Did someone say Knitalong?!?!

ARGH! a whole month without an update?

It really has been a very busy and hectic January. Not just on the Knitting front mind, but with moving and finishing work and more "fun" things. I am no longer based in London, but now in Leeds, "oh Leeds how I have missed thee?". My new digs are a little small and whilst equipped with a fair few cubbyholes is unlikely to successfully hold all my stash. So i'm going to have to be parted with much of it again, and be very smart about what projects I am going to be knitting in the next few months to stash bust to make way for more!

Little teaser of the Test Knit I mentioned last month

So of course my genius plan to sort this out, was to do a Knit along with some of my friend's from I Knit in London. Combating the issue of plans for stashbusting and also keeping us "bonded" in a small way. Now me saying a Knit along is a little misleading, because we are in fact doing 11! Over the course of this year.  The simple idea of a Knit along grew and grew and became a devil monster of a crazy suspiciously organised thing, but really, with myself at the helm and several others going along for the ride it could be no less.

So when I say that those 11 KALs are our shortlist, you should not be surprised. I wouldn't be able to tell you the number of project suggestions we started off with as everyone had a good deal that they wanted to knit, but with vetoing powers and bribery in some cases (You know who you are!) we managed to get a list of 22 patterns, which we then priority voted down to 11. Another Priority vote after than and we had our knitting order.

The clear winner was Carpino by Carol Feller
An absolutely lovely pattern and with the yarn choices, ranging from Rowan Kid silk haze glamour, Uppingham Shetland 4ply yarn, botany lace to my gorgeous blue purple marl from Kingcraig they all promise to be the same beautiful project but stunningly different!

Next up as a light relief and an "I'm frustrated with this lace pattern and 4ply" project we have Millwater by Beth Kling
Scrumptious cowl that it is I have ummed and aahed about what yarn to knit it in and think i might end up dyeing some yarn to use for it, but then again I'm not sure.

The rest of the list consists of

• Infinite Loop
• Paris Sweater
• Raindrops
• Clarity
• Il Grande Favorito
• Blanket cardigan (Bethany Wrap, Caramel, or Eternity cardigan)
• Stonecrop
• Funky Grandpa
• and finally Owls

Of course this wasn't enough for me and i had to add one last KAL with a friend in Leeds to make a little bit rounder in number, i am finally going to be knitting a version of Aidez. Aidez with several modifications i should say, as i'm adding pockets, buttons, a hood and a different cable pattern for the back.

Last month in all of the hecticness i did manage to carve out a little time to do some yarn dyeing so feast your eyes on the lovelies as they hung to dry.

Left to right, Malabrigo lace, and several Kingcraig Shetland DK (sugarflair dyes used)

I've wound up those pretties and looking forward to using them, now what project to knit in a gradient yarn.......

On another note if you are interested in Knitting one of the items listed above, join our KAL all you have to do is pick a stash yarn to do it in and comment, my favourite suggestions will receive the pattern free as a gift on Ravelry. 

#knitting  #giveaway

Christmas knitting List

Now that it's getting to the end of November i'm frantically scrambling about to get my Christmas knits on the needles, and flying off to make way for the next one. This year I have a lot of presents to make. I decided to go a lot bigger than I did last year for my boyfriend's family's presents, so instead of mini stockings we have scarves, cowls and boots. I'm also going to be doing most of my presents this year as knitted ones as a stash busting exercise and generally because a knitted gift is given with love. With Ravelry as a great source of inspiration I got to work finding patterns for presents. The Patterns that made the present list so far are

• Little Red Riding Hood Slippers by DROPS design

 These Slippers are knitted in a super bulky weight yarn and look like they would be incredibly comfortable to wear whilst being pretty effortlessly stylish (or at least as stylish as one needs to be in their own home/for sleepovers).

• Slip-it Cowl by Jenny Faifel

The picture I believe is the one Jenny knitted, and it looks scrumptious, especially in the Malabrigo Rasta. However that yarn is slightly outside my budget (though I Knit do sell it , so I wouldn't have to pay postage) so I'm going to be using my stash Araucania Tolten which is slightly thinner but will work. It will knit up to make a nice squishy but close cowl that is nice to wear against the neck.

