Tag: knitting

One thing at a time …

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… is something I’ve never been particularly good at. But, I’ve finished one thing so that means I’m allowed to start another, right?

The finished thing is Gran’s Lace Ribbon Scarf, which is drying on the floor behind me as I type. I’m not sure it’s going to be dry enough to package up to be posted tomorrow but at least it’s knitted on time! I’ll take a better picture once it’s dry.

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The new thing is the Shetland Shorty from the latest issue of Knitty. I bought some Sirdar Just Bamboo yarn on clearance at Hobbycraft last week and have been hunting around for something to make with it.

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Although there are only 9 balls in the picture, I’ve actually got 12, four of each colour. The others were off being swatched when the photo was taken.

It’s far heavier than yarn suggested for the pattern so there’s going to be quite a lot of tweaking involved and I’m already thinking that I might lengthen the cardigan to suit me better but that’s all part of the fun!

And they’re off!

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The 2008 craft marathon is off to a flying start thanks to a bout of food-poisoning that has kept me at home for a few days.

The Lace Ribbon Scarf is coming along nicely, if slowly. Here it is, roughly pinned out to show off the lace.
Lace Ribbon Scarf

The scarf is currently about 18 inches long (unstretched) and has taken an entire ball of yarn. I am hoping 3 balls of the yarn will be enough since I really want to make something for me with the other balls. I had thought that I would use the rest of the yarn to make a second scarf for me but I am not sure that I will want to knit another one straightaway, although, it looks so pretty that I am sure I will make more eventually!

I’ve got a couple of the origami wreaths done for Christmas cards:
Origami Wreaths

These three only took a single evening to fold so I should be able to get the rest done in plenty of time for Christmas. I still need to practise varnishing them and attaching them to cards though.

Finally, the wedding table centrepieces are coming along. We bought a couple more vases and the proper paper arrived.

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There are currently 9 flowers folded in the left-hand vase in the picture, so nearly two centrepieces’ worth. Which reminds me, I really should check with the venue just how many tables there are going to be!

Creative overload

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2008 has been a busy year already and it does not look like it is going to get any less hectic with 2 professional exams and the wedding still to go. It also looks like being a busy year craft-wise.

Current projects include the knitted lace scarf for my Gran, my Double Vision blanket and the origami flowers for the wedding table centrepieces. So far, so good.

The list of projects currently under consideration runs a bit longer though. At the moment it stands as follows:

  • Wedding shawl for me
  • Wedding kilt hose for Steven
  • Presents for a friend’s baby due in November
  • Origami Christmas cards

Let’s deal with these in order:

The wedding shawl: despite the problems that I’m currently having with a simple lace scarf, part of me still thinks this is a good idea!

The kilt hose: do I really want to knit two gents’ knee-high socks? I love the thought of Steven wearing kilt hose that I’ve made him to the wedding, although I don’t know how he feels about it, but gents’ socks take a long time.

Baby knitting: unfortunately, I Knit had a special offer on a beautiful baby pattern book when I went to the knitting group last night. I’ve ordered a copy so haven’t had a chance to take a proper look and decide on particular patterns but from the quick look I had, I’m considering making a hat, jacket, blanket and bootees for the baby and a nursing shawl for mum. All of which would need to be finished the same week as the wedding shawl and kilt hose. I think this could be considered “too much stuff”.

Christmas cards: I love making my own Christmas cards. Christmas has become so commercial that I really like being able to send people something that I’ve genuinely put some thought and effort into. Last year was the first year for several years that I haven’t made my own cards, due to lack of time, and I wasn’t happy sending out bought cards. I bought an origami book recently that had a pretty modular origami wreath that my trial runs suggest would look great on the front of a card. I only have about 15 cards to make and the wreaths only require 20 separately folded modular sections each so that’s not that many, right?

Let’s have a look at the timeline:

Immediately – the lace scarf for my Gran has to be finished before the middle of June so doesn’t really impact on anything else.

