Welcome 2009! 12 January 2009
Posted by kaitharshayr in Knitting, travel.Tags: lace, lily, socks, virgin trains, wedding, yarn
1 comment so far
So it’s been a while, (again, I think I’m always saying this). Christmas has been and gone, and I’ve had a good holiday. Unlike last year I haven’t actually catalogued my presents, which I maybe should do or at least take some photo’s of the wool I’ve got. I’ve also finally finished (well almost) Lily, I just need to block and sew in the ends, although I haven’t quite decided if I’ll stick with the cast off or change it to ribbing. I’ve also started some Jaywalker socks, almost finished one and I’m loving the colours. I will post some photos I promise!
So what else did I do for New Year? Me and C went up to Liverpool on the 31st to spend new year with my friend A from Uni, and also to go to another friends wedding on the 2nd. Which was quite fun, as my friend had his engagement pressi at the wedding, which was a big axe. The registra made the comment just before they exchanged vows that he could put the axe down as she wasn’t going anywhere. 
Coming home however was a right PITA. It took us 6 hours, on what is usually a 2 and a half hour journey. >_< The train was going to be slow anyway, maybe an hour or so longer due to a plane crash the day before, but as we were on the train the power lines around Watford Junction went out, and our train got cancelled at Birmingham, (it had already taken 2 hours to get there.) We then had to wait 45 mins for a train at Moor Street (and it was so busy with people trying to get home to London that the police where there for crowd control.) That train took 2 hours to get home, and then we were at Marlybone station fora good half hour while I tried to top up my Oyster Card. But we made it home finally.
So since then I have been busy working, (well staring cross-eyed at spreadsheets…) but it’s been going well.
Anyway since starting this blog post several days ago I have taken some photo’s of my new socks
Pretty. It did take me a while to get these started, as I couldn’t quite get guage right, I also tried to do them top down, but kept getting it twisted so went for toe-up. So nearly finished with the first one.
Not actually an Xmas pressi, more a graduation present to myself, but again pretty. I know pink is usually not my colour but yet I couldn’t resist.
(I feel I’ve been quite lazy with this blog post.. but oh well.)
Update 17 December 2008
Posted by kaitharshayr in Knitting, Warhammer, Work, librivox.add a comment
Not really got that much to say at the moment, it’s all been a bit hectic in someways as I fall into the rythem of getting up for work in the morning and then getting home. All this working means that trying to juggle this myraid of hobbies I have is a bit awkward (Still I’m earning money so this is not really a complaint). Tuesday evenings are taken up by role playing, we’ve just started a Scion game, which is proving to be quite fun, after only two sessions, after Xmas we’ll probably end up alternating between that and Dark Heresy if our two other players become less busy. But Scion is a lot of fun. (Sometimes I wonder what ‘normal’ people think when they hear what plots and plans we discuss, like hunting down serial killers, or trying to protect magical zombie raising chalices which people might think is the holy grail.)
My knitting has slowed down, although I think once I’ve settled in a bit more at work I’ll start taking some socks in, probably after xmas at this rate. Although saying that I think I’ve already settled in in some ways. They’ve all been so friendly, had my xmas meal with them yesterday and am taking part in secret santa. As a company they do have a lot of temps thou, so it’s quite nice.
Hmm what else? Ohh ack I’ve really been negleticting my librivox recording, and tbh I probably need to get up to date with some projects, chase up readers and such. (I think I meant to do some of this the other weekend but it slipped my mind, and I’ve got to find a secret santa gift this weekend).
Finally don’t even get me started on my Tyranids… I haven’t touched them in weeks (I also really need to get a case for them too.) Oh well it’ll get done at some point.. C just keeps hasseling me about it, but.. I do like my Tyranids and I do want to paint them (and well I want to get and paint a chaos army too) but… I want to knit.. and er.. Knitting kind of wins that fight. Plus its cold and dark and painting is fiddly.
