Damn, Knit & Blast It

Oh WOW!!!

I’ve finished the Modern Quilt Wrap and I am beside myself with the results. It definitely one of my favorite things I’ve made in a long time. (Yep the knitting mojo is back!)

It has been finished quickly, mainly because it has that “I’ll just finish this stripe before making dinner, I’ll just finish this block before bed” kinda  hook that made me a total progress junkie.

I may have mentioned before that I’m not a massive blocking fan – I can reliably ruin knitted fabric, particularly when armed with an iron! It this case I took a huge leap forward in my knitterly experience….

I bought blocking wires…..

From Modern Quilt Wrap

These are the “Block-It kit” I got mine from HuluCrafts. I’ve never had blocking wires before because I’m not really a shawl knitter (except the lovely Birch which I marmalised with an iron because, back then, I didn’t know any better about blocking shawls!!) Oh, I just noticed the rulers in that picture – the kit comes with a ruler in inches only – the cm one is mine from years ago – wouldn’t want to mislead you.

I carefully threaded the wires through my shawl and pinned it out on the sofa bed in my knitroom/guestroom on some towels….I was impressed how easy that process was and how much better it looked even befor the steaming, even though this is the back of the wrap….

From Modern Quilt Wrap

I hovered the steam iron over it without squashing it until it was good and damp then left it alone for several hours. Mewsley was under strict instructions not to sleep on the wrap. Something she had taken to doing in the guise of “helping”..

From Modern Quilt Wrap

So how does it look???

Well, I made this wrap to cheer up a big, thick unflattering grey wool winter coat so I guess I had better model it with that…

From Modern Quilt Wrap

From Modern Quilt Wrap

And a shot with the whole thing? Of course!

From Modern Quilt Wrap

Even my office chair looks good wearing it

From Modern Quilt Wrap

As you can tell I love this wrap. If you possibly can, in Kidsilk Haze or any other lovely yarn, try making this wrap. It’s easy, addictive and massively rewarding

I think I’ve finally broken that Kim Hargreaves curse of mine! Still is finished and I’m very pleased.

How did I manage to finish so quickly?? That would be because I’ve been off from work since Tuesday after a small operation on my foot.

OK,OK so the foot isn’t exactly broken – but I did have a huge boney lump chiseled from the top of it. The lump was pressing a nerve and giving me serious pain with shoes. I was only in hospital for the day but came out with a Popeye type bandage…

From Still

…which has now thankfully been removed leaving stitches and a huge plaster (you really don’t want to see that!)

I seem to be healing fast, but must keep my foot “elevated” for at least another week until the stitches come out. Hmmmm…what to do when I can’t go anywhere, can’t stand, can’t walk and cant drive and must pretty much sit on the sofa with my foot up…. KNIT!!

So after a couple of days of knitting like fury, I am delighted (as you can see!) to present the finished Still…

From Still

I like that piccy but here’s a better couple of shots where you can see more of the garment…

From Still

From Still

And the back view…

From Still

Still has been a quick and easy knit, the pattern was well written and there were some very cute details incorporated.

The horizontal rib was worked sideways for the cuff, then stitches picked up down one side to start the main sleeve. Very neat and pretty – so much better than normal ribbing…

From Still

And the neck line – that is terrific

From Still

The shaping is achieved by keeping the horizontal rib pattern going over 6 stitches for the neck band while increasing in the stocking stitch part every few rows. You then cast off the shoulders and continue the neck band for a few centimeters to slip stitch onto the back of the neck. it all makes an easy, neat construction without all that annoying picking up of stitches (have I told you a dislike picking up stitches? I did? Oh good…. )

From Still

All very effective

You may be wondering what Mewsley has been doing to help? “Matron Mewsley” has been making sure I stay on the sofa by sitting on my lap to pin me down a great deal. Then she did a stirling job of keeping an eye on the trimmed off yarn ends when I was sewing up…

From Still

But she is elderly….once she was sure I was on the mend she let herself have a little 6 hour nap in the knitting equipment!

From Still

The green cashmere delight is done.

Against the background of the most dull DIY project possible …painting the hall stairs, landing, coat cupboard and airing cupboard plain white instead of a horrid dirty, dark cream which was probably painted on 20 years ago…

…With hands so rough from 2 days  sanding down paintwork that I couldn’t run yarn through my hands any more because it had pilled before I had knit it(!)

…fighting exhaustion bought on from running up and down ladders…

…are you feeling sorry for me yet??? Fed up with my verbose description of the DIY hell?

