Damn, Knit & Blast It

It’s finally sewn up.

As you may have guessed, I didn’t do much sewing up on Frappe while I was enslaved I mean staying with Carol last week.

The rest of the sewing went without incident once I sat down and did it.

So here she is finished…

I think she looks rather smart. A bit big maybe? I made the smallest size - I’m telling myself I’ll be wearing more when it’s cold enough to need a cardi

You think I could wear it for the “Not Totally Formal” days at work??
BTW check out the eye protection - I’d like to blame Carol for burning my retinas with her evil acrylic but the truth is, I’m needing my glasses more and more - I forgot I had them on for the photo shoot - old age! Arrrhhhg!

Want to see the back? I’m not sure about the joining in the collar at the centre back - I think I should have grafted it somehow - it’s a bit stiff and pointy…

Whilst in Cardiff, Carol took me to Claire Grove Buttons - a treasure trove of all thing buttony. After about an hour of running around the shop saying, “Oh have you seen this one” to each other, Carol and I decided on these buttons for Frappe…

I thought they picked up the pattern in the knitting perfectly.

So.

What do you do with one skein of stunningly lovely Giotto?

I had found a pattern that called for one skein for my size. Unfortunately I think Colinette got a model who’d taken a few too many Valium…

It’s from this Colinette book, called Westcountry

It’s a simple variation on a ripple stitch - two pieces, straight up for 26cm with no shaping and a couple of shoulder straps. It is rather cropped but on a scorching hot day,after a couple of trips to the gym, I think I can get away with it.

I had a bugger of a time keeping the pattern correct! Mainly because it was virtually impossible to see the increases and decreases in ribbon yarn, in garter stitch.

Once I decided to use my trusty B&Q stitch markers to mark where the increases and decreases fell, I got on much better.

Here’s a question, if you’re knitting something with a ziggy zaggy bottom edge, where do you measure to? The tip of the point (making the garment shorter) or valley of the “v” shape?

I got as far as 26cm to the tip of the “V” and started to get that uncomfortable, knitter’s intuitive feeling that there was going to be a problem.

“Hmmmmm….There’s not much yarn left to make the front….” I thought.

I didn’t want to try and join the Giotto if I needed to make the knitting I’d already done longer so I decided not to cut the yarn and start the front. Instead, I wrestled the other end of the yarn out of the centre of my hand wound ball. I then proceeded to knit the front with the back sitting on my lap on a stitch holder.

I don’t know if you’ve ever tried knitting knitting from both end of the ball all once but let me tell you - you very quickly get in a great big tangle! I amused my fellow Guilt Knitters by spending about an hour painstakingly unlashing my near complete back from the remains of the ball.

The secret of knitting from both ends of the ball is to make sure the yarn you are not actively knitting with is wound tightly round the ball and looped into a loosish knot so it doesn’t unwind as you knit. The active yarn can then pull happily from the centre.

I managed, with some jiggling, to end up with a back and a front, both 26cm long. Unfortunately, to get that I was left with about 60cm of Giotto to make the straps! EEEk!

What shall I make the straps from?

I dug into my stash and came out with a bag of Paton’s DK cotton I’d bought intending to make a granny square blanket.

These are the colours I had to choose from…

This is the Giotto, knit up into the ripple stitch…

Not a bad match huh? Just goes to show that I’m drawn to similar colours, time and again.

I couldn’t choose between the cottons. What’s more, I didn’t want to limit the top by having one predominant colour. So I chose all of them!

I picked up an 8mm crochet hook, for no better reason than the top was knit on 8mm needles, and crocheted a chain using all six colours held together.

This is what I got…

You and see the “right” side of the chain at the top and the “wrong”, bumpy side at the bottom. I thought the bumpy side reflected the garter stitch of the top quite well, so that faced outwards. It also a happy accident that it’ll be more comfortable to have the smooth, right side against my skin!

