So here I am, basking in compliments from my knitterly friends on how the admire my resolve to get back to one WIP at a time. Their encouragement is spurring me on to great feats of blanket square knitting – two whole squares on one train ride to Bristol!

I have eagerly completed strip no.9 and finished and sewn into a strip, the squares for no.10.

I excited thought, “I’ll just throw it on the bed to see how it looks – not far to go now!”

Ohhh….

Errrrmmm….

That’s not quite what I had in mind…

From Flower Blanket

The 9 squares wide isn’t quite wide enough to look convincing on the bed…..and if I carry on for 13 strips – it’s be up and over the pillows!

All is not lost – it’s a simple repeating pattern so, even at this late stage, I can change it.

The good thing is, that Mewsley had an opportunity to do the “Snugglability testing”… I think she approved!

From Flower Blanket

But here’s the maths problem – 9 x 13 squares means 117 squares – I just have enough of the lilac colour for this many (remember I have an edging to do too)

So I can’t replan with more than 117 squares….

Hmmm – leave it at 9×9 like in the picture??

Nope! That looks stingy and I’ve done nearly all the squares for strip No.10…

10 x 10 (100 squares) seems like an option??

I drew out the plan for 10 x 11 (110 squares)

From Flower Blanket

Hmm – that would just look lopsided – just “off” square would irritate me….

And I’m starting to get a little bored with this now…time to wind it up…

… 10 x 10 it is…
Like this…

From Flower Blanket

So far so good!

From Flower Blanket

Just 7 more squares and an edging to do…

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

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….

Spring is “springing” in the garden and I’ve just finished two thick, dark wintery jumpers.

I guess I’ll be needing a new exciting knit that is  something summery then?

I have been fawning over the new Rowan Magazine, number 47

From Halcyon

and trying to decide between my 3 favourites in the book.

There’s Harmony…

From Halcyon

Which is lovely and  knit in Organic Cotton 4ply – I really like this but thought it would be a bit too much like my  golden Iris.

From Iris

So Harmony is rejected.

Then there was Sedate

From Halcyon

Knit in Milk Cotton and a whopping great 10 balls of my favourite, Kid Silk Haze. It would be a good stash buster project for me but again, it’s a lacy cardigan, but I was sorely tempted…

***EDIT***

Thanks Helen, for commenting and alerting me – the yarn amounts in the Rowan Mag are wrong for Sedate. Rowan have published an errata here -  Sedate Errata.

Correct amounts are FMC: 5, 5, 5, 6, 6 KSH: 4, 4, 4, 5, 5.

Only 4 balls of KSH stash busting!!

Then I saw Halcyon on a display model in Liberty…

From Halcyon

I was with a friend of mine, a Rowan rep, who immediately said,

“Halcyon- that’s a pig to knit! Lace on every row, no let up with nice easy purl rows!!”

How could I pass up a challenge like that? 

For once, Rowan has some really good photos of the garment in their magazine – they really show the detail in the garment – I winge enough about bad photos so praise where it’s due…

From Halcyon

From Halcyon

Halcyon is knit in Fine Milk Cotton – called “Milk” cotton because it’s made with 30% milk protein. I dread to think how a glass of milk is transformed into yarn but the end result is a wonderful soft silken yarn. It is rather splitty is you’re not careful but I can cope with that.

So is that lace a “pig”?

Actually – it’s not so bad once you get the pattern going…

…but this is the chart…

From Halcyon

Too small for human eyes!!

Even with my new upgraded glasses this was a struggle to see.

But again, Rowan have redeemed themselves – a PDF of the chart, in a size suitable for harassed knitters, trying to balance the pattern on their knee while not dropping lace stitches, is available here–> Halcyon Chart.

So what colour am I doing? How far have I got?

I didn’t like the beige – only because it looks insipid on me. So I chose Pastille, shade 494 – a very classy silver grey with a hint of blue. I thought it would look good formally for work as well as with jeans…but I’m getting ahead of myself – I have to knit it first!

The pattern starts at the waist and works downwards, knitting the peplum. Later you pick up stitches and work upwards. I know I should have started with a provisional cast on but I was so in a hurry to cast on but I  just didn’t Bad Susan!

First you do acres of very boring rib – I would have liked to have saved that for later when I needed a break from the lace but the life of a knitter is hard!

So here’s the back peplum all knit..

From Halcyon

The lace pattern is basically, two blocks of pattern – the open lattice work and the petal pattern. After 12 rows, the pattern offsets so these two blocks form a chequerboard effect. You can see that more clearly in the Rowan pics above.

For the peplum though, you carry on with the second pattern repeat but start increasing in between the the petals. This gives the fullness over the hips and the lovely drape.

It sounds fiddly but it’s explained well and, with a few stitch markers – I was well away.

Here’s the front peplum, mid increase with the stitch markers…

From Halcyon

You can see I’m using my precious Signature knitting needles for Halcyon – those stilletto points are essential for the lace and a splitty yarn.

