Dulcie

I've been keen to get this laceweight top finished this week, and I'm pretty pleased with the results.  Originally knitted in Fyberspates silk, I chose Rowan Fine Lace instead and it has worked quite well (more on this further down the page).  The pattern called for 2 skeins of Fyberspates, i.e. 2000m of yarn; this was because they only make this yarn in 1000m skeins.  I guessed that it would take a little over 1000m so bought 4 x 400m balls of the Rowan.  In fact it too only two balls to finish the body and the first sleeve, so I reckon about 900m, certainly no more than 1000m.  I would have been pretty annoyed if I had bought two skeins of very expensive yarn!

The shell pattern is lovely, but I did have a false start as I missed an important change in the pattern part way through the 12 rows and had to rip it back.  So for anyone tempted to knit this, do pay attention at row 7!.  The shells blocked really well and the shaping at the bottom of the garment is lovely.  Laceweight knitting is tricky though and one thing I did learn from this is to take extra care when breaking and re-attaching yarn as it has a tendency to create holes which are more difficult to fix than in a thicker yarn.  Swiss darning was called for, and the problem was solved.

So now for my "but".  The neckline is quite wide and with my narrow, sloping shoulders the sleeves seem to have a tendency to drop off the edge.  My choice of yarn may have contributed to this, as it is more stretchy than silk would be, but looking at the picture in the magazine, the girl does have model-style shoulders which are wide and flat.  The gathering in the sleeves does look lovely but it adds quite a bit of weight.  I'll see how it goes, I did manage to "hitch" them up when I tried it on first time and it looked fine, but I haven't tried it on since blocking.

All in all, this has fired up my enthusiasm for lace knitting so there's definitely more of that to come...

Spinning Silk

 It's not unknown for me to get carried away with my purchases at Woolfest each June.  I kind of make it a point to buy something I've never bought before for an experiment.  Here is one of the new things I bought last June, which I've only just got round to trying out.  It's a silk roving and from the colours I think you can see why I fell in love with it.  I decided to set to spinning it up.

I did anticipate that it would be very different to wool, as you can see it has no crimp, just fine fibres lying completely flat next to each other.  So a high twist would be necessary.  It was far more tricky than I thought.  Firstly picking off the right width of roving was a challenge; too thick and you end up with a chunky weight yarn, too thin and it breaks.  And the roving doesn't split evenly, of course not, so you end up with weak spots.  And as for breakages, it tested me almost to throwing it out of the window. I think the general rule with wool is an overlap of 10cm when reattaching - for silk you can times that by three.  Nightmare.  The tension in my fingers and thumb trying to (a) hold it together (b) draw it out to spin a nice fine yarn was tremendous.  And as I drew it out behind the twist, it would push fibres further down into a mess so that then I had to stop, untangle and draw out the muddle with one hand while holding on for grim death with the other so the spun yarn didn't unspin and fall apart.

I am, however, known for my perseverance.  By the end of this bobbin I had got the hang of it.  So here are my tips:

1. long, long draw, with the twist taken up at least 10 cm from the orifice (15-20cm better), slow the take up by holding it back so that it gets lots of twist before winding on
2. a roving about the width of a ball point pen
3. repair any breaks by doing a 30cm overlap, with lots of twist
4. stop the fibres tangling behind your drawing hand by moving your hand down the roving to ease out the fibres after every twist take-up, while you put a little extra twist in the yarn you've just made

I'm going to ply this yarn to make it stronger. When I started I was aiming for 4 ply, I'll be happy if it is roughly DK!  There are lumps and bumps in here, but hopefully the next bobbin will be better!

Laceweight Knitting

It's not many years ago that finding 2 ply yarn was incredibly difficult, we all knitted in DK or aran as 4 ply or under had fallen out of fashion in the 70s.  My Mum is currently knitting her first ever project in 4 ply!  But now, lace is all the fashion and laceweight yarns are common.  I've really got into lace knitting recently, and enjoy the challenge.  So I now have two lace projects on the go.

The first is Dulcie, from Fyberspates.  It was originally knitted in a Fyberspates silk, which is very nice but I decided instead to use Rowan Fine Lace, a new laceweight yarn this winter.  It's lovely, with a slight halo and very soft.  The pattern called for 2000m, since the original yarn only comes in 1000m skeins.  A bit naughty, I think, as it was clear that based on the skeins/sizes provided there was no way I'd use all of the second skein.  A good way to make extra cash for the manufacturer, though.  So I guessed at 1600m and bought 4 balls of the Rowan.  I suspect it may take only three.

