Ribbit ribbit

Instead of knitting, lately I seem to have been mainly frogging!

First up was my Hypernova, which I started in January 2011.  I don't know why, but I just wasn't loving it as I should have, even though I bought a skein of Wollmeise Lacegarn in Rosenrot specially for it.  Perhaps it was making a few mistakes early on, perhaps it was getting sidetracked with other projects, but eventually I looked at it and realised I was never going to finish it.  Since January 2011 I've mysteriously managed to acquire, um, "some" more WM Lacegarn and on a number of occasions have thought how much more I'd like Hypernova in one of the other colours.  Equally, Rosenrot has other potential.  So I frogged - quite liberating!  This was a badly overexposed picture taken with flash, that makes the Rosenrot look neon.

A harder decision was my Glows, started way back in August 2010 with one of my very first skeins of Wollmeise, obtained at Knit Nation.  I "only" bought three skeins, and they were all highly variegated multis.  Having never knitted with multis before, I had no clue about pattern selection and having fallen in love with Julia Mueller's designs that were displayed on the Wollmeise stand, I wanted to knit one of her patterns.  I picked Glows and it was going swimmingly on the cuff section, but when I got to the intricate cables I knew doubt.  A lot of doubt.  I even resorted to asking my OH if he thought the colour was too much for the pattern - I don't think he really understood what I was asking, and I think he felt (bless him) that he was supposed to validate my choices and said that it looked great.  I persevered, with this nagging doubt at the back of my mind, until I got to the start of the thumb, at which point I put it down in favour of other things and never picked it up again.  It seemed clear what needed to be done, but the amount of work that had gone into getting that far put me off.  I agonised for some time and eventually took a deep breath, pulled the needles out and ripripripped - the Johannesbeer und Brennessel will find a happier home in something like one of Martina Behm's lovely patterns, and I can find another, semisolid, yarn for the Glows which will work much better.

Polaris

My first project of the new year, Polaris.  This was made in Wollmeise 100% in Merlot with silver beads.  It was my first ever beaded project, and I'm delighted with the way it turned out.

Here's one I made earlier

But no sticky backed plastic was involved at any stage!  This is my first pair of socks since my teens, and my first ever with proper sock yarn.  The pattern is Nasturtium and the yarn is Wollmeise 80/20 Twin in Morchren.  I made these over the course of September 2011, but never got round to posting them.

Stephen West's Earth and Sky

Now that the KAL is over, I can publicly post the photos of my finished shawl without it being a spoiler, so here they are. It's called Earth and Sky, but there's not much of that in my shawl! More like Berries and Cream, I think. I made the smallest size, the miles stocking stitch involved in the bigger versions was rather offputting!

Symetrie hat

Here is my finished Symetrie hat, I finished the knitting on Saturday, didn't get round to blocking it until Monday and it was dry this morning. I love this pattern, so easy but the way the yarn is dyed really shows up well.

Current projects

Or some of them, anyway!

The story here is that Wollmeise shuts up shop for the month of August, so a few people on the Ravelry Wollmeiseholics Anonymous group decided to set up some KALs under the heading "Wollmeise Withdrawal Madness Month", and I've decided to join in with some of them. We have two months from 1 August to 30 September to finish our projects, so in the spirit of biting off more than I can chew I've signed up for the General Shawl KAL, the Kitchen Sink KAL (for everything that isn't a garment, shawl or socks), the General Sock KAL and the Honeybee Cardigan KAL.

For the shawl KAL, I've decided to double it up with the Stephen West "Earth & Sky" mystery shawl KAL, which is supposed to be all done by the end of August so I'm working on the basis that once that's over I'll have more time for the others. It uses three colours, mine are Wollmeise 100% in Natur, Daisy and Himbeere.

This is all I'm going to show here until the KAL is over, as I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but if you do want to see how it progresses my Ravelry project page is here.

The other KALs aren't mysteries, so I can show you those. The only one I've started apart from the Westknits one is Symetrie by Woolly Wormhead, and this is more or less how it looks now (I've actually got several more rows done):

This is Wollmeise 100% in Rattenscharf.

The others, which I haven't cast on yet, are Nasturtium socks which I'll do in a bright orange Wollmeise twin, and Honeybee cardigan - I'll make the cropped version in Wollmeise 100% in red.  I'll add photos of these when I get started on them.

Some other recent presents

Some other presents I've made this year.  Firstly, a Hitchhiker in Wollmeise 100%, colourway Chim Chim Chimney, for my sister's birthday:

And here is a little teddy I made for my two-year-old nephew's birthday:

The pattern is from Val Pierce's "Twenty to Make: Knitted Bears", but I changed the letter on the front from a B to a D as that's my nephew's initial.

