Saturday 4 November 2017

Fern + Feather

Back in June or July I was asked if I fancied test knitting a couple of Jenn Steingass's designs, this one and Treysta. I fancied knitting both thank you very much, so I ordered wool and cracked on with my Moder dy and then my wrist started hurting. I finished Treysta but didn't cast Fern + Feather on. I was a little sad about this but tendon care was definitely the order of the day.

I cast Fern + Feather on finally at the beginning of October, I can't remember why as I already had a couple of projects on my needles and I hate having more than 2 projects on the go... I think it was because I'd finished my Treysta dress and was so pleased with it that I wanted to crack on with this one!




I knit the top section as written up to the underarms when I started increasing my needle size every inch or so, from 4mm to 6mm. I then did subtle increases every 3", ribbing till my wool ran out and cast off all of the edges with my contrasting colour.
I don't know if Lett Lopi has got softer or if I've become desensitised to it but I find this lovely to wear, fuzzy, warm and soft in a woolly way. My sister commented that the wool ball felt like a Brillo pad! Desensitised then...


Even James said it was 'lovely and softie wool'.

Thursday 12 October 2017

Treysta


I finished my Treysta dress a couple of weeks ago! Hooray. It was a bit hard-going on my wrist, the yoke fabric was very dense with my yarn choice (Jamieson's Shetland Heather - aran weight). I switched to a larger needle size immediately after the yoke.
The pattern is by the lovely Jenn Steingass (Knitlovewool), a designer of wonderful decorative yoked jumpers inspired by nature.


Anyway, I did my photos just standing in the back doorway. Doorway pictures work for light and distance when I'm taking pictures on my own. I try to look at the camera but always end up either fixing it with a steely glare, a creepy smile or a world-weary tired look of defeat. So I look up at the sky or down at the ground and look a bit pretentious instead.



Treysta and the dress I copied the shaping from (Scatness Tunic by Kate Davies). Scatness is a cardigan pattern which I made into a dress, it's my most worn knit, I like its loose wearability and the fact that I can layer it over long-sleeved tops and tights.

Contrast colour to cast off, I stole this idea from Patricia of the Knitography vlogs on Youbute (p4chen on instagram), who did this with her Seachange pullover. Patricia also knit up a beautiful tunic dress earlier this year using that really popular floral yoked jumper from issue 2 of Laine magazine.. I can't remember its name. OK, googled it, it's Birkin, I like that name as it reminds me of the word 'berk', a fun British insult. Don't look up the origin of this now tame insult if you're easily offended.

Saturday 30 September 2017

Kildalton

I forgot to share my Kildalton cardigan! The pattern is by Kate Davies and I cast it on early in the year. It was a very impulsive cast on and contributed to making me very backed up with projects (I hate having too many projects on the needles), actually, I blame Inspired by Isaly! Not that it was all that bad, I got a lovely cardigan out of it, and a blanket... I love Kate's patterns.




The cables were tricky, I never really get along with cables, my brain doesn't seem to like them! I made so many mistakes and towards the end this was a real slog to work on. I found the cables quite hard on my wrist too. It's safe to say that I've been put off knitting cabled garments for a good number of years!

Moder dy

I finished my second Moder dy earlier this month. It turned out really beautifully, all knit using Life in the Long Grass yarns again, they work really well for projects like this. I am finding that I prefer my plainer woollen yarns for clothing but for shawls/blankets I love the hand-dyed speckled yarns.







I was able to block this one more aggressively than I did with my original, the fabric is extremely drapey and falls about my shoulders when I put it on. Of course, it's not mine, it was knit for my son because for the time being, he loves rainbow colours and sparkly things, also soft things. He liked my original blanket so much that I decided to make him one of his own.
The central square section is my favourite part of this version, I alternated strands of Chrysalis and Tangerine Dream (I used Tangerine Dream on its own for the edging), the Chyrsalis added a little extra warmth and yellow tones, it's absolutely beautiful.

I do plan to knit a third Moder dy next year (it makes a good Summer project).

Saturday 5 August 2017

Hap Blanket


I recently cast on Ysolda's lovely Hap Blanket pattern from her first pattern booklet, Whimsical Little Knits. I had just had a visit from a friend who lives far away and I wanted to make her something warm and snuggly because she is such a thoughtful friend and I neglect her! She likes a muted palette so I went for grey and a creamy white. The blanket knitted up so fast, especially fast as I stopped working on James's Moder dy while I had this one on the needles - you can see the Moder dy WIP in the above picture. The Moder dy is now my main focus as I'd like to have it finished before casting on my test knitting.


