Damn, Knit & Blast It

Mewsley needed a treat. A big knitted treat…

What I haven’t shared with you yet is that Mewsley has been poorly. The day before we got back from honeymoon, she went blind.. We came down from the joy of the honeymoon pretty fast, I can tell you. Thug coped really well with being blind, Mewsley was another story – she’s much older than Thug was when he went blind. She was distraught and depressed – heartbreaking. But don’t fret – there is a happy outcome.

Vets appointments, diagnosis of retinal detachment due to  high blood pressure, drugs, cuddles, prayers and a mighty large bill and I’m happy to say her retinas have BOTH reattached and she can see again She’s still too skinny and a little fragile but very well in herself. We’re mightily relived.

So what do you knit a recovering, vintage cat??

Well, she loves to curl up on the sofa on a cushion with us in the evenings and frankly, my old knitted cushions were well past their best.

I decided on a Debbie Bliss pattern from her Winter 2011 Magazine…

This one..

No, not the tiger’s head! That would scare her! (And I think it would look a bit naff in my house…and I don’t want THAT much intarsia!!)

I’ve made her the one on the left – the giant paw print. It’s supposed to be a tiger paw print but all I saw was Mewsley’s little pink paddy paws – awww.

I chose Mewsley-fur grey for the main colour and pink for the paw.

You want to see it don’t you??

The cushion is in aran weight so it’s nice and quick. The back is two slightly overlapping flaps with buttons to hold it shut and the whole thing is knit in one peice with a reverse stocking stitch row where you fold. Very neat and easy.

This is the edge…

And I found the perfect buttons for a cat cushion in my button box (I think I got them at hobbycraft)…

The intarsia of the paw print was fun. (Yes, I used “intarsia” and “fun” in the same sentance!) They are nice big blobbs of colour but at one point you do have 9 bobbins on the go when you’re working all 4 toe pads…

The nice part about this intarsia is that you don’t have to be 100% accurate – paws vary! That was actually quite fortunate as the chart in the magazine was pretty poorly printed – you couldn’t count the squares. Fortunately, I found a PDF of the chart on the Debbie Bliss Facebook page – Here if you need a copy –> Paw Chart

So did Mewsley like it? She is a cat and it’s cat-law to ignore anything special made or bought for you…..

But my lovely Mewsley ignored that She was on it the second I finished….you can see that from the pin tin and the trimmings in the photo!!

Ten minutes later I had inserted the cushion pad and a certain grey cat was very happily curled up….. Awwww

The long awaited Ben scarf was all over in 3 days

I really enjoyed the mindless long rows of knit and the regular gratification of finishing a stripe.

I cast off with a 4.5mm needle (was knit on 4mm) and made sure it wasn’t too tight (I used a cable cast on BTW – in case you were wondering!) and it didn’t even seem to need blocking once I was done.

I promised to let you know about yarn usage – I used less than one ball of each colour! I have no idea why the pattern implys, with it’s ambiguous wording, 3x 50g  balls of each colour?? So now you know what to knit to use up some of those odd balls from your stash

I did try and persuade Ben that I should use the excess to make him matching gloves, hat and possibly underpants but that was a step too far. He wasn’t interested , strangely, so I’ll have to be pleased if he wears the scarf. The excess yarn has now been returned to the shop and I feel virtuous for doing a little “unshopping”.

So here’s close up of the scarf and all it’s stripy glory…

From Ben Scarf

Ben did his best “Grumpy Ben doesn’t want a pooie old scarf!” routine for the photo shoot at first..

From Ben Scarf

Then I caught him admiring himself and arranging his new scarf 2 mins later (He wasn’t really grumpy)

From Ben Scarf

So here’s a happy Ben who is actually quite pleased with his scarf!

From Ben Scarf

…And a shot of it under his big winter coat…

From Ben Scarf

And lastly a shot of it flung over the banister, waiting for the weather to be cold enough for him to wear it!

From Ben Scarf

Do you remember Liliana?

This is the picture from the pattern book…

From Lilianna

I had finished knitting her and just had the neckband and sewing up to do last February when I was overwhelmed by my beautiful furry ginger boy, Thug dying.  I couldn’t face the fiddly sewing up and Liliana was flug to one side and forgotten. Poor Liliana…

I’m now in a,

” I want to start new things and get all the old WIPS out of the way!“

kind of mood so Liliana has had the finishing treatment and actually – I wish I’d finished her sooner – she’s rather a warm and snuzzley success!

So without further ado – I present the finished Liliana…

From Lilianna

A shot of the back (you can see where it’s quite fitted and a little snug – probably because of Christmas excesses!)…

From Lilianna

And a close up of the neck band – which is a thin strip of rib, sewn on sideways and tied in a bow….not sure I’d do that again – gapes a bit but I think it looks ok??

From Lilianna

She is a very warm jumper although the Aura is a little irritating on my skin if I’m honest – and I’m not usually that sensitive to itchy yarns.

