Acquisitions/Stash Management

I didn’t have any 2.75mm needles in my stash, so I have bought some DPNs and circular needles as I need this size for when I knit Dolores and her Transatlantic Travel outfit. More on her in a few weeks.

On Saturday there was a small de-stash sale locally and I picked up 2 skeins of Ripples Crafts Quinag yarn for a bargain price. It is 100% BFL superwash 4 ply. If you are a long term follower you’ll know I love the yarns Helen dyes, and that I did say I am not buying any more superwash or 4 ply yarn ooops!

Felting

Well I did it! I finished my first 40cm x 25cm Highland Seascape lampshade! Oh my goodness it was a beast to felt it was so enormous. Far wider than the bamboo blinds I use which made rolling it a challenge. It started off the length of my breakfast bar but by the time it was wet it was dangling over the edge and dripping water on the floor.

Constructing it was a real challenge as well. My arm wasn’t long enough for me to tuck in the edges in my normal way and so that also became a big challenge.

I have two more kits for 40cm shades and I think I’d be tempted to do something that isn’t a landscape with them. Trying to keep a horizon straight whilst felting something so big was a challenge not to be repeated (by me anyway).

I also tried something brand new! I made a waste paper bin for my craft room. I bought a couple of kits from my lampshade kit supplier. The fibre was Himilayas blend from World of Wool (2018 fibre club) – white merino top with sari silk waste with mostly turquoise. It will be for collecting fabric and thread waste…nothing that will make it dirty inside. 😀

Knitting

Socks

On Sunday evening I cast on the Sweet and Tartan socks by Tracie Millar (Grocery Girls podcast). These were on my list to do the last few years and I kept not knowing the right yarns to use.

So I cast them on and didn’t like the contrast colour I’d picked so I ripped them back to the cuff and chose the pale yarn which offers a better contrast.

The yarns are leftovers; a blue skein from Ripples Crafts (s/w merino/nylon) and Cookston Crafts Crathie colour (s/w merino/nylon/alpaca). I used Crathie on my Midtown Magic shawl.

I knit the gusset and part of the foot and found it way too tight, so I ripped it back to the start of the gusset again. I could switch to a larger needle or maybe do additional knit rows between the gusset decreases, or just stop doing the slip stitches and knit the rest of the foot in the pale yarn. Or maybe just rip back and knit the size up, I’ll have a think.

Now I remember why I usually just knit the same two sock patterns all the time, trying something new comes with a lot of ripping back it seems. It’s a fun pattern to knit though but the slipped stitches do decrease the circumference.

I didn’t knit on any other projects this week.

Spinning

On Tuesday evening it was our local spinning group and I totally forgot it’s now back to being ‘in person’ and was sat on Zoom wondering where everyone was 🙈.

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Other News

My foot continues to improve. No idea what caused the pain and swelling in the first place. A mystery for sure.

Another wet and windy week so no opportunity to get out on my SUP, this summer has been rubbish. 9 miles away recorded an overnight temperature of -1°C the other night!!!

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This is a Year of Projects post.  Officially the Group is in its 12th year, but this is my 5th year participating.  If you would like to find more about the Year of Projects Group on Ravelry. 

Year 12 list.