lies on his back, his legs in the air, purring away happily and looking at me as if, well, as if he’s got the cream 🙂
He also models, as you can see below.

(Cath – he’s very happy as you can see, but I’m sure he misses you. Chicken and ham help him a lot, as does the brush we got for him, but he still misses you).
And to stop this from being a ‘I own a cat and he will feature in all my posts’ kind of blog (not that there is anything wrong with that, but I am in danger of doing nothing but cat posts and discarding all knitting), here is a pic of the Passion Flower in our garden 🙂

I bought this plant about 3 years ago from one of the Harrogate flower shows, but this is the first summer it has bloomed successfully (and as we discovered, was different to the one on the label :S). Before the buds had always fallen off before they had fully grown, but this photo demonstrates just what the threat of re-potting can do to a plant 😉

That’s the name of a workshop I once attended. It was ok, but a lot of it was about redirecting other people who kept ignoring the fact you had to work and just chatting away and disrupting your time. I have that person in my life in my knitting, and that person is me. I have way too many things to knit, way too many ideas, and tend to cast on for something new as comfort knitting when I get stressed about all the other things I have to make 😉 My list at the side is a slight lie, as I have 2 other pairs of socks, pirate mittens and a baby blanket… If it helps, the latter two are gifts and are essential knits now. All these projects have given me a kick up the arse – Ruth R was saying that she doesn’t know how I can have so many things on the go, but trust me I don’t enjoy it. I’ve taken Pippa out of hibernation, and have worked out that I can finish the knitting for her in about 10 hours. I figure that if I work on her and the cardi collar, the two big-ish projects will be out of the way, and then I can concentrate on getting my gift knitting done so I guestimate about a week of knitting to get both finished and out the way.
I hereby solemnly swear that I will not cast on for anything new until Pippa and Ram are finished. I will only cast on for one thing, and it will be gift knitting (and a small gift knit at that). The next part of the plan will be to finish the new gift knit and the mittens (they are the most urgent for timing). The mittens will take quite a while, but I can tell I’ll only be able to work on them at home, and perhaps with a podcast in my ears because of the need to look at what I’m doing, but the gift knit won’t take long as I said, so once that is finished, I can concentrate on cutting down on the socks. I might allow myself to start something PS2.0 related then. I have lots of plans for those, but one in particular is a quick knit and is already on the WiPs list, so I’ll start with that, I’m guessing at least 2 weeks from now before I can start that.
BUT, all this amounts to a plan of action, and is a start, regardless of the time scale. And after that, who knows. I still have big plans for some Rowan Wool Cotton in my stash… Sadly, regardless it means no pics this weekend. Unless I finish something 😉

Looksie! More aceness 😀
1) I grew potatoes! Look!


Some are teeny tiny, and some are a lovely new potato size. The materials were in exchange for those chunky green socks I made for that guy at work. He provided the sprouted potatoes, tubs and his special compost mix. Water well, top up slowly with compost everytime the growth appears, and let nature do the rest of the work. These shouldn’t have been out really yet, but the heavy rain, while doing the plant loads of good, did the slugs loads of good too, so I have organically home grown baby potatoes. They will go in a big pan with some oil and rosemary for tea yum yum.
2) Here are all the funky sock yarns I got in my remnants swap with Ruth C at Roo Knits. Yum!

I’m particularly looking forward to playing a bit with the Regia Silk – I know I have Silk Shine but the texture just doesn’t compare, and the Lana Grossa Cotton… And the Emily colourway has made me very jealous 😉 Ruth R at Roobedoo also fancies a bit of a swap, so this could start to get slightly confusing, BUT, I suspect she already has her eye on a couple of new yarns in my stash… ;D
3) An almost finished Ram’s Horn Cardigan!
Not much to do now! The collar is the only thing left to knit, and I know people have complained about the pattern details for the collar, so I’m a bit nervous. I have help from other bloggers though 😀 And there will have to be a lot of blocking. A lot.
4) My first stranded knitting! These are a pressie for a certain someone, so I can’t show the whole thing in case she reads here. Hope I’m not jinxing the project by posting this, but so far I’m quite pleased. I’m finding it tiring working with both hands, but I’ve kept the paler shade in my strongest hand to make sure the pattern really stands out, and found the ribbing a good intro and practice for the main pattern.

5) Plumetis in action at last!


And here is a detail shot of the front plumetis stitch for Sylvie’s perusal 🙂

I’ve given the button band a good iron with a damp cloth over it, but as you can see it is still a bit mad. I might have just enough yarn to do them the way the pattern specifies, but I’m not 100% sure, so I’m going to leave them, and just make sure I give them another block before I wear it out. It also needs an 11th button at the top but I only have 10 (see number 6 below) so I may replace them yet for something smaller and plainer (I don’t want them to take over – perhaps some little wooden ones or some shell ones?). It is the perfect summer cardi now that we at last have some summer weather here 😀 Well. Some… 😉 It fits well, and the pattern allows for your own extra shaping if you need it, but the ribbing pulls the garment in under the bust so makes it really versatile. Yum 🙂
6) Buttons! I have plans for something to make on inspiration from reading Selvedge and finding a fab website in their ads. I bought one of those big bags of cheap odd buttons, and was lucky enough to get quite a few sets, some awful (very sloany red and navy on a gold background), some bizarre (red or silver glitter hourglass shapes on gold glitter on a gold rim), the cute kid cardi type (little Tom kitten type ones :D), and then there were these.

