Kiri update

Four Kiris have now been completed in the Kiri KAL. You can see a detail of Abby's chunky weight Kiri (finished around the same time as mine) here and the week before last Katie and Aliki both brought their finished and blocked shawls to the knitting group.



Katie's kiri is knit in a dk weight from 21st Century Yarns and Aliki's is knit in Kidsilk Haze.

(Morbid) thought for the day.

As I was admiring a colleague's sweater this morning and he was showing me the places where his wife had lovingly darned the elbows he told me about how Irish sailing families used to have their own unique cable patterned sweaters. That way, when bodies were washed up which had been in the water for some time they could be identified by the pattern of their jerseys. Which got me to thinking, if I was pulled out of one of the nearby canals, could I be identified by my Angora Kiri, Kidsilk Haze River* or green Birch Leaf socks? (I told you this was a morbid thought for the day.)

On a brighter note, I finished the first Birch Leaf sock and am onto the first pattern repeat of the second. I made a couple of minor adjustments to the pattern. I changed the heel flap heel for a short-row one with 10 pairs of wrapped stitches**. I also cut short the toe with 12 stitches remaining*** on each needle and kitchenered it shut. Partly because I don't have super long pointy toes, partly because the pattern calls for you to knit until 8 stitches remain and then draw the end of the yarn tightly through them to create what Brenda Dayne so elegantly calls a cat's arse toe. I'm just not a cat person, folks.

I'm heading up north on Saturday for a flying visit so plenty of progress should have been made by Sunday evening (it's a 7.5 hours return journey). I may even be able to start on the Poms. I mooted the idea of a Cookie A. KAL on Wednesday evening at the knitting group and as Aliki has already cast on a pair there'll be at least two of us. My sock knitting plans are all laid out for the next few pairs, Pomatomus, Elfine's socks, Falling in Love, but what I really want to knit are these. There are so many great patterns on Cookie A.'s new site. These are socks where you can't just substitute a heel or a toe because the pattern goes all the way.

* I suspect that after a couple of weeks immersed in canal water the Kiri and River would mainly resemble high fibre content dish rags.

** I'm noting that down here so I don't have to squint at my finished sock when I reach the heel of the second one and can't remember how many wraps I made.

*** Same reason.

WIP - Birch Leaf socks

The first Nancy Bush Birch Leaf sock from A Gathering of Lace (such a lovely book - if you've not seen it I suggest you take a peek) is continuing apace. I tried it on last night after I got about twenty rows past the heel to see how it was fitting and I can tell that these will be favourite socks. I was worried that the stockinette area below the lace rib at the back of the ankle might be baggy but it fits perfectly. I asked my boyfriend what he thought* and after the entirely predictable comment that he thought that my toes would get cold he said he thought that the yarn was a bit day-glo. He may be right, whilst in the shop and in most lights the yarn is a lovely light spring green, in daylight it is on the fluorescent side. I don't mind too much though and I can't wait to wear these.

* a small part of me still lives in the hope that one day he'll come up with some thoughtful and relevant comment on my knitting.

You can tell you're knitting too much when...

...you finish objects faster than you can blog about them.

I finished the Rainy Day socks from the March issue of Magknits just in time to post them off for Mother's Day. Mum seemed very pleased with them and promptly took them off to Nice "in case the room was cold". The pattern is very pretty and quick and I'm planning a pair for myself from some green baby cashmerino which has been hanging around in my stash as half of a pair of mittens.



To be fair there's been a lot of other stuff going on which has got in the way of blogging. Marathon training is still ongoing - the race is in 3 and a half weeks - we've moved to a new flat and we went on holiday. We've moved about 12 miles away to a village outside Oxford so I'm no longer cycling into work in the mornings. Instead I take the bus, which means knitting on the bus. At one stroke I have an extra 50 minutes free knitting time per day. This means that I'm racing through my projects. On the firsy Monday I cast on a Mason-Dixon dishcloth as a simple bus project, it was finished on Wednesday. Then I finished the Monkey socks and have now turned the heel of my first Birch Leaf sock. Pictures of all these goodies will be forthcoming at the weekend. The computer is now hooked up, the new camera is installed and on Friday we get broadband!

Spring is here!

