Damn, Knit & Blast It

You must all be wondering how the Flower Blanket is going?

The truth is, not as quickly as I would have liked!

I have completed and sewn up a mighty 6 strips now…

It’s a bit crumpled because it’s getting so big it has to be folded up and put away when I’m not working on it…

…or else Mewsley gets comfy!

The sewing up has been hard to keep on top of but, so far, I’ve succeeded in being strict with myself and everything that can be sewn, has been sewn.

Thug has been my ever watchful conscience , especially as he likes to be involved in the the sewing part, as you can see …

I’ve now found that I have a problem with “overefficiency” too!

Remember how I said I was doing the “Knit ‘n’ Commute” thing in my “I need more knitting time” post? Knitting while walking down the platform and on the escallators and on the tube?

The problem is that I’ve created so much more knitting time that I’m miles ahead with the plain and stripey squares and lagging badly with the complicated flowers!

I have this many “not flower” squares in the “awaiting construction” heap…

Enough for strip No.7 and a couple more!

My progress looks like this on my plan…

Technically – I’ve just past the halfway mark 

Part of the success of my Knit ‘n’ Commute has been the purchase of a GoKnit pouch by Knowknits.

One of these…

It’s an indulgence because I have a sewing machine and could make one but this is so well made and well thought out that I said,

“What the heck! Making one would be a waste of good knitting time!”

I bought my GoKnit pouch in Iknit in Waterloo, London – if anyone wants one!

It holds my knitting paraphernalia and keeps in clean and untangled in my handbag, doesn’t get pierced by the knitting needles , has a drawstring to just allow the yarn to feed through and a press studded loop to attach to my handbag handle so it can dangle outside my handbag while I stripe purposefully down the platform knitting.  The thing that surprised me was that the pouch has enough space for the ball of yarn the bouce around and unwind as you work so I no longer have to stop and pullof another few yarns of yarn from the ball – all is good and efficient

It also has a press studded loop inside to guide the yarn. I use the to hold onto my othe new purchase…a Clover yarn cutter!

Well, I wouldn’t want to be accused of having sharp and pointy things by “Mrs Anti-Knitting Nutter” would I??!!

My wardrobes are overflowing – which is very bad as I remodelled to bedroom two years ago and made more wardrobe space!

I’ve been very disciplined lately and taken great bags full of “stuff” to the charity shop. Now the hard bit…I need to cull the shelf where my hand knits live.

I found three garments I don’t wear any more and guess what? Two of them have never been blogged!

So first the one you might have seen, my Willow jacket in Ribbon Twist.

This one…

It has gotten kinda pilled and saggy and I was never quite sure about the white fluffy bits on the collar. Does it make  anyone else think of Santa Claus? I was reminded it was there when I made my Chunky Ribbon Twist Cushion. I wore it again just once and it felt too chunky and a bit frumpy on me so it has to go.

Next is a Pre Blog Project that has never been seen here before! (I’m assuming you’re jumping up and down with excitement here?? )

Here’s Angie..

It’s a Rowan pattern from “It’s a Tape Thing” by the lovely Kim Hargreaves.
This book…

I made this back in 2004 (I think!) and for me, the best part was doing the dropped stitch edging on the sleeves and bottom edge.

You literally knit some rib then drop a stitch and let it unravel all the way down the work. I had just joined the Guilty Knitters at that point and they teased me a great deal because I was very excited by the stitch dropping process and said,
“It feels so wrong and naughty and bad and decadent…but I like it!”
They assumed I had that approach to some other, more personal areas of my life too!

The worst thing about this jumper is that I really made a hash of picking up the stitches around the neck. Isn’t it amazing how, when you get out an old garment, you realise your knitting has improved?

Lastly here’s a huge piece of knitting!

It’s Nicole in Debbie Bliss Maya (and me pulling a “do you want me to come over there and make you behave” face at Ben )…

From this book, Debbie Bliss No.7…

I adore the Debbie Bliss Maya (I have it on reasonably good authority it’s actually Mano Del Uruguay’s wool classica rebadged) . I bought up rather a lot when it was discontinued – I still have 10 skeins each of solid pink and 10 of  solid purple in my stash – opps I forgot the 7 skeins of orange and pink mix too.

