My Experience with the Indigo and Lichen Beret

When we moved, as a kind of reward for having to go through the whole moving business again I rewarded myself with a big order of books and magazines from the Interweave store. One of them was All New Homespun Handknits and one of their prettiest patterns was the Indigo and Lichen Beret by Jeannine Bakrigs.

I really did enjoy this pattern, even after the puzzlement near the end. Even though it starts at the crown on DPN's it was easy, the increases were simple and the instructions very clear. The chart was easy to follow and everything was going well until I hit the final 3 rows of the stranded chart where there were a series of peculiar decreases to incorporate.

I was a bit bemused but, nothing daunted, proceeded to try and follow the instructions...

...it did not go well.

The stitch count which up to that moment had been proceeding along the lines set down now made no sense at all. I couldn't even understand how to do one of the decreases - Sl2, k2, p2sso . How's that?? I looked at the back in the glossary, nothing there. What the heck??

Anyway, I continued, assuming that this was a usual slip 2, knit 1, pass 2 slipped stitches over knit stitch and looked at the final row.

It looked like crap! The stranded design had become hopelessly garbled, wasn't following any of the previous colour set ups. But I knit on regardless because, you know, bloody minded-ness is an essential part of the knitter's arsenal in morbid denial!

I finished the chart section and went on with the 3 rows in the main colour decreasing for the brim but as I began to knit the 5 stitch I-cord bind off I finally really looked at what I had.

The pattern called for there being 133 sts in the final round before you started the bind off.

I had 92.

This was so not going to work. So I unravelled back to the initial problematic rows in the stranded pattern. I had a good hard look at the instructions, especially the stitch count at the end of the crown section of the beret before I started the chart and the stitch count at the beginning of the first decrease in the main colour for the brim.

And then I made an executive decision.

I continued knitting the remaining rows of the stranded chart and just ignored the decrease instructions. The design followed seamlessly and made sense. Then when I knit the 3 rows of main colour as before, they were the only decreases I did. I had the stitch count I should and the bind off went off with out a hitch.

And I had a beret that looked very much like the original picture!

I blocked it over the largest plate I have in the house. (Doesn't the design look lovely? All the different colours! Six of them besides the main colour!)

This was, like I said from the beginning, a really easy pattern, even excepting the weird blip with the stranded  chart and I doubt that's the original designers fault. It's probably just a mis-placed instruction on the wrong chart. But if someone can make the original instruction make sense and keep the stitch count accurate, I'd love to hear about it!

 But for me, I'm really happy with my finished beret.

It looks like the picture, the stranded border is nice and crisp in detail,

And it fits and I can wear it. And instead of just collecting pattern books as I'm prone to do, I actually knit something from one!  Extra points me!!

Bye now!

Dx

The Blanket of Knitting Growth

Finished at last!
This has been the longest project I can remember! I cast on the first time (yes, the first time, I'll explain in a minute.) on April 2012 and I finally finished just the other day, 10 August 2014. Wow. Over two years!

I'd already collected a huge amount of op shop yarn by 2012 and was beginning to wonder what to do with the various odd balls I was accumulating and I found the lovely blanket pattern Ten-Stitch Blanket by Frankie Brown which answered my desire to use lots of different yarns but no seaming together endless squares. I pooled together all the candidates for the project and began!

So far, so good but then I discovered the neat join from Smoking Hot Needles and instead of unravelling what I'd knitted so far and starting again with the nice join, I thought I'd get away with just starting the different join method and continue knitting. I worked doggedly on and this is what I got...

The whole thing had started to twist in a weird way and...I hated it! So with great reluctance (and a certain amount of kicking myself for not doing this when I first found the new join method) I unravelled the whole thing. All of it!

Then I balled up all the yarn again, graded it into colour blocks (sort of) and added more yarn that I'd missed before. It made up quite a nice palette.

So I started again! And it was already nicer, knitting up flatter and straighter than the first attempt.

I used up a lot of different weights of yarn. The thinner stuff I doubled (and sometimes tripled), the novelty yarns I used with a strand of solid yarn and just kept going round and round. It became that project that I had on the side when I wanted something mindless to knit between more structured knitting.

It continued as we moved from Walpole in the middle of the forest to Carnamah in the northern wheat belt.

There were long periods where I didn't touch this, where it sat in my wool room while I was occupied with other projects, usually smaller ones since as I continued knitting the blanket it became difficult holding it all on my lap. It was a great project to do during the winter though!

