Moder dy

Moder dy, one month on! I had secretly hoped to finish it on the 15th of July, you know, because I had started it on the 15th of June.. Daft, yes, do-able, probably (if the boys hadn't had chicken pox!). 

I have REALLY enjoyed knitting this. It's been a great pattern for the single skeins of variegated sock yarn I have rapidly accumulated over the last year. I used Life in the Long Grass sock yarns, I love their earthy colours and the flecks of brighter floral colours in the yarns. People on Instagram and Ravelry have commented that the blanket has seashell tones, I can really see this. It's been a very happy project, not to mention the fact that this yarn has made me want to paint again!!! Yes, three exclamation marks were needed there, it's been MONTHS, I never thought I would want to paint ever again. So, for severe creative block, I prescribe rest and yarn. And sunshine. England has been FOUL over the last few weeks, bad weather (even by our standards), amongst other things. The Leave vote and weird racism was bad enough, but the weather has been the icing on the cake. Knitting and tea have been a great help though.

Crochet

I have been crocheting a blanket for James. I started it months ago and ended up putting it to one side, I think as I was making it in single crochet it was proving to be very dense, and frankly it was fairly boring to make, despite the lovely yarn (all Hedgehog Fibres). I'm quite bad for starting things and then hiding them away... 

I'm following the Spice of Life crochet pattern, a free pattern which encourages you to learn new stitches. It was originally released in sections as part of a CAL (crochet along). I love that it's broken down into sections, I feel that a massive single pattern would probably be quite daunting for me. I'm nearly on to section 4 and am adding in small stripes of single crochet for continuity as there is such a big strip of it along the bottom of the blanket. I will finish the blanket with a large matching strip at the top and then the edging, of course.

I'm planning on finishing this before moving on to another WIP (probably my Kate Davies blankets). That said, I am going to cast on a small shawl, more on that later though - I dyed some yarn (naturally), which I'm very excited about.

Ásta Sóllilja

It's a Finished Object. Over a year in the making (most of that time it was hidden away), but it's finally finished and I'm so pleased with it.
Last year, or perhaps it was in 2014 (when Kate Davies first published teasers of the Yokes patterns prior to the book's release), I had decided that I wanted to make a dress version of this design. I'm not sure what possessed me, it certainly would make a lovely tunic dress with short sleeves but the fitted version I was dreaming of might not have worked very well. Clearly it didn't, as this is where my tinkering ended up! I had gauge problems and a serious reluctance to go down the several needle sizes I should have in order to knit the dress nice and fitted and not get a 'saggy bottom' - the knitting version of Paul Hollywood's famous saying on the GBBO.
I have quite the terror of a saggy bottom after something Rich's mum Jane told me years ago when I had bought a lovely knitted pinafore dress from TopShop. I wore that dress to death and was so affected by Jane's warning that I used to hoik it up whenever I could as I sat down in it (company permitting). I'm going to find a picture of the TopShop dress in my photos actually, I quite fancy reverse-engineering it, it was so versatile. A bit itchy as it had some alpaca in it, I'm ok with wool but find alpaca gets me a bit squirmy.. Not a good look!

I hadn't blocked it here and the edges were rolling in a little in that delightful stocking stitch way. They've settled down a bit now.

I was planning on knitting a version of Miss Rachel's Yoke but I can't find the spark of 'must knit this right now' that I need to cast on, I did try but I unravelled my progress. I think I'm going to continue with my plan to finish my WIPs because they're still doing my head in (that phrase makes me sound like my 14 year old self).
What's on the list? There are 4 blankets... I am slightly appalled that I have 4 blankets on the needles!! I'm certain that one of these was cast on in 2012.
Then there is a grey cardigan that was going to be a dress but I changed my mind and left it to languish. There are two sleeves and a body piece. I have reinforced the front ready for cutting and will knit the bust area in pieces, separating from the fronts and the back. I was going to edit this so it could become an Effervescence cardigan but the ribbing/waist/pattern placement will be ridiculously off. I might add a lace bib to it like the Audrey in Unst cardigan (I want to make another of these but WIPs first!).
What else? My Bohus yoked cardi (Blue Flower) which had been edited by me in an attempt to fit the pattern to Coraline by Ysolda. This worked (or it would have done if I was the size of a 10 year old), the yoke depth I ended up with was far too shallow and while it was wearable it really wasn't right and did no justice to the original design. I spend an evening ripping it all out and picking up the live stitches and have begun to knit it as written, albeit in the wrong direction.
A surprise addition to my WIP pile was the Aptenodytes cardigan by Kristen Blom and Anna Maltz, I had seen a two-colour version of this pattern on Instagram and I had to have one. I am on the final section of ribbing after ripping it back this morning because I had lazily picked up too few stitches - not like me, I always pick up extra for ribbing. I think I was having a lazy evening.

So, that's 7 items, 4 of those are large items. I will hopefully have another FO post very soon as I'm hoping to get my Aptenodytes finished today. That is the plan!!

 Here's that dress I was on about, I'm musing on it now...

Hashtags

I keep seeing the hashtag 'yarnporn' everywhere and wonder if I'm the only person who finds it a bit creepy, like people are supposed to be literally getting off on gorgeous yarn like those people who are in love with and have relationships with inanimate objects? I know I'm definitely reading too much into it, it just sounds so gross to me, like it could be a specialist section on an actual porn site. Sad, stuck-up old me, I use the hashtag 'lovelyyarn'!

Feeling much better about painting in general, the commissions are finished and it's time to move on to getting some pieces done for a lovely lady in Australia. Fun!

Here are my greeny-blue skeins, much more greeny-blue-deep plum than pictured. Can't wait to see how they knit up (these are my own hand dyeing efforts).

 And on to the expert dyeing... This is a Rose City Rollers sock I'm knitting in Hedgehog Fibres sock (24 Carat colourway), I have never knit with anything so soft before in my life, it is absolutely amazing, not to mention the wonderful brown/gold of the yarn (it's got quite a 1970s sort of vibe to it).
This sock should be quick to knit, technically I should have finished the pair already, but I've lost one of my wooden dpns and am using a smaller metal one in its place (yuck) and I'm also feeling quite focused on my colourwork cardigan, more of which I will share on Wednesday.