I’m afraid still no photo of my finished multi-coloured cotton jumper. I have been painting the front door most of the weekend and didn’t want to get it covered in paint. Hopefully we will have nice weather one of the evenings this week and I can prevail upon the other half to take a picture of me in it.

In the mean time I had rather a lot of DK weight cotton left so decided to embark on the Shapely Tee, a free pattern by Joan McGowan-Michael of White Lies Designs. Somehow the cerise pink yarn I decided to use didn’t look quite so bright and pink when I was only using a few rows in the multi-coloured jumper. It is really quite bright and very pink when viewed in a large expanse of stocking stitch.

This is the front, and it is knitting up gratifyingly quickly. It is the first time I have tried short row bust shaping, seeing as with my personal geography it isn’t really necessary. I thought I would have a go though as it seemed like a fun idea. I’m not sure whether I have put them too high up though and that they might distort the armhole. It is probably one of those wait-and-see things, hopefully once the sleeves are sewn in it will all look fine.

Anyway, off to prime the rain guard thing I have bought to screw onto the bottom of the door once I finish painting it. I thought painting the guard to match the door might be easier before I have attached it, though it seems to be rather fiddly even still. At least only one more coat of paint on the actual door left to go, hopefully I will be able to get that done tomorrow morning. Must go and check the weather forecast …

I finished this bag a couple of days ago, but have been waiting for nice enough weather to photograph it outside. It was knitted using 4 strands of 2ply lambswool held together and 8mm needles, then put through the washing machine and dryer with my towels twice. I graded the colours from totally purple for the flap through to totally black under the flap.
You can see the colour grading a little better on the back of the bag. I’m afraid my pictures don’t show the colours particularly well.
It was fun to knit, and has come out a really useful sort of size. I think after 4 bags though I have got it out of my system for a bit!

Odd that is in a good way, just rather bizarre. I had the 6 monthly dentist check-up this morning which all went very well. I am recognised as the one who knits and they always ask what I am working on now and how it is coming along which is rather flattering really. I think this all stems from when we first joined the practice and the other half had a series of fillings done over a period of a few weeks. Sometimes the anesthetic they used made him feel a bit grotty so I would drive him to the appointments and then sit in the waiting room and knit while waiting to drive him back home again. The surreal part of the visit was finding myself trying to explain Projective Geometry to my dentist while making an appointment for my next check-up, and then explaining to the other people in reception why I would be a terrible teacher (its the crowd control thing, I just don’t have the personality for it). All this before 10:30 in the morning too.

On my way home I dropped into the post office to pick up the parcel they had tried to deliver while I was taking the other half to work (why is it that parcels always arrive on the day you are out?). It turned out to be my order from Simply Socks Yarn Company. I know you are all probably thinking, after the 64 litres of sock yarn why on earth can she need more sock yarn. What can I say? Its an addiction. They had some lovely things I haven’t tried before, and I was quite restrained, I only bought 4 balls / skeins, and one of them was on sale. I got a stripy Regia, a handpaint Opal in shades of green, and two skeins of Fleece Artist merino. They all look lovely and I can’t wait to cast on. It is hard to know where to start!

The new Knitty is up! I am very taken with Leaves in Relief, and might have a go at Falling Leaves too, although I might alter the pattern quite a lot on the socks. It is odd really with Knitty, but despite liking the magazine generally this is the first time I have actually found a pattern I am really keen on knitting. I think I have the same kind of thing with Knitty as I do with Colinette. I love the idea of Colinette and I think a wall full of their yarns looks lovely, but when it boils down to it I don’t actually like any of the individual colourways enough to actually buy them. Kind of a good concept but I don’t like the reality. I think I have had the same thing with Knitty, that I loved the idea, and their techniques articles are always very interesting, but somehow none of the patterns actually inspired me enough to knit it, at least not until now. Now the only problem is finding a suitable worsted weight yarn! I think the only worsted weight I have lying around the house is some skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, but being 80% cotton I think it might be a bit heavy for a pattern with so much texture. I have found a couple of sites which stock the Paton’s Classic Merino which is recommended and which will post to the UK but I am quite picky about the feel of a yarn and I am slightly wary about ordering enough for a jumper without being able to feel it first.