And the Monkey socks are finished, just in time for me to go tripping through the daffodils. The place where I live goes in for the "Xyz in Bloom" thing in a big way so there have been literally hosts of golden daffodils "fluttering and dancing in the breeze" (say what you like - I like Wordsworth and I like this poem). I'm hoping for big things from the tulips and bluebells when we get on to those too.

[pic to follow]

After weaving in the last end from the Monkey socks* I got out the pattern binder** and deliberated on the next project. I'd had a few things in mind, Elfine's socks, another stab at Pomatomus, Nancy Bush's Birch Leaf socks. Which is when I realised that despite being a self-confessed sockaholic I had never knit a Nancy Bush pattern. Decision made I read the pattern through twice (it's a little more complex than your average sock pattern) and cast-on in the solid green Regia. I'm hoping that I will have a pair of spring green birch socks by the time the birch leaves emerge from their buds on the trees outside our flat.

[pics to follow - no really, as soon as I have a moment***]

* I'm not one of those people who likes to sit and reflect between projects, it's literally cast-off—cast-on with me. I think that it's because as do the straightforward knitting which is finishing off the toe of the second sock, or neck of the sweater or whatever I start to look forward to the next exciting challenge rather than being due to some desperate fear of being projectless. I can sit and do nothing, I really can.

** I love my pattern binder. Who knew that that filing patterns in a ring-binder, neatly sorted into sections would make them so much easier to find than when they were "filed" into odd bags or boxes of yarn, or down the side of the sofa?

*** still getting to grips with the new camera and the new flat.

Amsterdam

canals



tulpen



beer



chocolate



yarn



Safe to say, we liked Amsterdam. After a mild passport panic (we booked the trip two days before the new passport arrived - this is NOT something which is covered by travel insurance so I was a tad jumpy for those two days) we arrived in Amsterdam.

We stayed at this hotel which was super nice and positioned just between the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh museum and the Amsterdam equivalent of Bond Street, so when you're tired of looking at all the beautiful and priceless things behind glass you can wander off and look at some Rembrandts instead (I'm just kidding - though who doesn't love window shopping at Chanel?).

We visited the Philips wing of the Rijksmuseum (the rest is undergoing refurbishment) and the Anne Frank house and the Heineken Experience (which was a bit of a highlight). We also had a glimpse into the proceedings of Dutch academia when we attended Mathieu's defense of his doctoral thesis.

Oh, and I found a yarn shop. I'd had a quick google for yarn shops in Amsterdam before setting out but hadn't got as far as finding out where one would actually be (if I'd found the article on Marie's blog before setting out this would have been much easier). And then we happened on it by accident when heading down a side street back to the tram stop one evening. I made a mental note of the address and managed to manouvre the boyfriend back there between the Anne Frank house and the university aula. After he had extracted a promise that I wouldn't buy Rowan or Jaeger (basically nothing that I could get in England) I went inside to find wall to wall....Rowan and Jaeger. Damn! But wait, there in the corner, Regia sock yarn. Luckily the boyfriend didn't know about Regia (I've not bought it before) and it wasn't really cheating as I've never seen solid colour Regia in the UK. I bought 4 balls, 2 in a subtle varigated denim shade, two in a lovely spring green. It packed up a lot easier than the tulips anyway.

Everyone's Got Something to Hide (But me and my Monkey)

One and a bit Monkey socks now knit. I'm only onto the third pattern repeat of the second sock but I'm hoping that I can get lots done at the Bluestockings meet-up on Wednesday. Everyone seems to be knitting these at the moment. Lilith has knit a great pair in some amazing Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn. I really wanted to get some of this at the Knitting and Stitching show back in November but had already gone to town on the angora and had to rein myself in. There's also a very nice pair on the BritKnitCast website knit from Piece of Beauty yarn.

Monkey socks

One completed
Monkey sock. I'd been struggling to find a pattern for my Schaefer Anne sock yarn until I saw these knitted up on Lilith's blog a couple of days ago. The pattern is perfect for the yarn and pretty rewarding to knit as you get a sizeable chunk of knitting for each pattern repeat. The yarn is in the Milly colourway and is all about Spring - soft grassy greens, bluebell blue and a brown that reminds me of just opened birch leaf buds.

