Category Archives: Finished Projects 2012

Cirque Socks

The cyclists are having a rest today so I thought I would catch up with a pair of socks I recently finished.

These are the Cirque Socks, a free pattern from Knitty. I used 2.25mm needles and some rather elderly handspun yarn which was a mixture of Dorset fleece and Bluefaced Leicester tops. I had a bit of difficulty extending the pattern to the end of the toes (the pattern just has you stop and knit stocking stitch toes) and also accomodating the toe shaping, because the pattern repeat is quite long and there are only certain points in it which are suitable to start the toe shaping. So they have come out with rather square ends, socks for Roald Dahl’s witches 🙂 I was a bit underwhelmed with the pattern, there were several things in it which I think could be done more simply and elegantly. That will teach me for leaping in and not reading through the whole thing first to see what I would like to change 🙂

Swirling Petals Shawl

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I realised that I hadn’t actually blogged about my final project for the City and Guilds Certificate, so time to rectify that!

I actually finished this back in October!

In the end for the real thing I used 3mm needles and 75% merino, 25% angora lace weight yarn from Uppingham Yarns.

I am very pleased with the way it has come out 🙂

As with all of my City and Guilds projects this one also did not escape the epic sampling. As you can probably tell from the picture with me in it above, the finished shawl has a diameter of about 1.5m. My first sample where I was trying out different ways of making the segments, and trying out different edgings, was nearly as big (though it did use thicker yarn):

The second and third samples were only a metre across each, so clearly I am becoming more reasonable in my old age (!?)

The second sample explored ways of doing the increases to create the petals, and also possible patterns for inside the petals. And also shows my chosen edging (a combination of two of the edgings I tried on sample one):

By the third sample I had cracked the edging, so this one doesn’t include a lace edging, but was testing out possible patterns for inside the petals, and for the segments between the petals before the edging.

At first I thought I was going to make the real thing out of a lovely 70% baby alpaca, 30% silk lace weight yarn that I had bought from KnitPicks, in colour spice. At first it seemed to be going ok, but as I got onto the larger petals containing the field of flowers pattern, the multicoloured yarn totally obscured the lace pattern:

So I went back to the drawing board and chose a completely solid coloured yarn. Multi-coloured yarn and lace can be a tricky combination. I think it works with a yarn which is not too jazzy, and with a lace pattern which is very simple, but when one or the other get more complicated you tend to lose the pattern completely.

Luckily after all that, the project passed, and I have passed the whole course! I haven’t got my actual certificate yet, but hopefully I shall do at the next class.

Java Socks

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I had so much yarn left over after finishing the Cathedral Socks, that there was at least enough for another pair. I thought I would try a different pattern. This is the Java pattern, also from Knitty, and also using 2.25mm needles. I used about 83g, 324m. There is still about 214m left of this yarn, so probably not enough for another pair of socks, but maybe enough for fingerless mittens or something.

Here is a close up of the pattern on the leg:

They were a really nice pattern to knit. A simple 4 row repeat that was easy to memorise and pleasant to knit. Since I finished these the weather has warmed up so I haven’t worn them yet. I am a little concerned that the toe might be a bit pointy but we shall see.

The last night and time to come home

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Last night before dinner we had a little exhibition of all our work from the week. Everyone laid out the things they had been working on all week and we wandered round and admired it all, with a glass of kir royale in hand. So here is everyone’s work:

Fiona

Karen

Linda

Sue

Ruth

Pat

Celia

Anne

Joanne

Val

Avril

Ursula

Unfortunately I don’t seem to have photographed Myra’s work 🙁 If anyone has a photo of it I would love to see it.

Here we all are celebrating our achievements of the week:

And here are our lovely hosts Christine and Graham:

We then repaired to the dining room for another one of Christine’s wonderful meals. She really is a very good cook, very yummy food every day, I shall definitely not stand on the scales for some time 🙂 And then back to our rooms to wrestle with the packing.

Anne left last night, and Sue and Ruth left very early in the morning to get their train, but the rest of us had quite a leisurely start to the day, a final panic about the case, and time for Graham to squash all the cases in the minibus and the volvo, then he and David drove us to the station and then airport.

The journey home all went very smoothly. I have mostly unpacked now and done two loads of washing 🙂

It has been a lovely week. Such a nice time and I feel very lucky to have spent it with such a wonderful group of creative, fun, and talented ladies. Roll on next year! (though next time I will try to be a little more minimal with my packing, I got the prize on the way home for being the most over the weight limit)

A round up of the week

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Today has been a day of finishing up projects and samples begun, and trying out anything we are keen to before we pack up and depart tomorrow.

