Themed Quarterly Yarn Club ~ Firefly

Quarter 1 is drawing to a close, bringing with it the end of the first instalment of the Quarterly Yarn Club. For those of you that didn't get a chance to join in the fun, here is the final club box and the gorgeous yarns and goodies that everyone received.

I have a lot of fandoms that I'm particularly partial to. Firefly being one of my all time favourites. So I was thrilled when it won the vote. I really enjoyed creating it and I'd love to take you through my different inspirations for the colourways present in the Club. Starting with the Exclusive Club skein 'Serenity'.

Shown on our Tesseract base

Serenity was inspired by it's namesake, the Firefly class ship that is home to our favourite crew. I wanted to show the ship as a little battered but still well loved and beautiful in its own way. With maroon and orange flashes across the skein overlaid with a silvery grey/black reminiscent of the scene when the ship is flying though a sea of Reavers in Serenity. Lastly I definitely couldn't forget to add the section of engine burn orangey yellow, so that when in skein form it looks like Serenity is in full burn travelling through the black.

Crew Member Companion minis

Captain Tightpants/Mal

For Mal I really wanted to represent his bold nature as well as pay homage to his browncoat loyalties. To this end I played with rich reds and browns, whilst also including some yellow and beiges to balance out those colours. As I've said before I think his and Inara's colourway go beautifully together, both very bold and in brilliant contrast.

Reader/River

River was a hard one to represent, as in speaking to others, I've found she in particular is interpreted so differently. Even by me in this case, as her colourway very nearly ended up completely different. I had originally gone for a strong rich blue and Sage/olivey green to represent her dresses in two key scenes, both in the TV series and the film. However at the last moment I changed my mind and her colourway became silvery blue with more blue flashes and red speckles. As I think it represents the dancer's fluidity with which she carries herself but also a nod to her fighting skills and her scattered mind.

Companion/Inara

I have previously spoken about my inspiration for Inara's colourway, and how I feel the rich layered purples represent her strength of character and her beauty, so it was a pleasure to include her as a mini for this club.

Pilot/Wash

Wash and Zoe will always be my personal favourite characters aboard the ship, so it was a no brainer when I chose Wash as one of the crew member skeins, With his quirky one liners and his snappy dress sense how could I not! I took inspiration from his crazy shirts, with their pale green under colour and colourful prints and patterning. I followed this by creating a light mint green underlay and using orange, blue, teal and black for speckles and splashes.

As to why these four over the others, I have been working on some new Firefly themed colourways that I will début in the next quarter as well as some more Dr Who inspired colourways. Some of the ideas I had for crew members for Firefly couldn't be demonstrated to my satisfaction on mini skeins. Hence why these 4 of 9.

Goodies!

We can't forget this club's wonderful goodies. made in collaboration with some other artisans, including buttons from Crazy buttons and Allsorts, and some charms from Pinz n Thingz.
The notions pouches and stitch markers were made by me with the buttons made by Angie of Crazy buttons, she does beautiful work.

I will be offering themed notions kits upon my return from holiday in April and there will be a limited number of these Firefly ones up for grabs, so if you like them don't miss out!

Now onwards! Boldly into the next quarter and the beginning of voting on the next theme. Thanks to everyone on Ravelry who gave suggestions in the group as to possible themes for next quarter, The Random thing picker has spoken!

The themes for voting are!

• Discworld
• Fifth Element
• Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Don't worry if your theme isn't here for voting, I'll be working on lots of new colourways on my return from holiday so you'll see one or two based on some of the different themes suggested to me, Also keep an eye out towards the end of this year, there will be some exciting things happening, exciting but kind of secret so I can't share them just yet :D

In other news, there will be a "Because yarn is expensable, right?" Market Night this coming Saturday April 2nd over on the Facebook page, don't forget to check it out as all our ready to ship yarns will be on offer. with 10% off over £20 spent and 15% off over £50.

So what are you waiting for, Get Voting and Get Shopping!

