Closed for business...

In an attempt to not have a million blogs on the go at once, I'm consolidating. All the knitting updates will now be on My Main Blog from now on. They'll all be tagged with "Completed Knitting" (as long as I remember) for easy searching.



So head on over there instead!

Forest Canopy Shawl

Pattern: Forest Canopy Shawl by Susan Lawrence

Yarn: Fyberspates Scrumptious in Peonies (She doesn't have this colour at the moment, but it is lovely isn't it?)

Needles: 5mm x 60cm Addi Turbos. Fantastic to work with.

Modifications: Not really, I worked a few extra repeats to make the most of the yarn, with only 15g left. That was 13 repeats.




I really quite enjoyed this. It's been interesting enough to keep me entertained, but not so complex that I couldn't watch TV too. I found it too complex for knit-night though, no knitting and talking for me!

I can't rave enough about the yarn. It's soft, smooshy, vibrantly coloured and just generally lush. Scrumptious is a name which almost does it justice.

(Mostly) No Purl Monkeys

I finished my Mostly No Purl Monkeys last night. I’m really pleased with the toe-grafting I did on this pair, it’s much neater and more invisible than past socks – I’m really getting the hang of it now!



Pattern:Monkey

Yarn:Texere 4ply Lambswool, originally on 400g cone, wound into 100g skeins and hand dyed by me. This is “Wrath of Kool Aid”.

Needles: My trusty surina wood dpns from Knitterbabes on Ebay.

Modifications Oh yes.

1. this is the “No Purl” version of the Monkey, except not. I did the cuff as normal, but missed out all of the purls on the chart and knit them instead.


2. I continued the pattern down onto the heel-flap as I knit it. this meant adding an extra knit row between the two repeats I needed (or figuring out all the decreases on a purl row, which I confess is beyond me right now, one day maybe!)
   
   
   
   


3. I did 6 repeats of the pattern on the foot instead of the 5 I did last time. the previous pair fit well, but the lambswool isn’t quite as voluminous or stretchy as the alpaca blend was. As it is, these are slightly long, but only a row or two (room for me to shrink them by accident!)

Allo Allo Beret

Pattern: Russula Cap by Sally Pointer (Rav Link)


Yarn: Toft Alpaca Double Knitting Yarn (I used a whole ball for this hat - so either the yardage is out on the website, or the weight. I think it might be 115yds for 100g)


Needles: Some lovely steel dpns, Pony I think.


Modifications: instead of 10 row rolled hem, 5 rows k2p2 rib.
As I was running out of yarn, I decreased a bit more rapidly towards the last six or so rows.






More pictures on my Flickr Page.

Clapotis

Pattern: Clapotis by Kate Gilbert, from Knitty.com

Yarn:Natural Dye Studio's Dazzle, Blue Faced Leicester 4ply Sock Yarn in a colour a bit like Flame.

Needles: Some random metal needles I got a while ago at a charity shop, UK Size 6 (That would be 4mm, or US size 8)

Modifications: Other than using sock yarn, I also did 26 repeats of the pattern rather than 12. This was aided by the fact that I knew what weight of yarn I needed to have left. According to my scales I could have managed another repeat, but the scarf is plenty long enough as it is. I did the same number of increase rounds as the pattern suggests, I thought that was a reasonable width.



Review: I LOVE this pattern! It's so much fun to knit and simple enough to do while watching telly. It works up nicely and I'm sure once I've blocked it some more it will stay square. The yarn is also Lush, even despite some randomly darker bits, it looks great. This colour rocks! It pooled a bit (as you can see below) but really that just adds to the pattern, especially when worn.



Also, the BFL has a slight kink to it, which is really pretty and adds to the warmth, I think. It's by far the warmest scarf I have ever owned! I love it. If you haven't knit Clapotis then you should give it a try! I think that in sock yarn, you could make a skinnier version than I did and it would still look great!
Bascially I have nothing bad to say about the pattern or the yarn. 10/10 for both!

Hamster House

We bought a posh house each for out hamsters. Aran seems to like his, but Rowan doesn't like his - he will not sleep in it.
So, I looked for a knit pattern for a hamster nest, and couldn't find anything suitable.

So I designed this one.



Yarn: Rowan Pure Wool Aran (Sage), leftovers
Needles: 4.5mm dpns, set of 5.

Gauge is not that important as long as your hamster can fit into the nest. My hamsters are dwarf hamsters, so if you have a Syrian hamster you might want to make it bigger.

Pattern:
Main Section
Cast on 44 Stitches and join in the round on 4 needles, 11 on each needle
Work 4 rounds of moss stitch
Switch to stocking stitch and work until tube is 2 inches long

Decrease section
Round 1
knit to within 4 sts of end of needle, k2tog, k4, ssk, knit to end of needle, knit to within 4 sts of end of needle, k2tog, k4, ssk, knit to end of round.
Round 2
Knit

Repeat rounds 1 and 2 until there are 12 stitches remaining

Graft end closed.


Enjoy!

François Hat

Made for: My Dear Other Half

In: Rowan Pure Wool Aran

Pattern: Jaques Cousteau by Typy

Modifications: Yes. I used Aran instead of the recommended DK, so I adjusted the number of stitches down to 100, and then scaled the other sections accordingly.

Rating: I liked knitting this, it was quick too. The only problem I have is with the propensity of the top to point due to decreasing every row. But when worn it looks fine.