Dahlia

December 2014

I’m mildly disappointed with this, as it’s a really beautiful yarn and a really beautiful pattern, but the finished product just doesn’t seem to want to fit as one would hope it to, and so it’s less enjoyable to wear than the sum of its parts should make it.

You start with the lace panel, which is knitted from the middle out. Then, starting from the middle again, you make stocking stitch strips to frame it top and bottom, which when they are long enough, and joined to the live stitches from the side edges of the panel. You do a little clever tinkering after a few rows, to take account of where the sleeves will need to go, but then you just knit outwards until you have two panels wide enough to make the front of a cardigan. It’s very clever, and nothing like any other project I’ve tackled.

I tweaked the pattern as I went, adding a bit of length, and short row shaping to try to bring the two edges of the cardigan a little closer to meeting when hanging at an angle. I also followed uncials notes with regard to the sleeves, but even so I find this is a little wider across the shoulders than it really ought to be.

The trickiest part was the collar. Initially I followed the pattern as written, but that gave me a really wide collar which seemed to always be facing the wrong way. So I ran a steek along about 20 stitches in from the edge (where the knit turned to purl) and cut a strip off. I sewed a moss stitch edging along to try to tidy it up a little bit, but it’s rather prone to wrinkling

So all in all, this was a real pain to make wearable. I love that lace panel, but I’d think twice about making anything knitted sideways again.

Pattern: Dahlia Cardigan by Heather Zopetti rom Interweave Knits, Fall 2011
Size: Second
Yarn: Supreme Possum Merino Possum Merino with Silk 4-ply
Colours: Red-purple
Needle 3.25mm
On ravelry: here

Foxy

December 2014

One of the ladies in my knitting group whipped up a couple of these cute hats for Christmas presents, and I couldn't resist following suit, they were so adorable.

I’d originally intended to make this using orange teddy bear eyes rather than buttons for the eyes, but I decided against, since they were on spikes, and so felt like they would make it a bit uncomfortable to wear.

Photographed in Hagg Woods, Dunnington. It’s amazing how cooperative a 3 year old can be when there are chocolate biscuits at stake.

I shortened the ribbing around the brim by about 0.25”. I made the smallest size, but with felted tweed (a dk) held double on 3.25mms. The main rationale being that I wanted to make it with something I already had stashed, and that was the only orange yarn I had.

I’m happy with how the sizing turned out. Here’s it’s modelled by a 3 year old boy. The intended recipient is a 4 year old girl. I think it will be fine.

George does look cute in it, though, and I do have some grey Cascade 220 stashed, so I expect I’ll be casting on a woolfie at some point, as this was a really fun pattern to follow, with shadow wraps, intarsia in the round and all sorts of interesting features.

This is a Christmas present for Emily. Since her brother is getting a sweater I also made her a matching toy fox in felted tweed to even things out a bit. The fox is here.

Pattern: Foxy by Ekaterina Blanchard
Size: Toddler
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed dk
Colours: 154 Ginger and 177 Clay
Needle 3.25mm
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

Hedgerow

December 2014

This was a very special type of fair isle project. It was knitted in the round from the bottom up, and then cut down the middle of the front to turn it into a cardigan. This process, known as steeking, had always terrified me in the past, but this time I cracked it.

Hedgerow comes from Ann Kingstone's Stranded Knits, a book which includes a lot of helpful information about all the techniques needed. There are several different ways to work a steek, but I reenforced mine using a sewing machine, as she felt that was the most secure method.

There's quite a lot of finishing once the steek is cut. The button band has to be picked up and knitted, the buttons sewn on, and then the steek stitches (a column of extra stitches which you cut down the middle of) have to be sewn down to the inside of the cardigan. I finished mine off by sewing a navy blue 1.5cm velvet ribbon over the top, which looks really nice. We weren’t sure whether to sew it all the way around or just over the steeked bits, but we thought the first option looked neater.

Being a bottom up project, the body and sleeves are knitted separately, and then joined at the underarm so that the yoke can be worked in one piece. Both the body and sleeves have to be at the same position on the colour work chart when they are joined, so to give myself a bit of flexibility, I started the sleeves with a provisional cast on, and higher up the chart than the pattern specified. That meant that I could go back and pick up the live stitches and work the bottom of the sleeves and the cuffs after cutting the steek, once the cardigan could be tried on. I'm really pleased I did it that way.

This is knitted in Rowan felted tweed which in my experience tends to grow when you block it. My measurements were - before blocking:

Chest: 35”
Waist: 31”
Hip: 40”
Length: 24”

And after blocking:

Chest: 39”
Waist: 36”
Hip: 42”
Length:25.5”

I would suggest looking carefully at the schematic before casting this on, as it’s a bit wider around the hips than the bust. Probably flattering on a lot of women, but I’m top-heavy, so not ideal for me. A bit of stretching around the bust on blocking left me with a decent fit though.

