Category Archives: WIPs

Bitterroot is done, bar the blocking:

I did have a moment of panic when I was nearing the end of the shawl and the yarn was being used up very quickly, but I made it to the end of the cast off with about 10g left. Phew! I knitted the shawlette version, but using DK-weight yarn means it has ended up ginormous and will probably keep three people warm at once. And it hasn’t even been stretched out yet…

It’s waiting in the blocking queue until I have blocked my swap scarf. I now have some foam squares which will make blocking much easier, if I can tear Rose away from them:

I bought them from eBay – there are heaps of them on there and I think I could have got some even cheaper than I did, but I was a bit overwhelmed after scrolling through about 400 listings. They are huge, too: 60cm x 60cm (24 x 24 inches) and should do for most projects, though I can buy the odd one or two extra if I decide to go mad and knit something by Sharon Miller. I chose white to avoid the outside chance of the colours running and because I thought it would make them less interesting to a small person (I clearly have learnt nothing in the past two years).

The Kollage Riveting cardigan is still waiting for buttons, and I am giving myself a kick up the backside to go and find some this morning.

In other news, I am knitting myself a vest. *pauses for everyone to pick themselves off the floor*. I am completely rubbish at knitting myself anything but a vest is small and shouldn’t take too long and then I’ll actually have knitted something for myself that isn’t a hat or a scarf.

The pattern is Honeycomb from the Spring 2008 issue of Knitty. Apologies for the crappy photo. It’s wet and grey here today, and the yarn is navy blue – not a good combination! The yarn is an impulse buy from my favourite discount shop in town where I get my cleaning stuff and baking tins really cheaply. They had a basket of Robin DK in various colours for only £1.35 a ball, which means the vest will cost a smidgen over 4 quid to knit and if it’s a disaster, then again it’s only 4 quid. So far it’s working well and I’m close to the armhole decreases for the back. Cabling without a cable needle is probably keeping me sane with the twisted stitch rows, too!

And now here’s where I look like a supremely efficient and speedy knitter. Monday was a Good Knitting Day, though, and I got a lot of finishing done. (Tuesdays tend to be a washout because it’s Tumble Tots Day and by the time I’ve got the train, chased Rose around squishy shapes for 45 minutes and travelled back again, I am good for nothing for the rest of the day.)

The Scarf Swap Scarf is done and just needs blocking:

I wanted to make a really long scarf which could be worn folded in half and threaded through, but this meant that by the end, I was running dangerously low on yarn. So my plan for a knitted-on edging all the way round had to change to just an edging at either end. Once it’s blocked and ready for its FO post, I’ll put in all the details about the patterns I used. Right now I just have to think where on earth I am going to block a 60 inch scarf. I might have to get some of those foam squares…

Also ready for and actually being blocked is the cable-and-lace cardigan. Once I’d got the second sleeve done, the neckband and button borders where a breeze and now it just needs buttons and it’s also done!

(The colour is very hard to photograph indoors on a grey day; it’s more blue in real life.)

So while I’m finishing those off, I’m knitting Rose’s bear hat. This is now the third version of the hat because the previous one was still too big. When I did the maths to work out the finished measurements, I didn’t factor in any negative ease so it was still too baggy on Rose’s head, and hats should be snug. If this one is now too small, I might cry. And then just find another beanie pattern and stick some ears on it.

I have nothing of interest this week. You can pretty much take last week’s post and add a few inches on to the length of the scarf and that’s this week’s progress. Partly because that’s all scarves really are – strips of knitting that go on and on and on and then stop, and also because I haven’t been knitting as much as I’d hoped. Because of course it’s that time of year again, when I wince at the cost of a pair of shoes, buy dozens of shirts and trousers, and then spend hours sewing on nametapes.

This time next week the house will be empty, save for me and Rose and the cat, and knitting might actually get a look in once again.

Can’t believe how quickly Wednesdays seem to come around these days! Since last week, I have been working exclusively on my scarf for the swap, so today’s photo is of a long strip of knitting which doesn’t look too exciting so far:

I had originally planned to use a stitch pattern and edging combination from Heirloom Knitting, knitted in garter stitch. However, after swatching, it became apparent that a) the stitch pattern I chose was just too busy for use on a narrow scarf and b) garter stitch lace didn’t work with such a silky yarn (i.e. it looked crap). So then I had a minor crisis and swatched about a dozen other stitch patterns, none of which worked either.