Gems amongst stones. Just gorgeous. The ones on the left are coloured and stamped abalone or shell type buttons. The top right is wood with little flowers painted or burned on it, and the two smaller right hand ones are enamel I think. I’m a little disappointed there weren’t more of these, but I’m sure there will be a way to use them as embellishments on a garment. I’ll need some cute little buttons for Chrissie, and I’d still like to make a KSH sweater.
Ok. That’s enough for now 😀

A story in pictures.
1) A finished Plumetis.

I love this. It is a cardi, but I haven’t managed to flatten the button band yet 🙁 This is entirely my own fault, and not that of the pattern (I rushed to finish it so altered the button band). It fits like a dream (there is no action shot because of both the afore mention band issue, and the fact that the weather won’t stop being miserably so I can’t get a decent shot with any detail), even while I’m at the bottom of the size bracket I tested, but it will still fit the top of the size bracket with no problems thanks to Sylvie’s careful maths and construction. I don’t think it will be very long before it goes on line at Chez Plum. The completed tests look fab so go check out her blog for more 🙂
2) One of the patterns from Debbie Bliss’s Baby Cashmerino 2 made for Shona’s nephew, Miles 🙂 I love this cardi. It took less than a week to make too! Much better than the sock pattern (where the seam and stripes made for some very bulky socks).

3) I bought things.

There are 7 hanks of Mist and 10 of Catkin in Rowan Rowanspun DK from the Cucumber Patch. It was on sale at £1.50 a hank and arrived within 28 hours of me ordering 😀 What more could you ask for?! The Mist is claimed for one of the Rowan Studio patterns (I’m subbing for Felted Tweed, and figured that a tenner for a cardi I’m not sure will come out that great is fine by me). The Catkin will go towards one of my own ideas, and will either be a tunic sweater with puffed up cuffs, or a fitted cardigan with lots of rib detail and a little belt.
Oh, and one last thing I’ve been up to, along with a zillion other people this weekend.

P.S Our broadband connection is currently appalling thanks to the pants that is Virgin Media 🙁 This post should have take 15 mins to set up, but has taken almost an hour thanks to the sporadic connection (DB has some error logs that see the connection failing once every minute or so at the moment, if not more often. And it costs a FORTUNE to phone them for support, so we can only email from work :/ At least we have that I suppose!). I can’t upload to Ravelry, and I can’t email anyone at all because I can’t get onto Hotmail. I hope that you don’t have any viewing problems on here and that none of the photos are messed up or anything :/

I’m just posting a little update before I enter into the mother of all Heroes marathons so I can finish the series this weekend 😀 Joe has been sitting on me lots this weekend, which has delayed my plans for finishing some knits off, but I can tell you that the Plumetis cardi I was testing is finished, and is still drying after blocking (2 days and it isn’t dry yet! That’s what happens when you knit with cotton and have crumby weather). The Ram’s Horn cardi is on its way to being finished too, as I’m halfway through knitting the sleeves, both at the same time for the first time. It was a bit of a pain at first, but I can now see exactly why people do it that way! I’m also churning out baby clothes for all those recently created babies 🙂 I’ve found a very cute sandal pattern with help from Ravelry so there will be a few people getting some of those 😀
Finally, Ruth at Roo Knitting and I have been chatting about sock yarns, as you do, and we decided to swap some yarns the other hadn’t used before so that we could have a chance to try before we buy. I’ve sent my goodies off to Ruth and should get mine soon, but we were thinking it could be a really cool way to get a lot of people trying stuff without too much pain. We have no idea how we’d do this, but if anyone is interested in participating in swapping leftover mini skeins of yarns of any weight, let us know. We’ll come up with something later on with luck 🙂 See you soon with some pics hopefully! And cross your fingers for me having enough Andean Silk to finish the cardi off (6 balls left, 8.5″ per ball on the sleeve, and I’ve just connected the second ball for each sleeve. By my very rough brain powers, that makes just over 4 balls to make the collar and ‘button bands’, so it might be close…).

1) I liked writing using this method last time
2) Enough time has lapsed for me to use it again
3) I was inspired today by something I saw on the bus on the way home. An old tv in a front garden, so old it was one of the really curved screens, built into a little coffee table style display cabinet, with sliding doors to close over the screen.
4) I wish I’d had my phone out to take a pic of it
5) I’ve been sad this week for lots of reasons
6) I’m not going to tell you why
7) It has led to the knitting of small things
8) Small thing one: Jaywalkers in Schafer Anne. Finished on Monday. Love them. I’ve lost the receipt with the colourway on it, but I’m pretty sure it said ‘blues’, so was perfect for my mood

9) One of the things that helped me through the week was the arrival of a belated birthday pressie from Sue (including Regia Bamboo sock yarn, Sublime Baby Cashmere Merino Silk DK, a sock pattern book which I’ve never seen before and the G&B cookbook 😀 The cookbook is in my kitchen along with the remains of a double batch of flapjacks…).
See?

