WIP Wednesday

I thought I'd start with a blog staple for many in an attempt to give more structure to my blog and also to give me something I know I can write about once a week so I will always have some form of blog post. I'd love to blog more often but I'm so terribly dull and finding time for pictures isn't always something I'm great at. Also the compact camera is still MIA and I fear lost forever. The bigger, older digital camera is around but alas I cannot find my rechargable batteries and the ones in it are dead. I shouldn't be trusted with cameras at all! I must apologise for the photos in this post, my phone camera usually takes OK photos but these were done just before 6am this morning in rather grey natural light so the colours are looking slightly washed out.

Anyway, here I am with that familiar blogging staple, the WIP Wednesday post!

I'm not going to share all of my WIPs, I do suffer from startitis and I shall keep the others for another post (for I fear the progress on those will be slow going anyway, it has been so far!)

My first WIP is rather a long standing one, a sock. I finished the first of the pair when on holiday about a month ago (over a month after starting it) and cast on the second but have been making slow progress. I have knit the circle socks pattern in the past and I like what it does for self striping yarns but I don't like those purl rounds…oh how it feels to drag compared to the knit knit knit of stockinette in the round. I am persevering though and eventually I will finish this second sock. The yarn is some Kaffe Fasset Regia in the Exotic Zany colourway. I do wonder if the yarn I'm using is part of the problem, I've been spoiling myself with lovely hand-dyed skeins and this just doesn't hold a candle to that stuff. I love the bright colours and the stripes but it's not as soft and not as special.

The socks for the darling Mr.Northernmonkey, the socks he has been waiting for since April, they are not far from done now. I've knit 48 rounds out of 64 pre-toe shaping and can see the light at the end of the stockinette tunnel. They actually feel to be whizzing along and I've been working on them on the bus. Soon they will be done and he can wear them with pride (I know he will) and I promise I'll knit the next pair I do for him with more of a sense of urgency!

The final WIP on this fine overcast and grey Wednesday is my mother-in-law's Christmas gift. I am really liking this so far. I changed the pattern slightly by deciding against nupps, I don't think it looks any worse for not having them an they use up so much yarn which I could use to lengthen the scarf by a repeat or twi instead. I also knit the edging in stockinette where it should have been garter stitch (apart from the bands of garter stitch which I kept) I like the continuity and feel that the band of garter stitch followed by the eyelet row really defines the change from border to main body of the scarf in a way I think works. I don't know that other knitters would agree and I do know my MiL probably wont even notice! The pattern is easy to follow and I got through my second ten row repeat quickly and easily last night whilst watching some TV. I do have to look at the chart for each row but it's easily memorised with a glance so I don’t have to give it any intense focus.

I am hoping that there will be a FO post for the manly socks before I get to my WIP Wednesday (though it probably wont be on the traditional FO Friday as I don't think I'll get much knitting time tonight or tomorrow evening) and next week I expect to show some more progress on the scarf and possibly some of the other projects I am working in.

In non-knitting news I booked a holdiay this morning and am terribly excited and counting down the days!