Idoru Knits

Crucial cases

2011-09-07T21:31:00.001+01:00

I’m designing again. Crochet this time. I was inspired by the fact that I have lots of circular needles. I used to be scared of circs, then I used them and I’ve never looked back. You can have way more stitches, the weight of your work is on your lap rather than your wrists, and there are no ends to catch in your sleeves (or is that just me?). What’s not to like?

Well, there’s the problem of identifying the needle size once you’ve taken it out of the packet. You can use a size gauge, but who wants to bother with one of those? And where do you keep your circs without getting them all tangled up or lost?

These were the problems I was considering when I came up with the Hanging Circular Needle Case. Not the snappiest of names, I know, but at least you know what you’re getting. It’s a simple enough concept. A long piece of crocheted fabric in three panels: double crochet, fan lace pattern and double crochet shaped to come to a point. It’ll fold in three, secured with either a button or hook and eye. I’ll line it with fabric that shows through the lace pattern and sew on some ribbon to hang it up with.

The first panel, nearly done.

Rib tickler

A lot of design, at least the way I do it, is trial and error. When I first started the needle case I was positive I wanted a rib effect on the double crochet panels. I achieved this by crocheting through the back loop only. The resulting fabric looked lovely. But then it occurred to me that it would also be very stretchy, and that this would make it rather difficult to sew the lining on. Hmm.

I’d done 10cm by the time I made this realisation. There was no choice but to undo the whole thing. I’ve redone it now, with just a plain ol’ double crochet. It ain’t as pretty, but it works, and it was much quicker than the dc tbl. Yeah, now I’m thinking that I’d be on the lace panel by now if I’d started off with dc.

A close up. A very poor one - you try taking a good close up inside at night. No? Thought not.

Changing names

2011-08-09T19:35:00.003+01:00

A while ago I changed my blog and Twitter name from Idoru Knits to knitting etc. I thought the latter sounded more serious, more grown up. I was wrong. I want my old name back.

Designer label
There is a reason for this. I’m not just being fickle - not entirely anyway. I want to design things. I want to produce the things I design under my own label. And I want that label to be Idoru Knits. Even though there’ll be crocheted items too. Maybe even some sewn ones if I ever get brave enough to use my sewing machine.

Recently I’ve been busily designing lots of things - a jumper, a wrist warmer, a t-shirt, headbands and flowers. I’m going to write up the patterns and try to sell them, and then make up lots of the smaller items and sell those too. I’m going to set up a Folksy shop when I’ve got something to put in it.

I’m not expecting to make my millions through this little design project. A bit of pocket money would be nice, but mostly this is a creative outlet. I’ve really enjoyed the few pieces that I’ve already designed, working out how make a frill on the bottom and cuffs of my jumper, the climbing vine pattern on my t-shirt, figuring out size and fit. It’s been a lot of fun. Long may it continue - under my new name, of course ...

My new headbands.

Damn and blast

2011-08-04T19:19:00.004+01:00

I was at one of my knitting groups last night (3 August). This is usually a very pleasant experience. And indeed it was, complete with cake, tea and a cat. However, this particular evening was marred somewhat by the unfortunate discovery that I’d made a sodding mistake in my baby cardie.

I’d nearly finished the yoke, which meant that just the collar, button bands and sewing up was left to do. Excellent, I thought. So I did a quick count of the stitches. Wrong number. And whatever I did to fix it didn’t work. Turns out I’d cast off the wrong number of stitches on the armhole shaping on both sleeves and the back. Bugger.

I had to undo the whole yoke and sort out the cast off stitches. And then count the stitches to make sure I had the right amount this time. Moral of this story? Always count first!

You can actually see how much I've had to unravel.

Creating crochet flowers

2011-08-02T22:02:00.005+01:00

I want to set up my own design label. There, I said it. That’s why I’ve been adapting jumpers and designing t-shirts. It’s also why I spent much of the weekend just gone (30-31 July) making up crochet flowers. I’ve invented seven, of differing sizes and designs. They’re pretty quick and easy to make and they can be made in different colour combinations and joined together to make new and exciting flowers.

There are two points to this. First, I’m going to write the patterns down and then hopefully sell them. The plan is to give one pattern away, but if you want all seven - along with instructions on how to make them in different weight yarns - then you have to cough up. It won’t be much - maybe £2.50 for all seven patterns. I don’t think that’s too much is it?

The second point is to make loads of these things and then sell them at craft fairs. They’re very cute, and when made in pretty colours or fluffy yarns (as oppose to my horrible purple practice yarn), they’re sure to look lovely. They’re versatile too - use them as embellishments, put them in your hair, secure them to a pin to make a flower brooch. I’ve got some lovely alpaca leftovers that are sure to look gorgeous ...

Knitting for baby

2011-07-30T11:20:00.006+01:00

One of my best friends is pregnant. This is fantastic news - they had been trying for months before they got the good news, and I know they will be fantastic parents. Notwithstanding some of the names the prospective father has suggested …

Anyway, for me this means the chance to try my hand at knitting baby clothes. And as luck would have it, just as I was finishing up my lacy t-shirt (designed by me, don’t you know), Knitting magazine showed up in the post box complete with a pattern for a lovely, simple baby cardie.

All five pieces had to be threaded onto the circ. Preferably without dropping any stitches.

Substitute
As a Debbie Bliss pattern, it calls for Ms Bliss’s Baby Cashmerino. But I’m all for supporting local businesses, so I went along to my friend’s SoSusie Yarns stall at Archway market. She doesn’t stock Debbie Bliss, so I had to for something else. Baby Rooster is 100% merino, machine washable and soft as the fur on a kitten’s nose. It’s cheaper than Baby Cashmerino and comes out at the same tension. It’s also lovely to knit with. In short, buy some. From SoSusie.

Now the wonderful thing about baby knits is just how quick they are to make. I did one of the cardie fronts in a couple of hours at a knitting group. Amazing! I started the cardie at the beginning of this month (July) and I’ve already nearly finished. And that includes putting it aside for about a week because I simply couldn’t understand how the yoke worked.

Panic!
Yeah, that yoke. I was convinced there was a mistake in the pattern. I’d happily (and correctly) made all the separate pieces - back, two fronts, two sleeves - up to the armhole shaping and then transferred all the stitches to a holder. Next it was time to transfer them all back to the needles. There were 188 of them - I bought a circular. Then it was time to knit the yoke, decreasing all the time to the collar.

Sounds simple, and it is. But I just couldn’t see how the armholes would be made. I looked on Ravelry, I looked in the next two issues of the magazine, I looked on the magazine’s forum, I searched the whole internet. Nothing. It took a very clever knitting Badger to explain it to me. It works. But I’m not sure why.

It’s not important. I’m racing through the yoke now, and it’s surely only a matter of days till the cardie is finished. And in plenty of time for baby’s birth.

Close up - see how even those stitches are? I put that down to the yarn. And my own greatness, of course.

