FO from ages ago

Knitters often put off finishing details like sewing up garments, or blocking accessories. I have a number of finished projects that just needed to be photographed for sharing.  (It's ridiculous how one can procrastinate at times)

First up,  Dark Pearl by Carol Feller, knit in Alpaca Select 4 ply.

I originally knit this project as part of a KAL when it was released, (June 2014) but was unhappy with how the front sat. If I remember rightly, I think I had added some extra increases to the front section (really should have taken notes!) and found that I did not like how the gathered front sat; I'm sure the fluffy alpaca yarn did not help the lack of elegant draping as seen in the original pattern sample.

The yarn was from deep-stash; a giant cone of green alpaca with a subtle brown heathered effect, bought at the knitting & stitching show a number of years ago. I used less than half the cone for this garment; the rest has since gone to live with another knitter as I have found that alpaca yarn irritates me while knitting. 

After languishing in the to-do pile for some time, I ripped out & re-knit the front section, without any increases along the top front. The front hangs much better, but now that I'm looking at photos, I think I might reposition the buttons to avoid obvious visible gaping.

As is usual with Carol's patterns, the instructions are very clearly written, with plenty of encouragement for modifications to improve the fit. I would certainly consider re-knitting this with a slightly different lace pattern on the front, for example. The alpaca yarn is super-warm; great for cold weather but not too bulky. (It was perfect around last December, when I finished it for the second time!)

The second finished knit is Old Growth by Tin Can Knits.
The yarn is Spud & Chloe Sweater, which I received in a stash swap last summer (Thanks Grainne!)
I flew through this pattern while on our recent holiday in Kerry (or rather, while The Mister was driving there & back again).

I knitted the 2-4 year size, with some extra length as the Small Human is quite slim. The sleeves are long enough to turn up at the garter stitch cuffs for now. so, like most things I knit for her, it has some room for growing.  I also omitted the lace motif from the front.

As with most Tin Can Knits patterns, Old Growth is written in a wide variety of sizes, from newborn to large adult. The pattern is well-written; simple & straight forward, but with a little visual twist in the wide neck & off-centre button band. 

Photos of me were taken with the Small Human's assistance. We have been experimenting with a tripod & remote for the camera.  She's good at pressing the remote button; not so good at telling me that there's a tissue/ piece of paper sticking out of my arse pocket. Like many children, she's just begun play school.  I'm both proud & nervous for her quiet little self going off on new adventures; I'm grateful that I get to see her growing up, & make memories with her.  

Tour De Fleece 2016

In spite of spinning for the duration of the Tour de Fleece, I somehow forgot to share the results!

My second big project of the Tour was to spin this Extra Fine Merino from Hedgehog Fibres.  The colour way is mostly grey with little flashes of vibrant colours; mostly pink and green/yellow with some little hints of blue.  The fibre really is super soft; not at all compressed or fulled by the dyeing process, and practically spins itself. 

The finished yarn is 275 metres / 165 grammes of 3 ply, approximately DK weight yarn. 

I have had a particular project in mind before spinning this fibre & wanted to spin some complementary contrast yarns in shades close to the wee vibrant flashes of colour in the fibre. I've been rooting through small amounts of fibre in stash, and have spun a few bobbins full of singles in various shades. Some of the shades are not quite right, & have been set aside for another day.

After another dig through the fibre stash, I realised that I had the perfect deep pink shade of fibre;   I dyed a blend of 70% merino, 30% cashmere from World of Wool  dyed during last year's Tour de Fleece. Unfortunately, I have discovered that my fibre dying techniques are far too.... felty. Perhaps I boiled the pot for too long, or rinsed out the fibre too soon; the fibre was quite compact & felted, especially at the ends. I was able to tease out & pre-draft most of this into a spinnable condition, with a little time & effort.

L-R:
Merino/cashmere blend from World of Wool; dyed by me; 40g/73 metres.
Green/Yellow mystery fibre from Hedgehog Fibres Itsy Bitsy Fibre bag; 36g/ 47m.
Peacock & Teal Merino from Oliver Twist; 53g / 30m

The finished yarns have already worked their way into a project with lots of soothing garter stitch. More on that - hopefully sooner rather than later!

Gray-dient spinning

It's Tour de Fleece time, and I have some spinning to share! 

