princessdeia

February 18th 2011
Filed under General

When we went to New England back in June of 2008, in one of the yarn store I saw am amazing Clapotis shawl made in Blue Heron Rayon, I had never seen the attraction to the pattern until that point, but I brought the yarn and a few weeks later I had completed my brown shawl, which I affectionately call the Shreddies Shawl (I was knitting it around the same time as that advert first aired).

This shawl became a stable of my wardrobe, thrown on over jeans and a t-shirt during summer evenings out with friends, draped over my shoulders at a wedding and even wrapped snuggly around my neck under my coat. Every time I wore it, I always got comments about how lovely it was – annoyingly it got more complements from muggles than some of my lace shawls that took ages to make! The shawl and me were very happy for a whole summer, until my sister borrowed the shawl, now she wears it over a t-shirt whilst shopping, or wrapped around her neck and gets all the comments about the Shreddies Shawl.

Then last year at Ally Pally, Mum and I saw some more Blue Heron Rayon, I mentioned to my Mum that I had used it to knit the Shreddies Shawl, and how much I missed it, she offered to buy me another skein to knit another shawl, we saw a skein, that I was convinced was navy and Mum thought was black, but either way I knew it was perfect, reading the label we discoved it was Aubergine. Last month, I cast on the second Shreddies Shawl, whilst watching one disc of Battlerstar Galactica Season Two, I managed to complete all the increase rows and one repeat of the straight row and I realised how much I love this simple pattern.

In September of 2008, I saw another to-die-for-Clapotis at the iKnit day, this time knit in Knitwitches Silk Laceweight, so again I brought the yarn and according to my notes in Ravelry I cast on the project the next day. This time my love affair with the knitting didn’t last so long, I soon got bored of all the stocking stitch and wanting a challengle the project sat at the bottom of my knitting basket for months. Occasionaly I would look at it, knit a repeat or two and then get bored again.

So last month, when I fell in love with the Clapotis pattern, I figured it was time to  re-connected with my old shawl. So I put the Shreddies Shawl on hold and started knitting. Much to my surprise the shawl was long enough to start the decreasing rows (why had I left it for so long?) So finally, 893 days after I cast on, I have finished my oldest WIP!

Confess how old is your oldest WIP? Do you plan on finishing it? Why have you left it so long?

September 20th 2010
Filed under General

Over the last few weeks, Hubby and I have been watching The Wire (yes I know we are extremely late to the game in watching this show). We were lucky enough to be loaned the box sets of all five seasons by a dear friend and I wanted to make her a little something to thank her. So whilst watching the DVD’s I thought I would knit her a shawl as a thank you present.

I had some Malabrigo Lace, left over from my Swallowtail Shawl, and I knew my friend loved green, so I just had to find the right pattern. A quick search on Ravelry and I discovered the Annis Shawl, perfect as it uses up less than two-thirds of a skien. As I mentioned mainly worked on the shawl whilst watch T.V. and working on the short row stocking stitch rows was prefect T.V. knitting. What wasn’t so perfect was the casting on – it took me over one episode to cast on the 363 stitches!

March 21st 2010
Filed under General, Socks

As I mentioned before one of the reason I loved the Socktopus Sock Club so much was the “interesting” construction of each of the socks. So when I saw a pattern with the most amazing heel, climbing up the ranks of the most popular pattern ranks on ravelry, I had to knit it!

As soon as I finished my Rumpled sock (photos to come), I cast on Skew! I normally don’t care too much about gauge on socks – but I read on ravelry it is extremely important in this sock – and I am glad I read that as I needed to go up a needle size to get the right tension.

In effect it is really just a stocking stitch sock with clever increases and decreases so it knits up pretty quickly, but I love the unusual construction – I keep stopping to try the sock on to see how it fits and get an idea of what part I am currently knitting!

Once I got to the heel – I was completely amazed – it is extremely clever the way to all fits together! One this I would add is before casting on this sock save the yard of yarn for the grafting stage, I didn’t and had to temporarily use another yarn which I will unpick and re-graft once I have finished knitting.

June 24th 2008
Filed under General

My sister comment last night that my Clapotis looks like a giant Shreddie (which we all know are knitted by nanas), as I still haven’t worked out how to say Clapotis this is now the Shreddie’s Shawl!

I am not sure why is has taken me so long to get around to knitting this pattern, about 95% of it is basic stocking stitch so it can be knitted whilst watching T.V. From what I have read it is easy to knit one in a week or less (of course you need to have some free time), and you don’t have to worry about gauge. I am already planning my second Mini-Clap!

