By lilysunshine, on 9 December 2011, at 3:21 pm A couple of month ago, I made a plan of things I wanted to work on. It’s been semi-successful.
The cockleshells gloves have been finished and I even made a pair of matching mittens for Lucas.
The skein of Scrumptious DK in magenta has been knitted up – but I can’t show you, it’s one of those super secret projects. Hopefully, I should be able to tell you more before the end of the month!
The rainbow cushion top is finished and I’m about 30% done with the backing. It’s my “going to spend quite some time in transport” project, and we haven’t had much of that since early November…
My Murcott now has a left front. And I’m hoping to cast-on for the right front before the weekend end.
I wasn’t so successful with my fabrics plans. Only the quilt did get done. But I am planning to sit at the sewing machine this weekend so I might get some of the other plans done.
Oh well, it’s not too bad, is it?
So now, it’s time to make a second plan. It is a plan in 2 parts.
First, limit the number of WIPs. I don’t mind WIPs as such, but I keep running out of bags and places to store them, so it tends to look a bit messy around my side of the sofa. It is not fair on the rest of the family! So my goal is to only have 1 project of each sort at anyone time: 1 garment, 1 pair of socks and 1 shawl / stole. (I’m excluding my scrapghan, because to work on it I need scraps from other projects) At the moment I’ve got 2 shawls (3 if you count the crochet one), 2 adult sized garments and 2 pairs of socks. I’m hoping to have one less pair of socks done before the end of the weekend. These socks:
They use the leftovers Colinette Jitterbug from the sample socks I knitted for Jen back in March / April? Somewhere around this time.
My other socks WIP are the Rhombuses from Knit. Sock. Love by Cookie A. that I cast on… ooh, in February? They’re knitted in lovely Buffy yarn by Juno Fiber Arts. But I’m in 2 minds about them.
I think it’s a case of the yarn overpowering the template. I’m thinking that a less involved pattern would work better for this yarn. I’m not that far along (just about done with the lefg of the first sock) so I wouldn’t mind frogging and giving the yarn (and pattern, at another time) another chance. What do you think?
Next project I’m going to work on is my Seascape Stole. I had forgotten how pretty it was.
It’s very fine 100% pure silk. I don’t have a problem with very fine yarns, but I do have a problem with silk. I wasn’t enjoying knitting with it at all. But I’m thinking that if I only work on it in bursts, I might be able to get it done.
Now, the second part of plan is to knit up some of my sock yarn stash.
I *think* that’s all of my sock yarns. It’s not that much, but I’ve just subscribed to the Totie Toe Sock Yarn club from Ripples Crafts, that I’m a bit worried that it would grow out of control. I know some people say that sock yarn is not stash. Well, maybe, but it certainly take some space that could be better used! I’ve just joined the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Rav and I’m hoping to enter a few challenges. I’m hoping to knit 1 pair of socks per month in the coming months, and I’m hoping that at least half of them will be of my own pattern.
Oh and I’m thinking about pursuing my semi-successful stash diet / stash bust in the new year too. But more on that at a later time!
Better get knitting! Anybody else’s got plans?
By lilysunshine, on 5 December 2011, at 11:22 am All weekend, I have been talking about how I was progressing on my newest project and it seems only fair to now blog about it. 140 letters are somewhat limiting!
I’ve had 4 balls of dark blue Rowan Felted Tweed DK and 3 balls of purple in my stash since… December 2010? It was given to me by Jen when she was still working at The Knitter, so it must have been around that time.
I loved the colours and they were calling to be a pullover of some sort. But I didn’t have enough of each colours to make a pullover in any one. So I thought about striping them. But I didn’t like the stripes much, as there was not enough contrast between the 2 colours. So after giving it a couple of tries, I just abandoned the yarn, not really sure what to do with it…
Fast forward to just about December 2011, and I’m in the middle of a semi successful stash diet / stash busting operation. As I was looking into the box (er, more like one of the boxes), I unearthed the bag where I had stored the Felted Tweed.
