One Finished Object! The cotton toddler dress

Oooh, I'm so pleased with myself! Finally, a finished object to share. I've been taking this to my local Crafternoon for what seems like ages. In fact, last time, although I was at the sewing up stage, the ladies looked rather surprised to see that it was still going!

I can't seem to remove the first picture, so you get two of it in all its glory! Greens and blues don't photograph terribly well, so the colours are greener in real life. I'm so pleased with how it's turned out. More on my Ravelry page about (veery minor) changes I made to the original pattern. I think this will be great for my daughter, over leggings or on its own while the weather is nice. Now, what to knit next??

 

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One nearly-knitted toddler tunic - oh, and a knitted garden

So, the Sirdar knitted tunic is SO nearly done! This is despite me sewing the sleeves on to the wrong sides ... Still, despite me changing needles to a smaller size, it's still huge for my daughter, so there's no hurry. I'm really looking forward to seeing her in it. Though it certainly isn't cheap to knit, I am loving the Sirdar DK cotton so it's been very enjoyable to work on. In fact, variegated yarns must be en vogue at the moment, as several of my knitting group are working with similar yarns. In contrast to some, the colours in this cotton have worked out spread quite evenly through the knitting, giving it an even appearance too. Lovely.

Love, love, loving our local wool shop, too. Here is their knitted allotment!! Vegetables, fruit, sunflowers, bees - it's ace.

 

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What have I been doing with my time?!

I *have* been knitting, in amongst the working, driving and toddler-wrangling! I'm writing this in a precious, free moment while Small is at nursery. This is my latest project:

I usually avoid any yarn that is variegated or flecked, but this is just gorgeous-it's a tight cotton and the colours go so well together. I had worried that this kind of mercerised cotton would be too shiny for knitting a garment, but the shop where I bought it had a top knitted up in the 4-ply version and it was beautiful and not too shiny at all. This is going to be a tunic dress for Small, the "Rosina" tunic dress from Ravelry by Libby Summers. I've already put some notes on Ravelry in case anyone is thinking of knitting this.

I also managed a quick Easter basket which I finished on, er, Easter Saturday!

This is from a free pattern from the Let's Knit website and it was a quick crochet project in double crochet and DK yarn.

It's been so hard to find time for blogging, though I've kept up with reading other people's blogs! Still, I'm hoping that now I've got a bit more time to myself, I'll feel like it's a 'current' blog. So, thank you for reading, and more very soon!

 

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Although I've been quiet, I've been knitting!

Well, I haven't written this for a very long time. This has been because of a huge, lovely change in our circumstances: the arrival of our daughter! As you can imagine, we have had a total change of lifestyle and I am finding I have much less free time! Still, I did do some lovely baby knitting before she arrived:

I've just updated my Ravelry page on this tank top (Sirdar 4420). It's a good pattern, not too tricky and it looks good. It's nice and stretchy, too. The only drawbacks are the the shoulders are quite wide for a small baby and I found the decreasing for the V-neck quite tricky as the numbers of stitches weren't written out row by row - you're left to "continue", which I found rather hard! Nevertheless, the Jarol yarn is lovely and she has been wearing it over sleepsuits in the mornings so it's been getting plenty of wear - and washing!!

I also made this blanket, from the fantastic book by Nikki Van De Car, What To Knit When You're Expecting:

This was obviously a very easy knit. I did it in cheap Aran and it's knitted up really well and is getting lots of use. The patterned border makes it more interesting to knit but the stocking stitch part is also nice and quick. There's lots in the book I shall also make, and I see there's a toddler book, too.

Nikki blogs here: http://www.whattoknitwhen.com.

Phew! I hope everyone's having a good weekend. It's lovely to be back!

 

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In Which I Read a Book, and Finally Finish The Interminable Jumper!

Great cause for celebration! The cardigan I've been knitting for absolutely ages is done!

I'm really pleased with it. I'll put more details about how I adjusted the pattern on the pattern notes in Ravelry, but it's Sirdar 9730 and I think it's turned out really well. It does look, from that photo, rather as if I have excessively long arms, but these are at least an inch shorter than the pattern said! I'm also very glad that I made it an inch longer in the body than they said, as it's only just long enough. It's exactly what I wanted: a 1950s style cardigan which I could wear with jeans. It's made from rather luxurious Sublime yarn, which I bought on sale in Norfolk, so the whole thing cost about £30 - though I do have two balls left over. Hurrah! Most definitely going to be wearing it to Stitch & Bitch today!

