The Google Tunic

Or maybe the Pinterest Dress.

Call it what you will, it is essentially a sampler. A top-down, in-the-round, seamless yoke fair isle sampler. A project for me to learn about colourwork and fair isle.

As is so often the case in my life knitting, I didn’t really have a set idea about what I was making before I began. Much of what I do is intuitive, experimental and heart-in-mouth-will-it-fit? It is also a smaller gauge and therefore longer knit than I am used to. I like to use Aran or chunky because I get impatient and want to move onto the next thing, as evidenced by the fact that many of my previous posts showcase items I began after this tunic and finished well before it was complete.

This dress began with the optimistic working title “Spring Tunic”. We’re now well on the way through summer. See? πŸ™‚

It began as it usually does: with a clearance section on a wool website. I trawl them too often, looking for the bargains. I have one stipulation: natural fibres. And I usually stick to it πŸ˜‰

I found Sublime baby cotton kapok dk. I don’t usually knit with cotton. But I was working on the premise that knitting (and crochet) being something I love, I don’t want to only do it in the autumn and winter, and there must be pretty knitwear for the rest of the year.

Rather than babbling on about it any more, here is the sampler tunic, finished with crochet around the hem and sleeves: a progression in pictures:

pinterest-tunic7
An example of one of the charts I googled

pinterest-tunic3pinterest-tunic5pinterest-tunic9pinterest-tunic10pinterest-tunic-11pinterest-tunic12pinterest-tunic-2-squarepinterest-tunic4Pinterest-Tunic

Now… Back to the million-and-one other UFOs on my list..!

 

The Split Poncho

Hello strangers πŸ™‚

OK, so we know about the Ponchette, right? And that you can now make it for yourselves? If you visit here, I wrote the pattern up at Black Sheep Wools’ request and it is available as a free download on their website.

But the thing is, I have a nipper I struggle to keep up with. And ponchos always leave me a little restricted in the arm department, so this needed some thought.

Here it is in pictures and I just might, at some stage, write it up so you can have a go too πŸ™‚

splitponcho7splitponcho6splitponcho5splitponcho4splitponcho3splitponcho2splitponcho1I have a couple of crochet blankets on the go, too – so more anon!

Hope all is well in your woolly worlds <3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Spring Scarf in Natural Wool

OK, so the spring scarf I mentioned last time? It’s finally finished. Here it is, being modelled by… well, me.

The finished article in its rightful place
The finished article in its rightful place

First things first. The materials used were:

1) a 2.5mm crochet hook, and
2) three different colours of natural, undyed wool.

The palest I bought on eBay many moons ago and no longer remember from whom. But the two darker ones are from The Knitting Gift Shop, which is owned and run by the gentleman who also owns the printing company that does all the printing for our own beard oil company, and his wife. Yes, that’s a bit convoluted. But I’m glad to know them – apart from the wonderful job they do with our printing, their wools are all locally sourced, fabulous quality and reasonably priced. And I loved working with them (and no – I’m not on commission!) πŸ™‚

So, onto the construction.

It started with the Japanese flower.

This is a free pattern and there are many blogs (mine too, now) that tell you how to make it. I saw it, made it, loved it. And then worked out how to join the motifs, and then decided on a scarf.

So this is how it works (UK terms):

Chain 6 and join into a circle with a slip stitch in the first chain.

round1: Chain 3 (counts as one double crochet) and make 11 double crochets into the ring, for 12 in total. Slip stitch into the first ‘chain 3’.

round 2: Chain 5, then into each gap in the circle, make one double crochet followed by a chain 2. You will have 12 loops all the way around. Join with a slip stitch into the first ‘chain 5’.

round 3: chain 3 (counts as one double crochet) and make three more double crochets into the first 2-chain gap. Into all the remaining 2-chain gaps, make four double crochets.

round 4: *chain 5, miss 2 double crochets and make a slip stitch into the third. Slip stitch into the next** repeat from * to ** all the way around. Slip stitch into the previous round. These loops are the beginnings of the petals.

Making the petals
Making the petals – you can see all the loops around the circle, and the first three petals of round 5 complete.

round 5: make 8 double crochets into each of the loops, with a slip stitch into the last round between each petal.

Done!

So, the next task (other than the ever-taxing weaving in of the ends) is to join them. For this, I made the next flower up to the end of the 4th round. Then I made 10 petals. For the 11th and 12th petals, I made the first four double crochets, put my hook behind the fourth or fifth double crochet of a petal on the back of the first flower, drew the yarn through it, and continued on with the next four. I repeated the process on the next petal and we have a join.

