Library Girl Knits!

But there are only so many information seeking behaviour research papers you can read through after work. I might make a Gantt chart instead to chart my research pattern for next year. Yuck. What on earth am I doing?!
Still no knitting. Can’t wait to be able to stop at home and study and get some decent work done. Did I just say that?
I think a couple of episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm and a glass of white wine will help for now…
Oh, btw, no US yarn for me, but I’m not disappointed – it means I save money and stash space! Bit of a shame, but nevermind!
Although does anyone know whether a Visa debit card works in the same way as the credit card? I don’t know whether my new card would work on overseas sites… Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Yummy.

Well, I may have got one essay submitted, but now I have to submit my research proposal on Friday, and this week is not going to be easy… Still found time to go for a walk in some woods today though. We’ve never been through them before, which is shocking considering how long we’ve been living around here. Lovely scenery, broken up occassionally by a road passing through to remind you that you can’t really get lost and all is well. Although sometimes I like the potential to get lost.
Anyway, apart from crossing your fingers for me finishing on time with a half decent peace of work, keep them crossed that a friend has managed to do me a good deed – he’s in Vegas for a conference, comes back tomorrow night, and he said he’d try and pick up some nice US yarn for me 😀 I’m not holding my breath tho. I asked for the actual yarn for the leaf jumper, and/or some Lion Brand Microspun, seeing as 1) everyone seems to like using it and 2) there is a lovely Teva pattern in Knit1 done on the bias that I’d like to try. It is a very simple piece – 2 oblongs of bias knitting with some edging added later, but the effect is rather nice, and hides any nasty wobbly bits. I could probably try it with something else and use some maths, but I’d like the chance to use Lion Brand anyway. I chose these because I knew I could do fine without them (I nearly asked for the stuff to make the princess cut cardi in Loop-d-loop, but changed my mind in case of being disappointed), so it won’t be a great loss if he can’t get them, BUT it would be rather tops if he did. And I’d make arrangements for him and his bird to get lovely things too – no good deed should go unrewarded.

…to Jen for helping me out with the MovableType tags for formatting this page. I can finally start to add some stuff to personalise it a bit more now! Thanks Jen. Then (poo – Look Around You jokes won’t work with Jen’s name).

Yay! I did lots of work today, so finally, after much complaining (sorry guys!), I am knitting againg tonight. I would have liked to have something to wear ready for a night out tomorrow, but no such luck (unless I knitted instead of studying all day tomorrow, but I don’t think that would be a good idea…). So I’m now plodding away on the second side of Bloom (thanks Jen :D) with the aim of finishing it in the next couple of weeks – I think that’s a fair spec considering that once I finish my coursework I will once again become a knitting fiend.
I’m still lusting over the leaf lace jumper in Loop-d-Loop, but I told my mum I’d give her some of the Como, so I’ll let her take what she wants. I might drop hints that the yellow-green is mine though, and hope she doesn’t like the colour 😀 If I use that colour, I won’t want the 4 balls of cream anyway, and I think she’d probably like that colour more anyway.
I’ve also started trying to find substitutes for the yarns in the other patterns. The more I look at it, the more the princess seam cardi appeals to me, but for some reason I feel like it is wrong. Maybe it is just the tweed yarn they used for the pattern, or maybe it is the strange styling of the model (although those high heels she is wearing are extremely droolsome), but even though I like the pattern, there is something that repels me from it at the same time… Which puts me off spending money on lots of yarn for it when I feel a bit funny about the pic. Hmmmm. It will take some thought (a good thing considering how much stash I have right now :D).

