FO: Bluey/turquoise hat

Blue Poppy hat finished in a weekend.  I could have finished it on Saturday afternoon but although it is labelled as DK yarn the Sirdar Escape knitted up quite a bit bigger than the purple hat I made last year with some Debbie Bliss DK yarn.  When I tried it on after doing the cast of it was massive, it covered my eyes!  So you will notice that there are only 5 sections on this version and the purple one had 6.  That was the easiest way of making it smaller, I ripped back the rib picked up the provisional cast on stitches, ripped back one segment and then redid the 1×1 rib.  And then cast off again using Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off which is perfect for a hat as it doesn’t grip your head too tight. Et voila! A bluey/turquoise hat to go with my blue Aeolian shawl.  I still need to find a brooch, badge, button or something to put on the fastening but apart from that c’est fini.  I’ve been wearing it to work this week and have had so many comments about how nice it is.  Don’tcha just love it when that happens? And don’tcha love saying “thank you, I made it!” 

One of my friends loved it so much she asked me to knit another for her so her is another slightly different shade of Sirdar Escape DK which will become a hat for Laura this weekend.  Her head is bigger than mine so I’m going to knit the 6 segments and it should fit her perfectly. 

This week I’ve made two birthday cards, one for my mum and one for my boss.  I painted a picture so I hope that they both like it.  It was peculiar though, I often make presents for people but when I thought about the possibility of either of them throwing away the card I’ve made I was much more bothered about it than if I made a bead necklace for someone and knew they never wore it.  I think it’s because I put more of myself into a picture/painting and because I didn’t buy the constituent parts i.e. beads for it. I will post a picture of the card but not until after mum’s birthday so she doesn’t see it early.

And today I made this:

I bought a necklace from Accessorise in the sale last month for £4.80 which had 5 vintage-looking brooch pendants on it.  My intention was to break it up into bits and make 5 separate necklaces.  This is the first.  The pendant in the centre was from the necklace as was the chain and catch, I added some brown facetted beads and bead cups and here we have a brown vintage set.

I’ve bought some more chain, beads, findings and bits and bobs to go with the other pieces but haven’t quite figured out what they are going to be yet.  This was the easy one!!

Tilly’s OpArt – Finished!!!

It’s washed and blocked, now I just need to deliver it to Tilly’s mum.  I blocked it with a wavy edge as I couldn’t have made it square even if I wanted to.  But I didn’t really want to. I quite like the wavy edges. 

I’m knitting another poppy hat for myself, a blue one to go with the blue lace shawl I made.  I figured I’d be more likely to wear it if I had a matching coloured hat.  It’s made of Sirdar Escape dk which looks like this:

The yarn is from Marmalade Yarns, Frome, Somerset as mum and I went on a mini adventure yesterday.  We also bought a lot of beads in Beadz Bazaar which is also on Catherine Hill.  It’s a really interesting street with an eclectic group of shops and a lovely cafe at the bottom which does fab toasted sandwiches. Mum got chatting to Maxine in the wool shop as they are both from Warrington, Cheshire. And as a result we went to a local butchers and got some tomato sausages which are EXTREMELY difficult to get down south. The wool shop is tiny but is really nice and they even have a blog so you can keep up to date with new stock/sales etc. 

The bead shop gets most of their stock from India and the east so it was quite different from the beads I usually get in Bijoux in Salisbury.  I’m in the process of making some tarnished gold necklaces and couldn’t get jump rings or other findings in the right colour but they had some so problem solved!!

Charity Beads

Halfway through January already, I have no idea where the time has gone.  I didn’t realise it was so long since I had blogged.
 There has been knitting just not writing about it.  Over Christmas I finished the OpArt blanket for Tilly and a cardigan I was knitting for my mum.  They both need washing and blocking, so no photos yet.
Before Christmas I made these necklaces for our charity raffle at work, and the recipients seemed really pleased with them.

I made this red/green one first as the beads were Christmas colours and I thought it would make a nice present in case whomever won it didn’t like it for themselves.
Then I was given a bag of black beads to make a second necklace so I tried to make something in a different style – something I wouldn’t normally wear. So this is what came out. But weirdly I ended up really liking it. I guess it’s impossible to make something I don’t like.

This week I’ve made another black/gold/pearl necklace for a work colleague’s birthday. I just hope she likes it!
And as I spent the last few months knitting for other people so far this year I’ve been knitting a pair of dead simple lace socks with the Zauberball wool I got at the knitting and stitching show. The lace pattern is from Wendy Johnson’s toe up sock book and I’m using the widdershins pattern as usual. However, I have used a different bind off. Brenda of Cast On raved about this bind off so I thought I’d give it a go. It’s Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off from Knitty.com Autumn 2009. And you HAVE to try it, it really is stretchy. There’s no funny ruffle around the top of the rib, I don’t need to make extra stitches just before the bind off and it’s REALLY STRETCHY. I love it! Thank you Jeny!!!

