Dr Who scarf

So far I've done about a foot of the Dr Who scarf. I cast on something like 38 stitches which worked out at 7 inches wide. The actual pattern calls for it to be 12 inches wide (and worn folded over to make it look like 6 inches). This seemed like it would be too big and heavy, especially for the recipient - the original scarf was designed for a 6 foot great hulking bloke!

I'm also going to finish it at around 9 or 10 feet long. We just worked out the pattern knits to 15 feet if you did it all. Eek. Again, that is just too much fabric!

The yarn is knitting up nicely - Sirdar Country Style DK which is 85 acrylic, 15 wool. It has this slight mottling in it which gives the fabric a little more "depth" colourwise.

Had a slight issue with the pattern (and all of the Who scarf patterns seem to suffer from this), they use the term "rows" to refer to garter stitch ridges - and you need 2 actual knitted rows to make one ridge. The first bar is half the depth it should be, but overall this isn't a problem, it still looks good.

Some pictures when I have a little more done. So far I've used purple, beige and bronze.

I was very naughty and bought some yarn on eBay the other day :-) It is natural-dyed pure wool and worked out at 2 UKP per 50g skein. It hasn't arrived yet but I'll blog it when it does. I also ordered some very expensive (NOT) Sirdar Bonus DK acrylic, a whole 99 pence per 100g, for a future Hufflepuff PS/COS scarf. Shades are black and sunflower yellow (bright!). This came from Dianne's Knitting Yarns who have a great range of basic yarns and also a lot of fashion yarns.

Prize!

A very big thanks goes out to Uknitty for the parcel that arrived today. This was my prize for "honourable mention" in the challenge from this post in celebration of National Knitting Week.

In the package was some very pretty Patons Whisper eyelash yarn in shade 4 (aqua, pinks, purples), and some chocolate! Oh my. I think I am transparent. Knitting and chocolate, a perfect way to spend an afternoon :-) (Apologies for lack of a photo but we got home just before dark tonight.)

Thanks again C, this was a lovely surprise :-)

Wendy Shimmer Scarf

Here is my first completed Christmas gift, finished on Saturday:

Yarn: Wendy Shimmer, 2 x 50g balls
Shade: Regal
Size: just over 4 inches wide and approx. 4 feet long

I already had this yarn in my stash, just enough for a child's scarf. There is still some Bordeaux Shimmer in there!



No clicky pic as it doesn't add anything - even right by the window in daylight, the camera still insisted it needed the flash. The best representation of the actual colour is at top left of the scarf.

Voldemort can't stop the rock

Nope, the title is completely irrelevant to this post. You have got to love the song title that "Harry and the Potters" come up with though.

Firstly to answer your question Diane - yes, I've seen one or two episodes of "Long Way Round". I thought it was excellent. Ewan and Charley are so utterly lovely and down to earth. I looked on Amazon and found the DVD of the series is on sale at 9.99, so I think I will buy it :-)

I started a gift scarf last night, using Wendy Shimmer in shade "Regal", rich pinks and red-browns. It is also a stashbuster scarf, as I had 2 balls of this sitting in one of the boxes just waiting for me to have the idea :-D Two balls will be just right as this is for my niece (aged 6). I'd say I'm about two-thirds or more done. This yarn knits up into such an amazing thick, silky soft fabric.

My little order from McA Direct arrived today (they are so speedy and free P&P over 5 UKP) - 4 balls of Patons Whisper Lurex DK, shade Midnight (the lurex is silver). This is for a skinny scarf and bag for my aunt for Christmas. I got the pattern book for Whisper too which has an ideal baggie that takes one ball, plus a contrast yarn. Well, I have the perfect yarn for that already, the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in black. I think I'll knit the bag in the round though rather than attempting to seam the crazy eyelash fabric!

Mr Benn! And a fox!

Well YAY, I just got the HMV email newsletter and the classic childrens' animated series "Mr Benn" has been released on DVD! I have been griping about this for years! I don't think I can wait until Christmas. I am so happy I think I might try to find the Mr Benn music for a mobile phone ringtone :-D

Another amazing thing happened today. I was driving to work not long after 8am this morning, and a fox ran across the dual carriageway about 100 yards in front of me. We so rarely actually see foxes here although we have plenty of fields and countryside in general around us. It was definitely a fox, a reddish coat, distinctive pointy head and the most wonderful white-tipped bushy tail. I'm so glad there wasn't much traffic around - I would hate to try and cross that road myself!

Stash enhancement

I apologise in advance for the flash effect on the photos - no daylight to take them in any more!

Here's the yarn I bought while on holiday:

Firstly a 400g ball of navy blue aran acrylic from Poundstretcher! I had no idea they sold yarn. Our local one (now called "Instore") does not have yarn, shame as I was going to buy some of the cream as well (they also did red). This cost a whole 4 UKP!



Next the Colinette yarn, Graffiti pure wool twist in "Popsicle" (aqua-based) and an unmarked shade which looks a little like "Fire":





Pure wool aran from Brynkir Woollen Mill. This is a working mill a few miles from where we stayed. You can go in and look round at all the machinery. Not much up and running the day we went but the carding machine was running which was fairly impressive!



Next up, yarn for the Dr Who scarf, ordered from McA Direct. Sirdar Country Style DK in 100g balls. I will be making the Season 12 scarf, not quite as wide as the original pattern and not as long. In fact the pattern I've adopted is the official BBC Enterprises pattern - I just won't knit to the end of the pattern.



