Baby Booties pt.2

Pattern is Saartje's Bootees from Saartje Knits made using Rowan RYC Cashsoft 4 ply

These booties were made two years ago for the birth of my nephew, Mitchell. I think that the two-tone colour works really well and the little buttons make them reasonably secure, and much easier to take on and off than ribbon.

Card by Dutchdoor via Etsy

The buttons offer a nice way of personalising the booties.

Grey Baby Booties

Thanks to the ongoing supply of babies by friends and colleagues, I have been working my way through various baby bootie patterns for gifts. Here are two different designs I tried for baby boys, both using grey Jaegar Matchmaker Merino DK yarn.

Beginner Booties by Cathy Payson from Knitting For Baby

Oh! Baby Baby Booties by Judy Nemish from KnitList (card by Teresa Robertson)

 

Cardie conundrum

I am really excited about my Buttony cardie. The yarn is lovely, the fit is good and it's going to be great for the kind of proper wintery weather we've been having lately. All was going well until, half-way down the second arm I ran out of yarn. I am really baffled by this as I KNOW I had enough yarn. I originally bought 7 skeins (700g) of this yarn and the sweater only just weighs 500g so problem one - where are the other skeins??

I turned my yarn storage boxes upside down at New Year and couldn't see hide nor hair of them. So, I did what any sensible person would do, I ordered 2 more skeins. The yarn is from handpaintedyarn.com so has to come all the way from Uruguay. This took a few weeks, then, on Tuesday morning the package finally arrived, so I wound myself a ball and started up knitting again.

Now, the moral of the story so far is two-fold: 1) don't lose your yarn in the first place and 2) don't assume hand-dyed yarn from September 2007 will match the same colour-way dyed in late 2008, plus, don't knit half a sleeve, sitting on the sofa in bad light watching telly as it may well be days before you notice this little problem!

So I find myself here:
with a half a sleeve (on the right) darker and less varigated. This flash-bleached picture gives you an idea of how much the two different dye-lots contrast.
The problem is too pronounced to just let it go, so my question is, what do I do?

Do I have yet another look for the original skeins? (Did that this morning. Result: no skeins, but I did find the docking wire for my Zen and my mobile phone holder!)
Or, do I shorten both sleeves and make them 3/4 length? (I'm sure this would look fine but it makes the jumper much less practical)
Or, do I rip back both sleeves (boo hoo) and knit them again, doing one round with the original yarn and one round with the new yarn and trust that they'll blend together (and not look too odd next to the colour of the body)?
Or, do I email the suppliers and see if they'll dye some more for me (and thus give up on wearing the jumper this year since I'll have to wait ages for the delivery)?

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Puff Daddy in da House

For my friend Noel's birthday present I made a lovely, quick gift - the Puff Daddy. It is a little scarf which fastens by passing a large pompom through a keyhole opening.
I made it with two strands held together, one of Colinette Graffiti in Velvet Plum and one a very boring purple 100% wool aran weight yarn that I had lurking in the stash. The scarf is very warm as, thanks to the giant i-cord construction, it comes out double thickness. Noel seems very pleased with it and has even modeled it for her office! Thanks Noel for the pictures.

I can't wait to do another one: I think I can improve upon it by using some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran for the second strand, which would make the scarf softer overall. I also saw an excellent mega version on Ravelry, where the size had been increased to make a large neck warmer rather than a scarflet.

Picture by Yarnzillaonline.

This is a great project for this time of year - you can make it in one sitting so it will keep you warm as near to instantaneously as knitting will allow!

Happy New Year!

The New Year, full of promises... Like finishing this Buttony jumper, and posting 4 months of backlogged projects...

I blame having to go to an office everyday for the chronic disruption to blogging service.

Anyway, a Happy New Year to all from me and my sleepy cat.

'Bottom Flap' Hot Water Bottle Cover

This is the first piece of my Christmas knitting. It's made from the handspun, hand dyed yarn from the Handweaver's Studio, given to me by Noel (pictured here). It's based on the BAWK Hot Water Bottle Cozy pattern which I've made twice before. The problem I found with the pattern, though, is that, although the bottle does pull out through the ribbed neck, in doing so it stretches the fabric totally out of shape. I decided to add a 'bottom flap' to get round this problem.

