Isabel

August 2017

Having a few skeins of Baa Ram Ewe's Titus going spare, I looked around for something worthy of them which looked like a fun and interesting knit. This pattern definitely ticked those boxes.

Isabel is a pretty little project but all those cables and lace felt like a lot of work to me, since I'm so slow and out of practice. Too much colourwork (if such a thing is possible).

Titus looks beautiful with cables and lace. It’s not the softest, but great for a cardigan and very warm. Here I was subbing it for Rowan's Felted Tweed dk. Both contain wool and Alpaca, but as Felted Tweed knits up at more of a sport weight than a dk and Titus is a 4-ply all I had to do was go up a size and the fit was perfect (so an aged 2-3 size fits Lucy at 20 months).

This was my second project from Marie Wallin’s Timeless collection (see also Freddie). The designs are great but as much as I love Marie Wallin, the patterns are a little but fiddly at times - for example, why did the collar of this cardigan need to be knitted separately and sewn on? I'm sure it could have been picked up and knitted using short rows instead.

To save a little on the finishing work, I knitted the body, front and back in one piece and the sleeves in the round.

But seriously, though, who could resist cladding their little Yorkie girl in a Wensleydale blend in a colourway called Yorkstone?

Pattern: Isabel by Marie Wallin
Size: 2-3 years
Yarn: Baa Ram Ewe Titus
Colours: Yorkstone
Needle 3.00mm
On ravelry: here

A pair of Colorblocks

December 2015

Every year I knit a little something for the children of my husband's cousin, Daniel and Emily, and this year just for a change I thought it would be cute to make his and hers matching jumpers. I needed a fairly quick knit though - with a baby due on December 22nd I was loath to commit to any Christmas projects which might prove too labour intensive. A worsted weight top down in the round jumper fitted the bill perfectly.

I'd spotted this pattern on ravelry a while ago. Garter stitch always makes very attractive looking stripes in my opinion, and the construction of that pocket intrigued me whilst the rest of the garnet promised just the right amount of fairly mindless knitting.

This pattern has some very pleasing little design details - the hem being slightly lower in the back than the front through short row shaping for example, and as I knitted it I couldn't help but wish more of my sweaters were shaped like that. Plus it's a truly unisex design, and so perfect for a brother and sister. (Emily has apparently got her eyes on Daniel's version - the red and grey - once he gets too big for it).

The Rowan Pure Wool Worsted I used for this is a fabulous yarn. It's not cheap (especially when you don't need to use very much of the contrast colour, as with this pattern), but it comes in every colour you could ever want, washes beautifully, is properly warm and cosy and not itchy in the slightest. It knits up into a very handsome looking and pleasingly squishy fabric.

I love the fact that it's a proper worsted since the UK market doesn't seem to be particularly spoiled for choice when it comes to that particular weight, and yet there are vast swathes of patterns (particularly from the USA) which call for it. Knitting with this makes me understand how a petrolhead would feel driving a ferrari, if you see what I mean. And besides, these were Christmas presents, so I could justify the cost.

I can see myself coming back to this pattern at some point, as it was such a fun, quick knit and these little sweaters are the sort of wardrobe staple that could see any child through a long, British winter or two. And thanks to Rowan, there are many colour combinations left to try.  

Pattern: Colorblock by Oomieknits
Size: 4 years and 6 years
Yarn: Rowan pure wool worsted in Mustard, Damson, Charcoal and Rich Red
Needle: 4.5mm
On ravelry: here

Merriment

December 2015

I spotted this lovely set a while ago whilst the pattern was unavailable because it was being updated, so I was really pleased to find it was available again in time for me to make one for my daughter. Having expected her to come early, like her brother had, she actually turned up 10 days late. This was something I knitted up around week 40 - 41 of my pregnancy whilst waiting for her to to arrive. I used leftovers from my purple and yellow colorblock sweater.

The pattern includes instructions for a steeked version and a non-steeked version. I don't mind steeking, but in this case I decided not to, since I was using a super wash wool, and I wasn't sure if it would be grippy enough to hold.

One ball of the yellow was enough for the cardigan, but there was virtually nothing leftover, and I had to buy a second for the matching bonnet.

I worked an extra row between colour changes in a couple of places to avoid having to cut the yarn to get it to where I needed it.

M1 increases throughout yoke were done with backward loop cast on, as lifting a strand between stitches can look a bit odd if it's not the right colour.

This was a really quick and satisfying knit - I mostly seem to use 4-ply these days so making something in worsted made for really rapid progress. I'd definitely make this again - it's one of the prettiest baby sets I've seen for ages. My little girl has worn it a few times already, although it's still a bit big for her. The fact that the sleeves have yarn stranded round them for the entire length means they're not especially stretchy, but we managed to get them on and off without too much fuss in the end. 

