Library Girl Knits!

But only just. I swear I’ve never felt as ill in my life. I had a week of upset stomach, followed by a week of a very very nasty virus. Including the trapped nerve (which has given me aches and pains all over the place), all three make for two weeks of ‘fun’. I’m going to ask for some physio for the nerve, but the first two are much better now. Except I have a chesty cough now too.
I’m trying to keep my knitting and computer use to a minimum until I’ve had some therapy so that I don’t do any more damage to myself (should be interesting if I’m going back to work this week and use computers 99% of the time), but I am still knitting in small doses at least! There are tons of bloglines updates for me to read too :S Might just have to mark them all as read and hope I haven’t missed too much.
But I am here. Just nothing interesting to show you. Sorry! Hope you are all well and happy, and thank you again for all the wonderful comments and emails you’ve sent.

It was really really hard to find a favourite yarn to show my spoiler but I think I’ve got it with this one… Well, make that a couple ;D So, Golly, this is yarn that I love, that I dare not knit up yet, but can’t stop stroking while I’m making other things 😀

This is merino superwash from White Willow yarns, called Medicine Woman. It is soft, and beautifully dyed, and pretty. I love purples in particular, but this one is just so well balanced, and is as much about the fibre and texture as the colour.

Similarly, Sea Wool in Moss green is a fave because the shades are beautifully balanced, gently moving through the greens without getting away from that mossy school. And Sea Wool has a gorgeous texture – silky yet sturdy, and a dream to work with.
Finally, here is my absolute fave for colours – Piece of Beauty merino sock yarn in Robe and Bowl. This colour is no longer made, so I can’t bring myself to knit it up yet :S

The blend of purple, greys and a little greenish grey in there, they just work so well together, and it dyed in short bursts so that it won’t pool.
So I guess what I’m saying is that I like dyers who put effort and care into making their yarn work for knitters, rather than churning out bulk colours that are pretty, but don’t always work on every foot.
I’ve probably scared my spoiler to death now… Sorry petal!

Yup, I’m still around, although not particularly top form I’m afraid. Thanks for all your messages of concern and suggestions to visit the doc with some frankly scary stories – you people have been ill!
I just wanted to offer some reassurance though so that you know I won’t end up in hospital just yet (and a little more reassurance to myself too!). I still don’t think the headache was connected to the arm thing – there is a bug going round work with nausea and headache and my symptoms exactly matched my friend at work who had just had a week off and still wasn’t on top form. Both myself and DB are off sick now with poorly tums, but we actually think it might be a meal we ate on Sunday – we had the same dish, and both ended up feeling poorly by the end of the day :/ Two people off work with tummy bugs at the same time = not pretty. 1 person + 1 person who is resting from knitting + tummy bugs = not pretty plus LOTS of boredom 🙁 We are both feeling a bit sorry for ourselves right now 🙁
My arm is feeling better, but the tingle remains in my thumb and first finger, which kind of reaffirms for me that it is the knitting that is doing it. I was reading Empire in the bath the other day (not that you want to know that!), using my left hand to help grip and prop it up, and felt the tingle more after that, so I need to be careful what I do still. Should probably just be typing one handed too actually… I keep squishing my yarn still and feeling sad that I can’t knit it. And this is NEW yarn – not even the yarn being used in the unfinished projects in my basket! I’m trying very hard not to buy more yarn. Must… resist… The show is a week on Saturday – definitely shouldn’t buy before then! Anyway, to get back to the point, if the tingle isn’t better by the end of the week, I’ll be going to the docs for some advice and exercises. I’m going to alternate between big and little needle projects more often. Fingers crossed the tingle is gone for next week though. Or at least by the show so I can enjoy it to the most!
In nice things, I spun up some alpaca/bfl and manageged to get about 1400 inches out of 25g (whatever that works out at, but it means that by the end of 200g of fibre, I’ll have about 280 yards! Yay!). It’s about dk weight, but varies in places. I’m really pleased how even it is for my first real hank, and will hopefully be able to make some socks in it. The amount I’ve got is a strange one because the spindle was starting to get too heavy and pull the freshly wound fibre through the hook before I could spin anything else (I’m so pleased I worked that one out on my own! I solved a problem without looking in a book! Yay!) – I’m hoping I can russian join each individual hank and then wind it all up into 100g cakes. I’ve already swapped fibre though – Brooke sent me some gorgeous merino roving during Sockret Pal and I feel confident enough to try it out as long as the fibre is predrafted. I’ve also got 100g ish of gorgeous BFL in candy pinks from the Yarn Yard to spin up. That definitely calls for sock knitting…
Hmmmmm. Does anyone know how to train a cat to clean his own litter tray when you are poorly? At least he isn’t poorly. That would be baaaad.
[edited to add] And now I’m getting a cold as well. Fantastic. Nausea and snot – the perfect combo. Can anyone spell ‘run down and in need of a break’?

