A hat for me...possibly!

Well, I finally finished the Northmoor Watchcap. Midsummer is a good time for knitting hats, don't you think? The link takes you to the pattern and I can definitely recommend it. There is even a good chance that I will wear it if we ever have a severe winter. 

I really like the way it turned out. I ploughed on with the 120 stitches per round because nobody on Ravelry commented about that part of the pattern. It was monotonous; but sometimes that is just what I need. It also used up a lot of yarn; but that has made a very warm hat and means I am nearer my goal of using up all my Aran yarn. Win, win.

Some knitters, however, commented that they started the crown shaping one inch earlier than specified in the pattern. I tried it on (very carefully) when I reached that stage, and that was the right size for me as well. So I started the shaping. Like the brim, it was a little more complicated than some hat patterns. But it has made a very neat crown. It doesn't show up in the photo. But I like to think that whoever sits behind me on the bus will think "what a lovely hat"! In fact the whole hat looks quite professional.

On a different topic, some bloggers occasionally tell me that they can't add comments to my blog. Never fear; I discovered some comments awaiting moderation yesterday. It seems that the comments are reaching me; but I don't always receive a notification. That is probably what is being blocked. I have no idea why. I have checked my Blogger settings and everything seems ok. It remains a mystery. But please keep commenting. I always see and read them eventually.

PS: having written that, I just checked my settings again because I was no longer able to reply to comments. I have now changed one setting and that should make it easier for everyone. Phew!

Another bunny blanket, and a gift...

Here is another small bunny blanket that I knitted recently, this time for charity. It will go to PreemiesUK as they are having a sale at Easter and this might suit the theme. It's hard impossible to tell from the photo, but the colour is a pale lemon. I think that is perfect for an Easter bunny; more perfect than for a baby unless it likes the jaundiced look.

The pattern came from Ravelry. It is a free pattern, but you might need to register and log in to view it. It would be fairly easy to adjust the pattern if you wanted to turn it into a cat or dog.

Another photo that suffered from our lack of real daylight at this time of year is:

These woven towels are a rich shade of terracotta. They were handmade on a loom and sent to me by Joanne who writes the Cup on the Bus blog. This a chatty blog written by a feisty lady and well worth a visit. Thanks for the gift, Joanne; they are really well made. I don't think I own anything else that has been hand-crafted to such a high standard. The colour actually suits my kitchen which is basically cream with a few pops of terracotta in the vain hope of making it feel warmer. I can't complain too much about the weather though. Our thin layer of snow this week is nothing compared to what is happening in other parts of the world.

Oh...and as for the big, thick, pink wool. I managed to knit a square measuring about 18" x 18". I will probably donate it to the first family member to have a baby. It is beautifully thick and would make a nice liner for a pram. Here is another photo that doesn't do anything justice!

I don't know what went wrong with photo. It looks like the bottom edge is wonky, but it really isn't.

I thought I hadn't achieved much this week. But, reading this back, I'm satisfied, especially as I tend to hibernate at this time of year!

While waiting for my huge needles to arrive so that I can carry on with my super chunky pink yarn, I knitted this quick project. It was quite a lucky move as it was one of the patterns I was considering for the pink yarn which, on reflection, would have been far too thick. I actually used dk yarn doubled and love the way it turned out.

I found the pattern here. You might need to log in to Ravelry to see it. There is apparently also a crochet version available. The beauty of patterns on Ravelry is that you can see how other knitters got on with them. Ravelry has some useful notes about an error in one of the pattern rows. That is the only error in the pattern. Some knitters had other problems; but they were entirely caused by not reading and following the pattern carefully.

I will definitely knit more of these. Most baby colours would look great, even those that can look odd on some babies e.g. lemon and mauve. Strangely, the only colour I would not use is white. This is supposed to be a rabbit, in case you were wondering! I think white would make it look more like Casper the ghost.

