Understanding a knitting pattern

I started knitting a jumper on Friday and have already finished the back and started the front.  The pattern is very easy for the most part as there is no waist shaping.  It's a mass of 4 by 2 rib up to the raglan shaping but I did trip up a bit on the instructions. 

Here is the line:
Work 10 rows dec 1 st at each end of 1st and every following 2nd row.

At first I couldn't fathom it. Then I thought it meant decrease on rows 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 and wondered why it would have me be bonkers and decrease on wrong sides in such a seemingly random fashion.  I checked how many stitches would be decreased overall - from 86 down to 76 = 10 stitches.  So that's two stitches each on five rows.  Lightbulb! It means decrease on the RS rows only.  It's funny how a slightly different phrasing can throw me off, but having deduced it I was back in the game.

2013 - A Year in Review

I didn't enjoy 2012 much - sure some good things happened, but the weather was terrible, business was poor and I had no extravagent holidays.  So I'm skipping straight to 2013.  We've had nearly two weeks of it and so far, it's a good year.  I've listed all sorts of things I want to do every day.

List of things I'm managing most days so far:
knitting, sewing, exercising, working, tidying, reading, trying to save money

List of things I'd like but haven't managed just yet:
Japanese, cooking

OK so today I'm going to dust off my Japanese books and tomorrow I'm going to cook actual pasta sauce instead of having a ready meal.

All three pairs of socks as they should be

I've corrected the toes on all six of the socks from Germany and have had toasty feet almost ever since.  I made the mistake one day of wearing knee high socks thinking they'd keep me warm but didn't take my coat off until lunchtime - epic fail.

Why my socks don't fit

I've figured out why my socks don't fit. I scientifically superimposed the shape of the sock onto the shape of my feet and there is clearly a mismatch.  It's no wonder my toes felt crushed by the sock.

So I did the only sensible thing and ripped that toe right back. 

It's turned cold so I'm definitely in need of more woolly socks and am motivated to fix all three pairs of stunted socks as soon as I can.

Halloween stitch markers

The clocks went back last night and I was interested to see the my tv, phone and laptop could sort themselves out but I have to interact with my alarm clock, 3ds and oven. Since I bought ringOs in the summer, I've been looking forward to the halloween seasonal special sets.

I've started crocheting amigurumi and knitting stitch markers aren't useful at all so I bought some split rings too. They are not the main event.

Three sets of ringOs!  I only bought one tin which comfortably fits 30 standard size markers.

Jack O Lantern are black and orange and orange and black.

Wicked Witch are black and green and green and black. Both of these were available last year so I was planning to combine them with the Vampire's Kiss red and black set I already have.  However, a third set was created:

Poison which are purple rings with black and green beads.

I'm not just buying things, I'm also knitting.  I'm up to 110 out of 150 on my dad's xmas present so I'm well on the way to finishing before December.  I'm also correcting several pairs of socks which are painful to wear.

Knitting and Stitching show

And a crochet class!

 I came back with a bag of swag, and a rather lovely complimentary bag it was too.

 As you can see, I was much more restrained than in 2008, and I was very pleased with myself for not revisiting the cash machine. I bought from all new to me shops and enjoyed a crochet class, which turns out wasn't as new to me as I thought.

 These balls of brightness are from New Zealand.  I'm told they retail at £9 per 50g which was too steep for me this time, but these ones were in the seconds bag for only £3.50 each.  I can't resist a bargain but for some reason rejected the orange ball.  I think it was because Liz and Autumn had been teasing me about yellow and orange earlier. I do like orange.

 Silk from Thailand.  I don't think I've seen yarn from Thailand before, so I got sucked into a conversation with some lovely people and bought 25g of silk. I didn't get much change from a tenner but I'm hoping to crochet a tiny hippo so I'm sure it's worth it ;)

I have very little room for more yarn, but as Autumn is an experienced quilter, I was allowed to spend plenty of time looking at fabric.  Being a fan of most things Japanese, I couldn't resist these lovely fabric squares from Euro Japan Links.

 

Japan were well represented this year, and while I couldn't afford a whole set, I bought a single crochet hook from Tulip and received a brochure and bag.

I saw the hippo tape measure almost as soon as I walked in and bought it there and then.  It was available from several stands for similar prices.  And I don't remember where the zip was from either, although Liz may have bought some fabric there too.

Final instalments

My final instalments of the steeplechase club and the GBWC arrived so click on the photo above if you want to see them. The steeplechase club was a one off lace club from the Yarnyard.  There were a couple of delays to the parcels from the original schedule which I would bear in mind for next time but I would recommend signing up to a club from Natalie. The yarn was beautiful, each time not something I would have bought for myself so it did the job of helping me try something new. The GBWC from the Natural Dye Studio is also one I would recommend with the caveat that some of the parcels smelled extra sheepy.  The club is run to promote and support unusual breeds of British sheep and is run in three monthly segments.  I don't know whether to just stick with the 300g that I have, and make three separate projects or possibly a tank top out of them, sign up for another quarter (if there is space) or buy some more skeins from previous months so I could knit a whole jumper.  Decisions, decisions...