skein

September knitting goals

A photoless post!  

As I didn't have any August goals, it's just a case of thinking about what I shall knit in September and STICKING TO IT.  No distractions this month, it's getting close to the busy time for me, and I want to get the knitting done this year. 

So, September goals.

 

Finish:

1) Crochet circles into squares.  I have about 10 mor e circles to complete, then 31 squres to join. 

2) Baby Sheep Yoke cardigan.  The knitting is done, even the ends.  The buttons I ordered just aren't right, so I'm going for either bright green or medium blue.  

Continue:

3) Maja's blanket.  Six squares done, 18 to go.  I'm aiming for nine this month. 

4) Herbivore for Mr C's birthday present in December.  I'm not feeling the love for this Wollmeise child's colourway.  So it's left in the knitting bag, alsways the last thing to pick up.  

Start AND FINISH:

5) Garment #7.  I have six to do in three months.  Not even a clue what to do either!  My original idea was to fit in a summer cardigan, but now the weather had turned chilly I fancy knitting with wool!

6) Socks. Have the yarn, have the pattern, will cast on this weekend.

Start:

7) More socks. for a birthday in early October.  I really ought to finish them, but hsve soooo much to knit this month!  Wonder how much I can get done?

 

Madrigal

Pattern:  Madrigal

Started: 10th June

Finished: 25th July

Yarn: Jaeger Siena, navy, about 7.5 balls

Needles: 3mm

Mods: 

* used a different provisional cast on at the shoulders, wasn't going to take a chance with dark navy yarn.

* worked an inch less of body and an inch less of ribbing so it's at least 2 inches shorter,

* picked up 3sts for 4 rows for borders. 

* worked 3 stitch rather than 4 stitch buttonhole, on right, rather than wrong side row.  Worked an extra row of border, as i used smaller needles.

* worked sleeve caps on an odd number of stitches, so that the 25st lace pattern was symmetrical about the shoulder seam.  When I started the short row shaping I worked it on less stitches, and changed the wrapped stitch pattern so it's more of a bell shaped sleeve cap.  I don't htink it really matters though.  I also chose to pick up the wraps on subsequent rows.  Pattern has you leaving them alone, but I didn't like the holes.  Remember I was knitting in cotton, rather than wool.

 

Comments on the pattern:

The lace pattern chart could have been a lot easier!  The pattern is symetrical, so there's a right and a left side pattern, ditto on the sleeves, yet there is only one chart.  For one side you work the frist 24 sts and for the other the last 24 stitches, as well as either starting at row 1 or the middle row.   How much easier would it have been if there had been two charts.  I spent far too long frogging back this slippery navy cotton.  The lace pattern itself is very easy.   

 

Now then, photos.  We took them with my mobile, and had to have two goes. First lot showed off the lace panels brilliantly - across my bust!  This is the problem with Mr C taking photos, he just doesn't notice things like that.  

Some had his thumb in them,

and some had the top underneath poking up unevnly.

 

 

 

 

Back to my lists!

(and a few photos at the end of this post of current knitting progress).

Yesterday I thought I'd make a few lists, see how my yearly progress (12 of everything) was coming along, and maybe draw up another list of birthday and Christmas knitting.  

Well, what a surprise!  I'm waaaaay behind in all of my knitting.

Let's start with the annual lists.

12 hats - 5 done

12 mitts/gloves - 7 done

12 garments - 6 done

12 pairs of socks - 6 done

12 other things - 5 done

So, in three months I need to  knit 7 hats, 5 pairs of mitts or gloves, 6 garments, 6 paris of socks and 7 other.  Yikes.

It's also a busy period for birthdays.  I don't knit for a lot of them now, but the ones I wll be knitting for:

September - 4yo girl

October - 86yo man

November - 1yo boy

December - 1yo girl, 23yo boy, Mr C

Also December, if things go to plan - a colleague's baby girl. 

Christmas - Mr C,  one woman, two other men.

Double Yikes.  Mr C always gets socks plus a surprise for both birthday and Christmas.  One surprise will be a pullover and he's 6'1", with long arms.  

I have my knitting work cut out!

Some things are already knitted - a pair of socks for  Mr C, a cardigan for the 4yo.  The Sheep yoke will be for the 1yo and that's nearly done too.  

Need buttons, ends darned in a rather a lot of duplicate stitch.

The gift knitting will be:

2 pairs of men's socks

4 baby cardigans, one pair of boottees, baby blanket

shawl (sorreee, scarf!) for Mr C

Jumper for Mr C

3 hats for the men. 

