Damn, Knit & Blast It

So.

What do you do with one skein of stunningly lovely Giotto?

I had found a pattern that called for one skein for my size. Unfortunately I think Colinette got a model who’d taken a few too many Valium…

It’s from this Colinette book, called Westcountry

It’s a simple variation on a ripple stitch - two pieces, straight up for 26cm with no shaping and a couple of shoulder straps. It is rather cropped but on a scorching hot day,after a couple of trips to the gym, I think I can get away with it.

I had a bugger of a time keeping the pattern correct! Mainly because it was virtually impossible to see the increases and decreases in ribbon yarn, in garter stitch.

Once I decided to use my trusty B&Q stitch markers to mark where the increases and decreases fell, I got on much better.

Here’s a question, if you’re knitting something with a ziggy zaggy bottom edge, where do you measure to? The tip of the point (making the garment shorter) or valley of the “v” shape?

I got as far as 26cm to the tip of the “V” and started to get that uncomfortable, knitter’s intuitive feeling that there was going to be a problem.

“Hmmmmm….There’s not much yarn left to make the front….” I thought.

I didn’t want to try and join the Giotto if I needed to make the knitting I’d already done longer so I decided not to cut the yarn and start the front. Instead, I wrestled the other end of the yarn out of the centre of my hand wound ball. I then proceeded to knit the front with the back sitting on my lap on a stitch holder.

I don’t know if you’ve ever tried knitting knitting from both end of the ball all once but let me tell you - you very quickly get in a great big tangle! I amused my fellow Guilt Knitters by spending about an hour painstakingly unlashing my near complete back from the remains of the ball.

The secret of knitting from both ends of the ball is to make sure the yarn you are not actively knitting with is wound tightly round the ball and looped into a loosish knot so it doesn’t unwind as you knit. The active yarn can then pull happily from the centre.

I managed, with some jiggling, to end up with a back and a front, both 26cm long. Unfortunately, to get that I was left with about 60cm of Giotto to make the straps! EEEk!

What shall I make the straps from?

I dug into my stash and came out with a bag of Paton’s DK cotton I’d bought intending to make a granny square blanket.

These are the colours I had to choose from…

This is the Giotto, knit up into the ripple stitch…

Not a bad match huh? Just goes to show that I’m drawn to similar colours, time and again.

I couldn’t choose between the cottons. What’s more, I didn’t want to limit the top by having one predominant colour. So I chose all of them!

I picked up an 8mm crochet hook, for no better reason than the top was knit on 8mm needles, and crocheted a chain using all six colours held together.

This is what I got…

You and see the “right” side of the chain at the top and the “wrong”, bumpy side at the bottom. I thought the bumpy side reflected the garter stitch of the top quite well, so that faced outwards. It also a happy accident that it’ll be more comfortable to have the smooth, right side against my skin!

In the course of making this strap, I also discovered that I had created an irresistible cat toy…

Thug says he was just checking for durability but I don’t believe him - he’s having too much fun!!

Do you want to see the finished article now?

I am pleased with it but I would have been much happier if it had been an inch or two longer.

If I’d used Giotto for the straps this would have been so short I would have been arrested! Especially as I’ve read that the Giotto stretches with wear…stretchy straps are not good!

Not quite the “get your knitting Mojo back” kinda project in the end was it?

I need a yarn sale….

Some body stole my Mojo!

My knitting Mojo, I mean.

You may have noticed that I’ve slowed down blogging…and knitting. Partly because I first injured my arm then had an incredibly painful upset tum. All I was capable of was slumping in front of the TV under a duvet and not knitting. This is the woman who in January, managed to make an entire Bowie jumper while prostrate with the flu.

The real trouble is, I’ve just not felt like knitting. Maybe a couple of weeks has been enough to break the habit?

It seems I’m not alone in suffering a “Summer Knitting Slump” though. Quite a few knitters I’ve talked to have either slowed down or switched to other hobbies. I blame the weather. It’s too warm to lust after big warm jumpers and too grey and drizzly here (classic British summer weather ) to inspire cute little cotton tops.

Maybe I’ve discovered a new syndrome - “Summer Knitting Slump” or “SKS”???