Birthday socks

I have been knitting "like the wind" for the past couple of weeks in order to finish two pairs of birthday socks. One pair for Katie from Artesano Alpaca Inca Cloud in a plum shade (the photo makes it look much more purple that it actually is), which I think is new since it doesn't even appear on their website.

I used a rib stitch pattern from the Harmony Guide to Knitting Stitches II. It's a less attractive (and I suspect cheaper) book than the Vogue Stitchionary but just as chock full of great stitch patterns. I've decided that there's no point in trying to do anything other than simple textured stitch patterns in alpaca as it has very little in the way of stitch definition. However, anything that mixes up a bit of knit and purl, such as moss stitch, waffle stitch or mistake rib, is a perfect match for its soft fluffiness.

Despite snatching all the knitting minutes I could (on my bicycle whilst waiting for the lights at the roadworks, waiting for my dentist's appointment, a whole day of knitting and rugby on Saturday!) I just missed the Saturday evening deadline (20 rounds short) and as there was no way I was going to be able to knit through Hot Fuzz at the cinema (way too funny for knitting) I had to present them at the knitting group on Wednesday.



The second pair knit up much quicker thanks to the genius of the waffle pattern - two rounds of *K2, P2*, two rounds plain stocking stitch. They just flew off the needles! I actually started these for the first time at Katie's ball-winding afternoon when I knit the foot plain and on metal needles. By the time I got to the heel I had realised that (a) the pattern wasn't working for me and (b) knitting alpaca with metal needles really hurt my hands, cue a post-work dash to the local yarn store for a set of these babies. I really do love my Brittanys.

Yarn cakes

Lots of knitting news and events since I last posted. First off there was the first great Oxford Bluestockings wind-off at Katie's a week last Saturday. Huge thanks to Katie and her husband for inviting us all round and being such great hosts. Everyone had a great time. We knit, we looked at pattern books, we balled our skeins of wool using Katie's ball-winder and Swift, we drank lots of tea and ate lots of cake. It was fantastic. The afternoon finished with a mass yarn swap (see the yarn heaped table below!).



For a while it looked like no-one was going to swap any yarn as we were all too polite to grab the yarn we wanted, however, once we got going everyone either got rid of all their unwanted stash to a new home or found something which would allow them to make something out of that half ball of Kidsilk Spray. I came away with a ball and a half of mauve Matchmaker 4-ply which is destined to become my next pair of Falling in Love socks, 50g of a pink variegated miscellaneous DK weight yarn, 50g of greeny/pink boucle and I think something else though I can't remember what for the life of me! I wound my Helen's Lace and Schaefer sock yarn into gorgeous yarn cakes. Three of us teamed up to separate Abby's hank of Brora window display cotton into three separate plies which were then wound individually. Everyone oohed at everyone else's newly wound stash. I am now really coveting my own ball-winder and Swift - still only ten months to Christmas!

An orange teabreak

the tea: redbush tea
the book: the Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham
the cake: butternut squash cake
the knitting: very plain sock in Lana Grossa self-striping sock yarn

I wanted to bake something for the ball winding party at Katie's this afternoon and thought I'd try a butternut squash cake after trying a piece of one in the canteen at work (I know, I'm very lucky to work in a place with such an exciting range in cakes). I had a quick look on the web and although most of the recipes were American (and so measured in cups and sticks) I could see that you needed an equal quantity of flour and squash and some sort of vegetable oil rather than butter. Anyway, I used the quantities given in the recipe for Flora's Famous Courgette Cake in Nigella Lawson's Domestic Goddess as a guide.

butternut squash cake recipe

preheat the oven to 180 deg. C (adjust for fan) and line a decent sized tin with baking parchment (mine was 10 x 10 inches square).

250g butternut squash (uncooked weight) diced into 2cm cubes
150g caster sugar
2 large eggs
125ml sunflower (or other vegetable) oil
225g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
60 chopped walnuts

steam or boil the squash until tender then mash until smooth, leave to cool.
mix together the sugar, eggs and oil, then mix in the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and spices.
mix in the squash puree and the chopped walnuts and spoon the mixture into the prepared tin.
bake for 30 mins until golden and a sharp knife or skewer put into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

I actually forgot to put in the spices (due to trying to make a beef casserole at the same time - it could have been worse) and it was perfectly nice. Next time I'll add them in for a little extra bite.

