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Tag: knitting

  • Shur’tugal Socks

    Shur'tugal SocksThis was the first pattern scheduled for the “Super Special Six Pattern Sock Club” I’m participating in. The idea is that the group (which is now up to 200 members!) chose six sock patterns via a vote and throughout the year we’ll be knitting them with wool from our stashes. (You can read more here, here, and here.) I have plenty of sock wool in my stash, so in December I tucked away six special skeins for this series. On New Year’s Eve, I pulled one out at random: the Shibui Sock in “Pagoda” (a beautiful burnt orange) that I bought at my Mom’s LYS in Goshen. I wound the two skeins together into a center-pull ball and then I was off!

    The problem is that I hated this pattern. Oh, don’t get me wrong, it’s really well-written. I’ve just found historically that I get really, really bored with tiny allover repeating patterns, especially those involving two-stitch cables. (Remember Conwy?) Plus I just could NOT memorise the pattern. Twice I picked it up at the wrong spot and had to frog back. I knitted both socks at the same time on 2.75mm circulars, and I did the larger size. It just seemed to take FOREVER. I was so thrilled to finally cast them off today and be done with it! They are pretty though. More details are over on Ravelry.

    I will also admit to some irrational irritation with the pattern just because of the name. Apparently it has something to do with “dragon riders” and it’s from that book I hated.

  • Olivia’s Rainbow Blanket and BSJ

    Rainbow Baby BlanketOlivia’s Rainbow Blanket and BSJ
    Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that the first two projects shown on my knitting round-up below haven’t actually been blogged yet! That’s because I only just finished them yesterday. First up is an actual, honest-to-god CROCHETED item: Olivia’s Rainbow Baby Blanket. This is a project that I basically made up myself. My Mom had sent me 5 balls of “Sugar and Cream” cotton last year and I’d idly started crocheting squares based on this pattern. When my niece was born a couple weeks ago, it inspired me to join them all up into a blanket for her. I did 12 multi-colour squares (rotating the stripes each time so the squares are all different) along with 4 solid squares. I joined them all together with Cream, then crocheted a Cream border all around. Then I did a scalloped border in a different colour on each side. I’m really happy with how it turned out! I was debating on whether to back it with some fleece or flannel, but I think I like it the way it is.

    Rainbow Blanket   Rainbow Blanket   Rainbow Blanket

    Next is yet another Baby Surprise Jacket. I used some Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed that was leftover from my St. Brigid. It came out quite big, but I figure she’ll grow into it. The buttons are made out of coconut. 🙂

    Baby Surprise Jacket   Baby Surprise Jacket

  • Sam Socks

    Sam SocksWhile these turned out great in the end, I always seem to have terrible issues with Cookie A patterns. I bought Sock Innovations last year and this was my first project knitted from it. I discovered pretty quickly that there were major errors in the printed pattern. It completely omits the ribbing at the top of the leg, and it also tells you an incorrect number of leg repeats. (If you plan to knit anything from this book, I highly recommend you check the errata. There’s a LOT of it.)

    I knitted these on two 2.75mm circular needles. I could tell they were going to be tight around the ankle, so I cast on extra stitches so that I’d have a full extra pattern repeat around the leg. I knitted the heel exactly as written and just left the extra pattern repeat on the top of the foot. I usually like to knit my socks two-at-a-time, but that’s basically impossible with this pattern because you are constantly shifting the starting point of each round. So I was forced to knit each leg separately down to the heel, after which I knitted both socks together down towards the toes.

    The wool is a single skein of Yarntini Mint Fizz Stripe that I received in a swap from @dancingman. It was lovely to knit with. The third photo (heel detail) is closest to the actual colours: spring green, aqua, and purplish-grey stripes. I had about 1.5m left over when I finished, which was perfect. I’m very happy with how these turned out! (More details and photos are on Ravelry.)

  • Maile Sweater and Swirl Hat

    Maile Sweater and Swirl Hat
    Hey, I knitted something! It’s been months and months, actually. But last week my friend Kevin’s first child was born, and such a thing demands commemoration. I picked the pattern and the yarn before the birth, assuming that the combination would work for either gender. It helps that the father is Irish. 🙂

    Maile Sweater

    The cardigan is the Maile Sweater. It’s knitted from the bottom up in one piece. I actually knitted it twice: the first time on 3.5mm needle as per the pattern, and the second time on 3.75mm needles. (I thought it looked a little small so I frogged it and started over.) On the first attempt, I followed the pattern exactly including knitting the sleeves flat and joining them with no cast-off stitches. I wasn’t thrilled with it though, and the underarms had a few stitches that looked very stretched. So when I frogged and reknitted, I took the opportunity to experiment. The sleeves were knitted this time in the round via Magic Loop. When I joined them, I set aside 4 live stitches on the body and 4 live stitches on the underarm of the sleeve on waste wool. I later grafted these together (a la Elizabeth Zimmerman). It makes for a very nice finish, and it definitely made those first few rows after joining easier.

    The wool is “Merino Chubby Sock” in Barleygrass by the Knittery. One skein was plenty to knit the jumper, and I had so much left over that I actually made a matching hat. The pattern is the “Swirl Hat” from Sheepy Time Knits. And I still have wool left over! This stuff goes a long way.

    As usual, there are more photos and details over on Ravelry: Maile Sweater / Swirl Hat. Now I just have to wait to get a photo of the baby actually wearing them!

