Monthly Archives: December 2013

My year in knits 2013

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I will follow in the tradition (rather grandiously claimed as I started last year) of posting on the final day of December a review of my year in knits.  I only post here projects which were actually finished in 2013, which leaves out quite a bit of lovely knitting on some unfinished projects like the Soumak wrap, my Exeter jacket and Leah’s Lord of the Rings-inspired pillow.  (With any luck these will be included in the 2014 review.)  I made two pairs of fingerless mitts this year.  First, I knit the Flecktone Mitts, designed by Susan Moskwa, for Leah:

IMG_5817I also knit a pair of mitts for Emma in Noro yarn, using the Campout Fingerless Mitt pattern by tante ehm.  Both of these patterns are available for free from Ravelry (follow the links).

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Way back in February, I knit the amazing February Scarf, designed by Beth Weaver, for Leah.  This is a very long, thick, cushy cabled scarf, knit in Quince & Co Osprey in Winesap.

IMG_6104I spent four solid months knitting the seemingly endless Viajante.  This pattern, designed by Martina Behm, is a sort of poncho/cowl/shawl, and is knit in the round from laceweight Wollweise.  It goes from head to toe, and is an excruciatingly long knit.  It is hard to capture in one photo, so head to this post to see it in its glory.

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I knit three cowls this year, which were all destined as Christams gifts.  Unfortunately, I don’t have photos of the recipients modelling the first two.  I knit a cabled cowl from Rowan Cocoon for my neice Lydia in a pattern I designed:

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I also knit a cowl for my sister-in-law, Vivian, in Cocoon.  For this one, I used the Infinitude pattern, designed by Jeni Chase:

3-20131221_103124And the third cowl I designed for Emma’s best friend, Indi, and knit out of BC Garn’s Allino blend of cotton and linen:

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Despite the above evidence to the contrary, I am primarily a sweater knitter.  I love knitting sweaters and am passionate about fit.  This year has been a lamentably slow year for sweaters – I only finished four.  The first was the best, the amazing Audrey sweater I knit for Emma.  I modified the pattern, designed by Kim Hargreaves, quite a bit (all of it documented here on this blog; search for the tag Audrey).

IMG_6470This was without a doubt my favorite project of the year.  It is knit in the fabulous Madelinetosh DK in Venetian.  For lots of beautiful shots of this one, see this post.

In March I knit a very fast sweater using the pattern Arleen, by Dona Knits (this pattern is available for free.)  It took just 10 days to knit, and I made it from Cascade 220 recycled from my frogged Levenwick cardigan.  For such a quick and simple pattern, it is surprisingly pleasing:

IMG_6209Following on this, I knit another blue sweater for myself, using the Livvy pattern designed by Tori Gurbisz.  I modified it a bit, making it more fitted and changing some details, particularly the waistband.  It is knit in The Uncommon Thread Lush Worsted, which is a truly lush yarn.

IMG_6321The last sweater I knit this year (finished way back in June – what has happened to the year?) is the fabulous Neon, designed by Joji Locatelli.  I knit this in Plucky Sweater in the colour called Kissin’ Valentino; I love the name as much as I love this brilliant shade of red.  (I also love how it matches my shoes!)

IMG_7200Of everything I have knit this year, this is the thing that gets worn the most.  I wear this all the time.  In fact, I am sure that everyone (but me) is well and truly tired of it.

So that is the year in review.  There was a lot going on this year – both girls going off to university, me starting business school, work being hectic, lots of travel.  These things combined to mean less knitting.  I thought about ending with the phrase “I had hoped to knit more, but life got in the way.”  But, as we all know, life doesn’t get in the way of knitting or anything else for that matter.  Life is just what happens, the good and the bad, the knitting and not knitting, and being swept along on the journey is good enough for me.

I wish you all the best for the New Year.

A few knitted gifts

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While in Vancouver, I knit two cowls in shades of rust and burgundy.  The first was a gift for my sister-in-law Vivian.  I don’t have any photos of Viv wearing it because the light fades very quickly this time of year.  So you will have to make do with a few hastily taken photos of me (taken before my morning coffee no less).

3-20131221_103124While this photo does not do much for me, it does a good job of showing the lovely rich colour of this Cocoon wool.  The pattern is the Infinitude Scarf, designed by Jeni Chase and available for free on Ravelry.  I cast on 170 stitches on a US 10.5 needle and I used all of two skeins of wool.  It didn’t look nearly so nice before blocking; the blocking transformed the wool into a very light, breathable and warm fabric.

2-20131221_102957I still have a bunch of Cocoon sitting around in my stash so I might be tempted to make one of these for me.

Emma’s friend Indi has spent part of the holidays with us and I knit her a cowl as well.  Indi’s cowl presented some difficulties.  Indi is vegan and doesn’t wear animal fibres.  Emma and I spent quite some time searching for a suitable yarn.  Unfortunately, we searched online, which means the tactile portion of the yarn buying experience was missing.  I must admit here to being a bit of a yarn snob; I don’t want to use manmade fibres.  It’s likely that there are some very soft acrylic yarns out there that would make wonderfully cozy, vegan-approved cowls, but I only looked at the cotton and linen options. The yarn that we settled on is really very lovely and has a great sheen to it, but let’s face it – it just doesn’t feel like wool.  But as Emma kept reminding me: “That’s sort of the point, Mom!”