10) I knitted Felicie for Becky in some Posh Yarn handspun camel yarn.
11) The yarn is delish
12) I forgot to take pics
13) I’m sure Becky will oblige tho.
14) Yesterday my mum and I went to Hebden Bridge
15) It was lovely 🙂
16) We ate at the Shoulder of Mutton, perhaps the best gastro/camra pub ever.
17) I had a pint of bitter shandy 🙂
18) That proves two things – that I’m getting older everyday and it should be summer
19) We went to a fab deli called the Pennine Wine and Cheese shop 😀 I bought DB some grilled olives and some (apparently very good) brie, and me some cheddar with caramelised onions in it.
20) The cheddar tastes like pickled onion Monster Munch, which is a good thing.
21) We also accidentally went into Attica Yarns…
22) I purchased some yarn which shall remain secret for now, as it is for gift knitting for Nic who asked Sue and I to make her some baby blankets 🙂
23) That’s enough for now
24) It is way too early on a sunday morning to be online when I could be breakfasting on tasty low fat wheat free muesli with raspberries, an apple and alpro raspberry yoghurt on it.
25) Yum.
26) Also the cat has pooped.
27) And I should be knitting for Sylvie and working on finishing those two cardis this week while I have the free time.
Bye! 😀

Look! This is part of Sylvie’s newest pattern for a lovely cardi. I’ve been pattern testing for the XL size, and it is simple to knit but clever in the way it has been put together (I believe Sylvie needed lots of maths for it :S). Here are some preview pics, but no action shots as the weather has brought out the pollen…

Yes, that time has come again to misquote some fabulous BBC comedy stuff in relation to some knitting. In actual fact it was a near miss in relation to a certain Jaywalker sock and 2, yes 2! dpns falling out of said sock, followed rapidly by a 3rd when I pulled the sock out of my bag 🙁 I was all set to frog when I saw the big loose threads of yarn from the last row mixing with more big loose threads from a couple of other rows too. Luckily, in spite of the shock, I managed to remember that if I was good I could frog less than I’d worked that day and save it with some very very careful, non-booze assisted manoevering of dpns into those tiny mohair tinged loops. Phew.
Similarly, the day after, I went to try on Sylvie’s Plumetis so far, and in the excitement of carefully fitting myself into the sleeves, lost a ton of sts off one end of the circ. And it was a big circ too :S Again, saved rapidly with some non-choccy influenced rescue work.
Today I’ve had half a pint of pear cider and some butterscotch Green and Blacks and have lost no sts whatsoever in any kind of dangerous knitting accident, and thus have not needed any careful non-consumption related rescue operations. Just goes to show, doesn’t it?
Pictures of an unfinished Plumetis very very soon. By the end of the weekend, I promise 🙂

Ok, ok, so I am still here 😉 But barely, admittedly. Last week at work was horrendous, as we are having a complete refurb of the floor I work on, and we had to spend the week moving the services up to the next floor in a relatively tiny workspace. The layout in the temp area is great, but working and keeping the service open while moving has been an absolute pain and has kept us absolutely shattered (which was not helped by the fact that the weather and a drunk disturbed my sleep for 3 nights, each one being the night before a big moving stage with lots of physical labour) 🙁
BUT, to make up for the absence, I have piccies 😀
First up, a purchase that until I received it, I’d forgotten all about it. Here we have some gorgeous White Willow sock yarn (from Etsy), in the very very me colourway of Medicine Woman, a lovely blend of pinks and purples. Yummy and very pretty. These will need a supergirly pattern…

And here are the pics of the finished sockapaloooza socks 😀



Just to remind you, these are made from The Knittery Merino Cashmere sock yarn in the Orchid colourway. Quite a few people have expressed an interest in a pattern, and I can confirm that there will be one available a) when I’ve written it up and b) had someone (i.e. Rebecca ;D) check it. It will be on Facebook on the ‘Sock Knitters Anonymous’ group, and will be limited to group members, so if you are interested contact me and I’ll tell you how to find and join the group. There are lots of cool sock knitters there with lovely piccies all over the place so go looksie!
In other news, I’ve been doing a TON of knitting, catching up with the Ram’s Horn cardi, pattern testing for Sylvie on the Plumetis cardi (pics to follow when it doens’t look like a big scrunched up mess on my Denise circs), and Ravelry has played a teeny tiny part on the amount of time I’ve had. I’m STILL debating whether to add any of the older projects seeing as they aren’t on Flickr, and would take a huge amount of time to upload. And socks naturally 🙂
Ok, I’m knackered (I have a lot of sleep to catch up on still), and have the sock and stash pics to add to Ravelry, and blogs to read and a message to send (I owe millions of emails 🙁 Sorry guys 🙁 ) so I’m going while I can still see!