The Sheep returns as we revisit the stash, hopefully without too much of a bust-up, and a new plan for 2012. Plus there are fabulous new patterns from my favourite knitwear designer and my favourite yarn shop, and a terrible Crime Against Crochet…
Brooklyn Tweed – Wool People Vol.2
My Mum knows me well – look what she had waiting for me under the Christmas tree:
This is homemade Damson Gin. I say homemade, it’s not homebrewed, but it has been infused with real damsons (and a lot of sugar) at home for several months, which means it’s utterly delicious. There are various recipes online for flavouring your own gin (or vodka) and it’s very easy to do. But if you simply can’t wait, I recommend purchasing a little Sloe Gin, which has a similar taste.
My other half has headed out for a poker game with the boys, so this is my plan for Friday night:
Maybe not that exciting to some, but pretty much perfect for a cold winter’s evening as far as I’m concerned…
This is a post I started writing recently:
“I finished this cardigan at least a month ago, but I wanted to mention it on here because I’ve been living in it ever since.
This is partly down to the yarn, Quince & Co. Osprey, which is fantastically gorgeous stuff. Smooth, soft, lightweight, with excellent stitch definition and elasticity. It’s in a colourway called Petal; a very very pale peach which often looks more like a creamy natural shade.
The pattern is the popular Aidez, available for free, which I followed pretty much to the letter, though I adpated it for knitting seamlessly. The perfect cardigan to throw over almost anything, soft and cosy on a chilly day, it’s one of my all-time favourite knits.”
And now I am having to update it with sad and terrible news.
I have FELTED my Aidez cardigan.
wails with despair at own stupidity
I know, I know, how could I have done it? The knitting gods obviously decided it was high time they had a little fun with me, and then did it just as I was washing some of my most beloved knitwear. This is the first time I have ever ballsed up the washing of my handknits, despite a somewhat cavalier attitude. You see, I machine wash most of my knitting. Understand, I don’t just fling it in there with a handful of Daz, but I realise this is still considered madness by many knitters.
What usually happens is that I put a few things in on a cold handwash/wool cycle, at a low spin speed, with some Woolite, and everything always turns out fine. However, we have a relatively new washing machine, and whilst the wool cycle is fine, its default temperature setting is 30 degrees, which is stupid. And so, on this occasion, I forgot to manually change the temperature to a cold wash.
Now, it wasn’t a total disaster. My Aidez has felted, but most people probably won’t notice. The yarn has lost much of its elasticity, the fabric is stiffer and the stitches in the narrow cables on the front much less defined. It’s shrunk about an inch all over, mostly lengthwise, but the armsyce (which was already fairly narrow) is now tighter. So it’s still wearable, as long as it’s over a thin layer, but it’s not quite the perfect, luxury, go-with-everything cardigan it once was and it seems such a waste of an expensive yarn.
The other item that was in the same load was my Festive jumper. I know, I know! This also has pretty much survived. I’m amazed the Lanark wool didn’t felt completely, but it actually looks fine. However it has definitely shrunk. Again, this was a fitted jumper to begin with, so not ideal. Still wearable, but no longer the perfect fit. Then again, as a Christmas jumper, it’s use is more limited anyway, so I’ll try not to worry about it until December.
I’m just so annoyed at myself for making such a stupid mistake. And typical that it would happen with the two sweaters that I was most proud of and enjoyed wearing the most. Ah well, live and learn. And of course at least the beauty with knitwear is that, if it comes to the worst, you can always make it again.
Just in time for Christmas, the Electric Sheep Knitters’ Audio Pantomime is back! This year we bring you a great deal of silliness, some bad jokes, a few double entendres and the odd sheep, in the story of Aladdin.
And if you missed the previous pantos (or are utterly baffled as to what the hell a panto is) check out Panto and The Panto Strikes Back.
Merry Christmas!
I’ve teamed up with the utterly charming greentrianglegirl for a Christmas Special on her knitting podcast A Playful Day.
If you’re not already listening to her lovely show, then you’re in for a treat and I highly recommend you give previous episodes a listen over the holidays. We had so much fun (and a lot of mulled wine) discussing our Christmas wish-list, family traditions, and the worst cocktail recipe in the history of the world.
You can hear the whole thing and see the show notes over here on her blog, or look it up in iTunes.
Meanwhile, the Sheep’s festive episode will be up in time for Christmas, so watch this space for Return of the Panto…
I’m finally getting into the Christmas spirit, after a weekend that involved mulled wine, mince pies and It’s A Wonderful Life. I’ve also been knitting away on my Festive Sweater. Based on the charts beautifully designed and generously made available by What Katie Does, it’s a simple top-down raglan I’ve been making up as I go along, with the festive reindeer scene added after the body and arms are split.
