That is the ugliest effing square I’ve ever seen*

*it’s not plagiarism if you change a word, right?

I thought I had my mojo back up and running, but then I made the mistake of ignoring that little voice telling me I didn’t like what was appearing at the end of my crochet hook.

What hideous colours. But the next few rounds will fix it, won’t they?

Nope. Still hideous.

I frogged the whole thing and now it’s in the naughty corner for a while.

It’s strange that the colours I chose for the blanket all look so good together, but take out two or three of them and it can end up a disaster! I used to think I had such an eye for colour.

Well, I’ll try shuffling some around and maybe swapping some out, and see if I can get something workable. Maybe even pretty. Wish me luck.

Hannah

xXx

Sock it to me Monday 33

Have I mentioned that Diagon Ally is addictive? I started a pair for myself last week and so far I’ve knitted them on the sofa, in bed, in the car, on a park bench, and in a cafe!  All this work means I’m already halfway through the first foot.

I’m using the Schoppel Boots yarn bought in Dunoon, just to see how the cotton content plays along. So far I can’t tell much difference from my usual wool/nylon yarn except that this feels ever so slightly rougher on my fingers as I work with it. It’ll be interesting to see what effect soaking/blocking will have when I’m done.

As for the shortie sock, that has been frogged. I hadn’t worked a stitch on it for weeks and it was on the verge of becoming a UFO so I bit the bullet and pulled it all out. Part of me is sad that my plan for the socks didn’t work out, but mainly I’m relieved that I don’t have to keep working on something that wasn’t making me happy at all.

So that’s my sock news for this week. What’s everyone else working on?

Hannah

xXx

Sock it to me Monday 30

I finished my happy neon socks at last and wore them at the weekend.

These are Hermione’s Every Day Socks (Rav link) using Neon Rainbow sock yarn from Siobhan’s Crafts (I cannot recommend enough).

The first Diagon Ally sock is done and I’m whizzing through the leg of the second one.

And my shortie sock currently looks like this.

But there’s a wee niggle at the back of my mind telling me to frog it all. I’m not sure why, but I’m just not that happy with it. I’ll give it a few days in the naughty corner and see how I feel after that.

What do you guys think, Blogville?

Hannah

xXx

Sock it to me Monday 25

Oh this heel is going to finish me off, I swear.

It’s hardly changed since last week, thanks to the saga.

First, while trying to admire my handiwork with the heel flap I noticed that a few rows back there were some purl stitches right in the middle. Apparently counting to two was just too much for me and I’d turned the work after only finishing one needle.

Second, in the process of tinking back to fix that problem I realised there was one needle of 18 stitches and one of only 17. I went back a few more rows and the count wasn’t fixing itself, so I stuck in a lifeline and frogged the whole heel flap.

Yes, there were only 17 stitches all the way down. No, I don’t know how it happened or how I didn’t notice for an entire heel flap.

Thankfully it then went smooth as silk.

But third, the heel turn. I’m now on my fourth attempt. I can’t even remember all the ways I’ve messed it up, but believe me when I say I am never ever EVER using this heel pattern again.

Please keep your fingers crossed/send prayers/good vibes/whatever you do my way that this time I can get the stupid thing right!

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 05.08.20

Current WIP count: 7

Yes I’m one WIP down, but that’s because I frogged rather than finished something.

The Havana blanket has been sitting in a box for over a year, and I realised the thought of working on it wasn’t bringing me any joy, so I frogged it.
I’m actually quite relieved now it’s gone. Maybe I’ll try again one day if I find the right yarn.

I’m also chugging along with my socks. Apologies for the photo quality – it’s miserable weather in Scotlandia today.

I sort of wish I’d gone for a contrasting heel as well, especially looking at the amount of main yarn I have left.

So these may end up as not-quite-matching socks in the end. That’s okay though; they’re only for me and hardly anyone will see the toes whether they match or not. I can’t wait to get these done and make a start on another pair for The boyfriend.

Hannah
xXx

Sock it to me Monday 17

I am disappointed.

Even after measuring my feet and swatching, the first Rose City Roller wasn’t quite going to fit. So I had to frog and start again one size up.

Considering how little yarn was left when I frogged, I decided to go with contrasting cuffs and toes this time.

Hopefully these will actually fit me!

Hannah

xXx

Sock it to me Monday 13

I finished the boyfriend’s socks, and this time I’ve even sewn the ends in!

He’s very happy with them, which makes me very happy too.

I’ve already frogged and restarted my pride socks three times (I just couldn’t choose a pattern) so they’re only this far along:

I’ve only ever used this yarn for amigurumi before and the colours came out looking quite random, so I’m pleasantly surprised to be getting regular stripes this time. I did say I wanted to try some self-striping!

Now the frogging has stopped it’s going pretty quickly, so I think I might be able to make two pairs this month.

