skein

Effortless Cardigan

isn't quite so effortless!

The cardigan's worked top down, with raglan shaping. After separating sleeves you cast on for the front panels, which amounts to about six inches of stitches extra, on each front. This makes for practically a whole extra width you have to knit from the underarms down.  

Last week I started the bottome ribbing. 2x2 ribbing over a woder than usual garment (the fronts should hand down when finised, I hope)and it's for three inches.  After tha I picked up and knitted more 2x2 ribbing on both fronts, for three inches each front.  And then the collar. Again, more than I'd expected with those wide front panels.

This was taken yesterday afternoon. It's a bit bunched up because of all of those collar stitches!

The collar takes up quite a bit of yarn.  This much

How do I know that?  Because, just before bedtime, as I was casting off, I caught the working end of yarn and the cast off started unzipping. About a dozen stiches just laddered. This is fairly sticky yarn and it took me by surprise.  I tried to repair it, but I wasn't happy with the results especially as it's right on the front!  So I've frogged that collar.

I'm pretty fed up with ribbing so I may tacle the sleeves next, for a change.  It would be great to get this off the needles and worn whilst our cold snap lasts.  

2016 Year of Knitting

Assuming that I've tagged all of my projects correctly :)

I've knitted 42 things, a little bit down on previous years

That amounts to 11740 yards - that's 6.67 miles.  A good job that I didn't decide to join the Stash Knit Down group on ravelry for the Mile a Month challenge!

1 hot water bottle

2 pairs of mitts

3 adult garments

5 baby cardigans

7 pairs of socks

7 cowls

8 shawls

9 hats

I made a tab on my ravelry projects page for 2016.

For someone who isn't a hat knitter I've knitted quite a few hats - that's becasue of Stash Knit Down ravelry group, who hav a hatathon each February.  They're great stash busters, and make great gifts. I can always find recipients for  hats!

I knitted a lot of the shawls in the latter part of 2016  thanks to The Shawl Socitety and Knitvent. I've temporarily gone off shawl knitting, surprise, surprise but this could very well change, the year is young! 

It's going to be fun seeing  how well I do this eazr. So far I've not done that much knitting, I've been tryign to spend some of my limited spare time sorting stuff and stash rummaging, rather than knitting. Time to knit!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dewberry cowl

This is the shawl/cowl hybrid.  I really like this idea. 

1) cast on as if you're knitting a top down shawl

2) continue until the edges are wide enough so if  joined will fit your head

3) join and start knitting in the round, for about 4 inches or so 

4) cast off, darn in ends and yo have a ssmall shawl with loops around your neck without falling off.

I wear my small shawls with the point at the front so this is ideal for me.

I've picked out some sparkly 4ply from my stash for the next shawl/cowl pattern, just need to wind it up

 

 

I'm still here!

and knitting!  I'm just not great at getting outside to take photos. Saturday I tend to be busy, and it just so jhappens that the past few Sundays have been overcast (at least when MrC is around and I  need him to take a photo)

I need to photograph the Dewberry cowl, which was finished last month. This was an interesting knit. you start off as if knitting a top down shawl, knit until the sides are wide enough to join and go over the head, then knit about four inches in the round. A very wearable shawl/cowl hybrid.  Look out for more of the same!

I've finished a hat for MrC. This was a Giftalong pattern and I didn't realise when I bought it that it was called Christopher, just had to knit it for him!  It's a long closed tube, worn doubled, an easy knit producing a warm hat.  I've used some of the unlabelled oddball stash. I'm pretty sure this is a cashmere wool blend, so soft. .  

His socks though are frogged :(  G&Ts and knitting don't mix!

That leaves the one thing on the needles, my Chirstmas cardigan, cast on over the Christmas period.  I'm using Skein Queen's Oosie, in Holly Berries (of course),  the pattern is Hannah Fettig's Effortless cardigan.  This is the frist time I've knitted one of her designs and it's super easy. Top down, stocking stitch.  I'm just past the waist shaping and it's all plain knitting until the 2x2 ribbing,

I took an indoors photo this morning, not great but it shows colour and progress.

Coincidentally Quince and Co are releasing a new book on texture featuring her designs. I'll have to keep an eye out. At the end of 2016 I emptied my ravelry queue (which I never looked at anyway) and now I'm seriously considering using that feature to keep track of possible new projects to cast on!  So many on ravlery, even when I filter them!