A belated update

2011-06-29T20:39:00.004+01:00

Pattern: Candy reconstructed

The problem with a craft blog is that there’s not much point updating it until you’ve got something to show off. And when you’re making a jumper without a pattern it takes a long time to finish. When I started this jumper, my first that I’ve designed myself, I had every intention of posting regular updates - a record of what I got right, what I got wrong, what I did to fix the mistakes, the changes I made to my original idea. In short, everything I learned about designing my own knits. But when it came to it, I was far too busy knitting to write.

Finished object
The important thing, though, is that my jumper is finally completed. And you know what? It looks pretty good! There was a lot of trial and error involved. Making sure the sleeves fit the armholes was particularly onerous, and I’m still not sure I quite understand how this works. I was going to do a ribbed collar, but once I’d done this and cast off, I couldn’t get my head through the resulting hole. So a simple double crochet finish has had to suffice. As it happens, I really quite like the new collar.

And all of this was part of the learning process. I now know to leave a bigger gap for my head, and to cast off very loosely! I’ve learnt how to make frills, and I love that effect around the cuffs. I’m also knitting a lot more quickly than I was at the beginning of this project.

Work in progress
The other thing with crafting is that, even before you’ve finished a current project, you’re thinking about the next. And true to form, I’m already on my next design. This time a cropped t-shirt with what I’m calling a ‘climbing vine’ lace pattern. I say I’m already on it, what I mean is that it’s nearly finished. Which will give me the topic of my next blog!

Off the cuff

2011-03-05T17:28:00.003Z

Pattern: Cold Office Cuff

This was inspired by two things. The first was coming into the office on a Monday morning to find it bitterly cold. That ‘the heating’s been off all weekend and it’s going to take all day to warm up’ sort of cold. I wrapped up in my cardi and put all the heaters on, but my poor hands were turning blue. I couldn’t wear my gloves, because then I wouldn’t be able to use my computer. I needed something that would keep my hands warm without covering up my fingers. Hmm.

Second was a jumper. The first jumper I ever knitted, in fact. At the time I was hugely proud of myself. Now, though, the cheap acrylic had stretched to the point where the jumper was just a shapeless mess and the bright purple was doing nothing for anyone. I really don’t know where I was going with that colour. I suppose I was thinking something like: purple is good, therefore lots of purple must be even better. I was wrong. A paler purple, lilac maybe, might have worked.

The yarn makes more sense. It was my first attempt at making a jumper - I was hardly going to make it in cashmere. So it was time to recycle the jumper, giving me lots of acrylic to play with. And so the Cold Office Cuff was born.

Easy does it
It’s incredibly simple. Essentially 1x1 rib for a bit, 2x2 rib with some increasing, 2x2 rib straight, 2x2 with some decreasing, 1x1 rib, cast off. Sew up, leaving a gap for your thumb. Repeat.

Originally I was going to do some cables, but I couldn’t find the pattern I wanted to base the cables on, so I gave up on that idea. Also, I wanted something very quick to knit up - these most certainly were. My cuffs are now kept at work, and as the last few mornings have been pretty cold, I’m rather pleased with myself.

Next I shall work out those cables and maybe figure out a way to make a thumb.

The Cold Office Cuff - my first ever design!

Beginnings and endings: a closer look at making a lace hat

2010-10-20T21:07:00.010+01:00

I love knitting - I love leafing through magazines and books to plan what I’ll make next; I love going to yarn shops to choose wool, thinking about colours and textures, how something will feel and look; I love the act of knitting in hand, watching the fabric grow; I love learning new things to do with those two simple stitches that all knitting begins with. What I don’t love, however, are the beginnings and endings - casting on and sewing up.

Casting on should be fun. It’s the start of a new journey - it’s getting in the car that’s going to take you somewhere exciting. Or at least it should be. Not to me, though. To me it’s time consuming and dull. You spend all that time casting on and there’s hardly anything to show for it. Then you have to count all your stitches, which I do two or three times just to be sure. Possibly that’s overkill.

A question of cast-on
Really, however, there’s much more to casting on than I realised. First, I thought you just learned a cast-on technique and that was you set for life. I was wrong. When I learned to knit, using Debbie Stoller’s fantastic Stitch n Bitch: The Knitters’ Handbook, I followed her method for casting on. It’s called the long-tail cast on and while it looks quite complicated it really isn’t. It also makes a lovely, neat edge.

I used my usual long-tail method to begin my lace hat. And it turned out that this was a mistake. The technique simply doesn’t have enough stretch in it for a hat. It took two attempts to work this out, of course, which wasn’t helped by the fact that I was knitting so tightly I was actually hurting my hands.

A new method was called for, so I tried the knitted method. As the name suggests, this involves knitting into the stitch that’s on the needle and transferring the new stitch onto the left needle. The resulting edge is lot looser and stretchier than that produced by the long-tail method, but it’s not as neat or nice-looking.

I’m not going to attempt to explain how to do the two cast ons I used here, but if you want to give them a go, head over to YouTube and do a search - there are loads of tutorials.

Blockheads
I don’t really get blocking. I mean, I get what you do, obviously. That’s easy - pin out the knitted pieces, wet them and leave them to dry. But I’ve never really understood why. I’ve blocked all my pieces and none of them have looked any different afterwards.

Pre-blocking. I was going to give up on lace after seeing this.

But that was before I knitted lace. When I finished my hat, it actually looked a bit of a mess - holey, not lacy. Blocking is supposed to fix this, so I made sure I blocked properly. I pinned out that hat section by section, ensuring that each was fully stretched out, spritzed with water and left to dry. It took more than a week. But you know what? It was worth it. It’s now lacy, not holey.

Careful, section-by-section blocking. It took ages.

Sew, sew
I don’t know why I dislike the sewing part. But everyone does, right? This should be the exciting bit. The knitting is done, you’ve blocked all the pieces and now you’ve just got to sew them together before you can wear your new hat/jumper/shrug/whatever.

But before I go any further, a word on weaving in ends. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve been given on this is to weave in ends as you go, so that you don’t have an overwhelming number of them to sort out at the end. I even did this once, and it really does help. So have I done it since? Of course not! The moral there is listen to good advice and keep on following it.

But back to the sewing. My theory on why we hate the sewing up so much is that we’re all worried that our terrible sewing technique is going to ruin our beautiful knitting. So we put it off and put it off until it becomes A Big Thing.

Time to let you in on a secret: sewing can be undone. You know how you forgot that yarn over four rows back and you’ve got to back to fix it? Sewing is just the same! Cut the thread and unpick it - no harm done.

It might take a long time, you might not be the best sewer in the world, but the more you do it the better - and quicker - you’ll get. And before you know it, sewing will just be very little thing.

I always think I’m rubbish at sewing, so I avoid it. But you know what? I sewed that hat up in about an hour, and you can’t even see the seam.

And finally ...
Remember that ‘Break yarn, thread through rem sts, draw up and fasten off’ instruction was concerned about? It’s easy! I left a nice, long tail to make blocking easier, and then just used a crochet hook to thread the tail through each stitch and then let it drop off the end of the needle. The long tail ensures that the stitches won’t fall off the yarn during blocking.

