A Finish, a Newbie and a Save.

Hello there! Time for a little catch up and a knit and natter. My latest make is a tank top from The Knitter issue 166. It is a cabled top called Demeter by Emma Vining

I am loving tank tops at the moment. Our house is too warm for my old chunky knits of the past but sleeveless tops are perfect. This has a complex interlocked rectangle design which was tricky. Using stitch markers every 15 stitches helped me to keep the pattern accurate. 

The top is made from Stylecraft organic cotton which is double knit, it is worth noting that, for a cotton yarn, it did not spilt. I used seven skeins so it was a very economical make. I always joke with my girls that they are allowed to disown me when I start wearing beige. Heidi reminded me of this when I finished the top to which I replied "It is an "Antique Rose!" The colour is actually 7188 wood.

I always have my next knitting project in my mind while finishing the previous one. So let me introduce Jory by Outi Kater, a fairisle kids knit that goes up to age 13-14 years. Bingo! A sweater knit for Heidi that looks grown up but to which I can make the arms longer for my gibbon girl.

Heidi does not wear pure wool well so I plumped for Sirdar Country Style which is 50% wool and 50% acrylic. The only draw back of the pattern is that it is in 4ply. I ploughed my way through some catch up TV and the grey body in anticipation of the patterned yoke.

I am really enjoying the colourwork, each row takes about 30 - 40 minutes but I like to ensure the floats are correct so that yoke still has stretch. The yarn bloomed just enough for stranded work without being pure wool. This sweater will take me to the end of November before I start knitting for Christmas.

My final knitting project to show is a save. I desperately wanted to save my joyride jumper. It had an old issue and a new issue to solve. The old issue was that I had cast on too tight so the rib constantly flipped up...so irritating. Since making this jumper I know now that if I cast on with needles it is better for me than the thumb method and stops the issue.

The newest issue is that I washed it after a bonfire party and it grew! It was already a touch long and with the added length it was really unflattering. You would think only the brave would decide to shorten a sweater from the bottom but it was actually quite easy.

With a double length of contrast yarn you pick up the stitches all the way round a little shorter than you would like to allow for an added rib. Do this in good light so that you don't drift onto another row above or below.

You will know you have kept to the one row when you return to the beginning and you are one row below where you started. Snip the yarn above the contrast yarn. Leave a couple of rows if you are not feeling too brave!

Pull back the un needed yarn and roll up to use as your rib. Ensure you are using the correct needle size for the yarn. 

Luckily, I keep a knitting journal so I looked up the needle size from 2019. Geeky or what!

Pick up the stitches from the spare yarn trying not to split any yarn. Pull out any spare rows carefully. All you have to do now is knit on a rib using the yarn you have taken off.

Ta dah! A fantastic save: a better length, no flipping rib and the bonfire smell has gone. It is a bit big in the arms but I kind of like nice long arms to fill my coat sleeves for dog walking.

Any seasonal knitting happening at your end?

Jo xxx 

Twit Whoooo!

 

I have been making the Owls sweater by Kate Davies designs. It is a bit of a crazy affair because my friend gave me a random bag of stylecraft chunky yarn. There were two balls of teal and the rest were mixed colours. I have not used all the colours given to me here but I tried to make a cohesive selection. My plans didn't quite work out. The mustard cuffs on the waist, wrists and neck went well however I wanted the teal colour to complete the owl section but it was further on in the pattern than I realised and I ran out of teal for the owls ears and had to revert to stripes. I could have kicked myself because there was a chance to carry on the stripes prior to the owls but I was too busy concentrating on the raglan decreases. There is a VERY annoying pulled stitch right at the front but I just have to live with that because I didn't notice that until I tried it on at the end and all the ends had been woven in by then - and oh my the ends!!!

Anyway, I love it. It is super cosy, super wacky and dare I say it very me :)

Thanks for dropping by. Jo xxx

Paperdolls

This was a little knitting adventure that was love at first sight when I saw it in a book, Ten years in the Making by Kate Davies. I rarely knit with 4 ply for I am more of a speed merchant - you may have noticed - but the preamble at the front of my Kate Davies book was all about time; the joy of crafting a beautiful item that takes all your mindful time. 

