tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19531897194711517732024-03-13T23:43:12.916+00:00A Knitter's TaleThe knitting, crochet and random thoughts of a bench biologist...MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.comBlogger225125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-27950444123736234262014-04-08T09:16:00.001+01:002014-04-08T09:21:24.812+01:00HatsBefore Christmas, my sister requested a plain black golf hat with a pompom for a friend of hers. It had to be black and be warm over the ears. It had to have a good-sized pompom, but most of all, it most definitely should not be a beanie (but not slouchy either). The recipient had been searching in vain for the right hat for a couple of years and had drawn a blank...<br />
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No pressure then! It was practically the perfect storm of things a knitter doesn't want to hear - black is horrible to knit in the winter, the recipient knew exactly what they wanted, but no pattern was suggested and as my sister wanted to surprise the recipient, no measurements or opinions on patterns were available!<br />
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I found the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/astronomer">Astronomer</a> pattern and suggested knitting it plain without the stripes, but my sister decided that actually, her friend quite liked stripes but I could choose the colour.<br />
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I ended up knitting two of these as the first was too large. I made the second one smaller by removing one repeat (9 stitches) and some length. The black yarn is Drops Nepal and the colours are Drops Big Merino all knitted on 5mm needles. The Resident Radiologist happily wore the big one all winter and I've never heard how my sister's friend is getting on with his...<br />
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After Christmas I went to the <a href="http://www.p-hop.co.uk/">p/hop</a> yarn swap at <a href="http://www.theyarncake.co.uk/">The Yarn Cake</a> in Glasgow and picked up an absolutely beautiful skein of 4ply BFL yarn from <a href="https://www.ripplescrafts.com/">Ripples Crafts</a>. The colourway was the wonderfully named 'Ancient Hill Tartan'.<br />
I wasn't sure what to knit with this until I realised that I really needed an easy to pull-on-and-wear hat too. I've got several lovely berets, but these always need 'arranging' to look right and with two small kids, I rarely have time for 'arranging'.<br />
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A while ago, I knitted three <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/charlies-sock-yarn-hat">Sock Yarn Hats</a> for my daughter and the sons of a friend. It occurred to me that this would work just as well for me and the pattern went right up to adult sizes.<br />
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I knitted it on 3mm needles. The turned brim is lovely and warm over my ears and it's the perfect pull-on-and-wear hat. I'm not sure that it showcases the colours in the yarn as well as it could, but it might well be one of those yarns where the colours are always going to look better in the skein than knitted up.<br />
I've just realised that these photos don't showcase the colours particularly well either - winter light in Glasgow isn't great for photography. There's a lovely deep plum, a burnt orange and an olive green.MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-62866125395389435472014-04-01T12:34:00.000+01:002014-04-01T12:35:27.345+01:00The NessiesNessie number 1 was knitted for my son's first Christmas. He's a lovely traditional Nessie with a dark green hide and lovat belly. He's generally found swimming around D's bedroom or waiting patiently at the foot of the cot.<br />
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I suspect Nessie number 2 is an entirely different breed. Knitted for my daughter's 4th birthday (because she saw D's Nessie and wanted one of her own), she's an individual sort of reptile with a purple hide and lime green belly. Apparently she might fly!<br />
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For both Nessies' the pattern is<a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/loch-ness-monster"> Loch Ness Monster</a> by Hansi Singh. It's beautifully written and the construction and shaping are lovely. I knitted them on 4mm needles. The traditional one uses New Lanark Aran yarn and the individual one uses Drops Big Merino.MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-67379014743278754092014-03-24T16:22:00.000+00:002014-03-24T16:22:00.301+00:00Birthday BlanketsFirst up today was a birthday gift I knitted for my daughter almost exactly a year ago now.<div>
She was getting a doll's bed for her birthday that came with a little mattress, pillow and sheet and I felt that it needed a snug blanket to finish it off properly and keep her doll cosy.</div>
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I used New Lanark Aran in a lovely pale teal colour that they call Lovage Blue and improvised a cable design on 5.5mm needles with a seed-stitch border.</div>
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I really like the effect of the off-set adjacent cables and wouldn't mind revisiting this on a larger scale in the future!</div>
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Next is the blanket that I knitted for the birth of my son (also about a year ago now). I used the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/chasing-rainbows">Chasing Rainbows</a> pattern by Trisha Mitberg, but improvised a bit with cream garter ridges between each colour and a cream border.</div>
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The yarn is Pisgah Peaches and Creme worsted weight cotton, knitted on 4.5mm needles. I like cotton blankets for babies as it makes for easy laundry and is not too hot.</div>
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I designed the colour selection in this blanket to use up left-overs and spare balls of yarn that I already had available. This let to a couple of sticky moments as the Pisgah Yarn and Dyeing company is no more and Peaches and Creme has been discontinued (and it was never easy to get in the UK in the first place). Both of these problems were solved by the generosity of others:</div>
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While I was knitting the green band of the blanket, I ran out of yarn about a round and a half before the end. I'd used this yarn previously for a wash-flannel for my daughter and she very graciously allowed me to rip out her wash cloth and use it to finish off the green band. After this, when I was working on the outer colours, she would come over and look hard to see where 'her yarn' was. I did knit her a new flannel as compensation.</div>