OK – The short version – We’ve been busy with DIY but I managed to finish the green cashmere. S’pose you like to see it??

From Green Cashmere

‘fraid I’ve had to edit out my face and horrid “post painting mong-pant-jogger-bottoms” as I didn’t want to scare you with the haggard tired wreck I look like tonight after my all day paint-a-thon!

So, less of the whining about the painting – more about the knitting

This has been a lovely project – I recommend the pattern to anyone who can wrangle a cable or two. BTW, if you’re searching for the English version of this French pattern, google for “Bergere de France 106.26”

The sleeves fitted in a treat when making up and I love that arm cable…

From Green Cashmere

And I think I did better with the joining of those two strips of cable at the back of the neck…

…if you remember (why would you?) when I made this before, way back in 2006,Blogged here in “Back Catalog Delving”, the only thing I was unhappy about was the way I joined at the back of the neck.

Here’s the previous version…

From French Cable Jumper

And this version…

From Green Cashmere

I just took more care, centralised the cables…and Kitchener stitched it rather than the quick bodge of a three needle bind of I did  on my cream one before!

Hmmm – I liked this piccy of the back better but not such a good shot of the join…

From Green Cashmere

And what has Mewsley been doing while I slave away, alternating between knitting and painting? Being a good cat and curling up on the most comfortable blankets and chairs and staying out of the way and waiting for the disruption to be over

Awww!

From Green Cashmere

From Green Cashmere

“I need you for Socks!”, I said as I burst into the room. Ben looked simultaneously excited, confused and a little bit scared.

“No, I said SOCKS – put these on and make pretty for the camera”, I said as I waved my latest piece of commuting knitting at him….

“Oh”, said Ben, “Socks…” He obeyed my command.

These are the beasts being ably modelled by Ben…

From Ben’s Monging Socks

(Sorry about the hairy legs ladies – I assure you that’s Ben modelling…)

Ben had wanted some “comfy, warm monging socks”. “Monging” is an “us” word that has slipped into regular usage in the place of words like veging, slobbing, lounging or relaxing. It’s a verb – “I’m going to mong on the computer for a while” and an adjective – “That Mewsley cat is always sleeping – she’s a mong beast”…you can see how it goes.

I showed him the selection of sock yarn in my stash and he jumped on the lovely DK wool called Weaver’s Wool Quarters from Mountain Colours. The shade is Mountain Twilight – I can really see a “Mountain Twilight” in the subtle shifting purple, black, blue and brown – sumptuous shades

I didn’t have a DK pattern handy and I also needed something that would scale up to Ben’s huge 11 inch long flippers I mean feet. (It must be love to knit socks that large!)

I downloaded (via Ravelry) So Simple Silk Garden by Glenna C. It’s a nicely written pattern designed for Noro Silk Garden but worked well with the Weaver’s wool.

The pattern has a wide ribs and a subtle cable down the outside of the foot but the yarn doesn’t really do it justice. here’s the best shot I could get…

From Ben’s Monging Socks

And a solid reinforced heel…

From Ben’s Monging Socks

They are not the world’s most thrilling socks but Ben likes them….

From Ben’s Monging Socks

Mewsley however has not made up her mind. She’s still deciding if she might need to bite them!

From Ben’s Monging Socks

And my commuting knitting at the moment?? The lovely green cashmere is on the train with me this week

I am heartbroken to have to tell you, we made the painful decision to have Thug put to sleep Thursday evening.

He has been showing his age and loosing weight gradually for the last year although the vet could find nothing wrong.  Over the last couple of weeks he suddenly got very sick and weak and stopped eating.

He was very ill, weak &  in pain. He probably had stomach cancer, liver failure and multiple other organs were struggling.  The vet  felt he wouldn’t be able to survive treatment, even if it was possible – which was unlikely.

The decision was easy in the sense that it was the only compassionate thing to do for my lovely furry ginger friend of 19 years but, as I’m sure you understand, Ben and I are in bits.

He was a fabulous, clever, affectionate and very photogenic cat who even non cat lovers warmed to (even my Mum!!) I have loved Thug a ridiculous amount since he was 5 weeks old and I miss him so much. I keep thinking I see him from the corner of my eye or hear him in the house. I am crying a great deal and can’t concentrate on much – sorry if this post isn’t great
Mewsley seems OK and is enjoying a lot of extra cuddles – even if they all end with her having damp, teary fur.
Rather than make this any more of an upsetting and sad blog post than this already is – I thought I’d share my favourite photos of my handsome furry beast – you’ve seen most of them on here before of course..