I think I’ve been doing too many things for other people or using up yarn on projects that don’t excite me.

I need to try and rediscover my Mojo.

I have been struggling through what should be a quick and rewarding little project.

I picked up recently a skein of Colinette Giotto in a sale basket - It was a bargain. I had to have it…It’s the colourway “Monet”. Perfectly named. I could see the Waterlilies in the skein!

The yarn is a delicious little “sweetie” - when I was little, if I was very good I was rewarded with a “sweetie” - usually tooth-rottingly delicious sweets - I consider a skein of yarn to be a much healthier option!

I’m going to go look for my Mojo on my balcony - it’s a sunny day, the flowers are looking great, I have a big mug of coffee and a Stephen Fry podcast to listen to.

If combining that perfect knitting environment and a skein of beautiful Giotto doesn’t give me the kick I need I’m going to have to seek out therapy - or the Summer yarn sales at least!!

I promise to blog what I achieved very soon…

My blogging and knitting have been curtailed for the last couple of weeks - I seem to have hurt my hand somehow. In the syle of the old Tommy Copper joke that went,

Patient : “Doctor, Doctor, it hurts when I do that….” (Waves arm)

Doctor: ” Well, don’t do that then!”

I decided to rest it. So not much knitting or blogging for me! It is now much improved and I am pleased to report I have a new garment.

Dinny is done.

Here she is, with me looking a little silly, staring into the middle distance on my balcony, nestled in the flowers…

I can’t say I’m thrilled with Dinny but I think she’s a garment that will prove to be wearable, versatile and useful. As Ben put it when I proudly modelled it for him,

“It’s not exactly summer wear is it?”

Dinny is very sensible and functional but rather dull and uninspiring. No one is going to stop me in the street and say, “Wow, love your jumper” then go wide eyed with awe that I made it.

I guess that says something about me doesn’t it - I have a need to impress! (Try to anyhow…)

I do generally avoid knitting standard, plain garments I could “go buy in Marks and Spencers”. Just doesn’t seem worth the effort.

I love the neck on Dinny and she was a very quick and easy make. It’s a little shorter than I’m used to, with the rib falling at my natural waist but not so short as to be a problem. There is shaping in the sides which, as I’ve have come to expect from Kim Hargreaves, fits perfectly and saves Dinny from being another shapeless, “straight up from the rib to the armholes” sack!

I guess I’ve just got used to having some kind of “Wow!” factor when I make a garment??

I started my Fleece Artist socks way back in November 2007, as light relief from the incredibly difficult intarsia on Eveleen. I showed them to you, in passing, in my post about my stitch markers from B&Q!

This was them back then…

Since then, they have been sitting looking mournfully at me from the bag of yarn beside the sofa, saying, “Finish me! Finish me!”

As I was getting a little bored with knitting the plain fluffy stocking stitch on Dinny, I thought I’d “just finish them off…”

First problem - and why they got left to one side in November - I did the first toe wonky (Curse No.1)- it was about 8 stitches askew from being in line with the heel. I followed the pattern to the letter but failed to employ my brain (which at that point had been thoroughly exhausted doing Eveleen!)

No worries, I thought, I’ll finish the second sock then rework the toe of the first sock.

I spent 3 happy hours on Sunday at “The Guilty Knitters” finishing toe No. 2, then had immense problems picking up the stitches after unravelling the first , wonky toe. (Curse No.2)The problems picking up the stitches were miraculously solved when I remembered that I now need to wear glasses…seeing the stitches is such an advantage!

I also worked out the supreme arithmentic blunder that thinks that if you have 30 sitches on a needle and decrease two stitches per row, you can end up with 11 stitches… (Curse No.3)

I should probably tell you I was using the pattern that came on the back of the skein wrapper from Fleece Artist - this one:-

Hmmm. looking at that wrapper, I have another “curse” to point out. (Curse No.4)

I am not a person who wants to handwash my socks - even handknit ones. When buying this yarn, I rejected several beautiful yarns because they were handwash. Can you see where it says “100% Washable Merino Wool”? I saw that and thought - great - that’s the yarn for me! Look more closely at that wrapper, at the bottom, in a tiny font…

Grrrr!!!

