quelle erqsome...

the almighty destash: actually knitting through it

Last week I finished my first actual jumper (details here and here). While I've knit a few cardigans and am a dab hand at socks, I've always been kind of hesitant about the whole jumper thing. (For one thing, I'm still hesitant about calling it a jumper. It's one of those things I still have to consciously translate before I say it. I'm afraid they might always be 'sweaters' to me.) However, about six weeks ago I decided to take a leaf out of Jasmin's (from the Knitmore Girls) book and enter into Operation Destash, i.e. have a proper rummage through my stash and my pattern collection and match them up.

I really like this idea of destashing through knitting. It's a clean, methodical and thoroughly logical way of tackling an overrun stash. Mine is relatively tiny compared to some, but it's still far too overgrown for my liking. In fact, it has that very much in common with my garden at the moment. Sigh. The hours in the day, as Poirot might lament in his peculiar fluent pidgin English, there are not enough of them.

In any case, one Sunday I spent an entire morning rooting out all the yarns I will not and refuse to ever use, the yarns that I admittedly quite like but are destined to languish if they stay with me and all the quality yarns that I've impulse purchased collected throughout the years to sample but have not. About half have gone to our local charity shop, while the other half are on hand to be donated to whatever good cause will take them.

My stash thoroughly weeded, the rest of the day was dedicated to pattern browsing, queue perusing and squinting critically at designs through skeins held aloft to get the full measure of them. Is there anything more satisfying? It's so utterly self-indulgent and yet a completely necessary use of a knitter's time. In the end, I picked six garments I am desperate to wear in yarn I am desperate to knit, and the plan (The Plan) is to go through the list one by one until I have six new things in my wardrobe.

First on (and off!) the needles: #23 Lace Yoke Pullover by Sandi Prosser from Vogue Holiday 2008, knit in Fyberspates British Merino DK in deep plum, Heaven's Hand in saffron and Madelinetosh Eyre in dove grey.

Next up: Cobblestone by Jared Flood from Interweave Knits Fall 2007, also knit in Fyberspates British Merino DK, this time in this deep-rust-scarlet hybrid solid that makes the colour of Matthew's eyes even more hard to define but no less intense.

Before I wrap this up, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who commented on the last post. The last six months have been pendulous to say the least, but overwhelmingly I've come out of it still bursting with all the good rather than dwelling over the rest. And there's more good things to come, of that I know.

jammy christmas crumpets

On cold mornings, a jammy crumpet and a sleepy cat are really all you need to keep warm, no? Mozzie will occasionally protest that she's a bit too hot, she'll stretch and lazily decide she might want to move over to the couch instead, but she can generally be persuaded to stay put. Of course, some times, the lure of Yeti curled up on the soft fleecy quilt I made for them over comes her and I am left to huddle under my Hap Blanket all by myself.

It has been a very busy week -- with more sewing and lugging and hauling than I could possibly repeat here (though I do a fair attempt, here). The craft fair at Bentley Priory was great fun and I just about managed to finalise the last of my Christmas purchases, though my Christmas knitting still has a bit of a way to go... I'm redoing that stripey cardigan for Matthew and making him a few other things -- fast things, but still, not so fast that the anxious dread isn't slowly creeping up on me. Fortunately, I've decided I am only knitting for him this year. Everyone else can suck it.

Unfortunately for Matthew, Lou has just released her German Christmas Market gloves and hat set and I am tempted to cast on IMMEDIATELY! They look awesome in person and the gloves are super warm (that Manos makes for excellent fingers). I've been working on a super secret sock pattern, which I should be able to release in the next couple of days -- I can't wait! 

Incidentally, I just saw that Ali has tweeted about the German Christmas Market still being on. I wonder if I should use this afternoon for a quick visit to see what might be found. Lou managed to snag a fantastic hand-made candle when she and Aneet went a couple weeks ago and spent a good deal of time dribbling excitedly over some German Christmas ornaments...

We haven't got our Christmas tree yet, but that might be the push we need. Then I can spend my chilly mornings with a jammy crumpet and sleepy cat under the glow of twinkling coloured lights. Hurrah!

masonic lodge version 3.2

I've had a revised version of this pattern on the backburner for months now and finally, after receiving 4 PMs on Ravelry in one week asking where the legend is, I've done it. I've also updated the layout and rewritten a couple of bits -- it's amazing how much my pattern-writing style has evolved since I originally wrote this.

If you fancy a gander, download the pattern on Ravelry or download it righ here! Definitely let me know what you think -- I'm pretty pleased with it, but Matthew has no idea what he's looking at and is thus not particularly helpful as a second editor (wonderful though he is at 'Mmmm, yes. That is a swell-looking pattern you've got there.').

ps, i love you -- a new lyos sock

 

Well, the snow is gone, but I've got socks! Lemon squeezy socks that nonetheless incorporate stranded knitting AND embellishments! 'PS, I Love You' is the second pattern Lou and I have done together and the sixth in the Loumms Year of Socks (either link will take you to the pattern itself should you fancy whipping up a Valentine's pair for your lover/enemy/self).

It's a bit of a pisstake of the film of the same name, which we both find hilariously awful. But these are largely conceptual: they're for all those time your partner makes you want to scream in frustration or hurl nasties during heated arguments. You never really mean all the horrid things that you want to say, but adding a post script to say 'I love you' can be just as difficult as holding back. Bring in these socks.

