Sock-a-roony

THings have been quiet around the blog, partly because I have just had a week of mocks, and partly because blogger won't let me put photos in my posts. And photo-less posts are so dull when you're writing about knitting (as we are about to see!).

I have finished Grandma's Unst socks (well, I haven't weavd in the ends, but, knowing me, that won't be done untill christmas eve) and I started knitting a pair of Canal du Midi for Mum. I'm already past the heel, despite it not being the quickest sock pattern. I guess the progress might have something to do with the three i-tutorials I watched for college on Thursday. I find a little bit of sock makes Solicitors Accounts go a whole lot faster!

I also nee dto knit some socks for Pop, but since he has size 11 feet and they are going to be plain stocking stich and grey, it's not too appealing a prospect. And I think I need more yarn, too. I'm thinking of dabbling in toe-up in order to make them more interesting to knit. If I have to knit enormous, dull socks I might as well learn something at the same time.

Yesterday, while in the pub with one of my tutors (!)(and I wasn't the only one there - nothing dodgy. and he's gay) I found out that all the tutors gossip about us students (not really a surprise) and now all my tutors know I knit. That I don't mind, after all, I did tell one of them, but I do slightly mind that the one I was in the pub with judges me for it. Ahh, one more thing about which he can openly mock me. I guess knitting lawyers are a rare thing!

Maybe I could start a trend!?!

Short and sweet

Blogger just ate my post, so I'll summarise.

Hemlock Ring Blanket has been cast on. It is now bigger than this, and it's fun to knit. I am in love with BrooklynTweed, and trying not to stalk him. I cannot link properly, and will watch dvds soon.

This makes me laugh.

Half term

I'm waay too tired to write anything intelligent or funny. I had my business accounts exam this morning (fine, thanks) which rounded off a less-relaxing-than-hoped week off. Not in a bad way, it's just that I have done more this week than I thought I would. More revision, since mocks are looming (it feels so wrong to be revising in October) and, yesterday, a very fun trip to the Natural History Museum with brother, sister in law, nephews and niece.

Very fun, but goodness, so tiring. I genuinely don't know how people menage to have children. I was exhausted after half a day. So exhausted that I didn't make it to SnB. But it was totally worth it to see them all. It was just fantastic to spens dome quality time with some of my favourite people.

But not a lot of knitting this week. I started another hat - a lacey one this time. But I'm not entirely sure whether the colour is nice or nasty. I think it is only knitters' denial which makes me think that it has a possibility of being nice.

Hmm...

Bram

With a turnaround time of less than 24 hours, this hat was an FO before the blog even knew it was a WIP! It was also a majorly fun knit. It's named after it's intended owner.

It's knitted from the same yarn as my faaabulous Harmony jumper (some aran weight alpaca/ merino blend from Prestige yarns), so it was a good stash buster. It pretty much finished what I had left form Harmony. It was 108 stitches on 4.5mm needles (Denise circular, the pink ones) and after a little bit of 2x2 rib I just had some fun with cables. Some travelling, some twisting. The I decreased the top in my usual 'type A' way.

And just because it's so rare for me to have a picture of myself that I actually like (apart from my GIANT hand!), here's me in the hat.

But wait...

The best part is...

That the hat has a fan!! I put it up on Ravelry this afternoon when I finished it and this evening someone has marked it as something they love. A hat I designed! Someone I don't know has looked at a picture I took of a thing I designed and knitted and, without encouragement, objectively and openly attached their name and a little pink heart to it. I am beaming, I tell you. Beaming.

In other news: The name of this blog no longer makes sense. But I'm keeping it because Tooting Baby is no kind of pun at all (and no, I'm not a U2 fan. I'm a wordplay fan).

Hey hey. One figure eight cable later and here are some long-overdue photos.


Firstly, a big pink scarf. I knitted it for a friend who I thought needed something to wrap around her. Sorry that the photo is so bad. The lace pattern is 'falling leaves' and I gave it a moss stitch border and picot cast on and off edges.






These are socks destined for my sister-in-law's birthday. It's a good job that I got the camera sorted before I have to put these in the post. They are the twined cable socks (I can't remember the exact name off the top of my head) from Knitting on the Road. I loved the pattern. Like all the socks in that book, they are complex enough to be fun to knit but simple enough to memorise and knit on the tube.

How I love to knit socks on the tube! Yesterday there were even a group of people in my carriage talking about me knitting in sign language. That's a reaction I have never had before.
Here's my arty shot of the socks. The yarn is colinette jitterbug, and the needles were 2.75 mm. But I ran out of yarn on the second one, so after a little bit of surgery and a shopping trip, they both have grey Regia toes! I'm still really pleased with them though, and I hope the recipient likes them.





And finally (oh crap - I forgot to rotate), my jumper. It's Harmony from Rowan Classic Style and I love it. I should take a photo of it on me because I have never knitted a jumper that fits as well as this one. I looooove it.

Looooove it.




Life is better when there are photos!

Speaking of sprucing up...

Totally not related to my knitting in any way, but I suddenly realised that I could put photos from the net on here. That still doesn't meat I can put photos of my WIPs, but then I thought, 'what would be a nice picture of not-my-knitting to look at?'

