How NYC am I?

I idly took another blogthings quiz. I'm a Londoner and reckon 68% is about right - I think that's roughly the percentage correlation between life in London and NY.

You Are 68% NYC

You are probably a real New Yorker, though there's a good chance you really live on Long Island.

How NYC Are You?

Fantastic pancakes

Fantastic home made ratatouille pancakes and chocolate brownies last night ladies! Mixed with a little wine and knitting, the perfect evening!

Scarf for Mum

Well, the dilemma over what to knit next didn't last long. Mum presented a partly knitted scarf and asked me to complete it. However, it looked very wide, and I called her to tell her that she would need more wool to get a good length, or alternatively, I could frog it, and knit the whole thing in a narrower version. She elected for the latter, so I frogged, re-skeined, washed and weighted the yarn.

The yarn is Sublime cashmere merino silk aran. It's very soft, but splitty. I started with my mother's metal straight needles, but quickly moved back to my old favourite, the Addi turbos. The tips are a bit blunt for handling splitty yarn, but they are very lightweight and manoeuvrable.

No real pattern, just the basic keyhole scarf in moss stitch.

Wicked is finished

My second FO of the year, and the fastest I have ever knit a garment. Cast on Monday 5th Feb and ready to wear on Friday 16th - a mere 11 days! Wicked had its first public outing last night, and was admired (possibly because all present knew I had knitted it myself).

I definitely plan to make another, but would make a few fit alterations. The neckline is a little loose, so I'd use a smaller needle for the ribbing. It's a bit pouchy along the raglan, and I'm trying to work out how to improve it. I thought perhaps I should have some of the underarm stitches grafted to the body. My basic sweater book also suggests doing at least one lot of raglan increases every fourth row.






I'm enjoying the luxury of wondering what to cast on next. In the meantime, I've picked up the Finn wool jumper. I really need to finish this in the next couple of weeks if it's going to get any wear this season. I should be ready to start the V neck later today.

My blog as a graph

A cool tool! What does your blog look like?

Wicked is progressing quickly, although I have had some trouble with the fit of the shoulders. I had this issue with the other raglan pattern I knitted too. My shoulders are quite long and square in proportion to the rest of me. This means that there isn't enough length in the top of the raglan sleeve to drape over the shoulder without pulling. If I add more increase rows, the sleeve and body get too wide. The fudges I have made for now are to add one more set of normal increases, then a fudged 'sleeve only' set of increases. That increased the body and sleeves by an inch each and dropped the underarm an inch too. It gives the ease over the shoulder, but doesn't look so fitted and flattering overall.

Rahime commented about knitting or reading making her sick in the car. I find knitting better than reading, as I can hold it up a bit, and not look down so much. My top tip if you can't do either is to listen to one of the knitting podcasts on an MP3 player - it's the next best thing! Quite soothing late at night too.

Wicked cast on

I cast on for Wicked on Monday and love the pattern so far. I had some setbacks with the evenness of my cast on. As it forms the neck edge of the sweater, I think it will be pretty visible. I frogged, and cast on tightly on a 6mm needle, then transferred to my 4.5mm circular to get a nice even edge.

The variegated yarn doesn't show the mini crossover cable well, and there's a little flashing below the cable, but the yarn is lovely and sproingy, and the pattern works up quickly.
Neck ribbing and two inches of the yoke done already!

Seeing in the dark

I always feel long drives in the dark are wasted, because I can't see to knit, and at this time of the year, it seems everytime we go anywhere, it's in the dark. I also dislike swatching, as I'm usually itching to get started on a new project. So on Saturday, I tried an experiment and swatched in the dark in the car. I figured that if I lost a stitch, it didn't matter, it was only a swatch. And it worked - I got the boring swatch done, and felt I'd used the car ride productively. I also bothered, for the first time, to put proper garter stitch borders around the swatch to make it easier to measure. I have to agree it is worth it.

The swatch is for Wicked, and I have resisted casting on for it, but I think the siren call will lure me tonight. I keep assuring DH that his woolly is coming on, but having frogged 20 rows of the sleeve last night, I don't think he is convinced.

SSSS

I've finished the collar and shoulder three needle bind off on Jawbreaker. I'm working on the second sleeve, and had to rip back as I forgot that I had altered the length on the first one. Unfortunately that change means I'm going to run out of yarn, so will have to send to Colinette for another skein.

Three quarters of the way through the first sock of the pair, and I'm already anxious to start a different pair. Is that Semi Single Sock Syndrome?