Stash Dash 2015

I'm currently in London town for the weekend, visiting some friends and eating far too much - so My Week In Pictures post will follow upon my return! Meanwhile...
 There is less than a week to go until the start of Stash Dash 2015. If you haven't stumbled across Stash Dash before - it's a challenge knit-a-long organised by Leslie and Laura of The Knit Girllls podcast, where you pledge to knit 5000m of yarn in a certain time frame. This year it's running from May 22nd to August 14th and they've set three different challenge goals - 3km, 5km or 10km. This is my first year participating officially (last year I didn't post in the forum or anything, just tried - and failed - to knit 5k) and I'm excited. I love arbitrary goals. Not that you'd know that if you knew how badly I'm sticking to my 2015 Knitting Resolutions...

Anyway. The best thing about Stash Dash is how cheater friendly it is. If you have a sweater that just needs a button band and you finish it during Stash Dash - you can count the entire yardage of the sweater. You can find all the rules in the thread in The Knit Girllls group.

In the grand scheme of things, I don't have that many unfinished knitting projects - the contents of my WIP's bin is pictured above - I'm aiming to finish all of them during Stash Dash - except possibly the Barndom Shawl on the far left, which might be frogged... That way, even if I don't reach my 5K goal, at least I'll have a lot of empty sets of needles ready for new projects...

Also - if I knit through some of the stash, it's an excuse for buying a little more yarn, right?!

♥

Fibre Friday #14

Fibre Friday is a short one this week - not because of my lack of knitting mojo, but because I spent most of the week knitting on one project and I haven't touched my wheel at all... There just aren't enough hours in the week!

 Last week I mentioned that I cast on a baby sweater on my mum's behalf, for her new Great Niece. Baby Mila is really sick (open heart surgery at 8 days old, I can't even imagine that) so I decided I wanted to knit her some colourful things she could wear as she recovers. Last night I cast on for the Easy Peasy Newborn Sock Hat by Keri McKiernan out of leftover 'My Precious' sock yarn by Vickevira. The colours are bright and cheery - which is exactly what I wanted. It's replaced the Trekking vanilla sock as my Out and About Knitting.
 Now, onto what I've spent the bulk of the week working on - my Old Romance cardigan, designed by Joji Locatelli, knit out of Madeline Tosh 'Tosh Sock' in the 'Moorland' colourway. Before last weekend, all I done were the lace inserts for the sleeves and now, the sleeves are finished! I'm on to the body of the cardigan - which is a lot of long stockinette rows - so may take a while! As I'm using a non-commercially dyed yarn, I'm alternating skeins every other row to avoid any obvious changes in shade and I think it's working so far.
It's not quite as Joji designed it - I saw this version knit by IttyBitty on ravelry and I loved the mods she'd made. I decided I'd get a lot more wear out of the cardigan if it was all one colour and I omitted the picot edge on the lace inserts.

Finally, I've put a few inches on the leg of my second 3x1 ribbed sock out of Trekking XXL in colourway '534'. Another lunch break at work and I could probably get it finished - but I think it might just stay on the needles until Stash Dash* starts next Friday...

I have a busy weekend planned so I'm not sure how much knitting I'm going to be able to squeeze in - but I would like to get a chunk of the body of the Old Romance done if I can... we shall see! Whatever you're up to - have a lovely one!

♥

*If you haven't heard of it, Stash Dash is a challenge / KAL run by the The Knit Girllls - you can find out more about it here. I'm going to be sharing some of my Stash Dash goals here on the blog on Sunday, if you're interested!

5... Hot knits to keep cool in this summer

Ahh forgive me for the cheesy title - I couldn't resist ;) Now I know that lots of places get far too hot to even consider wearing knitwear in the summer - but as a rule, England isn't one of them! I've noticed there are loads of knit tees in the shops right now - but why buy them, when you can knit them?! Here are five of my favourites..
 Sombra by Elanor King. Featured in the 'Summer 2014' issue of Pom Pom Quarterly (you can buy a digital download of the issue here) this lace weight sweater would be perfect on a cooler or cloudier summer afternoon. I love the chevron colourwork and I think it would look fabulous out of neutrals with a pop of neon...
 Fleetwood by City Purl. I love this tee - from the turned up sleeves to the centre panel - even the fringe and I'm not usually a fan of fringe! I know that comparing hand knits to commercial knitwear is often seen as derogatory, but in my opinion, this wouldn't look out of place on the highstreet this summer - and I mean that in the best possible way!
 Saco Stripes by Pam Allen. This is such a pretty tank top and I love the narrow stripes - it's probably not something I would wear - I prefer my tops to have a bit of a sleeve - but if you're not as hung up on your upper arms as me, this could be perfect for the summer.
 Vasa by Dianna Walla. I really like this tee - the neck, the drape of the fabric and the stripes, I love stripes - but unfortunately it's not a style that would flatter me - and I'm not the type to knit sweater size garments as gifts! But again, everyone has different body types and this could look fabulous on you!

