Yoke-necked cardie finished, and future plans ...

My spare balls of Adriafil Globe arrived yesterday (all the way from Italy by surface mail) having only taken 10 days to get here!

Of course they're a different dye-lot, and if I'd been halfway through a sleeve or something, I would have been pretty unhappy. As it was, I only needed to do the neck and front edgings, so though in certain lights it's definitely different from the main body of the cardigan, the viscose yarns in the striping on the yoke help to distract the eye a bit, and overall I'm OK with the whole thing because at least it looks symmetrical. (And it's finished as far as I'm concerned - HAHAHAHA)

More trying was to get to the end of the bands, try it all on, and then discover that the cast-on edge at the bottom was too tight - cannot think how I managed this, but it definitely made my bum look far too big, or the cast-on edge too small - spent today unpicking the cast-on row, and reknitting the lower edge with upped stitches between the ribs and then casting it off again (on much larger needles).

So, to cut to the chase, here's the finished article:



and here's a detail of the yoke:


Now I'm waiting for some ggh Soft Kid to arrive from Angel Yarns for the Knitscene Tweedy Jacket by Leslie Scanlon - and despite the row on UKHK about this supplier recently, I have every faith in the yarn arriving soon. UKnitty suggested this stuff some time ago, and for some stupid reason I took this to be the same thickness as Rowan KSH, which I'd already tried and discounted as a possibility - happened to take a much closer look at the details recently, and it's twice the thickness (ie about four ply) so have decided to give it a go. Lord knows what I shall do with all the 4 ply yarns that haven't been suitable for this wretched jacket - guess I shall have to save them for the Stashalong blog, when it starts up in April ... maybe some lace knitting would be nice, and an awful lot nicer than knitting socks, 4 needles always make me feel like I'm wrestling with a porcupine ...!

And then there's Tubey from Knitty - have wanted to have a go at this for some time, and especially since I saw the one on Mary's blog - I certainly haven't got anything suitable in the stash, so must get around to some more stash enhancement soon!

Soap and water ...

A little stash-buster ... using some spare cotton DK (less than 50g) and 4mm needles. The main part is in tweed stitch (which is suitably textured), and then finished off with a crochet edging, and a little loop to hang it from. The children think I've gone slightly mad, but have decided that they would quite like knitted flannels as well. (And the soap is nice raspberry scented stuff bought in a market near Perpignan last summer)

and if you don't want to do the Knitting Olympics ...

... there's always the World Cup - spotted by Holly and Emily on BBC Newsround this evening

Hissy fit!

Completed my own Steek Boa, using 2 balls Louisa Harding Fauve, 1 ball Louisa Harding Impressions, 2 balls Rowan Lurex Shimmer, 1 ball Rowan KSH, 1 ball Rowan Kid Classic, and 1 ball Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino - the colours used are all in the orange-dark coral-red-burgundy bit of the spectrum - rather like a volcano in full flow - but of course I cannot get the photo to look anything like it does in real life (so you'll just have to take my word for it).

As a final refinement to the design, I've found that backstitching the edge stitches straight down the middle (ie. through the 'V') works just fine, but for slipperier yarns, as some of these ones were, I tried slip stitching with a crochet hook from the purl side of the edge stitches instead - this is invisible from the front, and very neat on the back as well (you should be able to see my convent education coming out here ...). This photo shows the 'wrong' side of the scarf, and if you look carefully, you should just about be able to see the chains of the slip-stitching to the left of the rib stitches. I used a slightly smaller crochet hook for this (8mm) and that keeps it quite firm as well.

Snakes alive ...!

Am so thrilled! - go and take a look here. Yes, it's a Steek Boa, knitted from my pattern, and with lots of really helpful pictures of work in progress, just in case you didn't understand the written instructions ...

Maidstone Knitters ...!

The inaugural meeting of Maidstone Knitters (me, Hazel Knityoga and Jan Knitsmith) yesterday at the Muggleton Inn in Maidstone – you can read all about it on Hazel’s blog (and with much better pictures, along with a yummy sounding pudding!) here. The pink champagne is courtesy of Hazel … and the blurry picture of Jan is in no way causally related … ;)

In other bits and pieces, I have finished Emily’s blue boa, and a pink eyelash scarf for John’s ex-MIL (for which I got paid – oooh, does that make me a professional knitter?!) and have now embarked on a scarf in Sirdar Zanzibar (which you can see rather blurrily in the foreground of the picture with Jan and two glasses of pink fizz) – I’m finding that scarves are a good way of trying out yarns to see how they knit up (slightly more interesting than tension squares anyhow). I’m not quite sure about this yarn – it’s beautifully soft, and the lurex carrier thread gives a pretty effect along with the gently varied colours – but I’m not entirely convinced that the random patches of tinsel are such a good thing, and it’s incredibly easy to knit fluff instead of the carrier thread … hmmm.

