skein

Ohh Summer and Summer Storm

I joined a few KALs this month, more baby/toddler stuff!  With our mini heatwave (not as hot as 1976, for those of us around then!) I'm happy to knit on small projects. No shawls, cardigans or blankets in this heat!)

First. Summer Storm. 

Knitted in dk weight, I opted for King Cole Cotton/bamboo blend. Nice yarn, except when it runs. and runs and runs.  I spent more time trying to pick up stitches or tink back than knit the rest of the garment!  Needless to say, I'm fed up with this now! 

The photo is rubbish. Not blocked, or even laid out properly, so it looks all lumps and bumps. I have tried to take more photos, even bringing it into work (so it's daylight!) but to no avail. It's dark and raining today!

I love these Rowan metail buttons, must buy more. 

The second one is Ohh Summer!, very girly and pretty.  I used stashed Rowan 4ply cotton, in a fresh green.  It's knitted top down, has lace sleeves and lace body, with a bit of flair going on there with such open lace. It's meant to be shortish, so although it looks like it's for a baby, it's actually size 4T.

 

The closures are ties, with beads. I used some bright Pony Beads, using a crochet cast on over a needle and immediately casting off, thinner than I-cord, more substantial than a crocheted chain.

Love.

 

Knitting revisited - Foolish Virgins scarf

It is soooo hard to resist my Epic projects!  

Here's the Foolish Virgins scarf.  A huge feat of knitting.

Started on 10th January 2010 and finished on 20th May, it took a while!  

We went to a Kaffe Fassett talk at Peter Jones, probably the year before, and after looking at the knitting I fell in love with this scarf.  I bought the book, then went to the yarn department and bought the yarn - lots of balls of Rowan's Harris Tweed 4ply,  Cost a fortune, but I think of yarn price as not just buying the yarn, but the hours it takes to knit up. I would spend far more going  to the pub!

I soon realised that this is a weekend knitting project. Weekend DAYLIGHT project. It meant that I could knit other things during the evenings and not get too bogged down with this massive intarsia project. 

And the ends... mountains of ends!  However neatly you darn in ends, when you have so many as in this project it's impossible to keep the back looking pristine.  

So I decided to use the remaining yarn (lots!) to knit a striped backing. I knitted the front, then continued in stripes and joined a the sides. That took me a while to think through but eventually I piicked up and knit along all four sides, knitted a few rows (of gareter stitch( and then did a 3 needle cast off.

So very pleased with this. It's thick, warm and colourful. That Kaffe, he's a bloody genius with colour!

Ravelry link here, (with lots more photos of the various patterns), blog link here.  

 

 

 

Honeybee Cardigan

At last, finished photos!

Pattern: Honeybee Cardigan

Start/finish: 2nd June - 9th July

Yarn: Rowan Wool Cotton 4ply six balls

Needles: 3mm and 2.5mm for borders.

Mods:

This was knit bottom up, seamlessly. When you reach the start of sleeve shaping you knit two sleeves, and then join sleeves and body and knit a fake set in sleeve top. 

CO an extra stitch each front border, so I started and ended with a K3, meaning that the ribbing (K2 P2) looked better when I used that edge stitch for the button bands.

Started and ended RS rows with a knit stitch, WS rows with a purl stitch, making it easier to pick up for the bands.

Knitted narrower sleeves. Pattern has straight, rather than tapered, but I prefer a tapered sleeve. Instead of CO 84sts and working to start of armhole shaping I CO 60sts and increased to 74sts. 

Not one of the best patterns I've used. I found the instructions, especially as the bee pattern has different stitch counts depending on which row you're on, a bit too vague.  The pattern itself isn't difficult, the bee and lace panels are easy to memorise. It's the attention to detail which is lacking, and could have meant far less time fussing over  how many sts to cast off, and which row to start various decreases on.  Also the row tension was bizarre! Even after blocking, I was 33% out!  And lots of other ravellers were out too, so the length was hit and miss. Luckily I managed to get it right!  I added a few rows here and there to the armhole shaping, to increase the depth a bit.

The nature of the lace meant it grew (in width mainly) so gong down a needles size and knitting a smaller size was a wise move.  I can't undertand though why the designer didn't just write the pattern for the correct sizing, taking into account that the swatch will never grow as much as an overall garment will in washing.

