So, what did I do in September?

I've been reviewing my September knitting today - when I was awake anyway, I'm fighting off a cold generously shared by a colleague, I find I sleep even more on such occasions. I didn't have any concrete plans at the start of the month although I did have a pair of socks I needed to finish and I wanted to get moving on baby clothes.
I finished this eyelash yarn scarf off today, I still have a mound of cheap fancy yarns and keep a scarf on a spare pair of needles all the time. On days when I want to knit but don't feel up to anything more complicated than garter stitch I knit scarf!
I though I'd finished this shawl off last December, but when I tried it on it seemed a bit short, I've undone the casting off and knitted another 6 inches recently, I re cast it off again today and did the fringing, I haven't got a picture yet, I'll see if we have dry weather tomorrow and take it out for a daylight picture. I still haven't found the boottee that Hecate stole, but I have finished off 4 pairs of boottees in September. I also mae 2 complete pairs of socks and most of the back of a toddler's sleeveless sweater - the bilious green thing! I made the pink and black scarf this month as well, so it's been a pretty productive month for me.



I wanted something easy to knit while I was at the knitting group on Thursday, this was the result! I know I hadn't planned on any more boottees, but they are fun to knit!

This is the slight progress on the lavender stone sock, but I have been finishing off the two old WIP's as well!

Onwards, ever onwards

Another pair of socks done, I had intended taking the second sock to the knitting group last night but actually had it all done before I got there! I'm a terrible judge of time, I never have any idea how long anything will take which causes me no end of stress and to arrive far too early for almost everything in life.

I've made a small amount of progress on the second lavender stone sock, this wil be a mate for an orphan and is part of my drive to complete pairs of socks this autumn. This will be bus knitting next week, always supposing that I catch buses that don't have drivers who think they can drive faster than the speed of light!

I'm pleased with these purchases, the 2 together cost me £8, I know they are acrylic but they'll be handy. I made it to the knitting group last night, I'm not sure if I'll repeat the experience, I'm terribly nervous about travelling on public transport after dark. I did have one success yesterday though, I picked up the next copy of Knit Today and found it a great improvement on the first one. I'm also very pleased that I did actually get to the knitting group, it meant going to the big shopping center, a place that makes me very nervous and meeting quite a number of strangers, both of which I coped with reasonably well.
This has arrived too, another small vase that goes well with a coupel of others that I have in my collection. Hecate objected to me being out after dark yesterday so I'm going to spend some time cuddling with her this evening, knitting may, or may not happen!

Guard cat

I've been nursing a migraine today and Hecate has been on guard duty. because I can't hang clothes that need to dry outside I have airers hanging over several doors, they are mostly made up of 6 strong plastic coated wires, she has taken to sleeping on them - preferably when they have clothes hung over them to soften them. She spent most of the morning up there, periodically jumping down to see if I planned on spending all day asleep.

Quite how she relaxes up there I don't know, and I frequently wonder if she will roll over whilst asleep and fall off!

A small amount of sock knitting has happened - I'm ready to decrease for the toes on this one, it's not going to grow any more today though as I'm still doped with migraine medication and am heading back to bed. If I feel up to it I'm going to go to a knitting group that meets fairly locally to me, it wil be the first time I've been able to get there as it used to clash with when my ex was here. I'll be back on Friday, hopefully with another finished pair of socks!

Progressing rather slowly

The mug on the left arrived today, they might not look identical, but they are the same glaze and design, flash always seems to distort the colours.

I'm still working on making partners for orphaned socks, this is the second lavender stone Fyberspates sock, it's a colourway that I liked when I knit the first one and I'm still liking it on the second. I've a soft spot for Fyberspates yarn, I like the colours and the quality and I've always had really good service when I've bought it.

The second green sock has grown, I'm at the gusset decreases now, this is always a happy time for me when I do socks, I like the fact that the rows will just get shorter from here on.

Trust me on this one?

This really is the second boottee, I just can't find the first one at the moment, this problem tends to arise in homes where cats steal woolly things!I'm fairly sure it's safe, I tend to tidy away things that Hecate shows too great an interest in and she's been very partial to these boottees.

The second green sock is at the heel stage already, this, in spite of the fact that I got no kniotting done on the bus home today - it was heaving with people and a horrible journey, I'm never keen on buses that are half full of squealing teenage girls.
I forgot to note on Friday, I went to see the podiatrist who has admitted that the arch supports they tried in my shoes haven't helped - in fact they've caused more problems than they solved and I am being referred to their specialist surgeon. I'm still hoping to avoid surgery, but it's not looking good.

