A Wednesday WIP...

I don't usually write WIP posts, but I haven't finished anything lately due to decorating commitments.  This is what I am working on at the moment.  A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to receive lots of wool from a Freecycler.  I have used most of it.  But there was a bag of wool that left me stumped.  It contained lots of 25g balls of Doubleknit Wearwell by Hermit Wools in West Yorkshire.  This is a new brand to me.  It is 85% wool and 15% nylon.  I think it is really old as the labels don't show a barcode, though the measurement is in grams rather than ounces.

Then I had one of my very rare brainwaves.  I decided the wool and nylon mix would make a very warm and strong jumper for a child.  I found a pattern that I had torn out of a Yours magazine some time ago.  It is called Little Boy Blue and might still be available on their website, though I have just had a quick look and couldn't find it.  I have already knitted the back of the jumper and can recommend it as a lovely, quick and easy pattern.  

This pattern comes in sizes ranging from newborn to 7 years old.  I am knitting the biggest size and it will go off to Operation Orphan eventually.  The wool just happens to be a cherry shade  I think that is fairly gender neutral, so it should have a lot of use.  The downside of 25g balls is that there will be lots of ends to sew in.  But that is a small problem in the great scheme of things.

I think there will be enough wool left over for a couple of hats.  So I am going to plough on until I have used it all up.

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.

Nothing much happening here.....

.....well that is not strictly true.  The downstairs of my house is slowly being ripped apart and put back together again.  Our kitchen has been replaced and all the floors have been renewed including the floorboards and joists.  We have taken the opportunity to put insulation under the floors which should make this cold house a bit more comfortable. 

The carpenter is now working in the last room.  Woo hoo!  Then I will be able to put all the furniture back where it belongs and come back down from the bedroom where I (and the poor cat) seem to have been hiding away for weeks!  To make matters worse the road outside my house is being dug up by the National Grid.  So I am being bombarded by drilling noises from all directions.

The dust gets everywhere.  So my crafting activities are restricted to the evenings when the cloud of dust has settled.  I don't have anywhere decent to take photos at the moment.  But I managed to take a photo of my current project.  It is a scarf that I am knitting with two 4 ply yarns held together.  The variegated yarn came from a charity shop and the plain blue was donated to me.  I chose to use 6mm needles and the texture is beautifully fluid and soft.  I'm using a one row pattern.  It is so simple and mindless as every row is the same.  

I can't remember where the pattern came from.  So I sadly can't add a link. But experienced knitters will probably be able to work it out from just looking at the photo!

.

Yarn chicken: you win some, you lose some...

I bought the first issue of a new crochet magazine last year.  The only reason was its cheap introductory price.  This made the free gift of two balls of yarn very good value. One was a useful white and the other was a cheerful green.  I chose to make something with the green last week as it reminded me of the spring that can't be far away.  

The yarn bands did not give any information about its weight or recommended hook/needle sizes.  I measured it as 5 ply which is not something I am really used to.  I decided to knit a baby hat.  I like this colour on children but I chose the 6 months size as it might be a bit too strong for newborns.  I wasn't confident that I would have enough yarn and I was right.  I had to speed up the crown decreases and this hat would probably now fit a baby of 4 months.  

I then took the white yarn and knitted a hat for a newborn.  I'm much happier with this one as there was enough yarn to knit the pattern as written.  The pattern is the Simple Lines Baby Hat by Heather Tucker and I will definitely knit this again.  The designer has even included links to coordinating baby blanket patterns.

I realised too late that I should have knitted the white newborn hat first.  That way, I would have been forewarned that I didn't have enough green yarn for the 6 months size.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

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!

Mochi Neck Cozy...

Daughter gave me two balls of Wendy Festival Chunky yarn for Christmas.  The perfect present!  She even surprised me by looking through a knitting book that was on my bookshelf.  I'll make a knitter of her one day!

I started a scarf for myself with one of the balls and made a neck cosy for Daughter with the other.  It used just over 40g of yarn so I have enough left for another one. The pattern I followed is Mochi Neck Cozy by Sarah Keller and can be found HERE.  It is well written and I followed the pattern exactly.  

It looks small in the photo.  But it is very stretchy.  Daughter is petite, so it will fit perfectly.  I chose beige buttons.  They are not an obvious colour choice for a blue/orange/purple scarf.  But they match her winter coat.  They will also look good against her mane of glossy brunette hair.  Sigh!

As this pattern is for chunky yarn, there are only 18 rows x 62 stitches.  This is a super quick knit! 

Knit For Winter 2015: the finished hats...

An amazing 55g of 4 ply yarn was all it took to knit these little bonnets for the Knit For Winter 2015 campaign.  Sunrise Senior Living organises annual campaigns and this year opted to help First Touch which supports sick and premature babies at St. George's Hospital in London.

Around 60,000 babies are born prematurely in the UK every year and 600 of these are born at St. George's Hospital.  Keeping them warm is very important and the hats and blankets that will be made by many knitters will be invaluable.  If you want to get involved, there is still time this winter.  You can download the knitting patterns here. 

Each hat takes only a few hours to knit and they are a wonderful way to use up small scraps of yarn.  I was able to knit one of each size in the pattern with just 55g of yarn.

I knitted these in the peace and quiet of the last couple of weeks. This is my first post of what looks like being a hectic 2016 for me.  Happy New Year to everyone!