Strange Road opening!

I had a most excellent extended weekend, which included going to the opening of The Strange Road, Funbeard's latest exhibition. Wonderful paintings...

great company, a fun band (loud!)


and afterwards, my best customer was at it again. It's a good thing I still love making pears.

 
The exhibition is on until 8 November at the Collingwood Gallery, 292 Smith Street, Collingwood.

Slight anxiety transfer

I forgot about one funny part of the Semele story. I had been talking with a friend, who is not a knitter but was also invited to the wedding, about my plans to make a shawl to go with my dress and the fact I had bought special yarn. A week later she asked me how it was going and I confessed my concerns about the size, and that I was thinking about ripping it all out and starting again. (I was still mostly comfortable about getting it done in time, though). A few days later she told me about a dream she had. I had finished the shawl for the wedding but it was really tiny, just a wee hilarious little triangle at the back of my neck. But the best part was that the fabric had come out with a newsprint effect. Not like it had been smudged with newsprint, but as if it was printed with a newsprint design.

I know Opal and other sock yarns come in some amazing patterns, but now I really really want to see the self-patterning yarn that does that!

To your door at daylight

So, I recently had an invitation to a spring wedding, I already had a dress that I was happy to wear, but would need to have a cardigan or jacket to throw over it. I have an old black blazer that has done duty at many weddings and formal events, but a shawl or wrap seemed like a nice change. So I came up with a plan, involving  two slightly unusual-for-me things: working to a deadline (this usually only seems to happen for presents for others), and buying luxury yarn. I had silk in mind, and definitely wanted very dark blue. I ended up with Artyarns Ensemble Light in 'Inky Blues' - hands down the most expensive single skein/ball I've ever purchased.
 
The Ensemble yarn is one strand of cashmere and one of silk, both delicate fibres, and they don't really seem to be plied together, so it has to be handled with care to avoid splitting stitches. I was lucky to only have to go back once or twice to fix splits. That was probably due to knitting lace rather than a plainer pattern - I had to watch what I was doing anyway. It really is lovely stuff (especially to wear), but I would only recommend it if you know and accept what you're in for. It's also marked dry-clean only, but I was convinced that it had to be possible to very gently hand wash it - given that I could see that plenty of other people had used it for patterns that would need to be wet-blocked.
 
The pattern, Semele by Åsa Tricosa is great, well written and easy to make to any size and allows you to use up all your wool quite precisely - you just start decreasing when you've used about half. It wouldn't be hard to customise the shape too, to make it widen more or stay narrow and scarf-like. I actually knit quite a lot of it once before deciding to rip it out and start over with bigger needles (going from 4mm to 4.5mm). I was worried it might end up a bit too small, and given the price, I wasn't about to casually grab another skein to make it bigger, even if there had been time.   

In the end I think the knitting took about a week. I'm not a super fast knitter, but I was happy with that. I finished it one night early and stayed up a bit too late to block it. I was pretty tired at work the next day but it was worth it to know it was done and would definitely be fully dry and ready to wear.

It's still a small shawl, a knitting trend that I know some people despise, but I love them and find them extremely wearable. I think I'll wear this a lot as a scarf, possibly in between seasons. It was quite a warm day and it was actually really nice draped around my shoulders in the morning - I think the silk-cashmere combo might be a bit cooler than wool.

Tea cosy non-pattern

Since you asked, Donna Lee, the striped tea cosy is done in a slip stitch pattern I improvised, worked over a multiple of 4 plus 3 stitches (keeping in mind this is worked flat, not in the round):

(after a few set-up rows)
1. P
2. Change colour: (K3, sl1) repeat to last 3 sts, K3
3. P
4. P

The wool was 8 ply, the needles 4.5mm - though I think I would have preferred 4mm.

The base curls up, and if I did it again I would start with some ribbing to avoid that, which would also draw it in around the bottom of the teapot a bit.

I tapered the pieces at the top, and put in a row of eyelets before casting off. It's made as two flat pieces which are sewn together just at the top and bottom, leaving space for the handle and spout.

What was that craftster motto again?

 The first tea cosy sparked a request for another one in the same colours and design. For various reasons, I was happy to do it for this person, but I was stubbornly determined not to repeat myself exactly so I made some little modifications. Just double seed stitch instead of seed/irish moss, and the flower colours reversed. Now I'm looking at these pictures, I wonder if maybe it could have used an extra flower on one side.


The stripey one I made earlier in the winter. It took a lot longer to complete, for such a little project, and I think I'd use self-striping next time! I usually don't mind ends at all, even lots of ends, but somehow it didn't seem worth it for a tea cosy. This, I suppose, could be considered a prototype - if I ever get around to trying again with a few tweaks. It was maybe going to be a gift, but I wasn't totally thrilled with it. But at least now my teapot  has its own cosy and my tea stays warm a bit longer. (We usually drink all the tea in one go anyway so I've never seen an urgent need for one).

Teal leaves

This is the Falling leaves scarf I made for my sister, but it's written for bulky yarn and I used a worsted weight - Misti Alpaca Tonos again - (same colour, even). When I showed the pattern picture to my sister I tried to warn her that it would come out a bit smaller and more delicate.... but in hindsight, I didn't really get the message across and she was surprised when she saw it, having expected the leaves to be much bigger.



