Hexagons update

I just realised that I hadn't posted about the hexagons in a while, so here are some updates.

This year I have so far knitted up two skeins of Devon:

This one is all blues but in a strange twist, they're not quite as bright and vibrant as my phone has made them appear here. The variegation is also not quite as subtle as pictured.

Before that, I put to bed two skeins of Beverly:

Lots of green in this one that gave me a real Caribbean feel. I started knitting this yarn up in August whilst on holiday in the Lake District, where I think I managed a paltry half a pinwheel. 

Also last year, I knitted up two skeins of A River Runs Through It:

This looks pretty washed out in the pictures, but is a nice blues-and-beiges mix, like a sunny day in an arid land. 

So, that's 27 pinwheels in the past year, 6 skeins of yarn out, 67 pinwheels in total. I didn't realise my pinwheel hiatus had been so long - these are the first I had knitted since 2017. I am determined to add at least 18 more to the pile by the end of the year, which would mean I'd doubled my pinwheel stash in the space of two years. 

Weekend FO and WIPs

I keep coming across caches of yarn that are not listed in my Ravelry stash. I don't like it when this happens because it means that, when I knit it up, I can't clear something out of stash. Reading that back makes me worry about myself but, there it is. 

This ball of yarn was one such missing. I bought it from Pook online around NY 2018/19, prompted by Jo at knitting group who knows I am a fan of the watermelon. When I saw this Star Trek comm badge inspired pattern by the Yarniad, I knew that it was made for this ball.

Pattern: Engage

Yarn: One 100g ball of Pook Gradient Cake Merino Nylon sock yarn. The pattern called for a yarn that had 100m or so more in the skein, but I just knit to the end of the ball and was happy.

Needle: 3.75mm

Mods: None needed, other than making it a few repeats shorter. This was the easiest pattern I have ever come across, I think, short of a straight st-st scarf. It was done in about a week. 

I keep meaning to take post-blocking photographs. I blocked for length rather than width, so it has become a long, airy wisp, that folds lengthways to become a compact cowlish thing. I love the colours.

Now thinking about that OTHER watermelon gradient I got at Wonderwool and never listed on Ravelry. Sigh. 

Once this was done I got straight onto the baby dress I am knitting for my niece, mainly because I talked Mr Z into stringing the beads for me and I didn't want to look this gift horse in the mouth by putting the yarn back into a bag and not touching it for another year. 

This pattern is called Crumpets and has been in my queue for about 10 years - it was on the first page. The yarn is Rowan Calmer that has been listed on my destash page for ages but nobody was interested. I was surprised, people love Calmer. I'm not loving it, though. It's so stretchy. I think I should have gone for a bigger needle but the gauge seems to be working. I'm knitting the 1 year old size, thinking that my niece will be able to wear it next December when she is visiting her Peruvian family. But I'd like to finish it and get it off to her soon, just in case she outgrows it before then. 

I love, love the beaded effect but, omg, what a hassle. It would help if I learned to cable without a cable needle but it is still a faff, purling two together tbl. I was thinking of making this in a 2yo size too but I think I'd better be honest with myself and go for the 4yo size because I think that is how long it will take me to pluck up the nerve. I've seen some great versions of it with the beaded bodice and a fabric skirt, though, so I'm sure I will have another crack at it - only this time, I will get Mr Z to string way more beads than the pattern calls for. I used about 50% more than were specified. Had to cut the yarn and restart it. Annoying.

And then, there have been some more of these...

I haven't knitted a pinwheel since 2017 so I thought it was high time I started on some of those double skeins I've got stashed. This is a LE I bought out of someone's Ravelry destash. It's a lovely combination of soft blues, very restful. I've smashed out four this weekend. Expect another four by...well, Christmas, maybe. 

Weekend WIP (sort of FO)

It's exciting! I've finally done it!

These are the last hexagons-from-single-skeins and they are finally done! I'm now up to 40 pinwheels with an estimated 90 to go, so I am almost a third of the way through. Well, plus sewing up and edging and stuff.

(Yes, I know it is Tuesday. Having stubbornly not worked for the first three weekends of term, I binged like a fat girl on a diet and worked Friday night, Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday, and I'm not even sorry about it. So not much knitting happened apart from at knitting group and I had to finish the last one during the Dr Foster finale tonight.)

Weekend WIP

It's not a very exciting WIP post this week for anyone except me. I have finished the Snips and Snails skein I started last weekend and cast on the final skein of Georgetown that I've had for nearly a decade...

'Eugh, more pinwheeels, do something more exciting,' you might say - but this is exciting because it is the final single skein of L&L I have for the pinwheels project. When it's finished, I will have 40 pinwheels, with approximately 90 more to go. That goal I set myself in May of last year will finally have been met! So, it is pinwheels all this week, it seems.

Also, I really love this colour, still. It's so surprising because it's not really my thing but I find it enchanting. The pastels work so nicely together.

Weekend WIP

More hexagons. I'm up to 34 now. Another 96 to go. I'm more than one quarter finished.

