any old any old iron

A friend of a friend's grandmother died and as the closest knitter of any infamy in the area i have been bequeathed this fine haul! I wasn't really expecting quite so many - having cycled into town to meet up with the donor, on the return journey i found myself significantly weighed down by the huge tonnage of scrap metal on my back. There are knitting needles both straight and bent, metal and plastic, dpns and, er, spns, and crochet hooks. So if you are in the Manchester area and thinking about buying any new knitting needles - I would advise giving me a shout first, as I now have about 3 of every needle size in existence, and I suspect several in between. I really need to go through and organise them a bit into something better than this vase.







Which is in itself an upgrade from the Pint Glass of Justice, my previous knitting supplies organiser, which sadly no longer really cuts the mustard.











Also with the haul there was this rather stylish box, but this is woefully too small to accommodate the full extent of pointy sticks now in my possession.

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hearty-stripy sock slight return

So I reknitted the top part, and made another one. And they fit this time! Not only on my own feet but also on those of the intended recipient, which is a fortunate turn of events. I've learned much about stranded knitting and my own inner psyche during this process.

• Getting the tension to look right is pretty hard for stranded knitting, but gratifyingly, if i half close one eye i can see the second sock is sliiiightly neater than the first. I think.


• Weaving in floats as i go seems to make the sock even less stretchy. So I stopped doing it for the second sock: the maximum float length is 5 stitches so hopefully not really long enough for any toes to be severed


• The stitches I knit continental style are looser than those I do English style. I was pleased to note this is like a microcosm of the different cultures: laid-back devil-may-care European knitting with the left hand, up-tight stiff-upper-lip what-ho English knitting with the other.


• I have made some pattern notes on what I did in this post.


• I am developing an obsession with bulleted lists

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socktastrophe

A warning to the curious. When making a stranded-patterned sock, bear in mind that the finished fabric will hardly stretch at all. This means that it becomes pretty impossible to navigate the heel of the foot past the upper tube-section and into a practical position within said sock. Thereby rendering your new artifact utterly useless :D

I need to have a bit of a think about ways to redeem this thing. I tried frogging back the ribbing + one pattern repeat and still couldn't get the bugger on. The foot part fits fine, fortunately, but not sure what to do about the top bit. Options i can currently think of are

• Throw in some random increases past the heel for a bad 80s saggy ankled look


• Leave Huuuuge floats inside, for the wearer to snag unwary toes on


• Lose the stranded pattern at the top, past the heel, and just have plain stripes

Sadly, though, these ideas are all a bit rubbish. I will continue to ponder...
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hearty-stripy socks

Three facts about the intended recipient of these socks:

• She gets cold feet quite a lot


• Her favourite colour is brown. Can you tell?!?


• It's her birthday on Friday. By which time she is extremely unlikely to have a completed pair of socks.

I am winging these, so here is what i did, mostly for my benefit so i can remember when i have to make sock 2 - the sequel:

*now updated with full instructions and photo in case other hapless fools want to try*

Hearty-stripy socks

Toe up socks. Stitch counts for foot size worked out using this universal sock pattern. I used 3 colours - for the patterned bits, about 30g each of 2 different colours of Cygnet wool rich 4 ply (brown and cream). CC - smallish amount of leftover yarn from previous socks, for the toe, heel and cuff.

Cast on

• 11 stitches on each of 2 needles using judy's magic cast on, in CC (oatmeal colour leftover from the last sock adventure). So 22 st. cast on in total.


• Inc. 4 stitches each other round, one st. from end on each side until 66 stitches on needles. Finish toe section with a non-increasing knit row.

Foot

• Work in hearty stripey pattern. Here is the chart. It's a 6-stitch repeating pattern, but i have put 2 repeats in so you can see it properly.


• No weaving used for floats - this helps to keep the socks stretchy


• Both brown and white yarns carried up side for added laziness


• No jogless-stripe-faffery used. I have enough to worry about trying to keep the tension even enough to prevent the sock resembling a mini-eggbox.

Heel

• Switch to CC


• Short rows. Knit flat to one stitch from the end, wrap and turn. Then purl to one stitch from end, wrap and turn. Next row, knit to 2 st from end, wrap and turn. Keep knitting one less stitch every knit row until 13 stitches remain unwrapped in the middle. Then start knitting wrapped stitches until back to normal stitch count again. (see universal sock pattern
  for more details on short row heels)

Leg

I had to put some increases in here because the stranded fabric that my limited skill produced doesn't stretch very well, making it something of a challenge to get your foot in otherwise.

