You must be as bored with my “knitted some more blanket squares….” posts as I am trying to finish the damned Flower Blanket. Be assured I’m still slogging over the purple monster

So just by way of some light relief for all of us, I’ve dug out an old, pre blog , never seen before on the internet, knit of mine!
Now then, stop jumping up and down with excitement or I won’t tell you about Maria.

Maria dates back (I think) to about 2005  – about the time I discovered the John Lewis yarn sales. I had greedily snapped up a big bag full of Rowan Linen Print in and unusual colourway for me…
(This is a scraplet I had left)…

From Maria

I didn’t have a clue what to make with it so I bought the Linen Print book too – designs by the lovely Kim Hargreaves (which at the time meant little to me!!!)

From Maria

So wanna see Maria??

Here she is…

From Maria

The reason I’m so fascinated with the sleeve in that piccy is that the yarn is very soft and drapy, making the slit in the back of the sleeve design a feature I love -it just flaps around in a decadent, bohemian way The picture was a result of “naughty Ben” snapping me doing the “how can we get the sleeve in? conversation!!

Here’s a much better shot of the sleeve slit (it is a slit in the sleeve and not just the seam left unsewn BTW!!!)

From Maria

I remember sitting down in the garden to start Maria, thinking she’d be nice and easy – the first thing you do on Maria is short row shaping to make that nice curved bottom edge – EEEK – I’d never done short row shaping!

The deep V in the front also had some “Gottchas” – there is a nice slipped stitch edging that makes a neat finished edge – all new to me at the time – here’s a front close up  – and YES you do need to wear something under Maria!…

From Maria

In case you’re wondering – the beads on the crocheted ties were my idea – some I had bought them for a long forgotten necklace!

I suppose I should show you the back too…

From Maria

So was Maria worth it – most definitely “Yes” – I learnt to do short row shaping, learnt to make sleeve slits (obvious if you’ve done it but it was my first time) and I got an unusual garment for me in colours that I wouldn’t normally go straight for.

Any problems? Only one – I sat in the garden sewing up Maria. When sewn, I proudly put Maria on – unfortunately, because of the sleeve slits there was a left sleeve and a right sleeve – guess who sewed them in the wrong way round?  -Swearing ensued!    Followed by some bad tempered resewing

If I’m still wearing her 5 years later,  think she tuned out OK in the end- wonky sleeves of not!

So here I am, basking in compliments from my knitterly friends on how the admire my resolve to get back to one WIP at a time. Their encouragement is spurring me on to great feats of blanket square knitting – two whole squares on one train ride to Bristol!

I have eagerly completed strip no.9 and finished and sewn into a strip, the squares for no.10.

I excited thought, “I’ll just throw it on the bed to see how it looks – not far to go now!”

Ohhh….

Errrrmmm….

That’s not quite what I had in mind…

From Flower Blanket

The 9 squares wide isn’t quite wide enough to look convincing on the bed…..and if I carry on for 13 strips – it’s be up and over the pillows!

All is not lost – it’s a simple repeating pattern so, even at this late stage, I can change it.

The good thing is, that Mewsley had an opportunity to do the “Snugglability testing”… I think she approved!

From Flower Blanket

But here’s the maths problem – 9 x 13 squares means 117 squares – I just have enough of the lilac colour for this many (remember I have an edging to do too)

So I can’t replan with more than 117 squares….

Hmmm – leave it at 9×9 like in the picture??

Nope! That looks stingy and I’ve done nearly all the squares for strip No.10…

10 x 10 (100 squares) seems like an option??

I drew out the plan for 10 x 11 (110 squares)

From Flower Blanket

Hmm – that would just look lopsided – just “off” square would irritate me….

And I’m starting to get a little bored with this now…time to wind it up…

… 10 x 10 it is…
Like this…

From Flower Blanket

So far so good!

From Flower Blanket

Just 7 more squares and an edging to do…

So what am I knitting right now while dreaming up Hetty colourways?

