My Knitting year ahead

I realised I only slipped in a very brief mention about the Ultimate KAL by the Plum Dandi Ravelry group in my last post, even though i've been knitting for it fiercely since the 20th of January umming, and aahing and planning since before it started on the 9th. I chose to make Ease by Alicia Plummer because I look at that jumper and every time I see it, it screams relaxed comfort to me. I want a jumper that does that. So I swatched, don't get me wrong I hate swatching and I do the bare minimum if I can get away with it. Massive slap on the wrist there. If you haven't knit with a yarn before, quite possibly on those needles (even if you have done it with others to a different gauge) SWATCH because it could and likely will come back to bite you in the ass. I think the people who can get away without swatching are really confident but above all tend to know how they knit with a good base range of yarns and needles, but also they maybe knitting things they don't care about the fit of.

So, if you're knitting a scarf or a rectangle or something without shape, you don't need to swatch, if you want a garment that fits that works with your body, you swatch, you calculate you do the hard stuff that knitting asks of you, so at the end of you however many hours, you have a piece that you don't hate because it doesn't fit right, you might hate it for other reasons, you picked the wrong colour, the pattern wouldn't have flattered the person you are anyway, etc.  It won't however be because it doesn't fit!

Swatching in the round - on top of my revision :P

Yes if the pattern requires you to knit in the round SWATCH IN THE ROUND. There are some helpful links to tutorials for doing this from Techknitter to Ysolda both invaluable resources that definitely know their shit! What it all boils down to is, knit to one end of your row and instead of turning your knitting take it to the other end of your needle (DPNS or CIRCS required) take the working yarn from the other side of your swatch, loop it round your hand loosely and knit back across from the end where the yarn wasn't, repeat.

I've digressed a bit from the point of this post though, which is to tell you a little about what i've planned for my knitting year, and the end of the Ultimate KAL. I finished my Ease! I love it, I played with colour, I played with the fit and I made it me. Obligatory bathroom mirror selfie (vom at that word!) below

I added Horizontal Bust Darts (through short rows), I added an invisible/ inseam pocket i changed up the sleeves using a chart from a different pattern, I switched up the shoulders with another similar pattern. I was unafraid to make it different and mine. Never be afraid to do that with your knitting, just as you shouldn't be afraid to ask for help, I was all over the internet  looking for links, I deliberated on a million things asked my Stitch 'n' Bitch group for their opinions and forged on, with a fair amount of swearing and frustration. I got so frustrated with the sleeves I jumped onto several different projects mid knitalong! I do however love it now, it's very me and very fun, whilst also being slightly outside my comfort zone. Plus it's finished before the end of the Ultimate KAL that is due on the 9th of March 'happy dance'. I did actually start another that was also for the KAL whilst i knit Ease, but I didn't expect that to be finished. However it is a perfect start to my summer knitting. I decided a while back, summer knitting got started in the winter/late winter so i could finish it and actually wear it in the summer and not have to wait a year for appropriateness.

I'm knitting Sandshore now, by Alicia Plummer again, but I do love her patterns I have A LOT of them. As others have said, it is a pretty quick knit relatively it is flying off the needles (that could be more to do with the size of the needles and the different gauge, I knit my Ease way tight on 4.5mm needles instead of 6 or 6.5mm). Large gauge things which make a holey fabric are a little hard for me, but in this case i'm going with the flow because it looks good, it works in the pattern and everyone's pictures and i've not worked with the yarn before so i'm developing a preference for working with it in a certain way as I go. If I was to show this to a certain bulletproof knitter I know and love, she might have an apoplexy. 

For the rest of my year it's going to be garments galore, mostly for me, depending on how I feel I might throw a gift into the mix, but I am a selfish knitter. Why so many garments?

I've only gone and joined another KAL the Tin Can Knits KAL on ravelry. 12, yes 12 garments in 2015, AAAAAAAARGH, am I setting myself up to fail? after all I graduate this year and hopefully get a job so will be quite probably busier, much busier than i am now. Where will my knitting time come from? It is however a goal, a challenge but a goal and hey i'm 3 jumpers in, 2 down 1 finishing off and 9 left to go. I don't see laceweight in my future this year, but one or two fingering, most definitely my funky grandpa, I have wanted it for ages and it has been earmarked since last year. Now it is a very real possibility because i've 100% decided on yarn 

2 Kingcraig lambswools, and 2 drops delight

The other jumpers in my list include some summer weights and some winter knitting, it's all gravy, maybe. So I shall keep you guys updated as I go and post pictures of them all together at the halfway mark. Next post though will be about finishing number 3, cardigan for the summer and the ribbing technique that I plan to try and try and share my process. Stick around you won't be disappointing and do not be afraid to join in!