Half an armhole

I actually managed a whole pattern repeat with no error in it, I'm cautiously hoping to finish the back this week, I got sidetracked yesterday though and spent some time on two half finished fancy yarn scarves, nothing worth taking pictures of though.

The last boottee has grown a bit and the second lime green sock is slowly growing, I did discover that I was knitting it with 3 3mm needles and one 2.75mm needle - most annoying but I don't suppose it will show too badly. As a typical knitter I'm currently planning what to take with me to knit in two weeks time when I have to be away overnight for work. I'm going to York and I'm hoping to get time to revisit York Minsteras well. I'm certainly going to be looking for postcards of the new vestments they made for the new Archbishop, he has some glorius new vestments made especially for him I suspect.

Busyness

This has grown a little, but I seem to have spent most of today picking up after a hyper kitten, so far today she's knocked over a mug of coffee, emptied a bowl of seashells all over the floor in the bathroom and knocked a box of yarn off a pile of other boxes. She is now sleeping on my feet absolutely worn out! I've been sifting through my pattern books day dreaming about potential projects, I want to make something fro my mum for Christmas but I'm uninspired so far.

This is hand died Opal sock yarn, I found it on eBay and loved the colours - possibly something to do with the purple in it???


The boottee is alos growing slowly, despite the temptation to start another pair off I am NOT going to do it yet, I have far too many UFO's as it is.

This is an Arklow goat to match my Arklow donkey, they're rather different to anything else I've had from the factory, I don't know if they ever made sheep!


This arrived today, a cauldron in a different colour, no gold in it though, but then there wasn't a rainbow!

Cathy, I'm glad the pattern arrived with you, the trick with making the boottees is to not panic and make the first square, one you've done that the rest follows easily. The feet are fun, the cuffs I find terribly boring!

Green grows the sweater oh!

The last of the boottees is heading towards having a cuff! I discovered today I'm not going to get a lot of bus knitting done next week, thanks to this , the city centre where I work is chaos, half the buses are running along incorrect routes to avoid traffic and the rest are bursting at the seams, everytime I see a copy of the dratted poster saying 'Manchester welcomes the Labour Party Conference' I feel my blood pressure rising!

The green monster is growing, I started on the armholes tonight, this reduces the damount of double moss stitch to more acceptable quantities. I'm claiming that I'm making it sleeveless to reduce the amount of bright green, in fact I think it may be because teh pattern has the sleeves all in double moss stitch!

This arrived today, a small addition to my Arklow studio collection all the way from Canada, I've been buying much less, there hasn't been much around and I'm pretty much spent out.

Finally, a relaxed and happy cat for your delight - how comfortable does she look? The shaved patch on her flank still looks pretty bald, but that is in part due to the flash, she's growing back her coat now.

It's another pair

Another finished pair of boottees, this pair need washing though as the dye has been coming out on my hands. I only have one boottee left to finish and then they all have pairs, and I have 3 emergency baby gifts in my stock pile - for the first time in ages I'm actually one step ahead. It's just a shame I haven't got anything organised for Christmas, I don't even have any plans yet!

I'm almost at the armhole on the back of this, I'm making a V neck sleeveless sweater, I don't think any child could successfully wear more of this green than that! It is turning out well, but I still make stupid errors in the pattern, every repeat I end up tinking back at least one cable that I do backwards or in the wrong place.

Yesterday's pictures!

You see, I had made some progress on the second blue boottee! I'm in definite 'pair mode' trying to make pairs for all my orphans before starting anymore socks, I'm not sure if it will happen though. I like to think that I flit from one thing to another because my brain works so fast, sadly I think it's more likely to be because I have the attention span of a hyperactive goldfish!

This is the gorgeous yarn I bought from Lixie, some things just have to be done regardless of how much yarn you may have already or how little spare money you have, I'm trying to scrape together the cash for SkipNorth at present and really should restrain myself!

Here I have the proof of my dedication to making second socks, partly because kitten has stolen a number of my socks and I'm needing to replenish my sock drawer.
A quick thank you is due to my friend Melissa, the latest CD of her gorgeous son arrived in the mail this week, I'm very proud to be his honorary Auntie!

So much for pictures

After half an hour of struggling I've managed to upload one out of 4 pictures - I can't be doing with wasting anymore of my evening, so I present to you a finished sock. Annoyingly, I can't show you the second sock, cast on already, the second blue boottee with all the stitches for the cuff picked up and 500g of very nice variegated sock yarn that I bought from Lixie
If I ever manage to upload the pictures I'll expand the entry for today, I'm off to soak in the bath and sulk!

Bad, bad kitten

This, is in part my fault, I'd started casting on another sock, got distracted and left it where a kitten could find it! I have no idea when she did this, luckily it only destroyed about 4 inches of yarn or I'd have been more annoyed, it was, of course, pure merino rather than just Opal! She's still sulking over the flea collar and jumped on my head in the middle of the night last night to make the point that she was cross!