I've been working on a gradient yarn in Shetland fibre. This fibre has been in my stash for a very long time, & I had been planning & even started spinning this project months ago (and then ignored it for a while). The Tour de Fleece was the perfect excuse to finish this project. 

I started with 111 g of black fibre (the natural Black is actually a dark brown), and 84 g of the grey, & divided the fibres into five sections. 

Trying divide all the fibre in proportion broke my brain, so I chose to blend the shades in three gradient sections, and to leave the oddly numbered excess as single colours. 

I spun in five sections; the fibre was weighed in grammes as follows; 

Section 1 - black only - 51 g

Section 2 - mostly black - 30g black & 10 g grey

Section 3 - half & half - 20g each black and grey

Section 4 - mostly grey - 10g black & 30 g grey

Section 5 - grey only - 24g

I partially blended the colours of each section using hand carders & spun semi-worsted.

The singles were chain-plied to keep colour in order.  The finished yarn is 270 metres of about aran-weight, with some variation (my dreadful hand carding resulted in a few little clumped up sections of fibre, & some thick & thin sections of finished yarn).

I had originally intended to knit myself a Boom! shawl. While spinning this, I realised that I (being a super sensitive type) don't particularly like commercially spun shetland fibre next to my skin, never mind my own lumpy, sticking-out endy hand spun shetland, so I think this may be destined to become the yoke of a very cosy cardigan or jumper (with a long sleeved teeshirt underneath).

Finished Knit: Morvarch Blanket

My latest finished project is one that I am quite proud of. It's a baby blanket, based on the simply stunning Morvarch by Lucy Hague (Ravelry page here), & is knit in Dublin Dye's Merino DK.

I knit this in a thicker yarn & larger needles than called for in the pattern; DK weight, 4.5mm needles, and at a gauge of 19 sts to 10 cm in stocking stitch before blocking. (It may have stretched a little while drying. I really should measure it properly!) The pattern begins with the centre square, knit from centre out and in the round. I really should have printed an enlarged copy of the chart for myself for this section; I tend to knit in low light in the evenings & found I sometimes had to pick the chart up to decipher it. 

For the chart B & C sections (the outer motifs), I cast on extra stitches before knitting the short row sections; roughly centred the cable motif in these stitches & omitted the lace border stitches. I finished the blanket with a garter stitch border. 

The blanket will be used to wrap up a new person, currently cooking away. At least it will be if I can get it away from this Small Human, who is delighted to get to snuggle & cuddle it.

I owe a massive thank you to Yvonne of Dublin Dye for her support in this project, for taking my sort-of vague but sort-of specific colour requests & turning them into one batch of lovely almost-solid  yarn based on Dublin Dye's existing Icicle shade.

My Ravelry Project page here goes into more specific details for the modifications. I hope the notes are thorough enough to be replicated, if wished. 

While I was working on this knit, Lucy Hague released another stunning interlocking cable design, already in blanket form! Iona is part of the Illuminated Knits collection. It took all my self-discipline to not get distracted by this thing of beauty. 

Procrastination

In spite of a recent lack of finished knits to share, I have actually been knitting.
Test knits & sample knits, none of which can be revealed.
Swatches, some of which I have been working on for two years (!) and that are finally coming to a conclusion.

And some knits that just need ends sewing in, and maybe some wee little buttons.

All of which helps me realise that I really do dither about & put off actually getting things done.
Some of this is due to a combination of indecisiveness; poor yarn combination choices and lack of confidence.  And some of it is because I just want to knit all the time, & not do all those other things that really finish off a knitted item to perfection.

Yet somehow I have been (very easily) persuaded to join in this year's Tour de Fleece* again. I've two spinning projects in mind, & hope to share some finished yarns soon enough.

*In which one spins yarn for every active day of the Tour de France. Projects / goals are self-determined, & photos of yarn in progress and finished yarns are shared online; through Ravelry, Twitter & Facebook. There are some truly incredible hand spinners out there. Go on & have a look. The worst that could happen is that you might end up with a sheep.

Road Trip to Kerry Woollen Mills

During a recent wee holiday near Killarney,  I was delighted to discover that our accommodation was about a ten minute drive from Kerry Woollen Mills. On arrival, we were greeted ignored by a sleepy dog who showed no interest in rubs (no response to some friendly noises. I'm particularly cautious around unknown animals when the Small Human is with me)

The shop itself is packed with an array of woollen items, largely aimed at the tourist market; the usual heavily cabled sweaters, scarves etc, and some woven items too. 

