browsing flickr for quiltspiration i found Hip To Piece Squares. sadly not much recent blog activity but she’s posting new stuff on flickr.

i’ve just been shopping again, this time for fabrics for a single quilt for madam (lowering my sights somewhat and postponing the planned queen sized until i’ve had a bit more of practice). i’m suffering from fabric dazzle. i.e. picking fabrics that i adore without much thought to how they will work in a quilt. never having made one i’d say that’s probably understandable, just hope it won’t take too many expensive mistakes before i start to get the hang of it.

as it is i have a bunch of generally large-scale prints that coordinate beautifully, but i’m left seeking a bold pattern with fairly large areas of a single fabric to make the most of them. i’m particularly drawn to bold geometric designs on white as here and here. i don’t think either specific design would work for my fabrics, but it’s definitely a style i aim to work towards.

the newest member of the family. in this house of mutating names she may not stay the same for long, but she was initially christened ramanda and has been a real hit, even usurping beegu the alien as bedtime companion on christmas night. she was finished in the nick of time on christmas eve, hence rather out of focus rubbish pix. will try to get some details at some point.

she’s made in rowan wool cotton, a truly lovely yarn to work, on a 3mm hook (3.5mm for her dress and shoes) and is around 14 inches tall. i had 5 balls stashed, an impulse ebay purchase, so limited in my colour choices - i would have liked blue hair but wanted to go for something mostly conventional. she’s heavily influenced by elisabethd’s work, especially the big feet, i just love that shape. and the eyelash details were lifted straight from here, too. but i didn’t want to go full-on amigurumi-style, i wanted something comfortingly traditional too, still not sure whether that balancing act has really worked. i remembered much too late (christmas eve!) how difficult embroidering onto crochet can be, and how a slip of the needle can make the difference between an adorable expression and something rather alarming

i got a bit confused when it came to the stuffing. i was so focussed on making sure she was fully washable (i.e. working interior circles to keep poly pellets and stuffing from mixing in the wash) that by the time i realised i actually only wanted the body weighting and not the feet it was waay too late. so she’s rather heavy but happily can stand (supported) and sit rather well.

she has rather a lot of hair - a whole ball’s worth in fact. i didn’t have time to think about styles, so she’s ended up with the first thing i did to keep it out of the way while i was working (the hair had to be threaded before the head was finished). there’s all the time in the world for playing around with do’s now though.

her dress and shoes were worked to the corresponding body part pattern, but on a larger hook, so they fit snugly. although i clearly wasn’t paying enough attention when i was writing out the pattern as - once again, too late - i realised that the shoe worked to the written pattern is one row shorter than the other. even getting the pattern right is no guarantee, though - the second leg worked up at such a different tension that i had to omit a couple of rows to make it roughly match the other for length.

i originally envisaged the dress as sleeker, but as i was working it the white frill suggested itself so strongly i was powerless to resist. i think it’s cute and it definitely edges the whole effect back towards the traditional.

which is rather a blessing, since i really didn’t want her to be too out of place against the wonderful bed. when i saw it on treefall i was besotted. i’ve loved manda’s work since i first saw her princess and the pea sets, but this was something that i just knew i wouldn’t be able to make myself (even if my sewing machine did still go backwards, i don’t have a suitable stash of cute quilting fabrics, but mainly i’ve never made a quilt, and yet another new learning process to digest that close to christmas wasn’t going to happen).

the bed arrived so beautifully wrapped i had my very own mini christmas opening the parcel. and it’s just as beautifully made, really meticulous. madam was gratifyingly impressed with both doll and bed when she opened them. she insisted on putting ramanda (spooky name coincidence by the way, i didn’t mention manda’s name to her at all) to bed, taking off her clothes, turning the light out and reading her a story before we could get on with opening the rest of her presents

this was a day’s knitting but would have been less had i not been reworking the pattern on the fly. it began life roughly following the lil devil baby hat, but bears so little resemblance to it now i would say it’s an original design.

i found the star pattern on some random web site, which luckily happened to repeat exactly with my chosen number of stitches (the same as the stocking since that matched an existing baby hat i used as a template for dimensions). the tree motif is a traditional fair isle one, used on jumper yokes. i love the way it integrates the decreases into the pattern so cunningly and while i don’t have the skills or patience to do a whole jumper i knew i wanted to use it somewhere as soon as i saw it. i managed to mix up my k2tog/ssks yet again, just at the very top of the tree - you can see those top branches end with an upright stitch instead of the nice neat slope on the rest.

