Things are looking green and blue

Crafting time has been a little on the short side over the past few days, as I've been engaged in a major system upgrade at work, meaning that I've been practically camped out in the office. It's a sign of how much "out of hours" work I've done when I call Security to warn them that I'm about to enter a building (and set off all the alarms) and they recognise my voice and telephone number, responding to me by name.

With no weekend (OK so there was a Saturday and Sunday, but I worked straight through so they didn't register), long hours and little brain power left when I do make it home, where I am soundly told off by my disapproving cats, I've had to keep any projects simple. Something that can be picked up and put down and doesn't require a huge amount of concentration to work on.

So naturally, I've been working on a plain sock...



I'm calling these the Ork Deathskull Socks and they're intended for Dave, who when I queried him about how this colourway was working up, wondering if it was a bit striking or colourful for his tastes, remarked... "You do know that green and blue are my favourite colour combination, don't you?" It was then that I remembered how many hours he spends staring at his orks trying to get exactly the right shade of green, and the clan he paints are Deathskull, who like Blue.

I actually cast these on a couple of weeks ago, to take with me to the AscendancyLRP event up at Murton Park and they've been a background project ever since.

At Murton Park we stayed in our usual hut (for maybe the last time - grrrrh) and my only real knitting time was first thing in the morning. Knitting in the half light of a hut with my new Knit-Pro 2.5mm DPNs, I learnt something new. I learnt that knitting a dark navy yarn, on tiny dark coloured needles, in a darkened hut does not bode well when you're trying to do a K2P2 rib.

It sounds simple enough, but when you can't see what you're knitting and therefore can't read the pattern of the rib, it is very easy to loose track and end up with one needles worth of rib completely out of sync with all of the rest. You don't see that you've made a mistake and continue knitting obliviously, only to realise just how much of a mess you've made when you finally get to look at your work in the daylight!

So a mental note to myself... Next time I'm intending to take a project somewhere to knit in a darkened hut, I need to choose light coloured needles and a bright yarn, avoiding navy blue at all costs.

Quick update

Last week was spent locked away in a little room, absorbing information about the httpd daemon, which didn't really leave much time or brain power for anything else. I did see the internet briefly; twice at lunchtime for a few minutes at a time as a wireless hotspot flickered into being as the wind blew in the right direction and once for about half an hour at home as I dealt with necessary bills.

Incidently, am I the only one who went into shock after receiving her gas bill this quarter? I was so stunned by the sum being demanded I checked gas used against last year, only to find that we've been really good and nearly halved the amount we've used, but the bill was up by approx 75% on the same period last year. Ouch!

But I digress.

Friday, freshly released from training, I packed Dave into the car and headed to Murton Park for the first Ascendancy LRP event of the year.

We were lucky with the weather as it stayed dry throughout, but it was very cold at night and even with my four season sleeping bag and six blankets, I couldn't get warm in bed. The gas cans for the stove were problematic first thing in the morning as it was too cold to get any decent pressure, which meant it took half an hour to boil water for a cup of tea!

Fortunately, once the sun got going the day warmed up nicely to the point where I reached for the sun block.

The hut we stayed in was in the process of being refurbished by the volunteers who maintain Murton's dark age village. They'd already replaced a lot of the boards and added a huge loom, as yet not set up but just leaning on the wall. The couple working on our hut showed up around nine in the morning to work on the fence and garden and didn't go home again until it got dark. They also had the cutest ferrets with them.

The event itself was based around a diplomatic meeting so was relatively low combat, which is always a good thing as Murton Park doesn't lend itself well to full skirmishes. None the less, there were combats, including a dawn raid on a 'neighbouring encampment' or the on site Roman Fort at about 10:30am which equated to dawn in LARPer time! Lots of new plot was introduced, which was good for there were a lot of first time players as well, so they didn't have to rely on a lot of background knowledge.

Which about rounds up the weekend I think.

Blocking does happen

I've just sat down and updated my work diary, mapping out my life until the end of December and it's scary stuff. Add in personal commitments, such as trips to the Knitting and Crochet Guild, holidays and Woolfest, along with the odd spinning guild meeting and LARP related event and it looks like I'm one very busy lady again this year. I'd made a deliberate effort to free up some time this year, but it seems that as quickly as I make spaces in my diary, other things leap in there to fill the gap. Bizarre.

Saturday, Dave abandonned me for the weekend as he headed off to Nottingham for some ork related fun at Games Workshop, otherwise known in our house as the WAAAGH!!! (already documented by Richard).

Dave, for those who do not know him, is rather ork obsessed and he's spent the past couple of months on a painting marathon requiring me to pass comment on a multitude of shades of green as I've admired ork after ork that has been waved in front of me. I'm hoping the orks are out of his system a bit now, as there are weapons in the shed that need latexing, masks that need painting (and undoubtedly more latex) and plotting that needs to be done!

With Dave off engaged in his war game, I was left to do what seemed to be a huge amount of housework in his absence. I also set to tackling the outstanding pile of paperwork, which I'll admit had got out of hand. I was firm with myself and the chores, plus paper pushing got done... I have a fine collection of papercuts (which sting mightily) to prove it!

