Monthly Archives: April 2020

Sunny Saturday swatching

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I admit that I have not been doing much knitting the last two weeks, despite being in lockdown.  I’ve been working from home, which seems to take more time not less, and when I’m not working, I have spent a fair bit of time alternating between long chats with the girls (yay!) and stressing about the news (boo!).

However, on Friday I received some beautiful new yarn in the post:

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Yesterday was a glorious, sunny Saturday and I sat at my kitchen table with the doors and windows open, listening to the birds sing, and working on a swatch. My plan is to knit Koko, a large wrap by Olga Buraya-Kefelian:

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© Olga Buraya-Kefelian

It takes a bit of time to get used to the pattern, but once you’ve figured it out it is easy peasy and flows off the needles.  That is not to say it is fast as (with my gauge, more below) I am knitting 62 rows per 4″/10cm.  That’s going to be an awful lot of rows.  Here is my swatch just off the needles:

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It bunches and curls in on itself, but here it is (still unblocked) with me sort of smoothing it out a bit and holding the edges down.

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You can see that the resulting fabric is very three dimensional.  (On this point, I must interject to say that Olga is a genius!  Truly!  No one does three dimensional patterns like she does.  I took a class with her once which was so much fun; I blogged about it here.  If you get a chance, do take one of her classes.)  I was worried that a lot of the three-dimensionality of the fabric would be lost during blocking, and so I gave it a very light block – soaking it thoroughly but then not stretching it out to pin, but rather pinning it gently to shape.  Here you can see the blocked fabric:

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I tried to take a photo of the blocked swatch which would show the rich, sculptured hills and valleys of the fabric – this is the best I could do this morning:

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Isn’t it wonderful? I am in love! The navy is a fantastic, dark, rich navy that looks blue in some lights and almost-black in others.  It is the perfect background, along with the cream, for this brilliant pop of green!  I am loving this colour combination so much.

The pattern calls for sportweight yarn, and this is fingering weight, so the gauge is way off.  The pattern gauge is 24×54, and this swatch, washed and blocked, is measuring 32×62.  But I love the resulting fabric and I am willing to put up with LOTS more knitting to turn this out.  (Ha! I say this now…..)  I also have 800 metres of each colour, so plenty to make a large size wrap even with a significantly smaller gauge.

And for those inquiring minds out there who want to know what the reverse side looks like (I always want to know this!), here is a photo for you.

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Best wishes to everyone!  Stay well and keep knitting!

Lockdown Flashback #6

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This lockdown is starting to get to me.  I am feeling anxious.  I miss the girls.  I wonder when we will all be together again.  Emma moved into a new place (yesterday) and we weren’t there to help.  (Imagine trying to move apartments during a lockdown!)  Leah is posting photos of her gardening, and canning and preserving, and we are not there to sample the goodies.  Thus, I am anxious, thinking of the girls, thinking of being in Vancouver, thinking of the trip we had planned there in May (not happening now), and imagining being out in the world, walking around in the sun, care-free.  So what better post to link to in this Lockdown Flashback than Cowl-a-bunga, which I posted on the last day of December 2016?

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This post has lots of photos of us wandering around Stanley Park, Vancouver, on a beautiful, sunny, winter afternoon.  Doug, Emma, and Leah are each wearing cowls which I knitted for Christmas presents that year.  It was a good day.

Today it is sunny here, and quiet, and I have new yarn!  So maybe today will be a good day, too.  Here’s wishing you all a good day.  Keep safe, everyone!

Lockdown Flashback #5

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There is a reason we knitters refer to “sleeve island”.  Knitting sleeves is tedious at best and agonizing at worse.  Especially when knitted in the round.  And when knitting a sweater for one’s husband, the sleeves can seem interminable.  For this Lockdown Flashback, I direct you to a post from February of 2012 with the endearing title “Do you love your husband enough to knit the sleeves?”  If you have ever done this, you know what I mean.

When I wrote this post, I was not convinced I would ever finish knitting these sleeves.  I was not sure that even my devotion for Doug was sufficient….

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It was, of course, and the finished sweater turned out pretty damn good, even if I do say so myself.  (You can see the finished sweater here or here.)

Keep safe, everyone!

Lockdown Flashback #4

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Today, let’s hark back to a post from February of 2014.  Green, glorious green was one of my early Wearability Wednesday posts, and showcases a cabled mohair shawl which I cast on in 2008 and finished in 2010.  I love this shawl.

I also really love this post.  It contains photos of me wearing the shawl over a period of years, in many different ways, and with many different outfits.  I think it shows off the versatility of this piece and also the joyfulness of a bright, lovely, hand-knitted accessory.

Some of these photos were taken at home in England, and some in the desert near Tucson, and when I read this post it brings back lots of memories. I hope you like it.

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I later knitted another of these shawls, by the way, which I wrote about here.

If you are in lockdown or self-isolating, I hope that you are well and managing to keep your spirits up.  I’ll be back with another Lockdown Flashback on Wednesday.  Stay safe!

Lambs, and pigs, and bears! Oh my!

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This last week of working at home was a doozy.  While I keep hearing about all of the things people are doing to try to combat boredom (some of them quite inventive), I’m not having that problem. Yet. I put in a lot of work hours this week, and didn’t have much time to knit.

The time I have spent knitting was all invested in my Hatcher pullover, which counts as pretty mindless knitting, so good to do when your brain needs a break.  Here is a progress photo:

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I have put my lovely new knitting bag to good use, and think it looks very cheery:

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Today, Doug and I went for a long walk.  We live in a very small village surrounded by farmland and woods, so we can easily walk for miles without running into people (and those we do happen upon are all very careful to keep an extra wide berth).  I am very aware of how fortunate we are in this regard.  Here I am maintaining proper social distancing from a field of sheep and lambs:

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Doug did not maintain proper social distancing from this pig:

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Many in my neighborhood are putting bears in their windows for the Going on a Bear Hunt movement.  Doug noticed this bear while we were out walking, but it took me a while to find it:

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I continue to have a heavy schedule this week until Friday when the Easter break starts.  I can’t wait for that and am hoping to get some serious knitting done next weekend.

Keep safe everyone!

Lockdown Flashback #3

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For today’s Lockdown Flashback, let’s turn to this post with the lovely title: In which our heroine travels to Rowan Yarn Headquarters and has a breakdown.  The post is from January 2015 and tells the tale of my trip to Yorkshire for an appointment at Rowan Yarns:

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Why did I have an appointment at Rowan?  Why did I have a breakdown? More importantly, did I get a goodie bag?  You will have to read the post to find out.  Revisiting this post made me smile.  I hope it makes you smile too.

For those of you currently in lockdown or self-isolating, how are you holding up?  Does knitting help?  Keep safe everyone!!

Lockdown Flashback #2

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For this Lockdown Flashback, let’s look at a post written way back in May of 2013: Venetian Audrey modelled. I had knitted a beautiful pullover for Emma while she was away at her first year of university, but although I had posted about the knitting process quite a bit, I was unable to get any modelled photos of the finished pullover until she came home for the summer.  The sweater pattern is called Audrey and was designed by Kim Hargreaves.  I’ve actually knit Audrey twice; the first time for me, followed a few years later by this version for Emma.

I am especially proud of this knit.  I had to do extensive re-writing of the pattern to get it to fit her (and to convert it to the round).  I was very concerned about getting the fit exactly right, and as it was knit entirely in rib and Emma was not around to try it on, it was not an easy task.  It took endless measurements, lots of patience, some ripping and re-knitting, and a fair bit of math. I think it was worth it: don’t you?

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Keep well everyone!