The house is eerily empty today. Just me and Rose and the cat occasionally popping in and out. So after making a start of clearing through six weeks’ worth of dust, we gave up and went shopping for bargain yarn instead.

Lidl occasionally have yarn in on special offer. Usually it’s just something acrylic that doesn’t interest me, but this time they have actual wool/nylon sock yarn and that interests me greatly.

Four 50g balls for £2.99 is a bargain and I snapped up some navy and grey solids and some green and brown variegated. I was tempted to buy some of all the solids, just because they’d be handy for mittens, but I resisted. The yarn feels fairly soft which surprised me; softer than Opal or Trekking, which is my benchmark for softness-of-sock-yarn. I think it might suit being knitted fairly tightly. And of course now I have potential for six pairs of handknitted socks for less than nine quid which is not to be sniffed at.

It’s that time of year again. There are the good bits, like buying new pencil cases and pencils and stationery goodies (I suspect I enjoy this part rather more than the boys do). And then the rubbish bits, such as the realisation that last term’s PE kit is too small on the day before school starts and the tedium of sewing on eleventy billion nametapes. One small person is back, one to go tomorrow and then maybe I can think straight for five minutes and share some knitting with you all.

August, what has happened to you?! Yet again it is wet and miserable outside and my photos are drab and grey. Maybe it’s a good thing that I am knitting mittens as it seems like we’ll need them sooner rather than later.

So the first mitten is on the needles and gradually taking shape. With so many patterns and different colours of yarn to pick from, I just went for the easiest option which was to knit a pair in the same colours as the pattern photo.

This is the start of a pair of Heather’s Mittens by SpillyJane. It’s not quite the rhythmic standing I like best: the pattern isn’t symmetrical and needs close attention, but I adore the way the stems are curving and the leaves appearing after each few rows.

I’m magic looping this mitten. It’s a method that seems tailor made for them. Two needles – two sides of a mitt. It would be nice not having to use such titchy 2mm needles, but I am a loose woman.

There must be a term for the complete opposite of a mitten. An anti-mitten? Digging around in my stash produced these little pudgy cakes of fingering weight wool in a multitude of colours. Now I just need to work out which colours go together…

Today, dear readers, I want to talk about mittens because I think I am getting a bit obsessed and need to unburden myself.

To date, I have completed a single, solitary pair of mittens. The yarn I used for them, Rowan Classic Cashsoft 4ply, is totally unsuited to keeping your hands warm in the winter (not a 100% wool yarn, coupled with being knitted at a relatively loose tension, I think) so I don’t wear them when it’s actually cold (!), but they are damn gorgeous mittens and I am suitably chuffed with my knitting skills.

So having only knitted one pair of mitts, how come I have so many patterns?

I have mitten patterns from Russia. Patterns from Estonia. Patterns from Sweden. Top-down mittens. Mittens on kittens. If I catch the word “mitten” in the corner of my eye, I’m on it like a woman possessed. I think it’s the fact they are small (quick to knit!) but beautiful (impress people!). Some of the patterns I have are like little works of art, and who wouldn’t want to wear art on their hands?

However, I only have one pair of hands. It’s not like socks where you can reasonably wear a clean pair each day. So I hope everyone that knows me will understand this obsession and forgive me when they are all gifted mittens this year. And then I’ll have got it out of my system, I promise.

After a good few hours tweaking and organising, the Olivia shawl pattern is now ready to face the public. You can either buy it from my Patterns to Buy page or directly from the pattern’s Ravelry page.

And a reminder that 50% of all profits until the end of September will be donated to UNICEF’s Pakistan Relief Fund. I’d love to be able to give a really big donation to the cause as it’s not getting the news coverage or financial assistance that it should. I don’t know why and I don’t want to get into heavy political debate on a very un-political blog, but the end it’s just regular men, women and children who are suffering and that need help.

