Knitting, crochet and other crafty exploits

Knit Nation 2011 Part 2

2011-07-26T10:53:00.002+01:00

Whilst at Knit Nation, as well as shopping, I took a class in colourwork with Susanna Hansson. This was the first knitting class I have taken, being a largely self-taught knitter, so I was unsure what to expect. Would it be one long lecture? Would it be too easy? Would it be too hard?

I needn't have worried - I loved it! The pace was just right for me with plenty of time to practise, and I now feel much more confident at using different colourwork techniques. The class was small and friendly with easy to follow handouts. Susanna was very clear with her demonstrations and helpful when we were doing individual practice.

We began with intarsia by making two swatches. The first is an intarsia rectangle block which was to get us used to working with the two colours. Here is mine:

The second swatch was meant to be an argyle design but I only finished one diamond:

I was really pleased with how these both came out. I have tried intarsia previously, but my stitches always looked sloppy at the joins between the two colours. I have now learned that this was to do with how you wrap the yarns around each other (or when to wrap and when not to), particularly when the design is slanted like the diamond above.

Next up was the stranded knitting section. Again, I have tried this technique before. I made Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts and these came out really well. However, when I tried Ysolda Teague's Cotton Reel Mittens a couple of years later, the tension was really off and even after blocking, they were wrinkly. I could not work out how I had gone so wrong. It turns out that I need to keep my tension really loose and resist that temptation to pull my floats tight. For our swatch this time, I chose to make a baby hat (as opposed to a tube/beer cozy). I finished it on the Sunday morning after Knit Nation. If you look closely you can see that the tension evens out towards the top as I realised I just needed to loosen up! I am really pleased though that this looks so neat and it hasn't even been blocked.

Please excuse all the undarned ends. And the head. My darling bf decided he wanted to try it on.

As well as learning the importance of tension in stranded knitting, we also learned about colour dominance, which I had never heard of before. The colour which dominates is connected with which yarn is floated under or over at the back and hence which hand it is held in (if you knit with both hands as I do). For most knitters, the colour in the left hand is floated under and will be dominant, whereas the colour in the right hand is floated over and will be...non-dominant (or submissive?). This occurs because the stitches in the over colour are slightly larger and so appear dominant over the other. Very interesting.

The last part of the class looked at slip stitch knitting, which I had never tried before. Susanna also brought some lovely yarn for us to try. It is an American hand-dyed yarn from a company called Prism. We experimented with using a semi-solid with a contrasting variegated yarn. Slip stitch knitting produces a nice thick textured fabric; I could really see using this for a warm pair of mittens (since I don't really do socks). Here is my swatch:

There are two different stitch patterns here; I was too lazy to bind off the first one! Slip stitch knitting works by knitting with just one colour at a time, slipping the stitches of the other colour. It is perhaps an easier technique than the first two, but the constant slipping means it is more difficult to get into a good rhythm.

So all in all, a very successful class for me. I can't wait to try some colourwork projects now!

Knit Nation 2011 Part 1

2011-07-18T20:52:00.004+01:00

I spent this past Saturday at Knit Nation at Imperial College, London and I had an amazing time. I was a bit nervous beforehand as I was going alone. My mum was meant to come with me, but due to an op to remove a cataract the day before, she couldn't be there (it all went fine though, and now she has amazing eyesight!). But I needn't have worried. Knitters are truly such kind and friendly people that I didn't feel lonely at any point during my day. Most of my time was taken up with the Knitting with Color class I took by Susanna Hansson. It was fantastic and I will talk more about that in my second blog post. What I wanted to share today were my purchases at Knit Nation. There were so many beautiful yarns and accessories to see!

My first purchase was some laceweight by Juno Fibre Arts . Earlier in my day, I had seen a lady wearing a beautiful lace shawl made from a pink yarn with a lovely shimmery thread running through it. I decided I wanted something similar and then came across this - perfect. The yarn is called Sirius Lace and is in the colourway Envy.

