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.

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Clearing the decks before decking the halls

 

I have my Mum coming over for Christmas – she arrives this evening – and Mlle. Tialys the elder arrives Saturday as long as she catches her early morning flight by showing restraint at the bar and, like Cinderella, leaving before midnight from her office ‘do’ the night before.  I’m worried, I cannot lie.

As it is a bit antisocial to disappear upstairs to my workroom when there are the proverbial halls to be decked, meals to be cooked and eaten, chocolates to be scoffed, the Muppets Christmas Carol to be watched (again) and general merriment to be made, I will be abandoning the sewing for a couple of weeks.  So I attempted to finish projects I had started and clear my cutting table for use as a gift wrapping surface.

Here is the finished Butterick pattern (can’t remember which one) that Mlle T. the younger requested as she likes the bell sleeves.  There’s a bit of a 70s vibe going on here.  A nice easy pattern cut on the bias so no messing with fastenings – just some bias binding round the neck.

 

I bought the new Grainline sweatshirt pattern, called Linden because I fancied making a couple of tops to wear for yoga even though my yoga teacher has disappeared to Mexico for a few months so I will have to be very disciplined and do it in front of the T.V. with DVDs.  Hmmmm………

Anyway, I made a muslin in some plain french terry for the short sleeved boxy version first but it turned out well, if a bit boring, so I added an image and will wear it to classes when they resume.  If you’re wondering, yes, I can do that pose but only once.

This version has no cuffs at waist or sleeves but the other version of the pattern has.  I wasn’t going to add them but my double stitching didn’t come out right around the ends of the sleeves so I added cuffs to hide it.  Then I added the hem cuff for consistency.   I wouldn’t do that again though as I don’t really like cuffs on things – especially trousers/pants – and especially tight ones, I don’t know why, I just don’t.   I made the mistake of making it with stripy french terry and spent a merry couple of hours trying to match stripes until I Googled it and realised that, with raglan sleeves, you have to match what you can in the most visible areas and leave the rest to do what they will.  So I did. Sort of.  The side seams match, in my defense.

I think I’m going to give sewing clothes a bit of a rest for a while now.  I bought Colette’s Dahlia pattern and had the fabric lined up for it – although it is the dreaded plaid – looked at a few finished versions, read some of the comments and just couldn’t get motivated to make it.  This after buying the PDF version and printing out gazillions of pages and then sticking them all together – something else I won’t be doing in future.  Anything bigger than a skirt or top will be ordered as a paper pattern.

Anyway, never fear, my Mum will soon be here and, as you may remember from previous posts, when she is here we knit.

I’m hoping to finish the Kim Hargreaves jacket I started a couple of weeks ago which is going well.  I had a bit of a contretemps with the rear vent – considering I didn’t even know it was there until I thought the pattern had gone nuts – rear photographs of designs which have features on the back please publishers!  Actually, the pattern for the vent wasn’t particularly well explained in my opinion and I had to call in reinforcements.  However, it is done.

Love that blackberry colour and, so far, the Sirdar yarn is proving a good alternative to the Rowan.

When that looks more like this

I am going to tackle a knitted throw.  I don’t know why, I just saw the photo of it and got the urge.  I can’t show you the photo here as the designer doesn’t want her photos shared but you can see it here. You have to use 6 strands of  worsted weight yarn (thats dk or aran to us that speak U.K. knitting terms ) and monster needles such as these.

Those little circular ones with the blue wire are what I used to knit my socks and are there for size comparison as they are 3.5mm and the monsters are 20mm.  That is a 450g ball of wool by the way.  Reading the feedback on the pattern, one reviewer says knitting it was a bit like ‘wrestling a bear’.  I will let you know.