Weekend FO

And suddenly, all the YOs, fiddly SSPs and knitted joins were forgotten, as a small choir of seraphim seemed to descend on the sunbeams this afternoon to flutter around the scarf of wonder...

Pattern: Myrtle Leaf Shawl, from Victorian Lace Today
Needle: 3.75mm
Yarn: Malabrigo Laceweight, natural, just over a skein...maybe 1.2 skeins
Mods: I cut the number of pattern repeats by 2 because Jo wanted more of a scarf than a shawl.

I cast this on while I was in the US in the summer. I don't know why I thought a my first attempt at lace in a laceweight yarn would make the ideal project for travelling; it really didn't. It took me until the end of October to finish the body of it, by which point I knew the 12-row repeat well enough that I no longer needed the pattern; then it took about a month to pluck up the courage to start the border, I was convinced I would mess up the whole thing with that; then I lost my nerve again as I approached the corner and it was set aside again.

It would have gone a lot quicker, is what I'm saying, if I had had a little more confidence in my abilities!

The yarn is very delicate; it had started to fuzz a little at the cast on end by the time I finished, so one end wouldn't block out as far as the other, but it doesn't notice. In fact, blocking made it look far better. Blocking is truly a form of alchemy. I followed advice given to me on the Malabrigo Rav board, and soaked it for half an hour in luke warm water with Eucalan. Then I ran the blocking wires through the YOs between the border and scarf body, so that the edge stayed wavy. It was dry within 12 hours.

I would be sorry to give it away, were it not for the fact that (a) I got a gorgeous ladybird ring out of it and (b) I would RUIN it within a week.

Weekend FO

Pattern: Corseted Necklet from Knitting Daily - free staff pattern
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Worsted, about two thirds of a ball. I lovelovelove the richness of the colours.
Needle: 5mm
Mods: I put buttons on instead of a lacing. I didn't have any suitable ribbon - though some thin green velvet would work - and I fear it would be a bit fussy anyway. It is snug round my neck though; a lacing would make it looser, I guess.

I just finished this today, but the bulk of the knitting was done last night so I think it counts! I had a ball of Silk Garden left from my stripey cardi and thought this would use it all. Turns out it used about half of what I had, which meant I didn't even get to my favourite colours in the skein! Drat. I guess I will have to make another. It was superquick: 3 hours of knitting tops; and the cables are reversible. It was fiddly but interesting to knit, and it satisfied my itch for some instant gratification knitting. I have done well over half the border on the Victorian Lace Today Scarf but I needed to finish something quickly!

I am having a bit of a love-in with plastic buttons like this at the moment.

Weekend FO

Pattern: Candy, by Jackie Wong, from Knitty
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Worsted, about a ball and a half, and Knitpicks Elegance, just over 8 balls.
Needle: 4.5mm
Mods: I messed about with this pattern a lot. I reworked it to fit my gauge, and then I added a proper button band because I had these amazing buttons from the bead shop by Jimmy Beans, and because I only had 5 buttons I knitted in a v neck. I am not SUPER happy with how it still has corners but I can fold them under and seam if it bothers me that much. I may need to do something with the cuffs too because they are all curly.

It's a really good fit and supersoft, I just wish it wasn't so cold so I could wear it! I cast on because I had a grey and white striped summer dress that I knew it would be perfect over, but it is brassic here at the moment and I'm wearing about 15 layers a day so this might have to wait a while.

I LOVE the buttons! The tail broke off one already because I managed to smack it onto the tiled floor at Knatterers on Saturday, but I can glue it back on.

I love the Noro colourway, too. I wound off the grassy green bit at the start of the first ball and that meant I ran out with about 3 stripes to go, so I rewound the second ball and started from the other end, which was blue instead of purple...Noro is weird. Same dyelot and everything. I especially like, though, the way the turquoise fazes into the purple.

I have been knitting this off and on since September, but it would have gone a lot quicker if
(a) I hadn't had to stop knitting it for Christmas stuff
(b) I had finished Parpy Jo's scarf first and didn't have teh guilt about knitting on anything but that
(c) I hadn't cast off with the neckline WAY to wide and had to unpick, rip back and pick up 200+ stitches. That took me a whole evening, along with picking up and knitting the button bands. I watched The Holiday, which SOUNDED like a great movie, though I didn't SEE very much of it.

The Knitpicks yarn colour has sadly been discontinued, but I have nearly 4 balls left and think I will combine them with the turquoise and minty green alpaca I bought at UK Rav day and knit some sort of colourwork tank top.