Aren’t socks fun!

Hannah

xXx

Sock it to me Monday 5

I frogged the sock back and took about 3cm off the leg length, then started knitting on it again straight away.

I got to the end of the gusset (lookit me, knowing the lingo) and realised that I’d made another mistake: The pattern is written using 2 needles in magic loop method, but I’m using 4 DPNs, so when it says ‘knit to end of needle 1 and place marker’ I actually should have knit to the end of my needle 2.

Sigh.

So I’ve frogged it back AGAIN and this is what I have now.

Third time’s the charm, right?

Hannah

xXx

Frog socks

Current WIP count: 7

So the heel worked, yaaay!

But.

I tried it on and it fits, but the leg is just too long for me, and I’m seriously considering frogging back to shorten it.

Is that a bad choice? I think I might do it anyway.

Flax was my procrastination project while I was avoiding the heel so I’m almost at the bottom ribbing.

I was put on furlough from work today so it shouldn’t be too long til this is finished. Silver lining!

It’s definitely time to get some of these WIPs finished off so that will be my focus for a while.

Hannah

xXx

Finally finishing

Current WIP count: 5

So far this week has been more about finishing off old projects than working on new ones.

While sorting through my FO box, as well as moths (UGH!!) I also discovered that I’m even worse at sewing in ends than I thought.  About 95% of them were technically UFOs because there were ends hanging out eeeeeverywhere.

I am determined to actually get them to a charity rather than sitting around the flat, so the last few days have been a bit of an end-a-thon to get everything done and dusted.

This is the pile of true FOs now:

And this is what I have left to sew in:

 

You probably won’t remember, as I mentioned it so briefly and ages ago, that I snapped the cast off of my Flax Light the first time I wore it (curse these hips). What I didn’t say at the time was that I couldn’t face fixing the hundreds of teeny tiny stitches, so it went in the naughty corner and there it stayed until this week.

I managed to catch the stitches where the yarn broke and went round undoing the cast off, then I attached some more yarn and had a go at Jenny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off.  It’s a bit tedious, what with having to lift over two loops individually for every single stitch, but boy does it stretch!

The edge looks shonky because the needle I used for cast off was too big. I keep telling myself I can deal with it because the jumper actually fits me, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this will end up being undone and cast off for a third time at some point. We shall see.

I did also start another hat at choir this week, until I remembered I was going to use that yarn for a Flax so I frogged it all. Hopefully by next week I’ll have some progress to show on that, but for now it’s back to those ends!

Hannah

xXx

Dragon no more

Current WIP count: 5

It’s a sad day for the amigurumi dragon. The poor thing hasn’t been worked on for months and months, and he’s been moved from pillar to post so often I’m not even sure where all the parts are.

He had reached UFO status and I’d rather lost interest, so I had a frogging session.

I still love dragons and amigurumi; he’s going to get made at some point, but not until I have a chunk of time to dedicate to him. Experience has finally taught me that I’m not organised enough to work on something with lots of parts over a long period of time without losing them.

Which, incidentally, is why Flax Light is perfect for me! Just one long piece on one set of circular needles that I can chuck in my bag any time. I’m actually really glad I frogged the first attempt now, as I switched to smaller needles and I’m much happier with it.

It’s funny how gauge can change so much from one project to the next.

Having lost a week somewhere in October (how are we only 8 days from Halloween already??) I very much doubt I’ll meet my goals for this month. Looking at them from this side, they seem wildly optimistic. Maybe my next goal should be to set more realistic goals…

Hannah

xXx

All befuddled

Current WIP count: 6

I have made it through the first week of a brand new job! While I’m not as exhausted as I expected after all the newness and strangers to deal with, my brain has gone a bit mushy. It’s showing in my attempt to make another Flax Light.

Firstly, I either forgot how garter stitch works or just got hyper-focussed on purl stitches: round 1 starts with some purls, and I couldn’t for the life of me work out how to do a kfb for round 2. “But it’s a purl stitch!” I kept saying to myself, more times than I care to admit.

After a few days in the naughty corner (the knitting, not me) I picked it up and suddenly my brain was working again.

Or so I thought. The next challenge was placing stitch markers and, considering they’re labelled ‘raglan markers’ in the pattern, it should be pretty obvious that they’re to mark the raglan increases. But nooo, this dingbat got it into her head that they marked the beginning and end of the garter sections.

I was a few rounds in by the time it twigged, I tried to fix it and ended up making more of a mess, so I frogged the lot.

This is now all I have to show for myself.I’m thinking I’ll aim for Christmas rather than baby’s first birthday at the beginning of December!

On the plus side, I think my new job is going to be really good, AND I can take the subway instead of driving so I can knit every day on my commute. It all balances out in the end.

Hannah

xXx