But I was here for the yarn...
I've only used Kerry Woollen Mills' yarn once, years ago, and while I was still in awe of the softest of soft things. Over the years I've developed more of an appreciation for coarser wools, and as far as I knew, this yarn was no longer available in Dublin shops*, so I was excited to have a good browse of the yarn in person.

The shelves were packed with Aran Wool** - different shades included solid colours, heathered shades, and one shade in particular ('Salmon') with different coloured plies ( - and with Organic Aran Jacob Wool, with different shades created by sorting  the coloured fleeces. There's also a selection of spinnable fibre including merino tops available. 

I was especially delighted to be told we could browse the next room - part of the factory that was not operating that particular day. We didn't get a guided tour (It would have been cheeky to ask on the spot) but had a good nose around the factory floor. Photos will be sadly lacking in any correct machine terminology - my use of words here will be based entirely on my hand-spinning knowledge.

These bales of multiple coloured wools were waiting for carding:

The wool is passed through a series of rollers, covered with fine wires that brush & prepare wool for spinning:

As the wool progresses down the machine it is more fluffy & inviting. I managed to restrain myself from poking at the machines directly.

This was only a brief glimpse; there were other factory areas that carry out different parts of the process. Carol Feller's 'Contemporary Irish Knits' includes an informative essay on production of wool at Kerry Woollen Mills, complete with actual proper terminology!

Of course, I had to get some yarn while I was there; Aran Wool Rambling Rose (a heathered shade) and Salmon (spun with different coloured plies) both came home with me. I think the Rambling Rose will be a cardigan for the Small Human, and the Salmon will be... something. 

*I have since discovered that The Donegal Shop in Stephen's Green Shopping Centre stocks Kerry Woollen Mills Aran Wool; possibly other branches of The Donegal Shop too. There's no mention of this yarn on their site though. 

**As stated in Contemporary Irish Knits, the Aran Wool (dyed yarn) is made from a mixture of Irish & New Zealand Wool. There doesn't seem to be any mention of this on the KWM website, which I find a pity. This visit has piqued my curiosity of Irish yarns  - particularly those sold through primarily 'touristy' outlets - and the source of their wool. If Irish mills do use Irish fleece for hand knitting yarn, I really wish this information was readily available to a casual browser. 

Edited to ad; since publishing this post, I've been advised that Winnie's Craft Cafe also stocks KWM yarn. I really need to get out of the house more often... 

Finished Knits: Wowligan cardigan

I *finally* have some finished knits to share! *

Pattern: Wee Owligan by Kate Davies

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in Silver

Beads: size 8 Japanese Seed Beads from stash (I believe I bought them in Beads & Bling - now closed - many moons ago)

Buttons: from Hickey's Fabrics

The cardigan is worked from the bottom up; sleeves are worked in the round & joined to the body. The raglan yoke decreases are worked before a row of wonderful wee owl cables. 

Modifications: this cardigan was intended for a rather tall little girl. I knit the 5th size, for 4 year old, with extra length. The body was 30 cm from underarm to hem; the sleeves 29 cm from underarm to hem. I also made changes to the sleeves as I found the cuff very narrow fitting (I prefer to be able to roll back slightly too-long sleeves on new cardigans). I cast on 44 stitches; worked ribbing as described in the pattern, & knit for 4 rounds. I then worked 3 pairs of increases as described in the pattern every 10 rows. All these changes meant that I used more yarn than called for in the pattern, which I was expecting. 

Instead of sewing on buttons-for-eyes as described in the pattern, I added beads while knitting the owls. I threaded the number of beads onto an additional length of yarn & knit the entire row 16 from the chart using this length. I placed the beads between the 'eye' stitches in the owl cable. The effect is very subtle, but I hear the recipient is quite impressed with her new sparkly cardigan. 

This was a lovely pattern to knit; well-written instructions and a dotey finished object.  It's sized from 6 months to 10 years, & is a really welcome reinterpretation of the much-loved Owlet sweater. I think I'll be knitting this again as my own sparkle-loving Small Human has already requested her own.

*My recent knitting has been dominated by sample knits, gift knits & swatching, none of which make for satisfactory blogging. There have also been some neglected projects in need of half-decent photos.   Must do better....