Must knit faster

Not much of a blog tonight.... trying to knit as much of this pile as possible. I'm finishing off the 3 blacks at the minute which I think is great as I only started them last night!

Got to love multistranding!!

Six of the best

Last week I was struck down by some nasty flu/bug thing where I couldn't have gotten out of bed for love nor yarn. I lay there thinking of what yarn could entice me out of bed and I couldn't think of a single thing. Add in the fact that I didn't knit for 2 whole days AND missed SnB proves just how ill I actually was.

When I did pick the needles back up, I wanted something completely mindless. Not a thought was floating though my head some non thought provoking knitting was needed.

Lying in amongst all the knitting stuff in my corner of the living room was a ziplock bag full of kitchen cotton - Lion Brand, Peaches n Creme and some Sugar n Creme.  Usually a ballband dishcloth would have sprung forth from the needles but that required too much thinking
and certainly too much maths. (see the orange/green at f the bottom right hand corner of the bag? Thats my oldest cotton! Proper vintage stuff!)

Anyway, I digress. I decided in my delirium that it would be great if I could knit up that whole bag while I was recouperating.  Never one to shy away from a challenge, even a sickness induced one, I set to work.


Every single scrap of cotton in the bag was used - some of the cloths look a bit weird (that'll be the top middle one)  but I was getting a bit desperate towards the end.

I have to say that I'm rather chuffed with myself. I managed to accomplish two things with this challenge -  I emptied an entire bag of scraps and, most importantly, I have a willing recipient for the cloths.

This isn't the only mad challenge I've done -  I'm currently taking part in a literal Mad Dash on Ravelry. The aim is to get though 12,000 yards either solo or as part of a team. I had signed up as a solo player but after I talked my friend into taking part we're now Team Tweedle aka Tweedledum and Tweedledee!

We're splitting the yardage so have 6,000 yards to knit in 6 weeks. Thats about 125yards a day and it makes me officially behind. But the weekend is coming and I'll catch up then.

The plan is to get through the bulky yarn first - hats, cowls etc, and then try some multistranding. 3 strands of DK with a strand of sock yarn makes a lovely squishy fabric, but thats my last resort.

I'm trying to get rid of the lone rangers first, single skeins of this, two skeins of the other. It clears the stash out and you get some quick knits for the gift stash! Win win!!

Ta da!!!

Well, after many many months, the laptop is back! And you know what that means....half decent posts!!!

A few weeks ago, a fellow knitter and I joined a motley crew of knitters at the gorgeous Ballydugan Cottages for a weekend of learning. It was organised by the Textile studio and focused on continental knitting and pattern design. 

While I didn't do much in the way of the designing (it was a "do as much or as little as you want" weekend) I did learn that ballband gauges are next to useless, always swatch and a lot of maths is required.

Instead, I knitting an entire project in continental stitch. (I know, I know, another dishcloth. Its not all I knit you know)

How did I find it? To be honest, it was awkward and slow to begin with, but once I got the hang of it I thought it was great. I put a repeat of "normal" knitting in the project and I can't see which was continental and which isn't. 

As for the project itself, it had its ends woven in, picture taken and was rapidly gifted to Jo. She loves handmade washcloths and doesn't get time to make them for herself, so I gifted her this one.

I also managed to get a wip finished when I was there -  an unphotographed barley hat and I started a sweater for my nephew. 

All in all I think it was a rather productive weekend and I would certainly go again!