Sunday 19 January 2014

To the Frog Pond

The first couple of weeks back at work after the holidays have been exceptionally busy so please excuse my absence. I've knitted and spun here and there but have still got a few things to show you.  


So...as you know I've been knitting the Vertex Cardigan for a while now and I haven't gotten a huge amount done. I tried it on the other day, with a knitting friend, to ask her opinion about the armholes because I think they are HUGE! She confirmed my fears and agreed that I would end up with a lot of fabric under the arms if I knitted them this way. Due to this fact, and the many errors that I've already made in the knitting, I've decided to frog the cardigan. What a relief! 

Instead I am thinking of using the CustomFit website to design a cardigan of my own. I would really love to hear your opinions if you've used CustomFit. 

After knitting the Gravitate shawl for my friend I decided I wanted one but knit with my handspun. I cast on a couple of weeks ago but haven't got much done. I really like how my Inglenook Fibers Parrot Tulip yarn is knitting up. It's not consistently spun but the garter stitch mostly evens it out. 

During the holidays my husband and I went to Shanghai so I made a point of going to a bead shop as I was eager to try knitting with beads. I bought some seed beads in pink, emerald and silver. I then cast on the Rivoli Shawl using Forest Dew by Lotus Yarns and my silver beads. Currently I'm using picture hanging wire to thread the beads on but do have 2 Fleegle Beaders on their way to me, that I hope to receive this week. The shawl is really easy to knit with the help of eleventy billion stitch markers between each repeat! 

On a different note, Chinese New Year is approaching here so the school I work at put on a traditional Chinese dragon and lion dance and drum performance. It's the first time I've seen one and it was great fun. Take a look at some of the pictures! 




That's it from me this week. I will be back next week with some more knitting and spinning. Have a great week! 
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Friday 3 January 2014

FO Friday #4

This is a very quick post as it's getting late here but I wanted to share my most recent spinning FO with you. 

I've just finished skeining up my Nunoco Hummingbird yarn. It's not been washed so I don't know the yardage or weight but it's gorgeous. The photo is not the best as I'm taking it indoors, under bad lighting, so please excuse it. I spindle spun it and two plied it. I'll post yardage and a better photo once it's dried and been measured.  
This is the second full Nunoco batt I've spun and they've both been an absolute pleasure. They are blended very well and draft exceptionally well too. The ladies are great to order from and have lovely colour sense - worth checking out if you haven't already. 
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Thursday 2 January 2014

Time Management - Advice Wanted

Anyone that knows me in real life, knows that at times, I have a fairly short attention span. I'm finding this frustrating at the moment as it means I have quite a few WIPs on the go at any one time. 

Currently I have: 3 shawls, 1 cardigan and 3 spinning projects. 1 of those shawls is a UFO and hasn't been worked on in about 6 months, 2 of those spinning projects also haven't been touched in about 6 months. The remaining 2 shawls were cast on within days of each other and the cardigan is very slow going, considering it's only stockinette stitch. 

I tend to be surrounded by my current WIPs and I work a little on one, then a little on another and so on, thus each project takes quite some time to complete. To remedy this I have decided to try to work on one project for the free time I have to knit or spin, rather than flit back and forth between them all, or to spend at least 30 minutes working on a WIP before going on to another one. Monogamous knitting is simply not going to happen - the beaded shawl takes a lot of brain power and if this was my only WIP I probably wouldn't do any knitting during the week. 

How do you manage your WIPs? What are your secrets for productivity? That's it for today, feel free to leave a comment below with your time/project management tips!
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