I’ve been on holiday for almost two weeks now and am on serious down-time. I have avoided all online activities, and especially anything to do with work, and have been enjoying spectacular weather and scenery in Vancouver and surrounds. I still have a few more days to chill out, but thought I’d put up a short post to say hello, and “I’m still here”.
I have, of course, managed to bring my knitting along. I am working on a beautiful shawl in laceweight cashmere yarn; it’s perfect travel knitting – compact, lightweight, and easy. The yarn, Karei by Ito, is gorgeous:
The finished shawl will weigh only 125 grams, and it is almost translucent when knitted up:
I have managed to knit in some absolutely gorgeous spots. Here I am knitting on the porch of Jill’s house on Lilloet Lake. (Jill is the friend who made the teddy bear featured in this post.)
Why am I looking away from that spectacular view? Because the views the other way are just as good!
And here I am knitting on Gibson’s Beach, halfway between Powell River and Lund on the Sunshine Coast:
One last photo before I take back up the holiday mantle. Here are the four of us, at the lake, each wearing a stranded hat:
That’s me in Peerie Flooers, Leah in Bousta Beanie, Doug in Cascade, and Emma in Raven.
I tried my hand at another fairisle hat a few weeks ago, but didn’t get photos until this weekend.
This is the Janine Bajus Raven Hat, and like my previous Cascade Hat (blogged here), is designed by Janine Bajus. She apparently used this design as a teaching tool in her workshops in fairisle knitting and it is easy to see why. It is a very simple pattern to work and to memorise. It was easier to make than the Cascade Hat, and I think only part of that is due to my increasing ease with this technique.
I knitted it in the colours suggested on the pattern page, using Jamieson’s of Shetland Spindrift, which is a really lovely yarn for working fairisle. I thought that the hat would be too long as written and wanted to shorten it; I did this by leaving off the first 6 rows of the pattern (starting the fairisle section at Row 7) instead of trying to re-calculate the decreases on the crown. I think this worked out well and it keeps the crown pattern intact:
I do feel as if the top of the hat is a little bit pointy. Blocking certainly helped flatten out the crown, but I think that perhaps I didn’t do the best blocking job. I may try to block it again.
This hat has very nice colourwork. I especially like the way the teal and the tiny bit of copper livens up the purples. I am happy with how it turned out. This guy, however, seems to think otherwise:
I have nothing to knit. This makes me very grumpy. How, you might ask, could I find myself with nothing to knit? (Doug would certainly ask this if he were at home.) Do I not have piles of stash yarn, bags and boxes of haberdashery and knitting paraphernalia, bookcases full of knitting pattern books and magazines (not to mention, dare I say it, the internet, which is teeming with patterns)?
The sad truth is that, surrounded as I am by the detritus of knitting, I can find nothing to knit. I remind myself of a teen-ager who whines “there’s nothing to do”! Surely, one thinks, they can pick up a book or go for a walk instead of whining? But here I sit, annoyed and grumpy that I have nothing to knit.
I have, of course, looked at patterns. I have looked at patterns until my head nearly explodes, but none is saying “Knit me! Knit ME!”. I have also sorted through my stash to look for creative inspiration. I have even knitted swatches – 7 of them this week – trying to figure out how to best utilise some old skeins of yarn that turned up in the bottom of a box. To no avail.
Since I am feeling grumpy (have you noticed?), I have decided to roll with it and publish a grumbly post regarding a pet peeve. To get to the pet peeve, however, you must first wade through the following tale. One of the things that I found in my stash is five skeins of lovely, hand-dyed sportweight yarn from Skein Queen – a wool and silk mix. I have three skeins of the grey and two of the mix (which is called Fig). Here is a photo:
Unfortunately, I bought these many years ago before I realised how much I disliked variegated yarns. (Truth: I adore variegated yarns in the skein, just not in the knitted product. I am not into speckles, or fades, and I hate pooling.) Regardless, I decided that these skeins might become my next project and so I sought a pattern to use them with. Only a knitter would believe me when I mention how much time I spent searching. It is rather embarrassing.
It is by Lisa Richardson and is called Hip. I kind of like it. However, it is knitted in three different textures of yarn, in many colours, and weaving in all of those ends would be a nightmare. What if, I speculated, I knitted it with just two colours, alternating stripes, but in which one of the colours would alternate between cream, brilliant purple, pink, yellow, and taupe, and the other would be grey? That way, the yarn can be carried up the side of the piece and there would be virtually no ends to weave in. Sounds good, yes?
I should mention at this point that the pattern is in Rowan 53 from 2013. I looked at my stack of Rowan magazines and found that I had ….50, 51, 52, 54, 55…. but no 53! I should have called it a day and kept looking for alternate patterns but instead I searched the internet for someone who was selling Rowan 53, and purchased it. I then had to wait for it to arrive. I should have guessed then that the knitting gods were against this whole enterprise.
