Heather Knits

Another bit of catching up. This was my third project (out of four) for the City and Guilds Certificate.

This is the front:

And this the back:

My original inspiration were some photographs of burnt tree bark I took down at the Eden Project a couple of years ago.

For the back of the cushion I came up with a pattern inspired by the geometrical fracturing of the bark when it burnt. Here is my test sample, done in different yarn to the stuff I finally used, and with a different number of stitches and rows in each section, but I did end up using the same basic idea.

For the front I started by sketching one of the knots on the bark, and then manipulated this until I got a kind of flower shape. I knew that I wanted the flower shape to be worked in a textured stitch against a stocking stitch background, so I swatched several different textured stitches, and different yarns until I settled on k1,p1 moss stitch as the most effective.

Out of all the yarns I tried I decided I liked cotton best, but a soft cotton, not mercerised. I experimented with holding several strands of 2ply machine knitting cotton from Uppingham Yarns together, and knitting with 8 of them at the same time on 5mm needles. I tried one sample with all strands the same colour (brown):

one with 6 strands of blue and 2 of purple:

and one with 4 strands each of brown and red, which was the one I finally decided on:

For one project out of the four we also have to produce a mood board / display board, so I thought that this project would lend itself well to that.

Fiona has marked it and it is all OK (whew!). I had better get a move on with the last project!

I am on a roll! I’ve finished another item for my niece. This time a hat. This was a gratifyingly quick knit

The pattern is Elfin from Wee Woolly Toppers by Woolly Wormhead. I used 5mm needles, and KnitPicks Swish Worsted, 100% superwash wool in Bok Choy. Another dash to the post office is in my near future and then it will be winging its way across the Atlantic.

I finished the Kimono cardi for my niece yesterday. So far I am winning this little race as she hasn’t been born yet, although I may be cutting it a bit fine. I shall run out to the post in a minute, and cross my fingers it will arrive before she does!

I am very pleased with how this has come out, and hope my niece (or at least her mummy and daddy) will like it. The pattern is Garter Stitch Baby Kimono. I used 2.5mm needles and KnitPicks Comfy Fingering, 75% cotton, 25% acrylic, in Hollyberry with Ivory edging. I deviated from the pattern in using short rows to shape the front rather than casting off, doing an icord edging rather than garter stitch, and using press-studs for easy getting on and off rather than buttons. I toyed with the idea of having icord ties at the sides, which would make it more flexible size-wise but thought they might be a bit bulky and fiddly, whereas at least the press-studs should make access nice and easy.

I finished this back in April and am only now catching up on sorting out photos of finished stuff.

And here is a closeup:

I am very pleased with how this has come out. The pattern is Haruni, and I used 3.5mm needles. The yarn was some I spun a while back, and the colour changes have worked very fortuitously with the pattern. The only fly in the ointment was that it got a bit felted when I spun it in our rather temperamental washing machine after hand washing it. Needless to say the washing machine will not be remaining in our employ for very much longer. After some serious blocking the shawl is mostly recovered, though a bit fuzzier than before, and luckily is still perfectly wearable. It is more of a little scarf than a big snuggly shawl, but I think will be very useful in the neck of my coat once the weather cools down a bit.

I actually finished these back in March while at Skip North, and have finally managed to take some photos of them.

The pattern is Circle Socks by Anne Campbell. The yarn is some of my first spinning (I dyed the fibre too), and was a bit variable, and also rather thicker than that specified in the pattern. However the pattern was also written for smaller feet than mine, so by changing the needle size to 2.75mm it all worked out fine.

It has really surprised me how much the knitting evens out the wobbly bits in the spinning. The socks are still noticeably different, but not nearly as different as I had feared given what the yarn looked like!

Things have been a bit quiet on the blog because I have been knitting like a maniac to get my Autumn in Anatolia jumper finished. I made it! and handed it in to Fiona to mark on Sunday. I shall now be catching up on everything I haven’t done over the last week or so, when it has been definitely knitting every minute that I could find to finish on time. I managed a row in the hairdresser, and a row at my Uncle and Auntie’s house when we went to see them last week. I am definitely getting better at time management though, because this time I had packed my bag and finished everything at 8pm the night before, rather than still printing charts at 5am like I was with my Keble Cardigan.

Anyway, back to the important stuff: here is the jumper:

And the back:

And another one of the front:

And lying flat:

As you can see the sleeves are looking a bit long because I had a moment of stupidity with the blocking. I laid it out on a towel and kept adjusting the shoulders to make sure they were even, not realising that I was stretching everything vertically. By the time I realised what I had done it had dried and there wasn’t enough time to wet and reblock. I will be doing that when it is back from marking.

Apart from that little hiccup I am very pleased and proud of it. I love the way the colours and patterns have come out and I think it is going to be very wearable. Although in typical fashion we are now having a week of warmish weather

I have finished elephant number ten, the last elephant for a while. No more of my friends are allowed to have children for a while, I am feeling a bit elephanted out.

I used Opal 6ply again. This yarn has a vast number of metres on a 150g ball. I have managed to knit two elephants and a camel out of one ball and there is still some left over!

I used 3mm needles again. This yarn is a little thinner than the Patons yarn I used for some of the elephants, and could probably have been made on 2.75mm needles for a slighly smaller animal, though he would have been harder to stuff then. The pattern (in case you can possibly have forgotten) is Elijah.

Another elephant! This one using the left overs of Patons Fairytale Colour 4 Me in yellow, blue, and green.

3mm needles as before. The pattern is Elijah.

And specially for Rosie, who wondered whether I was going to decorate the Christmas tree with elephants:

This is the tree at my in-laws house as we didn’t have a Christmas tree this year.

The pattern very conveniently uses almost exactly 1.5 balls of the Patons yarn, meaning that having knitted three solid coloured elephants I had enough left overs for a multicoloured one. I like how he has come out, although it would have been nice to have enough yellow for yellow ears rather than green. However I do think the green ears make him quite individual

I’m not sure what red elephants in the morning or night signify to shepherds, but I have finished one anyway.

I actually finished it in December, but am finally sorting out my photos now (hence the non-snowy photograph), so I am counting it as the first finished project of 2010.

The yarn is Patons Fairytale Colour 4 Me DK again, this time in colour 9467, and I used 3mm needles again. The pattern is Elijah again. This is another one destined for the bottom of the pyjama drawer until the appropriate moment to hand it over arrives.

Another elephant!

The yarn is Patons Fairytale Colour 4 Me DK again, this time colour 4985. I used 3mm needles.