Damn, Knit & Blast It

Three guesses how Ronnie, the Big Wool Sloppy Joe turned out…

Here’s a clue…

Yep, it’s bonfire time.

I finished the beast last week but have been so disapointed, I couldn’t bring myself to blog it

It is huge.

It’s probably too huge for my sister too. I fact – it’s too huge for Ben (who is 10 inches taller than me!)

Some projects are cursed from the start – I should have know n when to stop huh?And it doesn’t suit me. I think chunky loose big wool garments on a short, slim woman are a near impossible trick to pull of without looking like…well look at the photos – you’ll see!

Here it is in all it’s glory…

OK, That’s not the most flattering shot of the garment but I had to have some fun. Try this one…

The sleeves are the right length – mainly because I read to the end of the making up instructions and you turn the edge of the cuff under so the cable is right on the edge – like this…

The neck is all wrong too. In the picture in the pattern book, the neck is a generous almost cowl next…see?

I knitted a generously long strip (the neck is knit sideways like the sleeve cuff) and tried several times to sew it on. I had knit way too much – there simply wasn’t enough neckline to sew a drapey big collar onto

What you’re seeing is the best I could manage – a slightly floppy polo neck

I tried standing more normally – a couple of guy ropes and a girl guide troupe could camp out in there…

I’m sure someone reading this out there is now thinking, “try it with a belt!”

I did…

I looked unsettling like a Dr Who alien…in fact, I could be a Sontaran!

I did have one final try at making it look good in true “Rowan photography” style – You know how it goes, sit at a peculiar angle, scrunch up the garment so you can only see half of it…etc etc…

Surprisingly this came out looking quite wearable

But the photo lies. This is easily the worst thing I have made EVER!

My sister has a hat need.

I have needles, an obscene amount of yarn and knit skills.

There’s only one way this can turn out

Given that my knitting has not been going well, I plumped for an easy option that I knew worked.

Do you remember the Accidental hat? (Snug from Rowan 42)

It’s this one…

I wear this all the time in winter and love it – warm, easy to wear, goes with everything and warm (I know I said warm twice – it deserves it!)

I knew I had some creamy coloured Rowan Cocoon in my stash…two evenings later I was looking for a model

My old bear, Basil, didn’t run away quickly enough but didn’t turn out to be much good at hat modeling…

So I had to step in – where’s Thug when I need him?

That wasn’t enough to meet the Hat Need.

I remembered a very old, 1970’s type bobblehat in an old Patons book…

This wonderfully useful book has been republished numerous times – my copy is the 1985 bicentenary edition! (and cost a princely 95p)

The pattern picture is hillarious…

…but it is a very good, basic hat that stays on. I love the neat decreases too.

I found 100g of Sublime Merino and whipped one up in a few evenings.

Then topped if with a huge bobble (that Carol can remove if she wants to) made of the Sublime, cream and deep purple Kidsilk Haze (Well, I have to use it up somehow!)

I was getting into my stride now and enjoying knitting for the first time in ages.

Then I found the perfect hat pattern – a French Beret in Louisa Harding’s “Hats Gloves Scarves” book.

I loved the striped option (there’s a plain, picot edge version too). It was knit in Rowan 4ply Soft – I kinda have a stash of oddments and balls from various sources

I chose 5 colours I think my sister will like and thoroughly enjoyed reverse stocking stitch stripes and the pattern in general.

I loved the contrast edging..

I loved the “target” in the middle

I loved the colours and textures together.

The only part I didn’t love was sewing up the seam accurately with mattress stitch(took some fiddle-faddle to get it lined up) and sewing in a thousand ends. I did carry the yarn up the side where possible but a few times it was at the wrong end.

I could have knit in the round but felt  the inevitable carried up unused colours and darned in ends would look messier than a careful mattress stitch seam with the ends lost in the seam.

I needed a model again…and Basil wasn’t very good (sorry Basil)…

Come here Thug….

Ben was very sheepish over Christmas (no wool related pun intended)…he was especially awkward when I was knitting…

Finally he found the courage to confess the problem…

…he’d lost his Iphone cosy I’d made for him – on the train – Grrrr!!!

If you remember, readers, he also lost a hat I’d lovingly made for him on the train too.

He whimpered and begged (rather appealingly) for me to knit him another Iphone cosy as he felt naked without it.

