Falling leaves

One of my newest projects is this fun mystery crochet-a-long

---

I’ve still got a knitted dress and a crochet blanket to finish, so starting two new projects might not have been the best idea. But they both sounded like a lot of fun. Here I’ll talk about the first: a mystery crochet-a-long.

I only recently completed my first-ever ‘a-long’, a knitted shawl. I liked the finished piece and enjoyed the mystery element, so when the designer, Rohn Strong, mentioned a mystery crochet-a-long (MCAL) on his Instagram account I decided to sign up for it. All I knew about it at that stage was that it would be an afghan.

These were meant to be leaves; they look more like elf slippers, or maybe ears

The pattern calls for yarn in five different colours. It’s called Fall Garden, so I chose a selection of autumnal shade. The suggested yarn is Deborah Norville Everyday Soft, but I couldn’t find that in the UK. Instead I’ve used Stylecraft Special Aran, which seems to be very similar.

I’ve completed the first four clues and the fifth and final one arrived in my inbox late yesterday (27 October 2015). I had some issues with the first clue. I was supposed to be crocheting leaves but what I ended up with looked more like elf slippers. I did five of them before I thought to check on Ravelry. And yes, I had got it wrong. Thank the knitting gods for Ravelry and for people uploading their photos! A lesson on why it’s so important to read the instructions properly.

Leaves, as they're meant to look!

I undid the five elven slippers and made some leaves instead and from then on I’ve been going great guns. Clue 2 was a flower. Clue 3 was five more of the flowers in a different colour and clue 4 was the same. I like these easy clues! The final clue is how to assemble the afghan.

I’ve enjoyed this MCAL. I’ve learnt some new techniques and I think both the flower and leaf motifs look lovely. It’ll be interesting to see how it all hangs together.

My first flower. There are another 10, in two different colours.

Update: Roseroot shawl knit-a-long

Standfirst and line style:

A couple of problems I’ve encountered while doing my first-ever MKAL

---

The Roseroot shawl was my first-ever mystery knit-a-long, or MKAL; you can read about how things started out here. At that point I was on clue 3 and things were going well. Clue 4 had just been released and I was about to start.

While I still love this yarn, I really don't think it's the right weight for the shawl.

It was at this point that things started going wrong. Not because of the pattern or the organisation of the MKAL, I hasten to add. No, it was because of me. I got to row 2 of clue 4. This is the first lace row of the clue as all the odd-numbered rows are wrong side. The pattern is to repeat the lace chart until the last 9 stitches. However, I knitted across but had 10 stitches left.

I was sorely tempted to simply add in a k2tog – keep in mind here that there are 327 stitches to work through at this point – but I wasn’t sure if this would throw the lace pattern out. So I undid the whole row and counted all the stitches to make sure there really were 327. There were. I repeated the row. Same problem. I did it again. Same problem.

The problem with being a perfectionist is that when you’ve decided you don’t like something, well, that’s it

Now lace rows are complicated and it’s very easy to miss out a k2tog or an ssk. But it is unusual for me to make the same mistake several times over, so I really couldn’t work out what I was doing wrong. I even put in stitch markers and knitted very, very slowly.

After trying one more time I logged on to Ravelry to ask the designer if there was any advice he could give me. He mentioned slipping in a cheeky k2tog, too, but advised against doing that, so I’m pleased I didn’t go for that option. He gave such a generous and full response I was actually quite moved. I followed his advice and tried again. This time it worked.

But another, much bigger, issue had now surfaced. I no longer liked the yarn. Well, I still liked the yarn, just not for this project. It was more to the laceweight end of things than 4-ply and the shawl just seemed too small. It would grow with blocking and in many ways the size isn’t hugely important, but the problem with being something of a perfectionist is that when you’ve decided you don’t like something, well, that’s it. So I undid the whole thing.

This merino definitely works better to my mind.

This was just prior to heading off for 10 days in Sardinia, where I would have very little to do other than eat good food, drink good wine, read and knit, so at least I was going to have lots of time to make up what I’d lost. And I have, in fact I’m even further on – I’m now up to clue five and will hopefully be posting pics of the finished thing soon.

Close-up shot of clues 4 and 5.

My first knit-a-long: the great shawl mystery

The Roseroot shawl by Rohn Strong is a shawl pattern that arrives as separate clues; I’m really enjoying this sweet little mystery

---

A knit-a-long is when several knitters all follow the same pattern, usually over a set period of time, and then compare the results. It can very local – a knitting group, maybe – or truly international, via Ravelry, for example. All participants can use the same yarn or choose their own, so the finished pieces might look completely different.

Until now I’ve never taken part in a knit-a-long. I’m not really sure why. But when I saw that a designer of lovely shawls that I follow on Twitter (@strongandstone) was running a knit-a-long I decided I would give it a go.

In the beginning: I've just started the first clue here.

