Damn, Knit & Blast It

Do you remember Katia?  The “Holiday knitting that didn’t make it“?

Now the swine flu is completely gone and Ben and I have both recovered (thankfully) and the house move is steaming ahead (yipee) I was so ashamed of myself for having so many WIPs on the go, I’ve whizzed though and finished Katia!

Katia was not without problems. Unfortunately, they all seemed to be me being careless!   Not like me at all…
…I blame stress, swine flu, Tamiflu and anything else I use to shirk responsibility!

I’ve already told you in my last Katia post how I frogged a front then realised I’d done it right first time round.

I also managed to end up with random numbers of stitches to knit together at the shoulders (I always use a three needle bind off).

I was supposed to have 4 sets of 20 stitches – I had 20, 19, 20 and 21! Of course, I didn’t notice this until I’d tried to graft 21 stitches to 19 stitches and wondered why I had 2 left over at the end. Have you ever tried to unpick a three needle bind off, – back onto 2 needles? Swearing was involved

Another part of Katia that isn’t quite right is the back of the neck…

It’s one of those patterns where, when you’ve finished the front you knit an extra long strip to sew around the back of the neck. I can never get that neat and some how, rushing to get her finished , managed to get an ugly join that’s not central – I’m not sure if it would be any less ugly if it was in the middle but at least it would have symmetry! Maybe my hair should get a bit longer???….

After all these issues you could be forgiven for thinking I’m not happy with Katia.

It fact,  I’ve worn her all day today and I’m really please with her!  She’s easy to wear and looks great with the linen trousers I made her to go with. I think Katia will prove to be a versitile favourite.

Enough chat – more pictures!

Here’s the single button that fastens her – one I had in my button box – not sure where it came from!

I should also tell you that I  had some problems getting a shot of Katia…

…Somebody thought it was called CATia and had a diva, hissy fit, complained her brother gets more internet exposure  and insisted on being in the photos…

That was not a face to argue with so we let Mewsley have her close up, then she was happy…

Finally, we got a shot of me in the finished Katia!

It was inevitable that I would get Swine Flu

The only good thing about regularly being hit with the sniffles is that I am well prepared and know how to make the best of it.

My survival kit consisted of :-

• Ultra balm tissues
• Lemsip
• Scotch, lemons and honey – to make hot toddies
• An attentive, food preparing, fevered brow mopping boyfriend, Ben
• Tamiflu -abandoned after icky side effects
• Dozens of recorded episodes of Stargate
• Comfy sofa- with optional blankie
• 2 Cuddly cats – loving sitting on their unusually warm human
• Huge pile of  half completed knitting!

The good news is that during my time in isolation,  I made fabulous progress with Iris!

The sleeves were long and boring (aren’t they always) but that was just the kinda knitting I needed. Once done I just had the edging and sewing up to do.

The edging of Iris is quite interesting. Simple but effective. Pick up a gazillion stitches on a small needle and it’s just stocking stitch.

The interesting part is how it curls over itself and makes a firm, stable and pretty edge to the garment. I’m not so sure about the spacing of the buttons though – it’s 2 – space-2-space -2 . It works but kinda looks like there are some buttons missing. LOVE these buttons BTW – 40p each in John Lewis! Bargainous!! Just as well as this is a new colour for me and I was forced, yes FORCED to go and buy and matching necklace, earrings and eye-shadow to go with my new Iris. (That’s the story I’m telling Ben if he asks…

The downer of this for me was my choice of needle. I had used an Addi circular for the main part of Iris but couldn’t find the smaller size Addi to take with me on the plane so I bought this…a  “Square Circular” needle (by Kollage Yarns). Yep, that’s right the actual needle has a square profile – Of course there is not technical reason why a needle must be round is there?  Apparently kinder to the hands – but I found the corners dug in a bit!

Some friends of mine swear that Kollage yarns’ square dpns are great for socks but I have yet to try them.

I was warned, helpfully, when I bought the Square Circular that some had been returned because the cable had pulled out of the needle so I shouldn’t be too rough with it. This was duly noted. I was careful and this didn’t happen to me.

The cable on the Square Circular was very flexy and worked ok with a few stitches on it for the lower edges. However, when I had 400 stitches on the needle and was trying to do the neck edging it was VERY frustrating! The stitches didn’t want to slide along the cable. The join caught the stitches. The cable was too short so the stitches were scrunched up (OK that’s not the needle’s fault…). I was in quarantine so I couldn’t go out and buy a different needle!

The edging, under these conditions was an exercise in patience!!

You can see what I was working with here…

Fortunately, as I was off with swine flu and had nothing else to do,  I persevered.

The sewing up was a pleasure. Even when not feverish – I quite like seeing the garment come together!

With this type of stitch pattern it’s easy to match up as you go along. Just match up the holes.

It also gave Thug an opportunity to demonstrate his camouflage skills

I was even pleased with the strange symmetrical shapes that appeared along the sleeve seams as I drew them together (it might have been the drugs (Tamiflu mixed with the hot toddies at this point!!)

So do you want to see the fabulous finished Iris??

Here she is..

This has been an absolute pleasure to knit and I am immensely proud of Iris. She has draw compliments wherever she has been worn (which of course, I lapped up!)

One of the nicest compliments was that my friend Jane, from the Guilty Knitters, was so taken with Iris she is about to make one for herself