Once the blocking was done, I pulled the thread tight and sewed a nice figure of eight to secure it, and then used the remaining yarn to sew up the hat.

Hat in use! Lace is my new favourite.

The frill of it

2010-09-29T19:17:00.007+01:00

As you know I’m currently working on my first design project - adapting Candy, a pattern that featured in the May 2008 issue of Let’s Knit (it’s on Ravelry here, for those with an account).

The changes I’m making aren’t huge - a V neck rather than scoop, 4-ply yarn instead of double knit, changing the colour of the yarn at the stocking stitch part to match the accents around the hem, cuffs and neck, and putting in a frill at the hem and cuffs. But I think that’s enough for a first foray into design.

Taking the measure
Now, I’m usually a ‘chuck it all in and hope for the best’ kind of girl; a philosophy I apply to everything from packing to cooking. It’s always seen me good in the past. So I was rather surprised at my methodical approach to this design. I decided exactly where I want the hem to fall - a couple of inches below the waistband of my jeans - measured myself, knitted a tension square and measured the width of a top that was the right length to be sure of the size. Using all this information, I calculated exactly how many stitches I’d need.

Next, I wanted to make the hem looser than the ‘bodice’ as it were (the 2x2 rib). I thought I’d achieve this with a 3x3 rib. This meant that my stitches had to be divisible by two and three. Luckily 144 is and it’s very close to the number I’d found I needed. Time to start knitting.

It didn’t work. The 3x3 rib certainly wasn’t looser than the 2x2, if anything it was tighter(see Exhibit A below). This wasn’t going to work at all. So I took some spare acrylic and started experimenting. How about a 1x1 rib? No. How about casting on with bigger needles, knitting one row and changing to the smaller needles? Nearly, but not quite.

I was going to have to try something different. What would happen, I wondered, if I cast on several more stitches than I needed, knitted a row and then k2tog every fourth and fifth stitch? It worked. In fact, to make the frill even more, well, frilly, I cast on and knit the first row using big needles then changed to the small needles for the decrease row. Experimentation over, it was time to start again.

And we're off ...
Problem: I didn’t know how many stitches I’d need to cast on so that I’d end up with 144 after decreasing. Divide 144 by four and add the result, 36, to 144 seemed the right thing to do. I still don’t know why this is the right thing to do, but it really is because I counted the whole thing out on paper. To complicate things further, the cast on and first row had to be in colour 1 and the decrease row (and all following rows) were to be in colour 2. But after all the maths, remembering to change colours was easy.

Of course, it’s not all been plain sailing since then. Only last night, having done some 15cm of knitting, I found a mistake about halfway down. It wasn’t a huge mistake - a couple of places where I’d purled instead of knitted and then corrected myself. But I knew it was there, so it had to go. This meant ripping out 7.5cm of knitting, just to correct two wrongly purled stitches. Being a perfectionist isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

And that’s where I am at the moment: reknitting all those ripped out rows. Yes, it’ll take ages, but for me it’s worth it.

Exhibit A. Sorry for the quality of the photo - done at night on my lap.
But you can see the lack of frill.

Much better! Just look at the frill. Frilling! And other bad puns.

Knitting up north

2010-09-20T19:54:00.008+01:00

It's taken months to get this far. No, really.

Holidays are great. I’ve just come back from a week 'oop north' and I’ve had a fabulous time. I knitted, wrote, ate, walked, read, drank wine and watched some birds.

On the knitting front I finished a hat that’s taken me far too long to complete (lace am hard), did some of a gorgeous red slouch and started out on my first ever design project. Well, I say design project, it’s more of a redesign. I’m taking a pattern I’ve made before and adapting it. I decided that would probably be the easiest way to get into designing my own knits. So far I haven’t managed to quite get things looking the way I want, so currently I’m testing out various techniques in order to work out how to get the hem right. At the moment stocking stitch on giant needles or attempting a frill are the front-runners. I’ll let you know how I get on.

But it’s the hat I’m really pleased with. This hat has been a nightmare knit. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had to frog and redo it. Partly this is my own fault - I didn’t swatch and it turned out my tension was much, much too tight, and it soon became obvious that the hat wouldn’t fit round my head. In my defence, though, the tension square was in the complicated lace pattern, rather than a nice, sensible stocking stitch, and I just couldn’t work out how to count the damn thing!

I started again on bigger needles, much bigger needles. But I was still knitting very, very tight. So tight in fact that moving the yarn on the needles was actually hurting my fingers, and several times when arduously pushing stitches along needles I pushed too hard and the stitches popped of the end. That involved much swearing and dropped stitches, I can tell you.

So then I learned to knit continental. Sounds a bit dirty doesn’t it? Unfortunately it’s not. This has cured my too-tight knitting problem. Honestly, it’s fantastic - it’s practically impossible to work too tightly. Continental knitting is great and I highly recommend it. In fact I’ll probably blog about it in the very near future.

However, a new knitting style meant starting that hat again. You might be surprised to hear that I still didn’t do a tension square. But guess what? It worked anyway! The hat is knitted. It only took two false starts, not to mention the time I took it to the pub and talked/drank so much that I lost a stitch and had to undo the whole thing. Or the many unknittings that took place due to dropped stitches or missed yarn overs.

The knitting is indeed done, though, and I’m very proud. Now I’ve got to block it and do something that says ‘Break yarn, thread through rem sts, draw up and fasten off. Not entirely sure what that means but I’m sure I’ll work it out, and when I do I'll post photos of the completed piece.

Lace detail. I admit you can't really see it. You'll just have to wait till its blocked and off the needle.

The Slouch. More photos when it's done.

Bead queen

2010-09-06T19:46:00.004+01:00

One of the best pieces of advice Emma gave us in the bead jewellery class was to practice what we'd learned sharpish, before we forgot it all, and so I had earmarked yesterday (Sunday 5 September) as my day for beading.

After the class I had bought everything I needed to make a 12-strand bracelet - hundreds of little beads, some thread and all the sterling silver fixings required. I gathered this all together, along with the pliers and clippers I'd bought from Buffy's Beads, and sat down at the kitchen table ready to start stringing.

First came the maths; I had to figure out how long the strands should be and many beads I needed for each strand. The first bit was easy: measure the circumference of my wrist. It's 5.5"; obviously I didn't want a skin-tight bracelet so decided the strands should be 7". To work out how many beads I'd need I strung an inch-long strand and counted. There were 14 beads, giving me 98 per 7" strand. So I counted 100 into little pots.

Everything you need to start beading!

To string each strand you need to cut a length of thread, tie a knot in one end and start sliding the beads on. The strands should be several inches longer than you want them to end up. It will become clear why next ...

It was all going swimmingly well until I got to the tying up bit. I tied all six strands together. And then realised I should have put the calotte on first. I had to cut the knot off; lucky my thread was so long. Mistakes aren't the only reason for extra thread, it makes all the knots easier. Crisis averted.

