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So, in my last post I mentioned lots of exciting things are happening around here, but I didn’t say what. Now that it’s all official and nothing’s going to get jinxed (I hope!), I can reveal some of the somethings.

Firstly, and this is a big reason why I’ve been off-grid for awhile, we moved to London (and therefore have had no broadband for almost a month, so I’ve only been keeping up with Twitter and e-mail for the most part)! O got a new job and that required us to leave Sheffield. I love Sheffield, but there really weren’t that many opportunities for us there. Plus, I’ve been kinda itching to move again. Staying put for five years is a long time for someone who’s used to moving almost once a year. Anyway, our new flat is fabulous and we’re sharing it with a friend of ours that we’ve known for a long long time. Plus, sharing is a great way to save money and we get a much nicer place this way. And when I say nice, I mean nice. Right now, as I’m typing this, I get to sit on our balcony and watch boats go by on the Thames. And I can see the top of Westminster Abbey (I think… I’d better double-check that with O actually, just to make sure). So the last few weeks I’ve been dealing with all of the fun stuff that comes with moving. Like transferring utilities over, learning that when this place said furnished they meant it (I’ve never had crockery be included in a furnished place before!), discovering that the previous tenants hadn’t cleaned the oven at all, that there are carpet beetles in this place too. One was right smack in the middle of the wall as we were doing the inventory before we moved our stuff in so I know we didn’t bring it with us. But seriously, I’m so glad that we’re here. I do miss my friends back up north, but we do visit Sheffield quite often, so it’s not too bad.

Secondly, because we moved, I gave up my day job. I’m probably going to look for some part-time work here since I want to get out of the flat and actually talk to people during the day (there is only so much TV that I can watch while I knit), but I’m also going to focus on making the knit designing thing more profitable (ie actually pay me too for some of my time instead of just paying the materials). Now that I have the time and energy during the day again, I’ve been doing quite a bit of sketching and swatching. And I actually have a pattern that’s just been released! I’ll write more about it in a separate post next week, but for now, all I’ll say it’s pretty, it’s lace, it’s a shawl/scarf and it only takes one skein of 4ply/fingering weight/sock yarn. And it’s on sale until July1st! Sinikka will normally be £3.75, but if you use the coupon code “WOOLFEST13”, you can get it for just £2.50.

Thirdly, although this could kind of go with the secondly as it’s to do with knitting, I’ve been published in a book! The book, What (Else) Would Madam Defarge Knit?, came out this April. I haven’t really talked about it on the blog because I wanted to make sure it was a surprise for my parents and grandparents. They’ve received copies of the papercopy in the mail, so now it’s all good. It’s been so hard not talking about this (my designs were accepted back in November 2011), but now that they’ve been surprised, I can talk about it freely. My patterns are based on a fairytale by the Brothers Grimm. The story is about a child and his friend who stick together through the hard times and overcome a witch who’s trying to eat the poor thing (why? I still haven’t figured that out and story doesn’t say!). There are two versions of the fingerless mitts: twisted stitches knit in DK-weight and colourwork using 4ply. You can buy the e-book either through Ravelry or through Co-operative Press and if you want a paper copy, you can get that through Co-Operative Press too. There will be a KAL for my patterns in the WWMDfK Ravelry group later this year, so feel free to join us there too. There’s one more thing in the works relating to this bit, but I’ll wait to announce it here until it’s all official.

So excited! About everything! And now the coffee has kicked in too, so extra exclamation points!!!

There will be a “proper” post shortly!

… from all of the boxes that still need packing.

So, we went to Iceland last month! Want to see all that Monkey saw?

From Monkey’s Iceland Adventure

Link to album

Many more exciting things are afoot chez nous, but I’ll save all that for a later post when things have settled down a bit first. That includes editing all of the photos I took in Iceland not featuring Monkey!

Monkey, the TT team’s mascot, accompanied me to Finland for Christmas this year. Click the photo to see everything he saw!

Monkey’s Christmas Adventure

And tomorrow? He’s off to New York City with my co-worker L. Lucky thing.

Both from Stitches N Rows:

Killjoy - Definitive Soles sock yarn (100% superwash BFL) Minty - Luxe Soles sock yarn (80% merino/10% cashmere/10% nylon)

No clue what they want to be yet, but I’m sure I’ll find out eventually.

Winner announced! Congrats HeavensJoy!

My designer friend Erica Jackofsky has graciously sent me her Mythos Collection (Ravelry link) for reviewing.

The collection consists of seven shawlettes each using only one skein of fingering weight. They are all based on Greek and Roman myths and each pattern has a little blurb at the beginning giving a bit of background on how the myth inspired the shawl. Both written and charted directions are given and the collection does say that the skill level needed is intermediate. There’s a nice mix of bottom up, top down and even sideways knits.

