Damn, Knit & Blast It

I’m heartbroken !

Buck the Bear has disappeared from my local Starbucks. See the post here about his birth…

Buck the Starbucks Bear

No one knows where he has gone -perhaps missing in the shop (but the staff have hunted high and low)?

…Accidentally dropped in a bin ?

……Stolen by a malicious ex employee?

………Kidnapped for ransom?

…………Abducted by aliens?

……………Backpacking on a trans-global trip to find himself?

If you see this little fella out and about please let me know!

I told you last week about my disappointment with the terrible colour run in Ben’s Brooklyn jumper, made with Rowan Denim in black & cream. After several hot washes and an eggcup of bleach (eeek!!) I said I’d be writing to Rowan..

Read the previous post here… Where to start with knittie stuff

I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised with Rowan’s response to me, even if their excuse was pretty shakey.

Rowan apologised for the outcome and offered to send me the yarn to complete a project of my choosing from a Rowan publication. I thought this was pretty generous, especially as they hadn’t even seen my jumper! (**thinks** maybe they look at this blog??) A couple of people thought I should have asked for cash but I thought “what will I do with a bundle of cash?” – buy yarn of course!
I resisted the temptation to find the biggest, most expensive thing in my extensive collection of Rowan books…how much Kidsilk Haze does that ball gown take?…So I plumped for something I have always wanted to make but been put off by the huge amount of yarn …Patrick from the original Denim book by Kim Hargreaves.

It was more yarn than I’d used in Ben’s original Brooklyn but I thought that made up for my knitting time. Rowan even sent the yarn to me special delivery so I had it the next day – Thanks Rowan!

Rowan said that the pattern book I’d used was published after Black Denim was discontinued so they had been “unaware of the effects of washing black and cream together”. However, they were aware of black enough to mention it in the info page of Denim People, along with the darkest blue (Nashville), for colour transference during knitting.

I also found another knitter (much more angry than me!) who’d had the same issue using Nashville and cream, and knitters who’d had issues with a multi-coloured throw (which had turned out OK after a few washes…) – so it’s not just the black!

I strongly think that there should have been a warning in the info pages that mixed colour designs will experience colour run if substituted with darker colours. My common sense had said there might be a problem but I double checked with my local Rowan rep who said she’d never heard of a problem and I’d trusted the pictures in the book – all bright clean cream on blue….

I’ve since noticed that all the pictures in the books of multi denim patterns are with the lightest blue denim…significant huh?

I would have expected a problem if I’d used a different yarn but a different colour within the same yarn – we all do that don’t we?

Lessons to learn from this

1. Listen to your common sense – even if the picture say it’ll work.
2. Listen to your knitting pals when they say “ohhh, but aren’t you worried the colour will run? Janey – you have more sense than me!
3. If you do have a problem – contact Rowan and be nice – they’ll try and do the right thing.

It’s All Done!!!
I have finally finished these gloves after lots of frogging and swearing trying to get the second cuff right

They match the spangle scarf posted about here spangle-scarf-in-woven-cables and here spangle-scarf-done.

Since I was a child, I’ve been fascinated by poking my fingers under the twists of cables and wondering how it had holes but wasn’t holey. After absent mindedly doing this to my gloves, I decided to thread some ribbon through to finish them off – I’m not sure if it’s too much? Whatdoyouthink???

From Knitting- WIP

…and here’s the complete, ribbon bedecked set…

From Knitting- WIP

I learnt a big lesson.

If you’re going to fiddle with the pattern on something that’s a pair, make proper notes when you’re doing the first one so the second one matches! I’m not a dim person (no really) but sometimes I do the stupidest things …

On my last post on these gloves, playing-with-spangle-gloves, I showed you how far I got before realising that the cuff was too small for my hand to get in the glove.

I got to the same point again, confidently whizzing round the rows, feeling chuffed with myself (N.B. Pride really does go before a fall – or at least a dropped stitch) when I noticed I didn’t have as many rows of twists in the cuff. Rip, rip, rip back to the cuff and added a few more rows…..then I noticed I’d missed two rows of stocking stitch before doing the first row of cables. You wouldn’t have thought it’d show but it screamed at me…rip, rip, rip. This mistake was in row 5 – I couldn’t pick up the stitches again – it fell apart, rip, rip. Start again from the cast on.

I think I’ve now knit the equivalent of 5 gloves to get one pair!

So, this is what I should have done first time around if you want a pair! (Sorry I can’t give you the whole pattern but copyright issues etc…)

Spangle Gloves

Copy of the Unisex glove pattern from One Skein

1.5 balls Rowan Soft Lux
4.5mm DPNs throughout.
Cable needle

Cast on 56 stitches using long tail cast on.
Work 4 rounds K2, P2 rib. Work 2 rounds knit.

