Enemy of beige

Once I had pointed it out, that beigy bland pod started to bother me. Maybe I was influenced by reading Pamela Stephenson's biography of Billy Connolly last week. He famously hates beige and 'beige people'. I really enjoyed the book, and it certainly didn't hurt that Pamela quoted plenty of Billy's humour throughout. I've often claimed he's the only standup comedian I'd be likely to go and see (though I haven't) - I usually find standup comedy very uncomfortable.

On Monday I grabbed the bland pod off the desk and stuffed it in my bag as I headed out for a lunch break. I ducked into Lincraft, chose some embroidery thread in a bright orange and bright purple (very Billy colours), picked up some needles and a pair of tiny folding scissors (these can live in my handbag from now on), and went to a cafe to do some embellishing.

I seem to have had an urge to embroider things for quite a while, helped along very recently by discovering Mr X Stitch who highlights fascinating needlework of all types.

Unfortunately, I don't actually know much about embroidery. And I jumped right in without making any kind of plan. It was like doodling. There are no photos here because the results don't look any good. So far. I think I'll add another lunch hour or two of doodling and see where that gets me!

Whisper your name to me

Here's a little baby cardie I just finished this week. I used Carole Barenys' top down raglan again, with slight modifications to make a v-neck (fairly easy with a little bit of maths - cast on less stitches for the neck and then increase at both ends of every other row until the stitch count 'catches up') and to add a bit of width, just to make sure it would be likely to fit in winter, for a baby born mid summer. I also changed the ribbing at neck and hem to garter stitch to match the button band. The wool is Naturally Haven Merino 4 ply. The light in these last minute morning photos makes the colour look a bit lighter than it really is. It's quite a strong, but still soft, green.

Baby's name begins with an S. I had an idea that some sort of motif incorporating an 'S' would be nice. Something personal but not quite a monogram. I think this worked out quite well first try! (at the last minute of course) I admit the daisy was not intended to be there, but I had left too much space between the two Ss. I quite like it though. I did do a little bit of swatching first to make sure I could do duplicate stitch. It turned out to be so easy and satisfying, I may never bother with colourwork again!

I don't know why my stitches look so wiggly. They aren't normally like that. Maybe I should have knit this stuff at a tighter gauge, but I liked the fabric.


The duplicate stitch working out was such a pleasant surprise, because colour work (fair isle-esque) was not my friend on this project. This is how the cardigan looked when I first finished and washed it.

I was lazy/hasty, and realised too late that swatching would have saved me time. I decided about halfway through that I should have reversed the positioning of the lilac and the white, because the lilac did not 'pop' enough against the green. Colour theory experts are welcome to correct me here - I think it is because they have a very similar level of brightness, ie if you converted a photo to black and white, they would be indistinguishable.

The lilac wool was also too thin. I could see this before I even started, yet I pressed on thinking I could get away with it. When I steamed it even before washing, I was able to block it out so the cinching in affect was hardly noticeable. But when I washed the cardie, I could see that each time it was washed it would look bad again. It was ok, certainly wearable, even cute. But I knew I could do better.

So I did this kind of thing again. I had already woven in all the ends, so ripping out wasn't worth trying. So I put a lifeline in the last row of stitches before the ill-fated colourwork, snipped a stitch in the row below, and pulled out that row, neatly detaching the lower part of the cardigan. Reknitting it plain was relatively quick and easy.