Some FOs and pictures from my travels

Cute crochet cactus, a birthday gift.

Single sock knitted flat, striped with two ends of sock yarn. A test knit for possible fair isle socks in the future. Yes, Second Sock Syndrome in action, it has no mate!

Belated picture - crochet and knitted hearts for Coventry hospital's palliative care unit

CSM socks made at the MKC retreat day and grafted the following weekend.

Proof that it's working, a repeating bird pattern centred on a "sleeve" sample - I'm instructing someone how to use her Passap E6000 with DesignAKnit at the weekend, and had to figure out how to use the integrated, interactive knitting feature with the Passap. Long story short, I'd downloaded a pattern to that machine with the old W10 laptop, but hadn't got it working with W11 (but it's been working with the Brother and Silver machines). It turns out that (a) my curly cord needs repairing AGAIN (repeated error 200) and (b) the Passap only wishes to communicate with the right hand USB port and not the left one. Nope, I've no idea why either! Ignore the wonky edges, I was being lazy and not fully fashioning them as I usually would. 

It appears that you first have to apply the pattern, position it, and "integrate" it into the garment piece. Then you download the stitch pattern using "integrated download" not "download" - somehow I missed that the first time. Then when you start knitting the piece, select "integrated" not "shape only". It makes perfect sense now, but my poor old brain was struggling with it last weekend. At some point in this process, the Passap will tell you if it's not happy with the design - for example, you've used a two colour double-bed technique, but selected a 3 colour single-bed technique. I've never had issues before BUT so far I've only knitted straight pieces where the pattern alignment wasn't a concern. So it was a nice learning experience for me, and as part of that I discovered there are tutorial videos on the Softbyte website that I'll be working through. 

I won't bore you with too many holiday snaps - in April, we had a short break in Hathersage, famously the last resting place of Little John (of Robin Hood's merry men), and diverted to Chesterfield on the way home. In May we did a week in Venlo, Cologne and a night in Amsterdam. As you can see, it's been a dull, damp, chilly spring! 

View from Stanage Edge. The five mile hike from Hathersage was hard work!

None of my workmates believe me when I tell them this place exists in the Peak district.

Famous twisted spire at Chesterfield, the photo doesn't do it justice. Apparently it's the weight of lead applied to a medieval wooden spire (but there are lots of legends involving the Devil as to why it's like this). 

Cologne cathedral is HUGE. Yes, the weather was as grim as it looks alas!

A visit to the Lindt chocolate museum. Worth it just for the shop (which sells other brands too! Love it!).

Current mood: impressed

Bits and bobs

I had another lovely weekend at Kegworth, where I demonstrated and made 2.5 pairs of tube socks, despite my machine going "sproing!" at one point and trying to ditch the lot in my lap. The missing sock has been knitted but is still on the machine.

This keyboard case was actually made towards the end of last year and never got photographed. Not sure why! Pattern was made up on the fly.

Hat made from trophy yarn, a true one-off. Yes, it really is that neon in person!

And finally, the unfortunate Passap cardigan. It came out too short and there's way too much material in the sleeve head for me. Otherwise there's nothing wrong with it, but I went off it before I even finished sewing on the buttons. Pity, because it's a very cheerful colour.

Current mood: awake

Holidays and continued working from stash

Well, there hasn't been much to report craft-wise because the Cog and I had a lovely all-inclusive week away at Cala Canutell in Menorca. Despite being only a 3*, it was the kind of AI I can get on board with. Self-service juices and an amazing buffet three times a day (two cases were given over to dessert, that's all I'll say!), evening entertainments, pretty good weather, daily yoga and aqua aerobics plus various activities organised around the pool area, and a useful little shop for day three when I discovered that yet again I'd forgotten to pack any socks. The TUI organised trips didn't really work for us date-wise so we took the bus into Mahon on market day, and booked a harbour cruise ourselves, and hired a car to see a bit of the island (and no doubt saved ourselves some money). They really take siesta seriously over there, so an afternoon cruise was a good idea as when we got back to Mahon town it reminded me of COVID days - everything bar cafes shut (and yes I got asked to leave a museum, yes, siesta is that serious!). All too soon it was time to come home (and I did feel for the ladies of the Manchester contingent, who got out before the power cut cancelled all flights, sans their hold luggage, and had to wear the same swimsuit as the shop only sold the one style). The only thing portable enough was the last ball of cotton bamboo, where I crocheted a heart-shaped dishcloth - alas, not yet photographed!

