Projects in progress

As I haven’t finished anything recently I thought I’d have a bit of a show and tell on the projects that I’m currently working on.

First up is lacy scarf that I’m designing. I’ve adapted a free lace stitch pattern from Knitting Daily, adding a fourth repeat and simple lace and garter stitch borders. This is a great way to practice lace - there are loads of free stitch patterns out there and it’s much easier to adapt one of these to make it your own than it is to create one from scratch.

The yarn is Manos del Uruguay Lace, a blend of 70% baby alpaca, 25% silk and 5% cashmere from SoSusie Yarns. I’m reviewing the yarn so more on this later. Suffice to say it’s really quite beautiful.

I really like the way this scarf is shaping up. The stitch pattern has worked really well and the garter stitch borders look good. Scarf and pattern will soon be on sale.

I’m also making another cat blanket using the stitch pattern I discovered a few weeks ago. I’m improving the pattern as I go, for example I’ve realised that if I knit really loosely the stitch pattern doesn’t shrink. For this blanket I cast on 201 stitches because the stitches tightened up so much in the last one that it ended up 20cm shorter than it started out at. This time the blanket hasn’t shrunk so much.

I really need to get on with this blanket. Sam loved his and Poppy is jealous. I keep going into the spare room to find her on his blanket. Although on Monday morning they were sharing it. So sweet.

Finally I’m making Champs Elysees wristwarmers. This is a pattern from Knit on the Net. It was free when I got hold of it, but it seems they’re going to be charging for it now. I’m using Rowan Kidsilk Haze that came free with a magazine subscription. Just a single ball, I wasn’t sure what to use it for, so this pattern was perfect. I haven’t got far with this project. It’s a complicated lace pattern that requires total concentration - this is definitely not one for pub knitting, or even knitting in front of the TV. Kidsilk Haze isn't the easiest yarn to knit with either; in fact it's a bit like trying to knit with spider silk. But the cobwebby result is gorgeous. These are going to be a present for my niece.

In which I’m impressed by customer service

The voucher in question.

About four years ago, my then boyfriend’s parents bought me a very generous present of a £30 voucher to spend at Stash Fine Yarns. I wanted to save it for something I really wanted, and because I’m rather forgetful this meant I ended up not buying anything. For years.

Then a few weeks ago I decided I wanted some really nice laceweight yarns. I’ve been thinking about designing lace shawls and wanted a yarn that would be really special for the new designs. An internet search revealed that Stash stocks some gorgeous silk and merino wool blend lace by Fyberspates, in absolutely beautiful colours. I wanted it. In at least two colourways.

It was time to use the voucher. It was at least four years old, but there was no date on it. The voucher was one of those ones with a code on to input when you get to the checkout. So I placed my order, entered my code and clicked ‘go’. It didn’t work. I tried again. It didn’t work. I was about to give up - the voucher was out of date, it was my own fault for not using it sooner.

But then I decided I really had nothing to lose by emailing Stash. So I did. And I quickly got a reply: could I scan the voucher and email images of it? I could and I did. Proof received that I really did have the voucher and the code was set up to work again. I ordered two hanks of Fyberspates Scrumptious and I will very shortly be designing a new lace shawl. I’ve already charted out the stitch pattern.

So thank you, people at Stash. I love the yarn I’ve bought with that voucher and I’ll definitely be using you again.

The yarn. Gorgeous Scrumptious Lace
from Fyberspates.

Knitting for Knit Now - my first magazine submission

For the past week or so I’ve been working on a new design for a magazine submission. Knit Now has called for original designs to feature in the Late Winter 2012 issue (January and February). The emphasis is on accessories and quick little knits, so I’m submitting a design I’ve had in mind for a while: a Kindle cover using knit and purl stitches to create a pattern.

The idea is that the cover uses less than one ball of yarn, so can be made using leftovers (good for post-Christmas pockets), it’s easy and quick to make and will be useful for anyone who got a Kindle from Santa Claus, or knows someone who did.

I’ve sketched out my design and made a chart and using this knitted a small section as a sample. I’ve got photos of all of this and written a short description and saved it as a single PDF. I sent the whole thing off today.

This is my first magazine submission and I don’t really know what to expect. Have I fit the brief? Will my idea be suitable? Will I hear back? I simply don’t know. Getting my designs in a national magazine is an important step in my nascent design career, though, so I’m hoping it works. Watch this space.

Inventing a new stitch pattern

The new stitch pattern looks like reverse stocking stitch, but is
the same on both sides and comes out double thickness.

I think I might have invented a new stitch pattern. This is exciting stuff. It was while trying to remember how to do the Chinese Wave pattern that a friend showed me at knitting group. I couldn’t quite remember what she’d said (wine might have been involved on the night), and I tried various combinations of the two stitches that make up the wave pattern: knit and slip stitch purlwise.

One variation that I particularly liked the look of was just ‘knit 1, slip 1 purlwise, repeat to end’, then repeat for next and all following rows. What you end up with is a fabric that looks like reverse stocking stitch but on both sides. Because you’re only using knit stitch the fabric lies flat, without curling up at the edges, while the combination of stranding the working yarn (the yarn you’ve got in your hand and are using to wrap around your needles to make a stitch) and the slipped stitch make a double-thickness fabric. This makes it ideal for blankets, placemats, shawls - anything that you want to stay flat. Best of all, of course, you only work half the stitches - what’s not to love?

