Knitting, knitting!

I've been busy knitting up some of my odd balls of yarn in an effort to use up more of my stash. I'm managing to do that but I admit I keep buying more yarn when I get near a yarn shop (which isn't often!) I wanted to do some small projects and this collar pattern and that bandana cowl were just what I needed!
These collars use up a tiny amount of yarn and are perfect for instant gratification. About the only thing I wish is that I could figure out how to knit them in a finer gauge.

 These cowls are excellent largely because of the number of ways they can be worn. I used about two balls of yarn for each cowl and they were ridiculously easy!

 This I am especially pleased with. I reclaimed this yarn from an unattractive op shop jumper a while ago and I thought I'd try this pattern with it thinking that if it didn't turn out then I hadn't wasted good yarn on it. But it has turned out really nice and so soft too for an acrylic yarn. I call it my saw tooth edged shawl. Bring on winter!

Okay, and the list of completed works...

This is what happens when you don't keep up with this stuff. I've got a heap of projects I've completed since moving to Carnamah. But should I put them all on the one post? It's not like I don't have enough wip to keep me busy!

Ah well, let's see...

I finished the Shetland Shorty almost as soon as I'd finished unpacking my wool room...

Then I started to go through some of my stash, trying to use up those bits that were too much  not to use but not enough to make anything substantial.

So I made a waterfall scarf...

And a ripple scarf out of the same cotton-ribbon yarn.

 I used up a small ball of really pretty blue-teal flecked acrylic I'd been promising to make a pair of mitts with since there wasn't enough to do anything else with it. 

Turned out really nicely :)

I used some ice green yarn I had, from Bendigo Mills, beautifully soft and made up a very simple shawl.

Tess of the D'urbervilles Shawl

 Using some nice earthy coloured acrylic yarn I'd bought at Spotlight in Geraldton and marked another project off my Ravelry Queue with this simple scarflette with flower. Took only a couple of days to knock up!

Used an old penny turned into a button for the flower's centre!

Oh yes! My proudest project though was the Hex Mesh Socks that I finally finished after what seemed like forever! I used up all the yarn I'd reserved for them and was forced to use some white baby yarn that I had on hand to finish them. But it looks really good, almost like I meant to do it that way! So proud!

They look so PRETTY!!

So there we are. I've been in Carnamah, what, two maybe three months? I reckon that's a pretty good haul! And that doesn't even include the 4 or 5 projects I have on the go at the moment! I have all this stash and so many ideas!! I love it!!!!!

Okay, I'll calm down now. 

Happy Knitting :)

Finally managed to make the Swallowtail Shawl

It's a project I've had in my queue for ages but I've never been quite brave enough to actually start it. Once I finished a few other projects from my queue I thought, what the heck, I'll give it a burl. I've been saving some reclaimed yarn for at least the last 7 years for a lace project so it's not like I've not had it in mind! So, despite having a deep fear that I might not be able to give it the concentration it needed, I cast on.

It was much easier than I imagined. The budding lace section was really very easy once I got into the swing on it and the yarn knit up lovely.

I had to stretch the lace out because left to itself it's really not that impressive!

I didn't really hit any problems of note until I started the lace with the nupps on it! 

It didn't take me too long to decide I didn't like nupps! They require REALLY pointy knitting needles (which I didn't have!) so I had to do each one with the finest crochet hook I had that I use doing fine filet crochet !

And it was almost impossible to see whether I was making progress!

But eventually I finished, aburdly pleased to leave the nupps behind and looked at my finished creation...

Didn't look like much...

...rather like a large crumple spinach leaf really.

So I carefully washed it, got out my blocking wires and pinned it out on our spare bed and went to bed. It was nearly midnight, after all!

In the morning I went and looked at this amazing creation. So worth every irritation and frustration to be able to just look at it!

So beautiful! It's not very big, really only fit to drape round your shoulders like a triangulr scarf but it is so light and SO beautiful! I can just stare at it!

Can you tell I'm a little proud of my little project?

Happy Knitting :)

Everything old is new again!

I have been collecting vintage patterns for ages and have been desperate to actually try and knit something from one of them so I took the plunge! I chose a simple looking shawl/shrug-like covering that had no lace involved and only one page of instructions!

Perfect!

I cast on with a lovely lavender purple acrylic I already had in 5ply and using the needles suggested, bravely cast on! I used a circular needle however for this since I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be able to keep control of over 100 stitches on any of my straights, however long they were!

The knitting itself was pretty boring and not really that well explained in the tiny amount of instruction. Once I worked out what I thought they wanted and placed stitch markers to keep track of stitch increases it got a bit easier...right up to the point, half way through when I ran out of yarn!

I only had that one ball but never fear! I still had the ball band and an intended visit to town (118kms away!) for the next day. No problem! I'll just buy another ball tomorrow.

But alas, disappointment and frustration greeted me! Although I could find the exact yarn required, I could not find the exact dye lot! Not for love or money! So I bought another ball as close to what I had begun with as I could and consoled myself with making it a design element.

So off I went again and soon (although not nearly soon enough to suit me!) I had finished and I had...a great big sheet of knitting.

Now to follow the very brief instructions on how to construct the shawl from this great sheet I had before me.

First mistake: I decided to iron it so it would lie flatter and (I thought) be easier to fold into the desired shape. Result? I ended up with an enormous great sheet of knitting that required either the whole dining table or my ironing board to try and make sense of what I had before me.

Second mistake: It doesn't matter how hard I try I will never get the desired shape if I keep confusing the bottom of the shawl with the top. Once I'd realized what I was doing wrong I did actually start to make headway!

