Montego Bay

August 2010

Rowan Purelife Revive is a yarn made out of recycled clothes, which is such an intriguing idea, I jumped at the first opportunity to try it. My sister in law's birthday, as it turns out.

Being predominantly composed of silk and cotton, it's a definite summer yarn with a great weight and drape to it. This pale brown colourway is shot through with strands of all sort of unexpected colours - turquoise, black, navy blue and dark red - which made it a joy to knit with.

I love the end result too. When I cast on for this project, inspired by various lovely version on ravelry, I wasn't really feeling it at first, and I wondered if I'd just been seduced by good photography. I'm glad I persevered, though - once it got long enough to wrap around my neck as I knit (I'm not the only one who does that, am I?) I started to realise how pretty it was.

Three skeins gave me a scarf about 5" shorter than the pattern intended (it was written for Handmaiden Fine Yarn Sea Silk), but long enough by my standards. 35 stitches across seemed to make a sensible width. As it came so close to the wire I was very glad I cut the strands to make both sets of tassels from the beginning of the third skein before joining it in and finishing off the scarf. I only had a yard or so left over.

The scarf also rolls in on itself to make a tube, as the pattern itself warns you. There's no point fighting it, and it's by no means a serious issue, but it was nice to be forewarned.

Pattern: Montego Bay by Amy R. Singer from Interweave Knits Summer 2007

Yarn: Rowan Purelife Revive

Amount: 3 skeins

Colourway: 462 Basalt

Needles: 4.00mm

Size: One size

On ravelry: here

Cricket Sweater

August 2010

This is my Dad's Christmas present, and I can't remember the last time I felt so proud of one of my FOs. Primarily because it was so time consuming, but in the end I think the hard work paid off.

If you've a tendency to rush finishing like I do, it's great to make something for someone else now and then, because it forces you to be extra neat and not fudge bits, which is great discipline.

I used Sublime Organic Merino Wool dk for this, rather than the recommended Rowan Baby Alpaca dk, since the Sublime was on sale having been discontinued. I absolutely loved working with it, and I really wish I could justify buying another bagful. It's extremely soft everso pretty.

I did twist one of my cables back to front, but decided to leave it as it was, because it was on the back section, and it struck me as a rather nice way to prove this was hand made. I did something similar when I made a Central Park Hoodie for myself, so it's almost traditional now.

Pattern: Cricket Sweater by Wendy Baker from Rowan Knits for Him

Yarn: Sublime Organic Merino Wool dk (discontinued)

Amount: 15 skeins (MC) / 2 skeins (CC)

Colourway: 113 Twine (MC) / 118 Sailcloth (CC)

Needles: 3.00mm and 3.25mm

Size: 40"

On ravelry: here

Wilhelmina

July 2010

These were made to match Porom for my sister's birthday, with a little bit of Ultra Alpaca Light I had left over. They were great fun and lovely and quick - I think I might be making some more mittens come Christmas...

As the instructions for the thumb were a bit minimal, I worked 10 rounds stocking stitch and 6 1x1 ribbing.

The pattern also didn't specify what sort of cast-off to use. I initially tried casting off in rib, but I found it was a little too stretchy like that, and wouldn't necessarily fit snugly around the fingers, so I ripped back and cast off knitwise instead which was much better.

Not that I'd really criticise the pattern - it was a freebie, so the occasional vague bit here and there is totally forgivable.

Pattern: Wilhelmina by Lena Gjerland

Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light

Amount: 1.5 skeins

Colourway: 4212

Needles: 3.25mm

Size: One size

On ravelry: here

Porom

July 2010

July seems to be one of those months in which it was very fashionable to be born, and so my spell of knitting for other people, which seems to be going on longer than perhaps I had originally intended, continues unabated with... POROM!

Had this been the depths of winter I would no doubt be feeling very sorry for myself right about now, and asking myself what the point of being a knitter is, if if doesn't mean lots of lovely warm sweaters for me.

As it is, working on little projects for other people is quite a nice way of getting through the summer heat without having to put the knitting on hold. For my sins, I've even made a start on the Christmas knitting.