Gah!!! I need to knit! Only a week and 2 days to go before I finish for the year on my course work, but I really need to make something! To calm myself down a bit, here is a list of stuff that I want to finish before I start any other projects. Whether I work that way is another question, but that’s the theory 😀
1) The shrug from scarf style. I’m using Kid Classic, love the way it knits up, but I think I might play with the pattern a little. Having thought about it, I don’t see myself in a shrug with a roll neck at the moment, but I reckon, now that I’ve knit about 12 inches of the first sleeve, I should play with it rather than frog it.
2) Bloom from Rowan 36. I need tank tops. They are good things. Bloom is a good tank top. One side, as I mentioned in an earlier post, is completed, and I’m about to start the second side (well, actually, I have one row done, but that doesn’t count for much really!). I have the mohair for the flower on it too, but I have no idea whether I’ll do the flower very well…
3) Lace cami from Weekend Knitting (by Melanie Falick). Yummy cami, yummy yarn, yummy needles (addi turbos), but mix it all together and you get slippy yarn on slippy needles with a simple lace pattern that hates slippy stuff. It is going slowly. This will take time to finish. A loooong time. 🙁
4) Herringbone Scarf in Colinette Point 5. My ‘I lost a scarf on the train and need a replacement in the yarn I’ve been craving for months and months’ project. The one I pick up when I get bored of the others, because the weather doesn’t demand it to be finished too soon.
5) Lucky lace wrap cardi from Stitch and Bitch Nation. The project I want to finish soon because if I don’t it might go out of fashion. But I don’t have time to work on it, and would rather finish the tank first for the sake of clearing something off my list and giving me more focus.
6) Oddments rug, using a pattern from New Knits by Erika Knight. All you do is knit up a double knit tube in the odd balls you have left over to the size you need. This is my ‘I really have to get rid of some of the crap left over in my stash box before I spend anymore money on stuff which I’ve already screwed up anyway’ project.
From the top of my head, that is all the projects on needles. That doesn’t include the pile of projects I have in mind for yarn I bought. Or the ones that I want to make, but can’t afford the yarn for them yet. Gaahhh!
At least I’ve had a diversion for a little while from work anyway 😉

BUT, everyone has to have some quiet ‘me’ time. This is mine 🙂 I’ve cut down my word count on one assignment quite a lot, and that’s what I planned to do today, so that’s ok 😀
I played this very short quiz (hope the HTML works), and this pretty much describes me!

You are bamboo.
Warm, cozy, and thoughtful, you take your time and
enjoy how things feel, smell, and taste. You
love the craft and beauty of traditional
things, and you value the comfort and
experience of knitting as much as the results.
But while you are reveling in your warm cozies,
don’t get stuck. Warm is wonderful, but so is
the whole wide world!

What kind of knitting needles are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
I do love to be at home, but only because I have so much to do at the moment, that quiet time at home is the best way for me to relax. Besides, you can mess around with your stash when you are away from it 😀 I like rummaging through the stash box to remind myself what I have to play with and thinking up stuff to make, leafing through the pattern books and magazines I have, and surfing for freebie patterns. Of course this often makes me want to buy more stuff anyway, but most of the time I restrain myself. Most of the time. (That reminds me of Cartman copying the kid out of Aliens – “They mostly come at night. Mostly” :D)
I’m pogged on burritos too (but low fat may I add! Refried beans are ace). How can I use my brain when I am stuffed and craving Pilsner Urquell? And wishing we could buy a flat in Prague too… So many wants, so little time. But all realistic may I add. That at least is important to me.
I’ve meandered too much now and diverted myself enough. Be gone foul internet connection!

Well, I was planning on putting up a pic of the finished Wow cushion today, but the digital camera doesn’t like the first picture I took of it, and the laptop wants to format the memory card in the camera when I try to pick up the second photo or any of the others 🙁 But I have finished it, and something else as well, which I might keep secret for now… Shhhhhh!
Last night we watched the film version of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I’ve read all the books, played the game, listened to the radio series, watched the TV series and loved every minute of it. The reviews I’ve read of the film have been extremely mixed though, and with it hanging around in limbo for so long I didn’t hold out much hope for it. When we watched the film, I was really saddened that all the work Douglas Adams had put into getting it to the big screen was ripped apart by Disney. We only laughed about 4 times through the whole thing, and they weren’t the belly laughs that we get so persistently from the other formats. There were some very nice moments – I loved the book animatics, and, naturally, the knitted bit 😀 But, I’m afraid, the best jokes were cut out, and even the in joke with the Marvin from the tv series left me feeling cold, and with a yearning to go back to the older versions. Poor Douglas. I’m kind of glad he didn’t get to see it now. The mice were nicely done though too 🙂
And as compensation for not getting any pics of knitting stuff today, here is the story of a picture sent to me by a friend. She mailed me it when she spotted something amiss in the photo for an article in a paper. The article is about IDs and fingerprinting for them or something else equally debated during the pre-election campaigns. Unfortunately, they missed something on the photo… See if you can spot anything that shouldn’t be there on the PC with her data on it – be warned, it is a bit rude…

