More quickies

I am barrelling along with my Central Park Hoody and managed to finish my first ball of wool on a trip to London a couple of weeks back, but then it occurred to me that Christmas was almost upon me and I should get on with some gift knitting.

So here it all is....

A cupcake for Pam at work for secret Santa...Pam is the staffroom mummy and always nagging us to bring in cakes for Friday breaktime, so I knitted her this. Well, I knitted her another one after this because I made several fairly serious mistakes with my first attempt (pictured) and I wasn't happy.

In the course of this, I discovered that the local Poundland stocks soft acrylic in DK and a wide range of colours, for only £1 per 100g. How exciting! This means I can buy some pale lemon balls to knit Mother Hand a sweater she wants and can't find to buy.

Then, I bought some suede lacing and made my friend Kath a whip...


...it's not quite finished because I needed cable ties and I only just got some. This was really fun to make and super easy; the 30m I bought made 2 with a bit leftover, although that doesn't really add up because the tails account for 12m and then there's a knitted bit, and with 7m left over....well, you don't have to be great at maths to work out that perhaps Jillybead sent me too much.



Finally, I knitted Ali a beaded cuff bracelet...

SO. Pretty. I love it! It was really fiddly to start with, and I couldn't do the tapered end I wanted to, but happily the project takes to shaping and wiring together at the end, so I was happy with it in the end.

I have now cast on for Mr Z's binary scarf: I was putting it off, since I've never done Fairisle and have no desire to. But I think it will be OK. I'd like to finish Binary and CPH over the Christmas break; you never know. I also need to find something for friend Jo, who I don't want to feel excluded when I dole out knitted gifts to Ali and Kath. I think I will make her some reusable facial pads and a little mesh bag to wash them in. Time is running out, though.

It's the last day of term for the kids today. We finish in about 1 hour and 19 minutes. Roughly. It can't come quick enough. Last night I took my tutor group out on a trip, where I was almost thwarted at every turn by incompetents at both Pizza Hut and Bowlplex (if only I could find the time/energy to write a letter of complaint), and spent much of my time trying to prevent the boys from feeding all their money into the fruit machines. Now they're back. I will come back and add to this later today, after I've consumed a bottle of chenin blanc in the bath.

Edit: I was in such a hurry I forgot to add the pictures, even!

When I got home, I had a 2 hour bath and a 3 hour nap, and I'm now coddled in a duvet watching Die Hard and thinking every day should be like this one. I have been feeling positively inhuman for the past couple of weeks; to quote Bilbo Baggins, "Like butter spread over too much bread." I couldn't catch up on everything by the end of term and this put me in an even worse mood. Plus, on Monday I had to drive down to Calshot for a one-hour course to refresh my knowledge of ski bindings. This utterly pointless waste of time involved a 4-hour round trip and when I arrived and the instructor said, "Wow! You've come along way - do you have to come all the way down here?" I had to restrain myself. I tell you, sometimes it feels like I've had more training in the name of this damn ski trip than I did to become a teacher. Hopefully it will all be worth it, and I won't end up having 2 weeks off with an ear infection afterwards, like last year. With 6 staff members to 32 kids we should have enough leeway for some evenings off.

Anyway. Tomorrow is TD day and I managed to avoid fire extinguisher training (the story goes, that the head didn't put anybody in History on that list because we're in mobiles and they'll go up so quickly if they catch alight that we won't be able to use an extinguisher; how comforting) and first aid training, so I have an entire day of faculty time stretching ahead of me, a prospect that I find disturbingly thrilling. Ian doesn't seem to have a great deal planned, so I am hoping to get some reports written and some marking done, and then slope off a little early to the Limpley Stoke hotel for the Christmas party. I'm even more thrilled at this. For the first time, I'll be stopping over in the hotel, and not even driving home the next day. I feel a very drunken night coming on.

