The return, and knitting owlette's knitted/crocheted wedding

Hello... I am still here... I have unfortunately been afflicted with a horrible disease which has stopped me from posting anything. You may have heard of it? Its called laziness...

Its been a very busy 7 months, with working full-time and planning a wedding, but that's no excuse. I will try and be better!

So yes, big thing happened, got married back in June. Of course my first thought (well, after "fuck,  I now need to plan a wedding") was that I needed a knitted bouquet. Other than Mr Owl, no one else was really sold on the idea (no flowers at the wedding? will they really stand up?), but I ignored them as usual.

I started playing around with patterns on Ravelry and dug out a book that I won on a WI raffle but had never looked at. Then, after seeing this (there was a lot of pinterest and googling going on), I decided I absolutely had to have lavender, and bought the book that the pattern was from.

As you can imagine, I ended up with a ton of rejects that I wanted to somehow use. I had a first crazy idea to do some sort of wall piece but the scale of that seemed a little too much. Mr Owl then suggested that I make mini bouquets to tie up on the aisle chairs as decorations. And that became the plan. I was excited. Of course at the point I had not realised the scale of that task. Each bouquet had to have at least 6 flowers otherwise it would look sad. We initially had decided to do 10 rows of chairs, so that's 20 bouquets. Which means 120 flowers plus foliage plus the actual bouquet plus the buttonholes.

I'm not going to describe how at some point I lost the will to live and cursed myself for my crazy ideas. Instead, I'll pretend it never happened and just share some pretty photos with you, taken by my lovely photographer Hannah.

If you are wondering about the flowers, we have daisies from this book, the lavender, campanula and leaves from this book, a generic flower pattern from this book and a carnation I found on Ravelry. There's also a dark purple flower that I honestly have forgotten where its from but probably from one of the first two books.

I used florist wire for the stem, which I anchored through the base of flower and then twisted in itself, essentially halving its length and doubling its width. I don't remember the size (width and length) but medium width and long length is a good guess. I found that the really fine wire was just too flimsy and the very thick wire was difficult to use.

I toyed with the idea of knitting an icord to cover the stem but quickly decided that it wasn't necessary and just used washi tape instead. But beware, when I ran out of washi tape I bought some florist tape and it was a nightmare to use as its not as sticky...

As I wanted a more wild-, natural-looking bouquet, I didn't stick the flowers in a styrofoam ball, like others have done before. I just tied the whole thing together with string and then covered it with a crochet lace ribbon.

The mini bouquets are basically the same but have some other random flowers and leaves in them too (from the two books). I ended up using 7 flowers in each but did fewer bouquets.

And finally, the lavender buttonhole was made in essentially the same way but I used much much shorter wire of course.

Some final thoughts. Crochet is definitely better for flowers than knitting. Especially for anyone making as many flowers, crochet is so much faster and produces a much tighter/stiffer flower. The only one that was worth doing as a knitted flower was the lavender.

If anyone reading this is thinking about it, my advice is do it, even if just for the bouquet. Yes, there was cursing, yes I had to go to the pub with my yarn to stay on schedule, but I now have a beautiful bouquet in my living room that will always remind me of my wedding day. Plus, all the bouquets disappeared from the chairs as soon as the ceremony was over, which made it worth the effort! 

Luxury yarn for a luxury hat for my luxury hair

We've all been there. Bought that really expensive top or shoes (or yarn) and just left it in our closet, not wearing it out of fear that we will ruin it, that no occasion is worthy of it. 

This is what happened when I finally succumbed to the softness and shine of the Fyberspates Scrumptious yarn at the Ally Pally Knitting and Stitching show last year. Should this be a cowl, I wondered, or perhaps fingerless gloves? But is it wasted if I make gloves, which tend to felt and pile as you wear them? And so it sat in my drawer, unused and unloved for a full year.

But my year of making my own clothes has taught me to show them my love by wearing them rather than admiring them in my closet, and I decided that the time had finally come to make something out of this lovely yarn. And here it is.

The yarn is obscenely expensive (I think I paid £15 for one skein of 100g), but it is AMAZING! Definitely the most beautiful yarn I have ever worked with. Ok so it isn't very highly twisted, which made it hard to do all those k2tog and ssk that lace needs, but it is truly a joy to wear. The silk means that it is super super soft and not scratchy at all (something that I struggle with with 100% wool yarns unless they are merino), and also it has a beautiful shine that makes it look that extra bit special. And surely the silk will help stop my stupid hair from going frizzy?!

