Confessions of a Graveyard Gypsy

Second FO of the year done! *insert smug smiley* Tiny projects rock.

These mitts were a really quick knit, despite being stranded. Though there’s really not that much stranding going on and none in the middle where the increases for the thumb gusset are, so they literally whizzed along once the hem was done. I’d definitely recommend the pattern if you’re looking for something quick but with a bit more of a challenge and don’t mind picking up fiddly provisional cast-ons on tiny circumferences. It’s a well-written pattern and I didn’t deviate from it at all, other than to pick up a couple of extra stitches to avoid holes when knitting the thumb and decreasing them on the first round.

The yarn was from my stash. I meant to add Knit From Stash to my list of resolutions for this year, but I am doing well on it so far anyway. As I’ve mentioned before, I have lots of little odds and ends of yarn stuffed away in boxes or in bags that aren’t really enough to sell, but I can’t in all conscience just throw them out because it makes my inner hoarder wince, so knitting little things like these mitts is great for using them up.

So I’m a third of a way through my swap knitting and the Calmer is calling me: I’d better get on knitting so that I can play with my leafy yarn!

This could be the earliest FO post I’ve ever done. January usually seems to be a washout for me when it comes to FOs, either because I’ve overdone the festive knits and can’t stand the sight of yarn/can’t knit with a new baby or I’m slogging away at secret stuff that cannot be blogged. Finishing another pair of socks so soon after having the pre-Christmas sock marathon was a bit hard going, I’ll admit. If I hadn’t cast on the ribbing back in December, I might have been tempted to just forget that I’d decided to make them. But once the ribbing is done, it counts as a WIP and then it would have to be frogged.

These socks are rather funky-looking. The colour combination was purely because I had these two odd colours in my stash and the Cygnet wasn’t even a whole 50g ball (which explains why it was touch and go whether I’d manage to get the second sock done before the yarn ran out!). I’ve frequently written on here that I’m no good at making interesting colour combinations, so two greens together was nice and safe. I think that with the stitch pattern, they look at bit seventies-ish (not that I remember the seventies…).

The pattern was easy to follow, as usual. I did deviate slightly by knitting a plain heel to save yarn and because I didn’t fancy doing wrong-side stranding. I also cast on 72 stitches and then increased to 80 after the ribbing, rather than casting on 80 stitches on a smaller needle. This was totally not because I changed my mind about how many stitches to knit the socks over halfway through the ribbing, and didn’t even see the part about the smaller needle in the first place… *whistles innocently* I got a little confused at the instep decreases on which colour to do the decreases with while keeping the sole pattern correct and in the end did my own thing so that the second sock looks a bit neater on the sole than the first but I’m sure it won’t be noticed.

The yarns both softened up nicely after blocking and I hope they won’t get holes in after being worn a couple of times. They will probably be ultra-warm with all the stranding going on, and I half-wish that my feet were bigger so I could pinch them.

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Lauriel update: I almost have yarn! I won ten new squishy balls of Calmer on eBay last night for the princely sum of £16 (£1.60 per ball!) in a deliciously springy green. I guess I won’t be swatching over the weekend, but can start stalking the postie from Monday onwards.

I think I may have been abducted by aliens one night last week and taken to their ship, where they gave me amazing speed knitting powers. There’s no other reason for me to have churned out another pair of socks, this time in five days. Well, they were knitted on 2½mm needles and the pattern was very simple, but was an actual pattern so I knew how many pattern repeats I needed to do for the leg and foot, which was motivation to just knit a few more rounds. And Mr B was away, so I could knit in bed. But I think it was definitely alien abduction.

This and the previous pair could ideally have swapped yarns. These are very plain socks, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be appreciated. The yarn is from the Kemps sale I succumbed to, almost exactly two years ago. The other yarn I bought became last year’s festive socks, funnily enough.

The pattern is from More Sensational Knitted Socks which I do generally prefer over Sensational Knitted Socks because there are a lot more stitch patterns and size options for each pair, though I think the patterns themselves are more interesting in the first book. However, the stitch counts for this sock (a five-stitch pattern knitted over 70 stitches) went completely loopy at the heel turn onwards and I ended up just doing my own thing. I assumed it was me being thick and I spent a long time searching Ravelry until I found one – one! – person who mentioned the same error. So we can’t both be wrong (probably).

I have knitted two other patterns from this book without a sniff of a problem, so I am not saying that the book is riddled with errors and a disgrace to sock books everywhere. It was just irritating when all I wanted was a mindless knit and a book to tell me what to do.

That’s definitely me done on the knitting front for the next week or so, though, as there’s just no time to knit. It’s taken me an hour to finish this post because I keep having to do other things. There may be a lot of cake photos coming up! I’ll finish with a little ta-dah! of Mr B’s festive sock collection. As he’s not even expecting one pair, I think it’ll be a bit of a surprise.