But since our latest move to Kellerberrin it had been living in a bag in a cupboard in my wool room and I finally took pity on it. I'd managed to go through all the balls of stash I'd assigned to this project and was up to the creams and white yarns. I had always planned to do the final round in black so I dragged the whole thing out and buckled down to finally finish it.

It actually didn't take that long which just shows how lazy I've been putting it off for so long. But the blanket was really heavy and cumbersome to work on now it's so big. But here it is, totally covering the floor of my wool room between the bed and the shelves. FINISHED!!

I used a huge number of yarns and some of them interpreted the ten-stitch pattern really differently to others. I wanted a better picture of the whole thing but the best I could do was once I'd washed it and hung it out to dry...the only way it was going to be blocked at all! I did toy with the idea of a tarp pegged out in the backyard, yarn threaded through the outer edge of the blanket and heaps of tent pegs but I gave that up as far more work than I was prepared to invest in!

 I am really, REALLY pleased with the final blanket. It is heavy, I'll confess but it feels so wonderful when you run your hands over it. So many textures! It's warm and cosy too! All I have to do now is tidy up the yarn ends at the back and then it is totally done. Now I'm finished I feel a bit flat. It's a bit of a let down when such a long time project is finally completed. But also pretty good too :)

Well, I must stop gazing obsessively at the thing and get on with my life....

....and start another project...Of course! :)

See ya later!

Dx

The Journey towards Tights!

I've wanted a pair of nice warm tights ever since we moved to this part of the Wheatbelt and finding a nice serviceable pair has been well nigh impossible. So I thought "Hey! I have an obscene number of books and patterns and an equally obscene collection of yarn. What ho! I will make a pair of my own!"

As with most great ideas, it didn't turn out anywhere near as easy as that!

Despite having at least one pattern for tights on hand I decided to try a pattern I'd bought for leggings and put a foot on it. That way it becomes a pair of tights, yes?

I decided to use up all the random greys that I had on hand. 4 balls of a 50g per ball crepe yarn (acrylic) and 6 balls of a 20g per ball acrylic yarn. This was my starting palette. I decided to knit both feet (and therefore legs) at the same time so off I went. I got as far as the calf section and then had a really good look at them...

I don't like it. The blocks of different grey look revolting! So I unravelled it down to the foot and started again this time alternating the yarns each row so it knit up a really fine stripe. A lot better looking.

So, off I go again!

When I got up to the knees I decided to do a little rib stitch just behind the knee to try and reduce sagging. As you see the faux seam is centred through the strip. This little point will be important later. I didn't realize it until I'd finished the whole leg!

Okay, both legs finished and now to join the crotch stitches...oh, wait...something doesn't match up here. Oh crap!

Note to self: When the pattern describes the faux seam as in INseam they probably mean it is a seam on the INSIDE of the leg, like on leggings, not the centre back as with socks...OH. CRAP!

 So I refolded them and lay them out and found that the feet seemed to be pointing in different directions but I could eventually make some sense out of it. To be honest I even chopped off one of the feet and tried to reattach it facing the way I thought it should go but ended up re-grafting it the way it was in the first place which was the way it was supposed to be anyway. I have no photos of that. Still feel like a goof for doing it!

So now wonderful rib strips are actually positioned on the sides of my knees...Great.

By now I was beginning to get pipped off with the whole project and just wanted to finish it but I had to keep threading the body of the tights onto waste yarn so I could try them on. Not nearly as much fun as it sounds! To knit this beastie I had to roll up the legs and pin them together or it looked like I was being attacked by a very aggressive grey octopus! So unravelling everything to try it on wasn't something I wanted to do terribly often. So I guessed by figuring out the gauge and the height I thought I needed and just kept knitting till I got there. And I was SO pleased to finally get there.

I sewed the waistband, threaded the elastic and put these suckers on. They fit! Or rather they weren't too tight. Nope, not tight which had been my primary fear...walk around admiring legs...not tight...hoik up waist as the crotch sags a bit low...lovely and warm too...pull up legs and waist again...might have to shorten the elastic band on the waist...cosy and warm...knees and ankles keep sagging...wish I had a full length mirror...mmm....

Yes. I have to confess the truth to myself. After 28 days knitting...these are too big! Aaarghhhh!!! Not a huge amount, if it was by a big amount it'd probably be easier to alter the fit but these are only a bit too big. The crotch sags like on an ill-fitting pair of stockings and the legs are slightly too long for my legs. Botheration!!

But it's winter and at night, bitterly cold so whether I look like the saggy baggy elephant or not, for the time being I will wear these babies and feel proud of myself for having finished it at all!

Yay me!!

See ya later!

Dx