Damn, Knit & Blast It

After putting in the effort to finish Elizabeth, I’m disappointed to find, she’s turned out too big

This really isn’t helping my lack of knitting mojo!

I think she wearable but not the sleek, elegant fitted look I was expecting…see what you think….

From Elizabeth

It’s ok over the hips but huge under the arms.

Mewsley tried to join in and make me feel better but it was beyond even her fluffy skills (hmmm, except I’m smiling more in that shot!)…

From Elizabeth

The “girls” at the Guilty Knitters suggested that a deep V neck like this is better suited to a big busted woman. One thing I sadly am not!! When I breathed in and puffed up my chest it did fit better but…I don’t think I could sustain that through an entire working day

I do think I got the buttons right – I looked at matching, same coloured ones but thought they would just disappear into the jacket…but you cant go far wrong with neutral shell buttons…. and actually, that’s the kinda buttons in the picture in the book.)

From Elizabeth

Wanna see the back? you can see all the extra fabric…

From Elizabeth

So what to do with it? I may wear it to give it a “road test” but I deeply suspect my sister is in for an early Christmas prezzy ….

Completed Knit Report
Name:	Elizabeth
Pattern:	Kim Hargreaves from Heartfelt
Yarn:	Rowan Summer Tweed
Pattern Problems:	Errata in pattern, badly written front instructions, turned out way too big
Pattern Modifications:	None
Washing and Wearing:	Meh
Knit It Again???:	No.
Difficulty:	4/5 (only because the pattern was badly written
Rating:	2/5
Other Postings Relating To This One:	Where have you been This is too Hard The Kim Hargreaves Curse

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

Knitting has a wonderful ability to change my response to situations.

My trains have been late, cancelled, crowded and generally a disorganised mess since the snow in December. MPs are now involved and there is a growing call for Southeastern Trains to loose their franchise all together. As a beleaguered daily commuter on this shabby excuse for a service,  I should be cussing, fistwaving and stamping my foot. But I’m not

Why not?

Because, after a couple of weeks of adding up the total number of minutes my trains were late, I was gaining at least an extra hour a week knitting time! So now, when the driver announces that there is congestion at London Bridge, a dog on the line or that the train has lost it’s path (Yep, we really had those and more this week !) I huff and puff a little, then think , “Great, I can get some more rows in!”

So, all these late trains mean… I’ve finished my Easy for the Train socks .

From Easy for the train

From Easy for the train

Not thrilling or challenging but colourful and fun – a success.  For me these were not all about the finished product but about de-stressing my commute – a success in that respect too!

Oh! I must be turning into a process knitter- Gasp!

I have  finished Flag and it’s great!

A couple of evenings of dull garter stitch and careful seam sewing for the sleeves and I was done

The pattern did call for a crochet edging all around the edge but I have not done that. Partly because crochet now aggravates a tendon in my elbow and more because I’m frightened that I’ll make the already quite neat edges pucker…I can always add it later.

Flag has now been worn to show the Guilty Knitters (who loved it) and modelled for a photo shoot with the lovely Ben behind the camera….

But which shot to show you??

I give up. Flag can be worn so many ways and posed and played with I had to make you a collage of some of the better shots … that means, “where my eyes are open and my mouth is shut”…

From Flag

Flag is probably a little big on me – probably because I took a casual approach to the tension (bad Susan ) But the garment is so flexible that I simply have to turn back the collar a little – like this…

From Flag

From the front, Flag looks like a geometric, angular waterfall cardigan but, Of course, the whole “Flaggyness” of the garment is not revealed until you hold out one side and view from behind!

From Flag

Or even both sides!

From Flag

I’m hugely pleased with Flag – it’s going to be versatile and surprisingly warm too …if I can stop posing with it…

From Flag

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

I started a new new role with work 3 weeks ago and it has stolen all my knitting time.

Well… the new role plus the horrendous commuting through the 14″ snow  stole my knitting time. I’m in an area where an inch of snow that stays two days is considered an ice age!!

More on the the product of my snowy “commuting knitting” in a moment….

“So is the new role at work the exciting news??” I hear you ask?

Noooo……

The exciting news is……

The lovely Ben proposed and I said, “Yes”.
We’re engaged!
It must have been the Second Chance Hat that finally did it!

Wanna see the ring???

From Ring!

