Swatch, swatch, swatch....

Oh swatches. Knitters do seem to love to hate them. I love to swatch - I must be weird. 

What I tend to do is, while I'm knitting a current project and I have that moment where I'm either bored or a little frustrated with what I'm doing. I get a ball of yarn for my next project and make a swatch. I get to play with my new yarn and also, make sure that what I'm going to do next is going to fit.

A swatch doesn't take long to make - probably half an hour at most and I'd rather do that than have to reknit the garment. Just cus I'm lovely and a little bit bossy, I'm going to tell you how I make my swatches. Little teeny swatches aren't the most helpful of things, because they'll lie to you. A good hearty sized swatch will pay you back that bit of extra effort.

Let's say the pattern states that the gauge, that it's worked to is 22 stitches by 30 rows in stocking stitch across 4" [10cm] on 4.00 mm needles in a DK weight yarn.

What I'd tend to do is cast on about double the stitches, so something like 44 stitches (it doesn't need to be exact - I'd probably round down to 40).

Knit 3 rows. 

For the main part, every row should start and end with 2 knit stitches, to give a helpful garter stitch border (this makes it lie flat, so much easier to measure it). So my first wrong side row would be, k2, purl to last 2 stitches, k2. 

Here's a brilliant tip that I picked up from Ysolda Teague's Little Red in the City. By using yos, k2tog and p stitches you can mark what size needle you are using. I've found this really useful, for when I've done several swatches on different sizes or if months/years down the line I use the same yarn again, I don't have to do another swatch because all the information is there. So for this example ...

On my next row, I'd knit a few stitches past the border then, (yo, k2tog) four times, knit to the end. If the needle size was 3.75mm, then I would change it to (yo, k2tog) three times, then, (k1, p1) three times. Each yo represents a full mm and each purl bump is 0.25mm. Think this sounds far more complicated than it is to knit.

Knit the swatch in stocking stitch with the garter stitch border until the piece measures around about 6"  (I can be a little lazy sometimes with this and only get to about 4/5"). Knit 3 rows in garter stitch and cast off.

I always treat my swatch as I would the finished garment, which means that generally I'll wash and block the swatch. It is useful to measure your swatch before blocking, so you can check your knitting isn't going off gauge.

Use a ruler (not a tape measure - it'll be more accurate), and count how many rows and stitches you have in a 4" square. It can help to mark with pins, where you start and finish counting. Remember to count 1/4 and 1/2 stitches as this does make a difference to the size of the garment.

Generally, I'll see how far off the swatch is and alter the pattern to fit, but if you're not comfortable with that then reswatch on a different size needle to get gauge. Go up a needle size if you have more stitches in 4" or down a needle size if you have less stitches in 4".

Sometimes, if the pattern is complicated, I'll do another swatch in the stitch pattern too. It does sometimes depend on what information the designer has given you for the swatches. I always think it's a good pattern if they give you a swatch for stocking stitch and for any stitch pattern (if it's different).

Swatching can be fun (really) and take away the frustration of spending months on a project, to find it doesn't fit. 

That's the end of the teacher bit. Here's a sneak peak for a upcoming pattern:

Mug Painting

Last night, a group of us from knitting went to the Paintbox Ceramic Cafe, Cleethorpes for mug painting. It was great fun and they all made some fantastic mugs. None of them are glazed yet, we'll get to pick them up next week. 

I thought Charlotte's frog was brilliant!

I normally go every week, so I just carried on what I'd been working on. Though it did happen to be a mug. Here's mine -

I also did a little teaspoon stand, as well, which will be a present for Mr; done using my current zentangle obsession.

I'll let you see them once they're fired, as the colours really brighten.

Here's most of mugs by the end of the night.

Julie and Stacey made the night great. Here's a few of the pieces in the shop, that Julie's painted, with some gorgeous tulips.

It's was a fun night and hopefully everyone enjoyed it.

Photo Tutorial: Estonian Cast On

I've recently been looking into different cast on methods. I've tried quite a few and they've all got their purpose but I have taken quite a fancy to the Estonian Cast On (a.k.a. Double Start, Latvian). It's quite simple to execute, it's stretchy and can be quite decorative too.

It works well with 1 x 1 and 2 x 2 ribbing because it wraps around the base of the column of ribbing. It's a super cast on for socks.

The tutorial is for the single strand method.

1. Measure out a long tail. I tend to use 1 inch per stitch for thicker yarn and 1/2 inch per stitch for DK weight and thinner; plus another 6 inches for luck! Make a slip knot and place on your needle.

2. Place your fingers between the strands and tilt your hand back into a catapult position. This creates a cross on the thumb strand.

3. Insert your needle into the loop around your thumb from below.

4. Reach across over the top of the strand on your forefinger.

5. Scoop this loop back through the loop on the thumb.

6. Drop the thumb strand and tighten the stitch onto the needle (not too tight though). You may recognise the previous steps, as it's the same as a regular long-tailed cast on.

7. Here's where it's different to the long-tail cast on. Now place your hand back into the sling shot position but wrap the thumb yarn clockwise around your thumb.

8. Insert your needle into the loop on your thumb from top to bottom.

9. Reach across over the top of the strand on your forefinger.

10. Scoop this loop back through the loop on the thumb.

11. Drop loop from the thumb and tighten stitch onto needle. (again, not too tight). There should be a bar across the base of these two stitches.

12. Repeat steps 2-11 until you have your required number of stitches.

This method can also be done with two strands of yarn around the thumb. This creates a thicker, more decorative edge.

I'm definitely going to use the Estonian Cast On for my next pair of socks.