• First all-round single colour row after heel, [k6, m1]* around. (e.g. row 1,2, or 3 of chart)


• Next row, k around, then m1 at the end to get up to a multiple of 6 stitches for the pattern (78 st. total)


• Knit 3 pattern-stripes


• In CC, k1 p1 rib until scunnered, then cast off

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lookylikeys

The top I'm currently making	A peacock, yesterday

On a small holiday on the south coast at the moment. Sometimes the sun shines down here! When I spotted this handsome beast yesterday, it made me think vaguely of my current knitting project (the drop stitch lace tank top from Fitted Knits).



Modifications made so far:
- knitted in the round. Cast on 136 stitches after a couple of abortive attempts to get a suitable size.

- using Debbie Bliss Cathay

- knitting the stitches next to the yo through the back of the loops, to give more stitch definition around the lacey bits

- did a couple more pattern repeats at the bottom, to shift up the ribbing towards the waist area. Don't really know why. Just can't resist a little pattern-tinkering.

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oh noes

Not sure quite how that happened. I had to go to the opticians and somehow got sucked into the John Lewis haberdashery department sale on the way home. Which is unexpectedly copious - usually there are just a couple of partially unravelled balls of Biggy Print languishing unloved in the bargain bin, but this time there is loads of stuff. Before I know it I am scrabbling wildly, like a kid floundering in a ball pool, and seem to have scooped up an armful of Debbie Bliss Cathay. Well it was only £1.60 a ball, and a half-arsed mental metreage calculation reveals 5 balls should be enough for the Drop stitch lace tank in Fitted knits. 8 ding for a nice new top isn't bad... and at least I'll have something to do with my hands again now while I watch telly, apart from picking dreadlocks / brambles / small animals out of the dog's fur. I got a couple of spare balls in case i decide to do something crazy like add sleeves... my upper arms aren't the most attractive things in the world so it may be for the best...
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cardie photos

OK, so finally the cardigan is dry.. yippee! And the rain held off for long enough for us to squeeze in a quick dog-walk between thunderstorms. One plus point of the recent biblically atrocious weather in this country is that it has now become baltic enough for the new cardie to be worn. So here is some evidence of it in action... thanks to Toast for his clever photography, and the rain gods for shutting up for 5 minutes.

As I can't seem to follow any kind of instruction without a minor act of futile rebellion, I should point out that I made a couple of modifications to the pattern, as follows:

• Couldn't decide whether to make 34 or 36 inch. So it started out as a 36 round the yoke, as i have rather big beefy shoulders. I then went down to the 34 inch size after the under-arm split, and vacillated aimlessly between both measurements for the rest of the pattern.


• Used the same 4mm needle throughout, rather than switching to a 3.5mm needle for the button band, because, er.. i didn't have one, and was too lazy to go and buy one.


• Widened the button band a bit, so i can continue to eat pies with reckless abandon, and breathe at the same time without fear of propelling a button across the room at high speed.


• The cuffs. I didn't like the original cuff design, which was so flouncy as to make Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen's shirts look tastefully understated. So after row 65 of the sleeve cable chart, I switched to the chart for the body and did rows 32 to 36. I finished the sleeve by repeating the section at the top of the sleeve cable chart: purl 1 row, knit 2 rows, purl 1 row, ..., knit 1 row, purl 1 row. Then I cast off. This gives a much gentler and less ostentatious flare that you are less likely to accidentally dip in your curry.

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blocking adventures

So I finally finished the elizabeth bennet cardigan - hooraaaay! And as it was a just a tiny bit smaller than I would have ideally liked - I thought I'd try my hand at this blocking malarkey. And the results? I'll be jiggered if it hasn't magically transformed itself to the exact right size! It's now a whole 10 cm longer!!1!1 How does that happen? I think magic knitting pixies have sneaked in while i was out of the room and glued in a bit more fabric. It's even 5 cm wider around the previously slightly taut cabled middle section, which is excellent news!! *opens beer, phones curry house*
Marvel at the pin-based wizardry! I'll put up some pictures of it in action once it has dried out nicely. I am quite excited... have been coming in at 5 minute intervals all day and patting it impatiently.
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fake isle recharted

I was recently asked to share the chart i made up for this hat. So here it is! It's a 12-stitch repeating pattern around the hat. When i reached the top of this chart I switched to fake isle chart 2 for the crown.

I cast on 120 stitches, so did this pattern 10 times around, but be warned - i have a freakily big head - under no circumstances attempt this hat without measuring your own and swatching first! You could easily miss out a row or two if the chart is too big. I think I actually did 5 rows of k2,p2 ribbing, then 2 knit rows one in each colour before i started the snowflake bit, so you could add/remove rows pretty easily here. The hat is quite big even on me, and very warm and snug because of the stranding and 100% woolliness of the Kureyon.

