Early Christmas -- July-November 2008
Does it sound trite to call something 'my new favourite' every other item? This one is, though, and it'll take some beating. It's Eunny Jang's Print o the Wave stole, knitted in Handmaiden Lace Silk. It's the most beautiful thing I have ever made.
You'd have had regular updates on this throughout the latter half of last year had it not been a Christmas present for my mum and therefore super-secret.
I was quite nervous right up until blocking that I'd made it too tiny and it was going to be more of a scarf/handkerchief than a stole. But turns out they're not lying, and blocking lace is genuinely magic. Clever, eh?
(Can I just point out that the pictures of me were all taken the morning after the night before, in a rush while we had a bit of blessed sunshine, and my slightly glazed squinty look is due to tiredness and the sun being in my eyes? It's not representative of my normal facial expression. No, honestly!)
It weighs almost nothing, it's warm and crisp and soft all at once. Clever, lovely pattern, stunning yarn. And my mum really loves it. I am thrilled with this whole project.
Details: Eunny Jang's
Print O' the Wave Stole, knitted in Handmaiden Fine Yarn Lace Silk on 3.25mm circular bamboo needles.
Ravelry link.
Labels: christmas, FO, FO 2008, presents, print o the wave, scarf, stole
Sister-in-law Mitts -- September 2008
The words aren't really coming, but I have the pictures*, so let's actually get an FO post up shall we? These were a 2008 Christmas present for (surprise) my sister-in-law. It is a satisfying little cable project, and the yarn made a dense and very warm fabric while still remaining quite soft (though SIL has reported they were slightly itchy to start with, however she has since adjusted -- I should probably have washed them in some fabric softener before gifting them). I did an extra pattern repeat to bring them over the knuckles, and did a bit of a tricksy sewn cast-off to stop them flaring. If I made them again (which I might, you know, I liked this pattern) I think I'd add some ribbing at the start.
I like them, and thankfully my sister-in-law does too!
Details: Linda K's Yummy Mummy wristwarmers (ugh, crappy pattern name, also I can only find the pattern on Ravelry, sorry), knitted in Artesano Ltd Inca Cloud on 3mm double-pointed bamboo needles.
My Ravelry link here.
*
Albeit slightly ropey ones -- my fault, not the model's!Labels: FO, FO 2008, gloves, mitts, presents
I'm still alive! Look!
Oh BLOG! I am sorry! Left you out there in July and tripped off for five months with nary a backwards glance. In my defence, it was largely because I spent a goodly portion of those five months knitting unbloggable Christmas presents -- this has reinforced my already quite strong suspicion that I am a slooow knitter. But there we go.
So there are a couple of FOs which require their own special posts, but in the meantime here's some bits and pieces, starting with an update on the lacy jumper I left you with in July:
So, er, not actually finished yet, but I'll pick it up again soon. I finished the body and arms in September and it's been hibernating ever since while I finished the unbloggable gifts. Just the hood and a bit of finishing to go, and if I'm sensible and finish it in the next few weeks, it might actually help ward off some of the ICY COLD that we're facing at the moment (I go back to walking to work tomorrow -- eek!).
Aww, getting it out for photographing it tonight has reminded me how lovely it is! It weighs almost nothing and is ultra-soft (and warm). I'm a wee bit trepidacious that it's going to grow quite a
lot when blocked, but I'm choosing to ignore that.
(Apologies, by the way, for the
truly awful photography appearing in a couple of places in this post. Can you tell which two are the results of me hurriedly trying to take pictures on the bed in dreadful artificial light this evening? Neither this jumper nor the aran are done any justice at all in these pics. Sorry!)
Some yarn pictures for you:
Seriously Gorgeous Swiss Cashmere, bought at the Knitwitches stall at I Knit London in September. I have to really work hard at not using this yarn as a pillow every night. It's eye-wateringly expensive, but also the softest and most gorgeous yarn I've ever touched. And it's mine! Ha ha!
Also bought at I Knit, this is some Angel Lace. I might dye it, or I might just leave it natural. And as a polar opposite to the cashmere, this cost a teeny-tiny £8 for 1,200 metres!
This is 1kg of non-specific 100% natural aran-weight, sweetly donated to my stash by the beautiful Mme Glitz of
Glitzknits. It's going to be, clearly, an aran jumper, and I'm thinking either
this (not a great photo) or possibly
this. Of course, I should probably finish at least one of
the three jumpers I currently have on the needles first (actually, that last one is likely to be frogged).
And, go on, have a sneak peak at a few upcoming blogging items.
More soon! (Well, by my definition of 'soon'.)
Labels: dainty hoodie, yarn
Quick look at something new
I started this last weekend.
