Lily Crozier-Byrnes

My friend and colleague in London ("a good Essex girl" she tells me), Sheila, and hubby recently welcomed their first baby, Lily, to the family. The "it"-being-a-"girl" part was expected since Sheila is one of five girls and her father has four sisters...
Isn't she lovely? And, in honour of her birth (and in enough time to send off the parcel in a fairly prompt fashion) I finally acquired the bit of ribbon necessary to complete the kimono-jacket I knitted in October.The booties were done during that baby spree in the autumn with the last bit of green and white that I'd been working with.I love the ribbon I found to match. The flowers were so cute! There was a plain green back-up ribbon in case it was a boy but now I can hold onto that to use as an accent for the little empress-waisted sweater pattern I found last week.And here it is all packaged up (above) to send to Lily (below)!

Sheep Dress still in Action

It has been a ridiculously long time since I posted anything to this blog and my apologies to anyone still reading but I've been trying out some new patterns with the alarmingly large batch of yarns that I picked up at the Urban Yarns inventory sale. $400 of yarn fit in one large carrier bag to my surprise. I told them that I'd see them again next year and plan on sticking to that... :P

Last year, before leaving the UK, I managed to finish this little dress for my favourite Yorkshire lass, Nina. Her parents have been very busy - starting a new job, raising her and her brother, writing about cows... - and so only recently posted a much-promised picture of Nina in the dress to Facebook. Apparently, they've had many comments on it when Nina wears it out. On one occasion, a pair of elderly ladies stopped them on the street to ask where they got it. Looks like she might be able to wear it for a little longer... but I better start looking at something even more ambitious for next Christmas. Maybe a matching jumper and hat. I'll have to find out if she's still into sheep or if I need to move onto butterflies or something.

Ode to My Blocking Board

Have I mentioned lately how much I'm loving my blocking board?

Chevron Lace Throw

... at least that's what it's called in the Vogue Knitting On the Go! Baby Blankets book but Brendan keeps insisting that it looks like the Chrysler building.
This is my attempt to reduce stash and use up all the green Rowan Wool Cotton that I have in one go. So far so good. I'm down to my last two balls and this baby isn't even due until June!
I think leafy is a better descriptor than "Chrysler building".

A Bit of Lace

I get some desperate vibes off of my stash sometimes. Bags of Cashmerino DK needing a form, loose balls of aran-weight longing to warm someone up, but most especially my skeins of yarns because they know that working with them requires an extra step and some tools that I have not yet invested in. How lovely was it, then, when a co-worker announced that her husband and daughters had bought her a Swift and ball-winder for Christmas? In exchange for a skein of Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn (in Peacock), she happily wound my largest skein of superwash variegated wool (a bargain buy two years ago at the Skep in Yorkshire) which I'd been eyeing as the makings for a birthday gift. It was so large, in fact, that they were compelled to cut it when the first ball got so big that it could no longer turn on the winder. Here's what's left of the second ball...
The project is called "Lacy Top" in Vogue Knitting's 2006 Holiday edition. I thought that the blues and reds in this yarn would suit my friend, Karen, who favours rich, vibrant colours. Now the picture in the magazine is a little bit misleading since the pattern shape doesn't actually have a waist. In fact, the whole thing is really quite bell-shaped, to be honest. I may have to buy a belt for her too, just in case!
I'm foregoing the little bow in front. I think the feather-and-fan collar is ornamental enough and she could always add a broach is she feels it's really necessary.
Here's the main piece sans collar and ruffles just after joining the shoulder seams. I knitted the whole thing in the round from the hem up and then separated at the armholes and finished up the front and back pieces individually. The knitting in the round is probably to blame for the colour pooling just about the lace edge. It kind of reminds me of wood grain around a knot... if the wood was red and blue.
The ruffles are done now as is the collar but the poor thing needs to be reblocked because the collar is curling and only then I can make my attempt at attaching the ruffles! Gah!

