Damn, Knit & Blast It

I need a bit of a break from The Earth Stripe Wrap. Fun as it is, I felt the sudden urge to do something that wasn’t back and forth Stocking Stitch!

Tracey, a barista at the Starbucks where we Guilty Knitters meet each Sunday, is due soon and we decided to each knit her a bib so we could give her a pretty little stack of them from the group. Nice idea huh?

We decided on the Petal bib for Leigh Radfords’ One Skein.

This bib…

From this book…

I really enjoyed making this!!

It’s an interesting construction and I learnt how to make an I-cord along the way too. Amazing that with all the knitting I do, I’d never got around to making one.

You start with making the 5, separate, bottoms of the petals. Then you slide them all on a needle and knit across.

The shaping in achieved with short row shaping - stopping half way through a row and turning around and preventing a hole by wrapping the next stitch. A technique which is well described in the techniques section in the back of the book - just in case you’ve not done short rows before. Some decreasing, then leave the live stitches on a needle to one side.

Next you make a few inches of I-cord (all described very well) then you knit the I-cord onto the live stitches, one at a time, as you go along. I was thrilled that there was no sewing and the finish was so neat!

A quick press and I was done - it took just a couple of hours.

Here it is

That pic shows the colour well but not the detail. Believe it or not, these are the same bib but with no flash so you can see the stitch detail - it looks grey!

The decreasing…

The Petal edge (knit first)…

The whole thing without a flash - trust me - it really is baby Blue!

I now need a self indulgent, luxurious project.

Something beautiful to wear, soft as a kitten’s belly fur and ideally something I can use some of my every growing stash on.

Did I ever tell you about when I used to travel to “the London office” every Friday? Friday lunchtime could only mean one thing. Grab a sandwich to eat on the bus and head for John Lewis, Oxford Street.

Quite often there was nothing I needed but I just couldn’t leave empty handed could I? So I developed an expensive habit of buying an odd ball of Rowan’s Kidsilk Haze. It was just one ball - I was being good wasn’t I? It looked so pretty and inviting. All the sumptuous colours begging to be stroked and loved…

The upshot of this weekly expedition is that I accumulated 57.5 balls of KSH in my stash! I’m too afraid to work out how much I spent! Some has been give too me by stash-phobic friends (I love you generous stash-phobics!) but I was truly shocked when I catalogued my stash on Ravelry.

I have heard Kidslik Haze referred to as “Cracksilk Haze”. I guess I now know why….

My partial solution to this embarrassment is to start Kaffe Fasset’s Earth Stripe Wrap from Rowan 42.

It’s the one on the cover…again

It takes 14 balls of KSH and 10 different colours. I had single balls of every colour in stash - I just had to go buy the extra 4 “doubles”.

Here’s the different colours…

I started Saturday and I’ve just done one full pattern repeat of 182 rows. That’s not a mistype - 182 row pattern repeat!

The good news is that it’s absolutely plain stocking stitch holding two strands of KSH together. No problems there - this stuff sticks to itself like clingfilm!

The fascinating part is which two colours are being held together? Nevermore than 5 rows the same, you are constantly changing one or both of the colours to give a beautiful subtle effect. I’m very impressed at Kaffe’s skill, blending the colours and using muted shades to tone down some very bright shades when knit together.

Want to see my progress?

The down side is what to do with the ends? There’s millions of them! OK, that’s an exaggeration but hundreds at least…

I started weaving them in but I thought it showed. I took this pic to show you but I don’t think you can see them!

So I decided just to knot the new yarn on and leave the ends dangling (the KSH will not slip!). They will then be secured and hidden by the double crochet edging. I plan to just lay them along the edge and crochet over them. If it doesn’t work I’ll have a month of sewing these ends in…

Or that should be…

“Blue, blue, tealy blue. That’s the colour of Ben’s new top .That I just Knit!……Blueooooooo!” (to be warbled to the tune of “Sound and Vision“….)

Apologies to all David Bowie fans out there. I couldn’t resist - at least you couldn’t hear me singing that - I knit far, far better than I sing! I do most things better than I sing actually

Yep - I’ve finished Ben’s Bowie jumper. It was a pleasure to knit. A pattern I’d recommend to you. I particularly liked the neck line on this one - quite easy to make shorter for men who don’t like high necks too.

I finished with the merest scrap of yarn left…

The sleeves took 2 balls and about 4 rows worth of another ball each. As I said in my last post, the back took nearly 5 balls, the front - 4.5 balls and the neck (which is quite large) took the rest!

I’m a little unhappy that it was so close (especially as I bought an extra ball) because I wasn’t able to lengthen the sleeves as I would normally for chimp-boy I mean Ben. They are OK (after some spirited pressing) but Ben would have liked them a tad longer.

