Damn, Knit & Blast It

I’m powering through Keats – mentioned here in Ode-to-a-Merino-Yarn – I’m on the last sleeve Piccies soon!

I finally got fed up with Ben’s Brooklyn Jacket looking imploringly at me for a zip. This is Brooklyn in Rowan Denim of the denim-colour-run-disaster and Where to start with knittie stuff fame.

This was only my second attempt at inserting a zip in a knitted garment – my first (long ago) was so awful that I immediately threw it away in a huge huff. This time I got some expert advice from Jane Crowfoot while on my finishing course then read the part of her book on zips 12 times before starting….

It was a mammoth all day stint of pinning, tacking, sewing along the edge and then backstitching…

Here’s the “Zipperisation” work in progress…

An arty pic of the wrong side showing the backstitch and “whip stitch” (I thought it was called oversewing but what do I know??! )

And the lovely Ben wearing it!

Yum!

Completed Knit Report
Name:	Brooklyn
Pattern:	Rowan’s Denim People book
Yarn:	Rowan Denim in Black and Ecru
Pattern Problems:	No problems but the sleeve cable stripes were scary. There were 7 large bobbins on the go. I’d only previously used bobbins on a course Putting in a zip that was hard.
Pattern Modifications:	I extended the zip all the way up the collar as Ben prefers it on this type of top. It was a straight edge so very easy to continue the 2 stitch garter stitch facing.
Washing and Wearing:	The colours ran very badly in the hot wash required with Rowan Denim to shrink to size. My lovely creamy cables have turned ugly grey. See previous post for details of Rowan’s response. Apart form colour run issues, shrinkage was spot on, washed and dried beautifully. This yarn is fabulously easy care – washing machine and tumble dryer all the way!
Knit It Again???:	Yes (if Ben wanted another) but only in the lightest blue because of colour run issues.
Difficulty:	Experience Needed (zips and bobbins were challenging)
Rating:	4/5 (if you ignore the colour run!)

I was taking a peek at Diva Maggie’s blog
and saw she was doing the Rowan International free gift – the Dolly bag.

I said, “Ohhh, I’ve done that too”

Maggie said, “It’s not on your blog- let us see????”

So here is the little beastie…

I really enjoyed doing this bag, even the finger blistering bobbles!

Here’s a close up of the pattern and “evil” bobbles…

The question is though, what on earth do you use it for? It’s too small for a handbag – at least for me with my “survive a week on a dessert island” kit normally housed in my bag

I’m a bit too old to walk down the street with it anyway too (anyone over the age of 8 years is too old!) It’s too pretty to shove away in a box…

I’ve finally found it a use hanging up with my hair dryer, holding the nozzle from my hairdryer and a travel hair curling wand thingy.

What do you girls think – any better ideas out there?

I have just got home from this course with Jane Crowfoot – I am an exhausted but very happy and very humble knitter Lots of piccies to show you!
I’d thoroughly recommend this course to any knitter – you are bound to learn something.

I’ve had Jane’s book “Finishing Techniques for Hand Knitting” for ages.

Mastering mattress stitch from this book improved the quality of my finished garments by a huge leap so I was already a fan.

I learnt heaps on the course – I thought I was pretty good at finishing – how wrong I was!

Among other things, the course covered mattress stitching, a fab way of using short row shaping in shoulder to make it neater to sew up, several techniques for sewing up shoulders (including a truly scary one where you rip the cast off undone ), neat button holes and the epiphany moment for me – how to pick up stitches neatly around the neck – I have been making a horrible error all these years…..

I spent much of the day muttering things like “that’s witchcraft” or how could I have knit for so long and not known that?”

Here’s some of my “work” from the course

A fabulous montage of squares…

My error filled attempt at a neckline (but I now know what I’m doing wrong)…

Apparently “pick up and knit” just means pull the loops through the fabric onto the needle….it’s 100 times neater and quicker than the way I did it and I don’t get an ugly ridge.

Front and back of how I used to do it…-ick! ugly! In case you’re interested, I would pull the loop through the fabric onto the needle, then do a knit stitch before pulling the next loop through the fabric. Useful it you want stability but just look at it – ughhh…

… my mattress stitch, sewn up with bright green yarn…

and simulated sleeve sewn in with mattress stitch…

And finally, my master piece! a mattress stitched shoulder, with the cast off’s pulled out! the brown line is my stitching – it looks like it was all knitted in one piece.