First six done, on to the next set.

But things were to get worse. The bracelet is made in two sets of six strands, each set is attached to a soldered ring and the rings are then attached to split rings, one of which is also attached to the clasp. The first set was perfect, not withstanding the knot problem. Then it happened. While tying the first knot on the second set, I let go of the ends. Beads went everywhere. I picked them up, threaded them back on and tied my knot. Phew.

Can you guess what comes next? That's right, things got even worse. When tying the second knot it's important to get the beads tightly packed, otherwise you can see the thread. I worked the beads down, pulled the thread tight, worked the beads down, and so on. It looked great. I tied my knot. But somehow it ended up in the wrong place - there was spare thread on three of my strands!

I tried undoing the knot. No joy. I tried easing it further down the thread. I had some success with this, but not enough. Three of my strands were just too long. But there was nothing more I could do, other than cut it all off, waste those sterling silver fixings and start again. In the end I decided to finish it off. This was my first ever solo attempt after all. In fact it looks OK. With all 12 strands afixed you can't actually see the three that went wrong.

It gets worse though: despite my careful measuring the bracelet is too long for me. The various rings and clasps added at least another inch to the bracelet and it just slides over my hand and falls off. Bugger. So if you know anyone with a 6.5" inch wrist and a liking for shiny purple things, let me know.

It's not all bad, though. I learned some important lessons, practised bracelet-making techniques and I've got plenty of beads left for another go.

The finished article. So who wants it? You can't see the mistake, honest.

A close-up of the beads.

The craft whore

2010-08-24T20:38:00.002+01:00

Yep, that’s me, a craft whore. I love my knitting, but a glimpse of a shapely bauble or fine bead and my head is well and truly turned. How else can I explain the fact that just two days ago I was sitting in a basement learning how to make bead jewellery?

I hate to use a cliche, but there is no other way of describing The Bead Shop in Covent Garden other than as a treasure trove of beading materials. Two floors of the prettiest, shiniest glass, crystal, metal, wooden (I could go on) beads, as well as findings in base metals, sterling silver and gold-filled. It’s a stunning, and totally overwhelming, experience.

I’ve wanted to make and design my own beaded jewellery for a while now, but I had no idea where to start. So many beads, so many findings - I couldn’t even work out what to thread them on. And, unlike knitting, there seems to be very little in the way of beginners’ instruction books.

I had previously been to a class at Buffy’s Beads in Kingly Court. This was great fun and I took away with me two bracelets and two necklaces that I’d made myself. The problem was that I couldn’t work out how to apply what I’d learned there to anything else. Give me the same materials and I could happily make those same necklaces and bracelets, but anything else was beyond me, and those tempting arrays of shining beads were just as daunting.

This is where The Bead Shop class comes in. Instead of making a finished product, the idea is to practice techniques. We went through where and why to use thread or nylon-covered metal (called Tigertail) and the different sizes. Then we strung some beads, learning how to use different findings such as calottes and soldered rings. Crucially, the teacher Emma had brought along samples of her own jewellery to show us what we could make with the techniques she was teaching us.

The afternoon was taken up making single loops and wire wrapping; both techniques for attaching beads to each other or lengths of chain. Afterwards there was some time to buy some products, on which we got a 5% discount. Because Emma was there with her jewellery it was easy to buy the beads for something she had already made. I’ve got everything I need to make up a gorgeous 12-stranded bracelet. Then it’s just a case of making sure I keep practising everything I learned.

The classes aren’t cheap, but at £80 for a full day, including all tools and materials, they are good value, and certainly a lot of fun. They run on the third Sunday of the month. See Emma’s website for details. If you are interested in making your own jewellery I would definitely recommend booking in.

Jewellery samples. Sorry for the quality of the photo. It's taken inside, at night, with flash. This really is the best I could do.

Finally, a finished object!

2010-08-18T19:07:00.004+01:00

I finished knitting my cable tunic some time ago. Getting on for a year in fact. Last week I admitted this shameful piece of information to my knitting group. They shouted at me and made me sit in the corner. So, in a bid to avoid such treatment this week, I've spent the last seven days sewing up.

It has been an easy process. I managed to half set in one sleeve before realising the wrong side was showing. Before this I couldn't decide which stitch would be best for each seam, so had to start each several times over until I'd decided which to use. In the end I went for fake grafting for the shoulder seams, which gives a nice invisible edge, and back stitch for all others. I tried mattress stitch, but it just wasn't working for me.

Of course these weren't the only problems. I also managed to stab myself under the thumbnail with a pin. It bled, but not on the knitting so it wasn't a disaster. And then Sherlock - my chosen entertainment for this job - disappeared from iPlayer.

I don't like sewing. I'm not very good at it, and it takes me ages. I'm not entirely pleased with all my seams, but I did notice a definite improvement as I went. My final sleeve seam is a delight.

Despite my many trials and setbacks, you'll be please to read that the job is done! Yep, all sewn up and ready to wear. It even fits (I was concerned it was going to turn out too small). But don't take my word for it - here are some photos!

Sweet charity

2010-08-12T22:33:00.002+01:00

I’ve made three baby blankets over the past year, and now I’m knitting another. This one is different, though. At the same time, both more and less personal and important. Let me explain.

The previous blankets have all been for friends, people I care about. I will meet and get to know the babies that are currently snuggled up in blankets I’ve made. This makes me happy. The blanket I’m currently knitting, though, is for charity. Bliss provides vital care for sick and premature babies in the UK, as well as supporting parents of sick babies and providing information for health care professionals. This work is hugely important, and something that I wanted to support.

I don’t have children, so I can’t even imagine what it must be like to have a child so sick that you can’t even take it home. I learned something about that pain in a recent edition of Knitting. One of columnists wrote of her experiences with her very ill newly-born. It was heart rending; it inspired me to knit this blanket.

I’m just over half done now and I’m sure this won’t be the last charity blanket I knit. The thought that something I’ve made might provide comfort to a poorly baby and to the distraught parents of that baby, well that makes me happy too.

For more information about knitting for Bliss, please click here.

A quick catch up

2010-08-10T23:40:00.000+01:00

I've been taking something of a break from this blog, recently. Not because I've not been knitting, quite the opposite in fact - I've been far too busy knitting to blog. I've also been thinking about this blog. It's fun to write it, but I really think I've not been making enough of it. I'm a journalist, so really I should know how to make this thing required reading, and it certainly hasn't been that.

So in the next few days I'm going to be making some changes. There'll be a new name, a brand-new layout/design and some new photos. This might take some time, as I familiarise myself with Blogger's various attributes. I don't expect the changes to be huge, just some spring cleaning really. While I'm sprucing up the design, I'll also be working on the editorial. There will be many more posts, with more reviews, more news and lots of ramblings from me.

In the meantime, I shall share with you my latest projects.

First, there's the girl's baby blanket. I've already posted the photos of this, so I won't bore you with them again. Suffice to say it's fully completed. I posted it off to new Mum a while ago and she was suitably impressed (I love being able to make things for people!).