I’m trying to think of him on a fluffy white cloud, well and able to see again, chasing mousies and keeping and eye on me and my knitting. I love you Thug and I miss you so very very much. There will never be another cat quite like you.

From Thug

From iPhone

From Thug

From Thug

From Thug

From Thug

From Thug

From Thug

From Thug

From Thug

From Thug

From Thug

From Thug

From Thug

From Thug

From Thug

From Thug

From Thug

From Thug

From Thug

From Thug

From Thug

From Thug

From Thug

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From Thug

From Thug

It’s been a bad knitting week

Do I mean a bad week to find time for knitting or that I’ve knit really badly? Unfortunately…Both!

We have spent the last few weekends decorating our office at home. It really needed doing – we spend a great deal of time in there and it was frankly, depressingly shabby, dull and grim… It was a slog but worth the effort.

Unfortunately, in the little time I had left to knit, I was very tired…can you guess what happens when a very tired knitter tackles fairisle???

Huh? Can ya?

Yup – I screwed up

So. The body of Liliana is done, just the “easy” sleeves to knock out. They are plain red stocking stitch with a 5 row band of fairisle at the wrist – like this…

From Lilianna

Really not hard.

After whipping through the body, what could possible go wrong? I was looking forward to an “easy sleeve”…

I whizzed past the patten and halfway up the sleeve when I realised, those rows of plain black are one row each…for some unfathomable reason I had done two rows of black for each stripe. I consulted with the Guilty Knitters,

“It’s fine, just do the other sleeve to match….” I was persuaded. (Quite easily actually!)

Then I noticed – I had dropped a stitch in the fairisle section – two errors were more than I could accept so I ripped back and lost an entire morning’s knitting (I hate ripping back and wasting good knitting time!)

In the process, I managed disembowel my formerly centre pull ball of Kidsilk Aura and create this delicate mess that threatens to tangle every time I look at it.

From Lilianna

I started again  on the sleeve that evening….while tired…

I got this far…

From Lilianna

…and couldn’t work out why the pattern on the fairisle looked wrong, I had one less stitch than I thought I should have and there were a couple of odd looking stitches in the fairisle I couldn’t “wiggle” into place….

I had dropped a stitch in the same place…AGAIN!

From Lilianna

I’m ashamed to say, I had a serious knitterly tantrum.

I flung the erroneous sleeve across the room and haven’t looked at it for a week   It has been a very long time since I’ve physically flung knitting

I usually restrict myself to some heartfelt swearing…

We’ve finished the office now. It’s a clean, fresh, duckegg blue and very tidy. I’m glad we did it – exhausting as it was.  I’ve even managed to reuse the curtains I blogged about making (with Mewsley’s help) a few years ago – Gasp! In 2007!!!

I have tidy cupboards, made from cannibalising an old cupboard, reconfiguring it and adding some new parts and doors…

From Lilianna

Room for me and the lovely Ben to work at home (in front of the lovely curtains!)…

From Lilianna

And most importantly, Thug’s basket is back in his favourite spot, under the desks, by the radiator

From Lilianna

Now that’s the office is finished- time to rip back that sleeve …again.

I’ve been decorating again – this time our office where we both frequently work from home so huge disruption at our house! Computers and cupboards in every room, getting in the way

Not as much inspiration as decorating the knit room but at least this time we have the furniture and just needed to paint the room a pretty pale blue. Photos when it looks less of a bomb site.

So, with all this hard labour going on – not much time to blog but I have had time to knit….quite a lot of fluffy knitting!

Lilliana has been absorbing …

I pushed through these three colour rows (it’s the pointy red bits that are 3 colour)…

From Lilianna

Thanks to Naomi, for the tip about slipping the stitches for the third colour – made perfect sense, though I should have thought of it -myself. Unfortunately I’d already got past the 3 colour rows!

Then I chickened out of the whole steek idea – as JulesM pointed out, it was 2 colour knitting only after the armholes. To be honest -doing it flat  wasn’t as bad as I remembered 

So I whizzed up the back doing the rather fun black and white section.I’m really pleased with how it came out…

From Lilianna

There are some long floats in this design but I only wove them when they were over more than 5 stitches to try and avoid the colours showing through. The floats won’t be much of a problem as the extremely fluffy Aura is starting to matt together on the back already!
Like this…

From Lilianna

It was neat – honest!