I made him grovel the appropriate amount then gave in graciously – I could use a quickie project to cheer up my knitting. Those of you who were thinking of any other type of “quickie” are very smutty indeed…

Again (this is the third one) we went to my Rowan 4ply soft stash and chose a colour – green this time – the last two were light grey and black – at least I’ve weaned him off the grey scale

It was such a quickie, I forgot to take photos of the work in progress but here’s the finished article and a mini pattern for you if you want one too.

Wanna see it modelled?

I’ve shaped the corners and grafted the bottom with Kitchener stitch because Ben appreciates a cute bottom

Pattern

Requirements

¼ ball Rowan 4ply soft (any 4ply or sock yarn will do – cotton isn’t recommended though)

2.25mm DPN Needles

Tension

Not really an issue!

Pattern

Cast on 36 stitches using long tail cast on and divide between needles.

Knit in K2, P2 rib until 13cm.

Arrange stitches across two needles, 18st on each  needle.

First decrease round

First needle – S1, K1, psso, patt 14 st, K2tog

Second needle – S1, K1, psso, patt 14 st, K2tog (32 st)

Next Round (no decrease)

First needle – K1, patt 14st K1.

Second needle – K1, patt 14st, K1. (32 st)

Second decrease round

First needle – S1, K1, psso, patt 12 st, K2tog

Second needle – S1, K1, psso, patt 12 st, K2tog (28 st)

Next Round (no decrease)

First needle – K14

Second needle – K14

Graft together using Kitchener stitch, darn in ends and enjoy!

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!

My wardrobes are overflowing – which is very bad as I remodelled to bedroom two years ago and made more wardrobe space!

I’ve been very disciplined lately and taken great bags full of “stuff” to the charity shop. Now the hard bit…I need to cull the shelf where my hand knits live.

I found three garments I don’t wear any more and guess what? Two of them have never been blogged!

So first the one you might have seen, my Willow jacket in Ribbon Twist.

This one…

It has gotten kinda pilled and saggy and I was never quite sure about the white fluffy bits on the collar. Does it make  anyone else think of Santa Claus? I was reminded it was there when I made my Chunky Ribbon Twist Cushion. I wore it again just once and it felt too chunky and a bit frumpy on me so it has to go.

Next is a Pre Blog Project that has never been seen here before! (I’m assuming you’re jumping up and down with excitement here?? )

Here’s Angie..

It’s a Rowan pattern from “It’s a Tape Thing” by the lovely Kim Hargreaves.
This book…

I made this back in 2004 (I think!) and for me, the best part was doing the dropped stitch edging on the sleeves and bottom edge.

You literally knit some rib then drop a stitch and let it unravel all the way down the work. I had just joined the Guilty Knitters at that point and they teased me a great deal because I was very excited by the stitch dropping process and said,
“It feels so wrong and naughty and bad and decadent…but I like it!”
They assumed I had that approach to some other, more personal areas of my life too!

The worst thing about this jumper is that I really made a hash of picking up the stitches around the neck. Isn’t it amazing how, when you get out an old garment, you realise your knitting has improved?

Lastly here’s a huge piece of knitting!

It’s Nicole in Debbie Bliss Maya (and me pulling a “do you want me to come over there and make you behave” face at Ben )…

From this book, Debbie Bliss No.7…

I adore the Debbie Bliss Maya (I have it on reasonably good authority it’s actually Mano Del Uruguay’s wool classica rebadged) . I bought up rather a lot when it was discontinued – I still have 10 skeins each of solid pink and 10 of  solid purple in my stash – opps I forgot the 7 skeins of orange and pink mix too.

The yarn is great (and it  felts well – as I found with my Kim Felted bag) but Debbie Bliss’s pattern was not so good. I have to say – I’m not in the Debbie Bliss fan club.

Firstly, the front edging – it curled.

Being a stocking stitch garment, with no edging stitches and having a picked up edging, nothing short of super glue and stapling the edge to my thighs was going to stop the curl.

The picot on the sleeves was good…

I also wasn’t terribly impressed with the collar – it worked but I like a bit more attention to detail in my patterns. The button part was good though! Pity all the hard work on the edging below the buttons immediately curled out of view…

I guess I’m being a little unfair because, although this was a huge garment to knit, it was a very easy knit and grew faster than you’d think on the 5.5mm needles.

And I’m being really unfair because, when I’d finished it I wore it to death and was very pleased and had lots of compliments!

I suppose it’s just out of fashion now, looking pilled and tired and I’m bored with it. None of that is Debbie Bliss’s fault!

So there we are, three large garments culled and room for some more in my wardrobe!

I’ll leave you with the obligatory Completed Knit Reports then get back to knitting the Flower Blanket! An update on that coming next!!

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…