All this industriousness on my part meant that I didn't have much time to do fun stuff over the weekend... But I did try to deal with a couple of hurdles to 'finishing' that have been hanging over me.

Weeks ago, in the middle of January, I started to crochet a pair of mittens. I actually finished making up all the pieces a while back, but as the mittens are worked in flat pieces and then sewn together, they've been waiting for me to get my act together.

Before I can sew them together, I need all the pieces to be approximately the same size as it kind of helps to match up the edges, which meant that blocking was essential. I've crocheted the mittens in a superwash wool, but wasn't taking any chances and with the brief showing of the sun on Saturday, decided that now was an ideal time for wet blocking.



This wasn't a particularly onerous task. I filled a wash basin with warm (not in any way hot) soapy water using a liquid wool wash and gently placed the mitten pieces in the water. I left them to soak for about half an hour then removed them from the soapy water, replacing it with similarly tepid clean water. The mitten pieces were left in the clean water for another half an hour, then I put them on a folded towel. The towel got rolled up and I stomped up and down on it for a while (a great stress reliever) to get the water out.

I keep hearing about using the spin cycle on the washing machine for this and when I graduate onto sweaters/jumpers, I may well opt for technology rather than stomping, but for my little mitten pieces, stomping was good.

Once I'd got most the water out, I pinned the mitten pieces out on foam boards stretching them so they were all about the same size. Then I put the boards outside to dry.



Sadly, the sunshine only lasted for Saturday but the pieces were dry by Monday morning. I wasn't taking any chances though and left them pinned to the boards until yesterday morning.

Now I just need to persuade myself to sew them together.

Commuting is not for me, I think

I'm back in the land of internet access, having survived a week of intense technical sessions courtesy of the UKOUG. The conference itself was as good as expected (from a techie perspective) with the usual mixed bag of lectures in terms of usefulness, but the majority well presented which always helps.

Commuting to and from Birmingham via public transport last week was, as it always is, an experience. I walked the two miles to the train station each day and a further mile or so to the conference centre at the other end, before hanging around for trains which didn't stick to the timetable but turned up when they wanted to.

Once on the train I did get a seat each day, both in the morning and on the way back in the evening, but... Why oh why, do people insist on thinking seats are for their bags, or feet, or stray body parts? Even in rush hour? Why do they look at you like you're imposing in the most horrendous way when you ask if the seat is free? Do they really need to sprawl into your seat after you've sat down, once they've grudgingly moved their bag of course? And shouldn't working toilets be kind of expected? And what's with the games the platform staff and train managers play, where they insist another train heading in the same direction is leaving the station first, only to pull away from the platform the instant a hundred or so passengers scurry from the first train to the second? (I wasn't caught out by this one, having fought through to my seat I wasn't moving, no matter what the train manager said!)

Ah fun...

I did get to poke around the German Christmas Market in Birmingham while I was passing through. I think my tolerance threshold for tat has dropped over the years, as while I admired the many knitted hats, sheepskin gloves and sweets on offer, I wasn't tempted by ornaments made out of junk, touristy 'African' carvings or smelly candles. I was upset on Friday afternoon to discover it was raining when I set off from the conference centre. I'd been walking past the many cakes and sweets all week and had intended to treat myself... But as it was, heavily laden down with conference bag and juggling an umbrella, I didn't have sufficient spare hands to manage a sticky treat as well.

This weekend was spent doing housework, tidying and then wrapping Christmas gifts, to the point where I didn't really have any spare time at all. It was telling, that on Saturday I didn't knit a single stitch on existing projects let alone achieve any real crafting. I am about sorted though. And the living room is looking a little clearer; I say a little because it's a small house and while I can move things from one place to another, there is only so much I'm willing to throw away.

Only seven more working days til Christmas, yay!

A continuing theme...

Work has been the theme of the past week or so and will be continuing for the next few days, as I camp out at work (not really, but it seems like it sometimes) as I plod through a series of application upgrades. This is really fun stuff, which saw me work long days on Saturday and Sunday and means that I haven't had time to do much of anything else at all.

You can tell it too by looking around my house. Dave has done some cleaning, but we do things differently. I'm also currently refusing to acknowledge the massive pile of ironing which is waiting for me to be at home long enough to deal with it. I will be at home this coming weekend and see my days filled with housework, frantic Christmas shopping, calling home and trying to finish ongoing projects.

In the meantime, I'll fill the blog vacuum with pictures of Dave's creative endeavours in the form of his orks, which he insisted I photograph.



This fellow is actually a troll, or so I'm told. He actually has quite a sweet, pleading expression on his face...

Whereas this one...


... Just seems to be in a terrible rush to get somewhere. I love the little guy hanging on in there in the back.

Spinning away the weekend

The autumn term has started and predictably, things are a tad busy at work and I've just started work on a new project. Thursday and Friday last week were spent in meetings, where I discovered that I'm unlikely to make it to the NEC for the Hobbycrafts/Crafts For Christmas show as I'll be working that weekend. It also seems I'll be heading off to Stirling in early November for a technical working group and I need to sort out some dates for training next year.