The pattern is currently in the last stages of being tested and edited. I had always planned to make this a charity pattern but, inspired by yarndancer‘s blog post decided to make it open for pre-orders to get the ball rolling. The actual pattern will be ready after the weekend. 50% of all profits from sales of this pattern until the end of September will be donated to UNICEF’s Pakistan Flood Children’s Appeal BTW, if you’re in the market for a sock pattern, do look at yarndancer’s Ravelry store. Lots of lovely designs and she is also making a donation to the Pakistan Relief Fund for every pattern sold.

Olivia is a top-down triangular shawl with a series of different stitch patterns to keep your interest. Declared “un-putdown-able” by one tester!

Each pattern section flows into the next and the number of repeats can easily be increased to make the shawl completely customisable. The lace increases to form a natural curve in the top edge of the triangle to fit around the shoulders.

The pattern contains both written and charted directions.

Size: Shawl shown measures 106cm/42 inches by 124cm/49 inches. Finished measurements will depend on how severely the shawl is blocked.
Yarn: Approximately 425 to 475m fingering-weight yarn. Shawl shown is knitted in Artist’s Palette Yarns Smoothie Sock (75% superwash merino wool/25% nylon, 425m/100g) in colour: Olive
Tension: 26 stitches = 10cm/4 inches in stocking stitch before blocking with 3mm (US 2½) needles. Actual tension is not vital but will affect how much yarn is needed and the finished size of the shawl.

Price: £2.75

and Thank You.

Crawling is no longer good enough. Rose is pulling herself up on everything she can and edging around the room like a baby on a mission! Probably not that randomly, her feet have suddenly grown too, and I get the feeling it won’t be long before there’s a post about her first visit to buy shoes.

She can babble along quite nicely now. Occasionally the “mamamama” or “dadadada” is directed to the right person. She also squeals when she sees someone she recognises, like her big brothers. She can clap her hands:

and point to things with her index fingers. She loves mealtimes although eats very little as most of it ends up smeared on her face or in her hair.

It’s scary to think that the next of these posts will be celebrating her first birthday. I don’t know where this year has gone. I’m so glad I have these updates to look back on to see just how she has progressed. And possibly to embarrass her with when she’s older.

The August shipment of the Waterloo Wools Sock Yarn Club has landed!

This month’s colourway is called “Family Vacation” and is inspired by this photo:

As the person who gave away Wollmeise because it was orange, I think it’s pretty clear that I won’t be using this yarn for anything for *me*! But I can think of a couple of people who would love the colours and it’s gone into the pile for Christmas knits. If I can use that word in August.

The club is taking a break for September which I think is probably a good thing for my stash as I can hopefully make a bit more space before it restarts.

Still bogging along, with the Baby Bog Jacket now looking rather like a knitted superhero cape. The interesting cream stripes are from the thumb trick, which many of us will have most likely come across before when knitting a pair of Fetchings. You knit across the stitches with a length of scrap yarn, slip them back to the left-hand needle and knit across them again with the working yarn. When the scrap yarn is removed at the end of the knitting, you’re left with two rows of live stitches. In this case, for grafting together the fronts and sleeves of the jacket.

Reaching this point is a relief as there were times I did wonder what on earth I was doing knitting row upon row of garter stitch. Mindless knitting changed to “hmmm, this is beginning to get a bit tedious” at around ridge 18. By ridge 28 I was speculating that the reason there are relatively few Baby Bogs on Ravelry is that many knitters expired of boredom before they finished the wretched thing. But then hurrah for Sense and Sensibility on DVD on Saturday night, the boys entertaining their sister while I admired bonnets and me knitting a good 30 rows uninterrupted.

Yesterday I reached the wonderful decreasing row and now have only 100 stitches to contend with, plus the interest of the shaping for the armhole. The sleeves are all knitted as part of this garment, but there are directions for adding slipped stitches to mimic a seam and some increasing and decreasing to help with the fit. I think I may actually get this finished and not have KILLED BY GARTER STITCH BOREDOM on my gravestone after all.

