Finished, finished, started, and gone :-(

Yes, I've got two finished things and one new thing today, two new-old books, and sad news and I'm posting a day early. The week feels like it has spiraled off in its own direction and is pulling me along. I arrived back at work after 10 days leave to a full email in-box and the realisation I was booked on a course this Wednesday to Friday, 8:15 am to 5:30 pm. Out went the plans to write a paper, and polish another, instead I read the manual that comes with the course, yes a manual, a thick ring binder folder of questions to help me know myself and my abilities better. Apparently I will learn to juggle with borrowed balls - and not being one to ignore fate, I've trotted off and bought my own set of juggling balls. I'm trying to be a positive person, throw me a curve ball - I'll try and throw it back. Of course with knitting and spinning to distract me, I can cope with pretty much anything life throws at me, and I do need distracting at times.


But the blog is about my knitting, and today my finished knitting ... so first another hat, Odessa 2, for my little sister Paula. I've knit this in the same yarn as my Odessa hat, Sublime Yarns Cashmere Merino Silk DK, but this time in a khaki shade. Again this neat little pattern knit up fast, and easy. Her birthday is the first of August, but I'll probably deliver it this Saturday. Its winter and she can wear it early.


Second finished knitted object - a hooded BSJ. It was technically finished some days ago, but I didn't like the hood I had worked. Rather I liked the hood for which I had used the matching bonnet pattern from the Opinionated Knitter, but didn't like the shape at the back neck. The bonnet is knit from the cast on edge using the same shaping as the jacket, and finishes with a decreased panel and grafted seam at center back. But, and this is a problem, the decreasing makes the center back pull up. Thats fine and dandy for a bonnet, not so fine when a knitter wants to sew the bonnet to a BSJ to make a hood.




So I frogged the bonnet and reknit it with no decreasing at the neck edge and decreasing and short rows around the top of the center back seam. That worked much better and resulted in a neat key hole shape at the back of the hood. The back is not an exact match for the rest of the BSJ, but the side shaping of the hood is a perfect match, I was of course at this point running shy of lavender yarn, but had plenty of bone yarn. If the back of the bonnet was knit in the main lavender, the key hole shape would be far less obvious.









I do like the way the hood folds down, like a teeny tiny hoodie. The hood was stitched into place along the neckline, 3 times, yes I repeatedly sewed it in right side to wrong side ...will I never learn? It was dark, it was late, I should have gone to bed - you all know how that one goes don't you?









I finished the BSJ with a three stitch i-cord all around the edge, picking up the cast on around the hood and continuing the i-cord around the face edge. This photo was taken before the hood was attached, to create the button loop, I just worked i-cord unattached for 5 rows, then continued to attach the i-cord to the stitches as I cast off.













My new knitting project is a lace scarf, I decided my first real lace project could be steeped in tradition so cast on for a feather and fan scarf, 3 repeats wide in the Mohair/merino/alpaca/silk blend I spun. I've 312m, the pattern specifies 400m, and uses larger needles and finer yarn, I am knitting mine on 4mm needles. I hope I have enough to knit a long enough scarf to wear - as long as it crosses over under my coat I should be fine. Right now I don't know if I will knit this end to end, or if I will knit two ends into the middle and graft it together. Grafting it will give me symmetry, something important to other knitters, but I'm not sure in my first scarf it is important to me. We will see. I was impatient to start, so should have divided up the ball into two equal weights - but didn't, and that is harder to do once knitting starts. There has to be an saying to the effect that more haste causes delay - or is that the old 'less haste makes more speed'?.




I've acquired two new-old knitting lace books, Modern Lace Knitting books one and two. Both second hand and on trade me, both with copious pencil notes in the margins, so have come from a lace knitter who used them.

Finally, Odette died this morning, Odette my work colleague and friend and fellow researcher who made me think, and laugh and smile at the world. She was a very real and human person, a strong person with an incredible sense of herself and others. I will miss her terribly as I know her family and friends will.

Please excuse me while I go and knit and remember a good friend, one who loved textiles.

Stella

some knitting! some finishing! some stashing!

