Bruce’s Gloves
A few weeks ago I was teaching a private lesson after hours in the shop when a nice old guy knocked at the door. He asked if we repaired things for people, and I said we did, but that we were closed and he’d have to come back the next morning. Twelve hours later, there he stood. His name was Bruce and he had a much loved pair of fingerless gloves… but he’d lost one of them recently. He wanted a new pair to replace them. None of our usual contract knitters wanted to do it so I volunteered. This is what I ended up with. The wool is Sirdar’s Town and Country sock wool, chosen because his originals were knitted in a variegated brown-and-white. They were a weird thickness of cotton though, so I had a hell of a time approximating the shape in a completely different guage wool. I also messed up the reverse shaping on the second glove and spent two nights repeatedly frogging it back to the thumb. I got there in the end though. I was worried he wouldn’t like them but he was totally happy, which was a major relief. No more commission jobs for a while, I think. Knitting for other people is too stressful.
Tag: knitting
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Bruce’s Gloves
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Looking Glass Jumper
Looking Glass Jumper
At last, the Snook’s new cabled jumper is complete. It’s pattern C from Sirdar’s Denim Book of Aran Knits and it was knitted in the Denim Sport Aran. (The Snook was the third size; I bought the required seven balls but even though I lengthened the body and sleeves, I only used five-and-a-half.) This was my first attempt at converting a pattern written for flat knitting into circular, and I’m about 90% happy with the result. There is a rather glaring error on the front of the jumper – clearly visible at right – but we’ll just call it my Amish mistake. (It was too far to frog down and too complicated a spot to correct with a dropped stitch. I thought about swapping the front for the back, but that felt like I was trying to hide it too much. I like that it has a real human error in it. Can you spot it?) The jumper was so named because every other row of the pattern had to be inverted and read backwards to be knit in the round. It only really got fiddly once I started doing the neck shaping; I was juggling five sets of decreases at once (left front, right front, two sleeves, and the back). I just sorta winged it. Pretty nice huh?Incidentally, it’s really hard to take a decent photograph of cables. I took both the ones below before I figured out that I had to do it without the flash. But isn’t the Snook with his Puss-Puss sooooo cuuuuuute?
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Moblog: Last ones…
Three more pics from the ABC Knit In this morning. (I still can’t believe Fiona and Amy convinced me to get out of bed at 6:30 a.m. on my day off.) The first is a completed blanket sewn together by one of the ladies sitting in our group. Second is me modelling Marlene’s fabulous purple hat. (She thought it would look great with my red hair.) And last is the immense pile of squares and completed rugs in the atrium of the ABC. According to what’s-his-name who was broadcasting live on the radio the whole time, we had over 600 knitters show up and over 42,000 squares were donated (from country areas too). At the end they introduced the little lady who started the whole Wraps with Love program and she started crying as she thanked everybody for their generosity and support. It was a nice way to start the morning.
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Making new friends
Me and my new friend Marlene, knitting away. I’m the first blogger she’s ever met! She’s making her internet debut here.
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ABC Knit-In
I’m at the ABC Knit-In this morning. Hundreds of people are putting together blankets for the needy. And the Bananas in Pajamas just arrived!
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Craft Show 2005
Check it out – a yarn with my name!
Just got back from my annual visit to the Craft Fair, and I have to say it seemed a lot better this year. It was still 75% quilting booths but the quality of the knitting wools on offer was much higher. I still saw some $1.50 Feathers knockoffs, but overall there seemed to be a trend towards hand-dyed natural fibers. I went along with Miss Jane (from the TC Stitch and Bitch), who inspired me to go on a bit more of a spending spree than I’d planned. I started off small, by indulging my now yearly habit of picking up a couple balls of sock wool from Bendigo Woollen Mills. Then I stopped in to talk to Don from Prestige Fibres, just to say hi… and somehow I ended up with eight balls of Superbaby Alpaca. (He’s selling them for an incredible price, so if you want any, get your bum down there.) That will become the basis of the argyle cardy that’s gestating inside my brain. I also got a big ball of self-patterning “Online Super Socks” from Yarns Galore. Lastly I stopped by Stick to Your Knitting, where I was promptly recognized by the owner Janette. She honestly came up to me and went, “I know you! I read your blog!” (As if I didn’t have a big enough head anyway.) Turns out Mary-Helen gave her my link. I got a couple pairs of Addi Turbos there – At last! I will be the fastest knitter in the world! Mwa ha ha ha! – and a tiny belated birthday gift for Amy. Janette also set me up with an STYK bag so I can make my boss Albert’s head explode. Jane and I also stopped by the Knitter’s Guild Booth, where I ran into Pam North again (she does the Guild newsletter) and got to meet a few other ladies from the suburban groups. Lastly, I somehow decided to give sewing another try with a kit to make the COOLEST handbag ever. The fabric has pin-up girls on it! I hope I don’t bugger it up…
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Finished Objects
Finished Baby Objects!
