Presents Received and Requested.

It feels like I haven't posted a blog in ages. That is partly down to me having had the cold from hell, which is now thankfully on the wane. The other reason is that I haven't had much finished to share with the blog. I feel like I have been trundling along making progress in my larger more complicated projects, which is satisfying but not particularly interesting.

I was at college on Tuesday (box of tissues on the desk) and we were given a project which involved taking a plain beret pattern and tweaking it to add texture. This took several attempts and the finished article is not something I am particularly proud of. To be honest, I think this would have been easier if I had started from scratch and hadn't had to take into account another person's pattern because I don't think the shaping worked with the textured shapes I added. Anyway here is the resulting hat.



It looks better on the photo than in real life. I will probably donate it to the college display cabinet as I am unlikely to wear it.



It also really needs blocking. I will do that before Tuesday and maybe that will improve things.

I got my kitty swap this week after my OH went to the post office to pick up the parcel. LucyJ sent me a fab kitty called Lavendar knitted from her own handspun yarn. She spun it on a spindle and I am even more tempted to give this a go. Lottie from the Borders group has offered to lend me a spindle and show me how to use it. I am getting more and more tempted to take up her offer. Anyway here is the kitty, isn't it fab?



Not to mention all the goodies that were added to the box the kitty came in.



This was such a lovely parcel to open the other day, whilst feeling rubbish from my cold. Thanks LucyJ for a lovely swap. I am going to take this month off from my kitty swapping because basically, if I don't slow down, I am going to be buried under a mountain of kitties!

I went to my UFO group at Mary Clare yesterday with my friend. Neither of us actually worked on any UFOs but the intention was there. I also bought the yarn for my friend's birthday present. She has requested a felted bag to take out in the evenings, to go with a specific scarf. We chose the yarn and the handles and I bought them and hoped that the yarn would felt. I have just checked on Ravelry and found out it does felt, but it takes a lot of hard work. Ah well, at least it actually felts, and she did say she wanted it to be highly textured.



When we went to my friend's house after the group we matched it up with the scarf and the colours are perfect (phew). I only have a few weeks to get this project done, so you should see progress fairly soon.

Visiting my LYS

Every Thursday afternoon I try to get to my LYS, Mary Clare, to attend a Knitting Group. I have grown really fond of the group members, though seemingly on the surface the only thing we have in common is knitting. These ladies are all older than me, have led totally different lives than mine, some have grown children others are still coping with the consequences of puberty in the teenage population, and others have none, but without fail, when I go the group I laugh my head off.

I love walking into my LYS and knowing that it is MY local yarn store. I know the owner Clare, her children often come into the shop, and I know that she she is always happy to chat when I go in. In fact a couple of weeks ago, I went in to get some extra yarn for a project that needed finishing urgently and ended up staying there all afternoon and chatting while I carried on with the project.

My love of this shop is positively evangelical and I try and drag all my crafty friends there whenever I can, I hope I have made several converts. In fact I know that I have because Clare tells me so! Yesterday I had a phone call from one of my best friends informing me that she was taking me out to lunch as she had taken the day off work. Of course in my role as friend I had to accompany her to the pub, it was my duty! My friend picked me up and we had a lovely lunch and I suggested that we popped into Mary Clare on the way home, as my friend has expressed an interest in going on a workshop. We went in, and spent probably 45 mins wandering around and chatting with Clare. I only bought one thing.



It's a fat quarter of lovely material I have had my eye on for some time. My chair in the knitting group often faces the wall of fabric that is in the shop. Opened out the material looks like this.



I intend to use it as a lining for my Sushi Bag. This was the only purchase made in our visit to the store and it cost a grand total of £2.25. However, Clare was friendly, helpful and we have even decided to make our Friday afternoon visit a regular event. We are going to go to Mary Clare to complete our UFOs, our Unfinished Objects. All crafters have them laying around the house. These are the projects that excited us once, but got cast aside for many reasons, be it Christmas or a brand new yarn. Some of our UFOs only need sewing up and others need much more work. My friend is a stitcher, not a knitter, but this group will be spanning the great craft divides.