Finally, the yarn for a PoA/GoF style Gryffindor scarf. This will be knit in the round, the yarn is Patons Diploma DK in Berry and Honey:

Hufflepuff K1P1 scarf progress

I'm part way through the sixth set of trapped bars on this, so almost half way done. The yarn may or may not last to allow the full 14 sets though. I didn't calculate yardage properly when I bought it, and had to guess anyway as the atypically.net yarn amounts are for a scarf knit in the round (not rib). It is also fairly pricey yarn (Debbie Bliss Cashmerino aran) so I'm not really minded to rush and buy any more just yet! I figure I'll knit until I run out of yellow, and hope I can get to the full 14 sets before that happens :-) The scarf is around 38 inches long already so even if I only get 13 sets, for example, it will still be plenty long enough. I love the way the knitted fabric drapes and of course it is incredibly soft.

I've adopted a different approach to the edges - only slipping the first stitch of the row in the large yellow sections, and knitting/purling the first stitch within the trapped bar areas. Not sure if it vastly improves the look, but I don't think it is too shabby!

Dulaan scarf no. 1 progress

Here's the first Dulaan item I'm making. It's knit in the round in stockinette so is double-thickness, in chunky soft grey acrylic yarn. I think it is around 27 inches long at the moment, I'll knit around 66" and fringe the ends. I'm also planning on at least one hat in this yarn, I bought 1000g of it on eBay a year or so ago so I have quite a lot to go at! So far I've only used it in a striped scarf and figured it would be put to good use for somewhere where they really do need warm clothing.

Colinette Point 5 scarf

Here's the companion piece to the hat. I knit 2 (and a bit) out of 3 skeins of this on holiday and finished it this past weekend. The entire scarf is done in K1P1 every row (moss stitch I believe), casting on only 15 stitches on 12mm needles.

Colinette Point 5 hat

Hey hey, knitting updates!

Firstly we have the hat I made on holiday. The story behind this is that we visited the Colinette mill shop at their workshops in Llanfair Caereinion, Wales. We stayed in Portmeirion for the week, and the trip to Colinette took around an hour and a quarter, driving past some stunning mountains and valleys. Sadly I was too busy navigating to take photos!

The mill shop itself is like yarn wonderland. There are two large rooms, one being a "sale yarns" area. Backing on to the shop itself is a big office with computers, where they probably take and process all of the online orders. It looks like a great place to work.

I ended up buying the hat and scarf kit (Point 5 yarn) from the sale area, some Graffiti yarn in two different colourways, and a "mill pack" for Lynne. I asked the lady who let us in to the shop (you have to ring a doorbell outside) if they had the mill packs, and she showed me where they were. I spotted some colours I thought would be ideal, but they were actually in a kit for a throw. The lady very kindly made up a custom mill pack for us using those colours. I highly recommend a visit if you are ever in the area!

The hat is in Point 5 chunky thick-and-thin pure wool, I don't know the colourway as it wasn't marked. It was knit up on 12mm needles and seamed, and took a couple of hours one evening!

Pink is back

After a fair bit of browsing trying to find half-decent templates I could tinker with, and failing miserably, I found another Blogger template that seems to suit this blog better than Minima did :-) Minima is nice but I realised I don't really have the time to sit and edit and design - I'd rather knit!

Anyway - I like this combo of pink sidebars and white main area, so hopefully I'll stick with it.

I knitting news, I hadn't knitted all week, being busy sorting out after holidays and feeling tired. Fairly sure another bug-ette has wandered through my system this week. Roll on the flu jab in a few weeks' time! I seem to fight off everything so much better while that is active.

Picked up the Huffle scarf last night, so we now have 5 repeats. Current projects are:

- Hufflepuff scarf in 1x1 rib
- Dulaan scarf knit in the round (around 27 inches done)
- scarf in Colinette Point 5 yarn, one ball to go
- secret baggie, which I did do a little work on while on holiday, but not much

I also knit a hat in the same Point 5 yarn on holiday. It was a kit (4 x 100g hanks plus pattern) from the Colinette Mill Shop. A wonderful place if you ever get the chance to go.

Still no pictures of anything, not had time today and now it's dark (dark at 7pm now, ooh winter is coming). I may not have a chance tomorrow, as we have visitors coming, but I might do some snapping if I get up early enough!

The yarn has arrived for the Dr Who and Gryffindor scarves. McA Direct were super-fast shipping it out. The Sirdar Country Style DK (Dr Who) is lovely, the colours are rich and autumnal - maybe could have done with a wee bit more contrast between the bronze and russet shades, but since they will be separated by other colours I think it will be fine. Strangely enough they look more different in electric light than they do in daylight.

The Gryffindor yarn is Patons Diploma DK, in Berry and Honey. If I have any willpower I won't start this until the Huffle scarf is finished. Since I already have 4 different things on the needles, plus needing to make at least one scarf as a Christmas present, I doubt one more "current project" will hurt :-)

There and back again

A quick posting to wave and say I'm still here, returned from holiday and catching up with things slowly!

Thanks so much for the recent comments folks. I will have updates on knitting progress, and a few pictures from Portmeirion, shortly.

I decided to change the template to something more minimal, although I'm aiming to "tweak" it a bit and create a title graphic as soon as possible. It's odd, I've had a website since 1996, but blogs are still fairly mysterious to me - I feel like a complete newbie at times! Still need to find out what things like Bloglines and RSS feeds are ...

In yarn news, I just took the plunge and ordered yarn for the Dr Who scarf and a Gryffindor PoA scarf. Pics of this and the yarn I bought on holiday are forthcoming!