The shell pattern is at the bottom of the body,  the short sleeves, also up the centre of the front, and it's knitted in the round until the armholes. I struggled to get the tension and ended up on needles 0.5 smaller, in fact I'm knitting it on a set of long dpns I got in an antique shop a few years ago.  I have so many needles I really hate buying new ones!

Anyway, I've finished the bottom pattern and am just about to do the last shaping decrease on the way to the armholes.  Looking good so far.

My next choice is a pattern from a 1940s book, Knitting for All Illustrated.  It's a great book, with lots of patterns of all kinds and ideas for adapting patterns and colours.  The pattern is called "Afternoon Blouse", and is originally designed with a deep ribbed waistband, which I'm not using.  Instead, I did a few rows of garter stitch onto which  I will add an edging I think.

Being an old pattern only one size is given, so I had to do some sums to enlarge it from a just under 36 in actual size to a 40 in.  According to the tension given, I needed an extra 14 sts on both front and back.  But the pattern repeat turned out to be 20 sts +5 (I had to work that out with pen and paper, they don't tell you!) so I had to add 20, which will make it around 41 ins in total.  I will also need to make it a lot longer, not being a devotee of the short, nipped waist design!

The final problem was the pattern itself.  Unaccountably it uses the abbreviation M1 instead of yo.  I read the pattern and saw "M1" throughout, but the photograph showed a lacy pattern clearly constructed from yarn overs.  So I checked the glossary in the back of the book, which described M1 as "M=make.  Making a stitch may refer to any of the three methods mentioned below.  The method depends on whether the previous stitch is knitted or purled."  A little further down the page it describes three abbreviations, wool forward, wool round needle and wool over needle.  So the mystery was solved, since the lace involves only knitted stitches it's a straightforward yarn over for me.  The wrong side rows are all purled, which is nice.

The picture above shows one repeat of the pattern, it's not too clear but it consists of open diagonal lace which switches direction every few rows, together with a more solid panel which is kind of a geometric leaf shape.  The yoke is knitted in the diagonal lace only, so will be more open.

The yarn is actually a machine remnant pure alpaca.  I have a full cone of it, cost £20 and should be able to get several garments out of it!  Handily it is a perfect handknitting laceweight, so hit the tension exactly.  Very shiny, and a dream to knit.

These projects will keep me occupied for a while.  I did finish a pair of socks for Ol' Big Foot (as the cat has named him), but they ended up on his feet before I could get them to the camera!

Happy knitting!

Addictive Knitting

After spending a solid three months knitting for other people, I decided to make something for myself.  What could be nicer, I thought, than some relaxed knitting now the Christmas rush was over?  Big mistake. I picked a pattern - Framboise - by Sarah Hatton (published in The Knitter a few months ago), and I should have known better.  The last design of hers which I knitted was the Bayberry Wrap, and I couldn't put it down, it became an obsession.  As did this.  I don't know what it is about her designs, I just have to keep at it, one more row of the chart, then I'll stop, I thought.  I never did.

There are similarities between this pattern and the Bayberry Wrap, both are designed from the middle outwards.  In this case I knitted the top on straight needles rather than circs because I didn't have a big enough circular and I'm trying to stop keep buying needles.  So it was knitted straight and seamed along one diagonal.  The photo doesn't really do it justice, it looks a bit uneven in places but really isn't, just isn't designed to be hung on a hanger and gingerly balanced on a sash window for the purposes of photography.  It flatters the figure well, the diagonal increases creating a slight flare at the hips and shoulders. 

By pure chance the yarn I chose happened to be the one recommended.  I tend to have list on my person of "x000m 4 ply, x000m DK", often without a note of what the pattern actually is.  So when I found myself in my local wool shop fingering the gorgeous new SMC Select Alpaca/Wool 4 ply, I had no idea that this was what I was going to knit with it, or that this was the very yarn used in the pattern.  But it has worked very well.  As my Other Half said last week when he saw me knitting and enquired what it was, "Well, you can never have too many sweaters, can you?"  I think he was making some kind of point, not quite sure what...

Christmas Knitting - Mission Accomplished!