It feels like an age since I posted, and it probably is. I have my reasons though. The usual assignments have taken over, but at least they will be done by the 20th. I also had some bad news about someone’s health, and that has taken over quite a bit of time, and probably will do for quite a while, due to the nature of the illness.
But I won’t go into all that. No one really wants to know that stuff.
What you might want to know about is that I have been on a big SEX session 🙂 That’s the yarn talk SEX incidentally (stash enrichment excursion/exercise), which will no doubt disappoint a few googlers…
A friend got her boyfriend to drive us to Warrington to the Black Sheep warehouse for their sale. I think it was probably the best sale I have ever had the fortune to shop at 😀 People were filling plastic sacks that I could happily live inside with yarns and sewing stuff. I already have a ridiculous stash that Sue has very kindly reduced slightly (I gave her some stuff from a failed felting attempt which wouldn’t felt, and I frogged the Sirdar jumper as the yarn was just too plasticy when I went back to it. I’ll make it for next winter with something a bit nicer), but I have more than made up for it for the time being 😀 We also went to Hobbycraft (and Ikea too, but we won’t talk about that…!), and I found a rather lovely bargain there too!
Here are some pics! Firstly, the stash has been expanded by lots of Jaeger. Here we have some lovely Mohair Art. I might use it for Ash in Rowan 36, or something else entirely 🙂 I’ll use one ball for Bloom’s flower, and the rest I feel like I want to play with and mess around a bit with. I’m sure it will tell me what to make out of it soon – I have far too many ideas at the moment!

Next up, some Aqua, a lovely mercenised cotton. The colours were too tempting to just take one pack, and I would happily wear either of them with most of the clothes in the wardrobe. I think I’ll make a cardi with one pack using the Ann Budd sweater pattern book (more on that later :D), and have a hunt through the pattern books for something to match the gauge to. I really don’t have any preference at the mo for these…

Next some more Jaeger – Como. This stuff is a fab bulky yarn that is 90% wool with some strange stuff thrown in that makes it very soft and light for such a thick yarn. I got 7 balls in a greeny yellow, and 4 in a cream colour. Some of these will go to my mum as a gift, while I’m planning to make the lace leaf jumper from Loop-d-loop with the greeny yellow stuff. It doesn’t quite swatch up right so I’ll make the largest size to account for it. There are also a couple of balls of kid silk haze in there for Bloom which were bought at Up Country in a yummy choccy brown and a soft lilac.

Nearly there! 😀 This is the stuff from Hobbycraft. I bought 3 balls of Sirdar Wow for a cushion pattern (with said pattern also falling into the shopping basket – oops!). I’ve knitted up one side, and it is really nice stuff to knit with – very quick, soft and warm, so it will make a good comfort cushion. Having said that, later in the knitting it seemed to start getting sticky. It isn’t really surprising with it not being a natural fibre thing, but I was a bit cheesed off as it isn’t particularly cheap, and not on sale. But, it is only a cushion and won’t take long to finish 🙂 The light blue stuff is Kid Classic, which was the bargain of the day. Normally 4 quid a ball, it was 49p 😀 And a fluke of a find, as the label said Biggy Print at 99p. I took it to check at the till, and had the lovely price surprise, so nabbed the last 4 balls 😀 And rather conveniently, when I was browsing a book I borrowed from work, I found another cushion pattern for 4 balls of Kid Classic 😀 The blues go together much better in real life than on my crappy photo techniques (I won’t blame the camera at all as I am totally guilty!), and very well with the colour of the couch. Yay!

And I have actually kind of finished knitting something. That poor little sock that has been on the needles for ages is finally done! I had a blitz thinking that I couldn’t start anything new till I finished an older project (though if one is frogged, then that might help a bit!). Before I blitzed it, it only had the ribbing and a few rows of stocking stitch, and that was 3 days ago. It is a bit baggy and big, but I think that is partly due to the pattern – it was a free one with the yarn (Opal, incidentally), and doesn’t really tell you how to tell where to start the toe decreases if you are small footed, so the heel is a bit baggy too. It is lovely and warm though, even if wearing the purl side feels a bit odd on the foot – I won’t be able to wear it to work as the purl side will rub too much. But overall, I feel pleased for my first ever sock 🙂

Ok, so on to the books. I had a visit from Amazon on Tuesday, and they very kindly brought me Ann Budd’s two handy pattern books (one general work and one for sweaters). I’m hoping they will help me understand patterns a bit more, but they will certainly be useful for when I get stuck on what to use yarn for that I impulse buy (see 99% of the above post!). I also got the love Teva Durham’s Loop-d-Loop book. There is some really silly stuff on there, but some luscious stuff too – the lace leaf jumper is one fave, but I like the cabled jumper, and quite a few other bits and pieces too. The silly stuff really is silly! But I think the writing, photography, and the good patterns justify the cover price. Go buy it 😀
Anyway, I’d like to get some knitting in tonight, and it is getting late. I’ve babbled enough for now! Who knows, I might finish something else soon…