I'm planning to knit a few of these in different colours over the next 12 months. Several of my nieces are reaching the age when babies are a possibility and this would make an unusual and easy little gift.

Well, the big thick knitting needles have arrived and I can now begin the chunky pink project....watch this space!

Wrapped in a cloud...

Having recently knitted with a dk yarn that was more like 4ply, I have just gone to the opposite extreme and knitted with a dk yarn that was more like Aran.  This was the Peter Pan Cupcake yarn that was kindly donated to me by Loving Hands.  

It is listed on Ravelry as a dk yarn. But, very tellingly, it does not say that on the wrapper.  However, it does recommend needle sizes 3.5-4.5mm which would imply that it is a dk yarn. Believe me, it isn't.  So, for any project that has to actually fit, a swatch would be essential.

But I had already decided to knit a preemie blanket, so fit wasn't important.  I had 100g of white Cupcake which was enough for a 15" square.  This will eventually be going off to PreemiesUK.  Normally, a yarn this thick would be unsuitable for a newborn baby of any size. But this is so beautifully soft that it will be like wrapping a baby in a cloud.

I still have a lot of the Cupcake in other colours. Ravelry has some pattern suggestions for this yarn.  Many people seem to have made blankets and toys with it. A few brave crafters have knitted cardigans and hats.  I will probably err on the side of caution/cowardice!

Oh no, it isn't.....a bit of a rant.

Start of rant****

Since when did September 1st become the first day of autumn?  Maybe it was about the same time we dumbed down and started talking about "going to uni".  In my day(!), every school child knew that autumn started on September 21st and people could actually be bothered to say all five syllables of "university".  

This morning, I heard a chirpy weather forecaster say that we use September 1st as the first day of autumn because it is easier to remember.  Never mind that we might have several weeks of good weather left.  Using that logic, Christmas Day will be on December 1st this year.  End of rant****

But just to show that I can move with the times, here is what I am working on at the moment.  When I bought this King Cole Country Tweed at an outdoor market, the sun was blazing and it looked like pink and grey.  At home, I realised it was more like autumnal rust and brown. My original plan for a baby item had to change to a scarf.  It is beautifully soft.  But there is no way on earth that this is a double knit yarn.  It feels like 4 ply and takes forever to crochet with.  

I have made this scarf many times and know that I would be finished by now if this was a real double knit yarn.  The stallholder told me the yarn had been discontinued. I can see why.  It is perfect for a soft scarf.  I have checked on Ravelry and many projects made with this yarn tend to be scarves and shawls.  But there are also some cardigans and jumpers.  I can only assume that the knitters/crocheters avoided sizing disasters by making a tension square first.

So, if a double knit yarn feels more like 4 ply, then it probably is.  Likewise, if it feels like summer and looks like summer, it is still summer!

Scarf and hat set finished....

It's been all about grand finishes here this week.  We now have lovely new floors and a very strong oak staircase that will still be here in a hundred years time.  I have miles of new skirting boards to paint.  This week I finished the dining room and all the furniture is back in place.  Woo hoo!  The lurid background in the photo is actually an antique dining table that Hubby paid an obscene amount of money for at an Antiques Fair.  It will be starring in a lot of my future photos and I promise it looks better in real life than it does here!

I finished the scarf I have been knitting for some time.  It is a one row pattern.  Sadly, I have mislaid the link.  But there are lots of one row patterns and I can recommend them as very therapeutic mindless knitting.  I was using 6mm needles and two strands of 4ply together. I'm really pleased with the soft texture.  It will be very warm.  My scarf is 59" long and weighs 97g.  It definitely took longer to make than a crochet scarf.  But sometimes I am just in the mood for knitting.

The hat is from the Two By Two Basic Beanie pattern by Kate Gondwana.  I love this pattern for its simplicity and many sizes from baby to large adult.  It is really written for dk yarn, but 4ply doubled worked fine.  I knitted the "younger child" size and used 22g of yarn.  