With my crochet table cover in the works too this will up the annual list and will mena I've only got to knit, ON TOP OF THESE THINGS:

4 hats

5 garments

5 pairs of mitts or gloves

4 pairs of socks

0 other

Wish me luck!  Now I'm going to add them to a list on the phone, so it's always with me!

Oh, and here's a quick photo of baby squares for Maja.

I've chosen the colours now and it's final!

Hot pink, peach, light teal, blue, yellow, green.  A half ball of light orange and a ball of turquoise.   I wonder how long I can just do garter stitch for? 

We have a long weekend, the last one till Christmas, so  I shall make the most of it, try to do more finishing on the Sheep yoke, and more squares, possibly even some crochet!

 

 

All about baby stuff

Despite the very hot and muggy weekend I've knitted. Not a lot though, this heat makes me listless.

 

First of all, the Sheep Yoke baby cardigan.  I've done qutie a lot!  I MUCH prefer knitting it bottom up rather than top down.  All the boring stuff is done first, and my decreases are a lot better than my increases. I had a bit of a set-back with the garter stitch sheep, but my problem, did a knit sheep when it ought to have been a purl sheep and didn't realise until the next row when I turned the work to the rhs.

This pattern has no underarm stitches.  Knitting top down you put the sleeve stitches on  a holder, and work them flat after completing the body.  So it was very awkward to knit the first half an inch of the yoke.  I didn't want to disturb the yoke pattern by  losing 16-24 stitches for the underarm.  It is possible to use some of the yoke stitches as underarm stitches though; the yoke would be smaller but the patter is easily adjsutable, just remove some fo the green background to the sheep.   I have some pink yarn to do this for a girl, so I may give it a go, maybe just 16 sts, abut 3".  I must check out the projects on ravelry, see if the yoke looks too big!  The recipient is a dainty 1yo!

And my second baby project, just started.  It's Maja's blanket, easy garter stitch log cabin squares sewn together.  Two reasons why I decided on this pattern.  The recipient is a work colleague and she won't notice me knitting on squares, and secondly, she's called Maja!  

 

I may have to change the colours around though. the pattern uses six colours, grouped int threes. One group is a peach/light green/plive combination, and the other is pink/teal/cram.  I would far rather mix all of the colours up, so there aren't two disticnt colour schemes. I know I'd find it very difficult to sew them up in a ramdon manner!   So I'll be mixing the colours allup. I was briefly tempted to buy more, but I have stash!

What I've been doing since the end of Ravellenics

I've cast on another Sheep Yoke Caridgan, this time it's bottom up rather than top down.  Two reasons.  I love leaving the best/most interesting bit till last and I didn't fancy reknitting it the same way as I did last time (when I had to abandon it due to using needles two sizes too small).  

Not much done so far, it's been carry along knitting, but I've not had a seat on the train and no time at lunchtime to do much knitting!

I'm knitting it in one piece to the armholes, then knitting two sleeves (in the round, who needs seams on a baby's garment?) and finally the lovely yoke.  You can see this 100% acrylic balls seems to have collapsed....

And crochet.  I've sort of lost the mojo to do this, and it's only going to be a small blanket, in 4ply cotton, for a bedside table cover. It doesn't need to be big, as it's going over another cover, just to cover the top and a bit down the sides.   I've done another 20 circles.

so it's gone from this

to this

A quick photo in a gloomy room this morning.  Where is the sun?!

At this size it now covers the top of the table,  and is 49 squares large.  I may do it to either 64 or 81 or 100 squares, depends when I get fed up! 64 is very unlikely!  But possibly 81. That's another 32 square.  I'll aim for that and see how it goes.

 

As I don't have any August goals due to Ravellenic Games, I'm just pottering around.  I want to finish Sheep Yoke and get aroudn to washing Madrigal, so I can wear the thing whilst we have a bit of summer left.  That's going to be this weekend's job. et's hope for sunny weather so it dries.

 

 

 

Ella Funt baby cardigan

My final Ravellenic Games knitting!

I thnk I should mention that these were taken in a hurry just before leaving for work this morning. I have tried to steam them a bit (on a hand towel as I couldn't be bothered to get the ironing board out!) but it needs a good wash as I managed to dunk it into my tea at some stage!

Pattern:  Ella Funt

Started:  August 1st

Finished:  August 12th

Yarn:  Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, in pink (4 balls), white, and oddments of a dark grey-blue, turquoise and purple.

Needles:  3mm and 2.5mm for the borders.

