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:

 

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Spring is in the air!

I’m hard at work on a cardigan at the moment – Morning Echo from Yarn Forward magazine. I’m knitting it in some Jaeger Extra Fine Merino DK that’s been in my stash for ages. I’m not going to say any more about it just now, though, because what with various gauge issues and mods it’s worthy of a post of its own – when I finally finish it!

I did, however, get a quick FO fix with Woolly Wormhead’s Weekender Beret, also from Yarn Forward. On a trip to Edinburgh to hang out with a friend I bought a lovely green skein of Rowan Cocoon from John Lewis. I cast on for the hat mid-afternoon the following day, and finished it that same evening while watching the Winter Olympics Canada/US ice hockey final. It seemed very small at first, but the pattern was absolutely right about blocking it – a good wet block and drying it over a dinner plate made it fit almost perfectly. In fact, I think it’s the best fitting beret I’ve knit so far. Now, of course, I’m thinking of getting more Cocoon for a matching cowl…

I also got some new yarn a couple of weeks ago:

It’s Posh Yarn Sylvia in “Fierce”, and I’m vaguely planning a Whisper cardigan in it when the spring is a bit more advanced.

Speaking of which:

Spring is finally making an appearance in Scotland!

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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…

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New yarn, and a growing queue

My family were staying on in Scotland for a few days after the wedding, and requested a trip to Edinburgh. The city itself was hellish – so full of tourists you could barely move, and because I didn’t realise you had to book in advance we couldn’t get into any of the tourist attractions we wanted to see (although we did manage an open-top bus tour). By far the best part of the trip was a visit to K1, ostensibly to show it to my Aunt (who knits, cross-stitches and embroiders) but really for some sneaky stash-enhancement.

I’ve been wanting to make the Hap Blanket ever since Whimsical Little Knits was released, and moving into a 200-year-old cottage gave me the perfect excuse. In fact, Chris even gave me permission to buy the yarn from the joint account because the blanket will be for the living room! So I came away with this:

Four skeins of Artesano Aran in a sort of oatmealy colour, and one skein in red for the contrasting colour. I rarely knit patterns in exactly the colours shown in the pattern illustrations, but in this case the beige/red combination will match our living room perfectly.

I’d paid for the Artesano and was just mooching about waiting for my family to finish their coffees when my eye lit upon this:

It’s Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace in “Milky Chocolate”. My first thought was that a scarf in this would look fabulous with my cream trenchcoat. I love the subtlety of the colours – whatever I make with it, it will be extremely wearable. I’m still thinking of Muir, or a triangular shawl (such as Swallowtail) I could wear as a scarf, or maybe even one of those laceweight cardigans that everyone’s making at the moment.

Meanwhile, my highly knitworthy sister has requested a pair of Cairn mitts, and a sweater. I’ve never knit a sweater for anyone but me, but if anyone is due a sweater it’s Anna. She described what she wanted (fairly fitted, v-neck, long sleeves, ribbing) and I suggested the Cozy V-neck Pullover from Fitted Knits. She loved it, so now I’m on a quest for non-squeaky, machine-washable aran weight yarn that comes in a chocolate brown colour. If anyone has any suggestions for a yarn that’s available in the UK which would work, I’m all ears. I’m currently thinking of Patons Diploma Gold 4-ply or DK with two strands held double.

My queue is now getting out of control. I still haven’t finished Vivian. I’m currently re-working the ribbing on my honeymoon sweater (which is not going to be finished in time for the honeymoon!) and I still have the sleeves to do. I’ve got vague plans for an Ishbel in some of my stashed sock yarn. I’ve been meaning to try colourwork for ages, and I’ve got a few possible colourwork projects favourited on Ravelry. And now I desperately want to start knitting up my new yarn.

Now the Big Move and the wedding are over I need to schedule some serious knitting time!

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So many patterns, so little time

I’m about two-thirds of the way round the knitted border on Print O’ the Wave, and should have it finished in a week or two. But other projects are calling me. I realised while hill walking a few weeks ago that, while I have a trilby, a newsboy cap, and two knitted berets, I am severely lacking in sensible hats. So today I went to McAree’s in Stirling to buy some yarn to go with the leftover grey New Lanark wool from my Baby Cables and Big Ones too. As I am utterly incapable of using up leftovers I actually came away with two balls, having decided that the lovely soft Rowan didn’t go with the more textured New Lanark.

Look at the way the two colours go together! Isn’t it gorgeous? But what are they?

