And finally....

Supersoft Aran

A while ago my (for all intents and purposes) sister in law asked me to knit a jumper for my nephew. They're a very knit-worthy bunch (they love their socks and hats) so without further ado, I rooted round my ravelry library and decided that Flax would be the perfect pattern. It was simple but with enough in it to keep me entertained.         Once the pattern was located, it was time for the yarn. Despite having loads of yarn, Aran/worsted weight is not something that I have in abundance. I was able to come up with one yarn option, Sirdar Supersoft Aran.

Nice stitches

Despite what the yarn says, its not that soft never mind supersoft. Its 100% acrylic so what did I expect. It does have a nice stitch definition though so its got that going for it.  So anyway, I cast on age 2-4 and knitted merrily and contently.

ta da!

The sleeves took longer than they should have -  I seem to have an irrational fear of knitting sleeves in the round, particularly on something thats relatively tiny. I eventually got there with some moral support and, in a flash, the jumper was done.

The next step was to wrestle it on the nephew to see how it fitted. After a lot of struggling (have you every tried to put a jumper on a sick toddler) it was decided that it needed two things - a stretchier cast off and to be an inch longer.

Poor little flax

Poor little Flax, this is the "before picture", before I took scissors to the bottom of it and cut off the cast off. The ribbed was unravelled and that I knitted that into the body to lengthen it. Then the rib was redone.

Finally (again) little Flax was done and, following a spin in the washing machine, it was ready to be given to its new owner.

happy new owner

Remember earlier I said that the yarn was far from soft, well the trip in the machine did wonders for it. It didn't become "supersoft" but it certainly did soften up. Its a jumper thats ready for some rough play with an adventurous toddler and it'll hopefully do him for a year or so.

The jumper seems to fit the nephew well and so, in true auntie fashion, I've started another one for him in Cascade 220 in a nice teal/blue. Hopefully the sleeves won't be an issue for me this time.

Bleugh

Must knit faster

Not much of a blog tonight.... trying to knit as much of this pile as possible. I'm finishing off the 3 blacks at the minute which I think is great as I only started them last night!

Got to love multistranding!!

Six of the best

Last week I was struck down by some nasty flu/bug thing where I couldn't have gotten out of bed for love nor yarn. I lay there thinking of what yarn could entice me out of bed and I couldn't think of a single thing. Add in the fact that I didn't knit for 2 whole days AND missed SnB proves just how ill I actually was.

When I did pick the needles back up, I wanted something completely mindless. Not a thought was floating though my head some non thought provoking knitting was needed.

Lying in amongst all the knitting stuff in my corner of the living room was a ziplock bag full of kitchen cotton - Lion Brand, Peaches n Creme and some Sugar n Creme.  Usually a ballband dishcloth would have sprung forth from the needles but that required too much thinking
and certainly too much maths. (see the orange/green at f the bottom right hand corner of the bag? Thats my oldest cotton! Proper vintage stuff!)

Anyway, I digress. I decided in my delirium that it would be great if I could knit up that whole bag while I was recouperating.  Never one to shy away from a challenge, even a sickness induced one, I set to work.


Every single scrap of cotton in the bag was used - some of the cloths look a bit weird (that'll be the top middle one)  but I was getting a bit desperate towards the end.

I have to say that I'm rather chuffed with myself. I managed to accomplish two things with this challenge -  I emptied an entire bag of scraps and, most importantly, I have a willing recipient for the cloths.

This isn't the only mad challenge I've done -  I'm currently taking part in a literal Mad Dash on Ravelry. The aim is to get though 12,000 yards either solo or as part of a team. I had signed up as a solo player but after I talked my friend into taking part we're now Team Tweedle aka Tweedledum and Tweedledee!

We're splitting the yardage so have 6,000 yards to knit in 6 weeks. Thats about 125yards a day and it makes me officially behind. But the weekend is coming and I'll catch up then.

The plan is to get through the bulky yarn first - hats, cowls etc, and then try some multistranding. 3 strands of DK with a strand of sock yarn makes a lovely squishy fabric, but thats my last resort.

I'm trying to get rid of the lone rangers first, single skeins of this, two skeins of the other. It clears the stash out and you get some quick knits for the gift stash! Win win!!

Ta da!!!

Well, after many many months, the laptop is back! And you know what that means....half decent posts!!!

A few weeks ago, a fellow knitter and I joined a motley crew of knitters at the gorgeous Ballydugan Cottages for a weekend of learning. It was organised by the Textile studio and focused on continental knitting and pattern design. 

While I didn't do much in the way of the designing (it was a "do as much or as little as you want" weekend) I did learn that ballband gauges are next to useless, always swatch and a lot of maths is required.

Instead, I knitting an entire project in continental stitch. (I know, I know, another dishcloth. Its not all I knit you know)

How did I find it? To be honest, it was awkward and slow to begin with, but once I got the hang of it I thought it was great. I put a repeat of "normal" knitting in the project and I can't see which was continental and which isn't. 

As for the project itself, it had its ends woven in, picture taken and was rapidly gifted to Jo. She loves handmade washcloths and doesn't get time to make them for herself, so I gifted her this one.

I also managed to get a wip finished when I was there -  an unphotographed barley hat and I started a sweater for my nephew. 

All in all I think it was a rather productive weekend and I would certainly go again!

Apologies

When the blog was resurrected, it was my plan to blog on a Tuesday.  Why a Tuesday?  Well firstly my husband was out on and Tuesday so that would put an instant stop to the stupid questions like "why are you taking pictures of your knitting? " and secondly, I could maybe have something decent to talk about from the weekend.

Alas, you may have noticed the random posting days. This is because I find it difficult to get type anything decent on my phone. My laptop I'd currently with my brother who is operating on it:

It's touch and go apparently but he hopes it'll survive the mending process.

Many moons ago the knitting group made a lot of cup cozies for our Starbucks to sell for their charity. Well a few weeks ago I was in and saw that they had put out the cozies... and as of today there aren't many left:

I'm quite glad that people are buying them, it is for charity after all.

I'm now off to get an update on the patient.

Wip wrestling

Well the New Year has started and I've decided that working down the wips will be my first task for the year. 

I'd love to have zero pre 2016 projects by the end of the month but I some how doubt that's going to happen.

I started off by going through all the project bags, pulling out the contents and throwing them into an ever expanding pile.

The next step was to separate into quick finishes and those that needed a bit more work.

Quick finishes usually involved sorting out the ends and the first project to cross the finishing line was a dress I started in June:

Next up was another dress, this time from August. This just needs some ribbing around the neck and it's done, but it's a bit of a pain so it can wait another day or two.

I did find half a sock in a bag, so its my handbag project. I think it was started in September for a Christmas present so I'm hoping it'll be shortly joined with a friend and I can tick someone off the Christmas list. 

I started and nearly finished this cardigan in December but the fates intervened and I ran out of yarn with 6 rows to go. So I stuffed it in a bag and threw it in a corner. I pulled it out on Sunday and took a ball of green with me to knitting, and together we all came up with the pocket and crochet edgings. It's a hideous little thing though.

Finally, more socks. These were handbags socks that were knitted everywhere. They were finished last week and will be going to their new owner today.

But, with all these things above (and more) still needing some TLC I'm working away on a test knit. It's  nearly done and then I'll post pics.