Mods:  Winged it with the sleeves as the schematic and written instructions give different sleeve lengths, astounding with over 400 projects on ravelry!

I frogged the front borders and reknitted them.  The pattern has garter stitch borders, but the stretch and the button placement meant that they  gaped terribly around the yoke.  And looked odd as the neckband, bottom and cuffs are all 2x2 ribbing.  

It looks MUCH better with 2x2 ribbed front borders.   I decreased the button spacing and used a 3 stitch one row buttonhole instead of the smaller yo k2tog (the only available buttons I had were a bit big for this smaller buttonhole).  Those elephants are cute though and I'cd certainly do this again, just keep in mind my mods. 

Ravellenic Games Snowflake DK Baby Bonnet

Phew!  Not doing as well as I thought with this Ravellenic Games Knitting!  

On Monday I knitted the crown, with just a few rows to do on Tuesday evening.  Well.  Tuesday evening I CAST OFF.   Then saw a strand of yarn on the wrong side and tried to tink back.  Ended up pulling the needles out and frogging back,  but of course this meant that stitches dropped.  Nothing to it.  Tink back.  Thus Tuesday evening, when I should have finished, and Wednesday evening, when I should have been getting a move on with Ella Funt, I tinked.   Finally, on Thursday evening I finished.  

 

I've taken two whole days, and four evenings to finish a baby bonnet, sized newborn!  MInd you I have knitted the equivalent of two newborn baby bonnets! 

I'm pleased to say that this has been entered five events (thankfully!) - baby, hat, double knitting, stash and colourwork.  That's eight medals so far (once I post to the finishing line of the events)

 

Pattern:  Snowflake DK Baby Bonnet

Started: 4th August

Finished: 9th August

Needles: 2mm and 3mm (went down a size as I'm a sloppy Double Knitter

Yarn:  Wollmeise superwash in natural and True Love.

Mods: added two rows to the brim as I was worried about it being too small.  My knitting is such that if I want stitch tension it's at the expense of row tension. 

Now usually I would give this a little steam press to even out the knitting, or a wash, but as it was finished late last night and I wanted to blog and post to ravelry you are seeing the knitting as it came off the needles, warts and all.  Still pleased though!  

One side 

The other side

Comments:  I love this pattern. You're busy all the way through, with various techniques.  Starting with I-Cord, tubular cast on (optiona) and then double knitting.  The tension square is a practice piece for all three elements.

Despite the tinking and reknitting, it's a fun knit, as are all of the Lucy Neatby patterns I've knitted.    And I am still amazed at Double Knitting.  I just love it!  I have a few pairs of mittens, a hat and a few scarves in the queue!

 

Ravellenic Games - Double Knit Baby Bonnet

I have hit a sticking point with Ella Funt.  Happily knitting away on the first sleeve, and I do a quick check on the sleeve row count, as per instructions.  

There's an inch of ribbing before starting the st st and increasing sections.  Increasing is done on the 10th round 1x, 8th round 3x and 10th round 4x.  By my reckoning that's 74 rows at 8.5sts per inch = 8.7".  Adding on the inch of ribbing makes it 9.7".  But the written instructions have you knitting until the sleeve measures 8" from cast on,  yet the schematic shows the length as 9.5".   This is the third size, and the fourth is out too.  I've left a message with the designer via ravelry.  What stumps me is that there are 239 projects but no-one has mentioned this.  If I don't hear I shall look at other patterns and wing it.  

Meanwhile, thie one thing I certainly do want to use the Ravellenics for is to try my hand at more double knitting.  I've only tried this once, loved the result,  but am a bit intimidated by the whole process. It's not difficult, but you do need to concentrate, watching that the yarns are on the correct side each time and being careful not to purl the next knit and purl stitch, as they bunch up together on the needle.  

Saturday I cast on the Snowflake DK Baby Bonnet by Lucy Neatby.  You start off with I-cords, then you do a new to me tubular cast on,  joining the icords.  This was fiddly (the cast on) and I had a few attempts, kept snaking around the needle, and I was so tight I couldn't move the stitches up to the point!  But it has turned out well.  I followed the intructions blindly!  A colour change though, I loved it in the darkish blue and cream (both Wollmeise) but Chris said that as it's for a girl I might want to do a girly shade, especially as it's for a new born.  I don't think it matters that much .... but still. This is another Wollmeise colour, called True Love, a deep pink. Not as brown as it looks here. 

