Heather Hoodie Vest

Pattern: Heather Hoodie Vest, Knitscene Fall 2009
Yarn: Sirdar Denim Chunky, shade 509
Yardage: 5.08 skeins
Needles: 6mm straights and 6mm circs

Another garment that I am very pleased with indeed. The yarn is a wool/cotton/acrylic blend, handles very well, washes well and keeps its shape, and the cables really pop. It's also very cosy! The hood is of elven proportions and would certainly keep your head dry in a rain shower. The pattern is one I would knit again, maybe in a dark leaf green. The Mr thinks it looks like a top from the latest Robin Hood series and I'm inclined to agree.

Another recent finish was the Piper hat from Twist Collective:

Knit in Sublime Merino Silk Cashmere aran, a gorgeous yarn but a bit drapier than I think this needs. I made the slouchier version too and would knit this again using a wool yarn. The piping was done in Cascade 220.

I also turned the heel on my sock!

The decreases have also been completed and it just needs the main foot section completing next. I've also knit the right front section of Tender, my KSH cardigan, and am aiming to finish that before Christmas.

My current project is another Clapotis, using some Mirasol Hacho bought at the Black Sheep Craft Barn shop (a wondrous place to visit, there is a huge yarn pile amongst other things!). I'm going to the theatre in a couple of weeks' time and decided I'd like a more moody, autumnal scarf/wrap to wear. The photo doesn't do the colours justice, hopefully my next progress shot will be in better light.



The blog has also had a revamp, I hope you like the new look!

Basil

I finished this sweater a couple of weeks ago and forgot to blog it. The pattern is Basil from the Rowan Summer Tweed Collection by Kim Hargreaves, knit in Summer Tweed shade "Shark". The colours are not that good in the photo as it was taken in poor light - it's a darker grey base with flecks of blue-grey and black.

I love how this turned out, it's a wonderful fit and very soft and comfortable. I found the Summer Tweed fine to knit with, it didn't cause me any problems at all. The main mods to this sweater were (1) adding 4 extra rows after switching to the larger needles front and back, before the waist decreases, and (2) convering the shoulders to short row shoulder shaping. This is a method I will most definitely use in future, it significantly improves the look of the shoulders. A three-needle bind-off is used to seam the shoulders and again this gives a very neat finish.

I've just finished the last body piece for the Hoodie Vest, so my next job is joining the shoulders (three-needle bind-off again, but there's no shoulder shaping in this design) then blocking the body out to size. As well as knitting, I've been making chutney and marmalade! First off was Green Tomato Chutney (Delia Smith recipe), using our homegrown cherry tomatoes. We had to make sure we went out and picked all the greens off the plants just for this recipe, as they were all ripening up so well! Next was Mango Chutney, using a recipe by Marguerite Patten. We opted for the version without apples and hence using more mango. It turned out beautifully and tastes fabulous, although it's currently maturing for a month before we use any.

Last up was Grapefruit Marmalade (another Marguerite recipe), as I have great difficulty finding this in the shops, and tend to avoid oranges. We used pink grapefruit, and soaked the pith etc. for 24 hours before use. As it turned out this was a good thing to do, according to the collected wisdom on t'internet. I'd never made marmalade before (or mango chutney), so I was rather winging it on things like setting point - especially without a jam thermometer. Again it turned out really well, I was a bit worried it might never set but it has made a lovely thick marmalade. I have a partial jar in the fridge at the moment with the rest stored and it tastes wonderful. We have since invested in a proper preserving pan and thermometer, rather than the stock pot we've used this time. I will definitely be making my own marmalade and mango chutney again! I don't have any photos as my husband very helpfully put all the jars back into the boxes they originally came in, and they are sitting on top of the kitchen cupboards! They do need to mature though, especially the green tomato, that needs to be left for three months.

Alexandra

This has been finished for a little while, blocked earlier this week:





Alexandra from Fitted Knits, using Rowan Plaid in shade "Sea Thistle". I added a little extra length between the decreases and increases, and also after the increases. This version has an extra cable twist right near the lower edge. I settled on doing short sleeves instead of the three-quarter ones in the pattern. With my mods this only took a little under 4.5 balls of the Plaid, in the 36 size. Needles were Denise 6.5mm circs.

It's official ...