These will eventually be going off to Operation Orphan.  They would make a nice matching set for someone, though I don't really expect them to end up on the same child.  They will probably be separated at the sorting stage and it would be a very lucky moment if they managed to reunite.

Farmer's Market Scarf

My scarf drawer is groaning under the weight of scarves that I either bought years ago or made recently.  The winter here has only just arrived.  So I am really pleased to have just finished this scarf that I knitted with wool Daughter gave me for Christmas.  I emailed a photo to her and she loves it.  That is real praise because she is someone who speaks her mind.  If she says she likes something, she means it.  If she doesn't like something, she finds it hard to be tactful!

The yarn is Wendy Festival Chunky and I used almost 100g.  The free pattern is the Farmer's Market Scarf by Rebecca Shepler.  She gave it that name because she designed and made it while working at a Farmer's Market.  Outdoor jobs must be quite challenging at this time of year.

I love this scarf because it it as cosy as a keyhole scarf but is less bulky and can be made with just one 100g ball of yarn.  The pattern starts with a clever shell design which, admittedly, takes a bit of concentration.  After that, it is plain sailing.   You can do a 3-needle cast off and spend time blocking it. Or, like me, you can have an easy life.  I just did a simple cast off and didn't block it. Report me to the Knitting Police!

The Snowy Sky blanket...

This was finished in June but the colours, if you can call black, white and grey  "colours", looked all wrong for the summer.  So I waited until November before sending it to SIBOL.  Our weather this week is very foggy and I expect we will see snow before spring!   The amazing Sue from SIBOL will deliver it and many more to care homes for the elderly in the UK.

I enjoyed making this giant granny square.  The idea for the centre square came from the Sunshine Granny Square pattern by Theemuts Tinka on Ravelry.  One of my 2015 resolutions was to crochet a snowflake.  I decided that this square looked close enough despite its sunny name.  

The rest of the blanket was just a typical granny square and the edging was the Double V edging that I found on the Knot Your Nana's Crochet blog.  Once again, it was a new skill for me.  But it was easy and really finished off the blanket nicely.  This photo isn't very good.  I promise you that the edging looks better in real life.

Sue likes to attach a name to each blanket that she delivers and I think "Snowy Sky" suits this one.

The vital statistics are 37" x 37" and 380g of dk yarn.  Most of the yarn came from donations and bargain buys.  I have quite a bit of black yarn and like to sneak it into projects with a bit of white and variegated grey to lift the mood.

On a slightly different subject, my second cataract operation went ahead as planned and things are looking good.  Eyesight takes weeks or months to recover after surgery.  But I am already happy and looking forward to what future improvements might bring.  My crafting pace is increasing again, though I am supposed to be resting for a few weeks.  "More haste, less speed" definitely applies to recovering from surgery.  The rest of 2015 will be quite gentle for me.  In 2016, I can start firing on all cylinders again.

A finished blanket....

I'm glad to say that the baby blanket I started 7 weeks ago is now finished.  It has served its purpose by keeping me company through some rather trying weeks as I recovered from one eye operation and prepare for the second one next week. 

I had a very thorough check-up on the operated eye recently and the hospital staff are really impressed at how well I can see.  I can read the bottom line on the eye chart which I have never been able to do before.  I'm happy and amazed by that.  The close-up vision for reading etc is also getting better, though I might eventually need glasses for very fine work.  But that is ok and I am actually looking forward to being able to go back to my optician and surprise her with my new prescription.

The blanket pattern is here on Ravelry.  For my version, I cast on 172 stitches on 5mm knitting needles.  Just 270g of dk yarn gave me a blanket measuring 30" x 33". The pattern was easy to remember.  Every fourth row involved yarn overs and careful counting and I'm pleased to say that I managed not to make any mistakes.

This blanket will go to a family baby at some time in the future. The 5mm needles have given it a lovely soft drape.  The Robin acrylic yarn that I used means that it will wash well and put up with a lot of use over the years.  I have more lovely baby yarn and will definitely make more of these.