All thing considered, I think it’s a success and I’m massively relieved that I managed to finish it with the yarn I had.

What do you think of it?

Ben likes it (phew). His insightful comment was,

“Hmmm, warm and snuzzley”

He then proceeded to wear it for the next two days which, I think, said much more!

I would have blamed the stingy yarn amounts on subbing the yarn but this pattern appears in Rowan’s “Pure Wool Collection” as “Edan” (identical so far as I could tell, standing in Liberty, looking at the pattern books!) and has the same yarn requirements - it’s even the same number of balls for the next size up!

Looks the same huh?

I’m all for recycling but to republish a pattern under a different name? Oh well - It’s a good pattern and it means it’s still available!

I’ll be watching Beelzebub’s progress with her Edan to see if she has the same problem….it might just be that my tension is a little tight…

You may have noticed from my list of projects on my Blogiversary post that only one garment was for Ben - the Brooklyn jacket. Ohh, and a rather fine pair of Space Invader socks!

I promise you that this was not because I’m a horrid selfish knitter or because of some kind of fear of the “Boyfriend Jumper Curse”. The Boyfriend curse is the one that goes, “The minute you make your boyfriend a jumper, it scares the be’Jesus out of him and he dumps you”.

Ben is one of those annoying men who rarely wears a jumper - if it’s freezing he’ll wear a long sleevedt-shirt under a short sleeved one. Or turn the heating up!
I have in fact made him 3 garments, Brooklyn that you’ve seen and two others that I’ll blog in the coming weeks. These three are the only jumpers he possesses.

How’s that for a knitterly bragging point?

“My boyfriend only wears my handknits…He doesn’t own a shop bought jumper….” I could get irritatingly smug with that one couldn’t I?

The truth is, I badger Ben to death trying to find things to lovingly knit him. Usually with the responses of “I’ve got enough jumpers!”, “I hate scarves - I’ve never worn one!” or “Gloves? I’ll loose them then you’ll kill me!” My suggestion of a string on each glove going up the sleeves and across the back of his coat resulted in “robust” response and the threat of a severe tickling

Recently, my only success for him was this….

It’s a liner for one of his car’s cup holders so he can put his ipod in there without it scratching as it twizzles around while he drives. He was genuinely impressed when I sat down and a crocheted it to the right size without a pattern!

I made a circle of double crochet, then spiralled round and round without any increases so the sides turned up. It’s made from an oddment of Rowan Magpie Aran that’s been in my stash for at least 10 years!

It helped pull it to the perfect shape when I found it fitted exactly over a tumbler full of a very hot, whiskey laden “hot toddy” for my flu - medicinal purposes you understand! Hic!

Imagine my surprise and pleasure when, I showed him yet another pattern book and he said,

“That one! I really like that one. Will you make it for me?

It was this from Jaeger JB28 - the men’s book by Martin Storey.

Yep, it’s the one from the cover - I guess he’s caught that from me!

All the garments in JB28 are named after rock stars - Ben was completely sold on the jumper when I told him it was named “Bowie” - a huge favourite of his!

I dragged Ben to my LYS to choose a colour, happily pointing him at the sale yarn…of course the colour he really liked was full price!

We chose Rowan Pure Wool DK in Cypress (shade 007) which knits to the same standard DK tension as the original Jaeger Matchmaker DK. It’s a lovely teal tinged bluey colour.

Once Cherish was done, still flu ridden, I wrapped myself up under a duvet on the sofa and whipped up the back.

The yarn is lovely - soft, squidgy and not splitty. Nice stitch definition too.

Here’s an unpressed close up of the “suitable for flu knitting”, straight forward pattern…

Then it struck me….

The pattern called for 13 balls - the yardage on the Pure Wool was actually 5 yards longer per ball so I wasn’t worried about yardage. I did however buy 14 balls because I tend to add an inch to the length because Ben’s rather tall and slim. Better to be safe….

The back had taken nearly 5 balls…Hmmmmm…if the front took the same I had to get the neck and both sleeve out of 4 balls - eeekkk!!

I emailed Linda, my helpful John Lewis Rowan rep, from my sick bed, to see if she had any more of my dyelot in stock. More “Eeekkk” - completely sold out of that colour and out of stock at the warehouse! Linda is on the case and hunting me down some more yarn..

I consulted with my fellow guilty knitters - They pointed out that Bowie had drop shoulders so won’t need as much yarn as fitted sleeves…I felt slightly better but still worried.

I decided to keep going and see how it went, plans forming in my head about how to mix in other dylots into the sleeves so it wouldn’t notice - every other row? Every other block in the pattern? The neck could be different and it wouldn’t notice huh?

