I have dozens and dozens of knitted garments – where do I start?
I think, I should tell you what I’m doing right now and, when it gets boring (during the endless rows to finish the second sleeve – yawn) I’ll pull another garment out of my “back catalog”…any better ideas I’d love to hear them!
So…tonight I’m sewing up Brooklyn (the one on the right)from Rowan’s Denim People book. It’s for my 6’2″ beloved so it has been a marathon undertaking! (for those of you unfamiliar with Rowan’s Denim – it’s an unusual yarn that you knit, then bung in the washing machine at 60 degrees to shrink it lengthways by about 20%. For the dubious among my readers – it really does work! The patterns allow for this. it is surface dyed and fades and wears like your favourite jeans – The downside is that it’s like knitting with harsh string and a bit hard on the hands.)
I managed to buy some Rowan denim in black on Ebay – fab as Ben doesn’t really like the “blue denim” look and Rowan discontinued black a while ago. Unfortunately (I did say “frequently disasterous”) the washing, shrinking part of the process hasn’t yeilded results as crisp as the ones in the picture! See what you think???
 |
| From Knitting- WIP |
 |
| From Knitting- WIP |
I am miffed to the extreme that the colour has run badly from the black into the cream cables on the sleeves. Common sense said this would happen with a yarn designed to fade and wash out but I trusted Rowan’s pictures in the book! My photo’s don’t show the true scale of the disaster – dirty grey sleeve cables, not crisp cream ones. I’ll be writing to Rowan in the morning…
Apart from the colour run issues, the pattern has been a dream and the shrinkage has been spot on – Ben is still pleased with the result!!
Before I put you all of Rowan Denim for good, I have knit with it before – this is “Mary” from the original “Denim” book by Rowan (designs by Kim Hargreaves) – I love it to bits…It was knit years ago and continues to be a favourite. ( A bit rumpled ‘cos I was wearing it while blogging!)
 |
And the stitch detail…
 |
and a bit of “collar action”…
 |
I must away and find some food for Ben – he still needs 4 hourly feeds…