My second purchase was some more laceweight (because you can never have too much!) from Old Maiden Aunt. This is a lovely soft hand dyed yarn - alpaca, merino, silk mix. I also adore the colour as I'm having a bit of a green thing at the moment. The colourway is called Bitter Bug.

Next, I visited the stall shared by Made by Loumms and Sweet Clement. I follow the Loumms blog and I am friendly with erqsome on Ravelry, so I had coveted one of their beautiful handmade project bags for a while. I chose a wrister bag, an ingenious project bag which allows you to knit on the go. I really loved all their whimsical and fun fabrics, but this one was my favourite.

I had not heard of Sweet Clement before, but I loved the vibrant colours and so chose some lovely red 4 ply Superwash Blue Faced Leicester. It is called Beloved and is in the colourway Scarlet.

Last, but by no means least, there was a lovely stall from a place called Well Manor Farm. This company was new to me, but they were very friendly telling me all about their farm and the sheep. They raise and shear the sheep themselves, then dye the yarn. I chose some yarn from their Gotland sheep, which I hadn't heard of before, but they had some lovely samples which showed that it knits up beautifully. I bought the Gotland Lambswool in a DK weight, but they had yarn in everything from a 2 ply laceweight up to an Aran weight. All the colours were either undyed or dyed using natural dyes, resulting in a stall full of wonderful earthy colours. I have one undyed skein and three in a rusty red colour.

And that's about it. Needless to say, I shall not be buying any more yarn for a while. Now I need to just get knitting it all!

PS. I'm still plodding along on the Princess Shawl. I'm on to the second chart of the large border. Progress is slow, but I'm not giving up!

Progress of a sort

2011-04-26T19:17:00.005+01:00

I finally finished the border edging of the shawl. It got quite repetitive towards the end, but I did speed up considerably to the point where I could do one repeat in under half an hour (without TV). The holidays helped too, and with a few days of marathon knitting, I finally got it done. I decided to do 72 repeats and this seems plenty long enough. Stretched out, it nearly fits across our living room!

Before embarking on the picking up I hunted around for some advice and found some helpful posts on The Princess Diaries. One thing I was unsure of was whether you were meant to pick up and knit (which is what I usually do whatever the wording) or just pick up the stitches. After reading a clarification from Sharon Miller on The Princess Diaries, I picked up (ie. just putting the loop on the needle) without knitting. I picked up 12 sts per repeat and 13 sts in the middle repeat to give me the required 865 sts. To help, I placed safety pins on the border strip marking every repeat and then marked each group of 12 sts picked up with a loop of thread. I then also marked each group of 10 repeats with another marker. This helped me to keep track, and I managed to pick up the 865 sts first time with no mistakes. It did take me about 4 hours however, and no distractions were allowed!

One technique I'd like to share which really helped with the picking up was using a vertical lifeline whilst knitting the border. I found this technique on Fleegle's blog. Essentially, as you work the border, you carry a contrasting thread along the straight edge. Then when you come to pick up stitches, the loops are already there on the thread for you to pick up. This makes it so much easier since stitches knit in gossamer are super-tiny and very difficult to see.

So, current progress? I worked the plain knit rows and am now on Row 4 of the feather border. Each row takes me about 45mins, so I'm aiming for about 2 rows a day. It's slow-going but it's exciting to start this new stage.

Bewitched By A Princess

2011-03-15T18:12:00.003Z

Wow, has it really been so long? Getting back into blogging was one of my New Year’s resolutions and now we are beginning to emerge from the doldrums of winter, I feel inspired to begin again. I don’t have any particular reason for the long hiatus – life just sometimes gets in the way.

My recent inspiration to blog again has come mainly from my current wip. Just over a year ago, I got engaged and of course the first thing I thought about (after saying yes and jumping with joy, of course) was wedding shawls! I have deeply coveted the beautiful Shetland lace shawls, especially the ethereal wedding ring shawls, for years and had even thought of casting one on previously, but had decided that that would be just a little too weird. So once the ring was on my finger and I had come down to earth, I started looking at Heirloom Knitting. I had originally wanted to do the wedding ring shawl, but I was unsure if I would be able to persevere with this, and instead decided to pick the Spring Shawl. A triangular shawl knit with cobweb weight yarn, it didn’t seem as daunting. So I ordered the necessary supplies and got started. Fast forward nearly a year and it was finished. And I liked it. But I didn’t love it. Because in the mean time, I had fallen in love with the Princess Shawl.

