Author Archives: Kate

Bewildered by Buttons

I have spent a lot of time looking at buttons these past couple of days, when I could be knitting a sleeve. In the comments on the previous post, Roo mentioned Textile Garden, which was another reason to spend an hour browsing buttons and getting more confused!

I think I am now leaning towards buttons with a shank, which is a start, although I was also rather fond of these when I saw them:

because they can be edged with some of the yarn from the sweater. I think this is a lovely idea, although I know that by the time I’ve sewn on the ribbon backing onto the buttonbands, and then all the poppers, I am not going to want to faff about decorating buttons!

So it’s just a choice of whether to go for pretty decorated buttons or plainer ones. Right now, my favourites are these:

What do you think? ;-)

WIP Wednesday

I have so much to write about today that there’s no time for standing on ceremony, so sit yourselves down and get comfortable. There’s tea and coffee in the kitchen.

Lauriel has grown. :-D

Progress on Lauriel

Once I had got my head around the alterations, they were of course very simple. I find that reading lines and lines of text and figures makes no sense, but if I have the knitting in my hands I can see what to do much more easily. After the yoke is knitted, the back, sleeves and fronts are worked downwards, but with short-row shaping. This makes the back neck higher than the front and also reduces the number of stitches across the fronts by decreasing rather than wrapping and turning. However, to get a wider front than back, which is what I wanted, I did wrap and turn to gain an extra 12 stitches per side.

Bust Dart

I had similar problems with the short-row bust darts which add an extra two inches in length to the front to get the fabric over the boobage without pulling the entire front pulling upwards and losing the whole point of having the sweater fitted under the bust. I spent ages searching the internet for a tutorial on short row bust shaping for cardigans knitted top-down and couldn’t find anything with step-by-step diagrams, which is what I really needed. Eventually, I just drew my own diagram so I could see what it was that I was trying to do and then twigged that I was supposed to knit right to the the end of the front opening edge and back each time, getting closer to the underarm side each time and picking up the wrap from the previous row each time – you don’t want to know what on earth I was doing before then! *blushes* You can see on the photo above that there is a lot more fabric at the fronts and it will never look right lying on a flat surface, but when it’s all done and on me, it’ll look perfect. :-)

After I had decreased for the underbust shaping, I had a lot fewer stitches but the modifications weren’t over with yet. I am currently adding side increases all the way down to the bottom ribbing to allow for the fact that, while my underbust is 35 inches, the top of my hips – where I want the cardigan to sit – measures a much more generous 42 inches. It’ll still be a fitted cardigan, but it will fit ME and my weird shape. ;-) All I can say is that I am looking forward to knitting the sleeves which will be mod-free, unless I need to lengthen them for my orang-utan arms – which will then start me worrying about running out of yarn.

Because speaking of which, it seems that Rowan Calmer is being discontinued. I am miserable about this, because I have just discovered the yarn and it is gorgeous to knit with, soft, squishy and just brilliant. There is a petition here to save it, started by Amy Singer of Knitty, which already has nearly 1,700 signatures. So if you’ve ever used Calmer, want to use Calmer, or would just like me to be happy ;-) , please consider adding your vote!

Waist Leafage

I am about halfway through the chart for the leaf motif on the body of the cardigan, so not more than 30 rows away from finishing the entire body. I hope the sleeves progress as quickly, because I want this cardigan done to wear on my birthday on the 26th! The sticking point will be the buttons. They are purely decorative: the fronts fasten with poppers and the buttons are sewn on top, but I don’t have a clue what sort to use. My usual choices of wood or metal don’t really appeal, but I don’t think I want a green button that matches exactly, because they’ll look a bit dull. If any of you lovely people have any button suggestions, with links to said buttons for bonus points, I will be eternally grateful!

FO: Louie the Lovebot

Louie the Lovebot

Pattern: Louie the Lovebot by Rebecca Danger
Yarn: Cascade 220, oddments of colours: #9478 Cotton Candy and #9404 Ruby
Needles: 3½mm circs

The cuteness of this FO is almost too much! It’s amazing how a bit of stuffing and some little black eyes can give a knitted widget so much personality. I never was much of a toy knitter before I discovered Rebecca Danger’s patterns, but the fact that they have minimal seaming and no fiddly embroidery for the facial features means I am a complete convert and it’s almost too hard to give them away!

