A lacy conundrum

I decided to make an Annis shawl with the Ba T’at Laceweight that I bought at Knitcamp. I knit it faithfully according to the pattern, and ended up with a crazily curling, skinny scarf:

When I checked my gauge (I hadn’t bothered to swatch properly) I realised that my row gauge was way off. I wore it for a while, but I wasn’t really happy with it.

So I ripped out the whole of the stocking stitch portion, right back to the lace, and re-knit it. This time, instead of adding and extra 3 stitches on each short row, I only added 2. When I got to the end, I added an eyelet row and 3 rows of moss stitch to stop it curling. The result is, I’m sure you’ll agree, much improved!

I worked the nupps using the crochet hook method, and they don’t stand out very well, but that might be partly because of the vibrant colours in the yarn. The only other thing I’d change would be to use a smaller needle. The pattern called for 5mm, and I used 4.5, but with my loose tension that was still too much for laceweight, really. Luckily it’s a heavy laceweight, bordering on fingering weight, so it doesn’t look too bad. I think a 4 or even a 3.5 would have been better, though.

Still, I am very pleased with it!

(And yes, that is my Baby Cables sweater making an appearance yet again. I do own other sweaters, honest! It’s just this one is warm and soft and perfect for allotmenting, which is what I did after these photos were taken!)

Read Full Post »

Spring FOs

Last summer, when I was in Kenya, I cast on for a Whispy Cardi in Posh Yarn Sylvia. I’d been meaning to knit one of Hannah Fettig’s laceweight cardigans for ages, and when she re-released Whisper (from Interweave Knits) as the Whispy Cardi I bought the pattern.

I knit most of the shrug portion when I was in Kenya, and then abandoned it to hibernation as soon as I got back. In January, when I was packing for Nepal, I picked it up as ideal travel knitting (only 100g towards your luggage allowance for a whole cardigan’s worth of knitting!). I knit in Nepal, and continued when I got home. For a while I thought it was going to turn out far too big, but when I added the ribbing round the collar and waist (and how tedious that amount of K1, P1 rib was!) it really stabilised it. I’m very pleased with the final article, although I would have preferred the sleeves to be longer.

In fact, that’s my only peeve with the pattern. The pattern photos show a cardigan with 3/4 length sleeves, but according to the schematic I should have been knitting sleeves 9″ long. There’s no way 9″ comes anywhere near my elbow, let alone past it! I added an inch or so to the sleeves, but I didn’t dare make them longer as the sleeves are the first part that’s knit and I didn’t want to run out of yarn. As it was I had plenty of yarn left, but no easy way to lengthen the sleeves, as they’d been seamed and one was the cast-on edge. Still, I’m pretty happy with it. But if I were to knit it again, I’d make the sleeves longer.

Notice the skirt?

It’s from a Clothkits kit that I bought in a sale a while ago. I don’t think they sell it any more. In comparison to my Birdie skirt, which took me the better part of 2 years on and off (mostly off), I whipped this one up in about 5 hours total over two days. I’m really pleased with it, although it is a bit big. Despite me cutting out the size 10 and measuring the seam allowances carefully, it’s the same size as my size 12 Monsoon skirt! Still, it’s an A-line skirt, so it’s pretty forgiving.

One other detail from the above photos: the necklace was made by the wonderful Helen from her handmade ceramic beads. Check out her site – as well as jewellery she makes lovely leaf-shaped buttons!

Last, but not least, I’ve been working on a crochet kit that my good friend Tor bought me for my birthday last year. The result:

It was a good bit of crochet practice, and I learnt to crochet rings into the bargain. Aren’t they cute? I think I feel a crochet Cthulhu coming on at some point…

Read Full Post »

Winter accessories

I went into McAree’s yesterday and immediately got told off by Cayt for not blogging enough. In my defence, I had been meaning to blog for ages, and had been saving up photos. But circumstances (and life in general) kept conspiring against me – I’ve just bought a new Mac, which I adore greatly, but it’s taken a while to figure out how to use iPhoto (can I just say it is my new favourite thing? It reads the RAW files straight off my camera, edits them in quite sophisticated ways, and uploads them as Jpegs to Flickr, which it used to take three separate PC programmes to do!). And then I’ve had router issues which meant that photos wouldn’t upload.But enough excuses; on to the knitting!

