Reversible Box Tote

The sewing machine came out this week! I saw the most gorgeous knitting bag on instagram. It was made by Truly Myrtle (I don’t usually like podcasts but she’s very interesting to listen to). Here’s the link to her bag.

It’s a shape I haven’t tried before. The pattern for the tote is a free one from Very Shannon. - the Reversible Box Tote.

I bought some gorgeous fabric from The Little Fabric Store. It’s a sweet, little shop and worth a visit, if you’re near. Helen is very lovely and helpful. I got some new Cloud9 fabric and linen to line the bag.

I bought another Clover tape measure too. They are really nice quality. I’ve found with the cheaper retractable tape measures that the tape will stretch and warp with use. I’ve had one for over a year (with daily use) and it is still as straight as the day I bought it. So I bought another because well…you can never have enough tape measures!

You can see the tape measure in the picture below.

The fabric that I chose happened to be what I'd used as inspiration for a stitch pattern that I'd created.

I used some cheap fusible fleece that I had in my stash – so it’s not got as much form as I’d like. Next time, I’ll use better quality.

I love my new bag anyway and have been carrying it around with me!

I haven’t finished any knitting projects this week. The two I’ve been working on are an Artemisia jumper from the latest Rowan Magazine 57. I’m using the yarn from the pattern which is Rowan Softknit Cotton and amazingly I have spot-on gauge with the same size needles for the pattern, which makes a nice change. Though I have altered the pattern and the shaping to make it a few inches longer.

I bought Designer Knitting Magazine 2014/15 and there was an interesting article by Meg Swansen about different increases – including a few that I hadn’t done before. I’ve tried out one that she names kibosirb (knit into the back of stitch in row below) for this jumper and it’s quite a neat increase. Can you see it on the left hand side?

I started a selfish knitting project which is an Epistropheid by Kate Davies but this didn’t go particularly well the first time. I went up 2 needle sizes and hoped for the best, as I didn’t do a swatch (swatches are nearly as big as the hat so it’s sometimes easier to gamble). I did a couple of inches and it wasn’t looking hopeful – so I steamed blocked what I had and instead of 24 sts in 4 inches, I had 27. It was going to be way too small.

So I frogged it. The gauge was as loose as I wanted to go with this yarn, so instead of trying to meet gauge. I’ve added a repeat of the pattern instead. It’s looking ok so far. (I’m electing to forget about the fiasco of forgetting to change to the larger needle for the body of the hat). I fear that this is going to be one of the ill-fated projects, where nothing goes right!

Rams and Yowes

Finally finished my Rams and Yowes blanket. It's such a beautiful design I really enjoyed the centre fair isle section.

Having a look at the beautiful blankets others have done, there seemed to be a bit of an issue with wavy borders which I definitely wanted to avoid. So…

When I cut the steek, I steam blocked a section of the blanket to get my gauge (I didn’t bother doing a swatch to begin with). My gauge was 28 sts by 32 rows in 4”. I also made a small garter stitch swatch which was 26 sts in 4”. With that sort of gauge difference, then a 1 to 1 pick up would definitely give a wavy edge.

On the cast on and cast off edges, I picked up at a rate of 13 in 14 sts and on the steeked edges 13 in 16 sts (pu 4, skip 1, pu5, skip 1, pu4). So in the end I picked up 684 sts instead of 780; which is a huge difference. I don’t have wavy edges, though. Hopefully you can see in the before blocking picture the borders look relatively flat.

Before blocking

After blocking

I did a w&t for the border so I was knitting all the time which sped things up. I considered doing the No-Purl Garter stitch which I would have done but didn’t really want to tie in double the amount of ends, especially since there was only 4 rows per colour.

Before sewing the border down, I added a little bit of embroidery in chain stitch. My first attempt was very dodgy, so I ended up writing out the pattern on some parchment and basted that to the border and embroidered through it. Then just pulled the paper out after and it worked well.

I had a big issue after sewing the border down to the inside. I just sat and did it and pulled my sewing tight without checking anything. So when I’d finished I pulled the blanket into shape and proceed to snap all my sewing. I had to redo it without pulling it as tight.

The I-cord border was definitely worth the effort. It really finished it off nicely. Now to place strategically over my favourite chair...

Baa

I seem to have been really busy this last week or two but not a lot to show for it.

I've been sucked into the enthusiasm of the 2012 Woolly Wormhead KAL. I really enjoyed the Orchid Thief KAL. I've been very good recently and there has been an embargo on stash acquisition, which accidently came to an end yesterday when I bought this:

I've a feeling one ball won't be enough as I've got rather a large head. There is 250m on the ball so I'm crossing fingers.

There's plenty of knitting going on but nothing finished.

Here's a sneak peak of my Rams and Yowes blanket:

Hopefully it'll be finished shortly but I had a minor disaster with it last night. I'd sewn the border down to the inside and blindly did the whole thing without checking the tension of the sewing. When I'd finished I did my usual thing of pulling it into shape and proceeded to snap all the sewing that I'd done. I'd done it way too taut so I'm patching it back up at a much looser tension.

There's also a very cute surprise present for Mr., which I'm loving. It's a fabulous pattern. Here is the link for it if you're curious

FO Plethora

I've had a mass of finished objects recently. Above are just a few of what I've finished in the last month; there's a scarf and a jumper as well plus two secret projects (I'm going to be writing the patterns up for them). It's nice to get all those unfinished objects done and I can start on some new exciting ones.

Woolfest Haul 2012

Another fantastic year at Woolfest; despite the exceedingly rainy conditions it was still a wonderful day. It was bigger this year with lots of new stalls.

I found it quite overwhelming with the vast array of choice and ideas. My haul was quite large this year.

I headed straight for Kate Davies stall and bought the kit for the Sheep Carousel Tea Cosy and also intended to buy the BMC kit but were already sold out within an hour of opening! I tried to start the Tea Cosy on the way home in the car to quickly realise the one size needle I didn't have was a 3.00mm 16 inch circular; which is extremely frustrating when you've just left a big wool show.

I also got Ysolda Teague's Saturday Treat pattern book and some Scrumptious laceweight yarn in Treacle Toffee to make Barley Sugar from the Fyberspates stall.

  

• I bought a dyeing kit from D & T and a bundle of unknown yarn on offer from bluefaced.com
• A pretty batt and a faux cashmere roving from feltstudiouk

• I bought the two skeins that are lilac and beige from Freyalyn's fibres with the intention of making a Damask with it.
• The beige, purple and burnt orange are all baby camel and silk mix in sockweight which is super soft and squidgy from Yarnaddict and I want to make a Colour Affection with them
• The gold and green are from Eden Cottage Yarns and I intend to make Natessa with the green laceweight but not 100% sure what to make with the gold as it was a bit of an impulse.

Lots of lovely projects to get on with so I'd better go and get my needles out...

Neep Heid

Had a little trip to Leeds on Friday; and of course if in Leeds, then baa ram ewe is a must! I brought back a little haul with me. Not sure what I'm going to do with the Malabrigo but my Mum picked them for herself so  some sort of warm woollies for her. The white and dark grey spindrift are to make an Estonian Hand Puppet. 

There was lots of lovely patterns by the talented Kate Davies in stock. I settled on a little project - Neep Heid. The green spindrift in stock wasn't the colour I wanted but they had it in Rowan Fine Tweed so I bought that instead. The yardage was different but there was plenty left. A few days later and voila one Turnip Hat!

With all fair isle the inside is gorgeous too!