I made it, just!  All my Christmas presents are finished, though it has required some furious knitting over the last few weeks.  The gansey was started on April 19, finished yesterday and is still slightly damp in a couple of places!  Very difficult to photograph as it's huge, made for a 6 foot 2 man and is the only sweater he has ever had which is the right length.  Commercial patterns go up in sizes but they don't tend to add length for the tall man, so I always add some but it's never been enough, until now.  For this I added 8 inches to the standard length, so he'll be cosy when standing on a cold railway station platform.

Designing this gansey from scratch was a big learning curve, many thanks to Gordon at ganseys.com for his advice and invaluable website.  I have made a couple of mistakes in my design process, but only I will know which is ok.  But for my first gansey, I'm really happy with it.

Here are my Mum's socks.  The feet look like wedges of cheese!  There are two reasons for this; firstly the honeycomb pattern across the top slightly distorts the feet, and secondly she has really tiny feet.  This means that once you've finished decreasing after the heel, you're almost ready to start the toes!  I do like knitting socks for her, much quicker than for anyone else!

And finally, Mum's lacy jumper.  This was a pattern from Knitting magazine, November issue I think.  It's lovely but took a lot longer than I expected.  Knitted in Artesano alpaca 4ply, it really is beautiful and I know Mum will love it, I try to knit things for her that she would never attempt for herself and this is a classic.  I might make one for myself one day, but not for a while, the memory of endless weeks knitting this is still too painful!  But it has turned out beautifully, even if I say so myself.

So now it's back to knitting for me.  My Christmas present from Mum consists of SMC Select pattern book 003 and a consignment of Rowan Fine Lace, but I have two other projects lined up first, plus finishing a pair of socks for my Other Half.  Onwards and upwards...

Have a merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Christmas Knitting - one month to go!

I'm making good progress on my Christmas knitting, here is the first of Mum's socks, knitted in a honeycomb slip stitch pattern.  I've turned the heel and am now working on the foot - the top is worked in honeycomb, the bottom in plain knitting, with stripes due to the yarn alternation.  If you haven't done this slip stitch pattern before, it's worth while looking at close up to see how it works.

The pattern is created by using two yarns, here it is one row of black, one row of pink and another row of black to start.  The variegated yarn adds an extra something, traditionally this pattern is done in two contrasting colours.  After these three rows, you work the next 5 rows in the pink, slipping two of the black stitches at regular points in the row.  In this picture you can see how these stitches are stretched.  Then a row of black, pink, black and so on.  Next time you put the slip stitches in between the previous ones to create the building block or honeycomb effect.  It does pull in the fabric somewhat, so you need a higher stitch count.  But it creates a thick, cosy fabric perfect for socks.

I'm also getting on well with the lacy jumper, and in this photo you can see all the patterning.  Starting at the left, the big central panel is called Leaves, then there is a cable, followed by Wasp Wings, another cable and finally a pattern called Berry - this doesn't show too well in this photo but it does look like berries!  The Artesano Alpaca yarn is a dream to knit with and the only problem I'm having is that I can't do it when the cat decides to sit on the sofa next to me as the long needles I'm using poke her in the back!  Thankfully at this time of year the windowsill above the radiator is an attractive destination for her...

Finally, the Gansey.  I finished the body and knitted the neck, after testing it out on the victim first.  It fits perfectly, which is a relief!

So now I've started the sleeves, using a smaller circular Knit Pro wooden needle bought especially for the purpose.  Only 44cm on each sleeve, I'm determined to get there by Christmas!

Christmas Knitting - Full Speed Ahead!

It's early November and, as is traditional by now, I have a number of projects on the go.  This is my knitting for doing with TV programmes which require my full attention such as Downton Abbey.  Once you get past the border, it's stocking stitch all the way, on nice large needles.  Most relaxing.  This is Rivelin, using some stash wool.  I haven't posted a picture of OH's gansey, but it is progressing, the back is completely done and I'm determined to complete the front this week.  I also have a pair of socks on the needles for him.

This is part of my Mum's Christmas present - socks in a honeycomb pattern, not easy to see properly in this photo, but it's rather clever.  One yarn is variegated, one black, such a clever use of colour.  The pattern comes from the Knitter, it's called Electrify.

And this is also for Mum, a lacy jumper in the latest issue of Knitting magazine.  It's done in Artesano Alpaca, which is lovely, and which I bought from Moss Stitch, who specialises in Artesano and Manos yarns. 

And finally, this is for me, my local yarn shop in Crawshawbooth has just stocked the new SMC Select range and I fell in love with this.  It will be sitting in a bag until my Christmas knitting is finished, honest!