A few weeks ago I was in Nepal on a teacher exchange thing. We were lucky enough to get back to Kathmandu with a day to spare before our flight home, and we spent a really lovely day wandering around Kathmandu taking in the atmosphere and doing some shopping. I loved Kathmandu. It’s a fascinating city, incredibly busy and chaotic – to cross the road you have to dodge cars, motorbikes, cyclists and rickshaws – and I found the people to be really friendly. We were staying in Thamel, the most touristy district, and there were lots of shops selling pashminas, knock-off North Face gear, and various souvenirs including brightly coloured Nepali knitwear. My Dad had requested I bring him home a hat, so I ventured into one of the shops to purchase one.

I settled on a traditional Nepali hat in manly greys, and had a wonderful conversation with the owner of the shop about its construction. It was obviously handknit in the round, with a cosy fleece lining hand-sewn into it. I was wearing my much-loved Baby Cables sweater, and the shop owner said, “That’s not a Nepali sweater, is it?” Which led to a conversation about Scottish vs Nepali wool.

And here is the hat in question, which my Dad loved:

I had taken some crochet with me to amuse myself on our various flights (as well as my Kindle, which was fantastic). I decided to make a Calm Cowl, as it seemed relatively straightforward. An over-enthusiastic security lady at Kathmandu airport nearly confiscated it when I was on my way home, as she thought I might strangle someone with the yarn. I don’t think she’d ever seen crochet before, and she wasn’t bothered about the hooks, or even the safety pins I’d mistakenly left in my bag. My yarn and measuring tape, though, were apparently deadly weapons. Eventually, after some discussion, another security lady gave them back to me and I stuffed them back in my bag and scurried away gratefully.

I did get the cowl finished on the plane, and I’m really happy with it:

In the last couple of months I’ve finished off a few other winter accessories. I made a hat for my Mum:

It’s the Sprouting Cloche had from Brave New Knits. I was ill a couple of days after getting back from Nepal and fit for nothing but sitting on the sofa knitting, so I got this finished pretty quickly. The last few rows of the chart are wrong, and the final stitch count is off, but it’s fairly easy to “read” your knitting and work out you should be doing by that point. I sent it off to Mum along with Dad’s Nepali hat and she was really pleased with it. It’s made from Rico Baby, which is 100% acrylic. I’d never normally touch 100% acrylic, but Mum finds animal fibres scratchy, and this particular yarn is very soft. Definitely one to remember for future gifts.

After repairing Chris’s Manly Gloves (or, as friends have nicknamed them, his Fagin Gloves) at least 3 times, I decided it was time for a new pair.

These are the best ones I’ve made yet, in terms of fit. Good old Felted Tweed, and this time I went down to a 2.75mm needle for a nice, dense fabric.

And finally, possibly my greatest knitting achievement to date! Yes, I have finally made a beret that fits.

It’s my second Rose Red beret, this time in Shilasdair Luxury DK to match my Hawthorne scarf. I foolishly didn’t write down what needle size I used, but I think it was something in the region of 3.5mm. Definitely much smaller than my previous Rose Red, which I knit in Fyberspates Scrumptious on 4mms and which turned out far too big.

And finally, while I was looking up at the sycamore tree that towers over our garden with great excitement – it has buds on it!! It must be spring!! – Chris snapped this picture:

3 FOs in one picture! Rose Red, Calm Cowl, and my beloved Baby Cables and Big Ones Too.

Read Full Post »

Actual knitting content

I thought it was about time I did a proper post. It’s been a long time since I blogged about knitting, and I have several FOs that I’ve given away without photographing.

So…back in August I went to Knit Camp with some friends. We just went for the day, as it was only a few miles down the road, and I wasn’t involved in any of the drama that unfolded surrounding the event (and I feel very bad for those who were involved). We attended the Marketplace and had a very pleasant day mooching around and meeting people. My red Liesl was much admired (including by Debbie Stoller – who I didn’t recognise! Oops!) and I bumped into Katherine, which was great, as I’d never met her in real life before.