It is the snappily titled 'Hooded Sweater with Lace Pattern' from
Rebecca #32, although my version has a working title of Dainty Hoodie. I'm using that delicious RYC Cashcotton I got from Liberty a few weeks ago (the photo show the yarn a little bluer than reality), and if you get the chance to buy some you certainly should because it is (so far) a dream to knit with. The lace pattern is easy to memorise, as I found out on a recent lengthy train journey, and fingers crossed that this project could be a winner.
Labels: dainty hoodie, lace
Spin me a yarn...
I'm now the proud owner of two skeins of
Handmaiden Lace Silk, in ivory. Hear that? That was my little whisper of contentment.
It is just. Stunning.
But, I learned a valuable lesson with this yarn. One which is probably already known to everyone else in the UK, but on the offchance that anyone else is as unworldly as I was, here's the rub: order something from outside the EU, and you get
hit with a customs charge. In my case, I did the maths on the lace silk, and worked out that even with postage, ordering it from the States was pretty much the same price as from the UK (plus, I couldn't find the ivory colourway for sale anywhere over here). So off I went and merrily ordered online, and then three weeks later found out that I had to pay an extra £15 on top before I could actually get the precious silk in my hands -- an £8 handling fee to Royal Mail for the privilege of them dropping a note through my letterbox, and £6.94 in VAT to HMRC.
Boooo. Hey ho. It's gorgeous, properly grown-up lace yarn which I love, and I'll now know to be cautious in future when buying from overseas. But honestly, how enraging is THAT? Argh!
On the subject of yarn I know you want to see it. But a quick knitting equation first. Skeins = winding. And a skein of lace yarn = hours and hours of winding.
I don't have a swift, and, as I discovered when
winding the seasilk the other month, holding the skein loop in one hand and winding the ball winder with the other means you need your third hand to keep the tension right and, ideally, your fourth hand to gently tease the yarn away from the skein without incurring knots. However I decided that three hands would just about be enough to (slowly) wind away with fewer mishaps, and so I roped in a little helper to assist by holding the loop of yarn.
Can you tell what it is yet? This little tableau featured in my lounge for most of Sunday afternoon. In extremis, I do recommend having a duck to hang your yarn on.
They don't even complain.
And then they guard your yarn for you afterwards. (Note: this is only one of the skeins. I'll save the second one for a really desperate rainy day.)
In significantly cheaper news... Liberty is having a half-price Rowan sale. I went in on Thursday night last week to possibly buy a single skein of something simple, and came out with most of a bag of RYC Cashcotton DK for £20 (eight skeins). Do I need it? No! But frankly I think I did pretty well not to have spent £200 (think how much I would have saved, though, if I had!).
Normally I might not be so keen on buying stuff like this in bulk -- it's lovely, but very
mainstream if you know what I mean, and usually a bit unsatisfyingly uniform. However, this particular colourway has little flecks of extra colour in it, and it won me over. I have a possible lace sweater in mind for it -- whether or not eight skeins will stretch to a sweater remains to be seen, but I reckon I'm in with a reasonable chance. If not, perhaps a sleeveless top with some sort of cowly neck? Possibilities!
Labels: lace silk, RYC cashsoft, yarn
Buckinghamshire Blues -- March-June 2008
So-called because that's where the yarn was bought, and also because the socks were started during a slightly miserable time when I was between houses. Finished in much happier circumstances, thankfully.
Details: Toe-up ribbed socks with short-row toe, gusset and turned heel, knitted in Lana Gross Meilenweit on 2.5mm and 2mm double-pointed bamboo needles.
Labels: buckinghamshire blues, FO, FO 2008, socks, toe-up ribbed socks
Socks and bags progress
The
blue sock is vastly improved, fit-wise, by being ripped and reknit to incorporate a
gusset and
reverse turned heel.
Old (bad!):
New (good!):
I've made the foot a fraction too long (I should have ripped back another half-inch or so before starting the gusset), but it's not excessive and the sock is
much more comfortable than it was with the short-row heel. And I've learnt a new technique (which was easy to execute and has left nary a hole around the ankle -- win!). It also allowed me to make the leg of the sock four stitches wider around than the foot, which adds to the comfort and fit even more.
And
my Percy bag has found a new place in my heart after I lined it at the weekend. Look. At. That. Silk!
The lining experience was a collaborative effort: a weekend at my parents' meant being able to raid my mother's stash of inner lining materials, and after some trial and error we decided upon adding a double layer of additional fine lining between the knitted material and the silk. The inner lining is an adhesive one (melting onto the knitting when ironed on, although you can pull it off again if you need to), and we added two cross-directional layers so that the bag now stands much less chance of stretching out of shape (it's not stiff, but feels significantly stronger now that it's been reinforced).