Overall though, despite my moaning, I love the cardigan, yarn and colour. First yellow cardigan I've owned!

knitting revisited - Beach Glass shawl

This time it's a shawl. I have dozens and dozens of shawls on ravelry, so could keep going for ages with a weekly shawl post!

This one is Beach Glass. It's by Susan Lawrence, who designed the famous Forest Canopy,

The pattern's right up my street, easy and bottom up. It's a pain to start with, all of those long rows, but I just LOVE the shortening rows as you get near the finish.  It only took me two weeks

Started at the end of May, 2010 and finished mid June. 

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Ravelry link here, blog link here. 

A couple of mystery KALs

Wow!  Summer has arrived with a vengeance in London.  I'm a northern girl, and really don't do well in hot weather.  Our office is stifling. The commute is dreadful.  Any 'air-conditioning' on trains isso minimal you can hardly feel any benefit. Thankfully Honeybee is finished, and the only things on the needles are socks and these two kals.

Both are designed by Elena Nodel, whose designs for babies and children are seamless with some sort of texture or detail (not that I'm an expert, but I've knitted Pepper and Summer Days and have a few more in my ravelry library).

First off, it's Ohh Summer! which is a girly cardigan.  I'm knitting it in Rowan 4ply cotton from stash,  It's knitted top down. Clues one and two complete.

This is sized 4T.  I think that there's just one more clue to do. That should be finishing off the sleeves and possible a cord tie or something similar (there are Pony beads involved..)

The secone KAL is Summer Storm, which is a unisex/boy's vest.  It's knitted from the bottom up.  Three clues done so far.  I'm knitting a size 24m for this one, and using King Cole's Bamboo Cotton.  I have no idea how it wears and washes, but it's nice to knit with!

This one has afterthought pockets and an asymmetrical frotn 9which took me a while to figure out, thought the pattern had errors in pocket placement!

Here's a close up of the pattern (and more like the colour of the yarn)

I need to think about buttons...

 

 

Knitting revisited - Blue Hands Gloves

These are my favourite gloves. Knitted in Wollmeise merino 4ply, between March and May 2011.  Judging by the photo we must have had some sun in early May!

B lue Hands, by Julia Meuller.  I've knit several of her patterns, love them. 

Ravelry link here, blog link here.

Honeybee cardigan progress

I've been too busy to find much time to knit this past week (and commuting / lunchtime knitting is non existent at the moment, blame crowded trains and short staffed at work due to holiday/maternity leave,,,)

I have, however, finished the knitting on Honeybee!

I tell you, it has taken me longer to knit the cardigan from halfway up the armhole to the top, than it has taken me to knit the body and two sleeves!  

It started off well. I joined sleeves to body ready to start the mock set in sleeve shaping. I was a bit worried about this, a few of the ravelry projects mentioned that it was hardly worth knitting them like this and might have been easier to knit sleeves and then set them in.  I found it ok though. I followed the chart, adjusting some of the decreases as I had less sleeve sts for my size (deliberately) and it all went well.  That part anyway..

The sticking point for me was the neck decreases. You cast off, for my size, 12, then 6 and then 1 st for six alternate rows.  When you start the shoulder shaping you are meant to have 25 stitches on each front, after decreasing 24sts each side.  

This is where there is a pattern fail.  There are two lace patterns. A narrow faggotting pattern, over four sts, and a bee pattern over ... well it varies depending on which row you're on!  Each row has a different stitch count, ranging from 8 to 13! The pattern doesn't instruct you on which row to start the neck decreases.  My first attempt left me with a narrow lace panel as the neck edge. I reached the shoulders and decided I didn't like it so frogged back (not peasant with the bee stich!) and reknitted, decreasing another four sts so that the neck edge ended with a bee panel. Another gripe was that there is no instruction for whether to work half a bee or st stitch as you are doing the front slopes. I tried half a bee (of course) but frogged that and knitted plain, it looked far too messy.

The shoulder, same thing about the stitch count!  I just stopped on the left shoulder at the same point of the pattern, as my stitch count varied from 20-25 depending on the bee row!  Just annoying. It would have been better to state which panels to decrease to for the shoulders, rather than giving a stitch count...