The blue looks quite green and dark in this picture but it's quite sky-like in real life, and that beige has this amazing purple sheen to it on the second one I made - it was such a surprise to see it that I briefly thought I had accidentally drawn on my yarn with a purple biro (there is biro on a lot of my belongings).

I have two more to make to kill off this skein, then there is only ONE. MORE. SINGLE. SKEIN. left. Remember back in May...that's May 2016, if you're counting...when I said I'd be done with all the single skeins by the end of the year? Yeah well, I would just like to say, I didn't specify which year, so, yknow.

Let's not mention the fact I have found some blue that I missed in Ravelry destash and had two set aside to fetch home when I go to the US in October.

These are quite addictive when you get going. I was in London for the weekend and knocked out two. I would have done a 3rd on the train home but then Jenny, my PT, ended up on the same train as me so we just nattered all the way back.

I think I've found a pattern for the watermelon gradient I bought at Wonderwool, but I don't really know what to start next. I still have knitter's malaise. Sigh.

Weekend WIP

I am still struggling to get on with my knitting. I am about halfway through the gorgeous blue angora jumper I started way back in March, which I am enjoying, but for some reason am not desperate to finish. I think the thought of the sleeves is putting me off. Sleeves always take longer than I think they're going to, and these are long, belled affairs, so ... meh. On the plus side, I tried it on this week and it isn't too small, which is my perennial bottom-up garment fear.

This weekend I turned back to the trusty pinwheels, trotting out three in quick succession and starting a fourth.

This is the May 3013 LE. It's like a paler, duskier version of Sookie's Last Stand.

Out of interest, I pulled out all the hexagons and scattered them randomly across our filthy, soon-to-be-replaced dining room floor.

Already big enough for a lap blanket after blocking, but I do have 90-odd more to go. Although I scattered these at random and felt a bit overwhelmed by the big differences in colour, I can see two different palettes in this now, so it will either make two blankets or one with some carefully colour spacing.

Of course, the rest are yet to come - and, tbf, they're all a lot more blue than this little lot.

Weekend WIP

Though desperate to cast on for one final sweater of the year, I just couldn't organise myself sufficiently enough to get pattern, yarn and variety of needles together for swatching this weekend, so I reverted back to the pinwheels instead.

Remember when I fondly opined, back in May, that just two pinwheels a week would see all the single skeins used up by the end of the summer? Yes, well, please try to forget I ever said that. On the plus side, at the start of the year I had knitted precisely two pinwheels and I have now reached the dizzy heights of 24, a dramatic 1200% increase. Even more exciting, that accounts for a stash-bust of approximately 800m, which pushes me over last year's total. WOO and indeed HOO.

This is the June 2014 LE, Lovely sheen to the pink sections, particularly.

Weekend WIP

I have had a bit of a whirlwind weekend. I had to leave school at lunchtime on Friday and head straight to London to present at a conference at the British Museum (a life goal achieved there); the taxi I had booked didn't turn up so I only just made my train, which made for a very stressed Sally sitting on the train. Knitting was the only way to turn. Hence...

20 down, 107 to go. Yep, I managed four in one weekend. This is also thanks to the obnoxious drunk who sat next to me on the train home and attempted to philosophise with me. "Stick to your knitting" has rarely been more apt: I got a lot done. I also realised I had done a giant miscalculation and if I can knit two a week then I should be done with all the single skeins by the end of the summer. Very motivating.

This skein was That's Just How We Roll. It reminds me of Uptown, that I bought on my first visit to Jimmy Beans in 2009 and knitted this top out of. There's a bit more grey in the limited edition, though.

I must get back onto the linen top now, though. I was wearing the orange one for giving my presentation and remembered how comfortable it is, particularly in situations that involve a lot of sweat (it doesn't matter how many things like this I do, I never get less nervous). Ergo, the blue one would be ideal for Vietnam this summer.

Here is a bonus picture of me feeling very proud of myself down by the river. The city was all humid and heavy and overcast like it was when I finished my finals and felt similarly pleased with myself. It was a good nostalgic moment.

Weekend WIP

I forgot how addictive knitting this top is.

It's murder on my hands. I think the problem is that I hold my working yarn lightly between the curled ring and little finger of my right hand, and with it being such skinny yarn I have to grip instead of just letting it hang out. This makes the attached knuckles sore. Being a complete hypochondriac, I started to become concerned about possible carpal tunnel so I reverted after knitting group yesterday and put another couple of hexagons to bed (16 down, 111 to go).

However, I did manage to get the shoulder stitches onto holders on Friday and knit up to the third stripe yesterday. The middle blue I picked is transferring quite a lot of colour onto my hand anyway and I had no desire to go back to work with the right-hand fingernails of one long dead, so it was just as well.

Bonus pictures: in an effort to achieve my year's goal of knitting up all the individual skeins of Lion & Lamb I had sitting in stash, I wound them all into cakes.

At the top, That's How We Roll; middle left is Sookie's Last Stand, middle right is Royal Baby: Snips and Snails; bottom left is Royal Baby: Sugar and Spice and bottom middle is He Who Must Not Be Named. Bottom right is the last skein of Georgetown I bought for the shawl I knitted in 2009, my only other single skein in this yarn.