It’s a brilliant design – reindeer, snowflakes, Christmas trees – what more could you possibly need to get you in the Holiday mood?! As you can see, I have shamelessly copied created an homage to Katie’s original, in blue and white. I’m using Lanark DK wool which is knitting up beautifully. It’s dense and hairy enough for the stranded colourwork to stick together well, but softer than I thought it might be. The blue is a lovely heather shade, with a subtle purple/red undertone that stops it being too flat.
I attempted to start a knitalong over on Ravelry, which hasn’t exactly worked out (it was a rather ill-prepared effort on my part) but we have a lovely wintery collections of knits going on nevertheless and there’s still time to join in!
I’ve knit top-down raglans before, but always in an ad hoc fashion. Here, I needed to hit a specific number of stitches for the body, and that proved much more difficult. I also seem to have ended up with very narrow sleeves, but then the whole jumper is quite fitted, with no ease, so I think it will be ok. I still have one more sleeve to go and then some aggressive blocking may open things up a little. I haven’t done the snowflake pattern on the sleeves because I haven’t had time to work out the chart and the maths.
Hopefully it will be finished just as the first Christmas party of the season arrives!
I don’t wish to cause anyone alarm, but it cannot have escaped your notice that Christmas is approaching with the kind of speed that never seems to apply to Post Office queues or conversations about trainspotting with your Great Uncle Alfred.
So, how goes the Christmas knitting for you? Or are you sensible enough to avoid it all together? If you are embarking on this noble and, frankly, insane cause, then may I beg you learn from my many, many mistakes and have a listen to this for a few top-tips, if you haven’t heard it already.
Having mostly avoided Christmas knitting for the last couple of years, I seem to be falling back into it. However, at least I have learnt the lesson that it’s not a good idea to start knitting a 42″ jumper in the middle of December.
So I have a few modest plans – a hat, a cowl, a pair of fingerless mittens, even (whisper it) a pair of socks; as many of them as possible in a fairly chunky yarn, and simple patterns that will be relatively quick knits. We’ll see how far I get…
If you’re looking for some quick Christmas knits yourself, then allow me to don an Elf hat (figuritively speaking of course) and suggest a few of the lifesavers I’ve found:
And remember to keep the mulled wine/egg nog/gin handy; for medicinal purposes only of course…
I was doing so well. I was knitting up fingerless mittens and cowls and hats, and stash-busting admirably. And then I used some leftover Malabrigo Worsted to make some mittens and was reminded just how darn soft that stuff is. It's as if a sheep has been cross-bred with a chinchilla and fed pixie dust – it's not natural I tell you, which also accounts for the magical, hypnotic way it can practically force you to knit with it.
So I was lusting after Malabrigo something rotten. And I had been planning to knit the very lovely Vaila jumper. But then I realised that my immediate wardrobe need was for more of a cardigan (as I am living in my Aidez at the moment) so my attention was drawn to Driven, yet another fabulous design by Veera Valimaki. Seamless, knit all in one piece from the top down, it's casual but still fitted and I am a sucker for the texture of reverse stocking stitch. At this gauge it should knit up quickly enough for some instant gratification, and will be oh-so-practical for layering over pretty much everything, so I have entirely fallen off the proverbial wagon, and ordered some Malabrigo. In my defence, may I also blame this, a beautiful version I spotted on Ravelry and which I am shamelessly copying. I've ordered the same colourway, I'm planning to make the sleeves full-length and I think her idea about knitting to a tighter gauge is an excellent one for trying to mitigate this yarn's tendency to pill/fall apart. As I am knitting not one but three other sweaters at the moment, this may have to wait its turn. But I think it's going to be perfect, low-key Christmas knitting over the holidays… Bliss. Buy the pattern and see all details over at the Rain Knitwear Designs website, and on Ravelry: http://www.rainknitwear.com/index.php/patterns/cardigans/drivenThis week we’re out to make the world a better place through the power of wool and a good moustache. Plus, there’s a rundown of some British wool; a yarn review; some quick knits I’ve been working on; and a website with the advice you never knew you needed.
Movember, Wife of Brian, Beardhead
Wovember, The Campaign for Wool
British Wool – Jamieson, Well Manor Farm, Lanark, Texere, Blacker Yarns
Hoxton Handmade’s Favourite Knitting Patterns
