Yep you guessed it, the felted bag has been languishing on the settee while I cast on for the hat for Nanny. The yarn was fun to work with though it took a bit of getting used to not stabbing the needle through the yarn (Schachenmayr Princess, 72% acrylic, 28% viscose) by accident. It was knitted on 4.5mm needles so zipped along quite quickly, and here are some piccies:

Hat for Nanny

This one shows up the cable around the bottom well but the colour didn’t come out at all realistically, so the following one is a much better colour match, but unfortunately you can’t really see the texture detail.

Hat for Nanny

The pattern is the Braid-edged Cap by Judy Gibson, I used 4.5mm needles and slightly thinner yarn than specified because Nanny has quite a small head. Also instead of casting on and casting off and then sewing the edges together I cast on on waste yarn and grafted the beginning to the end since I didn’t want any seams. It was a fun knit, and I’m looking forward to doing another one in the mauve yarn I bought. I will hopefully borrow Annie to model it next week as my head is too big(!).

Much excitement here today as my parcel from Elann arrived this morning! (I ordered it surface mail so it took 6 weeks to get here) Here it is:

Parcel from Elann

Still in its bag! It is a ladder yarn, I think about aran weight, and 72% acrylic, 28% viscose, it feels lovely and soft. The pink and the mauve on the top right are going to be a pair of hats for Nanny for her birthday (she will be 92 next month!) since she doesn’t have much hair now and I thought this yarn might hopefully make a nice soft indoor hat. The navy blue is for me, but I haven’t quite worked out what it is going to be yet. I shall just stroke it as I pass by and I’m sure I shall work out what it would like to be soon.

I am dying to cast on for the first hat, but am rather torn as I feel I should really do some more on the felted bag first before I start yet another new thing. Oh the dilemmas! So little time, so much fun knitting!

The weather is miserable here today, lots of rain and rather grey, at least the high winds have stopped though.

My parents came to visit at the weekend which was lovely, and we had a nice meander around the shops in Kingston. Mummy and I stroked all the wool in John Lewis but were very restrained and didn’t buy any. Mummy brought down her cardigan she is currently knitting and it is looking very good so far. It is a pattern from a Rowan book I think and in a sort of orangey-red colour, the yarn is an alpaca and wool mix, and I think is Jaeger Luxury Tweed – though don’t quote me on that. The moss stitch edgings are really nice and have inspired me to do something in moss stitch soon, I just haven’t worked out what yet!

Yarn Forward are having a sale at the moment, 20% off if you spend more than £50 on yarn and kits. They have some lovely looking stuff, but I have decided I need to knit up more of what I have first before I buy anything new. All the yarn waiting to be made into things is getting a bit overwhelming, and I really need to streamline it a bit so I can get to everything.

The latest sock is jogging along, I have just turned the heel. I knitted a bit more on the bag to be felted today, 150 rows down, out of about 260 I reckon will make the bag the right size, so going well but still a fair way to go.

I’ve started on the next pair of socks. This time out of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in colour rainbow, bought from Cnyttan Patterns. This is the first time I have used this yarn, and it feels quite different to the sock yarns I have used before (Regia, Opal and Fortissima). It is very smooth and sort of shiny, whereas the other sock yarns I have come across have been more hairy. It is really nice to knit with, I was thinking it would make a nice T-shirt type top too, being so smooth.

I’ve just found out that Get Knitted not only sell lots of sock wool including Lorna’s Laces but they have their very own Get Knitted colourway in Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, I am quite tempted 🙂

Here is a picture of the current sock so far …

Sock in progress

Well the felted knitted bag is coming along, but rather slowly. I think I am about 2/3 of the way up the main part of the bag, and after that is the miles and miles of strap to do. In the mean time though I have just finished another pair of socks! These ones are made out of Fortissima Colori bought from Web of Wool.

Fortissima Colori socks

I bought it because I just love the colour, and it is constructed in a different way to other sock yarns I have used. Instead of being one colour which has been painted, each of the individual threads which are twisted together are a different colour and they change gradually up the length of the yarn. Here is a close up of the knitting so hopefully you can see what I mean.

Sock detail

The June edition of Knitting arrived a couple of days ago but I haven’t had a chance to read it properly yet, hopefully soon.

Anyway, back to the grind stone. One reason for the lack of knitting is that I am attempting to write some more on my Plücker’s Mathematical Models write up, and rewrite what I have written so far into something more closely resembling English.

