Aqua Jada

I finally finished casting off my Jada from the Lenpur Linen Collection. I didn't actually use the Lenpur because of it's cost, despite loving it very much. I used Patons Linen Touch.

I managed to persuade my holidaying other half to take the photos for once, so I can't blame my timer for once.

I think the colour works really well and the shape is pretty flattering.

I think this type of shape will go with pretty much any style of clothes, and the colour goes with much of my summer wardrobe. I hope to get lots of wear out of it, because of it's versatility.

The yarn I used is heavier than the recommended yarn so it feels quite weighty, but it is not too warm because of its composition of linen and cotton. The stitch pattern lets the garment breathe, as does the shape.

The long ribs on the sleeve mean that the sleeves can be worn either almost to the wrist or pushed up to the elbow.

All in all, I love this garment and the pattern was pretty straight forward, despite the massive picking up job for the ribbing around the bottom. The only sticky bit was keeping the pattern straight whilst increasing and decreasing for the sleeves. As this only covered a total of 18 rows I don't think that was too much of a challenge.

I would definitely recommend this pattern, and the book it came from is full of similarly interesting patterns. I know I will knit more from it at some point.

Now all I have to do is find something to do with the 4.2 balls of Linen Touch I have left.

A Whole Week......

..... has gone by since my last post. I am so workshy it's appalling! In my defence I have been working on a project that doesn't look very interesting as it grows. My Jada is now almost 2/3rds completed, but it doesn't look like much, except a great big flat piece of knitting.

See, its big and its flat. It does have a tiny bit of shaping.

See, there, about half way up the left hand side? Yup, that's it, though it is on both sides. In a couple more inches, I get to decrease on both sides again. Here's another picture so you can see the scale of the thing, using my ball of yarn as a reference.

That's pretty much all I have been knitting for a couple of weeks. It is surprisingly soothing to knit, and I really want to wear it before the summer is gone. That is why it is the only thing being knit right now. However, I am doing other things.

I have started patchwork, at last! I have wanted to do this for months, and have picked up bits of fabric and read up on it and bought a couple of magazines. I have finally started. I bought a great big cutting mat. It's an A2 size I think, with the inches marked on it and different angles. It is great and I love how I can slide it under the sofa, so it doesn't take up valuable space in my crafting cupboard. I also got a patchwork ruler, which is immensely helpful. I spent some time on the internet. The most useful places were here and About.com/quilting. I ended up using the pattern for Comforts of Home. The tutorial is here.

I cut out all the pieces that the tutorial called for and put them in neat little piles. In hindsight, I think this may have been a mistake, but more on that later. I sewed the strips needed for the centre nine-block square, using the sewing machine, and then chopped them up. I then moved to the more comfortable location of the couch and started hand sewing. (Basically I couldn't sit at the dining table any longer. At the end of yesterday evening, I had three nine-block patches.

I love my little blocks, but knew I had to start building the outside bits. This was a lot more tricky. It involved triangles. It is also when I discovered that cutting all my pieces at once may have been a bit daft, for an inexperienced patchworker like myself. You see, not all my pieces are quite the right size. This has made piecing a little difficult. However with some fudging. I finally have a completed 12" block. T'dah!

If you look closely you will see where my fudging took place.

However I am quite proud of the one place where everything went right.

I do have plans for this patchwork. I will share them when I get the strength to the do the other block.

Lessons From The Past & Knitting in the Present

Recently, on the Leicestershire Knitters Group on Ravelry there has been much giggling over vintage or retro books and patterns. I haven't really seen many of this type of thing but decided to take the recommendation to look into charity shops for a good laugh. Yesterday I found myself wandering in an area called Queen's Road in Leicester. I used to live very close to there and always relish a chance to rifle through the very high incidence of charity shops. I have found some great bargains there over the years.

To my delight I found a book that held just the right amount of retro to give me the giggles. I couldn't resist buying it at the bargain price of £3.10. It was the 1981 edition of the Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework.

Some of the images made me how,l especially this delightful patchwork waistcoat modelled by a man with very very bad hair.

Or how about this beautiful dress....

Gorgeous pieces of craft aren't they. Then I got home and started to have a proper look through the book and to my amazement it is stuffed full of very useful information. I should have known better, because my OH has a Reader's Digest book on DIY and is it our main source of information, when the house falls apart. Also when I looked more deeply into the book I found some very beautiful ideas, that I never would have considered, such as this fringing.

Now I have stopped my giggling, I am very pleased with my purchase because it has mountains of information, that I know I will use in many projects to come.

When I wasn't browsing in charity shops this week I have been melting on the sofa. It has been stupendously hot and I have been unable to continue with my felted bag project, mainly because it was starting to felt before I got the yarn round the needles. As I couldn't knit, I surfed the internet and I heard a whisper there was a sale on at John Lewis. As I considered the possibility of an air conditioned store, combined with cheap yarn, I decided to go shopping.

There wasn't much in the sale, but I was very pleased to see that Patons Linen Touch was on sale for half price. I have wanted to knit something in a summer weight yarn and this is ideal. It is a combination of cotton and linen and the colour I got is very pretty indeed.

I had been longing to knit something in Rowan Lenpur but the price had been putting me off. The Linen Touch is a much cheaper yarn, it doesn't have the drape or sheen of the Lenpur, but it is still a nice yarn. One of the reasons I wanted to knit the Rowan Lenpur was the lovely pattern book that accompanied the launch of the yarn. I bought the book and cast on the Jada pattern.

The stitch pattern in lovely to do and keeps you interested without driving me to distraction, yes Ishbel I am talking about you. I have already done two repeats of the pattern today and I think it is looking lovely.

I am hoping to get this finished before the end of the summer as it is something that I believe will come in very useful in the evenings. It is a cross between a shrug and a shawl. I have to admit, the idea of a shawl that doesn't fall off all the time, is a winner in my opinion. I better get knitting if I am to get it finished before the hot weather breaks.