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Later, when I was knitting the garter ridge before the final red band, I ran out of cream yarn. This was more of a problem as I had nothing else that would substitute, and cream aran-weight cotton isn't really that easy to come by in winter / early spring. I put an appeal out on Ravelry and a lovely lady in the states offered to wind 100g off a cone that she had stashed. She sent it to my FIL in boston and he brought it back to the UK for me, allowing me to finish the blanket. </div>
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MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-64744938012990833582014-03-17T12:40:00.000+00:002014-03-17T12:40:00.068+00:00Two ShawlsNext in my catch-up list are two shawls I've knitted recently...<br />
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The first is some thing that has become a regularly worn part of my wardrobe and I'm not sure I could do without it.<br />
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This is the<a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hitchhiker"> Hitchhiker Scarf</a> by Martina Behm. I knitted this using some very old<a href="http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/fyberspates-cobweb-lace"> Fyberspates Cobweb Lace</a> yarn that I held double. Jen did not produce this yarn for long, it was quickly superceded, but it's lovely both to knit with and wear. This photo does not really do the colour justice. It's a mixture of deep turquoise and blue-green through to almost inky blue in places.<br />
I got 52 'teeth' out of my skein with a little left over.<br />
Knitted on 3mm needles.<br />
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This second scarf is something that I knitted on holiday when my son was about 8 weeks old and I felt that I wanted to knit something I could get my teeth into a bit without being a massive project. I've never really worn it yet, but it is lovely and I'm sure I'll work out what it looks good with eventually.<br />
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This is the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/primavera-shawlette">Primavera Shawlette</a> by Lidia Tsymbal. I knitted this from some <a href="https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Dyeforwool?ref=pr_shop_more">Dye for Wool</a> 4ply in the colourway 'Burnt Cinnamon Roll' that I received in a secret santa swap at The Yarn Cake. It's a lovely yarn with some depth and variation in tone and best of all, I only used half the skein so I can use it for something else too.<br />
Knitted on 3.75mm and 4mm needles.<br />
<br />MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-80470695920673868392014-03-12T16:39:00.000+00:002014-03-12T16:40:07.431+00:00Owl Obsession<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In an attempt to resurrect my blog and get it going again, I'm going to show you all projects that have been finished in the last year while I was on maternity leave. There is no particular order to how I'm going to do this, it could well depend on availability of photographs when the blogging mood takes me!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">First up is <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/owl-obsession">Owl Obsession</a>. I crocheted this for my new nephew who was born in November.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The pattern is amazing... I have not crocheted in any meaningful way for years and have never successfully followed a pattern but I needn't have worried. The level of detail in the instructions and the photographs provided are brilliant.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The yarns I used were <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/knit-picks-chroma-worsted">KnitPicks Chroma Worsted</a> in the colourway Lolly Pop and Drops Big Merino in cream. The Knitpicks is not easily available in the UK and not at all in this colourway but a friend bought it for me in the USA and my father-in-law brought it back with him to the UK. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The colours were absolutely addictive. I finished this in no time at all and even the making-up and finishing flew by.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'm really pleased with the finished product - it's warm, colourful and perfect for a winter baby.</span>MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-34459878138168718432013-04-11T13:46:00.003+01:002013-04-11T13:46:31.527+01:00Delayed Making Monday - Pretty boxesThis post was originally intended as a Making Monday post two weeks ago, but the vagueries of using blogger on a tablet (most notably the inability to move pictures around) put paid to the timeliness of the post.<br />
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My knitting has really slowed down lately as we've been kept busy with a renovation project<br />
at home and I just can't seem to summon the necessary enthusiasm for knitting in the evenings.<br />
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On the back of the work on the study though, I've been looking closely at our storage, especially for our recently growing collection of kids art and craft stuff.<br />
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My sister gave me a stack of sturdy cardboard boxes which all had plain bases but rather blingy lids. I had a go at covering these with maps from an old road atlas that was out of date.<br />
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I used pages relating to areas that were either significant to us or where the map itself was particularly pretty.<br />
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Since I originally started putting this post together, I've covered a few more boxes. I've discovered that kids shoe boxes are a lovely size for storage of small things and also found a sturdy Neals Yard box worked well.<br />
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For these boxes, the paper I used was good quality wrapping paper. The only downside I can see to this spate of box-covering is that it really eats up glue sticks! <br />
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MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-14961160043498369962013-02-27T10:23:00.002+00:002013-02-27T10:23:36.466+00:00A New Winter WarmerIt seems that in my hands, hot water bottle covers last about 5 years. 5 years ago, I wrote <a href="http://aknitterstale.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/winter-warmer.html">this post</a> about a new cover for my bottle to replace the one I'd made 5 years before that. Now, 5 years on, my bottle needs a new cover again.<br />
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Last time, it appears that I didn't make a very good yarn choice. I used Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran which I happened to have in stash and which was a lovely shade of green. Over the years though, repeated exposure to heat had 'killed' the 33% microfibre content in the yarn so that the cover didn't hold it's shape any more and was all baggy and thin.<br />
