skein

Sandshore cardigan

I've been dragging my heels on getting photos for this cardigan.  We managed to get a few taken late on Monday afternoon.  It wa a bit overcast but I really wanted to post this before the end of the month! 

My last summer cardigan, knitted in Rowan Bamboo Tape. I've mixed feelings about the yarn. Sometimes I thought it was great to knit wit, other times I struggled.  Picking up dropped stitches, especially on the mesh panels, was impossible. Blunt fat needles and thin pointy needles weren't great with p2tog. I had to be really slow and careful on the lace bits. 

The pattern didn't really do it for me either.  I had to centre that vertical lace panel, would've driven me mad if not. I halved the front border ribbing, I thought it was a bit too wide for an open cardigan. I much prefer the way that Quick Sands rolls.

I didn't lengthen the sleeves from half to three-quarter length, my preferred summer cardigan length.  I had enough yarn but was done with the knitting I think!  

I didn't wash it or block it in any way.  The Bamboo tape has great drape, but I wonder how it will do when washed? I wa joking with MrC about how it might go like cardboard when wet. He just thought i should keep it away from pandas in case they ate it!

 

The good knitting news - or the bad :(

A long for me post!  Just warming you.

I think the bad news. Might as well just get it out.

The second TSS shawl, Amulet, has been abandoned.  There. I've said it. 

I was happily knitting away on the border, FIVE ROWS FROM CASTING OFF,  when I noticed that I was one stitch out of sync on the double decreases. I blame MrC, who was chatting! I carefully tinked back nearly a full row, but not carefully enough, Some stitches ran and ran, and I couldn't work out how to repair it. I could have pulled out one pattern repeat and re-knitted that bit but it stretches out the stitches. AND I spotted another few very dropped stitches.  Harumph.

TSS consists of six patterns, released monthly.  I'd have loved a few more single skein shawls, good for stash busting and my preferred smaller size. I don't usually buy two skeins of 4ply, so having patterns which need just over one skein is a bit of a pain. 

Talisman was a single skein shawl.

Amulet isn't, although you can knit each of the four pattern sections in a different colour (or just two), I didn't fancy wide stripes, and opted for a one colour shawl.  Had to buy yarn!

Asana is another one which needs more than one skein of one colour. Now that I've abandoned Amulet I may well recycle my yarn for this shawl. If/when I go back to Amulet I mgiht looke for two tonal colours. As long as I avoid that football stirping! 

The fourth shawl is due out next week, but the yarn type and yardage has been announced. It's THREE colours, my least favourite to knit (because I'm rubbish at gettting three colours which go well!), And DK. I'll wait for the pattern to come out but am thinking of some Skein Queen Voluptuous.  I'm thinking two tonal, one contrasting.  This might be a bit of a challenge!

 

The not bad but a bit weird news.

I finished my scrap socks.  The nature of the scrap ball means that my socks look like they're from different families, not even fraternal. I'm not sure that  I'd wear them, I have enoguh yarn left to knit a second bright one!  And when sewing in the edns of the dull sock I've found it's partially unravelled near the cast on at the top. I think I may have cut the yarn accidently wheen the sock was mixed up with scissors and hooks and other stuff in a knitting bag.

 

My other good news (nothing weird here) is that I've finished a quick cowl,  It was something which I'd planned for the ravellenics but ran out of time.  It's great to use old stash - some Jaeger Matchmaker aran! 

 

And I've cast on some mitts which I'd also planned for ravellenics. See if I can get them done in a few evenings. Ready for ..... Shawl September!  Yes, I'm going to concentrate on a shawl catch up next month.  I want to knit two of the TSS shawls, and a coupld of one skein shawls. 

 

Post ravellenic knitting

Four evenings of knitting and I've hardly knitted!  I've spent two evenings working on the border of Ameulet shawl, and have knitted a further 10% (love this percentage system!),  It's slow going, as I'm adding beads, and I've very clumsy about that, I perch the little dish with beads beside me on the chair and have to reember not to get up suddenly and forget I have them with me.  

I'm thinking of skipping the next shawl and continueing with the shawl after that one, due out early September. I see that the yarn is a DK weight.  Might be nice having a big thicker shawl.  I'll see how I get on this weekend.

And socks. My scrap socks are coming along. Just the toe to go!  I've resisted taking photos until I've finished them.  One sock has lots of dark colours, the second sock is very brightly coloured.  Not een talking fraternal, complete strangers!   I could have separated all of the colours and chosen my sequence, but I liked the idea of just knitting as they came out of the ball.  

 

I was chekcing out what I thought I'd do in August.

Things I need to do in August

Blog Sandshore cardigan  - so take some photos this wekeend!

