Proudly Presenting: Katherine the Great

I have just finished a wonderful scarf! I decided to call it Katherine the Great, since I completed the final stitches of this project at a lovely friend’s house and her name happens to be Katherine and yes, she is GREAT.

But something else occurred to me, whilst christening this wonderful new item in my wardrobe – this scarf is not just great, but also large… larger than it’s original, which I made a few months ago for my niece Rebecca. Moreover, I realised that I never posted a picture of the wonderful scarf that Rebecca took home to New York, duh!

First things first… the inspiration came from a pattern called Rusty Pearls. The yarn (2 ply baby alpaca) came from my knitting buddy, soul mate, chief adviser for all things important and trivial, Sue. And funnily enough, the silk used in the crotchet edges came from yarn I bought with Sue at the craft fair in Darling Harbour many years ago, at the very beginning of our friendship. Here we are, still loving each others’ company (and in this case, celebrating Sue’s birthday).

I loved the little scarf so much, I had to have my own, but a larger version. The playful edging is giving this scarf such a gorgeous finish, especially in a contrast color and texture. 

I have to admit, I never managed to uncurl the top edge of the scarf 😫, I tried and tried… I finished it with an I-cord and various hand and crotches stitches that according to various online resources promised to stabilise stockfinstre stitch fabric, but alas… nothing worked… and fortunately it did not worry Rebecca.

For Katherine the Great, I just kept adding stitches, and when I nearly ran out of the 100gr skein, I started introducing another one, stripe by stripe, to blend the slightly different shades of off white.

When I thought I had surely done enough knitting I loved working on the crotchet edge with my final bits of silk… but I thought the scarf was actually not big enough to snuggle up in. No problem – I just picked up more stitches and carried on knitting until I truly ran out of yarn and worked another silk edge, until I ran out of that, too.

I just LOVE this…

This and That and proudly presenting something

Frantic Feverish Fingers have Finished this hat in no time! Huzzzahh! Tomorrow it will travel all by itself in a wee parcel to Canberra.

 

 

 

I know it is not perfect, I think the colour scheme is not what he had in mind and I have no idea as to the fit and size. This was quick, so the next version will be a piece of cake, until we get it right!

We had a nice start to the day in Daisy’s Milkbar in Petersham.

So Very Retro!  It was nice because Jo is studying for her HSC and has stopped leaving the house and socialising,.. so we have taken it upon ourselves to give her “outing treats”.

Yesterdays “outing treat” was a quick trip to the Art Gallery of NSW to see the three female trailblazers for Modernism, O’Keefe, Preston and Crossington- Smith. Yay. I DO like “outing treats” a lot!

Hope you had a great weekend! X

Colour work Carry On

I have continued to swatch and swatch over the last few weeks, with two aims in mind. Firstly, yes, I do want to wear that Fair Isle jumper I have been dreaming about, and I would like it THIS WINTER. But I also would love to make a nice 4ply jumper for my husband, he has only got ONE jumper knitted by me! Both are huge jobs and I don’t want to get either of them wrong. Not the colours, the patterns, nor the fit!

I have been fairly happy with this swatch, adapted from Kate Davies’ new book, but the colour oracle (Vicky) said the green in the red pattern was wrong. I don’t mind it, but I don’t like the weird yellow/ beige in the brown narrow pattern, in fact, I don’t like the brown either.

I ordered some 4 ply yarns with the justification to get cracking on Patrick’s jumper – and surely among these new yarns must be a shade that will bring my Fair Isle together! I ordered them just as individual shades, since I thought one of them would be surely working for Patrick, but when they arrived, I thought they were great together!

4ply sure is thin! Especially when you knit the linen stitch, which makes these beauties sing! Sadly, due to the slowness of the knitting of a big men’s jumper in this stitch, I just had to dismiss it.

I tried a few other things, just a back and forth gauge swatch and some stripes steeked, but both have been dismissed – the former being too boring and the latter reminding me too much of Where is Wally.

Finally I am settling on the dark turquoise with a vertical stripe achieved through knit – purl pattern. I think… (swatch not available yet).

 

Colourwork

I have had these beautiful yarns forever, Rennie from Scotland. My former boss bought a few shades for me when she attended a conference in Aberdeen, geez, that must have been in 2010 (!) and I ordered more shades to make a stunning fair isle knit. I never got beyond the sampling stage, because I was so preoccupied with making the most perfect jumper or vest in the world.

