What I made, by Sharon

I'm not going to be blogging for the next little bit (maybe a week or so) because our home computer stopped working yesterday. Now, I know people blog from their tablets or phones, but I absolutly hate typing on touch screens. I'm positing this from work but, becuase we use Internet Explorer 8, nothing is supported properly and I can't change the font or anything. So, I'll not be posting here, or updating my projects of Ravelry for the newxt little bit, but I'll still be reading your blogs and keeping up to date. See you when the new computer arrives!

As sOctober draws to a close I find myself knitting two socks (or sock like things). The well documented Colour of Magic socks and I'm finishing up the Gift-along t hrummed slippers for my mother. To go with the Discworld socks I'm listening to Witches Abroad and it's a particularly enjoyable listen. The witches are some of my favourite Terry Pratchett characters and they are in good form here. I'm still reading Ancillary Justice . You know the sort of book that you don't want to get to the end of, because it's so good? It's that sort of book. I'm so glad there is a sequel. And that's me done for another week. Make sure you pop over to Ginny's Yarnalong to see what everyone else is knitting and reading this week.   

I decided to knit on , in the hopes that I actually had enough yarn. I knit through the foot - where I found a know in the skein of Jitterbug, unknotted it and knit on. I knit to the end of the sock, weighed it and found that I had used half the yarn. Problem solved. I can relax now, right? I knit the leg of the second sock and held it up next to the first to see if they were the same length. The same length they were, BUT NOT THE SAME COLOUR. It's pretty subtle,but the finished sock is a slightly less vibrant colour. The socks are different dye lots, even though they are made form the same skein. Yes, the ball of Jitterbug didn't just have a knot in it, they had joined a different dye lot to it.  I don;t really have word to express how I feel about this, except I'm glad I don't have any more Jitterbug in my stash.

I'm knitting the Colour of Magic socks out of Jitterbug, and, as everyone knows, these skeins are short. I've used them before and never had a problem, probably because my feet are also short. But these socks are 68 stitches and quite long. ow I could have (should have?) done one less repeat on the leg. But I didn't and it looks like I'm going to run out of yarn. I have a few choices - I could rip it back to where I was on Friday afternoon and then knit on. I can keep knitting and hope it works out. I do have some similar colour yarn I could use for the toes. Someone on Ravelry has a ball of this yarn For Sale Or Trade - I could knit on and if I run out buy it from her. I could put out a call on Ravelry and see if anyone has any left overs of this colour. I feel paralysed by indecision and it all seems overly difficult right now. I mean it's just knitting, right?

It still being sOctober, I decided to cast on my next pair of Discworld socks, The Colour of Magic. Now, the colour of magic is Octarine , described as the eighth colour on the Discworld, only visible to wizards and cats. For some reason I've always imagined it as the colour after orange. For this pair of socks I decided to knit it with some Jitterbug that I bought in Bendigo 2012. I can't believe I left this yarn in a box for so long. It's incredibly pretty, and a lot softer than I remember Jitterbug being. It has all my favourite pastel colours and is so pretty. So is the sock, although it's not a great knit it drinking / in public (am I giving too much away if I say that the majority of my knitting seems to be done in the pub, and I knit a lot? ;) I think the pattern stands up to the variegated yarn, and I just can't stop looking at the prettiness of it. Magic indeed.

Here's my yarnalong photo for the week - can you spot what's not in the photo?   That's right, there's no knitting pictured! That's because I'm taking a break from my mother's slippers until I can knit at home. I'll be casting on a new pair of socks at the pub tonight, but they haven't been started yet. So, no knitting in the picture, although actually a normal amount of knitting is going on.   I'm listening to Redshirts    by John Scalzi, read by Wil Weaton. I love it when Will Weaton reads to me. That aside, it's not a bad novel, but it's a bit odd. If I wasn't a Star Trek fan I don't think I'd get it at all.   And I've just started reading Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie . Last week Ursula tweeted that she was reading the second book in the series, and I generally find her recommendations very good. I've just started it, and I'm still in that bit where I'm trying to understand the parameter...

As you know, I subscribed to Ysolda's Knitworthy pattern collection. While I like many of the pattern that arrived, none of them made it to the top of the queue. Until Cadeuutje . This project has something I've wanted to try since the Yarn Harlot talked about it: THRUMS. The sole, on the inside The sole, on the outside   The thing about thrums though is that they are designed to make something really, really warm, often mittens. I live in Melbourne and this winter I didn't even bother wearing my fingerless mitts. But thrumbed slippers? Yes please.  The finished first slipper. I don't know why the picture is upside down I'm making them for my mother and have just finished the first one. It might be a little while before I get to the second one, because the pattern takes a wee bit of concentration and thruming in public is not the best plan. I'm out for the next four nights, but come the weekend I'm looking forward making the second one. It...

Today I finished my first pair of socks from my Discworld Sock Project  and I am very satisfied with them. They are toe up, which is not my preferred method of knittng socks, but Rachel Coopey designs a heel flap and gusset that is very easy and sensible. That said, I found it a tad tricky to work out where to start the increases, and I think they just are a smidge too big in the heel. The pattern is great, though fairly tricky to photograph. I didn't realise, until I was actually knitting these, that the pattern on the foot repeats on the back leg. It's challenging enough to be interesting, without being mindblowingly hard. All in all, a sock that bodes well for the remaining twelve pairs i'm going to knit for the Discworld Sock Project. 