Though my blogging has slowed down in relation to my knitting output, I am still enjoying reading all my favourite blogs.  Happy October to everybody and thank you for all the good wishes you have been sending me.  They really helped to cheer me up.

3 more hats...

At the beginning of the summer, I set myself a target to use up all my 4 ply yarn.  In my last post, I described how I used up the last of my white and cream.  I then set my attention to using up my darker shades.  Once again, I combined yarns and managed to knit 3 toddler size hats.  I followed the Be Loving pattern.  This is written for Aran yarn; but 4 ply doubled works just as well. 

I actually had lots of little nuggets in various greens, blues, beiges and browns and was quite pleased at how they worked together.  Admittedly, they are rather dark for toddlers' hats. But they will be going off to Operation Orphan for distribution in countries where warmth and sturdiness are the most important attributes in children's clothes.

I am now looking at a bag of 4 ply yarn that contains only blues and pinks.  I think my job is done.  I am quite happy to save this for future family babies.  In fact, there is already a great niece or nephew on the way.  I must put on my thinking hat....

The last 50g...

I recently knitted some preemie items and had just 50g of white 4ply yarn left.  My 4ply mojo returned and I paired it with 50g of cream 4ply to knit these two hats. Combining the two colours produced a lovely shade of pale banana.  The white was a baby yarn and the cream was ordinary yarn.  Together they made a texture just right for a toddler.

I followed the easy Be Loving pattern which is really for Aran weight yarn, but 4ply doubled works just as well.  The pattern comes in many sizes from toddler to adult and I can definitely recommend it as well written, simple and quick.  I managed to make two toddler size hats with just a tiny amount of yarn left.  I think there might be enough to make bootees or pompoms.  Nothing is ever wasted here!

NB: there is a reason why my posts are a bit on the short side this month.  All will be revealed in a couple of weeks time!

Matching blanket and hat set...and a giveaway reminder

I was in the mood for knitting a baby blanket and my mind went back to a gift that was given to me by a friend when my daughter was a baby.  It was a small blanket and came with the promise that it would be very useful.  Well, it was.  The smaller size made it perfect for tucking over my daughter when she was in her pram or car seat. There was no excess fabric to drown her, to collect dust from the ground or floor of the car, or to trip me up when carrying her.  My friend was a new mum and, like me, fairly short.  So she knew exactly what would be useful.

I had the following pattern in my Ravelry queue: Lilac Blossom Baby Blanket by Marianna and it seemed perfect.  I followed the pattern as written and ended up with a width of 22".  I stopped knitting when the blanket was 27" long to keep it in proportion.  It is easy to increase the number of cast on stitches to knit a bigger blanket if that is what you are aiming for.

I used a gender-neutral cream Robin Double Knit yarn.  I found a big bag of this yarn in a charity shop last year.  It receives mixed reviews on Ravelry.  But I really liked it. It is soft and bouncy and, being acrylic, will wash well.  I will even look for this yarn again when I have used up the remaining balls.

The combination of the bouncy yarn and the slightly puffy knitted stitch makes this blanket cosy.  The stitch is basically 2 x 2 ribbing with something clever happening every fourth row to make it interesting.  Though this is not strictly a reversible pattern, it looks good on both sides of the blanket.  You might just about be able to see the detail in the next photo.

The blanket used less than 200g of yarn, so I had enough left to knit a matching hat.

This time I followed the hat pattern from the Lilac Blossom Baby Set by Marianna.  It was so easy and took only a couple of hours.  

Here they are together  I think a matching set has more "wow effect" than individual items.

The hat will fit a baby aged 0-3 months and the set will go to a future family baby.

REMINDER:  there is still time to enter my Big Birthday Giveaway.  For more details see my post here.

The variegated hat...

