Updates!

Alrighty!

I have castonitis! It's so bad. I know how I got it too; obligatory sweater knitting and on-going background projects. So, just so I know what I'm knitting I'm going to list them off and note their status.

In no particular order;

• Denim rug - I've balled and yarned up as much denim as I have, so I'm going to knit another couple of rows and cast off, this will be panel one. In the future I shall knit other panels and sew then together, but for now the rug is the right size for between my bed and my wardrobe.
• Craig's Cable Sweater - Front and back has been knit! Just the sleeves and the neckline to do now.
• Brandon's Chocolate Orange - I finally cast this on Sunday night, I've added stripes to a plain rib jumper pattern. I'm doing 10 row stripes, which will make it easier for me to knit the front and back the same. I may have to purchase another ball of the brown as I'm using up stash and may not have enough leftover from Craig's first sweater. I'm working on the front at the moment, but I'm enjoying this knit more than others.
• Gryffindor Socks - I have a HO, I'll cast on for the second once I've depleted some other projects, it's not a major project, just a pallet cleanser, but I would like them knit before I do the Harry Potter Studio Tour.
• Bee Keepers Quilt - I thought I'd have this done by now, ah I was so naive when I started this. I get fed up of sewing them in, but I do have a bag full.
• Test Knit for Elle - Done ribbing, need to work through the pattern, this is my between sweater project, I plan to take it with me for the weekend.
• Feather & Fan Scarf - I only seem to work on this when I'm tired and forget how to count, meaning I have to rip back a ways. However I am near the end of the ball.
• Wedding gift - I have until June 2013 to complete this, but I'm around 40% done.
• Bedspread - It's heavy and I've barely knit enough to cover feet. Whatever possessed me to knit a bedspread out of DK weight yarn I'll never know. It does look fun though, who doesn't love stripes?

I think that's everything....

I don't know how much knitting I'll get done today as I'm having a tidy up/sort out which will allow me to see exactly what I have in my stash.
I just found a very small black and white tv in the back of my wardrobe, shows how long it's been since I last sorted this out.

I've decided to sell some things on ebay, I have a fair amount of costume jewellery that'll never get worn. It feels rather empowering to be so ruthless with my belongings.

A stash depletion update

Firstly, I am going to admit that I have bought yarn, I bought a semi-solid sock yarn from TheKnittingGoddess.co.uk for a test knit. I needed it as I didn't have any suitable yarn in my stash.

I am one whole ball down! Haha it doesn't sound like much, but I knit up a baby cardigan and have now knit up a 100g ball and some stash yarn on it. It's knit in James C Brett Magi-knit baby DK and Robin DK. I matched the buttons to the colours in the yarn. It's so cute.

Also used part of a ball to knit a teddy bear to accompany said baby cardigan.

I'm further along on the aran sweater, I'm now knitting the back of the jumper with a stitch pattern change as I really didn't like doing the diamonds, so I've swapped them for columns which I think give the back a nice sturdy structure. It's also knitting up a lot quicker, which means it'll get finished sooner.

I used part of a 75g ball of acrylic DK on a glasses case for my Mom, it's a nice little thing, so I may write up a quick pattern. Might.

I've discovered another way to knit hexipuffs; centre outwards and back in again, makes a nice little 'puff with self patterning yarn.

Yarn Review: Moonlight Sonata DK

If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen me raving about this yarn, raving about it so much that I decided I'd write up a review.

The yarn in question is James C. Brett Moonlight Sonata Double Knitting, how romantic does that name sound?

I picked up this yarn on a whim when I was out buying sock yarn, it just looked pretty and I knew I wanted it. I'm a sucker for doing this, hence my current not-buying-yarn-for-a-while thing I have going on.

I just loved the colours in it, and the way it's balled up reminded me of the sparkly Loop batts I keep seeing on podcasts like Knitabulls (which you should all go watch because Diane is amazing). So for someone who can't spin [yet] I guess this is the next best thing.

Like I said it's a DK weight, so good for scarves, but want to know what blew my mind once I checked the meterage? It's 500m! Roughly 546 yards. In one ball! So there's a nice scarf in one ball.

The ball band says it's 10% Mohair - 10% Wool - 75% Acrylic - 5% Metallic and it's so lovely to work with. I bought shade 'SM7' which is gorgeous jewel shades paired with a gorgeous olive shade, all intertwined with a golden metallic thread. I think one of the reasons why I fell for this yarn is the blues, they remind me of my engagement ring.

I'm not usually a sparkle person, but this yarn is amazing and I love it, and I'm seriously considering getting enough for a cardigan for smarter occasions, though in a different shade.

The only thing I've found I dislike about James C. Brett yarns is how they have codes not shades, that's it really, that's my gripe. The whole range is affordable. Moonlight Sonata costs around £5.20 for 500m for such a beautiful yarn, which would be about £15- £20 for a beautiful cardigan, not bad at all.

The pattern I'm knitting is the Extra-Long Stripy Scarf from Knitting Vintage by Claire Montgomerie. I've loved the whole feather-and-fan patterns for a long time, and I knew this would be the best pattern for the yarn, classic enough. Plus it's a 4 row repeat, so great for mindless knitting.

