" title="Knit one, read two"> Knit one, read two

My Double Vision blanket, that is. Last time we saw it, it looked like this:

As of this morning, it now looks like this:

That is a whole 10% more completed, leaving just 40% to go.

I had written a whole paragraph here explaining all the reasons why I wasn’t enjoying knitting this but I’m pretty sure no one wants to listen to me moan.

I am determined to finish this blanket before the end of the year. I’ve already invested a reasonable amount of time and money in this project and I really want to be able to hang it on the wall. Also, according to my Ravelry notes, I cast on for this in January 2008; I really don’t want it to take more than two years!

..what it wants to be.

Some years ago, when they were fashionable, I knitted myself a poncho. I wore it quite a lot at the time but haven’t worn it in a while so decided to reclaim the yarn and knit something that would get more use.

I searched around for clothing patterns but didn’t have enough yarn to knit any of the jumpers that I liked and also wasn’t sure about wearing something knit from chunky yarn; I really don’t need any extra bulk! I had similar problems with the shawl patterns that I looked at.

Meanwhile, there was a little voice at the back of my head saying things like, ”What about a blanket? You quite liked the idea of a grown-up version of the teddy bear baby blanket.” For some reason, I was determined not to listen to the little voice though and, even having decided that I was going to make a blanket, I tried swatching for all sorts of other types of blankets; cables, lace, you name it, I tried it.

The little voice was becoming more insistent the more swatches that I ripped out: “What about the alternating stocking and reverse stocking squares? You really liked those.”

And, eventually, I succumbed and so was born the Sophisticated Squares blanket:

This is a really basic knit – alternating squares of stocking and reverse stocking stitch surrounded by a seed stitch border. The chunky yarn means that it is knitting up very, very quickly, even more quickly than the teddy bear baby blanket. And, most importantly of all, I love it. I plan to block it quite severely when it’s finished which means it should be a reasonable size and drape really nicely. I can’t wait!

This week my knitting has been all about instant gratification, which means I have two new finished projects to show.

I hid a pair of fingerless gloves  in Steven’s suitcase as an extra birthday present since he wasn’t at home for his birthday. These are another pair of Koigu Wristers, knitted in left over Cygnet Truly Wool Rich 4-ply.

Every time I knit this pattern, I modify it slightly but it is a good basic pattern. I just need to remember next time that they don’t magically knit themselves and while they are a quick knit, they are not instantaneous. This means that if I want to knit them as a gift, casting on more than 2 days before the deadline would be a good idea, particularly if the person they’re being knitted for lives with me!

I also knitted another version of my cafetière cosy since we broke the cafetière that the first one was knitted for and bought a different-sized replacement. 

The more I look at the photos, the less satisfied I am with this though. I think I want to re-knit it so that it covers the section above the handle and doesn’t come down quite as far at the bottom.

I have written up the pattern for the first version (shown below) so I might just go ahead and publish that. I was waiting until I had written up this version but since it’s going to be a completely different shape, I think it’s probably better to publish them separately.

Speaking of publishing, there has been one other instant gratification project designed and knitted over the last couple of weeks but I’ve decided that I’m going to brave my fear of rejection and submit it for publishing. Unfortunately, that means I’m not allowed to say anything more about it but you should be hearing more one way or the other by the end of the year!

So I didn’t actually do any quilting on holiday but I certainly learned a lot about how it’s done in Hawaii. As you might expect, quilting is a not a native craft in Hawaii but was imported by missionaries.

Despite huge amounts of temptation, I managed to restrain myself and came back with only two books on the subject. Unfortunately, I also managed to resist the urge to go into any of the many fabric shops we saw so I don’t have any beautiful Hawaiian fabrics to show you.

The first book is Hawaiian Quilts: Tradition and Transition. A bilingual (English and Japanese) book that was written to accompany a touring exhibition of vintage and modern Hawaiian quilts. It has a good description of the history and progression of quilting in Hawaii right up to the modern day but my favourite section  is the beautiful pictures of the quilts that formed the exhibition. Some of the vintage quilts can be seen online at the Bishop Museum website or there’s a glimpse of two of the modern ones below.