Having already crocheted with this Robin variegated dk yarn, I wanted to see what it would look like when knitted.  The colour changes are VERY short.  It is really only possible to knit 2, 3, or 4 stitches before the pink changes to purple, then to lilac.  I actually looked forward to the colour pooling in larger blobs because otherwise the effect would have been just small speckles.  

I slightly prefer the knitted effect to the crocheted effect, but don't think I have yet found the ideal pattern to use with this yarn.  I have another 300g of this yarn just waiting for a project.  I'm open to suggestions!!

The hat pattern is one of my favourite as it is so simple.  The "small adult" size used only 33g of yarn.  Here it is on Ravelry.

A hat sextet....

Apparently, the collective noun for a group of hats is a "millinery". But I think my version suits this collection better and is guaranteed to increase the visits to my blog! 

I had some Aran yarn to use up and I chose the Be Loving pattern by Melissa Simpson.  It was extremely easy to knit and I had memorised it by the second hat.  So I experimented with different stripe patterns to keep myself awake!

I never cease to be amazed at how far a ball of yarn goes.  The smallest hat is toddler size and used only 37g of Aran yarn.  The others are child size (41g) and teenage size (53g).

Most of the yarn was left over from previous projects.  The red yarn came to me as a donation.  Someone had wound balls of Aran yarn together to make a bulky weight yarn.  I decided to unwind them and use them as nature intended.  That was easier said than done, but it was worth the effort as it added some much needed brightness.

These will be going off very soon to Operation Orphan.  A few scrappy remnants of yarn will keep 6 children warm.  Good result!

The weather here is glorious this week, so I have declared the Aran knitting season to be over.  I am now going to concentrate on small and pretty 4 ply items.  Watch this space...

Sunshine Granny...

Persuing my goal to challenge myself more in 2015, I crocheted a square that was a bit more than a granny square.  It has a different centre which I found quite challenging.  I still have a lot to learn about crochet and I tend to do this a bit like a rabbit caught in the headlights.  I just sit and fixate on my work until it is done.  Then I can start breathing again!

I rarely give up on something and I definitely couldn't give up on this as it was already promised to SIBOL (Sunshine International Blankets of Love) for the 1000th sunshine blanket.  Various SIBOL regulars have contributed one square each and Sue, SIBOL's founder, will sew them together to make a very special blanket. These blankets go to residents of care homes in the UK.  

SIBOL usually collects completed blankets and shawls.  Individual squares are no longer collected.  But Tinka, the author of the pattern, is happy to receive squares which she then makes into blankets for people being treated for cancer.  There is more information about her work here on Ravelry.  You will need to log in to Ravelry to see the complete information.  

The pattern is here on Ravelry.  It is no longer a free pattern, though I was lucky enough to be sent it free just after it was published.

Two little baby dresses...

The light is terrible at this time of  year.  Daylight photos of these dresses were even worse than this flash photo.  If you put on your sunglasses and ignore the white flash, you can see the lovely dresses that I knitted from the super-simple-baby-tunic pattern which I found on Ravelry.  

This is a lovely pattern, so quick and easy to knit. Even though it is free, "caveat emptor" applies as there are minor mistakes in the front bodice instructions.  But most knitters will be able to spot and solve them easily.  I just thought I should mention them.  I don't usually recommend patterns that contain mistakes.  But this dress is so beautiful, I have made an exception.

I had yarn left over from knitting a hat and scarf set.  The colours are not typical baby colours, so I added some pink.  The patterned yarn came from Poundstretcher and the pink yarn is from Hobbycraft.  They are both double knit weight, but the patterned yarn was thinner and tended to roll at the hem.  I added a couple of rows of double crochet (UK) and that seems to have fixed the problem.  Yay for learning to crochet!

Here is a close up of the buttons:

They are lovely quality wooden buttons that were generously sent to me by Joanne of the Cup On The Bus blog.  There were hundreds of buttons of 2 sizes, plus one lonesome flower button.  I have sewed that to the centre of one of the bodices and it looks really at home there.  Thanks, Joanne.