Next 3 months – I’m studying and wedding-planning but should still have reasonable amounts of free time. I just need to juggle craft stuff with volunteering for DP.

August to mid-September – Exam season. All other bets are off but some mindless knitting will probably be a good thing. Unfortunately, all the knitting I’d like to do involves concentration.

Mid-September to mid-November – Run-up to the wedding. Any organising that hasn’t been done will need to be done now. Looking at my list of proposed projects, I’ll also be knitting till my fingers fall off!

Mid-November to start of December – Honeymoon! I’m pretty sure not much of anything will get done at this point.

December – Can I make my Christmas cards in the period between getting back from honeymoon and the last Christmas post? During which time, I’ll also be writing and sending wedding thank-you cards. Hmm, it seems unlikely.

So, in conclusion, I need to spend the next 3 months doing all the the things on my craft to-do list to be sure of getting them done in time and hope that I don’t come up with any new ideas over the rest of the year. It’ll be interesting to see how many things I actually manage to get done. Watch this space!

RIP Isabella

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I finally admitted that I just don’t want to knit a jumper from 4-ply yarn. Or, at least, I don’t want to knit a jumper from this 4-ply yarn:

The Yarn

So, I’ve frogged my Isabella and, instead, have cast on a Lace Ribbon Scarf. This is going to be a birthday present for my Gran. There aren’t many people who’d appreciate getting a scarf for their birthday in the middle of June but if anyone will, my Gran will. It’s supposed to be a fairly light-weight scarf anyway but given how easily she feels the cold, she might even prefer a heavier one!

The pattern seems simple to follow and I’m sure the fact that I’m making lots of mistakes already (6 rows in) is because it is past bedtime and not because the pattern is difficult. Pictures of completed scarves on Ravelry look really pretty so I’m hoping this will turn out well. If it does, I might make one for myself as well. After all, I do have a jumper’s worth of yarn to use up, now.

Book Review: Knitting Vintage Socks

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I recently bought Nancy Bush’s book, Knitting Vintage Socks. I was looking for good patterns for men’s socks and realised that several of the patterns I had added to my Ravelry queue were all in this same book. I decided that it was obviously my destiny to own this book and ordered it.

The book contains a selection of 19th century knitting patterns updated, where needed, for modern yarn, needles and jargon. There is a section on the history of the periodical that the patterns were originally published in and a section on how the author went about updating the patterns. Given my work with Project Gutenberg and, more especially, my interest in their Craft bookshelf, I found these sections just as interesting as the patterns themselves.

Not that the patterns need much by way of support. There are 20 patterns; a mixture of ladies and gents. I have only made the Gentleman’s Fancy Sock pattern so far (see this post) but I will definitely be making more of these. The patterns are clearly written, with charts where appropriate. The book itself is spiral bound, which is very handy.

There are only two things that I would change about this book. The patterns are only given in one size, which may not be a problem for more experienced sock knitters, but as a new sock knitter I was relieved that the pattern I wanted to make was given in the size I wanted to knit! I realise that the original patterns would only have been published in one size and that it would have taken a lot more time and effort to provide the patterns in various sizes but it would really have added to the value of this book.

My other complaint is that the patterns have been published under their original names, which means it is not immediately clear what size the updated pattern is intended for. There is at least one pattern that has been sized as a ladies sock using modern yarn and needles but was originally published as a child’s pattern, with “child” in the name. Since only the name is listed in the Table of Contents, it is unclear how a reader is supposed to know that this is actually a ladies sock without reading the whole book.

These are reasonably minor complaints though and I can highly recommend this book to anyone looking for traditional or gents sock patterns.

Behold the socks!

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Today I finished the Gentlemen’s socks for Papa!
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I really liked the stitch pattern for these, which came from “Knitting Vintage Socks” by Nancy Bush. I wasn’t so keen on the toe or the heel used though, so next time I make them, I think I’ll do those differently. Given that these are only my second pair of socks, I just wasn’t brave enough to try anything different with these ones.