Also tomorrow, in my absence, we can expect the arrival of Mother Hand's latest silly purchase. Now, I don't really think it's silly - I just think she is. When I went to see her in London for her birthday a couple of weeks back (note to self: never again - London on a Saturday in December = NOT FUN) she handed me an envelope wrapped in wedding paper and was barely able to contain herself as I opened it to reveal....delivery instructions fo a pink Smeg fridge freezer. I'm rarely speechless, but on this occasion, I didn't know what to say. How exciting! We've been putting off doing the kitchen since we got married, but may have to move on that soon, since the new fridge freezer will not fit neatly into the space left by the old one.

I *heart* quick projects

I love things that knit up quickly.

A couple of weeks ago, somebody on one of the fora I frequent asked if someone would have a go at knitting a marine coloured snood she had been bidding on, but had lost. I offered to oblige - I quite like a challenge. I had to order the yarn because they didn't have the right colours in Get Knitted last weekend. The yarn arrived yesterday, and by the end of the evening the snood was done. How was that for speedy?



Speedy Snood
Pattern: I made it up.
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride bulky in Jaded Dreams and Aztec Turquoise (2 strands held together). I JUST had enough.
Needles: 12mm straight
How I did it: I knit the whole thing in garter stitch. I cast on 50 stitches, knit 2 rows, did a row of YO,k2tog, knit 10 rows, another yo row, knit 6 rows, another yo row, knit 10 rows, YO row, knit 2 rows, cast off.
I wanted to knit it with a moebius cast on, but I wasn't sure what needle size I would need and didn't want to fork out for more circs than I required. So, I knitted it back and forth and added a twist to the rectangle when I sewed it up.
I got about 2 stitches per inch, but the first time I cast on 70 stitches and after 8 rows decided it was much too wide and frogged it. Even with that it only took about 3 hours, and that was with distractions; also my hands were very mariney when I'd finished.

Babushka will sit on her own and make you feel guilty.

We colour corrected the last one because it is a very tealy colour, not as blue as the pictures made it. But it's too green in the last one - the telltale sign is that my eyes are green, too - my eyes are not green, at all.
I REALLY like it. I am only sorry it is not for me.

Finally, Ester pictures! Here we go -

Very warm! But definitely going in the wardrobe until the spring.

Don't worry - I can't see myself wearing it closed very often...

I have quite a lot of the silk left, so I am thinking of knitting Lelah (a patterned boob tube type garment) to go with it.

And I also swatched for Central Park this weekend, since the extra Maya arrived with the yarn for the snood. I was bang-on with the suggested needle size, both horizontally and vertically. I am slightly gutted that I didn't manage to cast the thing on this weekend, but it just got too late today and I had too much work to do. I am going to aim to have it finished by the end of the Christmas holidays. We'll see.

Crisis averted

Mr Z handed me his credit card on Tuesday and invited me to order the new Knitpicks Harmony Interchangeables for my Christmas present (yeyyyy! SO excited). Well....I took the opportunity to try and order another 3 hanks of the Debbie Bliss Maya, and they were shipped yesterday, so I guess I didn't clean them out and I can knit Central Park in the biggest size and with the hood and everything. YEY. I plan to swatch it this weekend.

I noticed yesterday that one of the chav kids I work with has made off with my stress bat. My work friend Caroline bought it for me for my secret Santa in NQT year, and it has been hanging around at home for years gathering dust. Last month I finally brought it into school, where I used it once with my year nines, for an extremely successful game of Mallet's Mallet...

...as an aside, I was not surprised when the kids hadn't heard of this, but I was slightly upset when the student teachers also looked at me blankly as I explained the game. Just how old am I these days?...

...where instead of associating words, the pupils had to give reasons for and against Haig being blamed for the Battle of the Somme. The game went down a storm and I vowed to keep the bat in school and do it again. Except that some chav kid had other ideas. Le sigh. Four years in the corner of my living room....less than four weeks in my classroom (and hidden in the cupboard, at that) and it's gone forever. I expect it's popped and covered in alcoholic vomit, screwed up in a bush in the local park or something.