There were lots of previous blog posts talking about Liliana so I’ll just give you the completed knit report containg the list of previous posts and leave you to click away if wish
Happy reading!

I’ve said before how Ben doesn’t feel the cold.  He rarely wears a jumper and only wears gloves, and hats when it’s several degrees below freezing. Pretty frustrating for a knitter

We’ve had several conversations like this over the years,

Me: “Ohhh, look at this lovely man-scarf pattern. Can I knit it for you?”

Ben: “No thanks, I don’t wear scarves. “

Me: “But you were cold when it snowed and borrowed my black one??”

Ben: “It’s not cold now”

Me: “But, but…It’ll be cold by the time I’ve knitted it….” <imagine eyes tearing up>

Ben: “I wouldn’t wear it. I don’t like them. I’d probably lose it and I’ve never seen a man wearing a scarf.”  <Ben stamps foot>

Several train trips later, after I diligently (and annoyingly) point out every  man who was wearing a scarf (and in some cases matching hats and gloves!) Ben conceded that men do wear scarves when they are cold. And not all of them are Hipster idiots!

So the great day has arrived. Ben has graciously allowed me to knit him a scarf. Some people might think he should gratefully accept my generous offer to hand craft him a custom made, beautiful garment. Made with great skill and love but , after 10 years of trying, I’ll take what I can get!

So what scarf?

He didn’t want cables or complicated stitch patterns (curses!) so we quickly came down to Erika Knight’s Garter Stitch Scarf, from her Men’s Knits book.

This book and this scarf….

From Ben Scarf

You’d think I could knit that from stash wouldn’t you? But the pattern seemed to suggest I needed 3 balls of yarn in each colour?? I didn’t have that volume of the same yarn in colours Ben would like (lilac and pink maybe but for some reason he didn’t like that idea!) That seemed a lot of yarn. How would you interpret this wording…

“3 x 50g balls of DK weight yarn, such as Rowan Baby Alpaca DK in each of grey, light grey and blue”

To me that says three balls of each colour – yardage isn’t great on the baby alpaca either – 100 meters per ball, but 900meters of yarn and a scarf weighing 450g??

I dragged Ben into a yarn shop,pointed him at the DK yarns and told him to choose three colours he liked in yarn that soft enough he’d be happy to have wrapped around his neck.

He really liked the colours of the Sirdar Country Style range. It’s a Wool/Nylon/Acrylic blend that’s machine washable and tumble dryable – not that scarves need a lot of washing but practical is best for men’s stuff! The yardage is very good on this yarn too – 155 meters x 50g. For some reason, I still bought 3 balls of each colour. Interestingly, Sirdar have recently upped the wool content from 15% to 30% in the Country Style. I can be a yarn snob but I remember growing up with this yarn – and I know it’s a good reliable workhorse. It is knitting up beautifully and feels soft too.

So what colours? Not massively different from the pattern but it has to be Ben’s choice to have a fighting chance of being worn.

These are the colours….

From

So how is it going?
Well, the pattern calls for you to cast on 220 stitches to make a 110cm scarf. This I did. Then I though – that’s a bit short!

I pinned a scarf of min up to 110cm and flung it around Ben’s neck. “Longer!” was the response so I restarted and I’m now knitting 320 stitches which should give a 160cm long scarf (2 stitch per cm length)

Wanna progress shot?

From Ben Scarf

It’s very plain knitting but there is something quite zen and pleasing about long rows of knit. A change from complicated patterns and shaping.

10 rows of each colour then onto the next stripe…

From Ben Scarf

So far each stripe has used about half a ball – that’s with 100 extra stitches!
I’ll keep you posted on the yarn useage….

….and if he wears it!

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

Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment but, my next project is another Kim Hargreaves. I will break that “Kim Hargreaves Curse” if it kills me!

Usually I have at least 10 things I’m itching to start and another 20 patterns I kinda like too. This time there was much gnashing and wailing and flinging of pattern books – I had a hard time finding something I wanted to knit…

…”Whaaa! I want some plain stocking stitch knitting cos my last few projects have been moss stitch, cables and fairisle!”

……”Gnash, Wail! I must use some of my stash”…

……….”Sulk. Be nice to have a success this time”…

Eventually, I calmed myself down from my frenzy of  ”There is nothing in the 88 books, 97 magazines and 53 booklets I have logged in Ravelry I could possibly knit” and decided on a pattern I have long had my eye on.

It’s from Kim Hargreaves Thrown Together book. This one…

From Still

…And I have chosen Still – a 1040′s inspired top in Rowan Calmer.

Piccies from the book….

From Still

Love that neck line – hope it works!!

From Still

Still is knitted on 5mm needles so is coming together very quickly and suits my need for an easy, quick project. Wanna see??
…Woosh! After 1 week…

From Still

I gotta say, I do like the horizontal rib – a sweet touch…

From Still

Let see if I can keep up the momentum – this one is looking promising

I think someone has put a “Kim Hargreaves Curse” on me!

