Winter crafting

Remember the zigzag Noro sock I blogged about recently? I ran into a problem with the yarn. It wasn’t knots, the thick-and-thin crazy Noro spinning, or even bits of twigs. It was the colour. And given that colour is really the only reason to buy Noro…well, I wasn’t very happy.

See those pale coloured sections on either side of the black stripe? And in the little ball of yarn next to the heel? Those are sections where it appears (to my admittedly inexpert eye) that the skein hasn’t been dyed properly. It’s a weird pale pink that I think is the base colour of the yarn, because it doesn’t match the colourway and it never becomes part of the colour repeat (so the colour never goes entirely pink – you just end up with unattractive flecks of it through the project).

I emailed the shop from which I had ordered the skein, who replied very promptly and said that this effect was visible in several skeins in their stock, and that therefore the skein wasn’t defective and they couldn’t do anything about it. Hmm. But they did give me the contact details for their distributor, who I emailed. They, in turn, have asked me to return the skein to them. I was expecting to be asked to send a photo (to confirm that it was worth sending it back) and now I’m thinking that it’s probably not worth the trouble and cost of sending back one skein when there’s no guarantee that it’ll be replaced or refunded anyway.

So I think I’m just going to frog the sock, cut out all the offending bits, and make something else out of it. After all, I do love the rest of the colourway. I’m not really looking forward to frogging a whole stranded sock, though – too much potential for tangles!

After my disappointment with the Noro, I returned to my previous project, a nearly-finished Ishbel shawl in Posh Yarn Sylvia. After all, you can’t go wrong with Posh Yarn for colour! I also decided to bead the stitch between the yarn-overs on chart D with some gorgeous amber-coloured seed beads I got on Ebay. I used the dental floss method, which was simple and worked really well. The beads don’t show up brilliantly on the photos – I’ll have to take some close-ups sometime. But, voila:

I love the brightness and richness of the colour – the large photo is the one with the most accurate colour. It’s full of rich golden and tawny yellows. It’s also amazingly light – I only used 38g of yarn (I worked the small stocking stitch section, the large lace section, and used Jeny’s surprisingly stretchy bind-off as I found the bind-off in the pattern too tight). I think I might double up some of the leftover yarn and make a matching pair of Veyla mitts.

I have also finally got round to sewing the “eyes” on my Owls sweater, and here it is:

I love it! I rarely make patterns in the exact yarn or colour recommended by the designer, but I just loved everything about Kate’s original grey Owls, so used exactly the same yarn: Rowan Purelife British Sheep Breeds Chunky in Steel Grey Suffolk. No mods – I knit it exactly as the pattern said. And I love it. Here’s pic that shows off the owls better:

It’s snuggly and warm but because it’s so close-fitting it’s stylish and sexy. I wore it for work with a flouncy knee-length grey and pink skirt, grey tights and black knee boots.

And I finally got the sewing machine out again! After some faffing and reading the manual because I couldn’t remember how to thread it or how to wind a bobbin, I managed to make my Clothkits fishy cushion in a few hours over last weekend.

I even made buttonholes! On the machine!

How proud am I? Next weekend it’s the turn of the skirt. I will get it finished!

Help for Haiti

During January some of my favourite designers on Ravelry have been offering a percentage of the purchase price of their patterns to various charities in aid of Haiti. So now pay day is safely past and I have money again (woo!) I have just been carefully browsing the “Help for Haiti” patterns and I have bought:

Little Birds by Ysolda Teague. I think there must be some rule that says that at least every other pattern I knit must be designed by Ysolda. And after my one and only Ziggy sock (more on that later) my confidence that I can do stranded knitting has soared. Bring it on!

French Press Felted Slippers by Melynda Bernardi. Another pattern that’s been in my “favourites” list for quite a while. And now the cheap slippers I bought from New Look at the beginning of the winter are starting to wear out it must be time to make myself a pair…

16 Cable Hat by Circe aux Belles Boucles. I think there must be another rule that says that every other thing I knit must be a hat. I would probably never have noticed this pattern if I hadn’t been browsing the Help for Haiti list, either.

I have lots of FOs to photograph and show you this weekend, but for now I need to go shopping and do some work…

Obligatory knitting post

Two posts in one day! I thought it was better to separate them as they are about completely different things. So, back to our usual fare: knitting!