Today - I feel a little more on track, I've sorted my new stash additions and uploaded them into Ravelry, a knitters got priorities right? I've done a little washing, I've popped into work to hear a visiting lecturer speak about Design as Empathy, which scores me a few hours next week to attend a daytime spinning meet, I've dealt with the mail - both inward and outward, and I've eaten lunch. So - that gives me time to update the knitting blog with some knitting content. I provide a quick tour of my current working WIP's, and FO's. Warning serious stash additions occurred over the last 8 days, and I refuse to be judged negatively by the quantity of fiber and fiber related goodness that has entered my house recently.


First - Odessa is finished, and worn and admired.


In my first beaded knitting I strung the beads on the yarn and knit them into place using a knit stitch, it works but I'm not entirely happy with the way the beads sit on one leg of the stitch, it seems unbalanced to me. I guess it is only an issue when admiring the hat at a macro level, I know when worn on my head the slightly offset beads on each knit stitch would hardly be noticeable to the casual observer.


Odessa was a fun knit, especially once I obtained 40cm circs in the right size, these are I admit a little hard to hang on to with the short tips, but much easier to knit with than magic loop. I know much of the knitting world loves magic loop and its cousin, 2-circs, but I am not a fan of the sliding backwards and forwards that goes with both methods. I do admit such techniques have a place and latter in this post, you can see me use the magic loop quite neatly on my latest sock project. My 13 month younger sister has a birthday soon, and I thought a Cashmere Merino Silk Glass beaded Odessa in the midst of winter, would be a suitable gift, so I strung up another 120 beads and cast on for Odessa number two. Same yarn but different colourway. I've treated knitting up the beads slightly differently this time, I knit the bead into place, but on the next row/round I've been purling the beaded stitch, and making sure the bead sits in the center of the purl stitch. This suspends each bead on a little horizontal bar across the knitting and satisfies my insanely technical need for symmetry, albeit at a macro level. Call me fussy - I do.


And socks, finally I have started a new sock, the first sock in the Vintage Purl sock club series. The instructions are fabulously clear, and intended for new sock knitters. Not being a new sock knitter and being completely unable to do what I'm told, I've embarked on a few modifications to the pattern, using Judy's magic toe up cast on rather than the suggested crochet provisional cast on, just quicker and less work. I'm also going to knit my sock with a reverse shaped gusset and flap not the short row heel detailed in the pattern. I prefer the fit and wear of the gusset & flap heel. I'm basing my heel on a modified Widdershins shaping, with the proportions I posted last year, once or twice. I am considering playing with the location of the gusset increases, perhaps in the sole around a central 6 or 8 stitch wide panel? Other than that I'm basically knitting the sock as designed, with no concrete idea of how to have a dark heel in a gusset flap sock - I'll deal with that, or not, when I get there.


Final update WIP (no I'm not counting, are you?), is my Knitters Study Group Project the Hooded BSJ. I'm near the end of the BSJ itself, having unknit all the knitting done at knit night, I knit on without doing the maths to lower the neckline and didn't lower it enough. Now I've cast off 5 stitchs on 2 rows, 3 stitches on the next 2 rows, 2 stitches on the next 2 rows, and on stitch on the next two rows. That almost doubles the depth of the neckline and brings me to the point of adding length to the body section - so I'm nearly finished the BSJ, with the hood to add on after.


And spinning, I've finished the beautiful fiber bundle that Jenni gave me, Mohair, merino, silk and alpaca, all shimmery and fluffy and soft white. I've not measured the wraps yet, but have 312m, so enough for a soft scarf. I've made this a 2 ply yarn and used the highest ratio whorl on my Wing wheel, surprisingly this yarn has nice bounce and given I used a small whorl I'm amazed it is not over twisted - progress!




I've moved on to spinning some more of my stash, a beautiful hand dyed roving from Morag, I think kettle dyed. I've divided the fiber into 3 equal weight batches and plan to spin 3 single as fine as I can. I'm aiming at a fine, thick fingering 3 ply yarn ... so lets see if I get there. I'm looking for that point where I spin what I want, not spin what I can.