2009 Knitting Roundup

I managed 28 projects last year. It wasn't as good as the previous year, but then I did knit all those hats the previous year, so that sort of skewed the figures. I feel slightly guilty as well, because the cherry blossom bag was mostly knitted in 2008; but coming up is my first FO post of 2010 and I knitted almost the whole garment in 2009 so I suppose it balances out. The 28 break down as follows -

• 5 tops
• 5 hats
• 3 baby items
• 2 cardigans
• 3 pairs of handwarmers
• 2 bags
• 2 necklets
• A shawl
• A headband
• A teacosy
• An iphone sock
• A practice Fairisle pouch
• Some igneous rocks

An incredible 11 of these projects were gifts for other people, too. I am perhaps not the selfish knitter I claim to be. I fear I have added a LOT more to my stash than I have used, but I certainly have some good knitting ahead of me this year...

I should write about the final FOs of the year. Firstly, there were these -

Pattern: Cabled Beaded wristwarmers, a pattern by ME!
Yarn: Rowan Kid Classic, plum
Needle: 5.5mm (should have been 5mm really but I couldn't find them)
I knitted these for a secret Santa gift, intending to knit a second pair for Kath for Christmas and improve the pattern a bit, but in the end they weren't needed for secret Santa so she got the first pair. I was very pleased that I managed to remember this pattern, which I made up as a new knitter, and was able to improve it with a few little tweaks I wouldn't have known when I started. I am intending to write the pattern up and put it somewhere for downloading. One day.

Then this...

Pattern: Belted Hat by Meg Swansen, in the current issue of Vogue Knitting
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, worsted held double (black and white) and bulky (blue)
Needle: 6.5mm
This was a gift for my line manager at work, who has just left. She was a good line manager and friendly, but I am not sorry she has gone. She took things extremely personally. I don't know how a person can survive in teaching and take things so much to heart, but there you go.

Anyway, she asked me to knit her a Bath Rugby hat last year when I was doing the tutor group hats and I thought I had better get on with it when I realised her leaving date was coming up so quickly. Then the perfect pattern popped up. I messed up the crown a little, but not so you'd notice, and I fastened it with a BRFC pin instead of a button. When I gave it to her, she cried. Result.

Then this:

Pattern: Sideways Grande Cloche, from Boutique Knits
Yarn: Araucania Azapa, less than a whole skein
Needle: 5mm, 4.5mm, 4mm
Mods: I bound it off with the CO edge as a 3 needle bind off (of course...I am a bit obsessed with the 3NBO) and knitted the top in the round. I don't get why you wouldn't do this in the first place. I didn't even have to faff with provisional cast on because the mock cable covers the seam, which is in any case much neater for being 3NBO'd.

I also cast on less stitches than required, and I didn't go down 3 needle sizes through the course of the hat as written. I went down 2 needle sizes and was still way off gauge, and feeling time pressure because this was for Parpy Jo (she is the one pictured) for Christmas and I left it soooooo late to get started. I was only saved by the snowfall which pushed our Christmas celebration back a day. Anyway, I started with 36 stitches instead of 42. Then, I was closer to gauge than I thought so it was a little smaller than it was maybe intended to be, but a perfect fit nonetheless.

This is a fabulous book and I bought yarn today to cast on for the same hat for Ali, because it was so quick.

And finally this:

Pattern: Improvised. I used the moebius cast on video by Cat Bordhi from YouTube to put 108 stitches on the needle, and then knitted in a 2x2 rib, after trawling through moebius cowls on Ravelry
Yarn: Manos del Uruguay silk blend. Fast becoming a firm favourite with me.
Needle: 4mm
This was for Sib for Christmas. I like to call it a Bromoebius, because I am a loser.

Tuesday Ten

Ten Things I Would Like To Achieve before 2010

1. I want my Ravelry queue (92 items) to be smaller than my projects page (87). I would like to achieve this without deleting 5 items from my queue.

2. I will get over my irrational fear of the knitted join and add the border to Parpy Jo's scarf, and I will do this in the next fortnight, so that I can finally give it to her.

3. Knit the same Parpy Jo a hat for Christmas, that she has been hankering after.

4. Write some Christmas cards. I stopped several years ago, expecting that after a year or two people would stop sending them to me, but this has not worked and I just have teh guilt. I am putting a limit on it, though. 20, I think.

5. Knit a gift for my Secret Santa (isn't it weird how a lot of these goals relate to number 1?) This year I have drawn one of the textiles teacher, and her entire degree was in knitting. Oh crap. BUT she has never held a knitting needle in her life! It was all machine knitting. So some handwarmers are probably going to be just the ticket.

6. Mark all exercise books before the end of term and plan the first week of lessons for January, so I can relax over the holidays and just concentrate on writing new schemes of work and maybe some coursework marking.

7. Maintain my current weight. I may as well ask the fish to stop swimming, I fear.

8. Write my New Year's Resolutions in a findable place. I have just spent 20 minutes trawling fora, looking for them. No luck yet.