Pattern: Merriment Bonnet and Cardigan by

Size: 3 months
Yarn: Rowan Pure Wool Worsted in 150 Damson and 133 Gold and John Lewis Heritage Merino Blend dk
Needle: 4.00mm
On ravelry: here

Daybreak Shawl

July 2015

I’m pregnant. In knitting terms that means time to stop making sweaters for me (I won’t be able to fit into them soon anyway) and start with the baby stuff. But first of all I needed a nursing shawl. I’m very pro-breastfeeding and the right to do it in public, but at the same time I get self conscious without some sort of cover-up.

That being the intended purpose of this shawl, is being called Daybreak made me smile. I should be seeing a fair few of those with a newborn to look after.

This yarn (the Mabel & Ivy part) was purchased with the intention of making Dessine-Moi Un Mouton which, one day, the leftovers will. But in the meantime I needed to use that colour combination somewhere else.

Actually this isn’t the happiest marriage of yarn and design. The inside edge of the shawl is very tight, and Supersoft, being pretty much a pure wool 3-ply, snaps very easily. I’ve snapped a couple of stitches already by blocking it, but I caught them before they ran, and it’s not impossible to repair that sort of thing. Disasters like that have befallen me before.

When I get around to using the Supersoft again, I’m going to hold it double which should hopefully make it a bit stronger. Dessine-Moi Un Mouton calls for 5-ply anyway so hopefully I’ll be able to get gauge that way.

This was my first go at taking pictures of a shawl by stringing a line between two picture hooks on a blank wall and pegging it to that, an idea pinched from elsewhere on Rav, and I think it looks great. I didn’t want to put the pictures back up.

Pattern: Daybreak Shawl by Stephen West

Size: Large
Yarn: Main colour - Skein Queen Voluptuous Skinny in brown and contrast colours - Mabel & Ivy Supersoft in (from top to bottom) Calypso, Dark Apple, Kingfisher, Marlin and Mariner
Needle: 3.00mm
On ravelry: here

Atlas

December 2014

I’ve had a real soft spot for Jared Flood ever since his version of the Noro Striped Scarf persuaded me to have a go at making my own, and since then I’ve also made Cisco and Elizabeth Zimmermann’s seamless hybrid thanks to him. What I saw this pattern I knew I had to make it even if I didn't initially know who for. It was one of those patterns.

I really love how this turned out. Yes, the large areas of 4-ply stocking stitch were tedious, and yes bits of the yoke called for three-colour-colourwork-with-wraps which is not much fun at all, but my goodness it was worth it.

I did find the pattern to be a little bit overly wordy and prescriptive, but I guess some people prefer a lot of hand holding, and the short treatise on “colour dominance” was interesting.

I didn’t bother going up a needle size for the colour work. I know that stranding tends to make colourwork tighter than working in one colour, but I relied on blocking to sort that out for me, as I was in a bit of a hurry.

I got a message of thanks shortly after Christmas, assuring me that the recipient now referred to this as his "new favourite jumper" and wondered how I knew that blue was his favourite colour (I didn't, I just like it too). It's very satisfying to have such knit-worthy children in the family.

Pattern: Atlas by Jared Flood
Size: 6 years
Yarn: Garnstudio DROPS Fabel and Cygnet Truly Wool Rich 4-ply
Colours: Blue, black and white
Needle 2.75mm and 3.25mm
On ravelry: here

Owls

May 2014

I love Kate Davies, and I'm starting to love how yoked sweaters look on me. When my husband finally agree to let me recycle the Appersett he just didn't quite seem to be getting enough wear from, there was only one thing I wanted to make. Actually, make that two because I did briefly flirt with the idea of DownEast, but only very very briefly.

Owls is a flattering-even-though-it-shouldn't-be slice of chunky loveliness, which can easily be whipped up in a week or so. I totally made it at the wrong time of year, but come the winter time it's going to be getting a lot of wear (especially if I manage to drop that half-stone or so I've been meaning to do something about since forever).

This seems to be one of the most knitted patterns ever if ravelry is anything to go by, and so there probably isn't a great deal useful left to say about it. I made a size small, but added bust darts a couple of inches below the yoke.

The finished fit was a little on the snug side, but I think that's what makes it so flattering. I also worked mine top-down so that I could make sure I was happy with the length. It feels like length is the one thing I'm most likely to be fussy about in any of the projects I made for myself at the moment. Thinking about it, though, I could just have easily worked the pattern bottom-up as written with a provisional cast on to mess about with at the end. Must try that next time.

I'd already had a go at making the child's version of this when I embarked upon mine, and now of course I'm kicking myself about not making this sooner, before my son grew out of his. Perhaps it's time to think about making him another one!