The socks are being beautifully modelled in the photograph by Steven. The good news is that I’ve managed to get them back off him and pack them in my suitcase to take them to Glasgow this weekend. Hopefully, I’ll find some time to pop in and see Gran and Papa and give Papa the socks. They’re only two months late as a birthday present!

(Knitting) Progress

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As promised, a shorter post about knitting. I really suggest not asking about the kitchen; it’s gone from bad to worse.

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My Isabella is proceeding apace but is currently paused until I decide if I like the way it’s going or not. I ripped back the picot edging that the pattern asked for and used a provisional cast-on to start knitting it in the round instead. The eyelet rows are pretty and I love the way the fabric is coming together. I’m getting the exact gauge listed in the pattern and I have exactly the right number of stitches for the size that I decided I needed. However, now I’m not sure that I want to knit the size that I decided I needed. It seems a bit big. I’ve tried it on and it still seems a bit big. My only recourse is to measure me and measure the knitting so far and decide if I want to rip back and start again. If only I didn’t have a terrible phobia concerning finding out the exact measurements of my hips and waist!

Also, since I came across some old unfinished projects when we moved, I’ve been working on one of those. The first winter that we were in London, I was lonely and bored and wanted something warm and cozy to knit. I decided that I wanted a shrug but couldn’t find a pattern that I liked (this was pre-Ravelry). I found a pattern that I sort of liked but didn’t want to knit in the aran weight yarn that was suggested. I bought a couple of balls of different yarn and knit some swatches. In the end, in a moment of weakness, I fell in love with the swatch made of Rowan Kidsilk Haze held double. I did my maths, worked out my pattern and bought 8 balls of yarn from John Lewis (much to the shock of the assistant, who really couldn’t believe that I needed that much expensive yarn). I absolutely adore the way that this knits up but am not a huge fan of the actual knitting. The Kidsilk Haze, being a fluffy yarn, is not terribly easy to rip back and it’s very difficult to count your stitches. Since it’s also knit almost entirely in stocking stitch, it’s not a very fun project to work on. It took me about 18 months of infrequent knitting to complete the back and, after leaving it lying in a bag for 6 months, I’ve only just cast on the first front. I’ve fallen in love with the fabric that it knits into all over again though, so hopefully I’ll make more progress on it this time around.

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I know this is a really bad picture but apparently my skills as a photographer don’t stretch to pure black on a light background. The apparent uneven-ness is due to to it having been crumpled in a bag for so long. It will be fine when it’s finished and blocked.

Blogging the blanket

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There’s a long and rambling post to come about our adventures with our (hypothetical) new kitchen but, in the meantime, I thought I’d treat you to the cat-less knitter’s equivalent of blogging the cat, blogging the blanket.

In many ways, my Double Vision blanket is similar to a cat. It is cute, makes me smile when I see it, and keeps my lap nice and warm when it is curled up on it.

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I’m still fascinated by the colour combinations that appear when working with two strands of yarn held together. This is especially true now that I’ve finished the first section (colour 1 mixed with all the other colours) and get to see how the second section (colour 2 mixed with all the other colours) turns out. The subtle changes in the mixtures of colours from one section to the next can be seen in the picture below.

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The colour combinations are (from left to right):

(1,1) (1,2) (1,3) (1,4) (1,5)

(1,2) (2,2) (2,3) (2,4).

I also yesterday admitted defeat and created a “cheat sheet” so that I can easily tell which order I should be using the colours in. The pattern booklet provides a colouring-in grid to be used for just this purpose but since I haven’t printed it off and don’t know what I’d use to colour it in anyway, I used some clear box tape left over from our move to hold snippets of the 10 colours together in order.

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It turns out that this is much easier than unfolding the entire first section of the blanket to see what I did on that and much more acceptable to Steven that having 10 balls of yarn permanently laid out in order somewhere in the flat.