(Please excuse the supremely crappy photo. It’s raining hard here today and the light is terrible.)

Although the little Offset Wraplan has stalled somewhat – I need to re-knit the one sleeve I’ve done because I think my picking up around the armhole is shoddy and it will bother me if I don’t fix it – I’m looking ahead to when it’s all done and I get to play with animal shapes for the appliqué.

I ordered some wool felt from Blooming Felt in Orange Sherbet and Banana Popsicle. I want to keep this garment as neutral and unisex as possible, and had in mind that a peachy/apricot sort of colour would work well with the green. However, I think the yellow actually looks better. And of course it’s now crying out to be decorated with a little duckling!

I’ve never embroidered anything in my entire life so am a but anxious about how it’ll turn out. I may need some virtual hand holding.

As I said earlier in the week, my small celebration of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s centenary was to re-read Knitting Around. In the book, her designs are interspersed with her “digressions” which in this case form her autobiography and it’s fascinating reading.

An evening of reading got to me the Bog Jacket, which reminded me that I had the Baby Bog queued last year but for some reason didn’t actually knit it. Perhaps because I’d already knitted a lot of garter stitch while making the Tomten, or I didn’t have the right yarn to hand. But it was deleted from my queue and I never made one.

So with some DK yarn to hand, I figured it was about time I made one, if only as a celebration of EZ’s centenary. The yarn is Jarol Heritage DK which is my favourite new discovery. It’s a wool/acrylic blend with 55% wool and is wondrously soft. Interestingly, Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK is also just 55% wool. And something like four times the price.

The baby bog pattern has a tension of 6 stitches per inch, which translates to a 16 inch chest. My tension is roughly 4½ to 5 spi, which should give a finished chest of 20 to 22 inches. And the beauty of the pattern is that the length will increase proportionately as it’s the number of ridges of garter stitch that matters, not how many inches you knit. Unfortunately, I have approximately another 60 rows of 160 stitches for the pouffy skirt to go before I can decrease down. But it’s wondrously mindless knitting and the construction is fascinating. More about that when I have progressed further.

So although my plan for the Willie cardigan was to buy some lovely chunky yarn from Texere, when Mr B brought home the splendid bag of American yarn and it contained two plain-coloured skeins of Lamb’s Pride Bulky, I decided to see if it would work. I am getting stitch tension perfectly, but too few rows to the inch which isn’t that much of a problem. However, I still have to buy some brown and another contrasting colour, so it’s swings and roundabouts. It’ll cost almost as much to buy two more skeins of Lamb’s Pride as it would to buy all the Texere yarn. And I did sort of have my heart set on the turquoise. I think I’ll leave this one to ferment for a while until I’ve made up my mind.

But before I could even start a swatch and have a Willie colour crisis, I needed to buy needles, which is rare enough that it warrants a blog post. I have a ridiculous number of circular needles in various lengths, but nothing between 4.5mm and 6mm. I just don’t knit with needles that size as I rarely use any yarn above DK weight and as a loose knitter, I generally need smaller needles anyway.

So I had to bite the bullet and buy some needles in a couple of sizes because I had no idea what my tension would be. I would have probably bought some Inox/Prym metal circs as they’re my favourite cheap and cheerful needle. Until I found these on eBay:

Bamboo circs for £1.99 a set. Now initially I was pretty sceptical that they’d be any good, but the miser in me won the day and I ordered a couple of sizes. And you know, they’re not bad at all. The join between the needle and cord is smooth and the needles don’t have any rough bits. Will be interesting to see how they fare over time compared to the Addi bamboo circs I have. I will keep you updated. In the meantime, purple or turquoise Willie?