Cardigan Conclusion

All right, I didn't get this project finished for Christmas Day but that was only because I only purchased the blocking board that I "needed" on Christmas Eve and the cardigan was still drying on the board on Christmas Day. I spent most of Boxing Day sewing in the zipper (another first!) and it was finished by Boxing Day evening. Of course, I was in a nasty mood by this point as hand-sewing a black zipper into a charcoal grey sweater using black thread can make a person slightly frustrated. I actually threw the completed project at him when I tied off the last thread. He asked if it was done. I said that there were two bits of yarn that needed to be woven in. And then, he just let it sit there. "Aren't you even going to try it on?!?" I asked. "You said it wasn't finished," he said, all innocent-like. "It's TWO BITS of yarn," I responded. He quickly put it on and wore it religiously for the next three days. Clever man. In the meantime, my yarn needles ALL went walkies at the same time so those two bits on the collar didn't get woven in until the New Year.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The cabling is simple and the design is straightforward. I'll happily NOT do another zip for a long time but so far it seems to be holding up and it only seems to buckle in a funny way when Brendan slouches while sitting. (Point for good posture, yay!) I was able to adjust the pattern to both our likings. To recap for those who have forgotten (and quite understandably as this was one of my longer motivated projects), this is the Pentagon Aran Cardigan from Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature book. I added an inch of ribbing at the hem, extended the length and decreased the stitches in the collar to create the mock turtle that Brendan prefers, and added folded back cuffs (which you can't see because he insisted on facing the camera as if it were a firing squad). I'm very happy that I chose to do the sleeves from the top down since it turns out Gaughan's pattern would have been very tight in the upper arm and shoulder as it was written. That adjustment was a lot simpler than I would have thought.He actually likes it. Really. He just doesn't like cameras. Anyhoo, things I'll keep in mind for the future include: Russian joins don't work so well in this yarn (Mission Falls 1824) and installing zips is a true test of affection.

Just in time for the New Year

... the Chinese New Year, that is.
I've been a very bad knitting blogger over the last few months. This certainly doesn't mean that I haven't been knitting, though. I finished the dread Christmas cardigan (pictures and story to follow) in time for Boxing Day. Suffice it to say, me and zips do NOT get along. I also made a couple of pairs of thrummed slippers for my cold-footed friends and managed to get this baby blanket (pictured) done for my friends, Mary and Randy, who just had their baby, Monica, at the end of January.
My Christmas prezzie to myself was the blocking board (also pictured) which folds in half into a handled portfolio-style carrying/storage form.
This baby blanket was fun and frustrating in equal measures. The octogonal swirls were done individually and didn't take long and were nice little projects that I could tote along anywhere. Then the little moss-stitch squares were picked up along an edge and knitted onto 17 of the 18 octogons. THEN, they had to be sewn together. And, of course, I fitted the first three together in the wrong direction and refused to tear out the seams which meant doing some creative fitting near the end. There's meant to be a crocheted edging (well, there's also meant to be seven bobbles on each of the squares but THAT wasn't about to happen) and I'm toying with the idea of doing it in a different colour now that I know it's a girl. Crochet... ugh.

Christmas Cardigan Continues...

The light over the kitchen table is not very yarn-friendly but it was the only place I could think of to lay out the back of the cardigan for a photo-shoot. Obviously, shaping has not been an issue here. The Mission Falls 1824 has been really lovely to work with although it doesn't take a Russian Join as nicely as I would like.
The major challenge has been remembering where the moss-stitch creeps in between the cables and where the pattern leaves it smooth. I've had to re-stitch a few columns along the way. The boy's run off to New York City for a week so I'm glad I finished this piece before he left so that I have something to work the left and right fronts against. I've been measuring against him every 20 rows or so and the length he likes is about two and a half inches shorter than the pattern calls for. Need to stay alert for the neck shaping on the front, I guess.
The cabling's been giving my left hand some problems. I'm really hoping that it isn't a sign of CTS but I've been getting numb spells and cold streaks every once in a while. I won't give up the knitting but I may need to be more careful while working at the library...