So over the last month I have been deliberating about whether or not to be crazy and knit a second wedding shawl. I have time (the wedding is not until April next year) but these shawls are so all-consuming that I don’t have time to knit much else. And this would mean knitting with gossamer yarn on teeny tiny needles – what if I just got bored?

Alas, common sense did not prevail and a few days ago, after months of research, I chose my materials and cast on. I spent a long time looking at different yarn choices. I knew I wanted a silk blend and decided to go with the Heirloom Knitting Gossamer CashSilk in a pale silvery grey (I think the colour is correctly called platinum). I’d read that it can be slippery, which it is, but I have not found it unmanageable. I shall probably take that back the first time I drop a stitch. I’m knitting it on 2mm needles and I’m happy with how the lace is looking at this tension.

My reason for wanting to start blogging this project is that in my research, I found that not many people have started this shawl, let alone finished it. Therefore, I hope that my documentation of this project may be of use to someone else who’s thinking of knitting this. My initial response would be: go for it! I was quite daunted by everything I read, and for a long time (and perhaps the reason I chose not to knit such a fine-gauge shawl to begin with) is that I felt that it would be beyond me. So far, the pattern is very clear and not really any more difficult than the Spring shawl. The knitting is slower going as the stitches are smaller and the yarn more slippery, and therefore more difficult to manoeuvre safely. But I’m enjoying it, and surely that’s what matters the most. Here's how much I've done so far.

The pattern begins with the border; I’ve knitted about ~~8 repeats~~ 10 repeats out of 60-80 something so far (I haven’t decided exactly how many to do yet). I’m aiming for about 2-3 repeats a day which will hopefully help with giving me time to work on other projects. I’m not going to promise to blog every day or every week, but I shall try to give periodic updates on the knitting.

It's been awhile...

2009-06-15T19:59:00.003+01:00

Wow! Can't believe it's been so long since I last posted on here. It's been such a busy 8 months and I can't believe it's nearly all over! I'm going to be a teacher at last. And although it's been hard work, I have enjoyed this year and I feel so much more certain that this is what I want to do. So...feeling happy right now and if it would just stop raining and be sunny for a while, life would be perfect.

On the knitting front, I have managed to squeeze some in and I do have some FOs to show. However, recently, a new hobby has overtaken knitting - sewing. I've already made two dresses and it is so addictive. I think it's the whole instant gratification thing, whereas knitting is more of a slow burner. I guess perhaps I'll have to have a little photoshoot of all the things I've made recently. I'm feeling so much more creative right now too. It's hard to get your brain in that kind of mode when you're at school. Yay, for long holidays!

Anyway, this was just a quick post. Pics will follow in the next one.

Alexandra Palace and Urban Cross-Stitch

2008-10-14T20:41:00.004+01:00

Since I didn't make it to iKnit Day, I decided I definitely had to go to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace. I've been for the past two years with my mum, but she was away on holiday this time, so I decided to go with an old friend. However, in the end she couldn't make it, so I ended up going alone. And you know what? I had a really good time. It's silly, but if I hadn't thought my friend was coming I would never have gone alone, but once I got there, I really enjoyed myself.

I was pretty restrained on the yarn front. Having been before, you get to know which stands will be there and so less overwhelmed by it all. I bought some gorgeous alpaca/silk/cashmere laceweight yarn and some black alpaca blend to make a cowl for the bf (yes, another one). I was most excited that there was a Habu stand. I've heard so much about their yarns but never seen/felt them in person. And all I can say is wow! I wanted to buy all of it just to see all the different types of fabric I could create. I eventually decided on a dark blue/purple shade of their wool/stainless steel mix and some buttery yellow silk. I can't wait to knit up the wool/steel mix. I'm going to do either a scarf or a cowl. Something sculptural.