So, there are a few WIP's which I need to clear up (read - finish), the BSJ and the 2nd Odessa hat, then I will start some lace knitting. I mentioned this post would contain a WIP report, and it has, now comes time for the stash enhancement report, and I'll try and make it as painless as possible. First new books, Jocelyn brought me Folk Shawls, the book that started her on a knitting lace career. I kid you not, she test knits lace for designers as well as being a parent and an academic, I'm in quiet awe. I was thrilled to get this book and to discuss options for my 'first lace' project with her, this adds to the lace project temptation I've also been sent from Suzanne, of beautiful amazing shawls, and by KathyR - who lent me her Stahman's Shawls and Scarves book earlier this year. I have so many friends to guide my hands when I take my first lace steps. The second book, was spotted in an Ashburton 2nd hand book shop. I knew I already had one of Sheila McGregors traditional books, and hoped it was not this one. Truth is, I had wanted both, but had only bought one, and couldn't remember which was the one I owned already, now I have both.


Jocelyn also left me with my first Cashmere silk, 50:50 blend, my cry was "I'm not worthy yet", but I will be soon. Slightly scary stuff, as I don't want to muck it up but I do so want to play with it. In return I sent Jocelyn home with a 2nd spinning wheel, a Ray Chilsolm Pipy, a wheel the same as one of my keepers.


Lastly, I'm not going to try and explain all of this, suffice to say it is the result of three knitters, Jocelyn, her 10 year old daughter Tess and I, and a road trip that involved several fiber stops. The tiny purple skein is a little sample of my spinning, a spinning swatch so to speak, and the white my Jenni's special blend Mohair, Merino, Alpaca Silk spinning. There is some Southern Alpaca Black Spice Alpaca:Silk 75:25 fiber, some Merino:Silk 75:24% roving from Ashfords, some skeins from Touch Yarns (thats not all for me), some Wenslydale X Cotswold roving from Callifornia, the Cashmere silk shown earlier, and some Opal 6 ply that Tess left for me. There is a little more stuff in the back room, our library, which was bought on a trip to the Milton Mill late last week - but you don't need to see that do you?

OK, as you insist, - there you go, the 200g of black merino fiber has since gone home to California with Jocelyn as has one of bags of merino silk mill scrap, the 1kg pink cone will be something for Poppy, and the 10 balls of white 8 ply, Merino, Angora Nylon is Z twist is perfect to dye for Twined knitting, the grey cone is a mistake but only $2 so thats ok. I convinced myself in the shop it was merino, but a burn test at home told me it was synthetic, probably nylon. I also convinced myself and the gang of spinners I was with the silky blend 'scrap' at $10 a kilo was probably tencel as it was way too unlikely to be merino silk, and then saw the same mix sold at Ashfords for $129 a kilo, as a Merino:Silk blend. We found out in the impromptu tour of the Mill that they process yarn and fiber for both Touch and Ashfords amongst others. Lucky score! The beige cone is a Possum single, identified by its characteristic black halo. The two balls of moss are in fact possum merino with a Z twist, perhaps perfect for a Monmouth hat for Bear some time. . ....

So thats me, all up to date, I'm now off to stash the stash in the stash storage ... we (Morag and I) are attempting quite successfully to convert a few local knitters to spinning knitters, a spindle here and a loan of a wheel and there they go. One of them, Ana had her house-mates laughing at the drug related terminology in our supportive emails, so I've sent her this link, check out the post from Monday May the 26th 2008 - The Needle and the Damage Done, I thought I should share it with you all as well.

Next post will be next week, we are off to collect bear cubs this weekend, and back to work Monday.
Stella

one spoilt knitter

I was one spoilt knitter yesterday, with six hours of social knitting, first at the Knitters study group run by Lorna, and second at our little WWKIP event. As a result I do owe Bear some darkroom time to repay all the solo childcare on Saturday - A happy bear is an unstressed bear, and continuous care of small bears can lead to bear-stress. Today's post includes my latest cast-on project (a striped BSJ), a twined mitten update, a report of our little WWKIP event. and the recipe for the home made wool wash, following multiple requests, here, on email and via Ravelry.

The item under study at the Knitters Study group for June and July is a hooded BSJ, but Lorna being Lorna has little sneaky tricks and clever techniques to share with us. Despite that I frogged this one inch after the cast on. I managed to mistake my counting marker (placed every 50 stitches during the cast on to prevent me loosing count) for a decrease marker. Then I knit 1" of a BSJ for a deformed baby. One sleeve was much longer than the other. So I frogged, and began again.