One thing I have noticed about all of the patterns that offer both written and charted directions, it isn’t indicated when to start the chart. I assume it’ll be clearer when you’re actually about to start knitting the patterns and can match up the charts with the directions, but just reading through nothing jumps out at me saying “Do x, then start chart.”

Onto the patterns!

Harvest is the first shawlette and is based on Demeter and Ceres. The cast on is massive (over 800 sts!), so be prepared to do a lot of stitch counting before working the first row. I know I wouldn’t want to rip that beast out because I mis-counted the cast on.

Bacchus/Dionysus is the inspiration for the second shawlette Merriment and has beads. The beads are optional (as they pretty much always are) and this one is worked from the top down. I also thought it was a cute idea to give the section of the pattern their own name: Cluster of Grape, Merriment and Madness.

The next shawlette (Underworld) also has beads, but it also has dropped stitches! The beads rest on the bottom edge of the shawlette where the dropped stitches are. It looks really interesting and is definitely going in my queue. Just note that this pattern doesn’t have a chart, it’s all written directions.

Allure, knit sideways, is the fourth pattern. The lace pattern looks interesting but simple enough to be TV knitting for me. It is patterned on both sides though, so be careful if you’re new to lace knitting. I’ll say it right up front, this one is my favourite. I haven’t knit it yet, but I was planning on knitting it even before I received the collection for reviewing. I think it also helps that the sample is knit in a shade of pink/purple. I’m always drawn to patterns in those colours (and red). That and it’s lace. Lace is my thing.

Next up is Wrought. Directions are provided for two sizes, and it’s worked from the bottom up. The nice thing about bottom up patterns is that the rows get shorter as you go. The shawlette isn’t a triangle, it’s got a nice curve but it’s not really a semi-circle either (as far as I can tell from the photos). And no pointy ends.

Then again, if you want pointy ends and a semi-circle, there’s Solar Flare! It’s top down with eyelet rows and looks like rays of sunshine. If I were to knit this, I might add beads down the centre of the eyelet columns. Because I like bling apparently. (My last two shawls/neck things have been beaded.)

Last, but not least, is Wandering Waves. This is knit sideways on the bias and you decrease as you go. As the lace pattern isn’t too complicated, I think a slightly more variegated yarn might work for this one, but don’t go overboard. Subtle and/or light coloured yarn would be the way to go. Oh and this one is offered as a free Ravelry download.

You can either buy patterns individually (most are 6.00 USD each, but I think one or two may be 5.00 USD) or get the whole collection for 20.00 USD.

You can find Erica on Plurk, Ravelry and Twitter as FiddleKnits and she blogs at fiddleknits.blogspot.com. She sells her patterns on Ravelry and on her website Fiddleknits.com. I’m sure there’s a Facebook page/group/whatever too, but I’m not really on Facebook myself, so I haven’t looked for it.

And now the giveaway! Since I was going to knit Allure most likely anyway, I’m going to gift one pattern from this collection to someone through Ravelry. Just leave a comment saying which pattern you’d like (and why would be nice, but not mandatory) and your Ravelry name. I’ll do the drawing on November 4th (Sunday) at about 9pm my time (London time! GMT.) with the help of the random number generator.

Happy knitting and good luck!

From Blog photos

Pattern: Kelsey Mitts by Silka Burgoyne, Knitscene Fall 2012 Yarn: Natural Dye Studio BFL/Exmoor Blueface (Great British Wool Club January 2012 shipment)

They’re done! My Smurf mitts are done. I’ve nicknamed them that because of the yarn. Whenever I knit on them, I got this stripe of blue on the my left index finger and the tips of my fingers were tinged blue after a few rounds. I understand that because of the way the yarn is dyed, the transference is to be expected, but it’s still slightly annoying to have tinted hands. I believe (and hope really really hard) that giving these beauties a good gentle wash will take care of the excess blue coming off on my hands when I wear them.

I mostly knit these as written, mostly. I used the smaller needles throughout for the ribbing and the larger ones only for the cabled section. I lengthened the top ribbing section by a little bit. I just kept going until the ribbing came up to the middle knuckles of my index fingers. Also, I thought it was a bit weird to do the thumb first and then the rest of the hand. Working the thumb while I kept the other sts on hold (left them on the dpns) felt like I was wrestling with a porcupine. It also made it fiddly around the join when working the rest of the hand because the thumb kept getting in the way. But, there are no gaps in the join when done this way, so… *shrug*

For a few years now, I’ve thought about making an advent calendar out of fabric that I can fill up myself. Mainly because I really dislike the advent calendar chocolate in the ones you buy from the stores, but I do like the idea of a countdown to Christmas. My friend Lucy and I decided to just do it this year. We bought the front fabric bit online, then yesterday we went to a fabric shop to get wadding and the backing fabric. Now, the front bit comes with instructions that are fairly straightforward. Cut here, tack here, topseam these bits. Then it says: “Back the calendar with fabric. We recommend you use wadding to give more body.”