It helps, of course, that this was a really nice pattern to knit. The pattern is called Schwimmen, and I found it while looking on Ravelry for inspiration based on what other knitters had used this yarn for (which also convinced me that it was ok to use such a luxury yarn for a hat). It has that really good combination of being interesting to knit because of the lace, but at the same time not so complicated that you have to take copious notes and can't do anything else at the same time for fear of distraction. 

Close-up of the lace pattern

I did change it a little bit though. It calls for casting on 110 stitches, but that seemed like far too many so I decided to cast on 100 and then increase after the ribbing panel was done. I couldn't be bothered to calculate how to change the rib based on my number of stitches, so I just did a k1p1 rib instead. And I don't have 3.75mm needles (for the ribbing), so I used one 3.5mm and one 4mm - unorthodox, I know, but I figured it would probably average out somehow! 

The end result is also meant to be quite slouchy, but I was worried it might end up a bit too slouchy, if such a thing exists, so I started the decreases after round 25 of the second round of lace pattern. 

All in all, a huge success for my first fall accessory. Maybe one day I will I deserve something incredible extravagant and buy myself enough of this to make a cardigan or jumper. Maybe.

Of trees and owls: Henriette and Akita

I've been incredible lazy and slow at posting, apologies to anyone who actually follows the blog. I have been crafty, just not really had time to write about it, promise! Here's a bonus picture of Dr Jenner mid-lick, with a hint of the project below (if you are not interested in knitting, you can probably stop here).



Let's start with the Henriette cardi by Andi Satterlund. Remember I said I wanted to get some cotton yarn that behaves more like wool and was thinking of trying Blue Sky Alpacas? Well, I did, and I tell you, this yarn is awesome! Its soft and squishy like wool but also non-itchy and light like cotton. I managed to find some on sale from Mrs Moon so it wasn't horrendous, and it turned out that I bought a whole skein more than I needed (I think I bought four skeins but I only used three) so this wasn't as expensive as I thought it was going to be.

So, back to the cardi. Simply said, this was complicated. Andi does call it a challenging knit, to be fair to her, but I feel that perhaps it is written in a more complicated way than strictly necessary. I essentially had to take notes on what  I was supposed to do for every single row and have at least two if not three sheets of instructions in front of me at all times. I tried to knit some of it during a long drive to Cornwall to use the time for something useful, but the complex instructions along with me getting car sick (apparently knitting on the bus and the car have a different effect) meant that it was impossible.

I didn't deliberately make any modifications, but I completely misunderstood the instructions for the lace/cable trees in the bottom back of the cardi so I think I basically ended up with one giant tree in the middle and two bushes on each side. Oh well!

For anyone interested, the back has three consecutive sections of the lace/cable pattern and the instruction is to start the first and third at row 11 and the middle one at row 1. What I did was to stick to 11-20 for the ones on the side (the 'leafy' top of the tree) and 1-11 for the middle (hence the long bark). Whereas towards the end I realised that I was meant to just keep cycling through the pattern instead (eg the middle column would go from 1 to 20 and then back to 1). The instructions towards the end also got a bit confusing, where you are decreasing and thus loosing bits of your tree lace/cable, but I have to admit that I forgot what I did there. It definitely had an element of improvisation as I didn't understand the instruction.

At the moment the buttons I have on there are too small so it doesn't look great closed, and I am hoping that the look will improve once I replace them. It does, however, seem to be a little big on the shoulders (it sort of slides down), and I am not entirely sure how to fix this, perhaps picking up fewer stitches for the button band would help? It would also stop it from puckering, which it does at the moment when buttoned up. I think I would also make the sleeves longer if I made it again.

And as another bonus, I have a sewing project to share that I can't be bothered to write a separate post for (now that I am on the roll and all). This is the seamwork Akita top, which came for free with the first issue I subscribed to (although now the seamwork team has decided to let you pick whichever pattern you like every month, which would have been handy last month for me instead of paying for the Astoria). And yes, this top has owls, woo hoo! (or hoot hoot!)

I read lots of people commenting that this is an odd one as it is one giant piece sewn together on the sides, and to be honest, I am not sure it really works, at least not on my frame. It looks quite baggy at the top but then it is too tight around the hips, to the point where I had to make the side slits longer. I also have a sneaky suspicion that I cut it against the grain (still struggling a bit with this), which may explain, first why the owls are sideways, and also how it hangs. But, I have worn it once already and it is quite comfy so I'm not giving up on it.

