Year of Projects update January 8th

I am very pleased to report this week that my plan to clear out the existing YoP WIPs before starting anything else is going well! Of the four WIPs I listed last Sunday, one is gone (to the frog pond, sadly) and I have made sterling progress on another!

Please ignore my un-woven-in ends. I will do them when the other glove is complete.

I have focused almost entirely on the fingerless gloves this week, and to my eternal delight, have finished the right glove.

Thanks to your wonderful advice last week, I forged ahead using safety pins and scrap yarn as stitch holders while I negotiated the tricky task of knitting each little finger tube.

I am so pleased with how this glove has turned out! It's gorgeous, and it fits, well, like a glove. Now to avoid  the trap that is Second Sock Syndrome, and remember that I have to knit another one before I can call this project done. Glove one has taken me just over two months... I don't actually need them till Easter, so I have plenty of time to get the second one finished. More pleasingly, I have just weighed the remaining yarn from the ball, and I still have 28g left, which means I won't need to break into the second ball I bought in case it was needed. Hmmmm, will need to find another project for that....

A New Year Adventure

I've been so caught up in the post-Christmas madness that is taking down decorations and going back to work, that I haven't had time to tell you about my New Years Day adventure!

After a leisurely breakfast following our New Year festivities (a quiet night in with friends) we jumped in the car and drove into London to visit Kew Gardens. Jamie and I hadn't been before, so it was all new and exciting for us.

Friends included for scale! Some of the trees are absolutely enormous.

It was a rather grey, blustery day, but there was still plenty to see and do. Three enormous glass houses filled with a wondrous variety of plant life.

We loved the carnivorous plant display in the Princess of Wales glass house.

After walking through the first glass house and the surrounding gardens, we headed over to Palm House, one of the two huge Victorian structures in the centre of the park.

There's a fantastic range of heraldic statues outside the Palm House. This one is a Yale.
The Yale is a mythical beast that could swivel its horns independently!

Inside the glass houses there are so many plants. It being the middle of winter didn't really bother them, as they were all warm and cosy in the rather humid air. You can climb up beautiful wrought iron spiral stairs and walk along a balcony at canopy height.

It's actually quite high, once you get up there!

The glass houses are very old, and have clearly seen better days!

We adjourned to the cafe for a spot of tea and cake, and I was shocked to discover they didn't sell Coke! Caffeine is essential to my hangover recovery plans, so I had to make do with coffee cake. While we were in the cafe, it started to rain. Proper, heavy, serious rain. We spent a bit of time browsing in the shop (where we determined our plan for the year was to collect a fridge magnet from every place we visited in 2012), but the rain didn't let up. We decided we were quite hardy folks, so a bit of rain shouldn't get in our way; however the rain was so severe we were forced to purchase a Kew Gardens branded umbrella, for the princely sum of £25!! It is, I will concede, a very good umbrella - a huge golfing umbrella with a button you press to open it up.

Thus protected from the worst of the weather, we walked over to the Temperate House, the largest of the glass houses, and spent some time wandering inside.

This is the oldest pot plant in the world. The timeline below shows all the major
world events that have occurred since it was planted. France still had a monarchy
when this plant was born!

There was one other thing we were determined to see, in spite of the weather. The tree top walkway! 18 metres above the ground takes you through the canopy of lime, sweet chestnut and oak trees. Of course, it being winter, you could see quite a long way out across the park.

Yes, it really is as terrifying as it looks. With only four of us walking on it,
it wobbled alarmingly. And the floor is see through.

The view is quite nice though.

We had a great time, and will definitely be going back when the weather is better, as there is so much we haven't seen! I'm particularly keen to get a closer look at the Japanese pagoda, as we saw it rising up out of the trees but didn't want to slosh across the grass pathways to get to it.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Last night was the Twelfth Night of Christmas, making today the twelfth day, and the deadline for taking down the Christmas decorations. I always count down to the 6th January, as I am determined each year to leave the decorations up for as long as possible.

This year I had so much fun putting up a daily decoration for the advent calendar, I decided to make myself a Twelve Days of Christmas calendar too!

I found these gorgeous embroidery patterns for sale online here. I printed out the full size pictures onto some thin card, cut them out and each day I have been putting them on the wall. We have this handy edge that is exactly the right size for them!

It is a shame I don't have a laminator, or I'd laminate them to keep them for the future. I will put them away carefully this year so hopefully I can use them again.

First FO of 2012

Determined as I was to get my WIP list down to a sensible level, I took advantage of all the extra crafting time the Christmas break has afforded, and finally finished Jamie's hat!

Pattern: Ribbed Watchman's Hat by Channah Koppel
Yarn: Patons UK Wool Blend Aran in olive green (less than one skein)
Needles: 4.5mm dpns

This was a really simple pattern to work, but the endless rounds of k2p2 ribbing got on my nerves after a while! I was so fed up by the time I neared the end, I finished the main part half an inch early, knitting to 9 inches instead of 9.5. The decrease rounds flew by, but I'm not too keen on the way they switch from rib to plain stockinette for the last few rounds, it looks a bit odd.

I had a bit of a hard time starting out with this hat, because I initially cast on the 96 stitches as per the pattern., but the combination of yarn and slightly smaller needles meant it wasn't big enough. So after knitting somewhere between three and four inches, I had to rip it all the way back and start again with more stitches! I didn't think ahead far enough though, reasoning that increasing in multiples of 4 was all I needed, to maintain the rib. So I added 12 stitches and started again. When I got to the decreases, I realised that increasing in multiples of 8 was actually far more sensible, so had to fudge one of the rounds to keep the stitch count right. So next time (if there is a next time) I will increase my starting stitches by 16!