Grumble over. I had a mishap with the i-cord neck edging, but that was down to me. I had to tink back as I'd split the yarn, and dropped some of the faggotting lace stitches on the back. 

After that waffle here's the finsihed knitted garment. Still have ends, underarm sts to graft, buttons and a wash, but it's nearly there!

Knitting revisited - Poppy waistcoat

 

This week is another Epic project.  It's Mr. C's Poppy waistcoat. Knitted in April 2007, ready for Spring,

 

Anyone who knows me knows that Mr C likes his colour.  No dark socks for him!  He likes bright colours, with red,  yellow and orange being tops. No green though.  One day I shall knit him a birght yellow jumper!

This project came about because oa fellow knitting friend, Brigid, was knitting a poppy waistcoat, based on Kaffe Fassett's Persian Poppy design.  Well Mr C wanted one!  And he had conveniently bought me his books over the years.  H I had lots of shetland type 4ply in stash, in various greens and reds.  

 

I did swatch!  And then knit the thing in one piece up to the armholes, then working on the back and the fronts separately.  No pattern as such, just knew the width and he kept trying it on.

 I put a button hole in the front, so that he could thread his headphones through!  When we stopped off at a German yarn store a year or so later he bought a red ladybird button which he sewed on there.

 

Ravelry link here and blog here 

Audrey in Unst

Tada!  I finished this a while ago but buttons and taking photos took a while...

Pattern: Audrey in Unst

Start.finish: April 13th - May 18th

Needles: 2.25mm and 3.5mm

Yarn: Rowan 4ply soft, Beetroot, 7 skeins.  

Mods:

Lengthened by working about 1.5" more before starting the waist decreases, and an inch after the waist increases.

Picked up 31sts each side of armhole for sleeves, rather than the given 33sts, as my row tension was off a bit. I never worry too much about exact numbers for stuff like this, I just see how many I need to pick up and then adjust on the next row if it's a big difference. 

Similarly I adjusted the number of sts picked up for the front borders, as I'd lengthened the body, using the ratio 3/4.

It's a lovely pattern, knitted in one piece to the armholes, then divided for fronts and back. It's all stocking stitch apart from the deep ribbing on the bottom and cuffs, and some lace ont the front bib.

The neck is tidied up wtih a simple i-cord edging. Sleeves are picked up and knitted down, iwth a fake set in sleeve look worked by simple short rows (no picking up wraps!)

If there were no new cardigan patterns I want to knit, and more hours int he day I'd certainly knit this again. 

 

 

June knitting and July knitting goals

Second attempt, just managed to lose a whole bloody blog post!

June

Finish

1) Audrey in Unst cardigan. Done!  Need to blog.

2) C's socks. Done!

3) Olearia toddler cardigan. Done!

4) Summer Day shrug  Done!

Start and finish

5) Another baby cardigan. Done!  Sideways Babe

6) Another garment. Done!  Honeybee cardigan in Rowan 4ply wool cotton.

7) Undecided.   Dishcloths - done!

I've managed to complete ALL of my knitting goals!  First time this year

Helped by the fact that some are small and I fitted in a long weekend visiting my parents. Sometimes I don't get much knitting done, but this time i did.  Very pleased. 

As for stash this month, in 220, out a massive 3045 yards (I only count finished stuff) meaning my June total is out 2825 yards.  The cumulative yardage for the year is + 444 yards.  Looks like I am not diminishing the stash that much but I am keeping it under control!

Now for July

Blog:
1) Audrey in Unst

Finish:

2) Green socks. One leg done.

3) Honeybee cardigan. Body to the armholes and both sleeves done, and joined. Working my way to the shoulders!  I do like this rowan 4ply wool cotton. Prefer it to the dk weight one.

Start and finiish:

4) Ravelry KAL Summer Storm, a unisex vest (I think) for a baby/child.

5) Ravelry KAL Ohh Summer!, another kal by the same designer as Summer Storm.  

Start:

6) Undecided

7) Undecided

I have no idea what I want to knit. I'm fickle, depends on the weather!  One part of me wants to knit another cardigan, but maybe I should think about a shawl, or a blanket?  I'll see how it goes.

Happy knitting!