This was the point at which I started muttering about Witchcraft!!

As promised, a piccie of the finished, button clad Willow…

I wish I’d made a size larger – it’s OK but a little snug – I imagined it being huge and snuggley and loose.

Here’s the buttons….

It was amazingly hard to find a button that matched. I went to John Lewis (where it was desserted because of the snow) and tried just about every button against willow – Metal was too bright or faded in too much, white was too stark, cream buttons were all too small….You get my drift? It boiled down to these or wooden duffel coat buttons…

And here’s something I haven’t shown you before – one of my little labels I’ve started putting in my creations!

Nothing to do with knitting – I just stumbled on this picture and thought “AWWWWww”!

Thug says,

“OK, so you didn’t like the mouse I gave you. What about this one?”

Further caption suggestions please!

Lots of knitterly updates today!

The Willow Ribbon Twist Jacket is knitted – after wrestling it from the evil ginger paws of Thug who was quite partial to sleeping on it!

It still needs buttons, I need to dig my way out from undr the decorating to get to John Lewis to buy some – oh joy! Shopping!

So, on to the next lovely item.

..I did sit down to start Patrick from Rowan Denim (remember him?)

When I looked at the sizing, I realised that a ladies small came up actual size of 46″ (118cm) chest! I asked the ladies on the Rowan International forum for their thoughts – they pointed out that this was a book published in 1996 when all the jumpers were huge and sloppy with no shaping! Bit of a shock to realise I’d had the book quite that long!

I know big cream aran is trendy again but I’m going to think about this one some more before committing – anybody out there got an opinion?

So what next? I couldn’t possibly sit watching Ben play Zelda on his new Wii with no knitting…

Soft and creamy Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Aran (gleaned in the January sales) called to me from my stash. I clearly have a deep seated need for a cream sweater!
So the next project is Keats from Jaeger JB38 (and it’s not on the cover!)

Keats – “Ode to a Merino yarn” – geddit?

I loved the point in the rib and the complex diamond pattern, all done with knits and purls from a chart. Post-it notes on the chart are DEFINITELY needed for this one!

Just started the second ball…

Enough fun – I have gloss painting to do ….will it never end??

…that’s a hot tip as in “hints ‘n’ tips “.

Tsk!! How could you think such a thing!

Much hilarity at my knitting circle this morning – one of our number (who will remain nameless) is a little fed up with being teased (ribbed??) by a male colleague about her knitting. He frequently demands to know what she has made for him.

Her revenge will be to present him a delightful pink willie warmer as publicly as possible
She has followed a pattern from Knitty.com in delightful pink yarn.

Sorry- no photos!

The hot tips are….

1. Use bigger yarn and needles than the pattern unless you want to insult the recipient.
2. Don’t show a bunch of ladies your work in the middle of Starbucks unless you want hoots of laughter and the attention of the entire coffee shop
3. Don’t use a cable cast on ..to quote, “there’s no give in it and you’d never get anything in it!”

The world is against me knitting…

The decorating is at that gruelling preparation stage. The badly painted “glow in the dark” yellow walls have resisted all attempts at sanding – paint has been daubed over badly stripped wallpaper and glue giving a “jaunty and individual” surface. Everything I use to sand just clogs. I’m seriously considering lining paper (Last time I wallpapered was 20 years ago and it was very very bad).

So what’s that got to do with knitting I hear my readers cry!

Well, after 5 hours of hanging onto my cute little Black and Decker electric “Mouse” sander while it jiggled loudly over the paintwork, my right wrist, elbow shoulder are killing me. It hurts in the bones and joints! So much so, it was hard to find a comfortable knitting position. Not to mention the rough, dry hands.
Then my knitting was commandeered by the Ginger Knitting Devil …

Thug says, “Thou shalt not knit!”

Then he flashed his evil “Don’t knit, cuddle me” eyes at me. I gave in…

Just what can a girl do?

I gave up, poured myself a drink, settled Thug on my lap, nursed my aching arm and vowed to take a day off from the decorating – I’ll knit tomorrow….