I am currently surrounded by paperwork that I should have dealt with ages ago – mostly stuff that I was interested in ordering, subscriptions that I need to renew, and bills to pay that are suddenly due next week, when I originally had over a month to pay them… To avoid dealing with them yet again (I’ve already put several aside to deal with another day), I’m updating here 🙂
BUT, I have actually been knitting something (GASP!). A friend and I were discussing knitting Bloom from Rowan 36 – I’ve had the yarn since forever for the tank itself, but never got round to starting it. She said she fancied making it too, and suddenly I was inspired to get going with it (and it will reduce the stash too – woo!). This weekend, having submitted and assignment on Thursday, I decided to let myself go and just do it 🙂 So I now have about 5 eighths of the first side of it knitted. Hoorah! I won’t post a pic till I finish the first side, as it will need pressing to make any sense of it. It curls a lot as it is knitted side to side, so you can’t see any of the shaping right now.
This also means that I can clear some of my stash for the sale at Black Sheep, which Sue has offered to take me to – yay! Might even be able to get some Kid Silk Haze cheap, or some oddments of it for the bloom bit of Bloom.
While knitting, I had to watch something, so I’ve been finding Six Feet Under, and loving it. We’ve had it for a while, but I never really sat down and watched anything beyond the first couple of episodes of the first series. This weekend I’m into the second series, and can’t get enough of it 🙂 I love the black humour of it, and the style of it. The acting is also pretty good, and keeps surprising me, and they aren’t afraid to play around a bit with your expectations.
Anyway, I must also pay a mention to the lovely John. He is one of the few blokes who knits and hangs around Craftster. He just made his own self designed, self calculated jumper, which is something that many knitters don’t manage for years, but he did it with his first garment… He is a generally creative bloke, and also has some nice piss takes of yarn/paint names (remember I’d been getting cheesed off with them?). Oh and he said nice things here too 😀 That always helps…
Anyway, I’m off to do some more paperwork avoision 🙂 (still can’t remember what show I heard use that phrase, but nevermind!). There is yet another 100 best show on telly, but this time it is actually worth watching, about best albums. It still is a load of bollocks, but it is nice to watch stuff about music I’m interested in. And you get to see Paul Weller in a pink shirt, and a pink jumper at the same time (and he can’t carry it off). Hoorah for Primal Scream though.

I’m sorry, I had to rip off Futurama a little bit there 🙂 Anyway, here is a mish mash of bits and bats that I have been working on recently.
The cami has been on hold, as it is one of those things that you can wear all year round with the right stuff with it. I decided that the Lucky cardi in SNBN was the way to go next as it would be best for the spring weeks coming up, and lace knitted stuff is quite big in the shops at the mo.
Here is a pic of the yarn I got for it – it is the specified Rowan 4 ply cotton, but in the colour Ardour (! Colour names are rubbish sometimes!), and it is rediculously soft and easy to knit with. I love the stuff! And it knits up so much quicker than it looks to do.

And here is the progress so far on it. It’s about 5 or 6 inches long now, and I’ve just started increasing for the back. I’ve had to rip it out about 5 times now, so if anyone notices anything wrong in the knitting, please be kind to me and tell me nicely! I just seem to stop following the lace sometimes for some reason, and I’m not sure why. Anyway, it does knit up quickly, but if I hadn’t ripped out I would be done by now with the back (with many horrible mistakes admittedly).

Next, I have some yummy Colinette One Zero making a herringbone stitch scarf. I knot it is a bit of the wrong time of year for this kind of scarf in this yarn, but it is to make a replacement for the lost scarf, so I felt the need to start now. Besides, it snowed and hailed the other day, so I might need it yet… I’m rather pleased with it, and the yarn is really nice to use, although a bit funny in this pattern (sometimes two strands look like one and I have to unknit a bit to get lined up into pattern again – no big deal with this though). The pattern, incidentally, was provided by the Sheep in the City blog if you want to look at it. A bit fiddly at first, but once you get going, v easy indeed!

Anyway, after all that, I’m itching to knit some more on the cardi, plus I have to do some studying. Hmmmm – wonder which one will win for me to do?