FO: Tantallon

Despite my plans to keep the number of WiPs small and finish my Tea Leaves Cardigan I couldn’t resist Tantallon. It’s another of Kate Davies’ Fair Isle hats and the pleasingly simple graphic peerie combination looked very appealing. Last year I ordered a pile of Alice Starmore’s Hebridean 2ply and had just the right colours for this pattern.

I swatched with the recommended colour selection but found the red a bit to loud for my taste. I used purple instead (Erica) and since I had ordered the wrong shade of green I substituted some leftover J&S 2 ply Jumper Weight.

According to the pattern I should have cast on 125 stitches for the brim but I suspected this would turn out a bit too wide for my head I started out with only 110 stitches instead. To avoid doing any math to the pattern repeats I the increased 90 stitches up to the regular 200 needed for the full chart (all ravelled here).

Knitting this hat was a real pleasure and I managed to memorize the pattern fairly quickly. I learned something new as well: The pattern calls for a lining on the brim and I found a nifty provisional cast on on  YouTube (and directions on how to unravel it in the end ). I used some pink leftover merino lace-weight for the brim lining and this makes all the difference when its windy outside! My ears stay extra warm.

Since I live on my own I had to ask my colleague to take a picture of me wearing the hat and he really got into it. He even climbed up onto the table in our office – must have been a sight for the people on the other side of the yard

We’ve had over two weeks of freezing temperatures here and so far Tantallon and the Sheep Heid got lots of wear.

I’m still knitting the Tea Leaves Cardigan – I’m on the second sleeve – but it is slow going and I find myself a bit unwilling to work on it…

Now, back to the spinning wheel – I’ve nearly finished clearing off some Polwarth abandoned there last October… I really need to make a dent in my fibre stash!

FO: Sheep Heid

Ravelry tells me I finished this hat in December 2011 but I haven’t found the time to post and sort the pictures until now.
I’ve become a bit of an addict to Kate Davies’ patterns and when she published her new hat design back in october I couldn’t resist. Also, the internet makes this kind of thing almost too easy and so I bought pattern and wool with only a few clicks. I’ve ordered wool from Jamieson’s & Smith before and I can very much recommend their shop and, above all, their wool. There’s nothing like real Shetland wool for stranded colour work (although some Aade Long, Isager and the Tweed yarns from Rowan work as well). The sheep heid is designed with a colour scheme that makes use of the natural colours Shetland wool comes in and calls for J & S Shetland Supreme Jumper weight yarn. It’s a bit thicker than their regular jumper weight and it feels more ‘sheepy’. It also still smelled like sheep when I pulled it out of its soak – lovely!

I’m a slow knitter when it comes to colour work because I knit with one strand in each hand and throwing the yarn is still a bit awkward for me. While I was knitting this I couldn’t resist snapping pictures of the evolving sheep with my camera phone and sending them to various people.

Since we haven’t had a real winter so far I didn’t have much opportunity to wear my hat but yesterday the temperatures finally dropped a bit. Et voilá: Sheep Heid (albeit a bit blurry) in action!

After I finished this project in December I was almost sad I couldn’t continue knitting those adorable sheep – and I didn’t need a second identical hat. Fortunately, Kate Davies fixed this for me and published the rams and yowes blanket which makes use of those ewes and rams AND the same gorgeous yarn. I have ordered more Shetland Supreme from J & S to top up my leftovers…

End of the week

Frankly, I’ve had a horrible day yesterday. When I came home from work I barely managed some much-needed household maintenance and then collapsed on the sofa for bad telly and some knitting.

I’m on a bit of a sweater binge and I’m planning to knit six sweaters and six pairs of socks in 2012. The first cardigan is well on its way: I cast on for a Tea Leaves Cardigan last week.

I’m using New Lanark DK in ‘Blueberry’ which is a nice dark lavender shade with a rustic look and feel to it.

Because it has been exceptionally dark and rainy all week and had to take my knitting and camera to work and stage a small photo shoot in my office.
Unfortunately, I seem to be unable to calculate my actual size and this sweater turned out too big – AGAIN! So, I sat down on my sofa Wednesday evening and ripped back to the point where I separated the sleeves and omitted the extra stitches the pattern told me to cast on under the arms. Looks better and now I think that this could have been the same issue with the too wide Idlewood. Every other sweater with Raglan construction I’ve knit so far simply closed the gaps under the arms without additional stitches which made for a good fit.
I’m very eager to finish this project by the end of January, both because I want to wear this badly and because I bought yarn and pattern for Kate Davies rams and yowes blanket. I’m a big fan of her designs and I loved knitting her latest hat, the sheep heid (which I haven’t posted about, yet).
Right, time to get back to work! Have a nice weekend!

