Damn, Knit & Blast It

Thug has been very busy preparing to move house. Fortunately he has still found time to help me with the finishing of Cheer.

I would get mad at him sitting on my freshly blocked knitting but how could I resist this face?

I did say Cheer wouldn’t take long but pressures of work, preparing for  house moving (Probably in October) and study for a work related exam in November have slowed knitting to a crawl.

The work exam is the “Version2 to Version3 ITIL Manager’s Certificate Conversion”  – it’s about as thrilling as it sounds an involves me knowing this little pile of books…

So please forgive me if I’m a bit quiet over the next month!

Back to Cheer.

She was a quick, rewarding  and easy knit but…I did have a little problem with the pattern when I knit the sleeves. Here’s the piccy first so you can see what I’m rambling on about…

Above the vent in the sleeve the basket weave pattern continues up the sleeve in a triangle. A nice design touch. Unfortunately I could not get the instructions in the pattern to match reality. The basket weave is a nice easy “K3,P3,K3,P3…”. The pattern would have me knit either side of the vent with 2 knit stitches one edge and 2 purl stitches the other edge with one increase in the middle where they join.

That makes the basket weave pattern wrong.

If I increased 2 stitches the stitch count was wrong.

Maybe I put the 2 pieces on the needle in the wrong order? Then the instruction for the decreasing triangle were wrong??!!

In the end I fudged it together and my decreasing triangle above the vent is a little smaller than the design intend.

This wasn’t too much of an issue for me to sort out, as an experienced knitter, but this is otherwise an easy pattern a beginner might try and get seriously disheartened with – not good enough, Rowan!

Enough of the negativity, want to see the finished Cheer?

I think she goes with the outfit rather well.

Here’s the back shot, not exciting but I always thing I have to show the back for completeness!

Of course, the problem with those shots is you can’t see the lovely shoes which inspired this knit…

…a point Thug was keen to have me pose to rectify!

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

OK. I admit it….my resolve has failed me and I got bored with the flower blanket. It has been put away, pending winter.

I’m a bad, naughty knitter and a bad, delinquent blogger

It’s my sister’s fault really….she went and had a birthday right when I was struggling to apply myself – she distracted me….

The gift I had in mind for her was knitted so I had to stop with the blanket to make sure it was finished in time…. didn’t I??

So what did I make Carol for her birthday?

There’s a story here….

Once upon a time,  in a long lost century, around an era some might call “1992″ , my big sister bought knitting kit from Good Housekeeping Magazine. It was by a company called Knitwits (who I can’s find a trace of now).

It was for a lovely bobbly, lacy  cushion cover. The pattern doesn’t specify the yarn but I suspect strongly that it was Rowan Handknit cotton.  Carol decided the best way to complete this kit was to ask her little sister to knit it up for her! I happily obliged and the cushion has adorned Carol’s livingroom ever since.  Still looking like new…

…and I stupidly don’t have a picture of it!

About 6 years ago I made another version of this cushion (I got pictures this time!!) in fabulous Rowan Chenile Chunky. This version was beloved by Thug before it even got off the needles. It has become his personal cushion and a favourite snoozing spot.

Aww….

Hmmm – Can’t see the pattern there can you?? Kinda obscured by the ginger lard-boy…
Try this…

and this… (I apologise for the matted, fur encrusted tatty nature of this cushion. It does get washed regularly when I can prise it out from Thug’s paws)

(I apologise for the matted, fur encrusted tatty nature of this cushion. It does get washed regularly when I can prise it out from Thug’s paws)

I tell you – those bobbles, especially with chenille, are a bitch – I had “bobble finger” by the end of this cutie.

So what of Carol’s birthday present? I knew Carol was hankering after a new cushion cover for her living room and was sure I had the perfect colour yarn in stash….

This is what I came up with…

And I learnt a useful trick about bobbles too!

A good thing because this cushion has 234 of them!

You know how you do a bobble -(k,p,k,p into a stitch to make 4 stitches, knit back and forth on those 4 stitches a few times the decrease back to 1 stitch and carry on.)- That involves a heck of a lot of turning your work around – it wastes time and involves flailing limbs, tangled balls of yarn and, if knitting on the train as I planned to do, ticked off commuters.

I thought I’d try my hand at backwards knitting for the purl rowls of the bobbles (backwards knitting is where you don’t turn the work at the end of a knit row but work from left to right with the right side facing you).

I’m not very even when I backwards knit but what the hey – it’s in a bble – eho’ll see? It worked like a charm and made the dreadded “bobble rows” much easier to handle. It also had the advantage of not causing and loss of eyeballs to my fellow commuters!

So did Carol like her birthday gift?

Well yes – she loved it, but only after I’d convinced her it wasn”t a rather eclectic hat!

I had a sneaky feeling when I started The Flower Blanket that 30 balls of yarn wasn’t going to be enough…

I was right

One column of nine squares uses pretty much 3 balls, one of each colour. Just scraps left over. I want 13 columns and an edging (which I guessing would be about a ball of each colour).

Mewsley checked my calculation…

She agreed. I need 14 balls of each colour.

I already had 17 balls of the light grey colour so I was safe there.

Mewsley and I scoured the internet for more Jaeger Matchmaker DK – This yarn was discontinued a couple of years ago so I was seriously out on a limb.

Luck was with me.  Mewsley found 4 balls of the lilac online at Yarnsmiths! Phew…that cat is a demon with a laptop…

Just the pink to find….

