Blogtober - Day 2 - This week's Mail

This was the last installment in the Vintage Purls Winter sock club.  Even though it was a little later than it should've been (due to the non-superwash-batch issues Morag had) the timing seemed to fit in perfectly with the end of Winter - this week really has felt like Spring!

The yarn is a really nice shades of blue colourway - better than the photo shows!
The 'extras' were another design of sticky notes, a funky heart bead and the obligatory sugar (chocolate, my favourite!)
The pattern is another of her usual interesting and fun designs.  It has a main cable with lacy leaf design and two smaller twists/cables to either side.  The toe and gusset have matching increases which give a nice interest to the look.  I'm quite a fan of cables, so this might have to be started soon...
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Blogtoberfest...Day 1

I'm a rather sporadic blogger, so I'm a bit nervous jumping on the bus for this...
I read a lot of blogs that joined in last year and thought it looked like a bit of fun.

Maybe it will encourage me to spread things out a bit instead of jumbling everything I've been up to in one post every so often.

Maybe I'll actually update everything I do instead of only the latest things.

Maybe it'll get me taking more photos and more notice of things going on around here so I have something to talk about.

Maybe I will meet some new friends, get interesting comments.

Maybe it will be a good thing.

Maybe.
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Knitting, knitting, knitting

My first multi-sized pattern, Elisaac, is currently with the testers.  All going well, it should be ready for release mid-late October.  I finished my second one a little while ago, but only just took photos today.


I'm hoping my little nephew will come round for a photo-shoot later today.  Modelled photos always look better.


This pattern is designed so the body is worked from the collar down.  It's a rather unique way to knit that saves having to pick up stitches for the collar at the end.  I'm planning on using the technique in more designs.

These two jerseys have been knit in WOOLganics 8ply/DK in colours Gaia, Deep Earth, Gondwana and Raindrop.  I've never used WOOLganics before, but have heard a lot (all good) about it.  I can gladly say that it lives up to it's reputation.  It really is super soft to work with and I would love to use it more!


Currently on the needles, is my next design.


I'm not fully decided on a name, but I'm calling it Clara at the moment - named after the colourway it's knit in.  I'm using Vintage Purls sock wool for this.  This one is from the bad batch of wool (incorrectly superwash treated) that VP was supplied.  I have about 9 skeins from this batch, that needed a purpose other than socks and I only buy one skein of a colour at a time (all limited edition colours, too).  So a summer knit, 100g limit, 4ply design was in order.


I'm blinging it up with beads through the lace section which BigMiss greatly approves of.

This one should be off the needles in a week or two and my pattern is already written up ready for testing.  I'm not sure if I should do one more prototype before testing.  I plan on doing one for each of the girls eventually (I have several VP skeins to use up!)

I would love to try it in a bamboo or silk blend, though, as that will give a good drape to the design I imagine.  Maybe I should adult-size the pattern then one skein from stash won't be enough and I can justify buying new yarn to try it out...
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Selfish

knitting, that is.  Something just for me.

A group I belong to on Ravelry is having a KAL (knit-a-long).  It's to knit a sweater/large garment of your choice in Vintage Purls yarn.  A good friend of mine was kind enough to gift me a large skein of lovely lace weight yarn specifically for this KAL.  After a lot of Ravelry searching, (then Google searching to be able to find somewhere to actually buy the magazine the pattern comes in, which was sold out everywhere I looked, until I found you could purchase and download a digital copy from the publishers) I've chosen to do the Geodesic Cardigan.

This will be the first real* garment I've knitted for myself.  It should make a change from all the kid knits I do.  And I'm looking forward to just following a pattern as a break from all the calculating involved in creating my own.  I do really hope the style suits me...




*real - meaning one that will be used.  I have actually knitted myself a jersey before, but it made me look awful so lived in a box forever after.  Chunky yarn and rib does not suit someone that is of 'average' (meaning short and chunky) build.
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Do you Swatch?

I don't.  Never have done.