At the end of Saturday I had only managed this amount of knitting

As it's double knitting, you've got to see the other side too

Sunday morning went well. Indeed, Sunday afternoon went well, until I thought I'd tidy up a messy stitch, started dropping the stitch down, accidently dropped the opposite stitch down too, got into a tangled mess, started tinking and that meant more dropped stitches.  It took me until 6pm to get back to where I was mid afternoon.  But, glad that I stuck with it, as i've now done that first bit and only have the back of the bonnet to do now.

This may be the evening knitting for a few days.  At least I'll be decreasing down in number rather than increasing!  

Ravellenic Games catch up

The most important bit - I have two medals!  I'm on the Podium for both the Mitten Medley and the Colourwork Cross Country!  (Along with lots and lots of other ravthletes).

I've fallen into the ditch with the Sheep Yoke Cardigan (which is in Colourwork Cross Country, Baby Dressage and Sweater Triathlon) but I may haul myself out in the next week and desperately try to finish.

Meanwhile, I've entered a few more events with this Ella Funt Cardigan - Colourwork, Baby and Sweater again.  I may run out of yarn, so have ordered another ball just in case. It will be a different dye lot though, so fingers crossed it might only be needed for the borders.

It's a bottom up seamless design. You cast on for the body, knit to armholes, knit two sleeves, join for the yoke, knit two inches plain, then start the yoke pattern. I intend knitting the background in cream to save on pink yarn and because I like that look.  

It's not as pink as this, colour is called something like Old Rose.  I'm nearly finished with the body and ready to cast on for a sleeve.  The size I'm knitting is a 12-18 month size, but it's so large that I'm hoping that it will fit my soon to be four year old great niece!  24-25" chest.  We'll see when it's off the needles.

I love knitting things where the best bit is at the end, or where I'm decreasing rather than increasing - and this pattern does that. I have that lovely yoke to knit at the end not the beginning.  It's made me think that I may knit the sheep yoke this way - do the plain borring stuff first and the yoke last.  My decreases are always so much better looking than my increasses, and working with acrylic (the Sheep Yoke) means that holes show; the holes don't dissapear as they do with spirngy wool.

 This weekend, with daylight, lts of energy (for knitting) and no alcohol in my system I intend starting Lucy Neatby's baby bonnet, a double knit project. I really, really REALLY want to to knit this for the Ravellenic Games.  I've only knitted some mitts this way and they took forever. Just hope I can do it in a week!

Ravellenic knitting is NOT going to plan!

Ah, it was going so well.  Great to finish a project in a weekend.  Great to cast on, late on Sunday night, another project.   The Sheep Yoke Sweater, a free ravelry download, for a baby, uitable for entry into the Sweater, Baby and Colourwork events. 

I had two colour schemes for this design.  

Boy - main shade navy, with denim blue sky.

Girl - main shade pink, with light blue sky,

Both designs from Rico baby dk - 100% acrylic.  It was a bit oof a leap form the lovely organic Dorset Poll wool.  I'm not a huge acrylic fan and have probably knitted just a few garments from 100% acrylic in the last two decades, one of which was for Mr C, a gross, brightly coloured cardigan, using Jonelle's kid's aran, the only yarn in the shop with very bright yellow red and blue shades.  Now this Rico still feels like acrylic but is fine to knit with.   I'd intended the boy's cardigan to be for my great nephew,  easy care for his busy mum, who is not a knitter nor a hand washer of knits.  

Great start.

that was Monday evening.  By Wednesday it had grown to this much (and all plain sailing from here onwards)

This was taken JUST BEFORE BEDTIME.  Just after I realsied that my needles were 3.25mm nad not 3.75mm.  This cardigan is sized for either a 6-9 or 9-12 month old baby.  Same pattern, just different tension to achieve a smaller size.  I wanted the tension to be 22sts for the larger size, and yes, I did measure, and yes, it seemed to be 22sts (at a stretch, and only over an inch or two).  It was only when I hit the straight bit, no increases, when I started thinking that the cardigan looked a bit narrow.  Measured again, puzzled that my tension wa a little too tight.  decided to check the needle size (you'd think I'd be able to tell the difference betwwen a 3.25mm and a 3.75mm after all of these years knitting) and discovered my error.  I was so cross with myself - three crucial days lost!   I haven't frogged yet (Rico seems to not like frogging, accordign to ravellers) but will set it aside for a few days.

This morning I've started Ella Funt instead.  The ony worry is that I have only three balls of main colour and I need 3.8.  I'm going to risk it.  Tonight the needles will be flying!