Knitting progress

Earlier in the month, I decided to set myself some goals for this month, largely because I have a lot of projects just drifting along.

My first two goals were knitting ones - to finish my Central Park hoodie and to finish at least one of the pairs of socks on my needles. Well its going pretty well.

I finished my Central park hoodie on Thursday. I'm really pleased with it as it fits really well and the yarn has softened to a lovely texture on washing. I even managed to find buttons that I liked. I don't have a good modelled shot of it so here's a picture of it in my spare bedroom (hence the slight mess in the background)



I've also managed to finish the pair of Monkey socks that I had on my needles. The yarn is Panda Soy in Positive purple that I bought at the Iknit day last year. The yarn feels lovely in the finished socks but it was fiddly to knit with as it splits very, very easily.



The stitching goals are coming along pretty well too. I'm almost finished the side panel of Japanese Octagon box and part 1 of Autumn Watergarden so I should manage it by the end of the month. I've also managed to finish a Shepherd's bush design called Violets which needs to be ironed before I share a picture of it.

Life is sort of bumbling along at the moment. Work is pretty busy as per usual but I've got a four day weekend off this weekend which I'm really looking forward to, largely because I have nothing particular that I have to do. The downside is that I'm having a few problems with pain in my face and nose which I think is sinus related and I think might be related to a fall that I had several years ago. I hurt my face fairly badly then and its left me with a nose which isn't quite right. I was seen by a ENT doctor at the time but the appointment was slightly too long after the incident according to the Doctor that saw me to tell if anything was broken. I'm a coward when it comes to going to the Doctor about things but I think I really need to go soon. Meantime I've been dosed up on Sudafed for the past few days and I can at least breathe better.

Sunday stitching progress and some goals

Lately the title of this blog has been a bit deceptive as there's not been a lot of stitching going on around here. The yarn and knitting projects have been calling pretty loudly. My stitching WIP list is huge though so I've been spending a little time stitching this week.

I managed to finish one of my WIPs, Spooky spots by Shepherds Bush.



I did start another project though - Autumn Watergarden by Chatelaine designs. I moderate two forums on the Chatelaine BB and one of them is for this design so I thought I'd better get cracking with the stitching as I'm already a little behind. I've only managed a little bit so far as I had to buy some threads to go any further.



Finally I've been spending a little time working on another WIP also by Chatelaine designs - Japanese Octagon box. The bit I'm currently working on is the side of the box. I might make this my stitching focus for a while as I really want this finished and on display.



I'm going to try setting myself some goals for this month to see if it will help me make more progress on the things I want to do.

This month I'm hoping to

1. Finish my Central Park Hoodie - I only have a little bit of each sleeve, the hood and the button bands to do so its achievable.

2. Finish one pair of socks currently on the needles - again achievable as I'm on the second sock of one pair

3. Stitch at least the first part of Autumn Watergarden

4. Finish stitching the box side of Japanese Octagon box and make a start on at least one more section.

Mondays are for..

..going to the gym and updating my progress on some projects this week. I'm lucky enough to be on another 2 weeks of holidays from work - I have to use up all my holidays by the end of March and I was given back a ton of holidays back from when I was off sick in the summer. Mostly I've been spending a lot of time sleeping as I was having some insomnia problems prior to being off.

There has been a bit of knitting going on though. I've finished two pairs of socks. First up, a pair of socks in Old Maiden aunt sock yarn dyed by Lilith from my knitting group. The pattern is Marlene by CookieA and was in the last issue of Knit 1 magazine.



The second pair are the Om Shanti bed socks from the first month of the 2009 Socktopus sock club. The yarn is Chameleon colorworks Evolution which I've used before.







I had a very weird issue with the second sock as the yarn just after I knit the toe was slightly thicker than the rest of the yarn and it striped differently. This produced a weird change of size/gauge which I only noticed when I was much further on. I decided not to rip back as I had already had to reknit the leg and cuff of the first sock after I shared a picture of it last time as I couldn't get the blooming thing on properly. My ankles are a little on the chunky side compared to my feet, especially my left one which has been prone to problems since my back problem appearred.

Here's a close up of the gauge/size weirdness.




Tomorrow it is off to knitting group night where I am hoping to make some progress on a Hooded cabled cardigan which has been in progress forever ( actually only 2 years). Hopefully the other knitters will push me on and not distract me too much with other shiny things. I did resist the crochet projects at the last meet up.