 

 

New Year Stash resolutions

In 2016 I thought I'd sort out my stsh and didn't do at all well. I carried on hoarding!

So I'm trying again.  

My stash is stored in bins, boxes and vacuum packs.  The bins have mostly packs of yarn. One is for cottons and the others are wool yarns, including my Kauni and felted Tweed, Big Wool (takes up a lot of room!) and chunky yarns, as well as reclaimed yarn from garments I no longer want.  The boxes include sock yarns (with nylon), sock yarns without nylon, Lorna's Laces stash, laceweight skeins, luxury single skeins such as Handmaiden or silk/cashmere blends, a big box of baby (machine washable, soft next ot skin) and a few boxes with more packs of yarn and oddballs.  Finally there's the vacuum packs.  Wollmeise, Koigu, and several UK Indie dyers all have separate packs,  Three of the larger packs have oddballs - stuff I've either wound up and not kept the label, or partial balls which I thnk will come in handy for small accessories.

Well I'm pig sick of looking at my stash and not using it.

So this year will be the Year of the Stash,

I'm not going cold sheep, but will try to limit my yarn buying!

2017 KNITTING RESOLUTIONS

1 buy to cast on immediately!

2 yarn clubs are good :) but should be knitted, so this year I'm aiming to knit a few things out of either past or current yarn club  

3 add new yarns to ravelry

4 stash dive!  

I may not have a shop's worth of yarn, but there's enough to keep me going!

Happy New Year!

2017!  I LOVE prime numbers!  I do hope that it[s a good year.  Some of my family members aren't in great health,notably my dad and my brother, and we had a few health scares at the end of 2016, so we're all a bit anxious at the mooment.   It hasn't helped that thee's been a flurry of celebrity deaths over the Christmas period.  Now, when MrC's news notification goes off on his phoen we wonder who else has depearted this mortal coil....

On to more cheerful stuff - knitting!  

Here's a couple of things which were finished in November but I didn't get around to taking a photo. Considering I had days to tkae these, we ended up having about five minutes to take them on the day before I came back to work!  Kept putting them off, and then it was overcast.

A modified Sonder shawl.  I omitted the tassels. Just not me (and the yarn would get ratty very quickly).  The colour is a deeper plum than shown, and I'm not intending to wear this in this style, it's the sort of soft cushy shawl which looks good wrapped around your neck! Knitted in Elann's Seta - the only bulky yarn in my stash!

Next up are some socks, Juniper socks from Knitvent 2016/  Super quick, knitted in Skein Queen's Crush DK,  I buy this yarn for baby garments but now that I know I can get a pair of socks out of a skein this will do nicely for me, thank you!

Now on to Christmas knitting.

I ifnished MrC's birthday socks

I've started and finished MrC's Christmas socks

I've started and finished another cowl - this is the Dewberry Cowl. It's a little diffeent form the usual cowls in that you start this as a top down shawl,, joining in the round when the edges are wide enough for your head.  This one has you knitting about 4 inches in the round. You end up with a shawl/cowl blend.  I like it!

I don't have a decent photo - soon!

I've started a garment.  This was a long process.  For two days I looked for a pattern in Sport.DK for my newest purchase, Skein Queen Ullvarne in Holly Berries, very seasonal. i was a b9it puzzled as to why I'd only bought 3 skeins. 985yards, but put it down to only having three available,  I found a pattern, Walrus, which looked good for short yardage.

On day three, when I eventually started the knitting, i thoguht that one of the cskeins looked a lot different in daylight. Pulled it out, it was a 4ply in a different colour!  Looked at the other skein and that was Ullvarne, but a colour called Firebrick!  

I had to stash dive, and found the Holly Berries. it is not Ullvarne, as listed on my ravelry stash page, but Ooosie, whic is a dk and put up in 250g skeins, I have plenty!

Then the pattern browsing.  I found a lovely cabled cardigan - but after a few  hours ralised it would take forever and when back at work wasn't mindless enough, so back to pattern surfing. I've settled on an older ravekrt oatterbm tge Effirtkess cardugab bt Gabbag Fettug,  Ut;s dead east, just stocking stitch and a simple raglan top down.

And that's it. A lot of knitting time taken up with ravelry pattern browsing but that's not exactly torure, is it?