Patt:

Row1: *C4B. Repeat from * to end of round.

Row 2-6: Knit

Row 7: K4, *C4F. Repeat from * to last 4 stitches of round. C4F by putting last 4 stitches of round on cable needle, knit first 4 stitches of next round, knit stitches from cable needle. (if you use a marker for your end of round it should be in the middle of these 8 stitches)

Row 8-12: Knit

Repeat these rows until the cuff is as long as you want stop after a cabley row (1 or 7) and continue from “Wrist decreases”- a friend said she like to see them as long glove….up to you! I did rows 1-12 then rows 1-7.

Wrist decreases

Knit 1 round

Decrease row: (K4, K2tog) repeat to end of round – should have 48 stitches.

Knit 1 round

Decrease again round: (K3, K2tog) repeat to end of round – must have 39 stitches for pattern to work – add or take a K2tog and double check stitches!!

***This is the point at which I just followed the unisex glove in One Skein*** Your next line of pattern to follow is “Thumb gusset”…Good luck!

Completed Knit Report

Name Spangle Gloves (to match Spangle Scarf)
Pattern Based on Unisex glove in One Skein – woven cables added to cuff
Yarn Rowan Soft Lux
Pattern problems Cables have very little give and pulled in much more than I anticipated so I had to knit the man’s size cuff and decrease rapidly at the wrist- my hands are tiny though. For normal hands it would pay to use a larger needle for the cuff – I used 4.5mm DPNs throughout.
Pattern modifications See text above….
Washing and wearing Not tried washing – quite thick but very warm to wear
Knit it again? Possibly
Difficulty Medium – 4 needles and a cable needle on such a small item took some mastering
Rating 3/5 (I’m still not entirely happy with the fit of the cuff)

I belong to a knitting circle – The Knaughty Knitters. Two or three times a month on a Sunday, we rattle the doors of Starbucks at opening time, bag the best comfy seats with our knitting, grab a coffee then sit and spend the whole morning knitting, chatting, coffee drinking, “oohing” over each other’s knitting books, correcting each other’s mistakes and generally being a fabulous support network for all concerned.

The staff in our Starbucks are super. They don’t mind us taking up residence. They take an interest in our projects and do their best to accommodate our idiosyncratic coffee orders.

So, at Christmas, I thought it would be a nice idea to make the staff a little something to say “Thank you” from the Knaughty Knitters.

This is how “Buck the Bear” was born….

The logo on the apron is cut out from a leaflet and sewn on. The coffee mug is made from the lid from an old lip balm, a piece of yarn poked through a slot cut in the side and knotted on the inside to make a handle, a logo cut out from a leaflet and glued on, coffee coloured Yorkshire Tweed for the coffee and Kidsilk Haze froth!

The bear pattern and pattern for the clothes was from an ancient old Sirdar booklet called Teddy Bear Parade, originally produced to raise funds for the disabled.

There’s three sizes of the bear and a myriad of fun outfits – mostly crochet but some knit too. I love this book and have made and given away several bears.

The Starbucks staff were stunned and thrilled when we presented them with Buck. They even bought us some flowers to say thanks!!

Completed Knit Report

Name Buck the Bear
Pattern Sirdar’s Teddy Bear Parade
Yarn body – body -cygnet 4ply, paws- Kidsilk haze, clothes rowan 4ply and rowanspun 4ply tweed
Pattern problems – None - pretty fiddly though.
Pattern modifications None – just changed colours.
Washing and wearing N/A
Knit it again? Oh Yes!
Difficulty easy if you can crochet and don’t mind “fiddle faddle”
Rating 5/5

One Skein

I’ve been looking out for for a double knit (ish) weight glove pattern using 4 needles for a while. (I really hate the idea of seams in fingers of gloves!!)

I found just what I was looking for in One Skein.

From Theme pics

Its a super book full of projects to make out of one skein of yarn. I’m really pleased with my copy. I really like the way it’s not half filled with basic “how to knit” but does have a very clearly referenced techniques section for the less usuall stuff. I’ve learnt a couple of new tricks. The patterns are imaginative, usable and just darned cute.

Spangle Gloves and Masochism

I used the Unisex glove pattern that had a honeycomb cuff and replaced the honeycomb with my woven cables….after some messing around, fiddling and swearing…

Firstly, using 4 needles, then throwing a cable needle into the mix is masochistic. Especially if your DPNs and your cable needles are all the same grey metal colour. I had a few “Grr” moments of grabbing the wrong needle. Does anyone know of “not grey” cables needles out there???