Next it was a crochet tank top for my BFF's birthday. I managed to do this in a month. I was very impressed with myself.

And here's a close-up.

And these are the ends (beautiful friends). I had to share them, as there were just so many. It took me as long to sew in all the ends as it did to crochet the actual top. This is only about half of them as well; many more ended up in the bin in Cambridge.

And finally yet another crocheted baby blanket. This one made from many little hexagons. It's so snuggly and warm - I want a full-sized one for myself.

Two close-ups of this one because I couldn't decide which I liked best.

So that's all the finished stuff. There's still plenty of things to finish: a hat, another baby blanket and sewing up the tunic. There's also lots in the queue: another hat, some socks, a cowl and some pieces I'm designing myself. Watch this space for news on all of these!

The hook test

2010-03-29T19:38:00.000+01:00

As we all know I've been crocheting a baby blanket of late (it's very nearly done!), and for this project I've been trying out some new hooks. These particular hooks were a freebie on a magazine. Typically I can't remember which magazine or who makes the hooks. But I think they're Knit Pro Symphonies.

They're certainly pretty enough to be Symphonies - multi-coloured, smooth-as-silk wood, and, usefully, they're double ended. So five hooks give me 10 different sizes. The yarn slides nicely along the polished wood and while the tip of the hook isn't especially pointed I've had no problems inserting it into the stitches, even the foundation chain was no more problematic than usual.

The 'barrel' of the hook is nice to hold, with a carved flat edge where my thumb sits nicely. This edge has also got the hook sizes printed on it. But, and here's the rub - literally - with the hook sizes printed just where my thumb rests the white writing is quickly getting rubbed off. The only way I'm going to be able to fix this is carve the sizes into the wood with a knife.

The double endedness is another problem. It's certainly useful, but the hook is just the wrong length for me. The 'other' end, the end not being used, sits right on the fleshy, sensitive part of my palm - it's called the Mars negative mount in palmistry, according to Wikipedia! This makes the hook really quite uncomfortable to use, though the way I hold my hooks might have something to do with it. I have my hand on top, rather like holding a knife, whereas anyone holding their hooks more like a pencil, with the hook on top, is likely to be fine.

The hooks are the same size as my 'normal' metal ones (I measured) and they could do with being a touch longer. I've got quite small hands so I think this is a problem that most hookers (hee hee) will have. Just an extra couple of centimetres would have made all the difference.

Tying up loose ends

2010-03-27T13:10:00.000Z

It's all about the finishing at the moment. I've two projects close to completion: the crocheted baby blanket and my cable tunic. The tunic I'm especially pleased about; all the pieces are assembled and I've just got to sew in the ends, do the neck and sew up. But I keep putting it off. Why? I hate sewing!

The actual making up part of making something is easily my most hated. I don't think I'm alone in this. In fact there are people who'll do the making up for you, for a price. It's a good idea, but not one I'll be using. I might hate the sewing in and the sewing up, but this is my tunic and I want to finish it!

The blanket is a much better prospect. There's no sewing up, just weaving in of ends, once I've done the border, which is coming along nicely, thanks very much. I should be finished soon, and while the baby is still small enough to need a blankie - excellent!

This blanket has been something of a challenge, with new techniques employed, botched and finally learned! The end result is a really quite thick fabric that will certainly keep baby warm and an interesting 3D effect with raised zigzags and tubes as well as a pretty shell pattern.

Next project? A hat that is already causing me headaches, but more about that later, now pics:

All the pieces, finished, blocked and just waiting for the sewing up. To be honest I've got no excuse to get this done - my TV broke last week and this week the ac adapter for my laptop stopped working. Lucky I've got an EEE PC to keep me connected to the interwebz.

The light was better this time - it's daytime and I opened the front door. Look at those zigzags! You can't really see, but the border has been started. Just six more rounds and I'm done.

A close-up, obviously. And a much better one that last time.

Happy apping

2010-03-22T20:51:00.000Z

Recently I've been trying out knitting apps for my iPhone. For anyone with an iPhone, tap 'knitting' into the search box and an array of options appears. In fact, if any more proof that knitting is trendy were needed, then the number of knitter-friendly clever pieces of software for Apple's little block of cool is surely it.

Of course they all claim to help you keep track of your projects, plan your next, count all your stitches and rows and make endless cups of tea (OK, I made up that last one). Prices range from free to £3.49. But which is best? Well that partly depends on what you want the app to do. Jknit, the most expensive, claims to be a complete knitting assistant, allowing you input your pattern instructions to create a single counter telling you exactly what to do row by row – it seems to do everything but knit the rows for you. At the other end of the scale are the free apps that just work as a digital row counter.

The knit test
I've been trying out two of the simpler apps – KnitMinder and Knit Counter, both in free 'lite' versions. The full versions cost £1.79 and £2.39 respectively. Both of these store counters and project information about yarn and needles used.

KnitMinder allows you to record notes in a logbook, which Knit Counter has space for notes. So far so similar. So what are the differences? KnitMinder has the option of saving planned, finished and on hold projects; handy for shopping excursions or keeping track of what you've got outstanding.

The free Knit Counter only allows you record one project; the paid-for version allows unlimited. So while you can't file projects as 'planned' or 'on hold' you can still input such projects and make a note of their status.

Changing boons
Knit Counter's real strength, though, lies in the versatility of its counters. You can assign each project as many counters as you like; for example, a hat I'm making has got four counters. You can assign any name you want to each counter, unlike KnitMinder, which gives you a choice of several. I'm recording the number of rows I knit, the number of repeats in a row, the number of rows to repeat for the ribbing and the number of repeats for the lace section, each with its own name.

To count up, you simply tap on a plus sign next to the row name. You can even link rows so that after you've reached a certain number on one counter, another will count up. Very useful! You can also program in an increase or decrease reminder.

You might have guessed that I prefer Knit Counter. Its adaptability makes it incredibly useful, and the user interface is much prettier than KnitMinder's. It has made following my rather complicated hat pattern much easier. The only drawback is that the free version only lets me record one pattern – so I guess I'll be forking out for the paid-for counter then!

All hail crochet!

2010-03-18T20:34:00.000Z

In the latest issue of Knitting (April 2010), Laura 'Purl Princess' Parkinson makes an excellent case for knitting as the king of crafts. Have you read it? The Princess of Purl certainly has a good argument - that knitting is the most portable and sociable of crafts. But, I fear, she has forgotten crochet, knitting's oft-maligned cousin.

Portability
Crochet is just as easy to shove in a bag as knitting. Easier in fact - just one, small hook and a ball of wool is all you need. That one hook makes it a lot better for doing in cramped spaces, like public transport, too; you're much less likely to elbow any fellow travellers (or is that just me?).

I have a project on the go that I only do when on the train or during lunch at work. A throw made up of around 70 'wagon wheels', it's ideal for just keeping in my bag and doing whenever I've got a spare moment. What's more, in my head it doesn't count as one of my WIPs. Because it's specifically for what would otherwise be 'dead' time. I don't know how this means it doesn't count as a WIP, it just doesn't.