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This time, I wasn't making that mistake again, so I went for a 100% wool yarn. I've had a couple of skeins of <a href="http://hyenacart.com/stores/plumknityarnsupply/">Plum Knits</a> 100% cashmere aran in my stash for about 8 years and have never been sure what to use it for. Early on, I didn't want to use it in case I wasted it, and more recently, I've struggled to find someing I wanted to make that would only use 175 yards of handpainted aran weight. This seemed like perfect match of pattern and yarn and since my hot water bottle gets heavy use in the winter, it's as good a use of a luxury yarn as any.<br />
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I used the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/jessie">Jessie</a> pattern as the basis for my cover again, but once again omitted the intarsia heart. I also tweaked the stitch count as my gauge was slightly off and I wanted a snug cover. The biggest modification I used this time was to knit in the round starting with a magic cast on on the bottom edge. This eked my meagre yardage out a bit and meant no seaming. It got really tricky mid-way up the back with the button bands, but I just put the stitches for the bottom (inside) band on a holder, cast on more stitches for the top (outside) band on my working needle and carried on in the round. At the end, I had to go back and rejoin and knit the bottom band and sew it in at the edges which wasn't a big deal.<br />
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I reused the buttons from my previous cover as they were a good match. In the end, the neck is a little short but sufficient and I had less than a yard of yarn left over. The colour pooling is a little odd, but I'm happy to live with that as it's something I primarily use while I'm asleep! The cover is soft and squishy and I was thinking that if it felted a little over time with use, it might even last longer than the standard 5 years!MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-21685137422499474182013-02-21T14:40:00.000+00:002013-02-21T14:44:26.200+00:00Hexipuffing away... Almost exactly a year ago, I caught the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-beekeepers-quilt">beekeeper quilt</a> bug. Since then I've been turning out hexipuffs; sometimes just the odd one to use up a scrap of left-over sock yarn or 4 ply, at other times, churning out 5 or 6 every evening for a week or more as I find myself between larger projects. <br />
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Right from the start, I had a clear vision of what I wanted to achieve: a spectrum of colour from one side to the other. I wanted strong shades of colour, nothing too pastel, and I didn't want anything that was strongly variegated or striped. Unlike the other sock yarn blanket I have on the go (4 inch squares knitted on the bias) which is exclusively for the purpose of using up leftovers, I decided that buying yarn for this project was not only acceptable, but was going to be necessary to ensure a good colour balance.<br />
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I started off using up yarn in my stash that fitted the critera and wasn't earmarked for other purposes. I used the remains of a cone of plum-coloured merino 4 ply that I'd had from my very earliest knitting days, the ball-ends of many shades of 4 ply alpaca that had been used for mittens, baby gifts and colourwork, the ball-ends of sock yarn that had been used for socks, scarfs and shawls and some very light DK that was left over from a hat. I even navajo-chained some left over laceweight and knitted hexipuffs from that.<br />
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Having exhausted my supply of left-overs (though from time to time, more always present themselves), I moved on to small quantitied of merino and merino-silk roving in my spinning stash. I spun these finely and plied to approximately 4 ply weight and used these for more hexipuffs.<br />
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Finally I bought some yarn specifically. A few weeks ago, I found some lovely mixed mini-skein sock yarn packs from <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/brands/rosyretro">Rosie Retro</a> and knitted them up into hexipuffs,<br />
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and I've just bought some small skeins of the <a href="http://www.theyarnyard.co.uk/">Yarn Yard</a> Bonny that will balance some gaps in my spectrum.<br />
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Every so often, I lay the accumulated hexipuffs out (I now have about 170) and take a photo. This is really helpful in identifying where the 'thin' parts of the spectrum are.<br />
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I'm about a quarter of the way to where I'd like to finish hexipuffing so this project may take a few more years yet and it may be some time until you see it again!MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-14030980613132621312013-02-18T09:38:00.002+00:002013-02-18T11:36:36.686+00:00Little Feet FlannelAnother project for DD, this time because she was so wonderfully generous with something I knitted for her when she was a baby...<br />
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As I mentioned in my last post, I've been working on a blanket for the new baby using up my stash of the original Peaches and Creme cotton aran. I have a fairly good amount of this but ran short of light green with a couple of rounds still to go. I seached online and on Ravelry but couldn't source any without stupendous postage from the states and the other greens in my stash just wouldn't work.<br />
Now, before DD was born, I knitted her a blanket and some wash cloths out of this yarn, and one of the cloths was in the green that I was short of. It is her favourite flannel... and despite this, she consented to let me rip it out and use it for the baby's blanket, and then helped me wind it into a little ball.<br />
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I offered to knit her a new flannel out of a colour that I had more of to replace the one I'd ripped out and she asked for pink (she's at that age). I ended up using two pinks in broad stripes to make sure I'd have enough.<br />
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The pattern is the same as the original - <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baby-cloths">Little Feet Baby Cloth</a> and the colourways are burgundy and shocking pink. The pattern doesn't stand out so well as it did on the original green cloth, but DD likes it (and every time she sees me working on the baby blanket, she points out her flannel in the edge of the green stripe!).MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-74516508874421572362013-02-13T09:23:00.000+00:002013-02-13T09:23:09.713+00:00Lola's Blanket DD is a serious fan of Charlie and Lola and
