Ooh, two yarns to choose from the many I've used in the last 30 years. A bit of a tall order.
I've been thinking about this all day and it's now 11.43pm.
I think I've decided!
The first yarn I've chosen is Rowan's Designer DK, which (for reasons I'm still unable to fathom) Rowan discontinued several years ago. This was the yarn that got me into knitting. That and (I think) reading a magazine article about Kaffe Fassett opened a door to knitting that was previously closed to me. My yarn-shop experience was, prior to that, limited to what was available to me locally, and locally meant Dovercourt/Harwich. A seaside town approx eight miles from the village where we lived and where I went to school. I can't even remember which yarns it stocked, but I'm pretty sure it was of the Sirdar Country Style variety and the patterns I knitted from were those from Woman/Woman's Own/Woman's Weekly. The magazines my mother and grandmother bought every week. I remember that at college I knitted a tunic-style jumper that had a beige background, with intarsia roses on the front (I think I did the roses in a terracotta shade). Rowan DDK changed my perspective on knitting. The colours and just the feel of the yarn. It was so different from anything I'd used before and just going into Liberty or John Lewis in the West End of London, or Ries Wools of Holborn and seeing the vast array of colours available (the display of Rowan's lighter-weight DK which came in 25g skeins --- yumtastic!).
I made a couple of sweaters from Glorious Knitting. The Toothed Stripe sweater, in which I used DDK, the lighter-weight DK (I can't remember what it was called now - shame on me) plus other yarns, including some mohair, all in shades of blue, purple and pink - plum through to candy-floss. The other was the Peplum cardigan which I made for my Mum. Background stripes of burgundy-ish shades, with the burgundy DK Rowan Chenille for the flowers. I'm not sure if Mum wore the cardigan a great deal, but I know that she like it and appreciated the knitting that went into it.
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The second yarn is another I love, but for different reasons. This one is Unicorn yarn. Fingering weight. A mixture of baby llama, cashmere and silk. As well as being a divine yarn, it was part of a club and in a way gave me a real sense of the knitting community. Unicorn was a yarn from the Natural Dye Studio and Fyberspates and ran for 10 (or was it 9?) months in 2009. Each month, NDS and Fyberspates dyed up several colours each in Unicorn. Each month a purchase was made, the yarn was sent with an accompanying question for that month. At the end of the 'quest', answers to each question were sent back (the initial letters of each answer were an anagram of the fibre content of the yarn which was a mystery) and the prize for the winner was 1kg of Unicorn dyed in the colour/s the winner asked for. I didn't win (the questions were pretty hard), but, as I said before, there was a real sense of community as well as adding to stash a beautiful yarn and I don't think anyone begrudged the winner (it wasn't me!). I still have some Unicorn in stash, which I will use up in time, either for socks, a shawl or a scarf.
So, that's it. Two yarns I love/have loved.
I shall try to keep up with this blogathon... wish me luck! I'm off to remind myself what day 2 entails!
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Friday, 18 March 2011
It seems ages since I last finished something...
... but I have.
Yesterday, in fact, my 'February Lady Sweater' became wearable. I finished the knitting last week, but had to find buttons. The yarn is a magenta pucey purpley pink, mauve and light pink variegated, so finding buttons was not necessarily going to be an easy task. I took to ebay and found some 28mm plastic buttons which said they were 'pink'. I clicked to make the picture bigger and decided that the pink was too light; too baby-pinkish. I carried on looking and a page or so further on, saw the same buttons, but this time flagged as 'purple'. I clicked to make the picture bigger and decided that although they didn't look what I'd call a proper purple, they were quite a nice lilac and might do, so ordered them. At £1.94 for 10, including P&P, if they looked awful, it wasn't too much of a loss.
Anyhow, they arrived yesterday in the post and I opened the envelope wondering if they'd be a suitable colour and hoping that they would be.
I think the buttons work.
I'm pleased with the way this turned out and it's very comfortable to wear (naughty me - I haven't wet blocked it at all; I gave it a once-over with the iron this morning before I wore it to knitting group!).
Details:
Pattern: February Lady Sweater. Large size knitted on 4mm needles, omitting the lace pattern below the yoke.