This particular KAL has an extra layer in that it’s a mystery. An MKAL. This means that we don’t get to see what the finished object looks like in advance. We know it’s a lace shawl or shawlette, depending on how much of the pattern you decide to follow, but that’s it. It also means we don’t get the full pattern, instead it comes in separate stages, or clues, every Friday.

There’s something quite exciting and rewarding about watching a piece grow when you have no idea what it’s supposed to look like

I’m a bit behind as I’m still on clue three and clue five has already been released. That’s OK, though – I knit pretty quickly so I can catch up if I really want to. The stitch pattern for clue three is somewhat complicated and it’s really fun watching it knit up.

Clue four is where we decide whether to go for the shawl or shawlette. Those choosing the latter simply miss out this clue, taking a week off the knitting, and go straight to clue five. I’ve already decided I want to do the full shawl.

I’m really enjoying the MKAL. The pattern so far is lovely. I didn’t go for the suggested yarn; in fact I don’t think it’s available in this country (Rohn Strong is US based). But I did get one that’s very similar and is very gorgeous. It’s knitting up really well.

The shawl grows: clue 2 is well underway.

There’s something quite exciting and rewarding about watching a piece grow when you have no idea what it’s supposed to look like. Obviously it helps that the pattern is absolutely beautiful. I get the final clue today and hopefully will have the shawl finished by the end of the month. I will of course do a show and tell.

I’m sure this won’t be the last MKAL I take part in.

About halfway through clue 3. You can really see the different stitch patterns now.

The whole piece so far.

On the needles: Rainbow blanket

My latest project is a crocheted blanket in a rainbow of colours

---

I wasn’t meant to be starting another project (I still have a dress to knit and a blanket to crochet), but someone on a Facebook group I'm a member of advertised for sale a pack of acrylic in rainbow colours and my brain just went ‘That would make a great blanket!’ So I bought it.

I knew I wanted crochet rather than knitting, and I knew I wanted granny squares: something plain to show off the varigated nature of the yarn combined with something more lacy for interest. I found two suitable – and free! – patterns on Ravelry and started crocheting.

I knew I wanted granny squares – something plain to show off the varigated nature of the yarn combined with something more lacy for interest

I didn’t know how many squares I’d be able to make with a single ball of yarn, so it was really just a case of getting on with it and hoping I’d have enough squares to make a decent-sized blanket. I wanted one colour per row, and I figured I’d need two of the lacy squares and a minimum of four solid so that I could swap the positions of the former around in each row.

It turns out that I can get two lacy squares and five solid ones from each ball. Each square is 18x18cm and there are eight balls of yarn. That gives a blanket of 126x144cm, which is a pretty good size. I’ve done six of the eight balls so far, giving me 42 squares, of which 18 have been pinned out and blocked. I hate blocking, but the squares do look so much better afterwards, so I can’t help but think it’s worth the extra bit of effort.

Nine squares blocking.

What remains is the decision on how to border and join the squares. I see three options. One, no border – just join. The second option is to join the colours in a strip and then put a white border around each of these before joining them. Third would be a border around each square and then joining the squares. With each option I would finish by crocheting a white border around the whole blanket.

The first option would best preserve the rainbow effect and involve the least work, but the colours might not stand out enough and the effect of the lacy squares could be lost. I think the third one would look good, but the rainbow would be lost – it’s also the most amount of work.

Trying to picture the three options in my head, I think maybe the second could be a good compromise between one and three. A thin white border between each strip should make the different colours stand out and show of the lace squares, while preserving those rainbow shades that really were the whole point of the blanket in the first place. I would then add a slightly thicker, possibly even scalloped, white border around the whole thing. Decision made!

I might not enjoy the blocking, but the squares do look better, especially the lacy ones.

Update: the Jane Deep V sweater

Holiday knitting meant some serious time devoted to finishing off this long-standing project – as well as plenty of eating, drinking and reading

---

Well, the Christmas break is well and truly over. Nine days of not having to get up and go to work, of time to just knit or read, of presents, food and family – bliss. I used a lot of it to really get on with some knitting. I’ve been working hard on the Jane Deep V sweater, and I’m almost at the sewing up stage (my least favourite part, but never mind).

Front, back and one sleeve are all knitted up and I’ve already blocked the front and back. Sleeve one is currently on the blocking board. Sleeve two is almost finished, too. I cast on for it just before Christmas and had hoped to finish it before heading back to work. I didn’t quite manage that, but I was close.

The Jane Deep V sweater on the blocking board.

As you can see from the photo above, this sweater has a really deep V neck (hence the name). I’m going to finish the V off with about 5cm of rib in the bright pink. Usually when I do the neckline on a sweater I sew one shoulder together and then pick up stitches around the whole thing, knitting the collar in one go. But I’m not sure if that will work on this sweater.