I've returned to this sock, last seen at the end of August, I'm at the toe decreases which is good, it's a new orphan sock which is not so good! I only have about 6 orphans at present, and 2 orphan boottees which is pretty good for me!

I've started the cuff of the second blue boottee, just to prove that I am capable of making mates for orphans still despite my being in a pretty poor frame of mind at the moment. I've just finished the third pattern repeat of the bright green, I mess it up on the last 6 rows of every repeat at the moment which is highly annoying and slows down progress dreadfully.
Sibille, don't expect to see many pictures of me, I try to keep the blog fairly anonymous and I loathe pictures of me, my ex took loads and I hated almost every single of them. I try to avoid getting on family pictures, when my niece got married a few years ago I successfully avoided being in any pictures at all!

Sulky kitten

Sadly Hecate came back from the vet with fleas - she certainly didn't have them when she left here! I went shopping today and bought her a flea collar which is currently annoying her intenseley. Here she is sat on a box in the far corner of the room with glowing eyes glowering at me!




The first blue boottee is almost finished, just a few more rows to go. I just looked at the bright green and realised that yet again I've bollixed up the last two rows of the pattern, I do it on every repeat and I'm leaving it for tomorrow to study it carefully, although I'm working late and may not have time.

I got my act together and got a haircut today, finally after 5 years of mostly keeping my hair plaited to keep it out of teh way my head looks like this! Mostly this is a result of getting at least 6 inches cut off and the hair dressers putting all sorts of hair products on it, I'm just about to wash it all out or tomorrow my head will feel as if it has been dipped in cement. I realise this is not a great view, but I don't think this camera has a timer.

Another FO!

I can't say that it's something I'm proud of, but I've finished knitting the 2 balls of Sirdar Tuscany into a scarf, I don't like the yarn, I don't like knitting with it and I don't like how it turned out, but it's finished!

Here is Hecate playing at 'I'm higger up than you are' She's mostly spent the weekend appliqued to my right leg, or hunting my plaits. I think I can afford the haircut I've been promising myself this week, I'm going to get my hair cut short again, it's been about 7 years since I had it as short as I prefer and it's time to get it done again although I may have to dye the grey out of it then.

Here she is hoovering up some cat treats - she's currently got an appetite like a horse!
I've picked up the stitches to make the cuff of the next boottee, tomorrow's bus knitting. Mind numbingly dull, but relatively quick.

Here is the bright green, taken without flash which distorts the colour rather but makes the pattern clearer.

Tiger feet!

Another FO! This is a weekend that is going well so far, socks finished yetsrday, a pair of boottees today, Hecate and I have had a loving snuggled morning, she hasn't bitten me once! My grocery order arrived very nerly corectly and I'm blogging early because I'm going out. Oh and I trimmed the hedge this morning too.
I'm afraid I owe a few people emails, I promise I'll get them written tomorrow!

As you can see, the bright green is progressing, I've nearly completed 2 repeats of the 20 row pattern, there are limits to how long I can spend knitting this yarn at any one time without sunglasses. I've sorted all my knitting magazines into date order, then put on one side all the ones taht haev soemthing in that I want to knit, next weekend I'll go through them again and put them in priority order, I've learnt not to decide anything too quickly - procrastination has a lot to recommend it you know!

And - we have twins

I think this is probably the most identical socks with the least stress that I've managed - I removed a short length of yarn from the end of the first sock to start the second sock at the right point. After that it's been straightforward, unlike the Opal where I had a fault in the dye and had to mess around for ages.

As you can see, they really are a truly identical pair of socks, and finished in good time as I don't ned them til October! Now I can concentrate on baby clothes for the next few weeks.
Incidentally, the kitten seemed to have behaved herself yesterday, she was upset by the roof leaking though, my landlord (the council) says they will come sometime in teh next 2 weeks to clean the gutters and check the roof, I'll just have to hope that the rain doesn't return as heavily as yesterday in that time.

Nearly there!

Sock progress continues, despite my afternoon bus being full of soaking wet school children - it has rained excessively here today. I'm fairly confident that I'll have it finished this weekend.

My bright green confection has grown a little, I've reknitted what I had to undo and have started the second pattern repeat, Hecate has obligingly allowed me to rest the knitting against her back in this picture. I've also done some more of the Tuscany scarf, one ball knitted, one more to go, but I won't show you it again until it's finished, garter stitch on large needles in fancy yarn is tedious work and tedious viewing.

Hecate seems tired today, I shudder to think what she has been doing while I was at work although I can't find any trail of destruction!