princessdeia

August 28th 2007
Filed under General, Hats, Sweaters

Over the last week the weather in London has been very autumnal, it is not quite scarf and gloves weather – but we are getting there. As a quick project this I thought I would cast on some Fetching Gloves, I know last autumn these were all the rage in knitting blogland – but I am always late on the bandwagon (I still haven’t made any Monkey socks).

I had brought the Andean Silk with this project in mind, a quick check on Ravelry I found it is a popular yarn for these mitts, and I also discovered it is advised to going down a needle size.

As we had the three day weekend in the UK, why would I cast on one new project, when I could cast on two so I ordered the Gretel Beret from Ysolda, I am also making this in Andean Silk.

Of course, my knitting this weekend did include some work on the Central Park Hoodie, I have now finished the hood and all I need to do is the ribbed edging (what would be the button band without the buttons).

I am slightly concerned that all my knits are blue and feature cables – I have to admit I love the colour blue – but I think this might be a little excessive.

August 24th 2007
Filed under General, Sweaters

About once every six months, Jason has to work night shift, thiis means we get to spend the evening together and once he has gone to work I get to stay awake until the early hours of the morning knitting. This week I have managed to complete both sleeves, for my Central Park Hoodie.

Last night, I worked on and finished the hood. As part of the pattern you have to place the stitches for the cable onto a stitch holder, then cast off the stitches for the neckline. All these stitches are then picked up and worked into the hood, Rather than cast the stitches on the neckline off – I worked then in short rows and added them to the stitch holder.

The pattern suggests using a three needle bind off on the hood, but I opted to graft the stitches, as I think it will sit better and also leave a flat seam, I started the grafting at the cable edge to make use the two cables matched up perfectly – it took quite a bit of effort to make sure it looked like a continous cable – but I am really pleased with the results.

August 22nd 2007
Filed under General, Sweaters

The body of my Central Park Hoodie as complete. I used the short-row technique for the neck decreases (which will be picked up and used for the hood), as well as on the shoulders – these were then grafted together.

I have even managed to cast on the sleeves; I am knitting them both at once. The yarn just glades over the needles – which brings me to my letter…

Dear Knit Picks,
Please can you start selling Wool of the Andes in the UK?
Thank you!

Dee

When it comes to knitting larger garments, I tend to use a lot of vintage patterns and which mainly use 4 ply cotton and tiny needles. One of the reason I was first attracted to knitting the Central Park Hoodie was the thicker yarn and needles, as well as the piece being so amazingly wearable. I knew I wanted to knit this piece in a chunky dark blue yarn however I never seemed to find anything that fitted the bill.

When I was offered the chance to be part of the Knit Picks trail, I knew I wanted to buy some Wool of the Andes – but was unsure what to make with it – originally I was think about purchasing a few balls to make a hat or some gloves, when looking through the colours, as soon as I saw the Arctic Pool Heather – I knew this was the yarn for my Central Park Hoodie.

I have to admit I have found it very hard to find wool I like, Rowan makes some wonderful wool blends (Felted Tweed or Kid Classic) and Debbie Bliss’ Cashmerino, is a dream to knit with. But I have not found plain wool in such a range of colours in the UK – and certainly not one as cheap as Wool of the Andes (I think it comes in at £1.25 a ball including taxes), so here is hoping that we can have more of this lovely yarn in the UK.

August 17th 2007
Filed under Project Spectrum v2.0, Sweaters

Inspired by the group on Ravelry, I have decided to try and knit from my stash again. With my knitting budget linked to Knit Wars (I have nearly 30 pounds saved up), a guilty feeling every time I see the two boxes of yarn in the corner and this bi-monthly colour triad for Project Spectrum (why do I collect purple yarn).

1. Texere Top Cotton, 2. Araucania Patagonia Nature Cotton (to make a v-neck sweater).
3. Natural Dye Studio, (Pomatomus Socks) 4. Knit Picks Palette – Brown -(top-up socks, maybe Baudelaire).

I have been working on my Central Park Hoodie most the week, following Lauren’s lead on at the KAL, I decided to knit this baby in one working on the back and sides at the same time.

I have adjusted the pattern slightly to accommodate knitting as one piece, eliminating a stitch at each edge for selvage, then adding an extra set of cables – which will be under the arms (where the seam should be).