Yarn: Fyberspates - heavy sock yarn really as the package said 350m per 100g. Bought on sale - 10 x 50g balls for £15 I think; a bargain! Eight balls used, so 100g left to make some socks.
In other knitterly news, the Burridge Lake Afghan is coming along, but still quite slowly. I'm nearly halfway through the third panel, so another 12 and a bit 16-row repeats. After that, it'll be time to sew the three panels together and knit the top and bottom border bits... but I'll talk about that another day.
Have a lovely weekend :)
Yesterday, in fact, my 'February Lady Sweater' became wearable. I finished the knitting last week, but had to find buttons. The yarn is a magenta pucey purpley pink, mauve and light pink variegated, so finding buttons was not necessarily going to be an easy task. I took to ebay and found some 28mm plastic buttons which said they were 'pink'. I clicked to make the picture bigger and decided that the pink was too light; too baby-pinkish. I carried on looking and a page or so further on, saw the same buttons, but this time flagged as 'purple'. I clicked to make the picture bigger and decided that although they didn't look what I'd call a proper purple, they were quite a nice lilac and might do, so ordered them. At £1.94 for 10, including P&P, if they looked awful, it wasn't too much of a loss.
Anyhow, they arrived yesterday in the post and I opened the envelope wondering if they'd be a suitable colour and hoping that they would be.
I'm pleased with the way this turned out and it's very comfortable to wear (naughty me - I haven't wet blocked it at all; I gave it a once-over with the iron this morning before I wore it to knitting group!).
Details:
Pattern: February Lady Sweater. Large size knitted on 4mm needles, omitting the lace pattern below the yoke.
Yarn: Fyberspates - heavy sock yarn really as the package said 350m per 100g. Bought on sale - 10 x 50g balls for £15 I think; a bargain! Eight balls used, so 100g left to make some socks.
In other knitterly news, the Burridge Lake Afghan is coming along, but still quite slowly. I'm nearly halfway through the third panel, so another 12 and a bit 16-row repeats. After that, it'll be time to sew the three panels together and knit the top and bottom border bits... but I'll talk about that another day.
Have a lovely weekend :)
Saturday, 19 February 2011
A Stash-Busting Hat
I came across a pattern the other day via Wendy Johnson's blog and liked the look of it. It's the Starving Artist hat by Laura Linneman as is knitted in chunky/bulky weight yarn. The pattern states US 10.5 needles, which is 6.5mm, but I decided to use 6mm instead to make it a bit smaller and so more child-sized. I had some Sirdar Click Chunky left over from making my Shalom cardigan last year, so cast on at knitting group yesterday morning and spent another hour and a half when I got home finishing it off, just in time to collect DD1 from school (not something I usually do, but she was hit on the nose by a hockey stick during a PE lesson on Weds and is a bit battered, bruised and feeling slightly fragile, hence me walking with her to and from school). Anyway, here are pics of the hat. Not particularly good photos as I couldn't think of anything to model it on (although thinking about it, a plate might have done.
Anyway, last Friday I stopped the car as I had my camera with me and took a photo of the view as I drive down the valley into Dedham. Pretty, isn't it. On the other side of the road are fields. Lots of fields! It's not a bad place to live!
I'll probably make another of these as I've got some chunky-weight handspun I made from some purple and gold merino yarn and then plied together and I think the simple ribbing of this pattern will work with the yarn. If I could find the notebook where I write down details of the yarn I've spun, I'd know if I've got enough. In any case, if I make this again, I'll make it a bit longer (I guesstimated this time round) before starting the decrease rounds.
On the subject of knitting groups, I go to two. On a Monday, I got to one in a village just outside Colchester, which is held in a local pub. On a Friday (although not every Friday - it depends on what I've got going on that week) I go to a group held in Dedham, a village a few miles from my house, which is (again) held in a pub!
