Crucial cases

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!