Helen Knits

Progress report - 3rd May

• Test knit Cora which used up stash dk yarn 
• Knit Glacier sweep by WestKnits in drops big delight
• Sally’s Christmas present cardigan, Wayside Lace Cardigan
  
• Grace’s Christmas present, creature comforts shrug, in arkwool worsted from ice yarns, red
• The perfect cardigan quest:

1. The Stonecutters cardigan in ice yarns tweed, grey 
   
2. Vivian in ice yarns, filzy wool, burgundy  - need to sew a ribbon over the zip, but it is functional now.
3. Chocolate Stout in Kathmandu aran, charcoal - half a sleeve and a couple of lines left of the collar to finish up. Buttons to pick :D 
4. Exeter in purple cascade tweed - not yet started
5. ~Forestry
6. ~Mans cable cardigan
7. ~Aidez (again)

• Hat for James - given to Ax
• Birthday present for Dad - April - done and posted to him
• A swap that needs a couple of weeks devoted to it soon - my next project
• Some other birthday presents ~ 5 4 3 to go before July :) 
• Design and make a dress
• Knit with beads
• ~Maxfield cardigan
• Design, write, knit, etc James’ scarf pattern - swatching
• Finish crochet blanket for the Dogs Trust
• Rug for Brownies

There are slight changes of plan going on in the background. As soon as chocolate stout is done I’m going to work on my secret swap project, but after that I’m going to be adding to wishlist…I am going to knit a jumper (maybe jumper dress) of my own design using the easyknit skeins I got at unravel. Now that is totally ad-libbing from the plan. I also have 3 skeins of fyberspates which I intend to make into a small lace cardi, so I want to fit that in too. ooo possibilities!

That feeling when you are coming to the end of a project and you want to start thinking about what is coming next. I have it now. Only got to finish the collar, knit a sleeve and seam before it’s button time on my chocolate stout. Now considering buttons (along with thinking about what is next!)

4KCBWDAY7: Looking Forward

Today’s topic is to look forward and think about what you want to achieve in your knitting and crochet over the next year.

This is something I enjoying doing at the beginning of the year (see this post and this post) and I like to update my progress throughout the year, the following picture shows the projects I have completed so far this year. 

There are many things on my wishlist for 2013 that I have not yet started, so these are the two main things I hope to complete by the end of the year (so hopefully I will have done them before next years blogging week!)

• Design and knit a dress suitable to wear to weddings
• Knit with beads

4KCBWDAY6: A Tool To Covet

Today’s post is about your favourite tool….I wouldn’t have said I had a favourite tool, they are all needed to get knitting… so in my knitting bag I have a tape measure, yarn needles, my knitpro interchangeable needles and any other needle or hook I need and a pair of sharp scissors. That’s about it.

I do quite like the knitpro symfonie wood starter set I got from get knitted, the colours are great, the wood is nice to knit with, but I wouldn’t say they are the most amazing needles ever since I managed to break the cable of the longest one. However I was really impressed with the great customer service from Getknitted. I emailed them and told them the cable had broken and they sent me a new cable within days no quibbles so now I get to see how long the new one lasts!

I have lost my little red case with yarn needles in which I got free with a magazine and to be honest I really miss them. They were really handy! So I’m looking for a new handy needle set.

4KCBWDAY5: Something Different

I really struggled to think of something to do for today’s something different post, then I remembered that the lovely Liz of aloveofeachcolour had nominated me for a “Liebster award”. I have never been nominated for anything before, so thank you Liz. I think this fits in very nicely with today’s theme. 

So, what is the Liebster award?

“The Liebster Award is an award given to rising bloggers who have less than 200 followers. Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.”

What do I have to do?

• You thank the person who nominated you!
• You answer the 11 questions posted by your nominator
• You pass on the award to 11 new recipients
• You post 11 new questions to your recipient blogger?

Firstly 

Thank you Liz for nominating me, I love that you have started blogging and I really enjoy reading your blog, I especially want to hear more about Sparky! 

Here are my answers to Liz’s questions. 

