Leavin' on a jet plane

Life is crazy. Still knitting but very little time to blog about it at the moment. This will pass I know but it is a bit frustrating.

However, on the positive front I am now going to be away travelling for a couple of weeks so don't worry if it all goes quiet for a bit. I promise lots of pics of sun-kissed knitting when I get back (subject of course to the vagaries of blogger and hello).

See y'all later :)

Dulaan hats

Heathland is finished

Look at my lovely lace!

What's this going to be then? 

And the answer is .... 6

The question being how many hats can I knit in an obsessive fashion one after the other for the Dulaan Project before I cast on something else, of course. And here they are:


Dulaan hats

They're quite good, aren't they? I've really enjoyed making them actually. Lots of scope for using up bits and pieces from my stash, plus the fact that I discovered the wonder that is twisted rib when making the white, yellow and brown one on the right hand side of the picture. Seriously, I don't think I'm going to use normal rib ever again. Apart from the project below of course, but more of that later. I'm going to make a few more things and then send them off to F.I.R.E all together. I might make something other than hats I think, because looking at Ryan's blog there are quite a few of those already out there. I think perhaps the Mongolians will need to keep more than their heads warm.

In other news, here is my finished Heathland shawl. She's turned out OK, don't you think? I bow before the power of blocking.


Heathland is finished

And just because I am so amazed at the transformation blocking has caused, here's another gratuitous shots of the lace detail.


Look at my lovely lace!

Heathland will be making her debut 1 week from today as a stylish addition to my concert ensemble, keeping my shoulders warm when I'm not on stage singing. I think she'll be perfect for that.

So now that the lace is done, what am I knitting at the moment? Here's a picture of my progress to date - see if you can guess. Just in case you need a clue, it's a sweater of sorts and I'm knitting it for myself.



What's this going to be then?

Answers on a postcard. Or maybe just in the comments :)

ETA - Waah! Hello & / or Blogger seem to be malfunctioning. I'm going to leave this for a little while and then repost it if the pictures are still not showing up.

ETA II - Blogger appears to be officially cracked out. The only way I can get pictures to appear at the moment is to post them straight from Hello and then not edit the post so that's what I've done. The pics for this post are in the one above, if you see what I mean. I do hope this goes away soon :/

It's all hats, all of the time (apart from the blocking, that is)

So this weekend I had a pretty self indulgent time on the knitting front. It started off well with me knitting my first ever hat in honour of the Dulaan project (click the button on the sidebar for more info). Here is is being blocked using my patent "upside down pudding basin on top of an upside down pint glass" methodology. I used one of the patterns Ryan suggests on the Dulaan site, and the remnants of the Noro Kureyon left over from when I made Rosedale. Nice, don't you think?


My first Dulaan FO

And can I just say that hats are a revelation in terms of speed and knitting satisfaction. That one only took me an evening to produce! All that time before Christmas that I spend slaving away over the sock needles when I could have been effortlessly churning out hats for all and sundry! I know what everyone is getting next year.

Of course, the only trouble with woolly hats is that I would never wear one myself as they unfailingly make me look like an escapee from some kind of sheltered accommodation. I don't really do hats unless they are the vast brimmed variety a la Kristen Scott Thomas in Four Weddings and a Funeral. But never mind - I know lots of people who would look great in them when it comes round to Christmas, and hopefully the Mongolians will be glad of a few. Because once I'd finished that one I felt inspired to rummage around in my stash for any other suitable oddments to be transformed into Dulaan items.

And look what I found:


Look what I found in my stash - where did all that come from?

I see more hats in my future. In fact the bright red & custard yellow yarn has already been transformed into a rather cute slipstitch number and I am currently working the brown and cream into a twisted rib hat pattern. Pics after the weekend when they will be blocked and respectable. The lavender Kid Classic on the left of the shot is destined to become Coronet I think. I wonder how many hats I can knit before I get sick of them?

So what else was included in my self indulgent knitting weekend? Well, firstly I must say a big thankyou to Emma for a) giving me some sensible advice on how to block lace and b) reminding me that Heathland was going to stretch a lot when I blocked it. I had forgotten that little point and was planning on a lot more knitting, but decided to stop and block instead, which was a jolly good job as the thing took up the whole of the spare bed for blocking purposes as it was. Any longer and we'd have been in serious trouble.

Anyway, here is my very first attempt at lace blocking in action:


Blocking 101 - stage 1

(I hope y'all are noticing the handknit socks there.) Yes, I have just soaked my lovely feather & fan work in tepid water, wrapped it and in a towel and stood on it to squeeze the excess water out of it. And what of it?

Here are the results of that particular tender mercy:


Blocking 101 - stage 2 (eek!)

I have to admit I was panicking a leetle bit at this stage. Once again I remembered Stephanie's mantra that "all lace looks like crap until you block it" and boldly pressed on, armed only with 2 boxes of glass headed pins.

Here it is before the official pinning out ceremony.


Blocking 101 stage 3 (phew)

There was an "after" picture but unfortunately it turned out rather fuzzy, so you'll have to settle for this closeup of the stitch pattern instead.


Now that looks like better stitch definition to me

I am feeling distinctly less meh about Heathland now :) RLBF is destined to be sadly dissappointed.