Here’s what my masocistic tangle of pickup-sticks and yarn looked like – the Work in progress…

From Knitting- WIP

I got this far and was really chuffed with myself – “oh – lets try on my creation”, I said.

From Knitting- WIP

Then I said rude stuff…

I hadn’t allowed for the cables pulling in the fabric and having very little elasticity. Even my tiny squishable hands took a huge, yarn wrenching shove got get into the glove. It was one of those, “I do still fit in my favourite jeans!” moments when you’re fighting with the zip and refusing to believe the obvious truth…It don’t fit.

So I started all over again but this time cast on the stitches required for the biggest size then added a row of decreases. before doing the palm upwards exactly from the pattern.

This is glove No.1 completed..I can get my hand in it and everything!

From Knitting- WIP

When I’m done and happy I’ll post the details of mods I made to make it work.

Onward with glove No.2….

To get me started on my blog, I’d used the same colours and layout theme as Ben’s web site – very pretty, I thought, but plagiaristic.

So I’m going to try this theme out for size. It originally came with goldfish in the top right hand corner – Lord knows why???

Thanks to Ben’s fabulous Photoshop skills and my dodgy photography, the goldfish have now been replaced by my attempt at a “Knitting Themed” logo. This was the photo before Ben got at it…

From Theme pics

I can only call it “Kidsilk Kebab”.

..and a couple of rejected attempts at being “arty”…

From Theme pics

From Theme pics

I have suddenly gained a whole new level of respect for professional photographers and designers who do these photos for real!

I was really keen to get my spangle scarf finished so I could wear it if I had to venture out in the forecast storms for today.

I watched a stupid amount of TV yesterday and knit frantically to finish it. I have now watched so many episodes of Stargate that the first thiing I said to the spectacular New years fireworks at the millenium wheel was, “Oh, it looks like a Stargate”. I really must get on with job hunting…

I pressed on eventually using 4 balls of the lovely. sparkly Soft Lux. I now have sore fingers and achy lower right bicep from having my arm bent all day long! I’ll be pleased to do the housework and sew up Ben’s Booklyn jumper for a change of pace and exercise….ahhh the mind games worked…

I’ve given you my pattern for this in a previous post here if you fancy making one …

spangle-scarf-in-woven-cables

The finished scarf is 170cms long and 17cms wide – thick and lovely and warm. Also, it doesn’t curl! A pet hate of mine. I’ve seen several stocking stitch based scarves in well known books that must have been blocked with glue to stop them curling for the photos.

Here it is done, on the bottom bit you can see the wrong side – still quite neat so it won’t matter if it shows. The flash has shown the sparkly bits quite well too.

From Knitting- WIP

I also couldn’t resist putting it on one of my lovely male models (Thug, not Ben), here enjoying a quiet moment …

From Cats

Completed Knit Report

Name Spangle Scarf

Pattern by me! (if it’s not too grandiose to call it a pattern…)

Yarn Rowan Soft Lux

Pattern problems Remembering which way to do the cables and trying not to change direction half way through the row…oops!..too much looking at the TV…not enough looking at knitting…

Pattern modifications None

Washing and wearing Very warm – not yet washed!

Knit it again? After my sister Carol and Mum saw it on a previous post – I don’t think I’ll have a choice!

Difficulty Easy and quick once you masted the direction of the cables.

Rating 5/5 – an inevitable score really – it’s my pattern creation!!

Here’s another from my back catalog.

This is from Jaeger’s JB35 Siena book and is on the front cover…I seem to have a habit of knitting what’s on the front cover … maybe the best garments are chosen for the cover??

I found this to be a very challenging knit – the only lacy thing I’d ever done in the past was the Birch shawl from Rowan.
I did change the pattern slightly – in the picture above, hopefully you can see that the lace pattern is not taken to the sleeve’s seams. Instead there is a glaring strip of stocking stitch. I thought this look horrible so I worked out the pattern to the edge – a brain bender but worth it.

