Q and A session

I've been tagged by the lovely Josiekitten to take part in a Q and A so now I'm a little more settled in to my new home and actually have internet access other than via my mobile phone I thought I'd answer the questions she asked!

1. What's your greatest knitting achievement to date?
Hmmm...I'm not really sure. I'm pleased enough with myself for actually teaching myself to knit again years after my grandma first taught me as a little girl. Other than just being able to knit full stop I think my first adult garment was a big one. It took me ages but I did it and I think that's the moment when I felt like a real knitter...even if in reality there were probably more stitches in some of the socks I knit than in the cardigan!




2. Is there a knitting skill that you'd like to learn? I always say the same thing to this questions, it's always the same goal! I want to learn to knit colourwork. I've never done more than a tiny Christmas decoration and I really want to just get on with it. I have got a project started that involves colourwork but I'm still anxious about it. Silly really as I know I've done other knitting that a lot of people find more complicated such as lace.

3. Who is your favourite knitting designer?
I don't really have one. I've knit so many different things by all different designers and see merit in all of them. I think perhaps because I knit so many different things I may like what a designer does with hats but be less keen on their designs for shawls when they do both and as I don't focus on one type of knitting I don't find myself knitting all the patterns by one designer as a lot do either garments or socks or shawls. I like to keep it varied and try out patterns by all different designers.

4. What's your favourite 'easy knit' to make as a gift?
I'm a selfish knitter, I don't do knitted gifts! OK that's not entirely true but I don't have a go to pattern. If I am knitting a gift I try to make something I know the recipient will like and don't really worry about whether it's easy or not. I have given up knitting gifts for people who aren't suitably appreciative...they get something from a shop and I'm not ashamed of that! It's not worth my time and skill to knit for someone who wont love what I have knit.

5. What's your favourite film?
Just like with favourite knitting designers I don't have a favourite film as such. Mr.NM is an absolute film buff so we watch quite a lot of films but what I want to watch will depend on my mood. I do always enjoy watching Die Hard though, ridiculous action films are something I am very fond of!

6. What's your favourite season and why?
I love Spring. My favourite flowers are out (daffodils and tulips) and everything feels fresh and new. I enjoy the days getting progressively longer and the hope that the weather is going to get better. Everything feels like it has such great potential in the spring. Also it's our wedding anniversary (third one today in fact!) so that's also pretty special.

7. What's your number one tip for new bloggers?
Just have fun with it, it should be an enjoyable activity not one you get stressed over if you've gone a week and have nothing to write about. Also read other blogs for ideas if you're not sure what to blog about, they may give you some inspiration. I suppose that's two tips...I'm not very good at tips, I'm rather a rubbish blogger these days so not sure my advice is worth taking!

8. What was the first thing you ever knitted?
A neon orange acrylic garter stitch rectangle. I think it was intended to be a scarf but I had the attention span of a...well of a five year old (I think I was about 5) and I didn't get that far. I think I wanted to just be able to knit and to knit proper things without all the faff of having to learn!

9. What's your favourite 'comfort' meal?
Yorkshire puddings filled with thick beef stew and dumplings just like my grandma used to make for me, can't beat it! Actually Yorkshire puddings generally are pretty solid on the comfort food front.

10. Do you prefer circular needles or dpns?
It depends on what I'm knitting. I've started using magic loop a lot more for socks, particularly plain stockinette ones as I avoid ladders and can just shove them in my knitting bag with less fear they'll slip off the needles. I do still like dpns though and sometimes they're a better choice so I use them. I use circular needles instead of straights even for flat knitting though, I find them a lot easier to handle.

11. What posters did you have on your bedroom wall when you were a teenager?!
I didn't have posters on my wall until I went away to university when I was 18 and I had two, one was an Oscar Wilde quote (and for my shame I can't remember which one!) and the other was a Pulp poster (as in the band) which I believe is still on the wall in my old room at my mum's house as I put it up there when I moved back after university.

12. Bubble bath or shower?

Probably a bubble bath with a good book but I do like a nice hot shower, particularly if it's really powerful and leaves you feeling scrubbed thoroughly clean.

I wont tag anyone as I can't think of any questions to ask! If you have any more for me though pop them in the comments and I'll answer them.