Rather than spend ages cutting up bits of paper for the draw, I went to random.org and used a random number generator to pick the winners. I temporarily removed all comments that were duplicates or ineligible comments about cakes (promise I’ll get back to you about that, Marji!) and was left with 20 comments, the first being the oldest and the last being the most recent.

Then I just clicked the Generate! button and found the winners.

First was Linz, who has selected the Eyelets and Lace Harmony Guide.

Second was Snoopydog who will shortly be receiving two balls of Artesano Inca Cloud in Dusky Burgundy.

Third was rubbishknitter who chose the brilliant Knitter’s Almanac.

And finally, fourth was LizzieK8 who’ll be getting the Susan Bates sock needle set!

Enjoy your prizes!

Today marks the centenary of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s birth. This evening I will be re-reading Knitting Around in my own small celebration of this wonderful woman. Anyone who doesn’t have a knitting grandmother should adopt her as their guide to all that is woolly. And even if you do, there’s always room for one more.

Thank you all for your entries into my blogiversary competition. Comments are now closed and I have emailed the winners, so check your inboxes! If I wanted a way to give me a swollen head, this competition was it. I loved reading the comments and knowing that my erratic and bumbling blog is something that many people actually like to read. Next time I feel like deleting it all and going off and being aloof, I will just read them all again.

This weekend I have mainly been knitting a baby cardigan,

starting a new pair of socks for Mr B, possibly his Christmas socks if they take as long as the last pair,

and deciding what to knit next. I think it might be time to get my Willie out.

Until a few years ago, I only ever cast on and off using the same methods I’d used since I learnt to knit. It never occurred to me that there were other, better, ways to do either. When I first tried long-tail cast on, it was almost as if I’d discovered the key to the meaning of life.

I’ve found new ways to cast off as well, like the wonderfully stretchy way to cast off for the edges of shawls. But I’d always wanted to find a neater way to cast off for ribbing. Montse Stanley states that tubular is the best and though I wouldn’t argue with her (she scares me too much), I just couldn’t get my head around how it worked from the confusing drawings in her book.

So today I tried Googling to see what I found, and stumbled across savannahchik‘s blog. And then I had the wonderful lightbulb moment. It’s GRAFTING and I am an idiot. Armed with this knowledge, I did what Montse suggests for stupid people like me and separated the knit stitches and purl stitches – the knits all on the front needle and the purls on the back – so it was just as if I was about to graft a sock toe, and began casting off in a tubular fashion. I fear it’s a bit bumpy, but hope it blocks out neatly because I think it’ll be a winner. No obvious line of stitches for the cast off and it’s very stretchy.

BTW, the ribbing is the bottom edge of the body of an Offset Wraplan which I am knitting as a baby gift for one of my sister’s schoolfriends. As she isn’t a knitter, I don’t suppose she’ll even notice the type of cast off, but at least I’m getting to try new techniques.

Pattern: Priscilla’s Dream Socks by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts from Favorite Socks
Yarn: Waterloo Wools Niagara (80% Superwash Merino/20% Nylon), 1 x 100g skein in “Paris Nights”, exclusive Sock Club colourway for March 2010
Needles: 2.5mm circs for magically loopy knitting

This is now officially The Week of Finished Projects. Last night I grafted together the toe stitches of the second sock and this pair – which have been OTN since March – were finally finished!

I’m still not sure about the short-row heel. It’s great not having to count rows and they’re quicker to execute. And knitting huge, plain socks becomes an almost Zen-like experience as I just sit and mindlessly knit rounds and rounds of stocking stitch with only a brief interruption for the heel and toe. But despite all the fancy yarn-overing, there are still holes in the heel and it doesn’t look as neat as I would like. (I opted to use my favourite basic wide toe for the socks rather than knit a short-row toe as well.) That may be something I just need to practise.

But the yarn is a different matter! I adore it! Despite being a wool/nylon blend, it’s almost silky to the touch and slips along the needles very pleasingly. I do hope the yarn wears well. Poor Mr B has only this pair of knitted socks now that doesn’t have holes in/has felted. Given my current output rate, it could be a while before he has another pair, so it would be nice if these lasted..!