Sue finished her beret, and coordinated slipper

I finished my beret.

The back would sit straighter if I didn’t have my hair in a ponytail.

Karen finished her beret, it is the same colour as mine but her tension is a little looser so it has come out a lovely slouchy style.

Linda has finished a phone cover using one of the textured stitches we have been sampling, and using yarn she only bought yesterday!

Ruth has also already finished a self-designed brooch with yarn only bought yesterday.

Avril finished her fingerless mittens, using textured stitches and decorative edgings.

My mum finished her beret

Ursula finished her cushion cover.

Joanne finished her fingerless mittens, using moss stitch and moth stitch (say that three times fast!) carefully coordinated to match the beret she finished earlier in the week.

This evening we are going to have a little exhibition of our work so we can all admire everyone’s creations, then we are having a fair well dinner. And then time to see if we can persuade everything into our cases.

Mini moebius waistcoat

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At the end of April Tricia Holman (Elizabeth Zimmermann’s niece) came to the Ash knitting group to do a workshop on Elizabeth’s moebius waistcoat.

Here is Tricia (on the right) wearing her waistcoat, and with some of her other yarns and patterns.

During the day we knitted (or at least started knitting) our own little mini waistcoats.

I used 4mm needles, and some Manx Loaghtan handspun I had left over from my Handspun Leaves Waistcoat, and some red merino handspun for the edging, again another left over from my waistcoat.

It was good fun, and I am keen to make a full sized one at some point, although I think I may need to fiddle with the pattern a bit to get it to fit me. I am not very pleased with the way my icord edging came out. You can see the background colour through it, so I think I need to experiment with other ways of doing the join. Usually I do my icord from the inside, but this pattern with only one surface doesn’t have an inside and outside so both sides of the edging need to look good.

Cathedral Socks

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Back to a spot more catching up 🙂

In the blog silence I have been doing a bit of knitting as well as being busy generally.

I fnished these socks back at the beginning of April and am now finally sorting out photographs of them.

The yarn is some 70% merino, 30% silk blend from Wingham Wool Works, that I handspun, I think it was last year. The pattern is Cathedral socks from Knitty a few years ago. I used 2.25mm needles and about 92g, 350m ish of my yarn which meant I have plenty left over 🙂

I tinkered with the pattern a little bit, removing some of the internal ribs on the leg pattern:

And I fiddled with the toe pattern to make the cables flow into the stocking stitch:

I love the way the cables continue down the back of the heel:

They fit really well too:

Please excuse the slightly odd photo. This was taken by me standing on the windowsill of a B&B in mid-Wales while we were on holiday. The other half thought my antics were hilarious.

A really nicely thought out pattern which was fun to knit.

Handspun leaves waistcoat

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Finally after only two and a half years (!) I have finished my handspun leaves waistcoat. As you can see I am quite happy with it 🙂

I actually finished at the beginning of February, but finding a time when both I and the resident photographer were available, and it was actually daylight and not raining (or hailing as it has been today) proved to be something of a challenge.

This has been a fun opportunity to use up some of my early handspun. I stuck to the theme of dyed reds and natural browns to try to give it some kind of cohesion. The pattern is fortunately very forgiving of different thicknesses of yarn!

Those of you who have come along to the Patchwork Knitting Workshops in Marlow will have seen this in progress two years running! It is the difficulty that it is something for me, but not a City and Guilds piece, so always keeps getting put to the bottom of the priority list. It feels very good to have finished it and be able to wear it. It is turning into a very wearable item too, and I wore it quite a bit before the weather turned cold again.

I am planning to write up the pattern, but that might well take me a little while.

A not-Christmas present for my niece

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In the flurry of excitement of an impending niece in September 2010 I bought rather a lot of yarn for several projects, and didn’t actually have time to make all of it up before she was born. Luckily I had bought enough of the Knits Picks Stroll, 75% superwash merino, 25% nylon in Rouge, to make a cardigan a bit bigger than newborn size. However while I thought I might be able to eek out an 18 month size I wasn’t convinced I had enough for a 2 1/2 year old so thought I had better make something with it this winter.

I decided on the Child Surprise Jacket, it is fun to knit and would be a bit different to a shop bought cardigan. I did actually manage to get most of the knitting done before Christmas, but stalled on the choice of fastening. After having found some suitable buttons in January I actually finished it a couple of weeks ago, and posted it off, and it arrived a few days ago. Last heard it hadn’t been tried on yet, but Jenny was carrying it around like a security blanket, so even if it doesn’t fit it might have its uses 🙂

A fun cardi to knit, but I think it demonstrates that I don’t knit quickly enough to keep up with growing children! I might be sticking with hats for a while.