Damn, Knit & Blast It

Something That’s Not a Blanket

August 30th, 2010, 6:45 pm

You must be as bored with my “knitted some more blanket squares….” posts as I am trying to finish the damned Flower Blanket. Be assured I’m still slogging over the purple monster

So just by way of some light relief for all of us, I’ve dug out an old, pre blog , never seen before on the internet, knit of mine!
Now then, stop jumping up and down with excitement or I won’t tell you about Maria.

Maria dates back (I think) to about 2005 – about the time I discovered the John Lewis yarn sales. I had greedily snapped up a big bag full of Rowan Linen Print in and unusual colourway for me…
(This is a scraplet I had left)…

From Maria

I didn’t have a clue what to make with it so I bought the Linen Print book too – designs by the lovely Kim Hargreaves (which at the time meant little to me!!!)

From Maria

So wanna see Maria??

Here she is…

From Maria

The reason I’m so fascinated with the sleeve in that piccy is that the yarn is very soft and drapy, making the slit in the back of the sleeve design a feature I love -it just flaps around in a decadent, bohemian way The picture was a result of “naughty Ben” snapping me doing the “how can we get the sleeve in? conversation!!

Here’s a much better shot of the sleeve slit (it is a slit in the sleeve and not just the seam left unsewn BTW!!!)

From Maria

I remember sitting down in the garden to start Maria, thinking she’d be nice and easy – the first thing you do on Maria is short row shaping to make that nice curved bottom edge – EEEK – I’d never done short row shaping!

The deep V in the front also had some “Gottchas” – there is a nice slipped stitch edging that makes a neat finished edge – all new to me at the time – here’s a front close up – and YES you do need to wear something under Maria!…

From Maria

In case you’re wondering – the beads on the crocheted ties were my idea – some I had bought them for a long forgotten necklace!

I suppose I should show you the back too…

From Maria

So was Maria worth it – most definitely “Yes” – I learnt to do short row shaping, learnt to make sleeve slits (obvious if you’ve done it but it was my first time) and I got an unusual garment for me in colours that I wouldn’t normally go straight for.

Any problems? Only one – I sat in the garden sewing up Maria. When sewn, I proudly put Maria on – unfortunately, because of the sleeve slits there was a left sleeve and a right sleeve – guess who sewed them in the wrong way round? -Swearing ensued! Followed by some bad tempered resewing

If I’m still wearing her 5 years later, think she tuned out OK in the end- wonky sleeves of not!

Completed Knit Report
Name:	Maria
Pattern:	Rowan Linen Print Collection by Kim Hargreaves
Yarn:	Rowan Linen Print
Pattern Problems:	None – but learnt a few new techniques along the way.
Pattern Modifications:	added crochet ties and beads rather than the leather tie in the pattern
Washing and Wearing:	Worn to death and stood up well, soft drapy and comfortable
Knit It Again???:	Yes If I had more linen yarn I liked
Difficulty:	In 2005 – 4/5 now 2/5!!
Rating:	4/5
Other Postings Relating To This One:	None

Filed under Completed Knit Report, Knitting, Pre-blog knitting projects · 3 Comments

Blankie Dilema – Replanting the Flower Bed

August 23rd, 2010, 12:10 pm

So here I am, basking in compliments from my knitterly friends on how the admire my resolve to get back to one WIP at a time. Their encouragement is spurring me on to great feats of blanket square knitting – two whole squares on one train ride to Bristol!

I have eagerly completed strip no.9 and finished and sewn into a strip, the squares for no.10.

I excited thought, “I’ll just throw it on the bed to see how it looks – not far to go now!”

Ohhh….

Errrrmmm….

That’s not quite what I had in mind…

From Flower Blanket

The 9 squares wide isn’t quite wide enough to look convincing on the bed…..and if I carry on for 13 strips – it’s be up and over the pillows!

All is not lost – it’s a simple repeating pattern so, even at this late stage, I can change it.

The good thing is, that Mewsley had an opportunity to do the “Snugglability testing”… I think she approved!

From Flower Blanket

But here’s the maths problem – 9 x 13 squares means 117 squares – I just have enough of the lilac colour for this many (remember I have an edging to do too)

So I can’t replan with more than 117 squares….

Hmmm – leave it at 9×9 like in the picture??