Anyway, I was thinking about how I could replace it on the way home from work yesterday, and I decided to try and knit one. I think I could do it quite easily, and I've worked out how it would be constructed. I will add it to my list of dream projects, and perhaps get round to knitting it before I retire. Perhaps.

I know I promised Ester, but I'm not at home. Tomorrow, after I've had my hair cut. PROMISE!

Restless Needles

I don't know what to knit next.

I mean...I am knitting. I cast on yet another pair of Eowyns; this time in pink wool and purple Kid Silk, but I went down a needle size because the last time I did this they were a bit loose. Now they are a bit tight. But, I have big wrists, and they aren't for me.

But Eowyn is a 3 hour project, and I am hankering after something bigger. I went to Get Knitted today and, after half an hour of browsing, during which I was unable to find a satisfactory colour match for Rowan's Herring tweed (which they irritatingly do in DK and chunky, but not the aran I needed), I snapped and bought 10 skeins of Debbie Bliss Maya in dark purple. It was a bargain at £50 (really...it was a bargain) and I feel at peace because that yarn has been on sale on the GK website for at least 18 months. I had it in mind to knit the Central Park Hoody with it, as my first proper sweater project. I read the pattern carefully tonight and it seems simple enough. I was all ready to swatch.

And then I realised...I am approximately 300 yards short. And that's 300 yards, if I knit a size down to what I intended and block the crap out of it and hope it fits. Now, I could knit it without the hood but that seems to defeat the object. I could go for it and hope for the best, but I know I'll probably end up unable to frog it if I get to the end and realise I don't have enough for a satisfactory ending. I bought the last stocks the shop had, so I can't go back. And if I decide not to go for it - what will I use it for? And when will I feel happy about splashing out on yarn for the Hoody?

Big questions, folks. I bet you're glad you don't have my problems.

I'm blocking Ester as we speak. Finally. I pinned it all out nice and spritzed it with water scented with a little autumn BPAL, to disguise the fact that the bottle used to hold antibac spray (if I was going to wait until I remembered to buy a clean spray bottle, I wouldn't have Ester by spring 2009, let alone next year). Pinned, in a bright light, I can see lines running across the piece where obviously the yarn was dirty or something. I don't know that washing it will help. I am not even sure dying it will. I am just hoping that it won't be too obvious when I'm wearing it.

In the end I blocked it to 2XL even though I'd intended to make it just XL. This is a direct result of the wonder that is Ravelry. I finally received my invite for the beta version of this uberknitting site last week, and I have spent a vast amount of time on it since - which is why I know that people found Ester to be meanly sized. This website is serious about being good. It's like someone has taken the best ideas on the web and applied them to knitting. I have found loads of ideas for projects I want to knit, and it's so much fun to see other people's takes on patterns. Best of all, it synchs my blog to my profile. If this wasn't already mostly a knitting blog, it's going to be now.

It's got very wintry recently. I am starting to feel a bit festive. I saw a promotional poster in a card shop today of a slutty Santa girl in a Santa boob tube and hat. The whole thing was slightly repellent, but for the fabulous Santa wrist warmers she was wearing. This may be my next turn with Eowyn - red, with white lacey bits. I wonder how many times I can knit the same pattern. Maybe I should give up knitting anything else and just stick to this one item.

No pictures today, I'm too pensive. But you can expect a nice picture of me wearing a properly finished Ester in my next update. Promise.

Antifreeze. DONE.

And none too soon, although thankfully I don't live in the eastern counties, where it's currently snowing apparently.

This is a stick up. Give me all your yarn.

