Friday, January 18, 2008

Only 202 days to go...

I have a resolution. I realise it's 18 days into the New Year already, but I was thinking about a resolution I really wanted to achieve this year instead of something like not buying yarn in 2008. That just wouldn't work out for me - I would have my knitting needles crossed as I said it.

So I have it: 202 days until the start of the
Beijing Olympics.

In these 202 days I want to either complete or frog the following wips so that I will be prepared to take on the Olympic knitting challenge - which this year will be the completion of
Rogue (stop laughing - I can do this!) I have gauged Rogue - I know the needle size I need, the yarn is bought - I'm practically finished already!




At the moment I'm working on the 3 projects above - The Force scarf is a concentration/home one, the Summertime Tunic is a knitting group/work one, and the crochet wrap is for when my hands hurt from too much knitting!


These blasted armwarmers are practically finished - I'm up to the thumb of the second one - it would take me a weekend. Why can't I just get on with it?!


Above is Luna Moth - I'm going to go easier on myself for this one. It does require extreme concentration and about a gazillion stitch markers. I'm about halfway there. A quiet day off could make a big improvement in this. I want it for summer too...


Glasgow night/Kingfisher socks *sigh* my gauge was 7.5 stitches - yes I gauged in the round. Surely this deserves a reward, right? But no. My actual gauge is 8.5 stitches. So these must be frogged back a bit and made into wristwarmers now. Just psyching myself upto gathering the stitches to frog.



The 2 Branching Out scarves; the top one I want finished for spring time. The second one is to be frogged - Kidsilk Haze blows. It's just urg to knit with.


Picking up Pinwheel and learning short row shaping to try and bring her back to life is one of my biggest challenges. I'm going to do it though... I am!



And finally; Jaywalkers. I'm on turning the heel of the 2nd sock so again, not far to go. We'll just keep quiet about how these were my last Olympic knitting project *whisper* in 2006...

Wish me luck!!

Monday, January 07, 2008

It's been a while...


... but I didn't want to blog until Earnshaw was done. And now it is! (Yes I am hugging the radiator - it's freezing in Glasgow, and daylight for decent photographs is but a distant memory)

Earnshaw has a couple of problems ...



... it is a little wide. In fact I could fit one and half of me in it.


It has a breathtakingly strange-looking hood ...


... and the sleeves were a tad long.



But it is most definately loved!


I can finally blog about The Force scarf for the boy. Currently at 'orce be with you'; it will eventually say 'May the Force be with you'. The idea being that the force is always with you even if see it you cannot...

Above is the front view, and below is from the side - it's called Shadow Knitting, and I believe it originated in Japan.

I got the idea from a girl on Craftster and thought it would be a great Christmas present for the boy. (Yes I did wrap it on the needles ... )




Whilst tidying away the Christmas decorations, the boy was struck with one of those 'episodes' - you know the ones: The 'we have to get organised, and clean, and sort things out in the house!!' That kind of thing.

I was in the living room knitting and pretending I couldn't hear him calling me to get involved in the Great Cleaning Episode. This worked until I heard the sound of something large being thrown on the floor followed by the words 'do you want this stuff or not? ... since you haven't used it in three years!' Curiosity piqued (and fear of Important Things being discarded without my overseeing eye) I shuffled through to see what the large 'thing' was.

Turns out it was a binbag containing, amongst other things, the Tupperware lollypop maker passed to me from my mum. Bringing back memories of my childhood in Cyprus I had to bring them back to life. Plus ice lollies made from cranberry juice have got to be a good detoxifying start to my new year diet, right?



Yum!