I've moved!

Just in time for the New Year - if anyone's still around, please redirect your links here:

Elevenses

Hope you like the new blog!

Watch this space...

Cos I'm moving, baby!

Not, as we had hoped, out of London - the sale of our flat fell through a day before completion - but to another, better (and hopefully more updated) blog! I'm working on it now, so I'll be posting a link to it when looks the way I want it too - for those who are still around, that it.

Reasons? Well, this year has been - shall we say - challenging, and I didn't really want to post about any of that - it's been frustrating and boring at the same time - and I didn't those frustrations to come out in the tone of my writing. I feel like I need a clean page, so to speak.

Also, although I've been knitting up a storm and I've got lots of projects and news to share, I want my new blog to have a slightly different focus. Of course, there'll still be lots of knitting, but I'm hoping to explore some other creative avenues in 2009 too - the urge to quilt has really come upon me, for example - so the new blog will reflect that.

Thanks to those who've stuck around on the blog and commented, and also to those who know me in real life - I feel like I haven't really been myself over the past few months, but hopefully, 2009 won't be as bad as 2008 has turned out to be and I'll be bright eyed and bushy tailed once more!

This is why I love the New Year - however arbitrary it is, for me it always signifies fresh starts, new beginnings and a chance for change.

Watch this space.

Hope and Change

I haven't been on this blog very much lately (and I have so much to blog about!) because, frankly, I've been preoccupied. If I tell you that we're in the process of selling our flat and buying a house, then you'll have a fair idea about my levels of anxiety and stress. People (and there have been many) who have told me (very helpfully. Because I had no idea.) that it's a tough market out there and not the best time to sell property? They were right. Don't do it, unless you really, really, really have to.

But I had to blog because at four o'clock this morning, Steve and I woke up to the news that Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States. We listened to John McCain's concession speech, and Barack Obama's speech, and despite the terrible condition of the economy, despite the fact that every day brings another piece of news that impacts on our property wheelings and dealings, I feel hopeful, optimistic, excited. Barack Obama inspires confidence, loyalty, trust. He's a man of intelligence, honesty and dignity and he's exactly the type of person you want to lead America. Someone you feel will make decisions based on evidence, not kneejerk reactions, someone who truly cares about people in all stratas of society, someone who actually understands that what America does - both in its foreign and domestic policies - impacts the rest of the world.

Of course, I couldn't vote. But, for the first time in ages, rather than backing one candidate only because the alternative is worse, I wanted Barack Obama to win because I think he's by far the best candidate in these precarious times. I know Obama has a lot to do, but I'm enormously optimistic about his presidency. Bring on 20 January!

SeSaSoSwa questionnaire

1. What are your favourite colours and fibres?

I love blues and greens, red and oranges - also pink, as long as it's a strong pink - not so great on pastels. Although I loved the most recent sock club yarn to bits! As for fibre - I love wearing and working on cashmere, but I also love the versatility of a really good superwash merino...

2. Anything that makes your toes curl? (Fibre, colour, other)

I like pretty much all colours, but not anything 'wishy washy', if that makes sense... pastels don't usually float my boat, I'm not much into beige. I used to hate yellow, but I really like it now...

Fibres - I'm a socktopod, aren't I! So nothing novelty or acrylic - although of course if there's a lovely sock yarn with a bit of acrylic in it to strengthen it, then I'm certainly not going to turn my nose up at it!

But the biggest things is that I HATE BANANAS - I hate everything about them, the smell, the texture, the taste... (shiver). I can barely look at them, to be honest. Steve isn't allowed to bring them into the house (though he does defy that rule occasionally...)

3. Would you describe yourself as a beginner, intermediate or advanced knitter?

I would say intermediate to advanced - there's always a new technique or stitch pattern to try.

4. Do you have an online wishlist? (Amazon or other)

Nope!

5. Any new techniques you'd like to learn?

Erm... I can't think of anything at the moment. I'd like to master crochet...

6. What is your favourite:

Snack? Easy - chocolate!
Book? I hate loads of authors I love, Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is fantastic, I love The Sea The Sea, Iris Murdoch, The Secret History, Donna Tartt, I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith, Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons... I really love graphic novels (Black Hole, Dan Clowes, Persepolis, Chris Ware...), crime novels (Ian Rankin, Denise Mina) and Stephen King is a guilty pleasure. I LOVE listening to audiobooks.
Movie? Don't Look Now, Donnie Darko, The Royal Tenebaums - I also have a thing for horror movies (the atmospheric kind, not the stupid gory kind)
Music? lots of things but at the moment, Mogwai, Mark Lanegan & Isobel Campbell, Tom Waits, M83, Arcade Fire, Cocteau Twins...

7. What are your favourite items to knit?

Socks and Lace. Also sweaters.

8. Any patterns that are top of your queue?

Hemlock ring blanket, February Lady sweater

9. Do you have any other hobbies?

I'd like to take up quilting but knitting is all-consuming, at the moment!

10. Tell us about yourself. When did you first pick up your needles? Who/what encouraged you to start knitting? How would you describe your knitting style? Are you a process knitter or a product knitter, etc

My grandma taught me to knit when I was quite young - not exactly sure how old I was, about seven or eight? I've been picking up and putting down knitting until last year when I caught the knitting bug seriously bad. I have tonnes of WIPS all over the place, which I feel bad about - more so than my 25 miles of sock yarn. I love knitting watching movies or listening to podcasts. Am I a process knitter or a product knitter? Hmmm - I think I'm pretty much fifty-fifty - I do love the finished product, but I also love the act of knitting.