The yarn is great (and it  felts well – as I found with my Kim Felted bag) but Debbie Bliss’s pattern was not so good. I have to say – I’m not in the Debbie Bliss fan club.

Firstly, the front edging – it curled.

Being a stocking stitch garment, with no edging stitches and having a picked up edging, nothing short of super glue and stapling the edge to my thighs was going to stop the curl.

The picot on the sleeves was good…

I also wasn’t terribly impressed with the collar – it worked but I like a bit more attention to detail in my patterns. The button part was good though! Pity all the hard work on the edging below the buttons immediately curled out of view…

I guess I’m being a little unfair because, although this was a huge garment to knit, it was a very easy knit and grew faster than you’d think on the 5.5mm needles.

And I’m being really unfair because, when I’d finished it I wore it to death and was very pleased and had lots of compliments!

I suppose it’s just out of fashion now, looking pilled and tired and I’m bored with it. None of that is Debbie Bliss’s fault!

So there we are, three large garments culled and room for some more in my wardrobe!

I’ll leave you with the obligatory Completed Knit Reports then get back to knitting the Flower Blanket! An update on that coming next!!

The Knit’n'Commute  blankie production line has been going well but I’ve had my first nutter objecting to “train knitting” this week!

I get on the mainline train and get my knitting out. Within three stitches the woman next to me pulls herself up to her  sour, scrub faced, puffed up height of self importance and inquires,

“Have you ever considered that it might be dangerous to use such pointed implements? What if there was an accident?”

(I’m currently knitting with 3.75mm knitpicks circular needles)

After catching my breath, I calmly but firmly answered,

” Yes I have, these are less sharp than your average propelling pencil or biro. In the event of an accident or train crash anyone doing a crossword would be just as dangerous.”

She answered,

” Yes, but I wouldn’t want one of those poked in my  eye either!” (Why does every nutter think knitting needles are instantly going to have their eye out?)

I said,

” But you wouldn’t consider saying anything to someone sitting here doing the crossword would you?”

She huffed and angrily turned the page of ther crappy free newspaper in an exaggerated way that made me want to giggle.

The chap opposite me who really just wanted a quite trip to work giggled as well.

She fumed the entire 25min trip  and over acted the Mrs Angry page turning routine….and I purposefully knitted the entire way.

She nearly exploded when I stood up (still knitting) and disembarked, leaving her apoplectic watching me. ..I enjoyed that.

Like anyone who has had a minor confrontation, I thought of all the things I should have said later…

“Has it occurred to you that if we had an accident or train crash all those people standing up will crash into you?”

“What about all those heavy laptop bags in the overhead parcel shelves?”

” We’re not wearing seat belts you know? That man opposite will probably crush your skull if we hit anything?”

” Everyone on the train has fingers – they could take your take your eye out…maybe all train passengers should wear mittens?”

” Oh Hell.  Why don’t you just wrap yourself in cotton wool , goggles, mittens and a crash helmet and let the grown-ups take care of the nasty pointy world??!!”

It’s been busy, busy, busy here!

House buying fun  – I now have a buyer for my flat …

Day trips all over England with my 4 clients to visit suppliers (knitting on the train rides)…

Attempting to get more Flower Blanket knitted…

And the sudden and urgent need for a small knitted bear!

I’ll explain about the”bear-need”.

A year ago the Guilty Knitters, moved to meeting every week in the “new” Starsbucks in town. We’ve been wonderfully looked after, especially by our favourite barista, Sean. He always makes time to come and say, “Hello” and makes sure our eclectic coffee requirements are met.

So what has this got to do with bears?

Do you remember how we made Buck the Starbucks bear?

Who subsequently disappeared in mysterious circumstances?  Buck was replaced at our old Starbucks by his sister “Bucky”…

We, the Guilty Knitters felt kinda bad that the old Starbucks was still proudly displaying Bucky while our wonderful new Starbucks were bereft of knitted beariness.

I took my Rowan 4ply soft stash and the appropriate needles to our meet and tasked everyone with an arm or leg or head…

I was the only crocheter so I got to make the clothes…

And I volunteered my Sunday afternoon (normally reserved for blogging and doing blanket flowers) to sewing together another bear. All blanket production was halted!!

And so “Sean the Starbucks Bear” was born….

We presented Sean (who, you might have guessed, has red,  side parted hair!) with Sean the bear today. He was suitably pleased and embarrassed!