And I am smitten. Just look at it, though! I am childishly pleased with my success at painstakingly sewing in the silk lining, as sewing is generally not my strong point. When it's finished this little bag is going to be unique and gorgeous -- I'd tell you what the plan is for the fastening, but I want it to be a surprise. It's another collaborative approach, though (thanks Mum!).
Labels: blue ribbed socks, gusset heel, percy, toe-up ribbed socks
Where are they now?
Time to do a catch-up on some of those unresolved items from yesteryear.
1.
This post would be a good place to start. See the lovely just-started Liesel in the lovely lofty Rowan Cork? She languished at the bottom of my knitting basket, untouched and unloved, for a good couple of years. But she's gone to a better place now. Ie, the nifty trade or sell function in Ravelry has enabled me to dispatch that Cork (plus the proto-Liesel, for interest) to a much more appreciative recipient on the other side of the Atlantic. Bye bye Liesel! I'll make you in another yarn one day.
2.
Same post (and
this one, too). Ahh, the Handmaiden Seasilk. It is just
gorgeous, you know? Really really beautiful. What it isn't, though, is 500 metres a skein (as advertised, when I bought it). It's actually 400 metres. Which, combined with a denser lace pattern than I'd anticipated, meant (although it took me more than a year to accept it) that the tasty seasilk scarf I diligently worked on for a month or two was turning into a stunning, beautifully drapey teatowel. So last weekend I finally pulled my finger out and we saw the following chain of events:
It's my first ripping and re-winding experience and it mostly went pretty well
(save for a Tangle Incident, which I shall gloss over, but let me just say that a boyfriend who will help you untangle yarn when you're all cross and tetchy is someone just shy of saintly). And I finally discovered the perfect use for some wrist-weights that have been eying me balefully since I bought them four years ago in a brief fit of exercise-lust.
3. You want some actual knitting? Go on then. Remember the
sock yarn I picked up on an otherwise fruitless expedition to get some 3.5mm circs out in the wilds of Buckinghamshire?
Here is one nearly-finished sock:
Basic toe-up ribbed socks with short-row heel.
Except. Trying it on at this stage tells me that this going to be a near re-run of the
too-tight sock disaster that I had with my ribbed green socks. Could it be that ribbing and the toe-up/short-row method just doesn't result in the right fit for me? Gahh! And I did my maths so carefully! It's a mystery, because my
cabled Koigus are the most comfortable socks you can imagine (and still one of my top-three knitting projects ever), and they're based on exactly the same calculations and construction. Why would a slipped-stich rib be substantially more stretchy that an ordinary one? On the other hand, we are looking at an £18 pair of socks (yes, I know) versus a £6 pair...
Anyway, net result is that I'm ripping it back to before the heel and am going to try the gusset heel approach. I've been meaning to try that for ages anyway, but it's a shame I bothered doing six inches of unnecessary sock in the meantime. Hey ho! If it still doesn't fit after that, I'm ditching the yarn (which I'm not all that crazy about, to be honest, having been spoiled with some really special yarns since I bought it) and starting another pair of socks in something entirely different.
4.
Ribby, for those who wondered, is still in pieces, some of which are still waiting to be ripped and re-knit. I got distracted by the arrival of the Cotton Fleece for my ribby-inspired
in-the-pink, and the original has been pretty neglected as a result. I hope I'll go back and finish it one day, but after working with delicate cotton-based yarns it does seem awfully scratchy and clunky now. Not given up on it yet, though.
5. My miniature Via Diagonale is the one unfinished project from
that post that hasn't been abandoned, although granted it hasn't been finished yet either. I've knit it to the right length and it's been patiently hanging around waiting for me to buy some lining, decide what kind of opening it should have (clasp? zip?), and sort out some kind of strap or handle. Maybe check back in another year or so and see how I'm getting on with that...
Labels: blue ribbed socks, liesel, ribbon yarn, ribby cardi, seasilk, toe-up ribbed socks, via diagonale, wip
In-the-pink and pastures new (but never leaving pastures old, obviously)
Remember
this?
It was neglected (again) for several months what with Christmas, and then moving (twice), and then a lovely lengthy holiday, but it called to me a couple of weeks ago and after some intensive ribbing knitting I reached an exciting moment last weekend. Look at it now!
I'm essentially guessing the whole bottom-up-seamless-set-in-sleeves process (I haven't found instructions anywhere else), but it seems to be working just fine so far. I did the maths first, months ago, about when to do decreases, and I tried this on last night to check the fit now that the arms have been joined to the body and it fits
perfectly (I'd show you, but it involved so much wrangling with extra circs and trying not to stab myself in the eye that I failed to capture the moment on camera). All I have to do is get the neckline to work the way it looks in my imagination, and I'm hoping to have a self-designed jumper that I actually want to wear. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
In other news, I am almost embarrassed to show you the other things I've been working on recently. Because doing so will highlight a woeful gap in my knowledge and experience to date.
