Naughty Miss Swiss...

Well, I managed to finish up the pink 4ply with a simple baby cardigan on the E6000:



This is from the Metbury Baby book. Norman (he of Passap People yahoo group) sells the Metbury titles and the proceeds go to charity I believe.

However, far less fun was had trying to make a baby blanket in the same lilac yarn:



The top half is all needles in work on the back bed - incredibly hard to knit. The bottom half is 1x1 rib (which is how it is cast on). I followed the instructions, the pattern is for 4ply and the stitch size is 4. It's not impossible to knit, but even the motor baulked at it and I couldn't face 400 rows of it. Rather cross, because I followed a published pattern and it didn't work. No, I didn't swatch, it's a baby blanket for charity, it did not seem necessary. Sometimes I just want to sit down and knit, dammit! Thought that was the perfect project for it, but apparently not.

So after an hour of struggling with Miss Swiss, I chucked the covers on her and turned my back on her and started a simple vest top on the KH950i instead. Hoping the insult might buck her ideas up. Perhaps I just have a tight Passap? Who knows? Either that, or 4ply is rather too vague a yarn thickness.

Got some sewing up done on Sunday at a friend's house, I still have one more jumper to sew up and it's only two seams, but as it's chenille I need to dig out a coordinating yarn. It will get done, though possibly not this week.

Fug

I had a Toyota knitting machine briefly last year. It was very pretty, being cream and red and had hardly been used. I sold it on after the MKKI day, but discovered there's no "what fits what" table for these machines, so I've started one here. It's still a work in progress, so if you can help me correct it or add further info to it, please email me on the address at the right. I understand the whole range was immediately withdrawn after a visit by Toyota staff to the UK. When the CEO's wife discovered that Knitmaster and Brother were considered "the best" in Europe at the time, she demanded that production stopped. And it did. This is according to Anne of MKM. Talk about the tail wagging the dog! I didn't really play with mine enough to get a feel for it, but users say they are lovely machines to work with. Spares are very scarce now of course.

Himself has gone off to Austria for a week's snowboarding - the flight was delayed two hours whilst they changed 'planes. Trying to decide between a weekend of jaunts to local towns for shopping etc or a weekend in - it'll partly depend on whether or not it decides to snow. Feeling a bit headachey with brain fug, and although I intended a trip to the gym tonight I might just stay in and hit the exercise bike instead.

Progress report

First, some FOs:


Rico Creative Melange jumper. I sewed it up knit side outwards, because purl side outwards just looks wrong to me. Sleeves are a bit long but it's very cosy and smooshy and the neck is ok too despite originally looking a bit big.


...and a matching hat for the charity bag, supposed to be a child's size but it does fit me. Well, I had a ball left over so just made this up. Came out a bit pointy! :)

And in progress...


Strawberry (or more likely Blueberry) Shortcake in progress. Faltered at the weekend 'cause I'd miscounted, this is made in sideways blo-dcs. Artesano merino DK - very nice to work with!


Whilst I was dithering over the "Shortcake" top, I also cast this on...


Baby v neck cardi from the Metbury Baby book. Some assembly still required!


Child's jumper in blue chenille. Needs two more garter st bands adding and then sewing up.

Realised yesterday that I do probably have a 5.5 tunisian hook - I got the Knitpick Pro set - but because it's upstairs somewhere I forget I've got them.

Have also found a likely candidate yarn for the canopy cardigan, but need to clear some projects first which might cool my ardour. Also, the yarn in question will need dyeing. I'm thinking of a pale blue at the moment, as I've had a bit of a grey/white streak lately. We shall see!

On training for two days because I am taking on more responsibilities at work. The training centre is purpose-built and is like a fancy hotel - hot n' cold buffet, dorm rooms. Very fancy! Glad I'm not paying for it...

Itchy fingers

Well, I had a few nice hours of pottering around in the knitting room yesterday. Himself had to go into work, and it seemed like the perfect time to do some machine knitting (it was lovely and sunny, same as today, I probably should take a walk today to make the most of it). Firstly I finished off the final parts for a simple baby v-neck cardigan from the Metbury baby books. It's an almost entirely knit on the Passap design. Very simple though - 1x1 ribbing and stocking stitch, and vertical ribbed buttonhole band. I say "almost entirely", because I did use the Brother to join the shoulder seams. So it's done, it just needs sewing up.

Then I flipped through the book and thought I might make some baby blankets. There was one that involved a simple pre-programmed tuck stitch and baby 4ply. I had a fit of the red mist a while back and bought three cones of baby 4ply from Uppinghams - pink, blue, lilac - and was then presumably so ashamed they didn't even get photographed for the Rav stash. Anyroad, there's a slight typo in the book and it made me over-think things - you're using the front bed needles and pushers, and you cast on 1x1, but then add in between needles. I figured it meant front bed needles - this resulted in a major tangle. I've made a note that I really should read instructions properly and bring the back bed needles in next time. Decided I didn't fancy knitting 450 rows so put the cover back on the machine.