It has been a bad week for my health. I’m not sure if I should be doing something more about it, but nevermind. Severe headaches (very very severe. Not migraine level but close), stomach problems (DB asked if I’d eaten any tuna recently with the scare at Sainsburys), and a scary incident last night at the pub where my left hand started tingling lightly, then went cold, and the cramp rapidly moved up my arm without me having time to think anything more than ‘ARgh! Left arm=heart attack stuff!’. A friend calmed me down, and then when I could think rationally again we decided it was a trapped nerve. Two hours later, the cramp eases a little and I have normal temperature in my hand again. This morning the arm still feels a bit funny though 🙁 I’ve never had anything like that! I’d eased off knitting quite a bit because of a tingle in my hand after doing colourwork, but when the new part of the mystery sock came out, I had a play with that, and felt fine, so I did more colourwork. Think a total knitting break is required now if I want to feel normal. What a bummer, but better that than go through the scare with the arm again!
That means that I’ll be rediscovering not using the laptop (good for my purse at least – no online shopping temptations!), and mending/altering clothes on the big pile I haven’t touched for too long, doing the ironing, reading my book, and maybe relearning japanese and doing a little embroidery to keep the crafting alive (don’t think that puts nearly the same stresses on your arms/hands as knitting can). Today I’ll read all my bloglines stuff and then log off, so don’t be surprised if I’m absent a little while :/

Here I am. Another week, another month, and very little to show for it. I have unfinished everything still. Luckily the NaKniSweMo is on this month, which will push me to at least work on that cardi back that isn’t mine. But there is the blanket and the socks and more socks and I made some child’s mittens for an alpaca open day too.
I may have finished those socks last week, but have managed to cast on for two more pairs, and started swatching for some knee highs (but lets face it, there is a lot of maths involved there, and by the time I have worked it all out, at least one pair of socks will be loooong gone!). The new pairs? One is Nancy Bush’s Denmark socks in Posh Yarn Emily in the Elephant colourway, the other the mystery sock for November in the Sockdown on Ravelry, currently knitted up in an almost dayglo green/yellow Posh Yarn Eva. I have a lot of Posh Yarn for socks. A lot. You might have noticed. Not much to show on either of those yet, and there probably won’t be for some time seeing as I really want to finish Laila first, but the need to cast on has been satisfied temporarily.
I also bought more yarn. Ermm. I don’t know how this happened. Actually I do! It is all Rahime’s fault for having gorgeous orange sock yarn and inspiring me 🙂 And Posh Yarn for having some just when I’d been looking around for a good orange… And then I needed to buy something else to justify postage. Ermm. Oops. And I haven’t shown you some of the other purchases either! Oooo erm. Perhaps it was meant to be – an eye candy weekend in spite of no finished knits or worthy progress. This wasn’t all bought in one go though. It just started breeding. Really.




That orange will work well on it’s own, but I’m thinking leftovers will be essential as it would look ace on a black background in some stranded socks… ACE.
And thanks for the hints for some skirts. The Made With Love by Hannah skirt arrived earlier in the week and the Boden skirt arrived yesterday, and they are both gorgeous. The Hannah skirt is perfect. Perfect fit, perfectly stitched, wonderful quality, and something unique. So much care has gone into it, like matching the pattern up on the seams, and the printing leaving white areas at the top to avoid mismatching on the pattern lines. I can’t recommend buying from her enough! The Boden skirt is lovely (the pics don’t do it justice, especially the mirror I just cleaned having smears on it, and you can’t see the brown waistband and inserts in the box pleats) – I may not be able to buy from them all the time, but it was so worth spending a bit extra on it. The fabric quality is really high, and the details make it just a little bit special. When I tried it on it felt light and swishy, but the lining and the wool fabric will make it toasty warm too. And it came with some fridge magnets too (lots of words like the poetry sets). That can’t be bad.