The felt heart proved to be a success. I mattress stitched around the edge, using a single strand of the pink yarn, because it looked unfinished ( and covered up a bit of glue that had seeped onto the outside!) and I’m pleased with the result. Other than the intarsia drama, the pattern was a breeze to knit.

I used up more stash yarn for this one: the red was actually leftover from my Evangeline armwarmers, so I’ve certainly been diving into the deepest depths of my stash of late!

Now all I have to do is wrap him up warmly and send him on his way. *sniffle*

Happy Birthday Mr B!

Hazelnut Cupcakes
Hazelnut Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World

MrB is *mumblemumble* years old today, so it’s as good a reason as any to make cake. My little sister bought me the book for Christmas and this is the first outing it’s had, because I have been oh-so-good for the past month and not had a crumb of cakey goodness to eat. :-( But the sugar, fat and chocolate in these should make up for it! They’re slightly not quite right because the mousse filling is actually on top of the cakes and I’ve omitted the chocolate ganache on top because I ran out of chocolate and there’s more chance of it raining Wollmeise than finding 70% cocoa chocolate at my corner shop. I blame the fact that the book is American and uses ounces. :-P I mean, how can six ounces be more than a hundred grammes? Those ounces are huge!

And of course MrB loved his socks. He was impressed with the stranding after I waved the socks under his nose gently pointed it out to him, although I am fully aware that he doesn’t quite get just how fiddly they were. But I do and can feel chuffed with myself. They are on his feet today, which is the most important thing! :-D

Have a good weekend, everyone!

WIP Wednesday

Louie finished? Check.

Holden Shawlette finished? Check – but still needs blocking.

So guess what I got up to yesterday? ;-)

Lauriel Yoke

I finally cast on Lauriel, that’s what! I am getting slightly scared now because I think that the yoke is going to be the easiest part. I thought that making adjustments to the 40″ size to fit 44″ boobage would be simple enough. The book even has a section on adjusting a pattern that uses Lauriel as an example and so it should be easy to follow using my own numbers, but I read it through yesterday and it made my brain hurt. So in my usual fashion, I am merrily knitting away until I have to actually think about what to do and then will panic.

Knitting with Calmer took a bit of getting used to, but once my swatch was done, I had got the hang of it. It has an incredible amount of stretch, so the trick is not to pull it when wrapping it around the needle. It’s really soft, too, and I’d probably have got further on the yoke if I wasn’t stopping to pet my knitting every five minutes!

Readers, I am on the way to knitting something totally for myself and it feels brilliant. :-D

Robot Squashing

The latest craze around these parts. :-P

Robot squashing

I finally cut out the felt heart for Louie’s tummy, using a handy cookie cutter as a template, and then glued it on. He is now resting under a few heavy books so that it will stick down firmly. I haven’t sewed up the body yet because the stuffing will probably need re-plumping after being flattened for a day or so. Perhaps it will be a chance for him to become better-acquainted with English literature, though maybe these aren’t the best choice of books for a Lovebot. :-D

Hats in the Wild

Hats in the wild

It sometimes feels as if I post FO photos on here and then my projects are never seen or heard of again. Do they get worn, loved, used and abused? Well the hats do, at least. Which is a reason to post a lovely photo of Oscar and Rose keeping warm last weekend wearing Koolhaas and Quatra. :-D

WIP Wednesday

First up is my knitted widget for a Valentine’s swap on Ravelry where we have to knit something Valentine’s related either by colour or pattern name or yarn or whatever and I went with Louie the Lovebot, who I had wanted to knit for ages. Now, the pattern is only available from Knit Picks who, of course don’t ship to the UK – even for pattern downloads which are sent directly by email to your inbox. You still need to have a US/Canada shipping address when checking out on the website. However, if you type in Knit Picks’ own address as the delivery address, it works?! I half-wondered why I should give them my money because I don’t think there’s any other website that makes paying customers jump through hoops just to get a pdf, but I really wanted the pattern so I’d only be cutting off my nose to spite my face. :-P