Joined at two petals.
Joined at two petals.
Joining in rows
Joining in rows

You can see the construction of the scarf very clearly in the above picture. They are all joined to at least one flower by two petals, and if you join as you go along (you can use this picture for reference) it makes the whole thing much easier than trying to figure a way to do it all afterwards.

Coming along nicely
Coming along nicely – don’t be fooled! It’s still a scarf, just folded in this picture.
I took it everywhere
I took it everywhere

It’s an incredibly portable project, too, so you can bundle it into a small bag for the car, bus, queue, waiting room… or in this case beach πŸ™‚

neutrals3
Almost finished.
Finished and blocking
Finished and blocking

Finally, the blocking. I’m not sure how useful this was really since the flowers are intrinsically quite flat and the petals designed to curl up a little. But I’ve just got these blocking mats and pins and, frankly, I still get a bit excited about using them. So I did πŸ™‚

And ta-dah! That’s it!

If you fancy giving it a go, and my explanations are a little too woolly, or assume too much knowledge, or… whatever difficulty you might stumble across, I’m more than happy to attempt a better explanation or answer any questions – just holler πŸ™‚

In other news, I have a bit of a plan for a lot more of these,

But what will it be?!
But what will it be?!

but you’ll have to watch this space πŸ˜‰

Upcycling the Godets

It started with a tunic, crocheted in chunky brown wool, which was never quite right.

I frogged it. Reused the yarn in other projects. Was relieved it hadn’t been wasted.

But I was left with these:

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My mother-in-law tells me they’re called godets: triangular-shaped pieces used for ‘letting out’ or shaping garments. I made two for a long denim skirt to enable me to take longer steps, for example. These two, which didn’t look right in a tunic that no longer existed… What to do?

And then it hit me.

I had reached this stage last evening, modelled by Ted (3):

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And by bedtime, it looked like this:

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Here, it is modelled by Bert (7):

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I crocheted two sides together in an unobtrusive colour to provide the less visible bottom seam, then used the beige chunky wool to crochet the other side, around the brim, and to make a huge pompom.

I’m glad not to have frogged the godets.

In other news, this scarf is almost finished, and when it is, I’ll share its construction:

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And we had a beautifully creative Easter Sunday afternoon – our first egg-dyeing eggsperiment πŸ˜‰

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Toodle-pip for now ❀️

A teeny tiny embellishment

I bought myself some clogs.

I have some brown ones already, from Schuh, and I live in them come spring and summer.

But I wanted some black / grey ones. My wardrobe palette seems to be autumn browns and beiges, or blacks and greys just now.

I found these, charcoal grey felt from Birkenstock:

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But they felt a little plain, a little too unisex. They needed embellishing.

I had a spark of an idea, which began here:

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A very fine, natural undyed wool. A teeny granny square. But it still wasn’t quite right. Too angular. I wanted softer.

It ended here:

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with the teeniest tiniest of crochet hearts. Sometimes, it’s the littlest things πŸ™‚

In other news, my hook is back on this Spring Scarf project:

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The Sweater of Many Random Stripes

Ooh, I’ve had fun with this one!

Having done a couple of top-down, seamless yoke jumpers and been thrilled with the results, I was in danger of creating an entire wardrobe of very similar jumpers for myself – I tend to knit for myself until I have mastered it, at which point I feel more comfortable about giving things away or selling them.

So I embarked on a bottom-up jumper instead.

I used Drops Andes in a beige and a brown. It is the same as I used for this jumper, which until now was my stand-out favourite. And, clearly, I massively over-ordered on the yarn (*blush* “Hello, my name’s Alice. I am a yarn-addict”) I believe this jumper took around 6 x 100g balls.

Drops Andes  100 sts on 8mm circular needles. Random stripes begun
Drops Andes
100 sts on 8mm circular needles.
Random stripes begun

I cast on 100 stitches to an 8mm circular needle and knitted stripes willy-nilly until I reached a length long enough to reach my armpit from mid-hip. I purposely didn’t knit rib around the bottom as I had a vague notion to crochet a border around the bottom and cuffs.

Body almost done
Body almost done

I then embarked on the sleeves: 26sts on double pointed needles, increasing gradually to 34 by the time I reached the armpit. For example, I made a stitch at rows 11 and 13, then a couple more at around elbow level, and four more gradually on the way up to the top. I kept a note of where I increased so that I could recreate it for the second sleeve. I made the sleeve around 14 rows longer than the jumper body: I have long arms and hate when my wrists are bare in the winter!