I also found the Baby Surprise bootie in The Opinionated Knitter and knit me one of those, but then forgot to photograph it, so will save that for next time. I think it need to be knit in stripes to really amaze, I knit it plain.


Usually when knitting garter stitch, colour changes take place on a right side row, but Lorna has a sneaky trick to enhance the colour changes. When its time to change colours, knit the right side row as *K1 purple, K1 bone*, repeat to end. Then knit the subsequent rows in bone. Look what happens, a neat little row of dots just after the colour changes. How cool is that?




And on the wrong side, short floats of one stitch long. The other trick was to knit the decreases as centered decreases. Slip 2 stitches together as if to knit, knit one, pass slipped stitches over. This reverses the order of the slipped stitches so the center stitch in the decrease is on top, and the decrease ends up straight, not left leaning. Very very nice. I've done this before, but it was nice to be reminded of all the available options.













And before I got to study group, my twined mitten grew a little, see?









WWKIP day, we meet, a small group as many of the study group knitters had already devoted from 11-2 of their Saturday to knitting, so were not able to join us to knit from 2-5 in town. A hard core of 6 of us knit away in public (4 in the photo here - the rest were shy), and were joined by another 3, one random passer by, and 2 who came looking for our WWKIP event. If a group grows by 50% - well thats a success in my book. And yes, that is some spindle spinning going on.













And finally Wool Wash - the home made kind
to 4 cups boiling water add 4 cups Lux soap flakes or grated pure soap.
Whiz using a stick blender (my original instructions said to beat using a wooden spoon - but life is to short for some things)
Add 1 cup of methylated spirits and 1 Tbsp (25ml) of Eucalyptus essential oil (or other scent)
Whiz together again. My original instructions said to put in a large jar, seal and shake until mixed - that never worked for me, it leaked and it never blended, just stayed lumpy.
At this stage it will look like greenish water, leave it alone overnight and it will set into firmish white jelly.
To use : dissolve 1 Tbsp in warm water and swish the woolens, or soak the woolens, rinse. I've been told it doesn't need rinsing, but as its soap and soap can irritate I rinse. I've rubbed this direct into dirt on Toby and Poppy's knitwear, and preschool paint, and its worked wonders. Rub the jelly into the stain before you wet the garment, then soak gently. Disclaimer - I'm not promising this is any better than the stuff you buy, or that it works better, but we like making and using it.

happy soap making
Stell

9 cm done .... 100's to go

Colour work, I love seeing the pattern emerge. Of course with this one, I don't have an accurate plan, its sort of evolving - something I will address over the next few days. I do need to plan the pattern elements, in terms of positioning and placement. I am thinking of this as having fitted shoulders and sleeves, so maybe not a raglan, more of a saddle shoulder. If I do set in sleeves- even if picked up and worked down - I have to work flat. That invovles not only tension shifts but mind shifts - so we won't go there right away.



So images, first the front, and then the back of the knit fabric so far. In daylight the yarn is deeper in colour, something the camera is having a little difficulty with. And on the back, nice short floats and very little distortion. Thank you Wendy for your fair isle tips, especially keeping the fabric stretched out flat, on the right needle as the stitches are formed. Following that advice means I do not get any pucker, nor do i strand to tightly - anymore.





So - this is the drawing in the Pricilla Gibson Robberts and Deborah Robson book, Knitting in the old way, designs and techniques from ethinic sweaters. I've never seen an original, but like the idea of a caridgan with small scale repeating fair Isle patterning all over. The 'real' ones are finished using fabric binding - and have a rolled checker board stocking stitch hem. I've already deviated by using corrugated ribbing. The pink merino fair isle i knit for poppy recently used the motif from this sweater, alternating bands of stripes with dots, colours reversed every 3 rows.

I have been sketching some options - And will post best ones next time to show where my thinking is going. I like the stars but wonder how would they work with sleeves that were not steeked. I am thinking more tailored than straight dropped steeked arm holes and sleeves, but that is probably as the students are begining their tailoring design project, so I've been exposed to and exposing them to lots of tailored images. and memories of a neat little rowan cardigan i made once with fitted set in sleeves, back when I did use patterns and followed instructions.

BSJ - Baby surprise jacket, all finished and ready for buttons, on the to do list. Hand over date 20th march, so need to do that soon. Suitable buttons to find, safe, matched, cute - all needed criteria will be adhered to. Front and back, its the stripes that made this one make sense to me, without them the shaping would be much more of a mystery.






