Gentle Rose

It's finished and I love it!

I wore it to work on Tuesday, which was also Knit Night, and it got lots of good comments.

It's been finished for three weeks, but had to be blocked, plus at this time of year I always have to wait for the weekend to photograph FO's because it's dark when I leave for work in the morning and even darker when I get home.

What I loved about it:

Moss Stitch edges

Cabling detail - the amount, process and the finished result

Beautiful yarn

Beautiful colour

Fluted sleeves which also turn in at the elbow to createa puffed look - they feel really nice and look flattering

Ribbing - flattering and clever arrangement - the ribbing on the fronts and back is echoed by the sleeves, the detail of which also taper at the side

Sizing is perfect

Very thick and warm

Speed of project - v. quick; took about 3 weeks

Would make another, or similar with modifications

What I didn't love:

At least one knot in every ball

Depth of colour differed noticeably, despite using exactly the same dye lot throughout

As you can see, the positives far outweighed the negatives.

The only modification I made was to knit the sleeves in the round (of course) and the entire body in the round, only separating at the very top of the fronts and back. This made it much quicker, and of course I avoided having to seam.

I would have picked up stitches and knitted the sleeves from the body, but I didn’t want to fuss over the sleeve shaping calculations, so I knit the sleeves in the round separately and joined them to the body using mattress stitch. I thought I would be able to kitchener stitch the top of the back to the two fronts, as I did on the neck band join, but as they’re ribbed they looked better with mattress stitch.

Yes, there is band of slightly different-coloured pink along the bottom. I used exactly the same dye lot for the whole project. As I have enough yarn left over, I thought about picking up the stitches and re-working that area, but there’s no guarantee that the colour will be right that time. Fortunately you don’t notice it so much when it’s on.

Greenwich Market & Pressie in the Post

On Sunday Julia and Jo, two University friends of mine, and I went to Greenwich for lunch and a good look around Greenwich Market.

Here we are at one of the stalls. Jo and Julia are wearing scarves they had just bought, knitted in Scottish lambswool (of course).

We proceeded to buy up most of the rest of the market too. Here we are (minus me - taking the photo) at a stall with a girl who makes beautiful hand-sewn skirts and jackets. Yes, we bought those. They were really inspiring, and I'm really looking forward to the dress-making course I'm starting in April now.

If you haven't been to Greenwich market before I'd really recommend it. I'm ashamed to say that I had never even been to East London before, and was pleasantly surprised. We're going to make a point of having a proper walk next time, maybe flying a kite at Blackheath, and visiting the Observatory and the Maritime Museum. The market itself is a foodie and crafter's heaven, with everything from hand-crafted leather makeup purses, to handpainted lampshades, and tiffin bites and mulled wine.

Over the border, and high up into the Highlands, my Mum has got hens. Isn't this the sweetest photo of her? She's so happy with her new brood. The one in her arms is Biddie.

While not looking after her new feathered friends, she found time to knock up this beauty and spirit it down in the post to me:

This is one of her own creations, a scarf knitted in Colinette Point 5 (major thick-and-thin fun) and my favourite colour combination so far. This one is a rib, though she also does stockinette and moss (all work really well). If you look closely you'll notice that she held two yarns together. To pump up the colour, there is a beautiful purple Debbie Bliss tweed running through this, with litle flecks of red and green.

Tonight's our Spinning Night at Hammersmith Stitch N' Bitch, so I'll report back soon with photos. Can't wait!

THE CARDIGAN

Here it is on its very handsome new owner:

Lawrence loves it, so that means I'm happy too. We had a lovely lunch with his family today.

Let me just apologise once again for taking sooo long to get it finished, and give it to its recipient.

I actually finished it in its raglan version back in August, but decided the shoulders just weren't working. so when we got back from the States I took it back to the armholes, leaving the sleeves intact, and re-worked ordinary shoulders, which I feel work better.

Josh's Hat

Remember this? Josh's Mum Sara texted me a photo of him in his hat this week. Looks like he's one happy boy. What a handsome little guy. Gotta love that Malabrigo.

Gentle Rose is going well, and it's very fast. I'm up to the armholes in just a week. Planning on finishing the back and two fronts by the end of the weekend, then it's on to the sleeves.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that I have knitted all three parts together. And yes, those of you who know me will realise immediately that this is to avoid seaming! My reasons are two-fold: A, with a little modification and calculation, it's easier and quicker; and B, there are no visible or feel-able seams whatsoever, so it looks and feels better. It's a winner all-round!