Porom is a quick and enjoyable project - Jared Flood is a great designer, and I love his hats in particular. I'd also like to make Koolhaas one day. And Habitat. And... well you get the idea.

This was a great way of using up some of the gorgeous purple Ultra Alpaca Light I had left over from Chantal. I think there is an error in Chantal which has you buy more Ultra Alpaca Light than you actually need. I didn't spot it in time, but it was no great hardship to have a surplus of such a lovely yarn to play about with.

I tried blocking this over a balloon but I'm not sure it worked all that well. I didn't notice the lace opening up all that much, and even fully inflated it seemed a little on the small side. Back to a melon propped up in a flowerpot next time, I suspect...

Pattern: Porom by Brooklyn Tweed (Jared Flood)

Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light

Amount: 1.5 skeins

Colourway: 4212

Needles: 3.25mm

Size: One size

On ravelry: here

Wisp

June 2010

I wish I'd been aware of this pattern when I first started to experiment with lace. It would have been a perfect first lace project because the pattern is very simple, but the end result looks great. I've done one or two more complex lace shawls now, and with this one I did start to find it slow-going before I got to the end.

I added quite a lot of width and length (I worked 25 panel repeats over 86 stitches rather than 15 over 46).

These pictures were taken after it had been handwashed and blocked using blocking wires, which really helped the lace to open up.

This is my third project using Sublime Kid Mohair after Titania and Rosebud and I've found it a little bit prone to growing previously. Hopefully that is less of an issue with a shawl than it would be with a sweater.

Pattern: Wisp by Cheryl Niamath from Knitty Summer 2007

Yarn: Sublime Kid Mohair

Amount: 6.5 skeins

Colourway: Pistachio 22

Needles: 5.00mm

Size: One size

On ravelry: here

We Call them Pirates Colour Pattern Practice Hat

May 2010

In amongst all the knitting kit I've accumulated through the years is a dvd of Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Workshop. I'm a huge fan of hers and it's a real joy to watch. And when Elizabeth Zimmermann tells you to make a cap for your homework, you make a cap.

I've been meaning to learn left-handed knitting for a while now, and when I realised that this stranded style of knitting required you to hold a colour in each hand, I finally knuckled down to it.

For many years I'd been telling myself that there weren't many stranded style patterns which appealed to me. Adrian Bizilia's We Call the Pirates thankfully made me snap out of that.

Pattern: Improvised, based on Elizabeth Zimmermann's Colour Pattern Practice Hat, Evelyn Skae's Adrian's Skull Cap and Adrian Bizilia's We Call the Pirates

Yarn: Rowan Pure Wool Aran (MC) and Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran (CC)

Amount: Less than one skein of each

Colourway: 684 Charcoal / 009 Gray

Needles: 4.50mm

Size: One size

On ravelry: here

Baby Cables and Big Ones Too

May 2010

Did you ever love a project so much that it make you consider giving up knitting, for fear than nothing will ever quite live up to it? I did, and this is it.

It's hard to know where to start with the why. It disproves the rule that busty girls shouldn't wear high necklines, for one thing. Felted tweed shows up texture bea-ut-i-fully. It's seamless and was made from to top-down which meant I could modify the heck out of it until it fit like a glove. It was a cheap knit because I used a discontinued shade of felted tweed which was on sale. And my husband says it's his favourite of all the things I've ever knitted.

I just wish I hadn't made it at the start of the Summer, to be honest!

There's a full write up of the modified shaping on my project page on ravelry, so I won't bother reproducing it here. On blocking, the felted tweed grew by about 4 stitches per 4 inches, which is a little more than I was expecting, but I still love the fit. I have masses of felted tweed stashed, though, so it's been an experiment which will come in very handy with future projects.

Pattern: Baby Cables and Big Ones Too by Suvi Simola

Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed

Amount: 6 skeins

Colourway: 148 Sigh (discontinued)

Needles: 3.50mm

Size: 32.75" with bust shaping

On ravelry: here