The Votes are in and it's Shiny!

I've counted up all your votes, and you wonderful people have chosen Firefly!

I'm incredibly excited and I confess i've been planning this nearly since the beginning of the month, but I also planned the Doctor Who box option too, so you might get to see some new Whovian colourways this quarter.

I'll be working with a couple of other artisans to bring you a very snazzy club box. Just a quick reminder of what will be in the box.

The club boxes (£42) will include a 100g skein of yarn in an exclusive colourway. There will also be a set of mini skeins two of which are colourways you've already seen before but are just gorgeous. Take a look at Mal and Inara all knit up together in Lili Comme Tout's fantastic pattern Papyrus .

There will also be some mystery theme related goodies, which is where the other artisans come in, though i'll be making a few.

The exclusive club skein can be in one of our 100% superwash merino bases, Companion 4ply, Echo Dk or Space Aran or you can change from one our standard bases to one of the luxury bases.

• Tesseract lace 600m (55% Sw Blue Faced Leicester 45% Silk) + £2 per skein
• Hevelin 4ply 400m (MCN - 80% Sw Merino 10% Cashmere 10% Nylon) + £3 per skein
• Sinaya Dk 212m (MCN) + £3 per skein
• Selkie Dk 212m (50% Sw Merino 50% Silk) + £2 per skein

There will also be a limited number of single 100g skein offerings for £16 + postage, if a luxury base is chosen add £2 or £3 per skein depending on the option as detailed above.

Extra 100g skeins can be added to the club box or with the single skein for an addition £15 (standard skein) each.

Sign ups are available to subscribers of the yarn club mailing list on the 31st and will be open to everyone else with the next blog post in the first week of February.

Techniques for Swing Me Right Round: Short Rows and Grafting #backtofrontKAL Part 2

There are a few techniques in the pattern that are not necessarily standard to all jumper patterns, though are really handy to know how to do. There are links to tutorials for all these techniques in the techniques section on the first page.

Short rows

Short rows are a requirement in the pattern to work the shoulder slopes on the back and the front of the jumper. There are many different short row techniques out there including wrap and turn. However the recommended short row method in the pattern is either Japanese short rows or German short row. This is because these methods are simple and less noticeable in the fabric, in fact there are many times that I have gone back to look at my knitting and I can't see where my short rows end, because it blends in so well. Of the two methods in the pattern German short rows are the simplest and easiest to do, they don't require any extra knitting supplies like stitch markers or pins and they are easy to work both when doing the short row and closing it.

German Short Rows

On the WS Side
German short rows on the wrong side are created by purling to the last stitch before you turn your work (or if you are adapting a wrap and turn pattern, purling the stitch you would have wrapped) and after turning to the RS bring the yarn to the front between your stitches then slip the last stitch from your LHS needle to your RHS needle.

 Lift the yarn up and over the LHS needle, so it carries the stitch below upwards and continue knitting. You will now have what looks like a double stitch on the needle where you turned.

On the RS side
To do a German short row on the right side all you need to do is knit to the last stitch where you turn (if in a wrap and turn pattern, knit the stitch you would have wrapped), turn the work and slip your last stitch. Lift the working yarn over the needle as if you are doing a yarn over from front to back and bring the yarn back to the front. Then purl up to your next turning point.  There will be a what looks like a double stitch on the needle where you turned.

These double stitches are useful for showing you where your turning points are and are worked as a single stitch. The beauty of this is that the lifted stitch closes any holes between the two different levels of stitches at your turning points and also creates a smoother step. It is also less visible from both sides of the knitting when picked up. So when you go to incorporate your short rows into the fake shoulder seam, you only have to knit or purl as you normally would treating the double stitches as one single stitch. Nice and simple, and very neat.

Grafting

Grafting is also referred to kitchner stitch. The wrap front of the jumper requires grafting in the centre if you elect to knit the pattern as written either bottom up or centre out with the bottom half of the jumper being knit first. Whilst grafting requires patience, it is actually relatively simple to do neatly in plain stockinette and in a ribbed pattern.