A Use for Fall Foliage

I own a lot of sock wool. For someone who has yet to make a legitimate pair of socks, I have an obscene amount of sock wool. So what do I do? I made a handbag.
Polly had issues with the colours of this Cherry Tree Hill wool (October 5 on alltangledup) but I think I was probably attracted by the colours initially. I just don't think I'd wear socks in them. I get into these moods where I feel that I need to branch out palette-wise and end up buying colours that don't fit easily into my life. So there were bamboo handles in one of the London boxes I unpacked last week and a pattern that called for this specific yarn... it was meant to be, I guess.
I wasn't sure about attaching the handles. I've never claimed to be a seamstress of any ilk. Worked out a system that is best termed a reverse mattress stitch. There's probably a real name for it. Anyhoo, all's well and another Christmas prezzie is done!

Gratifying

I made the hat Grace is wearing in this picture early in the spring when I was using up my purple Cashmerino Aran. She's just growing out of it now.

Cutest Logo Ever

As mentioned in the previous post, the boyfriend actually made a decision on what sort of knitted Christmas he'd like. He said things like "cardigan" and "black" and "cabled". Feeling a little bad about throwing out all his cardigans a few years ago (they were all nasty-old and acrylic and very Mr. Roger-ish), I found and bought Knitting Nature by Norah Gaughan (which I'd been meaning to do ever since Yvonne brought it to Liberty's night to show-and-gloat) and pointed out the Pentagon Aran Cardigan. In agreement on the pattern, off we went a couple of weekends ago to Main Street on a sunny Sunday afternoon to acquire the necessary wool since, unfortunately, my stash is severely lacking in black wool. Our first stop was Birkeland Bros. which, unbeknownst to us, was closed for the long weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving). Which left us wandering up the street in search of the much spoken-of new yarn shop, Three Bags Full (also linked in the sidebar as "My Local"). So new, in fact, that they didn't even have a sign up yet. It was pure luck (and vigilance) that I even spotted their window display from across the street. We had three choices of yarns: Cascade, which I found scratchier than my liking; Debbie Bliss, which I found pricier than my liking; and the Mission Falls 1824 Wool, which, although pricy still, was less expensive than the imported Bliss (it's a Canadian-made yarn) and less scratchy than the Cascade. Alas, the black was back-ordered... but Brendan found the charcoal well enough to his liking and our mission for the day was accomplished. As so it should be smooth sailing to Christmas morning, right? ha!

The Christmas Cardigan Saga: Part I - From Humble Beginnings

So, here we are at row 22.

What the picture doesn't show is the three times I had to frog this section, twice right back to the cast on. I don't think Gaughan realized that some of her readers don't think too hard before starting chart-work. The first time I started, I didn't even realize I was supposed to start on the Chart and, instead, started a 1x1 ribbing. When I figured that out, I decided a ribbed edge might be nice. Started the Chart after an inch of ribbing on the RS. Six rows later, came to the realization that the cabling is on the even rows and, therefore, I was cabling on the WS. Frog. Decided to read the Chart backwards the second time around (don't even ask, there was some sort of logic to it, I think). Frog. Got it going the correct way but lost a stitch during one of the cables the third time. Frogged back to the dropped stitch. So, three days after starting, I've got a hard-won 22 rows done. Yay, me!

Any hints on photographing cables in dark wool, Polly? They'd be much appreciated!

Need some Notions

Just finished this infant-sized kimono from Debbie Bliss' Special Knits book. I'm pretty sure I'm happy to ignore the embroidery instructions. With the number of babies popping up all around me, the more gender-neutral I keep these projects, the better. I really like the way the green Wool Cotton knits up and the leftover white from the little sheep dress I made earlier this year works well as the border. I still haven't bitten the blocking bullet yet so I think I'll have to steam and press this before wrapping it up for Christmas. The hem curls something ferocious.

My shopping list gets longer everyday. I still need to pick up buttons for the Town-Square cardigan (which has found its perfect owner, btw) and now I need a ribbon of some sort for the tie on this kimono. Brendan's also decided on a cardigan for Christmas... with a zip front! Gah!