Sleeve underway
Sleeve underway
Body and sleeve
Body and sleeve
One sleeve complete. The second started.
One sleeve complete. The second started.

I then put 6 sts at each side of the jumper body onto waste yarn, and 6 stitches of each sleeve onto waste yarn, too. They will be knitted together using the 3 needle bind-off at the end.

Then comes knitting across the body to the waste yarn, (place a marker), knitting the live stitches from the first sleeve onto the circular needle up to the sleeve’s waste yarn, (place a marker) knitting across the back of the jumper and repeating with the second sleeve. At the end of the second sleeve, you have your new row beginning.

All on one needle.
All on one needle.

I then knitted two rows before beginning the raglan decreases which, when you have the hang of them, are really quite simple. Two things to remember: Every other row is just a knit around, and use markers!

Every decrease row involves slipping the two stitches before the marker onto the right needle and knitting through them with the left needle. Then, after the marker, knit two together. So much easier in practice than it sounds!!

The raglan sleeves!
The raglan sleeves!

Then, basically, knit till you have the size neck you require. You can stop decreasing and switch to rib for a big chunky roll neck, or end up with something more boat-neck like mine.

Once finished, and all ends woven in, I crocheted three rows around the bottom, using a *single crochet, chain 1* pattern, crocheting into the spaces on subsequent rounds, and just a single row of the same around the cuffs. And ta-dah! No curling!!

The finished article!
The finished article!

I haven’t taken it off yet:

Taken by my son
Taken by my son
Tricky mirror 'selfie'
Tricky mirror ‘selfie’

I must now attend to my severely neglected works in progress children πŸ˜‰

These two, amongst others, are still on the needles:

Cotton fair-isle for spring / summer
Cotton fair-isle for spring / summer
Wool / alpaca tank top.
Wool / alpaca tank top.

Until the next time.

And if anybody fancies attempting the jumper, and I can help at all, please shout! <3

A Spring Scarf

The sun is shining and my mood is appropriately springy.

Yes, it’s in the air! At last! Emerging from the cold and snowy wardrobe, blinking into the light. Hurrah!

And to celebrate, here is a scarf I’ve oh-so-nearly finished. I suspect it may be the start of something as my head is whirring with ideas and I don’t feel I’m anywhere near the end of this particular new obsession πŸ˜‰ It is worked with Louisa Harding ‘Ianthe’ which is 50% cotton and 50% merino wool, beautifully soft but also wonderfully sturdy.

So, without further ado, here it is in pictures:

Humble beginnings - an evening lapful of busyness
Humble beginnings – an evening lapful of busyness
Contrasting colours
Contrasting colours
A little variety of size, colour and beginning to attach them...
A little variety of size, colour and beginning to attach them…
Getting longer...
Getting longer…
Ok ok, it's *still* not quite finished, but this is what it's going to look like.
Ok ok, it’s *still* not quite finished, but this is what it’s going to look like.

But I’d better get on with one of the other 105 projects I have on the go πŸ˜‰

A Second Success (I’m still bouncing)

handmade with loveI’m really excited to have my shop up and running, and will be popping little bits and pieces in there as and when I can tear myself away from making jumpers for myself πŸ˜‰ because I’ve just finished my second one (that fits!) To say that I’m over the moon would be to understate it completely. I have not removed it since sewing in the ends and am now praying that the sun, which has made its first truly warm appearance of the year so far today, is just a blip and the cold will come back for a while.

OK, I don’t really mean that, but I’m a bit gutted I’ll have to put it away till next year, and fairly soon, too. So I’m starting to look at some cotton tunic options, since this jumper is made with the oh-so-soft-and-snuggly Drops Andes, which is 65% wool and 35% alpaca. It is light, soft, warm… Oh, heck! It’s perfect.

I’ve told the story here in picture form. Since a lot of my knitting takes place in the evenings, when the day-job is over πŸ˜‰ , the light is not fabulous, but the photographs are clear enough, if not aesthetically perfect!