I’m sure Sean the Starbucks Bear has a great new home.

I’d love to be able to post a picture of a massive chunk of completed blanket but the sad truth is – I’ve only just finished knitting the squares for the 5th strip…barely one strip knitted in a week and still the pressing and sewing up to do!

At this rate this blanket will take months to complete and worse than that – my blog posts for months will all read “knitted some more squares – still not finished…”

If I gave up work I’d have enough time but wouldn’t be able to afford yarn (or food or the mortgage or cat food), I still need sleep and time travel only seems to happen when the  entire weekend seems to disappear in less than 2 hours.

I was pondering this problem when something my friend Janie had said, sprang to mind. Janie is a confirmed Sock-Addict and knits her socks on every available part of her commute in and around  London. She mentioned that she managed to knit one and a half round of a sock while in the lift at Mornington Crescent tube station! (That’s the Subway, Underground or Metro to my trans-continental readers!!)

So if Janie can knit in the lift, why can’t I knit on more of my 70 minute total journey?

Currently I only knit waiting on the platform at my local station and for 20 mins on the Overland train to London Bridge.

On Friday I tried something different…

…I arranged my handbag shoulder strap diagonally across me with my wool pre-unravelled and feeding through a small gap – Circular needles firmly in hand….

…I carried on knitting the easy stocking stitch stripy square as I shuffled the length on the platform at London bridge, behind the annoying people who were ambling while they sent text messages, read the newspaper, wondered where they should be going and yelled down the phone…

…at least I could knit and look where I was walking unlike them!

…I had to wait at the barriers for the Northern line – still knitting…

…There’s a huge long escallator ride down to the Northern line…knit knit…

…I managed to stand up in a corner on the cram packed tube…knit knit..

…Up the long, long escalator at the other end …Knitty Knit knit….And enjoying the freaked out look on the faces of some of the “Kooky, odd ball but Oh so fashionably trendy” Islington folks….

Round the corner and into the little coffee shop for my morning coffee where they didn’t bat and eyelid as I put my knitting away so I could carry coffee.

I had managed to knit and extra 30 minutes of my journey each way  and blot out some of the more annoying, “dawdling pedestrian” elements of my daily commute 50 whole minutes each way of knitting

There was another unexpected benefit of this “Knit’n'Commute” approach…

… standing on the bouncing, juddering tube, without holding on used all my balance skills, previously reserved for skiing and body balance classes! My thighs and stomach muscles were burning by the end of the 10 mins “knit and try not to fall on your butt” tube experiment!

Who’d of thought “Knit’n'Commute”could provide a whole hour a day extra knitting time and a total body workout!!

I had a sneaky feeling when I started The Flower Blanket that 30 balls of yarn wasn’t going to be enough…

I was right

One column of nine squares uses pretty much 3 balls, one of each colour. Just scraps left over. I want 13 columns and an edging (which I guessing would be about a ball of each colour).

Mewsley checked my calculation…

She agreed. I need 14 balls of each colour.

I already had 17 balls of the light grey colour so I was safe there.

Mewsley and I scoured the internet for more Jaeger Matchmaker DK – This yarn was discontinued a couple of years ago so I was seriously out on a limb.

Luck was with me.  Mewsley found 4 balls of the lilac online at Yarnsmiths! Phew…that cat is a demon with a laptop…

Just the pink to find….

None in the internet knit- shops for sale…

None in any of the London Knit-shops I visited…

But quite a bit in people’s stashes on Ravelry! I contacted several people hopefully and cheekily because if it’s in their stash it’s probably there because they want to use it at some point. A few “it’s been used up already” and” Sorry – I’m gonna use it laters” and I was getting panicky.

Visions of “Premature Blanket Truncation” disturbed my sleep.

I saw that Yarnsnob had a single ball, marked for trade or sale. One ball is better than none! Thanks Yarnsnob!!

Then TheKnittingNurse was happy to sell me 8 balls from the USA! Thanks Knittingnurse !!

Woot!!  Enough yarn has been secured

I’d better get on with  knitting another heap of those squares!

My needles are smokin’!

I’m still slogging away at the Flower Blanket!

…and I have discovered Blanket Rule No.6…

Sixth rule: Tired Sleepy Knitter + Intarsia = Tears

I tried to press on one evening, when very tired, and finish one of the flowers. Once you’re past the centre it’s relatively easy – just the column of single stitches between the petals to worry about…

How wrong can a tired person get it?