was lucky enough to be given a Lola doll by a friend at Christmas. She
started putting Lola to bed on the sofa in the evenings under a
selection of different 'blankets', so I decided that Lola needed her own
special blanket.<br />
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DD has been watching me working on a blanket for the new baby recently and admired several of the colours. While the baby blanket itself is still not finished, I've finished with several of the colours involved, so I asked her which colour Lola would like for her blanket. The verdict was light purple and while there wasn't enough of this on its own, I managed to improvise an acceptable blanket.<br />
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The yarn is the sadly discontinued original Peaches and Creme cotton aran and I've used the following colourways: Light Grape, Burgundy, Shocking Pink and Rose. The needles were 5mm.<br />
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I cast on 30 stitches, and knitted a seed stitch border with a stocking stitch and cable centre panel. <br />
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It has been a great hit with both DD and Lola and Lola rarely gets out of 'bed' these days!MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-88821628754881645752013-02-11T09:23:00.000+00:002013-02-11T09:23:51.765+00:00Clearing the backlog - the final installment!Finally I've caught myself up and am blogging relatively recent projects:<br />
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Over the last couple of months, I've been knitting bits and pieces for DD, partly to finish off stash and partly because it's fun. She's really into the idea that 'Mummy made this' at the moment and I can't resist her enthusiasm (and I hold no illusions about how long this phase might last)!<br />
This is a little stocking filler that I made her for Christmas...<br />
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The pattern is <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ragdoll">Ragdoll</a> by Debbie Bliss and I knitted it using Drops Baby Merino on 2.5mm needles.<br />
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I made major modifications to this pattern. It is written to be knitted flat and sewn up which would result in a huge number of small pieces and seams, so I started at the top and knitted it in the round, stuffing it as I went. Only the arms and the dress were knitted separately and with hindsight, the arm shaping at the top where they're sewn on would lend itself beautifully to a sort of raglan-style construction.<br />
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There are many modifications to the dress that have been made on Ravelry, so I intend to make a few of these in the future to give her a wardrobe. I also wondered about holding the yarn doubled and using larger needles to make a 'big sister' with a different coloured dress and tights.<br />
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<br />MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-52633069989913198452013-02-06T12:18:00.000+00:002013-02-12T12:55:23.387+00:00Clearing the Backlog # 4 - Mittens Mittens have been a bit of a theme in my knitting over the last couple of years. I've already blogged about the Calaveras and Chrysanthemum mittens that I knitted way back when, but since then, I've gravitated towards slightly simpler (easier?) designs.<br />
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First up are two pairs of fingerless mitts for DD. She has dreadful circulation to her hands so these were knitted with autumn in mind, just to keep her hands warm in the car (or house) or on mild days.<br />
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The first pair were knitted with my handspun on 3mm needles.<br />
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The second pair were knitted with some Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the Fandango colourway that I had left over from her sock-yarn hat. Also knitted on 3mm needles.<br />
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Both pairs were knitted to improvised patterns and had deliberately short cuffs as DD was not very tolerant of mittens at first. Now that she loves putting her mittens on, I'd knit future pairs with much longer cuffs and possibly with flip-over tops.<br />
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Moving on to adult mitts, this year I took part in the Yarn Yard Shed Swap on Ravelry. The theme of the swap was hand coverings, with each participant completing a questionnaire on their likes, dislikes and hand-covering preferences.<br />
My recipient requested fingerless mitts, so I got to try out a pattern I've had my eye on for a while - <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/vancouver-fog">Vancouver Fog Mitts</a>.<br />
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I used Dream in Colour Classy yarn in the colourway 'Seaflower'.<br />
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I liked these so much that I knitted a second pair for myself using Manos de Uruguay Silk Blend in colourway 'Pisces'.<br />
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Both times I knitted the longer versions with the extra repeat of the cable on the cuffs for really warm coverage on the wrists. The pattern is lovely and well-written, but I made a minor modification to move the end of the round to the middle of the palms instead of starting right beside the pattern on the backs.MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-20458735762239348242013-01-28T12:25:00.001+00:002013-02-12T12:57:16.587+00:00Clearing the backlog #3 - A pair of shawlsThese shawls have nothing much in common except for the fact that they're both for me and both knitted in 4ply, but in the interests of clearing the backlog before the baby arrives, I'm pairing them up for this post.<br />
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The first shawl was knitted in the aftermath of the first Glasgow School of Yarn. <a href="http://westknits.com/">Stephen West</a> was one of the tutors and brought a selection of his samples with him. I'd seen the pattern before and not really given it a second glance, but having seen it in person, I absolutely loved it.<br />
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The pattern is <a href="http://westknits.com/index.php/pattern/shawls/akimbo/">Akimbo</a> by Stephen West and I knitted it in Old Maiden Aunt Merino-Nylon-Cashmere 4ply in the colourway 'Seen the Ocean' and Fyberspates Sheila's Sock in the colourway Violet on 3.5mm needles.<br />