I finished knitting and blocking my Owls sweater, and am wearing it right now. It looks fabulous – it’s so close-fitting and well-shaped it’s actually a very sexy sweater, despite being made of a chunky woollen yarn. The sleeves are very tight – it’s a bit of a struggle to put it on, and I certainly won’t be wearing it over any long-sleeved tops, but it’s perfectly comfortable once it’s on. Hopefully the upper arms will give a little with wear. The reason it’s not completely finished, and I’m not boring you with FO pictures, is that I don’t yet have any buttons for the owls’ eyes. It’s very hard to source 34 identical buttons – neither of my local craft shops carry that many of the same kind. I found some on the Internet, but the site wanted me to spend a minimum of £5, and I didn’t want anything else! Eventually I found some plain plastic fisheye buttons on Ebay, and ordered two packs. I hope they match the sweater!

I have finally bitten the bullet and cast on for my first stranded project. I opted for Ziggy, which is a pattern for crazy zigzag socks in Noro Kureyon. I chose one of the more muted colourways, full of greens and browns and greys. The pattern has already gone through several creative stages:

• At first I planned to knit the socks toe-up, as specified by the pattern, and to stripe the Kureyon with some steel-grey Patons Diploma Gold 4-ply. I decided to cast on 72 stitches, as various people on Ravelry have commented that the socks are tight, and I have size 7 feet.
• After being foiled late one evening by the magic cast-on and deciding to leave it till the next day and find a video, I had a think and realised that I don’t particularly like toe-up socks anyway. So I decided to knit them cuff-down, and cast on 72 stitches on my lovely new wooden KnitPro 2.75mm needles.
• About 3 inches into the first sock, I realised several things. One, at 19 rows the cuff was too long. Two, the first colour in the ball was a dull khaki and I didn’t like the way it knit up in ribbing. Three, at 72 stitches on 2.75s, the cuff was too loose. And four, I didn’t much like the way the Noro was knitting up with the Patons.
• So I frogged it, and this is what I’ve ended up with so far:

This time I cast on 66 stitches on 2.25mm needles. I only knit 10 rows of ribbing, and then I changed to the 2.75s. On the first colourwork row, I kfb every other pattern repeat to increase to 72 stitches. And I’m striping the Noro with itself, as the pattern specified in the first place. I like how it’s going so far, althoughI hope to get some more contrasting colours coming through soon so you can see the zigzags more clearly.

Last weekend I had to buy another ball of yarn for my Owls sweater, and when I ordered it from Cucumberpatch I was completely won over by the RYC Cashcotton in their sale. Some background: I completely fell in love with Kate’s Manu cardigan when I first saw it on her blog. I decided I had to knit it just as soon as the pattern was available, and that I wanted to make it in red. I liked the fuzziness of the Shilasdair yarn, and would probably have been happy to make it in that. But the Cashcotton seemed to fit the bill: wonderfully soft, fuzzy, and a glorious colour called “red pepper”.

I wasn’t sure how much I would need, as the pattern isn’t published yet. According to Ravelry, Kate used 4 skeins of Shilasdair, or 1488 yards. I am less petite than Kate, and I assumed I would be making a bigger size. So I bought 11 balls to be on the safe side, which gives me 1562 yards. I wonder if I should maybe have got a 12th ball, as I did need more yarn than the pattern indicated for Owls (also designed by Kate) – the price of being tall with monkey arms, I suppose! I routinely make patterns longer than specified, and I forget that eats up extra yarn.

Anyway, there is a fire burning in the grate and I’m off to put on the kettle and pick up my knitting…

Game

I’m a big fan of game. I don’t eat it a lot, because I don’t have a regular source of it, but I very much value the idea of eating animals that have lived wild. I buy all my regular meat from the local butcher, and most of it is outdoor-reared or free-range, but the ultimate has to be eating meat from animals that have lived most or all of their lives in the wild, right up to the moment of death.

A couple of weeks ago a friend gave us a pheasant. We hung it in the shed (from what I’ve heard and read, I wouldn’t recommend hanging a pheasant for two weeks unless you want it really gamey, but for most of that time the temperature has been around or below zero!). And yesterday, after we did a bit of research on the Internet and using the River Cottage Meat Book (a fascinating read I’d recommend to all meat-eaters), I prepared the bird. Here are some photos (I picked the less gruesome ones!):

First, I removed the wings, legs and head, and pulled out the tail feathers. The crop was full, which was really interesting – we could easily tell that her final meal had been barley and beechmast! Then I made a slit in the skin on the breast and skinned it – it was really very easy (and I’ve never skinned anything before!). The skin just came off, feathers and all, as if I was stripping off clothing – it was weird (but fascinating) to pull the legs through and see them all naked and pink! Then I gutted it, which was also easy – just a matter of scooping out all the innards. I saved the heart, because I’m actually taking a sheep’s heart into school to show to my second years this week, so I thought they might like to see a pheasant heart too!

