Damn, Knit & Blast It

****Warning ****

****This post includes a “horror” picture****

Do you remember Eveleen?

She was this little beauty from Rowan 40…

I had struggled and mastered the lace, knit the dinky little sleeves and done half of the evil, evil intarsia pattern when I, uncharacteristically, abandoned Eveleen in favour of my Blankie. OK – being fair to myself, I wasn’t well and Eveleen was just too hard to concentrate on.

Hmm….No such excuses now….

This is where I had left Eveleen….

21 rows of the 42 row pattern panel complete.

Just the really hard bit to go!

Picking it up again wasn’t easy. A friend asked me if I’d found new commitment and enthusiasm after a break from her? (Eveleen, not my friend!) My answer was, “No!”

It was hard to pick up my thought processes midway through – Which of the threads was I carrying? What yarn is the palest pink on the chart again? Why did I ever think I could do intarsia?

One of my faults is that I can be bloody minded and not know when to give up. (Remember the Buggering Felted Skirt debacle?) I decided to channel that “fault” into some positive determination and tenacity….Eveleen was not going to beat me!

Every night – 4 rows of brain straining intarsia then put Eveleen away then play with an easy sock. I honestly could not keep up the level of concentration needed for more than 4 rows.

Very quickly, I finished the evil, evil intarsia panel! This is what I had, unpressed and hot off the needles.

You eagle eyed readers might notice the small safety pin just under the left hand rose. That’s a dropped stitch I only saw after 8 rows I put it on the pin and secured it later when darning in the ends.
I sure as heck wasn’t going to try and rip Kidsilk Haze AND Intarsia!

So do you want to see that horror picture I warned you about?? Huh? Think you can take it?

….get someone to hold your hand…..

…….here it is…

Fancy darning in that little lot? I did speculate I could just leave them there and increase my chest by two cup sizes

It took me as long to darn in all the end as it did to knit the flowers. I painstakingly tweeked and tidied the stitches as I went.

Guess how many ends….

I was sad enough to count them as I darned…

There were 184 loose ends – not including the normal ones in the main body of Eveleen!

I bet you’re dying to look at the back finished aren’t you?

Putting her together and the picot edging around the neck were, in comparison, simple!

So.

The finished object….

and a back view….

Here’s the evil rose panel, finished, darned and pressed.

and a really close up if you want to play “spot the loose stitches”

I’m really pleased with Eveleen. I found the Intarsia stupidly hard and really didn’t enjoy doing it. I’m really enjoying the sense of achievement for finishing her though.

She has been quite a struggle but well worth it.

Judie has been distracted by holiday knitting so I was given permission to continue with my Judie jacket. She knows how I hate a WIP hanging around….

I sat down for two evenings. Woosh!

It’s done!

It really is a quick, fun knit.

My only real problem was finding some yummy buttons. I hunted around all my usual button haunts to no avail. Then, on a day out pottering around in London with Ben, I wandered into a bead shop on Earlman Street (Near Seven Dials if you know London). Ben was happy in the Orc’s Nest (don’t ask) so I had a good long browse.

I found these!

They are beads, not buttons – but don’t they look good? I think so.

Because they are beads, there is a hole running from the top to the bottom. To make them work as buttons I sewed them on loosely then wound the end round and round between the button and the button band a few times to pull the threads to the centre and make the button stand a little proud of the knitting. It’s what I’ve been taught to do traditionally with coat buttons!

So here’s the finished Judie Jacket…

Maybe it’s a bit longer and bigger than I would have liked but this is intended to be worn as an outer garment so it couldn’t be skin tight. I know just how warm it will be from wearing my Willow Jacket, also in Ribbon Twist – Hmmm ….Toasty Warm!

Completed Knit Report
Name:	Judie Jacket
Pattern:	Sirdar leaflet 5903 for Denim Ultra
Yarn:	10 Balls Rowan Ribbon Twist (Pattern calls for 7 balls of Sirdar Denim Ultra)
Pattern Problems:	None (except me being an idiot and looking at the wrong size)
Pattern Modifications:	I substituted the yarn and changed needle size to 10mm and 12mm from 8mm and 10mm to get gauge. I also short rowed the shoulders.
Washing and Wearing:	Not washed yet. Wearing – VERY warm
Knit It Again???:	Possibly – Fashion reservations rather than knitting!
Difficulty:	easy
Rating:	4/5
Other Postings Relating To This One:	Ghaa, I’ve snapped I’ve been banned

Do you use stitch markers??

