Work in Progress

I have been strangely monogamous in my knitting lately. I have quite a few WIPs and a couple of things in my queue I have the yarn for, but most of the time I have been working on a shawl I am knitting for my mom for Christmas. It is the arctic diamonds shawl from an old issue of interweave knits and I find the combination of the cashmere yarn and the pattern rather enjoyable. Still, it's a very slow process and I am only about a third of the way there. I figure I may as well keep working pretty much exclusively on this one while I'm still enjoying it.

There are a couple of things that just need finishing. I knit a pair of Saartje's booties for a friend's baby yesterday evening and I have made a mesh market bag a few weeks ago that needs to be finished.

Now that I have finished my latest pair of socks, there are a couple of contenders to replace it as my tv knitting. I cast on a little mobius shawl out of some 4-ply alpaca, but I don't like working with the yarn. It is lovely and soft, but it makes my fingers itch after a while. There are always the socks I started for mom earlier this year, although I still don't know her shoe size. Or I could cast on for a new pair of socks. Or I could just get started on one of the jumpers and cardigans in my queue...

And of course, there's my WIP from hell - a cotton tank top I designed based on a vintage Hungarian pattern. I put way too much work into it to just frog it or throw it away, but I think it will be a while before I pick it up again.

FO: Nearly Monkeys

I finished these socks this morning and am very pleased with them. I knit most of these during my holiday, so apart from being pretty they will also bring back fond memories. I thought this yarn would be nice for a pair of stockinette socks and I added a lace panel at the side to keep things a bit more interesting. I chose them from one of my Harmony stitch libraries. The one on the right foot is basically the same as the lace in the Monkey socks, another pattern I was thinking of knitting this summer. But I realised that I just didn't like that pattern enough, no matter how popular it is... So instead, I have my Nearly Monkeys.
I wanted to try the eye of the partridge heel on these socks. In retrospect they would have looked nicer with a slipped stitch heel. Another thing I would change would be to add three rows of garter stitch to mark where the toes start and break up the stockinette a little. I'm just glad there was no annoying pooling going on.


Pattern: My own.
Yarn: Fyberspates Merino Sock Yarn, colourway 'low tide'. I love the way they go with jeans!
Needles: 2.25mm, double pointed

For times when I I hate my PhD

If you type 'I hate my PhD' into Google this site comes up and cheers you up instantly. Who wouldn't be with lines like:

"There are of course several methods of stress relief to be tried -- popular ones include Staring Out of Windows and Watching Old Black and White Films. Obviously with minimum effort you can combine these with Eating Chocolate for a previously unprecedented amount of stress relief."

I think yarn is my chocolate. But I'll go have some actual chocolate now.

Rain and more rain

So after the last post I realised that I made a mistake in the summer top I wanted to finish by this week. I couldn't face frogging and re-knitting, so I put it away for a while. It looks fine up to the point where I divide it for the armholes, but at this stage I don't feel at all motivated to finish it.

Partly, because the weather has turned autumnal already in London. So far, we had about a week of summer weather this year. Which means that I am now suddenly very keen to get started on a pair of gloves. Or a hat. Or a scarf.

The closer I get to finishing my PhD (less than two months to go!) the more obsessed I am getting with knitting. I seem to spend every spare minute either knitting or looking for patterns to knit up my stash. I have been working on my latest pair of socks and my mom's Christmas gift lately. I am enjoying both a lot. I really want to finish the socks soon and the shawl is just a lot of fun to knit.