Yarn, yarn… and more yarn!

Had a great day at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace yesterday. There were lots of yarn stall this year ( the number seems to be increasing every year). It’s great being able to see and feel yarn, that isn’t available locally. I was very pleased with my purchases – should keep bme busy for the next few months at least. This year I came away with some heavy laceweight cashmere from KnitWitches, 2 balls of kauni yarn, some Jamieson and Smith jumper weight and best of all, some beautiful malabrigo sock yarn from Socktopus. I also bought some very nice buttons and a shawl pin from a the One World Button Supply Company.

I’ve now started two of my planned cardigans. The first one is Liesl from Ysolda.com.

 

This is a really nice, simple pattern, but I’m not really too happy with my yarn choice (Wendy aran with wool). I really wish I had chosen a nicer yarn, but at least this will be easy care (i.e. won’t felt if it accidently finds itself in the machine!)

The second cardigan is the Rayne Wrap Cardigan from Cosmicpluto knits.

I’m using the New Lanark aran yarn for this one. I love working with this yarn, and will definitely buy more for future projects.

I’ve been searching Ravelry to decide what to make with the Alexandra Palace yarns. The Kauni will become a shawl – either another Eva’s shawl or Revontuli huivi I haven’t decided which yet. I think the Jamieson and Smith will also be a shawl, probably knitted. I’m looking for a nice garter stitch based pattern (thinking of this one).

It’s that time of year…

Autumn is well and truly here. The days are getting shorter and the weather has suddenly turned much colder. At around this time of year, my enthusiam for all things yarn realated increases dramatically.

 I’ve been busy knitting and crocheting away of the past few weeks. I’ve finally finished the olive cardigan.

I’m pleased with it, but it’s really a spring/ summer cardigan so It probably won’t see much wear until next year.

 I also finished the charcoal wallaby. This is lovely, warm and cosy, and will definitely get a lot of wear over the next few months.

I have three or four more cardigans planned, two will be machine washable, and I wll be using a wool acrylic blend for those (wendy aran with wool - comes in a big 400g ball and is very reasonably priced) and I have ordered some lovely wool and wool/silk blends from New Lanark Yarn Shop for the other two. More details in my next post!

Ooops!

We finally got our campervan after months of waiting for the conversion to be finished and we have had several trips away over the summer. I have been taking my projects with me, and although I didn’t get a lot finished, I have really enjoyed knitting and crocheting whilst relaxing at various campsites. I did however finish one of the colourful socks

And the hemp summer top

 

The “Oops!” in the title refers to the fact that two of my favourite cardigans met with a felting accident after my very helpful husband put them  in the washing machine (the original top down round yoke and my shell stitch wrap around cardigan). I must admit I was very upset at the time, and vowed never to make anything wearable out of hand wash only yarn again.

I have started on two more seamless garments – this time knit rather than crochet, and worked from the bottom up. The first will be a basic cardigan with either a crew neck or a ribbed collar in Texere Troon Tweed (not machine washable!)

And the second will be an adult sized wonderful wallaby in Wendy Serenity ( a very soft alpaca/wool/synthetic mix)

it’s interesting working on the two projects at the same time. The texere tweed is a little bit rough compared to the synthetic blend, but it’s so much more enjoyable to work with. Although the Wendy yarn is very soft, it does have a synthetic, slightly squeaky feel, but I probably wouldn’t have noticed so much if I hadn’t been working with the Tweed yarn as well.  I think in future I will probably stick to working with non-synthethic yarns but just be more careful about ensuring that they do not end up in the washing machine!

A quick update

It’s been well over a month since my last post. I haven’t had much crocheting and knitting time over the past few weeks, but I have been plugging away, working on several of my unfinished projects. I’ve completed several more sock yarn squares and I’ve also made quite a bit of progress on the malabrigo lace shawl (remember that?).

I haven’t really felt like working on my larger projects, but I did pick the the hemp cardigan the over evening, and I’m going to try to finish it this week, so that I get at least some wear out of it this summer

I’ve seen many more beautiful versions of Eva’s shawl of the past few weeks. My current favourites are those in self striping yarn (particularly this one by mettetation).

Hemp cardigan – progress

A quick post to show my progress with the Hemp summer cardigan. It’s coming along quite nicely.  

I haven’t worked on it for about a week, so I’m not sure when it will be finished. I’ve actually got a grand total of ten unfinished projects at the moment – 2 blankets, 2 toys, one pair of socks, two shawls, 2 cardigans and one cowl. I’m going to try not to start anything else until I’ve finished 2 or three more things.

Hemp Swatches

I haven’t made much progress on the olive cardigan this week, partly because I went wrong, and had to rip back quite a few rows, and partly because I’ve started a couple of new projects.

In my last post, I mentioned that I was thinking of crocheting a summer top out of the lanaknits hemp yarn. I decided to try my own design in the end, so I’ve started swatching with the yarn. I’ve never worked with hemp before, and I was surprised at how tough and string like it is. My swatch was initially quite rough and stiff…

 

… but after washing it softened up, and the drape improved considerably.

I’ve written a rough pattern, and will post progress photos as I go along.

I’ve also started yet another pair of socks. In this picture you can also see my little index card with my basic sock pattern instructions which I have attached to my sock bag.

 

I really enjoy having a pair of simple stocking stitch socks on the go -they’re easy to travel with and require minimal concentration!

Olive Cardy – progress

I’ve just finished the schoppel socks, so I think I will concentrate on the olive cardigan to see if I can get it finished in the next week or two.

 

It’s going well so far. I am adding a bit of waist shaping in this one to get a slightly closer fit.

I’ve been thinking of making a little summer top in hemp yarn for a while now. I bought some allhemp6 from lanaknits a few months ago, and bought a pattern with it to make a top down seamless knitted tee-shirt. It’s a really nice pattern, but I’ve already got quite a few similar tops, and I feel like making something different. I saw this on ravelry recently and I think it would work well with the yarn. I’m not sure whether to try it, or try to make up my own design – we will see! 

I really enjoy seeing other people’s versions of my designs, particulary when they have done something different with them. There is a lovely version of Eva’s shawl on daisyfrog.blogspot.com in worsted weight alpaca. It looks lovely and cosy.