In the course of making this strap, I also discovered that I had created an irresistible cat toy…

Thug says he was just checking for durability but I don’t believe him - he’s having too much fun!!

Do you want to see the finished article now?

I am pleased with it but I would have been much happier if it had been an inch or two longer.

If I’d used Giotto for the straps this would have been so short I would have been arrested! Especially as I’ve read that the Giotto stretches with wear…stretchy straps are not good!

Not quite the “get your knitting Mojo back” kinda project in the end was it?

I need a yarn sale….

My blogging and knitting have been curtailed for the last couple of weeks - I seem to have hurt my hand somehow. In the syle of the old Tommy Copper joke that went,

Patient : “Doctor, Doctor, it hurts when I do that….” (Waves arm)

Doctor: ” Well, don’t do that then!”

I decided to rest it. So not much knitting or blogging for me! It is now much improved and I am pleased to report I have a new garment.

Dinny is done.

Here she is, with me looking a little silly, staring into the middle distance on my balcony, nestled in the flowers…

I can’t say I’m thrilled with Dinny but I think she’s a garment that will prove to be wearable, versatile and useful. As Ben put it when I proudly modelled it for him,

“It’s not exactly summer wear is it?”

Dinny is very sensible and functional but rather dull and uninspiring. No one is going to stop me in the street and say, “Wow, love your jumper” then go wide eyed with awe that I made it.

I guess that says something about me doesn’t it - I have a need to impress! (Try to anyhow…)

I do generally avoid knitting standard, plain garments I could “go buy in Marks and Spencers”. Just doesn’t seem worth the effort.

I love the neck on Dinny and she was a very quick and easy make. It’s a little shorter than I’m used to, with the rib falling at my natural waist but not so short as to be a problem. There is shaping in the sides which, as I’ve have come to expect from Kim Hargreaves, fits perfectly and saves Dinny from being another shapeless, “straight up from the rib to the armholes” sack!

I guess I’ve just got used to having some kind of “Wow!” factor when I make a garment??

I started my Fleece Artist socks way back in November 2007, as light relief from the incredibly difficult intarsia on Eveleen. I showed them to you, in passing, in my post about my stitch markers from B&Q!

This was them back then…

Since then, they have been sitting looking mournfully at me from the bag of yarn beside the sofa, saying, “Finish me! Finish me!”

As I was getting a little bored with knitting the plain fluffy stocking stitch on Dinny, I thought I’d “just finish them off…”

First problem - and why they got left to one side in November - I did the first toe wonky (Curse No.1)- it was about 8 stitches askew from being in line with the heel. I followed the pattern to the letter but failed to employ my brain (which at that point had been thoroughly exhausted doing Eveleen!)

No worries, I thought, I’ll finish the second sock then rework the toe of the first sock.

I spent 3 happy hours on Sunday at “The Guilty Knitters” finishing toe No. 2, then had immense problems picking up the stitches after unravelling the first , wonky toe. (Curse No.2)The problems picking up the stitches were miraculously solved when I remembered that I now need to wear glasses…seeing the stitches is such an advantage!

I also worked out the supreme arithmentic blunder that thinks that if you have 30 sitches on a needle and decrease two stitches per row, you can end up with 11 stitches… (Curse No.3)

I should probably tell you I was using the pattern that came on the back of the skein wrapper from Fleece Artist - this one:-

Hmmm. looking at that wrapper, I have another “curse” to point out. (Curse No.4)

I am not a person who wants to handwash my socks - even handknit ones. When buying this yarn, I rejected several beautiful yarns because they were handwash. Can you see where it says “100% Washable Merino Wool”? I saw that and thought - great - that’s the yarn for me! Look more closely at that wrapper, at the bottom, in a tiny font…

Grrrr!!!

I finished knitting toe No.1 (the wonky one I had unravelled) and thought it rather strange that I had an awful lot of yarn left over…

The “idiot woman” who “accidentally” bought the wrong yarn on Ebay must have been reading my pattern for me.

