My 2019

I decided to make a collage of all my makes this year and share it that way. I had no idea I created to little and all of them (pretty much) are socks. How dull. I did go through long spells of not knitting at all which made these photo’s harder to find among all the cat photos. Speaking of the cat. I started the year by finishing a crochet blanket using scraps of sock yarn. It was for her tree which I got her last Christmas. It’s the only item of crochet I have done this year. I really should make her some more. The second photo is my favourite socks this year. The patter in called Anniversary Socks by Nancy Bush (one of my favourite sock designers). The yarn is by Mermaids Purse. It has a donegal base which is also my favourite. I need to knit these again as I gave this pair away to our ward Clark after she told me she loved knitted socks. It’;s always nice to find a new recipient. The only other one I will mention is the stocking which I loved knitting. I’ve already posted about that though.

The bulk of my knitting was done in a very short period of time and was for charity. Again, I have already posted about this. Since I did seven pairs of socks out of 400g of yarn and in less than 2 months I felt it only right that it should be hosted here too.

Lastly here are four pairs of socks all done in my Zig-Zag lace design. I have plans to publish this pattern via revelry by the end of January. That’s the hope anyway. I just need to knit one more pair in a solid sock yarn and I also want to get some sock blockers for the photograph. 

This year I also discovered podcasts. That is knitting podcasts. Why has it taken me so long to do so? They are so inspiring. As a result of watching these podcasts I have a few challenges for the New Year. That will be for my next post but I am hoping that  the result will be a less boring post when I show off 2020.

I hope all of you had a more interesting year and I can’t wait to see what everyone plans for 2020.

A Trio of Reviews

It has been some time since I have reviewed anything here. Let’s be fair, until recently it had been a while since I had done anything here. However, I felt it was time I reviewed something. Mainly because I can’t show any of my gift knitting yet. Yes, less than four days until Christmas and I am still gift knitting. Not unheard of but two of those days will be spent working on a busy ward. It’s unlikely the gift will be finished. Thankfully I have an understanding sister.

Yesterday I was returning from work. I was actually there to hand something in and not actually on shift. I timed it well so that the station was busy. Rather than get on the short train I decided to wait for the longer route and much quieter train. It made sense to go look at books and magazines. I came across a copy of The Knitter while I was there. I thought this magazine had stopped publishing. I used to love it. My mum and I would buy it every month and read it together. I picked it up because I was feeling nostalgic but actually I found myself enjoying it.

I loved the cable jumper shown on the cover. I normally like a longer jumper and I suppose you could lengthen it but actually this looks good in the shorter length and I can see myself one day attempting to knit it. There is also a good section on colourwork with various designers writing about their inspiration and their top tips. I actually recognised these designers and have admired their work in the past (thank you fruity knitting). There is also a pattern for a lovely colourwork jumper. The colours are all bright and not really me but that’s the great thing about these things. You can change them to suit. There is also a mini project to try your hand at colourwork and a beautiful beret which I have put on my to do list. I need to look out my old copies of this magazine and I will definitely be picking it up next month.

My sister spotted this book in the library. It’s a little late to be doing any of them now but there is always next year. There are some great patterns in there at varying levels with lots of different techniques to keep you interested. I haven’t actually knitted any of these but the patterns look to be well written out. They are broken down into sections which is always helpful. My particular favourites are the little ornaments at the back. I especially like the mini ski sweaters (I realise these aren’t stockings).

I have a new obsession. I am in love with fair iris. I wish that I was good at it but I guess that just takes practise. This book by Monica Russel was also from the library. It’s a good beginners book. The first section goes over technique with some clear photographs. YouTube will be hard to beat for technique but this was pretty well done. It then shows some charts used for borders and there are a few easy patterns to get you started. It then goes on to show more complex charts and these are my favourites. There is a fair isle dress in there that I especially love.

I’m not sure that I will buy either of these books but they were definitely worth borrowing from the library.

Christmas Stocking 2019 - Arne & Carlos

I am so excited to have finished this stocking. It’s a few firsts for me. It’s my first completed time using colour work. It’s also the first time I did an afterthought heel. It’s the first time I did a swatch. Plus it’s the first stocking I have actually finished. 

I have been a long admirer of Arne & Carlos. For those who don’t know Arne and Carlos are a pair of Norwegian designers famous for their Scandinavian designs. They are particularly well known for their colour work designs much like this stocking. Their patterns are beautiful and I have a soft spot for them because they also happen to be sock knitters. They even have their own sock yarn range thanks to Regia.

