skein

Mission Falls Cardigan

My first garment of 2007!  As soon as I spotted the sun on Sunday morning, I was outside trying to take an outdoors shot.  Excuse the dappled effect; the sun was low and bright.

I based this very loosely on the striped cardigan in their latest book. I kept the same stripe sequence, but changed the colours, added some waist shaping (not that you can see that in these photos) and changed the top shaping to raglan rather than a drop sleeve (or half set in, can't remember and I don't have the pattern here at work).  I knitted a narrower sleeve, which worked better with the raglan shaping.  I've yet to try the Mission Falls cotton (which is a slightly textured cotton) but I give the Mission Falls Wool a thumbs up.  Great colours, pleasant to knit with, and it's superwash merino.

I need to get a move on with Ali, as the new magazines will be out very soon!  I've already bought a few Debbie Bliss books, and love her Summer magazine, featuring a selection of yarns.  I can resist a little while longer, as long as the weather stays chilly! 

Chris has spent the weekend looking through my old Rowan magazines, on the lookout for inspiration for his waistcoat. Is it any surprise that every design which caught his attention was  a Kaffe Fassett design?   He still likes Persian Poppies though, so that's the one we'll be going with.  He'd prefer dk, rather than 4ply, but unfortunately most of my brighter colours are shetland jumperweight.

I have stacks of red from my abandoned Hoxbro jacket, but I may need to hunt for more green yarn.  All I have to do now is knit a sample square for tension and Chris's approval. 

I've started a few small projects over the weekend.

The mysterysock yahoo group, clue one.  Although any sock yarn can be used, the designer knitted these with Wildfoote sock yarn, which I bought on our Get Knitted trip. So Wildfoote it is.  It's a rather splitty, thin yarn, which I believe (and hope) will bloom after washing, so I'll persevere.

A seaman's scarf from Stahman's Shawls and Scarves, using some MoBair baby alpaca & silk, a birthday present from Yvonne (which will sit in stash until Autumn if it's not knitted up now). 

Fabulous, soft yarn and an easy to remember lace pattern. This is a Seaman's scarf, so I'll soon unpick the provisional cast on (on the left), knit a ribbed middle bit for the neck, and then start the second half of the scarf, and knit both ends at the same time until I run out of yarn. This is such a luscious yarn that it would be a shame to not use it all up.  I don't think I'll be blocking this either, I love the lace as is.

I've clue 3 of the Mysteryshawl yahoo group to knit this week as well, and let's not forget the start of the Forest Path Stole knitalong!  I tell you, the knitalong list page is dangerous for knitters!

Second FO of 2007

Another pair of socks, meaning the January's sock quotient is fulfilled.
I'm alternating - one pair for me, one pair as a gift.  These are the gift socks. 
Knitted in Fortissima (I think, the label's lost) Carnival.

These socks are for Marilyn, one of Chris's old schoolfriends.  I promised her a pair several years ago! 

60sts on 2.25mm steel dpns, with a heel flap and gusset. 

I tried Mary's trick of knitting the heel flap and heel turn with the other end of the yarn, thus keeping the pattern of the self striping yarn consistent over the foot.  Steel dpns were once my favourite type of sock needle; they're heavier and slicker than other dpns. But they're very pointed (I can't contemplate using the 2mms!) and my index fingertips are covered in tiny cuts.

My next pair of socks (for me) are already on the needles.  Posh Yarns sock club yarn, Nancy Bush's Jute Socks from Folk Knitting in Estonia. No rush though, these are next month's socks!

I'm hoping over the weekend to

1) Finish the Mission Falls Cardigan. Just a few buttons to sew on and a good steaming.  Hopefully there'll be a little sunshine this weekend for photography sessions. 

2) Work on the sleeves of Ali. As long as I don't get too distracted * I should finish at least one of the sleeves, shouldn't I?

3) * Distraction #1.  Mysteryshawl Knitalong.  Clues are published on Fridays - so if the third clue is posted before I leave work tonight, I might be swayed to work on this.

Clues 1 and 2, knitted in Jamieson's Ultra, Opal colour. 

I've already switched from 3.5mm  (clue 1) to 4mm (clue 2) to try to open up the lace somewhat.

4) * distraction #2.  Felted clogs and moccasins for Chris and me.  With this cold weather we need a few more pairs sharpish!