Finish the socks 

Finish the shawl

Knit mitts which weren't knitted for the ravellenics

Knit a cowl which I wanted to do for the ravellenics

Start the next TSS shawl - which I might not do...

A long weekend coming up!

The end of ravellenics!

This was the last weekend of ravellenic knitting, I had Plans:

Finish 100m Lightning Bolt hat

Start and finish 200m Cowl

Finish 400m Sprint shawl

I'd given up thinking i could also knit a pair of mitts and another hat.  Good job, because I didn't get the cowl finished!

 

Saturday I finished the hat.  Because I spent most of Sunday knitting I didn't get around to taking photos until 5.30 - the sun had already crept over the flats and MrC was out, so I had to resort to another selfie,  

You can't see it clearly, but it's Lightening Bolts :)  

Then the Cowl fiasco.

1) Find yarn - that took a little dithering

2) Choose needle size - that took even longer. I'd cast on, decide to go up a needle size, cast on, go up a needle size. 

3) Have  a good look at the knitting. And decide I'd like to try this pattern in a thicker yarn, not DK, possibly aran?

Repeating Steps 1 and 2 until I had something I liked. By now it was evening! The yarn looked good, but felt a bit too rough for me (not the merino silk blend softenss I expected). Checked the label.  Damn, I'd picked up some BFL aran by mistake.  Nothing wrong with BFL, but I'd wanted a super soft next to neck wool, BFL just doesn't do it for me. 

Frog.

Just before bed I check my 400m shawl.  At least I can finsih this in a day.  It's a super fast garter stitch shawl, with a garter lace side border,  The shape is a boomerrang shape. you increase slowly on one side, and then cast off.  The CO edge ends up being one of the bottom borders.  I weighted my ball of yarn. Nope, not up to 70% done - more like 55%.  

The pattern was written in a hurry for the ravellenics, so the lace border goes up just on the left side, one of the sides. The CO is plain. It looks fine wrapped around the neck, but I fancied carrying on, connecting the live stitches to a sideways knit border. So not only idd I have to knit 45% of the shawl, some would be a sidewasys knitted border, slowing me down. It was only a matter of about 95m, but I'm not a fast knitter,

I also had to calculate how much yarn I should have fo rthe top border.  

3each live stitch needed two border pattern rows - 2x8sts  = 16sts = about 16 rows = 8 garter ridges.

As the stitch count increases slowly, I thought that I could weigh my yarn, work four garter ridges, weigh my yarn to work out how much four ridges takes. Double that to estimate how much weight I'd need for the border.  It worked out at about 24g,  (This only wokds as you['re near to where you want ot start the border obviously,  where the stitch count is more accurate, and it's an approximatin I have no idea what the difference is between garter stitches and border stitches, which involved yarnovers, decreasing and casting off.

As it turned out, I was highly accurate!  I used 23g. Can't bloody believe it!

Luckily, MrC arrived home just before six, so I didn't have to use the shawl-draped-over-the-hedge shot.

 

 

I haven't blocked it - it's garter stitch and worsted weight,  I find that garter stitch likes to shrink back a bit after blocking, so I'm not that fussed about washing it.

MrC was a bit worried about the point not being centred, I had to show him eht shpe, so he couls see that it was asymmetrical.  

Lovely and squishy.  Countess Ablazxe Cashmerino in a shade called Bitter Salt Water. 

ravellenics update

Just the weekend to go! 

And what have I got to show for two weekends of knitting?

Well, not a lot.

A dishcloth and two hats. Did I mention that I'd frogged my shawl? That was at least one weekend and half of the next wasted!

I'm on the Stitchnerd's team and I tell you, that woman is a tornado!  She keeps coming up with patterns , which I just have to download and knit!

Ther's the Rio Collection, two hats, mitts, a cushion cover and another hat not yet released. Then there's been the Speed Challenge (that's my dishcloth but some have knitted cushions), the 100m Lightning Bolt hat (which I've cast on), the 400m Sprint shawl (I'm knitting) and the Resting Time shawl (i've downloaded but really, can't knit in a weekend!).  I'm excluding a few patterns which have come out during the Olumpics and I've bought to hoard.  I see in the thread there's a 200m cowl in Test!

Dishcloth

 

Hipster hat (MrC was not available to model this one). It SWAMPS me!

 

Fastoche hat (very difficult to mdel and take a side shot!)

I'm about a third of the way through the 100n Lightning Bolt hat and about two thirds doen with 400m Sprint shawl.  I can definitely do these over the weekend. The shawl is just garter stitch, I'm not even going to block it!

A good choice for a bit of variegation.

And what can I squeeze in before the closing ceremony?  In Dawn's knitting world, where I'm a suprfast knitter, I might do the lot - another shawl, cowl, hat and mitts. But I might just settle for either a shawl or the smaller items.  
 