I do occasionally and I’ve just started a sock that needs one. I find the usual beaded dangley ones rather irritating.

These are the thingies I mean..

OK. They were free ones from a magazine and “proper” ones might be nicer but I still would end up with them dangling the wrong side of the work, getting knit into a stitch (that’s a swine to undo on fine work!) and the join in the metal ring would catch my yarn. I’m also prone to loosing them. I’d be miffed if I lost one I’d paid £££ for.
My solution?

Being a bit of a DIYer, I’m often in DIY stores. I found these in B&Q…

They are round. Come in sizes from tiny enough for socks up to huge. There are no joins to catch the yarn. They are soft and squidy so easy to hold if you have lots on a needle. They are so cheap you don’t worry if you loose one.

“What are they? Where can I get some?” I hear you cry…..

They are washers from the plumbing department!!! The box of 8 smallish ones is 88p! How great is that for something that’s perfect for the job?

One downside though – I can only find them in black…

Here’s an action shot of one on the sock

The sock is in Fleece Artists Merino 2/6 and I’m being very dull and using the free pattern on the skein. This is my”I’m too tired to do any complicated knitting” sock….

Don’t you love those colours though? I’ve not used this yarn before – it is beautiful but I have reservations about how it will stand up to my washing machine. I really have trouble with the idea of hand washing socks…

Nice Huh?

I’ll be contacting B&Q and warning them that an army of knitters will be descending on the plumbing department….

…..maybe they have other goodies I can knit with…….

Finally….

After two months of finger hurting perseverance, the Blankie is finished!

The edging took an age but I found a way of making it a little easier.

The edging, worked on a big circular needle, one side at a time, calls for 3 rows of Knit, then 3 rows of stocking stitch (Knit, Purl, Knit) then 3 rows of purl – necessary to avoid an ugly colour break. (Another example of the attention to detail I found all through this pattern.)

I found the purl really slow. Maybe it’s obvious to all you clever knitters out there but I was chuffed with my decision to simply break the yarn, rejoin at the other end of the circular needle and do 3 more knit rows instead!

So. Edging done. Ends darned in. Time to put my baby into the washing machine!

Here is the “before washing” picture, modelled by the lovely, camera shy, 6’1″ Ben . Take note of the length for the “after” picture.

As regular readers will know – I’m rather twitchy about putting my knitting in the washing machine after some “experiences” with Felting and Colour runs.

I did some research before I started this Blankie and found several people had been unhappy with the amount of colour run into the cream. The consensus was that the cream turned pale blue and assumed an “aged” look but colour catchers helped. After my experience with Ben’s Brooklyn jacket, I had a pretty good idea what to expect and didn’t expect the cream to stay cream.

I had other anxieties too. Would the mattress stitch holding the squares together pucker when the blanket shrank? Had I darned the ends in well enough to cope with machine washing? Would the beads cope with being clattered around in my tumble dryer (You ARE supposed to tumble dry Rowan Denim after washing!) and would it shrink by the right amount?

I have no idea why I was worried about how much it would shrink. I’ve used Denim several times and shrinkage has always been spot on for me.

Worry, worry, worry…..

I kissed goodbye to my lovely, bright, crisp, clean looking blankie and tucked it in the washing machine along with and entire pack of 25 colour catcher sheets! The box said use 3 sheets if colour run was bad – I really wanted to catch that colour! I also added a cup of bleach – several people had said Debbie Abrahams had suggested that in response to their mails.

Goodbye blankie and good luck!

I washed on a 90 degree, white cotton wash.

Can you imagine my nerves?

My nose was pressed against the window of the washer for at least the first 20 mins.

Ben kept trying to drag me away. He said I was like a hypnotised cat with my head going round and round watching the blankie.

The water was navy blue.

The rinsing water was navy blue.

Guess what colour the Colour Catchers were?…..all 25 of them….