Anyway, last Friday I stopped the car as I had my camera with me and took a photo of the view as I drive down the valley into Dedham. Pretty, isn't it. On the other side of the road are fields. Lots of fields! It's not a bad place to live!Anyway, it's back to knitting on the Burridge Lake Aran Afghan. I had a bit of a glitch with it the other day when I realised that I'd been a bit over-ambitious in trying to knit cables (following three separate charts) while watching TV and getting distracted by one husband, two children and two dogs and had made a mistake about 18 rows further back, which led to me firmly telling everyone that interruptions would NOT be appreciated while I ripped back and picked up the stitches again. I'm just about up to the point where I realised the mistake and after another eight rows, I'll be halfway through the centre panel (hurrah!). I'm trying to knit at least eight rows a day on this otherwise it'll get put back upstairs and forgotten about for another few months and I really do want to get this finished by the autumn.
That's about it really. Nothing of particular note, or excitement, except that I'm now counting down the days until we get our new car. We've currently got a silver Fiesta which is coming to the end of its lease (hubby's company has a very good car scheme which means we're able to change cars every couple of years) and on 10 March, we should take delivery of a shiny new white Nissan Juke. It's a car that, when I first saw it advertised on TV, I thought "I'd like one of those" and my lovely hubby ordered one, even though it's not really a manly type of car (but he has his Renault Kangoo van to drive anyway!). I went off with the girls a few Tuesdays ago to DD1's swimming lesson thinking that hubby was going to be ordering another Fiesta, but white and when we got home, he told me he'd changed his mind and ordered a Juke instead. It's moments like these that remind me why I married him!
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
WIP Show and Tell
I haven't got any new FOs to show off, but have been making progress on some of my WIPs.
My Burridge Lake Afghan is a real labour of... well, not love exactly, but definitely like. I think it's because it's such a big item to be making (about 2kg of yarn) and because it's heavily cabled, each patterned row needs attention and I also find that my hands get a bit achey after a while. I'm still plodding on with it though and it'll be worth the time and effort involved once it's finished (which will probably be in another year, as it's taken me nearly two years to get this far). I think if I keep it in sight, I'll knit on it more. The first panel's finished and I've done five of 16 repeats of the middle panel. Then, the another side panel's knitted, reversing the cables on the first one before the three strips are sewn together and a top and bottom border added (which I'm going to knit on rather than sew on).
The yarn for this is Paton's Diploma Aran in a natural beige colour and the cables are very crisp. What look like cotton wool balls in the background are, I'm afraid, the result of our 15 month old labrador (Jess) attacking her bed yet again and pulling out the stuffing.
Next up is the other blanket I'm making - my Granny Stripe one. I bought the 'Lucy' yarn pack of Stylecraft Special DK from Masons (very good service - I'll use them again) and then added one extra colour; a pale yellow. So far, I've done one colour repeat, plus a couple of rows and I'm really enjoying it. I've decided to repeat the colour sequence so I use up the colours evenly.
I also started a cardigan a couple of weeks ago. I wrote about the yarn that was misbehaving and pooling horribly. First off, I tried it with a plain cardigan from a pattern dating from the 1960s, but that didn't work out. Then, I thought I'd use the yarn to make a Tempest cardigan, but the yarn didn't want to be a Tempest and even though I alternated balls, it kept blobbing (that's the best word I can come up with for the effect). So, I went back to the February Lady Sweater pattern which I've used three times before, did some simple maths and worked out that using this yarn which is a heavy 4ply/light DK on 4mm needles, the directions for the largest size in the pattern would result in a cardigan to fit me (well, I hope so anyway). So far, I've done the garter stitch yoke, put the sleeve stitches on waste yarn and am now on the body. I'm not doing the lace pattern of the original cardigan, but am doing stocking stitch instead. A bit mindless, but good TV knitting. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to put buttons/buttonholes all the way down the front, or if I'm just going to have three on the yoke. When I get to the next buttonhole row I'll make a decision.
Finally, I've started another pair of plain socks. Patterned socks, especially lacy ones, aren't appealing to me at the moment. I've got a pair on the needles in a lovely pink yarn, but I keep passing them by. These spring-like socks are to my usual toe-up recipe and are in some Opal Rainforest yarn called Baronesse Bambolina. They're knitting up very prettily and the colours certainly brighten up these dreary February days.
So, that's it for now. I've also got my Kadril Orenberg lace scarf which I've put away for now until I can print out a better quality copy of the pattern as my printer was on its last legs when I first downloaded the pattern and the copy's a bit fuzzy and is difficult to read.