GRRRrrr !! Frog Frog Frog…

Apart from that mishap, progress has been quite good. I have completed 36 squares, that’s 4 rows of the 13 needed!!

The maths part of my brain has to tell you that that’s 30.6% complete, not including any edging – I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.

Want to see a progress shot of some squares sewn up???

To get that far I spent most of Easter sprawled on the sofa knitting. Thug particularly enjoyed “helping” – which consisted mostly of sleeping on my lap, getting in the way and using my wool as a pillow.

I suspect he was simply posing for the camera because he felt he hasn’t had enough blog-time recently!

He was working hard to stop the wool escaping here…

There were too many other cute shots to show you so I’ve put together a collage …

Awwwww….

I realised that I have created a set of strict rules for myself when I’m working on the Flower Blanket. The Blankie-Police are not going to come and get me if I break them but they do make life easier, or maybe more achievable, if I follow them.

Your rules and ways of thinking are probably different to mine but I thought I’d share!

This post probably follows logically on from the  Blankie Dilemas post that I wrote when making my Picnic Blanket so here goes…

First Rule: Minimise ends

On the first purl row, I use the fairisle weaving technique to weave in the tail left by casting on behind the stitches…the less ends to sew in the better.

When doing the striped squares, I carry the “not in use” colour up the side of the work, weaving it behind the last stitch of each knit row.

Second rule: Know what way is up

When I cast off, I always leave a long tail to be used to sew the square, using mattress stitch, to the next square up in the strip. This saves end weaving and makes it easy to identify the top and bottom of a block.  The striped squares are particularly easy to get upside down.(…ask me how I know?) The Flowers have one petal at the bottom and two at the top too.  You wouldn’t believe it but it screams if  even the plain squares  are the wrong way up!

Third rule: Finish one  square before starting another

This might sound silly! I have to be strict with myself and sew all the ends in and do any Swiss embroidery on any one square before starting a new one (especially the intarsia flowers). If I was faced with a pile of intarsia squares needing ends darning in, I’d never do it!

Fourth rule: Work on the squares for one vertical strip at a time

Not too strict on this one, but never the less …  It stops me going off and doing all my favorite squares first then not finishing because I’ve got the yucky ones left to do! The advantage of this approach is that you get a little “Achievement Boost” each time you finish an entire strip.

Fifth rule: Sew up as you go along

If you’ve followed rule four, You’ll have a regular strip-full of squares to sew together – again, it would seem a huge job to do the entire blanket all at once but seeing one strip come together, then sew two strips together??? I need that feeling of “progress”

The Blankie-Police may not enforce these rules but I suspect they have sent in an undercover agent, equipped with laser eyes, to watch out for misdemeanours .

Scanning the area for signs of blanket squares……..

I have finished 17 squares of my Flower Blanket, rejiggled the pattern (again) and done some sewing up!

The squares have taken over as my train knitting – on a knitpicks circular needle (ideal on a crowded train and for leaving fellow commuter’s eyes in their sockets!) I can get one striped or one moss stitchy square done in a day’s commute (more if the train is running late – hurrah for late trains! )

The intarsia flowers are WAY too much grief do anywhere other than the sofa.

Look at my accumulated detritus associated with these flowers! Nowhere for Ben or a cat to sit!

I do save my lovely Signature needles to do these though

Want to see some of the bobbiny action?

This is probably the most detailed square, but one of the plainest to knit. It’s plain to knit because I’m adding all the details with Swiss embroidery – it feels like cheating somehow …

Half way through the embroidery…

Want to see the other two flowers?

The lilac around the centre is Swissed on this one…

And then there’s this one…

I think it’s too plain. I’m gonna embroider some silver around the centre I think…

Now a boring bit…
I noticed another error in my layout – if you looked at a vertical strip it had two flowers with lilac petals in the same strip!

Another (yawn) version of the layout here…version 3.1. I promise. This is the last revision. I could waste hours jiggling this – I want to knit!

And the obligatory key to match…

So do you want to see exactly how far I’ve got??
Wanna see the strips sewn up?

OK…as you’ve been patient!

It does seem a little daunting at the moment…this picture kinda sums up the way the scale of this blanket goes on and on out of sight!