The second book is The Pillows to Patch Quilt Collection: The Hawaiian Way. It is a beautifully illustrated quilt pattern book full of quilt squares and applique patterns based on Hawaiian motifs. Other reviews say that the instructions are clear and easy to follow, even for beginners, but I will report back after my exams when I actually have time to try them.

The picture shows a section of the table of contents. I’m already enjoying planning a quilt with this book; I just hope making one is as much fun!

Two finished projects to show you today, one knitted, one sewn.

I finished the teddy bear baby blanket. I washed it but didn’t block it in any way, just hung it up and let it dry.  It was knitted in Sirdar Country Style DK, which is a machine-washable wool/acrylic blend because I don’t think the friend it is intended for is likely to be handwashing blankets after the baby is born. However, it washed very nicely and is now very soft and snuggly. I just loved this pattern; it was straightforward and quick to knit but the combination of stocking stitch and reverse stocking stitch is just so effective. The best part of this project is that the baby isn’t due for another 2 months so I can wrap this up and put it away until it is needed and I won’t need to subject myself to the usual frantic week or two of knitting that takes place just before or after the birth!

Second project was a roll/case for my KnitPicks interchangeable needle tips. Despite being only my second sewing project in about 16 years, i.e. since home economics classes in school, it’s entirely my own design. No pattern, no tutorial, just work out what needs to go where and try it and see what happens. This did, of course, result in the odd hiccup. For example, see the small loop of ribbon attached to the left-hand side of the roll in the bottom picture? It’s now a design feature (and I may even have come up with a use for it) but was originally supposed to be the ribbon for keeping it all together when rolled up. Unfortunately, my brain has yet come to grips with the inside-out back-to-front thinking that’s needed when sewing things up and then turning them right way out and the ribbon ended up beautifully sewn in between the lining and the cover.

I’m so pleased with the way this turned out in the end though. It takes all my tips, plus some crochet hooks and my sewing and needle gauges. The striped flap (shown lifted up in the picture) keeps everything from falling out no matter how thrown around the roll gets in my bag and everything is just so much better organised and easier to find than in the pouch that they came in. I’m considering making another one, incorporating the lessons learned from this one and some ideas I’ve had since and if I do, I’ll put up a tutorial on how I did it.

The more I use this striped fabric the more I love it; things made from it are just automatically appealing and make me smile when I see them. I’ve got some left which I might make into a holder for my interchangeable cables or a pouch for my stitch markers since there is nowhere for them go in here. Do I really want an entirely co-ordinating set of knitting project and notions bags though?

Where everything else covers hiking, eating, volcanoes and surfing.

These posts have turned out to be much harder to write than I thought they would so this is going to be a summary of the highlights or I’ll be here until next year!

Hiking

We managed quite a lot of hiking in our two weeks (even on days that had previously been planned as sitting on the beach days).

One of the highlights was hiking on Kauai from Ke’e Beach to Hanakapi’ai Beach and then inland to Hanakapi’ai Falls. It started with scenery like this:

and ended with an amazing swim under the falls themselves. This was our first full day on Kauai, our first ‘proper’ day of honeymoon and we spent the next two weeks saying “Can you believe we swam under a waterfall?”

Eating

We were mainly too busy/tired to worry about going anywhere particular fancy for eating but there are a couple of places that stood out.

Eggs ‘n Things in Honolulu: Brilliant American breakfasts, pancakes, waffles, omelettes and plenty of other stuff. Perfect either before or after a surf lesson at Waikiki beach.

3660 On The Rise in Honolulu: Hawaiian fusion of Western and Oriental cooking at its finest. We had a taster menu complete with accompanying wines and it was the best meal of the holiday, if not the year.

I should also mention Ken’s House of Pancakes and the Garden Snack Club in Hilo. Both were brilliant, in very different ways!

Volcanoes and lava

We spent a couple of days exploring the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and could have spent much longer if we had had the time.

 There was more hiking, this time down, across and back up a volcanic crater. The crater in the photo below is 2 miles across. To really appreciate the scale on this picture, take a look at the largest size that I uploaded to Flickr and see if you can spot the tiny little people.

We also did some volcano exploring outside of the park, including a lava tube cave (Steven included in picture for scale)

and a visit to see hot lava entering the ocean. This was fairly impressive even during daylight hours…

…but magical after sunset.

