Well, this weekend has not been the most successful one for me, knitting wise. I started the weekend looking forward to making my second glove. In fact I was looking forward to starting so much, that I forgot I’d swapped to my 4.5mm tips for the thumb of the last pair, and didn’t swap back to my 5mm tips. I did discover the mistake eventually. But only after I’d finished all of the glove and started on the thumb. So I put them down in disgust on Saturday night and haven’t looked at them since! I’d be tempted to wear the glove and hope it stretched out over time, but the thumb hole is just too small and tight - even just trying the glove on for a couple of minutes I had a red mark around my thumb, so I don’t think that will work. Really I should frog it and start again, but right now I’m just going to ignore them for a while, lol. The next time I make gloves, I think I’ll make both at the same time - that way if I make a mistake like that, at least it will be a matching pair of mistakes!

I did make some good progress this weekend though, with my Hairpin lace blanket. I finished the first strip on Wednesday I think. I worked out that I needed 414 loops for each strip which isn’t too bad. I joined the One a Day group on Ravelry with this as my project, and I’m aiming to do 50-100 loops a day. I managed 75 on Thursday and Friday, 50 on Saturday, and then I decided I just wanted to get it finished and I did 214 on Sunday! I got the two strips crocheted together, and I think I need 30 more strips to make it a good size to cover the bed. I’m going to have one strip of black on each side, so if I need to make it wider later I’ll just add black strips. I have 19 different colours so it’s less than two strips of each colour which should be manageable. Once I’ve made the strips, I’m going to add them straight away, to save the loops getting tangled or anything like that. I’m also doing up the unjoined side for the same reason. Because I’m joining them as I go, I need to make sure I do the colours in an order I’m happy with, so I’m not starting a new strip straight away. My plan is to take proper photos of all the balls of yarn then plan out my colour scheme on the computer. So far, I love how the strips look, and they’re really easy and pretty quick to join together.

And that’s pretty much it for this week. I’m looking forward to getting on with Magrathea again, so it’ll be pulled out of the bottom of my bag tonight. I’m going to try not to cast on anything new until Magrathea is done and try and get through my WIP that way. It could be a struggle!

The Revised List

Scarves and Shawls

• Lacey Crochet Scarf <- Finished
• Iris Crocheted Shawl <- Finished
• Shawl Collared Cowl <- Finished
• Urban Shells <- Finished
• Elise Shawl <- Finished
• Betula Ring <- Finished
• Recuerdos de Infancia <- In progress
• Magrathea <- In progress
• Happy Lavender Scarf <- In progress
• Mochi Neck Warmer <- Frogging first Betula Ring for yarn
• Branching Out - Patons Smoothie DK
• Chinook/A Little Bit Bohemian - Debbie Bliss Andes
• Henslowe <- Stash Addict yarn
• 200 Fingering Rocket Shawl/Usoa Shawl <- Drops Fabel
• My Kind of Town Cowl <- Wendy Serenity Super Chunky
• Sunderland <- Wendy Happy (Cinders)
• Long Nights Cowl <- Finished
• Blue Lagoon

Amigurumi

• Knit Bunnies x 7 <- Finished
• Realistic Octopus <- Finished
• Sheldon Turtle <- Have yarn
• Tilly the Panda
• Finola the Fox
• Chester the Dog <- Knit picks yarn

Other Things

• Tote Bag <- Finished
• Windschief Hat <- Finished
• Snowbaby Hat<- Finished
• Skaði Fingerless Gloves <- Finished
• Hairpin Lace Blanket <- Replacing Realta Blanket
• Genevieve <- In Progress
• Faceclothes/Make up pads <- Drops Paris
• Cap Sleeved Top <- Freedom Sincere
• Calorimetry<- Have yarn
• Phone sock/cosy <- Finished
• Pin cushion
• New Era <- In trouble!
• Needle book <- Trying out entrelac (leftovers of blanket yarn)
• Scissor case

Well, it’s Friday at last and I’m having a short day today. My office has a flexi-time system. We can start anytime before 10, have lunch between 11 and 2, and leave after four. You can either work extra hours and save up for 6 extra days off a year, or you can just use them as you go. I had six hours saved up, so I decided to make use of them. Instead of starting at 8am, I’m starting at 10 and having a 6 hour day! The perfect thing for a Friday I think.

Today I have the first of a new pair of fingerless gloves! I did most of the knitting over last weekend, and finally got round to sewing in the ends and sewing on the button last night. I really like this pattern! It’s really easy and pretty quick to make. The only problem I had, was as I suspected, with the thumb. The pattern had you place 11 stitches on a holder, and cast on an extra stitch when you made the thumb hole. Then you went back used those 11 stitches and picked up one stitch to give you 12 for the thumb. I tried it, but it just left me with a couple of big holes at the top of the thumb. So I picked up five stitches, to keep the pattern the same and after a couple of rows I went down to a 4.5mm needle. I’m really happy with how the thumb turned out in the end! It’s a great snug fit. The other problem I had was with the button hole. It came out too far to the left and too low down for me to be happy with how it held the flap closed, so I think I’ll skip it for the next glove. Instead I closed up the hole when I was sewing in the ends, and I sewed on the button where I thought it would sit best.