Oooh I could regret this.

I've batted around the idea of a yarn diet much like my fitness plan last year, one whiff of pizza and it went out of the window, but now I'm deeper than balls deep, badum tch, in uhm, balls of yarn. I have so many one colour balls, I honestly thought that starting my bee keeper's quilt would help me solve this, but no. My stash busting efforts have been thwarted by self patterning yarns that would make great hexipuffs.

Then I started buying sweater's worth of yarn, which is great, but I haven't knit them yet and when I do I get oddments.

I have three 30L boxes full, two duvet bags and a whole box of yarn, mostly acrylic, what I'm going to do is, knit it up!

Oooh yes. Less buying, more knitting. This could be tough, just today I read about a new yarn, and it's cotton which I've never knit with and I think would make a nice summer jumper to keep off the chill. See my problem?

Yarn diet.

I want at least 60L knit, that shall free up a fair amount of room. Oh dear cupcakes I forgot about the 400g balls of aran in my wardrobe, see what I mean? That's why I need to do this.

I'm going to need a loophole here. I cannot buy yarn, but this doesn't mean I can't be bought yarn by someone else.

I'm sensing stripes, lots of stripes.

Monster Mash!

As if Lurleen wasn't enough, I knit two more of the little critters over the weekend. Both are the Baldwin monster pattern from The Big Book of Knitted Monsters by Rebecca Danger.

The first one I have named 'Spitfire' and he's knit out of some Woolhunter Outback Sock in Red Hot Chilli Mama that I found on ebay. I love it, the colour changes, how warm it is, everything.

The second is Zombeh, a zombie monster for Craig, he saw me knitting Spitfire and just wanted one too. You can probably see that it's knit in the same yarn as Lurleen's head, it's some yarn I dyed up myself with food colouring.

I didn't think much of the yarn in the skein, but once I started knitting it my whole perspective on it changed.

All four monsters are just chillin', I swear they move around in the night, plotting ways to steal cookies, I don't really blame them for that.

Franken-Monster

You know what? I'm really enjoying knitting these Monsters, I've just completed my 2nd one which is a bit of a Franken-Monster.

I chose to knit the Lurleen the Laundry Monster pattern, form the ever popular and amazing; The Big Book of Knitted Monsters by Rebecca Danger.

Back in April I finished a pair of Hermione's Every Day socks in some very attractive Regia sock yarn, and I had leftovers. I've just realised that the yarn was based on a childrens book about sock monsters!

So I used up that for the body, some yarn I'd dyed up for the head, and a lovely little 10g ball of Opal sock yarn for the arms/feet. Now I have to find out this colour way, as it is beautiful.

She has now gotten the nickname "Boob-foot", you only have to look at the photos to realise why, just the way the yarn striped.

I knit her up in quick time on 2.75mm DPNs, once I've learnt how to knit in the round with a circular needle I'll have to have a go at using a heavier weight yarn for the monsters.

My Colour Affection

Or Color Affection if you're American, and I spelt it that way on twitter due to today being the 4th July.

So there it is; my Colour Affection, (rav link) I have loved working on this project, it was so therapeutic, just simple repeats that were memorised in a jiffy.

My only nit picking would be the time it took to knit the last 30 rows, I timed it at 24mins. Yes, I used a stopwatch. When I say 24 mins I mean per row, I'm not such a speedy knitter. Luckily I had Supernatural on play all so I didn't have to keep getting up.

And for the nerds, yes, my Aperture Laboratories vest, I also have a shower curtain, it's probably my favourite game ever now.

Ok, so the yarn I used for this delightful project it;

Stylecraft Life 4ply - Silver Grey (Grey, duh)
Stylecraft Life 4ply - Zest (Yellow)
Stylecraft Life 4ply - Fern (Green)

On my project page for this I have the Zest listed as being yellow-green as in the ball it does look a yellow-y limey shade, but next to the grey it's perfect yellow, I guess that's how different colours interact and affect each other.

I chose to start with the grey because I knew it'd play well with the other shades, but also as I didn't want the  long band to be grey as it'd feel washed out, this is the same reason why yellow was contrast colour 1 instead. I was knitting this for me, and although it's my favourite colour, yellow doesn't suit me, whereas greys do. I also wanted contrast colour 2 to be a darker shade to end on, give it some weight in appearance, hence the choice of green.

In all honesty I should've sketched this out like I usually do, but when I was yarn store browsing, I saw these three shades and knew they'd work well together, then I saw how it looked in my head.

I really loved it, and I have plenty of the yarns left over to knit matching socks! Haha, maybe, or a monster, or something. I certainly used over half the ball of each shade.

For an acrylic yarn (75% acrylic, 25% wool) it's really come out so nicely, and so soft. I don't think I'll be blocking this because I really the the smush factor and how it drapes and hangs.

I can see what everyone said about the edging being tight, but that doesn't really bother me as I'm not blocking it out, if I was I could see how this would be a problem. I also don't think my m1L and m1R are as tight as what most people have been on about, but maybe I'm just loose...

I just know I love it, and everyone should knit this. I'm really tempted to knit one half the size for some reason, as a neck scarf? Who knows, I'll think about it.