paddle power

On saturday we took the Paddlesteamer from Tower Bridge to Whitstable (my pic here). It went right down the Themes, then out to the sea, via Southend. You could walk around the middle of the boat to see the steam engine at work and take a peak out of portholes to see the paddles go round and round. Plus, I wasn't the only person knitting on deck. All very exciting. Slightly cold too, which allowed some re-discovery of FO's gone by.


One the left side, a slightly better shot of my squirrelly mittens. On the right, Marcus is wearing a pair of mitten-topped gloves I made ages ago, pre-blog (loosely based on the broadstreet pattern). They've lasted really well, he wears them all the time. Marcus also caught me engaging in some sneaky yarn sniffing.


A 'ps' for ravelry users: I'm a stupid person and had "messaging" switched off for a load of last week. So if you messaged me, friended me or left a comment and didn't get a reply, give me a poke.

I'm in

I'm on ravelry, my username is slippedstitch if you want to be friends. For those who aren't on it yet, it chiefly a way of combining a super-organised knitting notebook (what you've done, what's in your stash, what you might do next, stuff you've seen you like) with the folksonomies of web2.0. It does this very well.

So, with the prompt to organise myself provided by ravelry, I got around to photographing my current WIP (above) - a top called 'bottoms up'. In contrast to the webiness of ravelry, this is from a 'dead tree' publication: the first edition of Yarn Forward. It's a lightweight, relatively glam top (think Orangina); check out pigwotknits' wip of a long-sleeved one. It's my own design, but I did a smaller size for the magazine and wanted one to fit me. I bought the yarn ages ago (Euroflax linen) and hoped to have it done by summer, but other projects kept coming up.

The pattern starts off in the 1x1 twisted rib shown, then gradually flattens out to more and more stocking stitch, growing further with eyelets around the shoulders (all shaping's done by change in stitch pattern). Originally designed in a light pink cotton, the eyelets emerging from horizontal lines of twisted rib were inspired by bubbles in a champagne cocktail. But in this green, I think it'll be more like light coming through tree-tops. We shall see. I was going to do it in a champagne colour, but fell in love with this emerald.

I also photographed all my currently stashed yarn. All these photos are all links to flickr, where I've made notes on each yarn.

FO - cheshire cat socks

A bit of a 'vintage' FO as I finished it ages ago. It just took a while for the pattern to go up and me to get round to linking to it - here it is (WARNING: links to pdf).

A (cheshire) cat. He hides, you seek. Go on. You know you want to knit some. Because everybody needs a pair of kitty-illusion socks where the feline appears and disappears as you point your toes and the tail twists itself leisurely up your leg.


For Purlescence's luxurious style, I used cashsoft, so have given them leather patches on the soles (for slipper socks), but the pattern would work just as well in a more hard-wearing sockyarn.

Thanks to Robynn for her great competition which inspired the project and Kirsty for acting as legs model for the pics.

FO: Giant entrelac "Mermaid" scarf

Yarn: Four balls of Phildar Horizons in 'Madras'. I bought it very cheap in a summer sale in Paris.

Needles: Two 3mm plastic dpns, made into straights with a couple of end-protectors. I don't like the length of most standard straights, so much preferred this set up as the cable of circs gets in the way for entrelac.



Pattern: It didn't start off as Danica. If anything, it's more inspired by Lady Eleanor. I used the instructions for the technique from How to Knit. But I realised, half-way through, that it is exactly the width for it; an MC-only Danica. It wasn't going to be quite so long, but I figured I might as well knit till I finished the stuff. I probably should have done it wider, but didn't think I'd have enough yarn. The lightness of these synthetic yarns *shakes head* I don't know. Entrelac is pretty addictive, so it wasn't too tedious to work that length of scarf, plus I had other projects to play with which broke it up.

Verdict: I love it. I've always wanted a giant Dr Who like scarf (but never had the patience to before). The changes of colours, done in entrelac, remind me of mermaid scales.

Photos, appropriately enough, taken on Brighton Beach this weekend.

FO: glasses case

Flatmate-Kirsty found some glasses last week lying about in Oxford, and in some off-kilter karma I promptly lost my glasses-case.

So I knat-up a replacement.



It's leftover blue wool from the skein Veronique sent me last year (which I used in a hot-water-bottle-cover for my mother). I made it in a similar style to the PDA case I did a while back. Turkish cast-on, in this case about 80sts, and worked in st st round until about twice the desired length. Then folded back in half (so worked row is level to cast on one) and kitchenered shut. This gives a nice double-thick piece with neat lip to the purse. Then put it in the wash for a hot, fast spin with a pair of jeans and a towel or three. Sew on zip, work a bit of random embroidery. Ta-da!

I kept with Veronique's mix of this blue with a dark chocolate brown for the zip and decoration. None of this especially goes with my red glasses, but we'll ignore that.



All so much nicer than the black logoed plastic things they give you at the opticians. I don't know why it took me so long to make one.

FO: Pea-green baby jumper

Simple baby jumper I started on the way back from Japan from some leftovers of my main project (which is still top secret as is a xmas present).

Yarn: Knitpicks sock yarn solid. No idea on the colour - GREEN. Very soft stuff this yarn, probably much better for baby clothes than socks!
Pattern: My own, a top-down raglan worked roughly from this guide then with a zig-zag patterned stitch I made up on the plane as a way of stopping me go mad from the simple st st. I'm pretty pleased with this stitch, it gives a nice drape as well as texture.
Needles: Addi 80cm 2.75mm circs, using magic loop.

Home

Back from Japan and having unpacked, sorted email, drunk a cup of PROPER tea, eaten PORRIDGE and cleared my 215 feeds on blogroll, I'm ready to post.

Knitting on the plane was no problem. I came armed with a print out of my email from the airline (Virgin) saying it'd be ok but didn't need it. The main thing I worked on was getting xmas knitting (getting ahead), so I can't post about it. But you don't want WIPs, you want SWAG. I used Pinku's notes on Japanese yarn stores, which Gleek pointed me to.



As well as Avril, I visited a big craft store in Shinjuku and lovely fabric shop in Kyoto. I was going to go to another craft store near Avril (in Kichijoji station) but it seemed to be closed. From Avril, I got the shiny white yarn above (I may dye it, but its pretty lovely as it is) which is 60/40 of *some* mix but I don't know what. We're thinking linen and silk, but it was exceedingly cheap (in the sale bin). I also got a load of a verigated wool, but that's going to be turned into a gift, so again will have to stay secret.

So, the fabric, I was pretty restrained considering.



Cheesecloth with robots (!) very 70s flowers, cute ladybirds and (because I had to) a punkish Alice in Wonderland tea party. The ones above will probably be tops or skirts, the last may be a quilt of some sort. I'm not sure about wearing something based on my name, seems a bit *too* self-referential.




In other news, Kirsty the blog-less flatmate is no longer blogless, as those who have followed the links from her crafter posts on the amazing wonder-woman jumper will already know (people who read my flickr may have seen this jumper before - it's amazing). So we are now a two knit-blog household. Go to her latest post to see the fabric I bought back for her (and the cherry blossom welcome home cake she baked me!).