I soon realized however that there was simply no easy way to do this! Folding down the neck and the final edge of the shawl was relatively pain free but then there was the issue of the four tucks, great big long ones! In the end after much experimentation and annoyance I had to sit and labouriously tack together each fold using long quilting pins to hold the folds in place on the right side and a metal ruler of the right dimensions to stabilise the tucks sufficiently so I could sew them together from the back. It took all day.

Then I had to shape the front opening by folding the tucks together to give it the sweeping appearance around the body. Not too hard but then I realized that all the tucks just flopped down from their positions unlike the one in the picture where they seemed to sit with no effort at all, perfectly upright. Damn! Out came the needle and thread again.

I had to tack each fold to where it needed to sit and that was difficult without the stitches becoming to obvious! But after another day of handsewing it was done! I crocheted around each front closure so it looked tidy and finally swept it around my shoulders...

It seemed a little...big?

I attached the hook and loop closures and sewed on the ribbon but it was no use...

It was just too big and wouldn't sit nicely on my shoulders and I didn't like how the closure hung.

Poop!

So I looked at it for another day and decided what I was going to do. I lay it over my shoulders and folded the front edges over each other so the closure became slightly assymetrical. That way I didn't have to add a bulky pleat to the back to try and take out excessive length which would ultimately ruin the drape of the shawl and I didn't have to fold over the front edges, creating clumsy, bulky material at the front. I sewed one hook and loop closure to the centre of the closure going under the top to fix it in place and the two hook and loops on each corner of the top layer to anchor it to the front of the shawl. Then I sewed two faux ribbon ties to the two spots so it kind of looked like they were keeping the whole thing together. It was an improvised kind of solution, I used buttons to fix the ribbons in place but I may sew them down later since they still tend to move slightly and I don't like it when they don't sit even. But otherwise? I am very pleased with the results :)

It sits beautifully, is soft and warm. Not the least nasty and squeaky like some of the old acrylic used to be like. You can clearly see the colour changes between balls of wool but fortunately they fell on a fold so the change isn't as apparent as it might otherwise have been had it happened midway through a length of plain knitting. It falls right on the fold ridge. Couldn't have planned it better if I'd tried :)

So there we have it! My first truly vintage pattern worked and completed. And now I know some things.

Most notably: Few instructions are NOT necessarily a good thing! It's nice to figure somethings out yourself but if there hadn't been a picture with this pattern I would have totally failed!! I'd never have figured out how to put the thing together and even with it there are elements were I had to go "Stuff it!" and improvise. It was necessary and now I have this lovely garment from a beautifully attractive time brought back into the present.

I am satisfied!

Happy knitting :)

A new Year begins!

And here's hoping it's not too bumpy a ride! But on a plus side I've finished my first project for the year. I started the Cinnamon Grace Shawlette somewhere in December using some of the dyed yarn I'd been fooling around with. It's a well written pattern, very easy to follow and I'm really pleased with the results.

And one day I might even get brave enough to wash it carefully and then pin each and every one of these dinky little picots at the edge out. But I'm not holding my breath! That would be a lot of work!
Now I just have to find the next project to do. I've already got a wish list knit from Brother's Fiancee for a Celtic Tote but I need to find a nice coloured wool that'll felt. I'll need to think on that for a little while.
Ah well, so much to do and a brand new year to do it!
Happy Knitting :)

Mohair Nightmare

I wish I liked mohair. I know everyone says how lovely it is, soft with a lovely sheen but my skin just hates it! Trying to wear anything containing mohair is like wearing an amazingly attractive barb wire accessory! And that's even after I spun it! Doesn't matter what I do I still feel all these little fibres sticking into me. Which makes this shawl I've just finished the heights of futile endeavour!
I bought 4 of these balls of Moda Vera Boutique. Loved the colour gradients and the pattern I wanted to try worked best if, of the two yarns you use, one of them has some form of gradiation. So this seemed a good choice.

So I paired it with a recycled lambswool which is beautifully soft and cast on. I began to have misgivings when I realized that I could feel the mohair more than the lambswool. And then I thought, this is a shawl. Where will this spend most of it's time? Around my neck and shoulders!
Am I INSANE!!!
So I decided that once I finished the ball I would finish it since it didn't make sense to keep on with something I'm probably never going to wear and which I couldn't in good conscious pass on to someone else unless they can touch it and make sure they don't have the same problem with mohair.

It's such a shame because it looks lovely and the pattern was really good too. I still have plans for doing the pattern again but in yarn I know is nice (The skeins I dyed and nearly felted are going towards that.) Still going to keep the shawl though. Just as an object lesson. No matter how pretty the colour if it feels nasty you are never going to be able to knit something that is not. Just proves the old saying is true.
You can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.
Lesson learned!
Happy Knitting :)

Finally, some of my Handspun!

I've had all the fibre club fibres from EGMTK's spun up and waiting to be used for ages but since most of them were only about 100g worth it's been difficult thinking of what to turn them into. At least I've finally created something with the fibre "Canopy", 50% Polwarth and 50% Bamboo. A small scarflette called "Pimpelliese"

Probably one of the nicest shawl/scarf patterns I've knit to date! The lace edge is incorporated into the actual scarf so tyou don't have to sew it on after, making it a lovely single piece of fabric with no inhibiter to it's stretch by unnecessary seams.
I washed and blocked it, the points came out lovely and the colours are really pretty. Feels great on and looks great. Very happy :)




Happy Knitting :)