Rowan Tapestry and Rowan Pure Wool DK. I’ve admired Tapestry for ages, and this seemed like an ideal opportunity to play with it. I’m going to make Ysolda’s Cairn beanie and mitts. A couple of people on Ravelry have used Noro for the contrasting colour, and I like the way the colours change throughout the hat, so I’m hoping to get a similar, more subtle effect with the Tapestry. I  might well go back for more Tapestry at some point and make some kind of neckwarmer to go with them.

While I was in town I also picked up a copy of Yarn Forward magazine. I had previous only bought issue 3, which I picked up only for the Miss Potter mittens pattern (as I’d been searching for the perfect pattern for a pair of handwarmers for Helen for ages, and this was The One). The pattern was poorly edited and had a large error (although the mitts turned out really well after some trial-and-error), and after that I steered clear of the magazine. I wasn’t too enamoured of any of the patterns I saw in subsequent issues.

I am, however, very impressed with the current issue. Check out these gorgeous patterns:

Clockwise from top right: Siena, Salzburg Twisted Stitch Socks, Magda and Morning Echo. I don’t know which one to knit first! And I still have Print O’ the Wave, Vivian, wedding corsages and (now) Cairn to finish! Plus I want to design a wee lace shrug to use my recycled Louisa Harding Grace.

There was also an article on Norwegian purling, which looks intriguing. I knit Continental, so I’m an ideal candidate to learn the Norwegian purl technique. Might have to give it a whirl!

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Waves of silk

Remember this?

It’s the Knitwitches 2-ply silk that I bought at Woolfest last summer. It was going to be a Muir, but I never got any further than casting on. Something just wasn’t right. I’d always intended to make Muir in green, or a variegated green/brown yarn. After all, it’s a leaf lace pattern, so my logical brain told me it must be green. The Knitwitches stall didn’t have anything in that colour in silk, and I completely fell in love with this yarn – it’s full of rich shades of teal, with tiny splashes of purple.

So it’s been languishing in my stash for several months. Then I bought a purple wedding dress. And I thought, hey, that teal silk would make a fabulous stole to go with a purple silk dress. So the last few days I’ve been browsing patterns on Ravelry (as anyone who has me as a Ravelry friend will have noticed from the number of stole patterns I’ve been favouriting!). I had two criteria: it had to be a stole, rather than a triangular shawl, and it had to have a pattern that would work well with the rich teal colours.

I’ve discovered some truly gorgeous stole patterns. I still want to make Muir one day, but I’m also seriously tempted by Hanami and the Honeybee Stole. But for the teal silk, I decided that the pattern just had to have some sort of water or wave theme – after all, the colourway is aptly named “Lush Seas”. So eventually I settled on Eunny’s classic Print o’ the Wave. Aptly for a wedding in Scotland, it’s based on a traditional Shetland pattern. And the lace pattern repeat is significantly shorter than that for Muir, which should hopefully make it more manageable for me. After all, the only lace I’ve knitted before has been socks. I’m going to knit it all in one direction, as I don’t like the look of the graft up the middle. What’s wrong with a bit of asymmetry?

I’m itching to cast on, but I feel I should finish Vivian first. It’s been abandoned while I knitted a baby cardigan for my friend S (the cardi is very cute, and I will take photos when I have sewn on the buttons). I know that if I don’t finish Vivian now, the project will get abandoned all summer and I won’t have a clue what I’m doing when I pick it up again.

However, the wedding is in 4 months and I’m not sure I’ll be able to finish Print o’ the Wave in that time. Any of you more experienced lace knitters care to tell me whether that’s achievable or a completely bonkers deadline? I was also thinking of knitting wee roses as corsages, but I might not bother with that.

Now all I need to do is persuade my sister, who is going to be my Maid of Honour, that she would look fabulous in teal…

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More New Lanark

I loved the New Lanark wool I knit the Baby Cables sweater in so much that I ordered more for Vivian. Here it is:

It’s the aran weight pure wool in a heather mixture called “bramble”. It’s a dark red with blue flecks, and the colour in the photo above is fairly accurate (I spent a while playing around with the white balance while holding a ball of yarn next to my laptop screen for comparison!). I’m really looking forward to starting Vivian – I can’t wait to get this lovely stuff knitted up.

I’m about a third of the way through Rose Red now – the lace takes some concentration, but I haven’t made any completely disastrous mistakes. I just hope the size is right because I really don’t want to have to re-knit it!

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Christmas goodies

In addition to Custom Knits, I got another craft-related present for Christmas. My parents bought me this:

I haven’t used it yet – I’m a little scared of sewing – but I do have plans for new cushion covers, and I must finish that Clothkits skirt once the weather warms up (I have little motivation to make a white cotton skirt in the middle of winter!).  It didn’t come with a case, so Mum made the one you can see in the middle photo above. Now I must remember to give the Pfaff one that I barely used back to the Home Ec department at school!