Nope! That looks stingy and I’ve done nearly all the squares for strip No.10…

10 x 10 (100 squares) seems like an option??

I drew out the plan for 10 x 11 (110 squares)

From Flower Blanket

Hmm – that would just look lopsided – just “off” square would irritate me….

And I’m starting to get a little bored with this now…time to wind it up…

… 10 x 10 it is…
Like this…

From Flower Blanket

So far so good!

From Flower Blanket

Just 7 more squares and an edging to do…

Filed under Knits WIP, Knitting · 5 Comments

Knitgasm…

August 9th, 2010, 6:30 pm

So what am I knitting right now while dreaming up Hetty colourways?

I’m still trying to get back to being “one WIP at a time” girl. I hate having half done projects hiding in corners, reproaching me for abandoning them.

So I had the choice of my two remaining WIPS – My see-through sweater or my nearly finished Flower Blanket…

Flower Blanket wins!!!

This has been a bit of a saga…If you want to read the previous blog posts about this blankie they are here:-

Purple Flower Blanket – The Design Phase

Flower Blanket – The knitting begins

Flower Blanket – Taking Shape

The Blanket Rules

Cat Subdues Yarn and a Dumb Blunder

Not Enough Yarn!

I Need More Knitting Time

And the Flower Blanket Goes On

It won’t take long to complete the knitting will it?? After all It’s nearly finished…. isn’t it??

Out it came…

…where’s the rest of it???

“Thug!”, I yelled, “Help me look for more blanket!”

He did quite a bit of searching as you can see…

From Flower Blanket

Nope! He didn’t find any more than the barely half done blanket I already had.

Probably because he is a cat and also because he is blind!!

He did suggest I check my blog – Yep, progress was there in in black (purple) and white.

This is how I had left it…

From Flower Blanket

Six and a bit of the 13 columns of squares done – exactly half way. Urgg.

Well, I have been very dedicated and have had some dedicated supervision from both Thug and Mewsley…at the same time…

From Flower Blanket

…so I can report that I now have 85 out of 117 squares complete – 72%!!
Nearly three quarters

Here’s the plan now …

From Flower Blanket

But it looks more impressive in the flesh…

From Flower Blanket

One thing I really noticed was all the paraphernalia I have for making this blanket…

So much so that poor Ben accused me of having a “Knitgasm” on the living room floor…

You can see what he meant!!

From Flower Blanket

Filed under Cats, Knits WIP, Knitting · 8 Comments

Hetty Colour Experiments

August 6th, 2010, 8:13 pm

I love the new Rowan magazine no.48.

This one

From Hetty

It’s been a really long time since I’ve been excited by the contents of a Rowan mag but this one did it for me.

I wasn’t so keen on the first “story” all big chunky yarns – we know from my Big Wool Bonfire that this stuff isn’t for me.

But it did make me laugh – how can Rowan unfailingly have a garment that looks like a couple of old bathroom mats, staped together at the shoulders and belted??

I give you Roamer…

From Hetty

(Sorry if you’ve just cast this on )

I loved the Russian doll story – mouthwatering complicated fairisles and intarsias that challenged whether I could make one – I do love drooling over things I think might be too hard!

Then there were the Kidsilk Haze garments … Ohhh – we know I have a small amount in stash don’t we?? Rowan are such pushers of their Cracksilk Haze drug…

I like them all but zeroed in on Hetty…

This one…

From Hetty

Would you believe – in my vast KSH stash – I didn’t have enough of any of the colours to make it. I couldn’t possibly justify going out and buying KSH when I have over a hundred balls sitting in my knit-room?? Could I ?

I decided to experiment with what colour ways would work with the stash I had – although I allowed myself to buy one small fix of Jelly – the lurid green – it does get into everything!

The problem was I couldn’t visualise where the different colours would go – it’s a rather complicated colour mix – different on the sleeves to the body…

I turned to my favourite PC application, Visio, and mocked up a garment in the original colours…

From Hetty

Then assigned each of the colours to a layer so I could change all the “Jelly” stripes and Dewberry stripes to another colour with a couple of clicks…

If you have Visio, want to play with your own colour combos and want a copy of my file and instructions how to use it- click here to download but you do need the Visio software for it to work!

So here is my Autumnal Version…