Given the smaller gauge, I thought I'd need some extra repeats to get the right length. I actually did a quick block while it was on the needles, before knitting the tapered end, to check how it would look. And in spite of this caution, it still ended up too long. The photo above is how it is designed to be worn, pulled once through the loop. A bit droopy and not much good for keeping the neck/throat warm.

 

She found a couple of ways to loop up the extra length though (above and below). And isn't that green jumper gorgeous? She wins at op shopping!



I think it looks pretty good and I think she is happy with it. But it's such a nice and quick pattern, if I come across a likely bulkier yarn, I'll do it again for her at some point.

Never knew no good from bad

So, a few weeks ago, we were still in the dead of winter. My bigger knitting project (a cardigan) wasn't progressing, other creative ideas/execution not really flowing...work was voraciously eating up most of my capacity*, and I wasn't happy about it. And I had a cold head!

*I know, this is a bit modern jargon-y, but it's the best description - not necessarily lack of time (though that too) but just having nothing much left when I get home.

It didn't take long to find a use for the Dream in Colour 'Smooshy' wool that turned out to be the wrong colours for Mum. And it's lovely stuff.

This is the 'Skinny Skid' hat (slouchy version) from West Knits. It's not perfect, but this is the first hat I've made that I'm happy to wear out and about. I realised long ago that beanies are pretty unflattering on me. Plus, a beret or something with a little slouch causes less extreme hat hair. As long as I only have it on for a little while (mainly on the way to work), my unsophisticated hair style isn't much affected.

The pattern is a really interesting construction, starting with a double-knit band, one edge of which is cast off to become a sort of pocket. This was my first time double-knitting. It's not hard, but pretty slooooooow (this may have been related to my 'capacity' problems of recent weeks), made worse by having to do it all twice.

I started out knitting this as the designer intended, with two different colours. The band has one colour on the inside and one outside, then the body of the hat has single-row stripes throughout. I knit the whole band and a few rows of the rest when I decided that my two yarns (the other one was a dark purple) were too different in thickness - particularly obvious in the double-knitted part where my gauge was looser anyway. Also, although I had cast on for the largest size, the band felt very tight around my head, so when I started again I cast on a few extra stitches. In the meantime I had looked carefully at others' finished hats and concluded that I wasn't keen on the striping, so I decided to just work with the one colourway. The pictures published with the pattern show a striped hat, but the two colourways are quite close and it's a subtle effect.

Bells took these photos. Thanks!

I blocked it on a dinner plate, the common method for berets and tams, and then used the iron to steam the top of the hat thoroughly, trying to reduce that 'pouchy' effect. It's still not as smooth as I'd prefer. But I love having a warm hat to wear on icy mornings.

Now of course, it is spring, and there are a few icy mornings to come but the days are beautiful. My capacity problem has mostly dissipated, and I'm onto the sleeves of my cardigan - it's this one, with a couple of modifications. I'm also whipping up another tea cosy for someone who asked very nicely. Things are looking up and I feel more like myself again.

Family fun times this weekend

Mountain climbing

Canberra put on some pretty lovely weather for a photography/walking expedition with Bertie Mabootoo and E today. I must admit we drove all the way to the top of the mountain. But we did walk a good chunk of the steep track down and back up again.

Bertie and I have teamed up for something super-mega. I don't know what will happen next. (I need to figure it out though!)

Wool for warmth

This was finished about a month ago, but I kept thinking I might take the time to get a better photo. I had to mess around with the colour a bit, and my photoshop skills and not up to much. But doesn't Mum look beautiful? She's been wearing this scarf a lot - it works even better with her classy work clothes than it does with the weekend exercise gear here - and getting lots of compliments. Which makes me very happy.

Very very happy, because for a while there I wondered if I would ever find the right yarn combination. It all started when Mum tried on mine and liked the style, but even more importantly, found the soft merino and merino-cashmere yarns perfectly acceptable around her neck. My rule of thumb had been that she couldn't tolerate any wool in a scarf. (No allergy, she's just one of those people who are pretty sensitive to the 'prickle' of wool). I'd made her  a couple of bamboo scarves, but they're really not warm enough for winter, and this winter has been pretty cold.

I knew there were a number of soft merino 4plys, like Zarina or baby wools, that would suit, but I wanted one of the two yarns to have subtle variegation, like a hand-paint. I had a look in all of the local wool shops, and searched online. We wanted something in deep reds, orange or brick colours. And it had to be very soft. I didn't find many promising candidates. I did order some Dream in Colour Smooshy in a colour which looked promising on screen, but it  turned out to have small pink and purple elements, which just aren't Mum at all. I finally went back to my local wool shop for another look, and came across this Ella Rae Lace Merino in subtly variegated orange. The colour was perfect, but because of the name, its 'skinny' look, and the placement in the shop, I thought the Ella Rae stuff was a laceweight. However, I was so happy with the colour and so keen to find something, I thought I could try it doubled. It was quick work to pick something to contrast with it (Katia Merino Baby in a sort of brownish maroon).

Doubling the wool, however, didn't work. It was obviously too thick. Turns out it is considered 'fingering'/4ply weight. In the end the two yarns actually went together just fine - there is a bit of a difference, but it doesn't seem to matter. It was a similar situation with my original Chadwick shawl, the Knittery merino cashmere was a bit thicker than the Patonyle.

I do really love this pattern, fun and simple to knit and really nice to wear.