I am snooze-button knitting - that eternal round of ‘just 5 more minutes…’, which invariably leads to ‘I’m LATE!!’

Case in point - I am knitting while I wait for the camera to turn up on my desktop, while I wait for Flickr to upload my photo, while I wait for the page to load, even though I need to leave the house in 17 minutes if I’m going to get today’s quota of blackcurrants picked before dinner…

And what am I knitting?

Well I’m stash busting on a GRAND scale, and knitting this:

The Knitted Ruana from Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle.

 And here is the portion of my stash:

So many lovely colours to play with, and it’s only 236st a row, so it’s not even as if they take that long. And once you get to the end, because the tassles are made as you go, there is always yarn to cut, and choose and re-join, so the end of a row isn’t really the end…

And since I have 1hr of Tour de France highlights to watch every evening for the next three weeks, (not even including extra weekend coverage), I think this basket of yarn will get well used. :)

Comfort Shawl by Sandi Wiseheart

My Ravelry Post: here
Pattern: from Knitting Daily or Ravelry
Yarn: Natural Fantasy Baby Camel (for Beatrice Galli)
Needles: US 7
Note: There is an error in the current version of the pattern on Row 43 - it says you should decrease after the first YO at the beginning and the end of the RS row, but if you do that the front pieces won’t be triangular, so ignore those decreases, but do all the other ones.

Also I made the whole thing longer, by about 3-4″ (because I had 5 balls of yarn I wanted to use for the project), and I replaced the flower-lace edging with gothic arches, which I found in ‘Introduction to Knitting’ Edited by Nicky Hayden, (published by Marshall Cavendish Publications Ltd in 1975)

Here is the chart I made:

Conclusion: I like it. It’s incredibly soft, and I’ve loved the yarn (but not known what to do with it), for a long time. I think it’s going to prove really useful, both for wearing to posh do’s (like our friends wedding next month) or for keeping warm in front of the tv, or computer.

It knitted up really quickly (though it would have been quicker if I’d trusted my gut about the pattern error), and wasn’t particularly boring, given that alot of it is plain stocking stitch. It’s probably taken about 3 weeks in total, but I also knit a pair of socks at the same time. Point being that it would probably work as a decent christmas/birthday present, without being too much of a time commitment.

I’m definately interesting in learning more about Faroese Isles shawls, and their shoulder shaping, so I’m looking forward to reading Stahman’s Shawls and Scarves, which my sister is bringing back from North Carolina for me in a couple of weeks.

Next up: PEGBAG!

Well knitting the ripped section back up didn’t seem to take that long actually, and by the time I got to the Bluestockings meeting on Wednesday I was pretty much ahead of the game.

And by the time I got *home* from the Bluestockings meeting, (after a quick bit of dirty maths) it turned out to be time to start the edging. Actually it might turn out that I should have started the edging about 4 rows earlier, but there is a wiggle room so i’m not going to panic too much.

This is where I’m deviating from the pattern (well that and making it longer). So it’s 24 (or probably 22) rows of edging and then 8 rows of moss-stitch (at which point I lose the will to live…) and then I get to block and see what I’ve got.

Please note that W has decided it’s a cape. And that he’s a little jealous that I have knitted myself a cape, and not made him one.

So I used to post quite a bit, and then I posted a bit, and then I didn’t post for ages.

But what really happened was this:

I decided to start a business.

And I just couldn’t talk about it until I knew it was going to happen. And now I know it’s going to happen, I can talk about it.

Basically in the next few weeks I’m going to start selling my own natural dyed yarn. Currently everything is dyed in our tiny galley kitchen here in Oxford (hence Oxford Kitchen Yarns), by me. And I’m loving it!

I get to play with colour, and yarn, and boil stuff up… what’s not to love? :)

So basically that’s why I’ve been so quiet. But now I’ve told you, I’m not going to be quiet any more. There are a ton of finished projects that have never seen the light of day monitor, and a few adventures I haven’t yet shared, but now I’m back and I can post about them.

The old typepad account is dead, but all my earlier posts are archived here, and I’ve been undating over the last week since I moved so that there are new things to read about, new projects to see.

It’s good to be (properly) back!

I’m stash busting like a crazy fool at the moment. I have PROMISED myself that I can’t spend the £30 John Lewis’ voucher I got from W’s dad and stepmum for christmas (CHRISTMAS! How restrained have *I* been?), or the £25 voucher from Stash that the lovely J gave me for my birthday, until I have used up a load of great wool from my stash. I have some lovely stuff - yarn i just *had* to buy, and to leave it in a drawer, waiting to be used just seems like a waste.

So more knitting. Less shopping.

The problem is, I’m down to thicker sock yarn, and all the patterns I really want to knit are 2.5mm needles, which just isn’t going to work. So I’ve got a few weeks of making my own patterns up and then I think I’ll treat myself to some Trekking XXL or something.

(I did fold a bit when J and I went to ‘I knit London‘ and at the very last minute i bought some Regia, stating - very firmly - that ’sock yarn doesn’t count!’ - but really I’m just kidding myself at this point. - I was a salve, I tell you! just to get me over the hump!)

Anyways first up is something lovely handpainted yarn that W’s mum Bev (of the waistcoat fame) brought back from the US a year or so ago.

Cute huh? Kinda fish-scaly?

The pattern is very easy:

(multiples of 6 stitches)

Row 1: (Slip 1 stitch, k2, slip the slipped stitch over the two knitted stitches, k3), repeat to end

Row 2: (k1, yo, k4), repeat to end

Row 3: (k3, slip 1 stitch, k2, slip the slipped stitch over the two knitted stitches), repeat to end

Row 4: (k4, yo, k1), repeat to end

Add in your own favourite toe, heal and cuff and you’re away. Currently I’m half way up the leg and I’ve just shifted from 3mm to 3.75mm so that they will be a bit roomier at the cuff. I knit toe up, because that’s just how I roll (or something.)

So, good sturdy house socks - which is useful since all my other ones are in the wash, and there has been so much rain recently, that I just haven’t found a decent day to get the wool washing done. So I am handknitted-sockless until the weather breaks (for the better).