The depth of the neckline means I’m going to have to pick up a huge number of stitches along the two downstrokes of the V, and I simply don’t know if even my 100cm circular needle is going to be able to cope with that many stitches. If I don’t do it in this way, though, how am I going to make the bottom of the collar work properly?

Design is all about experimentation!

Normally with a V neck, you knit the collar in a single piece, using decreases at the bottom of the V to pull it in and preserve the V shape. If I have to knit the two sides separately I’m not sure how I’ll be able to replicate this.

The only thing I can think of is to pick up stitches down one side and along the bottom of the V, knit the 5cm collar and cast off, then pick up the stitches along the other side, knit the 5cm and cast off again. This will give me two separate pieces of collar, with the first side having an ‘extra’ bit from the stitches along the bottom of the V. This would then be sewn into the edge of the light pink section, covering the edge of the second layer of collar. But I don’t know if this will look as good a ‘normal’ single-piece collar. This really isn’t easy to visualise, so I’ve sketched it out. Badly. The first sketch below illustrates my usual way of knitting the collar; the second my alternative.

The top image demonstrates a 'normal' V neck,
while the above image shows my alternative.

I can see this neckline turning out to be something of a challenge. Even if I do manage to fit all the stitches on the needle, it’s going to involve an awful lot of picking up of stitches and then of knitting all those stitches to complete the collar. And then I may well end up picking up several hundred stitches only to find that I can’t fit them all on the needle and have to undo all I’ve done and start again. Oh well – design is all about experimentation after all!

Rainbow blanket

Despite having several projects ongoing, I decided to start a new crochet blanket. It is winter after all, and you can never have too many blankets

---

Given that I’ve already got three projects on the go, it probably wasn’t the best idea to start another one. But I bought some Ice acrylic yarn via a Facebook Group, wool for sale, and felt inspired to crochet a blanket. There are eight balls of wool, each a different colour and varigated, so the idea was to make a rainbow blanket.

Magic Light from Ice Yarns in rainbow colours.

I knew I wanted to create the blanket using crochet squares, using two or three different styles. The main square would be very plain to make the most of the varigated colours; the other squares would be lacy and there would be two per row. So I headed over to Ravelry and started searching. I quickly found three free patterns that exactly fitted what I wanted.

A couple of weekends ago The Chap and I went to Edinburgh for a long weekend, so I packed the patterns, a ball of yarn and my trusty crochet hook. First things first, I needed a sample of each square to see if they were the same size, or at least could be made to be the same size. And that’s when things started to go wrong.

Locutus.

I started on the first square, Veolias Mormorsruta. It soon became clear that the pattern was impossible to follow. It’s translated into English from Swedish, but I don’t think the translation is the problem. The pattern reads much like a technical challenge from Great British Bake-off: I’ve got the materials needed and some basic instructions, but half of it seems to be missing. I couldn’t work out what to do by studying the photo, and even checking Ravelry didn’t turn up any errata.

The pattern reads much like a technical challenge from Great British Bake-off: I’ve got the materials needed and some basic instructions, but half of it seems to be missing

So I had to move on to the next square, Locutus. This was much easier – I couldn't follow a couple of the instructions, but happilty I could work out what I was supposed to do by looking at the photo. The final square was a simple, solid granny square. So having made a couple of samples of Locutus, all I had to do was work out how many rounds were required to make the solid square the same size. Turns out it was eight rounds of treble crochet with a final round of double. Simple.

Solid granny square.

One ball of the Ice yarn will produce two Locutus squares and five solid ones. This should give me a blanket that’s about 130cm wide. With eight balls of wool, each in a different colour, it should be about 150cm long. So a nice size and when it’s done it’ll be perfect for wrapping around me when it’s cold.

Update: where's my knits at?

A look at the projects I’m currently working on

---

I’m working on four projects at the moment, two of which have been on the back burner for a while. Here’s where I’m up to.

Baby jacket

It might look a bit like a spider, but it's actually a baby jacket.

This is what I’ve been working on most recently. It’s not going so well. As it’s a jacket there are five separate pieces: the back, two fronts and two sleeves. So far all five pieces are different lengths, and I’m not convinced any of them are the right length. It also seems a bit small. I’m making the 6-12 months size and it fits the measurements given, but it’s very little. But then I guess babies are still little at that age. I’ve checked out some sizing charts and compared it to baby clothes in BHS, and it seems to be the right size.

The different length pieces are more problematic. I’m not really happy with any of them, and while it’s possible I could fix them with blocking, I don’t really want to do that. Which means I’m going to have to undo them all and reknit them to make them the right length.

This is a lesson on why gauge is so important, and how difficult it can be to achieve. I did, of course, do a swatch before starting the jacket and the problem I had was that my tension was spot on widthways (number of stitches), but different lengthways (number of rows). So I had the exact number of stitches in my 10cm square, but too many rows (32 instead of 28). I don’t actually know how to fix this. If I upped the needle size then my stitches would no longer have worked, but if I don’t then my rows don’t work.

