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.

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 - Saturday

We didn't actually spend much (any) time at Knit Nation during the day, due to other commitments such as seeing a show ("Wicked", which was excellent) and shopping elsewhere.

The elsewhere shopping was mainly Hobbycraft near my sister's flat, they had an offer on kits so I couldn't resist the opportunity to try some new crafts:

Soap, candle and lace making will all be making an appearance in my future!  The stack of little boxes will do very nicely for jewellery findings and so on.

The only visit to KN during the day was a quick stop to deliver and collect swap parcels - this was arranged via Ravelry for members of the Knit Love Club sock club.  My parcel for my swapee included this bookmark and a set of stitch markers I made myself.

I was given a parcel by a lovely lady called Mel, which included some very pretty yarn she'd dyed herself.

That night, we went to the KN bingo party in aid of Refuge.  I'd never played bingo before, but somehow I managed to win a prize!

So, at the end of a very long and busy day, we made our way to our posh hotel (below) where we were staying for the night, ate sandwiches purchased at Earl's Court tube station, and collapsed into bed.

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!

ABC Wednesday - Y

ABC Wednesday once again, and this week is the letter Y, which is for yarn. This is some of my yarn stash - some of this yarn is to be used in the projects that featured in my "Unfinished" photo for ABC Wednesday a couple of weeks ago.

For more Y photos, visit Mrs Nesbitt's Place.