But then I turned to the splendid Victorian Lace Today (which I haven’t used nearly enough since I bought it) and found the Diamonds and Triangles shawl. It had never really caught my attention when browsing the book, probably because it seemed a bit simple compared to some of the other patterns. But it works perfectly on a small scarf and the yarn, and is really easy to memorise (which is a bonus).

Once the scarf is long enough, I will work a narrow, knitted-on border all the way around to finish it off. No idea what I’ll be using, and I might end up making something up that matches the centre pattern. I did swear off knitted-on borders a few years ago, but this scarf is considerably smaller, so surely it won’t be as time-consuming and never-ending?! (Ha!)

I have a sleeve! And the beginnings of a second one to boot. Once I got my hands on some nice bamboo dpns (from Adam Venture on eBay, which arrived the day after ordering – with free postage – and are really good quality) the sleeve whizzed along and was done in an afternoon.

Unfortunately, I was then distracted by something else which was going to be brilliant, and spent several days knitting and tweaking it, only for it to then ended up frogged when I realised it wasn’t going to work, unless the laws of mathematics could be changed. Sometimes knitting can feel like the most frustrating craft in the universe.

So there’s little progress to show off this week compared to last, but I haven’t been idly twiddling my thumbs (if only!). I also now have to start on a scarf for a swap on Ravelry, and one good thing about that is the need to buy scrummy yarn.

Today’s WIPW is a bumper edition! Although it doesn’t feel as if I’ve knitted much over the past fortnight, there’s actually some progress from the last update which makes me look quite efficient.

Firstly, progress on the cable-and-lace cardigan. I did a fair whack before I went away, and completed the back and fronts all ready to knit the sleeves whilst on holiday (ha!).

Unfortunately, I managed about a third of the first sleeve, so it’s not as far along as I would like. It doesn’t help that I am struggling with the dpns. They’re clanky metal ones which I bought years ago when I first started knitting with dpns and at the time they were cheap and I didn’t know any different. Now I much prefer bamboo, but these are the only ones I have in a 3mm size. Though I’m loathed to buy more needles when I don’t absolutely need them, I am not going to finish this sleeve if I don’t get new ones!

Next is another project I cast on for holiday knitting, in case I didn’t want to haul around a whole cardigan with me. I had nice dreams of knitting a little bit each day while everyone else just ran around which of course didn’t work out!

This is going to be a Cabled Teddy Hat. (Because already having one hat on the needles clearly isn’t enough. ) Rose is utterly obsessed with bears at the moment and it is a very bearish hat, with a bit of cabling to keep me amused. Not sure if I’ll put the ribbons on the ears or not. It depends if Rose grabs the hat before I have a chance to add them! I am using Sirdar Snuggly DK which I have never ever knitted with before, but the colourway is called “Baby Bear” so it clearly had to be the yarn I used. It’s very soft to knit with and I like it a lot so far. (I do think it’s a bit on the pricey side, though, for what it is…) The pattern is cute, although I do think it would have been helpful to include finished measurements as well as age ranges for each size to save me casting on a giant hat to begin with!

And finally for this week’s update, I am knitting myself a shawl! This was totally unplanned until yesterday lunchtime when I received a lovely surprise parcel of squishiness from rubbishknitter containing four balls of Louisa Harding Ondine in a colourway called “Indigo” which is in fact a mixture of blues and teals and greens and is beautiful.

Although it was suggested I knit something for Rose with it, my response to that was, “sod baby clothes!” and I looked at my queue to see if I had enough to knit anything for myself. Five minutes later, I had printed off Bitterroot and spent the afternoon knitting blissfully until almost all of the first chart was done. I think I might have some teal-ish beads in my bead stash for the edging, otherwise I’ll just leave them off.

And that, dear readers, is your lot for this week! I do need to organise these projects into some sort of order of priority, though, or nothing will be done. And as the sun is shining, I think it’s knitting-a-shawl-in-the-garden weather.