Some rather nice treats to ease me into this week: I've finished The marvellous Merivel by Rose Tremain, and, as if by magic, Charlotte Mendelson's Almost English has arrived today! I ordered it from The Book People after reading this guide to ethical booksellers: http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/buyersguides/miscellaneous/booksellers.aspx.

Merivel was just fantastic. Tremain's writing is simply never awkward or verbose, despite the novel being in the first person and full of the eponymous Merivel's musings on love, sex, animals and royalty! It is superbly observant and the seventeenth century settings and characters simply spring to life. This is a unique novel - a delight.

 

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Knitting, Coffee, Norwich & A Novel

This novel, Margaret Forster's The Unknown Bridesmaid, has been my holiday reading. I often ended up reading it at 5am, too hot to sleep.

This is a bleak but brilliant book. Forster's writing is nuanced and precise; she has a gift for portraying all the shades and subtleties of the character of Julia, her protagonist, as Forster charts Julia's life from childhood to adulthood. The novel alternates between these stages of Julia's life so that the reader is invited to see the effect that Julia's childhood has on her adult life, and Julia's adult profession as a child psychologist serves to reinforce these links between past and present. Forster's gift is also clear, I think, in her ability to create a protagonist who is ordinary yet interesting; not quite likeable - not admirable, nor warm - but whose actions and character are engaging nonetheless. Julia's character drives this novel, though her mother and aunt Maureen, her cousin Iris and school friend Caroline, are also beautifully drawn. There are some peculiarities to the novel: for example some major events in Julia's life are only alluded to, rather than depicted. Still, I read this avidly, though uneasily, until the final paragraph, which seems to offer a resolution.

In between bouts of reading this, I went to Norwich, a city which I love because of its gorgeous medieval buildings and tiny bars and cafes. I've mentioned its wool shops, too, before: lots of lovely yarn to be seen in Jarrolds and Crafty Ewe. I didn't buy anything, though - which sounds virtuous until I admit that I have the yarn for two adult projects and a baby project in my wardrobe... Anyway! We hunted for a house which has (supposedly) beams in it from the Spanish Armada. You can just see one, I think, on the left by the door at the bottom in this photo:

I loved these great posters. I have also been busy knitting my vintage-style cardigan in a colour called, er, Marmalade - it is rather mustardy and bright, but I am hoping I'll like the finished colour when it's done. It's Sublime yarn, and it's lovely - it doesn't split, and the stitches show up really nicely. I seem to have an awful lot of it, though, as I looked at the yardage (which I don't usually do) of the yarn Sirdar suggested first and made sure I had the equivalent - but there are just balls of it everywhere I look! Cardigans are dicey because the sizing always seems a bit unsatisfactory somehow - but we shall see! Fingers crossed!

 

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#HandmadeMonday - Yes, I Can Actually Complete Knitting Projects

 

Oh, my goodness - I'm glad this bauble is done! It was *way* harder than I expected: it's on 4 DPNs for a start - which somehow seems a lot of fuss for a little bauble - and it is basically all casting on and off . . .  and has a *chart*! Fouf. Still, it looks cute now, though I wasn't feeling quite so fond of it last night, as I struggled to knit around the polystyrene ball (yes, the top segment is knitted once the polystyrene ball is in) while trying to keep track of Hunted...  The ball was harder to find than I expected, too - but they had loads in Something Special  in Feathers Yard, Holt (where they also sell some nice James Brett yarn and great dress-making fabrics). I was going to buy about 12 balls and make a garland - I'm so glad common sense kicked in and I thought I'd just try the one...