Then I turned my attention to some yarns that have been hanging around for a while. I swatched some blue chenille that's been hanging around far too long. Then I looked elsewhere. I've 340g of Denys Brunton fantasia. It's a space-dyed acrylic - it feels like cotton/silk, it's not your usual acrylic. I figured it might look nice as an evening scarf, using pattern 3 and tuck lace on the KH950i. Pattern 3 is not quite the same as card 3:

0XX00
0XX00
00XX0
00XX0

You couldn't use this for ordinary tuck, because there are always at least two needles together. But there's a nice picture of tuck lace in the front of the stitchworld book. Looking at the pattern above, needles 1 and 5 must be out of work, so you need a pattern of 3 up, 2 down, along the bed, and 2 up at the ends.

Well, I got cast on, but do you think I could get it to knit right? Didn't matter where I put the pattern, it wouldn't tuck correctly. Then I realised my mistake - I was using KC1 and should have been using KC2 (or the KC that is at 2 o'clock).  There was even a DIAGRAM of the switch location in the manual, and I still missed it. Using the wrong KC means every end needle of a group is knitting, even if you're not at the edge of the knitting. It's ingenious, and clearly more than enough to fox me!

Once I got THAT figured out it was plain sailing. I did about 600 odd rows before I decided that, although it was pretty, it was still curling quite a bit, and I wasn't convinced that steaming/killing would add anything (it might even melt this yarn). So that all got re-wound - I swatched it in the normal manner, because it might make a lovely slinky top...

By this time the chenille swatch had had a reasonable time to rest, so I plugged the measurements into Knitware and came up with a simple round-neck jumper. I did a simple 2x2 cable twist up the front but didn't add a gutter - this yarn is pretty fragile and I didn't want to risk snapping it. It also sheds - found a lump of bits trapped inside the sinker plate at one point. Spent the rest of the afternoon making that jumper up, and knitted the sleeves downwards to save on sewing up. I just need to add garter stitch borders by hand, and then sew the whole lot up. Still got quite a bit more on the cone though. That yarn sure is mocking me!

The Cog was home by now and after making open sandwiches on home-made bread (he's trying to eliminate yeast at the moment so it's bread made with baking powder, surprisingly not bad!), I turned my thoughts to some peach cotton I was given a few weeks ago. I had originally planned on crocheting "Lilly", a beach cover up, which has a front of lacy motifs and the rest of the garment is made in mesh stitch. However, I don't get to spend a lot of time at the beach, being almost right in the middle of this landmass (more's the pity!) so went rootling around for other ideas. I wanted to make Doris Chan's Tokyo vest - it's a straight piece of tunisian crochet lace that wraps around and makes a top. Alas, I don't have a 5.5mm tunisian hook. Thwarted! Finally settled on a long-sleeved, vneck cotton top from the Sirdar white book - it's called Design F (Sirdar 279 apparently, but no pictures etc on Rav so nobody's finished it yet).

The Cog very kindly took me out for dinner (he's away next week snowboarding) so no sewing up to be done after two glasses of wine and two rather strong beers. I think I may have fallen asleep on the sofa at some point. Whoops!

I think I need a "house elf" that I can teach to do the sewing up. I just want to make the parts up, and then find them magically sewn together the next morning. I suspect that's not going to happen. I suppose I ought to get out of bed and start the day!!! :)

It costs what...?!

I recently picked up a load of back issues of Inside Crochet (thankyou knittyfred) and Interweave Crochet. I have gone and fallen in love with the Lace Canopy Cardi Wrap from Interweave Crochet Fall 2011. It's made from a lovely American yarn that is a blend of alpaca, merino and bamboo. Alas, there's only one place to get it in the UK (Loop) and when I worked out the cost I nearly fainted - £176.25 for 15 skeins. I'm not saying it's not worth the money, it's just rather a lot to spend on a cardigan! Asides from all that, they've only got that amount in 2 colours, so it's not as if I can choose my colourway either.

So I've been casting around for alternatives - narrowed it down to Artesano 4ply merino, King Cole 4ply merino or Yeoman Sport at the moment - £76, £40 or £40 respectively. The latter two are coned yarns so I'd have extra to play with also. I'm wavering between a sky blue, a hot pink or a bright red. It would make a nice change from the greys and whites I've used lately.

Who said making your own garments saved money again?!

I'm trying very hard not to buy the yarn yet though, because I've still got two garments waiting in the wings. I've cast on "Strawberry Shortcake" from Inside Crochet vol 1 - I've restarted it once or twice already because I was so keen to crochet but couldn't guarantee tension with the duff fingernail until recently. However, I think I might restart it again because I suspect it's going to be a bit too short.

