Stripes

Sirdar’s Heart & Sole sock yarn is really lovely. I’ve made a pair of socks before. They’ve just brought out a new colour palette and the stripes aren’t quite as thick.

I used the Clever Clogs colourway (love the names of the colours – there is also a Pigeon Toes colour! I may just have to knit this just for the name).

I made a Puerperium by Kelly Brooker quite awhile ago from the free DK version. This time I used the Beyond Puerperium pattern, which covers 4 ply, DK and worsted weight and up to 2 years. I made it in 4 ply and size 45cm / 18” chest.

Again I used the mismatched buttons, which I think works wonderfully with striped yarn. It’s a great pattern and I definitely see another one in my future! Ravelry Project Page

I’m doing Woolly Wormhead’s Mystery Hat Knitalong this year. I particularly like this KAL because each clue is in bitesize pieces and doesn’t take up too much knitting time from other things. Anyone else doing it?

I’m using the Deeply Wicked by Easy Knits that I bought at Yarndale.

I’ve done my swatch. I went up to a 3mm and I’m very close to gauge - 30 1/2 sts x 42 1/2 rows. In the introduction, there is a very useful chart provided just in case your gauge is off – to guide you to the correct size.

The other project on my needles – or should I rephrase that “one” of my other projects – is another shawl in Fine Donegal. A friend saw the one I made here and wants two making – so that’s going to keep me busy for awhile. I just love the subtlety of colour in the yarn.

Aren’t those big dumpling balls of Fine Donegal just gorgeous?

Nachtfalter

Ok, so if you hadn’t noticed, my pattern was published in the latest issue of Knitty.

I decided to make Nachtfalter, which is also in this issue. I love garter stitch and it’s a quick and easy project.

I used King Cole Baby Alpaca DK in meadow.

It was a really quick knit and the finished mitts are lovely and squishy.

One to add to the Christmas gift pile.

Yorkshire

This blog post is a wee bit delayed. I’ve been away on holiday in Yorkshire, which happily coincided with Yarndale, so I dragged Mr along.

The bunting was still up this year but has now been accompanied by lots and lots of mandalas.

It really did look fantastic. It was a lovely day and my purchases were quite restrained (well, for me anyway).

A skein of Deeply Wicked by Easy Knits for the Woolly Wormhead KAL. Anyone else doing it?

A lovely thank you skein of Soliloquy Sock yarn from the Linda at Tall Yarns n’ Tales for the sock pattern in Knitty.

A selection of pretty buttons from Textile Garden and a few needles.

Oh and a crochet kit from Natural Dye Studio, which I wanted to do on holiday. I was sans ball winder, so a very patient Mr helped me wind 5 skeins of yarn into balls.

On the way back, we went to Fountains Abbey in the afternoon and took a few nice pictures.

Fazed

I’ve made a start on my Fazed Tweed jumper but my attention span at the moment is very short. I keep on moving from project to project.

And it gets worse, more yarn… I do have a project in mind. With my pattern being in the latest Knitty, I had a good look at all the other lovely designs. Nachtfalter in particular – it has garter stitch for starters. This lovely colour of King Cole Baby Alpaca DK is going to be ideal – the colour is called meadow. So hopefully you’ll see a pair shortly.

Photo Tutorial: Neater Knit to Purl Yarnovers

My pattern Ticklepenny, that is in Knitty Deep Fall 2014 issue, uses knit to purl yarnovers. See the panels of leaves down the side of the socks...

The normal way of doing this can make a yarnover which is larger than a purl to knit yarnover. When they are near one another then it can make it look a little unbalanced. 

There’s a little trick you can do to make them neater – basically, wrap the yarnover clockwise around the needle instead. This does mean you have to remember on the next row/round and either re-seat it or work into the back of it.

The bottom leaf has normal knit to purl yarnovers and the top leaf has the neater version (there's not a huge difference in this example but it can be more obvious depending on the yarn and your knitting style).

I’ll explain in more detail.

A normal knit to purl yarnover is made by bringing the yarn under the right needle, then…

...over the top of the needle and back under again and because it is worked by effectively going around the needle twice, there is extra yarn and the yarnover is bigger than a purl to knit yarnover.

So for a neater knit to purl yarnover -

1. Normally, the yarn would be at the front for a purl stitch, leave it at the back and insert your needle into the next stitch as if to purl.