After all that, I'm sitting down for 5 mins before heading out to Katie's with my yarn to wind and swap, patterns to share and knitting to knit. I'm taking Rowan 40, a ball of navy Kid Classic and my new 3.5mm Brittanys so that I can cast on the Anya jumper in a supportive environment. I'm also taking the very plain sock in case I need to hold up my end in a conversation.

Finished object - Falling in Love socks (mini)

Finished at the weekend, just in time for Valentine's day. You can't see the pattern in the photo (partly due to the fuzzy alpaca). I might try to scope out some inexpensive plain sock yarn on the way to Katie's this afternoon in order to knit a full length pair in a yarn which shows off the hearts a bit better.

White birthday

Beats a white Christmas any day of the week. My birthday celebrations on Thursday kicked off with a cheeky OJ and fizz and a walk through the snow to work.
We don't get snow here too often, but when we do it's totally worth the wait.There's something fantastical about this picture of the New College mound (sorry that's its name). It looks like a set from LOTR or Narnia. Apparently the giant snowball to the left of the picture was about nine feet high by the end of the day. Who says students spend too little time working?

I took advantage of the snow to take some shots of a couple of finished objects, another hat for Dulaan and a bear in Rowan Cashsoft.See, it's not just bloggers in Canada and the Arctic that get to have "arty" pics of their FOs lightly dusted with snowflakes.

Later, much later, after enduring a somewhat epic railway journey (the stressfulness of which was due entirely to my own stupidness), I arrived up north for part 2 of my birthday (I love having two birthdays in two locations). There were lots of lovely pressies including earrings to match the necklace I got at Christmas, the DVD of Pride & Prejudice (Matthew McFayden in a frilly shirt), lovely handmade chocs from these people and, best of all, this:From left to right: 3.5mm Brittany birch straight needles (35cm length), Schaefer Anne sock yarn in the Milly colourway, Helen's Lace in Mixed Berries and 3.75mm Lantern Moon Destiny circular needles in Rosewood (80cm length). I am so looking forward to Saturday when I can wind this lot into balls using Katie's ballwinder and Swift.

All the extremities covered

I'm not usually much of a Magknits girl but I am really liking the February issue. There are three (count 'em) patterns that I want to knit, which out of eight patterns in total is a pretty good hit to miss ratio. I've already started the Falling in Love socks. They are so pretty, the little hearts in the lace are pure genius and look so perfect and they're knit from my favourite yarn, Jaeger's Matchmaker Merino 4 ply. I'm knitting this pair, however, in Jaeger Matchmaker Alpaca. I have just over 50 grams left from the four balls I bought in the John Lewis sale over 2 years ago (I really should have bought more I know) and I think it will just stretch to two trainer socks worth.



The lace pattern doesn't show up in the photo but it's looking great. I'm just about ready to cast off the first sock and I should have enough yarn (about 35 grams) to comfortably make the second one.

Next up after that (on the quickie projects list anyway) is the
Santa Cruz hat. Now that my hair is no longer short and spiky I think I can risk a lace hat. There's also these Peekaboo mittens for those mornings when it's a bit too cold for the Fetchings.

Good weekend, sad day

Good weekend...

The Kiri shawl is done and done. On Sunday morning I soaked, squoze and blocked it whilst listening to the Federer-Gonzalez final of the Australian Open. Normally I wouldn't dare to leave a cream angora shawl pinned out on the bed all day (things just get flung there from the doorway too much) but the boyfriend was away for the weekend and I wasn't going to be around either so it could dry in peace. Once the shawl was all stretched out and pinned into place I checked that my ticket was in my bag (about ten times) and headed off to...Islington, home of Loop and Arsenal football club. I made my way there via Oxford Circus (for a quick stop-off in Liberty) and the Victoria line to Highbury and Islington, which it turns out is much more convenient for Cross Street than Angel. Plus you get to walk down Upper Street and drool at the meringues in Ottolenghi: no time for those today but maybe next time. I bought some gorgous Blue Sky Alpaca in an oatmeal colour sportsweight (although I have no idea what sport you might do in this stuff, other than sweating for England!) for a pair of cable socks. I can't wait to knit with this stuff it's soo soft.