I am, at the moment, in a big colourwork phase. I LOVE colourwork. It’s such an easy way to personalise your knits. I LOVE designing colourwork. I didn’t think I would, but then, my first ever published design was a colourwork kids jumper! And I LOVE knitting colourwork. For years, I thought that one was supposed to drop colours. Then Ravelry opened my mind to the two-handed stranded knitting. I thought that was a fantastic idea, but that looks difficult. Still, I made the decision to learn this new technique. I’m a dropper by nature, that’s how I knit. My mum knits English style, but I’ve never been able to knit that way (it doesn’t help that I purl in the combined way). But hey, with practice, surely I could learn to knit 2-handed stranded? So I tensioned the yarn over my left hand, continental style, while carrying / dropping another yarn with my right hand. And started knitting. It was the most natural thing I have ever done. It took me about 1 row to get the tension right on the left hand yarn, but that’s about all. Picking yarn with the right needle is very similar to crochet, so if you crochet, it shouldn;t be too hard to learn 2 handed stranded knitting!
But I digress! I’m here to show off my latest colourwork project!
I am very very pleased with how it’s turning out. I bought 2 extra skeins of Felted Tweed DK, one in an oatmeal-y colour, one in green and it is just what this yarn needed.
I designed this colourwork pattern, inspired by traditional fair-isle and other stranded knitting. There’s nothing crazy about it, but I think it works fine for my project. I originally designed a much complex yoke, but the central part wasn’t working so well once translated into knitting. Plus, my numbers were off and the new numbers would have meant redesigning it, so I dropped it altogether.
This is the first version of the yoke, which I frogged yesterday. I am basing my numbers on the percentage method as explained by Elizabeth Zimmerman in Knitting without Tears. But I wanted my neckline much lower and wider. My numbers width wise were fine, but were totally off lengthwise (as was my row gauge, on which I had base my patterns). It was bunching up in a weird way around my neck. So I frogged one day worth of knitting and changed my rate of increases and the second version (as shown higher up in this post) is much MUCH improved!
I just need to finish the colourwork (lovely scallops similar to the neck one) and my yoke will be about done. I’ve got a work project to finish first, but that should be quite fast.
I know people are scared of colourwork, I was for many years (I blame my mum, because she disliked it!). But do give it a go, it is fun and not that difficult! And it looks amazing! Plus, Scandinavian looking knitwear seems to be everywhere on the high street, so you’d be “bang on trend”! HAHA!
By lilysunshine, on 1 December 2011, at 10:00 am 
It’s time for some QAL action! How excited are you? I’m quite excited myself!
This week, it’s another simple patch from me. But it makes you practice cutting, lining-up seams and sewing together little bits of fabrics. This week we are making a very simple bordered 9-patch. This block will also be the base for my next block in 2 weeks, so it’s good practice!
So here it is, a simple 9-patch, with a border.
The instructions for putting it together are very similar to our first block, so if in doubt, refer to this post as well.
For this week’s block, I refer you to this very cool pdf file that I’ve put together. It’s handy, because you can print it and take it with you to your sewing place. It’s got all the necessary information. 9-patch tutorial.
Here are a few pics to inspire / help you. Hopefully!
So, for this week, I decided to go for the last colour remaining in my quilt: grey!
If you have scraps from your previous blocks, do use them, that will make your FQs go further! I’ve also added 3 white squares, because I like the mix of plain and prints, but it could be all prints, too!
Here is the layout I went for. I randomly placed the white squares and organised the prints in a way that I liked. I can be a bit OCD about block placement (no identical prints in the same row or touching, kind of OCD), but I’m trying to learn to let go.
And here it is, all sewn-up, before the borders are attached. Isn’t it lovely?
Now, you might wonder how you are going to trim this one down to 12.5″? Well, here’s my way of doing it.
I fold my block in half and press well at the midway point. Then I line up my 6.25″ line from my ruler along the fold (with the block open) and cut. It is not super precise, so I generally give myself a few millimetres extra and trim more if necessary. I do that on all sides and that gives me a perfectly centred block!
