WIP: Barry

Despite Christmas looming and baby's due date getting ever closer I decided that quickly knitting something for me was what I wanted to do next. Using some if the leftovers from baby's coffee bean cardi I went ahead and cast on for Leethalknits Barry hat. I got the pattern a while back when she was having a giveaway and I have been itching to knit it ever since. I am completely in love with the idea that it can be knit in any yarn without swatching, just perfect for handspun.

So far I have just finished the first section which goes around the head and I'll be starting the second section using the contrast colour as the main colour which I think will look pretty cool. I can't wait for this one to be done and then I can no doubt choose another project which will get me no closer to finishing up my Christmas or baby knitting!

 

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Things that are not knitting

Yesterday I somehow completely forgot that as well as knitting I have actually found a little bit of time for some spinning and dyeing. I think this is because I am now home in the evenings and cooking dinner for us all again and it is very easy for me to sneak in to the dining room and spin for a few minutes while I'm waiting for this to cook or that to boil. It's not much but I'm really pleased that I have finally finished the skein of yarn which has been sitting on the wheel for months now.

It's only half of the fibre, I have this left to spin.

There was 150g there to begin with, so a little too much to pack on a bobbin so I split the whole lot into 25g sections to make two skein of 3ply. This first skein still needs to be washed so it's not quite done and I haven't bothered weighing or measuring it yet but I really like it. It's soft and squishy and I love the cheerful glimpses of shiny yellow peeping through the other colours.

After a long dyeing hiatus I started simple, dyeing half a skein of sock yarn pink for my ill fated mittens. There's not much to say about this except that it is PINK pink and that makes me very happy. So happy in fact that I decided to dye a little bit of fibre the same colour.

I had a 200g bag of South American fibre which I split into 3. I left one third undyed, dyed one third in the lovely bright pink and then split the last third in two again and dyed one part purple and the other orange. The idea is to spin two solid plies, one white and one pink and then spin the third ply randomly in pink and orange to hopefully give a really subtle variation to the finished yarn. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

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Quiet

I've been a bit quiet for a few days, mainly because I've been a bit disordered, flitting about a bit and every time I thought about writing a post I couldn't quite work out where I was going to start. So today I'm going to see if I can get myself together and fill in any gaps over the next few days.

So what have I been up to. Well firstly, after my first attempt to make my SILs Christmas hat didn't work out I thought I'd get right on that and make her a different one. This one turned out much better but it took me a good few days to get round to taking any photographs so I'm only now getting around to revealing it. Thanks to my sister for modelling for me.

The pattern is Candy: Stripes and Sprinkles by Tori Gurbisz which I have had my eye on for ages. It was included in the Giftalong on Ravelry so I got a discount on the pattern and I was very excited to finally make it. I also treated myself to Themisto by the same designer and look forward to making that soon too. The pattern was really easy and it was fun to see it come together in the end. The yarn is my own handspun and I'm really pleased with the way it knitted up. I had no idea it would stripe so well and I love how sparkly it is. It's a BFL and sparkle blend I got from FeltStudio a while back.

After that I decided that I desperately needed some mittens. It's got quite cold here and while I usually make do with my Evangeline armwarmers, a trip out with the buggy meant there was no hiding my fingers from the cold. I cast on for a pair of stranded mittens with sock yarn and knit for a couple of days but after a couple of days I started to doubt whether they were big enough and whether I was actually likely to finish them any time soon. Then I spotted a mistake I couldn't live with so I ripped them back and went out and bought a pair of flip top mittens instead. I completely forgot to take any photos of them but I will start them again in a few projects time so I'll add the details then.

Since then I've been at a bit of a loss as to what to start next so I've been working on baby's blanket. I've now completed the chart once, all 164 rows of it. The pattern suggests 2 1/2 repeats so I feel like I'm getting somewhere now. I have now settled on my next project so hopefully I'll get going on that later and introduce it tomorrow.

And finally, can I get a massive hooray? Due to saving up nearly all of my annual holiday entitlement I am now officially on maternity leave until at least September! I like my job a lot, but I love being home for dinner and baby bedtime every night even more and I'm glad I can make the most of these last few weeks with just Cassie.

 

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FOs part two

My second FO for this week was a little cardi for baby. Much as I'm supposed to be concentrating on Christmas presents and winter woollies for Cassie I do feel better now I've completed a 'proper' garment for baby, not just hats and socks.