Vest Vaulting

Well, the Ravelympics have started (I was totally blown away by the Olympics opening ceremony - wasn't it amazing?) and I'm slogging away on Dr. G's Memory Vest for Bike Boy. It's a great pattern - and the proceeds go to research into Alzheimer's - but I think I have hit the wall.

The back went really quickly. This was where I got up to by Monday morning.

By Tuesday I had finished the back.

But now? Now I'm just inching my way up the front. There are 23 bars (that's a bar every four rows) until I get to the armhole shaping, and I've done six.

Right now, all I want to do is knit socks. And I don't mean finish any of the socks that are on my needles, oh no no no. I want to cast on for more. But what?

Alice from Slipped Stitch's Bacchus Socks, which I'll do in my Indigo Moon Cedar Teal. I can't stop thinking about these socks. I'd probably go up a needle size and add a few more stitches to take into account my clodhoppers.

Empoisonee from the Twist Collective's unbelievably impressive first issue, in Laura Rockettes, by Posh Yarn.

Another Posh Yarn knit: Algernon from Fiber Dreams. I'd do this in Lucia Trance.

Maelstrom, again from the Twist Collective, this time in this wonderful semi-solid from Artsy gal.

And I've been wanting to try out Bartholomew's Tantalising Socks from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters ever since I bought the book. I'd do this in Silkwood, which I bought myself for my birthday.

And then there's the club patterns: Karenina and Mosaic, from Socktopus, both of which I'm dying to knit up. Not to mention Leafling and Cleopatra's Stockings from Socks that Rock.

But no. I must knit on. This is turning out to be an endurance event.

Ta daa!

Fiori di Zucca - they are finished!


What an absolute joy these were to knit! I love lace...

These were designed by Alice, and when we were speaking last week, she said that she hoped that her club would introduce something new each time. Alice was inspired by Cat Bordhi's sock architecture and this was the first time I've made socks using her unconventional technique. And I've got to say that I love the heel.

The other thing that I've never been able to get my head around was concealing wraps. Alice's explanation was so clear that now, by Jove, I think I've got it!

(two posts in two days - I can hardly believe it myself...)

How do I love socks? Let me count the ways...

I was at iKnit on Tuesday night for the Kniterati evening (great discussion, loads of new people and Alice has agreed to help out! Woo hoo!) and a new person said - while I was getting myself organised, which somehow meant taking everything out of my bag and putting it back in again - 'You like knitting socks, don't you?'

I looked down. In one hand I held the gumdrops socks from the last Socks that Rock club shipment, in the other was the uptown boot socks for the Interweave Knitalong that I belong to.

I think she was right in that assessment (but hey, she is a police detective after all! Good sleuthing!).

So, as a procrastination device, I thought, wouldn't it be excellent to take a photo of all my socks in progress. Here is the result.



Seven pairs of socks. It makes me feel slightly nervous. So some I'm going to send to the frog pond, some I'm going to keep. Here's my reasoning.

Keep

Fiori di Zucca
Miss Malice
Socktopus sock club shipment.
Dream in Color Smooshy in Pistaschio

Almost there! In fact, I should have them finished tonight. These have been such a pleasure to knit. The pattern looks complicated but is in fact very easy, and Alice does a very good job of explaining how to conceal wrap stitches. I finally get it now.

The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy. This will be making a repeat performance on this blog.
But the colourway was specially dyed for Socktopus club members. This is the fourth instalment in this fabulous sock club, only two more to go! Oh no! I'll have to renew my membership, how terrible!

Having Hope
Diane Mulholland
Dream in Color Smoothy in Into the Mystic

I love this colourway. Love love love it. And the pattern is beautiful and really well written, too. I love how they work together. And, all proceeds go to cancer research. It's very well worth it.

Gumdrops
JC Briar
Pagewood Farms Yukon in Crayon

I had been to Alice's to record an interview for our podcast and couldn't resist this yarn. And then when my socks that rock shipment arrived, I knew that this yarn would work so well. The yarn knits up beautifully, it has fantastic definition and doesn't mind the odd bit of frogging (don't ask me how I know).

Boring Black Socks
Me
Dream in Color Smooshy in Black Parade

Steve wanted me to knit him a pair of plain black socks. No cables, no nothing, just plain. They've been going since November. I hate them. They are the bane of my existence. See the finished one on the right? I got too excited that the end was finally near, finished the toe, only to realise that Steve has manly feet and I have to knit another three inches. It's Dream in Color, so of course the yarn is lovely to knit with, but I will never, ever knit Steve a pair of black socks again. Even if the colours shimmer like light off a beetle's back.

I'm entering these in the Knitting Olympics for WIP Wrestling. I think it's the only way I'll get them done.

Frog

Trystero
Cookie A.
Artsygal Sockclub

I love the yarn, I love the pattern. There is no way it's going to fit round my legs. I'm not sure what to do - add more stitches? Use a larger needle? Both? I don't know. It's a great pattern for varigated yarn, by the way, the cables aren't lost and the colours stand out.

Scroll Lace Socks
Rebekkah Kerner
Koigu KPPPM in P101 (catchy name)

I'm simply going to run out of yarn before I finish the toe. Perhaps this would be better as a BSJ?

Undecided

Uptown Boot Socks
Knitpicks in Bare

the cables just aren't sticking out but perhaps I can live with it. I'm not sure. If I frog, any suggestions for the yarn? Or perhaps use the same pattern but go down a needle size? My secret pal gave it to me last year along with some Kool Aid for dyeing, but I actually like the yarn as it is. Any thoughts?