Following the meeting, wandered along to the local art shop to check out their stock of glass beads, as I fancy having a go at making some fancy stitch markers, but didn’t like the ones on offer, so a trip to the bead shop in Covent Garden will have to be fitted in some time over the next few weeks. Found a couple of knitting books in a charity shop (all 80’s with wide shoulders, always good for a laugh as in “did we really wear those?” to the accompaniment of much sniggering - one of the pieces de resistance in this book was a pair a of ribbed leggings in mustard colour - I kid you not!), and found a much-reduced furry bedspread for £30 (originally priced at £80) in Woolworth’s – have wanted one of these for ages, so snapped it up as a real bargain …!

All in all, a really good day out, and lovely to meet up finally with Jan and Hazel! - let's hope to see some more knitters next time (today Maidstone, tomorrow ... Maidstone!)

I really must visit John Lewis more often ...

... because the boring people in my office almost never admire my knitting, and complete strangers in John Lewis's do ... and this is the second time it's happened to me!

As you can see, the Steek Boa is complete (and Holly has already claimed it for herself), so here is a recap of how to do it (with some corrections / improvements to earlier instructions):

Take 1 thick yarn, 1 fuzzy yarn, 1 shiny one, and 1 plain one - I used Adriafil Graphic, 2 strands of mohair (one is KSH, and the other is Adriafil kid mohair), Sirdar Silky Look, and some of the dark pink Phildar yarn that did not go with the other yarns for the Knitscene jacket - all the yarns are various shades of pink. You're aiming for something about the thickness of a pencil, and I think that you will need about 120-130m of each yarn. On 10mm needles, cast on 15 stitches, and work fairly firmly, as you want the stitches at the edges to hold (if possible):

Row 1: Slip 1 K-wise, K5, P1, K1, P1, K6
Row 2: Slip 1 P-wise, P5, K1, P1, K1, P6.

Repeat these 2 rows till you run out of one of the yarns (in my case, it was the Sirdar Silky Look that gave out first, but total length of work still about 60 inches) then cast off the centre 5 stitches. All the other stitches are going to be allowed to unravel back to the start, and unless you've knitted really firmly, the edge stitches of the centre band of ribbing will start to unravel, especially if your daughter starts swinging the scarf about. so, with a large darning needle and some matching yarn backstitch the whole length of the columns of stitches that will become the edge stitches - alternatively use a sewing machine. Now drop all the other stitches, and cut the loops, so you get a very long fringe (about 6 - 7 inches long) up each long side.

Wear it in John Lewis's, and have the afore-mentioned complete stranger admire your handiwork ...! Then start all over again, because other daughter now also wants one (lucky I have a couple of spare balls of Adriafil Graphics in blue isn't it?), and then having done that, splurge your John Lewis vouchers on a tasty mix for similar but more grown-up (ie. tasteful!) version for yourself - that will be 1 ball of Louisa Harding Impressions in the orange-y colourway, one ball of KSH in very dark burgundy, 1 ball of that Rowan Lurex in dark burgundy, 1 ball of Baby Cashmerino in deep coral, and a ball of Louisa Harding Fauve in dark pink ... all in all, a very good time had in my lunch-hour!

Steek boa in progress

The mad boa from the previous posting in progress ... I changed the centre 5 stitches to single rib instead of stocking stitch for more flexibility and no curling, but you 'll have to wait until I've dropped the edge stitches for the full effect!

Happy New Year 2006

A belated Happy New year to you all! I've had a really busy week, and this has been my first chance to get an update done.

To Gloucestershire for New Year, and lots of fun catching up with John's brothers and their families. We stayed Friday night at the Snooty Fox in Tetbury (a jolly hotel with a whole family of rubber ducks in our bathroom), and New Years Eve / New Years Day with John's brother Jeremy and his family.

John even allowed us to go shopping in Cheltenham on Saturday, but only for an hour (he really hasn't got the idea of shopping) ... suffice it to say, I was still in a wool shop when the mobile went, demanding to know why I hadn't arrived back at the car, decided not to mention my actual location, and muttered something about being stuck in a queue ... "Budget Wools" in Clarence Parade, if you need to know, this is an excellent Tardis of a shop - which appears tiny from the outside, and is enormously long and thin inside - a very well-stocked shop, all the fashion stuff from Sirdar and Stylecraft (amongst others), and some good plain ordinary stuff as well. Finally found some of the new Sirdar Zanzibar (which I haven't even seen in London, yet), and some balls of King Cole Merino Blend 4-ply in a much softer shade of pink, which I hope will be the right one this time (I will get that jacket from Knitscene done if it kills me!).

