Day Two: Chester the Chimp

"Your task today is to either think of or research a project that embodies that house/animal. It could be a knitting or crochet pattern – either of the animal itself or something that makes you think of the qualities of that house.

Alternatively it could be a type or colour of yarn, or a single button. Whatever you choose, decide upon a project and blog about how and why it relates to your house/creature."

From Eskimimi Makes 

So the House of Monkey needs a mascot.

Here's Chester the Chimp.

I thought he should be a teeny tiny chimp. I'd use sock yarn to make him. His arms and legs will be i-Cord increasing at the bottom to create hands and feet. Chester has a stripy vest, which would probably work well made from self-striping sock yarn.

It might be tricky to do the detail on his face and his eyes will probably have to be made from felt.

He does have a bit of character, perhaps he should be called Cheeky Chester.

Day One: The House Cup

The House of Bee: Bees are busy and industrious, but can flit from one interesting project to the next as bright shiny things capture their interest.

The House of Manatee: Manatees are gentle, calm and cuddly. Relaxed and unflashy they represent the comfort and soft side of knitting and crochet.

The House of Monkey: Intelligent and with a fun loving side, Monkeys like to be challenged with every project presenting them with something new and interesting.

The House of Peacock: Peacocks take something good and make it brilliant. Buttons, embellishments and a bit of sparkle prove that perfection lies in the details – like a Peacock's Tail.

From Eskimimi Makes

Which House am I?

I'm definitely not a Bee. I'm a starter and a finisher and 90% of the time I stick to the project I'm doing until the bitter end. There are a few occasions where I've frogged or had to start another project because it's needed for a present.

Manatee? Oh I would love to be a manatee. I have a penchant for them, since I went on holiday in Florida. Here's a photo I took there. Think I was about 11 at the time.

 I often knit something for warmth but honestly can't say it's me.

A Peacock? On occasion. I like to add those extra finishing touches to make the item extra special.

But, I'm going to have to say I'm a Monkey. My raison d'etre is to challenge myself and continually improve my knowledge. I can sit down and make several of the same item (if there's a reason to) but it doesn't inspire me. There aren't many aspects of knitting I haven't tried at least once. Fun loving side? I do like a knit with a sense of humour. How about my Lego Man with his Christmas Hat, Fu Manchu, G's Kercheif, That Christmas Jumper with the cheeky bit of holly on the bottom and my Fish Hat [Dead or Alive?]

House of Monkey, it is.

My Mug

I have my finished mug from Mug Painting evening. The tea bag stand is being re-fired, so I'll show you that another time.

Before firing

After firing, the colours really change. They look dull and chalky but the glaze becomes vibrant once fired.

I added how I like my coffee on the handle too.

A short blog, this week, but I've been preparing for blog week. So hopefully you'll get 7 days of blogs from me that week. For more information, click here.

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.