None in the internet knit- shops for sale…

None in any of the London Knit-shops I visited…

But quite a bit in people’s stashes on Ravelry! I contacted several people hopefully and cheekily because if it’s in their stash it’s probably there because they want to use it at some point. A few “it’s been used up already” and” Sorry – I’m gonna use it laters” and I was getting panicky.

Visions of “Premature Blanket Truncation” disturbed my sleep.

I saw that Yarnsnob had a single ball, marked for trade or sale. One ball is better than none! Thanks Yarnsnob!!

Then TheKnittingNurse was happy to sell me 8 balls from the USA! Thanks Knittingnurse !!

Woot!!  Enough yarn has been secured

I’d better get on with  knitting another heap of those squares!

My needles are smokin’!

I’m still slogging away at the Flower Blanket!

…and I have discovered Blanket Rule No.6…

Sixth rule: Tired Sleepy Knitter + Intarsia = Tears

I tried to press on one evening, when very tired, and finish one of the flowers. Once you’re past the centre it’s relatively easy – just the column of single stitches between the petals to worry about…

How wrong can a tired person get it?

GRRRrrr !! Frog Frog Frog…

Apart from that mishap, progress has been quite good. I have completed 36 squares, that’s 4 rows of the 13 needed!!

The maths part of my brain has to tell you that that’s 30.6% complete, not including any edging – I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.

Want to see a progress shot of some squares sewn up???

To get that far I spent most of Easter sprawled on the sofa knitting. Thug particularly enjoyed “helping” – which consisted mostly of sleeping on my lap, getting in the way and using my wool as a pillow.

I suspect he was simply posing for the camera because he felt he hasn’t had enough blog-time recently!

He was working hard to stop the wool escaping here…

There were too many other cute shots to show you so I’ve put together a collage …

Awwwww….

With a blog post title like that I’m amazed you’d want to read this!!

I finished yet another plain of boring plain socks on my daily commute this week…

Here they are….

Thrilling huh? Even Thug wasn’t too impressed.

The yarn was actually rather fun – Kaffe Fasset Regia Design Line – the colour changes were pretty enough.

I’m kinda showing you cos I think I should be. Wouldn’t want you to think I wasn’t producing something.

But say it with me…. BORING!!!

Something exciting coming up tomorrow though…

I’ve not done a lot of knitting in the last week or two.

I have an excuse (this is where I need a note from my Mum)…

..I have STILL been sick with this cold/flu type virus thingy.

I’ll spare you the gory details but suffice it to say, after two months of all the nasty symptoms you can imagine,  I’m not happy. Thankfully my GP was persuaded to give me antibiotics and miraculously, I’m suddenly much better.

I’ve finished my “Happy Socks” on the train (now I can stay awake for the journey)…

They feel lovely and soft and silken but I’m not so sure about the thick colour stripes…I’d love this yarn in a solid colour – I wonder if Wendy could be convinced??

I really, really should have finished my lacy top by now but the 4th sleeve was just one sleeve too many. (I’ve not gone insane, the top has two layers of little sleeve each side – hence 4 sleeves!)  I avoided it successfully by creating my lovely Chunky Twisted Ribbon Cushion.

I forced myself to finish the 4th, final, lacey sleeve during last week.

Then I was faced with my nemesis.  Some Knitters hate the sewing up of a garment – personally, I don’t mind a bit of mattress stitch. What I dislike intensely and will put off doing for weeks, is picking up stitches. Neck bands, button bands ICK! I do them because I must to finish the garment but I always find myself in the “I’m tired, I just want to knit, not do some fiddly painstaking counting and picking up stitches” place.

Even Mewsley got fed up with me and glared at me…

…can you feel the “JUST GET ON WITH IT!” she’s silently yelling at me?

Well, Mewsley is a bully and says she is going hold my new cushion hostage until I finish the Lacey top.

I have now done the button bands and am about to press the pieces and sew her up – under the exacting, stringent glare of Mewsley …

Oh, I had better give you a Completed Knit Report on the Happy Socks first, not that I’m procrastinating…

Well I said it was quick!

I’ve finished my “So Called Scarf” already.

It was a great travelling knit until I got onto the second skein on Manos. Then it was too big to fit comfortably in my handbag. I then had to do more of it at home. Mewsley decided to “help” me by sprawling on my lap every time she saw the scarf

Fortunately, this scarf did manage to provide an upside to my recent frequent visits to the dentist. Those two crowns I told you about? I dislodged one and needed root canal treatment in the other Big “OWwww”

In pain and waiting for my dentist to be able to squeeze me in to his schedule, I sat in the waiting room concentrating on knitting as a distraction from the hurt in my jaw and so I wouldn’t think about the fun and games to come. I must have been pretty worried – I knit really fast and finished the thing!

I did think the scarf looked a little like a strip of carpet when it was done – why carpet? I have no idea – it just said that to me! Maybe because it’s quite a thick fabric in that stitch. I decided to embellish the ends a little to make it look more scarfy and less carpety.

Remember the Lilac shell buttons I used on Geno? You don’t? These…

I needed 6 for Geno but the ones I wanted only came in a pack of 30 – they were very reasonable (£5.99 in John Lewis) so I splashed out. Hmmmmmm…..Just the thing for the scarf…

What do you think?

Here’s a close up to the buttonerisation…

A steam with the iron and here it is with the lovely suede coat it was made to go with!

I made the scarf so I could fold it double and tuck the ends through as shown because it is quite narrow – 12cmish but it varies because the yarn is “thick and thin”. I made mine 170cm long too which left me with at least half a skein (Out of two skeins) over. I thought you’d like the stats in case you’re thinking af making one.