Anyway, time to go to bed and dream about knitting. Speaking of which I did actually have a dream the other night about organising yarn into plastic boxes, sad life that I lead 🙂

On Friday I went to a workshop (with my mum) on Horst Schultz’s Patchwork Knitting techniques with Rosie Sykes in Marlow. It was wonderful fun, and we covered lots of different ways of knitting small modules and then knitting more modules onto them.

Rosie was a great teacher, very patient and organised, and we covered all sorts of things, including handy edgings which are easy to pick up stitches from, which I must remember to use in other projects not just patchwork knitting.

Here is an example of the first sort of patchwork squares we were knitting. I have had a go at this sort of thing before, but it was really good to have a reminder, I feel inspired to try out some more experiments with this kind of thing

I really like the effect that baxcraft has achieved with these kind of squares, by knitting with black as the foreground garter stitch stripe, and a multicoloured yarn as the background stocking stitch stripe. I definitely see more playing around with these techniques in my future! Although hopefully with some slightly nicer coloured yarn (you will be pleased to know that the worst horrors of my yarn colour choices aren’t being featured on the blog!)

Later on, one of the shapes we had a go at were leaves.

One of the ladies who had been to Horst’s workshop last year had brought along a lovely jacket she had knitted using these shapes, very inspiring. I would definitely like to have a go at a scarf using this shape, done in autumn colours. I have a lovely collection of cones of Shetland 4ply which would be just right for this. I am currently knitting a variation on Alice Starmore’s Henry VIII in these yarns though so I want to finish that first. After all I would be incredibly annoyed if I made a scarf with some of the yarn and then discovered I didn’t have enough left to finish the jumper!

Last of all we had a go at some shells shapes, similar to those done by Maureen Mason-Jamieson. She has a free pattern for a bag using these shapes on her site, but I don’t seem to be able to link to it directly. You can find it by clicking on freebies at the bottom of the main page and then clicking on Shell Purse Pattern. Rosie had brought a sample she had knitted in this pattern which was really effective, a lovely choice of colours, and the shapes tile together in a very pleasing manner.

All in all the day was wonderful, if you have a chance to go on a similar workshop definitely jump at it. Marlow was lovely too, we had a little walk around at lunchtime and saw some of the sights. Jill organised the day to perfection, with breaks for tea and coffee just when we needed them (have to fuel the brain cells after all!). I am hoping there will be another one next year, and in the mean time I shall be thinking about what to knit with the techniques I have just learned.

Mummy and Daddy left this morning, so the washing machine is on full blast recycling the sheets for when they are back again in two weeks on their way on holiday! I think I shall be good and knit a bit more of the to-be-felted bag while I wait for the washing to do, and for the weather to cool down a little. We went to Wisley yesterday and bought a couple of nice plants, I think hopefully in an hour or two it might be cool enough to venture into the garden to plant them.

I’m back now from a lovely holiday. Shropshire was really interesting and we visited lots of castles and priories and whatnot. The we went on up to North Yorkshire to stay with my parents for my Mum’s birthday. She had a lovely day and we had lots of nice outings.

I didn’t get much knitting done while we were away, a bit of the latest sock but that was about it. I have done a bit more of the multi coloured cotton jumper since we have been back, and here is it so far:

Just the edgings to go now, the end is in sight! I have borrowed the DVD of Pride and Prejudice from my sister so I think that might be the evenings viewing while I finish this off. I have had a preliminary try on and it seems pretty good, although perhaps a little wide around the top of the sleeves. I think I will have to do the edgings and give it a nice little wash and push into shape before I pass judgement though.

Now to move not-so-smoothly into the subject of this post. Yesterday I had a trip to Staples in Horsham and got 4 64 litre plastic storage boxes. I have filled them all up already 🙂 They are just the right size to fit under our spare bed, so two have gone under there already filled with some of Paul’s clothes and my dancing stuff. I have decided to use the other two to organise my yarn a bit. So one is full of sock yarn and the other has some of my odds and ends in. It is rather depressing to find that I have more than 64 litres of odds and ends!

If you have ever wondered what 64 litres of sock yarn looks like, here it is:

I think that should keep me going for a while 🙂

Off to catch up on all the blogs I have missed.