Here’s the back of the three colour pointy bits too…

From Lilianna

The whole garment is very fluffy and will be immensely warm – my one concern though – it may end up being a little small. The measurements only have 1″ of ease designed in. Fingers crossed.

So how far am I?

This is the completed back…

From Lilianna

And I’m nearly at the neck shaping on the front…

From Lilianna

Nearly done – then just the nearly plain sleeves to go.

With all the decorating disruption and  frantic knitting, Thug , who had been helping, advising and supervising, settled down with a nice Kidsilk Aura pillow…

From Lilianna

…and got  fed up with being woken up and photographed and gave me “a look”!

From Lilianna

Today is this blog’s 4th blogiversary!

When I do an annual review of my knitting and blogging achievements, I’m astonished that I’ve kept it up this long. It would never have kept going if you lovely readers hadn’t kept on commenting and encouraging me – Thank you! 

I looked back to see what I had written for 2009′s annual review as a starting point …errrmmm…I didn’t do one! (More excuses reasons coming up) Well,  I had just moved house and was in the middle of having all my windows replaced  – so I’ll briefly cover 2009 here too.

Just in case you’re desparate to see what I did in 2007 and 2008, click the links below:-

2007  – 1st Blogiversary

2008  – 2nd Blogiversary

Not many pictures but I’ve added links to all the projects I’m going to  mentioned here  in case you want to have a look-see

I was curious to see if I was posting less and less??

2007 – 87 Blog Posts

2008 – 69 Blog Posts

2009 – 35 Blog Posts

2010 – 36 Blog Posts!!  I beat last year! That’s an average of 3 posts a month – frankly, better than I suspected.

And I have a good reason for the dramatic reduction since 2007 as I returned to full time work mid 2008 – It’s shocking but true – work has impacted my knitting time

But what about last year – 2010??

2010 did seem to be my year of hats and small items (and a huge blanket!)

In 2010 I made…

• 6 hats – 3 for my sister, 1 beret  for me, one for Ben and one for Yaquaholic
• 1 iPhone cosy
• a baby’s matinee coat- my first baby garment
• A huge intarsia purple flower blanket
• a cushion for the conservatory
• a fairisle teacosy – including steeks
• a miniature Lopi jumper
• 3 jumpers for me – the lovely Halcyon, warm Catrin and the horrible, horrible disaster in Big Wool

and I blogged 2 pre-blog projects…

• My lovely Kidsilk Haze Birch Shawl
• Maria in Linen Print

Oh dear – that’s only 14 projects in a year – I’m slipping

But to put that into context – I had just moved house and had also managed to create a fabulous Knitroom, refit and tile a utility room, had new windows fitted, refurbish the conservatory and build a mancave for Ben! (Oh yes, and we got engaged!!)

In 2009…

• 2 cushions – designed and knit the ribbon twist cushion cover and a Carol cushion for my sister
• a Sackboy toy or Ben
• 2 pairs of socks while commuting – boring and happy!
• a hat for Ben which he promptly lost – grrr
• a Starbucks bear
• a knitted wire bracelet
• 4 tops for me – Cheer in green, KSH Lacy top, red Katia and lovely golden Iris

AndI blogged  4 pre-blog projects…

• 3 old projects I was throwing out
• 1 old fave French cable jumper

Only 13 projects in 2009

Other achievements in 2009 were to eventually get to move house, unpack, catch my breath and insulate the loft!!

Thug and Mewsley are still helping with the knitting but not as vigorously – their age (19 years old in April) means they are slowing down a little.

I thought you might be missing them and they did forbid me from embarrassing them (silly cats shouldn’t have mentioned it!) and showing you their “New Year’s bath” shots – poor little  Soggie-Moggies!

From Catbath

From Catbath

Do you ever get one of those knitting projects you just can’t put down and they are a delight in every detail?

I’ve just finished one of those rare beasts – lucky me!

I cast on “I’m a Little Teapot” on last Saturday with the intention of it being my new commuting project – That’s this kit with the pattern and two balls of Jamieson’s Spindrift that I bought on my trip to Ally Pally in October.

From

Oh Boy! What a romp!

There are so many different and enjoyable details crammed into this tiny pattern.
As you have probably guessed – I couldn’t stop knitting it and have finished already so I’ll show you a finished shot – then I can show you all the fun bits.