I also decided to add a little label so that I can tell which is the front and which is the back, which for some weird reason is making me very happy.

Ok, that's it for now, hopefully I won't take ages to write again.

Summer crafting with Miette and Birdy skater

Despite appearances, I haven't been lazy. To prove this, I'm posting two - yes two - projects today: the Miette cardigan and the Birdy skater.

Summer is definitely not the time of the year for knitting, but after finishing my Castle Pullover, I decided to make a summer cotton cardi. I wanted something cropped and with short or 3/4 sleeves to wear over dresses as an extra layer. Andi Satterlund's designs are super cute, to the point where I couldn't really decide which one I wanted, so naturally I went for the free one.

The pattern is really well-written and well-designed - I particularly liked how it all comes together through the addition of the button-band and collar. The only modification I made was to made the sleeves a little shorter, which was a good thing because I almost ran out of yarn (7 skeins of the Drops Paris). Annoyingly, I didn't write down what I did for the first sleeve so I almost ended up with mismatched sleeves, but thankfully noticed the discrepancy soon enough. I also skipped the ktbl in the rib and stuck to plain k2p2 rib instead (out of laziness, I will admit).

I wish I had made it a little shorter though, but that might be the cotton rather than the pattern. The cotton yarn also means that it doesn't lay as nicely (the lace detail around the button-band and collar doesn't lay that flat and is not so obvious) and the whole thing is a little big, probably due to the lack of springiness.

Even so, I have already worn it twice, so it clearly serves its purpose well. But perhaps there is a cotton yarn out there that has a bit more springiness (I'm thinking Blue Sky Alpacas, which is meant to behave like wool, although it is very pricey). Or I should just stick to cardi patterns that don't have any lace.

Underneath the cardi, you will notice a new version of the Lady skater, or in this case Birdy skater.

I loooove this fabric! I got it from GirlCharlee after much deliberation, and its certainly exactly what I wanted when looking for a t-shirt-style fabric as well as being very soft and very pretty. However, it certainly had all the qualities of knit fabric that make people scared of it. It curled quite a lot while I was sewing it, the pins kept falling out, and I think I may have stretched it in a few places.

After last time, I got the Colette Guide to Sewing Knits, which had a few good tips and made me think that I should explore the other stitches in my machine that may work better than a simple zigzag. I discovered that I have a knit stitch that does indeed give it a fake-overlocker (and therefore more professional) look. It did, however, eat a lot of threat, was slower and needed a bit of help to move along right at the start of a line of stitching. Also, like with a real overlocker, picking stitches when making a mistake was a pain. But it definitely feels sturdier so I think its worth using.

I also tried a stretch straight stitch for my hem (which I think just back tacks while sewing straight), and it gave it a nice edge, probably one of the best hems I've sewn. But I'm not sure its good for knits despite being a stretch stitch, as the hem ended up being a bit curly.

Castle pullover, and the importance of carefully reading instructions

I decided to go through my graveyard of dead projects and make something that I'm actually going to finish and wear. That meant goodbye to the Baby Corn dress from last summer and hello to the Castle Pullover.

I was basically after a knitted top that I could wear alone like the Petrie shell or with a layer underneath, and one that would be interesting enough to knit to make sure I'd finish it (so not too much stockinette!). The Castle Pullover is meant to be a jumper of sorts, made in wool, but I don't know that many people who would opt to wear a wool t-shirt. A bamboo-cotton t-shirt though seems far more appealing.

This is a top-down construction with raglan sleeves, which has the added benefit of allowing you to try it on as you go along, made mostly in lace. It uses a long-tail cast-on, which was a revelation to me and I think my favourite cast-on method so far.

I decided to be sensible for a change and read through the whole pattern to make sure I understood it before starting, I even circled my size throughout to avoid confusion. And yet somehow I missed a very crucial bit of the instructions, which meant that after the endless increases during the raglan shaping, I realised I didn't have anywhere near as many stitches as I was supposed to. It was hit and miss at that point, and if I hadn't paid for the pattern, I may have given up rather that start all over again.

But I persevered, got to the fun bit, aka the lace, got a little frustrated with the fun bit when I started making mistakes and decided to stop 'living on the edge', as my friend put it, and use a life line for each lace repeat. It certainly helped when I started counting out 9 stitches for each pattern repeat, as suggested by another raveller.