That's all for now. I suppose I'd better actually do some knitting or crocheting, rather than just typing about it!
My Burridge Lake Afghan is a real labour of... well, not love exactly, but definitely like. I think it's because it's such a big item to be making (about 2kg of yarn) and because it's heavily cabled, each patterned row needs attention and I also find that my hands get a bit achey after a while. I'm still plodding on with it though and it'll be worth the time and effort involved once it's finished (which will probably be in another year, as it's taken me nearly two years to get this far). I think if I keep it in sight, I'll knit on it more. The first panel's finished and I've done five of 16 repeats of the middle panel. Then, the another side panel's knitted, reversing the cables on the first one before the three strips are sewn together and a top and bottom border added (which I'm going to knit on rather than sew on).
So, that's it for now. I've also got my Kadril Orenberg lace scarf which I've put away for now until I can print out a better quality copy of the pattern as my printer was on its last legs when I first downloaded the pattern and the copy's a bit fuzzy and is difficult to read.
That's all for now. I suppose I'd better actually do some knitting or crocheting, rather than just typing about it!
Thursday, 3 February 2011
Yummy Sock Yarn.....
.... that's actually made it from skein to needles to being ready to keep my feet warm.
I admit that I'm guilty of hoarding nice sock yarn. I see a skein, think how lovely it looks, buy it and then put it away with the other skeins of lovely sock yarn and then, when it comes to knitting myself a pair of sock, often bypass the lovely stuff and go with something else such as Regia (which is nice, but not 'lovely' - I'm sure you know what I mean).
So, a sort-of resolution for 2011 is to knit up the yummy yarns as well as the workaday ones. I don't mind hand-washing socks as it doesn't take long. Just pop them in the sink with some warm water and some shampoo, swirl them about a bit then leave them for however long it takes to make and drink a cup of tea. Socks then out of the sink into the bathtub where they're rinsed using the shower attachment and then back into the sink which now has water and a blob of hair conditioner in it. Then it's the squeezing in a towel thing before the socks are hung over the slats that make up the bottom shelf of the airing cupboard where they quite happily dry out without further intervention from me. It sounds a bit of a faff when it's written down, but it's not really.
Anyway, having had four pairs of socks develop holes over the course of a fortnight, it was time to knit new socks for me, so I turned to the yummy yarn bag of yarn and first wound the skein of Outrageous sock yarn from Laughing Yaffle into a ball and away I went.
These were the result, finished a couple of weeks ago:
Then, I cast on with some sock yarn from Fyberspates and made these:
Both pairs are made using a 2mm metal KnitPro circular and are 64 stitches round as I find that makes a nice, firmish fabric that wears well. The Outrageous pair are slightly shorter in the leg than the Rhubarb pair.
Ooh, that reminds me. I don't know if anyone else out there does this, but I always keep track of how many rows I've knitted for the foot and then the leg so I can make each sock exactly the same and I also make the ribbing one quarter the number of rows that I've knitted for the leg. So, in the case of the Outrageous socks, that was 60 rounds for the leg and 15 rounds of ribbing and for the Rhubarb socks, 64 rounds for the leg and 16 rounds of ribbing. Others I know knit until they've got x inches or cms rather than counting rows. Maybe I'm odd!
Onto the next pair of socks now. I've got 2 balls of Nature Spun fingering yarn - one blue and one jade green - and I'm going to use the Ulmus shawl/stole pattern on the instep and legs. Just got to do a bit of maths and scribbling on paper to balance the pattern across the stitches.
In the meantime, there's always crocheting to be done on my Granny Stripe blanket (I'll post a picture once I've done one colour repeat) and the cardigan I'm making with the purpley-pink yarn that keeps misbehaving (that deserves a post all to itself!).
I admit that I'm guilty of hoarding nice sock yarn. I see a skein, think how lovely it looks, buy it and then put it away with the other skeins of lovely sock yarn and then, when it comes to knitting myself a pair of sock, often bypass the lovely stuff and go with something else such as Regia (which is nice, but not 'lovely' - I'm sure you know what I mean).