I've also got a bag full of Rico Tasai to work up. I picked up the pattern book at the same time, but I must admit, none of the patterns are inspiring me.

I also need to frog Rosedale - it's coming out too big and I think I might have a go at a top-down cardigan instead, using the gauge I'm currently getting.

Just discovered I have 15 projects hibernating on Ravelry. Oops!

Knitting and dyeing...

I've been quiet on the blog for a week because I got sent to Holland for work at pretty short notice so haven't been online much, and when I did get back there were lots of emails and posts to catch up on. I did take some handknitting and some crochet with me though!

This Saturday I attended the "50 Shades of Dye" workshop at Toft Alpacas, which is just down the road from me. It was organised by Debbie and Pete of DT Craft and Design. We produced shade cards - one with different solutions of the base dyes, and one with different mixes of the base dyes.


Different strengths of dye


Different mixes of dye

Sorry for the not-great photos, we have a rather loud duvet cover on at the moment!!

Then we had a go creating a test skein and a larger skein. For the test skein there weren't a lot of plastic tubs handy so I used some sponges to paint the yarn. For the larger skein I made up some solutions in plastic cups and dunked the yarn into them.


Finished test skeins - mine's on the far left


Finished skeins - mine's the purple with a loud dash of pink

We finished up with a very squelchy walk around the alpaca farm - lots of mud that tried to remove my wellies a few times (it had snowed, then thawed, that morning). Very enjoyable day - good food (homemade soup and cake) and great fun with dye.

On the knitting front, I finished the Creative Melange jumper. It came out rather large and the sleeves are a bit long, but it's very cosy. Decided to sew it up with the knit side outwards because I didn't like the purl-side outwards, seams outside design. I also made a simple hat with the leftovers. Debating whether to follow a pattern with the rico tasai yarn, or whether to make something up as I go along...

Very tired today for some reason. I never get on with hotel beds so have been catching up with my sleep.

The irony of crafting

But first, that yarn god delivery in full (after the Coventry Knit Wits have picked through it):



I snaffled 700g of peach mercerised cotton from it, and there's a grey cone of DK you'll see further down this post. Taking it to Ripping Yarns later, hopefully it'll go down a bit more!



This blanket (it's a single bed size, this is just the half you can see draped over our bannister!) has been keeping me busy since mid January. It's from Scan the cat - she calls it a fairisle or celtic afghan, the original pattern has a bird pattern on it but I decided to be lazy and just use the built in patterns from the KH950i. I tacked the vertical panels wrong sides together and joined them with the pie-crust edging on the machine - in fact, the whole thing was joined and trimmed on the machine. The verticals lean towards the centre, I should have been patient probably and waited for my finger to heal up enough so that I could crochet the panels together first. I have full mobility in that finger again now (ie I can bend it completely) but that's only been in the last day or so. I need to steam the edges but otherwise it's done. This is yarn left over from olympic cushion making so as such it's not in the Rav stash at the moment. I have enough of these to make at least one, maybe two more blankets. Not sure where this blanket is going, I didn't plan who would have it.

Now for the irony - the local clothing bank wants children sized stuff especially, so I thought I'd make some small hats. This is the criss-cross toque, an excellent primer in cables - but ignore the written instructions and use the chart, it's easier.



Interestingly enough, this hat uses what I would call a "start loop" (loop pulled up to the height of a half treble) instead of a starting chain. Which is a clever idea I've not come across before - it's invisible once done. BUT I learnt I needed to mark it with a stitch marker, because otherwise it was hard to see when getting close to the end of a round.

And - it came out too small. I think the pattern is supposed to be for an adult, and calls for worsted. I used the unknown grey DK, and although I could wear it, it's tight and only half covers my ears. Fine, I think - got a child's hat and I wasn't even trying.

So then yesterday I made this:



Boy's crocheted hat by Marty Miller. It's back loop only, short-rowed double crochets mainly (with a column of plain dcs for the brim. It was addictive to the point of making my wrists ache, but I wanted to finish it. And guess what? It fits me and is a little too large for the Cog (who clearly has less brains than I, ha!). So - tried to make a child's hat, and got an adult one.

How's that for irony?!

You know you've been crocheting a lot when you dream about it - dreamt my cat Thomas was chasing a fox, which was entirely crocheted. He moved fast for a stuffed toy though! Then I caught and was bathing an unknown black and white cat who was covered in blood but didn't seem to be injured. Very odd!

Being sent to the Netherlands for work next week so machine knitting time will be nil. Have resolved to start doing twenty minutes of exercise every day, because the weight just isn't dropping off and diet alone just isn't working. Hotel has gymn, pool and sauna, so no excuses. Trying to figure out what knitting/crochet to take - on second sleeve of the Creative Melange jumper and might just take that and hooks and a crochet book.