A ball band dishcloth

A crochet dishcloth

More good news, the colour changer that went on a little holiday after my machine knitting event at the start of June has returned safe and sound, along with my ribber box. The boxes got mixed up by mistake at the end. I am relieved, because they command silly money on Ebay! On a less happy note, himself is still between contracts and is getting increasingly antsy about being kept in limbo. Hopefully we will have good news on that front soon.

Current mood: happy

Another statue day

You know that saying, some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue? I spent a large chunk of yesterday afternoon putting the SK840 away, finding (most) of the bits that go with both ribber and main bed (and accidentally kneeling on a small plastic part that looks important, no idea what it is as yet!). The area got cleaned and dusted, I swapped out for a better machine table, and duly set up the KH260/KR260 combination, and sat down to knit. Which is about when I discovered the yarn I'd got plans for knits up much better on a mid gauge machine. Yes, I should have checked my Ravelry notes - for an engineer logic does sometimes fail me though. Ugh - a string vest in a wool/lurex mix is not the look I was hoping for. Oh well, I did a bunch of filing of magazines and patterns, so it wasn't a total dead loss, but after knitting something very holey and unsuitable, I stomped off downstairs to watch a bit of Bridgerton. A pity I was a football taxi last night, I only managed about 28 minutes! 

Today I discover that the KHC820 colour changer I took to the MK event has gone walkabout, in that it didn't come back home. Prices on Ebay range from £33 to £212, yikes! 2024 is turning into a very expensive year, let's not even talk about the impending dental work that's going on a credit card soon, or the partner who is between contracts. Bah! 

Oh well, I did finally manage to crochet a heart-shaped dishcloth last night, but only after I drew it up as a chart. So many failed attempts, it appears my ability with written crochet patterns is sorely lacking! Pictures when there are some... 

Current mood: annoyed

Interlocking crochet and other adventures...

Well, there's nothing like a friend asking to borrow a book to make you open the dratted thing and actually read it. I don't remember when I picked up "Interlocking Crochet" by Tanis Galik, but it turns out to be a fascinating foray into crocheting two surfaces that interlock but don't join up with each other (until you add a border at the end, anyway). I had great fun with the technique last weekend, although it turns out some of my struggles were down to errata in the book, and so far I've only managed this one piece. I love anything reversible though!

And yes, there are some minor mistakes in this. Not bad for a first attempt though!

In other news, I treated myself to a set of Clover Amour crochet hooks, this is most of them - I think the 5mm, a fetching royal blue, is downstairs somewhere. As himself is currently between contracts, it was lucky I had a £20 Amazon voucher towards these as it'll be the last treat I can afford for a while. I thought I'd give non-inline hooks another go, seeing as my anodised metal ones are great but make my hands ache after a while.

Finally, what does one do with leftover bamboo/cotton yarn? Make it into dishcloths, of course (I've had to throw a few lately that became a bit holey)

The more I think I know about crochet, the more I realise there is to learn. Check this out for a long list of techniques, some of which I've yet to try!

In the machine knitting arena, I'm trying to inspire myself to make something with cables on it for an event later this year, and completely failing to get magic cables working, even though I have a swatch from 2016 that proves it is possible (though it was done on a Brother machine, that might make it easier). Hmmph. I will keep trying.

Current mood: happy

Fun flowers and more finished objects

First, some fun swap items I received today. I love the FLOL group on Ravelry, this was the May flowers swap. I sent some floral-themed items to someone too!

Next up, an almost-finished (blue) beige helix. Turns out it involves the self-timer trying to take pictures of the reverse, apologies for catching my partner's "floordrobe" in shot. This was finished late last night, I just need to weave in all the ends, which will be interesting as this is a bamboo-cotton mix yarn made of many thin strands. The collar's so big (it's a big circle) that it almost doubles as a Jedi-style hood!

Finally, I present one argyle sock worked manually on the CSM (overchecks worked by hand, it involves a dental pick on my CSM and is not for the faint-hearted). Very pleased with it, even though I made it much harder for myself in terms of ends by reversing my colours for the overchecks. Matthew Hamilton's original video on youtube uses a third colour for the overchecks, which means a lot less ends to sew in later. The second sock will happen sometime mid June.

