Knit or blog? Definitely knit

The trouble with having a job is that time away from work is limited.  With only a few hours in the evenings and at weekends I have to prioritise, and knitting comes first as one of life’s essentials.  After all, if I don’t knit I’ll do damage to someone or something.  It’s the only way to stay sane enough to turn up at work every day.

So this blog has suffered from lack of care since November, but here’s a little update on what I’ve been knitting.

I can’t say I enjoyed my lopapeysa, except perhaps the yoke.  I had to work a few shawls at the same time as a distraction, but I finally finished it a few weeks ago.  So here is Védís Jónsdóttir‘s Afmæli, my Once Upon a Lopi:

Inevitable, Evelyn A Clark’s Heartland Lace Shawl, turned out to be an absolute favourite and I wear it at least once a week.  I added some gold size 6 beads which look OK, but I reckon I’ll stick to silver-lined clear beads for the future.

However, I didn’t enjoy the early stages and was distracted into a KAL of The Birthday Shawl by the delightful Kate’s Twirl.  I used my (in)famous hand-dyed yarn which was featured in Knit Now, and it turned out rather nice.  So nice, in fact, that Kate voted it the best of the KAL and sent me a set of her beautiful stitch markers.  A lovely Christmas present!

And you can also go over to Ravelry to take a look at some in progress shots.

Then, as yet another distraction from my Lopi sweater, I used up some Airedale Aran in a winter-time version of Kate Gagnon Osborn‘s Springtime Bandit, Airedale Outlaw:

And to complete another year of feverishly knitting innumerable shawls, Boo Knits‘ Quite Continental:

I love the placement of the beads in Twinkle Twinkle, but not the shape nor the slipped stitch edge which I thought too inelastic.  I started the picot cast-off and didn’t like that either, so finished with the usual Russian.  Such a shame, because I was really looking forward to this one, but most likely the victim of shawl-knitting fatigue!

The Lopi sweater still wasn’t finished so next up was Froth, which was a bit of a marathon:

This is Jatta Saukko‘s Zetor which I’ve been meaning to do for a long time.  Knitted in DROPS Lace on one of my new ChiaoGoo circulars, it turned out beautifully soft and happily goes really well with a recent addition to my wardrobe.  Colour co-ordination is easy if you stick to your favourite colours!

I needed some further distraction before finishing this one, but I think that’s enough for today.  Time for some knitting ….

And 5 makes 20

It’s been a while since my last post and a lot of things have happened.  The main trauma was my mother falling and breaking her hip.  She spent two and a half weeks in hospital where she was looked after by some amazing people.  She’s been back home for a while now and is slowly gaining strength and mobility:  she’s pretty resilient for her age.

So it’s true knitting keeps you sane.  Although I’ve cut right down on projects (times are hard) and have only one on the go at a time, I’ve still managed to churn out another four more shawlettes.  I’m afraid my Amelia in pink cotton just didn’t work in the circumstances and is now a hibernating frog.

Third time lucky with my hand-painted BFL laceweight produced a black and fuchsia Old Man of Storr Shawlette, my Last Chance Old Boy:

I can’t say I’m hugely fond of it but I guess it might come in useful.  The colours are stunning, though.

Then some more hand-painted BFL, this time in 4-ply.  A very easy Undine on 4.5mm needles:

This is Liquid Lunch, and I’ve already worn it a few times on the cooler days we’ve had just recently.

And then, a version of Anniken Allis’ Winding Path in two skeins of my hand-dyed baby alpaca 4-ply.  I absolutely love this shawl! It was so nice to knit (even though it’s green) and it’s a real knitted hug to wrap around myself when I feel the need.

My nineteenth shawl of 2012 is Evelyn A Clark’s Shetland Triangle Lace Shawl in more hand-painted BFL laceweight which I blogged about last year.  I still love the colours of the yarn and I’m quite happy with the knitted result:

There’s a lovely dusky rose shade produced by a mixture of pink and chestnut, and I’ve reproduced it in a skein of kettle-dyed 4-ply BFL.

