A Blessed Christmas

card from : crossdaily.com : lights from our Christmas tree

Would you?

Would you frog this store bought hand knitted Aran cardigan if you had several dry cleaning burnts on it? I don't send my woollies to the dry cleaners anymore but those were the days when I thought wool keeps better minus the water !


It was bought 10 years ago and has seen me through many winters. There's too many memories associated with it, like I was travelling with my late father when I gave some lame excuse for going into this shop near Hampton Court to buy it. I remembered explaining why it costed much more than 'Made in China' machine knitted ones......

I'm sure if I give the recycled wool a good bath and knit it up into an Aran vest I'd have many more years out of it still. Well, I got as far as taking the scissors out this morning but they went back into my sewing basket after the photography session! One of these days....

I've got 2 WIPs, one of which cannot be blogged about till after the New Year since I'm taking part in the celebrating Christmas and New Year the KC way mystery project.


This is Thorn and Thistle from IK Summer 06 and I'm knitting with Catania cotton.



I'm a little undecided about adapting the cardigan sleeves shown in the ensemble into short sleeves for the top. Anyway, that can come later.

On time..

Phew! so I made it, but I'm not planning to get into another 'deadline' situation like this again. (I hope!) Dilly dallying and wondering off to other projects, serves me right really.

I never got round to the pair of matching socks......

DH's jumper was finished late Thursday night, blocked and ready for packing by Friday. It's on the way to the airport now and I've finally got something to blog about!

Pattern : none, measurements from an old jumper

Chest Size: 48"

Yarn: Rowanspun 4 ply ( 100% pure new wool )

Amount: 16 x 25 gm x 162 yds (with some yards left over)
Needles: 2mm and 3mm

The body and sleeves were worked in the round, shoulders with short rows and 3 needle cast off. I find the shoulder seams (pic below) are definitely neater compared to the step-cast-off and seaming method.

And here's the last of the hats for 3 teenagers on a skiing trip tomorrow. That's our Christmas tree in the background and the cyrstal globe used for all my hat pictures.

....................
I used 2 strands of black DK wool and I'm not certain if this is 'broken rib' but I think it's a nice 'hat stitch' and more interesting than the usual k2p2 ribbing. The stitches are dense and give the hat better structure, that is, if you don't intend for it to go into a smallish handbag since it's bulkier than a Beanie.

So!, it is now ME time and I'm about to make myself a nice cup of tea while I decide on what to cast on this evening :)

Detouring consequences

I work well under stress, but this is cutting it a little too close. I've got to the first sleeve with DH's jumper and I really really must have it washed and blocked by first week December!

I had also planned a pair of matching socks....oh dear! any suggestions how I can summon the knitting elves to stop by?
The consequences of too many detours.....

Since it's mostly knitted in the round there's not much finishing, only the sleeves to attach and the collar to pick up but I'm still in a panic.



Turns out that I have less hats to knit for this winter.
Here's 2 out of three, just one more for the nephew.

This one out of a double stranded DK wool bouncle, is a tad too tight so I'll probably knit a slightly larger one with the same yarn. There's plenty left over from this cardigan I knitted last year.



This is knitted with my handpainted chunky wool . Notice how the colour pools? I was a little disappointed with how the striping turned out until my daughter and the receipient said 'it's cool, I like it', and so, if the 'customer' is happy, I'm happy :)

Diamond Fantasy Shawl

It's a 'shawlette' really, and has just made it's first outing to church this morning.

I went for the scarf size plus one repeat, using up the 2nd hank which had a little more than half left over when I reached the recommended pattern repeats. It covers the shoulders just right and is surprisingly very warm. Definitely going to be a 'work-horse' shawl for me and looks rather chic tied round the neck, just perfect when travelling in colder climes. Not to long nor bulky, definitely a repeat knit this one.

All in all, it took about 4 days and will be a quick gifting knit. Oh yes! the I-Cord cast off. It was a first, took a lot longer than normal casting-off and for those of you who'd be like me, wondering and worrying if I've got it right, shoulder on and see if you like the effect? If it looks good, why worry? continue to the finish!!!

Here it is, resting fully on my knitting-chair so as you can gauge its length from the back view. Now, I did take some back poses and the pictures were so awful they were deleted as soon as I set eyes on them. Is it true, ladies of a certain age should not be photographed from the back???? :)

Pattern: Sivia Harding Diamond Fantasy Scarf

Size: 25" x 57"
Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss, Black, Fingering
( 70% merino wool 30% silk )
Amount: 2 x 50 gm x 220 yds (with some yards left over)
Needles: 4mm

Notes : Pattern recommended Scarf size plus 1 repeat

Black Diamonds

So it's my Saturday off work and I couldn't wait to settle down with a mug of white coffee to knit hubby's jumper and try short rows on the shoulder seams instead of the usual step-cast-off. Just a few more inches and the back should be done.