In other news, I've managed to catalogue all of the craft books I have stored in the craft room, whilst having a bit of a cull. Now just two big cases of non-craft books and a bunch of self-published ones (Mary Weaver, Kathleen Kinder) to add. The self-published ones take time because they don't have ISBN numbers of course. More car shenanigans - I got reversed into by a lorry whilst I was legally parked waiting to get into a training venue (turned out they'd moved the training, and the lorry driver didn't normally go to that depot). Minutes after I'd moved my car, someone else was parked in that spot. You just couldn't make it up. Anyway, fingers crossed I get the car back ASAP, the courtesy vehicle is a very budget affair. I dread to think what next year's car insurance looks like.

We've also been making some effort with the garden with the addition of a bug hotel, and some weeding (and extra mowing, in between the rain). The roses are blooming, despite the current weird "summer" of sunny yet chilly with sudden downpours. Today it's 16 degrees, grey and wet so the tumble dryer is the only way to get the laundry done. I think I've managed to sit outside in the garden maybe twice, and with warm clothing both times! Oh well, same old same old!

Current mood: happy

Startitis again...

This "use what you have" thing really seems to have sparked my mojo. I finished the tunisian cable scarf (pictures to follow), made a tuck scarf on the Passap from the Metbury Bitty book (still needs blocking) in that troublesome terracotta yarn (and STILL more yarn to go! Pah!). Poor Miss Swiss complained with error 200 a few times; I confess I defluffed both locks but completely ignored the beds, so that is my next job I think (it involves the hoover and some playing around with needle retainer bars, surgical spirit and oil). I've also cast on the Drops Blue Helix cardigan, a crocheted cardigan with a large star shape set into the back, except mine's stone, not blue, as it's leftover bamboo yarn from another project. Hoping it'll work up into a nice beach / summer cover up.

Meanwhile my s-i-l B taught me how to crochet two rows of UK trebles at once, yesterday, not a technique I'd heard of - though if she's using them in a garment, she prefers the look of them worked in vertical, not horizontal, stripes, as the WS and RS are more noticeably different. I had a bit of a destash and put some crochet hooks and my Denise needles up for sale on Ravelry, only because I'm no longer using them. I prefer inline hooks unless they're 3mm and under, and the Denise set is US sizes - since I upgraded to the KnitPro symfonie set (metric) I've not really needed them. 

The lace yoked sweater is drying in the bathroom and needs a light blocking. Pictures of the various things when the finished items are ready. Startitis, gotta love it! 

Current mood: energetic

Crochet and holidays

Apologies - I didn't realise it had been so long since my last post! Well, I have been away a few times - that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it! 

First up was the annual Knitting and Crochet Guild AGM. Four guest speakers, two elective classes. I took corner to corner crochet (turns out I could already do it, but never mind!) and mosaic crochet, which was definitely quite challenging. It made a nice change not being a teacher for once. I picked up some stitch dictionaries. I need to cull my craft books, I have way too many!

This scarf was inspired by the C2C class.

This scarf (upside down, sorry!) was one I started a while ago in arcade stitch.

This is my sample of mosaic stitches - the bottom one is made by working into the back loop only, then dipping into the front loop with a treble. The top one you "pre-plan" a gap using a ch space and then work into that gap a few rows later. I figured out how to do C2C in the round on the train home from my second trip (more on that later). I had to wait until I was home to get access to a multi coloured biro.

Our second trip was a three night stay in Gent. We discovered a brewery (see menu below, I love that their logo contains lots of local symbols) that we missed last time, as well as a tiny bar that sold 150 flavours of jenever (gin). We were incredibly lucky with the weather and needed sun screen, not bad for mid September. It only rained a little on the last day, and both times we were safely in place under awnings at two of the many outside bars.

Getting back to the UK came with a bit of a bump - it was wet and grey when we got back. I'm trying to resist the urge to hibernate - the nights are markedly longer already. Winter is NOT my favourite season! I made a start on a final (quite complex) cross stitch kit given to me by a friend, but already I have gone wrong. The dratted thing is 97 stitches wide when it should be 96. It might go in the bin at this rate. Pah!

Current mood: working

Completed projects 2022

Thirty odd projects - not bad in a year where I didn't feel like I got much done!