On to The Woolpack in Slad to meet up with John's brother Nick, and his girlfriend Clare, and back to their house for Pizza, then on to Jeremy's for the New Year party. The remainder of New Year's Eve spent playing silly games - this is fast becoming a family tradition, where anywhere between 15 & 20 of us play Guess Who, Bingo, Pass the Parcel, and there is an enormous firework cake at midnight - new highlights for this year included singing along to the Sound of Music (John's sister-in-law was given the DVD for Christmas), and drinking far too many Harvey Wallbangers ... and after that, it's appalling just how many of the lyrics I can remember! Some people entered into the spirit more than others for this, and here are Jeremy's brother- and sister-in-law Mark & Karen, and their children being "not the von Trapp family"

Equally traditionally on New Year's Day, as many of the family as possible go and take over a local Little Chef restaurant for a very late breakfast - it's a great hangover cure - then back to John's brother Alex's house for vast quantities of tea, and then off to visit John's mum. I think she liked her scarf (which you can see here modelled by Holly) - this is really a longer length version of the fur v-collar from the Lion brand website, which I've adapted. I've used two balls of Wendy Chic for this - on 8mm needles, cast on 130 stitches, placing markers at 50 stitches in from each end. It's all worked in garter stitch - work straight for half an inch, then increase 11 stitches evenly spread across the middle section (that's the bit between the markers). *Work another inch or so, and then increase a further 11 stitches evenly spread across the middle section*. Keep repeating from * to *, till you have about 5 metres of yarn left (you will end up with approx 180 stitches). Cast off loosely, and darn in yarn ends. That's it - the nice thing about this scarf is the curve in the middle which sits very neatly around your neck / shoulders. If you used more balls of Chic, I think it would make a nice stole / shawl. Of course this could be done in any other furry / eyelash yarn, and could also be a useful stash-buster.



Bank Holiday Monday morning spent at a local park in Chalford Vale, which has a commando slide, and a rope swing rigged up over a small stream - lots of opportunities for us all to get wet and muddy feet! A few photos here, and the rest in my Flickr gallery. I (kindly!) didn't take the picture where Holly landed in the stream up to her knees, but at least she had a change of clothes and shoes with her ...!

And finally ... lunch at the Daneway pub in Sapperton, followed by a quick walk up to the canal tunnel portal (the longest canal tunnel in England, but sadly in need of repair, before it can be made navigable again), and then the long drive back to Kent.

Back to school for the chidren, and to work for John and me on Tuesday, so we've all had to get used to getting up in the dark again. Emily has spent all week practicing for the 11+ exams which are Monday and Tuesday of next week - I think she's pretty much got the idea of most the things she's likely to be asked to do now, so am feeling at least hopeful ...

Completed another curly-whirly scarf, this time in two balls of Louisa Harding Impressions, but will have to wait till tomorrow to photograph it in daylight. Love the colour, but I find the yarn slightly itchy against my neck ... As I've run out of Adriafil Globe for my yoke-necked cardi, until I can get another ball, I've spent this week working on a new stash-busting experiment - take 1 thick yarn, 1 fuzzy yarn, 1 shiny one, and 1 plain one - I used Adriafil Graphic, 2 strands of mohair (one is KSH, and the other is Adriafil kid mohair), Sirdar Silky Look, and some of the dark pink Phildar yarn that did not go with the other yarns for the Knitscene jacket - all the yarns are various shades of pink. You're aiming for something about the thickness of a pencil, and I think that you will need about 150m of each yarn. On 10mm needles, cast on 15 stitches. Work in stocking stitch till you've used it all, then cast off the centre 5 stitches. Now fray back all the other stitches, and cut the loops, so you get a very long fringe (about 6 inches) up each long side. Think "Mad Boa", and wear accordingly - yes, you may laugh, but I recently saw something that approximated to this design in a well-known department store, selling for £89 - I am, of course, feeling very thriftily virtuous at 'saving' so much money ...!

Work has been thoroughly dreary, and I think that I am not the only one to be suffering post-holiday blues, but at least it has been relatively quiet, and I have managed to shift huge amounts of paper off my desk - no! not into the bin - I have only two resolutions this year, one is to keep my desk at work tidy, and the other is to use up all my stash ... hmmmmmm! Suspect the first one may be easier, especially when I have £30 in John Lewis vouchers burning a hole in my handbag - a christmas gift from my sister, who sweetly enquired if this made her my pusher!