There's only one answer to that!

non-illustrated

This blog just gets duller! I have lost part of the charger for my camera (my theory is that it was stolen at the same time as my computer monitor. They didn't take the lead for the monitor, and the lead for the charger is missing. I reckon they got their wires crosses. sorry!) so I can't take photos, of put them on my computer. Actually my sister's computer (till I get a new monitor). It's driving me a little bit loopy; I was just getting into this whole keeping-track-of-my-knitting thing.

It's also reeeaaally annoying, because I can't put any photos of my FOs on Ravelry. I want to make my profile look really cool so that when I finally work up the guts to ask some of my heroes to be my friends (right now I have no friends) It won't seem so doomed. But right now I have the lamest profile EVER!

For an over-achiever I'm really not doing so well. Must get on that.

To do:
Buy new charger lead.
Buy new monitor.
Get a Flickr account.
Spruce up my Ravelry page.
Go to SnB and find people to be my friends.
Make virtual moves on all the bloggers I aspire to being friends with.

Thinking about it, I also need to make this blog better, so that I can start commenting on other blogs without shame, so that then other bloggers will know who I am and my virtual moves won't seem so wrong.

Aah, the challenges of trying to participate in a community which you have been quietly observing from the sidelines for 3 years. I wish me luck (If I didn't know that knitters are so nice I would think I need it!).

Can I play?

I know, I know, I'm shit at this whole regular blogging thing. When I started I was aiming to average once a week, not once a month. I blame the LPC. And all the great blogs which take up my time so I have none left for my own!

But the point is - I'm on Ravelry!!! No more obsessive checking of the 'antsy' page for me, oh no no no. I can play too!

(One day I will be a proper member of the online knitting community, rather than a little observer). Kinda makes me want to go to SnB to get excited with people!

Don't make me

This is totally not knitting-related, but I just need a little rant.

There was a busker on the tube today. That's unusual in London, but it was not unwelcome (at first). I was not in the best mood and a little bit of music to perk me up would have been nice. But the first thing he said when he introduced himself was how rude the last carriage had been. Then he sang his song, which I recognised, and know all the words to (although I can't remember what it was off the top of my head - just one of those 80s songs that I think we are all born knowing, because we don't know how we know it), but he was so mumbly that the words were really hard to make out. Now, I know some people are all about the melody, but for me it's the lyrics (check out my Drew Barrymore-ness). I just love the words in songs. There are heaps of songs I like only for the lyrics. There are none I like just for the music. So I didn't think this busker was very good. Simon Cowell would have agreed with me too, I think.

Then, half way through the song (he didn't even give us the whole thing) he stopped to collect money, but before he went around he started being really rude, saying 'if you want to pretend to not deal with what's in front of you, that's fine' in a really sarcastic tone. Then, when not many people paid him (and I didn't, clearly, and I have been known to tip buskers in the past) he insulted the whole carriage again. He launched into a whole speech about discerning between good and bad buskers like discerning wine, and how wine lovers have posh voices. It was totally offensive, but my main problem was that I had consciously discerned - AGAINST HIM!!!

AAAARRRRRGH!

I feel a little bit better now.

More of the big pink thing knitting now.

Ok, the other projects. Well, actually an FO first (because it's one of those days where my brain is scatty like that). My pink socks. I decided I wanted a pair about 18 months ago, I bought the yarn last May (on a highly confusing day which I still don't totally understand) and I finished them last week. How on the ball am I?! Taking the photo was a little bit traumatic, on account of my fat calves and rash-covered legs. Mmm!


Project 2. A lacy jumper in 'spiced plum' (a bit spicier and richer than the photo). It's a merino and alpaca mix yarn which I got cheap through the SnB deal, and it's heaven in knitted form (but then isn't heaven always in knitted form?). Here's the finished back

And here's a close up

I'm up to the waist decreases on the front, and it was moving fast, but it has taken a back seat due to K-L's blanket. It's fun to knit, and I look forward to getting back to it.

Project 3. My mohair lace scarf. It's some kidsilk haze I got on ebay a while ago. I'm knitting this very sporadically, but I like it a lot.

Here's the close-up - it's 'wings of the swan' fron 'Traditional Lace Knitting' with a garter stitch border.

So there we have it. Actually, there is a project 4, but it's going to be a birthday preent. Even though I know I'm the only person who will read this, and I have shown it to a few people, it still feels wrong to put it up here. I'm just strange like that.

Now I'm going to sit on the sofa with some form of comfort food, which is where I should have been all day.

Whoop-de-doop

Hee hee! I made my own blog. I don't plan to actuall tell anone about it; at least not for a while, but I think it could be fun. I love reading other knitting blogs so much that I just fancied trying my own. And I think it might force me to keep track of all of my knitting (and not just shove unsuccessful things under the bed, never to be seen again).

I decided a while ago to limit myself to 4 projects at once. At the moent I am knitting:

1. Kerry-Lynne's blanket. This is a patchwork of mitred squares and is going to be a house warming gift, but I think I am kiddind myself if I really believe I will finish it before I go to Cardiff.

Hurrah! I managed to add a photo! Next stop world domination. Or just the other 3 projects, which are way more interesting than 48 garter stitch sqares (there's some lace involved). But they will have to wait because right now I need 'feep'.