I digested the sentiment of the prologue and started to look for a yarn to knit the short sleeved pullover Paperdolls. My favourite yarn is Drops. I had a ball of Drops flora in my basket left over from this Loki project so while mulling over the time/cost/want conundrum I knit up a gauge square in it. I am a loose knitter so the Flora 3ply yarn was spot on for the 4ply measurements. I then had to decide how badly I wanted the top to allow myself to knit an adult garment in 3 ply yarn...very badly it turns out.

I ordered a beige, coral and turquoise to start the pullover. The patterned rib is sluggish to knit but indulgent to look at when it is finished. The colour of the coral yarn was brighter than I expected so I used the turquoise for the dolls as the main focus and later added in some cream to lift and also limit the coral colour.

Because I am a loose knitter, I have quite loose floats at the back of my kitting which are ideal for the yoke which needs to be stretchy. It is sometimes hard to maintain consistent gauge knitting over your plain and stranded work but I get better every time.

I found the crucial round of joining the sleeves to the body extremely difficult. This is where I drafted in my bloke to read through the pattern with me. He can't read a pattern so he asks lots of annoying questions like, "Why do you do that?; What does this mean?; Surely you have the wrong amount on there and What are you actually aiming for?" In the end they are not annoying at all because they help me to see where I have gone wrong by exposing and scrutinising my every interpretation. He's good like that.

I wish I trusted my sizing more. I added rows to the body because Kate Davies knits are always short in the pictures but I am short in the body so why do I always add rows? I wish I had left it a bit more cropped, it is a little oversized for my perfect fit. You live and learn.

I wanted to wash it to let the stitches fall into place but with 65% wool and 35% alpaca yarn content, I felt dubious. Washing the gauge square on a 30 degree machine wash (with some tea towels)was a good experiment. The gentle machine handwash finished the feel of jumper really well and made the natural fibres bloom a little and fill the colourwork spaces. Washing also granted me time to block the hems for the best finish. Maybe I should try washing the gauge square on 40 degrees and see if I can get some gentle shrinkage to help with the overall sizing. Mmmmm....

I love my new pullover and the beginnings of some spring weather in which to wear it.

Thanks for dropping by. Jo xxxx

The New No-Sleeves Sensation

I think I may have found my new path for knitting. If I am hardly wearing my woolly jumpers in February in the depths of a UK winter, then it feels like there is no need to knit any more...but I love knitting! My new garment of choice is going to be sleeveless knits. I have found that in our new warm house I can comfortably work, keep busy and stay warm enough in a sleeveless top over a shirt.

The pattern is from a Drops magazine purchased from a charity shop in October. I did think the stitch pattern would be cables from the picture but it turned out to be easier than that by creating a knit 3 and passing the first stitch over to cinch in the pattern section.

 My mum made something from the magazine too but we both felt the instructions were a little strange. It just goes to show how  spoilt we are having so many patterns written in English, the English translation in the magazine was a little wayward but we helped each other out.

The top is made with Drops Paris so the whole thing came in at about £7 which is an absolute winner. The colourway was described as heather but it is more of a raspberry colour.

It was not without its dramas. I sewed up a shoulder, knit the neckband and just before sewing up the last shoulder I had a thought that it looked a bit small. Doh! It wouldn't go over my head. A little unpicking then picking up and re knitting the shoulders soon rectified the problem.

                          

This latest top is testimony to the discovery that I love wearing sleeveless. It was chosen to store away for summer but I loved the colour so much that I wanted to wear it straight away so I paired it with a white shirt and hey presto! Comfortable but not scruffy, I have loved wearing it. It has even been through the wash and still looks great. It made me want to make some more. Furthermore, you know me, it made me want to make a new shirt too!

Lately, I had lost my knitting mojo somewhere so I subscribed to The Knitter magazine which lead me to buy a book by Kate Davies which I read about in an article. I am all fired up again now. 

Guess what? there is a short sleeved 4ply knit in the book which is right up my new garden path. Wool is on order...exciting...

Are you knitting anything good?