Lucy Hague's instructions for grafting in pattern are amazing and can easily be translated here, for this particular pattern the stitches that you will be grafting in pattern are

p1 k1 p1 k1 p1 Knit x stitches p1 k1 p1 k1 p1

To prepare your knitting for grafting, Get another cable needle and pick up the stitches from the provisional cast on/ or waste yarn left at the back, this should match the amount of stitches you have left on your other needle after joining the left and right wrap sections together. This ensures you have two sets of live stitches, For the purposes of grafting your front stitches will be the bottom and the top stitches will be the back stitches. So when you hold it up the RS of the bottom will be facing you and the WS of the top will be facing you behind the bottom.

With 2-3x the length of your row of yarn for grafting, add your sewing needles and follow the instructions below by when the instructions say purl, pulling the needle and yarn through the centre of the stitch from behind, and when the instructions say knit pulling the needle and yarn through the centre of the stitch from the front.

Here is a useful grafting video showing you the stockinette method.

With this in mind you follow the instructions like so

1 p st, 1 k st on F
F: purl off, purl on
B: purl off, knit on
1 k st, 1 p st on F
F: knit off, knit on
B: knit off, purl on
1 p st, 1 k st on F
F: purl off, purl on
B: purl off, knit on
1 k st, 1 p st on F
F: knit off, knit on
B: knit off, purl on
1 p st, 1 k st on F
F: purl off, purl on
B: purl off, knit on

Then
2 (or more) k sts on F
(Stockinette grafting)
F: knit off, purl on
B: purl off, knit on

until you reach your last knit stitch before the next purl where you will then

1 k st, 1 p st on F
F: knit off, knit on
B: knit off, purl on
1 p st, 1 k st on F
F: purl off, purl on
B: purl off, knit on
1 k st, 1 p st on F
F: knit off, knit on
B: knit off, purl on
1 p st, 1 k st on F
F: purl off, purl on
B: purl off, knit on
1 k st, 1 p st on F
F: knit off, knit on
B: knit off, purl on

All credit goes to Lucy Hague for the grafting instructions, I have only organised them into the order used for grafting in this pattern.

Let me know if there are any other techniques I should go over.
Have you had any experience grafting in pattern before?

Swatching and Getting Started #backtofrontKAL Part 1

This is the first part of the Swing Me Right Round Knit- along series, with tips and tricks on how to use the pattern, #knitting help and general advice to follow.

Remember the pattern is on SALE through September for the knit-along with code KALtime! and is free with any purchase of Companion 4ply or Echo Dk for the KAL.

I've previously stated the importance of #swatching , mostly because I honestly cannot stress it enough, especially if you want to knit the Swing Me Right Round Jumper. This beautiful jumper is requires essential swatching as the idea is not to knit to a standard size but based on your measurements, because of this there are some calculations involved, but don't worry there is a link in the pattern to a handy spreadsheet that enables you to input your gauge ( over a 4in square), your measurements and it does the calculations for you to tell you how many stitches to cast on for either construction option and how many stitches you should have at the important sections.

A quick note on choosing yarn - whichever yarn you choose to use for the pattern, 4ply, Sport or DK weight yarn, pick a yarn with a high percentage of wool for structure and warmth. Blends can be nice especially if you would like to add drape when choosing a thicker yarn. The thinner yarn choices will have more drape at the pattern gauge.

Lets first start with Swatching

As a knitter something you learn over time is what type of knitter you are/how you knit. I know I knit quite tightly which hasn't changed a lot, though my tensioning is certainly more consistent now as opposed to when I started out. So with an understanding of what type of knitter you are pick a size of needle you think will let you achieve gauge with the yarn you've chosen. If you haven't quite figured out what kind of knitter you are yet, that's fine too, just start with the recommended needle size for the pattern. Which in this case is 3.5mm. The pattern gauge to achieve is 21 stitches by 32.5 rows per 4”/ 10 cm in Stockinette stitch.