Let's try and do this properly...
Pattern: Antifreeze (Knitty, winter 2006)
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Merino DK
Needles: Addi circs, 3.75mm and 4mm
Pattern Mods: I don't crochet, ever. So when I got to the cast off, I knit 3 more rows as directed, in the CC. But I still wasn't happy - the opening still did not seem small enough. So I knit another round, and then I knit a round of K2,K2tog and then another round, and then I was kind of OK with it but figured I wouldn't know for sure until I cast off, so I did that.

But it's not great. If I pull it down and up so just my eyes are showing like it's pictured in the pattern, it doesn't look quite right.

I'm thinking wide-mouthed frog.

Really I should unpick the casting off and knit a serious decrease on the sides whilst adding rows to the top and bottom....but let's be realistic about this...

It fits with my ski goggles, so that will do. This may be the most technically difficult pattern I've done to date, so I'm not going to sweat it. I'm not even going to mention the couple of little holes where I obviously didn't do the w&t on the short rows quite right. I'm just going to revel in how warm it is, how cute the ponytail slots are, how that ribbing is right on my face actually isn't it....yargh. I had the right horizontal gauge, but I cast on for this so long ago I can't remember if I measured the vertical gauge as well. I am wondering whether that wasn't quite right.

Anyway. Onto bigger and better things. I am still pondering what to tackle next. Meanwhile I dragged this out...


The world's most useless bag. It was my first cable project....first big project, really. I remember thinking it was very extravagant because the yarn cost me nearly £20. If only I'd known. It is meant to be a yoga bag, knit in Sirdar denim chunky, from a pattern in a 2006 issue of Simply Knitting. Unfortunately, I was not about to knit the mat to go with it, since I don't do yoga, and it is much too stretchy to make it in life as a normal bag. So I have unpicked the component parts, and now have a strap knit in herringbone tweed (a stitch I love and must use again soon) and a big cabled rectangle. I quite fancy transforming it into some sort of knit skirt (to be worn over a slip, natch) but it is not quite big enough....I'd need to knit some sort of triangle to graft in so that it became a-line and not a garment that exacerbates my addiciton to cakes.

This week, I will be mostly concerning myself with that conundrum.

Of balaclavas and Wiis

I am so finished with Ester, at long, long last. I cast off a couple of weeks ago, but I haven't finished it in that I haven't blocked or seamed it yet. I have woven in the ends, though. I am really pleased with how it looks, it's so soft and warm, and even though I intended to dye it when I was finished, I like it in a sort of "natural". I am a little bit worried, having read all my knitting books, that it's going to be droopy and stretched before too long, because it is quite a heavy fabric; but I think it'll be OK because the garment's quite short.

Yeah baby, it's ribbed (and cabled) for my pleasure.

Last time I ever put it over my sweaty gym t-shirt, I promise.
But check out my lovely manicure!

The top part is plenty big enough but the lower half seems narrower than it should be, hence the need to block. Before I do that, though, I have to remember to buy a new spray bottle, since Mr Z left ours in the garden and it is filled with green slime. I don't think green slime is the way to go for this particular garment.

Anyway, even though it took me six months to finish, and I lost the will to knit while it was OTNs, now it's finished I am really inspired to do another big project like this. For a start, Ester has made me really quick - I have whipped through two and a half small projects in the past week: a pair of Eowyn wristwarmers for Mother Hand, squares for a new Hexed, and half an Antifreeze (that issue of Knitty has to bethe best ever; Mr Z is badgering me often to knit him the Binary scarf although I must admit I find it a bit formidable, and there are at least four other projects from that I'd love to try).

I am loving Antifreeze and how quickly it knits up; I only had the four inches of ribbing done on Tuesday (which, I must admit, I have had OTNs since February - I told you Ester killed my mojo), but now I am all ready to pick up the stitches for the face, and then it's only a few rows until I'm finished -

And all because the lady loves Milk Tray.