... I have startitis at the moment. I've kept it reasonably under control so far but I can't guarantee that will continue. It must be Spring and the extra daylight adding a little more va-va-voom in the knitting department :-)

My first WIP is Alhambra mentioned in my last post. I had a 55g skein of Eva 2-ply in stash that I decided to use for this, as it only really asks for 350-ish yards. I think a solid colour would be better for this pattern but I like the way the Eva is knitting up into curvy diagonal stripes of colour.



I'm quite pleased with my progress on this, as previously I'd been a little put off knitting with finer yarns. This was down to using KSH, which is of course incredibly fine AND fluffy. The Eva is lovely to knit with and I think I've now grasped the various directions of yarnovers. Not to mention doing the p2togtbl correctly. It seems I was not doing it correctly at first, and I struggled away, and ended up messing up the stitch counts by one on a few rows in the first repeats. It doesn't look disastrous though andI decided to leave it as something that showed a learning curve. Strangely I had looked up p2togtbl some time ago, and found some directions, but when I checked the video on Knitting Help I found it was being done differently - and more importantly in an easier way!

I finished off the second sleeve on Alexandra on Friday night, and that is now blocking. I did short slightly puffed sleeves in the end, as I thought I'd get more use from it to wear over a long sleeved top in the colder months. Besides the fact I don't have 6.5mm DPNs, or even 2 circs, and using one Denise set wasn't exactly fun!

Having done the above I happily cast on for the Flutter Sleeve Cardigan from Spring 08 IK. I'd originally wondered about using DB Cathay but I should have remembered this really is a thinner DK yarn and doesn't make a suitable fabric on 4.5mm needles. The swatch confirmed this, so I had another think and finally hit upon Rowan Calmer, from stash. The swatch performed perfectly and I'm now up to the ribbing at the waist on the back piece:



I'm still trying to find time to sew up CPH, and am keeping my fingers crossed for this coming Bank Holiday weekend.

I could really have done with blogging last weekend too, after our week off, but it turned out fairly busy and I reluctantly deferred it a week. We did get plenty done around the house though, and managed a couple of days out too.

The first trip was to Coldspring Mill and Haworth:



You can see some cones of yarn through the windows in the picture. As usual there was plenty of temptation to hand inside. I came away with 2 packs around the 500g mark of Twilleys Freedom Spirit, and a cone of DB Cathay in pink. The latter was intended for Flutter Sleeve but as noted above, wasn't suitable. I've got plenty of alternatives to use it for though.

It was a lovely day weather-wise, quite breezy but not overly cold. You can see how bright and Spring-like it was in these photos of Haworth:



The Parsonage, taken from the churchyard



The main street

There was a lovely exhibition of historic photographs of Haworth and its environs, in the old school rooms near the parsonage. This was the original school built by the Rev. Bronte. One photo showed the day the Parsonage opened as a museum, in 1928 I think. The narrow street leading to it was literally jam packed with people, and everyone was wearing a hat. Well, I did spot one man in the middle of the picture who wasn't!

A couple of days later we went to Farfield Mill near Sedbergh, on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. This was originally recommended by Donna, and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit. The mill was rescued some yeas ago and some of the original looms were also saved. They now weave on those very same looms as a commercial venture, and you can watch them in action.



The building is divided into four floors, and we started on the top floor, which is a lovely exhibition of hand looms and spinning wheels. On all of the floors there are studios for craftspeople, there was no-one working or demonstrating there that day though. I didn't get any photos of the looms up there, too busy looking at them!

On level 2 there is a big display of the history of the mill, and some of the older looms that were used to weave cloth:



Level 1 houses a lovely cafe, and also the commercial weaving rooms. We sat next to the window through to the weaving room and watched the weaver winding yarns from large cones onto smaller ones. I managed to snag a photo through the glass doors as were were leaving:



Apologies for the slightly blurry photo as I was using the camera on "museum" setting, this is in the room next to the looms, but I'm not 100% sure what was being wound onto what!



They use yarn made from the fleece of the local Rough Fell sheep. I believe this next picture, taken of the field just outside the mill, is of those same breed of sheep. They were not at all impressed at someone getting out of a car to take their photo, and set up quite a noise!



We've not long since finished watching the Spanish Grand Prix, quite an interesting race and another one with a high level of attrition. I'm somewhat gutted for Nick Heidfeld having to serve a 10 second stop/start penalty, as he had no choice but to pit during a safety car phase. I guess that is a risk they run if they leave pitting until the last possible moment, but all the same he did manage to regain a reasonable placing. Well done to the winners, and all the best to Heikki Kovalainen who had an awful crash due to what sounded like a foreign object that caused a tyre to blow out.