Happy Father's Day!

Hello, how are you all? 

It's been a long time again so I thought I'd report back with some updates on kitting, crocheting and other crafts.

I've got a few FOs to report!!

First of all, I've finally, FINALLY finished Black Acer. Seriously, there were moments when I thought it would never happen. A few weeks ago after I finished another project and was itching to start something new but didn't have the right yarn I thought to myself - I really want to finish this, I want to be able to wear it this summer! It coincided with the boys wanting to do a Marvel movie marathon so I needed some knitting while that was happening. I don't mind Marvel, but it doesn't keep my interest massively well, and it was just perfect to watch and knit at the same time. 

Seriously, after procrastinating with this cardi for literally YEARS I finished it in a couple of weeks or so. I even sewed the buttons on!

I've not washed it and the weather has been so bad that I've not managed to get a few good shots of me wearing it yet, so I've got to remember to get that done. 

I'm really pleased with it and I'm so excited that I finally get to wear it!!

Second FO - my Mohair Cowl. This hasn't been on the needles for quite as long, but it's been long enough that I'm happy to be done with it. Again, no pictures of me wearing it yet, as I haven't got round to it, but it fits and I've actually already given it an outing or two. 

One thing to note about this pattern - the sleeves are way too long! I knitted it just as the pattern asked me to and I could have omitted at least 3-4 inches from the upper sleeves. I was thinking about unravelling, but then I'd lose some of the ribbing, which is supposed to go up to the elbow, and I'm certainly not going to unravel and knit both sleeves again. It's a bit annoying to have to pull them up all the time (which I think is intentional, it's what you are supposed to do), but it's fine, it'll have to do.

Third FO - in an attempt to finally get rid of the scatchy never-ending olive no-name yarn that I bought years ago on ebay I decided to crochet a basket. I made it extra large (so did more increases than demanded) but I managed to completely use up the yarn and even a little bit of leftover burgundy yarn. I'm using it to store the multitude of gaming paraphenalia the boys have  (cables, xbox controllers, headphones...). 

And guess what, yesterday was my birthday and this is what I got from D:

It's a full kit for the Yellow Queen Sweater!

I'm so excited to finally knit something that isn't from stash. I wound all that Cascade 220 into yarn cakes yesterday and I can't wait to cast on! 

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Holiday prep...

We are off on holiday to the Netherlands in a few days time.

Well,  next Friday really, but this coming week is looking to be such an insanely busy week, with school stuff, and getting all the critters sorted, and boy #1's leavers celebrations (he is off to secondary school in September! Where has time gone!?), and then an unexpected hospital appointment for me next Wednesday, which will likely set me back a day or so in preparation, that I really have to get a move on with my holiday prep now or it won't get done in time. It feels weird to be quite this organised, but I'm going with it...

This does not mean, however, that I have my priorities completely in order. I have, for example, already spent an unreasonably long time contemplating what knitting projects I want to bring. Do you find that you spend far too long thinking about things like this?! Realistically, I probably won't get a lot of time to knit anyway, and yet I find myself weighing up different projects, WIPs, looking at more patterns. Insane, when I have so much to do!

I'm currently thinking of bringing my newest project, the Mohair cowl that I'm knitting with some stash yarn that I recently unearthed. I can't even remember where I got this stuff, but it's quite nice to knit with and will hopefully make a nice light but warm jumper with a generous cowl. There is lots of this yarn, so I'm not likely to run out no matter how generous I make it.

I'm also thinking of bringing my will-it-ever-get-finished Black Acer. This cardi has been on my needles so long it's unreal, but I find it so hard to work on it. It's not so much that the pattern is too difficult as that it takes my full concentration and I so rarely have a moment during the day when I can give it that. I tried knitting in the evening, but the black is awful to work with in artificial light. Perhaps the holiday will allow me to make some headway with this project? I'd really like to wear that cardi sometime before I retire...

I'm also thinking of perhaps bringing my parrot socks?  These are usually my handbag project and I tend to drag them all over the place because they are an easy no-thinking-required stockinette stitch and therefore ideal for quickly picking-up and setting-down as required.

Alternatively I could bring my red Hedgerow socks, again a project that's been on the needles far far too long. This might be the better option because the parrot socks will get finished one day anyway, because they live in my bag and come out whenever I have to wait anywhere for any length of time. The Hedgerow socks however are again somewhat more tricky, with a somewhat fiddly pattern to remember, and if I get distracted I tend to mess it up. Or should I rather take an easy project for the beach?! Decisions, decisions...