Stash, new yarn from Webs, First Trekking pro natura, with bamboo fibres instead of something man made like polymid or nylon. I like it, and plan cables, if it knits up not to stripy. Yarn two - not sure of and is a bit of a surprise, it was a clearence yarn so a real cheapie. But while I was ok with the varigation, I did not realise it was a self patterning yarn, check out the little sock picture on the ball band - Not sure if I can cope with that. A case of nice colours shame about the patterning. Still kids socks are a very real option.


And I'm off tomorrow for my first knitting lace weekend, I've got my knit bag, a brand new toy in a magnetic board plus a new 4mm crochet hook (mine were all to small), an old towel, two tea towels, my suitcase(and contents), my pillowcase, my pillow, my essentials and I'm really looking forward to it. All I need is warmth, light, and good company and I'm happy.

BSJ - c.1968 and still surprises!

Today, new toys, BSJ nearly there, a visual guide to folding her up, and that was indeed a surprise, Frog report, fish afghan storage and lack of progress, and all go for the merino silk Fana cardigan.


Baby surprise jacket- BSJ - is still on the needles, and I'm in knitting heaven. A set of Knitpics Options arrived just after the last post - and they are sublime. Smooth, sharp, slippery, light, no kinks, I can't imagine any way they could be better. So how did a knitter so far from the US score a set?


Well I pulled favours from Bear, who works in engineering roading design, for a firm who 'does' contract design and planning for housing subdivisions in California. Usually that would mean a trip to Norco once a year, but none are on the horizon, so he asked a collegue 'over there' to act as a shipping agent.



Only thing was we forgot to specify shipping method, and they decided to ship air mail, amazing - 2 days there to here. Costwise - eeekkk. Lets just not talk about the pros/cons and knitting tool air mile controversy. I'm brown bagging lunches for a wee while yet till finances recover. You can now buy Knit pics from Australia, but only the delux kit, and strangely that works out about the same $.



I switched BSJ over to the knitpics and seemed to wizz along - those tips really let you dig into a K3 tog, and avoid doing a 's1k2tog pass slip stitch over'. I always seem to stretch out the slipped stitch, so the k3 tog gives a better finish.
In fact I wizzed so fast, and was intially so confused about the shaping that I missed an increase 10 row and had to frog back around a third of the jacket. Not big deal, it made me understand the importance of the shaping more.

She is nearly finished, I think yarn projects are like ships, nearly always she's. And this is how she folds and flips to make a cute as a button garter stitched sripped baby jacket. That Elizabeth Zimmerman was one clever lady.



I've got two more ridges then a row of button holes, and three more ridges and cast off and done. I want to make another, and another, and another - bring on some babies.


Fish - well they are in safe hibernation, here in my left over yarn drawer. After BSJ is complete I will complete the remaining 13 fish and start stitching. Not entirely sure if an edge is needed, depends on the finished size. I now plan to edge it with more fish only if it is to small to do anything useful with, current thinking is a baby car seat blanket.

And I swatched a practice for a Fana cardigan in the Dawn merino silk, execpt for real she will be navy and red, not grey. I know corrugated rib is not traditional, but I am liking that bit voth the doing and the result. There are some stars still to do, and the swatch needs washing to check the relaxed guage, but over all pretty good, a nice weight, and feel to the yarn. On 2.5mm in the round it goes pretty fast, and has a nice feel. Fana cardigans are knit in the round steeked and the edges finished with a band of woven fabric, I'll have to do a hunt but am wondering about using a fine merino machine knit, like tee shirting or slightly heavier to give this one a more modern feel? Comments? All dependent on finding the perfect colour match - or am I game to try dying wool fabric? I wonder ...

Warm, warmer, warmest mittens and Surprise me baby

Today, fish report, no frog report, but a baby surprise, some naturally coloured yarn introduces itself, and how I made a custom sized pattern for mohair lined mittens.