Please note the apple skirt has been worn already at work, and so looks a little creased, but it was perfectly crisp and beautifully wrapped when it arrived.
There you go. Lots of pics. Lots of things to drool over. Are you jealous yet? Have I justified my lack of FOs yet? 😉

Hmm. I don’t have very much to say today, except that I’m still plugging away at the stuff on the needles, and seem to add little things here and there along the way(a child’s pair of mittens for one thing, but super quick to knit up, and a swatch for the boot socks that have been waiting to be knit for a looong time).
But, progress is being made.
Here is a finished pair of socks 🙂 Cherry Tree Hill Glitz in Gypsy Rose, in a faux cable pattern, both from my Sockret Pal, Brooke.

The yarn is discontinued now, but you can still buy it in some places. It knits up quickly, and the colours remind me of Christmas, rather than gypsies or roses – that berry red, holly green and that deep royal purple. The pattern isn’t all that distinguishable in this yarn (although it is best seen flat than on the foot, hence the photo), but it does break up the way the colours stripe round the sock. The sparkly thread that runs through the yarn can be felt when you knit the yarn or touch it, but when you wear the socks, you don’t feel a thing 🙂 All in all I’m happy.
I don’t think I’ll show you Laila’s socks 50% finished just yet though. I’ll save that for when they are finished so that I can comment on my mistakes… 😉
In other news, I’ve become obsessed with finding the right skirt. I want it for work to dress up or down however I feel (working with fashion and textile students means you feel more self conscious about your clothing!), to be wearable autumn to spring, and to last, kind of a classic look with a twist so I can hold on to it for quite a long time. I’m leaning towards a couple from Boden (especially as I can get a discount until the end of this month), but there are so few nice wearable skirts right now 🙁 They are all dressy or too casual. Any other suggestions? The one I really like at Boden has box pleats in a tweed material, with a blue grey on the main panels, a soft brown inside the pleats, and a mustardy greenish shade in velvet at the bottom. It is dry clean only, but I think it might be safe for a quick dip in Soak or something like that sometimes. They also have some gorgeous inspirational knitwear… Oh, and I’m waiting for a skirt from Made with Love by Hannah to arrive as she posted it last week 🙂 So that’s one already in the wardrobe effectively. More on that when it arrives 😉

Yet another week where I have been busy outside of work and haven’t been able to knit (not even at lunchtime! Not even a bit!) until Friday night 🙁 Which naturally means I don’t have any progress to speak of at all. Well, I do, but I’m not showing 😉
So why am I posting? Because I got a parcel in the post on Friday 😀 I was worried it might not show up – the nearest sorting office was on a wildcat strike until Weds night, something I didn’t realise when I went shopping online and sent off several late birthday presents (one of which has a confirmed arrival thank goodness. I have a sneaky feeling the flat present won’t arrive now but fingers crossed). Once I found that out, I had a terrible feeling that my parcel wouldn’t arrive this week when I actually felt the need for it, or that something would happen to it like the wrapping would be all ripped and things missing and so on and so forth paranoia paranoia can you do the fandango etc etc.
Yet, when I got home from work, I had the best parcel ever (till the next one ;D). I ordered some Dream in Color Smooshy and some rosewood 3.25mm sock needles from Socktopus. Socktopus rock big time. They put BIG socktopus stickers on everything, and have their own tissue paper 😀 LOOK!

It is so pretty! Alice sent a little message and put free things inside the parcel 😀 Like rinse free wool wash (and you all know how much I like to be lazy and not rinse my handknits, and how there isn’t much available here) and little different flavoured gums. Not just any old gums, but grape and wine flavoured shaped in big hearts 😀 I need to find them in real shopping life… And then of course, the yarn. The yarn.