I was relatively restrained in purchasing, but still managed to come away with some yarn and buttons:

It’s “Liquorice” from Ba T’at Yarns. I have vague plans for it, possibly involving Travelling Woman.

And the buttons:

Big Five buttons! (Yes, I will finish the Kenya photos eventually. I promise).

Gorgeous, lightweight coconut shell buttons.

It’s been very, very cold in Scotland for about three weeks. We still haven’t lost all the snow that fell on the last weekend of November (although most of it is solid ice by now), and more fell today. I’ve been making the most of some of my recent FOs:

Socks in Kaffe Fassett Regia 4-ply. I wanted to make them as long as possible, so I knit them toe-up. I used Judy’s Magic Cast on, knit them in plain stocking stitch over 60 stitches, worked a short row heel and finished with Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off.

Dashing mitts in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran that I recycled from my Gretel beret. It had never really fit me, it was a bit too small, and I didn’t wear it last winter at all, so I frogged it and repurposed it. These mitts have probably had more wear in the last 3 weeks than the beret did in the whole time I had it.

I have another post brewing, but I think this one’s long enough for now. I’ll leave you with this picture of some FOs, old and new, put to good use:

 

Read Full Post »

Another Liesl

I have a lot to blog about, particularly our holiday in Kenya (I’m still in the throes of processing the photos, but there WILL be bloggage soon!) and running, of course. In fact, I ran 17.2 miles this morning and as a result am now fit for nothing but sitting on the sofa eating biscuits! Well, actually if I want biscuits I will have to walk the short distance to the High Street to get them, and then I will probably go and sit in the garden for a bit to eat them!

There is ongoing crafty progress, too; my Kenya knitting was a Whispy Cardi, which is perhaps half done (although at this rate it won’t be finished in time to wear it this summer!), and I have also learnt to crochet. Well, learnt enough to get me halfway through a Tiramisu Baby Blanket for a friend whose baby is due very soon.

But I do actually have one finished project to show you. When I abandoned my plans to knit Manu in red Cashcotton in favour of Felted Tweed, that freed up rather a lot of gorgeous, soft, bright red DK (albeit DK that knits up to a worsted-like gauge – at least with my tension!). So I whipped up a quick summer cardigan with less than half of it:

Yes, it’s my second Liesl cardigan (and yet another Ysolda knit!). I can’t remember exactly how many balls of Cashcotton it took, and I can’t check as we have been cleaning the carpets, so the house is in complete disarray and I’m not sure where my stash is currently located! I cast on with 8mm needles (as my previous Liesl tends to ride up and be too tight round the neck). I then knit it on 6mm needles and knit the next size up, as it’s a lighter yarn than the pattern calls for. It fits perfectly with just enough negative ease to open up the lace and not gape at the back:

I like the way the negative ease means it’s actually a bit fitted round the waist, despite having no shaping. The only problem was that three buttons was not enough – the front gaped open between the buttons in a very unsightly way. And the buttonholes were a bit too big for the buttons, as well. So I reinforced the existing buttonholes using buttonhole stitch, and then created three more but just forcing a gap (using the tip of a finger!) between two of the stitches on the buttonhole band and sewing around the gap with buttonhole stitch. Because the gauge for this pattern is loose and the buttons are small, it worked well.

I’ve worn it so much since blocking it that I think it needs another wash already – particularly since it met a couple of very friendly cats!

Yes, some of those long, soft fibres are not angora!

In short, I love the yarn, love the cardigan – complete success!

Read Full Post »

At last: Manu!

After all the problems with gauge, changing my yarn choice and swatching like mad, I have finally finished Manu.

I ended up knitting it in Felted Tweed, which was ideal. It has the fuzziness and drape that the pattern calls for, but is sufficiently fine that I could get gauge after a fashion – I ended up knitting the XS size and it turned out about right after blocking.