I had decreased on every round, not every other round. I’d happily made this mistake on both of my toes. So far I have knitted 3 toes for this pair of socks. Remember how I started these socks as a “light relief” project? Hah! (Curses No.5 and 6 - one for each short, stumpy, angular toe)

More toe ripping and picking up of stitches - whilst wearing glasses this time - I do try to learn from my mistakes…

Want to see the difference it makes to a toe?

“Correct Toe” on the left and “Idiot Woman” toe on the right…I suppose it depends on your foot shape and how stumpy your toes are huh?

I slogged on, and finished the cursed things. I even did Kitchener stitch on the toes rather than be tempted to just do a three needle bind off - which was an effort as I was getting so mad with the socks (OK, mad with myself actually but it’s easier to blame the socks )

As you may have worked out by now - I’m not exactly beguiled by these socks. The yarn and the colours are beautiful but the pattern is, IMHO, poor.

Apart from the arithmetic error, I’m not thrilled with the heel…

The slip stitch heel flap is OK but the little triangle that goes under your heel (is there a name for that?) is tiny - it’s tight, even on my narrow feet.

The 2 x 2 ribbing is loose on my leg too. in fact - maybe I should have made the whole thing smaller.

Here’s a predictable shot of one sock…

I was going to go for the “Sole to Sole” type picture but everyone does that.

I tried being a bit more bendy to get both socks in…

Then I thought - Hell! Go for broke!! Let’s see if I can still get The Lotus Position!

I think that shows them rather well!

It seems like ages since I’ve been able to show you a finished garment I’ve made for myself.

**Imagine sounds of frantic typing and checking***

Hmmm - it has been months! Back in February, I showed you Branwen!

Time to rectify that shameful situation…

Hildegard is finished and she is lovely!

I finished sewing her up last week, sitting in my sister’s garden, basking in sunshine, sipping coffee and swinging in her garden swing seat - Heaven

Here she is…

The fit is super, mainly because the chevron pattern acts a little like rib and stretches over all the bumps, making it look like I’m a shaping guru. Be warned though - the more this stretches width ways the shorter it gets! The sleeves are a little long - I think because I allowed the same volume of horizontal stretch as I did for the body and I have skinny arms that really didn’t stretch the sleeves much at all.

On the topic of sleeves, I have a real soft spot for sleeves that have this kind of pointy edging and the cuff…

Cute huh?

I made this Hildegard quite a bit longer than my last one, the one I showed you here. In fact I did 6 more pattern repeats before starting the armholes. I’m glad I did! This Hildegard sits just below my natural waist and really doesn’t want to be any shorter. I’m betting on the silk dropping a little too.

Considering that I made it longer, I was very pleased with the number of balls of the Pure Silk it took. I got the whole garment out of 10 balls! That means I have another 10 in stash to make something else. Thinking about it though, I might Ebay those 10 and buy a different colour - two tops the same colour might be a bit much??

Oh! I nearly forgot to tell you about the last finishing touch - the buttons.

I decided to recycle the buttons from my old Hildegard - I loved that top so much I had to save a little of it and I think they are the perfect match.

There are button holes for them to go into but they really don’t show and I don’t do them up - I think that little V is very cute as it is.

So what to knit next? I think I’ll have to think about my Ebay Boo Boo…

Completed Knit Report
Name:	Silk Hildegard
Pattern:	Jaeger JH0029 (from 1997)
Yarn:	Jaeger Pure Silk
Pattern Problems:	None
Pattern Modifications:	Made it longer than the pattern said in the body. Short rowed shoulders.
Washing and Wearing:	Pattern works like rib - stretches over your curves and makes the fit look flawless! I don’t think the Silk will like any rough handling though.
Knit It Again???:	OhYes! This is the third Hildegard I’ve made…
Difficulty:	3/5 The difficulty is in “keeping the pattern correct” when shaping.
Rating:	5/5
Other Postings Relating To This One:	Goodybye old Favorite and Hello new version Knit for Victory The Return to Hildegard

I’ve just had the phone call I was expecting from birthday boy, Steve - His Bowie fits!