There's not really a lot to say about this, the pattern is Little Coffee Bean Cardigan by Elizabeth Smith and is a really simple lovely little pattern. As ever I was less than enthusiastic about picking up stitches for the button band and I made a less than brilliant job of it, but I can live with it. The yarn is Drops Nepal, I ended up using 1 ball of the pink and about 1 1/2 of the blue. I'm a bit miffed that I bought extra of the pink when it turns out I had just enough in the stash but I'll definitely use it for something so I'm not too annoyed. The buttons are super cute and were actually in my Christmas stocking last year, good choice Santa!

 

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FOs part one

The leaves hat has been finished for a week now, but with drying time and me being too lazy to get a good picture of it I've actually managed to finish another whole project in the mean time. More about that tomorrow when it will be completely finished. For today I'll stick with the hat.

I'd had my doubts about whether it was going to be big enough right from the beginning and those doubts were not calmed once I'd got the hat off the needles. Not only was it not slouchy like it was supposed to be but the crown shaping made it completely unsuitable to be worn as a beanie. Refusing to panic until after blocking I threw it in the sink to soak and then impatiently waited while it dried. I'll admit I did try it on briefly while it was still damp and was happy that the bath seemed to have done the trick. Now it's dry it slouches adequately on my head, though not as much as I would like and I'm not sure how it would do on a bigger head than mine. My sister will be visiting later, so I shall try it on her normally proportioned noggin and make my decision then. I suspect I might end up keeping it for me and knitting something else for my SIL. It's not the end of the world as I have another pattern up my sleeve and I do love this hat enough to wear it myself.

So vital statistics for this project. The pattern is As The Leaves Begin to Fall by Eliza Jarvi and the yarn is Drops Alpaca which is lovely and soft. The pattern was pretty easy to follow and the chart was simple as there are two stitches in each repeat which stay the same on every row, so it's really easy to to work out where you are in the pattern without too much counting back. I'd quite happily knit this again.

 

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WIP: Leaves Hat

After my little colourwork hiatus, I'm back on it again. It's so funny how quickly I've become a bit addicted to it. I avoided it for such a long time and now I can't get enough. Luckily it's getting really quite chilly here now so the extra warmth that the stranding provides will be very welcome. My latest project is a hat for my SIL for Christmas. Probably. I keep having my doubts as to whether it will be the right size when I've finished. Only time will tell, but it's not the end of the world as I'm pretty sure it will fit on my puny head and I have no problem keeping it and knitting her something else. My aim is to finish this by the end of the weekend, it has seemed like slow going so far, most of my projects recently have been in at least DK weight and this is knitted with sport weight, but I think I'll make it. The pattern is As The Leaves Begin to Fall by Eliza Jarvi

 

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Two FOs

That's right, I'm really going for it at the moment! Cassie's Owl Mitts are finally dry and baby's Kilkenny hat took barely any time at all so that is done too.

The mittens turned out super cute even though I really didn't love the pattern. I felt like I had to translate it before I could even start and even some of the bits I thought did understand were a bit puzzling when I got to them, but what I ended up with is lovely so I can't really complain.

The pattern offers a few options with the construction of the mittens. I chose to do the two colour ribbing rather than solid, firstly because I think it looks better, but also to try out another new technique and improve my skills. This does sacrifice most of the elasticity at the wrist but I still love the way it looks. I decided not to bother with the slit at the palm. Cassie doesn't really need to get at her fingers while we're out and about, but that would be a good option for an older toddler. With hindsight I also could have left off the thumb for the same reason. They are very long for Cassie, unfortunately I can't get a good picture of her wearing them because she keeps waving her hands about, but hopefully that means they will last her for a while. She loves them and keeps asking me to put them on her so hopefully she'll actually keep them on when we go outside.

Pattern Convertible Owl Mittens by Rebecca Reveal, yarn Drops Nepal

Baby's hat was a much less of a problem. There's not much to say really, it was quick and easy, the pattern was clear and concise and the hat is really cute. I can't wait until there is a tiny baby head in it though because it looks a bit sad at the moment.

Again the pattern is Kilkenny by Woolly Wormhead and the yarn is Drops Lima. I did make just one change to the pattern, the icords were supposed to be purl icords but I tried that for about 4 rows before I decided that it wasn't working for me and plain old regular icord would have to do. I like it anyhow.

 

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