What a surprise, knitting content! :P 19 November 2008
Posted by kaitharshayr in Knitting.Tags: broad street mittens, gloves, laminaria, scarfs, shawls, woodland shawl
add a comment
It’s really easy to think to yourself that you need to blog and then to let other things get in the way and take over *cough*Fallout 3*cough*.
So I have FINALLY blocked Laminaria. YAY me. The whole process has made me realise that I really need to get hold of a large amount of gingham, 1″ by 1″ squares, as my god it would be much easier to measure something like this out using that. But I did manage it ok I think.
Here’s a close up shot.
To be honest I still really need to take a picture of me actualy wearing it. I do think that maybe I didn’t quite use the best yarn, I think it might be a little too verigated for the pattern. But oh well I still love it, it was a great pattern to knit. Although I must confess I have already sort of broken it.. well not broken it, but I seem to have pulled one stitch quite badly. :/
What I have to figure out though, is where on earth I’m going to store this and other shawls I intend to knit. (Heh I like knitting lace, and yet I’m not sure I’m going to be wearing shawls that often… but well yeah I like knitting lace 
)
Also I finally gave my friend the present I’d been knitting for her.
Pattern: Woodland shawl
Yarn: Fearless Fibers Superwash Merino Wool Sock Yarn
Needles: 4mm.
I did enjoy knitting this pattern, although in hindsight now I think I would have cast on a few less stitches and made the scarf longer. To my tastes at least it’s a bit too wide and short, but I think (hope) my friend likes it. I didn’t actually use all my yarn up either, there’s only so many repeats you can do before you have to decide that you just need to declare it finished so that you can gift it.
In other knitting news, I’m making progress on Lily, I’ve got the top nearly done shall be casting on for the sleeves, and then comes the hard part, knitting sleeves and top together. >_< I’ve also got some mittens for a friend to do, I’ve made one, need to start the other. It’s a new experiance for me as I’m making these, Broad Street Mittens, I’ve never done fingers or a proper thumb before, and it’s gone quite well I think, but man there’s a lot of ends to sew in!
knitting update 4 November 2008
Posted by kaitharshayr in Knitting.Tags: cthulhu, dice bag, Knitting, laminaria, leaf lace scarf, neckwarmer, ravelry, shawl, winter twilight mitts
add a comment
Because well… it’s long over due.
First of is this:
Pattern: Cthulhu Dice Bag
Yarn: Left over Acrylic
Needles: 5mm.
A quick and easy knit, although itcame out a lot bigger than I thought it was from the pattern pictures. Made this for a friend of mine, as I’ve been wanting to make him something for ages, but he’s a bit awkward as scarfs and such would make him too hot. A dice bag was the only way to go, and since he’s a bit of an evil GM Cthulhu seemed appropriate. >:) Second:
Pattern: Leaf Lace Scarf
Yarn: 1/2 Skien Mmmmmmalbrigo
Needle:3.5mm
Made this to use up my Malabrigo left over from Juno Regina , I started it in July and had it finished in August or so, but only got around to blocking it yesterday. Not sure what I’m going to do with it yet, whether to keep it for myself or gift it… It’s amazing how much this opened up and became light and airy after blocking.
Third:
Pattern: Winter Twilight Mitts
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solids – Black – (Not even half a skien.) NH Knitting Mama Yarns Superwash Merino Fingering – Green (hmm… 0.25 of a skien?)
Needles: 2.25
Heh I love these gloves, I had to fiddle a bit with the thumbs as I realised that while I’d reduced the number of stitches for the main body of the gloves I forgot to do the same for them. But in the end they have worked out great and after blocking them are snug enough to keep my hands warm but loose enough to get on and off easily. Their fantastic!
Fourth:
Pattern: Herringbone Neckwarmer
Yarn: Dream in Colour Classy – Deep Sea Flower
Needles: 8mm
I decided a while back that I wanted a neckwarmer, and when I saw this yarn at the socktopus stand at Ally Pally I knew what it was destined for, plus at 250yards there was enough for a neckwarmer and a hat. (Also I haven’t made the neckwarmer as long as the pattern wanted so def should have enough.). So here is the neckwarmer, it just needs buttons now and for me to sew the ends in. Have started on the hat and progress is going well, I also managed to pick two patterns that pretty much use the same stitch type. I am really liking this yarn too its soo soft.