I find it a complete waste of time to knit a square (that will be undone to not waste yarn) only to measure it.  And, anyway, it depends on how you stretch the square as to whether you get guage*.

I always get guage.


I had to do some swatching for my next design idea.  Normally, I just calculate my numbers based on the recommended needle and stitch per inch given on the yarn label (my knitting tension is usually exactly that).  But the yarn I plan to use has a recommended range instead of one exact number.  So, I had to find out how many stitches per inch to base my calculations on by swatching.

For this design, I'm also doing some lacework and had to swatch that too.  But I didn't mind that as much because I did have to decide on how exactly I wanted the lace design to look.

So now to crunch some numbers so I can start knitting!

This is (hopefully) going to be a summer top for BigMiss.  I'll be on the lookout for test knitters when I've done the calculations and knit the prototype.




*For those non-knitters, guage is how many stitches per inch you knit at - sometimes called tension. It differs depending on the combination of thickness of the yarn and the size of the needles used. All knitting patterns give the guage that it was calculated at and you need to knit at that same guage or a garment won't end up the size it should be. You can change needle size to get guage if you're a tight or loose knitter. A swatch is the name given to the practise square you knit.
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My Creative Space

It's been a while since I last joined in on this...

Here's what I've been up to recently (just finished yesterday)

A flash new bag to put my bigger knitting projects in when I drag them out and about on my travels.

See, it fits things in very comfortably.  And you can see the neat inside pocket that I made to fit my notebook perfectly and with a pencil slot, too (saves having to dig around the bottom of the bag for the lost pencil!)  There's another pocket on the other side for any other extras, as well.

This is the first sewing I've done for myself in ages (usually it's all for the girls).  I used this bag pattern for it.

Check out what others are up to over at Kirsty's...
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Too Busy...

I think I'm not a very good blogger.

I've been meaning to spend some time on here to update the background and things for Spring.  But it's already five days into Spring and I haven't yet.

I've been meaning to update on here about all the things I've been making and getting up to in general.  But I've been too busy doing to blog.

So, the background update will have to wait as that takes a good amount of un-interrupted time to set all my widgets etc up and I will just give a quick run down of the main things I've been up to.  (Really, if I just spent five minutes once a week to blog the things that I plan in my head, I wouldn't feel like it was such a big deal.)


First up, I finished my first pair of socks for myself. 

These are my Theodora's.  Knit in the Vintage Purls' colourway 'Empress' (her pattern also).  Unfortunately, this is one of the colourways that was affected by the non-superwash disaster experienced at Vintage Purls so they've gone a bit fluffy with wear.


The other knitting project I've been working on has been my new pattern, Elisaac.

I offered to knit something for a friend's twin boys.  I wanted something modern and easy.  I think v-neck's always look great on little boys and I love thick & thin stripes.  This design is completely seamless and worked top-down.  The collar is not worked later by picking up stitches - it's worked first and the body is worked down from it.  I've incoropated the stripes into the instructions, but it works the same without them.  I'ts designed to be worked in 8ply/DK yarn (the one above was knit with WOOLganics DK in Gondwana, Gaia and Deep Earth in size 12mths - modelled on my nephew who was not long awake and un-impressed) and to fit from 3mths-10years (chest measument 40.5cm/16"-71cm/28").  This pattern will, hopefully, be up for sale on Ravelry by October.  I'm on the lookout for testers at the moment.  If anyone's interested, email me for details.

I'm halfway through the second one, but ran out of wool.  I'm just waiting for my order to arrive to finish it, so started on the first embellishment I was planning.

This is what I've done so far, but might have to undo it.  It's a tractor, if you can't tell.  I think it seems a little lost against the stripes as just an outline, so will be doing it in duplicate stitch (stitching over each knit stitch to create a solid-coloured design) to make it more bold.

I also need some black wool to do the wheels in.  As I don't have any black wool, I'm planning on trying my hand at dyeing.  BigMiss is doing a school project on wool at the moment and I was hoping to try some wool dyeing with her as part of it also.  This could be a disaster, but as long as we have fun then it's all good!
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