i decreased more rapidly after the trees were done, as the hat was looking far too pointy. i wove in the floats as i worked as i knew i wanted to keep the designs fairly bold, rather than infilling with flourishes and the like. i didn’t totally get the hang of the weaving in - the directions i used weren’t the clearest. it worked fine when i was weaving the pattern colour but when i was weaving the background colour i ended up twisting my stitches for some reason. i knew it was likely to show on the right side, so i staggered where i wove to disguise it a little. i must have got better as i went on as it only really shows at the bottom, between the stars. i love the way it keeps my tension much more even across the longer single-colour stretches. overall my tension was more regular than the stocking, with just a few over-loose floats early on (this over-caution is probably what caused the woven threads to show so badly).

i didn’t like the ear flaps on the lil devil pattern - too small - and my attempts to improvise larger flaps just made me realise how big the hat was getting overall. in the end i ripped back from the provisional cast on, past the garter rows up to the beginning of the stocking stitch and worked a few rows of ribbing to make a shorter, plainer hat.

then i blocked. and it grew even bigger. at least an inch in each direction. so i figured the only way to have it fit this year was to felt it a little, which worked fine, and tamed the floats really nicely too.

the stocking to end all stockings is currently blocking. luckily it doesn’t seem to have expanded to the size of a small country in the process as feared, so i must stop buying odd little extra things to make it seem a little less empty come the big day.

the pattern is red bird knits’ winter dreams, possibly a little ambitious for a first fair isle project, but it’s exactly what i’d envisaged; something totally wintery and frosty and crisp in those 2 shades of blue. it’s in aran weight blue faced leicester on 5mm needles. the little tension glitches appear to be (mostly) blocking out pretty well, and once i’d got into the swing of things it was really quite straightforward. this was my first ever top-down sock too, and the magical turning of the heel was well explained.

there were 2 significant errors in the pattern, the most obvious of which (absent flourishes to the left of the main snowflake pattern) i spotted in time. but i missed the other (the horizontal bar across the bottom arm of the small snowflake is in the wrong place) totally at the top of the leg since i was concentrating so hard on everything else at that stage! so decided to repeat the error on the toe, and have them match, rather than correct it. must remember to let rbk know.

i also made a couple of cock ups of my very own. most significantly, i thought i was being clever by adding an extra quarter round of stitches before the heel, to place the large snowflake motif on the sides of the leg rather than front/back - since a stocking is only really seen from the side it made sense to show the whole pattern. it didn’t occur to me to check that this placed the start/end row seam at the back of the leg, and of course it didn’t, it put it slap bang at the front and of course i didn’t realise this until i’d knitted rather more of the heel than was worth ripping and reknitting. i thought i demonstrated an admirable lack of perfectionism in letting that one go

i forgot that slipped stitches should always go purlwise until half way through the heel, but even i can barely spot the twisted stitches when i’m looking for them. i got my k2tog and ssk decreases mixed up on the gusset, so it’s a litte untidy in places there. oh and for balance i should have done the tip of the toe in the paler blue, i think, so top, heel and toe matched.

but all that aside, i love it and i loved knitting it (for the most part, the 80% complete ennui still kicked in as per usual). it’s absolutely everything i wanted, and i hope madam pauses long enough in her wrapping ripping frenzy to at least notice it.

first off i have to say i have absolutely no idea how anyone manages to make and blog at this time of year. but at least i’ve been doing the making, the blogging will catch up eventually.

i’ve had great fun swatching cashmere. cavalierly tossing it into the washing machine with casual glee was possibly the highlight, although sitting with the washed swatch draped across my arm all evening because i just couldn’t put it down (i’ve never touched pure cashmere before) was another.

it turns out that i should read auctions a little more carefully. what colourmart lists as 4ply actually varies significantly in weight. this is fully detailed in the auctions but until you have it in your hand the difference between 2/16 and 2/13 is rather opaque. eventually i worked out a balance between my various “4ply” yarns and the triple wound white laceweight that turned up at the last moment to save the day (white isn’t available very often, apparently, and they weren’t expecting any new 4ply for a while).

i’m using the pink and green yarns (both 2/13) singly and the orange and blue (4/28 and 2/16 respectively) doubled, which balances weight-wise pretty well with the white (triple-wound 2/36). the first number refers to the number of plies, the second to the meterage per gram, so it’s logical and equivalents can be calculated, but the real world difference between the weights has to be felt i think. for those in less of a purchasing frenzy (if i didn’t jump all at once i probably would have had sober second thoughts and not bought at all :)) the sample set of different weights would be a very wise investment.

i knitted the swatches on old uk size 10s (3.5mm) which i think were just a mite too large, i’ve ordered some addi turbos in 3mm. the finished fabric is uber-drapey and could take a little more body. the cashmere itself is much flatter than an equivalent wool - the moss stitch borders have flattened significantly after washing. it’s also quite crushable, without so much of that wooly spring (although the knitted fabric structure still gives it reasonable stretch and recovery).