Check out those pleats:

I made the pleats roughly symmetrical – there were 23 pleats on the size I made, so I worked 12 in one direction and 11 in the other. It doesn’t look too noticeable that the changeover isn’t right in the middle:

I ended up using part of an extra ball of yarn, because I had to make the sleeves quite a bit longer than the pattern said. I love the effect of the sleeves puffing out around the wrists. And I love the pleats. I can’t quite make up my mind about the pockets – they’re not terribly flattering for my shape, and they are very baggy. I’ve also noticed that one is slightly longer than the other! I will probably go back and fix that at some point. But for now I’m wearing it proudly!

Read Full Post »

Babies everywhere!

It was a bit scary when my friends started having babies. But some of them are now on their second baby! My friend J gave birth to her second daughter on 2nd May. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks working on some gifts for baby Isabel, using some stash yarn that I chose because it was machine-washable. The colours are maybe not traditional baby colours, but I think they’re very funky.

This is the Garter Stitch Baby Kimono by Joji Locatelli, in Patons Diploma Gold 4-ply. I found the ladybird buttons in my local craft shop. I cast on according to the pattern, but then realised that my cast-on edge was too tight. So I carefully snipped a stitch a row or two above the cast-on, unravelled the row and put the resulting live stitches on some scrap yarn. Then, when I’d finished knitting the grey part, I knit an applied i-cord starting at the middle of the neck. When I got to the bottom of the cardigan I worked an i-cord bind-off, then continued the applied i-cord.

I had a bit of grey yarn left, so I made these:

They are Ysolda’s Tiny Shoes. The craft shop had run out of ladybird buttons so I got owls instead. I think my cast-on for the front of the shoes could have been better – I used a basic twisty M1 cast-on, and I think a cable or knitted on cast-on would have been neater.

Still, they’re all finished and posted off, and I’ve started the first sleeve of my Manu.

Read Full Post »

Easter holidays

I’m back to school tomorrow – probably minus a few colleagues and pupils who will be stuck on their holidays due to the volcanic ash! So I thought it was time to share my holiday crafting.

During the first few days I had a bit of a crafting marathon, and my main goal was to finish the Clothkits skirt I started, ahem, nearly two years ago. And I am delighted to report that it is, at last, finished!

Apologies for the lack of head in the photo. It wasn’t a very flattering picture! Finishing the skirt wasn’t that hard, after all – the side seams are a bit wonky, but a bit of judicious pressing took care of that. I’m particularly pleased with my hand-sewn blind hem. I’m now torn between ordering another Clothkits skirt, or making a trip through to Edinburgh or Glasgow to investigate proper patterns and fabric at John Lewis. Incidentally, that’s my Wicked sweater in the photo above – the sweater was originally knit to go with this skirt, but it’s been finished for so long it’s gone a big baggy and pilly in the meantime!

I have also resolved my Manu dilemma. I realised (with help from various commenters, thank you!) that I was never going to get a practical gauge with the Cashcotton. So I caved, went out and bought some Felted Tweed in a lovely pale green. And a 3mm needle gets me, after washing, a gauge that should work if I make the smallest size (why is my tension so loose? It’s crazy! But at least it’s consistent). And I’ve now finished the body and am about to cast on for the sleeves:

Quite a few people have commented on the 16.5 inches of plain stocking stitch, but I didn’t find it dull. I’ve recently discovered that I can quite happily knit garter or stocking stitch while reading (it has to be something that stays open by itself, but that makes newspapers and magazines quite handy) so I happily knit away while perusing the paper or watching TV of an evening.

A few days ago I decided to wash some of my most-worn winter woollens, and I managed to prise Chris’s birdwatching gloves away from him for long enough to wash them too. I knit them for him in November 2008, and he has worn them almost constantly except for at the height of summer! And I realised that they were starting to fall apart:

The thumb and index finger on both gloves was coming apart. Upon closer inspection, it looked as if the yarn had quite simply worn out from heavy use – the strands were weak, and broke easily, and it looked as if the cast-on edge had just worn away. So I decided to fix them. Luckily, my refusal to throw away any yarn meant that I still had a tiny ball of leftover Felted Tweed from when I made them in the first place.