Finally, on to the main event of the day. Arsenal vs. Bolton Wanderers in the 4th round of the FA cup. The Emirates Stadium is just magnificent, I do not have enough nice things to say about it. They have this...



...just outside the ground and all the seats (even in the away section which is not behind the goals as in most grounds) are padded. The bloke in front of me said he felt like he was at the cinema. Sadly I didn't get to enjoy my padded seat for most of the second half, at least not after this happened...



...after that we were on our feet for the rest of the match, even when Arsenal equalised.

It was a great day out and I look forward to our next fixture there.

..sad day

After 2 years our knitting group may have to leave the lovely café where we have met up to knit and chat every Wednesday evening. We had just grown too numerous for the space and it seems like it's time to move on.We'll miss the excellent date and ginger flapjacks and the friendly staff. I'm sure we'll find another place to meet soon but in the meantime it all feels a bit uncertain.

All done

It was a close thing at the end but it's done! I had to miss out the final purl back row of the edging but I had just enough to cast off. It's not blocked yet but I did pin it out to get an idea of the final size and shape.



I don't think the edging suffers too much from being a row short. The cast off edge could have been a little looser but I didn't want to risk using the bigger needles and running out of yarn. I think that the points will come out OK when it's blocked though.



Of course the only thing about finishing so early is that I feel a bit left out now that everyone else is casting on their shawls - maybe I could knit another?

When I've felt like I needed a break from the uber-fluffiness of the angora I've been making crocheted earrings. I saw some of these online a week or so back and had an urge to try them. I really like the gold ones, although I still need to find some jump rings to get the right dangle factor.



Can you also guess what book I just bought? Knitting Rules and so does the Harlot.

I also made this cake.



It's a whole orange chocolate cake from the January 2007 issue of Good Food magazine. The instructions start off by telling you to simmer a whole orange for an hour - from that point I was hooked. There's also ground cinnamon and coriander in there so it's a spicy cake. It's a pudding cake so it's best served hot with custard or ice-cream or something but it's pretty good cold too!

Kiri on knitting!

Only six and a half rows to go! After surmounting various crises* in the middle of last week I am onto the edging and into my last ball of yarn. I think there's enough to make it to the end - it just adds an extra bit of excitement. I can't wait to cast off and block it. At the moment the shawl is bunched onto two bamboo straight needles (I couldn't find bamboo circulars in the correct size and metal circulars are just way too heavy for angora, they slip right out if you let go for a moment). I'm so looking forward to seeing its true size and shape. I'm also looking forward to the next project. I finally have the needles for the Anya sweater. I went into Port Meadow Design last Wednesday before knitting group (I'm much happier with the shop now so I'm giving them a namecheck) and picked up a pair of 3.75mm 35cm bamboo straights and a set of 3.5mm 80cm circulars. I was so happy to find the 3.5s. The pattern calls for 3.75mm needles for the cuffs etc. and 4mm for the body of the sweater. Gauging showed that I needed 3.75mm needles for the body and I was worried that neither of 3.25mm or 3.75mm needles (which are much more common needle sizes in the UK) would be right for the various edgings. Anyway, in addition to the needles, the yarn selection in the shop just keeps on growing. They have Debbie Bliss Cashmerino super chunky and Merino DK in colours other than black and navy blue. On a later visit I bought 2 balls of red and one of yellow for some football related socks which hopefully won't take too long to polish off. I worked out a chart for the intarsia pattern but can't think of any way to knit this in the round. Unless inspiration strikes I think I'll knit them flat, back and forth (at least the instep where the pattern will be), as the most straightforward option.

* Notably first dropping a ketchup laden chip on my cream angora shawl and then going K2tog, yo, k, yo, K2tog instead of k, yo, k, yo, k on the last pattern row of one of my repeats and not being able to work out what had gone wrong until I had tinked back three rows. Both a more or less direct result of knitting whilst drinking I might add. Don't do it kids, it's wrong!