Four fish on a blanket, I admit my fish production has slowed somewhat. Probably my interest and fascination for them has waned a tad, as would be expected to occur naturally. However at only 87 fish, when at least 13 more are required, all plain - I do need to commit to this. I think I will set a quota of 5 fish a week min. No fun knitting allowed if fish are not knitted. These most recent fish are sitting on a brown garter ribbed swatch. Many many years ago while completing my doctoral thesis, in a clothing and textile department of a university, I had P.grad colleagues, one was Tara. Tara's masters was to develop a workable system for sorting wool from coloured sheep. The wool mostly came from a local farm that specialised in wool and yarn from coloured flocks. I knew this, I also remember being amazed at the huge variety of naturally occurring wool colours she collected, white, silver grey, dark grey, brown, reddish brown, cream, yellow white, ... an amazing variety. At that time my knitting was not as 'developed' as it is now - subtext "I followed patterns", so while interested the info did not stick.

Skip to 2007, when I meet local knitters who ask if I get yarn from Clifton Wool n things? The very same farm producers who specialise in naturally coloured sheep! This source had completely skipped my mind. However a visit last weekend resulted in four skeins of dk 2 ply sport weight rich brown yarn. The price, el-cheapo, $NZ8.50 a skein (that's $US6.20 for a skein of 400 yards!). The yarn is slightly sticky and stiff to knit with, but softens and fluffs up wonderfully in the first wash/block. This swatch made its www debut in the last post "the ribbing video", but in the real world the yarn is for Kate Kuckro's Interweaves Charcoal ribbed cardigan for Bear. A project sorted and now sitting in stash. I can now return to planning my own Fana cardigan in silk merino.

Surprise me baby! Well I have made a start on the Elizabeth Zimmermans classic Baby surprise jacket. See side bar for links. A little disappointment, in that what I thought was pure wool is not. The Green/Blue has in fact got 10% acrylic, which is ok I suppose, maybe, well not really but its only 10%. Why do I have an major aversion to acrylic? Well it usually wears out fast, Pills and does not keep its good looks through many washes , but with only 10% those features should be subservient to the dominant proportion of wool. So far it is fast and fun. I am having to track rows and decreases on paper, but expect if knitted a second time - it would be cruisy, I'd know where it was going. I have also lately discovered the shared EZ fan blog - which is worth visiting, if just to see how many knitters she has liberated from the tyranny of the pattern.


Here are what might possible be the warmest hand knit mittens in Dunedin. Knitted 'with love' for my Toby, aged 7.5, using the yarn he dyed last week. I knitted these from the cuff down, and made it up as I went using a tracing of his hand for a guide. I did read some mitten suggestions by my Knit Guru EZ who suggested a looser gauge was more comfortable. But when finished they seemed thin, open, and not substantial enough to keep small hands warm. I decided to line them, and know most recommendations are for angora, but could only find a fine gauge natural fluffy yarn in kid mohair, Black.


To line them I picked up stitches from above the rib using needles one size finner, and just knitted the same mitten. I kitchenered the fingertips and thumb tips together - and made sure to catch the stitches of the stripe knitting to secure the two layers together. I had not planned to line them, so should probably have added more ease, but they fit and work and are squishy warm and soft.


But I am proud of the mitten pattern, my own workings with gusset thumb.
Here is How I worked out the pattern, aka EZ or others 'down and dirty instructions'. I drew around Toby's hand and used this outline to calculate my size. In this case the gauge was 8spi, and the palm outline measured 2 3/4, I doubled this to get 5 1/2 inches around the hand. This gave a K =48 stitches. I made the ribbing on needles one size smaller, and around 25% less so cast on 36 stitches (I rounded out to two for the rib). I ribbed for 3", following ez's instruction to make the ribbing long enough to prevent draughts. I decided hands are not really 'thick' so did not allow anything for depth, assuming the stretch of the knit fabric would accommodate the depth of the hand. It worked out fine.

The thumb measured 3/4 across, so 1 1/2 around, meaning I needed 12 stitches. I used the standard raglan increase, increasing one on each side of the thumb line every 2nd row, until I had the extra 12 stitches and it worked out to be the right length - nearly. I added 6 straight rows to make sure the rib wouldn't pull up onto the hand. I put the central10 thumb stitches on a holder and cast on an extra 8 stitches to bride the gap, and worked the mitten straight until 1 1/2 inches from the finger tips, then used a sock decrease, every 2nd row, decreasing 1 stitch in from the start of the first dpn, the end of the 2nd, the start of the 3rd, and the end of the 4th dpn. When I had 8 stitches remaining - I wove them together. I picked up the thumb stitches from the waste yarn, and an additional 7 from around the thumb hole. I decreased over the next few rows until I had 15 stitches and knit straight to nearly the length of the thumb, before 2 decrease rounds of k1 dec1, and weaving the remaining stitches together. I realise the mitten decrease for the ribbing, increase for the thumb gusset and the thumb itself are ll 25% of K - K being the gauge x palm width doubled. The magic number for children's mittens appears to be 25%. Will test for an adult sometime.