Other knitting news:
Lily is going well, still on bust increases though (finishing off gloves/something for friend/neckwarmer took precedent.)
I am planning on (FINALLY) blocking my laminaria (god I’m ashamed, I just looked through previous posts, my last post on this was JUNE 4th! I think I finished knitting it around the end of July and its just been sitting around waiting for me to block it. I’ve also (as I just mentioned) finally finished something for a friend, I shall hopefully give it to her this Sunday, then I’ll finally be able to post about it and put it up on Ravelry!
Having blocked two things in the last few days I’ve realised I really need to get hold of some gingham, it’d make my life so much easier knowing that I’m pinning everything to the same length without needing to use the tape measure every few seconds.
Choices… 22 October 2008
Posted by kaitharshayr in Knitting.Tags: lily, travel, winter twilight mitts
add a comment
So I’m going away for the weekend with C, the plan was to go to Liverpool but we’re now going to Hull via Liverpool for a friends house-warming. (I’d already brought the non-refundable train tickets soo… it’s a bit of a pain but nvm.)
Now however I have a decision to make. What knitting project to take with me?!
I could take Lily
Which I FINALLY cast on for a few days ago (My size 4 circulars had been busy on another project which, tbh I really should have finished by now, but I haven’t. I finally brought some size 4 Harmony Straight Needles at Ally Pally so I swapped the needles over.) Anyway I’ve cast on, and I’ve now done 3 repeated of the lace pattern, so I’ve done the waist and am starting on the bust increases. Now this knit requires me to make damn sure I count the rows I’ve done (I’m normally not the greatest at doing this) because I have to finish on the same row for the top as I do for the sleeves. What I’ve got to do at the moment however isn’t too complex so.. it wouldn’t be to hard to do on train/car/sitting talking to people.
My other option is to take my Winter Twilight Mitts
I’ve finished one, but I really need to get the other done (especially as it’s getting cold). I can sort of feel second sock syndrome coming along with this (except obviously its mitten syndrome). However while I really would like to get this finished to keep my hands warm (because these are a lot better fitting than any other mittens I’ve made for myself) I’m rather unsure about doing colourwork, along with using dpns on a train/car. Plus the colourwork can be quite distracting if I make a mistake or am trying to remember what I did with the first one. (because I have a feeling the first has some extra rows and I did cut out 4 stitches from the pattern to make it fit.)
So yeah… am unsure. It might be Lily I think… Hmmm choices choices.
Yaaarrrrnnnnnn 13 October 2008
Posted by kaitharshayr in Knitting.Tags: alexandra palace, fire lizard, get knitted, indieknits, Knitting, knitting and stitching show 2008, ravelry, socktopus, yarn
2 comments
So from the 9th till the 12th October (today), Alexandra Palace hosted the Knitting and Stitching show. It’s an annual event, but I didn’t go last year, as I was only just starting to get properly into knitting and wasn’t really sure if it would be my thing, nor what happened there. My friend Em did go, and said it was quite good, lots of stalls of stuff and she even brought me back a souvenir of some Nameste Glass knitting needles. (I can’t seem to find the needles on the site thou…) I have to confess I haven’t knitted with them that much as they make an odd scratchy sound, and plus I now have my harmony circular needles which I adore. Then a month or so later i got onto Ravelry and well… it all changed. A world of amazing patterns, hand dyed yarn through etsy, and the ease of being able to get help on those tricksy patterns have just made me really love knitting. As such I was really looking forward to the Knitting and Stitching fair when it came around this year. (Wow.. bit of a long intro there ). There was also the awesome advantage of being able to read what suggestions other people had with how to face the day and setting a budget and taking cash etc.