I’ve finally decided that it will be a couple of pairs of socks which will accompany me on holiday. They are nice and small and portable and just mindless enough 🙂

Unfortunately not much actual knitting has got done over the last couple of days, but the washing machine has been on overdrive! I think we are now all washed and partly packed, I must go and consult my list and see what I have forgotten.

Hope the weather holds for our week and a bit away!

I forgot to mention in my last post, but after all the umming and ahhing I decided to buy the Hanne Falkenberg Mermaid kit in Colourway 4. I was rather worried about whether the colours would be ok but luckily they are wonderful, even nicer than they looked on the website. It is always a bit of a difficulty to gauge colour accurately from a website particularly with different monitor settings and whatnot. I know that my monitor usually shows things slightly darker than they really are, which means telling the difference between black, dark brown and dark blue on a website can often be a challenge! Anyway, here is a picture of the kit in its lovely smart bag!

I am going to be good and not start it until I have finished off some of the things I have on the needles at the moment. I find I am generally better to work on only a few things at once, enough for variety but not so many that I forget what I was thinking about for each one.

The multi-coloured cotton jumper is progressing but rather slowly now. I have joined the second sleeve in now and although the end is sort of in sight the rows now are obscenely long, I think it took me over an hour to knit the most recent row. At least each row is getting shorter and shorter, and I am just carrying on knitting til I think the neck is the right depth and then I shall have a think about the shoulders. Unfortunately it is not particularly photogenic right now in its scrunched-up-on-the-needles state so there isn’t a picture for your delectation.

We are off on holiday on Friday for a week away which I’m really looking forward to. We are going to have a bit of an English Heritage fest for the weekend on our way up the country to visit my parents for the rest of the week. It is Mummy’s birthday on Thursday 11th, I wont tell you what I have got her in case she gets round to reading this 🙂 Although actually quite a lot of her pressies are things she has requested.

As is often the case with holidays though I am having the customary what-knitting-to-take dilemma. The difficulty is that the multi-coloured jumper requires lots of balls of yarn taken with it since I haven’t decided beyond the next stripe or two what colour or pattern I am using, also it is getting a bit big for dragging around. The to-be-felted bag is being made from oiled shetland and so requires a lot of hand washing, again more of a sit around knit rather than an on-the-go knit. I have a sock on the needles (what a surprise!) but I’m not sure how much time I will have for knitting, so will just one pair of socks be enough? Oh the choices, the choices!

I shall think on it all while doing another row on the multi-coloured jumper and contemplating what to feed my sister when she comes round for lunch tomorrow.

Hope the weather is good next week.

Well, I haven’t disappeared off the face of the planet but it has been a busy couple of weeks.

Since my last post, I have been to The Beadwork Fair at Lingfield Park, which was great fun. Oddly enough despite being a bead fair I managed to buy some knitting needles 🙂 I bought another set of 2.5mm rosewood dpns to replace the ones I have had a few years and which are all rather bent and one has snapped. I did buy a few beads too, I found a lovely selection of pretty coloured delica beads, which I am going to make into bracelets when I finally get round to it. I am not very fast at this beading lark, as can be witnessed by the fact that I am still only 2 inches into the bracelet I started just after the 2003 Beadwork Fair.

I also went to the International Arts and Crafts Exhibition at the V&A which was fantastic. A really interesting collection of exhibits, in a well thought out exhibition. I would encourage you all to go but unfortunately I see from their website that the Exhibition closed yesterday 🙁 The V&A generally is always worth an outing though, and I am definitely resolved to try and get there more often and have a closer look at all the amazing things they have.

Keeping on the theme of the V&A I also went back there for the Knitting and Crochet Guild AGM, when we had a talk on knitting at the V&A and conservation, all interesting stuff. The previous day a few of us also had a very interesting and illuminating tour of the textile conservation department also organised by the Knitting and Crochet Guild. A lovely chance to meet up with lots of knitters too, and wonderful to see all the things they were making or had brought along to show. I am definitely inspired by Mary Graham’s knitting with wire to have another go myself. The shapes she had knitted were quite different from what you can achieve in a more floppy material like most yarns, they rather reminded me of surfaces of constant negative curvature which you get in non-Euclidean geometry (worth clicking the link for the pretty pictures even if you aren’t a mathematician!).

