The owls mittens!

I forgot to post this. It happens.

Written at end of October 2017 when I didn't want to post this too early in case the recipient saw this before Christmas, and then...  Oh well.

~ ~ ~

Shhh, Christmas is not far away so let's not tell secrets...

Here is my current knitting project and I am really pleased about the colourwork:

I also discovered the photo editor Polarr, it can do so much more than I realised photo editors can do. It was a blessing in disguise that the default programme on this Windows 10 machine didn't even do brightening let alone sharpening. I discovered a new passion!

I can see myself slaving away over photos from now on. I just hope I figure out how to best use it. At the moment it's a case of sliding around any which lever to see what it does.

Anyway...

The ribbing looks really nice: the purl stitches are in black and the knit stitches in aubergine. I also like the pattern on the other side, and I love the owls.

It was a relatively quick project though not quite as quick as I would have liked. Still it was quick enough for me to start the second pair of mittens with fairly high confidence that I can get them done by Christmas. Also a present.

What I don't like about these: my sister only has small hands and the thumb placement is too low. They came out massively too long when the ribbing could have sat a bit lower. Darn. If she likes them I'll just have to knit them a second time.

And the other side as well as the mini owl on the thumb!

Knitting plans

Another old blog draft from 2011. I should state up front that I haven't followed through on those plans yet.  But I will.  Fair Isle colourwork is too beautiful to not do.


I bought this book a while ago with a plan in mind:

Since then I bought a hellofalot of different colours in Jamieson Spindrift.  Think reds and pinks, think blue and greens, think some greys and a bit of dark brown and black too.  Gorgeous!

I must admit that I bought lots of them from what they looked like on the screen (never a very good idea - of course I ended up with a couple of surprises.  Shades I will be passing on to someone who can give them a good home).  Then I realised that the shade card is back in stock and the whole process could have been a touch easier.  So I bought that one too, and then of course I had to fill the gaps of those colours that had hidden behind less than well-matched shade graphics.  I've got about 20 odd balls of yarn.

Plenty to design a pattern with!

I didn't want to start from scratch and this book is terrific because there are lots of patterns in there that can be used for Fair Isle knitting.  The vast majority of those are written as black dots on a white background.  Very good for counting out and not so helpful if you would prefer to see how different colour combinations will look like.  There are a handful of examples in there.

Patterns for Fair Isle knitting tends to make strips of colour (the top half of the book cover shows this variation*), often this will be two strips that are quite different from each other (I will do one in reds and pinks and the other one in blues and greys, mixing in the greys where needed).  Some of the time you have a third strip that's much thinner and gets placed between each of the coloured strips, also in a pattern but usually in very neutral colours with a minimal pattern, often just a cross or a star shape.

The coloured strips will incorporate patterns that repeat from right to left.  These are usually symetric so you would only need to design and draw up a quarter of the pattern because it will be mirrored both across and up.  If that makes sense.

Even though a Fair Isle pattern may look like a lot of different colours are used at one time, it is actually only ever two at a time.  If you use a star shape then the star itself would be one colour and the background the second colour.  But Fair Isle lives from shaded colours: the very simplest form of Fair Isle would be colourwork of say a pink star on a grey background.  But in these patterns you use two colour for anything between one and two or three rows and then you switch to two different colours.

You have to decide whether you want more emphasis to the centre of the patterned strip or more focus on the edges of the strip.  So say you start with a dark red for the star and a dark grey for the background. You would knit in pattern for two rows and then switch to say a dark pink and a mid grey, also for two rows.  You could then have a third set of two rows in say light pink on a different shade grey.  The middle row of the strip needs another two colours and then you repeat the colour choice from the lower half but mirrored.  Starting with the light pink/grey combo, you then do the dark pink/mid grey colours and back to the dark red and dark grey.

That in a nutshell is how Fair Isle works.  At least as far as I can figure out.  And it's my plan for how to pick my colours, I've got plenty to choose from!

*: the bottom half of the book cover shows another variation of how colours can be applied in Fair Isle knitting.  The effect isn't so much stripes but a more even cover of pattern across the available space.  I will try this in a future project but right now I want to go with the stripes idea.

I am planning on knitting up a sample of my bigger stripe (in red/pink and grey) and where a single colour does not look so great, I might just embroider another colour over the top to see how those colours go together.  Same with the second, slightly less tall stripe in blue and green (and some brown and black).  I do wonder if I should put a very thin stripe of something suitably neutral so I don't end up with a jumper that's too bright and busy. Maybe something that's just five rows tall?  My swatches should be very helpful.

I can't wait to get started!  Only... I have too many other unfinished projects and it would be so very nice to finish at least one of those.

Wish me luck.

Birdsong Socks

I am determined to blog about the projects I completed but forgot to write about.  As if that should be a problem!

I have not taken nice enough photos of some projects, those will have to wait.  But I do have good enough pictures of other projects.

So here goes, another project I really like:

I call them my birdsong socks.

