Woosh!

Well, soon after I finished the last post I'd actually cast off on both sleeves, and now I've just finished the back and front of the wee little jumper!  I think by next week I'll actually have finished and photographed it!  I love baby knits, they're even faster than socks and you can do whatever the hell you want on them - stuff that would look crazy on an adult only ever looks cute on babies!

Had a bit of a find today - about 1.5gb worth of knitting patterns appeared on my computer, ones I swear I've never downloaded or even seen before!  Been doing some catalogueing and I'm slowly adding them to my collection.  They're all 70's and 80's style patterns for kids (so far!)but there's some really cute things in there, like little chequered jackets ad lace christening  shawls.

My tip for using up your leftovers...

Find a baby, and knit it a jumper!  Seriously, baby jumpers are tiny and if you have a range of colours and a bog-standard jumper pattern, then the world is your mollusc!



I had quite a lot of white yarn left over from knitting a blanket, and some sparkley white from some other baby clothes, and some blue from knitting that teddy.  All Acryllic and all DoubleKnit, so I've started knitting my friend's 7-month old nepphew a jumper.  The pattern I'm using is for the jumper in leaflet number 4273 by Stylecraft, which is plain stockinette stitch and is already intended to be knit using different colours.  I cast on both sleeves at once, so I could be certain they matched, but I have cast on the front and back seperately, since I don't have straight needles long enough to cast on both!



The plan for the body of the jumper is blue cuffs and neckline, and two blue stripes starting below the sleeves with the white sparkley stuff between them.  I've even drawn it all out on graph paper!

Aaron's Finished Socks

Well the socks have been finished for a few days now, and I've finally sewn in the ends of photographed them!  I've popped them in the wash and soon they'll be ready to post, just in time to cheer Aaron up after his spot of bad news :-(





Really loved the pattern, although I can honestly say these are unique since I've somehow managed to reverse the cabling on one sock!  This was only my second pair of socks, and I have to admit I do prefer the toe-up method using a provisional cast-on rather than a figure-8!  Again, the short-row heel is far easier than a heel-flap but i did find knitting all those wraps quite annoying.  I did find a blog post here which explains an alternative method to wrapping stitches, so I'll give that a go next time!


Vital Statistics:

Pattern:  "Boyfriend socks" by Alice Bell

Yarn:  Stylecraft Life 4ply in Mint Green.  Used 68 grams.

Needle size: 2.25mm (My Purple Pins, reviewed on Dooyoo.co.uk)

Size: I made the small 9" circumferance, and the socks are an American size 10½.

Time Taken: 12 days, but i had a day's break between socks!

This one's for you

As some of you may have noticed from my progress bars, I've started a new pair of socks for my friend Aaron.  He's been nagging me for a pair since I started knitting again, and since I have so much yarn left from Pioneer, I've been coerced into using it to knit a pair of "Boyfriend Socks" by Alice Bell.  The pattern is pretty neat, toe up with short-row heels.  This will be the first time I've done toe-up, and last time i used a heel-flap, but i think I'm really getting to like this method of construction.  I've already turned the heel and I'm about to start the cuff, which means extending the pattern from the top of the foot all the way around the cuff, but thats only 6 inches worth and I reckon I'll be starting the second sock tomorrow!  I may end up having to do another pair as I'm almost sure a certain someone was eyeing them covetously...

Just to briefly explain the progress bars - They're a nifty bit of code from the clever people at Ravelry which relays how much of your projects you have completed.  So at the moment you can see Aaron's socks there, and my Great American Aran Afghan, but when I first added the bars to my blog, you would have seen Pioneer and the Afghan.  No doubt some time in the not too distant future, both will be finished and this bit of blurb will make no sense at all :-P  Still I thought it was a pretty cool way to keep you all up to date on all my projects.

And for my next trick...

I have finished Pioneer!  It is lovely, and whilst quite a lot more revealing than I'd hoped for, actually looks quite sweet over a vest top.


I actually had a bit of an accident casting off the main body - instead of using a good lace castoff (k1 *k1 ssk*) I did some sort of variation on knit two together, it was only until i was in bed that i realised what I'd done wrong, so whilst watching an episode of "Girls of the Playboy Mansion" I undone and re-cast-off.  Now I can get it on over my head!