Saturday was my birthday, and Liz and Mike sent me this fabulous knitting card:

Birthday card

The sheep is purple, although is it a bit hard to tell due to my lack of skills with photography.

I had a lovely day, and got some wonderful pressies. My other half gave me The Pleasures of Knitting: Timeless Feminine Sweaters and my inlaws also gave me At Knit’s End by the yarn harlot. I have dipped into both but haven’t had a proper read yet, I think a nice cup of tea and a couple of the chocolates from my aunt and uncle and a nice read are what is called for this afternoon 🙂

I finished knitting my sample of lambswool to be felted, this is what it looked like before it went through the wash:

Felted knitting, before washing

And this is how it looks after it has been through the wash twice:

Felted knitting sample, after two washes

This seems to be a good density for a bag, so I shall work out how many stitches I need and cast on today I think.

I’ve just discovered KnitCast which is a podcast about knitting. There are the first 5 podcasts up on the site so far, and the interviews are really interesting – definitely worth a listen. I’ve even managed to get a bit knitted on the latest sock while listening.

In other knitting I have decided that I need a new felted bag. I have one I knitted last year which is dark green and my other half kindly says looks like a carpet tile. It is really useful though, as it has a long strap so I can wear it diagonally and have both hands free, and it is big enough to fit in bit of knitting, along with the obligatory purse and phone and other stuff I usually carry around. It is starting to pill a little now though, and I decided it would be nice to have one in another colour too, so I have set to on a sample swatch using 4 strands of 2ply lambswool from Uppingham Yarns and 8mm needles. It is coming along but isn’t great computing knitting as the yarn is oiled and so I tend to grease up the keys – not quite the desired effect. However the library is having a rent 3 DVDs for the price of 2 offer until the end of May so I have got a few things to watch while I knit my sample to be felted.

As I said before we had a workshop on knitting with silk at knitting group yesterday, which was great fun. She brought in some Mawata caps which are a big hat shape made by taking the silk cocoon after the caterpillar has emerged as a moth and then soaking it and stretching it to about 12 inches x 8 inches ish. You can grab the top of the cap and pull off a layer of silk which you can then stretch out and roll on your trouser to form a rather primitive type of thread. A way of making silk thread for those who don’t spin really. I hope I have remembered that description of the process properly.

Anyway, then we knitted it up trying different needle sizes and stitch patterns and generally playing around with it, and that is the white part of the sample below (the blue is some commercial acrylic yarn I was playing with different needle sizes in stocking stitch and garter stitch).

Silk sample

I also had to buy a skein of the most beautiful hand dyed silk:

Skein of hand dyed silk

I’m afraid the picture didn’t come out that well, but it is a blend of different blues and greys with silver specks. I haven’t worked out what is going to be yet, possibly a scarf?

I finished the other sock, so I now have a pair! As you can see they are very non-identical 🙂

Oddment socks

They fit well though, the extra 5 rounds in the foot and having more stitches in the cuff has definitely made all the difference, and with all the different little odd balls I have had lots of practice on my Russian join!

Today was knitting group at Ash, and we had a workshop on knitting with silk with Priscilla Lowry (I hope I have spelled her name correctly) which was very interesting. I shall photograph my bizarre little sample piece and the lovely yarn I bought tomorrow hopefully. All this excitement has rather worn me out!

Well this has been a bit of a busy week, and not much knitting got done. I had a tutorial on Friday so spent most of the week in not particularly productive panic about that. It was a really useful tutorial though and I must write up the things we discussed before I forget it all!

I did manage to get the first of my oddment socks finished, piccie below:

Oddment sock

I am on the leg of the second. The plain maroon colour in the middle is Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4ply and I had forgotten how absolutely lovely it is to knit with, really soft. The second sock is going to be even more odd as I haven’t got enough of the stripey turquoise to do the whole toe so will have to find another oddment to finish off with – it all adds to the fun! I’ll post a picture of the socks on the feet when I finally get the second done.

I also succumbed to the lure of some Schachenmayer Princess yarn from Elann in a black and blue colourway, and some in a green and blue colourway. It is an acrylic and viscose blend, and an aran weight, and looks a bit like a chenille. I ordered it surface mail so it will take about 6 weeks to arrive, enough time hopefully for me to work out what I am going to do with it!