Usually the number of stitches is far more important than the rows – if your rows are too tight, like mine, then you simply knit more, if they’re too loose, then you knit fewer, you lucky thing. But this particular piece has raglan sleeves, so needs a nice even decrease along all the separate sections. This means the number of rows knitted becomes rather significant. All I could think of doing was to add in a few rows at regular intervals where I don’t decrease in order to make the raglans longer but still even. The problem with this is that I pretty much had to guess how many extra rows would be needed. My first guess was clearly wrong and the pieces were too short. So now I need to undo them all right to the beginning of the raglan shaping and add in a couple of extra extra rows.

Jane Deep V sweater

The back of my Jane Deep V sweater.
I'm pretty much up to the neck shaping.

This is one of my own designs that’s been languishing. I’ve completed the front but I’ve kind of got stuck on the back. I gave up on it for a while after having to undo about 30cm having found a mistake. I could have left it, I guess, but that’s just not the way I do things. I was right up to the neck shaping and had to undo it almost to the start. It was pretty demoralising.

The back is a simple stocking stitch, though, so reknitting won’t take too long and I have already completed a significant chunk of it. This does raise an interesting question though. I could easily have left this mistake. I had k2tog where I should simply have knitted. I was one stitch out. One. If I was using a chunky yarn that one stitch might have made a difference, but I’m knitting with 4-ply. All I had to do was decrease by one fewer stitch than I’d expected to at the neckline and it all would have been fine. So is it best just leave such mistakes or should you go back and correct them?

I shall take the finished blanket on many sunny, champagne-fuelled picnics

I always do the latter. I hate knowing there’s something wrong in my knitting. But this is time consuming and can be really quite demoralising if I’ve knitted a lot after having made the mistake. It would surely be better for my sanity if I were to leave such mistakes, but I just don’t think I’ll ever be that person.

Dress

The back of my dress. It hasn't got a name yet.

I started this ages ago and shelved it in favour of other projects. It’s another of designs and I’ve actually done quite a lot. The front is finished and the back is nearly there. So then it’s just the sleeves. The plan is to do full-length bell sleeves (ones that flare out towards the bottom), or ‘wizard sleeves’, as one of my friends calls them, because wizards’ robes always have flared sleeves. I do love this style of sleeve, although it’s not totally practical when eating soup. I guess wizards don’t eat much soup.











Picnic blanket

Picnic blanket. This will be 2 metres long when finished.
It's going to take some time.

This is the only crochet project I’ve currently got on the go. I started it around the beginning of summer, knowing that it would take ages to complete. As there are so many different colours, it’s not the most portable of projects, but I did take it to Sardinia in June and managed to do quite a bit of work on it then. It’s something that I can easily pick up and put down and I’m planning on having it ready for next summer, when I shall, of course, take it on many sunny, champagne-fuelled picnics.

Postscript
Since writing this, I’ve taken out the Jane sweater and managed to knit right back up to the the neck shaping while on a nice weekend trip to Cambridge. Yay for quiet weekends with the parents!

I’ve also undone and reknitted all the separate pieces for the baby jacket and am now adding the ribbed borders to the two fronts.

In your lace

I’ve had to give up on the idea of a wedding ring shawl, but I’ve found something that could be even better

---

A few weeks ago I wrote about a wedding ring shawl I’d like to knit. Unfortunately the site still isn’t taking orders, and so far both my emails have gone unanswered and no updates have been posted. So I’ve abandoned the idea of getting hold of this pattern.
Pull quote

I’ve queued up two of Beatrice’s patterns, both very beautiful, very complicated Estonian lace shawls

I still want to make a really complicated lace shawl, though, so last night I did a spot of Ravelling. I found some fantastic patterns by Beatrice Olsson. She’s got loads of really stunning lace patterns, so do check her out. I also discovered an option that I wasn’t aware of before. Did you know you can ‘favourite’ designers on Ravelry? This is really useful and whenever I find designers I like I’m going to fave them.

I’ve queued up two of Beatrice’s patterns, both very beautiful, very complicated Estonian lace shawls: Estonian Jewel and Ligonberry Leaf Triangle. At $10 each they’re a lot cheaper than the wedding ring shawl pattern. So much so in fact that I could buy both and still pay less. In fact I spent a lot of time umming and ahhing over which to purchase and then decided that actually I don’t need to choose – I’ll get both. So I did.

This raw silk yarn from Habu Textiles has
been waiting for the perfect project,
and I think either of the two shawls
 would be ideal. Photo by Idoru Knits.

I even have what I think will be the perfect yarn: Tsumugi Silk by Habu Textiles. This 2-ply silk yarn has been sitting in my stash for years. I bought the three skeins on a whim because they were in the sale (I do that a lot), but didn't have a clue what I would use them for. Now I feel either of Beatrice's patterns would be ideal. I've not cast on yet, as I've still got some other things to progress, but I will be starting this soon.