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starlet

I made this hat a while ago too. I think around February / March time, after I'd finished Zelda and emerged blinking from the lounge into daylight for the first time in a while. The yarn had that sort of spring sunset feel about it which I liked. It's from Natural Dye Studio on ebay - can you believe all those nice bright colours are sourced from plant extracts?!? It's just trinity stitch, knitted in the round, with a bit of ribbing at the bottom. I stole the idea off craftster. The yarn is DK weight so my nobbles are a bit smaller. It kind of looks like those old skool swimming caps, like on the cover of Leisure by Blur.
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calorimetry

So i've recently signed up to ravelry* and i'm taking the opportunity to catalogue my big pile of knitted tat. This is a Calorimetry i made on a boring train journey down to London last month. I forget what the yarn was now, but if my brain returns i'll make a note of it. It does kind of look like someone threw up on my head, but it a nice, earwarming sort of way. Even I had to make it a bit smaller - casting on 104 stitches instead of 120 - and i have a big freaky head (like an orange on a cocktail stick**) so I would definitely recommend getting out the measuring tape and swatching for this one. The button I think came off a dressing gown I had when I was about five. It upsets my biological sensibilities a little, as I don't believe any ladybird species currently known to science has six spots.


* don't do this if you want to have a tidy house or maintain friends and a social life - it is Knitters' Crack - teh_most_awesome knitting site ever!!1!!!1!one

** apologies if you haven't seen So I Married an Axe Murderer
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cardigan craziness

Yeah, i'm still alive, just a bit lazy. I've been mostly making this recently. It's the Elizabeth Bennet cardigan from Fitted Knits. Not really a fan of Pride and Prejudice I have to say - we did the book in school and it was alright but I generally prefer films with a lower bonnet count. However i do like this cardie very much.

A month or so ago, just after getting this book (Fitted
knits, not Pride and Prejudice) I came back from the pub and with drunken bravado ordered a load of Cascade cloud 9 from some American site where it was on spesh. The exchange rate made this sound like a not unridiculous purchase, however in the cold light of day a couple of weeks later I discovered that an extra 15 ding had been slapped on by customs and excise, and i had to settle up with the post office before they'd hand over the goods. Doh! It's soo soft and warm and snuggly though. And I love the cabley bits. I've made a couple of modifications - mostly due to some indecision on which size to make, it started off as a 36 then i decided it was too big, so it kind of morphed into a 34 after the raglan neck, then decided it was too tight, now adding a couple of extra rows into the button band :) i know, it would have been much more straightforward if i'd stuck to the pattern. But where's the fun in that?!
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cthulhu fhtagn!!

A friend of mine likes Cthulhu so I thought I'd make this for his kid. I thought it would be more fun to make it up myself so resisted the temptation to google image excessively and only really looked at this picture. Not the easiest of starting points for woolly creativity. I sort of made it up as i went along. May have been partially inspired by The Host which i was watching while i did the head (ace film!!). I hope it doesn't give the kid nightmares.



The yarn i used had been nicked out of my mums haberdashery cupboard about 15 years ago so I couldn't tell you what is was - some sort of dodgy cheapo DK boucle acrylic, which was a bit of a nightmare to work with - you can't really see what you're doing and I used finger-wreckingly small 3mm needles to get a tight knit, so hopefully the stuffing will be resistant to battering by small children.

From the side you can see the wings and slightly silly pointy head. I used my new-found rubbish crochet skills to do a knobbly edge round the bottom part of the wings, so it looks a bit like the wings you used to draw on dragons when you were a kid - doesn't show up particularly clearly in this yarn though.

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illusion knitting is fun

Just your common-or-garden stripey sock, nothing to see here, move along now, *whistles*.

But wait! What is this devilry?

One sock done now... will post proper photies when finished.
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hook line and sinker

I've often vaguely thought that one of the few half decent looking ways to use up scrap yarn is to make one of those big multicoloured crocheted blankets. Made out of what the internet has recently informed me are called Granny Squares. I have loads of scrap yarn, so I'm halfway there! Only problem is i can't actually crochet. But today I was quite bored and have mild knitting RSI, so i sat down with the Readers Digest Guide to Needlework (huge hardback book written in the seventies or eighties, procured from a second hand bookshop for about 2 quid) and had a stab at learning crochet. This was more tricky than i thought. The book assumes a certain basic level of needlework proficiency that women probably all had in the more self sufficient times the book was written, but I unfortunately have ten sausages for fingers and a head full of broken biscuits. Amazingly the result turned out vaguely identifiable with the picture, despite a giddy variation in stitch size and tension and a somewhat laissez-faire attitude towards dealing with ends that led to a couple of near-catastrophic unravelling incidents. And I have calculated that at my present crocheting speed, if I give up work, sleep and food it will take me approximately seven lifetimes to create a blanket big enough to cover one knee.
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like a socks machine

Fortunately I have just finished Zelda so can spend more time with my knitting now that I know the future of Hyrule is looking rosy. So I finally finished pomatomus, in trekking xxl, that i started last summer. Phewph! About time really.
Am pretty pleased with these socks but I think to be honest these are the last pair I'm going to make out of self-striping / self-patterning yarn. Individually they are pretty but together they don't look very similar - I think my sense of mathematical orderliness would be appeased more if they looked like they matched.