 

I dyed up the last of my yarn stock this week and put away my crockpot and steamer.  There’ll be no more dyeing for a while, I’m afraid.  But you can expect to see some of the yarns knitted up in the coming months on this blog, no doubt.

I’m using my last skein of baby alpaca for an Augustine Shawlette by Valdis Vrang.  I’ve just reached the half-way point so let the unravelling begin! This will make my 20 for the year, so perhaps it’s time I started on some socks.

Mind you, after putting together this blog today I feel pretty unravelled myself.  Hopefully I’ll post again before the end of the month.

Enjoy your knitting!

 

2 FO, 1 WIP and 3rd Time Lucky?

Since it’s FOFriday, here’s Bricked Up (my version of Brick by Brick from Michaela Moores) in a lovely burnt orange BFL:

I wore them the other day since it’s still cold here (although things may warm up soon, they say).  The combination of knit and purl, and the lustre of the BFL, brings out the colour very nicely – I’m quite fond of them, which is a surprise.

Now, as promised/threatened, here’s a project in bright hand-dyed sock yarn.  It’s Unleaving from the latest Knitty:

It’s not that bad, but I think it’s destined as a charity donation because I’m not hugely keen on long scarves at the moment.

As for the WIP, I’m knitting Amelia by Julia Frank from Rowan 51, which is a risky thing to do at the best of times.  I’m using Patons Cotton DK, which is highly mercerised, so the project is very probably doomed.

A while back I made the mistake of hand-painting some BFL laceweight.

I love the colours, but what to do with it has become a problem.  I started Semi-Precious from a previous Knitty, but the lace pattern was too obscure.  So I tried Demiluna and that didn’t look right either.  The yarn was just about to be binned when I came across Carie Harling’s Old Man of Storr Shawlette.  Will this be third time lucky?  Ironically, I named the colourway Smart Step.  I hope the eponymous racehorse does better.

And a small confession.  On things Rowan, I was passing an LYS in York and fancied a squeeze of Fine Lace.  It’s lovely stuff, but the colours are a little on the drab side for me.  The staff were very nice and friendly, but I didn’t buy any Rowan (although I wouldn’t rule that out for the future).  I bought some Lang Jawoll Magic sock yarn.  Why?  Because I’ve never bought Lang before.  Of course.

Hooked on Beading

So I’m going through the “where can I add beads to this?” phase.

Here’s a shawl which called for beads and nupps, but I used beads throughout because I’m not overly fond of nupps.

The design is Karen Strauss’ Bella Botanica Shawl.  Of course you can’t see the beads in the photo – never mind.

I love the edging:

This is the third shawl from the two 100g skeins of hand-dyed laceweight which came out in a colour I adore.  And I’m going to make a fourth!

I’ve been having a good clear out of my libraries: chucking out old magazines and books for recycling and deleting stuff from Ravelry.  In the process I thought it would be a good time to knock off a few classics and get them out of my system.  Finally getting around to the Prairie Rose Lace Shawl probably triggered things.

I have a couple of skeins of Zitron Filigran which I bought when I first got the lace knitting bug and they’d slipped to the back of my yarn queue.  Well, what a lovely surprise!  The yarn is high quality one-ply merino and knits beautifully.  I started with a limited edition multi-shade in purple/violet and finally got round to Emily Ross’ Haruni.

I’m not too sure about the colour-banding, but it’ll do.

I probably wouldn’t have used the yarn for this design if I’d been more alert when I wound it into a ball.  I did it in a hurry because I was a bit incensed over some black alpaca/silk/cashmere laceweight which I’d bought for Jane Sowerby’s Myrtle Leaf Shawl.  It’s by one of our leading indie hand-dyers and I’d been looking forward to using it.  Having got through the first pattern repeat I looked at my hands.  You guessed it – dye transfer.  As an amateur hand-dyer I was appalled.  I won’t sell anything which I think won’t be colour-fast so why should anyone else?  Needless to say it’s all on the compost heap.  I can take dye leakage during washing but not in the knitting.

And my next classic?  Evelyn A Clark’s Swallowtail Shawl.

“What about those nupps?” you may ask.

Indeed.