Bootee Duty

My friends seem to insist on growing up and getting married and starting families. Most of them actually in that order now (as opposed to some of my high school friends...) and I've been kept busy trying to organize some suitable baby projects to foist on the tots. My newest victim is Nathan, now four months old.
Here he is just back from a second walk in as many hours, a little confused as he experiences deja vu for the first time.
He's a happy baby, which is a blessing. He's also extremely tall (but proportioned) for his age. The bootees I brought with me won't be used for long, I'm sure.
First, there were these Textured-Cuff ones done in Rowan Wool Cotton. I need to practise picking up stitches. The sides kept wanting to buckle when I was setting up this picture.
Later, I found a ball of very yellow (shudder!) acrylic yarn in my stash. (Don't ask me what possessed me to buy it in the first place.) In any case, the colour was very appropriate for the Duck Feet pattern sans the blanket stitching on the ends. Both bootie patterns are from Zoe Mellor's 50 Baby Bootees to Knit. There's quite a few more patterns that I'd like to try but many involve haberdashery that I don't have lying about - buttons, ribbon, lace, etc.

Town Square in Sage

For the girls at Liberty's, this will look familiar. I was working on it the last few times I was able to make it down on Wednesday evenings. Sans buttons so far, I finally got the pattern to match up reasonably well on the sleeve seams. Honestly, I nearly lost my will to live, sewing and picking out stitches umpteen times.

The pattern is the "Town Square Jacket" by Melissa Leapman from the August-October 2005 issue of Cast On magazine (for knitters). I substituted Debbie Bliss Alpaca-Silk Aran for the acrylic yarn recommended and then reduced the size of needles from 4.5mm and 5mm to 4mm and 4.5mm.
Without the buttons, the weight of the yarn made keeping it on the hanger for this picture pretty tricky. I was almost tempted to sew loops into the shoulders like they do for dresses that slide off hangers (but then I remembered that I wouldn't be hanging this anyway). The collar isn't shown in any real detail in the magazine picture so I was a little surprised when it came out with three corners but that's what happens when you "inc 1 st at ea shoulder seam and at center back neck". Oops, I guess EOR means "every other row". Oh, well.
The sleeves look kind of long but I'm thinking that the body will stretch out a little with time...

I haven't figured out how to take close-up pictures with a flash without getting the funny little shadow at the bottom of the picture so please bear with me. Casting on the button band and button-hole band turned out to be time consuming as the right side turned out to have more rows than the left. Brendan commented that I didn't seem to be enjoying my hobby as I muttered profanities over my sixtieth (not really) cast-on.

I really loved the way this yarn took to the texture of this pattern:
Row 1 (RS): *K1, p1. Rep from * for pat.
Row 2: *K1, p1. Rep from * for pat.
Row 3 and 4: Knit.
Repeat Rows 1-4 for pat.
I'll have to remember it for future projects. Love it!

And, finally, a close-up up the three most challenging parts (after the sleeve seams) - the collar, the button-band, and the sleeve-to-body seam. Not too shabby, I think!

Zig Zag Zaniness

I've spent the past few days of unemployment trying to finish up half-done projects and so far, I'm happy to say I've been fairly productive. I hate sewing...

This is an aerial view of my completed "Stitch-effect Sweater" from Julia Cooper's Textured Knits (a book which a bunch of people at the Liberty knitting group apparently got for free while I paid for). I did this with the discontinued shade "Madame" in Rowan Cashsoft DK.

I need to find a better way (and place) to photograph my projects.

It knitted up really quickly and, as with the previous project I did from this book ("Casual Cable Sweater"), I actually enjoyed working from the charts Cooper includes.

If you look closely at this strangely posed picture above, you can see the reason I thought this pattern was so cute - the stitch pattern trails onto the back. Unfortunately, this made making up the seam even more annoying than usual...

To be Felted

I really need to get myself a copy of Emma King's 25 Bags to Knit: Beautiful Bags in Stylish Colours. The colours aspect isn't so good since many of her choices have been discontinued now but the patterns are fun and they are quick ways to use up remnant yarn. This one is "Cranberry" (ironically, knitted in Cassis shade) without the beading, which I haven't been bothered enough to try. I actually knitted it on the plane from Heathrow to Calgary and got it all done except the handles. Now that it's done, though, I've decided that I need to try felting. It's a nice enough bag but really floppy (10mm needles) and the way I load up my bags, I'll need something a little hardier. Cabling on 10mms is interesting...