 

 

A bigger achievement, now: my GF's jumper is done - woo hooo!  This has been on the go for a while. I wish I could say it's been a pleasure. Actually the yarn itself has been: I didn't use the Sirdar Chunky that the pattern was written for, but some gorgeous Sublime Merino Chunky which is pure wool. It feels just luscious. However, the making of the jumper was a drama! Firstly, my GF is a size 14, but I had to undo part of the back and reknit it as a 16. Then I nearly ran out of wool, even though I'd bought TWO extra balls, and the requirements were the same for the 16 as the 14 . . . I think this is a feature of Sirdar patterns as I also ran out of wool when I made my own top similar to this one: I used the proper wool, too, for that one and the lovely @SmilesALot very kindly sent me a rescue ball from her stash to complete it.

*Anyway*, also, on the jumper above: I knitted what I thought was the front, all the cables etc, only to find that it was only the back! I obviously hadn't looked carefully enough at the pattern, but I could already see that the wool situation was going to be tight ... so I had to unpick the top and shape the neck to turn the cabled back into the front, and then knit a plain stocking stitch back to save wool. It seems to have worked, although I didn't plan for the fact that cables pull the knitted fabric in rather, so the SS back is a little wider than the front - but actually, although I worried about it while stitching it up, you can't tell.  I was asked, plaintively, a fair few times by my GF whether she would be able to wear it at Christmas and now - hurrah - she can. So, overall, I'm quite pleased - but I am also relieved it's worked out so well! Christmas can go ahead, after all!

 

 

 

In Which I Venture to Les Tricoteuses & find yarnbombing in Sheringham...

A lovely sunny day in Holt last week - and a browse in a lovely wool shop:

I was really keen to check out this shop properly - I love the name (with its connotations of gallows knitting) and Chapel Yard, its location, has great little shops and galleries. The huge window shows the lovely yarns inside.

This is a pretty good generic picture, actually, of all the Places To Buy Yarn that I like - the gorgeous coloured patty-shaped balls of pure wool. This shop has an excellent range of luxurious wools - everywhere I looked there was more! It was great to meet Mary Pembleton, the owner; she turned down her German rock music to talk about the shop, our dislike of acrylic, "squeaky" wool,  and showed me her newest arrival - *British*, no less - Debbie Bliss Blue Faced Leicester Aran yarn, in gorgeous autumnal shades -

I want to go back and buy the mustardy colour to make some gloves I've found a pattern for in Bronwyn Lowenthal's Love to Knit  - Mary has knitted the swatch here in red and it feels dense and lovely and woolly! She has the Debbie Bliss accompanying pattern book, too. Bravo, Les Tricoteuses! www.lestricoteuses.co.uk

The knitting theme dominated our trip to Sheringham, too; luckily, my Lady Friend is a patient partner. First I had to snap this part of the sea front mural:

But then - huge excitement - we saw more Sheringham *yarnbombing*: fantastic knitted fish and starfish on the seafront -

Aren't these great? I wonder if it's those @NorfolkNinjaKnitters again ;)

On a rainy day, we went to Norwich. While the Lady Friend had  a tour of the Cathedral, I paid a visit to Jarrolds, a great independent with lots of lovely Sirdar wool and good haberdashery bits too. Had a crochet conversation with the sales assistant who was wearing a black crochet collar that she'd made herself. Then, a trip to the Cathedral refectory:

And a scrumptious cheese scone:

I love Emma Bridgewater's crockery - though the use of this Biblical quotation is rather surprising, as the second part of the verse from the Song of Songs reads, "For I am sick of love." I suppose that's why only the first part is on the plate!  I know there's no mention of a Wednesday #WIP - but that[s because my Sarah Hatton jacket is still .... still .... still on the go! 

She cooks, she crochets....

So often, patterns for crochet accessories are frumpy and/or downright unnecessary - but two patterns I've come across thie weekend have been so beautiful and timely that I've just had to make them.  I've set my chunky Sarah Dallas jacket to one side in favour of crochet collars and necklaces. Above is my crochet collar in progress. This pattern is from www.lululoves.co.uk - a beautiful blog, with gorgeous pictures of Emma's crochet makes, as well as other aspects of her life in Wiltshire. This collar is just lovely to make: it curves really nicely, and seems pretty easy, too - and quick! My only disappointment is my own wool: because I was so keen to start it, I rather ignored Emma's yarn advice on the blog...so although the colour of this is lovely (I wanted a tea-stained, vintage-y colour), the cheapy DK is making the whole thing rather bulky. Still, now I know it works up so nicely, I can buy some proper 4-ply cotton.

