How quickly 2004 has come and gone. For me, I'm glad to see 2004 over... roll on 2005. On a personal level, the year has been somewhat of a rollercoaster ride.
So, with 2005, I hope that the bad spirits get swept away and the good spirits come back to stay.
Oh yes, and here are my new year socks. I finished them last night and gave them a quick block before shoving them onto the scanner. It was hard work making them identical.
Rib socks always look a bit funny when they aren't on feet, but the fit is really good
My New Year Resolutions?
- knit more for ME!
- don't take friends and family for granted and be much better keeping in touch with people. I'm going to try and answer emails and not just put them aside because I get busy and forget to do it.
- be on time and stop procrastinating
- be tidier
I wish everyone a happy new year.
There I was, cranking out knitting for all my friends for Christmas, prioritising by
(1) People who have never received anything made by me
(2) People who I really wanted to make something for
(3) People who were going to get chocolate because I knew there was no way, I was going to be able to make the deadlines.
I firmly decided, that anything not on the needles by Dec 20th was going into (3).
All through this, I really wanted to make something for myself. Every year, we always get a chill from the north around Christmas, and after a tromp down the Deer Park, I realised, that I really need some warm socks for me. So the last thing that I will finish in 2004 will be something for me. Yes, I'm making myself some Opal socks. This yarn is from the Brasil Collection. I bought it ages ago (about 2 years) and kind of went into a hiatus for buying sock yarns like mad from Martina. I was buying boxes of 16 and knitting about 3-4 pairs before I bought more. Whilst I love all my sock yarn, I had to be more realistic. I can only continue at that rate, if I was willing to give up all other knitting. Anyway, 2002-2003 was the year of sock. 2004 is/was most definitely the year of lace. I've noticed that I've done a large proportion of Evelyn Clark and Kim Hargreaves patterns and managed to branch out significantly from Rowan/Jaeger/Debbie Bliss patterns. That's must be the influence of the web because with the exception of socks, I'm primarily a Rowan/Jaeger/Debbie Bliss knitter.
I'm enjoying these socks so much (and they are really just a simple 4 x2 rib), that I might just make another pair for myself when I'm done. So there you go, I've become a **selfish** knitter. The only thing is, I can't decide what next. Should I use up some of my precious Knit Happens Dale Tiur and make the Denmark socks from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road ?
Just as I was writing this, I get an e-mail from Temptress Dawn, alerting me to a sock exchange at the Blue Blog . Am I in? Oh please... of course, I'm in. Just call me lemming.
I'd better finish these opals first. I do intend to wear them on Jan 1 2005.
What a better way to welcome in the new year... well, I mean what a better way, aside from attending the annual Cherry Tree Hill sale. Yes, my alarm will be set at 4:30am and I will be armed to order all and sundry. Yes, I know, how sad. Some people plan their New Year festivities around parties and seeing friends, and I plan mine around annual yarn sales.
Christmas is always a family occasion for me. I think that it is important to make the effort each year. Of course, making effort, doesn't mean buying lots of expensive presents, but taking to time to chose the right present and to enjoy good food together.
It also means taking to time to decorate the house....
and laying out the table properly...
and hunting down your Christmas lunch(*).
No Christmas would be complete without a Christmas Day walk. I'm very fortunate to be within a quick drive to Richmond Deer Park. There are several herds that are permitted to roam in the park and pose little danger to humans (the only time that they can be dangerous is during the mating season and well, if you see an antler deer come at you, I would suggest that you back off quickly.)
The deer park is smack in the middle of town. You can even see building in the background of this photo.
Of course, after a large meal (turkey with the trimmings, bread sauce, brussels sprouts, roast potatoes, peas and carrots, Christmas pudding and cheese, I put my feet up for little snooze (it's supposed to aid in digesting the food).
Afterwards, I took out my Tina and finished the center square whilst watching Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on BBC 1 and then the Italian Job on DVD (the orginal one with Michael Caine and his birds).
I've picked up the stitches around the center and realised with horror that I have 480 stitches on the needles and it's going to take forever to knit one round. But what the heck, it is Christmas. The yarn is a cashmere merino laceweight that I bought from Scotland, in a very soft linen colour. It's very soft and yummy, perfect for a Christening shawl.
* No deer were harmed for my Christmas meal, well, not for this year's Christmas meal.
My best wishes to all of you and your family for a safe and happy Christmas.
