Dribs and drabs

It seems I have some creative mojo again, or it might just be that the miserable weather and need to rest my knee means I'm sitting knitting a bit more. This set includes a jumper and a pair of socks which have been languishing by the side of the sofa since spring.

I've also had a go at another prototype knitted swirly tree. It's still not quite there yet, I need to correct some things.

I have a bit of a stash of batteries, from the time that I used a CD player for class, torches in the country dark on a regular basis, and various other things. Trouble is, they needed to be sorted into dead ones to be recycled (new recycling scheme here next month is going to take these in the kerbside recycling, hurrah!), recharged, needing to be charged and good to use. So I reused some plastic take out containers, labelled them (colour coded, even!) and, more by good luck than good planning, they fit neatly side-by-side across the drawer I currently use for batteries and other associated bits.

I've also had a couple of sessions recycling a few more old socks and knickers into jersey yarn.

It doesn't count, but I've also learned how to make a collage in GIMP. I got a bit fed up of tweaking things so it's not perfect, but good enough.

Clockwise from top left: swirly tree, jumper, jersey yarn, battery pots, socks

I'm going to need to crack on and create some more stock for a winter craft market - providing I get a table.

This batch of things: 6
Cumulative total: 34

My Cup of Tea socks

I saw this pattern on Ravelry and thought it would be a nice one to allow me to keep my hand in with a heel-flap-and-gusset heel, and a decorative pattern which confined itself to a neat panel down the front.

I used Drops Fabel Sand long print, even though the pattern wouldn't show to best effect with the stripes, I think it turned out well.

The first thing I needed to do was adapt the pattern to my usual 72 stitch cast on, on 2.75 mm dpns. I  also decided to work in my usual way, with the sole/heel stitches all on one needle and the instep stitches divided evenly over two needles. I start by knitting the sole stitches and don't 'number' my needles (effectively working clockwise rounds), so I was rather flummoxed by the redistribution of stitches and renaming of needles at various points in the pattern. I expect it works, but I couldn't be bothered with it.

Another thing which puzzled me briefly before I dismissed it was the rib pattern on the cuff, and I carried on with my usual k2, p2 for 16 rounds.

My additional cast on stitches resulted in 6 (knit) stitches either side of the central panel. Having been so used to knitting plain socks, I found adding a pattern a little slow going, but it's always lovely to see a pattern developing. As I'm short-legged, I decided to work one less pattern repeat down the leg, finishing on the row 11 to work the heel flap over half my stitches (36).

I enjoyed how fast the heel flap grew, and then I had to recalculate again to work out how many stitches to work when beginning to turn the heel. Here comes the maths - don't fret, it's only numbers!

The instructions call for sl 1, k17.
17 is half the heel stitches (32/2=16) plus one; with the slipped stitch at the start, this comes to 2 stitches past the half-way point of the heel.
So for my heel: (36/2=18+1=19) so sl 1; K19 (etc).
I didn't change the numbers of purl stitches on the wrong side row, although the resulting heel start is a bit pointy for my round heels.
Once all the heel stitches were worked, with an ssk (RS) or p2tog (WS) taking a stitch from each side of the gap created by turning the work to 'close the gap', there were 20 stitches remaining for me, instead of 18 as shown in the instructions.

One of the reasons that I like an all-in-one heel is that I'm not fond of picking up stitches and get bored with keeping track of gusset decreases. Luckily, I have a couple of sets of 2.75 mm dpns, which allows me to use extra when dealing with gussets, instead of redistributing stitches. Because I ended the pattern on a R11 before doing the heel flap, my pick-up-and-knit 20 sts down each heel flap was a pattern R12. I then did a round (pattern R1) to 'establish' the gussets, each on a separate needle in addition to the heel/sole and two instep needles, so a total of 5 needles for stitches.
I decreased 1 stitch each side of the gusset on even pattern rounds (starting R2); taking 2 pattern repeats to get back to 36 sole stitches.

I decreased back to 72 stitches, but I could have decreased by a couple more on each side of the instep. Finishing the foot and toe was straightforward, although I left the toe at 12 stitches top and bottom to kitchener stitch.

I could have finished the foot a few round early - I did 30 rounds after the design ended on the instep, assuming the toe would be 4.5 cm, but it's more like 5 cm with my tension gauge, only a tiny bit long in the foot. The decision to do one less pattern repeat on the leg turned out to be a good one - I would have had to cast on more stitches in the cuff to accommodate my bulky lower calf, and then decrease them away after one pattern repeat.

The photo shows the socks unblocked. They were perfectly comfortable, and are now in the washbasket!
I've still got a 'fiddly pattern' pair of socks on one set of needles, but am itching just to do a plain and straightforward pair again. In the meantime, I've picked up the alpaca jumper which has been left over summer while I tried to work out the instructions for the sleeves and how that applied to my arm length. That will be next, watch this space!

To Ink or Not to Ink ...

As in, Inktober ... that is the question.

Inktober is a concept created by artist Jake Parker, an invitation to accept the challenge of producing a piece of ink-based art, and posting it online, every day for the month of October. 31 days, 31 drawings.

I considered it this year, not because I am an artist, really, but because I keep saying I want to get into art and produce something good, and that needs doing rather than thinking about it. I set myself a challenge to produce 365 'creations' in a year (with less than 90 days to go, there is no way I can make this, but hey, no reason to give up!). And even if I only created doodles, it's all practice, and it develops an approach and style, a daily spot of drawing discipline. It would get me completely out of my comfort zone, as neither ink as a medium nor monochrome drawing are things I'm drawn to.

I set about finding paper; the pad I thought I had must have been my imagination, but I found a sketchbook which would do. Next, drawing pens, unused for at least 15 years, clean and hopefully ready to go. So far so good. Ink ... ink ... I was sure I had some bottles of ink. Eventually, I found it. Of course, I could just use biro/gel pen, Sharpie, any and all would count. I had a look at the prompts, (theme words). I can do this!

Can I though? I stopped doodling in the mid-80s, when it attracted adverse comments at work. I recently picked up a pencil again to sketch something and felt very uninspired and insecure, and critical of what I drew.

Do I really want to do this? There are so many other things I ought to be doing. Of course, I could set a daily time limit, but at the moment, I don't need the additional, self-imposed pressure. I'm already tired from knee pain, especially when it disturbs my sleep, and feeling the pressure of the things I'm not getting around to because of my need to rest, even if I would be sitting down to draw.

I agonised about it for a few days and then thought, if it's this hard to decide, the answer must be No.

I need to start drawing again first, to build a little confidence. To be effective, I just need to do a lot, consciously learning, but also letting go of perfectionism and attachment to outcomes, allowing it to just be.

Then, maybe next October.