Sociability
Like knitting, crochet is a series of stitches repeated, and once you've got that series stuck in your head it's easy to two things at once: watch TV and crochet, chat with friends and crochet, drink wine and crochet. In fact if I could convince one person to hold my book at eye level, turning pages when I nod my head, and another to hold a wine glass at hand level, I could easily combine my three favourite things!

And another thing
Knitting can be slow-going. You can only add to it one row at a time. But crochet, with its trebles and more grows much more quickly.

So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you crochet: the true king of crafts!

This is my latest crochet project: a baby blanket for an old work colleague. These pictures aren't very good. The light in my flat is pretty poor for photography. But you get the idea. I've got a couple more rows to go and then it's the border.

Above: blanket with Knitting. Below: close up of blanket to show stitch pattern. The colour is closer to the photo above; it's actually a very pale pink, for a baby girl.

Slow coach

2010-01-14T13:46:00.000Z

Why oh why does it take me so long to finish anything? I'm still, yes still, working on both the lace shrug and the cable tunic. I had to undo quite a lot of the tunic because I'd got the measurements wrong, but even taking that into account it's taking ages to finish both of these.

The shrug was started in November 2008. Which means it's been going on for more than a year now. I think the tunic was started slightly later. Even so, that's still been on the needles for around a year. The tunic is particularly galling, first for the unravelling, second because it's all rib from here on in and it's got me bored rigid and third because despite working on it over Christmas I seemed to hardly do any. In the same time read three books. I just want the damn thing finished now!

I wonder - am I losing interest in the fun new hobby of mine? I've only been knitting and crocheting for two and half years, but maybe I've run out of steam. And yet I still get so excited about new projects. I love the idea of knitting, but the reality is somewhat different. I know the problem: I'm too slow, something about the way I knit means it's taking me far too long to get anywhere. But I haven't the faintest idea how to speed things up.

I did manage one thing - I was sliding the knitting far too far down the needle every time I made a stitch, so I'd have to slide it all way up again, and then way down again, with the next stitch. Well I stopped that, and it did speed me up a bit. But nowhere near enough.

So the question is: how do I go about getting quicker? You'd think it's a matter of practice, and yet despite my two-and-a-half-year's experience I'm really not speeding up. There people out there who can knit jumpers for a family of four and still have time to crochet a new pair of curtains in the time it's taken me to nearly finish one tunic, so I must be doing something wrong. But what? Answers on a postcard please!

I'll post some photos of the tunic when I get home this evening.

The place for lace

2009-10-08T13:39:00.000+01:00

Review: Amazing Crochet Lace by Doris Chan

This isn’t a new book – in fact it’s about three years old, but it’s new to me. I got it as a birthday present just a couple of weeks ago.

The book starts with an introduction from Chan – why she crochets, her theory of ‘exploded’ lace and a bit of advice on how best to approach the patterns. Then it’s the usual abbreviations and stitch keys and then straight into the patterns. There are 19 of them in total, arranged into four chapters with names like Garden Party and Last Call, which seem to have more to do with the names of patterns rather than the look of any of the garments.

First things first, then, exploded lace means taking a pattern for some small decorative item – like a doily or table runner – and adapting it for bigger yarn, bigger hooks and a much, much bigger product, like a shawl, a t-shirt or a dress.

Chan also talks about every crocheter’s most hated stage – the foundation chain. She uses something she calls the BASE CH/SC. It involves making two chains and making both a chain and a single crochet into the first chain. Then doing the same into the chain of the stitch you just made, and repeating this till you’ve got the right number of stitches. It’s something I’ve never encountered before and the instructions and illustrations really are clear. With a bit of practice it was pretty simple. The resultant chain is an odd-looking bulky thing that is remarkably easy to crochet into. I’m not sure it’ll take over from a traditional chain in my crochet repertoire, but it’s certainly good to know.

The pattern I tested was Chrysanthemum Tea Shawl, a huge circular shawl adapted from three doily patterns. The instructions are easy to follow and the thick yarn and big hook mean the piece grows pleasingly fast. Each pattern comes complete with full written instructions and chart showing a sample of the lace pattern.

The garments, which include a skirt, a dress, t-shirts and shawls, are all lovely, with only a couple I wouldn’t wear. The layout and instructions are generally good, clear and simple to follow. But make no mistake, these pieces are not for the beginner. The patterns are complex, often involving hundreds of stitches. To do this you need the time and space to concentrate – don’t do what I did and sit down in front of Smallville and think it’ll turn out OK. It won’t. And make sure you check for errata before you start. I found a mistake in the special stitches box! But think how much worse it would be to have completed a few hundred stitches only to realise something’s wrong.

One problem is the photography. Each garment has a full-page plate and often another couple of photos. But these are all dark, making it difficult to see colours and detail. A little lightening in Photoshop would have helped. But this really is a minor niggle in an otherwise excellent collection.

A couple of not-very-good shots of the shawl.

Baby blankie

2009-09-24T13:39:00.001+01:00

When I finished this about a week ago I thought I really didn't have anything much to blog about. It's a baby blanket, for a friend's soon-to-be baby - what can be said about that? But then I remembered I didn't use the suggested yarn, so I had to Do Maths. And that's definitely something to write about.

It was simple enough to make - square and in long stripes, double (US) or treble (UK) crochet throughout. The yarn give was a worsted weight though, which we don't get in the UK. The closest we have is aran, but I couldn't find any in the colours I wanted. So I decided to go with DK. And that's where Doing Maths came in. I duly made up a tension square and worked out that I needed half again as many stitches for the length and rows for the width. Rather surprisingly I thought; I'd expected to have to double up on everything. A neat lesson there on why a tension square is so important!

It all went swimmingly well until I got the border - surely a double crochet wasn't going to be long enough to weave the braid through? After a couple of tests I settled on triple. Incidentally another break from the pattern was that I chose a different colour for the border rather than use one of the blues as per the pattern. Another problem came with the braid - the thinner yarn meant many more strands, but how many. Again with some experimentation, I worked it all out. I had to braid the yarn by holding it in my teeth!

I think it turned out OK - judge for yourself:

In a twist

2009-07-22T09:39:00.000+01:00

I might not rock at lace, but I'm undoubtedly the queen of cables. To take my mind of the shruggle I started on a cable tunic a while back. The back is finished and I've started on the front - I stopped at that point to go back to the shruggle, but as soon as I've finished the left front of that I'll swop back to the tunic.

The yarn for this is a cotton/acrylic mix. It's lovely to knit with and the stitch definition is great. It's worked really well for the cabling. The yarn given was a cotton, which I think would have turned out much heavier and probably not as cosy.

The yarn for the whole thing cost about £20 - £20 for a handmade cabled tunic! Which just goes to show that knitting doesn't have to be an expensive hobby.

Here's tunic! That's the completed back and the start of the front. I'm really hoping I get it finished in time for the cooler weather.