But wait, it's a bright morning with good light to work on a swatch with the black Knit Picks Gloss just arrived. Plenty of time to go back to the jumper or so I thought!

Well, here's the swatch for Sivia Harding's Diamond Fantasy Shawl, see how its grown to almost 5 repeats by the evening?? :) Not a stitch was made on anything else. I just went on and on and oh! the merino silk mix is so soft and smooth, the stitches just flew off the needles. I'm definitely going to buy more if I get a chance to.

I'm back to the shawl now, here's wishing you all a productive week ahead. Happy knitting!

Clapotis

Was I even thinking, 3 rectangular stole WIPs at a time ?
First, I wanted Cozy in 4 ply cotton to lug around the office. You know, something not too fragile and fancy. Then the Knitpicks Alpaca arrived and I couldn't resist trying out some lace. That was Sivia Harding's Hanging Garden. Then another spree brought Knitpicks Twist for daughter YL's Clap.

It was overwhelming, it was crazy and I will never ever have more than one stole/shawl project in progress ever again! Some of you are probably having an 'ah ha' smile and thinking 'we'll see how long that will last.... '. But I didn't start anything like I had promised myself a few blog entries ago, really!

By the way, I've got enough yarn, just arrived, for 4 lace projects just calling out to be started.....and I'm looking for a wool - silk mix in graduated colours for another Clapotis :)

Just off the needles and unblocked.

Pattern: Clapotis

Size: 22" x 63"

Yarn: Knit Picks Twist, Broadway Lights, DK

( 30% cotton 30% visose 20% acrylic 20% nylon )

Amount: 8 x 50 gm x 99 yds (plus some yards from the 9th ball)

Needles: 4mm

Yes!, I will knit this again and I plan to do so soon - mine! It's such an amazing design and I love the way it drapes over the front. Surprisingly it's not bulky over the shoulders, probably due to the trapezoidal shaping.

However, Twist with ribbon yarn entwined is wrong for this pattern as I forsee the yarn fraying easily at the drop stitch bars. Also, I think it's best in a lighter yarn, the cotton mix is a little heavy and the FO is about 400 gms.

Hanging Garden Stole

The Monsoons season is finally here and the phone lines around my area's going to be fried ever so often. My connection has been out for 2 days and so here I am, sneaking in an update on my latest FO at the office this morning.

My first lace project

Pattern: Hanging Garden Stole by Sivia Harding

Size: 22" x 70" (blocked)

Yarn: Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud, 100% Baby Alpaca in Smoke, lace weight,

Skein: 1.8 x 50 g x 440 yds

Needles: 3.25mm as recommended on Knit Picks pattern

Can't wait

I've got to the stage with my Hanging Garden Stole where I'm working on it every knitting minute and just can't wait to finish.

This blob here is 2 repeats shy of the targeted 10 and I've got another lace stole planned cos' I'm hooked!

Strange, only two skeins instead of the three recommended KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud were needed. My tension must be out, but then, the stole when strectched looks like it'd block to required measurements.

Anyways, I'm very pleased with how it's turning out.


I've got to knit at least 5 winter hats by November and here's the stash I intend to use up. They're mostly DK wool except for the self-striping hand painted which is Worsted.


Since I'm not terribly imaginative nor creative, combining them to come up with hats that my teenage receipients will refer to as 'cool' is going to be a fashion challenge for an aunt who dislikes wearing hats.







I reckon if I go with the stripey child's and green hat designs below I won't go too wrong? There's always plain ribbing if I run out of ideas but I very much want to attempt something different. Ideas and links to patterns from you would be most welcome.

Knitting charts

It took almost 2 hours to block, but seeing it all stretched out in its 'glory' was most satisfying.




Pattern: Cozy

Size: 20.5" by 69" (blocked)

Yarn: Bendigo 4 ply cotton in Natural

Skeins: ( 200 + 75) gm x 670 yds = 921 yds

Needles: 3.5 mm






this made knitting much easier...

pinned on kiddie blocks drying near the windows.




I wanted coloured charts and my Hanging Garden, with symbols in black, was driving me cross-eyed, so I sat down and charted another on Msoft Excel which took just over an hour. Isn't this worth it? The right side columns are row counters.