Tasty stuff eh? And it IS smooshy and squishy and sproingy. And there is lots of it. I would guess that there would be enough for a fancy pair (i.e. lots of stitch pattern and cabling and stuff) and for a simpler shorter legged pair. 450 yds is a lot of sock yarn. I suspect the mojo will come back the moment I wind this skein into a couple of cakes. I best wait till some stuff is off the needles though so that I keep my inspiration low and finish things off and that should make sure I enjoy this yarn to the full. Nevertheless, I’m still thinking about what to knit in it. Bayerische will be too fine a gauge I think, so one of the fancier Cookie A patterns. Or Marina Piccola. And some charades too…

Ok, so I wasn’t really hiding, but I’ve not had motivation or time to post anything the past couple of weeks. I figured I’d hold back and wait until I actually had something to show you. Thanks for the input on blanket sizes by the way! It hasn’t moved on very much, although some ends have been woven in (which is a big deal, let me tell you).
So what have I been up to the past two weeks? Well, last weekend was spent at an Oktoberfest beer festival. We only planned to go for an hour, and ended up stopping out for 6 hours (including the inevitable post drinking meal). We had the chance to taste all kinds of perries and ciders, but the weakest ones had sold out so it was strooooong stuff, so we moved on to the beers yum yum. I’ve also been out shopping in Manchester, looking for that elusive autumn to winter work clothing (freezing at the bus stop in the morning, hot in the office, lovely temperature when I leave work – how on earth do I prepare for such variance apart from layers, layers, layers?).
And I’ve been knitting socks. I’ve mentioned it before, but on Ravelry there is a big sock knitters group, and they are currently having a sock kal, with each month dedicated to particular techniques or pattern designers. This month is cables or Nancy Bush, and I’m working on Laila’s Socks from Folk Knitting in Estonia. The secret stranded knitting prepared me quite well for this and built up my confidence, and it is a fantastic beginners pattern because much of it is stripes and there is only a relatively small amount of stranding in comparison to other stuff 😀 I’m loving this pattern, and it is zipping along in spite of things keeping me busy enough to not knit. Looksie here:

The pink isn’t quite as pink as I was hoping (although the camera and winter light has bleached the pink for this photo. I’ve doctored it in PSP to add the warmth a bit more, but can’t make it pinker) – against the brown it is a little dirty instead of the rose shade it has when you look at it alone. It has kind of turned into a strawberry filled chocolate, a little bit sickly if I look too much. BUT, I’m pleased with the way it defines the pattern against the dark brown, and there will be plenty of yarn left over for other socks. Just to confirm, I’m using Opal Uni on this.
I seem to have lost my mojo a bit recently though. Inspiration has left me. I see patterns in my queue which are beautiful, look fab on other people, and yet I have no desire to start them at all 🙁 Maybe it is because I’m on a yarn diet – I’ve restricted what yarn is coming in, and so my brain subconsciously wants me to restrict what I’m using 😉 Or maybe it is because, even though I’m at the end of the list of things to make for everyone else, I’m still busy dealing with their requirements and so my own list is purely the socks. I don’t know. I’m sure it will come back though – my passion for yarn hasn’t decreased, and the love of the stash is still there. I think I’ve just lost direction. It will return 🙂
[edited to add] Ok, yarn diet over – I just succumbed to Dream in Color Smooshy in Gothic Rose and some 3.25mm rosewood dpns… A minor blip?