I'm also thinking of bringing some yarn to work on the larger version of the little crochet rat I made for boy #2. Boy #3 has been asking for a cuddly larger version for so long now...

I don't know... I have so many pattern ideas at the moment that I am finding it really hard to properly focus on a project. Should I instead bring something new and exciting?!

Or perhaps I should shelve these contemplations for a while and concentrate on packing things like trousers and underpants...

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Finally a project for this yarn...

Once upon a time, many years ago, when D and I got married, we went on our Honeymoon to America, hired a Harley, and drove all over New England.  We had a magical time, staying in little B&Bs and on farmsteads in the middle of nowhere, and visiting Portland, and Plymouth, and Boston. 

We also visited a whole lot of yarn shops. 

Before we went off, I had asked on my blog (which, at the time, was a whole lot more busy because I was posting almost daily), if readers living in New England could recommend their favourite yarn shops to me, and we had a fantastic time visiting all those little shops. I learned spinning with a drop spindle on that holiday, and I still cherish the little spindle I took home with me. I couldn't buy nearly as much as I wanted, fleece or yarn, because although the Harley is a large bike, it doesn't allow for too much luggage, but I still managed to come home with a few little treasures.

One of those treasures was a batch of 7 balls of Schachenmayr nomotta Two In One. I quite liked the loopy texture of the yarn, although I was not sure what I was going to use it for.

When we came home, the 7 balls of Schachenmayr got stashed in one of my yarn bins and that's where they remained, for over a decade. Every so often I pulled a ball out to fondle it, or to check the yardage, wondering what I could do with it. At times I was tempted to pass the yarn on, since no project came to mind, but it does have sentimental value, so I could never quite bring myself to do it. The problem remained, though; either the yarn was the wrong weight, or the wrong texture, I didn't fancy a scarf or hat, and for most larger projects such as cardigans or sweaters 7 balls was just not enough.

At the end of last year I decided to give it one more try. I've gradually been de-stashing these past few years, because my yarn stash is really rather out of control, and I was fed up with seeing it there, gathering dust. I was going through the pattern library on Ravelry and thought I rather fancied a cowl. I found one I particularly liked, a DROPS design, and thought I might be able to make it work if I modified the pattern a bit. 

There would be no sleeves of course - there was no way my 7 balls of yarn were going to stretch to full-length sleeves. The pattern was also a little odd in places - I didn't fancy the directions to increase rather than decrease knitting up from the hem towards the waist - and my gauge was also a little bit off. Never mind I thought, I'll figure it out as I go along.

And I did! There were hick-ups of course - I had to correct the width of the jumper by decreasing by a whole lot of stitches past the first few rows because my gauge was far worse than I'd thought for example - but the yarn, although not a joy to knit with (all those loops...), turned out to be quite forgiving of such mistakes. Instead of increasing towards the waist, I went with the traditional decrease then increase towards the bust. I skipped the sleeves and instead just went with little capped sleeves, and I guesstimated the increases in the cowl (again, the yarn is forgiving), but I suppose I followed the pattern roughly. 

I had to shape and pin the folds in the cowl, because the way it fell naturally it looked like a deflated donut around my neck, but you know? I absolutely love this cowl. I wear it with a long-sleeved top underneath, and it's comfy and stylish and I seem to wear it all the time! 

FO Friday

It’s been a while since I’ve last done an FO post, not  because I’ve had no FOs but because I’ve never got round to photographing any of them. I normally rely on Boy #1 for this now. His  genuine interest in photography has made him into a fantastic little helper, but this still requires me to actually find the time to model the knitwear.

In the end, this morning, I just decided to take a few shots in front of the mirror instead. Not ideal for photographing cowls in particular, since my hand is sort of hiding half of them, but hey, better than nothing, right? ;)

The first set is the Cosan Cowl that I did as a testknit for Ruth a while ago. The pattern can be downloaded from Ravelry HERE. I’ve shown glimpses of this, but I never took any shots of it for the purpose of showcasing it as an FO.

I really enjoyed knitting this, and I love how lush and rich the colours of the two yarns are together.

I liked it so much, in fact, that when the boys started asking me why I didn’t have a beanie yet I decide to make one to match the cowl.