Andes 1
Casting the ribbed funnel neck stitches onto 9mm circular needles
Andes 2
Funnel neck complete, the pattern begins
Andes 3
I love this part – the emergent pattern
Andes 4
In daylight, the seamless yoke taking shape.
Andes 5
The stitches for the sleeves have been transferred onto waste yarn

And here I should add, there are many sensible things you’reΒ supposed to do as a knitter – tension squares etc etc – that I’m a bit too slapdash to do religiously, but I cannot stress enough how useful the waste yarn tip was (thank you my Instagram friend Laura!) This jumper, and its sleeves, are the perfect length thanks to the slightly fiddly but worth every non-knitting moment of transferring live stitches on to waste yarn and trying it on! πŸ™‚

Andes 6
Yards of jumper in front of ‘The Killing’ – seriously, if you haven’t seen the series, it’s *brilliant*
Andes 7
Bedtime. Time to put the knitting away, but too impatient to wait for a daylight shot to show it complete without sleeves.
Andes 8
A bit of a flourish around the bottom of the jumper and then the moment of truth – binding off the hem.
Andes 9
Complete but for 2/3 of a sleeve.
Andes 10
Action shot πŸ˜‰
Andes 11
Can’t wipe away the smile. It’s DONE! It FITS!
Andes 12
Dancing with Baby Baggins.
The Finished Jumper Dance of Joy.

Cotton next πŸ™‚

Intrepid Adventures… or … a Leap of Faith

I have long coveted the Sara Lund jumper. Do you know the one? From the hit Danish TV series “The Killing”. It’s gorgeous (though she also has a very trim figure, which showcases the sweater perfectly) and has had knitters and non-knitters alike hankering for it or how to make it. The sweater is made by a company called Gudrun & Gudrun for an inordinate amount of money, and they are closely guarding the pattern, too, but over on Ravelry you can find many different and highly successful versions of it.

Sara Lund in her sweater.
Sara Lund in her sweater.

First, though, you need to be able to knit a sweater. And with confidence. Oh, and with that Nordic fair isle pattern.

Hmmmm.

Well, as you know from a recent post, I have not long finished my first jumper. It was knitted from the bottom up, joined at the yoke. The Three Movies Sweater. And it was just a fraction too small. I may (horror of horrors) end up frogging it. Too much good yarn to waste and a little too feminine for my boys, sadly.

I have had two projects (oh, of so many) on the go which may help me reach my ultimate Sara Lund goal. The first, as yet unfinished, is a bottom-up sweater in gorgeous Ardalanish wool (a most exciting Christmas present), which is proving to be a bit of a fair isle sampler. I hadn’t tried fair isle before, and I’m LOVING it. I adore the way the pattern emerges, after blood, sweat and tears through stitch counting… πŸ˜‰

This is as far as it has got:

Ardalanish fair isle sampler jumper *beams*
Ardalanish fair isle sampler jumper
*beams*

In the meantime, and with the Sarah Lund sweater still firmly in mind, I bought a book. This one, to be precise:

bookThe name of this style of knitting always makes me snigger. I guess my inner twelve-year old is not so inner…

I embarked, using the yarn I had bought with the intention of a larger Three Movies Sweater, on a top-down seamless yoke, hoping against hope that this one would fit.

Two tricks I picked up along the way, one from a friend on my new Instagram account: Transfer the live stitches onto scrap yarn periodically, to reassure yourself it fits (and, if you’re anything like me, to get ridiculously over-excited when it does).

The second I picked up from Pinterest many moons ago and had never tried out. I’ll endeavour to explain. When you come to the end of a yarn ball, and need to introduce the next, loop the two ends around each other and, using a yarn needle, sew each yarn end back into itself. I may try to produce pictures of this at some stage. It’s brilliant. Of course, I may be preaching to the converted, but just in case you hadn’t heard of it – try it!

OK, so without further ado, here, in pictures, is the end result. Given the fact that I often finish things at night and am at work during the day, they are a little on the grainy side. But I’m thrilled. It’s warm, snuggly and I have worn it every day since I made it. Can I get a whoop whoop? πŸ˜‰

From ribbed polo into the first part of the pattern on the seamless yoke
From ribbed polo into the first part of the pattern on the seamless yoke
Pattern complete, the sleeve stitches have just been separated from the body and are on stitch holders / scrap yarn
Pattern complete, the sleeve stitches have just been separated from the body and are on stitch holders / scrap yarn
Working the sleeves and the body
Working the sleeves and the body
Sleeves complete, body near as dammit
Sleeves complete, body near as dammit
My second jumper. HUZZAH!
My second jumper.
HUZZAH!

I am, obviously, plotting the next. Oh, and of course I have an Ardalanish fair isle to complete… Eek!