1. Describe your blog in three words - stunning knitting photography
2. Why did you start blogging? I started blogging to record what I knit and to have a place where I can hold myself accountable for the challenges I set myself. It helps to keep me on track!
3. What’s your favourite blog to read? younghouselove
4. What is one thing you would change about your blog? I’d love to have it redesigned and have a proper blog rather than a tumblr. I really want to have a comment function. 
5. What is your favourite colour? purple
6. What music are you into at the moment? I’m totally loving Les Mis at the moment! We’re singing it in choir and I just love it. 
7. What book are you reading at the moment? I’ve just finished a set of books by Elizabeth Hunter called Elemental Mysteries, the first one was a free kindle book and I got a bit addicted. They are great vampire books.  
8. What is your favourite food to eat or to cook? I love curry, even my non-spicy homemade curries are tasty. 
9. What new skill would you like to learn? How to cook better, I’m pretty useless at cooking, and it would be nice to be better at it! James says I’m an enthusiastic cook with no skill or patience!
10. What are you planning to do today? I’m working ‘til 4, then I’m hoping to go for a run, then I might go to an AGM (not sure since I have no details about it), then hopefully I’ll get home at a reasonable hour to sit on the sofa and knit for a bit before bed. 
11. Did you learn any of your crafts at school? I didn’t learn to knit at school, my mum taught me, but I wasn’t really interested at the time, I’m far more interested in learning knitting now! 

Here are my nominees for the Liebster award (I have no idea how I’d know if they had under 200 followers…so sorry guys if you have more, but I love to read you all so take it as a compliment :) )

• Up the rectory path
• knitigatingcircumstances
• valerieknits
• Anri knits
• knittingknerd
• knitreadclick
• Malgunia Knits
• Unbound knits
• damn, knit and blast it
• cornflower blue studio
• slipslipknit

My questions:

1. Describe your blog in three words.
2. Why did you start blogging?
3. What is your favourite blog to read?
4. What book are you reading at the moment?
5. What is your favourite food?
6. Where would you like to go on holiday next?
7. What is your favourite TV show?
8. What is your next challenge?
9. What are you saving up for?
10. What is the most impressive thing you’ve ever made (and share pictures)?
11. What is your favourite handmade item that you have been given?

I’m looking forward to seeing all your answers :D

4kcbwday4: Colour Review

I would have said that my colour palette is mostly purple or red, with a bit of grey thrown in there too. I know when I did 12 sweaters in 2012 I was surprised how purple and grey my projects were! At the beginning of my knitting career (if you can call it that) I think I went for really wild rainbow colours, but as time has gone on I’m drawn to solid colour projects, or colours that blend better. This might have something to do with hubbie, he is really good with colour (despite being colourblind) and he does influence my colour choices because I trust him to get it right better than myself. I always gravitate towards the purples but I know they don’t photograph well so I’m trying to teach myself to pick colours that photograph better.

The infographic below shows my project page on ravelry and I’m surprised by how much blue and green there is. I think this is because I have a lot of blue and green acrylic around (I often buy big cheap balls) and I have made a lot of smaller projects out of that, so there may be more projects in blue and green, but they tend to be smaller ones like hats, whereas the larger projects such as jumpers are more likely to be grey, red and purple. 

My stash is very similar in colour to my projects, there is quite a lot of leftover yarn there. I don’t have time to go through ball by ball to figure out what the tally is, but I had a quick look through my stash page and it wasn’t that different to the project page. 

How is this monkey like? I’m not sure. I think my purchasing used to be quite price driven and if I compared this year to last year or the year before there would be a changing trend, see infograpic!

4kcbwday3: Infographic Day

4kcbwday2: A Mascot Project

Today’s task is to think of or research a project that represents your house and describe how it is a mascot for your house. 

This is one of the hardest post of the week for me, I didn’t really know where to start. My first instinct was to make a house scarf, houses always have scarves right? Well they do in Harry Potter. Then I saw a cute monkey toy, but what would I do with a monkey toy! James used to have a lot of monkey toys no idea where they are now though! 

Been pondering this for about a week and I suddenly had a thought that monkeys like bananas. So do I make a banana? Or a yellow project? Or incorporate yellow yarn into a scarf. I’ve been keeping an eye on the fibre factor (and hoping it’ll open up to the UK one day when I’ve actually managed to write a pattern or two up). The first challenge was to knit your life, so in this project the life of a monkey would involve trees, bananas and other fruit.  

Now I have a very vague idea of what I’d like to make, I need to think about how. Would I make a banana shape, use intarsia, lace, cables?

I think this project should be a circular cowl with fairisle or intarsia patterns which are quite descriptive, including a few symbols from the life of the monkey. I don’t have time to think about charting this out, but maybe I will one day :) but that would be fitting for a monkey to make since it involves challenging techniques (knitting in the round/intarsia/fairisle) and designing it myself which is something I’d like to do more of.