From I’m a Teapot

So. The obvious fun is the fairisle wording. There is a big, bold, clear chart that is easy to follow in the pattern. To make it easier the diagonals of the “M”s and “N”s are embroidered in afterwards.
Like this…

From I’m a Teapot

The whole rhyme goes like this…

I’m a little teapot,
short and stout.
Here is my handle.
Here is my spout.
I get all steamed up,
then I shout.
Just tip me over
and pour me out.

It’s surprisingly easy to knit the letters as you know what’s coming next – even if it is knit from top so the letters are upside down as you knit!

Between the rows of words there are different fairisle patterns – all different and interesting to do…so easy to slip into,

“I’ll just finish this pattern block before bed. Oh, I’ll just get the next lot of letters set up so it’s easy on the train…Oh dear, it’s 1am. I’ll just finish the row…”

Once you get to the bottom there is corrugated rib (easy if you hold the purl stitch yarn in your right hand and the knit colour in the left)

From I’m a Teapot

To finish the top there’s Old Shale Lace (or my Mum calls this Feather and Fan)…

From I’m a Teapot

All of that little lot looks like this…

From I’m a Teapot

From I’m a Teapot

Then there is a little icord to gather up the top, poked through the holes in the lace…

And then there’s the steeks…Yes, I said the scary word….”STEEK”.

It’s actually all rather easy when you use the right “sticky” shetland yarn! I had to cast on some extra stitches and knit alternating colours for the steek where the handle and spout would be….

(Bad pic – sorry!)

From I’m a Teapot

The steek is the bit below the blue stitch holder with the parallel lines of stitches.

I held my breath and cut my steeks – what do you know? My knitting did not explode and unravel before my eyes. It just sat there obediently waiting for my to finish the edges…

From I’m a Teapot

At this point I had to abandon the pattern. I had nearly run out of yarn and couldn’t pick up stitches and knit a rolled stocking stitch edge as suggested. I simply crocheted and edging (single crochet), did blanket stitch down the cut edges of the steek (probably overkill – it wasn’t going anywhere) and loosely oversewed the flaps to the inside of the cosy.

Wanna see inside?

From I’m a Teapot

And how it looks on the outside with the spout and handle…

From I’m a Teapot

From I’m a Teapot

Now the big question is – What am I going to do with it? I rarely drink tea and I really don’t remember the last time I used a teapot!

Maybe Mewsley has some ideas….

From I’m a Teapot

The last couple of weeks have been fun in the Knit-Room – more screwdriver action than knitting

I do have lots to show you though- Prepare for photo overload

New carpet is down and nice Mr Ikea has left me a huge pile of stuff to build.

All there was to do was to put the “stuff” in the room according to my cunning plan – you will remember this…

From Knit-Room

…surprisingly little went wrong – except for me forgetting that there were light switches and power sockets So every thing shuffled up a bit and I lost some space in the bottom left corner

First we got the Beddinge sofa bed and my my new Norden table in place.

From Knit-Room

Norden will be used for my sewing machine when it’s leaves are up and as somewhere to stand my coffee for the rest of the time! It weighs a ton  – Didn’t realise that when I bought it -so not so easy to move around – mainly because of all the really solid, cunningly concealed storage draws…

From Knit-Room

Thankfully, the table fits and makes a bedside table with the sofa bed open too! (You had me worried there, Jacqui!)

From Knit-Room

“Where’s the wool??”, I hear you cry!

Ok, Ok….

The yarn is in the wardrobes! We built them to have 8 big lidded pullout draws to hold yarn and some shelves for other stuff,  plus some hanging space in the middle for the occasional guest. The wardrobes are from the Ikea PAX range where you buy the frame and chose all your own fittings for the insides….

…And,Yes, I said “8″ draws for yarn…

From Knit-Room

I have been good though and only filled 7 of them!… and a big box of handknit cotton but I’m hiding that… One draw has been used for my fabric stash too – mostly left over from making curtains.

Wanna see?

From Knit-Room

From Knit-Room

When not in use, everything is neatly obscured behind frosted glass doors…

From Knit-Room

The draws have been filled roughly by gauge…

• a 4ply draw
• 2 x DK draws
• an Aran draw
• a Chunky draw
• a miscellaneous “wont fit anywhere else” stuff  draw
• and of course – an entire draw of my beloved KidSilk Haze…

From Knit-Room

By this point in the yarn sorting frenzy,  the men in my life were flaking out…

From Knit-Room

Thug wasn’t much help either….

From Knit-Room

He did have a chat with me about ornaments  though-

From Knit-Room

Thug recommended this display for the table made up of an old vase and my beautiful glass needles…(clever cat, that one!)