The Fear

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We’ve all been there. The feeling that hits when you realise that the exam (or three) that seemed so far away that it couldn’t possibly ever get here is now only two weeks (to the day) away. Well, it hit me big time last night. I’m confident about passing 2 out of the 3 exams (if I put enough work in) and I’m still hoping that I can make the hat-trick. My tutor wrote me some wonderful comments on my (failed) mock exam saying that he thinks I can definitely pass the third exam. Those cheered me up for about 20 minutes and now the fear is back. (To put things in perspective, I also failed the other two mocks, just not by quite as much.)
So, you might ask, what am I doing sitting in front of a computer blogging and not studying. Given that I spent 8 hours at a tutorial today, I decided to take a break tonight and go to the knit night at I Knit. I started working on Isabella from Knitty’s spring ‘07 issue using the yarn that was supposed to be my Goddess jumper. After working on it for a couple of hours I’ve decided that I’m not going to knit it according to the pattern. There’s no way I will ever do all the seaming that is required (knitted picot edging and a jumper knitted in sections) so I’m going to improvise. I’m going to knit it in the round using a provisional cast on that I will then add a crochet edging too. This should leave me with just the shoulder seams to seam and I think even I can handle that. This is my first attempt at modifying a pattern quite this much so wish me luck!

Knitting blues

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Somehow amidst the DIY and the moving and the not having a blog up and running, I managed to get quite a bit of knitting done.

First, I finished knitting my Tubey and discovered a major problem with adapting pattern for a ribbed top that requires you to pick up stitches to start your ribbing. If you don’t pick up stitches and instead knit it in two separate sections, how do you know how far to stretch the ribbing before you sew the two sections together? This isn’t an entirely rhetorical question, if anyone has any sensible suggestions, please let me know. At the moment, the two sections are held together with safety pins to allow me to try them on. Trying it on, it looks great but it’s currently sitting on a shelf waiting for me to work out how to sew it together. The current plan involves Steven basting me into it so that I can them seam it and adjust as necessary so if anyone has any better ideas, I really would love to hear them. Plan B is blocking it to approximately the right size and then seaming and adjusting but I’m worried about stretching the ribbing too far this way.

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I really love this jumper on and will probably make another one at some point. Not quite yet though as the endless ribbing in the round is pretty boring.

Next was Celestine, which is going to be a christening present for our neighbours’ baby boy. It’s a dodecahedron (twelve-pointed star) knitted entirely in the round. Each point is knitted by picking up stitches along the edge of the previous point so there’s no seaming. Yup, that’s right, no seaming whatsoever. I couldn’t face the thought of knitting this on DPNs so decided I would attempt to learn Magic Loop. This was, at least in part, also because my DPNs are still packed in a box somewhere, yet miraculously I had a long, flexible 2.5mm circular needle unpacked.

Celestine

This turned out to be an excellent project to learn Magic Loop on. Plenty of practice at casting on and off and short enough rows that I hadn’t forgotten how to rearrange the stitches by the time that I got halfway through.

I definitely prefer using Magic Loop to using 4 or 5 small needles so I’ve decided to attempt another pair of socks using it. Partly because I bought some pretty sock yarn to celebrate the grand opening of the new I Knit store and partly because the sock knitters nearly have me convinced that I’m missing out on something because I don’t knit socks. The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill supersock merino in the Moody Blues colourway. (You might spot a bit of a blue theme to this post!).

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Continuing the blue theme, I had some yarn left over from Celestine and since it was Easter weekend and Steven had bought me a fabulous TARDIS Easter egg, I decided to continue my adventures in Magic Loop and knitted him an Easter egg.

Easter Egg

I’m not sure he knew exactly what to make of it but it did at least raise a chuckle (although that might have been at my expense). The arcane scribblings in the photo are my attempts at studying for my upcoming exams and, no, I don’t know what they’re supposed to mean either.

Finally, I got back to working on my Double Vision blanket. I’ve now knitted 16 squares out of 100 and am desperate to get to the end of this section (19 squares) so that I can start working with the next colour. Since the entire project is simple garter stitch, the fascination comes from seeing how the two strands of different colours combine. I’ve seen all the combinations for the first colour now and want to start seeing the rest. I really must try and get some decent pictures of this blanket taken.