Jo xx

Cosy Carbeth Cardigan

Quietly, I have been knitting the Carbeth cardigan by Kate Davies. I really liked the shaping on the shoulders and I always knit jumpers so I thought it was time for something different. 

It feels more like a jacket because it is so warm and cosy.

I have been looking for the right kind of chunky yarn to make it with for ages but in the end after a yarn search on ravelry I noticed that lots of people had used Drops Lima ran double(65% wool and 35% alpaca). I liked the ones I saw made in Drops then found someone who looked about the same size as me to copy their yardage for placing a yarn order.

The cardigan used 15 balls of Sea Green which was absolutely spot on. I really wanted the rusty orange colour but it was sold out. I did make it longer than stated as it was a bit too cropped for me; I may possibly have gone a bit too long now but that's OK.

 Now that we are in a second lockdown I decided to use wooden buttons because this was the sort of colour which made online button shopping impossible - blue or green? teal or turquoise? 

After finishing it, it was quite a tight, dense, heavy article. It needed blocking to make it bloom.

A short soak in the sink with warm water but little agitation did the trick.

The joy of underfloor heating means that I can spread out a towel on the office floor and shape the garment. It still took ages to dry.

 

The back has the same triangle detail as the front which shapes a faux raglan seam and the sleeves are knit in the round. It is knit from the bottom up and the neckband is folded over and sewn down to give it some stability.

I can safely say I am super warm. Thanks for stopping by. Time for some Christmas knitting now I think. Jo xxx

Knitting Waterlands

Long story but I am sure some knitters tuning in have been there. I bought some ridiculously expensive wool to make a specific short sleeved sweater for Autumn. I started the damn thing three times, my mum started it for me as well and I just couldn't get the pattern going. Meh!

I hid £50 of wool in the yarn basket for a while but it was still on my mind - so many pennies! During lockdown earlier in the year seemed a good time to face up to it and take my time to choose something lovely to knit while I had some extra time.

The Waterlands pattern from Pom Pom magazine issue No 31 had always looked very wearable to me apart from the three quarter length sleeves. The pattern was not for 4ply (which mine was) but I thought I would give it a go and sort of make it up as I went along; a dangerous thing to do with such luxury yarn. 

The risk was minimised however by the fact that you can try on this style sweater as you go along because it is knit from the top down. I can report that I tried this on soooooo many times while I made it. There wasn't really the option to knit a complicated sweater in expensive yarn that didn't even fit - that wasn't the outcome I was looking for.

I paired the Adrifil alpaca with some 4ply drops flora and some raspberry wine 4ply I used to make this. It was a good combination for the colour and stitch work, for this sweater required both things to be happening at the same time on the yoke. I loved knitting it at this stage.

I added extra increase rows to allow for thinner yarn and then did some major increasing towards the end which gives it a gathered effect. I tried it on and was happy with the chest size and arm openings. There are some short rows worked at the back to stop the neck sagging too much. This also gives the added bonus of knowing the front from the back!

Knitting endless grey in the round with 4py was a bit of a schlep but watching TV at the same time helped. By now I was well and truly off piste and out there on my own in the knitting galaxy.

I made a decision to make a really deep ribbed hem to ensure that it sat well over my hips, it wouldn't curl up, and it matched a sleeve plan I had hatching in my head.

So the sleeves - I din't use the pattern at all. I decided on 3x rib sleeves because I missed out on doing them on this sweater and liked the slim silhouette they gave a baggy sweater shape.

Oh my! Ribbing sleeves is quite a commitment. Again, I had to follow my instincts and knit try on, knit try on... I wrote down every row in my note book so that I could make sleeve number two. It turns out I love them so much I would do them again on another sweater even though they took some time.

I am absolutely in love with my new sweater, it is one of the best things I have ever made. The yarn is so soft and light but cosy and warm. Oh and in case you are wondering, I had to buy four more balls of grey, making a total of nine!

I think sometimes you have to see knitting as a hobby of time not as a really expensive jumper. I have been enjoying knitting this since April which is pretty good value I think especially as we haven't been able to go anywhere else for entertainment.

Thanks for dropping in. Jo xxxxxxx