Knit Nights at Loop

Last Thursday I popped into Loop, for one of their Knit Nights.  The shop is open until 7.30pm and the upstairs (the area with the Sofa!) becomes a cosy haven of knitting loveliness from 5.30pm onwards.

I wanted to check it out to see what it's like as a general thing, more specifically I also wanted to do some more knitting out in town while sat chatting to others and thirdly: I had discovered the need (I call it a 'need', if you knew the exact extent of my yarn stash you would, no doubt, disagree with me strenuously on that... cough...) to get, you guessed it, yet more yarn.

I finally had occasion to wear my Aqua Malabrigo Shawlette, but found that the colour doesn't go with a great many things I wear.  But the yarn is so soft!  This mix of silk and merino with the Malabrigo typical buttery softness of the yarn that literally blooms when you block it: I just had to get some more of that!  It wafts round your neck like a delicious cloud: there is absolutely no scratchiness and it doesn't cling or stick and doesn't make you feel uncomfortably hot.  This yarn makes it the most wearable shawl I made (and I made quite a few, check out my Ravelry projects page if proof is needed).

This is it: Malabrigo Silky Merino - a DK weight

Colourway Mattise Blue 415

51% Silk
49% Merino

Gorgeous! (I want some more of either the 428 Pink Panther or the 421 Blackberry! Or the 30 Purple Mystery? Yum...)

I even got half an hour's worth of knitting in!  Loop are lovely hosts: there is coffee and also cake, for reasonable prices.  Sorry, I got there so late (had to work lnoger than normal) that I ran to get my yarn and then threw myself into knitting, - I was completely oblivious to the sustenance available that I literally only noticed as we were leaving.  Note to self: must come back for cake...

The Velvet Damson Juneberry Triangle

Saw the pattern, loved it. Tried to get it, couldn't (the magazine was only available in North America, tut!). Waited till October, found it on Ravelry (yay!), bought it, downloaded it, picked a yarn from my stash...

...and guess what!
It's already finished.

I was chomping at the bit to get into this!  But I'm still very surprised that I managed to knit this up so quickly.  I was expecting it to take a month, or so, so imagine my surprise when it got done in a week.  Being on holiday and able to knit all day might have something to do with that though, funnily enough...

Here it is:



Isn't it gorgeous?

The yarn is Colinette's Jitterbug in Velvet Damson, I used a bit more than one skein (check the yardage given in the pattern, I think I'm very close to that).  I knit this on 4mm needles, the nice pointy ones from Hiya Hiya I think (if that's the silver ones? I get confused, I have so many).

The pattern is a little tricky: the WS rows are not just purl but lace knitting as well, but they are quite repetitive so not too difficult to do.  The edging is a bit more challenging, I needed to refer to the chart all the way round - it is easy to see what you're doing on the RS rows!

I realised quite late in the day (when it was too late to do anything about it) that the nupps didn't pop out on the RS very much at all.  Instead they just look as if the knitted fabric is a bit denser in those areas.  Must be down to my knitting?  In the edging I knit another row and only then decreased back to one stitch, that worked a lot better.  I'd like to make this shawl again and then I intend to get those nupps to behave!

One alteration to the pattern: I didn't like to miss out on the garter edge to cast on anew for the edging, so instead I knit up the three garter stitches, back and forth, for long enough to pick up 19 stitches along the relevant edge (3 per two loops), that together with the stitch from binding off those three garter stitches then gave me the 20 stitches specified to start the edging chart.  I should have probably started three rows into that chart to get to a similar point in the repeats when I got to the triangle's top point to get the nupps placed symetrical, but hey: it's handmade, what do you want.  Not perfection, that's for sure.

I'm loving it, I can't stop wearing it.  Which is the best sign that it's a successful project!  I love showing it off too.

PS: I just uploaded lots more piccies onto my Ravelry project page, if you'd like to take a look in closer detail.

Brooklyn Tweed's Juneberry Triangle is now available on Ravelry!

I am so excited! I adore Brooklyn Tweed's Juneberry Triangle - but I was unable to get this before because I couldn't get hold of the magazine it was in.  The publisher only sells it in North America and eager knitters in Europe and Australia just don't get a look in.  And the Internet is supposed to make it easy to sell your products internationally!  That shows a lot of marketing nous.  Great.  Makes me feel like a second-class citizen, thanks for that.

I was so frustrated about that that I emailed Jared Flood to ask about the pattern's availability, and I was incredibly touched and pleased that he answered. The magazine had six months' exclusivitiy on the pattern but from October 2010 it became available on both Brooklyn Tweed's site as well as Ravelry.

Guess what I just downloaded!



Copyright Brooklyn Tweed



This is it in all its glory. Isn't it out of this world gorgeous?

It costs $6.50 which translated to £4.23 just now. This kerchief is so yummy it's well worth that.  I was also very impressed at how easy it is to both pay for this (nice and safe via PayPal) as well as download it - it's all one smooth, uncomplicated process.  What a great way of getting a pattern that I'm raring to get started on!

And the timing couldn't be better: Ally Pally is taking place this weekend! I'm so excited! I'm bound to find myself 450 yards of a sportsweight equivalent, in fact: I'm sure I'll be spoiled for choice.

Can't wait!