I’m so thrilled with it 

The plan is to get married in the Summer…It’ll be a small wedding and I definitely will NOT be knitting the dress

Sorry! I know it’s a knitting blog and that’s  not knitting but I had to share

So back to the snowy commuting knitting…
You could say I’m being unfaithful to Ben – Gasp! Shock! Horror!
I have been knitting for another man!

Our Twitter buddy, Yaquaholic saw Ben’s  Second Chance Hat and desperately wanted one like it. He pleaded, grovelled, flattered and spun tales of woe and cold ears until I finally agreed to make him one.

Yaquaholic chose Rowan Felted Tweed in great shade called Carbon (colour 159)- a kinda slate grey with flecks of cream and brown – love the colour – I could be tempted to a garment in that myself – yum. Apparently it emulated a long lost beloved hat he had never been able to replace…<insert violins here>

The hat got finished yesterday – just as the snow here thawed – sorry Yaq!

So here it is – the product of a couple of weeks of snowy commuting….Yaq’s Hat (badly modelled by me…)

From yaqs hat

And a pic of it blocking over a bowl (Like I did for Ben’s hat) Showing the nice swirl…Although oddly – the Felted tweed didn’t go nearly as pointy as the pure wool version for Ben??

From yaqs hat

And one of it flat on the desk…I tell you – it’s impossible to get an exciting picture of a dark grey ribbed hat!

From yaqs hat

With all the fun of sorting out the Knit-Room, the only knitting that has been done has been a gift for a baby – Let me tell you how that started…

While working together,my friend and colleague, James, made the fatal mistake of complimenting my laptop wallpaper and asking what it was…

This picture…

From Double Vision Cushion

It is, of course, a close up of the back of my Double Vision Cushion. Poor James didn’t know what he had let himself in for and got chapter and verse on how it was only 4 colours, combined in 10 combinations…yadda…yadda….

I helpfully emailed him a link to my on-line pictures of the cushion ….

He was actually rather impressed with my knitting (bless him!) and asked me to make a little something for his new baby. ..

Flattery. Works every time.  How could I say, “No”?? !!

I turned to my Debbie Bliss baby books . Strangely I don’t like her women’s patterns (kinda shapeless and baggy on me) but I think she does wonderful baby things.

I made the Matinee Coat from the first Baby Cashmerino book.  It’s the on on the cover – “Tsk” to me and that habit of mine of knitting the cover shot!

From Baby Jacket

Here’s the finished little sweetie of a jacket….

From Baby Jacket

I have to admit at this point – As someone who really isn’t “baby oriented” (give me a kitten any day) That I hadn’t appreciated how much knitting there was in a baby garment. And they have all the same parts as a grown up garment!! Don’t laugh at this revelation – this is my first knitted baby garment.

I remembered my Mum once saying that you needed to make sure there weren’t bulky seams in a baby thing because they would chafe the delicate skin,  so I short-row shaped the shoulders and was very careful setting in the sleeve…Good enough?

From Baby Jacket

The finishing touch that really makes this cutie is the picot edging around the bottom…

From Baby Jacket

I really wanted to sew in one of my little “Hand Made by Susan Crowe” tapes but was worried it would irritate the baby so I opted for a safety pin – Yes, I know I’m a show off….

From Baby Jacket

I hope James, and his Wife and his daughter like it!!

I’ve finished Ben’s Second Chance Hat.. See here for the reason for that name!

I made particularly quick progress returning from Bristol on the train – for all the wrong reasons….

Happily head down and knitting – I looked up and didn’t recognise the next station…

“This train is going to London Paddington isn’t it?” I ask the nice lady next to me,

“No dear – Leeds.”

There was much despairing, waiting on cold windy platforms for cross country connections, slow chuggy local trains and a very late night home. The only good thing to come out of it was that I had Ben’s just started hat with me!

I got home with a large part of the boring rib finished – Ben was “delighted” to model it for me…he especially liked the Knitpro deely boppers!

From Ben Hat

I finished the hat quite quickly on a couple of (correct) journey’s into London. The decreases were fun “Knit, Knit, Pass knit stitch over” (makes a bulkier decrease than S1K1PSSO).

But the finished hat was….was…”pointy”…

From Ben Hat

Ben was understandably reluctant to look like a pixie so a serious session of blocking over a 2 pint pyrex bowl quickly followed…

From Ben Hat

All tucked in tight….

From Ben Hat

This really gave me a chance to admire the twisting pattern..

From Ben Hat

Now considerably less pointy – Ben agreed to model his hat for a final photo…
Side View…

From Ben Hat

And full frontal!

From Ben Hat

God help him if he looses this one!