I finished knitting toe No.1 (the wonky one I had unravelled) and thought it rather strange that I had an awful lot of yarn left over…

The “idiot woman” who “accidentally” bought the wrong yarn on Ebay must have been reading my pattern for me.

I had decreased on every round, not every other round. I’d happily made this mistake on both of my toes. So far I have knitted 3 toes for this pair of socks. Remember how I started these socks as a “light relief” project? Hah! (Curses No.5 and 6 - one for each short, stumpy, angular toe)

More toe ripping and picking up of stitches - whilst wearing glasses this time - I do try to learn from my mistakes…

Want to see the difference it makes to a toe?

“Correct Toe” on the left and “Idiot Woman” toe on the right…I suppose it depends on your foot shape and how stumpy your toes are huh?

I slogged on, and finished the cursed things. I even did Kitchener stitch on the toes rather than be tempted to just do a three needle bind off - which was an effort as I was getting so mad with the socks (OK, mad with myself actually but it’s easier to blame the socks )

As you may have worked out by now - I’m not exactly beguiled by these socks. The yarn and the colours are beautiful but the pattern is, IMHO, poor.

Apart from the arithmetic error, I’m not thrilled with the heel…

The slip stitch heel flap is OK but the little triangle that goes under your heel (is there a name for that?) is tiny - it’s tight, even on my narrow feet.

The 2 x 2 ribbing is loose on my leg too. in fact - maybe I should have made the whole thing smaller.

Here’s a predictable shot of one sock…

I was going to go for the “Sole to Sole” type picture but everyone does that.

I tried being a bit more bendy to get both socks in…

Then I thought - Hell! Go for broke!! Let’s see if I can still get The Lotus Position!

I think that shows them rather well!

After my Ebay Boo Boo, I thought I should really give the Kid Soft a whirl. After all, it’s a Rowan yarn I’d never heard of, let alone knit with. It would be educational….

After some research, I found that there’s only two publications for Kid Soft. The Kid Soft Booklet

and a “concertina card” of 4 patterns. Both are by Kim Hargreaves so I could be sure of something wearable in there. Being a bit of a “completist” I of course scoured Ebay and bought the concertina card too.

I chose a very basic high neck jumper called Dinny. Here’s the pic in the book - not sure if you’ll be able to see it though - in true Rowan style, they have photographed a black jumper on a dark background…

So, “How’s it knitting?”

The short answer is, “Very fast!”

So far I have done the back and front, joined the right shoulder seam ready for the neck (mainly because I’d mislaid half my stitch holders!) and stared the first sleeve.

Want to see a big black blob?

That’s the back. Here’s the best closeup I can get of the knitted fabric,

It makes a very lightweight fabric that looks a little slubby and fluffy - it verges on looking like it’s been badly washed IMHO! It will, however, be very warm judging by the toasty-warm knees I had knitting it.

The toasty-warm knees could have been because of large hairy creatures sitting on my lap whilst I knit. This brings me to another potential problem when knitting plain black in a household containing a huge ginger beast that is magnetically attracted to knitting.

Usually, I’d need to be careful to keep the knitting free of cat fur but the kid soft seems strangely immune?? Barely a whisker. Anybody got a clue why? It’s a great advantage for me - I might actually be able to wear something black in the house! Normally I have to change the second I get in the front door to avoid looking like I’m in the early stages of morphing into a a cat/human hybrid.

Of course, you’re asking yourself,

“How does she know for sure that ginger cat fur doesn’t stick to Kid Soft?”

Thug takes his duties seriously as knitwear tester. Look what happened when I left the back and front on the table for 2 minutes….

I think that look is saying, “Make me a blankie in this…Please! I need some luxury….”

It seems like ages since I’ve been able to show you a finished garment I’ve made for myself.

**Imagine sounds of frantic typing and checking***

Hmmm - it has been months! Back in February, I showed you Branwen!

Time to rectify that shameful situation…

Hildegard is finished and she is lovely!