Kiri KAL

The project using the Aarlan angora from the Knitting and Stitching show has moved out of the "To be knit" list and onto my needles. I had just about given up on finding a mini sweater or cardigan pattern which would only take five balls of dk weight yarn and when Lara emailed to say that she, Katie and Abby were thinking of starting a Kiri KAL at our knitting group I decided that this was just this thing for me and my angora. Progress has been pretty speedy. There are only five lines of chart to memorize for the bulk of the shawl and it's a very easy lace pattern to "read"--by which I mean that you can easily see what the pattern is doing in the yarn so you are able to know what you should be knitting without referring to the chart. Eunny Jang talks about this somewhere but I can't find the precise link. Anyway, it speeds things up immeasurably unless you go horribly wrong. So far all errors have been spotted either on the same row or on the next pattern row and have been fixable (touch wood).

Shawl after first ball of yarn had been finished

At this point the shawl was measuring 26 inches across the neck edge so I think it will end up as 52 inches across when finished (maybe a little more after blocking). I worked this out by imagining that I could knit a similar sized triangle with each of the other three balls which are earmarked for the body of the shawl (the fifth is reserved for the edging). These four triangles when fitted together would create a larger isosceles triangle with a base edge double the length of that of each of the three smaller triangle. See geometry is useul after all. Anyhow this should make a shawl which is almost the length of my arm span and which should drape down to the waist when on my shoulders.

Leaf detail from the Kiri shawl

Shawl after one and a half balls (neck edge now 34 inches)

Well that went as well as could be expected...

Annoyed by my recent inability to find old posts in the archive when I wanted to link back to them I decided to upgrade to the new Layouts feature on Blogger (hence the shiny new archive). There were a few sticky moments along the way, e.g. when I lost my lovely header and couldn't find my "classic template" in order to put it back. I've also (temporarily I hope) mislaid the Sock Wars and Cast-On buttons. I also had to recreate the new list that I'd just posted about which took longer than expected due to Layouts preferring i rather than em tags for italics (nice of them to mention that). Still, hopefully it will all be worth it and there will be exciting things (such as labels and different colours) to come.

I decided that I needed a new category in the right-hand column for projects which are not yet "On my needles" but are more tangible than "ooh, I'd like to knit that", i.e. I already have the yarn and should start doing something with it (though only after I've cleared out the "On my needles" stuff a bit more). In this category at the moment are the Rowan Anya sweater for which I have knit two fabulously ornate gauge swatches (2nd swatch on 3.75mm needles below). OK, gauging the colourwork is fair enough, but beading? I may have gone a bit OTT. However, it turned out to be useful practice given that I've never beaded anything in anger to date and it revealed that I didn't want to use the method of beading as stated in the pattern.

The second item in the "To be knit" section is the cream angora mini-sweater. I bought the yarn at the Knitting and Stitching show back in October and I'm horribly conscious that unless I get a move on and we have a cold snap, by the time it's done there's no way that it's going to be cold enough to actually wear the thing. I'm still looking for the right pattern though. All the ones I've checked out so far look like they'll take a bit too much yarn or I'd have to significantly alter the gauge (which is far too much like hard work).

I have been busy though. On Thursday I finished my last piece of Christmas knitting the post factum named Very Berry Jaywalkers. They were finished only a day late and they were the only gift I had to give with the needles still in place. My boyfriend's comment on opening it: "You didn't need to leave the needles stuck in..oh no wait, you did." They are however a nice fit and a lovely (though manly) colour.

Over the weekend I finished the first of a new pair of Fetchings in Tapestry. Aliki's comment was "aren't you sick of that pattern yet?". It's amazing what a difference getting to keep the FO makes though. I gave the last five pairs away and I really want a pair for myself, either for typing or reading in bed (the hand holding the book tends to get very cold after the heating goes off).

My new toy!



I had to go out and buy a few extra supplies (thermometer, saucepan etc.) before getting started which prompted some guilt from the boyfriend (who had thought that this would be an inexpensive way to see if I liked candle-making).

Melting the wax and dye



Candles in progress



Melting the wax again



It turns out, I do like candle-making! I have lots of plans for candles with pressed flowers and other bits in them and scented and dipped candles. I just need to lay in a few more supplies--more wax and stearin (which makes the wax shiny and also makes it shrink away from the mould).