 

Ravellenics blah

Well you know that that title suggests, don't you?

 

yep, one mistake too many and the Nature's Lace shawl is FROGGED,  It's a simple pattern. Stocking stitch and then the lace bit. The lace bit is really a 12st pattern repeat, for both sides, either kntiting or purling, with rows of reverse st st in between. The major problem is that it's really hard to correct erros (for me, anyway) unless it's the row below. I can't read this lace knitting so well. If I count the lace repeat and check it's correct on the row below, that the yos, plain stis, yarnovers and double decreases line up, I'm OK. Except that I wasn't chekcing, I was either watching the Olympics or chatting to MrC.  And instead of just frogging back the 12 stitch repeat I kept trying to fix just a part of the repeat. I wasted hours doing this. I thought I could live with errors but I'm sure that they would have been noticeable when blocked out!  I'm so pig sick of peach that the yarn's been ut away as well.

 

As that shawl has taken up so much Olympic/ravellenic time it means that in four days and five evenings I have finished just TWO HATS.  These are washed and blocing, but I expect to have photos by the end of the week.

I cast on a mitt, but am using leftovers and was worried about yardage, Consequently the ribbing is too short.  Blah again.

On Saturday just before bed I went onto ravelry and sawy that there is anew free Stitchnerd pattern out, called 400m Sprint.  Can I do this in a week?  Knit, block and photograph?  It bodes well.  It's garter stitch, increasing one side and with a simple lace border knitted as you go. Dead easy. Thick yarn.  Dipping into stash the first bag I came across was Countess Ablaze DK/aran weights. I found a coule of skeins of Cashmerino  and one ball wound, and cast on.  I've has one little stutter, which was going up to 5mm. I liked the 4.5mm version but want it a bit looser.  

It's just a tiny WIP at the moment, but here's the yarn. Very soft and squishy.

Guess I'll be doing some garter shawl knitting this week!  I still have hopes that I can knit mitts, a hat and a cowl... 

 

 

Ravellencis progress

... or not!

Since Monday's blog post - four evenings worth of knitting - I've hardly made any progrss!

I was hoping to finish my Nature's Lace shawl (it's just one skein) by tongiht. 

Well I've knitted precisely four lace rows That goal is not really achievalbe unless I knit all day on Saturday, and block Sunday, I'd have to try to persuade MrC to take an ealry morning photo and i scarely have time to take a shower in the morning, let alone pose outside!

Finished my Hipster Hat.  I need to darn in ends and take photos. it's very big, my tension was out.  I can wear it rolled up. I'm hoping MrC can wear it as is.

I've cast on again my Fastoche hat.  This time I'm using sport weight adn it's much better. If anything, it might come out a bit smaller, but it's lace and will block out.  

Check out the needles - 50cm!  I'm nt a fan of 40cm needles. The tips are too small for my knitting style, Same reason I could never use Brittany dpns. Addi 50cm have the small tips, but Knitpro have longer tips. It was quite awkward uncoiling the circulars, but they're absolutely fine to knit with.  Ideal for hat knitting.  So much easier joining into a round on one circular, rather than magic loop. 

This weekend I'll be knitting on my shawl, finishing this second hat, casting on a pair of mitts 9or another hat) ready for the final week of ravellenics, Oh, I wish I could knit faster and for more hours!

 

 

And we're off!

Ravellenics has begun! 

As the Opening Ceremony didn't start until midnight, it gave me time to sew in the ends on my Sandshore cardigan (no photos, completely forgot to take any), knit another inch on the sock and finish the third section of Amulet shawl, so I'm ready to start the border - all 30% of it, plus beads - after the ravellenics is over. I've a good bit of shawl knitting to do then, as the third shawl is out, and is larger and more complicated.

So I stayed up. I was pretty tired, and had a few G&Ts to keep me going.  Midnight I cast on Nature's  Lace, a one skein (for me, it's knitted on a percentage systerm) shawl.  This is for the Shawl Sailig event, and I'm afraid that my sails were blowing in the wrong direction.  That garter stitch tab was beyond me. It's a two stitch, 42 row tab. It twisted and turned, and I seemed incapable of counting.  As I was tired, and really wanted to cast on before bed, I modified. I cast on half the stitches, knit one row and doubled the stitches in the next row. i could have possilbe knitted another row before increasing, but it's something that you wouldn't notice frm a galloping horse (or fast yacht).

Tada!

Even better, I worked on this on Saturday (in between enjoying the sunshine, winding skeins. cooking and a bit of cleaning) and finished the plain knitting section. Thats's about 35% done. All ready for the lace bit now!

The yarn's Skein Queen's Litte Squashed, in Peach Bellini gradient. a reclaimed yarn from my first attempt at the Talisman shawl. i'm hoping to finish this by Saturday, as I want to block it over the weekend.  I need finsihed project photos for the Finish Line in the Shawl Sailing event.