5) * distraction #3.  Angel Pearls Beaded Scarf from Sivia Harding. (I really shouldn't start this until I've finished a few things, though!)

6) * distraction #4. The pile of knitting books and dvds which I've not really had a chance to look at yet, from Christmas to current day. And a few more knitting magazines which have just arrived (more on Sunday!)

Happy knitting!

 

Ali

We've had such awful, gloomy weather in London for weeks and weeks now.  Most of my knitting progress photos are taken indoors, just before bedtime, especially in winter, when I'm commuting to and from work in the dark.   On Sunday we had some sun!  Still windy and cold, but great weather for walking, so I took my second front of Kim Hargreaves Ali and my current sock in progress out for a walk, along with the camera.

Here's the sock. This is the second sock of the pair.  I'm wondering if I can manage to knit one sock per week this year, or (let's have some breathing space) two pairs a month. So far, so good, I'm on sock #4. The pattern is Carnival.

That's Chris's man's hand, not mine!

Here's Ali.  We tried to take a photo of Chris holding Ali, but the wind picked up, so we did a ground shot.  Then the sun went in. Then the wind picked up and blew the ball (it's still attached to the knitting) down the footpath. Thankfully it didn't blow into the Thames! This shows up the basketweave much better than the nighttime photos.

There's a picot edge on the garter stitch which makes it frill out a little.  Only two more sleeves to go.  I picked up some more yarn (different dye lot) at Get Knitted on Saturday.  I think I'll be able to get away with knitting the start of each sleeve with the new balls of yarn, and then gradually introducing the old dye lot by alternating rows for a few inches. Fingers crossed!

The Forest Path Stole knitalong starts on 1st February, and I've been choosing my yarn this past week.  I've decided on some Colourmart cashmere. This is described as heavy laceweight, and is 3/28NM.  It's blue, so nicely fits in with Project Spectrum for February and March.

I like the fabric, it's lovely and soft, and will drape very nicely, but there's a little voice inside my head saying that I ought to go for a more open fabric. Either change the needles or use a finer lace yarn (of which I have plenty, though not necessarily blue).  And if I should decide to stick with this as is, I'll be swapping those blunt edged bamboos for some more pointed!

Get Knitted

At least four other knitting bloggers will be reporting on our trip, and as I didn't take too many photos, it's good to see them on other blogs (and Get Knitted Flickr!).

The Get Knitted shop is fantastic,  everything online is available in this HUGE shop. Amelia has some great photos of the stock. There's some sofas, tea and coffee facilities, and a play area, so if you've a long way to go at least you can sit down and have a cup of coffee.

Here's Mary, Polly, Jacinta, Amelia and Jill outside the new Get Knitted shop.

Sue working hard (check out the size of this shop!)

Polly perusing the bargain area - that's the area behind her, not the sock table (one of three!)

In my New Year Resolutions, I'd allowed for three major stash purchasing occasions: my birthday (when I bought a few things at Stash), one Get Knitted trip, and Ally Pally. I think I may have another GK trip in store later on in the year now.  Especially now that I know you can buy cheap singles (from £10 London-Bristol) as long as you book early and travel on a designated train. A good day out for everyone, and we managed to do a little knitting there and back. 

Christmas knitting

Oli modelling her Christmas presents!

Baby socks (pattern here - Better than Booties Baby Socks) and Debbie Bliss striped cardigan (I think it's from the baby cashmerino 2 book).  There's a matching striped hat too!

We last saw her 3 weeks ago, and in those 3 weeks she's become chubby!  Now 9 weeks old it looks as if I may have to knit another cardigan to keep up with the growing baby!

And the winner is...

Brigid!  Time of birth was 11.25am. Mum had a good night's sleep and went into premature labour late morning, in the days when people didn't have cars.  The midwife did, and drove her to hospital, telling her to cross her legs! A little birthday gift will be winging its way to you Brigid, this week or early next week!

And onto last week's plans.  I'm an abysmal failure!

1) sew buttons on the Mission Falls striped cardigan. FAILURE. The buttons, in daylight, morphed into a horrible brown colour (I like brown, but this brown was horrible and didn't go with any of the colours of the cardigan. I've decided on a that dull metallic look, found some (too large) buttons which went well, so I'll be looking out for a smaller version of these over the weekend.