The joy of other people’s patterns

For the first time in a long time I’m crocheting something designed by someone else, and you know what? I’m enjoying myself

---

It’s been a while since I started something not of my own design. When I saw the pattern for this crochet picnic blanket, I just had to make it. It’s gorgeous. It’s also massive and it’s going to take ages to complete it, but that’s OK.

The pattern is a free one from Rowan that I received in the Love Knitting eNewsletter. It can be downloaded here. Obviously Rowan want you to use the company’s own yarn to make the blanket, the one recommended is Handknit Cotton. It would cost more than £200 to make the piece in that yarn. So I instead I turned to old favourite Rico Design. This German company produces some lovely yarns at quality that rivals Rowan and Debbie Bliss but at around half the price. Buying at Wool Warehouse, the amount of Rico Essentials Cotton needed came in at just over £100 – less than half the cost of the Handknit Cotton.

I love this stitch pattern and the colour combination, but
it's going to take a while to get the blanket to 1.5m long.
Photo by Idoru Knits.

The gauge is slightly different, with the Rico knitting up to 22 stitches and 28 rows on 4mm needles and the Rowan 19/28. But my tension is quite loose with crochet, so this wasn’t a problem with this pattern. Anyone with a tighter tension should just use a bigger crochet hook. If this were a knitting pattern, I’d go up to 4.5mm needle.

The other great thing about the Rico is that there were 52 colours to choose from, meaning I could match the Rowan colours as closely as possible. It’s quite unusual for me to stick to the exact colours in a pattern, as I generally want to put my own stamp on anything I make. But in this project the colours were so lovely I wanted to replicate them.

Crocheting this blanket is just fun, pure and simple

The pattern calls for nine different colours, but I think it would also be quite arresting in, for example, three very contrasting colours, or you could even go monochrome. With so many colours to choose from, it would also be possible to make the blanket in, say, all pinks, or blues, or greens.

I’m really enjoying this pattern. It’s nice to just be able to sit down and crochet, without having to worry about measuring and maths, without keeping notes on everything, without experimenting and getting it wrong, having to go back to the beginning, rewrite my notes, and so on and so on. Crocheting this blanket is just fun, pure and simple.

I like designing, but I’m not really doing anything with my designs. I’ve written up hardly any of my patterns, and I’m not entirely sure about sizing. I can make something that’ll fit me just fine, but I don’t know how that translates to a small, medium or large to fit a range of bodies.

I’ve got a couple of self-designed items to finish off – a dress and a sweater – and I think after I’ve completed them I shall work on other people’s patterns, at least for a while. I’ve got tons sitting on my computer waiting for me; in fact I’ve got some absolutely stunning lace shawl patterns and some gorgeous lace-weight yarns that are just made for each other.

Work in progress: Jane, the deep V sweater

Where I’m at with my latest project and overcoming problems with decreasing, unintentional increasing and perfectionism

---

My latest project is a replacement sweater for one that’s falling apart. Again. I really do wear my clothes to death. This one is a pink job with a deep V neck that I’m recreating, updating and hopefully improving.

So far the main challenge has been working out how to do the V neck. The idea is to layer a top underneath this one, either in a matching or contrasting colour depending on how I feel, so it’s important that there’s enough space to show off the top underneath, but at the same time the slope has to be nice and even. After a combination of maths and experimentation, I think I’ve got it sorted and the V is coming along very nicely.

The logical part of my brain isn’t very loud and nearly always gets drowned out by the louder, brasher perfectionist part of my brain

In fact I’m really enjoying knitting this as the frequent decreases and very deep V neck mean that the front piece is almost done. It hasn’t all been plain sailing, though. Just last week, 30 rows into the left-hand side of the deep V, I realised I had one too many stitches. I had done the right number of decreases. I definitely had the right number of stitches at the beginning. So where had that extra one come from?

The alpaca yarn I’m using, while gorgeously soft and mostly a joy to knit with, can be rather splitty, and that’s what had happened here. I’d split a stitch in two some 24 rows back. I could easily have incorporated an extra decrease to sort the mistake out, but my brain just doesn’t work like that. I had to pull it all back and start again.

I did something similar last night when I realised I’d decreased at rows 112 and 118 rather than 114 and 120. The logical part of my brain tells me that these things don’t matter, that these mistakes are easy to fix. But the logical part of my brain isn’t very loud and nearly always gets drowned out by the louder, brasher perfectionist part of my brain. That part tells me that I have to go back and make it right. So I do. And really I'm OK with that.

The front piece of the Jane deep V sweater is almost done.
Photo by Idoru Knits.

When knitting and cycling collide

What happens when a knitter takes up cycling? Knitted cycling accessories, of course!