Its cute, its cozy because of the bamboo, and, surprisingly, the fit is fine even though I used 4mm needles with a DK yarn rather than the suggested 4.5mm needles with a worsted yarn - I guess this was a little stretchy. There are a couple of mistakes I know I made in the lace, but thankfully they are not at all noticeable.

But there's one major flaw that makes me very very unhappy. I have no idea how this happened but my raglan lines are in completely the wrong place: one is on the sleeve, where it's supposed to be, and the other is in the middle of the top! I am soooo annoyed about this and especially about not noticing earlier.

I don't know if anyone else would notice, especially because if I strategically shift it (as in the photo above) the line can somehow be in the middle rather than running diagonally across the chest. But it sort of spoils it for me, hopefully I can look past it and enjoy the cozy top despite its flaws! 

Lazy lazy winter, and my Liesl cardigan ready in time for summer

I have been a little slow both with crafting and with posting lately - somehow not having a job and a routine seems to disrupt everything for me, I seem to waste all the free time I have doing I'm not sure exactly what. I have sewn a few bits and bobs that I haven't bothered to blog about out of sheer laziness, and on the knitting front I have been working on one cardigan, Liesl, incredibly slowly!

Don't ask me what exactly happened. I think I started working on this in January, and pretty much finished the body in a couple of weeks - its a pretty easy and fast knit once you get going with the lace pattern. I even bought some buttons in anticipation of finishing it.

But then, I left it for maybe about a month before I did the first sleeve (which took me one evening to finish). Then, unexplainably I left it for a couple of months, pretty much forgot about it to be honest, until I made plans with a friend, who suggested we go for coffee, cake and knitting. Now, I forgot to take it with me to the date, but I did become motivated to finish the last sleeve. Hurrah! A woolly cardigan ready, just in time for summer!

I've made Liesl twice before (definitely got my money's worth!), once as a tiny little crop thing out of cotton for summer, for a friend, and once for me in a sort of cropped version, mainly because I couldn't get hold of more of the same yarn to make it longer. This time I was determined to make it a full length cardigan with 3/4 sleeves to make it a bit more wearable.

I also added a picot bind-off , although whether this was successful is debatable. At the very least I think it adds a bit more texture and interest to the edge.

It's fairly straightforward as the lace pattern is really easy to memorize, and the fact that it uses biggish needles means its fast too - the perfect project for all the rowan silk twist I bought at a bargain at the knitting and stitching show (and I have a ton of it left still, lots of Christmas presents in green silk this year!).

Fun times with arm knitting

I have been silent but not lazy in the crafts department, in fact I have had so many projects on the go, I have now lost track of what I need to write about! But I thought I'd start with my latest discovery, arm knitting.

Yes, I know, arm knitting is so 2014, I am totally late in the game. I randomly came across it through another blog (knitted bliss), and being my usual shopping-impulsive self, I bought the latest (and apparently most comprehensive) book on arm knitting. The idea is essentially what the name suggests: knitting using your arms instead of needles to create a rather open fabric, mainly using bulky or super bulky yarn. Other than just liking the look of this open fabric, the appeal here is that you can knit stuff insanely quickly, which is an excellent skill to have for all those last minute presents.

The book has a range of projects, some better than others (the beanie hat is a little weird and unattractive, for example), and detailed instructions on how to arm (and finger) knit - although I will admit that, as usual, I needed the visual help of youtube to fully understand what was happening.

Being, again, shopping-impulsive, I bought a ton of chunky yarn to make the vest that is on the cover of the book. And I made it, and it looked nothing like the pictures, nothing, it was a hideous mess of holes. I am not entirely sure where I went wrong, but it was a disaster. So instead, I decided to try the cowl (and there are tons of free patterns on the internet if you want to try this). It took around 30 minutes. If you are one of the people I make gifts for for Christmas, you might well be getting this next year!

I also tried finger knitting, which, again, as the name suggests, involves using your fingers (sometimes 3, sometimes 4, depending on the width of the project) to knit a fabric that looks a little like an open I-cord. This was a lot more straightforward that arm knitting (no youtube help required), and gave me a matching headband to my cowl in about 20 minutes (again, be warned, this may be coming your way!).

Anyway, its definitely worth exploring this if you haven't yet by trying out one of the free cowl patterns on the internet, and the book might be an investment if you think you might want to try a few more things. 