I am hoping that it will be cold enough on the ski trip this year to make such a garment necessary. It is going to be very cute with the ponytail holes and I'm going to do the final edging in a contrast colour, maybe pink or green. It's my first attempt at short rows, and I like the fact that they shape the garment as if by magic; I am also all over the fact that it's knit as one-piece so there won't be any seaming. I am knitting them on some Addi circs I bought from Get Knitted for the project and I am LOVING these needles. They're so smooth and perfect! Mr Z promised to get me a set of Knitpicks Harmony interchangables for Christmas, but since we discovered they don't ship overseas and I discovered how lovely the Addis are, I may ask for something else instead.

Indeed, I might be asking for some Wii games. I love my new Wii. I may have paid over the odds for it, but I managed to get it and an extra controller and nunchuck without having to wait....well, I had to wait a day, since I rang the Wii shop and was told they had one in stock, but by the time I got down there is had sold! Luckily they managed to get me another for the next day. It is definitely worth trying to little places - I got mine from a games shop in Hanham, just in time for our Hallowe'en party. Later that night, there were a fair few witches and ghouls drinking punch and play Wii sports. I have become slightly addicted to Paper Mario (although there's a lot of storytelling - you'd be stuffed if you were that one in five primay school kid who can't read), which I have nearly completed; and last weekend Mr Z bought me a classic controller, so I can start playing Super Mario World again. I love Mario with the little tail.

Unfortunately, there's not a lot of time for Wii-ing. I feel like I've been playing catch-up at work since half term. I spent last weekend closetted in the office marking endless assessments (I am going to have a rubber stamp made up that says, "Use capital letters for names, eg Britain, Germany" - and that's for year nine!) and my lessons this week have been, at best, patchy. On top of that my year 12s are so thoroughly confused Ian had to step in and tell me to do a "big picture" lesson with them, and I'm not allowed to use the staffroom milk on my muesli in the mornings anymore because somebody whinged there isn't any for drinks at the end of the day. This, in spite of the fact that
(a) I don't have milk in my hot drinks
(b) I buy my own coffee and never use the drinks machine
(c) the last time I brought my own milk in, it was poured into other people's drinks before I'd had 2 breakfasts out of it (staffroom fridge = worse than student fridge for thieving)
(d) there was never any milk at the end of the day even before I started eating cereal.

I am pretty incensed by this. I think I will, in an act of pure, unadulterated pettiness, start pouring some milk down the sink every time I have a cup off coffee, to represent what I am entitled to.

Piss and moan. I'm tired and ill and I've had neck pains for 2 weeks now that come and go, and I haven't been able t get to the gym because of being ill and having a sore knee, and that has just made my mood even worse. I'm so glad it's Friday. I plan to spend the whole weekend, apart from 2-3 hours on Sunday afternoon when I'll have to do some work, knitting, sleeping and Wii-ing. Mother Hand is coming down, so I can't do much work anyway. I might even decide on my next big project and go to shop for the yarn for it. I am liking the idea of the Central Park Hoodie - I just love cables.

Getting my knitting mojo back

It's been a long time since I updated. I meant to write more about our trip, bt we were too busy enjoying it to spend time writing about it! And, I was using this kaleidescope of a diario more and more to write about my new knitting obsession, but I totally lost interest over the summer. I was still plugging away at Ester, but when it got up to 200+ stitches and took me 20 minutes a row, I couldn't face it. Ester travelled 6000 miles to the US, 2500 miles round the US and 6000 miles back without havin a single stitch added. How embarrassing.

Well, I decided this half term was the half term to finish it. I am just entering the final 25 rows of ribbing. I'll be posting picture in the next couple of days, hopefully of the finished article! I am now worried it'll come up a little small, but I can always block it a bit bigger. The pattern says to wet block, but the No Sheep For You book says not to wet block silk....so that will be an adventure in itself.

Meanwhile, I am also trying to knit another Hexed for a friend...and I am still buying yarn...so I had better keep knitting this time. I am slowly turning the spare room into a little snug where I can read and knit and generally hang out without the distraction of the TV. I just need to decide what colours to paint it now.