I told a big fat lie...

When I said I didn't see any lace in my future I lied, Once my Sandshore was finished I was given the opportunity to test one of Atelier Alfa's patterns in a fingering weight yarn but as the rows were very long and it was a long cardigan, I tucked my tail between my legs and hid in a corner. I promised I would test the DK version, I look back at the fingering weight version and everyone's lovely tests and kick myself for it. After that decision I thought I need to knit something and i want to try something new, nevermind my Funky Grandpa yarn finally being picked out and languishing in a corner. Ooooh look at this lovely jumper, test knit? why not? I have so much 3ply stash it'll be perfect.....

My finished Sandshore

Wait WHAT? You don't want to knit a 4ply cardigan because you've never knit that thin before and aren't sure you'll be able to knit it fast enough, and you've decided to knit a thinner 3ply jumper in less than the time allotted for the 4ply?  I'm definitely a little crazy. Anyway this past month (April) i've been having my first experience with  3ply knitting.

PROS:

• Creates a light fabric
• Requires less balls of yarn
• Can destash some of my (rather large?) lace/3ply stash
• I'll be less gunshy of 4ply for funky grandpa

CONS:

• It takes a very long time
• I want to burn my project because it takes so long even though I love the way it looks....

I'm finally working on the sleeves of my Jumper which i'm managing because even though i'm ready to chuck it out of the window in frustration I dyed some pretty yarn for it, and it's a pleasure to watch it grow in those colours. My only issue is it's not growing fast enough.

My sleeves are being knit in these lovelies!

As I worked through the body part of the pattern I went with bad jumper practice for me and whilst I added some shaping to better fit my shape I refused to do short rows for my bust. Massive mistake, I have a bust and I need to accommodate it. Now even though the jumper body is pretty lovely in most ways, it rides up in the centre front. *face palm* Still i'm not changing it, I don't have the time or inclination to rip out the 10+ inches I knit afterwards. I did however add in lifelines near the waist area where a I joined a new ball of yarn thinking I might go back and change the shape a bit with a contrast colour and rib stitch band at the waist. That part won't happen but I might go back there and add an extra inch overall.  Experimental edits for the win. I've added in two lifelines and hope I can rip out the centre, Knit and extra inch and graft like my life depends on it.

To compound the insanity because I love the shape so much i'm considering knitting another one without sleeves in a summer weight with stripes, short rows and other joyful stuff. This project has seriously driven me insane. This time however it will be a project much tempered by my other lovely projects. As soon as this baby (it's been a punishing labour) is done I'll be casting on for Funky Grandpa and Blue sand cardigan both by La Maison Rililie. Maybe I'll also cast on the summer version of this jumper but I doubt it'll be ready by this summer. In the meantime if you aren't a 3ply scaredy cat then check out the wonderful pattern by Ela Torrente of Modish Knits

It is very well laid out and clearly written, it even got me trying out a few new techniques which really work for the pattern.

If all that excitement wasn't enough I wrote up the pattern for my Jumper and it's currently being tested. So hopefully my next post will be about the Jumper pattern being released! The pattern is one size, but that one size is your size, i'm hoping to integrate the pattern with my blog so that you guys can get the pattern customised for you at no extra cost.

In the meantime though i need a name! So i'm going to scamper off back to my rabbit hole and have a think, if you have any ideas for the jumper let me know :)

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

It's Finished!

I've finally finished a jumper that I designed and made from scratch completely off my own back. It was hard work. I didn't follow the general advice on designing your own knits, which would be to calculate, measure, write then knit, so I pretty much did the first bit and knit and played around with it from there. I think this method works to a point, I guess especially when your not hugely experienced with creating different shapes and so wouldn't know how to write it out, but in that case your probably better of getting out some graph paper and drawing it out.  It is certainly an interesting experience working something from a picture in your head, especially when it comes to adding design details and figuring out how it will all fit together.

   

Anyhoo I don't have great pictures of my jumper yet, what with the weather and all, but as soon as i do they'll be up here! I'm on to my next projects, finishing off the winter ones and taking part in Plum Dandi's (Alicia Plum and Melissa S) Ultimate KAL with my version of Ease/Birchbark. I'm looking forward to intentionally doing something with colour in my knitting unlike the above jumper where i ran out of yarn!