So my mum pre-booked us tickets to go. She used to knit, prefers to crochet, hasn’t really had time of it in years, in fact its mostly been my interest that’s sort of rekindled hers although she did confess she probably more interested in sewing, quilting and beading these days. Not that she currently has the time for said things.
We got to the show about 10, which was pretty good as we got about 2 hours of wondering about before it started to get really busy. We split up for about an hour because, well I wanted to look at yarn and my mum was more interested in beads and such. It’s not just stalls for shops selling things there’s also lots of artists work, massive pictures in various mediums of knit/sewing/quilting/cross stitch/felting, some mixed mediums. There was some amazing Japanese Embroidery, where they literally just sew glass beads together to make the most amazing shimmery fabric. There was a big kimono on display, well over 2 million glass beads. imagine the time that must have taken! (Sorry I don’t really have many pictures of the day, a lot of things said ‘No Picture’s Please’. So all I’ve got from the day is this shot, which was at the entrance to the event:
Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef.
We finally left the show at about 3pm, (it closed at 5.30pm). I was rather amazed to find that it was pretty damn hot outside! (Even more so than had been inside, although at least there was a breeze). Incidentally it’s been just as hot today, i suspect something like 20c. What’s up with that?! It’s October, its supposed to be miserable and cold!! August and October seem to have decided to swap weather.
Anyway, onto the real topic of this post… what I ended up getting at the show. Ahhh! Here is a quick shot of all the yarn I got. Yes… there may (with one exception, can you guess which? 
) be a bit of a theme to the colours there….
In the sake of length I have decided to cut this here so if you want to see what I’ve got specifically just click below. (more…)
Winter Twilight Mitts 22 September 2008
Posted by kaitharshayr in Knitting.Tags: fingerless mitts, gloves, Knitting, winter twilight mitts
2 comments
So I’ve started knitting myself a new pair of mitts, as I’m not happy with either pair I’ve made myself so far. I saw this patter for Winter Twilight Mitts and decided that that was the pattern for me. I realised that I would be able to use up some yarn from my Kaleidoscope cardigen but that I would have to get hold of some black fingering yarn. I decided to go for Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solid. The pattern however calls for lace weight yarn and I’m using fingering weight. I originally cast on using the needles called for in the pattern 2.5mm, however after a few rows of ribbing I could already tell that that was going to be too big. So I switched to 2mm needles to do the ribbing, I find these needles a bit too small to work comfortably on, so once I’d done the ribbing I switched back up to 2.5mm, as I usualy have a tight guage I thought this would be ok. Also the pattern tells me to do the ribbing for 1.5″ however to me the pattern didn’t look long enough so I added an extra half inch.
So heres what it looks like so far, looking ok right?
Well.. now take a look at this one:
Can you see the bulging on the right? Its too big for me around the arm, also I know you can’t see it from this picture but I’ve got another 10 rows before I start increasing for the thumb guesset which means it is going to be really really long. 
I’m not quite sure what to do, whether I should maybe keep going to the thumb guesset to see exactly how long it is and by how much it doenst fit. Or whether I shoud rip back to the ribbign and start agian on size 2mm needles (urgh that thought does not fill me with joy.. ribbing it back is one thing its just the knittin gon 2mm that gets me). So.. yeah.. hmmmmmm. I shall have to think on this.
Seriously why is it whenever I make gloves for myself I always end up making ones that are too big? I’ve either used a needle size to big or my yarn is wrong. *rolls eyes*
Edit: Also having looked at some of the finished ones on Ravelry, some people have used fingering weight with 2.5mm needles and they look fine on their arms, no strange bulges… do I just have strangly thin wrists? C certainly likes to tell me so from time to time, I guess he can just about hold my wrist with his thumb and little finger. Does that make my wrists small?