Slip the stitch purlwise so that it doesn't twist.

At the moment I’m using up some old acrylic to make a cat blanket (my boyfriend thinks I spoil his cats; he may have a point) and I’m trying out this new stitch pattern. But I think it’s got great potential. It would make a lovely warm shawl, for example, which could be prettied up with a lace border. And if I can figure how to do colourwork with it, I think I could create some tapestry-style pieces that would make lovely cushion covers.

Free pattern

Try out the stitch with this simple free pattern to make a square with a garter stitch border. which can be adapted to create any size project, in any yarn you happen to have lying around - it’s very versatile. A thick cotton could make a surface protector to put a hot pan or teapot on; soft acrylic would make a cosy baby blanket; self-striping or self-patterning yarn could be interesting for a set of placemats. Holding two strands of yarn - maybe in different colours? - would add another dimension.

Taking the work off the needle means
you can see the doubled fabric.
It's stocking stitch on the inside.

Cast on an odd number of stitches; the exact number will depend on what yarn and needles you’re using and what you want to make. A chunky cotton on big needles to make a set of coasters might only need about 11 stitches. A baby blanket in double knit will require something more like 201. You could do a gauge swatch, or you could just cast on what looks to be the right number and then block the finished piece, which is what I did - be warned though, this is a very tight stitch pattern and your piece will shrink. Mine was 50cm at cast on but ended up as 30cm.

I used a standard double knit on 4mm needles and cast on 125 stitches.

Rows 1-4 knit to end
Row 5 k4, *k1, sl1 purlwise, k1, rpt from * to last four sts, k4
Row 6 k2, *sl1 purlwise, k1, sl1 purlwise, rpt from * to last four sts, k4
Rpt rows 5 and 6 until the piece is square
Knit four rows
Cast off
Block if required

If you’re doing small pieces you could experiment with a thinner border - begin and end the piece with three knit rows and each row with three knit stitches, or two knit rows and two knit stitches. Because the knit/slip pattern is very tight and garter stitch is quite loose, the border will take on a ‘frilled’ appearance.

Experimentation needed

I want to experiment a bit more with this. At the moment I’m knitting every slipped stitch and slipping every knitted stitch in the following rows, but what if I knit the knitted stitches and slip the slipped stitches in one following row and then swap them over? Will look any different if I slip the stitches knitwise? Or alternate purlwise and knitwise slipped stitches? Or use purl stitches instead of knit?

I’ve got loads of cheap acrylic left over from when I first taught myself to knit. Now it would seem I’ve got a way to use some of it up. I'd be interested to hear if anyone has seen this stitch pattern before.

Finished cat blanket. I added a blue
stripe because it's for a boy cat.

What if meat were no longer murder?

Will cows soon be safe from the meat industry?

I’ve not eaten meat for 26 years, so it was with some interest that a few weeks ago I read an article in the Guardian Weekend magazine about ‘fake’ meat and how scientists are looking into ways to make it more ‘meaty’. The feature is now on the Guardian’s website.

Two means of making fake meat were discussed. The first was pretty uncontroversial: using plant material to synthesise meat, much the same as Quorn today but actually tasting and - crucially - feeling like meat. I can’t actually remember the taste and texture of meat, but I understand that any replacement meat products currently on the market don’t come close.

Well, I say uncontroversial, but that’s not so to the many companies making millions from producing and selling the real thing. To them this research is highly problematic. But not from a moral standpoint. The second method, however, is more complicated.

In the future we could all be eating meat grown in test tubes.

This involves in-vitro meat - flesh grown in test tubes. Take a pig, or a cow, or any animal for that matter, kill it and, using stem cells, grow some meat. It’s obviously a lot more complex than that, involving all sorts of science magic. It also requires killing an animal. But, the article says, one animal “could provide the seed material for hundreds of tonnes of meat”. This is obviously much better than is currently the case - about 1,600 mammals and birds are slaughtered PER SECOND for human consumption, according the Guardian.

According to this Time article, the average person in the industrialised world eats around 176lbs of meat a year. There are 2,204 pounds in a tonne. So just one tonne of in-vitro meat would feed 12 people for a year. Hundreds of tonnes would feed thousands. One animal for thousands of people doesn’t sound like too bad odds (unless you happen to be that animal).

The in-vitro process seems to somehow remove the act of killing from the production of the meat - that cow can’t possibly have anything to do with those lab-grown steaks can it? And it certainly answers the environmental questions. But is it enough? For me, no. I want to see a process in which no animal is harmed.

What if that were possible? What if, instead of killing the cow, scientists could just administer a local anaesthetic and chop out the bit they need? Patch the cow up and send it on its merry way. They could ‘borrow’ animals used for other industries - dairy cattle, sheep or goats raised for their wool and so on. The environmental arguments against the meat industry are again safely rebutted, so what about the moral issues? The animals are no longer harmed and there’s no need for factory or intensive farming; in fact the few animals that were bred for meat production could live in the lap of luxury.

Guilt-free steak?

It seems I would no longer have a reason to be vegetarian. I’m still not sure I’d want to eat the meat though. Why? I’m not entirely sure. Its provenance doesn’t bother me, although I’m sure it would worry many people. I think that, after 26 years of not eating the stuff, the idea of ingesting flesh just doesn’t appeal. That said, I’d happily eat the plant-derived stuff, even if the taste and texture were exactly the same as the in-vitro version.