The front took 4 and 1/4 balls……

Can I get a sleeve out of 2 and a bit balls?? Watch this space….

W00t to me!

I’ve kept up this blogging thing for one year today!

Just a quickie post to summarise the year and say , “Thank you readers!” for for dropping by, leaving comments and generally encouraging me. I hope I’ve helped you a little along the way- either with your knitting or by giving you a giggle at my expense.

Now the boring stats!

In the last year I have blogged 29 projects.

6 were pre-blog projects and a massive 23 projects were knit this year. 1 pattern was my very own creation - Spangle Scarf (and the matching Spangle gloves were a heavily modified pattern too!)

This year’s 23 projects were:-

• 1 hat (Snug)
• 4 tops (Eveleen, Orford, Nichole, Flu Flo)
• 5 accessories (Spangle scarf, Spangle Gloves, Click needle wrap, Fluffy Wuffy Gloves)
• 7 cardigans (Cherish, Ombre, Judie Jacket, Glade, Willow, Big Frill, Brooklyn)
• 2 jumpers (Lavender, Keats)
• 1 pair of socks (Space Invaders)
• 2 toys (Buck and Bucky the Star Bucks Bears)
• 1 double blanket! (Denim Blankie)

Click on the “Completed Knit reports” in the side bar or enter the name in the search box top right for details of each.
Hmmm….I seem a bit cardi-heavy! More Jumpers next year I think and I really should try and write another pattern…

My stash has grown despite my best efforts over the year so I’d better get back to the knitting needles and whip up another project now the flu has abated.

Thanks for visiting for the last year!

PS just remembered - about 50 innocent smoothie hats too!

Why haven’t I posted for so long?

Because I have been laying under a duvet on my sofa being a flu ridden Swamp Donkey (American slang for a moose that lives in the swamps or colloquial slang for a deeply unattractive woman)

I’m not pretty when I have the flu….I look kinda like this…

In fact it was the worst type of flu because I caught it from Ben …I had “MAN-FLU” - complete with whimpering, patheticness and frequent requests to check, “Am I hot? Feel my forehead?” and the pleading, “I need a lemsip, Darling…**cough**cough**wheeze**”

The good news is - the only thing I had the energy to do (or interest in doing)was knitting!

The lovely Ben bought me the new Kim Hargreaves book “Heartfelt, The Dark House Collection” for Christmas.

This one…

And as I had perpetrated a dawn raid on the John Lewis yarn department on the first day of the sale and snaffled an obscene amount of yarn (I’m still too ashamed to admit my purchases here!) and had some bargainous big wool - I decided to whip up Cherish - a cute little big wool bolero.

This is the book picture …

Wow! Pictures that show that garments! Take note Rowan …

I started Saturday and quickly knit the back…

I short rowed the shoulders as I usually do … then I knit the fronts - the short rowing kinda didn’t work because I had to continue with the neck edging to go around the back of the neck. If I made this again I wouldn’t short row because I think I fudged it and ended up a row short - that’s a lot when you’re on 12mm needles!

I do have to rave about the construction of this garment! The fronts use short rows (turning halfway though a row and wrapping a stitch) to give the front a “womanly” shape. The slightly frilled edging is knit in garter stitch as a strip, then you pick up a few stitches down one side an knit up the body of the garment. None of that annoying “pick up 300 stitches evenly around the front and sides” malarkey that always seems to take longer than knitting an entire sleeve! (If I had to name a part of knitting I dislike it’s picking up stitches….)

I have never liked jumping on the popularist bandwagons, preferring to make up my own mind and think for myself. But, the “I just love Kim Hargreaves. Her designs are wonderful. They just fit right” bandwagon, is one I am forced to admit, is fully justified in their enthusiasm! Count me on board.

I stormed on with Cherish - armed with a box of tissues, a ready supply of Lemsip, a duvet, rubbish TV (Startrek mainly) and a large ginger cat enjoying his suddenly very warm (feverish in fact!), sedentary and rarely moving owner’s lap.

The strain of constantly nursing me wore poor Thug out..

Poor baby! Mewsley was terrified of me - every time I coughed she ran, thinking some huge savage, cat hating dog was barking at her!

By Wednesday I had a new garment!

What do you think?

The button was one I saw in my local Hobbycraft - perfect I thought.

And the back view….

For 5 days of Sicky Swamp Donkey Knitting, I think that was a good result!

The flu continued…So did the knitting frenzy…see the next post for that!

Just a quickie of a post !

Remember my denim Blankie???

We managed to get the beast hung in it’s intended position as a wall hanging at the head of the bed.

We had a bit of a wrestle to get Thug to let it go..He does so love to sleep on my knitting!

Mewsley is a cat of more refined tastes…

She preferred it on the wall…

I am so pleased with the result!