Louie

Now, you may have have noticed that my Louie doesn’t have a heart on his chest. Unlike all the other Rebecca Danger patterns, which are very much hand-holdingly simple, the only direction for doing the heart is to knit it in the round using the two colours. No clue is given to how she did it. I looked at the other finished Louies and found that people had used various solutions – duplicate stitch, sewing on a felted heart and intarsia in the round. I Googled this and discovered about half a dozen or so different techniques which I tried over about two days at the end of last week. None of them worked. Or, rather, they worked, but there was puckering or yarn showed through and I didn’t feel it looked good enough for something I was giving as a gift. I also could have just divided the stitches in two, knitted a front and back flat and then seamed, but I felt this would ruin the shape of the body. In the end I decided to go for the felt heart option and am just waiting for some felt which I will cut and glue to the chest in the same way that I’ve added monster teeth. I may do a little running stitch around the edge for decoration, or I might not. :-)

So while Louie is on hiatus, I started the third and final swap knit. This is for a sock yarn shawl swap which uses stash yarn (woo hoo!). After finding something in the stash which suited my partner’s colour preferences (Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome (discontinued) in “Misty Moor”), it was hard to find a pattern that wasn’t getting lost in the colours. Eventually, it was a toss up between Multnomah and Holden and Holden won for the entirely superficial reason that I don’t like the wide centre bit on Multnomah.

Holden Shawlette

It’s perfect for the yarn because even on the stocking stitch section, the colours are beautiful but very variegated and any stitch pattern is just going to get lost. The wavy lace on the edge will be fine, though. It’s a very simple shawl, so I’m hoping to make good progress over the next couple of days. :-D

FO: Lusekofte-sque Mitts

Lusekofte-sque Mitts

Pattern: Lusekofte-sque Mitts by Mary Rourke
Yarn: Wendy Guernsey 5ply, about ½ x 100g ball in colour: #590 Crimson and New Lanark DK, a smidgen of 50g in colour: Ecru
Needles: 2½mm circs

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.

Lusekofte-sque Mitts

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!

Almost A Sweater

Rowan Calmer

Just need to knit it..!

I assumed my Calmer wouldn’t even be posted until after the weekend, but the postie knocked on the door Saturday morning and handed me a huge, squishy parcel! So a huge thumbs up to Stitching Heaven on eBay. :-D

The yarn is beautiful. The green isn’t quite as violently bright as I thought it might be, which is good. It’s just leafy and springy and very wearable, although I don’t think it’ll go with anything in my wardrobe. *plans clothes-buying extravaganza*

I am incredibly tempted to cast on and start swatching, but I still have a couple more swap items to complete: I am really not getting the point of Selfish Knitting at all, am I? ;-)

FO: Four-Stitch Reticulated Socks

fo 002

Pattern: Four-Stitch Reticulated Pattern #1 from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch
Yarn: Patons Diploma Gold 4ply, 2 x 50g in colour: #4297 and Cygnet Wool Rich 4ply, 1 x 50g in colour: Olive
Needles: 2½mm circs

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. :-P

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. ;-)

fo 012

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. :-(

* * * * *

Lauriel update: I almost have yarn! :-D 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. :-P

WIP Wednesday

It’s probably a good thing that I don’t have the yarn for Lauriel yet, because I have a couple of other projects to work on first. At the end of last year I signed up for a couple of swaps on Ravelry, including a birthday swap where you exchange a package with someone that has a birthday in the same month as you. Had I thought about this more thoroughly beforehand, I’d have twigged that it would mean having something ready for February (d’oh).

So on getting my partner’s details this week, I had a browse on Ravelry for patterns that fitted with her preferences and cast on for a pair of Lusekofte-sque Mitts.

Mitt

After the stranded socks, this pattern is a breeze! The pattern is well written and by this morning I have just the thumb of the first mitt to complete before I start the second one. Not bad considering I only started them on Monday afternoon. The trickiest part was the provisional cast on and then grafting said cast on with the live stitches which was very fiddlesome when the circumference is so small – and I’ve got to do it all over again..!

Inside the Mitt

I’m using more stash yarn for these: some Wendy Guernsey 5ply which has probably been in my stash for six years, because I intended to knit the Chalet Socks from Folk Socks with it. According to Amazon, I bought my copy on 2nd January 2006! The cream yarn is the last of the New Lanark DK leftover from my Deep V Argyle Vest. (It’s three years since I knitted that, too.) I originally started off using some Rowan Classic Cashsoft 4ply for the contrast colour, but it didn’t work with the Wendy yarn – too slippy – and the New Lanark is much better.