I snipped one of the stitches a row or two beneath the worn part of each thumb/finger. I carefully unpicked that strand, effectively “unzipping” the top few rows from the rest of the glove. I picked up the resulting stitches onto a magic loop, and knit up until the digit was back to its original length.

Ta da!

Observant readers will notice that the thumb and forefinger don’t exactly match the original fingers. This is because the gloves were knitted fingers-down, while the repairs were knitted glove-up (if you see what I mean). So the new cast-off edge doesn’t match the original cast-on edges. I did try Elizabeth Zimmerman’s “cast-on cast-off” from the Knitter’s Almanac, but I think I did it wrong or maybe didn’t pull it tight enough, because it looked a bit weird.

I’m quite proud of myself nevertheless and Chris is pleased to have a new lease of life for his gloves!

Read Full Post »

Another FO, and a challenge

After I finished my yellow Ishbel shawl, I still had something like two-thirds of the skein (Posh Yarn Sylvia in “Wheatfield”) left. So I decided to make a lacy pair of gloves to go with it. The pattern choice was a no-brainer – Ysolda’s Veyla pattern, which I’d already made once (and worn all winter). As the yarn was laceweight, I used two strands held together. I also beaded the lace pattern using the amber-coloured beads I’d also used for Ishbel. A few days ago I finally got round to sewing on the buttons and blocking them, and here they are:

The colour doesn’t make them the most practical gloves, but they’ll be great once the spring weather gets going properly (it’s been raining for two days solid here!).

Now, I have a challenge, and I could use any advice that might help! For ages I’ve been eagerly awaiting Kate Davies’ Manu cardigan pattern. I bought some gorgeous, soft, fluffy RYC Cashcotton from Cucumberpatch in the “Red pepper” colourway:

I refused to let myself start on Manu until I had finished Morning Echo, but as soon as the buttons were sewn onto the latter I grabbed my needles and got swatching.

And…my loose gauge strikes again. The gauge given by the pattern is 6 st and 8 rows per inch on 3.75mm needles. I didn’t even bother with the 3.75mm needles, because I always have to go down a couple of needle sizes. And I swatched. And swatched. And swatched. And eventually gave up when I got down to 2.5mm needles, because it was getting ridiculous.

The upshot: the best I can do is 5 st per inch on 2.5mm needles. No way am I getting down to 6 st. And my maths tells me that even if I make the XS size, at that gauge it’s still going to come out too big for me.

Option 1: Make something else out of the Cashcotton, and either forget about Manu for now or make it out of a different yarn. Thanks to the wonders of Ravelry, I was able to search for patterns in my gauge tagged with “sweater” or “cardigan” and the following candidates for a Manu-alternative stood out: The Tea Leaves Cardigan from Madelinetosh, Flair from Knit and Tonic, the Honey Cardigan (probably the front-runner for me), the Minimalist Cardigan from Interweave (scroll down) or Siena from Yarn Forward (Ravelry link).

If I were to make Manu in a different yarn, I initially thought I’d just make it out of Cashcotton 4-ply. Probably not in red, but I quite fancy it in a nice dark green (much like Kate’s original one). But the 4-ply doesn’t seem to come in any colours that fit the bill. And I don’t know of any other drapey, fluffy yarns that might work. There’s DKs such as Shilasdair, Felted Tweed, etc – but there’s no guarantee I’d get gauge with them either!

Option 2: Do some serious fiddling about with the pattern and try to work out how to knit a non-existent size XXS, which will hopefully then come out the right size for me with my 5 st per in gauge (this would mean knitting an entire cardigan on 2.5mm needles, but I think I love the combination of pattern and yarn enough to do this!).

So I’ve gone through the pattern and worked out the measurements at every stage up to the yoke for my ideal size at the correct gauge. Then I worked out how many stitches I would need to get those measurements at my actual gauge. In theory, that only leaves the problem of working out how to do the short-row shaping on the yoke, which I’ll tackle when I get there.