This colourway is gorgeous layered and gradient turquoise and greens, plus notoriously hard to photograph!

I've chosen to knit myself a second Swing Me Right Round, this time in a fingering weight yarn. My Yarn is Third Vault Yarns Companion 4ply in the Emerald City Colourway, available as dyed to order (please note the yarn is a deeper green with teal than can be seen in the photos).

Knit your swatch larger than the recommended amount of stitches, to allow for easier pinning and measuring, always measure from the inside of your swatch, as the consistency of your stitches will likely vary when closer to the edge of the swatch.

I've knit mine to 26 stitches by 41 rows, granted I did switch needle sizes in the middle. I started out with the 3.5mm needles but after 21 rows I realised that my tight knitting was getting me nowhere near gauge and I went up a size to 3.75mm needles which kept me happy (I like a tighter look in my knitting) whilst also taking me closer to gauge. Though still out by 3 stitches, which is fine as I can just put my actual gauge into the spreadsheet for my calculations.

Technically it is better to cut your yarn and once you've cast off your swatch so that you can then wash and/or block the swatch the way you would treat your garment. However I'm not a fan of cutting my yarn, unless we are steeking and that is a whole different ball game! As I will be steam blocking the garment that's what I've done to my swatch.


Taking Measurements and Using the Spreadsheet

A link to the spreadsheet is available on the first page of the pattern.

The schematic above shows where each part of the jumper should lie on the body. Use a flexible tape measure to get your measurements. You can do this yourself or ask someone else to help.

Adapted from one of the great croquis produced by www.dctdesigns.com

Measurements

• A - This is taken from where you would like the lowest point of the jumper to hit, or your hips.
• B - This is taken from your natural waist, the point where some people go inwards between their hips and bust.
• C - This is taken across your bust.
• D - This will be the distance between the bottom of your Jumper and your Natural Waist
• E - This measurement is the distance from your Natural Waist to your shoulder.

These measurements should be put into the spreadsheet, I won't show you my exact measurements because I'm shy :P

The purple oval shows where to input your measurements

The green ovals show your calculation output, based on your gauge which is put into the sheet under the schematic and your measurements.

Depending on which construction method you choose, you will either use the Stitches at Natural Waist number (Centre Out) - which if you choose to do the top part first will be halved, or Stitches at Bottom number (Bottom Up).  This will be your number of cast on stitches.

Casting on

Centre Out - This Cast on will be a provisional cast on

I use the long tail provisional method this is a great video for the provisional method I use by PostStitch on Youtube. This link is included in the pattern.

Bottom Up - I recommend a Tubular Cast on because I love the way it looks

Tubular cast on tutorial wonderfully explained by Ysolda
Long Tail cast on tutorial explained in pictures, alternatively follow the provisional method video with only one yarn/ no waste yarn. (using two different balls of your yarn, does make it easier, as it saves you having to judge the length of tail you need), when finished casting on, cut the yarn that goes over your thumb (what would be the waste yarn).

Pattern Chart

The pattern chart direction differs depending on which construction option you pick, with Centre Out you will be knitting the pattern downwards and likely doing some increases to your hips. The measurements above show that I need to do 2 increases as I knit downwards. For best effect I will do all but two of the pattern changes shown in the chart as switch rows (where I neither increase or decrease into the pattern) where you use the stockinette stitches either side of the pattern and bring them into the pattern. The increases I will do at pattern change 1 and 4 to space it out but also to make sure that the slope of the garment is big enough before it gets too far down to my hips. If you have more increases you can space them out accordingly.

For bottom up you are likely to be decreasing instead, try to space these out evenly so do them at every other pattern row change, if you have more or less than suggested in the pattern then space them out accordingly with more decreases as you get closer to the natural waist.


Happy Knitting! Let me know what information you would like to see next about knitting the Swing Me Right Round pattern.

#yarn #wool #handdyedyarn #knittingpattern #sale #tutorial #thirdvaultyarns