Month: October 2007

A scarf and a squirrel handbag.

Remember that frighteningly tangled skein of silk?

This is what became of it:

Silk & Mohair Scarf Silk & Mohair Scarf

It’s a narrow scarf, which is long enough to reach below the waist on both sides. It’s knitted with one strand of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk and two strands of Colinette Parisienne held together. I cast on 13 stitches, on 5mm needles. Every fourth row, I changed to a 10mm needle. Otherwise it’s just plain garter stitch – keep knitting until the yarn runs out!

Here’s the last of the pre-ordered tote bags, which I finished today.

Squirrel handbag Squirrel handbag

You may have noticed that it’s a different shape from the others!

The photographs don’t show the shape particularly well – it’s more curvy than it looks. It’s big, too – in the second picture the bag has an A4 pad inside it, to keep it nice and flat. It has one long handle, and you can just see a tiny sneaky peek of the Design By Claire label in there too.

Tomorrow night is Hallowe’en and I’ve just rustled up a very quick costume thanks to Martha Stewart. I’ll tell you all about it as soon as I have some photos. Happy Hallowe’en!

Some days you just shouldn’t knit.

I was off work yesterday, with tonsilitis, so I thought I’d have a nice relaxing afternoon on the sofa, gently coughing into a bit of nice simple knitting.

I had a skein of Colinette Parisienne mohair and a skein of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk, which I thought would pair up nicely together to make a fabulously soft scarf.

I wound them into balls with my trusty ball winder, and made a start.

I had wondered whether the mohair might be a bit of a pain, as I’m using two strands held together with one strand of the silk, and I was a bit worried that I might get into a tangle using the yarn from both the inside and the outside of the ball at once.

Three rows later, and I discover that the problem is not going to be with the mohair, but with the silk.

My carefully wound ball has started to fall apart at both ends!

An hour of careful untangling later, and I am faced with this:

That could have gone better. 🙁

The LJ Brit Knits community have been extremely helpful, and in the end I was able to untangle the whole thing, without taking the scissors to it! It only took five and three-quarter hours… I could have knitted the whole scarf in that time!

Speaking of which… I’m about twenty rows in, and I’ve now decided that the scarf is too wide. I’m really not sure yet whether I can face unravelling the knitting as well as the yarn, so I might just have to learn to live with a short, wide scarf!

Lesson Of The Day: Don’t wind silk into centre-pull balls!

Knitting Synchronicity

Every now and then I go through my giant stack of magazines, cut out the bits which interest me, and chuck the remains in the recycling.

Over the weekend, I found a picture of a jumper that I really liked, and idly wondered whether I could be bothered to work out a pattern to knit one for myself.

Today, I arrived home from work to find the Fall issue of Knit1 magazine sitting on my doorstep. (Thanks to Magazine CafĂ©, where you can subscribe to American magazines in the UK.) What should I see amongst the patterns? A jumper which looks remarkably similar to the one I’d snipped out of Elle!

Knitting Synchronicity

On the left: Elle UK, August 2007. Jumper by Louis Vuitton.
On the right: Knit1 Magazine, Fall 2007.

Perfect.

I’ll probably never get around to actually knitting this pattern. On the list of things I really want to knit for myself, this one’s pretty low. But just knowing that I can knit it, if I want to, is making me very happy this evening.

Marmalade sandwich, anyone?

This skirt is another commission for Lisa. I wasn’t sure whether the print would be too big for it to work properly, but I’m actually really pleased with the way it’s come out.

Considering the age this duvet cover must be, the fabric’s in absolutely excellent condition. I’ll probably make another skirt out of what I have left.

Paddington Skirt