the difference before and after washing is amazing. because the yarns are oiled for machine knitting they bloom significantly after a swim. the main thing i wanted for a baby blanket was machine washability so i’m treating my swatches mean, a full 40 degree wash minimum, although tumbling’s not so important to me. i’ll wash at least another couple of times before i set to work on the real deal, to see how well it’s likely to hold up. it’s shrunk exactly as predicted: 10% in the length, but barely at all across the width.

i just can’t get enough of the softness, and i love the colours, although i’m not overly taken by the way the colours interact in the moss stitch border. am wondering if it’s even slightly possible to put a white border all around, but the practicalities of that (and the additional ends i guess it would entail) makes my head hurt. i might go for plain stockinette and crochet the border instead.

yum

the colours are a little washed out here. the first batch will be the lengthwise-striped wrap, there’s enough in the second for a striped jumper, i think. these last ones don’t appeal so much to me, although the sparkly black is kinda cute. i think i will end up with a lot of orange swatches.

and i’m waiting with baited breath for the postman. kid silk haze and colourmart cashmere. in lots of colours

when my friend saw madam’s scarf she said “oh you finished something!” in a rather surprised tone. i feel i must protest. she has been witness to wip on an interminable crochet blanket that has rather stalled because the cotton yarn is completely unforgiving when it comes to wandering tension. some of the squares are so out of whack they will have to be frogged and reworked which has rather put me off . also, it’s a summer blanket so i appear to have already missed the boat for this year.

but progress is indeed proceeding apace on my 2 current xmas projects. the fair isle stocking is positively romping along. i’m loving it, it makes me feel so clever - five needles and two yarns, all at once! and it’s really pretty i’m hoping some of the puckering will block out, although there is some major bunching that i may consider cutting and knotting if it looks feasable. although i am fully aware of how much a 3 year old is likely to notice when it’s stuffed full of presents

i’m also working on an amigurumi doll, inspired by ElisabethD’s work, which is a lot of fun. she has legs and a body and half a head so far. oh and one shoe.

not at all, doesn’t make me think for a moment about a trip to a&e

it’s a so called scarf, which has been lurking at the back of my mind ever since i first came across it. it turned out to be a fab watching the telly knit, nicely methodical but never quite boring. the yarn is around 8-9wpi, with a fair bit of variation, which happily worked well on the chunky 8mm inherited wooden needles that i’ve been itching to have a go with for ages.

the stitch pattern works really well at obscuring the variegatity of the yarn. i didn’t quite manage the very short stretches of colour i was aiming for, as you can see on the mitts (stocking stitch, smaller needles) it’s giving around 3-4 stitches per stretch of the darker and lighter colours, set on a broader mid-pink background. i’m over the moon with the colours, lots of pinky variations, shot through with occasional flashes of the most fantastic intense blood red where the dye was most concentrated.

as soon as i realised there was plenty for a scarf i decided to have a go at making a cut-down version of the mitts she covets. i wound the ball back onto the skeiner and knit the mitts from the other end. they weren’t quite as fiddly as you might expect. i worked them on 5mm dpns because that’s what i have and the gauge seems good. my tension increased significantly on the second mitt (something to do with watching pirates of the caribbean?) and it’s noticeably tighter/smaller than the first, but not a show stopper. i worked the pattern at around 70% size, rounding here and there, in madam’s absence with only a rather stretched out old glove of hers for reference. happy to report they’re a perfect fit

nope, spur of the moment dyeing

i didn’t quite envisage the blood-soaked bandage effect when i started, i’m hoping (praying!) it evens out a little in the steam pot (25 mins down, 20 to go). i’m hoping the dye will bleed (heh) a little more and create pinkier areas inbetween, but of course i now remember that diluting this red dye just makes for light red rather than proper pink.

it all started this morning with madam’s wistful “i wish i had a scarf” as i put mine on. i realised this was indeed a terrible oversight in such a house of fibre. i fancied a bit of cheering up, and the pile of paperwork awaiting me failed to offer any such prospect, so i turned to food dye and fluff to do the job.

the yarn is one of the first things to come off the wheel, a merino/tussah blend (although i can’t see much obvious sign of silk). it may be enough for matching hat or mitts too. the process is dead straight forward: soak the yarn well in vinegar and water; squeeze out most of the wet and lay onto cling film; paint with food dyes diluted with vinegar and water (plain water/vinegar can be used to blend and further dilute the colours); wrap cling film up (package can be wrapped again to prevent escapage) and steam for 45 minutes; wash, rinse.

i’ve applied the dye fairly randomly and in short stretches because i definitely didn’t want a striped effect for this yarn and tbh i’m not particularly keen on variegated yarn in general. i was hoping for a more pointilist or tweedy effect with very short stretches (ideally single stitches) of the lighter colours, a gently speckled effect. i’ll be interested to see whether the plan works out and will post it as soon as it’s knitted, i get really frustrated seeing all these yarns about that look so beautiful in the skein but i suspect might look rather nasty once knitted up, but never getting to see the finished article.

will update later, its time’s now up.