This LYS is becoming my home away from home and the only thing I wish it had, was more comfortable chairs! Oh and by the way my friend went into the store today to book us both up for a Blackwork Workshop. It is her very early birthday present to me. I hope it will urge me to start stitching again, but I'm not holding my breath.

PS My postie brought me a bargain from Kemps today.



It is for my Milkweed Project contribution. So despite my loyalty to my LYS, I still cannot pass up a bargain. Dragging my friends there to spend money, just assuages my guilt.

Scarf Design

I have been trying and failing to find a scarf to go with my Porom Hat. I love this hat. This hat is light, warm and pretty. I love the stitch pattern and the wool. All in all, it was worth the time, effort and money. I wanted to find a scarf that I would feel the same way about, that would match this hat.

I have spent HOURS searching through Ravelry looking for a good match to this hat, but have failed in a spectacular manner on every occasion. So after this failure I have decided the only way to get the pattern I want, it is to make it up myself. This, of course, fills me with terror as not only is it something I have never really tried to do successfully, but it is a LACE pattern. However after playing with the basic stitch pattern created by Jared Flood for the Porom Hat, I think I have achieved marginal success. I say marginal because I haven't finished the scarf yet.

I managed to pick up some Rowan Silk Wool DK in shade of Bramble.



As you can see, the colours are not that far apart and will complement each other nicely, I think. The reason I didn't use the same wool for the scarf, as I did for the hat, is the texture. The shetland wool used for the hat, is gorgeous but it is a wee bit scratchy. The Silk Wool, is so soft it will never scratch me.

I decided I wanted the scarf to be reversible as I tend to tie my scarves up rather than wearing them just hanging from my neck. I have therefore made a pattern which uses the lace stitch on alternate sides after around 10 rows, followed by 2 rows of knit. I think when it is blocked it will look ok. I may add a border around the scarf of either garter stitch or a ruffle, depending on the amount of yarn I have left.



What do you think? Should I rip it back and start over, or should I keep going?

Filing System for Projects

Since starting to use the great and marvellous Ravelry, I have LOVED keeping track of my stash and my projects online. But, one thing that I can't keep track of online is the feel of the yarn I use. I also want to keep track of care instructions and any swatches I knit up.

I hope this doesn't come across as being a control freak, wanting more organizing than Ravelry provides and the blog supplements, but it comes back to my administration background. I like being able to lay my hands on things when I want them. To scratch this administrative itch, I have decided to make use of a gift I got for Christmas, from my friend Emma.



As you can see, this box was designed for photos, but it is perfect for what I want. Inside the box there are dividers. I have bought a pack of 6" x 4" index cards and have started my catalogue box.



I can keep the ball band of the yarn I use, and have somewhere to double check the care instructions for any finished object. (I don't want to felt anything unless it's intentional!) I will also try and keep a sample of the yarn that matches the ball band, to remind me when finished objects are given away. I can then decide if I want to buy the yarn again. I also plan to put any details of gauge and sample squares in this box. Its a good size and I hope over the coming months and years it will become very full of vital information. I do like the efficiency of Ravelry and pouring my thoughts out onto my blog, but nothing beats having the yarn in front of you to touch.

Felting Fever

Today I am wacked, as yesterday I felted. It felt like I was dashing too and from the garage, where we keep the washing machine, all day. Whilst keeping a huge stack of felting to be done in one go, feels like a way to minimise on work, it still felt pretty exhausting, probably because I have a front loading washing machine. After all the work I did yesterday, the house smells of wet wool, as the miasma rose from all the radiators over night, but today I had finished felted items ready for photography. So here are the finished/nearly finished items.

Inaugural Gloves



These gloves were huge before felting. I was very nervous about wrecking these gloves because they took so much effort to make, but after several weeks of NOT wearing them because they were too big, I decided it was worth the risk. I felted at 30 degrees for a total of about 30 minutes, inside a pillowcase, so they weren't too heavily felted and I think it worked. The gloves are less floppy, and feel much sturdier and warmer. So I believe this was a success and I have already worn them out the house, with pride.