My second crochet effort at the moment is a necklace, designed by Carol Meldrum at www.beatknit.com. You can find this pattern at www.themakingspot.com. This is made with a teency hook - 2mm - so I am practising it with a rather girly pink to see if it works. The cotton is Sirdar Luxury Soft Cotton 4 ply. It's got quite a nice texture but splits *really* easily so I'm having to undo stitches every so often as I haven't managed to hook every strand through each time. I've added, here, 12 more chains to the original number . . .  will report more on my amendments when it's done!

What else have I done recently? Oh: read Alison Bechdel's fabulous graphic memoir about her mother and her own childhood, Are You My Mother? I've written a review of this, so more to come.

 And, finally:

I bought Peyton & Byrne's British Baking a few weeks ago, and made the blueberry and hazelnut crumble recipe from it yesterday, as British blueberries are on sale at the moment. This was just delicious - like eating warm blueberry jam . . .

Anyway: it's Stitch n Bitch tonight, so better sort out my knitting bag. 

Hooray! One Completed Knitting Project: My Jumper!

If you have seen me on Ravelry celebrating this already, then I apologise! I am, though, really pleased with this, my most recent knitting project - it's not often I can tout an FO, even if it's not Friday. Knitted in Sirdar Click Chunky, this was really quick and not too pricey. The back and sleeve are plain, so there's just enough pattern to keep your interest along the front. The original pattern was designed for Sirdar's Connemara Chunky, which is variegated and not really my kind of thing. I thought I'd jolly up the useful grey with the red which I had left over from a Wibbling Wools sale last year. The Lady Friend pointed out that this looks, basically, like a kid's jumper - but hey, that's part of its appeal. It looks like you could wear it on the beach, going for a walk, or sitting outside a country pub drinking real ale in the evening. . . .  Perfect.

Graffiti Knitting hits North Norfolk

I wonder who has knitted these? In Sheringham this week, I saw at least 5 of these lovely knitted crowns, many complete with jewels and glittery bits, between the station and the beach. There are no signs or stickers around them, and the window of Sheringham's wool shop, Creative Crafts, is giving nothing away: it advertises a weekly Knit n Natter, but I can't imagine its usual clientele doing anything as subversive as yarn bombing street lights with freestyle crowns. They are fab! They are glitzy and jaunty and somehow really cheering to see. I think this is the first time I've actually spotted some graffiti knitting without being told that it is there. So, three cheers for the Sheringham Graffiti Knitter(s), whoever you are! I think these are just great!

Having seen these, I began to take more notice of the murals and artwork in Sheringham  - resulting in a rather grim plaque on the Art Trail:

The bronze plaque on the left says that the fisherman on the right are wearing traditional "ganseys", or knitted jerseys. Apparently, the complicated Aran patterns were so that the women could identify their men if they drowned - they would recognise the pattern! Eeek! And, sure enough, though my crummy BlackBerry photo doesn's make this clear, the two men on the plaque have got jumpers with different patterns on. What a horrible thought.

However - who would have thought that Sheringham was so arty? - I *then* came across this just fantastic piece of beach hut art:

I hope the owners don't mind me using this here - the doors were locked and there was no-one around. The back ground is yellower than it is here and the whole hut is a lovely primrose colour, with this black silhouette as the only decoration. Brilliant. If only she'd been knitting instead of reading.

But what of knitting? I *can't* get my bootees right (what a sentence), so I have unravelled them and turned my back on them. But the Sirdar chunky jumper is coming along really nicely. I think my Lady Friend is right, and it is basically a kids' jumper in terms of its school story colours (red and grey), but chunky is speedy and it has cables - which I love - so I am pleased.  I did knit quite a bit of it, in between finding knitted crowns on the streets, but I also spent quite a long time reading the new Patrick Gale, A Perfectly Good Man. His writing is very good: warm, evocative of Cornwall, and witty. I'm not competent to knit and read, so occasionally Patrick Gale won.

I'd love to hear any news of the Sheringham Yarn Bombers!

Finally: quick Wednesday WIP. As I've just mentioned, the Sirdar jumper is the WIP. You can see it in the previous post, where I'm knitting it with a lovely sea view!