Stitch detail close up…

Misprint!! The worst part of this pattern was the misprint on Row 2 in my copy of the pattern! I spent a whole Sunday sitting on the sofa casting on, counting stitches, swearing saying “Damn, Knit and Blast it” and other choice phrases and ripping out the stitches to starting again. Eventually I sat down with a pencil and paper and added up the increases and decreases and realised that row 2 could never come out with the number of stitches I was supposed to have. The error has been corrected in later editions but if you have an old copy, Row 2 should read:-

P7[1,7,1,7], *P7, yrn, P2tog, P5, yrn, P2tog, P8; Rep from *to last 6[0,6,0,6]sts, P6[0,6,0,6]

I have worn and worn this top for work (with a pale blue vest underneath for decency’s sake). The lace pattern makes the top stretchy width ways so although the pattern is straight down from the arm holes, it looks fitted on (I like that)

I did get one negative comment about it – my now ex-boss asked, “why are the sleeves too short? Run out of wool?” Grrrr……
Completed Knit Report

Name Rosita

Pattern from Jaeger book JB35

Yarn Jaeger Siena

Pattern problems mistake in Row 2 of pattern “P5″ missing after first “P2tog”

Pattern modifications Lace pattern taken to edge of sleeve

Washing and wearing Washes in the machine at 40 no problem when line dried. However, it did shrink a bit lengthways after Ben put it in the tumble dryer (Ben was in the doghouse for a week). Needs to have a vest underneath – at least!

Knit it again? Yes, almost certainly – Siena in my stash is begging for it. But I’d probably knit it 2″ longer so I can tumble dry it with abandon.

Difficulty I found it pretty hard to keep the pattern correct on the increases and decreases. I had to count my stitches after every knit row.

Rating 4/5

This is a lovely book to play with, like me, if you like to knit tiny fiddly things!

The photography and layout are inspiring and easy to use. The garments are varied but an awful lot of tops – I was hoping for more trousers and skirts and more tailoring – there are hundreds of Barbie roll neck jumper patterns out there!

The bags, scarves and hats are super though -especially the intarsia knitting bag which I’ve stocked with cocktail stick needles, mini skeins, a ball of wool and a half made Barbie scarf…

From

For relaxing an knitting, Barbie is wearing an Argyle sweater from the book too – Made with the recomended Paterna yarn that I managed to find cheaply on ebay.

This jacket is good too but I picked up a size too large needles – easily done…

My big gripe about this book is that they mostly use VERY fine tapestry, crotchet or embroidery threads rather than knitting yarns. The effect of several garments is down to having a specialist thread sold in very small quantities and from what I can see, only available in the USA (the rainbow gallery threads especially) – making a Barbie garment cost IRO £12 – too much for me!

Don’t buy this book if you’re expecting to use up oddments of 4ply from your stash – it’ll be too thick for most of the patterns. You’ll be better off with an old Sirdar or Patons doll booklet in my opinion (I’ve knit lots of these too!)

Here’s some I made earlier from Sirdar “Playmates” book in 4ply…

From

I think Rowan should issue some Barbie patterns using Rowan yarn for use by Rowanettes!! I can feel a Barbie miniature of some of my favorite Rowan designs coming on….another day perhaps.
To make this book work, you’ll need to be prepared to makes lots of mini swatches to get close to the sometimes strange gauge required.

Yarns used are :-
. Cotton Perle by DMC (Hobbycraft’s cheap bumper pack of craft thread works very very for this)
. Parternayan Persian Tapestry by JCA (Paterna in the UK)
. Cashmere be Grignasco
. Richesse Et Soie by Knit One Crochet Two
. Knit-Cro Sheen by J&P Coats
. Furore by Lang
. Matt Tapestry Cotton Art by DMC
. Tiny Tresses by Twice as Nice
. True 4 ply Botany by Rowan (Yipee, one I had!!)
. Metalica by Berroco
. Doucer et Soie by Knit One Crochet Two
. Alpaca by Rainbow Gallery
. Cashmere by Rainbow Gallery
. Frosting by Knit One Crochet Two
. JAWoll cotton superwash by Lang
. Perle Cotton by DMC
. Tapestry wool by DMC
. Artic Rays Wispy Fring by Rainbow Gallery
. Fuzzy stuff by Rainbow Gallery
. Laine Corbert Tapestry wool by DMC
. Retors a Broder by DMC
. Retors Mat by DMC
. Angora by Rainbow Gallery
. Very Velvety by rainbow gallery
. Cresta d’Oro by Rainbow Gallery
. Rainbow elastic by Knit One Crochet Two
. Party by Grignasco
. Cashwool by Lang

Needle sizes used are 2mm, 2.25mm, 2.5mm, 3mm.
typical gauge needed per square inch are (stitches to rows) 6×9, 5×11, 8×10, 13×18, 9×12, 15×19, 8×11, 6×10, 7×8, 9×16(??)

After my horror at the colour run with Ben’s Brooklyn jacket I’m not enthused sewing it up. I usually sew up really fast because I’m excited to see the end result – bah.

To make myself feel better I have rewarded myself with a cheerful “easy” project I’ve been hankering after.