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All the way through I was worried that I was going to run out of the Sheila's sock, but in the end I had a few metres left - enough for a few hexipuffs!<br />
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The second shawl was something that I fell for at first glance, but didn't get round to knitting for a while. It is also the source of the biggest ever knitting mistake I've ever made (but more on that later).<br />
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The pattern is Colour Affection by Veera Välimäki and I've knitted it in three different colourways of Clan by the Yarn Yard. They don't have names, but one is a darkish grey (that I was lucky enough to buy for a song as it had been dropped and badly tangled, and then lucky again as it wasn't too bad to untangle), one is a beige and the last is a dusky mulberry. I wanted shades that would tone well and give a muted but classy look. I think that the Yarn Yard shades are perfect for this as they are always slightly understated.<br />
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I knew a few folk who had knitted this piece and all had said that the process was long and very boring, but it was worth persevering as I wanted the finished shawl. With this in mind, once I reached the third colour section, I stopped counting as such and just kept knitting on the basis that
if I counted, I’d only realise how much further I had to go. One Thursday
at knit night, a friend sitting next to me commented that I might be further on than I realised, so maybe I should count…
Not really believing this, I counted at the end of the row… I was 54
rows over… at almost 400 stitches per row… that’s almost 20 000 stitches
extra! By far and away the biggest knitting mistake I've ever made and it added to the dull knitting by slightly over two weeks!<br />
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There was no way on earth that I was going to rip all the extra, so my colour affection is slightly larger than most (and I actually find that it's quite a nice size, so maybe it wasn't such a bad mistake after all).<br />
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I modified the published pattern slightly by working a yarn-over two stitches into every row, then dropping it in the next row to make the edge slightly less tight and relax the curve a bit. I also carried the non-working colours up the edge of the work instead of cutting and weaving in every two rows. Unfortunately, I've carried them with a little too much tension, so once side of the edge is tighter than the other, but it doesn't look to bad once its on. <br />
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<br />MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-38459656927662646262013-01-14T16:30:00.000+00:002013-01-14T16:30:50.502+00:00Clearing the backlog #2 - Little HatsThese all started when DD needed a new hat for the winter. She's getting to the stage where she has an opinion about what she wears (especially the colour) and would generally prefer pink. I'd generally prefer anything but pink (especially in large quantities), so I reckoned that a compromise could be reached.<br />
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Years ago, I signed up to a Lorna's Laces sock yarn club from <a href="http://getknitted.com/">Get Knitted</a> for a year. Two skeins every month... and at the very most I've used a couple of those skeins. I keep saving them for special. One of the colourways, Fandango, struck me as the perfect compromise for this hat. It contained pink, but was nicely balanced by purple and a white/pale grey.<br />
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I chose the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/charlies-sock-yarn-hat">Charlie's Sock Yarn Hat</a> pattern by Aimee Alexander and knitted the toddler size in the round on 3mm needles. <br />
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The pompoms were made on my new pompom makers ( I decided that two circles of cardboard like I used to do as a child was way too fiddley for adult fingers, especially when the pompoms are only 1.5 inches in diameter). These pompom makers are definitely the way to go and I now own a collection of them from minute to huge.<br />
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Shortly after I made the DD's hat, a good friend of mine had a little boy who obviously needed a hand-knit hat, so I knit another in the baby size using Regia Galaxy in the Saturn colourway...<br />
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and then I made another toddler one in Regia Sock Yarn in the Zanzibar colourway for his big brother who is a little older than DD because his little brother couldn't have all the fun.<br />
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This pattern is excellent. It sizes up well, and the turned brim is lovely and warm over the ears. I also think that it looks better than ribbing. I made a minor modification in that I used a three needle bind-off at the crown instead of lots and lots of kitchener stitch.MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-26063836308313855212013-01-09T14:13:00.000+00:002013-01-09T14:13:10.475+00:00Clearing the backlog #1I had an idea that I would spend the week between Christmas and New Year getting to grips with blogging from my tablet and simultaneously clearing the backlog of knits I have from the last couple of years that I've not got round to blogging about. I was sucessful on neither count and here I am on my laptop, well into January. Nevertheless, the backlog will be cleared and as I look at my list, I realise that my projects fall nicely into pairs, or sometimes threes...<br />
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Today we have his and hers jumpers...<br />
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The resident radiologist was the recipient of a new jumper last Christmas (2011).<br />
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The pattern was <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ben">Ben</a> by Norah Gaughan and the yarn is New Lanark Donegal Silk Tweed Aran in the colourway Forest. I knitted it almost entirely in the round on 5mm needles.<br />
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Sadly, it wasn't quite done for Christmas, but got finished up in January 2012 and has been work plenty since then.<br />
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The other jumper was for me.<br />
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The pattern was Beatnik by Norah Gaughan again (and blogging about this today is the first time that I've noticed that both jumpers were by the same designer!), and the yarn is Drops Nepal in a lovely apple green shade (the first picture gives the best reproduction of the colour). Again, I knitted in it almost entirely in the round on 5mm needles and used Carol Fellor's method for knitting top-down set in sleeves in the round with no need to seam.<br />