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This is a Danish yarn called Allino, made by BC Garn.  It is a 50/50 cotton and linen blend. I really like the colours; you can see that the linen and cotton take to the dye differently, thus producing this interesting marled effect in the yarn. (Neither of these photos shows the colour very well but my light is limited this time of year.) I knit the cowl using the yarn held double on US 9 needles.  I started by casting on 200 stitches and knitting in 4×4 rib.  My intention was to knit the whole cowl in rib, but about half way through Emma said “Mom, this is pretty boring.”  She also said “You can buy a boring cowl in any store.  The reason to knit a cowl is to avoid buying the boring cowls from the stores and have something beautiful and interesting to wear.”  So, I put in some cabling in what I thought was an interesting way, and then went back to the 4×4 ribbing.  The cabled portion is placed assymetrically into the ribs, which I find pleasing.

1-20131230_120604I put in the cabling without once thinking about the fact that it would pull in the fabric; I must have been having a bit of a mind meltdown over Christmas.  This means that the cowl is considerably shorter and tighter than it should be.  (I cannot double it over my head.)  Indi is quite small so I was aiming for a short cowl to begin with, and then inadvertantly made it even shorter.  The moral: think before you cable.

I do think that this cowl is pretty and has an interesting structure.  The linen makes it quite stiff, which gives it a sort of architectural feel.  The colour is wonderful and looks great on Indi. (I will post a modelled shot tomorrow.)  In retrospect, however, I should have shopped around more for a good vegan cowl option.  This yarn would be great in many things but I think a cowl should be soft before all else.  Next time I will go for a cotton yarn and bypass linen all together.

In addition to these pretty gifts, I also gave a knitted cowl to my lovely neice, Lydia.  I don’t have a photo of Lydia in it, but here is one of me modelling it:

IMG_8101I made this last month and posted about it here.  I made this one especially thick and warm as Lydia lives in cold and snowy Ontario.

Emma also received a little knitted cheer in her stocking: the pair of Noro mitts that I posted about here.  If I am able, I will post a modelled shot tomorrow because everything looks better when Emma wears it.

For regular readers of this blog, let me say that I have steeked, it went well and will be reported in due time.  Tomorrow I will post up my end-of-the-knitting-year review.

One does knit simply walk into Mordor

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My Tolkien-obsessed daughter came up with the bad pun in the title.  An indication of my pun-addled brain is that I I found it irresistable. (If you don’t get the joke…never mind.)  I have continued to knit on the Ring-transcribed panel for Leah.  Here is a new progress shot:

5-20131219_102204I am knitting this in the round using two-handed stranded knitting.  This is the inscription from the One Ring, written in the Black Speech of Mordor using Tengwar, the transcription system developed by Tolkien for the languages of Middle Earth.  The inscription was charted for knitters by Diana Stafford, who offers it for free on Ravelry as a scarf pattern which she calls the One Ring Scarf.  (Thank you, Diana!)  In the scarf it is knit in a long continuous string, but I am knitting it into a panel with two lines of script.  When I am done with the knitting, I will cut it at the steek, and then block it into a long rectangular panel.  This will become the front of a rather large pillow for Leah’s room.

The beautiful fabric you see on the left in the photo above will be the backing for the pillow.  I bought the fabric from John Lewis in Reading, UK.  It was actually a remnant stored in the back storeroom.  I went to John Lewis with the knitting in hand and gathered together all of the sales staff to help me find the perfect piece of fabric.  It was late in the day and there were not many other customers, and the staff responded with great enthusiasm and helped me find the perfect piece.  I love how it looks like burnished gold, and also has a vaguely medieval feel to it.  (Plus, the fact that it has squares all through it makes it easy to cut for a sewing novice like myself!)

I am knitting this with Quince & Co Chickadee yarn, obtained from Loop in London, in the colours Frank’s Plum and Carrie’s Yellow.  Looked at separately neither the purple nor the yellow looked right to me, but together they are perfect.  The yellow pops beautifully against the purple and looks just like gold.

We have now been a week in Vancouver.  We haven’t been up to much yet.  We have all been tired and Doug is having knee problems.  We did, however, make our all-important trek out to Deep Cove, which we always do when in this part of the world, to stand on the very spot where we were married more than 22 years ago. Leah took a photo:

1-20131218145727We look both older and colder than on that fateful wedding day, but no less happy.  I could not imagine a trip to Vancouver without this small, but romantic, detour.  The girls think it is cute.  I give you a closeup of the photo so that you can see that Doug is wearing my green Malabrigo cowl and it looks fantastic on him!  I think that he has just gained a new cowl, while I have lost one:

2-20131218145740I also managed (on my first day here) to find a great gluten-free bakery in Vancouver, called Lemonade.  Those of you who also have coeliac’s disease will recognize this compulsion, when arriving in a new town, to scope out all of the gluten-free options  available to you.  I have now been there a few times and I have been stuffing myself with wonderful gluten-free treats, including the most amazing Lemon meringue tarts ever:

2-20131213105204Yum yum!  I must admit to complete gluttony: I have eaten three of these this week!  Doug took the above photo from the balcony of the lovely apartment we are staying in in False Creek.  Thanks so much to Ed and Marci for very generously lending us a place to stay.   It has made our trip so special.