And here's the close up. Look at those cables! Look at that stitch definition! Cables rock.

The ongoing shruggle

2009-07-22T09:23:00.000+01:00

Yes, that's right - I'm still at it. I started this in November last year and it's still going strong. Or should that be wrong?

Actually, though, I have improved no end. The back is complete and I've nearly finished the left front, and between now and November I did knit the back of a cabled tunic. So it's not too bad, I guess. I've definitely learnt a lot - such as don't knit with Kid Silk Haze, learn how to read charts before you start using them, lace is really, really hard. I also know what the stitches are supposed to look like so I know when I've gone wrong sooner. I understand where I've gone wrong too, which means my next lace project should be much easier. And yes, there will be a next lace project.

I might even do Cobweb again. But I don't think I'd do it in KSH. While it's light as air and pretty as the sea, it's a bugger to knit with and the stitch definition ain't great. But it's for my mum and she loves KSH, and that's the main thing. I think maybe a 4-ply mercerised cotton knitted up on larger needles would work quite well.

Here's the back and left front. The eagle-eyed among you might notice there's a small mistake in the lace. When I noticed it I decided it was far too late to rip it back. Besides, it's the mistakes that make it unique.

And here's a close up of the lace - the bit I got right. Check out that hot-pink duvet cover underneath! I'm very pleased I persevered with this.

How to read a chart 101

2009-03-31T13:28:00.000+01:00

Did you know you follow charts from right to left in knitting? I didn't. Think back to my lacy shrug, the one I knitted and unknitted several times before throwing down the needles and giving in. I was reading the chart wrong the whole time. No wonder it never looked right.

I'm a journalist by trade, which means I read and write a lot (obviously, really), so everything I do is left to right. It's how I think - I'm right-brained so gravitate left. But knitting doesn't work that way. It took a lot for me to work this out, and I'm still not entirely sure I'm there, but knitting goes right to left. It only seems like it goes the other way because I'm right-handed, but think about it: when knitting a right-side row you're actually going from the right-hand side of the piece to the left (ignore that tricksy fact that the knitting goes from your left-hand needle to the right one, and look at the actual fabric).

But it gets even more confusing because now swap to the wrong side: you're still going left needle to right, and it still appears that the fabric is building right to left. But that's because you're looking at the back! Hold the piece up and look at the front - the fabric is growing left to right.

And this is how we read charts. Obviously. All right-side rows (odd numbers in my experience, but I don't know if that's always the case) should be read from right to left. Wrong-side rows are read left to right. But these often don't have a pattern, in which case they don't matter.

In fact the chart should be a visual representation of what your knitting will look like. If \ is a left-leaning increase and O a yarn over, then your knitting should have a nice left increase and a nice hole wherever those symbols appear in the chart. Simple, see?

Well, it is when you know how.

But where does this leave me and my lacy shrug? Shamefully, it leaves my shrug at the bottom of my knitting bag and me doing very nicely thank you with a cabled tunic. I need to undo the rest of the lace rows of the shrug before I can apply my new knowledge, and quite frankly I can't face it at the moment. But the nights are getting lighter and the weather warmer and soon I'll be able to sit in the garden and knit. And that's when I'll break out the shrug. Honest.

The jumper on my back

2009-03-31T13:16:00.000+01:00

It's done! All sewn up and I'm wearing right now. Unfortunately I can't post pictures because we moved recently and first I could't find the lead that connects the camera to the computer and then when I did the camera's battery died and I can't find the charger. It's around somewhere, though, and when it turns up there will be photos.

I'm pretty darn pleased with this jumper. It fits, it's warm, the colours are lovely and not usually something I would buy. I think it looks good. I made a couple of snafus - I somehow got the rib pattern in the wrong order for about four inches on one row only and some of the sewing up isn't so great. But all in all, it works. And I'm especially impressed that I've managed to make something this good as my first effort.

What would I do differently next time? Well, I think I'd make it in a smaller size; this one fits fine and I can get a tee-shirt on underneath, but something a bit more fitted would also be nice. I'd make the neckline a tad higher too. I think it'd be nice if the two colours were made more of. I think I'd like one that was one shade on all the ribbing and then another on the stocking stitch. Maybe a dark blue on the ribbing topped with a paler blue.

Bah humbug

2008-12-31T12:06:00.001Z

I missed the Christmas deadline for my shrug. By a long shot. It's not even finished yet. In fact every time it grows something goes wrong and it shrinks again - I have to unknit the damn thing.

At one point I even got up to 51 rows. Then - on Christmas morning, no less - I realised I'd done all the lacework for the armhole shaping wrong. You have to cast off 5 stitches at each end and then decrease by 1 at each end, keeping in pattern. So I dutifully cast off and decreased while counting in the number of reduced stitches on the chart. It was only later that I realised that if I'm decreasing at each end, I have to count in at each end. Which explained why I kept ending each row in the wrong place.

A variety of cock-ups followed - dropped stitches, following the chart wrong, ending up with the wrong number of stitches. I've knitted and unknitted the same 10 or so rows that I could have knitted several shrugs, had I only done it right.

At the moment I'm back down to 41 rows. I have the requisite 91 stitches. And I'm leaving it there. I surrender. Right this minute I'm waving a metaphorical white flag.

But note: I'm not frogging. I'm taking a break. I need some space between me and the shrug before I can go back and do it proud. So I'm returning to my much easier jumper for the time being. As for the shrug - watch this space.

Another lesson learned

2008-11-20T13:24:00.000Z

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:

My first '-a-long

2008-11-12T13:21:00.000Z

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.

Progress report

2008-11-10T20:52:00.000Z

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:

New project

2008-11-03T20:10:00.000Z

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.

It's show time!

2008-10-14T13:04:00.000+01:00

Or at least it was at the weekend. The Knitting and Stitching Show came to Alexandra Palace, bringing with it all kinds of yarny goodness as well as knitters and stitchers from all over Britain. Including my mum, who came to stay with me over the weekend so we could share the experience. This was our first ever KSS so we were understandably excited. We'd been forewarned about a possible lack of decent food and water, so we prepared ourselves with a trip to Starbucks for breakfast and to M&S for fruit and water. Good thing we did, because the food situation was indeed dire, especially so us as we're both vegetarian.

Apart from that, though, the show was grand. Three huge rooms of stitching heaven. It got pretty packed at times, making it hard to see what was on the stalls, but as the day wore on there seemed to be less people. Now, this show isn't just for knitters. So there are lots of stalls that didn't interest me - beads, sewing machines, bags, card making etc etc. But that didn't detract from the fact that there was loads of us knitters. Books, accessories, lights, yarns, pretty little notions that you don't actually need but really want. It kept us busy for four hours and we didn't even manage to see it all.

I had gone with the aim of subscribing to as many magazines as I could find (I really wanted those show offers!) and finding a decent merino to make a jumper for the bf (and risk the dreaded jumper curse). I found three magazines, subscribed to them all and got some great freebies. But I can't say as I was too impressed by the people on the stand. I actually had to ask what the offers were! And at one stand the woman I spoke to couldn't help me and directed me to another woman who was inundated with people. Which begs the question why was the first woman even there? The other two stands weren't much better, with people more interested in talking to each other than possible subscribers.