I saw the pattern and just had to get it.  it is available on Ravelry and called Nightingale by Vintage Purls.

I would have liked a variegated blue for the pattern and either solid-ish black or dark brown for the background.

I was too keen to start so I bought what went well together.  The yarn is Drops Fabel by Garnstudio.  I bought it from Nest in North London.

It is nicely sturdy yarn.

The pattern at the back is a nice thistle design. I wish I would have realised that I could have started it a few rows higher up.  Never mind, this is good enough.

I also saw this pattern used in a waistcoat - that looked extremely wonderful too. Which is something I'll keep in mind (!).

At first I found the 'one stitch in pink, one stitch in grey' pattern used on the sole, the gussets, the back of the heel and the top of the socks to be rather annoying to knit.

I eventually worked out a rhythm where I held the grey yarn (I knit continentally) and pulled up the pink when needed.  I should have paid attention to that but because I thought it would look the same whichever yarn you hold, I switched on one of the cuffs and held the pink instead and brought the grey up.  You can see the difference in the above photo.

I guess this could make for interesting patterns - but I wouldn't want to have to try and produce different tension by trying to do this on purpose.  That sounds rather tricky.

Since finishing these I have heard of a Scandinavian knitting technique called Stickning that I thought involves this same thing: alternating knitting one stitch in two colours.  But now I think that Stickning refers to knitting in general - although this stripey knitting does feature heavily in the Scandinavian knitting that I just found.

I don't know if this kind of pattern has its own name but I know one thing about it: knitting with two colours in every round makes your socks extremely warm and cosy!

I love wearing them at home for walking about in, in flip flop like shoes.  So toasty.  Love!

Nest - New London yarn shop!

Nest is a new London yarn shop.  They are open as of today, Sat 30 October 2010.

Being located in my neck of the woods (I walked there, woohoo!) made it easy for me to go along and check out today.  And I must say: I am impressed.

It is a lovely shop with really nice yarn and lots of other items.  The mother & daughter team running the shop are warm and welcoming, and the shop itself has a lovely atmosphere.

I understand that they will have Drop-in evenings/times designed for people to come in and do some knitting, but I also understand that if you just want to sit and knit, waiting for a friend or spend a bit of knitting time with friends, then you you could pop in and see if it's convenient.  There is a very inviting area with seats and sofas at the back of the shop.

Of course I had to buy some yarn (when could I ever resist!):

And also a shawl pin:

There were two yarns that I am very interested in (the kind of yarns that will make me go back!).  The first one: Drops Alpaca at £3 is very good value for money, I liked some of the colours a lot and can imagine making something Fair Isle in this. Lovely!



Not the actual colours, but similar

 The second one is two weights of JC Rennie that you can buy off the cone.  Just as little or as much as you'd like, this is being sold by weight! Love the idea!
There is a worsted weight and a thinner one too (not completely sure if this was worsted or more a DK. The thinner one could be a 4 ply, but don't take my word for it).

There were quite a few yarns that I liked a lot as well: Fyberspates Scrumptious (I bought one skein in the bright pink, love it!), Malabrigo Lace and Worsted too, Drops Kid Silk and the Shilasdair come to mind.  There is also a very gorgeous but quite pricey Buffalo Gold yarn (which includes some actual buffalo fibre, as well as cashmere) in very nice colours.

Check out their website for more yarns, I only quote the ones I remember in particular.

I really like the fact that there is a bit of a price range - some yarn shops (the yarn boutiques) are very good at selling those yarns at the top end of the range, and then you get the older-style craft shops that are very good at selling the more affordable yarns.  But to get a good range is rare.  I very much commend them for that.

They also do quite a few other bits and pieces.  Again the website lists all of those, just off the top of my head: buttons, ribbons, cards, books, felting tops, kits, and some utensils for knitting and crafting.  There are probably lots more products that I don't recall just now!

The location is at 102 Weston Park.  This particular bit of Weston Park (the name of the street) consists of a small parade of shops.  There is a cafe/sandwich bar called Bon Croissant directly opposite that has some chairs and tables outside, but there are more general shops as well.  Not very many but a good variety.

This may seem a little tricky to get to, but believe me: it's much, much easier than Stash Yarns was, if you've ever been before they closed in Dec 09.  The W5 bus (from Archway to the Sainsbury's behind the Arena shopping centre in Haringay, via the Overground station of Harringay as well as Harringay Green Lanes) goes directly past the shop - no need to look for a bus stop, it's 'hail and ride' round there: pick a sunny spot, crane your neck, wave enthusiastically when you see something big and red come up (let's hope it's not a Royal Mail van instead) and the W5 will stop and pick you up. Fantastic!
It helps if you wait at the corner just 'past' a street crossing and not before as I did today...

There is also the W3 bus that takes you into Finsbury Park or to the Overground station Crouch Hill.  It really isn't very far and the area is a lovely, leafy neighbourhood of nice houses and lots of trees. Very pleasant!