So, a sort-of resolution for 2011 is to knit up the yummy yarns as well as the workaday ones. I don't mind hand-washing socks as it doesn't take long. Just pop them in the sink with some warm water and some shampoo, swirl them about a bit then leave them for however long it takes to make and drink a cup of tea. Socks then out of the sink into the bathtub where they're rinsed using the shower attachment and then back into the sink which now has water and a blob of hair conditioner in it. Then it's the squeezing in a towel thing before the socks are hung over the slats that make up the bottom shelf of the airing cupboard where they quite happily dry out without further intervention from me. It sounds a bit of a faff when it's written down, but it's not really.
Anyway, having had four pairs of socks develop holes over the course of a fortnight, it was time to knit new socks for me, so I turned to the yummy yarn bag of yarn and first wound the skein of Outrageous sock yarn from Laughing Yaffle into a ball and away I went.
These were the result, finished a couple of weeks ago:
Both pairs are made using a 2mm metal KnitPro circular and are 64 stitches round as I find that makes a nice, firmish fabric that wears well. The Outrageous pair are slightly shorter in the leg than the Rhubarb pair.
Ooh, that reminds me. I don't know if anyone else out there does this, but I always keep track of how many rows I've knitted for the foot and then the leg so I can make each sock exactly the same and I also make the ribbing one quarter the number of rows that I've knitted for the leg. So, in the case of the Outrageous socks, that was 60 rounds for the leg and 15 rounds of ribbing and for the Rhubarb socks, 64 rounds for the leg and 16 rounds of ribbing. Others I know knit until they've got x inches or cms rather than counting rows. Maybe I'm odd!
Onto the next pair of socks now. I've got 2 balls of Nature Spun fingering yarn - one blue and one jade green - and I'm going to use the Ulmus shawl/stole pattern on the instep and legs. Just got to do a bit of maths and scribbling on paper to balance the pattern across the stitches.
In the meantime, there's always crocheting to be done on my Granny Stripe blanket (I'll post a picture once I've done one colour repeat) and the cardigan I'm making with the purpley-pink yarn that keeps misbehaving (that deserves a post all to itself!).
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
How Did That Happen?
I swatched on 3.25mm needles (KnitPro Harmony tips) and got 6 sts/inch
I swatched on 3.00mm needles (KnitPro Harmony tips) and got 6.5 sts/inch
So, I cast on for a cardigan using some heavy-ish (more sport-weight than 4-ply) yarn from Fyberspates, using 3mm needles for a moss stitch bottom band. From my 3.25mm swatch (the needles I was planning on using for the body), 253 stitches, take away 13 stitches for the overlap on a wide button band = 240 stitches, which equals a width around of 40", which gives me 2-3" ease around the bust (depending on hormone levels and what I've been eating/drinking).
So, how come, when I measured the bottom band of which I'd knitted 16 rows on 3.00mm needles (because, with my years of knitting experience, I expected the moss stitch to be more or less the same tension as stocking stitch on 3.25mm needles), it came out at 45 inches? I know that moss stitch (or seed stitch if you're in the US) can be a strange beast, but 5 inches bigger?
The yarn's now back in balls (and I've glared at it and had words with it, so it knows I'm displeased) and tomorrow I shall swatch it on 3.5mm and 3.75mm tips and see how it looks (I think 4mm will be a bit too floppy), before doing some maths to work out which size from my basic "school cardigan" Sirdar pattern I should use (it really is a school cardigan pattern - I've used it several times for DD1).
I've also got to decide if I'm going to live with button and buttonhole bands striping obviously (the yarn's variegated and I'm going to alternate balls every couple of rows) or use dpns in a smaller size and knit them as I go.
Did someone say that knitting's a relaxing hobby?
I'm now going to do a bit more of my Granny Stripe crochet blanket. At least I know where I am with that.
I swatched on 3.00mm needles (KnitPro Harmony tips) and got 6.5 sts/inch
So, I cast on for a cardigan using some heavy-ish (more sport-weight than 4-ply) yarn from Fyberspates, using 3mm needles for a moss stitch bottom band. From my 3.25mm swatch (the needles I was planning on using for the body), 253 stitches, take away 13 stitches for the overlap on a wide button band = 240 stitches, which equals a width around of 40", which gives me 2-3" ease around the bust (depending on hormone levels and what I've been eating/drinking).