As well as the outings my parents have been to stay twice in the last week! Both on their way to, and on their way back from a holiday in France, and it has been both my parents-in-law’s birthdays. Just to add to the general hecticness, the TV broke on Saturday and the car needs a service, it doesn’t rain but it pours!

In among all this domestic chaos I have managed to knit a bit more on the multicoloured cotton jumper, and here is the first sleeve, nearly finished.

Since photographing this I have now joined it to the body, unfortunately no photo since the camera batteries died and are currently recharging. Hopefully I’ll take a piccie tomorrow.

So, I am off to catch up on all the blog reading I have missed, cast on for the second sleeve and possibly read a bit of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (I am hopelessly slow and only on chapter 4 so far).

The new KnitCast is here! This one is an interview with Kate Gilbert, the designer of the Clapotis (I think I must be the only knitter ever who hasn’t knitted one and has no particular plans to! I think it is a lovely pattern but can’t really see myself wearing it).

I’ve given up on the weather cheering up enough to take a progress photo of the multi-coloured cotton jumper outside so here is one of it taken on the settee:

Its coming along. I think I am only a couple of stripes away from the start of the neckline – it is going to be a V-neck. Once I reach the underarm I shall put the body on stitch holders and work both sleeves, and then work out how I am going to do the shoulders.

Apart from the knitting I have been very domesticated recently (quite shocking I assure you). Today I defrosted both freezers and yesterday we actually got round to fitting a new light fitting in the bathroom (the old one broke weeks, maybe even months ago), and I only electrocuted myself once! We decided that was enough DIY for the time being so we haven’t put up the shelves in our bedroom yet. I am hoping to get round to that before my parents come to stay in a couple of weeks, since at the moment you can’t actually even sit on the spare bed let alone sleep on it.

Anyway, back to the cotton jumper, I think I am going to do a purple stripe next …

And happy Independence Day to any Americans out there.

I actually finished this bag a few days ago, but it languished waiting for some suitably old towels to accompany it in the washing machine, and then it languished again waiting for me to find it a nice button. After all the procrastination here it is finally:

Knitted felted bag

It is knitted on 8mm needles if I remember correctly, using 4 strands of 2ply lambswool from Uppingham Yarns. Then it went through the washing machine and the dryer twice with a nice selection of similar coloured towels which are old enough not to impart fluff on anything they are washed with. I am part way through the next bag which will be shaded black and purple, I haven’t got very far with it yet though as I have been waylaid by the multicoloured cotton jumper which always seems much more exciting when I sit down for a spot of knitting.

The weather has been a bit off and on the last couple of days so the tennis has been a bit stilted. I still caught a bit of both the women’s semi-finals yesterday which were good for watching while I knitted a couple of rounds on the cotton jumper. Cotton jumper is progressing, though rather slowly, I’m onto a stripe in a kind of tomato red, which actually looks a bit subtle compared to my other colour choices. Not to worry, I have a nice bright green to knit the next large stripe in. I’ll hopefully post another pic of the progress tomorrow if the weather is good enough for an outside picture.

Thanks for the comment Tari! I love bright colours, always have done, and am always on the look out for lovely coloured yarn. I think it is the first thing that draws me to a yarn, whether the colour jumps out at me, and then I have to stroke it to see if it feels nice!

I have been a good girl and have been weaving in the ends as I go along, the horror of having thousands of ends to weave in after the knitting has been motivating me in this task. I’ve been trying out the method recommended in this Knitty article, and it looks pretty good so far if I do say so myself. It is a bit noticeable on the wrong side because when I cut the ends I left a bit of a tail since cotton tends to work its way through to the right side otherwise, but the right side looks very smooth. The only thing is that I haven’t really conquered how to weave in ends in moss stitch (I think this is seed stitch in American).

In other news I ordered a new wedding ring today which is quite exciting. My fingers tend to swell up a lot in the hot and humid weather and I realised last week that the wedding ring I bought last year is really just too small. I think it depends on the shape of the ring because my engagement ring is exactly the same size and although tight in the hot weather I can still get it on and off, however the wedding ring had got to the point that I couldn’t get it on and off at all if the temperature went above about 25 degrees (C that is, I have no idea what that is in F). So I have ordered a new ring and it should arrive in about three weeks, it is going to be hopefully practically identical to the first one, just three sizes bigger, so I shall have a summer ring and a winter ring 🙂