The colour combination I used was made up as I went, and Ann Kingstone left me a comment on ravelry to say she loved it, which I was very chuffed about. I found the original colours a little too bright for my taste. The shades I used were called Seafarer, Watery, Duck Egg, Bilberry, Camel and Avocado. Left over bits of the Camel, Seafarer, Bilberry and Watery went towards Corona Borealis.

Pattern: Hedgerow by Ann Kingstone from Stranded Knits
Size: See above
Yarn: Rowan felted tweed dk
Colours: See above
Needle 3.00mm
On ravelry: here

Anders

November 2014

I absolutely love this pattern. It's cute, quick and easy enough that I did most of the colour work part on a long car journey.

My only reservation is that I think the sizing is a little on the large side, and so I made a 9 - 12 month old size to fit a little boy who is about to turn 1.

It makes a lovely christmas jumper, but not being christmas-specific it would be wearable all winter.

The buttons came from Hobbycraft. As far as I can tell, they're intended to be worn at front or back, depending on what you prefer. I think I liked them better at the front.

The John Lewis Heritage Merino dk is a merino/acrylic blend, and lovely and soft. I needed something washable, as this is for a baby, but it wasn't at all squeaky like some acrylic can be. And it took colour work beautifully, without any crinkling.

Pattern: Anders by Soren Kerr
Size: 9-12 months 21” chest, 13.5” long
Yarn: John Lewis Heritage Merino Blend dk
Colours: 102 Cream and Denim
Amount: 1 skein cream, 2 skeins blue
Needle 3.5mm
On ravelry: here

Chewie the Dinosaur

October 2014

I saw a made-up version of this at Yarndale 2014, and since the kits were selling for £6.50 I couldn't resist. Particularly as Christmas wasn't so far off, and I would love it if my little boy started to get into dinosaurs. I still think £6.50 for 3 balls of merino was an absolute bargain. There were even decent amounts left over.

George has christened his dinosaur Chewie, and he lives at the bottom of his bed. Occasionally when he glimpses Chewie's photo on my ravelry projects page he points to him and asks what he's doing out on the patio. I guess the world is a bit confusing when you're 3.

This pattern doesn't seem to have been listed on ravelry, and so I have to idea how many other Chewies there might be out there. I like to think of him as part of a herd, though.

Although undeniably cute, this wasn't the most enjoyable knit. Each spike was knitted separately, and then sewn on. Ditto the legs. As someone who hates finishing work it felt like a big ask. Full credit to my Mum for saving my sanity by offering to do the embroidery.

Pattern: Dinosaur in Merino dk by Wendy Yarns
Yarn: Wendy Merino dk
Amount: 2 balls green, 1 ball orange
Size: One size
On ravelry: here

Origami Leaves

October 2014

I love Svetlana Volkova's designs, and every so often the chance comes up to test knit them via The Testing Pool, a group on ravelry.

Having test knitted Anemone back in January, I jumped at the chance to have a go at Origami Leaves, particularly as I'd resolved to frog my Modern Garden Cardigan and recycle the yarn some time ago. It just wasn't getting enough wear.

Test knitting, like gift-making, is a really useful discipline in that it makes you do things by the book and as neatly as you can. No fudging bits. And you do tend to learn a lot from the other testers along the way.

I fid it really difficult to measure my gauge over lace, for example, but I got there in the end by making a swatch 25 stitches wide, measuring it across and then dividing the width in inches by the number of stitches and then multiplying the result by 4 to determine my gauge over 4 inches (in my case 25/6.5x4=15.3).

As this was recycled yarn, it was difficult to keep track of exactly how much I was using, but the finished weight of my cardigan was 370g, which given the yardage for Tweedie Chunky, works out as roughly 750m or 7.5 - 8 balls.

I didn't modify the pattern, but I did use DPNs for sleeves, rather than magic loop. This pattern also calls for provisional cast on, but for anyone out there who can’t do that yet, don’t be put off - using a normal cast on is fine, and just means that you’ll have more stitches to pick up around the button band.

This is a great way to make use of a chunky yarn but end up with a project which will flatter. Looking at the pictures of me in the Modern Garden Cardigan and Origami Leaves side by side, I think this one suits my shape far better. It was also a very quick knit despite the lace - it took me less than a fortnight.

My lace was a bit bumpy whilst this was a WIP but flattened out beautifully with a wet-block, despite being part acrylic.

As a result of testing this I also scored a free copy of Papillon, which I've been lusting after for some time. Watch this space.

Pattern: Origami Leaves by Svetlana Volkova
Yarn: Sirdar Tweedie Chunky in Roasted Berry
Amount: About 7.5 balls
Size: Medium
On ravelry: here