I was pretty anxious about it - I had measured Steve carefully before I started but there was the grain of doubt. I am relieved and pleased.

Steve really liked Bowie and was genuinely chuffed with it

Unfortunately for Steve, my sister Carol was allowed to try Bowie on and has refused to take it off, despite it being a hot sunny day.

Don’t say I told you but apparently she was trying to stretch it over her chest to put boob shaped bumps in the front so Steve can’t wear it…..Sometimes I wonder if we are really related… I’d never do a thing like that..OK, maybe I’m jealous because I didn’t think of it first… and I lack some of the essential equipment to carry out that plan!

Steve will have to fight to keep Bowie to himself!

Want to see a picture before I tell you about the modifications I made?

Clearly, it is floating in mid-air with no help at all from my glamorous assistant, Ben

When I made Ben’s Bowie, one thing that niggled me was the picked up stitches for the collar. There was a hard line around the bottom of the collar. See what I mean?

On Steve’s version, I didn’t cast off the centre neck stitches on the back and the front - I left them on a stitch holder and completed the rest of the neck shaping according to the pattern. When I picked up the collar stitches, I just knit across the stitches on the stitch holder. You end up picking up the same number of stitches that you cast off so I couldn’t see why it wouldn’t work!

Also, for Steve, because he doesn’t like high neck lines, I made the collar shorter - 4cms not the 9cms decreed in the pattern.

Here’s how Steve’s looks…

What do you think? I think it looks better

Next time I visit Carol and Steve, I’ll try and get a photo of Steve wearing his Bowie - That’s assuming Carol hasn’t stolen it by then!

When I told you about my yarncrawl I mean, romantic weekend in Edinburgh, I forgot to tell you - we flew to Edinburgh…and I knit on the flight!

It was a big decision, what to take to knit that wouldn’t offend airport security - a decision up there with what clothes to pack!

I can fully understand that metal knitting needles could easily be used a weapons and are not allowed for good reason. They are “weapons of mass construction” in my case! That ruled out taking my Top Secret project or Hildegard - both of which are on fine metal needles

**Warning - Ranting ahead**

But what is acceptable? The web is awash with stories of of needles being confiscated simply because they are knitting implements, whether made of plastic, bamboo or wood. If you ask, you are told a flat”no knitting needles” despite size or material. I hate the way knitters, who are typically not society’s most radical members, are reduced to “smuggling” something onto the plane. I wish the airports would be a little more specific - they could easily put it in the small print on the internet - no metal and nothing smaller than a certain gauge perhaps? I don’t know a knitter who wouldn’t comply with that kind of restriction. It’s just easier for them to say, “No”

In fact, on a trip to the Science Museum in London I was told I couldn’t take my 6mm bamboo needles (along with attached scarf) into the museum because they were dangerous! When I pointed out to the jobsworth security guard that the museum shop, just behind her, was selling giant sharpened pencils (and chemistry sets!) more pointy and sturdy than my needles and offered to demonstrate how much more damage a pencil was capable of, she relented in a gigantic huff. She clearly had delusions of working in a airport - Where has this idea that anything used for knitting is a weapon?

**End of Rant**

Enough ranting - back to what I could take on the plane with minimum fear of being accused of terrorism. I have a set of Denise Interchangeable Needles which are sold as Aeroplane safe.

They have plastic tips and removable cords that you can put end stoppers on. They are a really useful set and work very well but, for me, I don’t enjoy the feel of the plastic tips to knit with so don’t use them that often. But ideal for a flight!

I leave the half done knitting on the flexy plastic cord with the end stops on and put the needle tips in my makeup bag - now to be emptied into a clear plastic bag, probably in case I use my mascara to hijack the drinks trolley. “Give me gin and tonic now or I’ll make you look like Liza Minelli…Don’t make me use the unflattering shade of blusher!”