I love her designs but I keep on getting it wrong with stupid errors when I knit them! It’s not like I’m a beginner either is it?? They all turn out OK in the end but if I’m going to mess up it’s on a Kim pattern….

First there was Maria – a lovely favourite top of mine – but I sewed the left sleeve into the right armhole  <Slaps forehead>

From

Then there was Emily – This time I managed to get the edging different lengths and forget to do the decreasing on the sleeves…

From

The Haven scarf??? That turned out really well but I made a huge blunder and messed up the pattern (with associated embarrassing shot of me being unhappy about it…)

From

Turned out OK after some frogging  though…

From

And of course there was the memorable Ronnie – the sloppy Joe in Rowan Big Wool. I struggled with the tension, made it was too large and end up looking like a Dr Who alien and promising a “big wool bonfire”!

From

Ronnie has escaped the bonfire and has now been rehomed to a friend of mine – She looks fabulous in Ronnie – maybe because she’s a foot taller than me!

So what Kim Hargreaves related disaster has prompted this “Susan’s Screw-up Retrospective”??

I’ve had some pretty red Rowan Summer Tweed in my stash for some time – another John Lewis Rowan sale source of guilt

I had always intended to make Elizabeth from Kim’s Heartfelt book with it. With the sun shining and the air-conditioning at work blasting so I need a jacket in the office it was calling to me.

This is the piccy in Kim’s book…

From Elizabeth

Beautiful huh? Love that curved peplum I would even knit moss stitch (which I don’t enjoy much) to own that beauty!

I happily got out my swift and wound the hanks of Summer Tweed into yarn cakes – I love this stage of starting a new project

From Elizabeth

So off I started knitting the back….

….I found that the pattern was complicated and had lots of  shortrow shaping to make the curve – a common technique Kim uses…But the Knits and Purls were in the wrong place for the moss stitch – that’s not like a Kim pattern….

One ball of yarn later- looked back at the pattern, relieved I had finished the short row shaping….

A word caught my eye at the top of the page….

Elizabeth is knitted in DOUBLE moss stitch throughout….I had diligently corrected the pattern to single moss stitch. I hit myself in the face with the pattern several times to try and beat some sense into myself. I only do this type of screw up with Kim’s patterns!!

Rip…Rip…Rip…start again…

I finished the back without drama…

It did seem a bit large…..

From Elizabeth

But the DOUBLE moss stitch looked super in the red…

From Elizabeth

I’m half way up a front – the fronts and the notched collar are supposed to be the hard bits….

From Elizabeth

I was a happy little knitter….then, in a quite coffee break at work, I thought I’d show a colleague what I was working on and looked at Kim’s site…..

….and found the errata….

ELIZABETH
Back – Length to the beg of armhole shaping should read 38.5 (38.5: 40: 40: 40: 40) and not 42 (42: 43: 43: 43: 43) as stated.
Left front – Shape armhole should read as folls:
Cast off 4 (4: 5: 5: 5: 6) sts at beg of next row. Work 1 row. Dec 1 st at armhole edge of next 5 (5: 5: 5: 7: 7) rows and 2 (2: 3: 3: 2: 3) foll alt rows, and then on foll 4th row.
Size diagram – garment length should read 56.5 (57.5: 59: 60: 61: 62) cm – 22 ¼ (22 ½ : 23: 23 ½ : 24: 24 ½) in

I had knit 3.5 cms too much before starting the armholes! All that knitting wasted

So tonight I rip a large chunk of the back out and do it again.

I suppose it’s not too bad – that’s the first time in my many Kim Hargreaves’s cursed garments it’s not been my fault!!

Happy Easter! It’s a glorious sunny day and while lounging and knitting in the sunshine, I realised I  haven’t told you about my progress with the lovely green cashmere…

I’ve completed the back and the front …but it’s the front I want to tell you about today.

From Green Cashmere

I love the way the cable in this design, splits and frames the V neck. The best bit is – It’s incredibly easy to achieve – I’ll show you…

That fat cable in the middle is worked over 20 stitches. Every 10 rows you C10B (Cable 10 Back) then immediately C10F (Cable 10 Front). When you divide for the neck, you split in the middle of this fat cable. All you need to do then is make a stitch at the centre edge to always be purled to make a neat edging and you’re set. Like this…

From Green Cashmere

Once you’ve got you neck divided all you do is end the row with a “C10B, P1″ and carry on…
“But what about the neck shaping?”, You ask…

That’s easy too – to do the increase, p2tog on the 2 stitches preceding the C10B. It makes a lovely neat neck….

From Green Cashmere

That just leaves the back of the neck to worry about…

You simply do your shoulder shaping and carry on with the C10B until it’s long enough to sew in place at the back of the neck. Like this…

From Green Cashmere

One last thing to say about the front – I do love a pattern that is well enough designed to think about where the cables fall at the armholes – look at this – just perfect with the cable running up the armhole edge and a spare stitch to sew up with

From Green Cashmere

Now I guess, all that’s left for me to do is get those sleeves done… this far and counting

From Green Cashmere