My last purchase was of the non-yarn variety. I bought a little urban cross-stitch kit. I haven't done cross-stitch since I was little, but I always enjoyed it. I just didn't want to crochet pictures of flowers and puppies and things. But this one is a little mini-kit of a pacman with a ghost and cherry. And the ghost glows in the dark! I just love it. I bought it from this company. They also do lots of kits of Banksy prints. My little one only took me a few hours so I'm thinking of getting a bigger one to do. I really enjoyed it! Even the bf thinks it's cool and that doesn't happen very often with my crafting.

I take back everything I've ever said...

2008-09-20T14:53:00.003+01:00

I'm currently writing my first essay in 8 years and it's hard! Being a scientist/mathematician I've always liked to express the opinion that of course science and maths is far more difficult and requires much more work than humanities. (This was probably also fuelled at university by all those humanities students who only had about 2 lectures a week.) But I have to take it all back now. I'm struggling with this first essay for my course and it's only 700 words! I'm interested in the topic and can easily talk about and debate it, but putting words on paper...it's so hard! I shall have to wait for the bf to get home (he's an english literature masters graduate) so he can help me.
Needless to say, not much knitting has been going on lately.

Cowl Love

2008-08-29T10:42:00.003+01:00

The summer holidays are fast drawing to a close and I'm looking to September and the start of my course with a mix of apprehension and excitement. I think the biggest thing I'm worried about (other than inner-city schools) is not having any time to myself and that means no time to knit! I think this is spurring me on to finish all those projects that have been festering. I've finished about 4 projects in the last week which has to be a first for me. I tried taking pics yesterday but my camera didn't like the grey weather and so I didn't like how they came out. I shall try taking more (or getting my bf to take more) tomorrow. But here is one thing I've finished recently.

This is the first cowl I've ever knit or even ever owned and I love it! I love wearing scarves and pretty much wear one all year round, but this is so much better. No ends to get in the way, it's just perfect. And my bf likes it so much, I had to make one for him too! But he left it at this bandmates house so I haven't had a chance to photograph is on him. This is also the first of my knits in preparation for winter.

One good thing in all my finishing of wips is that I've nearly finished my second version of my Anthropologie cardi. I've found it a real challenge and I think this is why it's taken me so long. I loved the first version, but there were quite a few things that I wasn't completely happy with so had to change. I'm much happier with the second version. I hope at least that's when it's all finished and I get the pattern done that other people will be happy with my efforts too.

Hemlock Ring Blanket

2008-07-24T13:32:00.003+01:00

I started this project at the end of June and it has been a rather quick knit. I would have finished it sooner, but I was away in Canada for a week and a half and I deemed this project too heavy to take with me. The yarn I used was Rowan Pure Wool Aran in a lovely chocolate brown. I used almost exactly 5 balls. I enjoyed knitting it, but it did get rather laborious by the end when I had over 600sts on the needles. Each round took me about 20mins! (I don't knit that fast.)

This was the first project which has really needed blocking and I did my best at blocking it hard. However, I think perhaps I could have blocked it more since it's still a bit wrinkly. I kept going for 120-something rounds, I can't quite remember the exact number off the top of my head. I'd definitely like to knit another one. This one is to be gifted to my boyfriend's brother and his fiancee as a housewarming gift. I'll be sad to see it go. It was also really hard to photograph. In real life, it's a rich chocolate brown colour, but in these photos it looks rather washed out. I think the truest colour is in the picture above.

I have been knitting! Honest!

2008-07-19T18:59:00.004+01:00

Well, I have no good reason for such a long absence from my blog. I could claim I've been too busy, but really I think laziness does factor in there somewhere. To be fair, the end of the summer term at school was pretty manic and I didn't really have time to even do much knitting. Now I'm on holiday I have all the time in the world to knit!