Pattern: Owls by Kate Davies
Yarn: Rowan Purelife British Sheep Breeds Chunky
Amount: Recycled, so who knows?
Colourway: Dark Gray Welsh
Needles: 6.00mm
Size: Smallest, but with bust darts
On ravelry: here

Winter is Coming Scarf

June 2014

This scarf tends to either leave people slightly non-plussed or make them squeal with excitement, depending on how familiar they are with the work of James R.R. Martin. My husband is a huge fan, and this was his Father's Day present this year.

There are several Game of Thrones inspired knitting patterns, including this one which is was initially tempted by. But looking at official merchandise - including my husband's house Stark t-shirt with this motto and a dire wolf head on it - I thought that this version was closer in spirit to the real thing.

This was my first attempt at double knitting, but as I seem to say every time I try a new knitting technique, it's not as difficult as it looks. It is pretty time consuming, because you tend to have to knit and purl alternate stitches the entire time. Still, with something as small as a scarf I could live with that. The only slightly fiddly part was making sure the cast-on, cast-off and edging were neat, and there are some great resources for that. 

• cast on - here;
• edging - here; and 
• cast off - here.

Although this pattern was written for a worsted weight yarn, my version was done with 4-ply. It came out JUST long enough, but a very nice width. I also modified it by tweaking the chart slightly so that all the letters in "inter" and "oming" were the same height. It would have bugged me otherwise.

The other thing worth knowing about double-knitting is that the two sides of the fabric are like positive and negative images of each other. This means that if the motif includes writing, it will only read correctly on one side, and be reversed on the other. Somehow it is possible to make it read correctly on both sides, as has been done with the other Winter is Coming scarf I linked to, but as far as I know noone has adapted this chart like that as yet. 

Now all I need to do it make him a pair of these for Christmas.

I'm a little bit tempted by these double knit projects too: one ring scarf, corvus scarf and chugga-chugga.

Pattern: Winter is Coming Scarf by Julie Chen
Yarn: Regia Color 4-ply / King Cole Zig Zag
Colour: Grey / Cream
Amount: 2 skeins of grey, one of cream
On ravelry: here

Anemone

January 2014

I've wanted to try some West Yorkshire Spinners yarn for a long time, what with them being a local company and all. When I looked into it and discovered that it would cost me about £20 - £25 to make this sweater I was very pleasantly surprised.

This sweater by the way, Ladies and Gentlemen, is a test knit of the just-released masterpiece by Svetlana Volkova, Anemone. It is just perfect.

See my project page on ravelry for all the useful things I spotted during the process of making it. I was initially worried that a straight up and down sweater might not be too flattering on me, being a little bit on the top-heavy side. Thanks to the fact that I worked some of the increases incorrectly, and ended up with a tighter fabric than intended, my size medium came out closer to small. This means a fairly clingy fit on me (about 5/6" negative ease) and so waist shaping wouldn't have added anything.

I love test-knitting. Being part of a group all working on the same thing is great motivation, and I always learn new things. I felt very lucky to have spotted Svetlana's request for testers in time to get involved with this one. If I hadn't, I would have been buying this pattern now for sure.

Pattern: Anemone by Svetlana Volkova
Yarn: West Yorkshire Spinners Airedale Aran
Colour: Light Brown
Amount: 4.25 Skeins
On ravelry: here

Winterberry

November 2013

A very good friend of mine is due to have a baby in December. Having had a November baby myself, it brought back to me how chilly, dark and lonely some of those night-time feeds seemed. And so I have made her this, to warm her up and to remind her that I will be thinking of her. 

I've never made a project which I coveted to this extent. My photos can't quite capture quite what a pretty, neat, satisfying object this is, but it was all I could do to stop myself from casting on another one immediately to keep.

One reason this works so well is that the yarn and the hot water bottle are a similar colour (you can just about see the top of the hot water bottle peeking out in the picture below). Had they been different, I think it would probably have shown through. For my own future reference, I found an excellent place to buy rubber and non-rubber hot water bottles of all colours here.

A grey one along similar lines but with the spider chart from here might work well, if I ever get around to making something like this for my sister, so watch this space.

Pattern: Winterberry by gluecksfisch from gluecksfisch.com
Yarn: Cascade 220
Colour: 9568
Amount: Less than one skein
On ravelry: here

Driftwood

 October 2013

One of the many things I love about my in-laws is the fact that they live within striking distance of the Wensleydale Longwool Sheepshop. Wensleydale Longwool Sheepshop yarns are not very widely available - the only places you can usually find them are fancy high-end "catering to your inner yarn snob" shops like Baa Raw Ewe and iKnit, and you tend to see a pretty steep mark-up at places like that.

Here's a close-up of the yarn, which might help to explain why. This isn't the softest wool in the world, but it is silky and drapes more beautifully than any other wool I've seen. And the shades into which it is dyed are so, so pretty. The fact that something of such sheer quality is produced and dyed locally to me makes me feel so proud of my part of the world.