There's a nice moss stitch border at the bottom (love a good moss edge; it flattens, doesn't curl and the texture is always great), plus a lovely cable edging at the front. I haven't done cables for ages, and have really loved getting back into them. They're so much easier than you think they're going to be, so if you're in any doubt, take it from me, and try it.

Winter roses from when Julia came over the other night. I love roses with a tinge of pink or red at the edge...

One Down, One to Go

Last Monday I finished the first sock:

I've started the second, but put it aside today to finish off the Noro cardigan which is now blocking (photos to follow when dry). As soon as it's finished, the pair is off to my little Sister.

At Knit Night this week we had our belated Secret Santa and this was my present!!

There's loads of things that take my eye in here:

I'd like to start this one sometime:

We were supposed to visit relatives today to give the cardigan to it's recipient, but unfortunately we weren't able to because Madelaine was ill. In the meantime here's a couple of teasers:

Must get back to the Gentle Rose cardie I've just begun for myself.

Spanish Omlette

Now this is nothing fancy, and I make it all the time, but I thought it looked good on the plate.

In case you're interested, here's how to make it:

Spanish Omlette (some say Frittata)

Serves 4-8 depending on how large a slice you serve!)

Approx. 200g baby new potatoes, cut into half-inch pieces

6 slices honey roast ham, cut into half-inch pieces

Half a red onion, chopped

150g cheddar cheese, grated

6 eggs (you can make this with 4 eggs, but I stretched it out)

Olive oil.

Preheat the grill to Medium. Parboil the baby new potatoes. Fry the onion in a very small amount of olive oil. Set aside.

Whisk the eggs in a bowl. Add the cheese, ham, par-boiled potatoes, onion and salt and pepper. Tip this mixture into the same frying pan and cook on a medium flame for about 5 minutes until the edges come away from the side of the pan (this means the bottom will also be cooked).

Transfer the frying pan to the grill and leave for about 10 minutes, or until the top is golden and the egg has set.

Take out from under the grill; it will keep on cooking.

Serve at room temperature with salad.

I almost always make this with chorizo for that Spanish feel, but fancied a change this time. I may make it with peas and ham next time, omitting the cheese. You can make whatever variation you like.

My little Brother came to stay at the beginning of the week and we ate it. It's a simple mid-week meal that I make very often.

I had a great time with DB, who was in London for an interview. Here's hoping he gets the job so I can see him more often!

My eyes are now swimming in a sea of camel stockinette, so I must get back to the cardigan. Having frogged it down to the arm-holes due to the fit (I want to get it right), I have now finished the back, and almost one front. Just one more front and the tops of the sleeves to go.

I'm also about 80% of the way through the Aeolian Shawl.

Can You Guess What This Is?

It's for a friend so I can't say yet, but some of you may know!

I've also got some lovely Dream in Colour for a project for one of DH's relatives. I'd better get going on it as I have that and the camel cardigan to finish before Christmas.

This is Classy in Bermuda Teal, and I'm just waiting for the go-ahead on the colour so I can get started. I'll show you the project later, when I can.

By the way, I haven't heard from the winner of the yarn giveaway yet. Rebecca, please leave a comment or email me so I can contact you for your address and send the yarn off to you.

If I haven't heard in a couple of weeks, I'll draw another number.

Til next time x

Off On Hol's

I'm off on holiday for two weeks, so I'm afraid there won't be any posts until I get back. The cardigan is however, finished (except for the pockets which I will do when I get back); photo's to come.

As I wanted to carry on with the cardigan, the only other thing I've managed to complete is this blanket square for the MacMillan Comfort Blanket campaign (please note photo is pre-blocked). Sue at our Sticth N' Bitch suggested we take part as a group. I just can't see how I'm going to be able to fit in the other three squares I promised though.

I have cast on for the Noro short-sleeved cardigan and will smuggle this on to the plane. I also plan to get going on a secret pressie for a friend's impending arrival, though I don't want to do too much knitting when we're away (there'll be plenty to see out the window as we drive through Arizona and California).

When I get back I'll be doing a little give-away to celebrate the blog's first anniversary. I can't believe it's only been a year, it feels like I've been doing it for ages...

Cardigan Update and Rowanberries

After last weekend's four days of no knitting (yes, British Airways refused to let me on the plane with my "weapons"), I was desparate to get back to the needles.

I made up for it at Tuesday's SNB and last night finished the back of the cardigan. No sneak-peak I'm afraid, as the recipient may check the blog! It's certainly long enough, though quite narrow; hopefully that will all change with the restorative powers of blocking. Now, onto the first front!