I then used a smaller needle, picked up 36 stitches around the top of ribbing, and knit another mitten inside the first as described above. Here is my workbook with workings, calculations, hand tracing and finished mittens. One page wonder! Toby of course likes to wear these inside out, with the soft side showing so he can snuggle them into his face. I'm going to have to knit and line some simillar mittens for me.

My real hobbies are frogging, and stashing

Today, stash enhancement, swatching, and a whole lot of frogging going on. The fish count now lives in the side bar. For years I've been an on line knitter, learning both from books and the on-line knit community at places like knitters review, knitty, and wendy to mention only a few of the many many. I just could not find knitters who thought outside the pattern, who wanted more than heavy yarn that knitted up quick. But in the last month I have attended 3 different knit groups - who knew dunedin had social knitters in such numbers? not me! And now I'm off to a lace weekend workshop, 4-6 May, I can hardly wait, 2 whole days of knitting lace, and learning to read lace charts. I can't even begin to imagine what sort of bad habits this self taught knitter will have to unlearn. The knit groups are all so different, in one group we all knit in the round and the others have Knitpics options sets (I think I want some), The 2nd group all knitted flat, and had 3 learners doing the obligatory garter stitch scarfs, and the other group had more of a lesson on the finer points of finishing fair isle gloves and was mostly spinners (next few meetings traditional gansy techniques and Andean folk knitting).

I've been knitting up Toby's yarn into mittens, one is finished minus the thumb, the other half done. I'd like to line these to make them soft and warm, so back off to the yarn shop tomorrow. I've been a regular visitor recently. No photos of those- next time.


Baby surprise, I've found some yarn for the Baby surprise jacket, I took the Sublime a cashmere, merino, silk back to the yarn shop. What was I thinking? That winter white luxury fibre would have made the most adorable baby surprise jacket, which would have felt so so soft, and looked amazing until 3 minutes after it was put on a baby, any baby - then it would have milk, pumpkin or some other yellowish spill down the front. One month latter after numerous trips through the washing machine it would have been a felted yellow tinged white thing fit only to be worn at home on those days when nothing else was clean. So this is real baby proof yarn, superwash, machine washable, and of a colour to hide everyday wear. This yarn comes from sheep, real sheep, I know his as both yarn bands have sheep on them. Colour 4 me Tweed by Sheperd had their 6 year old draw the sheep. And where they live the sheep come in colours of white, green, yellow, blue, red and orange, no dye contaminates their farm. Checkheaton had a photographer do a family portrait of a ewe and her lamb, for their yarn band.

I've been unfaithful on the side, swatching the Dawn merino silk fingering yarn at the same time as dating another swatch. This time I am doing a real circular swatch. So far its not to exciting, just some moss stitch and stocking stich on 2mm, but I've found two possible inspirations for that here and here, with a sort of knit along here. But then I went back to buy the 17 balls I need and found a dark denim colour. And with a deep red - perfect. The silver grey was beautiful but I have a worry that when knitted it was soo going to be an old lady 'elegant out to dinner' cardie, I was even thinking about beads - and I'm sooo not ready for that - yet. So I picked up the dark blue and red and now I'm thinking a modern take on a Fana Cardigan. The drawing in PGR Knitting in the old way seems to have a much lower neck, which is what I'm going for in this one. Next step is to swatch in some colour work and see what works in this guage, and try a little checkerboard band or corrugated ribbing. and maybe back for a few more balls of red.

Here is the real color palete



And whats the story on my practice v-neck steek, my 'other' swatch? Well I can't get any more of the Rowan Soft in that colour batch so - frog, frogging, frogged. Here is the proof. Its a lovely yarn, but not meant to be. I will steek a v-neckline some time soon, just not now.