Insouciant by Julie Hoover. I feel this style of tee would work better with my body type than the cut that Vasa; the rounded neck, the longer sleeves. I don't imagine that the large amount of stockinette would be too exciting to knit, but I find it's often the simpler garments that get the most wear...

This is the first year I've really thought about knitting summer garments, usually I spend my summer knitting things for winter but I've got an urge to knit lots of stockinette tees out of laceweight yarn... That's a good enough reason to go on a yarn buying spree, right?! ;)

♥

My Week In Pictures #4 - The one with birthday cake and a fair amount of yarn

Organising yarn for a secret project and pinning out my Olivia Shawl for blocking (which alas turned into a blocking fail).

Pretty daisies in a cute cake shop and tying up gifts with leftover handspun yarn.

Matching my sparkly nail polish to a swatch of sparkling yarn.

Harvesting some rocket and admiring my Dad's birthday cake.

A celebratory steak dinner!

Working on a knitting project* and catching up with The Knit Girllls.

This is technically two weeks - but I'm not going to lose sleep over it! I've been working lots so I haven't had too much time for adventures - but I have been getting a fair bit of knitting done this weekend, which is essentially all I care about! I'm off to wind some yarn and plug away at my cardigan project. I hope you're having a lovely Sunday!

♥

*I'm working on my Old Romance cardigan by Joji Locatelli.

Fibre Friday #13

 This week I have been struggling with my knitting mojo - there are lots of reasons behind this, but I think something that hasn't helped is I'm not in love with any of the projects in my UFO* box and the only things I'm working on are second socks. Not a good place to be in! That being said, I got a chunk of knitting done on my muted rainbow socks out of Trekking XXL in '534' and I'm now past the heel and on to the leg. In case you've missed previous posts, this is a toe up sock with a 3x1 rib and a short row heel, knit on 2.25mm (US 1) needles.

*UFO - Unfinished Object (the same as a WIP - work in progress, I alternate terms as and when I please!)

I put another pattern repeat on my Tic-Tac-Toe-Up Socks by Wendy Johnson, from her book Socks From The Toe Up. This a slow going sock - it's not enough of an autopilot project to make it into my handbag for On The Go Knitting, so I only put a few rows on it here and there, but I love the colour of the yarn, so that's helping. This is knit out of a skein I hand dyed a while back, on 2mm (US0) needles.

 I did get my Olivia shawl finished in time for the test knitting deadline! I ran out of yarn with five repeats of the applied edging to go - yarn chicken beat me! The yarn was a skein of hand dyed lace weight and luckily I had a skein of fingering weight in the same colourway - not the same dyelot, but (and I guess this is a testament to my dyeing skills, or my note taking skills...) close enough that if it wasn't for the difference in yarn weight, you'd never spot it.

Olivia is a shawl designed by Nina La Fountaine, although this was a test knit and the pattern isn't available yet, but you can see Nina's finished shawl here.

I don't have any finished photos of it yet - the above photo is from a botched blocking attempt - it's going to have to wait until next payday when I can buy blocking wires - which is something I've been meaning to do for a long time!

 I also cast on and knit the rib for another Sirdar '1310' baby sweater out of some mystery lilac acrylic from my mum's stash. This isn't something I intend to finish - I started it for my mum, who's going to knit it for her new Great Niece, I just needed to knit something and lacked inspiration to start anything of interest! You can see the sweater of the same pattern that I finished a few weeks ago here.
 Spinning-wise I finished the bobbing of hand dyed Merino I was working on last week - I love the navy flecks it has. This is going to be plied with a similarly dyed braid that I have in the stash - I'm not sure what it's going to grow up to be - possibly a hat, if it doesn't clash horribly with my hair! Or maybe some fingerless mitts...

