And the knit goes on

I’m experimenting with a new style of photography today and as a change from the scary headless Mac webcam shots, this post will consist entirely of flat-on-the-floor shots.

Despite the appearance of Guitar Hero 3 and a Wii Fit in the flat, there’s still quite a lot of knitting getting done. This is almost entirely due to Steven’s insistence that he be allowed to play the Wii sometimes too.

My Sahara jumper now has a neck band and only needs the sleeves finished. Despite my natural laziness, I’ve admitted that I won’t wear it as often if it has short sleeves and since I have plenty of yarn left, I’m going to knit long sleeves instead. I’ve also decided that I’m not going to sew the v-neck up and will instead wear it with t-shirts underneath. (It’s not obvious in the photo but the v-neck currently ends somewhere round about the middle of my rib-cage.) This has been a great pattern and I can’t wait to wear the jumper. I may even make another one of these in future but not with cotton yarn. This one is knitted with RYC Luxury Cotton that I got in the Liberty sale and, while I love the fabric, trying to “P3tog tbl” with a splitty yarn that has no give in it has been a trial. The broken diamond rib pattern on the neck band was only possible with the application of a pair of sock needles and a crochet hook!

Having said on Thursday that I was clearly insane because I was already thinking about my next pair of socks when I hadn’t really enjoyed knitting the first two pairs, I proved it by casting on for another pair almost as soon as I finished blogging. I’ve christened these my Cyberman socks, mainly to make a very simple, very grey pair of socks seem more interesting. They’re actually the “Gentleman’s half hose in ringwood pattern” from Knitting Vintage Socks. Not that these are intended for any gentleman; these are all mine. Especially since I gave my Leyburn socks to Steven since I had managed to knit them exactly to his size. This is a really nice sock pattern. There’s just enough going on to not make them too boring too knit while being simple enough for me not to have to keep checking the pattern every second row. I’ve also finally had some of the almost instant gratification that sock knitters tell me about since the first sock was finished in just two days. Maybe I’m finally acquiring a taste for sock-knitting.

And, as a change from all the greys and blacks, how about some colour to finish off. After nearly a year, my Double Vision blanket has reached the halfway stage. I’m still loving the way the colours are blending together for this and still very bored with the never-ending garter stitch. However, the guilt of having to explain to my grandmother that the yarn that I bought with the money she gave me for Christmas last year still hasn’t quite been made into a blanket is getting to me. At least the L-shaped strips get shorter as the blanket progresses so it feels like it’s going faster.

Except that now I have three projects that I really want to get finished and only one pair of hands! Maybe I’ll go play Guitar Hero instead.