Nat’s baby package is nearly ready to go out. On the left is the completed Baby Norgi sweater, which I finished up today. I pretty much followed the pattern exactly for once. The wool is Bambi by Grignasco, which is an extrafine 4-ply 100% Italian merino. (And it’s nicer than anything I’ve ever knit for myself!) My only reservation with this project is the fear that the baby’s head won’t fit through. Babies have big heads. I tried to make the neckline as loose as possible, but who knows. Nat and Staci might have to save this one for their next kid and hope for a smaller noggin. 🙂The second item is a secret one that I finished a couple of weeks ago: the Sirdar Sleeping Bag. Isn’t it the cutest thing ever? It even has little teddy bear ears! The cuteness of it almost makes up for the fact that Snowflake Chunky is the worst, most godawful thing in the world to knit. It’s as if someone took a nice terrycloth towel and cut it into a long, very fine strip. You can’t see any of your stitches amidst all that fleeciness, which kinda defeats the purpose of hand-knitting something in the first place. I mean, if you saw that in a shop, would you think it was hand-knitted? (Slight wonkiness aside?) Nope. So while it’s definitely a cute project, I don’t think it’s quite heirloom quality. At least I know that one will fit though.
Now all I’ve got to do is give them a final wash to get all the cat hair off…
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Colourways Wrap II
Colourways Wrap II
Man, I feel like it’s been ages since I had a Finished Object to report! This is a sample I designed and knit for the shop. We had an original “Colourways Wrap” from a few years ago, but this one uses slightly different yarns (and an extra ball) so the pattern needed to be rewritten. They’re all Anny Blatt yarns, which means this is one of the most expensive items I’ve ever knitted. All seven yarns are carried the full length of the wrap, which means I had to resort to putting the balls in sandwich bags to avoid creating the World’s Biggest Knot. But at last, it’s done! We’ve got the range of yarns in several different colors and we plan on selling them as a kit. So anyway, yeah, from tomorrow my first official pattern will go on sale in the shop! Pretty neat, huh? -
Cheesylove is Finished!
At long last, Cheesylove is finished! This is the Knitty pattern I started well over a year ago. At one point, I completely frogged it back to the beginning and started over (which meant re-casting on A THOUSAND stitches for the ruffle. Do you know how long it takes to do ANYTHING a thousand times? I do.). I was toying with the idea of putting short sleeves on it but in the end I decided I liked it better as a vest. Pattern notes follow.For the body of the vest, I used Heirloom EasyCare 8-ply. I can’t even remember why; it was that long ago. But it gave me the right gauge and it’s not too scratchy. The hearts are done in Heirloom Aristocrat 12-ply mohair/wool, which makes them stand out nicely. As usual, the Knitty pattern had several problems wrong with it. The biggest was that it told you to mark the side seams and then do your shaping on either side of it, without any indication which increases/decreases to use nor where to place them to ensure the ribbing didn’t get buggered. (This is part of the reason I frogged it back. My initial seamlines looked crap and it bothered me.) In the end, instead of merely marking the seam, I actually used two markers to isolate the actual side rib. Then I made paired increases/decreases in the ribs on either side of it so that they grew or shrank organically while the center rib remained whole. (Yeah, yeah, I know. It was a lot of thinking and planning for what basically amounts to the armpit of a garment. But I’m really happy with how I did it, and quite frankly I get a little thrill out of knowing that I did it the best way possible.) For the armbands, I simply picked up around the holes with the smaller sized needle and knitted 5 rows of K1P1 rib before casting off. (That way it matches the neckband.) It’s not the most stylish garment in the world, but I think I executed the design better than any other pattern I’ve tried before. -
Eggbert the Easter Chick
Check out my new favorite holiday creation! A nice lady came in the shop the other day looking for wool to duplicate a little knitted chick a friend had given her. I squealed like a girl, especially once I turned the chick over. How cute is that? The lady told me I could copy her handwritten pattern if I wanted. That night I whipped up a prototype and set to altering the pattern (so as not to infringe copyright; I don’t know where the customer’s friend got the pattern in the first place). My version has a slightly rounder head and short rows in the tail to make it flip up. The pattern is currently available for free in the shop, but I’ll reproduce it here for the rest of the world. They’re really quick to make; I’ve done four already. Hooray for stash-busting! Happy knitting…You need:- scraps of 8-ply (worsted weight) yarn
- 3.75mm needles
- cotton ball or other stuffing for head
- bodkin or wool needle for sewing up
- cardboard for beak
- egg, chocolate or real!
Cast on 32 stitches.
Row 1: K1, increase 1, K to end.
Repeat first row until you have 44 stitches on the needle.
Knit four rows plain.Short row tail:
Row 1: K4, slip next stitch as if to purl, yfwd, move slipped stitch back to left needle. Turn.
Row 2: K4 to end.
Row 3: K3, slip next stitch as if to purl, yfwd, move slipped stitch back to left needle. Turn.
Row 4: K3 to end.
Row 5: Cast off 15 stitches, K to end.Repeat previous five rows for the other side. You should end with fourteen stitches left in the center of your knitting.
Head:
Knit three rows plain.
Row 4: K1, K2tog, K to last three stitches, K2tog, K1.
Row 5-6: Same as Row 4.
Knit two rows plain.You should now have eight stitches remaining on your needle. Cut the working wool leaving a footlong tail. Thread the tail onto your sewing needle and run it through the remaining stitches, cinching them tight. Then use the tail to sew up the head, back, and underside of the duck (leaving a hole to insert your egg!). Stuff the head and use some scrap wool to cinch the neck. I used contrasting wool to make knots for the eyes, and the beak is a sewn on piece of cardboard. You can get pretty creative embellishing these things! Have fun…