---

It was bound to happen. I’ve been a knitting for some years now, and cycling is my new obsession, so it was inevitable that I’d find a way to combine the two.

A cyclist’s wardrobe consists mainly of lots and lots of lycra; knitted sweaters and the like aren’t really suitable. So it was to accessories I looked. Hats, headbands, neckwarmers, wristwarmers and so on. My first foray into knitted accessories was a neckwarmer or buff (I’m not entirely sure what to call it).

Now I just need something to keep my head and ears toasty …

The buff is a simple tube, knitted in the round, in a 2x2 rib for stretchiness in Rico Essentials DK merino in a chocolate brown colour. I crocheted a shell border onto each end for a bit of interest. Same yarn, this time in cream.

This is a very quick and easy knit, great for beginners, and the border isn’t necessary for those who don’t crochet. It’s long enough to sit on my collar bones and reach up to just under my nose. My helmet clips on over it, underneath my chin. So it creates a nice cover-up around my neck over the collar of my jacket.

The cycling buff/neckwarmer in action.
Photo by Idoru Knits.

Due to the quite amazing mildness that has characterised this winter I’ve only worn the buff a couple of times, but it really does work, keeping my neck and the lower part of my face nice and warm. Now I just need something to keep my head and ears toasty …

So I’ve started making a headband. I’ve got some 4-ply alpaca left over from my first-ever design project. I could make a hat, but I think a headband will be more useful on the bike, fitting nicely underneath my helmet. Again, it’s a 2x2 rib and I’m going to make it quite wide so that it covers my ears completely.

The problem is that the headband is dark blue and the buff is brown, and clearly brown and blue don’t go together. Luckily I’ve got some Rico Essentials DK merino in a light blue.

Knitting a cycling headband. Photo by Idoru Knits.

Knitting a dress

The challenge: to design and knit a dress from scratch, preferably by the end of the year

---

I wanted a big project – something to really get my teeth into. I’ve knitted sweaters; I’ve knitted lace shawls; I’ve knitted big cabled pieces. So I needed something else. I decided it was time to design and knit a dress. This was back in July, so how have I done so far?

The completed front. I really like the
colour changes and wide neckline.
Photo by Idoru Knits.

First up I had to come up with the style. After making a few sketches I settled on a flared or A-line skirt just above the knee, coming in to a fitted waist then out for the bust and up to a round neckline. Long flared sleeves would finish the look.

Next choice was yarn. I wanted a variagated colour, though nothing too bright. Ideally it would also change thickness. I was thinking something from Noro. But a dress takes a lot of yarn and Noro isn’t cheap. I’m lucky enough to have some very good friends, though, and one of them had a whole load of Rowan Damask, a linen blend, bought in the sale that she was willing to give me. Yes, give it to me. For free. I did say I was lucky.

Lattice cable pattern test. Using some spare yarn I tested
out how the cable pattern would look. I really liked the
effect and thought it would work well, even with a
variagated yarn. Photo by Idoru Knits.

Some measuring and maths later and I was ready to cast on. I’d already decided to knit it in stocking stitch, partly because there would be so much of it I didn’t want anything too complicated and partly because I thought the rolled-up effect that stocking stitch gives would create a nice effect at the bottom of the skirt and sleeves. By the time I’d got to the body of the dress, however, I was ready for a change. The dress was shaping up well, but knitting so much stocking stitch was dull and the piece itself would benefit from some variety.

Because of the yarn’s differences in colour and thickness, nothing too fancy was required and I decided that a lattice pattern on the bodice would be ideal. So how to create it? The simplest method would be to use a combination of knit and purl stitches. But that wasn’t the look I was going for. So it was time to trawl the internet and my stitch pattern books. I found the perfect cable pattern in a book I found in a charity shop.

That lattice pattern on 'the real thing'. Patterns can
easily be lost in variagated yarns, but because
this is so simple it works well. Photo by Idoru Knits.

I’ve now nearly finished the back. Then it’s just the two sleeves to do. I don’t know if I’ll finish the whole thing by the end of the year. I’m also crocheting a blanket and sewing up the crossover tank top I designed. But I’m nearly there and so far I’m very pleased with what I’ve produced.

An update - the Comme Ca top

Things are going well on the Comme Ca crossover top, my most recent knitwear design. I’ve finished all the different elements – the back, the two fronts and the two cap sleeves. Everything is blocked apart from the sleeves.

So now I have a decision to make. Normally when I do a collar I sew one shoulder edge together and then pick up stitches around the whole neckline, creating a single collar with no join. To do this with the crossover top, I would have to pick up stitches all the way up one front, around the neckline of the back and all the down the second front. That’s a heck of a lot of stitches. Doing each piece separately, however, means joins in the collar.