The last pressie to roll off the All Tangled Up needles for 2004 are the Pink Beaded Socks from the Six Sox Knit-along. Must be an awful lot of last minute knitting happening because it would appear that I'm the 8th person to finish. Normally, I'm one of the last ones to roll in.
Unfortunately, that temptress Dawn waved her beautiful Pink beads in front of my face and suddenly I felt inspired to knit them and to knit them fast. Just as I was about to succumb to a scarf, I chose socks.
How did I finish them so quickly? I actually finished them yesterday and washed and blocked them. I set myself some goals. On Sunday night, as I cast on sock 2, I set myself a deadline to finish by Thursday. So Sunday night, I stayed up until I got to the beading. Monday, I got to heel turning. Tuesday, past the gusset and to the toes.. what the heck might as well finish it and give it a wash. So now, I'm done and time to find something else to do.
Maybe, I'll just catch-up/start on the FiddleSticks Knit-along. Can't try and plan everything too closely. Life's not fun, if it's too predictable.
I'm also getting myself a Christmas present this year. A little carrot that I've been promising myself for meeting the deadline.
Kiri
Tracy, brave soul is also hosting a knit-along for Kiri. So if you want to join in, go visit her and drop her a note. I'm going to enjoy watching everyone's beautiful shawls roll in, which recovering from the nasty lurgy.
First to answer Dana's question : what do you re: blocking? have a pair of socks with cables, made out of superwash merino, and I don't want to flatten the cables but I want them to look "finished."
Well, usually, I block with steam, pin out the sock and give it a couple of bursts from the iron. It doesn't faltten the cables but does even up the stitches. Since I was too lazy to haul out the iron, I blocked by bending a wire hanger into the shape that I wanted and voila... instant blockers
Today, I'm one happy bunny. Why? Well, Tracy's gone and made Kiri and she's finished it without mishap. I'm so nervous about leading people up the garden path, so to speak when I write up patterns. Tracy's gone and done it in Koigu and the colours are really fabulous. Her garden's wonderful too, still green and lush, while mine resembles the Somme after the battle.
As promised, a daylight picture of the Baby cable socks. See what I mean about the colours being much nicer under natural lighting?
After seeing Rowanette Dawn's wonderful beaded socks from the Six Sox Knitalong, I too decided to finally cast on mine. Of course, I didn't RTFM. So, hadn't realised that you had to use the crochet hook method to get the beads on. I strung then on and did the cuff and about 2 inched down and then looked at the pattern. Ouch... ! It wasn't going to work I had 2 choices, rip and start again or modify the pattern. So, I did the latter. There just wasn;t any way that I was going to wait until next week to got buy a crochet hook small enough to string beads. I might be a perfectionist, but I 'm also realistic. These socks need to be done in the next few days.
Question : Well, after comments from Sissel and Susan, I was dying to know.. will this sock pool at the gusset and wreck the harmony that I'd work (let me remind you, I've ripped 4 times) so hard to achieve?
Answer : Do pigs fly?
It didn't on the first, so I tried again on the second and had similar results.
The colours are far lovier in real life and I'm going to take a photo in daylight just to show how pretty they are. There was a bit of pooling at the gusset but it's not too bad. I'm just pleased that the yarn behaved itself when I got to the foot.
Now, the thing about giving knitters yarns or kits for Christmas is, I always do that and as a knitter who has been working her you know what off doing Christmas presents, wouldn't any knitter prefer to have some made for them that more yarn for the stash? Although the choice between chocolates and hand knitted goodies can be hard to make, especially, if it's Belgian chocolate. If you think Swiss chocolate is better, you can always send me some and I can do a blind taste test :-)
(NB: I'm not caging for free choccies... really, it was only a joke.. and yes, I am a wee bit obsessive)
I so often read about people loving variegated yarns on the hank, but hating it, when it's knitted up. The reason for the hate seems to be related to the pooling effect when the fabric gets globs of colours gathering together. It appears that there is some sort of magic number of stitches per inch that would prevent this from happening, but due to the nature of hand processing, this magic number varies from skein to skein. So knitting with variegated yarns not only requires a certain amount of persistence but also requires an openness to accepting the pooling effect. You can get around this by using 2 skeins, but when working socks, 2 skeins just isn't that practical.