Lopi for a test knit, some Shetland Heather for a second test knit (both for the lovely Jenn of Lovewoolknits). The Noro is something I'm just mulling over, I'm not sure what to make with it but I'm thinking about a crocheted blanket.


I cast on the stunning House Dressing by Chantal Belisle after seeing it on the Fruity Knitting podcast - I'm using Shetland Spindrift and am really enjoying the knitting although there are a lot of long floats. This is my TV knitting and is a real treat to work on of an evening.
Anyway! Here is the finished hap blanket, steam blocked and already packaged up and posted off, I do hope she likes it.




I was planning on knitting the whole blanket in the edging colour (the light grey) but when my yarn it arrived I discovered that Deramores had the meterage listed incorrectly and that I hadn't enough at all. I decided to use some frogged Merino Aran (Hedgehog Fibres) which I held double. All the yarn quantities are on my Ravelry page here.

Friday 14 July 2017

Leitzel

Woohoo! I finished my Leitzel cardigan. This is a Twist Collective pattern and as always with Twist, you get a well laid out, easy to follow quality pattern. I'm very much in the mood for knitting useful and wearable garments/blankets (blankets are always useful in my house).







Looking through the Twist Collective pattern archive is very inspiring, there are so many quality designs in there. I remember stumbling across this pattern and wrinkling my forehead as I noted that it was only in a small number of queues (I found it a little sad). I suppose that especially now there are more patterns out there for knitters to choose from than in the early days of Ravelry and of Twist Collective when each new issue was majorly exciting.
I'm also thinking of the rise of hand dyed and speckled yarns and the type of patterns which best suit them (Stephen West for example), his patterns are just fun to knit, fun in terms of colour and fun in the creative way which he constructs a garment or shawl. It's really interesting to observe the big knitting trends, the wonderful small-scale publications (Making & PomPom for example), yarn companies and their own pattern collections, yarns and everything else besides (project bags and progress keepers...).
 
It can be hard not to get swept up in the excitement and enthusiasm of other knitters with certain patterns, I often make an impulsive pattern purchase and then realise then next day that I really won't wear or use the finished 'thing', so I return to whatever's already on my needles. The lower part of my Ravelry queue is always in flux.


Sunday 14 May 2017

Birlinn Blanket again

I finished it! I have about 5 WIPs at the moment and I'm not keen on multiple WIPs (I always say that!). Being a slow knitter I find they play on my mind and sort of slow me down, I find it difficult to focus if I've got 3 out at the same time. I've stashed the others away and made a plan to work on two at a time, although that plan was because of the Hygge CAL and really I'd prefer one at a time!




The Hygge CAL is nearly done now, I'm on week 13, nearly ready to block the shawl and then next week will give the lining instructions. So that will be another finished object and will reduce the WIPs further.


Next to finish will be my Kildalton cardigan, another Kate Davies pattern which I've shortened the body of so it sits at my waist. I'm planning on knitting cropped sleeves too. This one hasn't been hugely enjoyable to knit because I think I hate knitting cables! It's a beautiful design but it's been slow-going and fiddly for me. My brain doesn't seem to find cables easy (and these are simple ones), it's slow-going with me having to double and triple-check each set of cables. The yarn I'm knitting it in is gorgeous, a Blacker Yarns natural coloured Elegance DK held doubled with some Hedgehog Fibres speckled laceweight. Derading picking it up again but very much looking forward to wearing the finished cardigan!


Saturday 1 April 2017

Birlinn Blanket


The final pattern from the wonderful Inspired by Islay collection/club by Kate Davies was the Birlinn Blanket, a gorgeous modular blanket which Kate knit up in rainbow shades. Despite having many other projects on the go (including two from Inspired by Islay) I cast it on almost immediately. It is the most fun project to knit, each little square is both logical and enjoyable knitting. I hadn't any Buachaille in my stash but I keep a rolling sort of stash of Shetland Spindrift by Jamieson's so I was able to put together a selection of colours. Many of the colours in this blanket were originally purchased so I could knit Marie Wallin's Sage Tunic. I had to scrap that idea due to the charts, I find Marie's charts quite difficult to work from. It's great to have Spindrift in my stash though for any random cast-ons.




The pattern fits logically if spread over 4 dpns although many people are using two circulars to knit each square. I find circulars a bit whippy and annoying so I'll stick with the dpns.


I kept finding a little bowl of water leftover from the boys' bathtime, useful for soaking each square (when I was knocking out one a day!).



