Thursday, June 01, 2006

Current knitting exploits

I had a few days off work around the Bank Holiday weekend, and actually managed to do a fair bit of knitting! I also did other stuff like updating some of my websites (totally unrelated to knitting) and watch lots of Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett version) on ITV3. The weather was hardly conducive to being outside, after all!

Here's an item I completed over two days, a loopy boa using Mary-Lou's pattern but not cutting the loops. This is for the craft fair that Hazel and others are involved with.



Yarns I used: Ella Narvik (boucle) 2 balls, Jaeger Grace (bright pink shiny-ish) 2 balls, Colinette Mohair around 60g, Stylecraft DK Wool (bright purple) less than half a 100g ball. All yarns from stash.

I don't think the picture really does justice to the colours, the mohair was some I got at the last mill shop visit, and turned out to be the Raphael shade when I wound it and found the most marvellous bits of bright blue and bronze amongst the purples.

Speaking of winding, my yarn winder arrived yesterday from P&M Woolcraft. It hasn't been pressed into service yet as I haven't had time, but the first customer will be the second skein of Posh Yarn. I hardly like to admit it but we got into a bit of a tangle with the first one!

I also ordered an Inox French Knitting Mill this week, as I find knitting i-cord to be quite tedious considering how long it takes to produce any kind of length! (thanks Hazel for posting about it!) It is currently back-ordered at Angel Yarns but I did receive (very promptly) 2 more balls of RYC Cashsoft in deep pink and the "Crush" shade for more chemo caps.

We have also been busy finishing organising my yarn. DH bought me 6 flattish clear plastic boxes that fit under the sofa and also under the sofa-bed in the dining room. I've relocated all the yarn that was stuffed into my second basket and some from the wardrobe, into these boxes. All the yarn is now entered onto the spreadsheet so I know where to find it! It also means when I use some, it gets updatated on the sheet, which I've set up to tell me total yardage where I have that information, and it converts to total metres too.

Other than that I've been working on the Irish Hiking Scarf too, which needs to be finished before the 18th. I'm finding it fairly slow going but I love the way it looks. I've also started a Rockstar-ish scarf for the craft fair. I'd have linked to the original pattern on Knitty but having just accessed the site, it looks like it may have been hacked. Something has certainly happened to it, hope it gets back online soon. The new MagKnits is up so I'm off to have a look at that after this posting.

I was considering having a rant on here about my employer and their Evil Planz to move us to a new set of buildings quite some distance away, with appalling transport links. I don't think they actually warrant more than a couple of lines of my time though! I've applied to work at home (again, I did so for a couple of years but have been back in the office for the past 5), so we'll see what happens about that. They can't say I don't have the infrastructure at least! Spare port in the broadband router just waiting :-) Speaking of which, we had to ring up BT tech support again and DH was mean with them and insisted they have an engineer test the line. This should have been done in the first place, as they found a fault. Touch wood it now appears to be OK.

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10 Comments:

At 7:29 pm, June 01, 2006, Blogger KnitYoga said...

The boa looks absolutely gorgeous. I love the combination of yarns you've used and the way the colours have turned out. Thanks again for making it for the craft fair. It'll be snapped up, I'm sure!

Your stash organisation is very impressive. You've put me to shame and I must do something similar myself. On second thoughts, I might scare myself silly if I actually consciously acknowledge the amount I have by listing it!!!

Hope the job situation works out and you can get agreement to work from home.

 
At 8:12 pm, June 01, 2006, Blogger Unknown said...

THat boa is gorgeous! I love the colors! I can't wait to see your Irish hiking scarf! I am going to have to take a page from you and get my yarn organized! It will probally be easier to know what I actually have then!!

 
At 10:50 pm, June 01, 2006, Blogger Mary-Lou said...

Love the colours in the boa!

 
At 10:37 am, June 02, 2006, Blogger Alice said...

You are an angel! You have solved my blog problem - thanks!

Oh you are so brilliant at choosing the yarn for those fluffy boa things. I only just recently saw the first one you made (as well as this latest) and it's really gorgeous.

Hope the winder gets better and good luck with the working-at-home thing.

Have a great weekend!

PS How come I don't have a stash like yours? Not fair.

 
At 11:27 am, June 02, 2006, Blogger Rain said...

I love the boa, the yarns really compliment each other.

The stash organisation is sounding good. In't spreadsheets brilliant!

Hope they agree to let you work at home.

 
At 11:36 am, June 02, 2006, Blogger T said...

Yes, the boa is yummy. I think your stash is going to take over the house soon, organised or not ;)

Wouldn't it be great if you could work from home? I hope that happens for you.

Good to hear that AY have given good service after their problems.

Think you were right to get the i-cord maker as that's a horrid job isn't it?

 
At 12:20 pm, June 02, 2006, Blogger Dipsy Doodle said...

Wow, you've certainly been busy these days! I absolutely adore the boa you did, it looks so funky and cool - and I looove the colors!
I'm also extremely impressed by your stash organisation, gosh, I bow my head in shame when I think about my stash chaos - you certainly inspired me to do something about it SOON!
Please do post a pic soon of your Irish Hiking Scark, I'm so curious to see your progress with it!

 
At 10:37 pm, June 02, 2006, Blogger Sarah said...

The boa is fantastic! I love the colours.
Working from home sounds so good but I'm not sure I'd be able to resit the lure of my knitting and bbc radio 7! I guess you have to be very strict with yourself.

 
At 12:34 am, June 03, 2006, Blogger yarnivorous said...

You're back! Hooray!
Jeez, I must make me a boa - I've been planning to. May as well be totally OTT :-)
Your G is a sweetie buying you the boxes. And yes you are waaaay too organised for me!
Stupid jobs.

 
At 1:38 pm, June 05, 2006, Blogger acrylik said...

Beautiful boa, you always pick the perfect combination of yarns!

I'm really impressed with your stash organisation, well done you!

I really hope that you are able to sort something out with work, I have just the same situation about to happen here, the move will add half an hour on to my journey during the summer months and will be fun trying to negotiate the country roads in the winter. So I have my fingers crossed that you will be able to work from home, like you say, you have the technology!

 

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