Spriteling

Having just mentioned my Spriteling, I thought I'd post the progress photos, while I wait for good enough weather and a helper to take a proper photo of the finished shawl.

This was clue 1:

After finishing clue 2:

After clue 3:

After the fourth and final clue, before blocking:

While blocking:

The last picture is probably the truest to colour, the others were taken in all sorts of strange lighting conditions because I didn't want to delay starting the next clue just for the sake of taking photos!

Knit Nation - the spoils

Here is my entire haul of goodies from Knit Nation:

At the back is a load of patterns from The Bothered Owl and Natural Dye Studios, some free magazines from Twisted Angle, all three of Ysolda’s books, Jeanette Sloan’s book and Best in Show (also pre-ordered the cat version). On the far left are some bags of fibre and some badges from John Arbon and a bag kit from Debonnaire. There’s more fibre at the front, this time from Krafty Koala. The yarn all piled up all over the sofa includes my lovely bingo prize, Habu mohair, four skeins of Wollmeise lace, three skeins each of WM twin and 100%, the yarn from the London in Stitches set, three skeins of different gorgeousness from Artisan Yarns, ten balls of Camelot from the Little Knitting Company in some lovely new colours, three skeins of Knit Global sock, four skeins of silk from NDS and ten balls of Papiro from LKC. On the far right and mostly hidden under everything else are several project bags acquired over the weekend. It looks pretty obscene laid out like this, but I’d been saving for ages and this was my big treat for the year! And it’s got to keep me going for two years this time, so… And anyway, for once I actually have patterns in mind for most of this, honest!  The yarn is shown below in more detail.

This is Habu's mohair/silk, for Cocoknits' Maria:

Mohair from Artisan Yarns, came as a kit with a cowl pattern:

Silk from Artisan Yarns, this is destined to be Nightsongs:

Artisan Yarns' Teifi Dance, which is likely to become a Damson:

Two skeins each in two different colours of The Natural Dye Studio's Precious silk lace, which will be the patterns shown with the skeins:

Knit Global sock yarn, which is intended for a stole pattern from Jeanette Sloan's Collection One:

The Little Knitting Company's Papiro, for a pretty scoop neck top:

LKC's Camelot, in red and purple, which I haven't quite decided what they'll be yet:

Yet another skein of Wollmeise lace, this time picked up on impulse on the Sunday, in Schwarz:

I have this crazy idea in my head of it being a Shipwreck shawl with red beads, but I know it would drive me insane to knit in black laceweight - what am I thinking?!!

This is the Knitting Goddess "A Path Through London" from the London in Stitches set:

Viola sock in Ghost, part of the bingo prize donated by Loop:

Wollmeise 100% in Campari Piccolo, bingo prize again:

Dye For Yarn in Nightmare of the Blue Sea, also from the bingo prize:

Polyester cord from the Debonnaire bag kit, it's for a string bag type shopping bag:

So, that was my adventures at Knit Nation!  Now I only have to knit all this stuff...

Knit Nation - Friday

I've been dithering about what to post first, as so much has built up in the almost year since I last posted, so I've finally decided to do the most recent thing first and then go back and do the rest!

The most recent thing was Knit Nation in July.  I went for the whole weekend with my mother and sister.  On the Friday, while they did Franklin Habit's photography class (I wasn't quick enough to book myself on that one as well) I did a class with Elise Duvekot (author of "Knit One Below: One Stitch Many Fabrics") called Columns of Cables with Knit One Below.  Here is my little swatch that I made during the class:

On the Friday evening, the Marketplace was opened for a preview for students.  I dived into the Wollmeise related scrum at the Loop stand without stopping to think whether it was a good idea or not - it turned out not to be!  I adore Wollmeise but if I had my time again I think I'd wait until near the end of the preview when it would have hopefully died down a bit, and just picked through whatever was left.  I did manage to get several colours that I've wanted for ages, though, so it was worth it!

Lace in Silberdistel:

Lace in Strohblume:

Lace in 0-Rh-Negative:

100% Merino Superwash in Daisy:

100% in Mauseballett:

100% in Raku Regenbogen:

Twin (80/20 Merino/Nylon) in Wichtelwaltzer:

80/20 in Skandal Um Rosi:

80/20 in Sultan:

I also collected my pre-ordered London in Stitches set from The Bothered Owl:

And I couldn't resist their project bag made from a Doctor Who themed fabric, and the One Hand Knits pattern "Time And Relative Dimension In Socks" to go with it!

That was all I had the energy for that evening, the Wollmeise stampede rather took it out of me!