First 12 squares joined together. I'm very pleased with the fabric, it's light and warm and woolly. The Spindrift colours are just perfect, I'm a huge fan of Spindrift and really enjoy getting my shadecard out to plan new projects.

My joins are wonky but I'm not much of a perfectionist with my knitting so it's not a problem (although I know eagle-eyed fellow knitters will spot that issue). I loved joining the squares, I'd imagine it wouldn't be so pleasant if you weren't keen on picking up stitches. I never used to enjoy picking up stitches because I had never learnt how to do it correctly. I used to literally pick up loops of the already knit fabric in a haphazard sort of fashion. A couple of years ago I read something about picking up stitches on Kate Davies's blog and looked up how to do it correctly, it was a bit of a revelation and I enjoy picking up stitches now!


Thursday 23 March 2017

That colourwork cardigan

I always remember starting this cardigan with a slight mental grimace! It was Easter Sunday in 2015 and I was sitting in the lounge with the boys and Rich after a long solitary walk to the Butter Cross (a local possibly ancient site). I had walked alone as I was trying to lose a little weight and was doing a fast-paced 10,000 steps a day... I had my phone out and was on Instagram when a beautiful cardigan appeared in my feed. It was from Susan Crawford's knitting blog and she had seen it in an exhibition - the bog post is here - well, what a cardigan! I had the urge to go to my Jamieson's Spindrift breadbin and choose colours. I had everything in stock. Now what pattern to follow, what stitch counts?



I chose Ursula of course, it's colourwork, same sort of yarn weight and naturally, I'd start with a sleeve to be sure of my gauge (which doesn't seem to change much when I'm knitting with the Spindrift). Tubular cast on and I was off! Later that night I woke with a burning pain in my stomach, went downstairs to make a hot water bottle and then ended up being sick. The next day was truly awful, I hate sickness bugs! The whole family got it and so the cardigan always reminds me of the Easter vomiting bug.






It's Ravelled here, all the info you might need/want to know. It remains my most worn cardigan and it makes me smile every time I see it.

Fruity Knitting


I was recently asked if I would like to be on the Fruity Knitting podcast as one of their Knitters of the World. I had a think and then I decided to try as I really enjoy that segment of the podcast.

Filming my little part was so difficult, I'm not very good at that type of thing and have no idea how Andrea and Andrew do it. If you go back to the first episode Andrea is pretty perfect in that one too so perhaps it's something she has naturally (if that makes sens?). I forget what I'm saying halfway through a sentence and will gesticulate wildly at Rich (my partner) as if he will somehow manage to figure out what word I'm looking for.
My first run-through in front of the camera consisted of about half an hour of wasted attempts which were all deleted! I then got a good run but watched it back and realised that I was out of focus for the entire thing. The next run was in focus but once uploaded to the computer I saw that the footage was very grainy (my camera is over 10 years old). Scrap that!
Next I enlisted the help of Rich who set up the Go-Pro and then left me to it. I was fine until I picked up my colourwork cardigan (which I never blogged about but I will do after I post this!). As I was explaining the origins of said cardigan I suddenly froze up and couldn't think of a word to say. I just held the cardigan up silently for about 20 seconds before I frustratedly switched off the camera. I was a little flustered after that but got back into the flow and finished the video.

Andrea did a beautiful job editing my footage, I was so nervous to watch it and absolutely delighted with what she had done with it.
Fruity Knitting is quite a special podcast, it's very high quality, fun and informative and filled with genuinely interesting guests. Also, Andrea's knitting is extremely good, she makes things like intarsia look do-able and she's happy to share when things don't work out and show us her solutions.





I''ve had a rubbish couple of weeks with RSI in my right wrist. A combination of factors including two large-scale commissioned paintings, so it's not just knitting which is to blame.
Oliver is now at that delightful age (3) where tantrums seem to happen at the drop of a hat, and he's so heavy to lug away from a situation - he also does the 'go limp' thing which doesn't help. I remember James's tantrums, they were very different, same age, same pushing the boundaries, same noise level.. James just had different techniques! Ol will hit and bite... I'm hoping the worst of this will have passed by the time he starts nursery in September and the 'we do NOT bite/hit message will have well and truly sunk in!'.

I currently have 5 WIPs (and a dress that has been cut in half and needs ribbing to turn it into a cardigan/skirt), so 7 WIPs if I count the dress re-jig. This is about 4 too many for my liking! They're getting me down a little and I had planned on spending March finishing things but then the wrist pain hit and I knew I had to give it a rest. It's not been all bad news though, I hunted out some of my old jigsaws and have been enjoying working on those with James (who seems to have inherited my love of jigsaws to my mum's delight!).

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