From Knit-Room

Last thing to show you for now are the books….

They have a new home in two Billy bookcases, complete with beautiful doors (I love those doors!!)

From Knit-Room

I also learnt something alarming about Billy bookcases. If you build them, then try to hang heavy doors on the front, they fall over onto you when you’re screwing the doors on! There was much squealing but no harm done. There is a good reason Ikea give you widgets to screw them to the walls  -take note!!

I took the opportunity to update my Ravelry library while I was putting all my books and mags away.

I was a little surprised to discover I own 85 books, 83 magazines, 51 booklets and 5 PDFs
Those of you on ravelry can see the true horror here -> Susan’s Ravelry Library

Here’s some random shots of the insides of the Billys (just in case you’re feeling nosey and want to see what’s inside;-) )

From Knit-Room

From Knit-Room

From Knit-Room

From Knit-Room

Even Boofle and Monkey have settled down on the window-sill -Well, they are both knitted!

From Knit-Room

I am so thrilled with the results of the Knit-Room.

I feel a very privileged knitter to have such a room

The Flower Blanket is finally finished

I am so relieved.

First I must say, “Thanks you” for all the sympathy, empathy and support on my Despair Filled Wailing post – I think I’ve gotten over it now

Before I show you the inevitable “Finished Blankie” pictures, I guess you’d like to know about the edging?

I pretty much used the ideas from my wonderful Debbie Abrahams blanket books and threw in a couple of my own embellishments too.-

So, I picked up 37 stitches per block (that’s every stitch top and bottom and 3 out of 4 down the sides) and got 370 stitches.

I was worried I didn’t have much lilac left so I just did one row of lilac and….

….well this is getting boring – I’ll just show you!

From Flower Blanket

Some of each colour and a few beads nestling in with the garter stitch – just to pick up the “beadiness” of the blanket.

It worked really well in the corners too..

From Flower Blanket

Enough teasing – want to see the final, finished Flower Blanket??

Taaa Daaaa!

From Flower Blanket

I kinda liked this swooping shot of it too…

From Flower Blanket

It has been a slog to get it done but I have enjoyed most of the process
But the important question is – do the cats approve?

Hmmm… look what happened about 30 seconds after taking that photo, and putting the blanket out of harm’s way on the back of the sofa…

From Flower Blanket

Yes, that is Ben and his handknit, Brooklyn Denim jacket in the background – knitting every where you look in this house

“But, you made this for me. Right? Didn’t you??”, Said Mewsley – pulling her best ‘sad face’.

From Flower Blanket

“Don’t care. I worked hard on the snuggle-ability testing – I deserve it.  My paws and claws are tucked in and it’s mine now… I’m ignoring you…

“

From Flower Blanket

When I get the Flower Blanket back from Mewsley, what am I going to do with it? Honestly – I don’t know – I started it when I lived in my flat and had a purple living room…maybe my knit room should be purple???

Until then it might end up living on the table, waiting for a good idea…

From Flower Blanket

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

Gosh! I’m expecting to be mobbed for an autograph and and be asked to open a shopping centre the next time I go out amongst my public….

Why am I deluded into thinking I have achieved such superstar status??

The Guilty Knitters and I have made it to the National Knitting press!

This month’s (July 2010, Issue 21) of The Knitter has a two page gallery spread about us.

That’s this mag if you’re searching the Newsagent for a copy…

From The Knitter

I do enjoy The Knitter, lots of challenging interesting patterns and articles. So many of the other British knitting mags are full very simple patterns and assume the majority of knitters knit for their grandchildren! No problem with that if that’s what you want – but I’m not that market.

If you have a copy, check out page 84 to find my grinning face…..

From The Knitter

…and some fabby knits by my friends…It’s easy to see where my inspiration comes from and why I have to keep the standard of my knitting up, after see how great  their projects are.

Of course, my biggest fan and helper had to check out the article too,

“Not enough cats!”  was his only comment!

From The Knitter

I can’t believe I started Halcyon back in April.

It’s taken me two and a half, very dull and uneventful months. To be fair, it has been delayed by my usual attack of SKS  (Summer Knitting Slump) – there were a couple of weeks there I didn’t knit at all – shocking!

