skein

Rainbow socks

MrC's Easter present. Finished just in time for Friday.

I tried the Fish Lips Kiss heel this time. It's basically a short row heel, but instead of wrapping the stitches you do a shadow wrap. Where you pick up and knit or purl the stitch on the previous row below the stitch to be wrapped. 

MrC declared them a good fit - which  means snug to anyone else!

Tea with Jam and Bread

Yesterday's post.  I forgot to publish it on Friday! 

Lots of mods.

My tension was way out so I had to fudge the yoke and sleeves

• changed the yoke decreases to every other round until near the armholes, otherwise I'd have had a super long yoke,  Decreased stitch count.
• Did the same on the sleeves, decreased stitch count and did my own decreases, every 10th round
• Changed the stripe sequence to use up some oddments and a lone skein.  The pink was oddments, the purple was a lone skein and the green was from a recycled project.  Very good to use up some old stash!
• Lengthened the body by several inches. Knitted five more rows after the ribbing so that it would curl. I wanted a casual look.

Whilst I was knitting this I discovered a hole near the seam line which I fully intended to close after finishing. And forgot!  It looks as if I'd wrapped the sttich twice and then knitted  one strand, leaving a super big stitch, I have no morw green yarn so will have to work the stitches. Mr C panicked, thought it was a ladder, lol!

I'm still striping and am now knitting After the Rain.  After this I think I'll be over jumpers and stripes!

 

 

Tea with Jam and Bread progress

The knitting's done! I easily managed that last sleeve in a day.But then decided that the body wasn't quite long enough.   I unpicked the cast off, knitted another stripe sequence (and used up all of the purple)  Eight rows of 2x2 ribbing followed by five rows of stocking stitch and a loose cast off. Going for a relaxed casual look.  

This was such a great stashbuster.  The green was from a recycled cardgian, the pink from leftovers and the purple was a single skein. 

So easy that i've cast on another stashbuster. This time using Felted Tweed. I've just cast on, only knitted a few inches but will get a good chunk done over Easter I hope.

 

Baby Sophisticate

This is a free pattern for aran weight yarn.  It's worked top down, with a short row collar,  I followed the pattern as written (except for picking up the wraps on the short row collar) but should I knit this again I'd not slip the first stitch of each row.  Not the best for picking up stitches.  

The yarn's Debbie Bliss Aran Cashmerino.    When MrC  spotted this drying on the sweater dryer he actually commented on how great it looked, something he's never done for a baby garment.

Granny's Favourtie Cardigan

My second one - this time it's for my new great niece Betsy!

So cute!  I do enjoy baby knitting. 

The yarn's Skein Queen's Crush DK.  It's a merino nylon sock yarn but is just great for babies.  Machine washable and soft. My new favourite baby yarn. 

Socks

A quick post.  I've started a pair of socks for MrC.  Colour's right up his street - bright!   This is furtive knitting,, whilst he's not around, but I'm trying to get them finished for Easter, thought I'd surprise him with a sock gift,  This time around I'm trying Fish Kiss Lips.  Once I started knitting, I realised that I'd done this before, many years ago.  Instead of wrapping you pick up the stitch below. It does seem to leave smaller holes and that's with me stretching out the stitch!  It's easier when picking up the wraps but a bit slower to form the double stitch than wrapping.   II think that this way of working short rows is called shadow wrapping?

Hoping to finish this first sock tonight, and then I have two workday evenings and half a Sunday to knit the other one. good job they're a bit thicker!

Sunglasses on? Here goes for the photo.  They're not as bright, but the darker background makes the colours stand out...

 

 

Tea with Jam and Bread progress

I have to look up the pattern name every time I type it,. Just can't remember it!

I've finished the body. 

I may unpiick the hem and lengthen it a bit - that's if I have enough yarn and if washing doesn't relax it a bit. I tried it on and it's a bit snug and a bit short. I'm pretty confident that this will drop though when washed.

It's frustrating that I can't capture the colours with my mobile. The top stripes are pink and there's a littel more contrast between green and purple in real life. Subtle.

I think it's one of those tricks with colour. Sometimes I try to photograph yarns, and with a pale background they look completely different than with a dark background.  

My plan is to finish this by the weekend.  It's a pain striping with two colours on a narrow circumference.  I've had to stick the resting colour inside the sleeve so that they don't twist, with all is the turning as I knit.  I'm wondering if I'll feel like casting on another striped jumper or go for something completely different. 

 

 

A couple of top down garments

Nothing to get too excited about!  

Garment #1 is a top down baby cardigan.  It's a free pattern, Baby Sophisticate, a quick knit aran weight cardigan.  . This is for my niece's friend who is expecting in June, and I'm knitting a six month size, for next winter. 

 

Next up is Tea with Bread and Jam.  Unlike the other designs I've knitted (Vitamin D, Fine Sands and Quick Sands) this one doesn't have shaping.  There are raglan increases and then it's straight all the way down. I'm omitting the pockets and doing my own thing with the stripes. Rather than knit the wide stripes I've done four row stripes on the yoke, in a brighter colour (pink, looks suspicioulsy like orange on my phone!) and for the rest of the body it's 8 rows of Jade, then 5 rows of purple.  I might not have enogh for the sleeves, and may need to do either plain or blue and jade stripes. 

I've had to modify the raglan increases as my row tension is off, but it's prtty easy to adjust once you've knitted a few inches and have a better idea of the row tension.  My yoke is an inch shorter - but I'm sure that DIC Classy drops a bit when washed. 

 

All plain easy knitting this week!

 

February knitting and March knitting goals

Well February was a bit of a disaster!  I tend to do most of my knitting at weekends, and hardly did any knitting (with results) for two whole weekends!

Blog

1 Imitation Game Hat - done! 

Continue

2 Snowflower jumper - Mega fail!  I accidentally unravelled some of the stranded section (in the other knitting direction) and I felt it was too obvious to repair.  So I've put this away, and will start over next winter.

Start and finish

3 Stitchnerd's February KAL - another dismal fail!  I love the pattern and spent a whole weekend knitting but found dropped stitches and don't have any inclination to restart -  yet.

4/8 Hats!  Done!

Start

9 Socks for MrC  - fail!

10 Socks for me - fail!

11 Baby garment for new great niece -done!  I've actually finished this today.  

Let's see if March is better!

 

March

Blog

1 Baby garment. 

Continue

2 New jumper. Yes, I've cast on for Tea with Bread and jam. So far so good. Short row back neck shaping is done, and I'm now on the raglan increases. Soon I'll start striping.

Start and finish

3 Stitchnerds March KAL

4 Another baby cardigan. This time it's for a baby due in June, so I'm going to knit a quick aran weight for next winter.

Start (let's be honest, I probably won't finish these!)

5 Socks for MrC

6 Socks for me

7 Dare I try for another jumper?  I quite fancy a striped Felted Tweed jumper. I have limited colour choice (from stash) black will be one of the colours, and the choice is Avocado, Paisley or a reddy brown - Rage?  Most likely this as I have 2-3 balls which aren't enough for anything else.

Now really, Dawn, these are do-able!