The purples in particular blend together very nicely:

I was surprised by how much nicer some of the colours were once they were out of the skein. I keep thinking they're too nice for a blanket but that is a silly thing to think: I don't know what else 200m of yarn could easily become and it's too nice to stay sitting in stash, at any rate.

If I am strict with myself and complete two hexagons a week, I should have finished with this little lot by Christmas.

Weekend WIP

I *have* cast on the linen but it's really just a strip of sea green at the moment and not anything worth a look. I am finding the splittiness of the yarn to be more annoying than I remembered; but now that I am a couple of inches in, the stitches are not so tight and it is getting easier. I am looking forward to wearing the finished article so I think that will keep me at it.

However, I needed something that I could knit in the semi-darkness as I caught up on Game of Thrones so I cast on (of course) some hexagons, in the Tahoe Lion & Lamb leftover from the clapotis I knitted nearly eight years ago. That makes me feel quite old.

Anyway, the colours look lovely in the hexagon. I managed two of them this weekend, in between the linen and the napping.

Fourteen down. 113 to go.

Weekend WIP

I spent this weekend in Sheffield and packed hexagon materials plus the carefully wound linen with me to take. It was a bit of a lost weekend - a conference on Saturday, but other than that, just me and my very nice hotel room. And spa. Jen was busy with her own course. Mother Hand was going to come and then realised she also had a conference. So I had a hermit's weekend, and feel all the better for it. A lot of sleep happened.

Much as I felt obligated to cast on the linen, I have become somewhat addicted to the hexagons.

These mark the end of the already-wound skein of Georgetown. I had forgotten how obsessed I am with this colourway. It's totally not something I would normally choose - I prefer strong colours over pastels, in case you hadn't noticed - but I just love it.

Anyway, when I got home I finally bit the bullet and cast on the linen, so that might be it for hexagons for a while. I thought what I should do is make the hexagons a non-negotiable between other projects: must knit one skein of hexagons before casting on for something new. Then I might have a blanket by the end of the decade, if I'm lucky. I have 12 now. That's almost 10%.

But I might have spotted some L&L in destash in a colourway I don't already have.

And if we're admitting things, I might have gone onto the Lorna's Laces website and discovered at least half a dozen blue colourways I never knew existed. 

Weekend WIP

I have wound the linen for the next garment, but for some reason I am not currently feeling it. I think it's because I would still prefer to find a different pattern. I need to get over it and get started as I have a long train journey coming up and will need something to knit during that.

In the interim, I have been knitting pinwheels this weekend.

I knitted two more, which meant I got five out of the first skein and about 10cm of the second skein that I needed to complete my bind off. This is interesting as it means I am knitting them tighter than I did in 2009 when I made them for a shawl; back then I could only get 4 and a half out of a skein.

This means that the blanket might end up considerably larger than I first thought. Indeed, when I counted up on Ravelry last night, I realised I had 28 skeins of Lion & Lamb stashed towards pinwheels, plus the two I have made inroads into for these. That would make 150 pinwheels if I was frugal.

So, I think I will aim for four pinwheels out of the single skeins and nine out of the double skeins which would give me 127 pinwheels and enough left over from each of the 18 colourways to make a very eye-catching clapotis. 127 pinwheels would probably do two blankets and then I could have one for blues with a hint of green and one for blues with a hint of purple. Maybe.

This is all academic. In two years I've knitted six pinwheels. At this rate I will have knitted them all up by 2058; but then I'll have to do the sewing up so this project seems unlikely to be finished in my lifetime.

I do enjoy making them, though. The colours in this iteration (Bated Breath) are just stunning. Here it is with all the magic an adjustment of brightness/contrast can muster.

That mallard green is my favourite in it, I think.

Weekend WIP

Mr Z was on a winding binge recently so I got him to wind my latest Lorna's Laces acquisition, the LE for December, Bated Breath. It is pale blue, purpley-grey, iron and mallard teal - really lovely. So, since it was wound and ready for me, I decided it was time to cast on for my long-planned pinwheel blanket. Here's the first motif, which could do with being blocked properly -



I managed two over the weekend; according to my project notes from when I knitted these pinwheels for a shawl (that has become probably my most-worn scarf) I can get about 4.5 from a skein. I now have 16 skeins of this yarn in various shades of blue; I may have also just requested two more skeins in a discontinued blue colourway from someone's stash sale on Ravelry. A conservative estimate therefore puts the blanket at 72 pinwheels, which is probably plenty big enough. I don't want a blanket that is big enough to cover our entire property, a la Like Water For Chocolate. I am not sure whether all of the colours will go together: some have quite a lot of green or purple in which might clash, so I may see if I can find another use for those odd skeins.



I've also been working on this lace scarf for Parpy Jo, which is going quite quickly: 30 repeats in, of an estimated 40 (it's ridiculously stretchy) -



And of course, on the socks -



I'm prepping for Sochi which starts at the end of the week; I want to knit a jumper during the two weeks period. I have a pattern picked out and I need to swatch for it; so I think that will probably be consuming my every available knitting moment for the next couple of weeks.