I’m still trying to get back to being “one WIP at a time” girl. I hate having half done projects hiding in corners, reproaching me for abandoning them.

So I had the choice of my two remaining WIPS – My see-through sweater or my nearly finished Flower Blanket…

Flower Blanket wins!!!

This has been a bit of a saga…If you want to read the previous blog posts about this blankie they are here:-

Purple Flower Blanket – The Design Phase

Flower Blanket – The knitting begins

Flower Blanket – Taking Shape

The Blanket Rules

Cat Subdues Yarn and a Dumb Blunder

Not Enough Yarn!

I Need More Knitting Time

And the Flower Blanket Goes On

It won’t take long to complete the knitting will it??  After all It’s nearly finished…. isn’t it??

Out it came…

…where’s the rest of it???

“Thug!”, I yelled, “Help me look for more blanket!”

He did quite a bit of searching as you can see…

From Flower Blanket

Nope! He didn’t find any more than the barely half done blanket I already had.

Probably because he is a cat and also because he is blind!!

He did suggest I check my blog – Yep, progress was there in in black (purple)  and white.

This is how I had left it…

From Flower Blanket

Six and a bit of the 13 columns of squares done – exactly half way. Urgg.

Well, I have been very dedicated and have had some dedicated supervision from both Thug and Mewsley…at the same time…

From Flower Blanket

…so I can report that I now have 85 out of 117 squares complete – 72%!!
Nearly three quarters

Here’s the plan now …

From Flower Blanket

But it looks more impressive in the flesh…

From Flower Blanket

One thing I really noticed was all the paraphernalia I have for making this blanket…

So much so that poor Ben accused me of having a “Knitgasm” on the living room floor…

You can see what he meant!!

From Flower Blanket

I love the new Rowan magazine no.48.

This one

From Hetty

It’s been a really long time since I’ve been excited by the contents of a Rowan mag but this one did it for me.

I wasn’t so keen on the first “story” all big chunky yarns – we know from my Big Wool Bonfire that this stuff isn’t for me.

But it did make me laugh – how can Rowan unfailingly have a garment that looks like a couple of old bathroom mats, staped together at the shoulders and belted??

I give you Roamer…

From Hetty

(Sorry if you’ve just cast this on )

I loved the Russian doll story – mouthwatering complicated fairisles and intarsias that challenged whether I could make one – I do love drooling over things I think might be too hard!

Then there were the Kidsilk Haze garments … Ohhh – we know I have a small amount in stash don’t we?? Rowan are such pushers of their Cracksilk Haze drug…

I like them all but zeroed in on Hetty…

This one…

From Hetty

Would you believe – in my vast KSH stash – I didn’t have enough of any of the colours to make it. I couldn’t possibly justify going out and buying  KSH when I have over a hundred balls sitting in my knit-room?? Could I ?

I decided to experiment with what colour ways would work with the stash I had – although I allowed myself to buy one small fix of Jelly – the lurid green – it does get into everything!

The problem was I couldn’t visualise where the different colours would go – it’s a rather complicated colour mix – different on the sleeves to the body…

I turned to my favourite PC application,  Visio, and mocked up a garment in the original colours…

From Hetty

Then assigned each of the colours to a layer so I could change all the “Jelly” stripes and Dewberry stripes to another colour with a couple of clicks…

If you have Visio, want to play with your own colour combos  and want a copy of my file and instructions how to use it- click here to download but you do need the Visio software for it to work!

So here is my Autumnal Version…

From Hetty

And utilising some Purple “Violetta” I have…

From Hetty

And cos I have a lot of black sparkly…

From Hetty

And a pretty girly pink using a very pale peach, cream, blushes and fondant…

From Hetty

Isn’t it amazing how different they can look?

I’m still not sure if I’ll actually knit Hetty – It could take a month to decide on colours….

I showed Ben and he instantly hated it so no direction from there 

Which do you like??

Still….Fun playing, Huh?

I’ve really enjoyed the burst of creativity in making my Conservatory Cushion and I  love the logic bound technique for combining the colours.