I hadn’t realised just how much difference thy made until I was nearing the end of the peplum.

With all the increases, I had gone up to over 300 stitches crammed on my 12″ needle. I didn’t have a suitable circular hand for the last few rows so I pulled out some long ancient Aero needles – so old they were marked in the old English sizings as “No.12″.

Boy, were they blunt! I’ve checked, this is the only point in Halcyon I’ll have this many stitches so no excuse for  extra long Signature needle shopping for me

Not this week..Maybe not…No, I couldn’t…

Knitting my sister some quick and fun hats has kicked my knitting mojo back to life.

It also helped that I had to be in the West Country this week for work so was able to make a flying visit to Carol on the way home – she loves the hats and takes half and hour to choose which one to wear  before leaving the house

Time to decide on whether to have that Big Wool Bonfire that I talked about in “Bloody Big Wool“…

I decided that I’m going to take option 3 – knit a size larger but on the original needles.

• If it fits, terrific!

• If it’s too big, my sister is eagerly poised to re home Ronnie for me (actually, I suspect she’s crossing a few limbs that it IS too big!)

• Too small? As I don’t know anyone smaller than me, we’re back to the Big Wool Bonfire.

The only saving grace about this project is that it is very quick. In just over a week I’ve done the back, front and one sleeve.

I’d like to say that Thug helped but I suspect he has been busy with  his own sideline, marketing himself at a rather nice clothing store. It’s amazing what you can have beautifully wrapped, boxed and delivered…

I am a little worried that the front (identical to the back) looks very like an apron!

The armholes are pretty much on my waist still.

I keep repeating the mantra, “It’s a sloppy joe – it’s supposed to be big. Raglan sleeves always look weird until it’s sewn up…”

The sleeve looks better…

…I’m impressed with the chunky cable cuff, knitted sideways. the edge of the strip is then picked up and the sleeve is knitted as normal.

I’m away in sunny Bristol for a few days again this week so I hope to have some quality time with my knitting in my hotel room to be able to finish Ronnie off.

I’ll let you know if it fits!

I should know better.

I don’t have much luck with projects with mega chunky yarn.

So why, Oh why readers, when I was struggling to find my knitting mojo with Catrin, did I decide to splurge on 10 balls of Rowan Big wool to make this huge snuggle-fest of a jumper?

It’s Ronnie from the Kim Hargreaves book, Precious.

I suppose I thought it would be a quick, easy, rewarding project….

I cast on on 12mm needles as decreed by the pattern and knit for a whopping 42cm.

Hmmm …It didn’t look wide enough…

A check of my gauge and the learned opinions of my knitting buddies was that I was way too tight – the garment would end up around 8cm too small for me.

Bigger needles were needed. Unfortunately, the next size from 12mm is 15mm a huge jump. Why don’t they make 13mm needles?? Anybody know where I could get some?

I bravely cast on  and finished the back. My gauge was OK width wise but my stitches were too long…hmmm…that proved to be something of a problem with the raglan shaping which was written for a set number of row, not length.

As you can see the armholes would start somewhere around my hips!

The stitches seem too loose too – it was sagging quite a bit because it was so loose. This garment would be quite heavy and sag badly if left this loose.

A this point a Big Wool bonfire was being contemplated and my knitting mojo had packed it’s bags and emigrated 

I have 4 choices with this garment:

1. Abandon it and burn/reuse the expensive yarn on a different project
2. Continue in the vain hope it will all turn out OK (not bloody likely)
3. Start a third time on the original needle size but knit a bigger size to allow for my gauge issues with big wool (and possibly have to buy more yarn)
4. Continue in the original size and original needles, cross my fingers (which won’t help my gauge either) then block the hell out of it when it’s too small.

I’m tending towards option 3 – knit a bigger size. I liked the density of the fabric the original needles created way better than the too loose on 15mm.

I really, really need a successful, fun project to kick start my knitting mojo or I’m gonna need a new hobby

Next time I’m tempted to knit something on broom sticks – someone slap me – please!

It started with a new pair of  shoes.

A beautiful pair of green canvas wedges,  in the Hobbs sale…

I had loved them from afar all summer and stalked them until sale time – 70% off 

Happy, Happy, Happy.

The problem was, I didn’t have anything that colour in my wardrobe to wear with them. This isn’t one of this year’s trendy colours so there’s not much of it in the shops.

A couple more highly focused shopping trips (The news report might have  read, “Green obsessed woman raids Bluewater!) yielded a matching white and green spotty shirt (Hobbs), a green vest (Debenhams) and a green belt (Next).

It all matched and looked great for less formal day in the office….

except…..

….except……

I was a bit cold  with the aircon on

I knew from my obsessive searching of the shops there were no matching jumpers out there….

Then a friend said, “have you seen Rowan Studio 16? It’s fabulous….”