Even though most of the detail is on the back and sleeves (which everyone else can see because I'm not so tall)  The Sleeve edges and bottom edge are knit in double moss-stitch, which i hate knitting but like the fact that it breaks up the rather plain front.



       

I won't win any awards for my crochet however, as for the life of me all those crochet stitches it listed looked completely the same and so i just crocheted 5-stitch chains and joined them to each stitch on the neckline.  It sort of folds inwards, but to be honest it doesn't look that bad.



Vital Statistics:

Pattern:  "Pioneer" by Kbomb, Featured in Knitty

Yarn:  Stylecraft Life 4ply in Mint Green.  Used about 108 grams.

Needle size: 5.5mm

Size: Extra Small

Time Taken: Roughly about 7 days of assorted knitting time.  One of these days I will time myself!

When knitting goes bad

I'd like to introduce you to one of my knitting failures: the Prosperous Hyacinth tank top.

I started this pattern, "The Prosperous Plum Tank" by Joanna Cohen at the end of February this year, and it took me three attempts at the picot edging before I got it right.  This aught to have been the first warning.

The pattern itself wasn't so bad, mostly it was just two charts although you had to keep an eye on increasing and decreasing for it to fit.  Now I'm usually a bit warey when a pattern is intended to be fitted, as I'm a pretty old-fashioned shape - small and skinny, but curvey up top.  I find with a lot of modern sizing that even the extra small sizes are still quite baggy and in future I'll be resizing a lot of the knitwear I make for myself.  This leads me to the second big red warning sign - four whole inches of negative ease,  when I'm already knitting the second to smallest size, and (as i realised later) using a stretchier yarn than they recommended!  Needless to say although I thought I could wing it with the next size down, I can infact fit two, or maybe even three of myself inside the finished garment.

The pattern called for a DoubleKnit 100% cotton yarn.  I substituted for Sirdar Denim Tweed in "Hyacinth" (hence why I renamed it) which is a 60% acrylic, 25% cotton, 15% wool mix, somewhat stretchier than intended.  It was a bargain - almost half price when i bought it (as it was discontinued) and I loved the colours IN THE BALL.  As you can see it knits up in a cammoflage pattern suitable only after an extended session on acid.

I knew this was going to be one of those projects that I was never going to be entirely happy with, but at the time it was just good enough to live with.  But then i cast off.  What really made me mad about this top was that I'd measured the straps, measured myself, held it up against myself at various stages, and allowed for that fact that due to the weight of the rest of the garment the straps would stretch, so i subtracted a few inches to be on the safe side.  After all this, i tried it on and it didn't even cover my chest, I was mortified.  The sizing too is all wrong, the chest increases are too numerous and start in completely the wrong place.  Add to this the stretchy yarn and you'll see why it's now sat under a pile of washing, still the crochet needle stuck out of a  half-hearted and messy crocheted edging.

I guess the lesson for today is that no matter how many wonderfully complicated and correctly sized things  fly off your needles, there will always be one to bring you back down to earth.

Too much yarn, not enough knitting

It's quite possible I've overbought on yarn, especially since I'm 6 inches from the underarm with about 9 to go, with 50g left from my first ball. I'm tempted to knit the last 100g up as socks, but I started some "meida's socks" (Favourite socks, interweave press), got three rows in and then decided that they were going to be entirely the wrong shape. Might have to delve into ravelry to find an easier pattern!

A few months ago i tried my hand at teddy knitting. I knit a traditional bear from Jean Greenhowe's "Traditional Favourites" in blue acryllic. Although the baby for whom it was intended was still a little small to really understand it, mum on the other hand was thrilled, and has asked for some more! I'm now debating the football mascot doll from "Mascot Dolls" also by Jean Greenhowe, knit in their favourite team colours.



Between (and sometimes during) knitting, I've had a manic week. I met a lovely bloke on friday night wihlst at a friend's house - is picking up an escaping ball of wool the modern equivalent of picking up a lady's hankerchief? Sunday was spent at a horse show, sitting mostly in the sun watching the ponies go round. Took plenty of photographs but I will only bore you with them on request. Oh, and i might be getting a puppy...