Citron the Kitty Swap Cat

Citron has been named after the french for Lime, which is the colour of the wool. I believe that she has gallic charm about her, hence her name.



I am particularly proud of the little heart bead that I found, as a symbol for Valentine's day which is smack dab in the middle of this month.



I made the tail from Elizabeth Jarvis' Swapsie Cat pattern, and I think it goes brilliantly with this cat.



All in all I am very pleased with this little kitty and I think the felting really helped finish it off.

Chilko Slippers

These slippers are made from the Brigantia Needlework aran I got delivered recently, and they felted fabulously. They took quite a few washes, but that might have been because I started them at 30 degrees for the the more delicate items. When the delicate items were done, I upped the temperature to 40 degrees and ran it for another 20 minutes are so and they were perfect!



These slippers are a perfect fit, and the felt is gorgeously thick and springy. I will definitely be using this wool again, as it was a real bargain and the colourways it is available in are great. They also have DK weight. The yarn, before felting, is lovely to knit with, as it is soft and smooth and I would use it for un-felted projects as well. All in all, a successful project. I may add embellishments at some point, but I think it is unlikely unless I find myself being inspired with needle felting in the future.

I also felted the other project I made with my Brigantia Aran. I have christened this my Sushi Bag, you may be able to see why.



The "chopsticks" are dowels I intend to use as handles, after I have sanded them down. This is the general idea for the bag.



I just winged the pattern, as I had an idea in my head of what I wanted to produce. I only ripped it back once, when I realised I didn't have enough yarn for the shape I wanted. I may try the original idea I had in the future, but with more yarn.

I will almost definitely be adding decoration to this bag, as it is intended to be an evening bag. I have some nice silver beads and sequins to add and I may try some needle felting designs as well. I don't know when I will get round to doing it, probably not until I have an occasion coming up to use it for, but you never know, I might get inspired.

So there you go, all my felting listed for your delectation. Well almost all, I also re-felted my other slippers that had got floppy, but you don't need to see photos of them!

Lots of bits and bobs

I have just realised how long it has been since my last post. I have been very distracted this week with lots of "bits" of projects. I feel like I haven't really had a crack at one single project, and I think that is why I have avoided posting. I felt like there was nothing to take pictures of, so I didn't want to write about the lack of progress.

Part of the cause of my project fickleness, is I want to do a felting wash. I wanted to knit some more felted slippers after the success of my crocheted ones. I live in these slippers and they have grown very stretched and need re-felting. I decided that if I had more than one pair, of felted slippers, it would mean I could wait longer between re-felts and maybe have other projects to felt at the same time. I really don't like to run a nearly empty felting load in the washing machine. So, with this in mind, when I read my Let's Knit last month I jumped at the chance to knit the slipper pattern. They recommended Brigantia Needlework for the aran weight wool and I decided to give it a try. They delivered promptly, and for free. When it arrived I was delighted with the yarn as it is springy and soft.



I have knit the slippers, which took no time at all, and I have put them to one side to wait for felting.

I also decided to add to the felting pile by knitting my contribution to Kitty Swap this month, in a pattern that needed felting.



This little kitty is from a pattern called Fortune Cat by Justine Turner. I found the pattern a little confusing at times, but stuck with it, because I loved the little cats on the projects pages of Ravelry. The main thing I hadn't noticed, was there was no part of the pattern for a tail! I will try and knit up a tail before felting.

I went to my knitting group yesterday and found the perfect bead for hanging round this little guy's neck. I was so proud of myself, I only spent 50p at this knitting group, that has to be some sort of record for me!!!



Its a perfect valentine's bead for February's swap.

I also knit alot of sock at the knitting group, but the first one is still not finished. I won't bother taking any more photos until I have a pair complete, but I am really enjoying knitting them up.

I have also made some more progress on my February square for the KAL Blanket. It is looking rather gorgeous, if I say so myself.