I’ve also been distracted because Thug hasn’t been too well. He suddenly seemed to loose a lot of weight and meow even more. I was worried sick. The good news is that he’s had every test the vet can think of – stopping short of opening him up! The vet can find nothing wrong and I’ve changed his diet to fatten him up. He seems OK now after a couple of vitamin and steroid shots but he is 18 . He’s an old man. But enjoying all the extra meaty treats and so is Mewsley

Just in case  you’ve missed his appearances, here he is in a favourite picture of mine, inspecting the conservatory..

From Halcyon

On top of all this – more DIY – This time we restored a dilapidated greenhouse from badly weathered wood, green algae covered glass and doors hanging off to this, my potting Tardis!!

From Tardis

Love the view from inside looking up!

From Tardis

Enough of this – you really want to know about Halcyon don’t you? The pattern is deceptively easy and became quite boring to do. I don’t normally knit such voluminous garments so I’m not used to the sheer amount of knitting this took. Nothing at all wrong with the pattern, easy to sew together- It was just a long slog.

But was it worth it?? I think it was!

From Halcyon

From Halcyon

Do you remember how we painted the Conservatory a striking shade of green?

Well, we’ve now put some furniture and plants in there and created a favourite snoozing spot for Mewsley!

From Double Vision Cushion

Do you like the cushion on the chair behind Mewsley? It was bought on a whim from Ikea.

Here’s a better look (right way up too!!)..

From Double Vision Cushion

We really wish we’d bought a second one we liked it so much but they have discontinued it – Bah!!

There was only one thing for it – Knit a matching cushion!

First I gathered all my likely green and yellow stash wools together in a big heap…

From Double Vision Cushion

Then I had a couple of disastrous attempts at randomly combining them – You can laugh at these attemps if you like – I did

The random stripe disaster…

From Double Vision Cushion

Then the random colour blocks using the Ten Stitch Blanket pattern.

From Double Vision Cushion

This is a clever pattern that spirals out from the centre. The problem was my attempt at random colour blocks! Looked like something a very old beginner knitter might do to use up oddments…

The pattern is better suited to random dye yarns and when done properly, looks like this…

From Double Vision Cushion

So enough of laughing at my failures…what did I choose?

I’ve always gasped with amazement at the beautiful Afghans designed by Pat Ashforth and Steve Plummer of Woolly Thoughts.

I was thrilled to see their Double Vision Afghan technique as a Cushion.

From Double Vision Cushion

The cushion uses 4 colours and blends them in all possible combinations (with yarn doubled) to give the 16 squares.

I chose my 4 colours and some ancient black mohair (left over from a long dead 1984, cropped mohair jumper) and got carried away….

What do you think so far? I really trying to mirror the colours and proportions of the Ikea cushion…

From Double Vision Cushion

From Double Vision Cushion

I am so pleased I can’t wait to finish!

Of course, that is just one side…

I like having the back of a cushion different so I’m knitting diagonally (so I can easily get the right size) and repeating 4 rows of each of the 10 possible colour combinations.

Like this so far…

From Double Vision Cushion

Hopefully, this will be finished a bit quicker than Halcyon….

…which has taken a shamefully long time to knit….watch this space for an update….

The paint fumes probably are the reason….

…I seem to keep seeing knitting  where I shouldn’t….

…even in the election coverage!

This strange and slightly worrying tenancy started when I was in Israel in 2008 (When I made Geno, and Hedera on holiday)…everyone else saw a sculpture dedicated to world peace…I saw…a giant ball of wool!

From Geno

So why the paint fumes?

I’ve been at the DIY again. Up til now the only person using the grubby, tired, sick-green conservatory was Thug.  Occasionally for it’s acoustic properties for a good long “Meowing Opera” but mostly for his afternoon nap, on a thoughtfully placed blanket, when the sun was out…

From DIY 2010

I was jealous. I really wanted a comfy chair out there for knitting in the sun.
A quick tidy up, lead to a quick clean which lead to a total inside and out scrub complete with Ben and a water powered death laser (pressure washer to you and me)!

From DIY 2010

Once we had gone that far we kinda had to paint it – there’s not much wall so we chose a brave, strong green to bring the garden in…

From DIY 2010

Yep that’s my garden knitting chair through the windows. The chair I restored a while ago – one must have a choice of knitting venues, suitable for all weathers 

So that explains the fumes…what about a knitted election?

Have you watched the BBC coverage? Have you looked at the BBC Election website?

Seen the BBC election logo at the top of every page?

From Election

Am I obsessed or are those a bunch of knitting needles??

Once you’ve seen it – you can’t un-see it…. 