Stitch and story's Aloc jumper, aka fastest jumper ever

I had a bit of crafty weekend (or week even, the joys of being a student!). During the day I sewed my Francoise dress, and in the evening I knitted a jumper. Don't ask me why, for some reason in my head sewing is a daytime activity and knitting is done in the evening in front of the TV.

This is the Aloc jumper from Stitch and Story, which I bumped into at the Knit and Stitch show in October. They lured me in with their squishy, soft merino wool and the promise of a chunky lacy jumper that only needs four skeins of yarn. I was sold. My plans of buying some bulky/super chunky yarn to make the Swizzle Vest from the Domiknitrix book (that's where the Sweetheart jumper is from by the way, don't ask how that is going!) went out of the window.

I even paid £8 for the pattern, which to me is outrageous. I should note here that Stitch and Story is a similar idea to Wool and the Gang, which sell knitting kits, primarily using chunky yarn, and their patterns are similarly outrageously priced. I can't understand the logic behind it other than their target is the beginner knitter, who doesn't know that buying a pdf pattern on Ravelry will cost about £3-5 for most designers. I paid for it though so whatever, I'm easily convinced to part with my money.

Anyway, back to the jumper. Its actually a very basic lace/fishnet design knitted flat (yes, despite my better judgment...) in four pieces (front panel, back panel and two sleeves). And its made using 12mm needles. And its cropped, with short sleeves. It took me 3 days to knit... Yes, 3 days! That must be some kind of record in jumper knitting surely.

Pre-assembly

The final product

BUT... I hated knitting with the 12mm needles. They are so hard to handle, so awkward and uncomfortable. And it probably took me as long to knit half the front panel as it took me to assemble it. On the other hand, 3 days... I can live with the annoyances.

Random action shot of me reading

I did have some issues with the pattern though, in case anyone does decide to buy the kit. I was told I only needed four skeins of yarn (at 100g each) but I run out of yarn (even though I made the small version) and could not make the sleeves long enough. And because the sleeves are meant to gradually increase in stitch count from bottom up to match the number of stitches on the body, I had trouble sewing them on, and they feel a bit weird around the shoulders. I also spotted a couple of mistakes in the written pattern itself: for the front panel, it says to repeat the lace row 12 more times to a total of 48 rows, but that doesn't add up, it should say to repeat 11 more times (or 12 times in total). And for the back panel, the shaping of the left hand side does not match the shaping of the right, it should start with 6 repeats, going down to 4.

Regardless of the pattern, I can thoroughly recommend the yarn, in fact I couldn't stop stroking it every time I put my knitting down. They describe it as "super soft like candy floss" and I would  totally agree with that! It could do with being a bit more twisted (hiding the ends was a right pain), but I guess that's what makes it so soft? Either way, I love it - and I haven't been paid to say this!

Fairy tale knitting: snakes and foxes

I love knitting for my nephews, as I can go crazy and pick really fun patterns for them. This year I went for scarves to keep their little necks warm (for when it actually gets cold in Greece), focusing on an animal theme.

The first one is the Wiggly Worm scarf, which can be modified to make a snake instead (and let's face it, a snake scarf is way cooler than a worm scarf). This is a very simple thin scarf, intentionally knit in stockinette to make it curl in itself, and with some increases and decreases for shaping. I had to improvise the tongue, and there is no way I can remember exactly what I did other than I used crochet.

 

I'd like to think of this as a psychedelic snake (I do realise that blue is not exactly the most snake-like colour) that is either rather startled or wears glasses - must be the clear buttons! Either way, I think he is rather cute, surprisingly for a snake.

The second is one that I have wanted to make for ages but couldn't justify to make for myself: Mr Fox, by tiny owl knits (from the same book as my lovely fingerless gloves, catching butterflies). This little guy is more of a neck warmer I guess than a long scarf, with the body and tail knit in one piece, the legs added directly to the main body, and the head knit separately, stuffed and then sewn onto the main body.

It was pretty straightforward as a pattern until right at the end, when I couldn't really understand how to attach the head to main body, and I'm still not entirely sure I did it right (a bit more explanation would have been helpful, unless my cold is also making me a bit stupid). I think I could have done a better job, as he looks a bit of a hunchback now.


He is still insanely cute, though, despite his defects (I especially love his white paws and edge of tail).