I knitted a flap with ribbing and three button holes at the base back and forth on two needles and then cast on the back of the cover and joined to knit in the round.

I put some ribbing on the back section but apart from that I pretty much followed the original pattern from there up.

I think this has worked out pretty well - on with the rest of the Christmas knitting pile now!

Sweet Paprika in Cold Canada

A bit of back-blogging here... This time two weeks ago I was in Montreal for an academic conference. It was actually my second but the first where I've given a paper. I'm glad to say that my presentation went down really well, thanks in no small part I'm sure to Mr Boogie Woogie Piggy Wiggy, the handsome little fellow you can see examining my notes in the photo. He has been a work mascot since around 2002 so he definitely had to come to witness such an important professional occasion. Since I'm 26 not 6, he did stay in the hotel room rather than coming in my pocket to the conference floor, but he was with me in spirit!

After a couple of days in Montreal I travelled down to Ottawa with my friend Elizabeth. We meet a few years ago at the Foyles knitting group, and Elizabeth, ever the demon knitter is now taking her crafting to a new level. Not only is she pattern editing professionally but she and her sisters have also launched Sweet Paprika Designs.

They have a range of patterns and kits but my favourite bit is the lovely hand dyed yarn. I passed a happy 10 minutes on the Sunday morning photographing some of their stock. This is the 100% merino range called Messa di Voce.

This is the silk and merino blend, Dolce. I think the rich colours are just gorgeous.

And finally hand dyed, self-striping sock yarn!

Unfortunately the light wasn't great and the colours look a bit dull (you can see truer colours on their website). I've tended to avoid buying self-patterning sock yarn because I'm not keen on the jacquard look that most of them have, but this yarn is properly self-striping. This is a close up of the sample sock Elizabeth was working on.

And, as if seeing my friends and being fed lovely home cooked meals wasn't enough, Elizabeth kindy gave me two skeins as a birthday present! I chose the purple colorway of the sock yarn and here they are back at home with me.

Thanks again to Elizabeth, Paul and her sisters and cousin for such a lovely stay! I can't wait to go back when it's cold enough to ice skate!

Miles' Noro Hat

I made this hat as an anniversary gift for Miles last month. I hadn't been able to photograph it until this weekend due to the aforementioned camera problem. These pictures were taken on the camera phone so they're not great but they'll do! The hat is made from a lovely, lovely Noro yarn which I bought from Angela at a yarn swap/sale hosted by Adrienne. It's called Cash Laine and is 60% wool, 20% cashmere and 20% lamb's wool (sadly, having done a quick online search, it looks like it might not be made any more). The grey colourway (#22) is rather un-Noro but works great for a man knit. The pattern is adapted from the Marsan Watchcap by Staceyjoy Elkin, and was worked on 5mm needles over 104 stitches.


Miles is really pleased with the hat (an improvement on the last one I made him two years ago which was an excessively tight skull-cap type beanie with mixed weight yarns and poor gauge - I feel my knitting has improved since then!). The reason I chose this pattern for him is he likes a cuff which he can adjust, depending on the cold, and this has an extra deep turn up. One feature of this pattern I really liked was that the twisted rib is maintained throughout: thanks to a bit of jiggery-pokery on the circulars, the whole hat is turned inside-out after the cuff so that when turned up the cuff and hat body match. I also think the decreases look really smart, and because the twisted rib has lots of stitch definition, you can see them in action!

Angela told me today that she got some more of the Cash Laine to do another jumper so I hope if she has any left-overs she passes them my way! Finally, a camera update - having researched duty free and found it to be stupidly expensive, I gave in and bought a new Samsung from Comet (one of the few times living right next to a retail park pays off!) so at least normal photo quality can be restored with the next post.

Oh, and one last thing - does anyone have any good yarn shop recommendations for Montreal or Ottawa as I'm off to Canada on Thursday?

Short Rows: the Sequel

I actually finished the Calorimetry ages ago, but as is the way with so many nearly completed projects, it had to hang around folornly waiting for buttons until I finally took pity on it at the beginning of this week. I'm taking it as a birthday present for a friend tomorrow and I hope she likes it - maybe I'll manage to get her to do some modelling. With the autumn light changing, our kitchen now gets very long shadows which you can see in all these photos. As a result, when looking back at the pictures of the Calorimetry I realised that I had somehow knitted a small, fierce monster!

