Tea and Cakes

Catching up with finished items…

Details:
Pattern: ZeeBee by Schmeebot
Needles: 5.5mm, Knit picks options
Yarn: Jaeger Matchmaker Merino DK, 2 50g balls held double - with pretty much none left over

Notes: I loved making this. It was quick and fun to knit, and I love that it’s a pattern generator, so you pick your yarn and needle size, knit a swatch, key in the measurements and you get a perfect pattern.

I needed a thick and warm hat, knit fairly densely to contain curly hair. So, that’s what I got! 2 strands of DK held together on 5.5mm needles is pretty dense, but was exactly what I wanted.

Oh, and yes, plain navy wool - between this and the current sweater do you see a pattern?

The pattern is knit flat using short rows and is very nifty. It’s then seamed up using garter stitch grafting so in theory should look seamless. My grafting is crap a little less than perfect, so it’s sort of visible, but that’s ok.

Also, this starts with a crochet cast on. I’m not sure what I do wrong with a crochet cast on, but when people talk about being able to just ‘unzip’ the stitches? Doesn’t work for me. I end up having to undo the crochet chain bit by bit, pulling the yarn out from my stitches. I can’t read crochet stitches like I can knit ones: need to work on that. Perhaps by making another ZeeBee.

Jackyll & Hyde was the Knitty halloween surprise pattern, and at the time I sent it round to people as I thought it was really cool.

Linus liked it so much he asked if I could make him one, so of course I agreed. I hope to have it done for christmas, but then that didn’t happen. Then I thought I’d have it done early in the new year, but that didn’t really happen either.

You see, I work best under pressure. I’m all about leaving things to the very last minute. Then getting hugely stressed about them. This time I didn’t get to the hugely stressed part (that doesn’t seem to happen with knitting), but I did leave it to the last minute.

Linus left early this morning to go snowboarding. I finished this in the pub on Friday night. Actually, I finished the knitting a few weeks ago, sewing in the ends a week or so ago, and just needed to embroider on the nose and mouth. The nose and mouth really brought it all together and I’m delighted with it.

I’m not sure how much wear it’ll get - it is really, really warm, but I don’t mind - it was fun to make and nothing beats the satisfaction of a grateful recipient.

Details:
Pattern: Jackyll & Hyde from Knitty, made with thicker yarn and the pattern fudged a bit to allow for more stitches.
Needles: 5mm addi turbo
Yarn: Løve Garn Ragsokgarn bought from Scandinavian Knitting Design. 100% superwash wool. Really sproingy and wooly, lovely to knit with, and very nicely priced.

Ravelry makes it easy to see other people’s versions of a pattern. My absolute favourite and one idea that I may shamelessly copy at some point in the future is this wonderful Zoidberg version.

Nothing like cutting it fine with the finishing.
Full details over the weekend.

—- ?Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Like my new t-shirt?
It arrived a few weeks ago, and I’ve been meaning to post it, but it keeps being worn and washed without me remembering to take a photo.

It’s from my friend Worsted Knitt’s shop, and is excellent quality - mine is a long sleeved brown t-shirt, and I love it.

If you’re interested in your own, or one of the other designs, the EU shop is here, and the US shop is here.

Also, if you’re in the US/Canada, there are a few days left to enter a competition on the Worsted Knitt blog for a $5 voucher for the US shop.

Remember this?

Mmmmmm…. I do.

That was killing time last Tuesday before starting lessons in sweater construction with Aileen. Sadly this week I’ll be rushing to the lesson so I won’t have time to stop off for a delicious malty vanilla shake. Oh well.

The classes are a 5 week course, and there are 4 of us in the class, working away on a sweater of our own construction. I’ve had EZ’s Seamless Hybrid in my queue for some time now, and this seemed the perfect opportunity to get going, with Aileen there to guide me along.

So, last week, I swatched, calculated the number of stitches, and when I got home after the class cast on while watching season three of Battlestar Galactica.*

This is going to be a very plain sweater, based on the favourite sweaters of the recipient. Very plain. The interest for me is in the construction.

I’m using Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, and 4mm needles. It’s lovely yarn to work with, really, well, woolly. It’s hand wash only, but that’s fine by me - I don’t mind giving a special item special care.

Now, here’s the thing. The others in the class are sensibly working garments from the top-down, so that the tricky stuff is at the beginning, and then when the classes are finished they just need to keep on knitting down until they’re done. I stubbornly insisted on sticking with the bottom-up design, and until I get to the bit where I join the body and sleeves together, it’s pretty mindless.