Bwuh?

As Lucy said, that’s like one of the technical challenges from the Great British Bake Off (which we both watch): “Make the jam.”

We thought it best to leave it for now and to Google a lot while we regroup. I have an idea of how to try it out, but I don’t actually know if it’ll work or not. At least with sewing (just like with knitting) it can always be ripped out if the mistakes really bother me. And my calendar has a few wonky seams. I’m calling it special. It’s my first one and I feel having a reminder of how far I’ve come in sewing will be a good thing. This is assuming that I’ll keep sewing of course. ;)

As for knitting, my Agnes sweater is finally done! No photos yet as I just finished seaming it five minutes before I started writing this. Haven’t even tried it on yet. Well, not the completely finished sweater anyway. I did try on the body of the sweater after I’d seamed it up to double-check that it was fine before I started knitting the sleeves. All I’ve got OTN is the Kelsey Mitts from Knitscene Fall 2012. I really like this issue. Too bad it’s not possible to subscribe to it. That would be the one magazine I’d seriously consider subscribing to.

I’ve been wanting to knit a sweater for awhile now. The thrill from the shrug wore off fairly quickly. So, a few weeks ago I decided to buy Interweave Knits Fall 2012 and Knitscene Fall 2012 because of the sweater patterns. I also bought Knitscene Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 since they were on sale (20% off if KS Fall 2012 was bought at the same time). Again, mainly because of the sweaters.

And I’ve cast on! The first sweater is the Agnes sweater by Ruth Garcia-Alcantud from Knitscene Fall 2012. (It’s the cover sweater.) I’m using Sublime Yarns Cashmere Merino Silk DK in the color Tease on 4.5mm Signature circs. The back is almost ready for the armhole shaping and I only cast on two days ago. I love how fast DK knits up. I keep forgetting because I’m so used to working with 4-ply and laceweight.

Once Agnes is done, the next sweater will be either Petit Four by Heather Zoppetti from IK Fall 2012 or Lepidoptera by Anne Kuo Lukito from KS Fall 2011. It really depends on what I feel like knitting and if I can find the right yarn. I’ve already got three skeins of Malabrigo lace that could work for the Lepidoptera cardigan, but I think I need one more skein. Then there’s also the fact that Malabrigo is a single ply yarn and the yarn used in the pattern is a two-ply so I don’t know how well Malabrigo would wear. Slightly concerned with pilling.

The Citrus Cusp socks are done (photos will be going on Ravelry soon)! The colorway is just so happy that it makes me smile whenever I see them. When it gets slightly cooler I can start wearing them. I want to be sockless for as long as I can, because when I start to wear socks again, it means summer is officially over. And I don’t want it to be over just yet.

I’m still working on the mystery shawl by Janine Le Cras. The final clue came out last Friday and I’m two rounds into it so far. I have come across some issues with the pattern so far. Nothing major, but for instance where it says to transition don’t work for me. I delayed the first two transitions as much as I dared and I still had to start the final transition early. And I ran out of #3 before the transition was complete. I do believe I have enough yarn to complete the shawl so it’s not a major deal. Another was a mistake in the chart key. Again, not major but I’m glad the written instructions were there to double-check it against. I’m slightly concerned about the size too. So far it seems a bit on the small side. Hopefully blocking will do its magic and make it grow to a decent size. I’d be further along I think if I wasn’t so distracted by the sweater. And if I loved the yarn more. The colours are fabulous and I’m really happy I went with the colourway I picked. It’s not too busy that the lace pattern gets obscured. But Ling (70/30 merino/silk) isn’t as soft as Eos (50/50 merino/silk). It’s just not calling to me.

Onto cooking! I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it before, but I got The Skinny French Kitchen by Harry Eastwood as a birthday present from O. Almost everything I’ve tried so far has been fabulous. The ones that weren’t fabulous were good, but not mind-blowing. If you’re interested in photos of my meals, I try to remember to post them to Twitter. The plan is to try at least one new recipe a week. I’ve already made Turkey Cordon-Bleu, French Onion Soup, and Emmental Gougeres among others. Tonight, it’ll be Sole Meuniere. Well, almost. Asda didn’t have any sole available when we did our weekly shop this morning, so I’m having haddock instead. Next week, I’m going to try Confit de Canard. Hopefully.