Surfing

There are deliberately no photographs of Steven and I surfing, despite the desperate efforts of the company we booked our lesson with to take some decent ones. We had our first (but definitely not last) lesson on our last full day in Hawaii and it was even more fun than we thought it was going to be. We weren’t brilliant but both managed to catch a couple of waves to the point of actually standing on the board. Now we just need to go back for long enough to learn to do it properly!

Because what I need right now, obviously, is another hobby.

It was my birthday at the end of August and I used my birthday money to buy the sewing machine that I’ve been craving for ages. Actually, I’ve been wanting a sewing machine since my last one broke, which was about 20 years ago now! (It was a toy machine but did actually sew things.)

And here it is:

It’s an Elna 2600 and I love it to pieces.  Especially since I’ve just completed my first project on it.

The project is a sock-knitting project bag. I don’t knit socks that often but I couldn’t resist Crazy Lanea’s tutorial and I’m glad I didn’t because the finished bag is one of the most adorable things I’ve seen.

The tutorial was really easy to follow and the whole project took less than 2.5 hours. I even made sure I matched up the stripes:

The ribbons are actually re-purposed hanging loops from a t-shirt. I cut them off because they kept showing when I wore the t-shirt and they turned out to be the perfect colour match for the fabric.

The fabric is all from IKEA. I picked up some bits and pieces when Steven and I were there earlier in the week.

The red and white stripe is called Sofia, the plain white is Lenda and the brown geometrical is Petronella. Between the three lots I ended up with 5.5m for less than £18. The red-and-white and plain white are for experimenting with, I’m going to try and make a more useful container for my interchangeable needle tips, and the brown geometrical is going to be covers for some seat pads for our dining chairs since it matches the fabric table runners that we already have.

Now I just need to work out how to fit in sewing time along side work, studying, knitting, crocheting…..

The weather has taken a turn towards Autumn around here this week and my knitting appears to be following suit.

My oldest friend is expecting a baby this November and since the bump’s grandmother and great-grandmother have already started on piles of shawls and jumpers, I thought I’d make a blanket.

The pattern is the Teddy Bear Baby Blanket and is free from Crystal Palace Yarns. The squares are clever combinations of stocking stitch and reverse stocking stitch to form the bears and the seed stitch border is perfect for pulling the whole thing together and stopping it curling.

It’s knitted with two strands of DK yarn held together which means that it is also a very quick knit. I cast this on over the weekend and am already two-thirds of the way through. I guess I’ll have plenty of time to knit something else for the baby before it arrives!

I also hereby declare my intention to finish my Double Vision blanket before the end of the year.

It is half complete and the strips get shorter and easier from here on in. Also, exam season is approaching rather quickly and I’m feeling the need of some relaxing brainless knitting. All I need to do is find where I “tidied” all the unused yarn to.

(For the record: I don’t really like puns but sometimes they get stuck in my head, particularly for blog titles, and I just have to let them out.)

I have two finished shawls to show off today. The first is the River that I knitted for my grandmother, being admirably modelled here by my wardrobe. I finished knitting this back in June (in time for her birthday) but was terrified of blocking the Kidsilk Haze so put off doing it until this weekend. In the end, I blocked it the same way I block everything else (soak in cold water and then pin out on towels) and it was fine. This really is a gorgeous shawl when it is finished and blocked and it was hard to part with. I have enough yarn to knit another one for me but the pattern is quite boring to knit and I don’t really like Kidsilk Haze so it might be a while before I get around to it.

I got a phone call from my Gran last night to say that the shawl had arrived and was “really lovely” so that made it all worthwhile!

 The other shawl is my finished Adamas, which was finished and blocked in record time because I was so keen to wear it. It was knitted using the Knit Picks Gloss Lace that I brought back from Hawaii. It turns out that this is a fantastic everyday laceweight yarn. It is 70% merino wool and 30% silk and I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t softer/silkier to the touch when knitting. However, it’s nice and soft to wear and unlike my silk lace shawls feels like it will stand up to some heavy wearing. (Ignore my strange wind-swept fringe in the photograph, I need to get my hair cut.)

This is my first triangular shawl and has completely cured me of my fear of looking like a little old lady when wearing them. I foresee many, many more in my future.