My usual way of dealing with this would be to take my preferred option and just see how it goes. But in this case my preferred option is to do the collar in one go, and picking up all those stitches is going to be somewhat labour intensive. If it doesn’t work, and I suspect it won’t, that’s an awful lot of time wasted. Maybe a compromise would be to join one front to the back and do the collar as one piece then edge the second front and join it all together.

The edging still needs to be added to this.

Inventing a new kind of sleeve

One of the best things about design is figuring out how to do new things. The crossover top I’m making has got cap sleeves, something I’ve never knitted before. This meant some experimentation.

The sleeves have to be wide enough to cover my shoulders and the tops of my arms, but also shorter than the length of the armhole, otherwise they’re just short set-in sleeves. They also have to decrease properly so they can be sewn into the armholes. I had to work out how many stitches I’d need to make the sleeves the right width and length with the right amount of decreasing so that it would all fit together.

First attempt. The straight edge (right) was to
be sewn into the armhole; the curved edge (left)
wouldthen form the sleeve. It doesn't look
like much, but with a ribbed cuff on the curved
edge it did look good. Just not right for this project.

My first attempt was completely wrong. I tried doing them sideways. So I cast on two stitches and increased along one edge until I was about halfway across and then decreased back down to two stitches. The idea being that I would sew the straight edge into the armhole. But the finished piece wasn’t long enough. It looks nice, just not right for this item of clothing. It’s certainly something I can try to incorporate into another design.

So my second attempt I did in the more traditional manner – starting at the cuff. For this I went back to the original item and measured the width of the sleeve. Then I cast on the right number of stitches to achieve that width and started knitting. Again this took a bit of experimenting with how long to knit in straight stocking stitch before starting the decreases, how many decreases to do and where to do them and so on, but I soon managed to create a cap sleeve that looks to be the perfect size and shape. Now I just have to make the other one.

Second attempt. This one seems to fit perfectly in the armhole
gap and appears to be the right size and shape.
I'm going to add a 1x1 ribbed cuff and then it's done.

Projects finished and projects in hand

Blogging has been suspended recently for reasons of illness and being in Portugal for work. Knitting, however, most definitely hasn’t. So here’s what I’ve been up to.

First, I finished the sample for Knit Now magazine and managed to send it off in time to meet the deadline. I will of course let you all know when the magazine is in the shops.

I also completed the baby cardie commissioned by a friend. She was very happy with the finished product and I hope the final recipient will be too. I made this in Rico Superwash Merino, a lovely soft yarn that’s (the clue’s in the name) machine washable – a somewhat important consideration when it comes to baby clothes. I also made a baby hat using the leftover yarn.

Hat and cardie. The buttons are tiny blue teddies.

This swatched up slightly bigger than the recommended Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, even knitted on 3.75mm needles rather than the suggested 4mm. But I figured it wouldn’t really matter if the finished piece was a bit bigger than anticipated. The baby will grow into it after all. I actually much preferred the tension achieved with the smaller needle. I think the Superwash tends to knit up a bit too loosely on 4mm needles. So an experiment that paid off.

Finally I’ve been knitting Champs-Elyssees handwarmers for my niece. These were meant to be for her birthday which was last week, so I’ve missed that. Oh well. This is really quite complicated lace pattern, which has been a lot of fun to do but I have made several mistakes and had to undo it a few times. On the plus side I’ve learnt how to make a thumb hole using M1 increases. This is the benefit of following other people’s patterns – you learn new stuff.

This is just the first handwarmer. I've still got number
two to make.

 All photos my own.

Bank holiday knitting

Due to temperatures predicted to not even reach double figures – and the fact that we're really quite lazy – we had no plans for the long weekend. It was bliss - four days just for knitting, eating chocolate, drinking tea (wine) and playing with cats.

This means that, knitting-wise, I've had an incredibly productive weekend. My Knit Now sample is done and looking gorgeous if I do say so myself. I'll start blocking it tonight and send it off once that's done. I've made a good old start on the baby cardie for my friend. Baby clothes are great to knit. They're so tiny and hardly take any time at all to make.

For the cardie I've been making a note of the times I start and finish knitting each time. This is certainly not scientifically rigorous. I might sit down to knit at 7.30pm and stop when I go to bed at 11.30pm. But in that time I'll stop to have a read of my Twitter feed, communicate with people on Facebook, drink tea (wine), snuggle with the cat and I generally have the TV on in the background which is sure to steal my attention away for some of the time (especially if David Tennant happens to be on screen...).

Doing this will, however, give me a general idea of how long it's taken me to finish the project, which will be very useful when deciding what and whether to make things for friends in the future. Non-knitters don't understand how much time and work goes into a knitting project, and it's important not to sell your skills and time short when agreeing to knit something for a friend.

They might look like tiny flags, but actually they're
(l-r) a sleeve, the back and two fronts. My own photo.