I’m quite pleased with the results, even if I accidentally knitted this beanie with a smaller set of needles, resulting in a slightly more snug fit for the hat. I’ll see how I go with this. If necessary I can always re-do it in a larger needle size…

The second one is the Alban Eilir Cowl, the most recent testknit I did for Ruth. The pattern is released now and you can purchase it HERE.

Again, I really enjoyed knitting this, although I was more than a little rusty with the colour work. The first few rows on the reverse side are a bit of a mess, but I’m not showing you that bit!

All in all I think this is a good little project for anyone who wants a gentle start into colour work. Just remember to carry those strands of yarn with you rather than cut them, is all I say!! ;)

So there you go – 3 FOs in one post, not too bad, eh?

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Craft Away Thursday

Since I missed my usual Wednesday WIP update this week I thought I'd post an update on Thursday instead. 

Not that there is an awful lot happening, but it's good to stay in some kind of routine, right? ;)

This past week I've found my way back to a project that I've neglected for quite some time - Black Acer. I find it very difficult to find time to knit on this with the kids around, because you really need to make sure to concentrate on the pattern and I found myself constantly double-checking and re-counting my rows to make sure I didn't miss those with cables. 

It took some time to re-familiarise myself with the pattern because in my infinite wisdom I obviously DIDN'T make a note of which row I was on. In the process I also found a number of real whoppers - proper mistakes that I hadn't noticed at the time. They are mainly at the beginning, those first few rows, when I wasn't really in the swing of things and the pattern was unfamiliar. I also, at the time, tried to work on this quite a bit with the kids around, so there was a lot of picking up and putting down of knitting. As a result I have one cable row where things are just... wrong. 

Guess what, though?

I'm not frogging. I'm leaving it as it is, because even though I can see the mistake I'm pretty confident that the casual passer-by who happens to see me wear Acer is never ever going to spot the mistake. 

Similarly there are a couple of mistakes further on, where I somehow managed to not do a yarn-over and therefore was a stitch short. I noticed a couple of rows further in and just corrected it then. Although if you stretch the fabric apart you can see that there is something not quite right in that section, due to a purl stitch right after the yarn-over there is a natural crease in the knitted fabric that conveniently masks the missing hole from the yarn-over. As far as I'm concerned a mistake that nobody will notice is not an actual problem. ;)

I'm about to start my third ball of yarn for this, so I'm going through the yarn quite quickly. Hope my calculations were right so I won't run out with half a sleeve to go!

I've also been working on the Boneyard Shawl. 

In contrast to Black Acer, this is really a pick up / put down kind of project for me. Right now I still can't tell much of a difference, and of course as the rows get longer, progress gets slower, but I'm persevering. Sooner or later it's going to get done.

And last but not least, look at this:

It's done! I've frogged Cowl! Isn't it funny how many small balls of yarn came out of that sweater? What on earth was I doing?!

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WIP Wednesday - Frog Frog Frogging...

... a-frogging we go!

This is not your typical WIP blog post I guess, but un-knitting is also knitting, right? 

I've been meaning to do this for ages, but it's always kind of heart-breaking to frog something that you've spent time and effort making. 

Bye Bye Cowl! 

Cowl was one of my earliest large knitting project - not the first, but early nonetheless, and because of that alone there is a certain amount of nostalgia attached to it. Add to that that I actually really like the shape and look of this jumper, and you may ask why I wanted to frog it at all.

Unfortunately this jumper is almost unwearable and in fact I haven't worn it for years. It's not the fit per se - it fits fine - but the fact that it's entirely knitted in garter stitch. 

Have you ever tried wearing a garment made entirely in garter stitch?

Well, if you have you'll know that garter stitch fabric stretches almost into infinity. 

This might be great for certain kinds of project that you want to be stretchy and bouncy, but it's not so great for a jumper in an already quite soft wool yarn. As soon as you pull this jumper over your head it starts to follow gravity and extend in length. The body stretches down and the sleeves get longer and longer until you need to push them up to do anything.

Before you know it you are wearing a fluffy and shapeless bag. 

Not a great look. 

It's such a shame, because if it wasn't garter stitch the pattern would be great. The body of the jumper has subtle shaping, and the cowl is lovely. I gave the sleeves a subtle flare effect that also works well. 

Perhaps I should reknit the whole thing in stockinette? 