Outside of the basic pattern, we decided to do them differently to each other, because they're so very much based on customising a message to someone, so Lou's message ('I don't wanna lose you tonight', in homage to Jan Terri) is done using Wollmeise as her contrast to the Malabrigo and her embellishment is achieved in Duplicate Stitch. My message, in Malabrigo on Malabrigo, reads 'you are [my] poison' and did my embellishment in a more traditional Split Stitch:

left: me holding my heart of love; right: something deadly this way drips

I'm very fortunate in that Matthew has never ever been poisonous, but I'd be lying if I tried to claim he wasn't my poison!

under the tree fingerless mitts pattern

Pattern: Under the Tree fingerless mittens, by me!

Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted, in deep blue  

Needles: 4 mm DPNs

Comments: This pattern was a bit of a whimsy, primarily inspired by my cold hands. The radiator in my study doesn't work, so every night it gets to a certain point when I can take it no longer and have to close my books.

My study looks out into the gardens of my neighbours. I live in an old Victorian terrace block, so all the houses back onto each other and the gardens are closed in. At night I have a perfect view of the moon and a few ancient trees, and I'm almost certain one of them houses an owl. Well, one of them houses a very noisy nocturnal creature, in any case, and I like to think it's an owl!

As it's about as cold inside as it is out, it's a very good thing these mitts knit up so quickly. It'll be marking season soon and I foresee a long winter of working deep into the night, so I need them. Hopefully they'll keep me working late enough that I'll be able to catch a glimpse of my nocturnal friend.

Once I worked out the kinks of the original, this pair only took about 5, maybe, 6 hours to knit up, which makes them a rather attractive prospect for Christmas knitting. It's a very good thing none of my or Matthew's family reads this, otherwise it would spoil the surprise.

If you'd like to knit up a pair, you can download the pattern here.

strange circularity

It's a funny thing, this mixture of relief and a new strain of apprehension. Matthew woke me up at 4 o'clock this morning to tell me the news and I nearly cried. As Walterknitty noted, Obama 'will inherit a total clusterfuck of problems', but I agree that he just might be the president to deal with them. My congratulations, chaps!

Right. No more politics, at least for a while.

The Loumms Year of Socks starts TOMORROW! Will we be ready? Will we make it over the first hurdle? Designs freshly minted and patterns all ready for uploading? Will the weather hold for our first official LYoS photoshoot?* We've got a contest and prizes already in the works, so fingers crossed it all pulls off. The December sock is going to be a joint effort between Lou and I, which I'm really looking forward to -- I love co-ventures in designing! The only thing is I'm designing another sock for a contest and it's NaKniSweMo and there's Christmas coming... I'm feeling the knitterly heat.

* I don't see why it would, it's been cloudy rainy dark all week.

Lastly, I've been baking up a bit of a vegan storm of late. At the beginning(ish) of October I decided to lay off the sweets until (Canadian) Thanksgiving, which I ended up having to cancel, so extended it to Joshie's birthday on Sunday as it coincided with the Socktopus launch, and made Fudgy Butterscotch Blondies as my contribution to the celebrations. Which immediately led into Chewy Lovely Chocolate-Blackcurrant Cookies to help me through the first few hours of the election results last night. Nom!

posie

Pattern: mine!

Yarn: Jaeger Pure Cotton in salmon and apple

Needles: 4.5 mm Clover DPNs, only 2 needed

Comments: I've had this up on Ravlery for about a year now with the pattern I used in the project notes. Though it's only a dishcloth of little standing for convenience's sake I've put together a PDF. That way, should you wish to knit it, you'll have none of that copy-and-pasting to faff about with, just a lovely clickable PDF.

Download a 'Posie' PDF here.

masonic update

Already with the errata I'm afraid. Poo. In any case, I have made notes on the original post and on Ravelry that the first round for the left leg should read:                                      

k4, p3, k4, p3, k4, p1, k3, p1, k2, p1, k4, p1, k2, p1, k1, k4, p3, repeat (etc., etc.)

Fortunately, I found it before it was pointed out to me and am properly mortified.

It's my 28th birthday in two days, hurrah!!! I'm almost embarrassingly excited. I love my birthday. My birthday signifies a new start and fresh tidings the way New Year's does for most normal people. To celebrate I think I'm going to sit in my favourite cafe and read for hours over several cups of fresh coffee, knit for most of the late afternoon, rush off a couple of batches of cupcakes to take to The Plough for some pre-being-pampered-by-Matthew knitting, get pampered by Matthew and drink copious amounts of gin or champagne, I'm not sure which). It's always good to start things off right, you know?

masonic lodge socks

Pattern: Masonic Lodge Socks by quelle erqsome knits (me!)

Yarn: Shelridge Farm Soft Touch Ultra in D

Needles: 2.5 KnitPicks DPNs

Comments: These are actually Matthew's birthday socks, a rejigging of the pair I knit for my granddad for Christmas. They really were inspired by my paternal grand­parents, Blanche and Geoffrey. Blanche taught me to knit when I was very wee and knit for dear Geoffrey, a long-standing Mason, until the day she died. He has closets and drawers stuffed with beautiful jumpers and cardigans; so you can imagine my surprise to discover his vast collection contained not a single hand-crafted sock. That was when I decided to create a pattern especially for him. They had to be elegant yet comfortable, sturdy yet wearable – perfect for presid­ing over secret functions and learning new silly handshakes.

The pattern for these socks differs very slightly from Geoffrey's original. The cable has been elaborated with a lengthened cable interspersed between shorter ones, and the garter rib pattern has been extended into the heel flap.

You can download the pattern here, in a handy PDF format. This is the first pair of socks I've released here, so I hope you like them. Please let me know what you think of it, I welcome whatever feedback you have!

UPDATE! Please note, should you have printed this off before 5 November that changes have been made to clarify the heel.