Sketching & Doodling

At my LYS, A Good Yarn, there was the New Launch sale last week (I bought too much and daren't blog about it). There were lots of lovely yarns in stock. I wanted to use the Bergeré de France, Coton Fifty and the shop has had Mary Jane's Tearoom patterns in stock. They have been hugely popular in the shop, probably in part to the wonderful samples that have been knitted up.

I always have a penchant for stranded colourwork and Bo Rabbit appealed to me the most. So I ended up sketching a Bo Rabbit to try out a different colour combination. Here's my "Bo in Blue":

It would have been better if I'd used my sketchbook but it helped me make a decision. So here's the yarn I bought to make him.

However, the side effect of the sketch was, I really wanted to draw again. Some of my friends had been pinning some "Zentangle" designs that caught my eye. 

So a fair amount of research and many hours later. Here are the results.

Luckily, I happened to have the right sort of pens and pencils to do it without buying anything. The website and the newsletters are quite informative. I found this site was quite good for more design ideas - TanglePatterns. The designs look incredibly complicated but the method behind it is broken down that even someone who believes they have no artistic leanings would be able to produce a zentangle.

I ended up making a sampler page to try out the different designs I found and so I could use it as a reference too.

I've not quite finished with it. I keep adding more and filling in the gaps - so it's a work in progress.

Anyway, back to the knitting.

Doddington Hall

I had a lovely Sunday, we went to Doddington Hall - in search of a walk and some inspiration.

I had lots of fun taking photos, it's been ages since I went out specifically to photograph and I forgot how much I enjoyed it. It was an overcast day and I took lots. Here are a few of my favourites.

Doddington Hall

Hellebore - Christmas Rose

I think this is meant to be a Unicorn!

This was my absolute favourite of the day

Barbed wire

We had a little photo shoot while we were there. Though I much prefer being on the other end of the camera.

What a fun guy? (I'm sorry, but couldn't resist)

I love this one with Mr. in the background.

Horse Chestnut

I thought these were a good demonstration of using different focal points - I think I prefer the first one.

The most enormous gnarled Horse Chestnut - there were three in a row and they were all huge.

I'd never been to Doddington Hall before and must say it was lovely. The Hall wasn't open but we were allowed around the gardens. The farm shop and the café were stunning - all fresh and local produce - we had a scrummy lunch there. 

Recycled Wedding Vases

For my wedding all the table centre pieces were little hurricane lamp style vases filled with roses. I gave most of them away after the wedding to the guests but I kept two for myself. They'd been kicking around and not getting used. So I decided to decorate them with glass paints so they could be used for either vases or decorative candle holders. I made these awhile ago and didn't share them.

The glass paint was a little tricky to master. It worked better with smaller areas to paint, as the brush strokes were very obvious. Plus, I didn't have a simple way to draw directly onto the glass. You can draw on paper and put this inside the glass but this didn't appeal. So I did some freehand painting, which was very interesting and quite cathartic.

The first is a meandering vine with little flowers.

The second is meant to be meadow flowers. The blue flowers are my version of little cornflowers and the pink ones are a (very) artistic impression of a daisy.

On a more fibre related note, I won a blog competition last week - the blog was HilltopCloud's The View from the Hill. I had a very exciting thud on the doormat and received the latest copy of the YarnMaker. The magazine contains a pattern created by Katie of HilltopCloud, which is stunning and a brilliant use of tailspun yarn. I've been meaning to try this magazine for awhile and I'm very impressed with the quality of it and all the interesting articles too.

Twisted Decreases

I'm doing Sockdown again, this month. You'd have thought I'd been all socked out by now. I'm doing a pattern from the "Underappreciated" category - so any sock pattern that has less than 15 projects on Ravelry. I'm doing Phaeodaria by Hunter Hammersen, which is absolutely gorgeous and have no idea why it hasn't got more projects - though it's a relatively recent release. Incidently, the pattern was in the Sock Report, which are all patterns using sock weight yarn and there are some really gorgeous patterns in it. I "accidently" (imagine I said this with lots of irony!) bought all the patterns.

It's a twisted cable pattern and there are a couple of stitches that I'd not encountered before. Twisted decreases - described in the pattern by k2tog tbl and ssk tbl. I thought k2tog tbl was pretty self explanatory but was struggling to find a clear description of a ssk tbl. If you slip, slip and knit through the back loops, then in my mind that is what a regular ssk is. I later found out that it was a technical issue, if you're using any of the Sock Report patterns on an iPad, the interactive parts to the instructions don't show up in some apps. They work fine in GoodReader. I didn't realise until researching this blog that there was an interactive description of the techniques for these stitches; so the information is all there.

I tried to do a bit of research myself but information seemed to be a little sparse.

These are the versions of ssk tbl that I found.

• Slip one purlwise, then next stitch knitwise and knit them together through the back loop;or
• Slip both stitches knitwise one at a time, then back on the left needle and k2tog.

So I contacted the designer. It's not something I've done before and was exceedingly pleased with the super fast and clear response. I got an email back within half an hour! I was guided towards this video, which sorted me out nicely.

I'm going to describe them as left leaning twisted decrease and right leaning twisted decrease because otherwise I found it all a bit confusing - with people using different terms.

This is what I ended up doing:

Left leaning twisted decrease -  slip one purlwise, slip one knitwise, move both stitches back to the left hand needle and k2tog.
Right leaning twisted decrease - slip one knitwise, slip one purlwise and knit together through the back loops

Here is a close up of where I've used the twisted decreases, as you can see it allows you to use a decrease and move the twisted stitch without cables and still keep the column of twisted stitches going. 

The socks are now finished and already had a trip out. Oh and the other nice thing is the photo was requested to go on the pattern page on Ravelry, which is always lovely.