I’ve just glanced out of the window, and it’s started snowing here! Definitely the weather for lovely handknitted socks. I think the fact that there was a bit of a pattern and that the bit of a pattern wasn’t too complicated helped with getting these socks knitted so quickly. I honestly, hand-on-heart, just intended to get cracking on these as birthday socks and didn’t expect to be done and dusted before the end of the year. Not being distracted by other projects was probably even more of a help.

I have wanted to knit this pattern since I bought SKS years ago. Started them once but didn’t get further than the ribbing. The yarn I’ve used isn’t ideal because the moss stitch clearly doesn’t show up, which is a shame because it looks so nice in the book. But the cables are plump and I am sure Mr B won’t even care about the lack of moss stitch detail.

I used 2½mm needles for these, which also helped knit them up quickly. The pattern has a 48 or 68 stitch cast on and if I knitted them with 2mm needles, they’d be just a little bit too tight. Though I’m sure they won’t last as long as the other socks because of this. Last year’s Christmas socks are still in perfect condition, other than the fact they have no heels at all (!). The looser-knitted socks tend to get little holes all over the sole so this counts as an improvement!

The yarn is Regia from stash and does what it says on the tin. I did worry that I would run out of yarn on the first sock because the cables just eat it up, but I ended up with about 10g left over, though that isn’t even enough to knit a Rose-sized sock.

And I did start another pair for Mr B’s birthday. I need to buy yarn before I can start on something for myself and that isn’t going to happen until after Christmas, so I may as well knit some stash!

I planned to do this post on Friday, but ran out of daylight for the photo session due to spending far too long doing some festive shopping on Santa’s behalf.

So here, at last, is my final cardigan for the year. It wasn’t on my list of planned projects until I cam across it because of Ravelry *shakes fist* and wanted to knit it for Rose, and because it looked like an interesting knit – which is was!

Unusually for a Sirdar pattern, the fronts and back of the jacket are knitted in one piece to the armholes. I loved the little bobble snuggled into the bottom of the cables, and of course substituted my usual one for Sirdar’s directions. Being chunky yarn meant that it practically flew off the needles and I didn’t even mind the huge amount of moss stitch on the sleeves.

I confess I was intending to knit the hooded version, but after completing the sleeves I felt I was running out of steam, wimped out and knitted a collar instead.

It’s obvious from the photo, where Rose is doing a moody model pose, that it’s too big and will have lots of “growing room”, particularly in the sleeves. At some point Sirdar have changed their sizing: I’d normally choose a 2 to 3 year size for Rose but instead chose the 1 to 2 year in this pattern because the alternative was 3 to 4 years, and even that is clearly too big.

The yarn was really nice to work with. I wouldn’t have chosen it if I hadn’t been able to fondle it in the shop as after my experience with King Cole Big Value Chunky I’m more wary, but this is a very soft yarn and hopefully will wear okay.

The buttons are another eBay purchase. I find it far easier just to type in the my requirements in the search box and see what’s available than to search several sites. So far I haven’t been disappointed…

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I’m finding already that my knitting time is being reduced as the big day gets closer. The weekend was spent cleaning and then decorating the house, I’m writing lists of important food to buy and not really getting much time when my hands are free. I think if I can get the birthday socks done this week then I might just not bother at all for a week or so til the tree comes down again!

I love, love, LOVE this sweater. Cynically, I might say it’s because it’s taken six months to complete and it’s an achievement to get it out of the WIP pile.

I think this pattern has shown me that I really do love an interesting knit and, while knitting simple garments gets them done more quickly (if I don’t get too bored with them), the sense of achievement isn’t nearly as great. Even though the pattern wasn’t charted, once I had got each panel set they were easy enough to memorise and read, even after leaving the pattern languishing for months.

Most of the modifications I did were to avoid seaming. I changed the shoulder seams to a three needle bind off, and attached the sleeves the same way, as I mentioned in Wednesday’s post. The collar was also knitted in the round. However, I do wish I’d changed the right-hand cable to twist in the other direction so that the cables were mirrored in the way that the lace panels were.

This is the 1 to 2 year size and Rose is maybe slightly small for her age. I know that Debbie Bliss’s children’s patterns are on the roomy side (or at least they used to be; maybe her newer designs are more fitted) and this sweater probably fits Rose the way it is meant to, but it is pretty bloomin’ baggy (good job I didn’t go for the bigger size!). I have rolled the cuffs up now which helps, but I can see it fitting her for most of the next year as well. I did add a few extra rows on each sleeve just to complete a pattern repeat of the centre panel, but that doesn’t account for the couple of inches that hang over her fingers!

I only used five of the six balls of Eco Cotton that I bought. It does have a slightly better meterage than Jaeger Pure Cotton, the original yarn used in the pattern, which probably explains it. Not sure what to do with one random ball of sportweight cotton, but it’ll help feed my stash for a while. It was really nice yarn to knit with, gives great stitch definition and there were NO KNOTS in any of the balls I had.

The colour is perfect for Rose despite being pink, and as it’s a cotton sweater, will be good for layering as it gets colder. I suspect this will get a lot of wear over the coming months, which makes the wait to get it finished completely worthwhile.