From Knitting- WIP

From Knitting- WIP

I saw a scarf in this pattern in a shop made with nasty acrylic that would have pilled in days. They wanted £25 for it!! I think the knit pattern may be called “Mock-Entrelac” or “Woven Cables”. It’s easy enough that after a good look at the shop scarf, I came home and worked out how to do it. I’ve made in in soft Lux that has a gold thread running through it – hence the “Spangle”!
Here’s a mini pattern if you want to one too…
Spangle Scarf Pattern

Needed:
3 balls (I think, based on usage so far!) of Rowan/RYC Soft Lux in Clover (update 18/1/06 – I actually used all of 4 balls!)
5.5mm needles
Cable needle

Abbreviations:

C4B = slip next 4 stitches onto cable needle and hold at the back of work, knit next 4 stitches then knit 4 from cable needle

C4F = slip next 4 stitches onto cable needle and hold at the front of work, knit next 4 stitches then knit 4 from cable needle

Rib:
Cast on 52 stitches (must be an odd multiple of 4 stitches – ie 4 x 13 or 4 x 15)

Row 1: K3 (P2, K2) repeat to last 3 stitches K3
Row 2: P3 (K2, P2)repeat to last 3 stitches P3

Repeat these two rows 10 more times, on last row of rib increase one stitch at either end.
(This gives you a one stitch selvedge at either side)

Woven Cable:

Row 1: Knit.
Row 2: Purl.
Row 3: K1, (C4B) repeat to last 5 stitches, K5.
Row 4: Purl
Row 5: Knit
Row 6: Purl
Row 7: Knit
Row 8: Purl
Row 9: K5, (C4F) repeat to last 1 stitch, K1.
Row 10 – 14 as rows 4- 8

Repeat from Row 3 to desired length.

Repeat rib pattern, decreasing one stitch at either end on first row of rib pattern.

Cast off,darn in ends and wear!!

I have dozens and dozens of knitted garments – where do I start?

I think, I should tell you what I’m doing right now and, when it gets boring (during the endless rows to finish the second sleeve – yawn) I’ll pull another garment out of my “back catalog”…any better ideas I’d love to hear them!

So…tonight I’m sewing up Brooklyn (the one on the right)from Rowan’s Denim People book. It’s for my 6’2″ beloved so it has been a marathon undertaking! (for those of you unfamiliar with Rowan’s Denim – it’s an unusual yarn that you knit, then bung in the washing machine at 60 degrees to shrink it lengthways by about 20%. For the dubious among my readers – it really does work! The patterns allow for this. it is surface dyed and fades and wears like your favourite jeans – The downside is that it’s like knitting with harsh string and a bit hard on the hands.)

I managed to buy some Rowan denim in black on Ebay – fab as Ben doesn’t really like the “blue denim” look and Rowan discontinued black a while ago. Unfortunately (I did say “frequently disasterous”) the washing, shrinking part of the process hasn’t yeilded results as crisp as the ones in the picture! See what you think???

From Knitting- WIP

From Knitting- WIP

I am miffed to the extreme that the colour has run badly from the black into the cream cables on the sleeves. Common sense said this would happen with a yarn designed to fade and wash out but I trusted Rowan’s pictures in the book! My photo’s don’t show the true scale of the disaster – dirty grey sleeve cables, not crisp cream ones. I’ll be writing to Rowan in the morning…
Apart from the colour run issues, the pattern has been a dream and the shrinkage has been spot on – Ben is still pleased with the result!!

Before I put you all of Rowan Denim for good, I have knit with it before – this is “Mary” from the original “Denim” book by Rowan (designs by Kim Hargreaves) – I love it to bits…It was knit years ago and continues to be a favourite. ( A bit rumpled ‘cos I was wearing it while blogging!)

And the stitch detail…

and a bit of “collar action”…

I must away and find some food for Ben – he still needs 4 hourly feeds…

I have been nagged mercilessly by friends, family and a geeky “web centric” partner to blog my knitting exploits…

So here I am. See my “Who’s writing” page if you want more about me…
I have two beloved cats I need to introduce you to.I do not apologise for loving them dearly – they will be mentioned often.

This is Thug, my 15 year old blind ginger tomcat. Blind because of a brain tumour but OK now (after an obscene amount of money was spent on radiotherapy but worth ever penny!) He is brave, cuddly, very greedy and pretty much acts like a dog.

From Cats

From Cats

And this is Thug’s sister Mewsley from the same litter. She is scared of loud noices and likes to hide under the bed but very affectionate once she knows you. Mewsley is a “Lady” and will sulk if you forget it!

From Cats

From Cats

From Cats