There is so much to consider! Not just the pattern, and the colorway, but also whether I have enough of each colour to maintain the pattern throughout the entire garment. So another question is, whether I will supplement the Rennie yarn with other odds and ends in order to make an authentic fair isle. And then the gauge! Some of these samples where knit flat, some in the round and then steeked, I used different needle sizes…

I finished a jumper yesterday, with a bit of colourwork (waiting for the photographer to return from school today to organise a photo shoot), so I have got second wind to really give it a go. Watch this space…

 

the Little Shawlcollar Cardi

I am really not up to date, sharing the progress of my projects! I have been living in this little cardi all winter! I chose to knit a fairly firm fabric, so the shape has kept well after wearing it for all these months.

Again, I found a nice image on the net, maybe this was called ‘Nimbus’ originally? Anyway, different yarn, different gauge, detail, etc. I added this little slit at the side seam at the waist. I like the finish, since I bound off front edge and hem with an I-cord.

Off memory, I knitted the body bottom up and the sleeves top down. This is a real “feel good” piece!

A Poncho

Ponchos do not feature in my wardrobe! They are too … Unfitted, drapy, uncontrolled… I tend to opt for the fitted little cardigan or jumper that shows of great craftsmanship and know how of fit and body shape. That’s the tailor in me… But I found some Noro yarn heavily discounted and could not walk past the glorious colors! After searching for a good (fitted!) pattern idea, a highly skilled fellow knitter pointed out that this yarn does not hold shape and wears out quickly, if the garment is too fitted.

So I thought I should go into new territory. A poncho for my friend Karen. I started at the neck (cast on 88 stitches) and worked my way down. After 20 cm/ 4″, I increased 4 times 8 sts every 2nd row (front, back, shoulders) and then continued increasing 4 sts front and back only (2 at the front, 2 at the back), whilst increasing twice 4 sts every 4th row at the shoulders (2 x 2 sts) and then no more at the shoulders…

When it was nearly long enough, I increased front and back only 4 sts every 4th row (2 at the front, 2 at the back).

to finish the neck, I picked up 88 stitches from the inside of the neck with 1/2 size smaller needles and knitted all the way up to my cast on row. I then cast off my sts with a 3 needle cast off, incorporating the cast on sts.

For the hem, I did something similar: I picked up sts 5 rows above my final row and knitted down to the hem in slightly thinner yarn, then I did a 3 needle cast off with my new and hem stitches. I am very pleased with this neat finish.

I am very happy with the result! I used 5mm needles and 380gr of yarn. This poncho measures 56cm/22″ from below the neck to the front/ back tip. Easy peasy.

Proudly Presenting the Basketweave Henley

I am definitely behind with posting my projects, yikes. I finished this lovely little Henley many weeks ago! It is great to wear for many reasons: it is fine wool, so not too warm. It is well fitted, so it’s ok to wear under jackets. It is figure- hugging and simply makes me feel a bit sophisticated :).

Not sure it needed the neckband to be thinner at the centre front, but hey, that’s what I did.

A final shot to celebrate the waist shaping and the set in top down sleeve (tutorial a few posts ago).

And a photo of my new work space.

Happy Easter!

Time flies. Excuse me for stating the obvious.

It’s been too hot to photograph me in the cream coloured Henley that has been the subject of this blog a few weeks ago. But all of a sudden the mornings are cold and I have started wearing the gorgeous creation! But when I return home after work it is too dark to take a photo…

So, I have started knitting a gorgeous cardigan from some ancient yarns donated by my darling friend Sue… Needless to say that what you see on my lap is the second version – I entirely ripped the darn thing last weekend and re-knitted it in a week… so it’s a bottom up cardi with set in sleeves (which are knitted top down) and a cute wrap collar which I am trying to work out in the fading light, on my verandah, enjoying the screeching of the cockatoos and the croaking of the froggies… 

and I think this glass of white wine is probably my best friend, holding my hand in this endeavour… but do look at this photo (courtesy of daughter Jo) and you can literally SEE my impatience: I have knitted the grown on button band AND sewn on the buttons, you can spot a set of double pointed needles of a nearly finished sleeve and possibly you can see a random circular needles which holds the stitches of the second sleeve cap… Well… If not… Let me tell you, Holmes, that I am also well and truely past the half way mark of the collar by now…

This marks a nice  Easter weekend. We were going to go away but simply missed the boat by being too late with the planning. So we enjoyed a nice few days in Sydney. Some good communal chilling out, preparing for (one lucky family member’s) the Europe trip, hanging the kitchen curtains, chatting, playing board Games, having Sue and Michael for dinner, visiting the Ruined Castle In Katoomba, staging an epic Easter egg hunt for 4 teenagers, checking out the Sydney Biennale at the Carriageworks… It sounds like we did a lot. Phew. Happy Days… Happy Easter!