Pattern: My own
Yarn: Artist’s Palette Yarns Smoothie Sock, 1 x 100g skein in colour: Olive
Needles: 3mm Addi lace circs of pointyness

And now after the simple stuff, we’re back to the fiddly lace! I finally managed to work out what to do with the leafy lace that was bugging me a few months back. I wanted to try to design a shawl that had a few different patterns in it for interest and that was fully adjustable. So a person can knit 3 of one chart, 27 of another and 19 of a third if they so choose. It was great fun to knit even if I did have a few head-scratching moments and even threw the whole thing in the corner at one point because I couldn’t work out what I needed to do. That’s where a nice plain sock that has been on the needles for a while comes in handy.

The yarn is Artist’s Palette Yarns Smoothie Sock, which is a lovely, sproingy yarn that is a delight to knit with and has blocked beautifully. I wanted a green yarn but in a lighter weight because everyone many people have skeins and skeins of sock yarn in their stashes and this is perfect. I should whisper in case there’s a mad rush, but the base yarn feels the same as *cough*Wollmeise*cough*. Just saying…

The pattern is now in the testing phase and should be ready in a couple of weeks. And I’m off to the calm and uncomplicatedness of more plain sock knitting.

Today my blog is five years old. That’s half a decade of wittering on insightful posts about knitting, yarn and whatever else I decide to write about. When I started this blog I was a pretty basic knitter. I’d just discovered sock knitting, but still had the delights of stranded knitting, lace, steeking and other new skills to come. And who knows what I’ll have achieved by the time the sixth blogiversary comes around?

To celebrate, I’m holding a little competition. The prizes I’ve chosen are things that I love and have some significance to me and my knitting career so far. There’s a choice of:

Two skeins of Artesano Alpaca Inca Cloud in a colour of your choice. This was the first alpaca yarn I ever used and got me addicted to knitting with the stuff, dammit.

A copy of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitters Almanac. I’ve already made it clear how much I love this book and think everyone should have a copy. So I’m encouraging this by having one as a prize.

A set of Susan Bates Sock Needles. Four sets of five in sizes 1.5mm, 1.75mm, 2.0mm and 2.25mm. My absolute favourite dpns. Slippery, lightweight and each set is a different colour so they look pretty are easy to tell apart.

A copy of one of the updated Harmony Guides. I have a set of the old ones from the 1980s that I bought second hand and they’re just brilliant and have served me well. As they’ve now been revamped, I’ll leave the choice of book to the winner.

To win one of these prizes, just post a comment below saying what you think of my blog or to describe it in just five words. I reserve the right to delete any obscene posts. Choice of prizes will go to the first person drawn from the hat, then the second and so on. Closing date is Sunday, 8th August around teatime, so plenty of time to enter!

Pattern: Little Coffee Bean v.2.0 by Elizabeth Smith
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted, 1 skein in each of M-76 Misty Blue and M-51 Winter Blue
Needles: 4mm &4.5mm circs and dpns

Simplicity is often underrated. I love knitting something lacy and complex with lots of fiddly bits and having something wow at the end. But the beauty of a few stripes and some chunky buttons is also making me very happy.

This is just a really nice pattern to knit. There are a couple of versions of the pattern, and I chose the one with M1R and M1L for the raglan increases rather than eyelets and am so pleased with how they look. I’ll be stealing them for all raglans from now on as they’re practically invisible.

Lamb’s Pride Worsted is a dream to knit with. It is definitely on the hairy side because of the mohair content, but it washes up well and is deliciously soft. I had a bit of a panic near the end because I thought I might run out of the main colour. As it was, I had the tiniest amount left over, but it was a close thing. If you’re of a nervous disposition, I think using a yarn with a better yardage might be an option.