2) re-knit the first front of Ali.  YES
    knit the second front of Ali. NO

Both clickable, if you want to see miles of garter stitch. 
Now normally if I have to follow wordy shaping instructions, I might sketch out a stepped diagram of the shaping, but with this pattern I had to write out row by row instructions!  There was side shaping to contend with, then armhole shaping on one side, and on the other side I had increases to make for the collar, and also have the garter stitch border/collar eat into the basketweave pattern.  I know only one person (whose name begins with J) who does this and I don't know how you manage to remember to cross off each row as you knit it!

And the bad news here is that I know I'll run out of yarn.  I know that I'll have less than 3 balls left to do both sleeves, and now starts the hunt for a similar shade.  Until I find this extra yarn I'll just finish the front and put the sleeves on hold, as I'd prefer the difference to be at the cuffs and not the tops of the sleeves.  (I could try to work them top down, I suppose, but I see trouble with that route). My fault entirely, I think I bought the xs size intending to knit this as a gift, and knit a larger size for me from wool cotton in stash, and it looks as if I've picked up the kit wool cotton and not the stash wool cotton. Oh dear! 

3) swatch for the Forest Path Stole knitalong. NO.  Well, yes, but the yarn was a little too thick for my idea of this stole. I want something quite light and airy, and my chosen blue laceweight, though gorgeous, was not fine enough.  I've ordered some cashmere laceweight from Colourmart (blue, for Project Spectrum). I have some Habu Soy Silk which is equally gorgeous, but I'm saving that for a square shawl in my future.

4) (extra)

I hunted down some more blue yarn, as Chris has out of the blue (sorry!) requested a knitted waistcoat, with a long narrow pocket for his glasses. It's to be just above hip length with a few inches of ease, something to wear under his jacket when he goes to the pub, though why he should want to take his glasses off is a puzzle.

Extra Fine Merino, what a treat!

First FO of 2007

Lisa Souza Sock! yarn.
Started: 30th December 2006.
Finished: 11th January 2007.
2.5mm circular, 56sts, top down with a heel flap and gusset.

The yarn is soft and slightly hairy, as if there's some mohair content; but there isn't, it's just wool and nylon.  A pleasure to knit.  I must mention that she's great to deal with too, my order was with me in less than a week.

So, new socks are on the needles.  I have this vague idea of alternating my sock knitting, so that I knit one pair for me, and another pair as a gift.  These Lisa Souza socks are mine, but this next pair will be a gift for one of Chris's old school friends, who's been quietly waiting for a promised pair for several years now.  Self striping plain socks, in Fortissima's Carnival.

My plans for this weekend:
1) see if the dull burgundy-brown buttons I found last night match my Mission Falls cardigan (I need daylight!).
2) re-knit the left side of Ali for a third time. Maybe (don't fall off the chair!) manage the right front as well.
3) swatch for the Forest Path Stole Knitalong, starting in February.  This involves rummaging through the laceweight stash, keep your fingers crossed that I don't start a new lace project as a filler until 1st February!

 

Project Spectrum

Oops.  Before I knew what had happened I'd signed up for another round of Project Spectrum. Last time around it was a colour per month, which was  bit of a rush for someone as multi-wip challenged as me.  This time though we have two months to complete a project, and there's not one, but three colours to choose from.  If you so wish you could choose all three.  You can also check out the flickr group discussion.
February and March colours are blue, white and grey. 

Oops again.  I've frogged my blue Orchid Pi shawl as it was far too small, and to reach the given measurement would have meant a severe blocking and extra pattern repeats. But this blue yarn might be handy for Project Spectrum.  I'm thinking of knitting the Forest Path Stole, from the new knitalong which starts in February.  It's something which I've wanted to knit since I saw the pattern in IK, and now that Polly's brought it to my attention I've just had to join!

That means the heat is on to finish my two garments on the needles. Wouldn't it be great to do two garments in one month!

I spent all of last night sewing in the ends on the striped cardigan.

Which means it's very nearly finished.  I need to hunt five buttons, which I'll do this weekend. What a remarkably quick knit!

Ali (Kim Hargreaves) is not doing as well.  I've spent only 3 nights on this since Christmas, and in that time I've not even reached the armholes on one of the fronts.
Evening #1 - completed the garter stitch border and half a pattern of basketweave. No problems.
Evening #2 - knit another six or so inches of basketweave and then realise that I've not been knitting the picot edge on the garter stitch border. Frog down.
Evening #3 - remember to knit the picot edge.  Get to the start of the collar shaping and completely disregard the pattern instructions. Which means I have to frog another dozen rows.