Both scarves were made using Red Heart Solid, the aran weight for Mr Snake and the 4-ply for Mr Fox. The pattern for Mr Fox offers two options, one for a bigger and chunkier scarf and one knit in 4-ply that is meant to be worn as a stole. I decided to go somewhere in between and use the 4-ply held double (which apparently would give a DK weight yarn) and 5mm needles. If I were to make it again (for myself perhaps?) I would probably go for the bigger fox and hope that I don't look like a crazy lady!

Barter economy with an old favourite, Fetching

I got a knitting commission! Well, actually this is not my first, but it's the first that I actually completed in exchange for something. I call this 'barter economy' because the exchange was with my yoga teacher, and she is paying me in classes :).

Her request was simple: fingerless gloves, in bright pink (thankfully still have lots of the pink Manos yarn), with minimum finger coverage. I personally am not a big fan of the non-thumbed fingerless gloves, so I wasn't really aware of any nice ones that were constructed in the round and did not have a thumb (and as you know, I tend to avoid seams in knitting, so did not want to knit them flat). By browsing trusty Ravelry, I came a cross a few patterns that constructed a thumbhole by including a few rows of knitting back and forth, and so I decided to use that logic to modify an old favourite, Fetching.

At the time of writing, Fetching had 20,314 projects on Ravelry! There's a reason it's so popular: the pattern is well-written, the gloves are simple and fast to knit, yet still look impressive because of the cables, and unless modified to be longer, they use very little yarn. I myself have made them twice already, and have also knitted the popular Fetching-inspired Owlings a couple of times. The benefit of this is that I know that 45 stitches it far too many (especially because they stretch a lot - although now I realise that in the past I cast on 40 stitches but this time I did 35... they still fit though).

Here is what I did to omit the thumb:

- On row 12, start working straight, knitting back and forth. This means that on WS rows you need to purl the knits and knit the purls (ie purl 4, knit 1).
- Continue like this up to the row where the thumb opening is made.
- Knit 1 more row straight in rib pattern, then join back in the round and continue as in original pattern.

One other modification was to omit the first cable in the pattern, but this was mainly because I had started making a different pair of gloves which I didn't like, and didn't want to rip all the way to the start.

A new life, and the Lush Lacy Mitts to go with it

Its been a while, again - I would have thought that being a student again would mean having lots of spare time to do my knitting and sewing projects, but with post-work travels, freelance work and getting to grips with philosophy, I have been pretty busy. However, there is always time for knitting, and with temperatures dropping I decided I needed a new pair of fingerless gloves (a girl can never have enough pairs, clearly my favourite thing to knit!).

These are the Lush Lace Mitts, which I saw on craftsy's facebook feed and immediately had to have. I was drawn to the lace (as usual), as well as the aran-weight yarn, which together make for a pretty and fast knit. The buttons make them look quite dainty as well, they remind me of my Veyla gloves, which have been my favourites for quite some time now but sadly are starting to pile.

I was a little sceptical of knitting them with 5.5mm needles, as most of my fingerless gloves are made with 4mm needles, but I couldn't quite get the gauge so I settled on my 5mm ones and hoped for the best (winging it as usual). In fact I read somewhere that this yarn is quite stretchy after blocking (will come to this in a moment) so I figured it would all even out eventually.

Aside from that, I pretty much followed the pattern, but made them slightly longer at the top by adding 4 rows of stockinette before binding off.

On to the yarn, Drops Big Merino, which I bought from the Nest stall at the Alexandra Palace Knitting and Stitching show; I had in fact planned to take lots of pretty pictures and write a blog post about the show, but as usual I got completely overwhelmed with yarn and fabric joy that I didn't. What can I say, I'm weak! Anyway, the yarn is very soft and and has a lovely springy quality to it which I absolutely love (I suppose this is why others have complained about it getting too stretchy?). And its a bargain at £3.10! (why are Drops yarns so cheap??). I think it did stretch a bit after blocking but they were a little tight initially so I was sort of counting on it. The only issue might be that they might stretch out with wear (I have a hat made with a similar yarn which is so enormous now, its unwearable).

The buttons I had completely forgotten I had, and found them in my sewing box when I was looking for thread, I think I bought them at the knitting show last year? They are bigger than what I had planned to use, but the tiny buttons I used in Veyla keep coming undone so I figured bigger ones might stay put more easily. I should mention that the gloves don't have buttonholes, I just squeezed the buttons through the lace stitch.