  • Miller’s Hat for Snook

    Miller's HatMiller’s Hat for Snook
    It’s been pretty chilly around here lately, so I finally convinced the Snook to let me knit him a hat. This is tricky business. He doesn’t like things that make his head itchy. He’s hated every woollen beanie I ever put on him. I’d have to get creative. While surfing Ravelry one day, I came across this photo of a guy wearing the unusual Miller’s Hat. Hey, I thought. That looks neat! So I bought the pattern. I decided to go with Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (80% cotton, 20% wool) for the project, despite all the drawbacks. (Cotton isn’t as warm; knitting cables in cotton kills your hands; cotton tends to be a stiffer fabric than wool.) The main selling point was that I knew it definitely wouldn’t make his head “itch.” I ended up having to restart the hat a couple times because I kept stuffing up the herringbone stitch around the band. It’s not hard once you get the hang of it (i.e. read the chart symbols properly), and it looks really cool. I ended up adding quite a few stitches – a whole extra cable repeat’s worth – to make it looser and to compensate for my famously tight tension. I did the whole thing on a 5mm needle, not bothering to change for the cabled bit. I also skipped a couple of the plain rows towards the end, not wanting it to be too slouchy at the top. As for the edging, I just picked up a zillion stitches around the edge, not really caring about the number. (Basically, I winged the whole thing.) It looks… interesting, huh? He likes it. I think he looks like a damn hipster, but it’s unusual and slouchy and keeps his ears warm. That makes us both happy.

    More details and photos over on Ravelry…

  • Absinthe Socks

    Absinthe SocksAbsinthe Socks
    I think I’m finally tired of knitting socks. Each pair is taking me longer and longer to finish. I started these on January 2nd! They’re pretty though, right? These are Absinthe from Knitty, a toe-up swirl of Art Nouveau cables and lace. It’s an absolutely perfect match for the yarn: Knitabulous Merino Sock in “Salwar Kameez” (from her Indian Summer yarn club). It’s the most intense blue-green, from teal to emerald to even kelly green.

    I knitted both socks at the same time on two 2.75mm circular needles. Unfortunately my first attempt at the feet was too small, both in length and diameter. So I frogged them back from the heels all the way to the toes. Then I added in some more increases (eight extra stitches) and lengthened the bit before I started the pattern. That did the trick! When I got to the leg, I finished the five lace repeats and then knitted 2×2 ribbing until I got to the end of the wool. I used Elizabeth Zimmerman’s sewn bind-off to finish. (Details also on Ravelry.)

    Absinthe Socks   Absinthe Socks (Detail)

  • No ribbons.

    So… the Easter Show. I didn’t win anything. I was a bit of a letdown, though it’s always nice to have your friends yell “YOU WAS ROBBED!” over and over. The Magic Pudding was nicely displayed, and apparently he was a big hit with people passing by. St. Brigid was strung up in a corner rather lifelessly. Many of my friends won ribbons though, and I was very happy for them. (Lots of photos here.) I’m also happy to report that Gary continues his tradition of excellent nude marquetry. So I grumbled about the judges, and I toasted all the Ravelers, and it was on-the-whole an enjoyable evening. Now I just have to figure out how to knit a nude zombie clown giving the middle finger for next year…

  • Stop Motion Knitting

    This beautiful advertisement for natural gas shows a home being covered with knitting as a metaphor for it warming up in the morning.

    I also recommend watching the “making of” video. It looks like they started with everything covered and then slowly unraveled it all, bit by bit. Lovely!

  • Easter Show Knitting

    The other big thing that happened last week was that I finally finished my Easter Show knitting. I had two entries this year: “St. Brigid” in the aran category and “Albert the Magic Pudding” in the knitted toys. I think they turned out pretty well!

    St. Brigid     Albert the Magic Pudding

    St. Brigid is from Alice Starmore’s Aran Knitting, a book which is sadly out-of-print. (Used copies go for $300! No joke!) Luckily I know someone with a copy who was generous enough to share. This is my second Starmore after last year’s Na Craga. The wool is Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed in colour 127 Posie. It’s a very pretty pinky red with little flecks through it. Starmore’s patterns are famously huge with lots of ease, so I had to play to get the right size. I actually used 4mm needles to get gauge and lengthened the body by an extra repeat. I also lengthened the arms quite a bit. The original version had fringe around the bottom (ew) and a mock turtleneck (ew ew), so I left both of those off. This is a very warm jumper, and I’ll probably only get to wear it a few times a year. But it’s beautiful and I made it and I love it. (More pictures on Flickr and more details on Ravelry.)

    And then there’s the Magic Pudding. (No, Mom, he’s not an octopus!) He’s from a famous Australian children’s book by Norman Lindsay. The Snook read me this book, and I absolutely loved it. It’s a shame that kids in America don’t know it! I based my original design off a postcard with a watercolour of the Pudding by Lindsay himself. I was really tickled when the RAS volunteer who was taking my entries recognised him immediately. Maybe next year I’ll have to do Bunyip Bluegum? (More details on Ravelry.)

  • St. Brigid is blocking

    The Show is rapidly approaching! Time to get this sucker finished. I started by dunking the front and the back in cold water and making sure they were totally saturated. Then I gently squeezed out a bit of the water before rolling each piece in a towel. Carefully I stepped all over it til the towel was soaked, removing a lot of the water. The pieces were then pinned out to the pattern’s measurements. I freaked out a little bit at first because the squares look so big! But when I compared them to Na Craga, they’re only slightly bigger. (Which is good, as I have boobs and the Snook doesn’t.) So I think that will be okay. It was hard to get a decent shot with the crapping lighting in my office, but I don’t think I’ve lost any stitch definition. As soon as these are dry, I’ll do the sleeves. (I ran out of pins!) Then it’s time to start sewing up!

    St. Brigid - blocking

    Incidentally, I am LOVING that I had the forethought to use spit-splicing on this thing. I have like five ends to weave in there. That’s brilliant.