Antipodes

I have a new favourite shawl. The pattern is Antipodes by Libby Jonson aka Truly Myrtle. Ravelry project page. Libby has some really lovely patterns – I really like her style and all the patterns all seem very wearable to me. Check them out

The pattern was a pleasure to knit from start to finish. It’s worked from point to point, so you just increase until just under half of your yarn has been used then decrease to the point. It’s great for getting the most out of one skein of 4 ply.

I used Titus 4 ply in Harvest Gold by Eden Cottage Yarns. Looking at my past blog posts, I bought it at Woolfest all the way back in 2012. I’d been saving it for just the right project. I’m very happy I used it for this and the colour is just so rich.

The skein I used was quite generous at 110g, so I was able to work 29 repeats of the main part of the pattern.

I really love this and have been wearing it lots.

Yarndale 2015

I’m very sorry for the radio silence over the summer but my workload was very high and something had to give. Unfortunately for you guys, it was the blog. I’m going to try and get back into the groove of blogging. I want to try and blog weekly like I’ve done for the past few years but have a feeling that it may not happen as often as I like.

I’ve done lots of knitting and even a bit of crochet. The camera has been out lots and I’ve been sharing a few bits on Instagram. I’m @hardybarn on there and please follow me, if you’d like to.

I meant to do this blog last week but there was a bit of procastinating going on. Some friends and I hired a cottage near Skipton for Yarndale weekend. I must say it was rather fab having a knitting weekend.

Yarndale was as good as ever. The sun was shining and I’ve been saving up all year, so I had plenty of pennies to spend.

There was too much fun and chatting going on for me to remember to take photos, but here’s my haul.

I bought Coopknits Socks Volume 2 and the latest Pom Pom magazine.

I bought 2 project bags, one from Jem Weston (who does some great workshops at A Good Yarn, as well as a talented designer) and a Coopknits one.

I topped up on needles and bought some tags that were cute, to add to finished knitting gifts.

There was a ridiculous amount of buttons from Textile Garden and I’m not talking about that one!

I bought some mini skeins from Knitting Goddess and some sock yarn from easyknits to make Otis from the Coopknits sock book.

There’s a lovely cone of cobalt blue Lithuanian linen from Midwinter Yarns, which is destined for a large shawl.

The rest of the yarn was from Triskelion Yarns. The colours in this brand really appeal to my taste and I could honestly have bought the entire lot.

The grey is Dylan 4 ply which is 50% de-haired yak and 50% silk. It’s heavenly soft and is destined for a shawl of my own design that I’m working on for my City and Guilds Level 3 course.

On the Sunday, we had a trip to Clapham and Beckside Yarns to see the lovely Sandra. I might have bought more yarn….

She stocks Kauni, which is something I’ve seen a lot of but never seen it stocked in a bricks and mortar shop. So a couple of skeins of that came home with me.

Beckside Yarn is in a beautiful place and we were lucky enough to be able to sit outside in the sunshine with a coffee.

Wee Envelopes

While on holiday I made a Wee Envelope by Ysolda Teague.

I really, really loved making this pattern. It’s really clever but quite easy. I ended up working it on magic loop, that way I didn’t have to worry about using stitch holders and it made it easy to pick up the stitches again.

I used Malabrigo Arroyo and I absolutely loved the yarn too. It was soft and squishy, it’s a semi solid so the colour has great depth too. I definitely want to make myself something in this yarn.

I enjoyed it that much I made another one in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino.

Malabrigo Wee Envelope Project Page

Baby Cashmerino Wee Envelope Project Page

Highlands #2

So 2nd instalment….

One day, we had a day trip to the Isle of Skye. The journey there is just so picturesque.

We’d heard about a coral beach right at the top of the Isle of Skye. It was so pretty and the sea was turquoise.

And it really was made of coral.

Those mitts came in handy when we were up a mountain. How about this for extreme knitting?

Mr has got some wear out of a vest I made him. I made it quite some time ago but it was one of those projects that went a bit wrong. It recently went under some sweater surgery and it’s now a firm favourite.

Pattern: Laredo Ravelry project page. There’s more detail on the surgery on the project page.

Mr has a thing about balancing rocks. I think it’s to occupy him while I take numerous photos.

Pretty cool though.

Oh and another yarn shop trip. On the way down, we went to Stirling Castle and happened to drop into McAree Brothers in Stirling.

Highlands #1

We’ve just got back from a wonderful holiday in the Scottish Highlands. We were quite lucky with the weather and my new camera has been given a good work out – I’ve taken over a 1000 photos.

On the way up,  we stopped in at New Lanark Mills.

It’s really beautiful and as the sun came out, we walked down towards the Falls of the Clyde.

We made it up to Corra Linn, which was really beautiful.

I helped support them by buying lots of wool. In the photo below, I have 10 balls of the blue at the bottom to make myself a cardigan.

One of the best bits of the holiday was the trip of the Jacobite Steam Train. The photo of the viaduct (bit blurry through the window) was used in the Harry Potter films.

I really enjoyed the train ride with lots of knitting and beautiful scenery.

The train goes to Mallaig.

I bought some yarn on the way up at Beckside Yarns – a ball of Noro Kureyon and 2 balls of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. I started the Kureyon straight away and made myself some warm mitts. Pattern: Camp Out Fingerless Mitts. Yarn: Noro Kureyon. Mr took some photos for me on the harbour at Mallaig.

I’ll leave the rest to another day as I’ve got loads more photos to show.

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!