I finished sewing her up last week, sitting in my sister’s garden, basking in sunshine, sipping coffee and swinging in her garden swing seat - Heaven

Here she is…

The fit is super, mainly because the chevron pattern acts a little like rib and stretches over all the bumps, making it look like I’m a shaping guru. Be warned though - the more this stretches width ways the shorter it gets! The sleeves are a little long - I think because I allowed the same volume of horizontal stretch as I did for the body and I have skinny arms that really didn’t stretch the sleeves much at all.

On the topic of sleeves, I have a real soft spot for sleeves that have this kind of pointy edging and the cuff…

Cute huh?

I made this Hildegard quite a bit longer than my last one, the one I showed you here. In fact I did 6 more pattern repeats before starting the armholes. I’m glad I did! This Hildegard sits just below my natural waist and really doesn’t want to be any shorter. I’m betting on the silk dropping a little too.

Considering that I made it longer, I was very pleased with the number of balls of the Pure Silk it took. I got the whole garment out of 10 balls! That means I have another 10 in stash to make something else. Thinking about it though, I might Ebay those 10 and buy a different colour - two tops the same colour might be a bit much??

Oh! I nearly forgot to tell you about the last finishing touch - the buttons.

I decided to recycle the buttons from my old Hildegard - I loved that top so much I had to save a little of it and I think they are the perfect match.

There are button holes for them to go into but they really don’t show and I don’t do them up - I think that little V is very cute as it is.

So what to knit next? I think I’ll have to think about my Ebay Boo Boo…

Completed Knit Report
Name:	Silk Hildegard
Pattern:	Jaeger JH0029 (from 1997)
Yarn:	Jaeger Pure Silk
Pattern Problems:	None
Pattern Modifications:	Made it longer than the pattern said in the body. Short rowed shoulders.
Washing and Wearing:	Pattern works like rib - stretches over your curves and makes the fit look flawless! I don’t think the Silk will like any rough handling though.
Knit It Again???:	OhYes! This is the third Hildegard I’ve made…
Difficulty:	3/5 The difficulty is in “keeping the pattern correct” when shaping.
Rating:	5/5
Other Postings Relating To This One:	Goodybye old Favorite and Hello new version Knit for Victory The Return to Hildegard

Have you ever had a yarn related accident?

Have you ever had a yarn buying accident?

I have. I made big Ebay boo boo

I occasionally sell unwanted yarn on Ebay and often browse the knitting section just to window shop. I need more yarn like a hole in the head

Sometimes, if I spot a real bargain, I’ll put in a bid to see if I “get lucky”.

On one of these window shopping expeditions, I spotted 14 balls of Black Rowan Kid Classic, complete with the pattern book.

“Oh, what a bargain! There’s a super pattern in Kim Hargreaves’ Heartfelt called Emily I can make with that!

I bid, a very reasonable amount and won! I paid and a couple of days later my yarn arrived.

Hmmm….That’s a bit fuzzy for Kid Classic…

The ball bands said Kid SOFT!!

I must stress at this point - the seller (who was completely honest and above board) had described the Yarn as Kid Soft. And shown a picture of 14 balls of Kid Soft. And shown a picture of the Kid Soft Booklet. And the title of the Ebay listing said KID SOFT.

So why the bloody hell did I read KID CLASSIC?? I am an idiot - it’s the only possible explanation!

Here is the mountain of fuzzy blackness…

For those of you confused by the difference between Kid Soft and Kid Classic (or if like me you read them as exactly the same thing!)…

Kid Classic is

• Lightweight Aran
• 70% lambswool, 26% kid mohair, and 4% nylon
• knits to 18-19 sts x 23-25 rows
• on 5-5.5mm / 6-5UK / 8-9US needles.

Kid Soft is

• Heavier than Aran (but lighter than Chunky)
• 35% extra fine Merino, 40% kid mohair and 25% nylon
• knits to 15-17 sts x 20-22 rows
• on 5-5.5mm / 6-5UK / 8-9US needles.

Weirdly, Kid Soft and Kid Classic were launched at the same time (about Winter 2000) - subsequent Rowan magazines are chock full of patterns for Kid Classic but there is not one pattern in the Rowan Mags for Kid Soft?? Why launch a yarn and not put it in the mags?