When it was all prepared, I cooked it using a friend’s delicious method: shallots, cider, a bay leaf and some thyme, and simmered it for about 40 minutes. I added some chunks of apple about 5 minutes before the end (I was surprised by how quickly the apple cooked). Just before serving it I threw in some cooked bacon and stirred in some sour cream. It was lovely with some veg and mashed potato and there was enough left, with plenty of sauce, to have with bread as a sort of pheasant soup for lunch today.

I’m all fired up now to try cooking more game. I’m pretty sure the butcher in Bridge of Allan has wild venison. Apart from that, I’m not sure how you go about sourcing game – any ideas?

Hello 2010!

I am emerging from hibernation! I haven’t blogged any of my recent FOs (most of which were Christmas presents, and at least three of which I failed to photograph), so I thought I’d just do a big Christmas FO/review of 2009 post.

Christmas knits from this year:

• A sweater for my sister (Cozy V-neck Pullover with Deep Ribbing, from Fitted Knits).
• A pair of Cairn mitts, also for my sister.
• A Shroom slouchy hat for my friend Diane.
• Knucks fingerless gloves for my friend Jonathan.
• Two Turn-a-Square hats, one for my friend Luc and one for my sister’s partner, Matt.

I only managed to photograph the sweater and the Turn-a-Square hats – I was ill for a week before Christmas and completely forgot to photograph the other things in amongst the Christmas-preparation chaos.

Here’s a photographic summary of my 2009 in knitting (the first two photos are the Christmas sweater and one of the Christmas hats):

All my 2009 knitting photos can be seen here on Flickr, but the full list comprises:

5 sweaters or cardigans

1 baby cardigan

6 hats

4 pairs of gloves

2 shawls (one full-sized stole, one triangular shawlette)

Lots of buttonholes for the wedding

1 blanket

1 cowl

I think, if 2008 was the Year of the Sweater, 2009 was definitely the Year of Lace. Print O’ the Wave, Liesl, Hap, Veyla and Laminaria (Ravelry project links) were my lace projects for the year, and I really enjoyed knitting them all. I’m currently halfway through a yellow Ishbel (on hold until the cold snap passes – all I want to knit at the moment is snuggly woolly stuff!).

My knitting goals for 2009 were to knit more sweaters (check), knit lace (check) and have a go at colourwork. I didn’t manage the latter, but I am about to cast on for some socks in brown/grey/green Noro Kureyon (probably contrasted with some steel-grey Patons Diploma Gold 4-ply) – either Ziggy or Red Herring. So maybe 2010 will be the Year of Stranding – who knows?

So what are my plans for crafting in 2010?

Left to right, starting with the top row:

• RYC Silk Cotton (a Kemps “mystery bag” – two different dyelots, but I can’t see any difference). I’m planning some sort of lacy cardigan, possibly a February Lady Sweater.
• Posh Yarn Maisie, colourway “Copse”. Finally, I found the perfect coloured laceweight for that mythical Muir I keep saying I’m going to knit!
• Rowan Purelife Organic Cotton (another Kemps bargain) – 5 balls in beige and 5 in lemon. Not sure what I’ll do with this – possibly some sort of baby items? The only problem is it’s hand wash only…
• Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace, colourway “Milk Chocolate”. I love the subtle colouring of this skein – I’m planning a Featherweight Cardigan once the weather warms up.
• Jaeger Extra Fine Merino DK, colourway “Peacock”. I’ve had this in my stash for ages, and I’m now thinking another cardigan would be nice – maybe Morning Echo or Coraline.
• Clothkits fish cushion cover kit – I really must get that sewing machine out again!
• Clothkits birdie skirt – I started this during the 2008 Olympics and haven’t finished it yet…
• Owls sweater – nearly finished, just waiting for another ball of wool to finish the neck.
• Yellow Ishbel – half finished, waiting for the weather to warm up so I feel like knitting with laceweight again!

But first, off to make a decision which pattern to use for those stranded socks…

Happy New Year everyone, and happy knitting in 2010!

Yet more Ysolda FOs!

It’s a sign that the clocks have gone back – I’m reduced to hoarding my FOs for a weekend when the light is good and Chris is around to take pictures! Today he got back from his birdwatching trip fairly early, so I pressganged him into a bit of photography.

First up are my Veyla gloves, which I finished about 3 weeks ago and have been wearing every day since. They match my Laminaria scarf and make great driving gloves.