First Socks

Socks have been on my to-do list for a long time. These aren't exactly what I had in mind. I've got several balls of beautiful self-patterning stuff waiting for my attention but this pattern in Julia Cooper's Textured Knits seemed to be a quick and easy way to use up some remnants (alas, see yarn story below). Anyhoo, they're done now and even full-sized.
I think I need to work on keeping the yarn tight on the short-rows. I ended up with rather lacy heels.
I don't think I'll ever be a bobble fan. But at least I can say I've done them now. :o)

A Short Yarn about Yarn

Before I left the UK, I made a couple of knitted gifts for my co-workers. For my department head, I made a sea-man's scarf in the UK Select Alpaca. Same pattern as I made for Chris Q. last Christmas. For Alice, the other Geography teacher, I made a little handbag out of Rowan Classic Kid. Now the pattern calls for 2 balls and says it is to be knitted doubled up, so I did what I thought was the sensible thing and took the strand from the inside of each of the balls and knitted it double that way. When I finished it, I had the majority of two balls of yarn left. So the other day, I got sick of the jumper I've been working on and decided to use the remnants of this creamsicle-coloured Classic Kid to make a pair of bobbled socks. I thought if I made them for smaller feet I might be able to do one sock with one ball. Well, about three rows from the decrease, I ran out. Annoyed.
Went out to a new-to-me yarn shop in West Point Grey (Urban Yarns) today who I'd called about my situation yesterday. Turns out they have an entire bag of this discontinued colour in the back. For $12.95 a ball! It's a lovely little shop but I'm having a hard time believing that I'll be able to afford to shop there anytime soon...

Yorkshire Kid Knit

This is a project that I've been meaning to tackle for months, ever since I saw the little sheep on the hem. It's from the Debbie Bliss "Baby Knits" book and I knew that I had to make it for Nina, my Skipton family's little girl.


I changed the main colour from the sack-cloth brown in the book to a more pastural green to emulate the Yorkshire Dales. It's meant to be a smock-style dress (no fitting or shaping for a waist), which works well with the "smocking" of the yoke, I think.
Attaching the collar was tricky, as I'm not an experienced seamstress and really resent the entire making-up process. (There are two jumpers still in pieces, awaiting my attention.)
I've always enjoyed cabling and I think the smocking came out really well.
I've never done any fair isle or intarsia work so the sheep were the most challenging aspect of this project and I decided, after the fair isle came out looking a bit tight, that I'd try both techniques. Above, are the fair isle sheep I did on the back of the skirt. The green between the sheep is buckling a bit and the material is obviously heavier with the black & white strands twisted in behind. Below, are the intarsia-style sheep. I'm calling them intarsia-style because I actually fair-isled the black behind the white in each sheep rather than create a new bobbin for the three or four stitches that make up the tail and ran the green through behind each of the sheep (which peeks out every once in a while). I think this was the better way to go as the green remained the same thickness and texture as the rest of the skirt, which is voluminous to say the least. The down-side being that there were all these bits of black and white to sew in at the end.


I wasn't sure how the little white hem was going to turn out as I don't think I'd ever done anything like it before but once I got my head around the instructions and my fingers adjusted to the pick-up stitches, it went fairly smoothly and really finishes off the look of the dress. I need my friends to have more girl babies so that I can try something like this again! But not for a while, please.

I'm hoping for a picture of Nina wearing the dress but until then, my loyal readers can put the two together by checking out this jaunty little picture of her from my main blog.

Baby knits

When the onslaught on newborns on the way, I dug into my stash and came up with some cashmerino aran wool and adapted a Debbie Bliss pattern for a baby raglan jumper to knit top-down. The whole thing is down in stocking stitch on purpose so that the neck, hem and cuffs roll.
The pattern is a little wonky in that the sleeves are relatively long compared to the length of the body. These pictures are actually from my second go. The first one was in newborn size for my nearly-bursting co-worker, Sahera. That one was done to the patterns numbers and looked really short. The pictured one (done at the 12-18 month size) went home with Ms. Walker for her niece and I purposely lengthened the body a little to balance it out.

As with all my top-down attempts, the raglan looks lovely...
The colour is pictured a little bluer than reality. I hope Sahera has a girl.