My current wips are The Hemlock Ring Blanket, which I finished the other night and is now waiting to be blocked. I really hope it's going to block well because at the moment it just looks like a crumpled mess! I'm halfway through knitting Butterfly from Rowan 37. I've wanted to knit this for years, but I've always been put off because I thought it'd be difficult. Now I'm actually doing it I'm rather underwhelmed by the pattern. I hope as well that it doesn't stretch too much because otherwise it's going to turn out huge even though I'm knitting a size smaller. The last thing I'm working on is a second version of this cardigan. I've had so many people ask me for a pattern on Ravelry, but there are quite a few things I wasn't happy about with the first one. So I'm knitting it again and trying to work out a pattern as I go along.

I've decided that writing patterns is a lot like writing songs. When I was in a band, we were constantly re-working songs, and even though a song would be officially "finished" you were always changing little bits here and there. Another similarity is that for me, when designing songs I have to have an idea before I can find a yarn. When I write songs, for me the music has to come first and then the words. I could never do it the other way around. And for ages I felt that I wasn't a proper songwriter because I felt it was so hard to write a song for my lyrics. But I've learnt that however you want to create is ok. This makes me feel slightly better about my ever-expanding stash and the fact that my poor boyfriend does not understand when I have to buy more to fulfil a design because nothing in my stash will do.

So here's to lots more creativity this summer before I sign my life away to my PGCE course in September!

Too much knitting...

2008-03-26T12:00:00.002Z

For ages now I have enviously been watching other knitters working away on beautiful hats. Since I have such huge hair, wearing hats is kind of difficult. However, about 6 months ago, I found the perfect hat. It was amazing, and it looked good on me. I wore it pretty much constantly all winter long. Until I lost it about 3 weeks ago. I was so annoyed, but that's what will happen if you wander around London drunk. Anyway, this prompted me to have a go at making my own hat. I haven't knitted a hat before, so I decided to go with a pattern. I needed maximum slouchy-ness, so I went with Knit and Tonic's Le Slouch. I worked it up in about 4 hours, tried it on and it was just too small. Seriously, my hair is getting big. So the next day I ripped it out, and made my own version. Here it is:

And here's what I did.

I cast on 68 sts as the pattern says, but then I worked a 2x2 rib for 2 inches. I did the same increase round of K2, m1, but then I worked an extra increase round of K4, kfb. (121 sts)
After that, I knit until the hat measured about 7 inches from the cast on edge.
I decided I was going to have seven sections at the top, so on the next round I ha to decrease 2 sts to make the numbers work. I did this by k2tog at the beginning of the round, then k2tog about half way round. (119 sts)
On the next round, I placed a marker every 17 sts, giving me 7 sections. I then followed the pattern from there by decreasing a st either side of each marker, but instead of decreasing 12 sts each round, I decreased 14 sts. Et voila! Un nouveau chapeau!

The only bad thing that came out of all these hats, is that I now keep getting cramp in my left hand. I think it's from holding the dpns. I'm going to be careful not to knit too much over the next few days because I don't want to damage anything. I've got the hat bug though now. I love all the hats that Ysolda Teague has done recently. They're all so beautiful. Sadly, I don't think they'd fit over all my hair. Maybe it's time for a new hairstyle...

In other news, I'm currently working on my first submission. In my goals for the year, I wanted to submit two pieces for publication, and self-publish two myself. It is quite hard-going. The fun part is designing and knitting up my ideas, but writing out the patterns is such a headache. There is just so much to think about! I'm persevering with it because I think the first one must be the hardest. Once you've got an idea of how it all works and a template to work to, I'm sure it must get easier. So watch this space. I'll let you know how it goes.

Alpine Shrug

2008-02-24T16:36:00.003Z

So here's my latest finished object. I actually finished it a few weeks ago but I've been waiting for the weather to allow me to take decent pictures. I think it took me about a week to finish, maybe even less. I thought that I'd find it boring knitting four pieces exactly the same, but it knits up so quick, you don't have time to be bored!