This little beauty appeared on the plant last week – it has now been joined by 8 little siblings

June 12th 2008
Filed under General

I am planning on getting around to posting about my adventure in America, however I have been kept away from the P.C. So far since I have been back I have been to Kent, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, and then back to Buckinghamshire.

What little time I have had to myself I have been working on my Clapotis (This is my current Viral Knitting Project). I can’t believe it has taken me so long to knit this pattern… Am I the last knitter on earth to make this shawl?

August 30th 2007
Filed under Finished Projects 2007

Yarn:Knit Picks Andean Silk in Navy.
Pattern: Fetching from Knitty Summer 2006.
Needles: 3.75mm DPN.
Notes: The write up for this pattern on Knitty calls these gloves an “instant knitting gratification” and I have to agree, I sat down over the weekend to watch a few movies and my the credits of the second movie I had a pair of fingerless gloves.

After reading some comments on Ravelry, I discovered it is adviced to knit this mitts with 3.75 needles rather than the 4mm the pattern suggests. I also added an extra set of the 4×1 rib and cable row, just to make the wrist part longer. Because of the modification, I ended up using a little over one ball of yarn for these mitts.

July 14th 2007
Filed under Finished Projects 2007, Socks, Summer of Socks

Yarn: Natural Dye Studio Sock Yarn in Lipstick
Pattern: Hedera.
Needles: 2.5mm DPNs.
Notes: I alterated the pattern slightly, by adding an extra twisted knit stitch before and after the lace parts on the main part of the foot, it is lost in the stocking stitch.

I loved the row of twisted knitted stitches on the heel flap (done on the picked up stitches), it creates a beautiful effect and hides any mistakes that could have been made whilst picking up the stitches. I think I will be adopting this technique on all heel flap socks from now on.

December 30th 2005
Filed under Finished Projects 2005, General

Now that Christmas is over, I can get on and post all my finished projects from the last month. All the recipients have received their gifts and those I have seen since Christmas have been wearing their scarves to beat this chill that is creeping in over London.

Branching Out

Yarn: KidSilk Haze in Liqueur and Meadow.
Pattern: Braching Out from Knitty, Spring 2005.
Needles: 3.75mm.
Notes: There is nothing to more to say about this pattern, I love it, everyone in blogland loves it and seems to be knitting it.

Fishtail Lace Scarf

Yarn: KidSilk Haze in Grace and Pearl.
Pattern: Fishtail Lace Scarf (pdf file).
Needles: 3.25mm.
Notes: KSH leans itself extremely well to any lace pattern, I opted to do some simple patterns just to save time – but it works so well (Take Airy Scarf and simple easy pattern that knits up in hours and looks so good). This is one of those easy patterns – great for a first time lace project as it really is only four stitches, K, P, YO and sl1-k2tog-psso.

Little Leaf Scarf

Yarn: KidSilk Haze in Smoke and Drab.
Pattern: Little Leaf Scarf .
Needles: 3.25mm.
Notes: Again this is another fantastically easy pattern, four simple rows repeated numerous times (I think I did over 100 repeats on this pattern). I left off the garter borders – once pressed the edges did not curl and it looked lacier without the edging.

Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf

Yarn: KidSilk Spray in Pebble and KidSilk Night in Starry Night.
Pattern: Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf .
Needles: 3.25mm and 4mm.
Notes: I love this pattern on smaller needles using variegated yarn the pattern looks amazing, using bigger needles it becomes an interesting lacy pattern.

November 12th 2005
Filed under Finished Projects 2005

Yarn: KidSilk Haze in Trance.
Pattern: Braching Out from Knitty, Spring 2005.
Needles: 3.75mm.
Notes: I don’t think there is any reason to talk about this pattern – everyone knows it is amazing (if you haven’t made this scarf to it now!), the lace is so easy and mesmerizing you learn the 10 rows so quickly, I had orginailly swatched this pattern in cotton and it looks amazing, but I love the look of the lace in KSH.

October 24th 2005
Filed under Finished Projects 2005, Sweaters

Yarn: Sirdar Pure Cotton in Navy.
Pattern: Marco from Rowan 35 in a plain colour with added cables.
Needles: 3.25mm and 3.75mm.
Notes: Where do I start… the basic pattern is that of Marco done in just one colour.
To being with I thought the 2×2 rib looked to skinny so I changed it to 3×3.

I very quickly got bored of the stocking stitch, especially, as there is on shaping to the main part of the sweater, so when I began the front, I added some cables and a wide rib.