We do not have enough yarn shops in London so it is particularly nice to be able to go to this one.  I would urge you to check it out so that they'll be the success they deserve to be!

PS: They will have an online shop as well at some point, I'm sure their website will say so at the time.

Knitting & Crochet Blog Week - Thursday: A New Skill

Should I make this blog post about steeking? It does seem to offer itself very neatly but I did blog quite a bit about the rose coloured Elizabeth Zimmermann cardigan I made (using the pattern for The Green Sweater).

I think I should write about something else.

This is not too much 'something else' because I will also be steeking the front opening (ahem, forgot about the armhole steeking, I'll be doing those too). I wanted to make a colourwork cardigan but very quickly realised that knitting with two colours is very confusing when you need to purl - the strands of yarn keep getting in the way when turning the work to the wrong side.

That proved too frustrating an obstacle so I ripped back and decided to knit this in the round instead. Much easier! Now I've got to shoulder height but I hadn't known enough to allow for vertical steek lines. Thankfully I have enough stitches to work steeks anyway - I've kept on knitting this with hardly a change in the number of stitches on my needles! I think I should even be able to work a steeked seamline on a curve. To achieve a proper underarm shaping.

This is how far I got:

I could be wrong about the curved steeking, but by heck! I am going to try. Nothing ventured nothing gained. And if nothing is lost then you haven't learnt a thing either. The risk is well worth it. At worst I'll have to re-knit the section from the underarms up and have wasted some yarn. It is Diploma Gold 4 ply which is still readily available. I've even got plenty of yarn at home, I should be fine even if I have to re-knit a quarter of this.

The colour work pattern is from a German knitting magazine I bought over there last winter. I think the top was just called Wave Crest patterned cardigan (Wellenmusterpulli), I need to check.  I like the three rows when two colours are being used but I felt that only two rows of the single colour in between those sections was too short and way too much work - so I increased them to four rows. I think this makes the pattern look more even and not quite as busy. I don't follow the instructions for the garment itself, I am just using the colour work pattern.

I am not sure yet how to make the sleeves so that the pattern looks okay at the top of the arm where it meets the front and back. I may have to play around with this quite a bit. I'll see.

Wave crest pattern Cardie

This is not finished yet, and therefore my first blog on a work in progress, or WIP.

I was going to only blog about completed projects but could not resist it - I am really happy with the pattern (from a German knitting magazine called 'Verena', the Winter 2009 edition, model 10), the wave pattern is lovely! I am managing to get a fairly smooth fabric too, I must be putting the right amount of tension on the thread when I carry it at the back.

I must say though that I am heavily adapting the cardigan. I am using six colours: three greys and two pinks with aubergine as the third colour. The magazine uses four, one of them a very bright turquoise. I do like this colour combination but I was looking for a pattern to use for my six colours, the yarn came first!  I am really pleased with this:

My adaptation involves four plain knitted rows between each of the three colour work patterns rows instead of two as per the pattern. Much easier to knit (and quicker) and it makes the finished article look less busy, not as fussy! I prefer that.

I started following the pattern instruction, casting on the back piece. Then I started changing things by using a hollow hem as for the black Fern tank top - it is very useful if you might need an elastic and you can use one even if you don't strictly need it, just to weigh the hem down. I like how these hems look: the purl row at the hem is very nice and neat. I love the simpleness of it. And it doesn't curl up as much as plain stocking stitch does (the hem still stubbornly turns up though, I need to block this soon, it's driving me crazy. I already hang it up by the hem and hope that the increasing weight will straighten this out but that hasn't happened just yet).

Then I started the colour work. The first row, a right side knitted row, was absolutely fine: three stitches in mid grey, three stitches in aubergine. Easy. Then I turned the work to do the purl row: one grey, one aubergine, two grey, two aubergine and so on... Oh-oh! Hang on, where was I? I only got terribly mixed up about what, when, where... You just can't see what you are doing on a wrong side, those threads you carry at the back tend to block the view!

I didn't even finish the row because I got seriously fed up and decided that I'd lose the will to live before I ever finished the project. So I knitted back, cast on one of the front pieces on the same circular needle (a very loud cheer for circ needles!), knitted that to the same point in the pattern (I had to re-feed it to the correct place on the needle in the process), cast on the second front piece (managing to get the placement right, wahey!), knitted that up to the same row and then with all three pieces (in the correct orientation) still on the circular needle, I just carried on knitting round as if it was all one piece - going round and round.  So much easier, what a huge relief!

What I also did once I finished the hemming part of each front, was to cast on six stitches each (twelve stitches at centre front). I want to use the steek technique to make this cardigan: I will use a sewing machine to put a double seam each down the middle and then cut through the fabric between those stitch lines. Scary stuff! Each of the six stitches will then turn into an inner facing.

That's the plan anyway, wish me luck.

I'm looking forward to finding out how I'll do, I've never used steeks before.