The only mod I made was to knit one less repeat than the pattern called for. This was to make sure I didn't run out of wool. My mum had already made one and she had run out so warned me about it. I still ended up using a 6th ball to join the seams! I crocheted the seams rather than sewing them as it just seemed easier. I think my tension must have been quite loose and this was why I used more than 5 balls. It has come out rather huge! I haven't put any kind of fastening on it since I rather like it the way it is. I may add something in the future. It depends how fed up I get with having to hoist it back onto my shoulders all the time.

I finished another project last week but I'm not going to blog about it yet because I'm going to try submitting it. I'm really pleased with how it's turned out, but pattern-writing is tricky! We'll see how it goes. Wish me luck!

My name in lights

2008-02-15T10:49:00.002Z

One of the things that I wanted to do this year was to pursue singing more. When people hear me sing, they always ask me why I don't do something with my voice and I never have a good answer, except that I'm lazy! I think for a while now I've been lacking in confidence about my voice. But over the last year, I've found a really great singing teacher who's given me my confidence back. So I decided to get off my backside and go join an operatic/musical society (all part of the NY resolutions of doing more) because I love performing on the stage (got that from being in a band) and choirs can be a bit boring. This week I went for an audition for a part in their latest show, The Man Of La Mancha. And I got the part!! I'm so excited and the standard was extremely high, but I did it, and this has boosted my confidence so much. And ok, so I won't have my name in lights, but it's a start!
I'm feeling the same at the moment about knitting too. I think I need to have more faith in myself and not be-little my talents so much. I've worked hard to learn both these skills of knitting and singing but too often I dismiss them. I am good at what I do and I should say that more. I've been so encouraged by people on Ravelry asking for a pattern for my Anthropologie-inspired jacket so I'm trying to work on that right now. I think you have to just go for things and see what happens. I have nothing to lose and I shouldn't be afraid of not being good enough. That shouldn't be a reason for not trying.

Resolutions out the window

2008-02-04T18:20:00.000Z

I didn't keep to my blogging once a week resolution very well, did I? I'm sure it's been about a month! Anyway, I'm feeling in a much better frame of mind. The days are starting to get noticeably longer and even though it's only by about an hour each end, it's really making a difference to how I feel. Three weeks ago I had my interview for my PGCE course. At the time, I thought it went dreadfully and convinced myself that I wasn't going to get in. Then a week later I had my letter confirming I'd got a place! I was over the moon and now I'm feeling a lot happier about the whole teaching thing. I'm excited to start doing something new again as I think I have had enough of being an assistant! It's hard work trying to second-guess someone else all the time, so I'm looking forward to working by myself and being the one in charge.
I don't feel like I've got much knitting done, though I do have two finished objects, so it can't be as bad as I think. I'll blog the first one today, then the other one in a few days when I've taken pics.

Finished object: Briar Rose by Ysolda Teague.
Time it took to knit: About one week.

I am really happy with this knit. It was a really clever construction, and I like when I can learn a new technique through a project. The fit is perfect too. The only trouble I had was with the decreases for the arms. I didn't think the instructions were that clear as to where to do the decreases and I had a lot of trouble making them line up neatly. Nevertheless I would definately recommend this pattern to other people!

One other great thing happened to me this week. On Ravelry, someone asked me if I was going to write a pattern for one of the jackets I'd designed myself. It's only a little thing, but it put a huge smile on my face! It's something that I had sort of planned to do a pattern for, but I want to make a second version first as there's some thing I'm not completely happy with. I think I'd make it a free pattern though since it will be my first one and the idea for the jacket came from Anthropologie in the first place. Here's a pic of it:

So watch this space!