Idlewood

Well, since my deadline for the dissertation (aka Deadline of Doom) is always on my mind I haven’t been idle (much) , both concerning work and knitting. Let’s not talk about the 2 oz of Hello Yarn Cauldron that have been sitting on my wheel since October last year…. Now, I won’t bore you with the details of my master plan to meet the DoD – if you can understand German and want to have a look, go here – but it amounts to a lot of work taking up a lot of time. Despite this I managed to finish my rust-red Idlewood nearly two weeks ago. I’ve given up on waiting for enough light to take a decent picture so you have to squint a bit.

I’m really pleased with the fit and it was well worth ripping back almost all the body and the first sleeve.

It’s dry now after a much-needed soak and the collar has a lot more drape. Unfortunately, it’s still too dark to take a picture…
I used New Lanark Donegal Silk Tweed Aran in a rusty-red with beautiful blue flecks. It’s a slightly heavier Aran. This may be my new favourite yarn, it’s reasonably priced, comes in beautiful colours and has an awesome stitch definition. It’s also very sturdy – even the strain of ripping back the body didn’t affect the yarn in any way. At first the Donegal Silk Tweed felt a bit scratchy but it softened up nicely after the soak. The heather mixtures already start out a bit softer.
So, great yarn, great colour and a sweater that finally fits. Success!

Happy Christmas!

Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Deck the halls

This year I’ve had a hard time getting in the mood for Christmas. It feels as if the season started one month too early; all that storm and rain  – though certainly welcome after the very spring-like November – do nothing to put me in the mood.

Despite this a look around blogland makes it clear Christmas isn’t far off. Lots of people have already decorated their spaces and even put up their trees! While I won’t have a tree of my own this year because I will be at my parent’s the whole time I managed to put up a wee bit of decoration.

 

My motivation to get myself into the Christmas cheer was greatly improved by these two relics of times long gone:

Yep, those are tapes! I bought the black one at a supermarket in my hometown circa 1988. The sleeve is long lost but I know the songs on it by heart. Side A starts with a cheesy version of ‘White Christmas’ and ends with “Silent night”. In between there’s ‘Winter wonderland’, ‘Rudolph’ and other equally corny renditions of so-called Christmas Classics. All with strings! Despite the kitsch I love this tape and I’m really glad it still works!
The second tape holds recordings from two choirs singing Christmas Carols – thankfully without strings. I bought this tape exactly ten years ago on a holiday in Edinburgh so it holds many happy memories of a lovely vacation as well.

 

A twig of Ilex on my windowsill…

 

 

…and Christmas lights in my window.
A few years ago I inherited a lot of old Christmas ornaments from my parents, most of them from the seventies and I’ve put a few of them on display. This is one of my favourites:

 

 

So, one more day of work before the weekend and tomorrow I’ll meet up with a friend at a Christmas market a few towns over and the forecast predicts weather fit for mulled wine and hats!

A weekend of WiPs or Facing the facts

I seem to have very bad mojo when it comes to sweaters lately. Another story of a knitting disaster – seems like a trend but at least the Christmas presents I’m knitting remain safe (so far).

After finishing 28thirty I immediately cast on for another sweater to ‘get back on the horse’ and because the spring-like November had finally given way to more appropriate temperatures.

 

As usual, I’m late for the bandwagon and decided to knit Idlewood a year after almost everyone seemed to be working on this sweater. Since I’m short I knew the original length suggested in the pattern would look ridiculous on me and draw very unwanted attention to my hips.

 

As you can see above I took the picture in very bad lighting conditions. This turned out to be a grave mistake. Since I currently come home after dark it took me until this weekend to face the facts: This sweater is too big for me. There are folds of fabric to the left and  right of the Raglan lines both on the front and the back. Although I often tend to try and disguise some of my more voluptuous curves I’ve long since realized that wearing baggy clothes ist not the best way to do so. Especially not in an area (read: my boobs) where I’m actually endowed below average.

So, after a night of bad sleep and a period of even worse mood I let it rip  and frogged my poor (and nearly finished) Idlewood all the way back to the last row of the cowl. It now looks like this again:

I’m a bit embarrassed: This is after all a top-down sweater which should make getting the fit right a walk in the park. Obviously not for me!

The only good news about this is the condition of the yarn. I’m using New Lanark Donegal Silk Tweed Aran and it held up beautifully despite the strain the frogging put on it. This should be good news on the pilling issue…

I’m knitting the size 40 now but since my bust measures something between this and the 43 3/4 I’ll definitely put the stitches on a piece of string and try it on before separating body and sleeves. Keeping my fingers crossed..

On a different note I managed some Christmas baking this weekend but didn’t take any pictures. My office-mate is very happy about the results!
Also, I finished my Sheep Heid!!! I’ll show you next weekend.