I've been searching for ages for a better representation of the top Jennifer Lawrence wears in Catching Fire to sleep in on the train, as I fell in love with it from that angle alone, so this morning i stumble across this on shopyourtv.com

You can just about see the back
on the right

I've fallen out of love, it wasn't what I envisioned and so it has me a little dissapointed. Though i'm sure if i had a go at it and made some changes I could love it again. I'm actually really interested by the concept of a knitted bodysuit, though in this case it seems a shame to have it so short, as I definitely couldn't carry that off in RL. On the other hand I adore this set from the same fall collection...

Doing a little search there wasn't anything like it on ravelry so maybe it could be a future design project.....

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

New Year, New projects and what's this about a newspaper article?

So now that most of my Christmas knits are finished (I was a little too ambitious at short notice), I've moved on to other projects and have enjoyed selecting some fun projects for this year.

The Finished Christmas Knits, The middle scarf ended up being nearly 2 metre long!

I've finally acknowledged the full on fail that my first ever jumper was and I've 'frogged' most of it and re-purposed the yarn for a much more beautiful and hopefully much better cardigan. A test knit courtesy of playsweetmusic on Ravelry. The lovely Grey Matter Cardigan, which I am knitting in a Ben Nevis Aran (ugh, that's the thing about re-purposing, you reuse yarn that you fell out of love with an age ago).

As I've been reunited with most of my stash I thought a quick stash busting exercise was in order a week or two back and I used up some of my Wendy pampas chunky, and one of my Stylecraft Swift Knit to make the lovely Acer shawl by Kourtney Robinson of Dollybird Workshop (She has some amazing patterns, of which I snapped up 8,  so you could be seeing more of her designs here)

My version in serious need of blocking

The Acer shawl makes for a really quick and really warm knit. I just need my brother to disappear back to Uni so that I can use his bed for blocking again :).

As part of the stash busting/de-stashing exercise I'm getting rid of some of the yarns I have desperately tried to find a purpose for but can't. Yes 8 Colinette point 5 balls that is you, your going to a better home! If your interested take a look at the ebay listing.

As I said I've been planning out projects for this year, which is obviously subject to flights of fancy and queue change up. A few of this year's definite knits are

• Grey Matter Cardigan
• Game of Thrones inspired knit (own pattern)
• Aidez (yes thank you Lidl, that Crelando Meli yarn has a home)
• Tie back tank in  Araucania ruca 
• Raven shawl in Kingcraig Lambswool Cashmere Aran

I have a lot more patterns in my library and queue but I'm still not sure of them yet, and this frees me up for lots lots more. 

This year I reckon I might also play around with Arm Knitting a little bit more, to see what else is creatable, whilst still being fit for purpose. This is mostly due to when I was at I knit last I was asked to demonstrate some arm knitting for a reporter and photographer, purely because at the time I was the only person in the store that had dabbled in it (purely out of lack of needles, an out of battery tablet, a borrowed phone and boredom) you can see it isn't really my first choice of medium.  Anyway that all resulted in a larger than expected article in The Times Newspaper which can be found here (if you are a subscriber) or a really bad scanned copy of the article in the physical newspaper below. 

I'm not very good at looking after little bits of paper

The project that I made for the article turned into a very holey shawl, which is currently still residing in the I Knit shop. 

Now that 2013 is over, I would like to say a quick thanks to all the new friends I made and the ones who made things worthwhile though my life kind of stood on it's head. Hopefully 2014 will be much much more fantastic!

#knitting :)

Stylish Knits and blocking

I talked about it in my last post, and I'm talking about it again. This will be the last one of the Salt City Cardi, because it's done!

Blocked and ready to wear!