I'm hoping that I will be back soon as we are now in our new house and I've finally taken up my needles again as knitting was very neglected during the move! Also our little family addition is due in 5 weeks and has already received some gorgeous knitted gifts so I'd like to share those.

Disruption in service

Please excuse my absence from the blog of late. We're currently in the process of moving house and are without internet, all my knitting is packed away and there is so much stuff to do and so little time to do it in!

I hope to be back soon to tell you all about our lovely new home though probably without any knitting to show.

Winter came, let's hope it goes again soon!

My goodness has the temperature dropped around here lately. After having a mild winter so far it came as rather a shock! It was just bitter on Saturday morning and at about lunchtime the snow started, it then went on and on and on for the rest of the day. I'd rather hoped it would stop in the evening as I'd been invited to a party but it didn't. I had to give up on the party (as it was at the other side of the city and my car is not made for such conditions) and stay at home where it was warm.

On Sunday Mr.NM went out and took a picture of the snow in on our driveway, I once again stayed in where it was warm and snow-free!



Oh well, the wintery weather is excellent for boosting my urge to knit. Admittedly this urge has been to cast on new warming things for myself but I have resisted! I am continuing with finish or frog it, I'm determined. Another project that went on to the "finish it" pile was a little cardigan for Baby Monkey.



It's a Sirdar pattern knit in Sirdar Snuggly 4ply. My general preference for natural fibres doesn't necessarily go that well with baby things so this one will be machine washable. Also Sirdar Snuggly is rather lovely and soft anyway so it doesn't feel like squeaky acrylic. The only thing I didn't really think through with this pattern was the 4ply and all those cables, I decided my baby was worth it (of course!) but that's the back and it's knit over 88 stitches! If this was a heavier yarn and bigger needles 88 stitches would make a cardigan back for me never mind a baby! No wonder it seems to be going a bit slowly. Still, my baby is totally worth it. Also the smallest size is 0-6 months and I can already see it's going to be bigger than the baby cardigan I made at Christmas so it should fit for a little while. I do prefer bright colours on babies but did think that the light colour went well with the cable pattern for this.

Also some progress, the first of the socks for Mr.NM is finished, hurrah! As is always the case with plain stockinette socks once I picked it up again it whizzed along and was finished in no time at all.

Finish or frog it February 2

Another one for the "to finish" pile, my Lilac Leaf Shawl, started way back in September when everyone else was tempting me with their beautiful lace projects.  Unfortunately the beginning of September was also when baby NM was making his or her presence known by sapping me of all energy and enthusiasm to achieve anything more than constant napping and drinking orange juice!  Needless to say I got as far as knitting one of the lace borders then starting on the second before shoving the project in my knitting basket. 

Last night whilst MrNM was out playing 5-a-side football I picked it up again to see if I could make a bit more progress.  Being lace knitting and in rather lovely laceweight yarn it does require a lot of attention (it also required the purchase of wooden tips after the pains of knitting the first border section with my usual metal knitpros!) and when MrNM is around we usually sit together chatting, possibly watching a film or TV episode and I have to stick to very simple knitting (like the socks for him, the first is finished and I didn't run out of the carefully weighed out 50g ball of yarn!).  In his absence I could focus.


  

I needed to focus.  After this picture was taken (and promise me it will look better when it's blocked!) I got to the part with nupps.  At this point the blasted thing almost ended up in the "to frog" pile as I knit, tinked and re-knit the same two rows about four times before the nupps looked even vaguely not awful.  I considered not bothering but told myself I had left them out of the last shawl I knit that included them in the pattern, I would knit the blasted things on this one.  Anyway the nupp section is done for now, there are some more to come but I have about 300 nupp free rows to go before I get to that part!

Yes I am aware of the crochet hook method of knitting nupps and how it's supposed to be easier but I'm not a crocheter and could not for the life of me find a crochet hook anywhere last night!  I own a few but they appear to have hidden in protest as I almost never use them and when I do it's for such degrading business as picking up dropped stitches and untangling yarn instead of actual crochet.  It's a hard life being a crochet hook in my possession!