Stranding

This is the sort of almost-instant gratification knitting that I like best. These’ll be done and blocking by the weekend, by which time I might even have some sweater yarn to swatch with. :-P

The Secret Life of Books

I came across this brilliant video linked on another site. No yarn in it, but I bet there are some craft books somewhere in amongst them..! :-D

Measuring Up

The birthday socks are blocking! One seems to have knitted up bigger than the other, which has happened before with my stranded knitting and I have no idea why. Hopefully the difference won’t be too great when they’re being worn. It was very much skin of my teeth by the end of the second sock as I was in severe danger of running out of the contrast colour. In the end, I had this much left over:

Leftovers!

You can probably imagine how stressed I was about running out of yarn at one point. There was much swearing under my breath. ;-)

Of course, if I had been more organised and had extra yarn, this wouldn’t have been an issue. And this tenuously brings me to Lauriel and the preparation needed before I even buy the yarn.

I mentioned previously that the patterns are ultra-adjustable for a perfect fit. The first step is to take a gazillion measurements with the aid of a willing friend:

Measuring Up

I got MrB to help with mine. We got about halfway through before I realised he was measuring from the plastic tip of the tape measure, not from zero inches. So we started all over again and I now know probably more than I ever needed to about how big different bits of me are.

Comparing these measurements to the sweater now leaves me with a conundrum about what size to cast on for. Clearly my back width measurement either hasn’t been taken correctly, or I have a strangely wide back. The most important factor is the underbust measurement. So looking at the measurement table, I am plumping for the 40 inch size with adjustments for the ginormoboobs, a-line shaping for the waist and a longer body length. If this had been a “normal” pattern, I would have absolutely chosen the 44 or 46 inch size and ended up with a giant baggy cardigan that looked dreadful!

I’m still not sure about what yarn to use, but am leaning towards Rowan Calmer, perhaps, in a spring-like shade. :-D

Finally, sorry for not replying to all the comments recently. I am slowly working through them all and promise to reply to everyone eventually. :-P

Beautiful Sweaters

So many sweaters, so little time!

(Click on each image for the pattern details.)

But none of these are going to be the first sweater I knit for myself this year, beautiful though they are. I am going to knit Lauriel from Little Red in the City. Back in July when I went to KnitNation with rubbishknitter, the samples from the book were available to fondle and I was very taken with the fact that they weren’t just tiny little sweaters. I ummmed and ahhhhed for a long time about buying the book because it was going to be purely for my benefit and it’s obvious I am very bad at doing anything for me. ;-) But when the book price had gone down to a measly £14 on Amazon (it’s gone back up to £17 now :-( ), I caved in and bought it. The great thing is that there’s a scratch ‘n sniff panel* at the back of the book with a code so that I can add the pdf version of the book to my Ravelry library for free. Meaning I have a nice book to browse and print offs to scribble on. :-D

Lauriel was the first sweater that really caught my eye, because of the scooped neckline and bust shaping. I used to be big all over and, though I’m slowly getting smaller all over, my bust seems to have its own agenda and is getting bigger… This means that I have to wear larger tops than the rest of me really needs, and mostly end up looking like I’m wearing a tent. In addition, anything with a high neckline makes me look like a pair of boobs on legs. So I was very taken with the idea that I could actually wear a cardigan that fits properly all over, with neither gaping buttons nor spare fabric flapping about.

I am finding it very hard not to buy the yarn and cast on immediately for this cardigan, but it’s going to be my reward for finishing the birthday socks. The second one has half a leg, so I’d better keep on knitting..!

* may not actual smell of anything

WIP Wednesday

The first one for 2012! Everything feels almost back to normal today. The boys are back at school and Mr B is glued to his laptop. Last night we took down all the decorations, so it’s all a bit bare and dull this morning but it does mean that knitting gets more priority at last.

I started on Mr B’s birthday socks just before Christmas, which basically meant casting on and knitting a couple of rounds of ribbing before they were put away and forgotten about. The past few days have been more knitting-friendly, and I finished the toe on the first sock this morning:

More socks!

Yep, stranded socks. He is bloody spoilt, my other half. The pattern is from the engagingly-titled Four-Stitch Reticulated Patterns section of Sensational Knitted Socks. (I’m getting my money’s worth from that book at last. :-P ) More stash-busting with the yarn, as I’m using a combination of Cygnet Wool Rich 4ply and Patons Diploma Gold 4ply, both of which have been in my stash for a very long time!