Since I need to finish Leah’s One Ring project before heading back to England, I will now stop writing and start knitting!  (And, just maybe, eat another Lemon meringue tart…..)

Secret identity revealed

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In my last post I mentioned that I was knitting a top secret project for a birthday present.  Well, today is the birthday, but the present is nowhere near done.  Alas, such is the life of a busy woman!  SInce there is no longer any reason to protect it’s secret identity, I give you a progress shot:

20131214091908I imagine that many of you will recognize this immediately.  For the rest of us, suffice it to say that this is the inscription written on the Ring – yes, THAT ring – from The Lord of the RIngs.  Or, at least it will be when I finish knitting the first line of text.  I was about to launch into a linguistic description of the langauge and script, and realized that anything I wrote would be instantly corrected by thousands of Tolkien fans (my daughter, Leah, Tolkien fan and birthday girl, chief among them).  I will get Leah to brief me, and then I will report back to you, armed with the facts.

The writing is a pain in the you-know-where to knit, but beautiful to behold.  Here is a close-up:

20131214092011Once it’s been properly washed, blocked and steamed, it will be stunning!  (Or so I hope!)

The three weeks before we hopped on a plane to Vancouver were among the most stressful I can remember in a long time.  Not the kind of stressful that comes from bad things happening, but rather the kind of stressful that comes from too many things happening, deadlines to meet, too little sleep, and nerves.  Enough so, that when I finally got onto the plane, I burst into tears.  (We flew here on Wednesday, a day that was so foggy at Heathrow that planes were being cancelled left, right and centre.  I was so relieved to actually take off and leave some of the craziness behind.  My apologies to my fellow passengers who no doubt thought I was a crazy woman.)

Now, however, I have three weeks in Vancouver where I can spend time with the girls, knit, hang out with Doug’s family, knit, write a blog post or three, knit, maybe even get some knitting done.  And, oh, did I mention the paper in Managing Process Systems I have to write next week?

And, of course, let’s not forget the Imminent Steek:

20131214092040If you want to know what this project will turn into when it grows up, check back soon for a progress update!

Steek-aphobia

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This is just a drive-by post to say that I am very busy knitting at the moment.  What I am knitting is top secret and thus the unhappy lack of progress photos.  I may or may not be knitting a birthday present and the recipient may or may not be reading this blog.

Two small hints: First, I am doing stranded knitting in the round, using the two handed method (one strand in the left hand and one in the right).  I have very little experience with this technique and it does not flow off the needles well.  I still have to concentrate very hard to get any kind of consistency in tension.  This is only my third project attempting this; the first was my Peerie Flooers hat (a Kate Davies design):

IMG_0679_medium2and the second, a sweater of my own design that I made for Leah and called Medieval Gems:

IMG_5714_medium2Given that I made the first in November-December 2011 and the second in November-December 2012, and am now knitting the third in …wait for it….November-December 2013, I seem to be developing a pattern here.  I can tell you that one small project once a year does not promote finger memory for two-handed stranded knitting.  Alas!

The other small hint about my new project: It will involve a steek!  (Steeking is a technique which allows you to knit in the round and then cut your knitting so that you end up with a flat piece; it is often used for colourwork cardigans.)   Yes, dear readers, I am planning to cut my knitting!  Be still my heart!  Who is afraid of a little steek?  I am.

I have been steeling myself, however, by reading (for the umpteenth time) Kate Davies’ fabulous series of tutorials about steeks.  If you are ever planning on surmounting the steek summit this is a must-read.  (For many knitters, the steek represents the “peak” of knitting skill – that is, until they’ve done it, and then they invariably say “Oh, that was no big deal!”  In this sense, I think it is one of the major rites of passage for knitters.)   Kate’s tutorial is so clear, and beautifully illustrated, and just makes so much sense, that even the most steek-aphobic among us will find herself thinking “I could do that!”   The series has four parts, An Introduction to Steeks, Reinforcing and cutting, the Sandwich, and Your questions answered.  The sandwich technique is, I believe, an innovation of Kate’s and is so utterly brilliant it deserves a moment of quiet contemplation.

Now, if you have managed to read though Kate’s lovely and informative steek tutorials, and you are still suffering from steek-aphobia, then I direct you here.  This is, without a doubt, the BEST, most freaking adorable, unbelievably scary post about steeks that I have ever read!  And if she can do it, then so can I!!!