So here are all my blocks so far! Yes, they all have a white border, but no, you don’t have to! We are hoping to alternate print and plain border in the final layout, so if you are going to make only 9 blocks (which is totally fine), you need to keep that in mind! You would need to have 4 plain borders and 5 print borders (or the reverse!).
I think that’s all for today! Don’t forget to check Jen’s blog, too!
Oh, and there’s still 15% off all orders in the Little Fabric Store with the code ‘curiouser’ (and there’s plenty of fabrics on sale too!)
By lilysunshine, on 30 November 2011, at 9:51 am Just in time! It’s been in the works for about a month, but for some reason it took me forever to finish it. It wasn’t even that much work and I never doubted of the result. Ah, procrastination…
But anyway, my advent calendar is done done done! And I am SO pleased!
I used a charm pack of white Bella Solids and a charm pack of Flurry by Kate Spain (only 2 left in stocks and at this price, it’s a total bargain!). I have plenty leftovers of both, for Christmassy cushions, place mats or table tops. The binding is this absolutely amazing print from the new Ruby line, a white pindots on a perfectly matching red. I love it so much, I almost regret not getting anymore. Perfect staple for the stash, looks amazing as binding and would work in place of plain fabric, too.
I imagined this design and it turned out just as I envisioned it. What did slow me down is that I decided to embroider all the numbers. If you are short of time, a solution would be to use a fabric permanent marker in red and draw / write the numbers instead. Also, you could applique the number or machine embroider them. That could be quicker, depending on your skills.
But I don’t regret my choice of embroidering the numbers at all! It was slow, but it looks perfect (to me). This is the look I was going for! The font I used for the number was found on Dafont. It’s a free font, too!
With this advent calendar, I wanted to try a technique new to me, I wanted to try finishing attaching the binding with the sewing machine. It went… okay. Not perfect by any means and I can see it being useful when short of time, but I don’t like the look of it on the back of the quilt. So it’s something I would only use on a wall hanger.
I put together a very quick tutorial for the calendar. I’m afraid it’s possibly not very beginner friendly as it assumes you have some basic knowledge of cutting / sewing / quilting.
Advent calendar.
And I’m also going to add to this post the pdf I printed for my numbers.
Christmas numbers.
Now, I just need to put some sweets and chocolates in the little pouches of the calendar to be ready for tomorrow!
By lilysunshine, on 29 November 2011, at 5:13 pm For some reason, I never came around to blog about those 2 finished objects. They’ve been for a while and worn a few times already.
First up, my cockleshells gloves.
I fell in love with those when I edited the pattern for The Knitter. I resisted very hard before casting on, as I was super busy at the time I edited the pattern / it was published. But I knew exactly which yarn I was going to use: some Madeline Tosh Sock in Thyme which had been in my stash forever.
The stitch pattern works wonderfully with semi-solid yarns and really shows off the slight variegation of the Tosh Sock. It was a bit fiddly and when I was about midway through the second gloves, I felt like I was done with the cockleshells stitches, but it grows fast and soon I had 2 gloves.
The colours are a bit washed out in the pics (I blame the fugly weather we’ve had today), it’s a lovely light-ish green.
I knitted the first glove almost as written, I just decreased (a bit too many) stitches on the thumb, because it was way too wide for my little fingers. Also, I, obviously, knitted a knuckle version by stopping at knuckle height and ribbing for 3 or 4 rows before casting off. I need my fingers to always be free.
For the second glove, I changed the numbers of stitches used for the 3 middle fingers (2 more sts than as written) and decreased less stitches on the thumb. All in all, I am pleased with them.
I had plenty of leftovers, so I cast on some mittens for the toddler.
I improvised this pattern, and I am very very pleased with how well they turned out. I’m thinking about writing a multi-size pattern. Any takers?
It’s good to have some FOs to show off! Oh and also, 1 less skein in my stash! Yay for stash busting! Though, I’ve got about 20g left (maybe less)… I think I will make a couple of tiny socks for the Christmas tree and the rest (if there’s any left) will go in my scrapghan!
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Knitting patterns for sale Beynac Sock pattern
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