The stocking starts with the toe and it is cast on using the magic cast on method that I mentioned in my last post. The pattern links to tutorials on this done by Arne & Carlos themselves which is very helpful. At the time I hadn’t planned my archives post on my zig zag sock. While I knew I had done this cast on before I couldn’t remember when and I also needed to watch the tutorial to remember the how. Once the toe is knitted up and you have all your stitches you then begin the pattern which is done in a lovely chart. If I have bought a pattern as a PDF I don’t normally print it out. I did in this case though as I thought I might need a highlighter in order to ensure that I followed it correctly. As it turns out I didn’t need to do that but I did have to concentrate.

This is because colour work is new to me. I had a class on fair isle knitting years ago but I have never actually used it in a project. For this reason I did my first swatch and I was very proud of it. I did it on the round with my DPNs as I would with the stocking. Once I felt comfortable with what I was doing I cast off and tied off all the ends and gave it to the cat to play with. I hoped it would prove to be an alternative to trying to attack my knitting. She did actually play with it for a while.

My colour work was actually neater on my swatch than it was on the stocking. However, I followed the instructions and steamed it once complete and it actually made a huge difference. I still need more practise but I am happier with the end result. I also loved doing the afterthought heel. So much easier than I thought it would be and I can again thank the tutorial link on the pattern. I’m not sure I see the benefit of an afterthought heel on a normal pair of socks but with this it meant that you didn’t have to pause in the colour work to do the heel. Probably has a huge impact on tension.

The yarn is by Rowan and it is a worsted weight. It’s called Pure Wool Superwash. I went by the colours used in the original pattern which were Rich Red, Soft Cream and Granite. The yarn is beautiful to knit with and it knits quickly because it’s so chunky. I love Rowan yarn and I am glad I went with the recommended yarn. The only problem I had with it is that I have noticed that the red has begun to bleed into the white and that was before I had steamed it.

If you are looking for good tutorials you should head over the Arne & Carlos YouTube page. Or if you are looking for a fun knit this Christmas I recommend this. I just need to decide now who gets it.

Christmas Countdown Week 1 - Stockings

So this is my Friday replacement. I had to have a new theme to put in place of the Bake Off. I had a few ideas floating around but I settled on this one. I know that there will be many of you wondering why on earth I would be doing this since it's not even Halloween. Well, I have a number of reasons. First of all Christmas is going to be rubbish this year. Most of you will know that Christmas was my mum's holiday. She would have celebrated it all year long if she could and she would start preparing for the next Christmas as soon as the current one was over. Christmas films would make an appearance as early as July. It's also her birthday. So you can imagine that none of us are looking forward to it. My mum would have hated that and so I am trying to keep things more positive and this is my way of doing that. This is for her really.

The second reason is that if you are a crafter you will know there is no such thing as too early when it comes to starting you crafts for Christmas. I know a few people who have started already. If you include today there are actually only 10 Friday's left until the big day. That's not a lot of time to get your gifts ready. So each week I am going to post a few ideas with some links so that you can be ready too.

This week I decided to focus on stockings. I have always intended to make stockings for family. I even started once and I have no idea where that went to. My friend Lisa of For the Love of Yarn has created a stocking kit. You get some of her scrummy yarn (in red or green). Enough of which to make not one but two stockings. You get the pattern for the stocking as well as a few little extras. My kit arrived this week and I plan on getting started with it soon.

I then did my usual and looked around facebook for more inspiration. I came across this beautiful, Scandinavian style, knitted stocking. This pattern is available from ravelry and is by Kirsten Spurkland. It's not a free pattern and I doubt anyone would expect it to be. I would need more than the 10 Fridays we have to make at least one of these but I think it would be worth it.

The pattern for these stockings is free on the other hand and can also be found on ravelry. It's called Fabulously Festive Christmas Stockings by Julie King. I like their bright colours but I also like the fact that they make use of different types of crochet stitches. You could also pick your colour choices to suit the individual. The downside of course is all the ends you would have to sew in. Might be worth it though.

I decided that no stocking list would be complete without one that has been stitched. This particular one comes with a free tutorial by Sew Like Mum.You can also visit her blog here and have a look at lots of other good tutorials. I have added this link to my tutorial page and the blog to my blog list page. I would be very tempted to try this one as there are a lot of lovely Christmas fabrics out just now.

Last but not least I spotted these little Christmas stockings that you can hang on your tree. My mum had knitted a few of these for her tree when I was little and she used to fill them with candy canes and other sweets. I like that these ones are hung up like a garland and if you were to knit enough of them you could create an advent calendar. This is also a free pattern which is by Little Cotton Rabbits. I might even have a go at one myself this year. You never know. Little Cotton Rabbits itself looks like a lovely blog which you can find here (as well as on my craft blog page). There are lots of hand knit patterns on there.

So that's my first Christmas countdown. As well planned as I sound I have no idea what I am going to do next week. Hopefully you will like whatever I choose and I do have some ideas flying around my head. Let me know if you decide to make anything from this list. Would love to see it.