Crafty weekend

Had a lovely crafty weekend, although spent 6 hours in the car across the two days. Saturday was a hen weekend jewellery workshop at the Makery in Bath - couldn't stay for the rest of the hen activities, alas. Made a lovely bracelet and earrings:



Finished up a few things last week and finally got pics:




Skew socks - they look a lot better on.

Was helping out on the Guild stand at Fibre East yesterday, and I may have just picked up some yarn:



I defy anyone to resist a yarn in the colourway "Whiff of unicorn"...



Fibre East was lovely though didn't spot many folks I recognised this year. Minor quibble - the postcode doesn't appear on the site, had to dig it out of my 'phone from last year. 

Incidentally, that's the same duvet cover background in every picture. Shows you how much flash can make a difference...

Also bought some replacement 4mm Knitpro tips, which means that the pair that have eluded me will now turn up somewhere.

Discovered the "new" sofa eats things - found quite a stash of craft articles underneath it last night.

Addicted to the knitting...

We're having a bit of a heatwave in the UK this year - a half decent summer, for once - so I've taken it upon myself to make a pair of gloves. Yes, I am quite possibly mad, and of course other things are still on hold or in progress.

They're from Marriner pattern 1758 - we had a copy from my Aunty Margaret years ago that was so well used the ink started to wear off. I typed it up on our old typewriter, and then many years later managed to source a proper copy from Woolly Thoughts - they don't have the exact pattern any more, but have plenty of other suitable options. I've lost count of how many pairs of fingerless and fingered gloves I've made with this pattern, starting sometime around age 13. It's also pretty easy to modify it for a plain mitten too. I bought two 50g balls of Wendy Peter Pan in white with a pearlised thread; I suspect I'll have enough for a matching hat as well. I will probably retire some holey gloves I've been hanging on to for too long. 

I did finish the skew socks - I just need to sew in some ends. Saving that job for knitting club tomorrow night. 

You may or may not remember I started a "versatile jacket" (Anne Brown Posh Frocks) on Jan 3rd 2011 (I can be day-accurate thanks to Ravelry, and luckily I even noted what machine and tension I used!) Well, I need to knit one more piece, a simple 100 st wide scarf. And I mislaid the pattern. Couldn't figure out what I'd done with it. Looked in all the usual places, to no avail. The garment is all sewn up apart from the scarf bit, but is unwearable without. Anyway, the pattern suddenly turned up - in amongst a load of books and stuff I keep by my bed. I've been sleeping 3 ft away from it for years! Go figure! So I'm going to try and knit the missing piece when I get chance in the next week or so - it'll have to be on the Brother though because I'm damned if I'm setting up the SK840 for half an hour. Although I suppose it wouldn't be the end of the world. Hmmm. 

I should stay away from the "classified ads" on Ravelry - picked up some lovely yarn for a secret project. Might start it tomorrow night. Yep, startitis is alive and well as usual... :) 

FO: Sideways knit boucle top

Sorry for the rotten pics, but my resident cameraman was out last night.





Sideways knit on the KX395 in one piece, sleeves and neck insert added by hand.

FO: Crowfoot shawl, modified

Finally photographed, the Crowfoot shawl that I knitted sans the double central increase. I am a doofus. I do have some more yarn in a dark purple I might try again with. So much for relying on the charts!


Some of us had a go at entrelac last night - this was my attempt.

I am having a grumpy day today, having spent an hour stuck on the M6 outside Corley services.

Free pattern: Ribbed midgauge hat for adult

Machine: Midgauge
Tension: 5
Yarn: DK

CO 104 stitchs in 2x2 rib, and knit 70 rows. Add more rows here if you prefer a taller hat, this is enough to fit the head quite closely.
*Reduce tension by 1 dot, knit 2 rows. Repeat from * to R82
Transfer every stitch to its neighbour, and knit 1 row.
Break yarn leaving a long length and run through the live stitches. Draw up and sew the side seam, working from the opposite side for the last 3" (for the turn-up).

These two hats are slightly shorter, being about 70 rows, as I was determined to get two hats out of the yarn I had available. It was a 100g ball of King Cole Flash. I had thought the Cog and I could sport matching hats, but he does not have the head for short hats, he looks ridiculous in them.

Converting between machine gauges

There's been some discussion on the Facebook MK groups about how to convert between gauges, so I present to you a simple ready-reckoner. You pick your FROM gauge across the top and your TO gauge down the side. Having said that, I've used 0.75 not 0.69 for standard to midgauge with ill effect. You should make a gauge swatch in any case, of course, and converting from 9mm (aran) to 3.6mm (fine) might have a detrimental effect on the finished garment weight-wise.

FROM

TO	3.6	4.5	6.5	9
3.6	1	1.25	1.81	2.5
4.5	0.8	1	1.44	2
6.5	0.55	0.69	1	1.38
9	0.4	0.5	0.72	1

So, how do you use this? Say your pattern is a midgauge one, and asks you to cast on 104 stitches and knit for 70 rows, and you want to convert it to standard gauge. You multiply every number by 1.44. So you would now cast on 149.7 stitches and knit 100.8 rows. I would round this off to 150 stitches and 100 rows.

Not quite a birthday...

I was going to post something about it being my 9th blogiversary, and then realised I actually missed it as it's June 6th not July 4th. Oh well, never mind. Happy 4th of July anyway!