So, to the yarn! I was very tempted by some Habu Textiles Bamboo laceweight in a lovely rich red, but I am taking a break from shawls at the moment due to lack of both a safe blocking space and the ability to concentrate on anything intricate knitted with sewing thread yarn. ‘Tis completely and utterly gorgeous, though, and I will be buying some when I do go back to lace. But I still feel a slight pang of regret that I didn’t buy some just to fondle!

I bought a pre-order copy of Woolly Wormhead’s Bambeanies book and have cast on for Aurora already, which is the design that made me want the whole book. Rose can never have too many hats.

The yarn is some Hayfield Bonus DK from my stash in a cheery lilac colour. It’ll be good travel knitting when I go away next week (if I get the chance!).

I did buy two skeins of Kollage Riveting in Storm Denim. It’s made from recycled jeans, which is a great idea and something I wish I could do with the boys’ old jeans which end up worn to nothing on the knees!

I am using it for a design of my own which has been fermenting for a short while, for a seamless, drop-sleeved cardigan using the beautiful cable-and-lace pattern I used for my Clover socks.

Unfortunately, there’s no photo of the yarn in the skein because there was a winding service at KnitNation for a measly £1 per 500m, so it was all balled up and swatched with before I even left.

So the poor Eriskay sweater has been pretty neglected for new projects and may be for a while yet as I pinched the needles for the new cardgian as well.

This will be the last WIP Wednesday for a couple of weeks as I am going on holiday and will have no computer access. But hoping the next one will be a bumper edition.

This week’s photo does look a bit like the photos for the past couple of weeks..! However, I have completed the back of the Eriskay Sweater and am progressing with the front.

So far I have modified the shoulder shaping from what the pattern said. They aren’t sloped in any way; the stitches are just cast off all in one row. It made more sense to leave them on scrap yarn and then, when the front is finished, join the shoulders together with a three needle cast off. I’m also going to knit the collar in the round, rather than flat and seamed up one side (which just seems daft).

I’m also debating whether to join the side seams, leave a gap and then pick up the sleeves and knit them downwards. There’s no pattern schematic, so it would involve some maths to work out how big a gap to leave, but I find it a lot easier decreasing in a pattern than increasing, so I am tempted!

Otherwise for now it’s just a case of plodding on with the front. Hopefully next week’s WIP-W will be a little more interesting.

Not so much progress to show off this week on the Eriskay Sweater. This is partly because I was knitting Miss Dashwood and partly because I had to do some frogging. It’s not as tragic as it sounds: I misread the last four rows of the centre panel as being stocking stitch when in fact they were garter stitch (you can see the ridges dividing each motif) and didn’t realise until I had knitted two-and-a-bit repeats. I am starting to worry that me not reading patterns properly is becoming a bit of a regular occurrence, and I can’t blame not being able to see properly now that I have my glasses! Anyhow, I could have left it as a “design feature” because it didn’t look like an obvious mistake. But I liked the little ridges now that I actually noticed that they’re there (!), so I ripped out a good two or three inches, and am now just past where I ended up beforehand, with just a whisker to go before the back neck shaping.

It’s also not a hardship because I am actually enjoying the pattern. Now that each panel is set, I can read my knitting and know what to do on each row. There’s a lot of purling and knitting and yarnovering and cabling to be done which stops it being mindless TV knitting, but I don’t feel any urgency that I need to have two sleeves completed in a day and be done and dusted ready for the next project. I know that enjoying your knitting doesn’t have to be optional, but it feels for a long time that I’ve been knitting for the sake of the end product without thought for the process. Whether it was because Rose needed a hat/cardigan so I’d better knit one – and Miss Dashwood was the ultimate example of knitting for an end product! – or because a lot of what I’ve been making had been unchallenging because I wanted a quick result, knitting hasn’t been the fun thing that it should have been. And this sweater is fun (but not funky or fab).

Also, I have two or three projects I want to knit but can’t start them because I’m saving my yarn buying for KnitNation, which means I don’t have a pressing need to get this done. Though if it’s not done by then, maybe it’ll be a different story.