I also received some money from my parents, so a couple of days ago when The Fella and I were in Edinburgh to meet friends for lunch I dragged him off to K1. It really is a wonderful little shop (and it was quite surreal to see some of Ysolda’s knitting on display, when I’m so familiar with her patterns and blog – in fact the lovely shop assistant and I were comparing our Ysolda geekiness – she was wearing a Coraline and I was wearing my Gretel). I was immediately drawn to this skein of utter gorgeousness:

This is Fyberspates Scrumptious in Purple. It is the most delectably soft yarn I have ever had the luck to fondle. I carried it around the shop petting it like a small animal (apparently this is a fairly common response). It’s 45% silk and 55% merino. It has an incredible sheen, as you’d expect with that amount of silk, and a slight fuzzy halo due to its extreme softness. It’s going to be a lace beret – possibly a Rose Red, or maybe a Porom.

I also came away with more purple goodness:

Two balls of Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed, to make a fitted Gretel for my parents’ elderly neighbour, Florence. She’s a wonderful old lady and we were comparing knitting over Christmas. She wears a lot of tams and berets, and Mum tells me that lavender is one of her favourite colours. She’s also a fibre snob after my own heart – she scorns acrylics in favour of real wool, and when I visited she was knitting a sweater in some amazing pink 100% alpaca that she’d found in a charity shop!

When I eventually dragged myself away from K1, my squishy purchases were placed, to my great delight, in this bag:

Appparently they’re made in India from recycled paper to raise money to look after street children.

I just wish I lived near enough to Edinburgh to make it to the Thursday knit nights! Maybe in the school holidays I might head over there occasionally…

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Future plans

I’ve now got the buttonband done on the Tangled Yoke; I picked up 130 stitches and it seems fine. Have to see what it looks like with buttons on it. Just the buttonhole band to do – I’ll need to refresh my memory of how to do one-row buttonholes. I picked up some cute brown buttons while visiting Alithea in Dundee today. There is a bit of puckering around the back below the cable – I’m not too worried about it but it would be nice to block it out. I’m not sure how to block a cardigan – I might have to investigate steam blocking (scary!).

I’m already looking ahead for my next project. Since The Fella left his first pair of manly gloves on the train I’ve been promising him a new pair. I’m pretty sure there will be a spare ball of Felted Tweed leftover from the Tangled Yoke cardigan, so I should make those first. Second, I’ve promised our lovely Canadian neighbour a simple, no-nonsense hat for snowboarding. The other day I made an order from New Lanark and bought this for the hat:

It’s their Donegal Silk Tweed aran in “Cobalt.”

Third, two of my friends are expecting their first baby (a boy) in a couple of weeks. I have some really lovely scraps of blue and purple sock yarn and DK in my stash, so I’m planning some baby socks and a hat.

So that’s three (well, four) small projects before I allow myself to start on my next sweater obsession (yeah, I’m all about the sweaters at the moment!):

1. Many Gloves Mark II
2. Snowboarding Hat
3. Baby Socks and Hat

I have more sweaters planned and more yarn to show you but I’ll leave it there for now! I think that’s quite enough knitting planned!

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Three Finished Objects in one afternoon

On Saturday it was rainy and grey, and I didn’t feel like doing much other than sitting around knitting and watching TV. And so it was that I managed to finish three things. Ok, I admit, two of them were simply a matter of sewing on buttons.

Clockwise from top left: Saartje’s booties, knit in the round using Fleegle’s mods. I used Natural Dye Studio Dazzle sock yarn left over from my Hedera socks. There’s still a tiny bit of yarn left, so I might make some mittens to go with the booties. Then we have two pictures of Five Fruits, in various colours of Knitpicks Swish DK. And finally a gooseberry hat in Swish DK left over from the sweater.

So what next? I had planned a Tangled Yoke in this gorgeous Felted Tweed that I got in the Get Knitted sale:

That’s still on the cards, and I’ve even swatched for it already (I get guage on my 3.5mm Knitpicks Options, so I don’t have to go back to using my stiff-cabled Boyes, yay!). But last week I went into town and saw this cardigan. It’s not at all the kind of thing I’d usually wear – I usually prefer more fitted styles, while this is more A-line, more of a swing cardigan. But I liked the look of it with the big chunky buttons and flared 3/4 length sleeves. It didn’t fit me, and it was made of acrylic. So I thought, I can knit something like that. Thanks to White Hart I was directed to Flair, and I have now bought the pattern and some lovely black Kid Classic to make it with.

My guage is a little tight, so I’m making the Small size, which is a couple of inches too big with the measurements given. Hopefully it’ll even itself out. I may have to go buy an extra ball of yarn so I can make really flared sleeves!

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