happy christmas

Fortunately for the wee man, last year's christmas jumper still fits. Mostly due to me making it about fifty times too big originally. A little bit snug over that fat belly, he'll have to go easy on the roast potatoes, but he will be glad of its warmth this year... brrr! It looks like a scene from Doctor Zhivago outside, the trees are covered in ice right up to the top branches. Going out of the door is like walking into a vat of liquid nitrogen. Fortunately I have plenty of mince pies, knitting and wine to keep me occupied indoors.

A very merry christmas and a happy new year to you all! May santa bring you a sackful of yarn!
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merry christmas

and a very Happy New Year to both all my blog readers!

Well, I finished the Christmas jumper, at last. No weaving in ends on Christmas Eve - phew. And what a nice festively fun project this was. You can almost hear those sleighbells jingling as you knit. I'd thoroughly recommend it, although anyone attempting it might benefit from reading the list below.



Things I learned from the festive jumper knitfest

• Dalegarn Baby Ull is the stickiest woolliest yarn ever. It's kind of like knitting with goosegrass. This is of course a very reassuring thing if you are planning on steeking anything. Not so great for sewing up / frogging though.


• Never attempt to spit-splice white yarn late at night whilst drinking red wine.


• Similarly, if you have recently cut your finger, do not continue to knit whilst it is still bleeding. (Seriously - what is wrong with me? Why can't I ever just put the needles down?!)





• Following on from the previous two points, Dalegarn Baby Ull machine washes nicely at 30 degrees.



• Steeking is actually quite good fun, if you have the cojones for it. Well, it's probably more fun better than attempting to stranded-purl on the wrong side.


• Although lots of people on ravelry ummed and ahhed about whether the jumper would fit over a baby's head, i found there to actually be tons of room. My gauge swatch was about half a stitch looser on the width. I thought with 4 ply, this would be close enough. And indeed the sleeves seem to fit pretty well, but the jumper is a little wide in the body and neck. There was no need to make the neck opening 10 stitches wider, as I did. If you do, you may discover such hilarious unintended consequences as those depicted here.


Have a great festive season everybody!

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steekfear

I has it.

Weird. I've been looking forward to this bit for ages, but as The Steek looms larger on the horizon, so does a nascent feeling of fear. At first the idea seemed like fun, but now I've spent about a month knitting this jumper, it seems rather like madness to cheerfully attack the thing with scissors.

Actually I think I was even more nervous about doing the sewing bit. Having very little experience with a sewing machine, and a propensity to tangle threads, distort fabric, make wavy lines and generally ruin stuff, I had very low confidence about this step. I had to steek a test swatch and drink a pint of beer before even picking up the jumper. But I took a deep breath and started sewing it last night. No tanglings, and marginally straighter than a dog's hind leg! I thought I was doing pretty well. Then Mr. Rubbishknitter entered the room, wondering why I was red-faced and sweating, despite the baltic weather and our boiler being on the blink. Oh well. It is sewn now, and awaits the scissors! *takes deep breath*...
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float like a butterfly, sting like a bee

After a short period of sofa-bound flueyness, I just finished the body of the baby norgi. It's actually made me feel quite Christmassy, all those reindeer and fir trees. Am rather pleased with the stranded colourwork. One minor problem is, I didn't really think about it until I got to this part, but there are some alarmingly long floats required in the top section, like 10 stitches or more. In my past experience with stranded knitting, my attempts to weave in floats were a bit of a disaster. You could see it on the right side, it stubbornly refused to stretch by as much as a millimetre, and the knitting puckered up like it was trying to kiss you. So this time, I decided I was going to blithely knit on and leave huge gaping floats. I will report back on the wisdom of this when I have attempted to get it over the wee mans head and trapped various limbs in a forest of inverse reindeer. If it's a disaster, I may go back and tack them down. But right now, I can't really be bothered. Onward to the sleeves! I can't wait to attack this thing with scissors!

I also modified the neckline to accommodate the small fella's not-so-small head, which is the size of a planetoid. Added 10 stitches into the opening, front and back. It looks nice and roomy, so we'll see how it is after the neckband is added. Am thinking I might go with a sewn cast-off on that for added elasticity.

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four ply foolishness

Q: What do you do when you already have a jumper and a sock on the go, a quilt to finish, lots of Christmas shopping to do, a baby who has recently decided sleep is for the weak, and you've internally sworn not to do a) any Christmas knitting and b) any more baby jumpers?

A: Clearly, you need to start a suitably complex Christmas-themed baby jumper in incredibly fine gauge yarn. Because you saw it and it was cute. And because you've got your sewing machine back from the repair shop and want to have a go at steeking.

Pattern is Baby Norgi from Knitty. Yarn is Dalegarn Baby Ull. It is quite lovely, 100% merino but couldn't be more different from the Sublime 100% merino I am using to make my brown hoodie. It is much more sticky and warm feeling - the other is smooth and cottonlike. The stickiness comes as something of a relief, as I will be cheerfully cutting up this jumper later... *gulp*. It purports to also be machine washable, which I find difficult to believe... not sure I would have the nerve to do it, but we'll see after Rubbishknitterjunior has regurgitated his Christmas dinner down the front. Because it will be finished for Christmas - otherwise it will be completely useless - it won't fit him next year. No pressure then! Even though I'm using 2mm needles for this, which feels a bit like doing keyhole surgery. Lots of fun though I have to say. Haven't done any colourwork for ages, so I had to try and remember how, but it is very satisfying, and the yarn is very forgiving of my sausage-fingered blunderings.
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