So what item did I knit on my airplane friendly, easy to smuggle needles??

Remember my Snuzzle Scarf - chosen to go with my lovely new green jacket?

In a strange incident of sisterly synchronicity, My sister Carol had, all they way away in Cardiff, fallen in love with the same green jacket. Unfortunately she hadn’t bought it on the spot and it had sold out when she went back. Can you imagine how jealous she was of mine? Luckily, I managed to find her one at my end of the country and posted it down to her. How could I let my sister be seen without the perfect accompanying scarf?

The scarf is knit in fabulously soft Misti Alpaca chunky on 9mm needles, is narrow so lends itself to a circular needle and is a very easy pattern - ideal!

I didn’t make a point of saying “Oh look, I have knitting” to security but they didn’t bat an eyelid - in fact my chunky metal belt buckle that set off the metal detectors was much more interesting to them!

I got home with only the end frill to finish….

…and a very warm happy sister!!

I may have to do a third one though….

…somebody else liked it….

I have finally accepted that a favourite old handknit top of mine needs to go in the bin. I love it to bits but it has been regularly worn, machine washed and tumble dried and has now shrunk to the point where it is a crop top showing way too much belly!

Here is my poor old friend in an “infront of the mirror” shot….

…(spot the feline supervisor )

I love the stitch pattern on this - it’s a very easy 6 row pattern repeat but looks much harder. If you’ve got the Vogue Stitchionary - Volume 1, it’s pattern 188, “Chevron Panels”.

The pattern is an old Jaeger leaflet - the copyright on the back is 1997 but it doesn’t seem to have dated at all. It’s a beautifully thought out pattern - all the shaping puts seams in the gaps between the the chevrons so you don’t get that messy half a pattern effect. This is the pattern guilty of switching me on to Jaeger and Rowan designs and away from nasty acrylic, shapeless sacks!!

It’s Jaeger JH 0029 The Hildegard Sweater…

I made my Hildegard in Jaeger Pure Cotton DK in a rich burnt orange colour - a beautiful mercerised cotton that has stood up well to some serious maltreatment - it’s faded quite a bit! When I made it (in about 2002!) I really didn’t make it long enough - I think I was too eager to get it done and didn’t knit it quite to the measurements. It’s also a clingy top that gets shorter when the pattern is stretched over my curves - We live and learn huh?
I don’t often knit the same pattern twice. I like new challenges and the excitement of seeing a new pattern emerge. This is the exception. When I first made it, my Mum liked it so much I made her one for Christmas. Now, I’m making my third Hildegard.

I thought this one deserved some luxurious yarn and some more respectful treatment. Out came my jealously stashed Jaeger Pure Silk in a dusky pink…..

I’ve just finished the back and I think it’s looking sumptuous…

I’ve just realised that, in the photos, my new Hildegard looks almost the same colour as my old one! I wonder if that’s a subconscious way of trying to keep my old friend??

I’ll give you a Completed Knit Report for my first Hildegard - then I’ll get on with knitting my new one!!

Completed Knit Report
Name:	Hildegard (First one…)
Pattern:	Jaeger JH 0029 - designer unknown!
Yarn:	Jaeger Pure Cotton DK
Pattern Problems:	None except it does pull up as the pattern stretches to the correct width so measue while stretched or you’ll end up with a crop top like me!
Pattern Modifications:	None on this one
Washing and Wearing:	Quite thick cotton so warm to wear. Has been washed and tumble dried 100s times and only problem is slight shrinkage.
Knit It Again???:	YES!!..and again…and again..
Difficulty:	Medium (because of keeping pattern correct while shaping)
Rating:	5/5
Other Postings Relating To This One:	None

This week I’ve been visiting my big sister, Carol and her lovely husband, Steve.

While I was being spoilt rotten, I remembered to take some photos of a couple of Carol’s jumpers that I made.