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Sadly, this hasn't really been worn much yet. I finished knitting it in May 2012 by which time it was too warm for a heavily cabled alpaca jumper and now my growing bump is stopping it fitting to well. Hopefully I'll get some good use out of it next winter!MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-84952699138553167772012-10-04T16:31:00.004+01:002012-10-04T16:31:57.957+01:00New skillsIn the middle of July, something new came into my life.<br />
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A lovely Ashford Traditional wheel.<br />
I've not had a great deal of time to really play on it yet as I went on holiday a few days later and have had plenty of other demands on my time recently, but in addition to playing a bit to get the feel for it, I've completed one spinning project.<br />
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This yarn came together as a bit of an accident. I got a lovely pink and blue 100% bamboo Yarn Yard roving in a p/hop offer and bought the dark grey Jacob roving from HillTop Cloud. I didn't intend to ply them together, but it worked out well.<br />
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I originally tried to spin the bamboo on a drop spindle, but the very long staple was killing me and the yarn kept drifting apart. Once I got the wheel, I tried on that and as the wheel provides a 'spare hand' of sorts, the spinning was much easier.<br />
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The jacob spun up beautifully on the wheel and really quickly.<br />
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I plied the two together and realised that I had loads of bamboo single left, so I spun up some cream 100% merino roving that I had in stash to ply with the remainder of the bamboo.<br />
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The finished yarn is a light DK weight and has a lovely sheen from the bamboo without being to shiney. I'd like to make something for my daughter with it. I think that the cream/bamboo ply will make a good accent or edging. I think that I have about 500m all told.<br />
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Just need to find the right pattern now - possibly a dress...MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-34635886457705511132012-08-22T14:43:00.000+01:002012-08-22T14:43:27.689+01:00Tour de FleeceNo knitting of any meaningful nature took place for me between April and August this year. I just lost interest for a while and life (and tennis) took over.<br />
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I did however manage to keep my interest in spinning going and took part in the Tour de Fleece this year for the first time...<br />
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I cleared the decks of spinning already started, plying up a couple of experiments I'd been playing with:<br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79;">Some fractal-plied BLF (top) and a sampler of grey BFL plied with 100% bamboo.</span></div>
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I then cracked on with the main event: a sample pack of British Breeds from Hill Top Cloud.<br />
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These were spun on my modular spindle and plied on my heavy bottom whorl.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">From l - r: White Shetland, grey North Ronaldsay, grey Shetland, oatmeal BFL, </span></span><span style="color: #a64d79;">brown North Ronaldsay, moorit Shetland, brown BFL, grey Jacob, Black Shetland.</span></div>
The finished yarns are all approximately 15g and 30m of fingering weight. I hope to knit a SheepHeid with these in the future.<br />
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Finding myself with several days to go before the end of the tour, I dug out a beautiful braid of gradient dyed BFL from The Yarn Yard.<br />
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I split this down the middle then spun each half onto my modular spindle. I plyed to try to maintain the gradient and ended up with approximately 300m of sport weight.MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-67471130114165463172012-05-16T17:02:00.000+01:002012-05-16T17:02:46.605+01:00Easter BonnetI'm a bit behind on my posts as will become evident - forgive me!<br />
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The week before Easter, I took a week off from work to kick back a bit, relax and generally catch up with non-work life. The first day was fantastic, the weather was beautiful and I spent the entire day working in the garden. The next day was awful - raining and cold with no sign of a let up. Mid-morning the Resident Radiologist called me to say that he'd noticed a sign and DDs nursery that morning requiring parents to provide and Easter bonnet for two days time... In addition to this he wasn't sure what constituted an Easter bonnet...<br />
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I took a deep breath, gathered the crafty materials I had in the house, made a cup of tea and reflected that it wasn't a bad way to spend a revoltingly wet day off work!<br />
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Since time was short and DD is still too young to have (or at least to express) and opinion on what she wanted, I decided to make a near-replica (materials allowing) of a bonnet my mother made for me about 30 years ago.<br />
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Little rectangles of tissue paper were stacked, concertina'd and teased out into roses, with bright button centres peaking out,<br />
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A large piece of card was cut to form the brim, then covered with more tissue paper,<br />
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The crown was a bit of a problem. When my mum made this bonnet for me, she cut a circle of crepe paper and (I think) eased it into the head circle pleating it slightly and securing with staples. I didn't have crepe paper and the tissue paper was too delicate to use in the same way, so I improvised.<br />
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I cut lengths of cheap silver ribbon that had been tied round a bale of towels when I got them (I never throw this sort of stuff out) and fastened them loosely cross-wise accross the head hole to form a loose cage. I put a stitch through the centre point where all the ribbons crossed to stop them sliding about.<br />
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I then got out some good pink organza ribbon and wove it in and out of the silver ribbon 'spokes' to fill in the crown. I used some good blue organza ribbon to make the ties to hold the bonnet on and them secured the pink and blue ribbons in place with a stitch every time them crossed the silver spokes.<br />