I spent most of Saturday knitting my heart out to get it finished. I decided to add another repeat for the shawl collar, which is probably what took the most time but I think it was probably worth it as it crosses over a lot better now. I debated a bit about what cast off to use for the collar, as I wanted to make sure it wouldn't impede the blocking. In the end with the help of a few YouTube videos (don't you just love YouTube!), and Stitch Diva studios. I chose the Lacey bind off. Now I know it isn't the stretchiest of the four shown, but from the swatches I thought it looked to be the most uniform with the stretchy cast on and I really didn't want the bind off to be too stretchy.

For reasons entirely unknown, I kept having issues with the sleeves and knitting them up. Though from other peoples comments I think that was entirely just me. I bound of the ribbing on the sleeves with a stretchy twisted cast off as seen here, serious thanks to Lorraine L for that as I've been looking for a bind off that gives stretch but doesn't flare. It is a mite fiddly though.

Enough of the finishing/knitting discussion though, I know you want to see it! I took some pictures unblocked as I just wanted to get it on and see how it fitted. please excuse the cropping but I was making some seriously strange faces, due to general silliness on mine and my mother's part.

I'm thinking that I will probably need to pick up a shawl pin to hold it together. As you can probably see the shawl collar is a bit stiff and doesn't fall as smoothly as it should. That is mostly because the yarn I used for the collar specifically was still oiled and needs a good wash to soften it up. 

After that there was one more step to do, BLOCKING!

Obligatory blocking pic

Who needs blocking wires, not me! I just took some of my acrylic yarn, threaded it through and secured it tautly to achieve straight lines. I'm blocking it on top of a mattress, plastic to protect the mattress (by mother's request) and towels. It looks a lot more gorgeous up close but i'm not going to spam you with pictures.

Now that the cardi is done, I can move on to doing my Christmas knits. Pressies here I come!

I've got quite a few people to knit for so I'm looking for quick knits and yarn that won't break the bank so let me know if you have any suggestions!

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.

Yarning around

So a bit of a change of pace.

Before last week I haven't been knitting for about a month or two as I just haven't felt up to it. Right now though I've thrown myself into it with a vengeance. However with more knitting means more yarn buying. My full stash and I are separated, I'm in London and my stash is in Leeds. So of course I have to buy yarn for my new projects. Nevermind that I have undyed yarn for a specific project that I haven't planned the dyeing and or started yet.

On Saturday I had a bit of an eBay buying spree with yarn. All of it from Kingcraig fabrics. Which is based in Brora in the Scottish highlands. This isn't the first time I've ordered yarn from them, but the first one was more of a test to see what their yarns were like as they are made and produced by the company themselves rather than a known large yarn brand such as as Rowan or Debbie bliss.
This time I bought some Supersoft Lambswool in a purple/blue marl 4ply. When i say some i really mean 820g of it. It looks absolutely gorgeous in person, and I can't wait to get stuck into it (even though it's not really earmarked for anything yet).

I had thought I might use it for a project I'm designing for my boyfriend, but it's far to gorgeous for that and also not quite the colours I was envisioning. I know have something else that unfortunately perfect looking for his project you guessed it, on eBay. I swear though once I get it I'm on a yarn diet with what I have here.

I can't wait till Christmas because I get reunited with some of my stash. It'll be like getting loads of new yarn!



The picture on the right it's probably the truest to the actual colour. I'm thinking I might use it in a design I dreamed up today. Though with the way my first knitting pattern design is going that likely means I'll get to it next year around now.

Whilst I still have my battleship on the go, I've decided to test knit a different pattern for SheilaToy. It's a really lovely summer style cardigan, which when I saw it I had to have it. which brings me to my next eBay yarn buy from Saturday.

Ta Dah! It's a 90%-10% Merino Silk mix in a Dark brown multifleck, again from Kingcraig. I've started swatching it already in my eagerness to get started with this wonderful knit Salt City Cardi by Sheila Toy Stromberg. Part of the reason I'm swatching is that I know that KingCraig yarns are generally oiled yarns and will be completely different washed. So I'm trying to see if I will need to wash all my yarn before I knit it. I still can't wait to get started.

If your interested in any of the projects I'm knitting or have already knitted check my projects out on Ravelry my username is Thaliya . Are any of you Knitters or crocheters? Or do you have a better idea for my Lambswool? Let me know.