I’ve had to re-write this post slightly, as when I typed it up, I thought I was a couple of days from finishing the stranded knitting, but now it is done! Hoorah! If you want a look, go look me up on Ravelry (it is the only stranded knitting in my projects so you can’t miss it) 😉 I don’t think I’m all that good at it, but I do think that I improved as I went along, and I want to develop my skills and make more stuff like this. So, thanks to the Sockdown on Ravelry, I’m going to start one of the many Nancy Bush patterns I have hanging around the house, and what better one to work on than the wonderful Laila’s Socks from Folk Knitting in Estonia? Not many people have posted finished projects of these socks, but those who do have done fantastic work – work that I could never compare my pair-to-be to right now. Remember that rose and chocolate coloured Opal? I’m still deciding which to name main colour, and which contrast. Most people seem to have made them with the paler shade as the contrast colour, so I’ll probably stick with that for now. Cast on is imminent i.e. now from eagerness and excitement 🙂
As is the cast on for Juliet! I’m still trying to work out whether I can justify casting on for it yet – should I start another project for myself or should I start work on the last of the projects I need to make for others? I’ve been drawn towards a Drops pattern too, but there is plenty of yarn for both, and Juliet will be quicker. The not-so-secret baby knitting is slowly moving on too. Is it really possible that I have so few projects physically on the needles right now? How did I manage that? Through much hair pulling and wrenching of clothes, and a very strict no cast on policy. Still so much to do though. There will be two 0% items on that sidebar for some time yet 🙁 Said not-so-secret baby knitting is a blanket in a method which is very zen but not very exciting. I want it finished as it is loooong overdue and I have that cardi to start for my friend at work too, which will NOT be zen or stupidly easy… Any ideas what kind of size a baby blanket should be?!
Pippa is still waiting to be sewn up. The Tapestry didn’t felt as much as the Kid Classic and might fray, but another wash would be too much. The instructions do say you need to stitch round the edges of the shapes cut out before you sew them to the bag and that is what is slowing me down – it isn’t worth setting up the sewing machine to do this bit, and I can’t remember how to blanket stitch. I have looked it up on the web though, so hopefully it will get done sooooooon.
Wow. Only 2 projects actually on the needles. Best enjoy it while I can – won’t be long before it expands again… 😉

STILL plodding on with gift knits… I’m on my 3rd attempt on the stranded knitting as I type, but the section I’m working on should be finished today. The Poms are finished though 🙂

The colourway came out ok in this pattern, yet in the Monkeys I started was all blue one side, pink the other. I’m glad I swapped over now. I’m posting these in the SKA KAL forum on Ravelry, seeing as I managed to just finish them in time for the August KAL. The black thing on the right is Joe cat’s tail. He was pining for something so was being all rubby while I took pics 🙂
Also, Pippa is complete-ish. She is knitted, sewn, felted and dried, but I just have to cut some flower and bag strap pieces, sew them on and I’m done. Hoorah! I’ll start that this afternoon if I can drag myself out of this stupid headache I have. Probably nothing at all to do with the pint of Magners and bottle of raspberry beer I had last night at the pub after work. Or the curry we had on the way home (I should point out I was home for 8pm, so it wasn’t exactly a late night). I only had a bit of okra dry curry, but the combination of spices and alcohol and my rapidly aging body apparently despises me and makes me hurty 🙂 BTW, if you haven’t tried it, fruit beer is gorgeous. There is a beer festival next weekend. 16 kinds of perry and cider alone 😀 Mmm perry.
Speaking of Posh Yarn, I could spend an absolute fortune on the sale this weekend. Best not though – my sock yarn collection won’t fit in the box anymore and is expanding into the bags full of yarn for future gift knitting in order to disguise this worsening issue. It isn’t that I can’t get the yarn knitted, it is that I dare not use the best ones yet in case I pick the wrong pattern, and naturally, my fave sock yarns in the stash are actually most of the stash itself anyway. Things like my Piece of Beauty merino in Robe and Bowl – the fibre content is no longer stocked at the site, so I dare not use it up yet. I’m sure her BFL sock yarn is as gorgeous, but this is just mmmmmmm. And some of my stash was gifted in various swaps and secret pal sessions, which means I’m unlikely to get another one very easily, so the pattern has to be JUST right for that. AND, some of the yarn is from one-off dye sessions and is probably unique and irreplacable. How on earth do you pick the right pattern for that kind of yarn?! So many beautiful yarns, and yet I can’t face knitting it in case it all goes horribly wrong… It would probably help if I bought mass produced yarn, but you know, when it comes to sock yarns, I get snobby. I can’t afford to buy luxury fibres for garments and stuff, so why not splash out on good sock yarn? Don’t get me wrong – the standard sock yarns are in the stash, and in the queue, but I just love getting those little luxury hanks out of the parcel, and smooshing them in my face and imagining how they would feel on my feet and petting them.
I’m also thinking the unthinkable and debating whether to try making that lovely crochet slouchy beret pattern that was on the Craftzine blog. I haven’t saved the link as I printed the pattern out, but trust me, it is very very cute. The onset of Autumn is making me think of things like this, especially as I’ve been wearing my Kim Hargreaves hat again and realised that hats look quite nice with a fringe (even a fringe that is now almost touching my lips).