And that is about it for my week of knitting. It seems like nothing at all, but it felt like I was knitting like fury all week. Projects are sometimes like that, and then you have lots finishing, all at the same time. I suppose that is what will happen after I finish the felting wash. In the meantime I will continue to knit things for felting. I may try a bag with the lilac wool I got from Brigantia.... watch this space!

Organising My Stash

I have tried to make use of my snowy incarceration this week. I have finally sorted out my overflowing stash cupboard. I needed to empty this cupboard so I could put all my WIPS away, which would enable me to reach the sofa, in order to sit down and knit. Once I had emptied said cupboard I had to do something with my stash. Once I unpacked it from all the bags there seemed to be an awful lot. I also saw some of the lovely yarn I had bought and it inspired me (more of that later).

I decided that I needed somewhere to put my yarn and I purchased the ideal solution. I bought two boxes that fold flat, but when erected have a perspex window along one side and a lid. I have put all my yarn away in these two boxes, stacked one on top of the other and covered it with a throw - t'dah! As if by magic my stash is hidden away but can be accessed very easily. I still have about half a box left empty, but I'm sure I will resolve that problem very swiftly.

Of course after all this hard work, I was exhausted and in pain, so I needed to sit down and do some crafting. As I said above, I had been inspired by the lovely yarn I had unearthed and my favourite was some sock yarn. It is called Happy and it is made by Wendy and is 75% bamboo and 25% nylon. The yarn is gorgeous and soft with a very light sheen to it.



I love this yarn and desperately wanted to play with it. As it is a nice fine and smooth yarn I decided to use my teeniest needles, my 2.5mm Harmony circular needles. Knitting this yarn on these needles is such a dream, it is totally without effort and the socks have sprouted exceedingly quickly. But I am getting ahead of myself again. I decided that after the success of the top down socks, I made from a recipe, I would try a similar idea but from a different direction. I decided to try the Universal Toe Up Sock Formula by Amy Swenson, published on Knitty.com. This is a sock with a short row toe and heel. It uses your measurements and stitch pattern to calculate how the sock is constructed.

This pattern is the first time I have tried short rows using wrap and turn, and I like the way this method shapes the toe.



This method creates a much smoother shaping for the toe, which feels seamless. I decided to add interest to the sock by doing a simple rib on the top of the foot and up the leg, which means I won't have to work out where to start the cuff. It is a P2, K3 rib and it makes a nice elegant rib, which will hopefully mean the sock hugs the foot and the leg. I will probably have to increase the width of the ankle after turning the heel, but I'll work that out when I get there. In the meantime, here is what I have produced so far.



Isn't it pretty, and the name of this yarn is very apt, as these socks are already making me happy.

In other areas of craft, I have finally finished my friend's baby blanket. It is to be handed over on Tuesday, so there was a bit of a rush on this week. I ran out of the yarn already bought and decided to do an accent colour for the trim. I used two strands, one of white and one of yellow, which contrasted with the green and the white, with coloured specks, that the main body was crocheted in.



The trim has a very slight ruffle to it, which was more by luck than judgement but I liked it, so it stayed.



I think this contrast trim helps emphasise the mint green, but also picks up the yellow specks on the white wool in the body of the blanket.



The final size of the blanket was 40" x 50" which is a good size and covers an adult lap and could be doubled up to cover a baby. I am very pleased with this blanket, and am sorry to see it go, but I am sure that the recipient will love it as much as I do, especially as it is acrylic and can be chucked in the washing machine, (I try to be practical about such things). Speaking of which, I better go and do exactly that before handing it over, it has been hanging around for several months, waiting to be completed.

Bobbles, Cables and Lace

I thought the snow was going to clear yesterday, but I woke up to even more of the white stuff. In fact our summer house now looks like a Swiss Chalet.



And the garden looks very dramatic.



Those of your who DON'T live in the UK probably think snow is no big deal, but to us it happens so rarely as soon as there is a sprinkling of snow on the ground, we get all giddy and can't wait to start taking photos.