The first is a fair isle design from Rowan 38 called Electra - guess what?? It’s on the cover

The pattern gives the sleeveless version and a cardigan version. At the time I made it (2 years ago exactly - dates on photos are a wonderful thing!) I thought, “Yuk! Tank top!” so I decided to make the cardigan for me. I’ve since caught up with fashion and no longer think sleeveless knitwear belongs in the 1970s but please forgive me for that fashion lapse this once…

I was very happy and a felt a little “Stash busting virtue” as, being fair isle, it only needed a couple of balls of each yarn - 2 colours of Yorkshire Tweed DK, 1 colour Felted Tweed and 1 colour Kidsilk Haze (used double). I had a lovely mix in my stash and only had to buy 1 ball of cream KSH. My local John lewis had run out of cream KSH so on the spur of the moment, I decided to use one strand cream KSH and one strand cream Kidsilk Night - a good decision - the subtle sparkle really worked.

Choosing the cardigan was rather ambitious as my only previous fair isle experience had been a pair of Snuggle Bed Socks.

It hadn’t occurred to me that a cardigan has 5 pieces and lots of shaping. A tank top I mean slipover, has two quite simple pieces. I also wasn’t experienced enough to realise that making the pieces flat on two needles was hard too! Purling and wrapping the stitches with two handed fair isle - ick!

I slogged through and finished the beast - Montse Stanley’s Knitter’s Handbook was open on the fair isle section most of the time.

The nice thing about this particular fair isle pattern is that although it’s a 34 row repeat, there are only 7 rows which have two colours in them - the rest are stripes. Nice cheat huh?

Here’s the beast “in progress”…

The sleeves were pure evil to fit - it took three attempts to get the pattern matching on one of them - Grrrr It didn’t help that I was not happy at work at the time and I think I’d knitted a lot of my emotions into this garment!

I finally sewed on the buttons and guess what - I HATED IT!

It looked awful and frumpy on me and too big and the wrong colours.

Who do I know who takes a slightly larger size than me, loves blues and creams and I love enough to give a precious handknit? My big sister !

Carol tried on the cardi and I was truly amazed. What looked like the most disastrous mess on me looked fantastic on her. It fitted. It looked stylish and trendy. It was her colours. She wasn’t going to give it back again without a serious fight! It has since become one of her firm favourites - I’m so pleased on so many levels!

Here’s Carol modelling for me .

And the back…..

Want to see one of those difficult shoulders too?? It just matches…

I think the right buttons can really lift a garment and I think I did really well with these - they are sold as plain cream buttons and have this beautiful mottling on the back - you can see which side I liked!

I suppose all of you out there are thinking, “Yes. OK. But how neat is the back?!” If it was me, I’d be itching to turn it over and take a look…

With the benefit of hindsight and reading about other people who have made Electra, there are several things I’d do differently if I made another.

1. Investigate Steeking the whole thing - Eunny Jang has a fantastic intro to steeking on her blog.
2. At least knit the whole thing - Cardigan or Tank top - in one piece up to the armholes - darning in ends is not my favourite occupation!
3. Check my tension more carefully so I get to wear it!I have learnt that fair isle does make my tension go loose!
4. Cast off the button band even looser than I did (it’s a little tight)

This was a sad and miserable garment to make that turned out to be a very happy cardi when it found a home where it is loved!!

Completed Knit Report
Name:	Electra Cardigan
Pattern:	by Louisa Harding from Rowan 38
Yarn:	Yorkshire Tweed DK, Felted Tweed DK, Kidsilk Haze and Kidsilk Night
Pattern Problems:	None (that weren’t to do with my inexperience!!)
Pattern Modifications:	None - but I should have considered the points above!
Washing and Wearing:	It’s been regularly worn for 2 years and still looking good!
Knit It Again???:	I’m tempted by a tank top for me
Difficulty:	Hard - mostly because of doing fair isle on two needles.
Rating:	3/5
Other Postings Relating To This One:	None