Also, I have finished my Silk Shrug, I am just waiting for some sunshine to get outside and take some decent photos.

August 10th 2007
Filed under Summer of Socks, Sweaters

This sock might not look very expensive to you but it is worth 16 gold pieces to me…

That sounds really geeky, but then I am a geek, read comics, love sci-fi movies and if I had the time I would probably have played RPG. When I read about Knit Wars on the Lime and Violet site I knew this was the challenge for me.

This is the perfect way for me to control my spending, I am going to treat my gold like Boots Advantage Points, for every 4 pieces of gold I earn, can be translated into one pound actual money to spend on yarn/knitting supplies.

Of course this comes at the perfect time because Get Knitted, have started selling Knit Pick needles, I have resisted temptation as I have spent a lot of money on yarn over the past few months, but I have been dying to get my hands on an Option Set for ages, then I saw the collection of DPN’s that they sell and I wanted them too.

So far this week, I have managed to earn nearly 10 pounds from a few hours knitting casting on my Central Park Hoodie and finishing one sock. However, I did encounter the Knitting Mojo Blockage monster – which I think translates to me not knitting much this weekend.

Edit: I have just realised even blogging can earn me gold!

July 13th 2007
Filed under General, Sweaters

All my Knit Picks yarn is calling to me – asking to be crafted into wondrous garments, I am trying to resist temptation however, the call is too strong and last night I decided to knit with the Wool of the Andes and swatched for the Central Park Hoodie. I have to admit I adored knitting with the wool – it was designed to be knitted, this swatch was knitted in no time, I am hoping the cardigan will also be as quick to knit – but I am not going to start until after I have finished the Pure Silk Shrug.

After my recent attempt to find a decent knitting bag, I discovered Cath Kidston was having a sale, for a while now I have been admiring her knitting needle case – and imagine my surprise when it was in the sale, this amazing case come complete with some bamboo needles, and of course to go with it I needed a little purse for all my knitting notions and this star oilskin purse is perfect.

But the sale didn’t stop there… I still needed a knitting bag – and there it was waiting for my the Pastel Flowers Blue Knitting Bag (which matches the needle case) – obviously now I need to get out and about and knit – the next few weeks are going to be busy for me.

This weekend we are heading up North of a Christening and as our journey is taking us near Bradford, so I am hoping to convince my hubby that I need a trip to Coldspring Mill, although I don’t this I will be very believable as my stash is growing even though I am stash busting. Still it is an excuse to trying out knitting in the car.

May 16th 2007
Filed under General, Sockapalooza, Socks, Stash Enhancement, Summer of Socks, Sweaters

I have been taking advantage of Rule 2.a in the guidelines for Knit from Your Stash and have ordered several hanks of Natural Dye Studio yarn. I first brought this yarn for my One Skein Secret Pal, last year and of course, I had to buy some for myself. However the yarn has sat in the drawer since the summer, when I signed up for Superfluous Sock Yarn Swap, I decided to send this yarn to my spoilee.

The thought of being separated from this yarn, drew my right back to eBay. My plan was to buy some yarn to make my sockapalooza sock, my pal is from America and loves colour, so I thought a hand dyed British socks would be perfect. The colour is Lilac Sun, as for the pattern, I am thinking something like Lacy Scallops (pdf) or Razor Shell (pdf).

Of course, I couldn’t bid on just one lot and ended up buying four different colours – and there was me thinking the Superfluous Sock Yarn Swap, was designed to help stash-bust not to encourage me to buy more yarn!

As I am knitting from my stash I have already decided what socks I am going to make. I am going to jump on the Cookie A bandwagon, the Lipstick (bright pink) is going to become Hedera, the Regency (pink/lilac )is going to become some Pomatomus and I guess if you are going to knit some Cookie A socks you have to make some Monkey socks which will be the Midnight Ice (blue/white).

To help encourage me to knit these socks, I have signed up to the Summer of Socks KAL, I doubt I will be able to knit four pairs of socks this summer – I am sure SSS will set in but you never know. I guess I should finish the my jaywalkers.

I am trying to convince myself that buying yarn from Knit Picks is benefiting numerous knitters therefore it doesn’t matter that I am breaking the rules of Knit from your Stash, I could place an order entirely of sock yarn – but I have been thinking about patterns I love, like Central Park Hoodie and Fetching and have been buying to make those projects.