And the cream? Hmmmm……

A bit different huh? I put the new ball on the blankie so you can see it’s not different lighting and camera trickery.

It is much, much bluer than I was expecting but not in an unpleasant way. You do have to ask how the pictures in the book are so clean and creamy though?

Want to see the “after” picture, modelled by Ben?

To save your scrolling finger, here’s the “before” pic again…

See how much shorter it is? Thankfully all my fears and worries about shrinkage were unfounded.

It shrank perfectly, The seams didn’t pucker, my ends didn’t get free. And the beads? Like new. They made a hell of a noise in the dryer but came through unscathed.

I took it to Starbucks to show the other Guilty Knitters this morning. There was much ohhhing and ahhhing (which I lapped up). We decided it was going to be my heirloom piece to leave to a beloved friend or relative when I finally “cast off” from this world!

(Applications for this position on a postcard please. Winner will be notified a LONG time in the future …hopefully!)

So am I pleased with it? I have to say “Yes”. I’m very glad I was prepared for the colour run because it could have been a nasty shock but that is my only negative. In all a real pleasure to make and something to treasure for a very long time to come.

OK. It’s not knitting…..

It’s geeky, cute, cat based, Laugh Out Loud internet fun….

Click HERE to see my blog LOLinated!!

I LOLinated my blog using the LOLinator…..

Try it if you have a blog!

Bad Susan – get back to the Blankie edging…..

(I tell you that edging is so dull ANYTHING will distract me…….)

After my last blog post, I rushed off to my needles and cast on the Judie Jacket….

Woosh!

I had the back done in a couple of nights!

OK, that “Woosh” included using beautiful Namaste glass needles for the rib – they were too slippery and heavy and made the stitches huge – I had to frog 5″ (13cm for you metric types!) and restart because it just looked loose and wrong.

I also made a pig’s ear of short row shaping the shoulders so it took three goes. Mainly because I was tired , reading the wrong size and was trying to do it in my head instead of writing it out like I usually do! I need to short row the shoulders so I can do a 3 needle bind off – the only way I can get lumpless shoulder seams with this type of chunky yarn.

Sometimes I try to be to clever for my own good

I’m not always a fan of big yarns but you’ve gotta love the speed. Isn’t the Ribbon twist working well??I really like the Moss Stitch and Rib pattern too. It kind of looks chocolatey to me – yum….

“Oh no! You’ve overtaken me on the knitalong”, said Judie (the inspiration for the knitalong)…

“Don’t worry, I’ll knit some squares for the Denim Blankie – You’ll catch up.”

I went off and knit a few more squares until my hands hurt from the unforgiving cotton. After knitting on 12mm needles, doing Blankie Squares on 4mm felt like knitting on tooth picks!

So, just to give my fatigued hands a rest, I cast on a front – oops I finished it

Thug valiantly tried to hide the evidence from Judie but failed. Judie was still on the back. “You’re banned from doing any more till I catch up!” said Judie, brandishing her 10mm

In fear of being poked hard with a 10mm needle , I went back to the blankie.

As I had been quite excited by finishing all of certain squares, I’d knit quite a few out of sequence – the result was I hadn’t realised how near the end I was….

A couple of evenings of head down knitting and….

TA DA!

All squares knitted and sewn together!

I’m standing on my toes there with my arms full stretch – that’s a whole lot of knitting – no wonder it’s taken 2 months!

Now onto the edging….

….Pick up 333 stitches evenly along one edge….Ghaah! It took eternity, mainly because it was boring and even adverts on TV were more interesting! I bet you’ve all been there huh?

At least it worked out at 37 stitches per square and not some odd fraction! Thank you Debbie Abrahams for that.

I have done one edge and I am now half way through knitting the second (that’s why the blankie is bunched up at the bottom in the picture – it’s squished on a circular needle…)

Wanna see the edging?? Ok then….

The edging is rather well thought out – garter stitch (just knit), then stocking stitch for the beady part then more garter stitch done with just purl rows so you don’t get a colour break. The cast off is in the contrasting colour – I really like the effect that gives. I can’t say it’s fun to knit but I have that “Nearly There” woolly mist spurring me on…

…And Judie has given me permission to knit the next front of the Judie Jacket…

So much knitting – So little time!