In the wake of all this, Dave abandonned Coventry for Ripley leaving me alone for the weekend as I was on call. On call means I 'volunteered' to stay close to a phone and able to respond within half an hour if there was a problem with any of the systems I support. Fortunately, it was a quiet weekend and I didn't get called, so after doing the household chores I decided to spend some quality time trying to get to know my spinning wheel.

I bought some Blue Faced Leicester from Wingham Wool Work last week and it is beautiful, with a lovely soft hand to it. The staple fibres must be at least 12cm long and it is a gorgeous blend of colours, described as humbug on their website. I tried to take a photo of a single fibre for this blog, but my camera fu failed me and the single fibre kept floating away, refusing to sit nicely beside the ruler so you could see how long it was.

Instead, I took a photo of the fleece itself so you can hopefully see the blend of colours.

I dragged the wheel out of its corner, dusted it down and unwound from the bobbin the semi felted fluff I'd spun up a couple of weeks ago. The single was of mixed quality, sometimes falling apart and at others, looking like properly spun thread which may have been saved. As it was, with only the odd meter of good yarn there, I threw the lot away and moved on.

I watched the DVD Claire loaned me and while it was interesting, it again lacked detail, sort of teasingly touching on all sorts of subjects but then quickly moving on. I think I'm going to go back and look at it again though, paying attention to the people's hands as they're drafting, which is still my problem area.

Having watched a DVD showing people spinning, I sat down at the wheel and tried again.

This time, my efforts were more successful although I seem to have a major battle for co-ordination going on there. The wheel puts spin into the drafted fibre but starts travelling up into the fibre store the instant my attention and grip lapses. This means that I end up holding the fibre very tightly to counter this, which I think is impeding the drafting process, since if the fibres can't pull past each other they can't be drafted.

Every now and then I did get into a rhythm though, with my grip relaxing and for maybe a few minutes, I'd be spinning properly. Then I'd lose it again, with the twist racing for the unspun fibre or the spun single getting too thin (I obviously have a repressed desire to spin laceweight). In the case of the latter, since very thin singles need a lot of twist to hold together, the single inevitably pulled apart on me.

At this point, I invented a little hooky thing for pulling the single off the bobbin and back through the oriface. Previously a paper clip, it worked a treat although the design may need a little refinement before I use the wheel again.

After spending about two and a half hours over Saturday and Sunday spinning, this is what I have to show for it...
Again, I'd not claim the quality of this single is going to be much good. The yarn is very thin in places, so probably won't hold up under tension and the thickness of the rest varies considerably.

In my defence, I wasn't trying to produce a nice even single at this stage. Instead, I was trying to get a feel for the hand movements and drafting, while keeping up with the wheel and controlling how much spin was in the fibre - all of which felt horribly complicated, rushed and a far cry from the relaxing action of spinning on a spindle.

In other words, much, much more practice is needed!

What day is it again?

I worked through this weekend, upgrading a critical system and staying camped out at my desk for an ungodly number of hours. It was a fraught couple of days, with minor glitches getting in the way of the upgrade, which itself ran through pretty much as planned, but those glitches meant I lost hours sorting them out. So all in all, the weekend was long, stressful and incredibly tiring... The sort of tiring where at the end of the day I can barely string two words together in a coherent fashion. Not good.

I'm reliably informed that today is a Tuesday but to be honest I'm beginning to lose track of days. Part of my thinks it is a Wednesday, but I've been warned that Friday could be a long time coming and I have a whole lot more work to get through before then.

Having been at the office over the weekend and returning home in a poor state for anything more than eating and sleeping, has meant I'm not really progressing anything at the moment.

But... I have been slowly cracking on with my first attempt at a seamed knitted garment, a simple waistcoat (Ravelry Link) from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders.

Here it is as of last Monday, just so you can see what the fabric looks like.

Click on image to see a bigger version...

This waistcoat is a very simple knit, using something called a mistake rib, which is basically a 2x2 rib knit on an odd number of stitches. It is very easy and doesn't require much thought, although I have from time to time found myself knitting a proper 2x2 rib as my attention wonders.

I finished the knitting part of this on Sunday night and last night, I bravely tackled the side seams using matress stitch. Now, I've used matress stitch before but never on knitted fabric and I thought I did a fairly good job. When I held it up I couldn't see the join unless I used my fingers to feel for it by squeezing the seam, which to me was pretty much the idea. Picture a very happy me.

Until I tried the sewn waistcoat on, at which point it appeared to be far too small for me.

I'm trying to temper the disappointment at this stage as I persevere with adding a crochet border, which I may beef up a bit adding a second row rather than just the one required by the pattern. So far, the border is stretching the edges of the knitted fabric (as I expected it to) quite a bit, but the main body of the waistcoat isn't stretching with it, so the whole thing has a warped and lop sided thing going on. The yarn (James C Brett Marble) is lovely, but acrylic so I can't go near it with steam which means I plan on waving a cool iron over it when I'm done. If that doesn't work, then I'll try washing it and pulling to shape...

I'm considering this a learning experience.

No finished pictures as of yet, because I'm concentrating on trying to sort it out rather than waiting for good light and photo opportunities.