But what the heck.
Yes, it's (yikes) crochet. It is my first crocheted swatch! Aww.
I should 'fess up and say that, crochet and me, we've always kept each other at a wary distance. The only crochet I've done, prior to last weekend, is rows of chain stitches for provisional cast-ons, and you know what? I've always hated doing that.
Turns
out, I was holding the yarn wrong and the hook wrong, and actually when I do it properly crocheting is kind of a delight. Given that Debbie Stoller held my hand through the re-learning to knit process a few years ago, I thought I'd see how she got on with teaching me a whole new skill, and thus far her
Stitch'n'Bitch crochet equivalent has been pretty ace (though sadly none of the patterns take my fancy much, but the instructions and stitch patterns are tip-top). Hooray! I no longer have to skip past the cool crochet patterns on Ravelry and in my knitting library. Ooh, what project shall I crochet first?
That said, I foresee a number of extra coasters in our flat's future until I'm happy with my technique.
Labels: crochet, in-the-pink
Noah -- December 2007 - January 2008
What's better than one baby elephant?
This is Noah (slightly arbitrarily named, but I didn't want to have two Elijahs). Neither photo shows the colour properly but he's kind of mint-green, and could probably have been so all over but I was wary of running out of yarn so used some scraps left over from elephant #1 and gave him blue feet. I think it works, don't you?
Elijah was transported to Essex and given to his new owner at the weekend, and Noah was put in the post today and despatched to Vietnam where a friend of mine has some contacts in an orphanage and a children's hospice. I quite like the fact that they've gone to such wholly different countries, but that the children on both sides still like toys to cuddle at night. I hope that this little guy brings a little cheer to someone who deserves it.
Details: As
before,
Elijah by
Ysolda, knitted in RYC Cashsoft Baby DK on 3mm bamboo double-pointed needles.
Labels: elijah, FO, FO 2008, noah, toys
Elijah -- December 2007
So the
bag's not my fourth finished item of 2007 (it is meandering along, about halfway there I reckon), but I have something else to show you instead.
Last year my Christmas project (Christmas being the only time of year, really, where I have several days for uninterrupted knitting -- I do love coming home to the family fold at this time of year!) was a pair of
raspberry cabled socks, and the year before it was
rainbow ones (my first pair, no less). But this year, I made this little fellow.
I LOVE HIM. Unfortunately, much as I want to, I can't keep him because he's not for me -- he is a Christmas present for my goddaughter (she of the
alphabet blanket -- in lovely serendipity I had just enough of that same yarn left over to make Elijah, and I have been keeping it ever since the blanket until I found an appropriate way of using it up, hurrah!).
The pattern is just brilliant (Ysolda, if you see this, you are a wonder!) and making him has been so tremendously satisfying. Each section is completed as you go, so he literally grows under your fingertips and once done, no finishing! My whole family has enjoyed watching him take shape: head, body, a leg here, an arm there. The ears were the most fun but the whole thing was lovely to make. There is a good chance that I will make another one.
Until I have to give him up, though, I'm going to have fun with him while I can.
Elijah the engineer
Elijah the friend-maker
Elijah the warmDetails: Elijah by
Ysolda, knitted in RYC Cashsoft Baby DK on 3mm bamboo double-pointed needles.
Labels: elijah, FO, FO 2007, goddaughter, toys
Percy.... is a rubbish name for a bag
Ah, sorry little blog. I have been neglecting you for ravelry, haven't I? Still, them's the breaks, *is unrepentant*.
Anyway,
here's a project that ravelry knows I'm doing but you don't.
It's weird that I haven't knitted a bag before. But then, it's weird that I only have
three finished items for 2007,
and that they're only two pairs of gloves and a scarf. That is pretty shit, isn't it? Tsk. Let's see if I can make it four this year, anyway. (Three things?
Three? What have I been doing this year?
The first year I started knitting properly I managed four jumpers, a scarf and a pair of socks. Sheesh, no wonder I never post in this thing.)
So anyway. It's alright, this bag. I've spent the last few nights working the endless strap (60 inches of double knitted-on i-cord and k1p1 rib... sorry, dulled myself to sleep for a moment there) but I'm done with that and have hit the pocket this weekend. And I went to John Lewis on Friday and treated myself to that beautiful, vibrant silk lining, which makes me glow every time I look at it. I'm in love with the colours I've chosen for this bag, really.
Plus the
yarn? £1 a skein. Less than that, even. If I were in the US and didn't have to pay £8 for postage, the yarn for this bag would have cost me a fiver. In your face, Rowan.
Labels: bag, percy, yarn