So, how come, when I measured the bottom band of which I'd knitted 16 rows on 3.00mm needles (because, with my years of knitting experience, I expected the moss stitch to be more or less the same tension as stocking stitch on 3.25mm needles), it came out at 45 inches? I know that moss stitch (or seed stitch if you're in the US) can be a strange beast, but 5 inches bigger?
The yarn's now back in balls (and I've glared at it and had words with it, so it knows I'm displeased) and tomorrow I shall swatch it on 3.5mm and 3.75mm tips and see how it looks (I think 4mm will be a bit too floppy), before doing some maths to work out which size from my basic "school cardigan" Sirdar pattern I should use (it really is a school cardigan pattern - I've used it several times for DD1).
I've also got to decide if I'm going to live with button and buttonhole bands striping obviously (the yarn's variegated and I'm going to alternate balls every couple of rows) or use dpns in a smaller size and knit them as I go.
Did someone say that knitting's a relaxing hobby?
I'm now going to do a bit more of my Granny Stripe crochet blanket. At least I know where I am with that.
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Volna - finished and blocked
I think I mentioned that the PDC darts championship had allowed me lots of evening knitting time while hubby gave all his attention to the 'sport' on TV. Well, last week, once the girls were back at school, I left Volna soaking in the upstairs sink while I got on with some Things That Must Be Done Every Day such as dealing with the dishwasher and putting a load of laundry in the washing machine, then did the wrapping in a towel then stamping on it thing before sorting out my foam alphabet mats and about a bazillion pins and started blocking.
I've always had a slightly lackadaisical attitude to blocking and have often got to the point where I've thought "that'll do" and left the shawl or scarf to dry. This time though, I was determined that special yarn + special pattern = careful blocking. So, I first pinned out my tape measure and then lay the damp scarf next to it. Each point of the scarf was pinned out 2cm away from the previous one. Once one side was done, I stretched the scarf widthways until I was happy with how it looked, then pinned out the tape measure again, making sure it was parallel to the other side and then did the same one point every 2cm before dealing with the ends, which are slanted. I'm very pleased with this. So pleased, in fact, that I don't want to wear it in case I spoil it (I broke my Summer Sampler Stole by catching it on the zip of my work jacket, so now it's got holes that aren't the result of yarn-overs).
Here it is
Here's a picture of my finished EZ percentage sweater as well. Colourway MC03, I wanted something very casual, so didn't put ribbing on the bottom, sleeve cuffs or neckline, but just let the fabric curl. I'm very pleased with this and have been wearing it a lot. It gets popped into the washing machine on a 30C or 40C low spin cycle and then laid out on a slatted shelf in the airing cupboard to dry overnight. It could probably be tumble dried on a lower heat setting, but I think it would get static!
I'm now knitting a pair of socks using some black-with-magenta-splashes yarn from Laughing Yaffle which I've had in my stash for about 18 months (possibly longer). Loving the yarn, which is quite high twist. I was going to cast on for something else, but then got holes in two pairs of my hand-knit socks, so needs must and all that.
Until next time, take care and happy knitting :)
I've always had a slightly lackadaisical attitude to blocking and have often got to the point where I've thought "that'll do" and left the shawl or scarf to dry. This time though, I was determined that special yarn + special pattern = careful blocking. So, I first pinned out my tape measure and then lay the damp scarf next to it. Each point of the scarf was pinned out 2cm away from the previous one. Once one side was done, I stretched the scarf widthways until I was happy with how it looked, then pinned out the tape measure again, making sure it was parallel to the other side and then did the same one point every 2cm before dealing with the ends, which are slanted. I'm very pleased with this. So pleased, in fact, that I don't want to wear it in case I spoil it (I broke my Summer Sampler Stole by catching it on the zip of my work jacket, so now it's got holes that aren't the result of yarn-overs).
Here it is
I'm now knitting a pair of socks using some black-with-magenta-splashes yarn from Laughing Yaffle which I've had in my stash for about 18 months (possibly longer). Loving the yarn, which is quite high twist. I was going to cast on for something else, but then got holes in two pairs of my hand-knit socks, so needs must and all that.
Until next time, take care and happy knitting :)
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