To be fair it did say on the ball band to knit with 2 strands from 2 balls at the same time, which would do a good job of jumbling up all the colours i reckon. But I only bothered to read this when I got to the heel on the second sock, by which time it was rather too late. Perhaps my footwear would have benefitted from slightly more forethought and less diving straight in.

Mmm warm toes.

Need to think of something else good to do now. Cos I only have one thing on the go now - these socks. I know, more socks, not very imaginative, but I'm doing a lot of train travelling at the moment for work so they are handy to carry round...

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oh yeah

I made this hat too. Loosely based on Fake Isle. Well I copied the idea of the Kureyon combined with a plain colour, and the chart for the crown of the head, but wasn't too keen on the main pattern so invented my own. It was supposed to be snowflakes. Then there is a small section of oops.. i appear to have some space to fill between this pattern and the top one.. i'm going to have to wing something. And I'm afraid i added a pom-pom too.


Here it is keeping my ears warm. It is reeeeally snug actually because the stranding creates a double layer, and the Kureyon is 100% woolly warmness. The cream coloured wool is some kind of alpaca based thing so nice and soft.

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january hibernation

The lack of activity on my blog in recent weeks can be attributed to two principal factors.

• Santa brought me a Nintendo Wii. I'm afraid this has been rather detrimental to my knitting productivity.


• Over the festive period, I drunkenly dropped my camera from a great height, rendering it inoperable.

But I had a request from my niece to make her a sock for her new mobile phone. So I did. It's from leftover Opal sock wool. And I caved in and bought a new camera in the sales. Check out that macro mode!!1!!!1one

Pretty mindless to make. I knitted it in the round, on 2.5 mm needles, in k2p2 rib. Used a 3 needle cast off at the end, then turned it inside out, so it wasn't flattened.

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christmas presentfest complete

Unless in a moment of eleventh hour madness I decide it would be a great idea to start something else. I doubt it though - am looking forward to a nice few days of trivial pursuit based arguments and drinking gin in my pyjamas. At least Rupert will be nice and warm in his stylish new scarf though.

I think i possibly did the checks in the worst possible way - the yellow bits were sllllightly too wide to carry the black wool up at the side so i ended up with about 9999 black dangling ends to weave in. I thought of lots of easier ways once i'd already started and couldn't be bothered unravelling - i think if i did it again i'd do a stocking stitch tube so any ends could hang happily inside.

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mario madness

It's another DS sock - for my nephew for Christmas. Hark at the lovely Mario in all his marvellous 8 bit Super Nintendo glory.

Duplicate stitched on after doing a basic stocking stitch tube, whilst drooling in front of 'the life of birds' on sunday, finishing with a 3 needle bind off. I copied off this image:

If only the pixellated heroes of today were so easily reproduced in knitwear. I would love to immortalise the protagonists of 'guitar hero 2' on the playstation in wool, but i fear Lars Umlaut is too high-resolution for my skills. Sigh.


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christmas presentfest

I've been busy as a bee making some rubbish gifts for people for chrimbo. Including biiiiig socks for my fella, and a small rupert the bear. He'll look more like him when i've finished the obligatory yellow checky scarf, honest.


Sock pattern is universal toe up sock from knitty. He likes dark boring plain socks so i made them ribbed to try and prevent myself falling asleep knitting them and accidentally poking my eye out with the needles in a freak accident. Rupert is out of the Debbie Bliss Toy Knits book. The bear looks easy cos it's so small but it was knitted in the flat and there was soooooo much fiddly sewing i got a bit scunnered by the end. He's the wee bear on the front cover without the wellies on. The little jumper is from merino wool and is so snuggly warm i am quite jealous. The middle stripy sock is one for me that i started making several millennia ago but am awaiting the post-festive season knitting lull to be able to make a friend for it.

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Mr. McGregg

It's for my friend's as-yet-unborn baby, so made out of a robust acrylic yarn out of this pattern. I have a sneaking suspicion i may have inadvertantly interchanged limbs from the arms and legs piles whilst entranced by an episode of the day of the triffids on telly last night, so it is a little wonky.

*sings in Dr Nick Riviera voice* Well, if it isn't my old friend, Mr McGregg: With a leg for an arm and an arm for a leg.



Here he is, standing up and ready to take over the world.

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