Buttons 10 September 2008
Posted by kaitharshayr in Knitting, Sport.Tags: buttons, febuary lady sweater, medals table, paralympics
add a comment
So I’ve very nearly finished my February Lady Sweater, I’ve got about half a sleeve left to knit, so I went out to buy some buttons today, because I’ve decided that I may well wear it to the Games Workshop Gamesday. Which means that I probably won’t have time to block it as I expect I’ll finish the sleeve on Thurs or Friday. In fact I’m a bit worried about blocking it, I’ve seen mention that it grows quite a bit with blocking, and I don’t think cotton will grow that much, but at the same time, its fitting pretty damn well at the moment. Oh well I don’t really think I can get away with never washing it.
So buttons, what I tend to do is rummage through my mum’s tub of buttons, find one that’s the right size and then take that with me when I go button shopping, it’s the easiest way for me to know if the one’s I like are an ok size. The one that I found was this.
Its not actually a black button, its dark brown, and nice and chunky and a good contrast with the colour of the cardigan which is exactly what I wanted, too bad there was only one of them.
So I headed off to Liberty’s today, I always get nervous about going there, I think it’s because I haven’t gone very much and it is quite a pokey shop in some ways. Hard to find the stairs/lifts (well I know their at the back but still its not obvious like say the esculators in John Lewis). But they do have a much better button selection than JL. So I went in, hoping to find something the right size and a nice dark wood colour. Unfortuantly I didn’t find anything, but I did find these.
They are wood at least and the right size and gosh aren’t they CUTE?! I saw them hummed and ahh’ed a bit and then decided that yes I think they would go perfectly with the cardigan. Although C has apparently told me that he doens’t like the cardigan.. he’s not sure if its because of the colour or because of.. well something else. Oh well he doesn’t have to wear it.
(Btw I apologise for the quality of my spelling, for some reason my Firefox spell checker isn’t working and I have to confess I do rely quite heavily on it as I’m terrible at spelling.)
Also, I just had to post a quick screen shot of the Paralympics Medals table on the BBC. I doubt that’s where we’ll finish, but isn’t that bloody brilliant?! 
And amusingly I just heard that the GB team made sure to fly out Yorkshire Tea and Jaffa Cakes for the athletes as they were lacking from the facilities in Bejing.
I’m wondering if 2012 may become a bit of a disapointment, after all this? I hope not. I’m definitly going to see some events then. It should be great fun!
The knitting goes on 2 September 2008
Posted by kaitharshayr in Knitting.Tags: cardigen, cats, cotton, DROPS, fearless fibers, febuary lady sweater, fingerless gloves, mitt envy, old newspapers, ravelry, t-shirt, yarn, yarn forward
add a comment
I’ve started to get back into the swing of knitting things now, although thats because I have actual wool and patterns that are behaving and aren’t too awkward to follow. Watch me jinx myself, but I really haven’t made any progress on the Drops patterns or that Yarn Forward top I’ve been working on. The drops one, its not like I don’t understand the instructions, it’s just at that awkward bit of having to put it all together when I start on the ribbing, and I’m not sure if the top bits are long enough (Ravelry, non Ravelry). And the excuse for the Yarn Forward one? I just got fed up of trying it on again and again and again, and I still can’t tell if I’ve got it long enough to start the sleeves, hell I’ve already done more repeats of each bit than is asked for. I don’t want a short t-shirt that will show my tummy when i reach up, but at the rate this is going I’ll block it and discover that its reaches my ankles or something silly like that. So then what have i been up to knitting wise?
Well I made these for my mum:
pattern: Mitt Envy and Non Ravelry
Needles: 2.5mm (I didn’t wnat to work on anything smaller!)
Notes: My mum has long hands so wanted the gloves to be quite a bit longer than they were in the picture, if I had made them for me I probably would have just added a few extra repeats of the cabled bit. As it is I added 10 extra rows of ribbing, then an extra cable section before the thumb and 2 more afterwards. I also knitted about 6 rows (decreasing around 8 stitches) before I did the ribbing on the thumb. They’ve come out pretty well, nice and snug. Now I’m going to have to sort myself out for another pair of fingerless gloves, I like this pattern but I have another one in mind. Just need to get hold of some appropriate black sock yarn.