This book…

“Oh, I like the one on the cover”, I drooled.

A slightly better piccy here…

As I’ve said before, I have a weakness for knitting the design on the cover of books.

The cover is “Cheer” knitted in Rowan handknit cotton…

…and it’s shown in just the shade of green I need…

…I went to my LYS

……I picked up the yarn to make Cheer….then put it back and bought something else

Then I went back the next day and bought the yarn for Cheer that I kicked myself for not buying the first time!

Cheer is proving to be a quick and easy knit – plain stocking stitch, no real shaping and an easy basketweave pattern around the bottom, front edges and collar.  Hopefully the basketweave will stop any potential for curly unpleasantness.

So far I’ve done most of the back and half the left front – split between commuting knitting and home knitting in case you’re wondering why I have 2 parts on the go at once.

Here’s a progress shot…

Won’t be long before this is done!

I confess. Iris wasn’t the first project I bought to take on holiday with me.

I rushed from the travel agent my LYS and snuffled up this cutie, fully intending to save it for the holiday…

It’s Katia from the Rowan Lenpur collection.

The Lenpur yarn is lovely – soft and very drapey – although it is one of those annoying yarns made of several threads held together that can split easily if you’re not paying attention.

I chose a flattering red shade…

I arrived home with my “knitting for the holiday” project and thought,

“I’ll just cast on and make sure I know the stitch pattern before I get on the plane…”

I cast on…
” I’ll just do a few more repeats….”

Oops!

Before I knew it, I’d done the back and one side and the holiday was a couple of weeks away!

The stitch pattern is a breeze.   Two rows and one of those is all purl!

Then I screwed up – I had decided I’d finish Katia to wear on holiday – putting myself under pressure to finish it. That’s always a mistake.

I nearly finished the second front and counted my rows they were out. Bugger!

By this stage, Katia had become my commuting knitting and I was trying to work this out on the tube.

I ripped the front down to the waist on the train.

When I got home, had a coffee, calmed down and looked at it again I realised the horrible truth. I had made a small mistake on the first front then carefully followed my own notes and made the same, matching mistake on the second front!

It was a small mistake and didn’t matter – in fact I NEEDED to make that same mistake on the second front for it to match.

I’d pulled out a couple of days of perfectly good knitting!! Oh POO!! I was never going to finish before the holiday now.

Somehow, Katia now felt tainted and I didn’t want to take her on holiday to finish so she got thrown on stitch holders and stuffed in the knitting bag.

Hence going and buying the lovely Iris.

This is so not like me – I normally am the virtuous “One WIP at a time girl”. I’m ashamed of myself…

This is how far I am with the second front…

It won’t take much to finish…once I’m done with Iris, it’s back to Katia…then the Flower blanket, then the See Through Jumper..

Oh My! How many WIPs has this one WIP girl got!!

Shame, shame, Oh the shame…. 

I’ve been busy.  I’ve been stressed with work. I’ve been trying to sell and buy a new home. I’ve not had any time off work since Christmas because I thought I’d be moving.

I was coping with all this.

My  house purchase/sale falling apart for the second time and putting right back at square one was too much to take. I could either get very depressed or take positive, decisive action.

Positive action it was. I marched Ben to the nearest Travel Agents and booked us a luxury holiday in Mexico!

Fear not,  I’m getting to the knitting related parts – this isn’t a “look at my holiday snaps” post.

I decided to treat myself to a brand spanking new project for the trip – no stash busting, no trying to finish off other projects – this holiday was to be indulgence all the way…

I decided on Iris from Rowan 45. A beautiful lace cardigan in Rowan Cotton Glace.

Here she is…

I love knitting cotton on holiday – hot damp hands and suncream don’t seem to affect it too much. I found out the hard way once that hot sunny beaches and Kidsilk Haze are a match made in hell!

You see that couple of inches of knitting in the picture? You think that was all I did?

Ha! Of course not. I cast on the back on the airplane, using an addi circular so as not to upset airport security with pointy, long, evil terrorist death sticks (or knitting needles as they sometimes are called) and knit for most of the 10 hour flight.

I knit by the pool. (note the rather large cocktail on the table in the foreground)

In fact, I knit in the pool!

Note the ball of yarn tucked in my bikini strap!

This was a technique that was a little ungainly and fraught with constant danger of drowning my knitting so it was an experiment which didn’t last too long.

If you think people looked at me knitting under a sun shade, you should have seen their faces when I knit in the pool!

So how much of Iris did I complete?

Less than I thought I might…

One back…

And one left front…

The top of this left front again because I was drinking too many yummy cocktails by the pool

Not bad huh?

I guess I should show your the stitch detail too…

And the edging at the bottom….

Pretty, pretty pattern isn’t it? and surprisingly easy to do.

Well it’s midnight and I’m wide awake with Jetlag and I have work tomorrow.

Maybe just a few more rows before bed….