At the Wensleydale Longwool Sheepshop itself, aran can be obtained for £6.10 per 100g, but they don't have an online ordering system set up. Basically circumstances conspire to make you visit in person if at all possible. Wensleydale is a beautiful place for a drive, though, and the shop itself - attached to the side of a farm down a long quiet country road - is a charming and very friendly nirvana for fibre lovers.

I'm talking myself into going back there very soon, aren't I? The fact that I get to drop the baby at my mother in law's house en route, for a bit of proper quiet, quality shopping time when I go there only has a little bit to do with my love of the place. Honest.

I'd intended to use this yarn to make Fara by Amy Christoffers, on reflection I decided that that pattern would look better in a different colour combination. Possibly blue and white, which is what I'd intended to buy in the first place. By that stage, I'd worked a swatch which included two wide stripes, and I thought they looked great together. Then I found a free pattern for a relaxed-fitting striped sweater with a neckline I thought would flatter my figure and which utilised a technique I hadn't tried before (contiguous sleeves). 

That, as they say, was that. Helloooooo Driftwood.

Pattern: Driftwood by Isabell Kraemer
Yarn: Wensleydale Longwool Sheepshop Aran
Colour: 106 (Pale Green) and 124 (Sage)
Amount: 3 skeins and 3.5 skeins
On ravelry: here

Aidez

August 2013

Once up a time this yarn was a Justina so hideous that I couldn't even bring myself to take photos of it, let alone blog about it. A lovely yarn and a lovely pattern, but they just didn't go together. It was rigid, and hung strangely, with not an ounce of drape. It just felt to me like the yarn didn't want to be quite so tightly knit, and after a bit of swatching with it, I discovered that I much preferred it at a looser gauge. So, what to make with the yarn that professes to be aran weight, but actually knits up rather beautifully at about 15 stitches per 4 inches? Why, Aidez of course.

THIS, I am happy with.

Mine is a pretty heavily modified version of the original pattern. I wasn't overly keen on the back panel, and so I replaced it with a freebie one I found here. And having read comments on ravelry to the effect that Aidez tended to come out a bit on the small side (possibly due to the schematic failing to take account of the way cabling makes fabric shrink in width as opposed to stocking stitch) I thought the addition of a button band would be a sensible modification to make. Also mine has waist shaping and was knit in once piece - the sleeves and body were joined at the armpit and decreases worked to reflect the raglan shaping. I'll try to put more detail on how exactly the mods were done onto my ravelry project page in due course.

I love this so much. The seed wishbone pattern on the sleeves and the two front panels is too pretty for words.  The pattern is a quick knit and a freebie. It's the first thing I've made for myself for ages, and I really think I'll get a lot of use out of it. It's warm, chunky but not unflattering. I can't recommend it enough.

Pattern: Aidez by Cirilia Rose from berroco.com
Yarn: New Lanark Aran
Colour: Pebble
Amount: 6 skeins
On ravelry: here

Puppy Sweater

August 2013

My sister in law is expecting her first baby (a boy), any day now. My son George's first cousin. I'm a truly rubbish potential aunt for not starting anything for him until now, but I figured an August baby wouldn't have much call for knitwear at first. Besides, I was waiting for the perfect pattern and given how doggy-mad she is, I couldn't resist this one.

The original has a zig-zag lace pattern just above the waist-band. I replaced it with bone motif from The Tapdancing Lizard. Not that I have a problem with boys' patterns which feature lace. It's more that I wasn't confident that my dog would be doggy enough for people to "get it" without a bit of a clue. Still burning from the time someone thought my knitted bunnies were reindeer. Anyway, I tested this out on my 22 month old son, and he correctly identified it as a "wah-wah", and I was very proud of us both.

In an effort to minimise finishing, I worked this in the round to start of puppy chart, and would have done the sleeves in the round too, if I could have found the right sized DPNs. Only one of the shoulder seams is joined (the other closes with buttons to make the sweater easier to get on and off), and I used a three needle bind off for that. Sewing a sleeve on to an open shoulder seam was fiddly, but I think it looks okay.

I love this yarn. It's such a treat to work with wool (or mostly wool) these days. I really should do it more often. After a bit of a soak in fabric conditioner it's lovely and soft. The buttons were recycled from my Offset Wraplan.

This is the second pattern I've made from Zoe Mellor's Nursery Knits - the other was the Starlight Blanket. It's a lovely resource.

Pattern: Puppy Sweater by Zoe Mellor from Nursery Knits.
Size: 3 - 6 months
Yarn: Cygnet Truly Wool Rich 4-ply / Patons Fairytale Dreamtime 4-ply
Colour: Olive / Chocolate / White
Amount: 1.5 skeins of MC, less than 1 skein of CCs
On ravelry: here