Knitting for friends and the thorny issue of payment

A work colleague of my bestie is pregnant, and bestie has asked me to knit her something. well knit the baby something. The colleague goes on maternity leave on 19 April, so ideally the knitting will be done by then. Obviously I haven’t even started it yet. I'm still working on my Knit Now submission, but the good news is that this is nearly done.

I’m doing a very simple cardie and one that I’ve made before, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get it done in time. It’s a Debbie Bliss pattern for her gorgeous Cashmerino yarn. Which is a deadringer for Rico’s Essentials Merino DK – a machine-washable, super-soft merino that’s about £1 cheaper per ball than the Cashmerino. Last time I made it in Rooster Baby and was a bit disappointed with the yarn – it was quite hard and had obviously broken and been knotted together in the spinning process. But I love the Rico yarn, so that’s what I’ve bought this time.

This is the one I knitted a few years ago for a friend's baby.
My own photo.

I’m doing this for free, which is probably insanity, but working out payment for hand knitting is a very thorny issue. It’s going to take hours to make this cardie. The minimum wage is £6.19 – is it just me or does that sound really low?. Even if it only took 10 hours to finish the cardie that’s still more than £60, just for my time and at a really low rate. Plus another £17 for yarn, we’re looking at the best part of £80. For a baby cardie that won’t even fit in six months’ time.

So instead bestie is buying me dinner. And call me crazy, but I’m happy with that and so is she. What does anyone else think? How do you work out payment for items knitted for friends?

My first magazine commission

This last couple of weeks I’ve been knitting furiously for a magazine commission. I submitted a design idea to Knit Now magazine at the end of February and was lucky enough to get the go ahead on it.

I’m not going to reveal the design here – you’ll have to buy the magazine for that! (It’s the spring/summer issue.) But as you might guess I’m pretty excited about it. The yarn chosen by the magazine’s editor is rather different from that which I suggested. I went for a laceweight from Manos del Uruguay, but I’ve ended up with Louisa Harding Amitola. This double-knitting-weight yarn is gorgeous, although it’s not very tightly wrapped so is rather splitty.

As you might have guessed, the piece is an accessory rather than a garment so gauge and yarn weight aren't that important.

I had a minor panic – not actually that minor – that I wasn't going to have enough yarn. This is despite the two balls I've got having a slightly higher yardage than the one of Manos that I used to make the first sample and it being a DK rather than a laceweight meaning it will come out bigger anyway. But logic aside I was still worried. But I've nearly finished the first ball and I think it should be fine.

My other concern was that I wouldn't be able to finish the sample by the deadline. I was convinced I only had a couple of weeks. But then I checked and it turns out that the deadline is 10 April. The upside to this, of course, is that, with just over a week of my fastest knitting, I'm more than halfway finished.

So on balance, it’s going well and I’m rather pleased with myself. This is the first time one of my designs has been accepted anywhere and I hope is the first of many.

I'm not going to share a picture of the sample,
but here's the yarn. Louisa Harding Amitola in Pirouette 102.

Design update

My latest design is a crossover top based on a favourite sweater that's just about falling apart. I'm doing well so far. Both fronts are done and I've done a goodly chunk of the back.

The back so far.

I've never made anything like this before. The biggest challenge so far has been working out how to do the slope to make the crossover. I had to make the slope, well, slopey, while at the same time making sure the piece was the right length, that the armholes were in the right place and the right size, that the shoulders were the right size. This took a lot of maths and several attempts at creating the slope. This was done using decreases, so another thing I had to take into acount was the direction of the decreases.

With the cross being right out front on the finished piece, there was no way to hide the decreases, so instead I had to make a feature of them. This meant making sure they leaned the right way – right on the right front, left on the left, so knit two together (k2tog) and slip slip knit (ssk) respectively. I really like the effect this has created.

This is the first time I've seen the two fronts
together, as it were. I like it.

The back is the easy bit. It's essentially the same as backs for all the other jumpers I've made, just with different maths. So my next challenge is the sleeves. I've done sleeves before, of course, but these are cap sleeves and I'm not really sure how to make them. I need to knit a kind of semi-circle and sew it into the armhole. But I'm not entirely sure how to knit a semi-circle.

I also need to add a border all around the crossover and round the collar. I'm not sure if this should be done all one go- that is, join the shoulders then starting at the bottom of one slope pick up stitches all the way round &ndash or to do each piece separately and then join. The former would look better, but that's going to be an awful lot of stitches to deal with. Will my circular needle even be long enough? The second option will be easier, but it just won't look as good. This is something to ponder.

A close-up of those decreases.

The other problem is that the thing just doesn't look like it's big enough. I measured the original top and made a swatch and worked out all the maths, so it should be just fine. Maybe blocking will sort it all out. But I'm actually taking a bit of a break from this project now. I've two things to complete to deadline &ndash one a baby cardie for a friend to give a pregnant work colleague and one a commission for a magazine. More on both of these later.

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.