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Finally I attached the roses to the brim with wire freezer ties.<br />
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DD wore her hat to nursery on the required day, looked really sweet in it and happened to win first prize in the bonnet parade. Proud mummy!<br />
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After easter, the stitches holding the good ribbon in place were unpicked and the ribbon reclaimed and carefully rewound for the next project (I deliberately didn't cut either of the good ribbons) and the roses have been reused as decoration on birthday presents, so all in all, it was a pretty green project in more ways than one.MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-27139790674336728242012-03-28T11:12:00.000+01:002012-03-28T11:12:20.778+01:00FunnyRecently, I've found myself only blogging when I have a finished object to show and tell. Today, however, I'm blogging to share the sheer joy of something that took my fancy the other night.<br />
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I was sent a small pile of hexipuffs and a Fyberspates BFL sock blank from Shetland via the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/groups/p-hop">p/hop group on Ravelry</a>. The hexipuffs went into my pile of the same and I decided to rewind the sock blank into a hank and soak it to remove some of the crimp (it's perfectly possible to knit straight from the blank, but the crimp messes with my tension a bit).<br />
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I set up the lovely new swift that I got for Christmas (thanks Mum, Dad and Sis) and ripped out the blank and wound it on (yes, that is a toy tricycle supporting the swift!). Hmm, I thought, there doesn't actually seem to be much crimp (not allowing for the tension the yarn was under on the swift).<br />
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Ha! Then I released the tension and took it off and it made me laugh out loud.<br />
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The hank pulled in to less than a quarter of its previous diameter and went all crinkly. There was serious crimp in the yarn.<br />
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It had a bath and is now drying in the bathroom - I would have put it under tension to straighten it out totally but I couldn't find the hook I normally use to add weight.<br />
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I'm planning to knit more hexipuffs from this skein.MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-47916864963982517462012-03-07T12:07:00.000+00:002012-03-07T12:08:15.815+00:00Gift Knitting (Part 4)Whereas some of my spinning-to-knitting projects in the past have been from ALMOST first principles, this one could not have started at an earlier point in the process without owning livestock.<br />
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A few years ago when I was first learning to spin, a friend of my in-laws sent me a raw fleece from one of her alpacas. It was a beautiful caramel colour and wonderfully soft. I consulted You Tube, decided not to try to wash the fleece but spin it dirty instead, purchased a pair of hand carders and set to work.<br />
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I still don't really think I'm carding properly or efficiently, but I managed to produce some rollags from which I could spin and produced a reasonably respectable single (if a little thick and thin in places).<br />
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This was N-plied to form a 3 ply which was approximately DK weight and given a good wash. And here the yarn sat for a couple of years until December last year.<br />
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We were going down to my in-laws for Christmas and for the first time since I received the fleece, the friend who had sent me it would be there, so I decided to knit her a Christmas gift from her own Alpaca.<br />
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A little swatching told me that the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/basic-cable-hat">Basic Cable Hat by Christine Quirion</a> would be a good match for the yarn so I crossed my fingers that I would have the yardage needed and started knitting.<br />
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I knitted the hat on 5mm DPNs and gave it a good wash post-knitting in soak. I sqeezed in on the yardage front with less than a metre left over. The wonderful caramel colour of the original fleece had been a bit obscured during the prep and spinning process by the dirt and oil on the fibre, but it really came out again after a good wash.<br />
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Sadly, the remainder of the fleece that I had stored unprocessed was discovered by some mice who found that it made a wonderfully soft and warm winter home. It's now becoming lovely rich compost in my compost bin!MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-31803480799946815622012-03-05T16:35:00.000+00:002012-03-05T16:37:03.832+00:00A monster from the deep...... or at least that's what it looked like when the Resident Radiologist fished it out from beneath his boot last week.<br />
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Can you guess what it is? Yep - it's one of my <a href="http://knitty.com/ISSUEw11/PATTchrysanthemum.php">Chrysanthemum mittens</a>.<br />
It must have dropped out of my bag one day when I was getting my daughter out of her car seat. Subsequently, it languished in the gutter for a few days in some truely horrible weather, right up until the RR stood on it and it went squelch.<br />
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I have to admit, I had a serious think about whether it was worth trying to resurrect it. I even considered knitting it again, but I don't have enough yarn left and don't want to buy more. Eventually, I rinsed off the worst of the mud and soaked it in a large basin of water overnight. In the morning it went through a wool wash in the machine with delicates detergent.<br />
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It will never be the same again, but it's wearable and warm and the pattern is still detectable. It's also considerably greyer than it was, slightly hairier, and a centimeter smaller, but with wear it's stretching out a bit.MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-82704951868797388712012-02-06T15:50:00.000+00:002012-02-06T15:50:14.286+00:00Clearing the decks.I don't have anything on the needles... not... one... single... thing! I hardly know what to do with myself, but at the same time, I'm not in a rush to get going either. It's a bit like hanging in a limbo where I can't quite get my thoughts straight about priorities and patterns. The absolute opposite of startitis!<br />