I also got a good start on the third (and final!) bobbin of my BFL/Cashmere/Nylon blend from Lime Green Jelly. Moving my wheel up to my room was a good idea - I got a whole lot done whilst watching a Spooks boxset the other night... Anyway, I've been working on this 100g braid on and off for nearly 3 months, so I'll be glad when it's finished!

Right, I'm off to spend my weekend finding my knitting mojo - wish me luck!

♥

5... Sweater patterns that are really wearable

Mixing it up a little this Sunday - instead of My Week In Pictures, today I wanted to share five sweaters that I'm itching to cast on.

 photo: Amy Miller

Isabel by Amy Miller. I love the swingy drape of this cardigan, the long rib pattern on the sleeves and the shawl collar. Knit in a more neutral colour, this is a garment I'd get a lot of wear out of - especially in spring and on cooler summer evenings.

photo: Alicia Plummer

 French Toast by Alicia Plummer. I'll admit, the colour and the styling of this sweater is what first drew my attention to it. I love a good mustard yellow and where possible I like to wear all of my sweaters over a shirt with the collar, cuffs and hem peeking out. But I love the fitted waist and the central cable - sometimes simple is best.

photo: Suvi Simola

 Light Trails by Suvi Simola. Another simple, wearable sweater. I love the decreasing size in the sleeve cables and the mixture of stockinette stitch on the body and garter stitch on the sleeves. A looser fit than French Toast, this would probably suit my body shape a little better.

photo: Quince & Co.

 Featherweight Cardigan by Hannah Fettig. Unless you've been living under a rock (or you're not really into Ravelry) you've probably stumbled across this cardigan. After all, 7000 knitters can't be wrong! I'd quite like to knit a couple of these - one as written and another slightly longer with full sleeves, maybe adding a ribbed collar. It's such an easily customiseable garment.

photo: Jared Flood / Brooklyn Tweed

Hawser by Jared Flood. It was pretty hard not to fill this post with Jared Flood or Brooklyn Tweed patterns. Maybe I'll do a top five BT patterns post at some point... Anyway. This sweater would be perfect for autumn (or if you're having the weather that we are, here in the UK - you could probably wear it right now!). Again, worn over a shirt it looks casual and fabulous. I love the chunky cables down the front - although I suspect knitting the cable crosses could be awkward!

Now I'm craving sweater knitting. I've spent most of this year working on socks and shawls and I think it could be time for a change...

♥

Fibre Friday #12

Another Friday... The first of May - this year is flying by! I've spent most of this week working on my Olivia Shawl - which is a test knit for my friend Nina La Fountaine - host of the Fuzzy Love Knots podcast (which I'm so behind on - sorry Nina!). I'm knitting it out of some hand dyed laceweight yarn and I'm finally on to the applied edging. This is my first time knitting an applied border and I'm really enjoying it - I love learning new things! I think I could end up playing a little game of yarn chicken though, as the ball is looking remarkably small now... I need to get it finished by Monday - so it's full steam ahead!

I put about an inch on my toe up 3x1 ribbed sock out of Trekking XXL in colourway '534' - this is my Out and About Knitting - so it gets a bit of work on it when I'm at the bus stop or on slightly longer bus journeys. Thankfully this is the second sock, because I'm getting a bit sick of it - I think I need to work on something other than socks for a while...

I've also knit a few swatches for a secret project I'm planning - more information on that soon!

Spinning wise - I spent a large amount of last weekend catching up on tv shows and finally finished the second bobbin of my BFL/Cashmere/Nylon fibre by Lime Green Jelly. I have one more bobbin to spin - but I'm breaking it up a bit by spinning something else (see below) in the meantime - as spinning finer means it takes a lot longer to work through a braid!

Finally, after finishing the LGJ bobbin that's been on the wheel for ages, I rummaged in the stash and pulled out some fibre I dyed back in March - I was about to say I couldn't remember the fibre content, but realised I blogged it - hooray for blogging! It's a 50g braid of 100% merino that will eventually be plied with a similarly coloured braid of fibre.

Well, I need to get back to the Olivia Shawl - I still have about 24 repeats of the border chart to knit! I hope you have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend if you're in the UK - or a lovely regular weekend if you're not! I'm paying the price for my four day weekend by working nine days with one day off, but it keeps me out of trouble! ;)

♥