The other FO is a very quick Ripley hat I whipped up out of the leftover Artesano Aran from my Hap Blanket. I made it during a weekend away on Islay a couple of weeks ago, mostly knitting it in the car and on the ferry home.

I feel a bit like one of Santa’s Little Helpers in it. Here’s a shot from behind, although I really need to remember to try to open it out a bit when I put it on, or it goes all pointy:

It’s nice and snuggly, but I think it would be better knit at a slightly looser gauge for more drape.

In other knitting news, I ripped out the one nearly-complete sleeve of my sister’s sweater. It was just too tight. That’s an awful lot of ribbing I’m going to have to re-knit…

You are my sunshine

You may recall that I mentioned that last weekend I bought a new handbag. More specifically, an Emily bag from Earth Squared, a company in Edinburgh that sells fairly traded bags, purses and other accoutrements. I’d fallen in love with the funky, multicoloured and polka-dotted bags in a cafe-come-craft shop in Fort William, but I was on the way home from Skye and had spent all my money.  So I was overjoyed to discover that the gift shop on the High Street here in Dunblane has started stocking them.

I have three black handbags, of various sizes and degrees of smartness, so I’d ruled out black (they didn’t have any black ones in stock any way). I was tempted by two shades of brown (but ruled out as boring), red and brown (ruled out as I have a red coat and that would be Too Much Red), and brown and teal (lovely, but wouldn’t go with lots of things). I eventually settled on mustard yellow and grey, as it was just so very pretty. I have very few yellow clothes, but I thought it would look great with my trenchcoat and would jazz up the black or grey winter coat I hope to buy next week. And it’ll look super funky worn with purple accessories, of which I have many.

So I then decided I needed a yellow scarf or shawl to go with it, and a visit to the Posh Yarn website yielded a skein of golden yellow merino/silk laceweight, which matches the bag perfectly:

I am in love with the prettiness. I’m thinking Ishbel for the laceweight, maybe using the small stocking stitch chart and the larger lace chart. Or maybe a Swallowtail. Or maybe something else entirely!

I have also just ordered Whimsical Little Knits 2, because I have been living in my Laminaria shawl and I desperately want a pair of Veyla mitts to go with it! But they will have to wait while I work on my sister’s sweater – I’m seeing her next weekend and I’d dearly love to have the whole thing done by then, but at least I’d like to have the body done so she can try it on properly. After knitting lace and complicated cables I’d forgotten how quickly stocking stitch knits up – but I’m about to switch to ribbing, so that will probably slow me down a bit…

Cables and lace

At long, long last Vivian is finished!

Details, for those who have (understandably) forgotten since I cast on for this in, oh, January?

Pattern: Vivan by Ysolda Teague

Yarn: New Lanark Pure Wool Aran, colourway Bramble

Mods: My mods were the reason it took me so long to finish! I decided that the sleeves for the size 34 were way too tight, so I knit the sleeves for the size 40.  I then couldn’t figure out how to join the sleeves and body, so put it away for several months. When I came back to it the solution seemed obvious – I worked the pattern for the size 34 when I was on “body” stitches, and followed the instructions for the size 40 when I was on the “sleeve” stitches. I made the yoke longer (as per the size 40 instructions) until I’d decreased down to the right number of stitches for the size 34 shoulders.

Oh, and I also couldn’t figure out how to kitchener in seed stitch, so I just grafted the hood together using normal kitchener – it left a bit of a line down the middle, but not as obvious as a seam would look on a “normal” hoodie. I was going to make the hood bigger, as many on Ravelry have done, but I ran out of yarn (to the extent where I had to unravel both my swatches).

I like the result – yes, the sleeves are a little baggy and not how the pattern was supposed to look, but I can roll them up to do the washing up!

The colour in the above photo is most accurate, but I think this photo of the back shows off the beautiful shaping:

Not so long ago I bought my first Posh Yarn – a merino/silk 4-ply in a colourway that looked very pink onscreen, but turned out to be more of a pinky purple. But I’m not complaining about the addition of more purple to my wardrobe! After frogging my Laminaria shawl due to the ladder on one side of the central stitch on the star chart, I cast on again and managed to eliminate the problem simply by pulling the middle three stitches tight. I made the small “shoulderette” size, and it’s just perfect to wear as a scarf:

It also works rather well slung over one shoulder:

And it even works as a shawl (in fact, I wore it last night over my black and purple polka dot dress for a wedding reception).