I seem to have lost my tension a couple of times when I was knitting this glove. I think it’s partly because I was knitting a lot tighter than normal - the pattern reccommended using a needle slightly smaller than the one recommened, but when I used a 4.5mm needle I had no chance of getting my hand through the loop! So I decided the next best thing was to use a 5mm needle and knit tightly. I didn’t want to add stitches to make it wider because I didn’t know how far my yarn would go, and I only just had enough for these gloves. I really love the seed stitch band at the top, and the  button. Instead of going up a needle, which made it a little too loose, I just relaxed my tension back to normal. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I’ll have a second glove finished, check back next week to see the pair!

For awesome FO’s check out Tami’s and see what everyone else has been up too!

For a second time, I’ve lost my whole post when I pressed submit. I’m going to have to go back to writing these in notepad and copying them over. I can’t believe how fast January has gone. I’m still not used to it being 2012 and we’re almost in February! I think I’ve made pretty good progress this week, although I have had a falling out with Magrathea. I kept missing one yarn over, and not realising it until the next lace row. After ripping two rows out three times, and having to pick my stitches back up thne sort out the twisted ones, I was fed up! This weekend I also needed my 5mm needles for something new I’ve cast on, so Magrathea is having a week off, and hopefully we’ll work things out!

I managed to got my Long Nights Cowl finished last week, and I’ve been wearing it every day since. It’s fantastic and so warm. I waited half an hour for a bus this morning and by the time it turned up, my neck was the only part of me still warm! I used up two skiens of the Drops Nepal yarn I had. I couldn’t get gauge  - I had 4 stitches in an inch instead of 3, so I just made my cowl an extra ten stitches wide, so it finished up the same size. I didn’t want to go up a needle size as I wanted to keep the fabric tight and warm. I also didn’t make mine as long as the pattern - I stopped at 21 inches, with just the right amount of yarn to do the two bind off rows and whip stitch the rest of the live stitches around and not enough for a single row more. I really liked this pattern, it was so simple and fast to make, but it is a great cowl. It would make perfect gift knitting I think.

I still had one skien of Drops Nepal after finishing my cowl, so I cast on a pair of New Era fingerless gloves. I’ve been using the magic loop technique to knit them, and it’s so easy! So far this pattern is going really well. I seem to be knitting tighter doing it in the round, so when I started with a 4.5 mm needle I couldn’t get my hand through the loop, even thoughmy hand is smaller than the pattern. I borrowed the 5mm needles from Magrathea and everything is fine now. The first glove is a little tight, but I’m sure it will stretch out with a little wear. I’m as far as the band at the top now, and everything has been going smoothly. It’s my first pair of knit gloves so I’m a little worried about picking up the stitches for the thumb. I’m a little worried it’ll be too tight, or too loose and holey. I’m just going to hope for the best though, and not over think it.

My Hairpin Lace blanket has been going quite well. I now have 300 loops on the loom, and I’ve worked out each strip needs to have between 400 and 500 loops to be long enough for our bed. I figure it’s best for the first couple to be too long - then If I want to I can rip back some of the loops easily. If the strips are too short they’ll be harder to fix. So far it looks like I’ll be able to get at least two strips from each skien of yarn and since I have 19 coloured skiens, plus three black ones, I’m sure I’ll hae more than enough yarn for my blanket. Once I’ve got the second strip done, I’ll start joining them together and hopefully be able to work out how many strips I’ll need. I’ll also be able to plan how I want the colours to go. I don’t think I want to do rainbow stripes, I’d rather mix up the colours a bit. Since I want to be able to join the strips as I go, some planning is definitely needed. I’ve joined the One-a-Day group on Ravelry so I’ll be posting about it again tomorrow. I’m aiming at between 50 and 100 loops per day, which should be enough to keep it going nicely, while still giving me plenty of time to work on other things.

The Revised List

Scarves and Shawls

• Lacey Crochet Scarf <- Finished
• Iris Crocheted Shawl <- Finished
• Shawl Collared Cowl <- Finished
• Urban Shells <- Finished
• Elise Shawl <- Finished
• Betula Ring <- Finished
• Recuerdos de Infancia <- In progress
• Magrathea <- In progress
• Happy Lavender Scarf <- In progress
• Mochi Neck Warmer <- Frogging first Betula Ring for yarn
• Branching Out - Patons Smoothie DK
• Chinook/A Little Bit Bohemian - Debbie Bliss Andes
• Henslowe <- Stash Addict yarn
• 200 Fingering Rocket Shawl/Usoa Shawl <- Drops Fabel
• My Kind of Town Cowl <- Wendy Serenity Super Chunky
• Sunderland <- Wendy Happy (Cinders)
• Long Nights Cowl <- In progress, Drops Nepal
• Blue Lagoon

Amigurumi

• Knit Bunnies x 7 <- Finished
• Realistic Octopus <- Finished
• Sheldon Turtle <- Have yarn
• Tilly the Panda
• Finola the Fox
• Chester the Dog <- Knit picks yarn

Other Things

• Tote Bag <- Finished
• Windschief Hat <- Finished
• Snowbaby Hat<- Finished
• Skaði Fingerless Gloves <- Finished
• Hairpin Lace Blanket <- Replacing Realta Blanket
• Giselle
• Genevieve <- In Progress
• Faceclothes/Make up pads <- Drops Paris
• Cap Sleeved Top <- Freedom Sincere
• Calorimetry<- Have yarn
• Phone sock/cosy <- Finished
• Pin cushion
• New Era <- In Progress
• Needle book <- Trying out entrelac (leftovers of blanket yarn)
• Scissor case