More Tubes

I've continued to practise going round and round. This time with the grey silky wool which I bought at the Handknitters' Guild sale and spun up the next day.Just now I'd like to rename the silky wool and slinky wool--it's so slippery and I'm using metal needles. I don't normally fuss much about the needles that I use, but if you look carefully at the wristwarmer that I've finished, you might notice that there's about an inch of rib on the far right. To knit the rib I have to change the orientation of the working needle after every stitch. With slippery wool on metal needles, that feels like the proverbial can of worms. Oh well . . . overall I was pleased with how the knitting went ahead and I hope to have another completed project to check off my list soon.

Round and Red

Remember my "round and round" challenge? I've been getting myself used to using four double pointed needles to make knitted tubes. I've been happily wearing those wrist warmers and decided I could use another pair. Another recent personal challenge has been to wear a bit more brightness than usual--and to find some accessories to complement my new trousers. Yesterday those two challenges came together in a pretty bit of spontenaeity. Here's the result: Knitted wrist warmers with a touch of red--the red and blue stripe is a crochet trim--and a crochet hat to match. The hat is done with the two yarns held together and 5 mm crochet hook, so it's really thick and solid. And today just happens to be Bastille day. I'm not expecting to storm any fortresses, but with a forecast of 13, hail and a possible thunder storm, I could do with a bit of extra protection from the elements.

Ready to Wear

I started knitting this cowl last week and now it's ready to wear:
Very simple--stocking stitch all the way, which when I'm knitting in the round means just a plain knit stitch over and over and over. The way it drapes around the neck means that you can see a great deal of the reverse as well. It's soft and warm. I'm looking forward to wearing it.

Apologies for the pic being on my delapidated manequin. I did try taking it on my --delapidated:)--self, but I had to use the flash which on my not-so clean mirrors resulted in all sorts of smoky, blurred effects, but no decent view of the actual cowl.

Now today I have more rinsing to do; dyes to use up and a great need of a general tidy up. I'm tempted to cast on something else to take the place of the purple cowl in its simplicity and warm fuzziness, but I really should do some more swatches for my folio first. Hmmm, I think I'll make a coffee while I wrestle with my conscience on that point.

Round and Round

I made myself this little cutey yesterday. There's another one on my needles. The hand part is knitted back and forth in garter stitch and the stocking stitch section is knitted in the round.I'm getting a lot more comfortable juggling the four needles and knitting in circles. By the way, I've just noticed the colour of my skin in the pic--don't worry, I'm not dying of cold. It's a grey day and there's not enough light in my front room to take a better shot, and I've still got "learn about white balance" on my camera "to do" list. If you need a reference point, this is actually the same yarn as yesterday's post.

Meanwhile in other news, I picked up my car yesterday. I'm very happy about having my very own wheels again. So I'm about to hop in the car and zip around to various places which have been much less accessible lately. I'm so excited that I'll have to restrain my desire to just go everywhere today!

Pointy Sticks

For the past few years I've been edging myself towards the possibility of knitting socks. My main obstacle was the fact that I normally knit with one needle tucked under my arm. If you think about the geometry, you will soon find that there's no way to make a circle of knitting with an armpit in the middle. Believe me!

This year I've done several small projects on circular needles. That's been ok. So, now for the challenge of double pointed needles. Four of them:
Please note: this is not a sock. If all goes well, it will be a little wrist warmer. I like to break my challenges down into small, small steps. For the first few rows I was constantly dodging and rearranging needles. Now I've got a bit more of a rhythm going, but it's still rather awkward. It seems as though there's more bulk of needles than actual knitting in my hands. Come to think of it, I guess there is. So, I'm persisting. I'm given to understand--isn't that a great cop out phrase!--that if I just keep knitting along, I'll eventually stop worrying about the four pointy sticks I'm holding and get back to enjoying the knitting. OK, knitting, knitting, knitting . . .

Knitting Style

I'm usually a "pit knitter"--I tuck my right knitting needle under my arm to support the weight of the knitting. That leaves my hand free to flick the wool over the needle. It's not the fastest way of knitting in the world, but it's comfortable. Above all, it's the style that my muscles have learnt to consider as "normal". Usually I'm happy with that style of knitting. But there are a few situations when a different style works better. If I'm managing lots of stitches--a scarf knit sideways for example--it's easier to use a circular needle to distribute the bulk of stitches more evenly. And then of course to actually knit in the round--that just can't be done with a needle tucked under my arm. So, I've been practising a different style of knitting. The only way I can do it at the moment is to actually use a circular needle: I'm getting there, but it feels wierd and I'm still rather awkward at it. It's a bit like writing with your non-dominant hand: the logical part of your brain knows what is wanted, but the part of your brain responsible for movement control takes extra time to process, and then the movement doesn't flow as smoothly. I'm working on the assumption that practice is the only solution. So I currently have two projects going on circular needles. The red alpaca-wool in this pic, and the variegated wool-silk I featured a few weeks ago. When I'm feeling a bit more confident I want to have another go at socks.

If you're wondering about my weaving sample, rest easy. I finished the threading yesterday and have started the next step. I seem to have mis-counted the number of warp threads, so I'm checking and double-checking as I go along. Worst case scenario I can just drop off some extra warp threads at one end of the weaving. I guess mistakes like that is one reason to do sampling--better make the mistakes now than with the real thing.