After 4 goes at this sock, I think that I've cracked one of the magic numbers for this skein. It's Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock in Jaypond. I'm going to admit that I prefer this colour knitted up far more than on the skein. I've tried out a variety of patterns from a very simple lace to the Unst sock from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road. All these designs gave too much pooling. In the end, I went up a needle size and worked a simple rib with a baby cable. What can I say but oooooh, I think I'm hitting my stride, so better not slow down.
The salmon goes really well with the blues and greens. I was a bit put off by it when I started but now I really like the way that it adds a dash of excitement to the fabric. These are still going into the Christmas pile, but I've found myself suddenly a falling behind schedule and also longing for some socks for me. (must be because the nights are getting colder)
I'm only behind schedule because I keep ripping, dissatified with the pooling, the effect of the lace patterns with the yarn, etc. Knitting gifts can be so fraught, esp. when making things for knitters. You want to make something really nice because the recipient is a knitter and would appreciate it, but then the paranoia starts setting in what if it isn't good enough? What if she'll think that I didn't bothering choosing more expensive yarns or a more appropriate style or worst, what if the recipient would rather have the yarn and make it herself?
Givin these thoughts means I'm considering giving up and just sending chocolate ;-) Now that's food for thought.
Must knit and party less.... !
I snuck off for a little R&R to fortify myself for the onslaught of Christmas. One of the great things about London is, it only takes 2 hours 20 minutes to get to Brussels by Eurostar.
Christmas on the continent, especially in the northern countries is particularly delightful, at Christmas time. There must had been at least a Christmas market at every major square. The larger ones even had ice rinks set-up, but all of them had gluhwen.
Gluhwein is a deceptively potent blend of alcohol and spices. It was so cold in Brugge that I could feel the gluhwein making it's way to my tummy. Minutes later, I was warmer and convinced that I was fluent in Flemish and making eyes at these fellows.
Brugge is a lovely city, full of lace and chocolate shops. Naturally, given my recent lace obsession, I was in heaven. The Mendling museum was just the perfect touch, small enough to enjoy with many treasures to see.
Brussels was flooded with tourists (mostly British ones), so we went off the beaten track. The Museé de Bande Dessin was an interesting way to spend the morning. I must admit that the building was fantastic and whilst the comic exhibition was nice, it's interesting to note that aside from Tintin, the Smurfs and Spirou, most of the Belgian strips were unknown to me.
Of course, there were the waffles.
A visit to Waterloo, would of course be a requisite for any history buff.
Waterloo was one of the pivotal point for the formation of modern Europe. I climbed 226 steps up the Butte de Lion, the memorial comerating the battle and where the Prince of Orange was wounded. It was a lot of steps to see this.
I did take photo of the layout of the battle, just in case you wanted proof that I did the climb
The highlight of the trip was having diiner at Chez Leon with Stéphanie and I got to enjoy my stoemp (an interesting pureé of root vegetables) and drink at Mort Subite, a fine drinking establishment with atmosphere and nicotine stained ceiling. All in all, a fabulous trip, even if I didn't find a single wool shop.
(Check the handknits ...Stéphanie's wearing her beautiful hat and scarf... and I'm wearing the KSH Puzzle Shawl from Rowanette Judith and my Easy Cardigan, aren't we the stylish pair. OK Stéphanie is stylish and I'm stylish by association).
If you're still in Christmas knitting hell, may I suggest soap bags? One bag can be done in about an hour. You buy some posh soap, like from Floris. Some nice ribbon, from Liberty. Using oddments of cotton, this was left over from the Star Bag that I did.
and voila!
Should you feel super ambitious, you can even do a matching wash cloth. What I like about this, is that it's fast, easy to adapt and adds a personal touch to soap bought present, I mean anyone can go out and buy some nice soap, but it takes a knitter to make it this special.
And btw, did you know that Posh originated from travels to the East? Port out, starboard home, were the most desirable location on the boat out to India and back to home. Amazing the things you can learn from the Greenwich Maritime Museum.
First, check out my blueberry waffles. I am so proud of them.
Here's a close-up of the heel and gusset.
These are one large pair of man socks, in a boring shade of heathery blue, that was given to me by Rowanette Dawn. I keep thinking, what I wouldn't give to have my recipients want socks from bright colours.
Kiri
Link on the left. Let me know if you find any errors. I tried really hard to make it error free but I'm sure that I missed something. If you're a newby, I would suggest that you wait a week before starting. I really need to have nothing to do with it for a few days to give it, it's final proofing.