 

Flush with how it was going, I quickly cast on a hat for the Hat Dash.  Hipster Hat, in Debbie Bliss BFL Aran. An excellent yarn for a hat.  Most of the hats I knit go to either family for MrC;s son and friends, mid twenties people. The preferred man hats are dark ribbed hats, so this is a black hat. Not too stand-outish from the crowd, eh?

I'm about 40% done now :)

My one failure so far is another hat, Fastoche., Happily knitting away last night but ignoring the fact that it was far too easy to knit with a 60cm, 24" circular....

After knitting five inches, I got the tape measure out and measured the width. 24 inches. And it's lace, so will have lots of growth I imagine. I'm knitting one size down, but the yarn, Skein Queen's Blissful Plump, seems quite a thick DK weight, and that, along with my loose knitting and lace, is making for a very big hat, So the 50% knitted has been frogged and restarted.

I'm hoping by the weekend to have finished both hats.  That means next week I can plan a few other things.  Thinking a cowl, some mitts. It's really nice knitting small projects which are finished before you've hardly started.  

The only thing I'm going to look into now is 50cm circulars, without short tips like 40c,  These would be sooooo handy for hats. Surely someone's thought of this before???? 

Ravellenics 2016

I'm getting ready for the ravellenics!  I'm with Team Stitchnerds, thought it would be a great opportunity to knit a few patterns from my pattern stash but of course I've bought her Rio Collection, and intend to knit two hats and some mitts from that. But I'll be casting on a stashed pattern during the Opening Ceremony. Nature's Lace, using my Skein Queen Little Squashes from the first attempt at teh Talisman shawl, peach gradients. MrC was a bit appalled that I'm staying up for this (well, we thought it might be in the small hours but according to the BBC it's at midnight. I may be able to stay awake if so! 

Thtat means that my current two WIPs, the plain socks and Amulet shawl, will be hibernating for the next two weeks, and I may not get around to finishing my Sandshore cardigan (it's all knitting, just ends).  

Mind you, I have this evening... so maybe I can darn in ends. knit the next two rows on my Amulet shawl (so I'm all ready for the last section, and will be at the 70% mark, and even do a little sock knitting. 

Here's the shawl so far, all scrunched up before the sun had moved to the living room  this morning.  

The third shawl is out on Satureday, so I'm getting a bit behind now.  Hopefully I'll finsih this shawl off after the ravellenics and start the next one. i'm resiting buying a few skeins of yarn for this one (needs two) so might use soem Skein Queen Tweedore, in Vintage Red.  I have three skeins, was saving for a garment, but I have plenty of garment yarn quantities to be going on with.

Knit Knit Knit!

July knitting and August knitting goals

It's August!  And the Olympics, which mean ravellenic Games.

July goals:

BLOG

1 Self striping socks - done!

2 Baby cardigan - done!

 

FINSIH

3 TSS Taslisman shawl - done!

4 Sandshore cardigan - done!  I need to sew in all the ends but the knitting's done.

START AND FINISH

5 baby vest - decided to forgo

6 Stitchnerds cowl - decided to forgo

START

7 TSS shawl #2, Amulet - 45% done

8 Scrapball socks - 50% done

 

So I'm very pleased with what I've done, all accomplished except for the two things I dropped.

And now for August.

There'll be two weeks when I'm concentrating on the ravellenics, when I'll be knitting Stitchnerd patterns. This list may change :) as I haven't yet decided on what exactly I'll be knitting.

BLOG

1 Sandshore cardigan

FINISH

2 Scrapball socks 50% done

3 TSS Amulet shawl 45% done

START

4 TSS shawl #3.  There are clues out.  it's going to be a two skein shawl which is a pain.  I'm contmeplatying using some Skein Queen Tweedore which I was saving for a cardigan. or maybe buing more, which I don't really want to do...

RAVELLENIC KNITTING

Stitchnerd patterns, and am going to try to knit from stash. Thre's been a Rio Collection released, so I#ve pulled out some oddballs to knit the hats and mitts.  Rather plain yarns, but darker hats go down well as presents. I made MrC a Voyageur's hat a few years ago in bright red. he only wears it on cold evenings at the boat and wears the more conservative colours out and about.

5 Nature's Lace shawl probably in Skein Queen Peach gradient which I had used for a frogged ashawl last month

6 Lace cowl

7 Fastoche hat in Skein Queen Blissful Plump, Delft

8 Fastoche mitts hoepfully in the Blissful Plump, if I have enough

9 Square Hipster hat in Debbie Bliss aran. I can't remember the name, but it's Blue Faced Leicester in dark grey or black

I think that I'll have my hands full this month!