Photo update

This is my finished Aeolian shawl being blocked on my mum’s spare room floor.  It’s even too big for the towel!!  It’s my first really successful blocking and I can see why people love blocking lace.  It really was like magic.

Close up of the points being blocked.

This is the OpArt blanket I’m knitting for a friend’s new baby.  At this point it was 33% complete and I’m about 66% done now. But I have to say that it is the MOST boring knitting in the world.  Each row is now about 500 stitches long and takes forever, at least when you need a really long lace row it has something to keep you interested. All this has is 4 increases per row, yawn.  It does look really cool though so it should be worth all the tedium at the end. 

As my knitting is so boring at the moment I’ve been making jewellery as well.  This is the dragonfly garden necklace I talked about in my last post. 

Detail of the dragonfly clasp and the beads.  Below is the grey bead necklace I made using beads from the knitting and stitching show.  I wanted it to look like it was a vintage necklace and I think it’s worked out quite well.

Detail of the ‘brooch’ -  it’s actually a button and not vintage at all.

Have you decorated for Christmas yet? I put my tree and decs up last night. I also went to the Christmas tree festival in St Thomas’ Church, Salisbury this morning so now I’m feeling well and truly Festive!!

Dragonfly garden

Well, I had a really lovely week catsitting at Sparkleknits house, Coleman and I got on fabulously.  I did manage to hurt my back on Monday night just by rolling over in bed but it’s much better now and should be fine for my 2nd Yoga class next week.  Ironically I decided to do yoga to improve my posture and hopefully strengthen my back/neck/shoulder as I do hurt it much too often!

I did get some knitting done, the sleeves of the cardigan for mum are both knitted to the elbows now, but I didn’t knit that much due to Coleman trying to eat the yarn and my back.  I did do some sketching and some doodles of jewellery I wanted to make and I’ve made some good progress on my latest college project – a still life of pomegranates in acrylic on canvas. 

Thursday after work I went to a 15% sale in the local Bijoux Beads and bought some of these in silver and these to make a necklace inspired by a dragonfly clasp I got at the Knitting and Stitching show from www.nostaligia.co.uk.  I put the clasp at the front as a feature and I wanted the necklace to look like a flower garden that the dragonfly would be flying around.  So I was going for the purples/turquoises/teals/blues that are conveniently in fashion this winter.  They are also my favourite colours so for a change I was indulging myself. 

So last night I finished the grey pearl vintage necklace I’d started a month ago and then made the dragonfly garden one straight after.  They have both turned out well, and almost exactly how I imagined them.  I need to add a few more beads to the dragonfly garden and I’m going to make matching earrings this weekend.

Goodies!!*

Goodies I got at the knitting and stitching show in October at Ally Pally.
From L to R: bead necklace kit in peacock colours, grey glass pearls, summery pink beads, millifiori beads, teal glass beads, needle size gauge for Emily (she’s just moved her from the US so I thought it would help her convert needle sizes), 2 copies of Selvedge magazine (underneath), Zauberball sock yarn, vintage looking findings to go with grey beads, 3 rolls of ribbon and an addi turbo circular needle. 

This is a close up of the Zauberball sock yarn,  I couldn’t resist it.  I’ve cast on a toe so far in the orange stripe you can see at the top and it looks wonderful.  I took it to knitting group last week and asked everyone’s opinion on whether I should knit a plain stocking stitch sock  or if I should use a stitch pattern.  Most people went for plain so you get the benefit of the colours without a pattern interfering – so that is what I shall do.  But I’m restraining myself as I have 4 other projects I should be knitting.

I couldn’t believe how many beads stalls there were and how cheap the beads were.  The string of teal glass ones was only £1.50 and I think it’s 20 beads.  Brilliant!! I got a lovely cardigan in a really similar colour a couple of days later and they will work really well together. 

This week I’ve cast on the sleeves for mum’s cardigan on two circulars and am knitting them simultaneously which was quite difficult to get started but is now working really well. Both are 7 inches long so far. 

I’ve just started reading The End Of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas, I was reading it in bed last night with a cat on my chest, as I’m cat sitting for Sparkleknits this week!! I’ll let you know how I get on, with the book I mean – the cat and I get on like a house on fire.

* and by goodies I mean great crafting things not the 3 comedians from british television.

Happy Halloween!!!

What do you think of my pumpkin carving? Sorry it’s a little blurred I had to take the photo without the flash so the candle light glowed through. I’ve only ever done faces before so it was fun to try something new. And this is the back….

