Conifer

September 2017

This was a holiday knit, mostly completed during a short family break in Norfolk. The green and white colour combination is so fresh and lovely, and the yarn used, Rowan Felted Tweed dk,

 is my favourite yarn of all time, and particularly good for colour work (my kids do sometimes complain about it being a little bit itchy, though).

I love the little tree chart, it's really cute, but I'm not entirely sold on the shape of this cardigan - specifically the v-neck - and it hasn't really been getting the wear it deserves. I think if I was to pick up this pattern again it would most likely be to transpose the chart onto something else (which would be easy to do as there's no shaping or fiddly bits in the section where the chart appears).

I knitted the largest size (12 months) but in a yarn which is more of a sport weight than a 4-ply, and so this is really about a size 2-3. Lucy is around 20 months in these pictures but it's a bit big still.

Pattern: Conifer by Ella Austin
Size: 2-3 years
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed
Colours: Clay (mc), Hedgerow (cc)
Needle 2.75mm
On ravelry: here

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

Tiny Woodland

April 2017

This is such a satisfying set of patterns. Not one of them took more than a couple of hours to complete, but each of them is easy to follow and tremendously cute. The owl and the hedgehog in particular have such a lot of character despite being so tiny.

The only modification I made to these patterns as written was to unpick the owl's wings. They were intended to be sewn down, but I made these for my six year old son and one year old daughter and, inevitably, they wanted to flap the wings and make him fly.

I used Rowan's Felted Tweed dk because I had a big bag of oddments stashed. The tweedy little flecks add a certain rustic charm which suits these little creatures very well, in my opinion. Although described as a dk, it's not really much thicker than a sport weight, and knitted up on 2.00mm needles came out dense (as toys should be) but manageable.

Knitted toys aren't really my oeuvre, but I was very pleased with these, and amazed by the sheer choice of patterns which Anna has published. 

Pattern: Tiny Woodland patterns by Anna Hrachovec
Size: n/a
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed dk
Colours: Camel, Treacle, Ginger, Clay, Hedgerow, Carbon
Needle 2.00mm

On ravelry: here, here, here and here

Rainbow Dress

April 2017

I had loads of Sparkleduck rainbow miniskeins left over from making George’s fabulous vest, and so I thought I’d improvise a little tunic dress for Lucy.

The end result is very bright and cheerful, but with hindsight I wish I had made the shaping much more a-line so it didn’t cling so much around her tummy.

Visiting the Sparkleduck stand was very much the highlight for me of an otherwise rather overwhelming Yarndale 2016. I had my little boy with me, and the nice man running the stall gave him a little toy duck. Its funny how the random acts of kindness like that can stay with you.

This is such a beautiful yarn that I’ll most likely frog this dress once Lucy grows out of it and recycle it into another project. It’s worn very well so it would be a shame not to.

Pattern: improvised
Yarn: Sparkleduck Galaxy rainbow mini skeins.
Size: 12 months
On ravelry: here

Saffran

April 2017

A worsted weight stranded pure wool cardigan is not the most clever of projects to be knitting in April, particularly if you don’t factor in enough growing room, which I didn’t.

Consequently this didn’t get quite the wear it deserved, although with a bit of determined stretching it did see us out until the end of the winter.

I really rate Rowan’s pure wool worsted. It’s cosy, knits up quickly and washes very well. It’s not the cheapest, admittedly, but in baby cardigan sized amounts it’s manageable.

Saffran is supposed to be steeked, but since I was using a superwash wool, I was worried that any steeking I did might not have held properly. I just knitted my version back and forth instead, and was pretty pleased with the result.

The pattern for this little cardigan is very well written and I don’t remember spotting any issues with it at all. Plus you’ve got to love a pattern which includes a recipe for saffron buns at the end just because.

Pattern: Saffran by Nicolina Lindsten
Yarn: Rowan Pure Wool Worsted in mustard (mc) and ivory (cc).
Size: 12 months
On ravelry: here

DROPS 157-2 Silver Dream

February 2017

DROPS is an amazing yarn company. They make fabulously good value yarns, and the pattern support is absolutely overwhelming, and entirely free.

Around Christmas 2016 I took my son ice skating, and had a sudden and uncontrollable urge to possess a proper nordic looking cosy sweater. Just the right sort of thing to wear for next year's trip.

Luckily I had an enormous skein of mid-blue Wensleydale Longwool Sheepshop dk stashed, after spotting it in the seconds bin at their stall at Yarndale 2014. I never did work out what was wrong with it, even after knitting it into a sweater. And quite frankly it had been festering in my stash for so long that it was a relief to finally use it.

Pattern-wise I have nothing helpful to say about this project. It worked perfectly as written and I didn't feel compelled to modify it at all. The top-down construction made it great for trying-on-as-you-go. It's worth noting in passing that I have a special fondness for colour work with raglan sleeves rather than round yokes. The increasing/decreasing required to make the raglan seams is more disruptive to the flow of the colour work but the fit is so much more flattering in my experience that I really do feel it's worth it.

Wensleydale Longwool Sheepshop dk is a beautiful yarn, so warm and lustrous. Not "next to the skin" soft but fine for a sweater if you're happy to wear a layer underneath. Knowing that I was supporting a local business and not having to pay extra to have yarn shipped halfway around the world just made this project all the more enjoyable.

Pattern: 157-2 Silver Dream by DROPS garnstudio
Yarn: Wensleydale Longwool Sheepshop dk in blue (mc) and white (cc).
Size: 36"
On ravelry: here

Balfour Skirt

February 2017

I love this pattern! I've never knitted a skirt before, partly because I'd previously not been sure whether they would hang properly or stay up. With Balfour, I thought it was worth taking a risk and it totally paid off. I love the fit - it’s pretty snug, but I think it’s flattering that way and holds a good shape. It's great to find a new way to wear hand knitting. 

Balfour is knitted using rowan felted tweed dk. Although labelled a dk, in my opinion this yarn knits up more like a sport weight, and so in terms of yarn substitutions, a 4-ply would probably just about work (I've seen Drops Alpaca subbed for felted tweed a couple of times very successfully). The skirt is knitted bottom up, with a folded hem at the bottom and a section of ribbing and elastic to hold it up at the top. It's seamless and intended to be worn with a little positive ease. On ravelry it's described as "a-line" but I would say "pencil skirt" would be the more accurate way to describe its shape. It sits quite high - on the waist rather than the hips, which makes for a warm tummy, but I can live with that if it's the price I have to pay for it not falling down.

I did tweak the pattern to some extent. As written, it has you increase and decrease in such a way that the chart repeats don’t always line up at the two side seam stitches. This is liveable-with for some of the simpler chart but when it came to the with stripe with the double diamonds I thought it would look rubbish, and so I adjusted by stitch count so that there would be no partial repeats. I figured I could always block it aggressively if it ended up a funny shape - I've used felted tweed a lot before and it does grow a bit when you block it.

There's a matching cardigan in Rowan 60 which uses some of the same fairisle motifs. The skirt doubles as a snood in that you can pull it over your head and stick your face out of the waist opening but I while I love it as a skirt, I'm not sure I'm really a snood sort of person.

I came up with my own colour combination rather than following the pattern, because I already had a lot of felted tweed stashed, and thought it would be best to try to use that up. Also, I love turquoise.

I chopped a bit of length off too, as I’m not very tall (5’5”) and I wanted it to fall just above the knee.

Pattern: Balfour Skirt by Lisa Richardson
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed dk in Avocado (light green), Camel (beige), Watery (blue/green), Carbon (grey), Seafarer (navy) and Clay (white).
Size: smallest
On ravelry: here