Decision time…While I think the Honey Cardigan would look lovely in my yarn, I love the Manu pattern. I love the Cashcotton. I think I know enough about sweater construction to make the pattern and yarn work together at my gauge. I think I’m more-or-less decided to try to give it a go (2.5mm needles! Eek!). But any advice or thoughts at all are most welcome!

Read Full Post »

At last, Morning Echo!

Remember this?

Jaeger Extra Fine Merino in “Peacock”, which I bought…well, quite some time ago, just after it was discontinued. It’s been lurking in my stash for ages, waiting for the perfect pattern to turn up.

I finally settled on the Morning Echo cardigan from Yarn Forward magazine, and started swatching a couple of months ago.

Problem No. 1: I just couldn’t get gauge. Even though the pattern is written for Rowan Calmer DK, the suggested gauge is 26 st, and I couldn’t even get that on 3mm needles (which gave a very stiff fabric that I didn’t like). So I settled on 3.25mm needles for a more drapey fabric, with a gauge of 24 st, and cast on for the next size down. I substituted the yarn-over buttonholes in the pattern for sturdier 3-stitch, one-row buttonholes.

Problem No. 2: My row gauge was also off, meaning if I worked the body shaping as instructed by the pattern the body would have been too long – the design of the cardigan is relatively cropped, and that’s what I wanted. So I missed out one of the decreases and one of the increases, making the shaping more gentle and making the body come out at the right length.

Problem No. 3: From the underarm up, the pattern is written in pieces – two fronts, a back, and sleeves knit flat and seamed. I decided to knit it all in one piece, and knit two sleeves in the round with no problems, increasing every 2.5 inches until I had the right number of stitches. Then I realised that I had no idea how many stitches to hold for the underarms. Fortunately, a friend had a copy of Knitting Without Tears, which soon set me right (8% of the body stitches – which worked out as about 14 stitches)*.

Problem No. 4: Stems from Problem No. 2, namely, my too-large row gauge. The raglan decreases in the original pattern weren’t standard, even decreases (ie, decreasing equally from the body and sleeve every other row). After a lot of maths, I realised that there was no way I could work the decreases as specified in the pattern and not end up with an armhole that was about 8 inches deep! So I gave up on knitting a raglan and returned to Knitting Without Tears. With Elizabeth Zimmerman’s help I converted it to a yoked cardigan.

Problem No. 5: I knit the neckband as instructed in the pattern, and sewed it to the bound-off neckline. I don’t think there was anything wrong with my seaming, but it looked awful. The seam created a ridge between the stocking stitch and the lace pattern where there hadn’t been one anywhere else in the cardigan. In addition, the yoke was too long and the neckline was way too high (halfway up my neck!). So I ripped it back, made the yoke a couple of inches shorter, and knitted on the neckband to the live neck stitches after the last yoke decrease row. On one side I attached the neckband by working P2tog on the wrong side to join the last stitch of the neckband to the body. On the other side I continued working SSK on the right side as I had been doing all along to shape the v-neck. Then I grafted the two ends together (again using Knitting Without Tears – with help from EZ I was able to graft the first bit in garter stitch to match the buttonband, and the second bit in stocking stitch).

Voila, an entirely seamless cardigan!

The buttons were from John Lewis, and I think they finish it off beautifully. I haven’t blocked it yet because I can’t bear to take it off! In an ideal world there are still a couple of changes I would make. I would ensure the graft at the back of the neck was squarely in the middle, because I didn’t measure properly and it’s slightly off-centre. I think I could also have stood to start the yoke decreases a little earlier. But all things considered, I’m immensely pleased with it, and I’ve learnt such a lot about sweater construction while knitting it!

I do have another FO to blog, but I’m just going to go and revel in the glory of having finished this cardigan for a while first!

* Knitting Without Tears is a fabulously educational book and I can’t believe I’ve not read it until now. I promptly ordered my own copy. It’s full of fantastic information about knitwear construction, and there are so many useful little nuggest of wisdom. I think I’ll be using it a lot.

Read Full Post »