WIP Wednesday – getting back on track

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aeroplane, bus, KAL, Knitalong, knitting, socks, Socks with Sarah, train, WIP, WIP Wednesday

At the beginning of the year I decided to join in with a very relaxed knitalong: KnittingSarah‘s KAL, “Socks with Sarah, a KAL for 2014“. Knit a bit of a sock every day for a year. Sounds easy? Yes. I could work on other projects at the same time so I always had something simple for chatty social knitting as well as a more challenging project on my needles.

Socks make wonderful projects when you’re traveling. Whether you’re crossing oceans by plane, the country by train or just the city by bus, knitting socks works well in a small space.

Because they are such portable projects I keep the sock and the wool in a little pouch ready to pack into other bags for travel. So of course at home this sock is not waving at me, nor jumping around begging to be knitted. It’s sitting there quietly waiting to go on a journey. Out of sight, out of mind? Kind of. We’re halfway through the year already and I’m determined to finish it as I began: knitting a bit of a sock every day.

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So close…

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FO, jumper, knitting, lace, WIP

…to turning this WIP into a FO!

WIP Wednesday – I haven’t knit anything this year

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finish, KnitMeter, knitting, occasion, projects, Ravelry, start, WIP, WIP Wednesday

Well, that’s certainly a load of old cobblers! But… and yes, there is a but, according to that wonderful little tool KnitMeter I haven’t actually knit anything this year!

KnitMeter is a handy-dandy little widget that keeps track of exactly how much you’ve knitted – be it metres, yards or miles (gasp). I like to wait and enter my finished projects. This is very easy to do as Ravelry already converts balls and skeins into metres and yards. My profile shows at a glance how much I have knitted in years gone by (well since I started using KnitMeter and Ravelry).

There’s been a decided lack of Finish-It-Off and a whole lot of Start-Something-New going on but I hope to remedy that very soon. Looking at this lot of WIPs I have a project for every kind of knitting occasion!

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WIP Wednesday – reining in the ambition

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aeroplane, learning, mistake, patterns, socks, WIP, WIP Wednesday, yarn

I’m about to do the planes-trains-and-automobiles thing for the second time in under a fortnight.  I was over-ambitious last time, thinking a half-knit sock would not suffice and decided I should cast on a new one. The sorry result was a pattern fiasco experiment that left me back where I’d started (see previous post). I’ve learnt my lesson. This time I’m quite content to finish my stripey ribbed sock and then, should there still be time on my hands, begin again (attempt number five) with the black sock yarn… Wish me luck!

WIP Wednesday – two steps forward and one step back

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aeroplane, attempt, frogging, knitting, learning, patterns, progress, Ravelry, socks, texture, WIP, WIP Wednesday

I was away over the weekend. It was literally a flying visit. Taking the second sock of this pair (which has admittedly grown since the toe appearing here) didn’t seem like a good idea. I might get it finished and run out of knitting! Hardly likely but, of course, that would be when a flight gets delayed! I’d also have to take the first sock so I’d know exactly when to start the ribbing and when to cast off.

Starting a new pair sounded like a much better idea! So I did. I got the toe knitted up before we left and was ready to get cracking with some texture. I chose  Kebnekaise, having had it in mind when I bought the sock wool. Unfortunately, my colour splashes are much shorter and it just didn’t look right. I carried on for a bit, just to be sure, and then a good two inches into the foot, I frogged.

Attempt number two: Estonian Button Stitch Socks – from memory. Well my memory did not serve me well and the sock looked awful. The “buttons” pulled the stitches together and made gaps either side. So the sock was frogged back to the toe. Again.

Attempt number three: Hermione’s Everyday Socks. You can’t go wrong there, I thought. After all there are 5887 pairs of them on Ravelry. So off I went, knitting plain rows in-between the patterned rows until I had about two inches of foot. Again. Was I happy? No. The fabric felt very dense and I tried blaming it on the sock yarn even though it was quite normal otherwise. Something wasn’t right. In desperation I frogged. Again.

Attempt number four? Yes, there was a fourth attempt. I was in an aeroplane after all. I started anew with the same knit 3, purl 1 ribbing I’m doing on the sock I didn’t want to take with me! It works but I’m really not keen to knit the same pattern all over again right now.

So what did I learn? The patterned rows on Hermione are one purl for every three knit stitches and not one purl for every knit stitch. Estonian Button Stitch is quite different to what I was attempting to do and, done properly, I think this would match the yarn quite nicely.

My kind of KAL

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community, hand-knit, KAL, Knitalong, knitters, knitting, patterns, Ravelry, socks, Socks with Sarah, WIP

Last year I took part in the 2013 in 2013 Knitalong. This was a results-driven KAL to collectively knit 2013 pairs of socks in 2013. Every little bit helps and I felt quite pleased with my efforts (see this post). However, it was hard not to feel a little dispirited in the face of the super-fast knitters who were churning out knitting new socks by the day.

Full of good intentions to transform a couple of balls of stash into delicate lace shawls, as well as get started on the cardigan I was desperate to knit, I was going to leave off the sock-knitting for a while. Socks are ideal travel knitting but they were not going to be my main focus in 2014.

But suddenly there were sock knitters everywhere! KnittingSarah started a KAL and bloggers were posting pictures of their WIPs, all smitten by Socks with Sarah, a KAL for 2014. It’s dead simple. Knit socks. Every day. For a year. Well not literally whole socks every day, just parts of them! A few rounds, the heel, whatever. KnittingSarah has gone all out – there’s a Ravelry group with various threads for support and sharing and she has even started a series of video tutorials.

Like so many sock knitters before me, I’ve fallen in love with hand-knit socks: the more you wear them, the more you want to wear them. I no longer want to slum it in the shop-bought stuff. What better way could there be of slowly but surely filling my sock drawer? There’s more: this is a process-oriented knitalong so there are no prescribed patterns (although Sarah has suggestions), colours or pace; just a bit of sock every day. Now that does sound like my kind of KAL!

WIP Wednesday – progress

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cardigan, knitting, lace, shawls, socks, WIP, WIP Wednesday

This has been finished and its partner started

and the shawl that was at the interesting lacy part is nearly finished. I have just enough yarn for the cast off!

And yes, I did succumb to startitis. This will be a Fairfield cardigan.

WIP Wednesday

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shawls, socks, WIP, WIP Wednesday

A sock that is nearly finished,

and a shawl that’s at the interesting lacy part

but I can feel a bout of startitis coming on…

My guilty garter pleasure

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Basic knitted fabrics, garter, knitting, purl, shawls, texture, WIP, wool

I love knitting. I particularly like making knit stitches rather than purl ones. So socks and other items knit in the round are very appealing –  lots of knitting and no or very little purling depending on the pattern. But I’d forgotten just what a lovely fabric knit stitches knit flat (better known as garter stitch) can be! Especially in 100% soft merino. Even more so in lace weight. Perfect.

That’s another project started!

My first WIP Wednesday

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clothing, gift, knitting, projects, socks, WIP, WIP Wednesday, yarn

Older daughter chose this lovely purply-grey wool from my stash and then wished for plain stocking stitch socks.

Easy to knit but a tad boring… so here’s where I’m getting a thrill!