When the book arrived, I promptly knitted up a swatch, alternating my two shades:
And guess what? I don’t like it! Not at all! It doesn’t look anything like the pattern in the photo (probably due to the lack of mohair and crunchy textures in my yarn selection, as well as the lack of bright colours). And, it demonstrates why I don’t like variegated yarns. I was expecting a row of purple, and a row of pink, etc. Instead, I got speckles. UGH! Not only that, but the grey and the taupe don’t spark together at all.
At this point, I got a new idea: I would knit something using only the grey. I started by knitting up two swatches in stockinette – one with a US4/3.5mm and one with a US5/3.75mm. These are lovely, with the larger one being perfect, and giving me a gauge of 24×36. However, three skeins is sort of a dead zone – too much to waste it on a pair of mitts or a hat, but too little for most garments. The skein is 363yards/332 metres, for a total of 1089yards/996 metres. (Not counting all of the yards I used up in making multiple swatches.)
My next job was to search everywhere for garments that could be made (in my size!) using only 1000 metres of sportweight yarn. This, as you may have guessed is not easy. I have run so many pattern searches on Ravelry that I could have knitted up a cute tank in the meantime. And here is where my pet peeve comes into play! (Remember the pet peeve, which started this tale?) Why do so many designers not list the yardage needed per size, but instead tell you how many skeins of their preferred yarn you will need? (Most patterns will do both, but I have noticed a trend towards the latter.)
For example, one design states that you will need: “2 skeins for sizes XS and S, 3 skeins for size M, 5 skeins for sizes L and XL”. If I want to substitute yarns, I need to pull out my calculator and start doing some math. However, that still won’t tell me how many yards I will need to make the size L, only how many yards I would need to knit the size XL. This gets more egregious the more yards there are on the skein. If the yarn called for in the pattern has 400 metres on it, and a size L needs 3 skeins and a size XL needs 4 skeins, how much yarn do I really need to knit the L? It could be anywhere between 800-1200 metres! That can make a big difference when I have x-much yarn and I want to know if I can knit said garment with it.
I understand that many patterns are designed for particular yarn companies in order to showcase their yarns; regardless this practice makes me want to tear me hair out!
Okay. I feel calmer now. Rant over. I did just today find a pattern which I think I could knit up with the grey yarn. It is the #09 Eyelet Top, by Rosemary Drysdale from Vogue Knitting, Spring Summer 2019:
Unfortunately, the pattern page on Ravelry states only that it needs 735 – 1176 yards (672-1075 metres) and that it comes in sizes S, M, L, XL, and 2X. This means that I would probably have enough yarn to knit my size. However, I have to buy the magazine first to know for sure. I don’t even know if it’s available yet in the UK. In any case, I can’t cast on now.
Knitting gods: I have listened to you and am about to read a book. Maybe I’ll go for a walk as well.
In England we have four seasons; sometimes all in the same day. Today we have had a bit of everything – sun, clouds, wind, rain, even hail. It was a perfect day to nestle into the cozy warmth of my new cowl.
This is the Highland Rogue cowl, designed by Kate Davies, and knitted with Kate’s 100% wool sportweight yarn, Buachaille. I love this yarn (I used it to knit three pairs of mitts, which you can see here, here, and here). It is a lovely, plump yarn that takes beautifully to both colourwork and texture, and it feels great on the hand.
I have written a few posts about this cowl; it has been on my needles since September. The pattern is not an easy one to “read” on the needles; I had to pay attention to the pattern on every row. This is odd given that it is only a 6-row repeat. Nonetheless, I repeated the pattern in my head over and over again while knitting this. (Perhaps this has more to say about my attention span than the pattern?) While this meant it was not mindless knitting, you can see that the resulting texture is simply gorgeous:
I have used this lovely orange shade called Highland Coo. It is a cool orange, with no yellow tones, and a strong, rich hue that looks good in sun and shade.
I especially like the way it looks against the blues and bold patterns of my Sofi cardigan (which is blogged here). These photos were taken today in Henley-on-Thames, which was a riot of blues, purples, and greens, all of which set off this pop of orange. I work and shop in Henley, so I am here nearly every day, and I am still amazed at what a lovely town it is.
I highly recommend this pattern. If you can manage it, try to knit it with the Buachaille – you won’t regret it!
I finished knitting this a few weeks ago, but couldn’t get it photographed until today. I am glad I waited, as it has been picture perfect (despite the hail). The bluebells are out in England at the moment, as is the wisteria, and everything is bursting with colour.
It’s a long weekend here, and I’ve got something new on the needles. Good knitting, everyone!