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So I've been clearing the decks. Sorting through patterns and putting them away. I need to sort through my needles too and work out where all the tips and cables have gone. I have a strong feeling that once everything is in order, the right project will present itself and I'll have the necessary resources to hand.<br />
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That said, there are a <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-beekeepers-quilt">few</a> <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/beatnik">beauties</a> <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/double-heelix">out</a> <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hitchhiker">there</a> that are starting to tug at my attention...MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-43252815271299187492012-01-19T16:17:00.003+00:002012-01-19T16:17:55.344+00:00Gift Knitting (Part 3)While I was on my mitten kick, I thought I'd also knit some for my mum for Christmas. This idea was modified slightly when she saw the ones that I was knitting for my mother-in-law and didn't seem particularly enthused.<br />
Close consideration of when she'd wear them quickly made me realise that gloves would be a much better gift for her, so I cracked out Knotty, a pattern that's been on my waiting list since it was first published.<br />
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The yarn is Fyberspates Sheila's Sock yarn in a glorious, vibrant purple. It's a very smooth, high twist sock yarn which works well with the design of this glove.<br />
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I made some modifications to the placement of the fingers while I was knitting - these are obvious from the orange lifelines. I don't like when the fingers of a glove are all picked up off the same round of stitches - the little finger never fits properly. What I do is to put all the stitches on waste yarn and knit the little finger, then pick up the rest of the stitches, knit another 4 rounds, put the stitches back on waste yarn and knit the remaining fingers. I leave the waste yarn in as a lifeline as it also makes it much easier to count the number of rows in each finger so the two gloves match.<br />
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This yarn haemorraged dye during it's first soak, but the colour remained unchanged - whew!<br />
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The stitch definiting on the cable worked out beautifully with this yarn and I've got enough left over from the skein for a little highlight in my current project.MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-67643336638003905162012-01-12T13:33:00.000+00:002012-01-12T13:33:19.653+00:00Gift Knitting (Part2)Some time ago, I suggested to the Resident Radiologist that I might knit his mother some Scandinavian-style stranded mittens for Christmas (I had just finished my <a href="http://www2.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1953189719471151773#editor/target=post;postID=254679717026594213">Chrysanthmums </a>at the time and was on a mitten kick). The response was distinctly non-committal until he saw the pattern, <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/calaveras-mittens">Cavaleras</a> by Pamela Schwab, at which point the enthusiasm picked up considerably...<br />
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In case some of you know the Cavaleras pattern and are starting to think that this is an odd choice, I should probably explain a bit about my mother-in-law. She studies funerary monuments and is a member of the Church Monument Society. The senior women in that society pride themselves on the procurement and wearing of garments or accessories adorned by sculls. Not scull-and-cross bones, just skulls. The more (discrete) skulls you have, the better... which is why Calaveras was perfect.<br />
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The yarn is Drops Alpaca (which I love, love, love for colourwork), knitted on 2.5mm DPNs. The pattern was wonderfully written and charted and very simple to follow (and memorise). I altered the cuff slightly so that the corrugated rib wasn't actually a rib, just stocking stitch. My stranded colour-work still leaves a bit to be desired, but there is a definite curve of improvement from my first Chrysanthemum mitten, to the last Calaveras one. <br />
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When I wrapped them, I put them with their backs together and the palms facing out. When my MIL unwrapped them, she looked pleased, thanked me for them, then separated them out, saw the pattern, and laughed out loud (in a good way). I hope that they'll come in useful in many cold and draughty Church visits in the coming years.<br />
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<br />MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953189719471151773.post-6812637943271734692012-01-10T12:16:00.000+00:002012-01-10T12:16:57.324+00:00Gift Knitting (Part 1)Happy New Year.<br />
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In the last few months of 2011, I was knitting pretty constantly on gifts for Christmas and the Resident Radiologist's birthday. Now that the wrappings have been opened and surprises revealed, I can post some of the projects here.<br />
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First up in chronological terms was the RR's birthday. He received the statutory pair of socks and in addition, a new hat to keep his ears warm in the Glasgow autumns and springs (it's not really thick enough for winter proper - not that we're having one of those at the moment).<br />
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The yarn for both projects was Colinette Jitterbug in Velvet Leaf. I bought this yarn about six years ago, back when Colinette was pretty much the only show in town when it came to beautiful yarn from a UK dyer. Now of course, there is such a huge availability of indy-dyed yarn, we hardly know where to start.<br />
At the time I bought it, Jitterbug was sold as superwash but I'm proceeding with care in that respect as I vaguely recall hearing felting horror stories from others. The yarn is lovely and springy and the varigation in the colour is really subtle.<br />
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The socks are my usual basic top-down, heel-flap pattern, knitted on 2.25mm DPNs.<br />
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The hat pattern was a <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/2x2-ribbed-for-his-pleasure">2x2 rib pattern by TinksDarkerSide</a> that works the decreases at the top to form a lovely simple swirl.<br />
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Both the socks and the hat appear to have entered into regular use which is all a knitter can ask for really!MaryDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130033979116205468noreply@blogger.com0