2. Purl the stitch. By not bringing the yarn to the front you’ve created a backwards yarnover before the purl.

3. It should look like this. The stitch below is being pulled up by the shorter backwards yarnover.

4. The next step is how to deal with it on the next round/row. It looks the same on the next row,  whether you are working in the round or flat. It looks like this.

5. Work the first stitch and then it should look like the next picture, with the backwards yarnover and the purl stitch that has been pulled up on the left needle.

6. First method is to knit into the back of the stitch, insert right needle from front to back and knit the yarnover (if you need to purl your yarnover, purl through the back loop instead), once this has been worked the purl stitch relaxes and you can then purl it. I sometimes find this tricky to see so I tend to drop the yarnover and re-seat it in its correct position.

7. Second method - drop just the yarnover from the needle.

8. It will then look like this.

9. Pick up the yarnover by going from front to back with the left hand needle…

10. Repeat as necessary...

New Pattern in Knitty, Deep Fall 2014

Some very exciting news. I have a pattern in the latest issue of Knitty.com.

I’ve known for awhile and been desperate to share the news. Here's the Ravelry page.

The pattern is called Ticklepenny and it’s for a pair of socks. The yarn weight is not one that is typical for socks. Instead of using a standard fingering/4ply sock yarn; it is worked using a light fingering / heavy laceweight yarn. The yarn used is Tall Yarns ‘n Tales Soliloquy™ Sock Lace, available here.

The socks are a unisex design and the idea came about when my Mum requested a pair of socks that would fit easier in a pair of shoes. The socks are worked on a 2mm needle and at this gauge allows for a lot of detail in the design.

The socks are worked from the top down. The panels down the side of the sock are mirrored for each sock. There is an eye of partridge heel flap and the feet are plain, so they are easier to fit inside a pair of shoes.

The model is my lovely sister-in-law and the puppy is Bella, who very fleetingly sat still for a photograph.

I had photo shoot on my parent-in-law’s farm, which was fun. Unbelievably, the pictures with the yellow in the background are my sister-in-law stood in the corn bucket! She was a great sport! Plus, it does make for an interesting background.

Fine Donegal

This lovely shawl has just come off my needles. The yarn is a new one from Debbie Bliss – Fine Donegal. The colour is Heather 10. I am absolutely in love with this yarn – I enjoyed knitting every bit of it. Ravelry Project Page

I was in too much of a rush to start the shawl to take a photograph of the balls but they are lovely and big. I want to use the word dumpling to describe them for some reason. Fine Donegal is a 4ply weight yarn and it comes in 100g “dumplings”. It’s a single ply yarn and very reminiscent of Rowan Fine Tweed; however, it has 5% cashmere content which seems to have increased the strength of the yarn. The rest of the yarn is 95% wool. It feels soft and with nice body to it.

The little flecks of tweed in the yarn are really beautiful. The shade I used was a heathery purple but with flecks of bright pink, green, blue etc. They are a similar tone to the main colour so they give the yarn a lovely depth of colour.

The pattern is from the book that goes with the yarn – Fine Donegal. The pattern is rather uninspiringly called “Shawl with lace edging” but it’s a lovely pattern. The edging is worked separately from the main body (which was great TV knitting), then sewn on. The sewing was really easy as there is the same number of rows for the edging and the shawl, so I didn’t even need to pin.

It blocked nicely too. It has an even softer handle now it’s blocked.

It is quite a large shawl, which I imagine will make it lovely in cold weather.

Goodies

Oh dear, look at that. More wool came home with me…and quite a lot of it this time.

I managed to bring 17 balls of the new Rowan Fazed Tweed home. It’s a chunky weight yarn and it’s very soft with some lovely colours in the range. I did have a difficulty picking my favourite colour but thought I’d go with something classic and went with black.

The plan at the moment is to make the Plum Creek Jumper by Sarah Hatton, which I’ve been eyeing for awhile and thought the yarn and pattern would make a nice combination.

I did make another purchase recently. It’s this nifty little thing from Hilltopcloud.

It’s a wrap per inch (wpi) tool with a difference. It’s more of a useful tool for a spinner rather than a knitter but there are times that you don’t know what thickness the yarn is as a knitter too. 

Normally, you wrap the yarn around an inch space and see how many wraps there are. You can still do that on this but you can lay the yarn across the lines at the bottom to see which it fits in best. This works really well.

Here’s my new Fazed Tweed laid across the 8 line, a quick look at the very handy chart at the top tells me it’s on the border of Aran/Chunky. The other thing that I love is that the chart is on the tool, so you won’t lose it or have to go and look it up on the computer. Money well spent.