Oh it was cold today. So cold I decided to leave my (hand knitted of course) hat on the bus on the way to work. That went so well that I later decided to leave my (I hardly have to say it do I?) scarf in the classroom after knitting class, making the walk home twice as nice.
Lambeth Council were obviously on the same wavelength as me today, as they decided to turn off our heating and hot water! Obviously they are chickens, as they decided to put the heating back on at about 6.30pm, but they're still keeping the hot water off. Even more fun is the fact that they are keeping us guessing as to why - is it a burst pipe? or maybe just some engineering work on the heating system that just has to be done in the middle or winter? surely not incompetence?
I made great progress on my knitting goals yesterday. I cast off the armhole shaping on the front of Woody, which is only 5 stitches each side. I checked it against the back before casting off, to make sure I had the same number of rows. For some reason, known best to the person I was yesterday evening, I only counted the number of rows up to where I joined in the second ball of wool, rather than up to the actual armhole shaping. I checked this three times. I merrily cast off the armhole shaping for the front and carried on. Half an hour later I came to my senses, ripped it all out, recounted, re-knit and finally cast off armhole stitches - all 10 of them at about 11.30pm. Toby came to bed then, so I had to stop. There is a very strict 'no knitting in bed' policy when Toby is around. He is out tomorrow night, so I intend to flaunt it then, but not last night.
I have cast on for Retro Rib sock 2. Retro Rib is a bit of a greedy pattern where yarn is concerned. This is how much was left from the first skein of Koigu after I finished sock 1 - note 1p coin for scale.
Bearing in mind that I did the heel with yarn from skein 2, this seems like quite a lot of yarn used to me. Also, as it looks like this won't be enough to do the heel for sock 2, I guess I'll be breaking into the third skein I bought. Good thing I followed Dawn's advice and bought a ball winder on Ebay.
Talking of socks, does this happen to anyone else?
This is one of my new Britanny 2.75mm dpns and it is definitely bent. I have only knitted one sock on it and it was straight when I got it, so it must be me. It happened with my last two lots of bamboo 2.5mm dpns as well, hence the move to Brittany's. Am I doing something awful to my needles, or is this just what happens? Why to only one needle? Share your sordid needle bending stories here.
Poor you! Now you can get out the extra-chunky yarn and knit a new one hour hat & scarf set. My needles bend like this too (and break) - the pressure of sock knitting!
Hope your heatings sorted - we have manky storage heaters, and a draughty door, so there's a constant icy breeze through the flat!
Dawn
Posted by: dawn | February 24, 2005 at 02:58 PM
Good to know that real length retro ribs take 3 skeins of Koigu to complete. Lucky for me my sock pal likes shorter socks.
Sorry to hear about the loss of your hand knits. At least you've got a sense of humor about it. You made 'em once, you can make 'em again, right? Or maybe you'll just see them again on the head and neck of some fellow travellers one day. ;0)
Posted by: alison | February 24, 2005 at 11:14 PM
I'm so sorry about your hat and scarf! Is it possible to get the scarf back, since it was in a class? I hope so!
I bend my DPNs too, but I don't know why or how. It doesn't happen to all of them either, usually 1 or 2. ? I think I will just blame it on the boys here. Yes, someone must've stepped on them!
Posted by: patti | February 25, 2005 at 01:33 PM
Oh my gosh! If you *ever* figure out why one dpn bends, please let me know! Mine do the exact same thing!! My Crystal palace dpns don't bend as much as the clover brand does. It weirds me out and I'll try to turn it while I'm knitting to try to 'even' it out, to no avail... ^_^
Posted by: tania | March 01, 2005 at 06:01 PM