Alternatively I am considering Idlewood:

What do you think?

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Spinning... and a super-quick FO

I went to my monthly spinning group, Beretun Spinners, yesterday. They meet up on the first Saturday of each month for a whole day of spinning and fiber goodness. I don't often get to go, what with the busy job and the even more busy family life, but when I do go it's always lovely. The spinners in the group are amazing - so many so very talented people, and they are always friendly and happy to share advice and help. 

Look at those gorgeous rolags - sadly they were not mine. 

I don't get to spin much these days. Boy #1 is OK with the wheel now, but both boy #2 and #3 would play with the wheel and the fiber endlessly if I left it out. The wheel is usually locked up in D's office and I'm just too plain lazy to drag it out in the evening only to lock it back up at the end of the night. So spinning tends to happen at the group only. That said, over the months I have made inroads into my huge (it's a theme with my hobbies...) fiber stash. My plan is to get rid of all the beautiful but often small amounts of dyed fiber in order to make room for one or two big fleeces with enough yarn to knit larger garments. 

Look what I finished this time:

This is merino/silk (the dark blue), plied with some merino (the light blue). It's only one skein, but it should be around 100g, so definitely enough for a hat.

The second skein is the last of a number of skeins I spun a few years back. I had some of the fiber left over and decided to spin it up quickly so I would have some more. I'm thinking of making Liesl with the yarn - if I skip the sleeves I may just have enough... 

Last time I was at the group I also finally spun up some delicious looking merino/silk mix I had lying around for years. The colours were so vibrant!

There were actually three skeins of this, but it only occurred to me to take a picture when I'd already used two of them! I spun this deliberately slubby, which was more of a challenge than I thought it would be. Sure it should be easy to spin up something really messily? Turns out that spinning neatly is much much easier!

This time I brought some big circular needles and cast on for Haley Waxberg's Bulky Mobius Cowl. 

Such a fun and quick project! I knitted for about an hour yesterday and then another hour today and tadaa, it's done! The yarn is so soft, so it won't be irritating on the skin to wear it. I think I'll get a lot of wear out of this.

  

This was such a fun little thing to knit, I don't think this is the only cowl project in my future...

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A Year of Projects

I've signed up for A Year of Projects. Since my aim for this year was to a) get back into a regular knitting and blogging routine and b) to knit from stash, I thought I might as well make it official and join up.

I've since done some thinking about what I can rationally achieve this year. The idea is to not buy any yarn, so that limits it somewhat, but with a stash as huge as mine it doesn't really limit it very much!

This is my ideal list:

The Garter Yoke Cardi
Yarn - natural wool/cashmere yarn from stash

Ink Flare
Yarn: that unruly purple yarn that never gets the correct gauge

Ink Flare
Yarn: the huge hank of green Fleece Artist hand-dyed mohair that I've had for I don't know how long.

Socks for boys
knit one pair of socks for each of the boys. They've chosen their yarn already, so:
Yarn: Regia Crazy Color self-striping 4-ply.

Bulky Moebius Cowl
Yarn: Berry Handspun (by me)

Shalom cardi
Yarn: Olive wool/cashmere blend

Ubernatural
Yarn: orange and yellow handspun

Dietrich
Yarn: sock-weight feltable yarn from stash

Socks for me
Patterns: Conwy or Whitby
Yarn: any number of possible yarns from my huge sock yarn stash

Sideways Grande Cloche
Yarn: Single skein purple Cascade

Easy Raglan V-Neck
Yarn: GGH Savanna

Granny Square Blanket
Yarn: all the left-overs and the single balls and skeins that I have lying around in dk and aran.

I'll update, create links and images and add to the list in the days to come, but it's a start!

Cowl - FO

I have a FO to report!

The Cowl, blogged about in my last post, is finally finished.



I like the sweater. It was fun to knit, didn't take long, and is very wearable. I'm also in love with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran - so soft!!

The only negative thing worth mentioning is that the garter stitch body of the cowl makes you look a bit podgy round the middle... It's not too bad, but I think it has something to do with the way the fabric drapes, the garter stitch, and the extra-large needles it's knitted with.

Project specs:

Started: September 2007
Completed: October 2007
Yarn: 9 (8 1/2) balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in red (300611)
Needle Size: 8mm and 10mm

Done! It feels good to get a project off the needles for once...