I’m knitting the socks over 80 stitches on 2.5mm needles so I’m hoping they will have enough stretch. I can get the finished sock on my foot pre-blocking, which is a good sign. I’m also really concentrating on getting these done so that I can look to finally being selfish. ;-) So I’m off to knit!

2011 in Review

(Because I meant to do this last week and forgot!)

I managed to complete twenty seven projects in 2011. That’s equal to my previous record in 2008, which I thought I would never match!

It was a very Rose-centred year, with lots of sweaters and cardigans for her. I learnt to love seaming and Sirdar patterns, and found that knitting toys was actually very satisfying. For myself, thought, I only managed to knit Mayrose and Bitterroot. 2012 is going to be far more selfish!

Resolutions for 2012

Yes, I do this every year and will probably not manage half of them, but it’s something to look back on in a year’s time and shake my head at my rubbishness. ;-)

Firstly, Christmas was good. Although the fruit cake was revolting and literally went straight into the bin after I took one bite. But there were plenty of other things to nibble to ease the pain and I know now to avoid that recipe!

I received absolutely not a single knitting-related gift (other than a pattern from the lovely rubbishknitter) so don’t have any gift photos to share.

Mr B loved his three pairs of socks, though. He wasn’t even expecting one pair because he never notices what I am knitting unless I wave it under his nose. :-D This is handy for gift knitting! All three have been worn at least once I am am hoping that I can get another pair done by his birthday at the end of January.

So, to the resolutions.

Buy Fewer Patterns
Quite simply, I have a problem with buying patterns. The easy access to pdfs on Ravelry and elsewhere makes it far too simple to spend my money on patterns, then not have the money to buy the yarn to make them! I resolve to not buy any pattern or pattern book or magazine unless I will be casting on for a project from it immediately. No more hoarding Interweave Knits, either. I was strong in the face of the Winter 2011 issue and realised I don’t need to buy it just so that I can have all the issues looking pretty in my Ravelry library. :-P

Knit For Myself
I mentioned before that I have joined the 12 in 2012 group with the aim to knit 12 projects for myself next year. I honestly would be happy with just one! I have kind of scuppered myself for the best part of January already, with a couple of swaps that need knits and then Mr B’s actual birthday socks, but planning and yarn buying can be done, at least.

Keep Getting Smaller ;-)
This year I have cracked the 5 stone (70 pounds!) weight loss since I started dieting back at the end of 2007. A certain small person put paid to my weight loss for most of 2009 to 2010, so this year I want to get rid of the final pounds.

Learn Something New
Whether it’s a new knitting technique, or a foreign language, or anything. Rose seems to pick up new things every day and while I don’t need to learn the difference between an apple and an orange, it doesn’t mean there are things that I don’t know!

Keep Blogging
Blogging has kept me sane this year, more than anyone probably appreciates. Even if I can only manage two or three posts a week, I’ll keep doing it.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year! See you in 2012. :-D

Cooking up a storm

This week has been hectic. No knitting, but lots of tidying, wrapping presents and baking instead.

My Delia inspired Christmas cake is done:

Delia-Style Christmas Cake

Delia-Style Christmas Cake

The top of my cake isn’t as flat as Delia’s, so it looks a bit mountainous, and I didn’t have any special snowflake cutters, so used stars instead. The end result looks good, though, and the cake itself is the most important part!

I have also made gingerbread for the first time:

Gingerbread Cookies
Gingerbread Cut-Out Cookies, recipe available here

and even had a stab at making my own writing icing because the whole of the south of England apparently also want to use ready-made white icing in tubes. :-P My favourite cookie is The Christmas Snail. :-D

And for the final instalment in this rather calorific post, a pie for the boys to eat tomorrow as they hate Christmas Pudding.

Chocolate Pie
Old Fashioned Chocolate Pudding Pie, recipe available here

I think Rose wasn’t that keen either last year, when she had her first taste, but will try again. My children are very odd.

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and I’ll hopefully be back knitting in a week or so when the baking frenzy is over!

FO: Ridged Squares Socks

Garter Square Socks

Pattern: Ridged Squares Socks from More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch
Yarn: Regia Solid 4-ply, 2 x 50g in colour: #535
Needles: 2½mm circs

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.