Never mind, I'll work on this over the weekend. With lots of knitting time and no housework, surely I can manage to knit this and the right front?

The commuter knitting's not going too bad either.  It's a plain sock for me. I must start some patterned ones soon, I have so many books and patterns!

 

Thanks

For the birthday wishes. We had a great time, went to see Perfume, went to dinner. The birthday competition is still open until next Friday at 5pm gmt, so if you haven't guessed then please go and leave a comment. So far, no-one's mentioned the exact time.
 
Billy was exhausted. He's back at school on Monday, but has managed to make the most of these holidays by setting his sleep clock back six or so hours; morning is something he hasn't seen since 22nd December.  Chris decided on Friday to wake him up in the morning, at 11.30am, in preparation for a 7am start tomorrow. He isn't doing too well.

The Mission Falls Striped cardigan's knitting stage is over! 
I need to find five buttons, sew in a million ends and give it a good steaming, which of course will take time - the sewing in ends will have to be done in half hour stints I think.

This is the Danger Period. I currently have a commuter sock on the needles, and a circular lace shawl sitting next to me on the sofa. However, in honour of my birthday I did a little stash enhancement at Stash yesterday (this is allowed; I'm trying to reduce the stash but birthdays and stash expeditions don't count) and am very tempted to try a quick knit.  I'm not quite ready to start another garment yet until this one is completely finished, but a Small Project is ok,yes?  I also have some birthday yarn which will be a quick knit, oh decisions, decisions!

This is the haul from Stash; koigu, handmaiden cashmere, fleece artist sock yarn and zephyr. Yum!

Happy birthday to me!

Yes, another birthday rolls around, and this morning I really feel my age! I stayed up until 2.30am last night, and then couldn't sleep properly in case I slept in, so subsequently I awoke extremely early (5.30) and slept fitfully for another hour until the alarm went off. Tonight we're off to the cinema (where I hope not to doze), then a meal, then back for the birthday champagne, so it'll be a very late night. Yawn.

In honour of my birthday, let's have another blog competition.  We did the birth weight last year, so this year will be the time of birth.  The nearest one to the actual time will win some knitting goodies.  **hint** it was some time in the morning, and my mother had a good night's sleep before I arrived. I'll leave the competition open for a week - just leave the answer in the comments.

I had to phone my mum to find out my time of birth, and she told me that I was in hospital for six weeks after birth!  The hospital had a policy of only letting babies out when they were over 5lbs in weight, and mums had to stay in for 10 days, the babies were taken away at night to give the mothers a good night's rest.  How times change - AC had a caesarian section on the Thursday and was home on Saturday. 

Now for knitting. So far I'm sticking to three wips: the commuter sock knitting, Kim Hargreaves Ali at the stash flat (not going too well, I do not like basketweave) and the Mission Falls cardigan.

Commuter sock

Stocking stitch sock with a traditional heel flap and gusset, worked on 2.5mm dpns. I'm hoping to finish this first sock on the commute home tonight, so that I can cast on another one to knit on at the cinema.

Kim Hargreaves Ali Cardigan. 
Back complete, this is the left front. I'm now on the basketweave section, about another 5" of knitting completed since this photo was taken.

Mission Falls striped cardigan. I took progress pics!
Sunday - body complete up to armholes.

Monday lunchtime (a bank holiday over here in the UK)
Body and first sleeve.

Monday evening knitting - a second sleeve nearly completed.

Wednesday evening - second sleeve finished and everything joined together.  I've knitted half a dozen rows since taking this photo, and it will be accompanying me to Stash tomorrow!

I've altered the pattern a little bit; narrowed the sleeves (which seemed to have rather a lot of stitches), used different colours and changed the top shaping to a raglan.

Although it looks nearly finished what you don't see are the million ends in the sleeves.  I've knitted in the majority of ends on the body (using alternative sides to start rows, so that the ends were evenly distributed on both edges) but didn't bother on the sleeves, which were knit circularly.

I'm finding it difficult to stay on track at this stage.  I know I have loads of knitting and sewing on this striped cardigan, but I found myself looking at suitably laceweight/scarf yarn last night. Must. Resist.