A Woolly Jumper

 

Sorry, I couldn’t resist that title with my lead photo.

My Mum has been visiting and, usually, I save up or start a knitting project to be companionable as she always brings some knitting.  However, this time, she has decided she wants to get into sewing and so I have been helping her with some of the basics – and I mean the real basics.    She wanted to go into the only local fabric shop so I had to walk past the fabric with my eyes straight ahead  (due to fabric fast) until I got to the woolly bit.  There’s not much choice to be honest and it’s all Bergère de France stuff which I can take or leave and what stock they do have is of the more boring  standard variety and nothing to get excited about.  However, they did have two very large sheep made of wood with thick woollen fleeces.  They were a bit pricey but then I spotted the mini one with hanging string and Mum added it to her magnetic pincushion and cord purchases* and gave it to me as a little gift.

I mentioned before that I was planning on knitting a Kim Hargreaves pattern called ‘Drew’ which is from her ‘Storm’ pattern book.  It is a little different from the humungus blankets I’ve been knitting in that it is only two strands of wool (not six) and quite skinny wool at that.  The needles are 4mm and 5mm rather than 20mm so I’m finding the transition – and rate of growth – a little hard.

From this –

to this

Should keep me going for a while.

The yarn used is one strand of Rowan Kidsilk Haze and a one of Kid Classic- both with mohair – and they are delightfully soft and luxurious and, therefore, expensive.  I found the Kid Classic in a pale grey – exactly 11 balls which is what the pattern calls for – on Ebay and bid high (although not as high as it would be full price) in order to knock the competition out of the water.  Which I did.  Just.  Then I found the dark grey Kidsilk Haze from another seller and it was, miraculously, only £4 a ball.  So I bought it and waited.  Then I got an email to say the Hazy one was out of stock but should be in by the end of the week.  Then they cancelled the order and refunded me.  I was not a happy knitter.  So I sent them an email and complained because I don’t like it when people sell you stuff they haven’t even got in stock.

Meanwhile, I scoured the internet to find some more hazy stuff because I wanted to knit the cardi but didn’t want to pay umpteen pounds for it.  Of course, I had to find a colour that went with the light grey as you knit the two strands together.  I found a young lad selling some of his mother’s yarn stash and it wasn’t a bad price so I bought it to see how it would look and I figured, if I didn’t like it, a bargain would still have been struck and I could use it on another project.

Then, the seller of the dark grey – chastened by my complaint no doubt – came back and said it would be coming back into stock and, when it did, they would send it to me free of charge.  So, to cut a long story not very short, I ended up with both hazy ones and made a swatch with both to see which combination I liked best and I was going to ask you which you preferred.

This –

or this

but please don’t answer me now, unless you were going to say the second one because, as you can see by the continuation from rib into pattern, I decided on the dark grey.

Another problem I had was with the pattern because when I did the swatch, I cast on 21 sts and knit 28 rows over the pattern, as instructed  to obtain a 10cm square .  However the pattern just wasn’t working out so I contacted the Kim Hargreaves U.K. site and begged asked for help.  Apparently, the pattern is worked out in sets of 4 stitches plus 3 and they suggested I cast on 27 stitches and try again.  Which I did and it worked.  But, dear knitters, should I have known this? If the swatch is knitted over the pattern is it normal to have to work out the pattern first before casting on for the test square?  I have never come across this before.  Shouldn’t they just have you do the swatch in stocking stitch or something.  Is it me?  I will say though, that I was impressed with the speed with which they answered my query.

Now I’m back up to the workroom to help make another  *drawstring bag  😉

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A Bit of Home Décor For A Change

I finished my mammoth blanket last night

      Once I swapped these

for these

It made life much easier

I love it! It makes me want to roll myself up in it and drink hot chocolate.

For scale, that’s a 2-seater sofa I have artfully fartfully draped it across.

The dog looks like she wants to wrap herself in it too but I’m not sure how the open knit texture would respond to dog claws – not too well I suspect so it will be a human only blanket.

Once my shoulder has recovered from the slight ache caused by the weight of the thing towards the end, I’m going to make another in a flecked duck egg blue.

Looks like knitted blankets might be fighting for space with quilts in my house from now on.  Won’t Mr. Tialys be pleased as, like most men, he does love a cushion and a throw 😉

By the way, if you fancy giving it a twirl yourself you can find the pattern here or on Ravelry under the designer Erin Black.

A Load of Old Pony

I’ve told you about my mammoth blanket that I’m knitting with these enormous needles

Well I’m 2/3 of the way up the blanket – it gets hot under there by the way – and the wire came out of the end of the plastic needle and half the stitches fell off.

The make is ‘Pony’.

‘Pony and trap’ is cockney rhyming slang for ‘crap’.

Blanket work has come to a halt while I wait for another set of needles to arrive from Germany.  They will be by Addi.

Just thought I’d share.

Knit Large

I know how to enjoy myself at Christmas.  Who cares about mince pies and tins of Quality Street when you can wrestle with six half kilo balls of wool and ginormous needles?

My Mum was here so, as usual,  other projects get put on the back burner and I do the sociable thing by joining her in a ‘knit-in’.  I was almost finished knitting a jacket (next post) but she was intrigued to see how my mammoth blanket would work out.  You may remember me showing you the needles and one ball of wool recently.  You take 6 x 450ish grams of wool and a 20mm circular needle and, because you have to knit with 6 strands – one from each ball – careful preparation is needed in order to avoid tangling.  As you can see, I have made use of post Christmas Day gift bags to encase three of the six balls and all these go inside a cardboard box.  There are other ways of arranging your project but this was sort of the one suggested although the gift bags were my contribution and add a festive touch to the proceedings in my opinion.

Surprisingly, it is not that difficult to wrangle with and I have worked out that, taking an average of 5 minutes per row, the whole thing will take me 13 hours to complete, barring accidents and mishaps (and possibly dogs and cats discovering the hiding place of the box).

The cabling is fun.  I declined to buy a 20mm cable needle and am, instead, using the huge crochet hook that you need to help with the initial cast on.

I like the way it’s turning out – the colour is supposed to be a bit tweedy (it’s called ‘herringbone’) but the lighting was pants when I took these photos so you can’t see the little brown and black flecks amongst the grey very clearly.

It will be a good size when it’s finished – 49 x 64 inches – and no sewing up to do which is always a bonus.

It keeps your hands busy and out of the biscuit and sweet tins although I managed to lift a glass or two to my lips occasionally it has to be said.

From time to time we were disturbed  pleased to see visitors and, if accompanied by dogs, they were not allowed to leave unencumbered by a dog bandana after a quick photo session.

Thank you Storm

and Rocky

he wasn’t fed up that’s just what a boxer dog’s face looks like 🙂

Happy New Year to all.