Fabulous pattern
Here’s the finished creation…

From Double Vision Cushion

And in place in the conservatory…

From Double Vision Cushion

The slightly different gauge yarns I used (all apparently DK weight) really made the squares  different sizes. I blocked the hell out of the finished front and pinned the squares to size and let them dry – seems to have worked but another time – I’d try harder to use the same yarn.

I really made my life difficult by using the mohair in the “joints”too. Fuzzy, sticky and disguising any hint of a stitch – not ideal when picking up stitches. It kinda works though  and gives a different texture so I’m happy.

It did mean it was easy to join the two sides . I picked up and knit one row around the front of the cushion then cast it off. Then I simply oversewed it to the “knobbles” on the ends of the garter stitch back of the cushion…

From Double Vision Cushion

The strange thing is…

…I think I like the way the B-side even better -that’s the back to all of you too young to remember 45rpm single records

From Double Vision Cushion

I love the way the colours pool and seem to form waves…

… So much so that I’ve used this picture as my desktop background on my Computer!

From Double Vision Cushion

How sad am I? But, but….it looks so pretty….

From Double Vision Cushion

So how did I do the back?

I looked at the front and saw that there were in fact 10 different combinations of yarn, using it double.

I used the technique of knitting diagonally to get a square (start with one stitch and increase in the last stitch of every row until wide enough over the diagonal then decrease at the end of every row).

I picked a progression of 6 of the combinations that always carried one of the colours into the next stripe and picked up the next colour. Then I had 4 combinations left over so I just bunged them on top!!

Here’s a mini pattern if you’re interested  how the colours went – or were supposed to go !  I messed up a couple of time but ~I won’t tell if you wont!! (Look at the missing dark stripe in a couple of places…

Y= Yellow

L= Light Green

M=Mid green

D= Dark green

Use two stands held together in the following combinations:

Row 1    Y & Y

Row 2    Y & L

Row 3    L & L

Row 4    L & M

Row 5    M & M

Row 6    M & D

Row 7    D & D

Row 8    D & L

Row 9    Y & M

Row 10 Y & D

…And repeat until you’re done.

I think both sides go  well with the “inspiration cushion” but what do you think?

Front or back? Which is best??

From

Gosh! I’m expecting to be mobbed for an autograph and and be asked to open a shopping centre the next time I go out amongst my public….

Why am I deluded into thinking I have achieved such superstar status??

The Guilty Knitters and I have made it to the National Knitting press!

This month’s (July 2010, Issue 21) of The Knitter has a two page gallery spread about us.

That’s this mag if you’re searching the Newsagent for a copy…

From The Knitter

I do enjoy The Knitter, lots of challenging interesting patterns and articles. So many of the other British knitting mags are full very simple patterns and assume the majority of knitters knit for their grandchildren! No problem with that if that’s what you want – but I’m not that market.

If you have a copy, check out page 84 to find my grinning face…..

From The Knitter

…and some fabby knits by my friends…It’s easy to see where my inspiration comes from and why I have to keep the standard of my knitting up, after see how great  their projects are.

Of course, my biggest fan and helper had to check out the article too,

“Not enough cats!”  was his only comment!

From The Knitter

I can’t believe I started Halcyon back in April.

It’s taken me two and a half, very dull and uneventful months. To be fair, it has been delayed by my usual attack of SKS  (Summer Knitting Slump) – there were a couple of weeks there I didn’t knit at all – shocking!

I’ve also been distracted because Thug hasn’t been too well. He suddenly seemed to loose a lot of weight and meow even more. I was worried sick. The good news is that he’s had every test the vet can think of – stopping short of opening him up! The vet can find nothing wrong and I’ve changed his diet to fatten him up. He seems OK now after a couple of vitamin and steroid shots but he is 18 . He’s an old man. But enjoying all the extra meaty treats and so is Mewsley

Just in case  you’ve missed his appearances, here he is in a favourite picture of mine, inspecting the conservatory..