9. Print photographs (especially wedding pictures) and get them into albums and onto walls.

10. Receive many compliments on my new hat.

I have tired hamster face tonight.

Much better view.

Pattern: Star-crossed Slouchy Beret by Natalie Larson (free Rav download).
Yarn: Knitpicks Andean silk I got in a US/UK yarn swap; it is LUSH. It's much greener than the picture suggests. Kind of like, a dark jade.
Needle: 8mm Knitpicks circ
Mods: I knit the brim as a 2x2 rib because, honestly, who has time for a 1x1 at this time of year? I unintentionally used the same size needle for the ribbing as the rest of the hat, so it's not as snug as I would like, but it hangs off my head really nicely and it's superwarm. And it went so quick. Four hours, max.

As predicted, I had to scrape my car for the first time this morning, but the rain has set in again this evening which is what the hat is REALLY useful for. I want to knit another one right this second, but I really must do the lace scarf border. How badly can it go?

Weekend FO

I would just let myself down if I didn't post on the last day of November, wouldn't I? Especially when I actually have a FO, for the first time in over a month...


Pattern: Tudora, on Knitty
Yarn: Jade Sapphire 6-ply cashmere....mmmmm
Needle: 4mm Options
Mods: None, although I had plenty of yarn leftover and wish I'd made it a couple of rows taller. I suppose it can't be too tall to be a neck cuff, though. I haven't blocked it, either. I like the cables to look a little rustic.

This is for Mother Hand for Christmas. She requested a cream and red scarf, in the same vein as the one I made her last year, but I was way ahead of her and picked up this yarn at Loop when I visited Sib in October, along with the button, from the Button Queen. I have a similar shade of yarn and two more buttons, with which to make handwarmers, but I am not sure whether there will be enough time to sort that out for Christmas. We'll see.

In other knitting news, I am chipping along quite nicely with Versatility, although the Azapa sheds over everything it comes near to (including C's black trousers on the plane back from Malaysia, blush blush); and tonight I cast on for another star-crossed slouchy beret. I knitted one as part of my Big Hat Project last year; this morning, as I ran from house to car in driving rain without a hat for the umpteenth time this term, I bemoaned the fact that I have 30 odd hats on my projects page and not a single one left for wearing in the rain. So I wasted no time in casting on this evening in some delightful jade green Andean Silk I had lying around.

I'd have finished too, if I didn't have pesky work to do. Pesky work, tsk. I expect I will be able to finish it when the dentist makes me wait 45 minutes for my appointment tomorrow afternoon.

In work news....Ofsted are most definitely circling. They've reached the next town over. Some colleagues think next week. I am torn between wanting them in before Christmas so I can relax, and wanting them to come later when the behaviour is better. There are other reasons why later would be better, which are far too dull for me to go into.

Meh. I'll just make sure my G&T action chronology is up to date and keep marking everything I can see. Don't be surprised if I post pictures of the mitten with red tick marks on her tail next week.

Weekend FO

A TRIUMPHANT RETURN!



Pattern: Skylark, of my own creation
Needle: 5mm, straights mostly because this yarn is the same colour as my Knitpicks.
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in the glorious Uptown colourway (which has made me look a bit washed out in this photo.

Here's the back -



I explained in a previous post about how the colour inspired the name for this project, and how surprised I was that it was the first thing from my Jimmy Beans haul that I wanted to knit with (I think I was more afraid I would put it away and never touch it again).

The pattern itself is a bit of a mishmash of other people's ideas. I liked the lace kimono from Interweave a few issues back - in that I liked the construction, anyway; I don't care much for all-lace tops like that because they necessitate the wearing of a second garment underneath which, for a summer top, makes about as much sense to me as eating gravy with chopsticks. But I liked the construction - a waist piece, and two sleeve pieces, so I borrowed that.

The 4x2 rib is similar to the Greenday top I knitted in June - big ribbing like this is lazy girl shaping, imho. It clings just right.

Finally, the modular construction of it - three easy pieces with little shaping - was inspired by the Tantric Puzzle Top (Rav link) I knitted in July and never blogged about. I finished it literally the day before we went away, and I haven't worn it much yet because it stills needs hooks and eyes or snaps or something other than safety pins to fasten it. However, it's just two rectangles sewn together in a certain way, so as to make a top. I like the idea of using basic shapes and careful construction to put a garment together.

I had a couple of frustrating moments with it - I had to rip back the waitsband twice before I was happy with it, and I'm still not 100% OK with the twisted i-cords ties, but it's good for now, and at least I can't see them. Overall, though, I love it! And it would have been really quick if I hadn't kept putting it aside in favour of Jo's lace scarf. It's finished just in time for the cooler weather. Bring on the bluster, baby - I've got some clothes that need wearing.

Perhaps I could be a knitwear designer instead of a teacher.