• Striped Scarf by Erika Knight (from the book Men's Knits a new direction)

This pattern is also available on Ravelry but I had picked up the book at my local library and saw it when I was flicking through. I will be modding it though, by using a linen stitch to join the colours, and aran weight yarn. I had originally wanted to knit Incognito, but I was informed that it likely wouldn't be worn. How can anyone not love Incognito! I'll be knitting myself one soon methinks...

• A modified version of the Crochet Lace Masquerade mask by Andrea H of Craft Disasters and the Katya choker by Dawn L.E. Riden

Props to Andrea for this gorgeous piece it's really lovely and I was completely inspired. As I'm hoping the present will be used as a costume piece I might make it a bit more ornate and possibly add some beads. I am also considering making it only one eyed and crocheting some fancy lace over the top to the other side of the face. Along with this I was thinking of adding a necklace, the choker is very nice but again I'd be making some changes to it to make them work together.

• Nest by Hanne Katajamaki

Now there are a lot of cats in the household, so I think this one will be well received I might try to reinforce it a bit so that it isn't as easily collapsible, though not having cats myself I don't know if it's a plus or a minus.

So that's the shortened version of my Christmas knitting list, i'll be adding more as I go along as I've gotten involved in a few secret santa's. One for my old school friends and another for the I Knit Christmas party. So bring on the knitting!

If you have any suggestions of what to add let me know. Also I would like to state none of the pictures used above are mine this time and all belong to the lovely designers of the items/patterns. So massive thanks to them for the patterns that I will be using. 

I'm sorry this was so late but i just came back from holiday to Iceland, so that's what my next post/ posts will be about with a little contribution from the boyfriend.

I Knit, Test Knits and Yarn

Fairly recently I started going to a knitting group in Waterloo at the I Knit London store. It is very different to the Stitch 'n' Bitch that I used to be part of back in Leeds, though it is a good group. The age ranges and people are much more diverse, which is always a good thing for a well rounded group. The past few times I've been I took along my test knitting project.

The item I am test knitting is a gorgeous cardigan by Sheila Toy Stromberg on Ravelry called the Salt City Cardi, it uses three different types of lace stitch and they flow really well together. Though I'm finding time wise, it has taken me a fair bit.  I started it on the 17th and I'm still working on it, I have had less time this week however. The yarn pictured below is the Merino Silk blend I talked about before from Kingcraig fabrics on eBay, it's been pretty good to work with and has got me load of compliments at I Knit.

From balls like this

One of the great things about having a more diverse group with a crowd generally older than me is nice varied levels of experience. This came in pretty handy when it came to figuring out what to do about washing my  yarn before knitting it. I wouldn't have thought about the possible ramifications of skeining and washing the oiled balls of yarn individually. Each skein would likely have been washed at slightly differing temperatures and also with varying degrees of roughness which affects how much of the oil is washed out. Knitting them all together like this would then impact blocking as different parts of the garment used different skeins, with different amounts of all and could therefore when completely wash skew the shape because of the tension changes etc.

What this meant I did in the end was use the skein I had already washed, but only for the back piece, and then I used the unwashed yarn for the shawl collar and I plan to use the remainder of the washed yarn for the sleeves. As each of these sections are blocked separately the different levels of oil will not affect the final look and structure of the garment.

   

To this

Taken at I Knit, London

As I am knitting to a deadline I take my project with me everywhere, I've been knitting on all my journeys and whenever I have a spare moment. I even took my knitting to Blues Fest at the Royal Albert hall last night to see Greg Porter and Natalie Cole, which was amazing. Greg Porter really blew my mind with his smooth voice, I will definitely be listening to more of his songs. It took me a little while to warm up to Natalie Cole, though in the end she was great too.

How would you recommend treating oiled yarn? I know some people are adamant either way, washing it thoroughly before knitting or washing as a garment. Let me know, also if you have any tips for treating it, I would love to know for future projects.