I really like the way these dresses turned out.  I am going to send them to Operation Orphan. The pattern says it will fit a baby aged 0-3 months.  But I think it would last a bit longer than that.  The beauty of Ravelry is that you can see comments from other knitters. Many say that the dress can still be worn as a little top when the baby grows.

This pattern is very adaptable and economical.  Even with the buttons added, it weighs only 48g which I think is amazing.  How do I know it weighs exactly 48g?  Well, I finally caved in and replaced my useless kitchen scales with some digital scales.  I have already used them a lot for weighing parcels, wool, and even food(!) so it was a good purchase.  If you choose a really special yarn and add flowers, bows or lace etc, you will end up with a unique gift for someone.  Or you can use a cheaper yarn for a really practical top that will become a favourite daily outfit.

Snug hat and scarf outfit....

Here's my latest hat and scarf set which I think proves what can be made from value yarn.  To be exact it is "Wonder Knit" from Poundstretcher. This is a double knit yarn that comes in various shades and is supposed to make a pattern of flowers.  Simple maths tells me that the pattern on the yarn label photograph must require a quite specific number of stitches per row.  Sadly, that information was missing on the label and my number of stitches wasn't quite right. But the pattern is still pretty.  This is also a lovely soft yarn to work with and it seems to go a long way, so I can recommend it.  

The hat pattern I used is the Two By Two Basic Beanie here on Ravelry.  This is going to be a very useful pattern to me as it comes is a range of sizes from baby to large adult.  It is seam-free and has a neat crown.  As it is such a simple design, lots of knitters jazz it up with bright colours and stripes.

The next photo shows the scarf better.  I didn't follow a pattern for this.  Instead, I simply cast on 36 stitches and knitted the feather and fan stitch until I ran out of yarn.  It took a whole 100g and is long enough to wrap around the neck twice.

I couldn't resist taking the next photo.  It shows the red paper clips that I use as stitch markers.  I actually rescued these after my daughter threw them away.  Waste not, want not.  I needed markers when I was decreasing the crown of the hat.  I simply slipped on a paperclip at appropriate times and used 2 paperclips to show the end of the round.  Perfect.

***PS: for anyone looking for my "Grow Your Blog" post, here is the LINK.***

A real Aran hat....

I have a big bag of cream Aran wool that was donated to me by Joanne of the Cup On The Bus blog.   I was looking at it and enjoying a squish when I noticed that there were 2 different dye lots.  Even though they looked identical, I know from past experience that mixing dye lots in one project is just asking for trouble.  So I decided to make my squishing a bit more productive and sorted the wool into 2 smaller bags.

This wool is Emu Genuine Bainin Aran.  I was curious about the word "Bainin" and looked it up.  It comes from the Gaelic "ban" which means white and is used to describe undyed wool.  There must be some poetic licence involved as the dye lot numbers confirm that the wool has been dyed.

The labels on the wool made me laugh.  They are plastered with shamrocks to give the impression that the wool comes from Ireland.  But the small print says "Made in England".  Maybe the sheep lived in Ireland and the mill was in England.  I'll never know!

So I had 200g of one dye lot and realised that I could knit this up easily before my life becomes a bit too hectic.  One pattern sprang to mind instantly.  It is the free Nottingham hat pattern which I have knitted before.  Last time, I used a tweedy wool which looked lovely.  This plain Aran wool also suits the pattern perfectly, probably because of the cables.  I knitted the child size and was amazed that one 50g ball was almost enough.  It lasted until just before I started the crown decreases.  

I recommend this pattern to knitters with some experience.  The hat is knitted in the round and the cables require a bit of concentration....especially the first round.  But there are only 17 rounds of cable pattern and they are definitely worth doing.  The crown decreases are very neat, which always pleases me in hat patterns.  This hat will eventually go to Operation Orphan and will keep someone very warm.

I have already started a scarf to use up the remaining wool.  Watch this space.....