It fits alright, needs to be worn a bit to stretch it out a little (I can't be bothered to block it). Here's a terrible shot of me wearing it - I haven't managed to get one of it on Jamie's head yet, although he has been wearing it. It's been pretty cold, wet and windy here of late, so it's seeing plenty of use already!

As ever, more FO's are linked to over at Tami's. Don't forget my giveaway!

First WIP Wednesday of the new year!

I have less WIPs this week than I had this time last week. Sadly, not because I have been finishing things, but because I have been frogging things!

The Ribbed Lace Bolero in Rowan Calmer? Gone. I just wasn't feeling the pattern, in the yarn, on the needles I was using. And I kept making mistakes. So it has been frogged, and I will either find a new pattern to use the yarn with, and replace it on my Year of Projects list, or choose a different yarn to make the Bolero with.

I also finished and then frogged the first of my experiment in making Saartje's Booties on larger needles, to make a larger pair. They came out way too big, so I am going back to the drawing board to find a suitable pattern for the remaining Baby Cashmerino.

There has been progress though! After announcing my determination to finish my existing Year of Projects WIPs before casting on anything else, I was immediately beset by a desire to cast on new things. I'm sure you are all familiar with that feeling!

I resisted though, and dug out my Leafy Fingerless Gloves.

All this experience I've had working with larger DPNs, on things like Saartje's Booties and the Free Rapunzel hat, has made me far more adept at wielding the tiny ones this project demands. I've finally reached the thumb increases, and am about 10 rounds away from starting the really scary part - the fingers!

See my lovely neat increases!

They look quite small on the needles, but I have been trying them on and there is a lot of stretch in that ribbing! The leafy pattern really opens up as well, once it's stretched out over a wrist. I don't currently have any stitch holders, though, so progress may be suddenly halted until I can get hold of some at the weekend,

To see what progress folks have made, head on over to Tami's. And don't forget to enter my blogiversary giveaway!

Blogiversary Giveaway!

As I posted on Boxing Day, I have reached my one year blogiversary. What better way to celebrate than by having a giveaway!

This is my first giveaway on the blog, and I am very excited about it. I hope you are too!

I've mentioned several times on this blog, that pretty much the first crafting blog I found when I started looking was Tami's Amis and Other Creations. Not only did she inspire me to set up Master of a Thousand Things, but her weekly link parties on Wednesdays and Fridays led me to other amazing blogs, and brought me many of my regular readers.

Back in May, Tami opened up Candy Skein, selling her amazing hand dyed yarns. Ever since the shop opened, I have been dying to get my hands on some of her yarn. The colourways she devises are absolutely divine, and I just love the names she gives them. Every project I've seen using her yarn has looked brilliant, and I've only ever read rave reviews. However, it always seemed ridiculous to me to order yarn from the US, when I have so many sources of great indie dyed yarn here in the UK.

I decided to treat myself with some of my Christmas money, and will soon be ordering some Candy Skein yarn of my own. And this, dear reader, is where the giveaway comes in!

Tami has very kindly agreed to help me coordinate the prize for my giveaway. Yes, you've guessed it, the prize I am offering is a skein of Candy Skein Yummy in lace or fingering weight. Even better than that, the winner gets to choose the colour!

Yummy fingering hand painted Robin Egg Malt Ball

So here's the juicy details. Yummy is Tami's range of 100% Merino wool (fingering weight is 75% merino 25% nylon). In the lace weight, you get 880 yards in a 100g skein, the fingering weight is 465 yards.

Tami's full range of colourways can be seen here.

The Rules!

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment on this post stating which weight and colour you would choose if you were the winner.

The contest is open to everyone! I know my readership is pretty much evenly split between the US/Canada and the UK. If you could please let me know in your comment which side of the world you are on, that would be really helpful.

The giveaway will close at midnight (GMT) on Sunday 15th January 2012 and I will randomly select a winner and announce it on Monday 16th January.

Please feel free to blog/tweet about my giveaway, but I'm not giving anyone extra entries for doing so.

Good luck!

Year of Projects update - 1st January!

So we are officially into the second half of this year long challenge. Like a lot of people, I am once again looking at my list and wondering if I actually want to/will get around to making some of the patterns I've got left to do.

I think I'm looking mostly at the crochet part of the list, and deciding to cull some of the extraneous patterns there. Like the Diamond Shawl, which is beautiful, but I don't really need it and can't really afford it because I'd want to make it out of expensive yarn. Plus, I have to buy an entire pattern book just to get my hands on the pattern.

Copyright Interweave

Another project being lined up to drop is the Phoebe Jane Vest. I just don't think I'd wear it as much as I'd need to to make it a worthwhile project.

Copyright Jenny King

I do have the pattern already though, so I may make it later on in the year. I don't want to feel pressured into making it when I'm not really feeling it!

The final pattern to get the chop is the Pineapple Monokini. Yes, I know it's an awesome pattern. And I do still want to make it. I just don't think I've got the time for it, nor will I have the occasion to wear it this year!

I've updated my List to reflect these changes. I am also determined to finish my existing YoP WIPs before starting any more:

Cherry Wrap

Hypernova

Leafy Fingerless Gloves

Ribbed Lace bolero