Because of the snow it has been pretty difficult for me to get out the house apart from a brief foray into College on Tuesday, so I've been knitting pretty constantly. I was glad I got to college as I now have worked out where I went wrong on my textured hat. The tutor was able to point out the problem immediately and I was able to get it finished. So here is my finished hat.



I particularly like the leaf motif, which is used to do the increases from the ribbing.



The moss stitch wasn't much fun, but it does look good now it has been finished.



At College we learned how to do twisted rib, which forms part of my February square for my KAL Blanket. I have been doing it the long way using a cable needle to move one stitch behind the other. My tutor explained to us that you could knit into the second stitch on the needle, before knitting into the first stitch, and then slide both off together. This simple revelation has speeded up my knitting of the blanket square no end.



How useful it was that the tutor included this technique in her lesson plan. This is why I go to College to learn to knit, for these tips. I have to say I prefer the method of doing bobbles on this pattern to that on the textured hat. The blanket square pattern for bobbles is:



Make bobble by knitting into next stitch 5 times, turn, P5, turn, K5, turn, P2 tog, P1, P2 tog, turn, K3 tog.

The hat uses this method:



K1, P1, K1 into next stitch, turn K3 into these stitches, turn P3, turn K3, turn P3. Take the back 2 stitches over the first stitch.

I think the blanket bobble is much rounder and sits closer to the body of the knitting and produces a smaller hole on the wrong side of the knitting. I know some of that is due to the hat being knitted in a thicker more slippery yarn but I think it is still the better bobble.

I am really enjoying the textured knitting class. I am also glad I chose to do mainly textured squares for my blanket, as it ties in nicely with the class I taking. I will probably do the coloured blanket squares when the novelty of cabling has worn off and I want to make something a bit more flowery. Knitting is very exciting at the moment.

Cables on a Snow Day

Today it snowed. It is all over the news, all over twitter, on everyone's blogs and internet news sites. I felt I had to mention it because it never snows in the UK, and when it does it is BIG news. Its sad but true. In fact our changed weather had such an impact, my cat did not know what to do. She stayed in the house as long as possible and finally succumbed to curiosity about what the white stuff all over her garden was. Once she had left the warmth of the house, she knew she had made a mistake and came to the window to see if we agreed with her, that it was not good outside.



Once she had our attention, she decided that as we were already at the window, we should let her in that way, rather than making her walk the whole 3 feet to the cat flap over the cold snow. When we refused to open our patio doors (did I mention the snow and the cold?) she grew a little desperate and in a frenzy scratched at the window (well it was more of a squeak as she had wet feet).



I tried to be strong, but the squeaking began to get to me after a few minutes and I caved, and opened the patio door. Once inside, she seemed to go into shock and gazed outside in horror at what she had been forced to endure in her brief foray into the wilds of suburban Leicester.



Our cat is a total wimp! She has remained curled up ever since.

Now that my token Snow News element of the blog is over, back to the crafting. I finished my Kidsilk Haze Scarf last night. I really love it, and think the colour is gorgeous. This scarf is the first item in my 2009 Christmas present pile.



I don't have a recipient lined up yet, I think it will be allocated on the basis of a) whoever doesn't see the blog and b) whoever sees the blog but REALLY wants the scarf. I think it unlikely that anyone who sees the scarf now, will remember it by Christmas, but if anyone reading this normally gets presents from me, let me know if you hate it!

I have finally cast on the Cable Cushion Cover from The Knitter which is to be my centre patch for my KAL Blanket project. I am knitting it in this yarn:



I am using 4mm needles so it is the same density as the other blocks for this blanket. The pattern calls for aran weight yarn and 4.5 mm needles so the look and feel of the finished item will be different from that intended, but I think it will look good with the options I have chosen.

I think there is an error in the pattern, apart from that given already on the Ravelry page. I’ve sent my notes to the pattern editor on Ravelry and wait to hear from her, as she works for The Knitter. With my assumed corrections, I am very happy with the way the block is working up. I think this will look fabulous as the centre piece to my blanket. I will post pictures when I have knitted more than the 10 rows I have currently on my needles.