Garter Square Socks

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. :-P 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. :-D

Collection of Socks

FO: 3×3 Cable with Moss Stitch Socks

Cabled Socks

Pattern: 3×3 Cable with Moss Stitch from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch
Yarn:Regia Color 4-ply, 2 x 50g in colour: #05171
Needles: 2½mm circs

I’ve just glanced out of the window, and it’s started snowing here! Definitely the weather for lovely handknitted socks. :-D 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. ;-)

Cabled Socks

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!

WIP Wednesday

Soaking

Nothing on the needles today. The birthday socks are done and are having a nice bath before their photo session. :-D

These are clearly not actually going to be birthday socks, but Christmas ones. It’s too tempting to not give Mr B two pairs of socks instead of one! Which leaves me with the dilemma of whether to knit another pair for his birthday. Maybe that’s just spoiling him. ;-)

FO: Sirdar 3888

Sirdar 3888

Pattern: Sirdar 3888
Yarn: Hayfield Bonus Chunky, 4¼ x 100g in colour: #829 Petrol
Needles: 4½ and 5½mm circs, used flat

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. ;-)

Sirdar 3888

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.

Sirdar 3888

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.

Sirdar 3888

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… :-)

* * * * *

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! :-P

WIP Wednesday

Truthfully, one of these WIPs is actually a FO, but it’s not managed to get onto a WIP-W before now. (Blimey, that last sentence was a bit acronym-tastic!)

I came across Sirdar 3888 on Ravelry when someone was looking for the pattern and just fell in love with it on Rose’s behalf. I managed to get the pattern on eBay for not too much money and intended to knit it in the new year. And then there was a trip to Hobbycraft, ostensibly to buy stuff for Henry to build a WW1 trench for a school project (which is going well, even if it is as big as the dining table and will need two people to carry it…). I naturally needed to visit the yarn section whilst I was there and found some Hayfield Bonus Chunky yarn in a lovely shade of teal, which was so soft and cuddly that it ended up coming home with me. :-)

I of course cast on immediately I got home, but then it was put aside for other stuff. As soon as Eriskay was done last week, it was pulled out of the bag and literally took a few days to complete. Chunky yarn rocks. :-P So I have a preview of the finished cardigan, and a proper FO post will follow:

Snuggly Coat

Now to my actual WIP. I was going to knit some more wee socks for Rose and then I remembered I rashly mentioned knitting Mr B some birthday socks..! Rather than knitting like a fiend mid-January, I figured I might as well start them early and be A Smug Sock Knitter again!

Cabled Socks

The pattern is the creatively titled 3×3 Cable with Moss Stitch from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. I actually started knitting this pattern YEARS ago when I first bought this book, using some very unsuitable pure wool yarn. I didn’t finish them, which is probably a good thing as they wouldn’t have lasted five minutes! The yarn I’m using now, Regia 4ply Color, isn’t ideal as the moss stitch panels aren’t really showing up, but the cables are nice and plumptious and it’ll wear much better!

I am just over half-way on the first sock and trying not to think about the possibility of having them as festive socks instead. I definitely don’t need the pressure of deadline knitting when there are only 18 days to go ’til the Big Day!

Looking Ahead

Thank you all for the lovely comments on the Eriksay Sweater. As I said in the last post, it made me realise that I do love knitting – and clearly need – something a bit more challenging. I am finishing up one last WIP (more on Wednesday) and then the backlog is clear and I can look forward to new projects.

I have joined a group on Ravelry with the aim to knit 12 things for myself in 2012 and have rashly started my list with six sweaters. This may change pretty soon! I am totally crap at knitting for myself, other than my annual winter hat, and I do want to change this. For some reason, I feel incredibly selfish spending my time doing things for me. I suppose knitting in itself is something for me as I enjoy doing it, so knitting AND knitting something for me seems positively greedy. :-P But just one sweater would be nice! I have also joined a couple of swaps so won’t be knitting entirely for myself next year, either, so maybe that will help absolve me of any guilt. ;-)

And for Rose, my first project for her will be Alice Starmore’s Secret Garden from The Children’s Collection:

because it’s been on my wishlist to knit since she was about six months old and I’ve been waiting and waiting for her to be big enough to fit into the smallest size. :-) It definitely meets the requirements of being a bit more challenging and shouldn’t end up in the corner because it’s too boring!