NB: I did not use that particular tutorial for horizontal bust darts, I used the secondary tutorial you receive with all of Mary Annarella's patterns . I found the above when I was discussing bust darts with other people on the forums about using bust darts. 

#tck12sweaters2015 #ultimatekal

Catching up, and Unwinding in Brighton...

Well it's been an age, and to think my last post was berating myself for missing a month. Not been very dedicated unfortunately. You'll be happy to know though that I finished Grey Matter Cardigan, though I didn't succeed at any of the KAL's except Aidez, and I fell out of love with Carpino. I did on the other hand find some yarn for Millwater that should be lovely so I will likely be knitting that soon.

My Aidez was a bit of a roller coaster in all honesty, I started it in Crelando Meli in teal which is a lovely springy Superwash merino wool. I just didn't love it for my Aidez. I adored the cables in that yarn, just not the Stockinette for the pattern. After working on that iteration up to past the pocket join (I added pockets and a hood to my version), I had to put it down as it wasn't quite right for me. So began the hunt for more yarn, fortunately after much disappointment commercially, I hunted through my stash and came up with some navy aran tweed. I swatched this yarn a lot as the pattern called for a super bulky. In any case it worked out in the end.

More information about the trials and tribulations of my Aidez are available on my project page, so check that out if your interested and would like the chart for the back cable that I created. If you would like to use it and would like a key for the chart let me know in the comments and I'll put one together and add it.

Since then I have been #knitting a Drangey (by Stephen West) for my wonderful but equally grumpy Bf, that buys me yarn so in the eyes of my knitting friend's is a keeper :) Also a new t-shirt, which originally was being knit as a long floaty t-shirt for summer, after much urging was kept at a shorter length and improvised a lot! I have to say I only used the pattern to figure out how many stitches to cast on. I finished this little top on Saturday, which meant that I got to wear it to Unwind! Feast your eyes :)

#Unwind Brighton was absolutely lovely, though my journey there was hell and unfortunately made an unplanned start in Leeds at 3:30 in the morning! We won't talk about that though. We got there to be greeted by visions of knitted creations, probably not quite as many as you would expect mind, it was only the few people that had, had the presence of mind to knit for the summer, as believe me the weather was incredibly hot! I took well over an hour to do my first circuit, in which time I fell for some gorgeous Madeline tosh which was then totally eclipsed from my regard, by some delicious Old Maiden Aunt yarn. Lilith definitely knows her stuff, there was a trunk of her scrumptious superwash merino 4ply on the floor and after 5 minutes of looking, I knew I was in it for the long hall and promptly parked myself on my ass in front of that trunk and dived in. Oh the Colours! Oh the Squishyness! Oh the wonderful Sci- Fi Inspired Colourways. Truly a woman after my own heart, don't tell my boyfriend!

Two hours to the end of the day

That trunk was now empty

Alas I was short of funds and it took me nearly two hours to settle on two of her colourways, 'To the black' a sumptuous ode to a wonderful series and 'Selkie' which is earmarked for Balmy by Alicia Plummer. I showed remarkable restraint in only getting four, as a wonderful friend of mine may have spend £120 there alone! There were 600 skeins of yarn at the Old Maiden Aunt stall at the beginning of the show, and after just one day, well I felt sorry for the ladies turning up on the Sunday. We positively cleared her out, leaving perhaps 50 tops skeins left, she even gave myself and my friend a skein each free!!!! On top of all that and incredible patience from her and her partner, Lilith let me try on her Raiun, which is  a pattern I own, but as with all knitting patterns rarely do you get the chance to see if it suits you before you go to the effort of knitting it. So muchos thanks to her for that and I love it, I'm scrambling around in my stash for the yarn to do it in, but it may very well be an Old Maiden Aunt Merino silk which will be saved up for.

One of each colour in our haul (there were four of us)

Speaking of saving up though I have been going through my stash and have decided to sell some of it off, little by little. If you get a chance please check out the auction for 200g of Noro Kureyon  in shade 260. Along with those I'm selling some of my hand dyed bumper sized (250g) skeins in the colourway riot pink. There are 2 of them for £15 each in a lovely 100% British wool. I will be selling more of my hand dyed yarn, but this will likely be when I get all the pictures done to add to my Etsy store. If you are interested in any hand dyes, send me a message on Google +

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