So, overall, I love them and I am sure we will be very happy together! (I am wearing them right now in fact) I don't think they will be very useful when it gets very cold (lace, and fingers quite exposed), but they will be an excellent friend for cold-ish weather.

Link to Ravelry project

I'm on a roll! Bandana cowl

I've been even more productive, making a second knit in the same week. This is the Bandana Cowl that I knit for a friend (after, once again, spending hours browsing Ravelry for patterns, and also starting and frogging a few).

Don't ask why there's a weird glow on my face, no photo editing could get rid of it! 

I used some of the Colinette Zero I had left over from the Under the Cover of Midnight cowl, and I can now say with some certainty that I don't really like this yarn. Its frizzy (and I have enough of that in my life already), and heavily textured (which means that the thick and thin bits complicate making anything with lace or with any sort of defined border). The colours are beautiful, its nice, snuggly and warm, but its just a pain. 

This was quite a nice little pattern that I might well make again when knitting gifts, pretty fast because of the short rows, which are used to knit the 'point' of the bandana (another yarn issue here, because of the multiple colours and weird thicknesses, I couldn't quite see the wraps so I had to use a marker as a reminder).

Also, if I were to make it again, I would probably opt for a worsted or aran weight yarn. The pattern calls for bulky yarn  but my gauge was way way off - I decided to go for it with the 6mm needle even though it was not quite right because I was worried it would be too dense with a smaller-size needle. 

So I was basically winging it. I followed the pattern until the wraps, then lost track because of the yarn but then got into a bit of a rhythm. When the short rows were done, I did not follow the decreases as written because the cowl was getting a little too long (wrong gauge and all). I only knitted one row in between for the first three decreases and then did three more decreases consecutively. It worked, somehow. I feel that this is a recurring theme in my life!

Link to Ravelry here

Autumn instant gratification: almond comfit

Autumn is definitely here, despite the random rays of sunshine we seem to be getting. And although its not yet warm woolly weather, I really felt like making a hat just to get myself back into knitting mode. I still intend to finish baby corn, I just needed a bit of an instant fix first to get me there.

I have had a skein of Manos de Uruguay wool classica in various shades of purple (surprise surprise) for almost 2 years now, and it was always going to be a hat. I just hadn't made up my mind about which hat. So in search of a pattern I went, browsing through Ravelry for probably hours until I came across Saturday Treat by Ysolda Teague. 

Now, I'm a big Ysolda fan, so I was quite surprised that there was a collection out there I had never noticed before. This was apparently published in January 2012 and must have gone a little under the radar because the knits have few projects on Ravelry. There are six patterns, in the style of Whimsical Little Knits (so hats, gloves etc), designed and published in collaboration with Fyberspates.

I was immediately drawn to Walnut Whip, but the sport-weight yarn is not exactly compatible with instant gratification. Instead, I opted for Almond Comfit, a beret-style hat with a lace flower shape at the front. 

The construction is weird and can be confusing: it is knitted more like a shawl than a hat, starting with the lace flower and gradually increasing in a sort of triangular shape, which is then decreased and finally joined through a kitchener stitch. I guess think of it a bit as a bandana wrapped and tied at the back of your head?

I was prepared, as everyone on Ravelry had already noted that its confusing, and mainly recommended to follow the instructions without thinking about it. And its true, you just need to follow the instructions. And remember that you are NOT knitting on the round and instead knitting back and forth (that's where I went wrong anyway). I didn't bother with the kitchener stitch, I did a three-needle bind-off instead, which I have decided is my favourite kind of bind off.

Once I understood what I was doing, it just flew by, and by the end of the weekend I had a hat. Yay! Of course the next day it was 22 degrees celcius, but no matter, I am sure it will be here soon.

I have to say, its a little slouchier than I expected. I picked the medium size (yes, it comes in three sizes!) and was a little worried it would be too small or beanie-like, but actually its very much a berret, made a tiny bit slouchier because I got confused in the decreases and knitted an additional two rows by mistake.

Here is the back, to admire the pretty colours!

I tried to take a photo of the flower but for some reason it is really out of focus and almost impossible to see the flower because of the colours. Perhaps this would work best with a solid colour instead to ensure that the lace is clearly visible.