I will write a bit about the yarn as I haven’t much else to add on the sweater progress. Patons Eco Cotton is really nice to knit with and isn’t too hard on my fingers. Cotton isn’t the greatest choice of yarn for making bobbles, but maybe being finer makes it less hard-going. Unfortunately I found a non-knot in the first ball. That is, near the end (why are they always near the end?!) the yarn just stopped. Whether there had been a knot and it had become untied, or there wasn’t one to begin with, it was mildly irritating. But I want to end on a good note, so I’ll add that the colour is very nice.

A good lot of progress to show off this week.

Spurred on by Jennyff who was toying with knitting this pattern herself, I made a start on the Eriskay sweater. So far it’s going well and I’m already up to the cables and bobbles on the back. However, it would be a heck of a lot quicker to knit if it was charted. Each column of pattern is written out line-by-line, so to knit each row you have to refer to “Row 1 of C, Row 1 of B, Row 1 of A” etc, which involves a lot of reading all over the page. However, once I’d got the first repeat of the bottom pattern set, it was easy to just knit from memory and so I’m hoping that the cable and bobble section will also fall into place once it’s more established. It’s not helped by the fact that the zigzag lace is mirrored, so as well reading different rows all over the place, there’s “Row 1 of D, Row 1 of A, Row 11 of D” thrown into the mix. Oh, it would all be so much easier on a chart!

I am actually knitting the 1-2 year size despite what I wrote last Friday. Though I didn’t actually twig that I was supposed to be knitting it until I had swatched and then knit a whole pattern repeat in the larger size. At that point my eyes fell on the yarn requirements and I realised I had only bought enough yarn for the smaller size. It’s probably best not to question why a) I didn’t notice when I was looking at the quantities before I bought the yarn and b) why it then took me so long after starting the sweater to realise my mistake… But on the plus side, having fewer stitches meant that I had soon got back to where I was. The smaller sweater has a finished chest measurement of 27 inches which, even allowing for the dropped shoulder, should fit Rose for a good while yet.

And there is news on the Miss Dashwood front as well!

I finally bit the bullet, printed off the pattern and sat down to cast on yesterday afternoon/evening. It took forever, but I have cast on and now it’s fairly plain sailing until the bobble border. I am very pleased with myself for getting it done. I know I could have just not bothered with the picot cast on, but I love the way it looks and it’s worth doing properly. I will put Eriskay aside for now and keep on with this ’til it’s done, before I lose heart again!

Jumping on the bandwagon! Like yarndancer says, it’s nice seeing projects from their beginnings to the finished object, and I am going to try to post a WIP every week from now on, even if it’s only a piddling cast on row and nothing else.

I wrote on Monday that I wasn’t sure what I wanted to knit next, and the Miss Dashwood was looming, so the best thing to do was ignore it and cast on something else entirely. I seem to be going through phases with my knitting at the moment, where I knit several of one type of thing for a while and then switch to something else and knit several of those instead. There was the knitted monster phase and now there is apparently the Rose-sized-cardigan phase.

This is the beginnings of another creatively-titled Sirdar pattern, Sirdar 1236. I am a bit bobble-obsessed at the moment and this pattern just leapt out at me as it’s the ultimate bobblefest, and will either make me love them even more, or make me determined never to knit another one as long as I live! I also love the travelling stitches which form little branches for the bobbles. It’s a very stylish design and I could fancy wearing it myself, but I am loathed to knit myself anything with bobbles on the front that could end up somewhere unfortunate, as on the jumper on the cover of this magazine!

I never used to enjoy making bobbles. They always looked wrong: not the round, juicy ones that I wanted but rather flat, pathetic and unattractive. That was until I knitted the Blue Rabbit Hat and used the method in that pattern to make the rabbit’s tails and I’m now a convert, and do the same thing for all bobbles.

Still hate using cotton for bobbles, though, which is why it’s nice to use something supremely stretchy for this pattern. The yarn is Stylecraft Baby DK in “Denim”, which is also deliciously soft. I chose the colour to go with one of Rose’s summer dresses, in the hope that she can actually go bare-legged before September. I will not make this another weather rant, I promise. But just to add that thankfully it’ll also go with long trousers and socks.

So despite me not being that impressed by cabling with Rowan All Seasons Cotton, somehow this pattern along with five balls of ASC in my stash ended up coming together. And there’ll be sewing up as well. I may possibly be going slightly mad…