Finishing off

2007-11-29T17:36:00.000Z

I've been so smug this past term at school because I haven't had a cold. Not one little sniffle. Then on Saturday I got the tell-tale sore throat, and by Sunday I had no voice at all! So I've been off work for two days this week (I'm pretty much back to normal now), which although I've been tired, has provided me with a little extra knitting time. I've got lots of things in the almost finished kind of stage. They just need buttons or ribbons or trimmings. I always find this the hardest bit to figure out. I have three finished objects sat awaiting their final adornments. Hopefully I can get them out and photographed this weekend!
About two weeks ago, I started the Airy Wrap-around Cardigan from Stefanie Japel's Fitted Knits. It was an extremely speedy knit (one week!) but the mohair I've used for it is quite thick, so I now have a fat dilemma. It makes me look like a fat hairy green sausage. Honestly! So I need to reduce some of the bulk from the waist. I think I'm going to have to reduce the length of the ties and go for buttons at the sides. Another job for the weekend, and then what to do with the left-over mohair?
Yesterday I started a new design. I'm quite excited about it because it's the first thing that's entirely mine. The lace pattern, the design, everything. It in Rowan's KSH and is a lovely mustardy yellow. It's going to a gorgeous lace sleeveless vest with a cowl neck (or maybe just turtleneck) with beads and a ribbon at the waist. I love it. :)

Spit splicing and Ball winding

2007-10-24T18:35:00.000+01:00

I've always been intrigued about spit splicing, so I tried it for the first time the other day. It's wonderful! I've felted things before, but I just couldn't get how spitting on your wool and rubbing it together could possibly work. But it does. And although it is quite messy (I did spit rather liberally in my hand) it gives a lovely neat join. So this will be my preferred method for joining wool from now on.
Yesterday I went to The Handweaver's Studio in Walthamstow. It's a fabulous place. I have never seen so many different shades of yarn. And so many different fibres. It was like an Aladdin's cave, and although more geared towards spinners and weavers, there was still plenty for knitters. I got some orange wool/silk and some green mohair, but most importantly, I got a BALL WINDER! I've been wanting one of these for ages now, and it really is the most marvellous contraption. I've been winding up all my skeins and whatnot for the past two afternoons, and now my stash is all nice and ordered. I've labelled everything and listed everything I have on Ravelry. It was a revelation to me all the yarn I've managed to accumulate, and actually quite shocking. Where did it all come from! I think I need to go on a yarn ban for a while...

Inspiration is back

2007-10-19T17:45:00.000+01:00

Being a teaching assistant, I'm lucky enough to enjoy the long school holidays. However, I was really disappointed with myself that I didn't do more knitting over the summer. Especially since I want to start designing my own garments more. But I think it was a simple lack of inspiration. I'm very lazy and so I didn't do much over the holidays. Not getting out and about means that you get no stimulus, and hence, no inspiration. Since being back at school, I've had so many ideas for things to knit, but I just don't have the time to do it all! Now my half term hols have just started I will not make the same mistake again.
With this revelation came the feeling that I should make use of this blog. Even if no-one else reads it, it's here for me to see my own progress. I think it's useful for me to talk about how my designs are going and perhaps I'll receive a few kind comments.
At the moment, I'm working on three things. The first is my Print o the Wave Shawl, which is nearly finished, but I'm finding this last slog mind-numbingly boring! My sister's birthday is on 11th November though, so I've only got 3 more weeks to get it done.

I'm onto the final border so hopefully I can blitz it over the next week and then get it blocked out.

My second wip is a turquoise silk shrug that I'm making out of HipKnits Aran Silk. It's a top-down raglan, and the lace pattern I'm using is from Ysolda Teague's Ariel. I've finished the main body but I'm not sure how I want to cast off. I did a picot cast off, but I'm not happy with it, so I'm going to go back and think it over again. Another job for this week. I think I'm going to add applied i-cord to the fronts and then have a button loop closure.

The third and final wip is an attempt to recreate this Anthropologie beauty. I've finished the back, so now I've just to figure out the fronts and add the trim. I'm knitting it in stocking stitch because I couldn't figure out the stitch in the picture. It kind of looks like garter stitch, but I didn't want a jacket like that. So...watch this space. I'm going to try and finish it by the end of the week. My inspiration is back. With a vengence!

Lucky me!

2007-08-29T17:32:00.000+01:00

I was pleasantly surprised to open my email inbox the other day to discover I'd won a prize draw. And not just any prize draw, but a prize draw for VV Rouleaux, and ribbons and trimmings shop in Marylebone, W. London. I love to go in there and browse; they always have such beautiful things. I was entered into their prize draw when I signed up to their mailing list. And don't they look beautiful.