My love affair with the Wendy Fusion continues: having picked up some balls at Ally Pally I decided to try a test patch for the Lizard Ridge throw and I'm so pleased with how it came out.

This is the Aniseed colourway, a great mix of pinky purple, green and bright blue. There are 16 different colours in all which I reckon should be perfect for the throw. The Fusion is about half the price of the Kureyon and so much softer. Unfortunately it took me a while to realise that I was doing the short row wraps all wrong. You can see in this picture that I was twisting them far too much on the purl side.

By the final couple of repeats I had consulted a back issue of the trusty Interweave Knits and all was well.

Given the fact that I'm still only about half way through the crochet blanket I suspect the finished throw may be a way off, but the pattern is very enjoyable, especially as the colour changes spur you on to see how the next ones will fit in. I'm no nearer getting the lovely blue rocking chair or mountain scenery suggested by the pattern picture, however!

Short Row Serenade

After months of crochet on the as-yet-still-unfinished ripple blanket, I've picked up the knitting needles again to work on this Calorimetry as a birthday pressie for a friend. The yarn is Wendy Fusion which I've used before in the red and orange colourway. This time Clare had spare balls of the purple which she kindly distributed amongst the Foyles knitters.

The Calorimetry pattern is worked in short rows which I've realised is one of my favourite knitting techniques - there's something rather magical, I think, in the way straight lines can become three dimensional, just by leaving behind stitches. One of the most satisfying projects I've knitted was the A Capella cape, which is all short rows.

[photo: Leo Bleicher, via Knitty]

Although the picture of the project didn't sing for me, I saw it knitted up and it's wonderful. My Mum is devoted to her purple one and wears it most days during the winter.

I have my eyes on another promising short row project, the Lizard Ridge Throw, also on Knitty.

[photo: Laura Aylor, via Knitty]

Its so gorgeous I can hardly contain myself! Sadly I have exactly one ball of Kureyon in my possession and am without the financial means to acquire the enormous pile the project requires. Oh well, I can always dream!

The Cardie, the Cake and the Oven Glove

Our friends Poppy and James had a little baby girl 3 months ago and in honour of Roseanna Maeve's birth I decided to make the Pea Pod Baby Set by Kate Gilbert. For once I miraculously had the specified yarn - Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere - in my stash, albeit in purple not green. I made the cardie without the hat on 4mm needles, and I have to say, it was a very enjoyable pattern to do: the lace panel gave me just enough to keep me interested in each row but not so much that my brain hurt!

What really sold me on it, though, was the wonderful detailing on the ribbing - so cute!

I was very pleased with the lace - I've only done small pieces before and this definitely helped build my confidence. I'm just not sure my propensity for knitting in front of the TV could cope with a whole lace project, though. I'll have to wait and see.

Roseanna seemed very pleased with her cardie but didn't model it - I made the 6 months size so hopefully she'll fit it once autumn sets in.

As well as going to see little Roseanna, we also got to see her lovely two year old brother, Daniel, who has taken a great big shine to Miles and insisted on sitting on his lap so they could read all his books together. It was definitely a heart-melty moment for me!

As if the new baby isn't enough to be getting on with, Poppy and James are currently renovating their first house too! We went to see them there, even though they haven't moved in yet. I made a quick oven glove as a (rather early) moving in present.

It's based on the Too Hot to Handle Oven Mitt pattern from Denyse Schmidt Quilts. It's one of those perfect gift projects that can use up left-overs. Eagle-eyed readers may notice that the binding comes from the Dominic and Carolyn quilt!

I also made a Pumpkin Loaf to take for tea. (As well as being polite, taking baked goods when we travel ensures Miles will always have a vegan tea option!) The loaf is from a recipe that Anna gave me a while ago and it's one of my absolute favourite cakes. I made this one with some frozen homemade pumpkin puree which I think made it extra-specially good. Between the four of us and Daniel we only got through about half of it but I figured you just can't ask to take back some of your own gift to eat later. Shame though!