What else am I working on?
The February Lady Sweater, no I’m afraid I don’t have any pictures of this yet, too lazy to get that sorted. I’m hoping that this pattern will use up all my dk Rowan Cotton that I have lying around from when I tried to knit Trek from a Rowan magazine about 2 years ago. It was not a good pattern for a new knitter to start with, especially as several knitting terms even confused my mum! I’d actually gotten pretty far with it too, had done the back, 2 sleeves and had started one of the front sides when I just decided that it wasn’t going to happen, its been sitting around ever since. Now though my progress on the February Lady Sweater is going much better. I think I should have enough yarn to make it as long as I want, the patter does call for worsted weight so I’m knitting it a size larger or so to make sure that it’ll fit. Hopefully I’ll have enough yarn and that I’ve not made this thing too big!
I’ve also started on a secret project making a present for a friend of mine, I shall be using this yarn from Fearless Fibers:
Isn’t it pretty? The colourway is called Spellbound and its wonderfully soft. Its fingering weight and there’s just over 500 yards of it, so its going to be a good sized project.
Oh gosh this may be turning into rather a long post, I should learn to post more often, then I wouldn’t leave everything for just one post.
Last weekend we had to get our electricity meter replaced (the one we had was beyond ancient!). It finally gave my mum something she wanted, for my dad to finally clear out all the crap that has accumulated under the stairs. (Its small room under the stairs.) This included lots of boxes with bits of metal, plastic, tools, windscreen wipers, light bulbs, plastic bags, a mummified mouse (either ran in there and died from fright after being chased by our cats when we had them, or left there by said cat.. although I suspect the former as Treacle would usually leave such things for us to find, also I’m glad I didn’t see that!) and finally this:
I’m sorry it just amused me that there were still some old newspapers lying around there from 1983!! That’s older than I am!!! Its some crazy headline too, a bank robbery and then a dramatic car chase from what I can remember, also look how cheap the paper was 17p!!
Cardigans and graduation 20 August 2008
Posted by kaitharshayr in Knitting, University.Tags: blocking, buttons, cardigan, graduation, MSc project
2 comments
So after a rather long stint (I say long stint.. i think it was only a couple of weeks) of not really having anything to knit and not really feeling like working on any of my WIPS. I finally got started on (as I mentioned in a previous post) and finished a cardigan. And I love it.
Pattern: Kaleidoscope and (non-Ravelry Pattern)
Yarn: NH Knitting Mama’s Moody Blues (Sock yarn)
Needles: 5MM
Isn’t it fab? I did get very worried at the blocking stage, the button holes were HUGE afterwards and there was no way it was going to stay done up (and I have to say it looks a bit funny not done up) but my mum is wonderful and reinforced the button holes for me to make them smaller. Now the buttons fit just fine. (I got the buttons from John Lewis.) I now absolutely love this cardigan, if I’m honest the shoulder bit is maybe a little too big, its supposed to sit low there but it ends up just falling off mine after a while. But oh well who cares, its one of the few things I’ve made so far that I will be able to get a lot of wear out. Now I just need to get hold of some more tops that go with this. It just doesn’t look right with high round necked t-shirts.
Next project? Another cardigan, some gloves (not for me), scarf (again not for me) and a top (for which I have some purchased some really lovely merino from ColourMart, I can’t wait to get started on that, but I have to get started on these other things first!)
In other news my project, for the moment is going well. I’m pretty much at the write up stage with 3 weeks to go, and after having seen my project supervisor today well, I seem to be on track with the write up to.
And in additional news, I was originally informed that I wouldn’t be able to go to my graduation as it was in November and there just wouldn’t be enough time between handing in the project and getting the marks sorted before the ceremony. Well the ceremony has now been pushed back to December so I will now have a ceremony! Thank goodness for that, I may have to dress up in a silly gown and hat for the 2nd time in my life but its definitely worth it. No matter what grade I get in the end I’ve worked HARD for this damnit!