We don’t really do much for halloween but I have worn orange/black striped socks and an orange top all day.
I have been knitting, my current works in progress are:
1) OpArt blanket for Tilly – 35% completed so far. Progress is pretty slow as it’s a very dull knit. The rows are getting really long and will only get longer……….
2) Cardigan for mum – my own pattern. I’m using the Elizabeth Zimmerman percentage sweater idea to knit it and so far it’s working. I need to knit the sleeves now so we’ll see how I get on with them.
3)I bought some Zauberwool sock yarn at the knitting and stitching show earlier in the month and last night I cast on and knit the toe of a sock just to see how the yarn knits up. I’m now trying to decide whether to knit a plain sock and let the yarn colouring speak for itself or if I need a stitch pattern of some sort to relieve the boredom. Will keep you posted.

Bad blogger

I’m sorry I’ve been absent for weeks. I don’t really have an excuse except for Saturday 26 Sept because I spent almost ALL day knitting frantically for K’s wedding on 27th. You’ll be pleased to hear I finished the shrug at 10.30am on 27th (I had to leave the house at 11.40am!!). But I am NEVER EVER knitting to such a short deadline again. It took ALL of the fun out of knitting my shrug. Was awful.

Anyway, knitting and stitching show at Alexandra Palace, London tomorrow so I will blog something interesting after that, I promise.

In short,
1) Knitting group last Sunday was really good, 9 people now.
2) Tilly’s OpArt blanket is progressing slowly.
3) Work stinks!
4) I’ve made a clever brown necklace.
5) Shrug is finished.

Panic sets in!!!

There has been progress.  But nowhere near as much as I hoped for.  I knitted loads of the sleeve on the right last Saturday night and Sunday while firmly ensconced in front of the telly.  I watched a cheesy ballroom dancing film to get me in the mood for Strictly Come Dancing which started again last night.  There was no knitting at ALL from Monday-Wednesday, mainly because I was totally shattered after work.  Hopefully work will be less stressful going forward but I’m not holding my breath! 

Suddenly it was Thursday and almost the end of another week and I really started to panic.  Next week I’m busy most evenings so I’ve pretty much got to do the bulk of the knitting by the end of Monday night.  So frantic knitting ensued on Thursday and then last night during Strictly…  I’ve got the first sleeve to almost the shoulder and have cast on the second which is about 4 inches long at the moment.  More Strictly tonight should mean that I make good progress on sleeve 2 but it really is going to be a close run thing………

P.S. Brenda was on the plinth today, watch it here!

Gah!

You should never ever set a 4 week deadline on knitting something. My shrug is starting to feel cursed.
First of all the yarn took a week to arrive due to postal strikes in the UK. I wanted to cast on at the bank holiday weekend (end of August) but had to wait until the end of the week after. The first evening I knitted a gauge swatch to decide what size needles to use. 3.5mm was my decision so that the pattern was defined enough but it would be light and lofty. Friday 4 Sept I cast on and knit about 12 rows. On Saturday I measured the width and it was about 2 inches wider than I wanted. Pants! I thought this was because I’d cast on with dpns and it had been difficult to knit tight enough across the changes in needles. Cast on again with two circular needles instead. Knit 8 or so rows. Late Saturday night I measured it again and it was still WAY too big. I still blamed this on knitting in the round. Sunday I cast on again but on straight needles and knitted 4 rows in garter stitch to make it nice and neat and tight, and then I joined for knitting in the round and knit a few repeats of the feather and fan pattern. Sunday afternoon I measured again and it was still TOO big. I put it aside in disgust and general stropiness [does that have two p's?] stroppiness. [possibly]. Anyway, I was quite annoyed to put it mildly. I had bought some red beads, so I made two necklaces instead and felt much better as they went completely to plan – no deadline you see!
On Monday I simply couldn’t be bothered – still grumpy.
On Tuesday I decided I didn’t want to knit in a smaller needle size and that I didn’t want to remove the 5 stitches I had between the f&f panels as I liked them, so the only solution was to knit 3 repeats of the panels not the 4 that I had originally planned. So I cast on 69 stitches instead of 92 on straight needles and knitted a couple of repeats of the pattern. It was working, it was a little narrower than I had intended but I could live with that.
Wednesday I picked it up again to continue and realised that I had a made a stupid mistake at about row 6 so I had to rip it all out and start again!!! Can you believe it!! I couldn’t. I cast on again and knit 12 or so rows before bed. That was the 5th time I had cast on. Took it to work on Thursday to knit with some friends at lunch and it finally started to go well. It’s Saturday now and I’m finally feeling that it’s safe and I won’t have to rip it out again. So now I really do have to knit like the wind as I need to wear it in 2 weeks.