WIP Round-Up

Now that I've got my Keith Moon sweater finished (and worn!), it's on to other things.

As usual, I've got a pair of socks on my needles.  I started these right at the end of December and progress has been a bit slow:

The colours haven't come out particularly well in these photos - it's hard to find somewhere with decent light in these dreary January days), but the main colours are claret red, a dark auberginey purple, khaki green and a light greenish-yellow.  The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, which is one of my favourite sock yarns and the colour is Zombie BBQ!  When I saw the yarn online and spotted the colour name, I had to buy it.  Because I knit an elongated gusset on my socks, self-striping/colouring yarns do tend to give me some interesting pooling, but that's part of the fun of multi-coloured yarns and, unless I were to make my socks with an afterthought heel (which isn't a good fit for my feet), there's no way of avoiding the pooling.

Also on my needles (and progress has been very good since I started, to the point where I should cast off later today or tomorrow) is a new scarf.  Back in July 2014, I posted about two yarns I'd handspun, from braids of fibre that had been dyed the same, but which I'd spun differently - link to post.  One of the yarns (the one where I'd blended the colours on my drum carder) was knit into a Norby hat in January 2015.  This hat:

It's a hat I like very much (as does DD2, who has worn it to school today).

I'd been thinking since then about what to make from the second skein of that yarn I'd spun and I'd ummed and ahhed about it, thinking that I'd knit myself a Hitchhiker scarf (but then I knit one just before Christmas and didn't want to dive straight into another).  Then, inspiration hit, as it does, on occasion.  A Norby scarf?  Why not!  Using 3.5mm needles, I cast on 41 sts, knit 8 rows of garter stitch and have then knitted three repeats of the hat pattern, which a 4-stitch garter border on either side.  It's going really quickly as the pattern is so easy to remember:

I think I've got about another 5 pattern repeats to go before I cast off and then I'll soak and block it, which will show off the pattern.  I think I'm going to end up with a scarf 5'6" - 6' long.  I'll let you know!

I also cast on a new sweater last week.  I bought 16 (I think - that's what I could find in my stash anyway) balls of Rowan Purelife when it was on sale somewhere (Kemps Woolshop, probably) a few years ago and started knitting Alice Starmore's St Brigid sweater.  However, a few inches into the knitting, I decided that, although the sweater is nice and is considered one of Ms Starmore's best cabled patterns, I wasn't really getting into it and it wasn't really 'me'.  So, I frogged it, with the intention of starting again with the Na Craga pattern, which I decided I preferred.  Last week I finally got round to knitting a swatched as the pattern suggested and ended up going down a needle size to get gauge (which I thought I might have to do) and I cast on a few days ago and have done about 8 rows of the ribbing so far (this one is knitted in pieces and seamed).

Not quite as bright as this in real life - photo taken in artificial light

I shall keep you posted as to progress and with a few more details about the pattern.

The only thing that's struck me is that the scarf and the sweater are similar colours and I can't help wondering if I've done it subconsciously.  Maybe, with all that's going on in the world at the moment, I just wanted to stick pointy needles into something orange!!!  Voodoo knitting?  Now there's a thought.