The extra mohair in the Kid Soft makes is very fuzzy and “mohairy”. The differences with gauge will make it hard to swap for kid classic without getting a very dense fabric. And the fuzz would disguise any pretty stitch patterns or detailing.

I looked through the accompanying pattern book - It’s by Kim Hargreaves too! The pattern book was published in 2000 but as ever with Kim, several of the designs are very wearable - who wouldn’t need a plain fuzzy black jumper huh?

With 14 balls I have enough yarn to make a huge coat and a shorter jumper…I’m going to be knitting a lot of black this summer…

That title is too good for a blog post!

It should be an action movie, maybe an archaeology professor fighting Nazi baddies and hunting for the lost knitted treasures of Hildegard? The sequel could be “Raiders of the Lost Stash Box”??

But I digress. Back to reality - which isn’t quite as exciting. I have finally been able to pick up my Silk Hildegard again. That’s the old favourite that I’m reknitting that I told you about in Goodbye Old Favourite, Hello New Version and Knit for Victory.

The return to Hildegard has reminded me of yet another reason I don’t like having multiple WIPs (Works in Progress). I have kinda lost the initial enthusiasm for Hildegard. I love the pattern, it’s knitting up a treat, the yarn is yummy and I really want the finished garment. Now though, after leaving it for a while, it just feels like a chore to get through before I can get onto a new thing.

There’s only one sleeve left to do and I’m 2/3 of the way up it so not much of a slog, I know. I’ve remembered the pattern OK but I can’t quite remember how I worked all the increases into the pattern for the first sleeve. I think I’ve got them the same and, lets be pragmatic here, who the heck is going to be comparing my sleeve decreases? But it still niggles at me. Hmmmm…I never thought I’d be a closet perfectionist!

Here’s the pattern in case you’ve forgotten - I love this !

The good news is the yarn quantities I’ve used. I’ve just started my 10th ball of the Jaeger Pure Silk so I might be able to get Hildegard out of 10 balls, 11 at most - that leaves me with another 9 to play with! (Did I confess I had grabbed two bags of pure silk in the January sales?)

So, as I don’t like blogging without showing you pictures too - want to see the knitted bits so far?

After all these years of knitting - I am still always surprised at just how long sleeves are! I think that picture really shows it - before you ask they are supposed to be that long - I’m not a chimp!!

Hmmm….finish the sleeve, sew up, do the neck - Go Shopping for buttons! That should spur me on

I’ve just had the phone call I was expecting from birthday boy, Steve - His Bowie fits!

I was pretty anxious about it - I had measured Steve carefully before I started but there was the grain of doubt. I am relieved and pleased.

Steve really liked Bowie and was genuinely chuffed with it

Unfortunately for Steve, my sister Carol was allowed to try Bowie on and has refused to take it off, despite it being a hot sunny day.

Don’t say I told you but apparently she was trying to stretch it over her chest to put boob shaped bumps in the front so Steve can’t wear it…..Sometimes I wonder if we are really related… I’d never do a thing like that..OK, maybe I’m jealous because I didn’t think of it first… and I lack some of the essential equipment to carry out that plan!

Steve will have to fight to keep Bowie to himself!

Want to see a picture before I tell you about the modifications I made?

Clearly, it is floating in mid-air with no help at all from my glamorous assistant, Ben

When I made Ben’s Bowie, one thing that niggled me was the picked up stitches for the collar. There was a hard line around the bottom of the collar. See what I mean?

On Steve’s version, I didn’t cast off the centre neck stitches on the back and the front - I left them on a stitch holder and completed the rest of the neck shaping according to the pattern. When I picked up the collar stitches, I just knit across the stitches on the stitch holder. You end up picking up the same number of stitches that you cast off so I couldn’t see why it wouldn’t work!

Also, for Steve, because he doesn’t like high neck lines, I made the collar shorter - 4cms not the 9cms decreed in the pattern.

Here’s how Steve’s looks…

What do you think? I think it looks better

Next time I visit Carol and Steve, I’ll try and get a photo of Steve wearing his Bowie - That’s assuming Carol hasn’t stolen it by then!