I’ve really got the lace bug now. After my Print O’ the Wave, which took me 2 months, I wanted a break. But I whipped up the second “draft” of this shawl in a fortnight (ok, so it is a lot smaller than Print O’ the Wave, but it’s also more wearable). I also want to make a pair of Veyla mitts to out of the leftover Posh Yarn to go with the Laminaria.

Yesterday I bought a yellow felt handbag (it’s an Emily bag from Earth Squared). Yellow is a whole new colour for me (to wear, anyway) and I stumbled onto it accidentally when I bought a yellow top thinking it was green (the shop lights were deceiving).  I decided that I needed a scarf to go with the handbag (as you do) and spotted some yellow laceweight on the Posh Yarn website. I forgot about the Posh Yarn sale, and didn’t log on till nearly 7.30. But the yellow was one of the few colourways that were left, so I nabbed a skein of that.

However, before I can cast on anything else for myself I promised my sister a sweater! Which I have already swatched for, but then I had a tidying spree and put the needles away. So I’ll have to take an educated guess as to what size I used…

To the frog pond!

I’ve been working on a Laminaria shawl in the Posh Yarns Sylvia that I posted a picture of last time. It hasn’t gone particularly well, so far – nothing to do with the pattern or yarn, just me making mistakes and not paying attention. I dropped some stitches in the border and didn’t manage to pick them up in a satisfactory manner (ie in pattern), so I have a small hole in the border. I ploughed on, thinking nobody would see the hole once it’s finished, but then I noticed this:

The stitches on one side of the central “spine” stitch are looser than on the other side. Browsing the Laminaria KAL on Ravelry tells me that this is a relatively common problem. I thought about it for a while, and then decided that, since I’m not that far into the project and I’m a perfectionist, I’m going to frog it and start again. Someone on the KAL suggested twisting the stitches before and after the central spine, so I’ll give that a try.

Meanwhile, I have finished and blocked Vivian (at last!). The upper sleeves are a wee bit looser than I’d like, but everything else fits beautifully and I’ll be able to wear long-sleeved tops under it. I just need to put in a zip – which is not a trivial task as I’ve never done it before! It won’t be this weekend as we’re off to Yorkshire to visit Chris’s parents, but hopefully I’ll be snuggling up in it soon.

Right, off to the frog pond!

Finally, some FOs

My honeymoon sweater (which I finished knitting while on honeymoon!) was finished a couple of weeks ago, but I only just got round to getting photos this morning.

While I didn’t love knitting it, and I ended up ripping most of it out and adding a bunch of modifications, it’s turned out an immensely wearable sweater and I’ve been slipping it on most evenings and weekends since I finished it. The pattern is Cayman (Ravelry link) from Yarn Forward magazine, issue 15. The yarn is Rowan Summer Tweed. I love the yarn – when washed it becomes wonderfully soft and it’s ideal for a casual sweater like this. I’ve already blogged about the pattern – it had no shaping and I wanted it to look more shapely (like in the picture in which the model is lounging artfully in a chair). I also didn’t like the way the ribbing changed from twisted rib to plain rib on the body and sleeves.

In the end I made the following mods:

• I added waist shaping, and from the waist increased up to the next side so it wasn’t stretched across my hips
• I started the ribbing on the body and sleeves an inch or two later than the pattern suggested
• I did away with the twisted rib (except between the raglan increases) and just used plain rib
• I used a single crochet hem as the double crochet edging was pulling too tight

I nearly got rid of the split sides, but they were a feature of the original pattern that I liked the look of. It’s not the most flattering style on someone pear shaped like me, but I still like ‘em.

While on honeymoon I cast on for Ysolda’s Hap Blanket. I made the whole thing out of Artesano Aran, which is incredibly snuggly and soft. I had to buy an extra skein of red just for the bind-off – my loose gauge strikes again! But I found the colourway on sale at Natural Knits for Nippers, so I bought two. I’m planning a hat out of it – maybe yet another Gretel, or something slouchy like Ysolda’s new pattern, Ripley.

I finished the blanket on Friday evening, and promptly used it to snuggle under while chatting to Helen on the phone.

The scalloped edges haven’t blocked brilliantly – I was impatient for it to dry, so instead of pinning it out very wet I put it through a gentle spin cycle in the machine. But I don’t particularly care – after all, just how cosy is this sofa?

I seem to recall mentioning exciting new yarn in my last post. Well, here it is:

It’s Posh Yarn Sylvia (a silk/merino blend) 4-ply in “State” – full of gorgeous pinky purples. It’s going to be a Laminaria (inspired by Princess Pea’s fantastic pink Laminaria – I’d never paid much attention to the pattern until I saw that!) and maybe an Ishbel Beret.