Link to Ravelry here

Learning to draw straight lines - sewing the foxy cushion

Yet another abandoned project you ask? The Baby Corn dress has had a bit of a rough summer, first when I tried it on half-way through knitting it, only to realise that it was gigantic and I would probably never wear it. At that point I decided that I should rip it back to the bust and decrease the number of stitches to make it narrower, and then convert it into a top - something a bit like the Petrie shell, which I wear quite a lot. And then I was on holiday for 2 weeks and had to put it down. But I am determined to finish it eventually!

Poor Baby Corn - back to square one

Summer is apparently the month when a lot of knitters I know pick up their sewing. I was in a bit of a confusion as to whether I wanted a loom or a sewing machine for my birthday, so I just didn't decide and the decision was made for me - a sewing machine is now mine!

When I opened the box and took it out, I was terrified - so many buttons and dials, some many bits and pieces that I could break or lose. My friend, a seasoned sewer (or sewist?), reassured me that it is easy once you to grips with it, so when we got back from holiday I decided to brave some sewing.

After the initial terror of not having a clue how to use it, I managed to experiment using cut-offs from a dress that was in my charity bag, learning to sew in a straight line, and hemmed (very badly!) a pair of tracksuit bottoms that I had cut into shorts a while back.

At that point I felt ready to start a real project - I picked an envelope cushion cover from Sewing Machine Basics, the book I bought to teach myself. As the book suggests, this is a good first project because all you need to know is how to sew in a straight line and how to do a double hem.

The cushion is made in three pieces, a complete front piece and two back pieces that overlap to form, as the name suggests, an envelope. After ironing the fabric (advice from the other book I bought, Love at First Stitch), I drew the cushion measurements and cut them up.

That was lesson number one. After I hemmed the pieces and assembled them, I realised what a terrible job I had done in measuring and cutting, as they were nowhere near properly aligned and overlapping! Apparently using a ruler does not guarantee that your lines will be straight. Apparently, also, it might be a good idea to do all of this on a table instead of the floor.

This is where my impatience rises up and makes itself known. Of course what I really wanted is to get the sewing machine and be able to make beautiful dresses and accessories immediately. So clearly I'm not there yet. But no matter, the cover may not be perfect but it still fits the cushion and the dodgy stitching is either hidden inside the cushion or not visible because of the white on white background.

Emerging from silence, and new project - baby corn

Yes, it has been a while! The post dated April 5th has been taunting me for over 2 months now, filling me with guilt about abandoning the blog. But I have been busy, travelling, working, not sure what else but somehow all spare time has gone.

Plus there hasn't really been anything to write about - the sweetheart jumper is still hibernating (one day...). 

Baby Corn, knitted top down

However, I have started, rather ambitiously as usual, a summer dress. It is Baby Corn from the Stitch 'n Bitch Superstar Knitting book, which is aimed at, ahem, advanced knitters. I've already made the Tulip Top from there, which I absolutely love and wear all the time, and have been eyeing a bunch of the summer projects for ages. 

In case you are wondering, the dress is named as such because the designer used corn yarn - yes, corn yarn. As much as this intrigues me, the yarn has been discontinued so I will not have the pleasure of experiencing a corn garment just yet.  

I say 'rather ambitiously' because it is obviously already almost the end of June, so I really need to be done within the next month if I want to wear it as a summer dress. At the moment, about 2.5 weeks into it, I guess I am close if I want to switch it to a top, but there's still a long way to go if I stick to a dress. The problem is that I wanted an easy, no-brainer project and actually I am now bored of doing row after row of stockinette. The only saving grace is that it is knitted on the round, so I don't have to deal with evil purling.

Close-up of the rib,
which forms the bust of the dress

 Also, all sort of weird things have been happening during this knit. The pattern called for sport yarn and 4.5mm needles, but I bought DK yarn and my gauge seemed ok with 4mm needles. As I was working on it I decided it looked a bit big so I switched to my 3.75mm needles, which I somehow managed to break (I am never buying the plastic ones again!), at which point I switched back to the 4mm ones. Then I got worried again so I switched to the 3.5mm needles, but then it seemed to be getting very tight, so back to 4mm needles I went. I probably should have unravelled but it actually looks pretty even miraculously!

Similarly, after finishing the bust part of the dress you are supposed to make a load of stitches, going from 160 to 240. But when I counted mine I somehow had managed to only get to 200 stitches, so I proceeded to randomly making another 40 on the next row. Again, I should have unravelled but I decided to stick to my haphazard ways.

Will I finish this before going on holiday on July 18th? Let's see!