All this is just as well. “Aladdin” is going into fitting stage now and I have a very chaotic (and gratifying) 2 weeks ahead locking in shapes and sizes. It is very exiting, but no doubt tiring… So it’s very nice to have had the chance to relax before going into the final and mad throws of the production!

 

Top down sleeve head tutorial

I think I have cracked it! Neat and well- fitting sleeve heads are an ongoing fascination for me and I have researched and studied them extensively! this is a method I swear by and it is a pleasure to share this with you. Do try it at home!

The pattern I used for this Henley constructs the garment bottom up, that is the body and the sleeves. Well, I hate bottom up sleeves for more than one reason. Firstly, I find sewing fitted sleeve caps into the body tedious. Secondly, it is a pain to adjust the sleeve length.

I looked at the pattern and it said that 14 sts is the final amount to be cast off at the sleeve head (remember: 14).

So I picked up with a slightly smaller needle the sleeve head stitches around the armhole. I started picking up stitches at the bottom of the armhole in the section AFTER the armhole shaping. The armhole was shaped binding off on the body 1 x 4 sts, 1 x 3 sts, 2 x 2 sts, 2 x 1 st. So I started picking up on the straight section and I picked up 1 st every 2 rows.

Why? Because when I knit the sleeve head with short rows, I add ONE stitch every two rows on each side on the sleeve head!

When I got to the top of the sleeve head (after picking up 20 sts), I put a maker in the work, picked up 14 sts 2 sts for each 3 rows. After my 14 sts I put another marker in the work and picked up 20 sts (one st n every 2 nd row) and I cut the yarn.

Why 2 sts to every 3 rows? Because that is where the ‘fabric’ is flat, stitches are joined to rows, just like on a button band…

I then moved the sts. I slipped 20 sts so my needles were ready to start knitting the sleeve head, the first 14 sts.

With a second dp needle (correct for my gauge), I knitted the first 14 sts, put a short piece of wool for the short rows to mark the turn, turned the work, knitted back 14 sts AND an extra stitch from the holding needle AND I put a marker thread as I turned the work.

Then I knitted the right side again, this time picking up an extra st from the holding needle, which I knitted together with the loop from the marker thread. Before turning the work, I re-positioned the marker thread.

I knitted all stitches back and when I came to the end, I picked up a stitch from the holding needle, positioned the loop from the marker thread to the left of it, pulled them together, re- positioned the marker thread, turned the work and so on… Until all 20 sts on both sides were used up.

Then I added the bound off stitches and incorporated them into the short rows, so I added on the sleeve head what I had bound off for the armhole.

Voila! This sleeve head is definitely fitting neatly into the armhole! Yay!

PS: In row 3, I re- introduced the basket weave pattern…

 

 

 

Proudly Presenting TD #2

Well, TD refers to “top down” and TD #2 indicates that it’s the second cardigan version of a pattern I originally designed last year (and knitted up), and that there are more versions of this to come. BECAUSE I LOVE IT and it fits so well…

This second version of the pattern is simply a little shorter and the front lace has got an extra vertical row of a small pattern. It’s probably not that noticeable to the uninitiated eye… Or is it? Here is a shot of TD#1 in comparison.

I think this is going to be my standard pattern for ‘a little knitted cardigan’ – it is so very light (380 gr) and comfortable, both relaxed and smart… and by now I have the pattern fairly well internalized, so it’s not hard to make another one.

I used Barbara Walker’s method of top down sweater knitting as outlined in her book Knitting from the Top. I refined her method by knitting short rows on the top sleeve to create a perfectly fitting sleeve cap.

So, both cardigans are knitted in the round and then I steeked the centre front and added the button band. TD#2 is knitted on slightly smaller needles to keep the shape better!

For all edges I used a rib that features purl stitches and the lace knit that occurs in the lace pattern.

And with this accomplishment under my belt, I sought out something small and quick for my next project. I have always intended to whip up this lovely little Henley.

When I knitted up a sample for the waffle knit, the pattern was very unimpressive and I had saved something more bold on Pinterest which seemed to work really well!

And look at the reverse side, it’s very pretty, too!

Have I mentioned that I have started a 6 month contract on the costume’s for Disney’s Aladdin? The designs are amazing and I am thrilled to be on Australia’s A team of costume manufacturing to realize them. The hours are long, the production scope is epic, the organization/ coordination of a all the making, beading, hand painting and other embellishment is EPIC, but it’s so much fun! :).