Two shawls and Frankenstein

It’s the first day of spring, according to Google, so here’s my finished Spring in Old York:

It’s gorgeous Noro Silk Garden Sock and was very easy to knit. Thank you Andrea! The design is very angular and geometric and works really well with this yarn.

As a complete contrast I finished my Vlad:

I’m not so keen on it: perhaps it was the the twice-baked overdyed yarn! Still, the colour is good and it’s a useful accessory.

And staying on the darker side (not just colours), I’ve been knitting a sweater using two shades of the same yarn. I had about 200g of Fuchsia left over from last year’s Corinne and I bought 300g more in Bilberry. The plan was to make a thrifty striped sweater. The Fuchsia is rather bright, as you can see:

But I miscalculated quantities too, as a result of making the pink stripes narrow, so the second sleeve is a bit different from the first (pictures at a later date … maybe).

I was flicking through Julie Turjoman’s Brave New Knits and had to smile:

Frankenstein – verb: to knit a project from an assortment of orphan skeins or remnants of yarn, rather than from yarn purchased specifically for that design.

Because it’s not a sweater, it’s a monster.

Carried Away Casting On

I love casting on. I get an amazing feeling of satisfaction from a nice tubular 2×2 rib edge:

Anything else, like a cable or long tail, is just a necessary chore. I even use tubular cast on for socks, like my second of 2012 which is the delightfully simple Monkey by Cookie A.

I was talking about sock construction to a knitty friend and mentioned that I hadn’t yet knitted any from the toe up. Which of course meant my third of the year had to use the technique. I picked Cat Bordhi’s Darjeeling from Clara Parkes’ book and went over to YouTube to watch Cat’s tutorial on Judy Becker’s Magic Cast-On. It looked nice and easy in chunky yarn on large needles, but was a bit fiddly on 2.25mm with 4-ply. I gave up my first attempt in frustration but went back to it later with more patience. And so more socks:

At this rate it’ll be 12 pink socks in 2012.

For provisional cast on I tend to start with a crochet chain of spare yarn. So when I read a good blog post on a variation of Turkish cast on for shawl tabs I just had to try it. And try it again.

I suffered a little “startitis” and I have two shawls on the needles. The first, which was the original culprit, is Autumn in New York. Only it’s Spring in Old York:

I had 200g of Noro Silk Garden Sock in my stash, bought for a gift which I made in some hand-dyed instead. I had been looking for something which would show off the best of this wonderful yarn. I came across Andrea Jurgrau’s design on Ravelry and went over to her blog to read all about it.

I’d forgotten how nice it is to knit with SGS. It just slips through my fingers and says “Knit me! Knit me more!”. I couldn’t put it down. But it’s a large shawl and may take a while to finish.

Thinking about the cast on technique, I had the urge to practice it again. I’m trying to use up my early hand-dyed yarns, hence I started Vlad:

I’ve called the project Edward. There’s more silk in this yarn and it’s knitting up a treat too. This one is a reasonably sized shawlette, so it’ll be finished soon I expect.

It’s certainly a mild spring here in York. If you needed a good reason to visit either now or at Easter there’s the award-winning Ramshambles in, of course, the Shambles …..

….. with my hand-dyed laceweight in the window and an excellent selection of yarns inside. The shop is open every day of the week. As if you needed an excuse!

First shawl of 2012

Having decided that 12 socks and 12 shawls were a bit too much for 2012 I got a move on with my first shawl last weekend. I’m not too strong on common sense this month, that’s for sure.

It’s in Perplex, my hand-dyed 4-ply baby alpaca. I’m a bit strange about this yarn: it’s so gorgeous I can’t part with it. I’ve just dyed another 400g, and I really should put them up for sale, but I don’t think I can.

Here’s my shawl:

It’s Alice by Marie-Adeline Boyer and it has a sister, Cassandra. I have a skein of Perplex in lilac which will won’t get sold and will get knitted up fairly soon, I think.

As for socks, I chose Cookie A’s Monkey for my second of 2012. I can understand why there are over 15,000 Monkey projects on Ravelry – it’s a nice easy design. The first sock is finished:

and I’m turning the heel of the second.

One bright note in the last two dreadful weeks is that my yarns may appear for sale in another shop (the one in the street that’s been voted the best in England).