The observant among you may have noticed I’ve not posted much of what I’ve been knitting recently-there’s a reason for that.  It’s not been going so well.

Thug and Mewsley have been having a tough time settling in to the new house and they haven’t been up to writing their usual contributions to the site or helping me with the knitting.

So. First the knitting update.

Before I moved…when I was hyper and frantic to, ‘just get on with it’,  I started Catrin, from Rowan Classic Heartland.  I chose a glorious choccie brown flecked Rowan Silky Tweed.

This pattern

From this book

Firstly, the choccie brown – I’m not sure the complicated cable pattern will be done justice with the dark colour and the flecks confusing it. My knitterly friend (whom I trust) said it’d be fine – I carried on.

Here’s a progress shot – I’m up to the armholes on the back…

Secondly, this pattern is charted needs good eyesight, to see the chart and to see the knitting! This is a problem – I’m at “that age” where I’ve suddenly started need my glasses. And I need to have my glasses upgraded.

Even my close up is blurry!

On top of this slight hiccup, I managed to bust my favourite lamp in the move. The new living room has poor ceiling lights so I’m knitting in the dark. With out of date glasses – if I remember to put them on 

Can you understand yet why not much has happened???

I’ve now got a new lamp and bought some snazzy new stronger glasses

But in the mean time, while sorting out those little issue, I started another problematic project…but that’s for another post !

On to the kitty cats.
Several of you have enquired about the furry beasts and how they are doing “post move”…
On the day of the move, we had cleared one room completely and put all their favourite toys, blankets, cushions and food by a nice warm radiator for them. They also were treated to anti-anxiety drugs, on advice of the vet, as they are rather old and set in their ways (18 years old in April!!)

Mewsley was terrified and spaced out and hid in her “Migloo” like a good cat. (thats a fabric cat Igloo …. Mewsley + Igloo = Migloo) .

Thug went hyperactive and wrestled his way out of the bedroom (with much meowing) and tried to investigate what was going on. He chased several removal men around the flat. My heart went out to him – It’s the first time in a long time that I’ve seen him really frustrated with being blind and not being able to see what’s happening. Eventually he wore himself out and sprawled in the middle of the living room floor and went to sleep. Luckily my removal men were cat lovers and they tiptoed around him

In the new house…
Mewsley:
Mewsley was terrified. Mewsley crept into our bed, under the duvet and hid…for 2 days. At night she came out and slept on my pillow – or cuddled me in the bed. She hadn’t eaten so, worried, I bought food and water upstairs and put it just outside the bedroom door.

After a huge scoff and an hour’s sleep she was a new cat. Wanting cuddles, exploring, scampering up and down the stairs (that’s a novelty if you’ve been living in a flat).

She’s still happiest in the bedroom, but now it’s beside the radiator or on the bed. Downstairs is still rather scary….

Thug:

Thug was his usual brave, fearless self. He set about stomping around mapping every room. Unfortunately, his elderly, walnut sized, post brain tumour brain got a little confused by the scale of the change. He got lost and confused. I could see him trying to walk the same route he’s had in the flat. Heartbreaking

We’ve had a lot of sleepless nights with Thug too. There has been meowing. Lots of it. At 3am to 4am to 5am. And a bit more during the day.

I suddenly have sympathy for parents of teething toddlers!

First, he wanted to go out – I taught him the route through the utility room, out into the conservatory, out a second cat flap into the garden. Where he drinks some rainwater from a muddy puddle and comes back in again – I do change his water bowl daily but muddy rainwater is clearly superior.

Then he was meowy because he was lost and lonely, I taught him how to find us (half asleep) in bed.

Then he was cold overnight… again, he’s got the hang of cuddling up on the bed , usually around my feet (handy that – I get cold feet!)

Now we’re down to “I’ve just come in from the garden and I’m gonna meow-ow-ow to let everyone know I own this place” type meowing – 5 or 6 yowls then it stops – sometimes I can sleep through it!

I have been seriously sleep-deprived over the last month and was starting to have most uncharitable thoughts about my furry ginger companion.

He’s settling now and  has started to discover we have a big garden, and a pond, and fish – exploring is high on his agenda for the summer.

Right now he’s happy that his Mum is nearby on her computer and he’s found his basket, thoughtfully placed by the radiator next to his Mum’s desk so he’s available to for a 30 second head scratch at short notice.

Thug and Mewsley have promised they will help me sort Catrin out,…once they’ve had a little nap….

(Yes they are lounging on my denim blankie!)

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!