Thursday 20 November 2008

Another lesson learned

Wine and knitting just don't mix. How do I know this? I learnt it the hard way.

Picture the scene: Friday night, Idoru has the flat to herself. A bottle of wine, a shrug-a-long to begin and umpteen Smallville DVDs. Sounds like the perfect combination right? Wrong. I cast on OK, counted the number of stitches and everything was fine. Then I opened the wine. I carried on drinking and knitting and watching Smallville into the night. Then hit the hay. Next morning, sober and tired, I noticed the knitting looked a bit, well, holey. I counted the stitches. I had too many. I started unpicking it, carefully because mohair appears to be the stickiest of sticky yarns.

I found all kinds of mistakes. Dropped stitches, missed stitches, yarn wrapped round the needle, same stitch knitted twice. So I went from 16 rows down to about half that. I thought I'd caught all the mistakes so I started off again. It didn't take long to realise that things weren't quite right. So I ripped the whole lot back and, downhearted, put the thing down. This was last weekend.

But I'm not one for giving up easily so I soon picked up the needles and cast on again. This time counting the number of stitches several times, just to be sure. It's now Thursday, and I've only just got back to 16 rows. But this time at least it all looks pretty even and I've still got 101 stitches. I know because I count them at regular intervals.

At this rate, it's going to take till next Christmas to finish the damn thing. But be assured, I will finish it. Oh yes I will.

The yarn is quite gorgeous though, and the colour as pretty as the sea:

Wednesday 12 November 2008

My first '-a-long

I'm about to start my first '-a-long. I'm sure you know what I mean by this, and if you don't: read on. On this occasion it's a shrug-a-long, in which me and some knitting chums are knitting a shrug, kind of at the same time.

This is my chosen shrug: Cobweb, found on Ravelry and first seen in the January 2007 issue of Prima.


Mine will be much simpler than that one though, because I'm not doing the fancy-schmancy beading or the flowers - there'll be no Lurex Shimmer Gleam in my shrug. I bought the yarn at the weekend. It's made in Rowan's Kidsilk Haze, and I believe the colour is Glacier. I've not cast on yet, but that, time permitting, will happen tonight.

I fear I have lost before I begin, though. The venerable Super Monkey has already finished hers, bar the blocking. And giant Spanner la Moo is coming along nicely too.

This will be my first attempt at something lacy, so probably I shouldn't be using mohair, which apparently isn't the easiest to knit with. But no one ever got anywhere by not using fluffy yarn. Or something. Hopefully it'll turn out OK, and I'll get it done before Chrimbo, because it's meant to be a pressie for my mum.

For those of you who are signed up, here's a link to the pattern on Ravelry: Cobweb.

Monday 10 November 2008

Progress report

Things are coming along at a more than reasonable pace. In fact I'm pretty pleased with my progress so far. Started in September, two months on I've so far finished the front and I'm on the home run with the back. That leaves just two sleeves, sewing up, and I'm done!

It's hard to know what the finished article will look like until it's actually sewn up, but length is something I can measure - and it looks just about perfect. The stitches are nice and even and cast on and offs are neat. In short, I have improved hugely after my tee-shirt effort - and the evidence is right in front of me. Making anything like this is incredibly satisfying - following a written pattern to create something real and wearable. But to actually see your skills getting better from your very first project, now that feels good.

My next post on this subject will be to tell you that I've finished! My next post, however, will be something completely different.

And here's the photographic proof of my progress:

Monday 3 November 2008

New project

Not really a new project actually, but an old one that got bumped in favour of the silk tee. Then, with my new-found understanding of measurements, I realised I had probably cast on the wrong number of stitches anyway. So I unravelled the whole thing and started again. According to the measurements given in the pattern the jumper should fit perfectly across my bust and be just the right length.

Other lessons I've taken on board from my tee-shirt include doing the whole thing in acrylic. I don't have much choice being sensitive to animal-based yarns, but at least I didn't substitute the given yarn, Cascade 220, for more silk!

And here are some pictures:



Last time I promised a photo of my Ally Pally haul. So here it is:



Quite impressive, I'm sure you'll agree.