From Halcyon

On top of all this – more DIY – This time we restored a dilapidated greenhouse from badly weathered wood, green algae covered glass and doors hanging off to this, my potting Tardis!!

From Tardis

Love the view from inside looking up!

From Tardis

Enough of this – you really want to know about Halcyon don’t you? The pattern is deceptively easy and became quite boring to do. I don’t normally knit such voluminous garments so I’m not used to the sheer amount of knitting this took. Nothing at all wrong with the pattern, easy to sew together- It was just a long slog.

But was it worth it?? I think it was!

From Halcyon

From Halcyon

Do you remember how we painted the Conservatory a striking shade of green?

Well, we’ve now put some furniture and plants in there and created a favourite snoozing spot for Mewsley!

From Double Vision Cushion

Do you like the cushion on the chair behind Mewsley? It was bought on a whim from Ikea.

Here’s a better look (right way up too!!)..

From Double Vision Cushion

We really wish we’d bought a second one we liked it so much but they have discontinued it – Bah!!

There was only one thing for it – Knit a matching cushion!

First I gathered all my likely green and yellow stash wools together in a big heap…

From Double Vision Cushion

Then I had a couple of disastrous attempts at randomly combining them – You can laugh at these attemps if you like – I did

The random stripe disaster…

From Double Vision Cushion

Then the random colour blocks using the Ten Stitch Blanket pattern.

From Double Vision Cushion

This is a clever pattern that spirals out from the centre. The problem was my attempt at random colour blocks! Looked like something a very old beginner knitter might do to use up oddments…

The pattern is better suited to random dye yarns and when done properly, looks like this…

From Double Vision Cushion

So enough of laughing at my failures…what did I choose?

I’ve always gasped with amazement at the beautiful Afghans designed by Pat Ashforth and Steve Plummer of Woolly Thoughts.

I was thrilled to see their Double Vision Afghan technique as a Cushion.

From Double Vision Cushion

The cushion uses 4 colours and blends them in all possible combinations (with yarn doubled) to give the 16 squares.

I chose my 4 colours and some ancient black mohair (left over from a long dead 1984, cropped mohair jumper) and got carried away….

What do you think so far? I really trying to mirror the colours and proportions of the Ikea cushion…

From Double Vision Cushion

From Double Vision Cushion

I am so pleased I can’t wait to finish!

Of course, that is just one side…

I like having the back of a cushion different so I’m knitting diagonally (so I can easily get the right size) and repeating 4 rows of each of the 10 possible colour combinations.

Like this so far…

From Double Vision Cushion

Hopefully, this will be finished a bit quicker than Halcyon….

…which has taken a shamefully long time to knit….watch this space for an update….

The paint fumes probably are the reason….

…I seem to keep seeing knitting  where I shouldn’t….

…even in the election coverage!

This strange and slightly worrying tenancy started when I was in Israel in 2008 (When I made Geno, and Hedera on holiday)…everyone else saw a sculpture dedicated to world peace…I saw…a giant ball of wool!

From Geno

So why the paint fumes?

I’ve been at the DIY again. Up til now the only person using the grubby, tired, sick-green conservatory was Thug.  Occasionally for it’s acoustic properties for a good long “Meowing Opera” but mostly for his afternoon nap, on a thoughtfully placed blanket, when the sun was out…

From DIY 2010

I was jealous. I really wanted a comfy chair out there for knitting in the sun.
A quick tidy up, lead to a quick clean which lead to a total inside and out scrub complete with Ben and a water powered death laser (pressure washer to you and me)!

From DIY 2010

Once we had gone that far we kinda had to paint it – there’s not much wall so we chose a brave, strong green to bring the garden in…

From DIY 2010

Yep that’s my garden knitting chair through the windows. The chair I restored a while ago – one must have a choice of knitting venues, suitable for all weathers 

So that explains the fumes…what about a knitted election?

Have you watched the BBC coverage? Have you looked at the BBC Election website?

Seen the BBC election logo at the top of every page?

From Election

Am I obsessed or are those a bunch of knitting needles??

Once you’ve seen it – you can’t un-see it….