2011 – A year of knitting feverishly

I reckon I’ve knitted more this last year than ever before, and I’ve learned a lot too. According to my Ravelry projects page for 2011, I’ve completed 51 projects. I haven’t been idle then.

I joined the 11 Shawls in 2011 group on Ravelry and completed the requisite number by mid-July. But I just kept on going. I’d made 19 shawls by early December and so, in knitty logic, I had to knit another to reach 20 in 2011. Here it is:

It’s Birgit Freyer’s Lazy Katy – a nice, quick and easy knit. It seems the 11 shawls group has morphed into 12 Shawls in 2012. I’m not sure I have the motivation this year but maybe I’ll concentrate on laceweight.

One of my Christmas presents was Clara Parkes’ The Knitter’s Book of Socks. There’s not much on sock construction, but quite a bit on sock yarn. And the designs are rather nice: I’m planning to start with Hummingbird using the same yarn as my Lazy Katy. It’s my own hand-dyed which I kept back for myself since I wasn’t too sure about its colourfastness. I shouldn’t have worried since the shawl washed fine before blocking. But matching shawl and socks. Cool? I’m not sure.

I got some sock blockers too, and here they are with my last project of 2011:

The design is Jocelyn Sertich’s Dragonfly Socks with a minor change to the cuff. Another nice and easy design – do I try anything else these days? I’ve joined 12 socks in 2012 on Ravelry – I need to use up all my hand-dyed yarn!

So what was my favourite project of year? There are three contenders:

• a sweater in red baby alpaca, 
• Pimpelliese in hand-dyed burgundy BFL, 
• and Anniken Allis’ mystery shawl KAL (which became Cornish Rhapsody) in hand-dyed grey BFL. 

Surprisingly, since I hated the third clue, it’s got to be the shawl. I just love wearing it!

And finally, I think 2012 will be a year of socks and lace.

In praise of Bluefaced Leicester yarn

It may be from the strangest looking of sheep, with its Roman nose, but I can’t praise this wonderful yarn too highly.

As part of my austerity stash-busting exercise I’ve just finished a sweater in Airedale Aran which I bought from Texere Yarns some time ago.  Since the yarn is charcoal in colour it shows up the lustre of the yarn beautifully.  And it’s so soft.  The sweater may look like something suitable for school but it’s absolutely gorgeous to wear.

I used Ann Budd’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns.  Since I’m obsessed with tubular cast on and cast off at the moment I knitted each piece separately to the armholes and then joined all four together on a circular.  Why?  Because the recommended approach of  joining in the round after a straight row where the stitches are swapped into 2×2 rib leaves too bigger a gap for my liking.  I don’t mind straight seams, I just hate sewing in sleeves.

And the good news is that I still have another 700g of Airedale Aran, this time in indigo.  A round-neck sweater on the same principles, I think.  I’m even tempted to put in a bit of “Sarah Lund” motif, but maybe not.  She wore about four different sweaters in the last two episodes so the red one isn’t so iconic.

I can’t stop wearing the shawlette I knitted as part of Anniken Allis’ recent Mystery KAL.  It’s my own hand-dyed bluefaced leicester laceweight, and I must confess I prefer this yarn to the wonderful Fyberspates Scrumptious, even though that has so much silk content.  Perhaps it just suits the time of year better.

I dyed some more of this wonderful yarn (I call it Bemuse) for my Etsy shop, but had to keep some back since I couldn’t bear to part with it!

If I’m mad enough to consider a dozen shawls in 20dozen I’m sure this will get used early next year.

Fledglings

I’m very happy to say that some knitty folk have bought my yarn!  I spent last week busily creating more stock and braved the rain on Friday to replenish my basket at Sunday Nest:

I’m working on some very pretty laceweight and all sorts of sock yarn. A skein or two of these would make a nice gift at this time of year.

My first Cascade 220 sweater has left my circular needles and it’s keeping me snug and warm.

I love the yarn and I certainly wouldn’t mind walking into a shop that stocked the full range.  In fact I wouldn’t mind owning that shop, so listen up, fairy godmother, and grant my wish!