It's Wednesday, which means that it's time for Yarnalong with Ginny. Pop over to her blog to see what everyone else is reading and knitting this week. This week I'm still knitting away on socks for Leon . They are going a little slower than normal - it's a 70 stitch sock with twiseted stitches and cable crossings every row, so I guess that's why. I'm up to the second sock and I did really enjoy the first one, toe up and all! I'm reading Dead Man's Deal, the second book in Joceynne Drake's Asylum Tales. I've only just started it, but it's paranormal urban fiction. Not a genre in which I spend a great deal of time, but I'm enjoying it. When I went to buy the e-version, I was reminded how glad I am I read on a Kindle. The other day I bought a new cover for it - I really wanted something that looks like a good old fashioned book: When reading out and about as I often do I'd much prefer people saw that than the classy cover of ...

I finished the knitting on my mothers cardigan a week or more ago, but the finishing has taken me forever, or so it feels. Partly because there is a lot of steeking, and finishing steeks and partly because I haven't really made time to sit down and do it. I think that was because this part of the project is scary and hard. Anyway, today I sat on my balcony, sewed on the sleeved and finished the collor. I'm not  one hundred percent happy with the way the sleeves attach to the body, but I don't really think I could get a better finish by unsweing them and starting again. The sleeve tops make me very nervous: I used Elizabeth Zimmerman's technique of NOT placing steek stitches, just reinforcing and cutting, and I don't think it's a good one for this project, mainly because of the long floats (which she says not to do, but that was the pattern).   So it's done.The overall look is exactly what I was after, and the sizing seems to have come out jus...

It's Wednesday and that mean Yarnalong with Ginny . Click over to her blog to see what she, and the other yarn along peeps are up to this week. I am, as I said yesterday, knitting the Sapient Pearwood socks, from the When Granny Whetherwax Knits Socks collection. To  go along with it I am listening to Reaper Man , the eleventh Discworld book. I'm loving this one, it's funny and clever and has Death, one of my favourite characters. I'm reading Shift , by Hugh Howey the second book in the Wool trilogy. Nothing to do with yarn I'm afraid. This book just drips with contained fear and tension. I'm enjoying it, but it's a claustrophobic unhappy read. It's much more consistently written than the first book and I'm alternating between not wanting to put it down and not wanting to delve deeper into the warped twisted world he is painting. So that's me for another week. I hope you are enjoying your knitting, reading and/or listening.

I started the Discworld sock project with the Sapient Pearwood Socks. I'm not using any specific logic to choose which socks I knit next - probably one for Leon, one for me (or rather TWO for Leon, two for me). I'm using Knitch yarn that I bought in New Zealand    I love, love, love the colour and thought it was perfect for the project. Named after one of my favourite Discworld characters, The Luggage.  An explanation of sapient pearwood, and The Luggage, taken from the Discworld Wiki:   The Luggage  ...is a large chest made of sapient pearwood (a magical, intelligent plant which is nearly extinct, impervious to magic, and only grows in a few places outside the  Agatean Empire , generally on sites of very old magic). It can produce hundreds of little legs protruding from its underside and can move very fast if the need arises. It has been described as "half suitcase, half homicidal maniac" ( Sourcery  paperback p22). While I don't plan t...

On Wednesday I recast on my previously failed Millwater cowl . I really got into the rhythm of knitting it and on Friday I finished it. I had the song Michael Finnegan in my head the whole way through (if you click here you will get a terrifying Wiggles version)  Anyway, I had the song in my head the whole time, because the wind blew my cowl away and then I began again? I don't know. Anyway, in the end it was a fun, super quick knit and it's so warm and snuggly. I slipped  the first stitch of every row purlwise and I adore the way the edge looks.     

 sOctober is the funnest month of the year for me. I feel like I haven't knit socks for ages (actually it's just since the beginning of August). This sOctober I'm making a plan that will last the whole year. I've been eyeing Rachel Coopey's socks for quite some time, and, while pocking through her patterns I discovered that she had done a Discworld themed sock club a couple of years back. That's right, twelve pairs of socks based around Discworld themes and characters! If you've been reading my Yarnalong posts you will know that I am gradually listening to the books, and you know how much I love a theme. So - 12 pairs of socks in twelve months, knit a long with the audiobooks. (Although not rigidly so, it's hard to coordinate finishing a project and a book at the same time, and I'm a monogamous knitter and reader.) I'm so excited. As soon as I have my current projects finished - which should be by the end of the weekend, I'm casting on the f...

For some reason I'm struggling to keep track of what day of the week it is, but it's definitely Wednesday and that means it's time for the yarn along!   This week I finished the knitting on my mother's cardigan, and started the steeking and finishing. Yesterday I needed some knitting I could do outside the house, so I recast on my Millwater cowl.  It looks much better now, and it only took two days to get past where it was when I ripped it.   I'm reading Lead , the third book in the Stage Dive quartet. Like the others, it's trashy, predictable and fun. The cover is not quite as much fun as the first one though: (Incidentally, I just discovered I'm reading these as they are published, and the next and final one isn't out until March next year!)   And I'm listening to   Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World    I don't listen to /read a lot of non-fiction, but learning about this bit of history has been quite interesti...