This week I happened to notice a Rowan tree brimming with berries near my office. Isn't this a strange time of year for berries? Usually they appear in Autumn; I know last year I photographed the Rowanberries in my street when it was dark at 5pm.

I also spotted this beautiful Buddleia on my way to work.

Have you ever looked up close? The centres of the tiny flowers are orange.. who knew?

Must get back to the needles!

FO: Rainbow Blanket

The Blanket's finished!

It's not blocked yet, or it would have straighter edges. It's not blocked because there's a major problem: IT'S NOT SQUARE! This is more than a glaring error.

I realised this was going to happen about half-way, but checked the pattern a million times and can't see that I've done anything wrong. The other projects on Ravelry are all square, so I've asked ravelers where I've gone wrong, and will report back.

DH says that I'm being rectanglist and should just embrace the rectangle. Let's see what the good people on Rav suggest.

Bear with me while I get this sorted, and hopefully I'll have some correct photos to show you.

My other problem is with Blogger: sometimes when I upload an image to a post the image rotates itself (e.g. below), and sometimes it doesn't. There's nowhere on the uploading page to change the properties ... aagghh!

At this point I should probably mention that it's one of my favourite things I've ever made. It was super easy, super fast and as any knitter would know, the colour changes really kept me going.

Easy, because although it looks really complicated, but it's not; that's the beauty of it. You just carry the yarn up the side as you swap the main colour and contrast colour every two rows. That's right, no intarsia or fair isle, it's really just slipped stitches which create the chain effect.

Fast, I'm not sure why because the cotton doesn't slip off the needles (in my case bamboo) like wool does. Although I had a break of several weeks waiting for the Ecru (main colour) to arrive, in total the knitting took about 10 days - not bad.

I absolutely love the colour work. Each colour moves on to the next in a subtle way (although I love the way the designer, Erika Flory chose to not go straight from yellow through to green, but in a way the colour moves back and forth before ending (for e.g., see the orange-peach-red-pink stretch). I hope this makes sense; I'm not sure I've articulated my thoughts very well here!

The other thing which I think really makes this project, is the designer's ingenius use of off-white for the main colour, which connects all of the colour links and borders the whole piece. Many would have just used a glaring bright white, but the Ecru is far more subtle.

Back view (still quite pretty):

Back detail:

I did make one mistake, though not according to the pattern, and it wouldn't have affected the shape of the blanket. If you look at other versions of the blanket, on each block of a separate colour, there are only three bands (separated by the chain pattern in the main colour) rather than four in my case; in other words, I changed colour four rows after other people did in their versions). This instruction was not in the pattern as far as I can see. I noticed this after I was about a quarter of the way through, and didn't want to go back. I also prefer the way I have done it, although the other versions look great too; both ways look good. Having checked and counted several times, I don't believe this would have afffected the length of the blanket, though please feel free to tell me otherwise.

Meanwhile, onto other things: when I finished the blanket last night I swatched for the Cardigan, the pattern for which I've also added to Ravelry with the aid of a helpful Sirdar pattern moderator. Again, sorry for the sideways view (I'll try to fix that). I'm just about to cast on.

Last night for dinner I made DH andmyself a nice summery Salad Niçoise (a favourite in my family) - yummy!:

New Commission

Look at these beautiful cherries:

This week's news is that a relative of DH's, Laurence, (I'd call him a family friend; he's lovely) has asked me to make him a cardigan. I'm thrilled!

After hunting high and low, I think I've found the right pattern. He wants one exactly like that worn by Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady. I didn't know the film (though I know the play) so had to search for a photo.

This is the nearest cardigan pattern I could find. I hope Laurence likes it. Check out the cheesy photos of the early 90's models! I plan to make my version classier but I'm not doing a contemporary version; this is going to be a classic shape (like all the best things in life).

He would like a camel cardigan, so I have found the yarn below:

What do you think? Is it camel-ish enough? It's an 80% merino, 20% kid mohair mix and feels divine. It should knit up nicely. I've got the leather elbow patches and leather buttons and am ready to go.

I'll keep you posted on progress, but can't cast on yet as I have to finish the Rainbow Chain Carriage Blanket (I'm on the home stretch now, and loving those colour changes). I'm afraid I'm one of those boring knitters who tends to finish one project before moving on to another.

While I was buying the yarn I couldn't help but check out what else was in John Lewis (a place I'm not usually too fond of, but the Oxford Street store has a better selection of yarn than Peter Jones).

I cam away with some Noro Silk Garden...

Destined for the pattern below (apologies but I can't seem to rotate this image):

And some chunky tweed for a log cabin blanket that was actually on sale (I had the acqua already):