I knitted the largest – 12 month – size, and it’s on the large side at the moment. But making a head start on the winter knits is no bad thing. The buttons are the second lot I bought. They’re still on the large side and need squeezing through the holes, but aren’t quite so flashy. And I like the cup-shapedness of them; harder for the cardigan to wriggle undone than with flat buttons.

I’d really recommend this pattern for anyone looking for a cute baby knit. I like the pattern so much, I want to cast on for another one straight away!

Sorry to disappoint you, Pip, but the something green is for the shoulders, not the head! More on this little project next week. *is a tease*

* * * * *

Thank you for the comments on yesterday’s button post. Rubbishknitter‘s comment reminded me about the stretchy buttonholes on the Peapod Baby Cardigan I knitted. I used tiny buttons in the size stated in the pattern and the blardy thing never stayed fastened and hardly got any wear as a result. And now it’s too small. *pouts*

I do like the contrast of the wooden buttons against the yarn, though, so agree with Kai that they are perfect in that respect! Yesterday I ordered new buttons a couple of millimetres smaller which have now arrived, but now that the cardigan is dry I might test the buttonholes for stretchiness first. Another case of watch this space.

The stripy blue thing is currently blocking and I am in a quandary. Firstly, I should actually mention what on earth it is I am knitting! The pattern is the Little Coffee Bean Cardigan. After Mr B presented me with various balls of yarn the other week, it was clearly the perfect pattern to make stripes with. It’s a lovely design and I will write more about it in the FO post.

However, the problem is that I have buttons: 22mm or seven-eighths of an inch, as specified in the pattern. But I think they are too big. I like the idea of chunky buttons, but are these the wrong side of chunkiness? *ponders* It stands to reason that the buttons are letting me down yet again. I would sell my grandmother for a lovely button shop within decent travelling distance from my house where I could actually see how the buttons look held against the garment before I buy.

They haven’t been sewn on yet, anyway, so there’s no problem with changing my mind. Which I am 99% likely to do, as I don’t think they’ll fit through the buttonholes, either…

Something blue…

Something green…

Something stripey…

Something not.

Pattern: Prairie Rose Lace Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark, available in The Knitter’s Book of Wool or The Knitter, Issue 16
Yarn: JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool-Silk 2/18, approximately 35 to 40g in colour: Aegean Blue
Needles: 2.5mm KnitPicks circs

It took me a long time to choose a pattern to knit for the Ravelry International Shawl Exchange. Having so many books of shawl patterns didn’t exactly help me narrow down my options and I did start and stop a couple of times with different designs that I couldn’t get into.

I did wonder at one point whether I’d ever find a pattern to knit and had visions of me knitting at midnight in an attempt to finish before the deadline Fortunately the wonderful Evelyn Clark came to my rescue again with another of her addictive patterns.

The first shawl I ever knitted (of which I don’t think there are any photos – will have to check) was her Flower Basket Shawl. That got me addicted to interested in top-down triangular shawls and they’re pretty much my go-to shawl style now whenever there is lace needed to be knit.

The Prairie Rose Lace Shawl has a slightly more involved pattern repeat which was just what I needed. Nothing complicated happening, but each row was a bit different and I never really memorised the pattern so it kept my interest.

I ended up knitting six pattern repeats. The pattern itself says four, but this makes for a much smaller shawl and I wanted to make something a bit bigger than a scarf. Because my shawl now has to travel to Australia, I decided not to carry on and knit more repeats and delay its arrival even more.

The only modification I did other than the extra repeats was to adjust the edging. The original pattern has a row of the leaves before the edging. I omitted this so that the edging is directly after a row of flowers. I personally prefer this as I think it matches the rest of the shawl’s pattern of leaves – flowers – leaves – flowers.

The yarn was delicious to knit with and blocks beautifully. It’s been in my stash for a long time waiting to be used and I think this pattern does it justice. I hope my swap partner agrees.