I almost don't want to spend them!

In knitting news, I'm now on to the final border of my Print o the Waves shawl. I was really into knitting it earlier this month, but now I'm feeling a little fed up with it. The border is very repetitive. I don't have to finish it until November though, so I've got a while. I've also started knitting a pair of socks from the latest Rowan magazine (No.42). I've had to go down a needle size and add extra decreases because I felt they were much too baggy. I often find Rowan patterns come up big and that their wool is rather stretchy. But I do love their designs. Anyway, will post more pics at the weekend.

An Almighty Mess

2007-08-14T17:58:00.001+01:00

So I was quite happily knitting away on my shawl when this horrific mess occurred.

I naively thought that just hanging the hank over the back of a chair would be fine, but oh no. I have spent the last two days, yes, two whole days trying to unravel this mess. The bf was even sweet enough to offer to do some for me, but I think he would have made it even worse. And to add insult to injury, because the yarn is so fine, it's quite fragile, so keeps snapping. I now have several little balls which is annoying because that means I'm going to have knots in the shawl. Grrr. I think it's time I invested in a ball winder.

In better news, my mum came to visit last week and we made a trip to John Lewis (not that I need anymore yarn - my stash has grown at an astonishing rate over the past six months) to purchase the new Rowan magazine. No. 42 is better than I thought it would be. I wasn't too keen on the online preview pics I saw, but flicking through I've already seen quite a few designs I want to make. In fact, I've started a pair of grey stockings in Kid Classic. I've wanted a nice pair of grey stockings for ages so they'll be perfect for when it gets cold. Also, the pattern calls for bobbles (just little ones) which I haven't done before, always thinking them rather hideous, but these are little ones and in fact, rather cute. I'll take a pic tomorrow of my progress so far. I like to pick patterns which incorporate skills I haven't employed before. I'm a rather fearless knitter. I suppose that comes from being pretty much self-taught. (This is kind-of true. My mum showed me how to knit/purl/cast on/cast off when I was little, then I picked it up again when I was about 14/15 and taught myself how again.) The biggest skill I have yet to try is intarsia. I'd love to do a proper colourwork project. I have in mind these to start with, but I'd love to make a proper Fair Isle cardigan. Maybe next year.

Sea colours

2007-08-03T12:45:00.000+01:00

I was very excited the other day to finally receive the yarn I ordered from HipKnits. It's taken a while, but I'm very happy now it's here. I'd forgotten exactly what was coming, so I quite surprised myself that all the colours were very sea like. Here they are:

This is pure silk. I got two skeins, each one about 100g. It's a lovely shimmery aqua blue/green with slight colour variations. I think the camera caught the colours quite well.

This is a gorgeously soft cashmere. It's a bit more green in real life than it is in this pictures, but like the silk, the colour does vary from quite a strong green through to a very pale mint. I've only got two small skeins (about 50g each I think), so not quite sure what I'll be doing with this. Other than rubbing it against my face, that is.

These lovely four skeins are undyed blue-faced leicester. I'm thinking of dyeing it myself. I want to experiment with using beetroot to dye wool. I remember doing it at primary school, and it gives such a lovely deep purple/pink colour. If this warm weather holds up, then I think I'll definately have a go.

But enough of the yarn porn. The reason I bought all this was that I originally went to HipKnits for some laceweight cashmere in order to make a Print o the Waves shawl for my sister's 21st birthday in November. I asked for some undyed cashmere, but for some reason I got sent some in a very pale blue-green. I rather like it, so I decided not to send it back (and I really need to get started on it). Looking at other people's on the web, I'm so excited about this project. I've wanted to knit it for a while now, and I think it is going to be just beautiful when it's finished. I'm not sure whether I'm going to knit the centre panel in two halves or just do one. I'm not too confident about grafting it neatly because it's so fine, and I think I'd like it the waves just went one way. I'll see how I feel when I get nearer that point. Anyway, here's an in-progress pick. This is after about 6 repeats.