So, really, I need to have the body and sleeves ready to join up for at least the last two lessons. Ideally the last three, but, well, we’ll see. I don’t mind this, as it gives me a reason to get through the navy stockingette in the round part as quickly as possible, and means that I should get the sweater finished relatively quickly.

I worked just over 2 inches of a 3×2 rib (compared against favourite sweater), and now it’s just round and round and round.

I have 8 inches done, 10 to go. I’m going to get started on a sleeve tonight, and then knit as much as my hands and schedule will allow over the next week. My chances of having both sleeves and the body finished by next Tuesday are very slim, but by the Tuesday after… I reckon I can make it. And in the meantime, I get to watch as a top-down cardie with set-in sleeves, and two top-down raglan’s progress.

The absolute hardest thing for me right now is that I have lovely yarn from the Avoca sale sitting right in front of me, and I have never felt so inspired to cast on a million bright, colourful, interesting designs.
Back to the navy stockingette then.
*One of the episodes near the end upset me very much. I am not happy at all with that turn of events.

Yes yes, yesterday was Valentine’s Day. It was also the first day of the Avoca Handweaver’s Yarn Sale, so five girls bundled into a car and headed off over the mountains in search of great value yarn and fabric.

We braved heavy fog and low visibility on the way over, pausing only to admire the burnt out cars and santa gnome shrine by the side of the road:

About half way there the sky cleared for a tiny bit, the sun came out, and some of the beauty of the mountains was revealed:

Lets take a closer look at that view:

We arrived at Avoca at about 10.30 - an hour after opening so we’d missed one or two tasty purchases (that earlier visitors were paying for as we arrived).

I’m happy with my purchases though - I managed to grab what feels like a 2kg cone of blue tweedy wool for €20 and one or two other pieces, including some lovely, lovely handwoven fabric that would usually become a high priced Avoca blanket.

Holly, Cheryl and I were very restrained, and there was even space left in the boot of the car…

So, after this photo Cheryl and I popped back in to buy more!

At the weavers in Avoca you can pop in and take a look at the wonderful hand and machine weaving in progress - it’s very colourful, mesmeric, and noisy!

Then, after a brief restorative rhubarb crumble and cappuccino, it was time to head back over the mountains. The fog had cleared, so we were able to appreciate the beautiful bleakness of the peat and heather.

Time for a quick cup of tea in the lovely Bell House, then home for wonderful Valentine’s evening with my love.

Super.

Avoca Yarn Sale
A few bargains to be had and lots of fun. Not all mine though!

Chips, vanilla malt and EZ
Mmmm…
(Testing blogging by text message)

Hello!

I’m still here, and when I can figure out how to send emails with pictures on from my phone I’ll be blogging a lot more. I’ve tried, and can’t quite get it sorted out. I do prefer posts with pictures, and it’s much easier for me to blog in the odd 5 minutes or so I get here and there throughout the day when I’m not necessarily at a computer.

I’m sort of better. Well, I’m less snotty on the whole, aside from the mornings and evenings. Sorry, I know that’s way too much information, but that’s been the thing occupying me the most over the last week, and really, at this point I could write an essay on its many different qualities. Also too much information. Sorry. I’ll stop now. 

In the last hour there’s been an interesting development: without warning I seem to be losing my voice. All day I’ve been fine (also, all day I’ve been talking, so there may be something there), and now I sound very strange indeed. I shall suck on sucky sweets and drink lots of water and hope for the best.

Oh! So many things to talk about: My turquoise cardie just needs a sleeve and a wash and it’ll be done, I’ve knocked up a rather lovely ZeeBee, posted off some baby socks (did I blog those already? I forget), The scary ski-mask just needs a face (need to check nose placement), and tonight I’m headed off for the first in a series of sweater knitting lessons with the wonderful Aileen. All these things and more, coming soon…

I have the pox today. A stupid stinky cold that is making me feel rotten. Nothing to do but give in to it.

After admiring Holly’s beautiful crocheted necklaces I decided to give it a go myself, and made this this morning.

I’m not mad about the findings I bought, so it’s not wearable at the moment, and I need to buy different ones, but I’m quite pleased with the necklace overall. Crocheting with wire wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.

Now, I know that I have more things to blog, but instead I’m going to fetch my hot water bottle and curl up on the sofa for a while.