I also (it being Epiphany and all) packed away the Christmas decorations until next year. Secret Santa looked a bit non-plussed at being taken out of the bottle and wrapped in tissue.



I took down all the Christmas cards and made gift tags for next year out of the fronts.



I did lots of washing-up with my shiny new knitted dishcloth.



Katie gave me this as a thankyou for her Christmas Fetchings. At first I thought "It's too pretty to wash dishes with" but I knew that attitude would only get me into trouble with Katie ("It's a dishcloth, it's what it's for, etc.") Anyway, it's so much nicer than using a grubby sponge, I even started using the dishcloth I knitted myself from Debbie Bliss cotton ages ago (which has since been hanging decoratively from the back of the kitchen door). As soon as I manage to educate the boyfriend about rinsing and squeezing the dishcloths after use and putting them on the radiator I'll be all set.

Refinished object - Candy sweater

A couple of episodes ago Brenda Dayne of Cast-On asked what she should do with sweaters which were too good to throw out or rip back but not quite right to wear. This is my solution.

The first proper sweater which I ever knit (back in the days when Oxford still had a Rowan shop) was the Candy sweater from Rowan 32. I picked out yarn (Kid Classic--the recommended yarn--in two shades of pink, one light, one deep and bright) and needles. I knit a gauge swatch, I was even on gauge (or thereabouts), and I started knitting. And it went pretty well. Even though I didn't really know the best way to cast-on, or increase stitches, or hold my yarn. My stitches were pretty even and I managed to follow the pattern pretty well (i.e. I usually remembered to do the shaping within one or two rows of where I should have). At last I got to the bit where I had to sew up the left shoulder seam before picking up stitches for the collar. This too went pretty well. Finally there was lots of sewing up (a bit wonky in places due to the dodgy increases), and darning in of ends and snipping off of yarn and it was done. And I was very pleased with it and I wore it.

Of course there were a couple of things I wasn't thrilled with. The sleeves could have been longer, and the waist. I hate sweaters that I'm forever tugging down. And the huge collar did need a lot of rearranging and usually got tangled up with my earrings when I tried to take the sweater off. Still, the yarn was lovely and soft, and the colours were great and the stripes were a great size and I still wore it (just with high-waisted skirts).

Until, one Wednesday night about three or four months back I wore it to the Bluestockings meeting after work (there's something about meeting up with lots of other knitters that inspires grandiose plans - of course I can knit a Shetland shawl! etc.). I had been toying with the idea of lengthening the sleeves for a while and in a post-knitting buzz I felt inspired (one or two glasses of white wine may have also helped). When I got home I went at the sweater with a pair of scissors. Actually I first started unpicking with a darning needle but that didn't go very fast. Kid classic is an absolute pain to rip back (at least it is after two years of wash and wear), especially upwards. My plan was to rip out the huge collar, the cuff and bottom ribbing and then knit down an extra stripe or so from the plain stocking stitch then knit some replacement ribbing to finish off. I would have plenty of yarn from the collar and the leftovers from the original project (maybe this is why Rowan are so generous in their yarn estimates). I won't go into details on the ripping back. Suffice to say it was pretty nasty and left me with a bad case of knitter's lung (all those fibres) for a few hours after each session.

Once I had ripped out the original ribbing and got the resulting live stitches on the needles I knit down the two sleeves to the place where my hands actually started. Then I tried it on. It looked OK from a distance but close up the stitches seemed baggy and uneven - could it be the ripped-back yarn, or the difficulty of knitting back and forth over something which started off in the round? It was a while before I realised the obvious answer, my gauge had changed (no really?). At the same time (luckily as it avoided two lots of ripping back) I realised I didn't want ribbing on the cuffs. Instead I knit (on a size smaller needles to match my 2 year old gauge) plain stocking stitch in stripes down to the correct length for the sleeves and body and cast-off. I left the neck hole as it was, it was actually a very nice shape once I had taken out the huge collar, and finally trimmed all the edges with crocheted shell stitch. The result is a sweater I now wear a whole lot more.* I still wish that the sewing up was a little neater but there's no way I'm opening up that can of worms.


* I actually finished this sometime before Christmas, but then Christmas knitting happened.