Now I work in publishing and I've worked at these sort of shows before and I know it can tiring. But we were under strict instructions to sell as many subs or issues as possible. We were to approach anyone on the stand (or even near the stand) and talk them through the offer. Not one person did that on any of the magazine stands I approached. And I actively wanted to take out a subscription! Anyone who was wavering would simply have walked away. Is that really the way to market your mag? Let's Knit, Knitting and Simply Knitting - I mean you!

As for the merino, there wasn't enough of anything to buy it there, but I did get a shade card from Biggan Design so bf can choose his own colours. My mum's aims were black 2-ply cashmere and buttons. Mission accomplished on both counts.

We also got some fantastic self-patterning yarn made from bamboo and nylon - a great find for both of us because we can't wear wool and it's really quite hard to find sock yarn that doesn't have wool in it. And I got something secret for a certain birthday monkey who shall remain nameless. I've got pics of my haul but I won't be uploading them till the pressie has made its way to its new owner.

We might not have managed to see all the stalls, but we did find time to indulge in some champers! Rowan had put on a champagne bar for its 30th anniversary and of course we had join the party. Especially when we saw the fancy glasses: tall black flutes that looked as glamorous as glamour can be.

And after a hard day's shopping, it was home for curry and to play with our purchases. And to watch Equilibrium on TV.

Finished!

2008-09-19T10:15:00.000+01:00

It's all done - my first ever knitted tee-shirt, just in time for the cold weather... Never mind though; my next project is a jumper. I expect to get that done just in time for spring.

Anyone who's read my previous posts will know that I'm not entirely happy with this tee, and if I were to do it again I would most definitely change things. It started out badly, with the wrong tension given in the pattern. Having sorted that out by emailing the magazine, I found it's fine up and including the waist band, but from then on, not so much. It's wonderfully shaped into the waist band and then the tighter rib pulls the waist in even further. But then there's no bust shaping. So it's fine if you're a classic English pear, but not if you're big up top. Then the length isn't great. I added four rows and it still wasn't long enough so I had to crochet a hem.

The pattern says it's great for girls who want to show of their curves and will fit 12-16. And this isn't really true. It is very stretchy but I still don't think it would fit a size 16, unless it was extremely stretched and who wants that in a new tee-shirt? The arm holes aren't huge and I think would be very tight on anyone with biggish upper arms. And as for being ideal for curvy ladies, I assume it only means those with curvy hips, because the lack of bust shaping means it's not that great for busty girls, like me.

So what would I do differently? I'd many more stitches after the waist band, giving the ladies more room, bringing the band itself down to my actual waist and making a better length. I'd incorporate bust shaping to give me a bit more room up top. Just these two things would have turned an OK tee-shirt into a fantastic tee-shirt.

In my last post, I promised pictures. So here they are.

Don't worry, my head isn't really blurry, it's because I'm in disguise. Front view of the tee. I think you can see it's kinda stretched over my lady lumps and could do with being a bit longer.

Side view: looking a little bit busty there ... It could have been worse though.

The tee in all its glory. You can easily see here the fantastic waist shaping, which is totally lacking round the bust!

Close up to show the beading and crochet hem. Also, the fabulous colour and fabric. The silk is gorgeous and the colour amazing.

Lessons learned

2008-09-11T10:27:00.000+01:00

My First Big Project, a tee-shirt, is done all bar the weaving. And I have learned some important things along the way. I shall blog about the actual tee later, but here I'm going to list some of the things I wish I'd known before hand.

1. A knitting pattern isn't gospel
Just because it says something in the pattern doesn't mean I have to do it. People are different shapes and sizes and look better in different things. A pattern that claims to fit a size 12 might not actually look right on a real size 10 lady (i.e. me), and one that says it fits size 12-16 is frankly lying. Which leads me to...

2. I need to know my own measurements
Every single one of us is different, and just because I buy size 10 clothes doesn't mean that I measure the same as a size 10 dummy. In fact I already knew this: I have to wear a belt because my waist is smaller than size 10; I can't get skinny jeans because they don't fit my hips and thighs; I often have to get size 12 tops because otherwise my lady lumps don't fit comfortably. Now I just need to apply that to my knitting. In fact, I've already begun. Last night I sat down (well, stripped off and stood up actually) with my tape measure and some of my favourite clothes and measured myself and my tops to give me a better idea of what I want.

Because, of course, the other thing that's important here is finding out what I actually like to wear. I'm over 30 so tend to avoid crop tops, so it's no good slavishly following a pattern that stops a few inches short of my waist band. I'll need to lengthen any pattern that does. Do I prefer long sleeves or short? I guess that depends on the weather, but it's something to keep in mind.

All of this means keeping a note of my measurements in my knitting bag at all times and then working out the maths to ensure that everything fits perfectly and to my taste. I should probably get a calculator too.

3. Working your first big pattern in silk isn't the best idea
And that's exactly what I did. Pure silk. It cost nearly £45. And I made mistakes, there was much of the pattern I didn't properly understand, I did the decreases wrong, it turned out too short so I had to add a crochet hem. As it turns out, it looks pretty good, especially for a first attempt. But an acrylic jumper would have cost about £10 so any mistakes wouldn't have mattered. My next project is an acrylic jumper and it did cost about £10. I feel much more confident playing about with this because even if I do mess it up, I can just buy more yarn without doing a Lehman Brothers (too soon?).

4. There is still much I need to know
This semi-magical process that is known as 'blocking' - do I have to do it with all knitted garments? Or just those that say so in the pattern? How exactly do I it? Especially with delicate fabrics such as silk - I can't steam that so do I just pin it out and leave it or use cold water? Do I need to block synthetics? I'm sure I read somewhere I don't, but now I can't be sure. I need more info. More books. More magazines.

But I'm about ready to move on to my next project now. I'm already making tension squares for it. And my next post will be about the finished tee that I've learnt so much from. And there'll be pictures. So far my blogs have been far too wordy.

In the beginning

2008-09-09T19:46:00.000+01:00

I wasn't going to do a knitting blog; I really wasn't. There are plenty out there without me adding to the millions of words dedicated to the art of knitting. But as I near the end of my first big knitted project I find I want to record my thoughts on it. I want to note down what I did, what I learned and what I still need to learn. There may well be other people out there who read this blog and are entertained by it, but mostly it's written for an audience of one: me. Or possibly two, because my mum might want to read it. Three if you count my boyfriend. But yeah, mostly me.

My First Big Project is currently on the hook, waiting for me to finish. I should be done tonight and then I'm going to pin it out on the ironing board. I learnt a lot doing this project, mainly that I shouldn't believe knitting patterns and that a project in pure silk isn't really the best one to start out with. But there you go. My blog, which will come as soon as I've got a completed item in my hands, will explain these lessons and others. Stay tuned...