Finish or Frog It February

I am declaring this month Finish or Frog It February in the NorthernMonkey household. All those WIPs in my basket must be either finished (or well on their way to it) or frogged by the end of the month. I will NOT be casting on anything new unless I finish everything lucky enough to be put into the "to finish" pile. This is highly unlikely as I have rather let my WIPs build up and one of them is lace knitting.

First to survive my decision and make it on to the "to finish" pile, a pair of socks I started for Mr.NM way back in September, got as far as the heel flap and gave up. Oops. They're just simple, plain, no messing around, stockinette socks. OK so they need to be a size 11 but even then the simplicity factor means they shouldn't take too long to finish. I am now a good way down the foot of the first sock and it's whizzing along.



Hopefully I should get some pictures later today of some projects that are not so lucky and are heading for a one way trip to the frog pond.

Podster Mitts - FO

I must apologise again for being a terrible blogger, I really am sorry. Finding the time (and daylight, really failing where daylight is concerned!) to take photographs and get them uploaded has been proving difficult. I should make more of an effort but frankly the times when I am free I find myself putting napping or slumping doing not much at all ahead of blogger! Very naughty I know.

Enough of apologies though, everyone is busy sometimes and that's all there is to it!

What I did achieve at the weekend (between the napping and attempting to relax) was a finished pair of Podster Mitts, huzzah!





I LOVE them. They do the job perfectly, I can use my touch screen phone whilst keeping the rest of my hands warm and whilst we've not had a winter like last year it has been pretty nippy lately so my fingers are grateful.




I am considering a little button to secure the mitten top when wearing them as fingerless gloves, I have some lovely little wooden ones that would go just perfectly. I'm not sure though as they don't flap about particularly so I may just leave them as they are. I do love buttons though...





To my relief I had enough yarn, I even have a little left over but not much. It's lovely yarn and feels like it will be really hardwearing. I bought it at a lovely little shop called Create in Ilkley but for those without access to Ilkley the dyer has an Etsy shop as well.  Not that I'm encouraging stash enhancement you understand, it's just in case you were wondering.

Needle sizes, pattern and all that jazz are on my Ravelry project page.

I am now being a very good girl and have gone back to my WIP pile, details on what I'm knitting from that will come at some point I'm sure.

Also for anyone interested (and I'm not sure whether anyone is) my other WIP is progressing very well and is now two thirds done!

Podster Gloves - WIP

You remember all those WIPs I mentioned? The ones I intended to either finish or frog? Well I promise I'll get round to them but...but...but... I cast on something new.

New year, new project. I just couldn't help myself.

I've wanted to knit myself a pair of Podster Gloves for ages, apparently the pattern was published in September 2009 and I suspect I've been eyeing them up since then. I just never really got round to it. Back in September 2009 I was still very much learning, had knit a pair of socks but was intimidated by the skills needed for the gloves. Instead of braving it I filed them away for future knitting. By the time I was at a point where the pattern didn't look remotely scary I had far too many other interesting things to knit!

I decided 2012 would be the year I'd knit them, get them done before Baby Monkey arrives and throws all my knitting plans out of the window. Also I did get an iPhone about a month ago so they seem a more useful item to have than ever. We'll ignore my "I'm never knitting gloves again" from when I finished the green gloves for my mum over Christmas, let's pretend that never happened.

I went in the stash, this is good, stash reduction! The yarn wasn't a particularly long term resident, purchased in December 2010.




It's Ba T'at sock yarn in Pheasant. Considering how well behaved I was on the yarn buying front in 2011 this may actually be my most recent sock yarn purchase, shocking. I'm not 100% on that though. Anyway it is lovely stuff, 100% merino and technically sport weight not sock yarn. It feels like it should be very hard wearing and I love the colours.

It's knitting up nicely and the pattern is very clear and easy to follow. I've actually progressed beyond what I have pictures of and am already knitting the fingers of the second glove but here are two progress shots of the first glove.






I knit the first glove but have saved knitting the mitten top part until I've finished the second glove for fear of running out of yarn. I should have enough but should and will are not the same thing! At least this way I'll definitely have a pair of fingerless gloves should I have yarn for the mitten tops.

I'll get on to the WIP pile soon, honest.