Tag: rowan

Knitting catch-up

Luxury Tweed Scarf

Look, I have been doing some knitting, and I’ve finally finished a few things! This is Paul’s scarf, which I started when we got back from Waltz on the Wye. The yarn is Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed, and it sort-of-almost matches Paul’s Felted Tweed hat and fingerless gloves that I knitted a few winters ago.

Luxury Tweed Scarf

The pattern is Yarn Harlot’s one-row handspun scarf, and it took two skeins of yarn to make it roughly waist length. I wanted a pattern that was reversible (because it bothers me when you can see the back of a scarf), and one that was very easy to remember so I could just keep knitting without having to think too much. Sadly I didn’t manage to get it finished before Paul went to Canada, but it turns out that Ottowa’s warmer than Reading, so it didn’t really matter.

Marian (pink)

This cowl is a direct result of the fact that the yarn (Rowan Biggy Print) wouldn’t fit into my new tidy stash. So I decided to knit it, and move it into the “Someone Else’s Christmas Present” pile instead. Much more satisfying.

The pattern is Marian by Jane Richmond, with a slight modification. My only 15mm circular needle was longer than specified, so I cast on 65 instead of 45 stitches, and kept going until I’d used up three and a bit balls of yarn. You can either wear the cowl as-is, like a great big scarf that can’t fall off, of you can double it over and wear it like a giant neckwarmer.

Marian (thunder)

I liked it so much that I made another one. This got rid of an ill-fated cardigan that I’d knitted but never worn. Much nicer!

(The dress, by the way, is Simplicity 1755, just waiting for its collar and buttons.)

Silky Tweed Clapotis

Silky Tweed Clapotis

This is my fourth Clapotis, in Rowan Silky Tweed. It’s taken me more than a year to knit it, because I kept getting sidetracked by more interesting projects along the way. I wore my Rowan Tapestry clapotis ever such a lot over the winter, but it doesn’t quite go with all my clothes. This nice neutral grey should hopefully fill in the gaps. Although it’s a bit heavier than the Tapestry, the silk gives it a lovely drape.

I knitted this one back-and-forth on a circular needle, and that helped to alleviate the terrible wrist pain I’d had from the previous one. Because you can keep the weight of the weight of the knitting in your lap rather than on the needles, it’s a lot easier to manage.

Silky Tweed Clapotis

I was spurred on to finish this one by the fact that I’m going on holiday soon, and I’m going to be spending quite a lot of time outdoors. I’d rather hoped that in the middle of May I might need to be taking sandals with me, rather than an enormous scarf, but this is England, and the weather’s nothing if not unpredictable. I should probably thankful that I’ve also knitted a matching hat.

Louisa Harding Ginerva

Louisa Harding Ginerva

Issue 34 of The Knitter dropped though my letterbox a couple of days ago, and I was immediately smitten by this lacy dress pattern. It’s Ginerva by Louise Harding, and it’s so new that there are currently only 2 projects for it on Ravelry. (One of them’s mine!)

I decided straight away that I didn’t want to make a dress version, but a shorter jumper would be perfect. A few sums and a day later, I found myself in John Lewis buying two balls of Kidsilk Haze Stripe. This is the Forest colourway.

I’ve started with the sleeves. That way I can see how much yarn they take up, and then hopefully figure out how long I can make the body afterwards. I tried to pick two balls of yarn that looked as though they’d been wound the same way, in the hope that the stripes won’t be too all over the place on the finished jumper.

So far I’ve managed the set-up rows and one repeat of the edging. The pattern says to repeat the twelve row lace pattern until the work measures a certain length (depending on your size), and then you get into the tricky business of trying to work shaping at the same time as keeping track of which pattern row you’re on. I know from experience that I’m very bad at following more than one set of instructions at once, so it seemed like a good idea to make myself a chart. That way I can simply tick off each row as I work it, without having to scribble incomprehensibly all over the magazine.

I thought it would be nice to share it, so you can have it as an Excel file, or a PDF.

Please note that this is NOT THE ENTIRE PATTERN. That’s obviously copyrighted to Louisa Harding and The Knitter. This is just a way of keeping track of the lace motif and the shaping, for both the body and the sleeves. You’ll need a proper copy of the pattern for the rest.

Also, these are only the instructions for a size 14. If you need a different size, I recommend downloading the Excel file and using the original pattern to update the stitch counts for each row. (The central lace motif stays the same for each size.) If you’re already making a size 14, you can just download the PDF.

I’m rapidly discovering that this is the most complicated thing I’ve ever knitted, mostly because the lace motif is worked from both sides. This is definitely going to be slow going because of all the counting and tracking required. Not one to sit and knit in front of the telly, or to take out and about with me. Thankfully I’ve cast on another sock for that!

Peachy Shawls

Tulips Shawlette

Now that these shawls are finally finished and have reached their recipients, I can safely show them to you all!

The Tulips Shawlette, above, is by Anniken Allis, and the pattern’s in Issue 36 of The Knitter. The moment I saw it, I reached for the first 4-ply yarn I could find in my stash, and started knitting. It was quite a while before I realised that I had no earthly use for a peach lace shawl, but I was enjoying knitting it so much that I didn’t really care. Eventually it occurred to me that it would look lovely on Paul’s grandmother, and it became her Christmas gift.

The yarn is Rowan Cashcotton 4-ply, now discontinued. I usually prefer not to work with cotton because it hurts my hands, but this is soft and lovely. Unfortunately the angora does shed – working with this on my lap made me wonder whether Bond villains need shares in lint rollers, to get rid of all the fluffy white hairs.

Tulips Shawlette

I hadn’t knitted any lace quite as complicated as this before, feather & fan being about my limit. But the two designs fitted together really well (being an 8-row and a 16-row repeat) and the pattern was written out as well as charted. I followed the written instructions for the most part, because I find a row of text easier to keep in my head than a row of symbols. I used a lot of sticky notes to mark my place, and it took me a long time to really understand how the pattern worked.

Tulips Shawlette

I did use the charts for the edging pattern, mostly because I couldn’t seem to get the written instructions to repeat properly. I’m not terribly keen on the edging, it doesn’t seem very definite, somehow. But I do like the shawl as a whole, and I feel a bit braver about working from charts now.

Peach Wall of Shawl

Because the Tulips pattern required a lot of concentration, I wanted another project to work on that was much simpler. I also wanted something that could also work as a lap blanket. This one is Wall of Shawl, by Martina Patricia Munroe. I think this design looks much more interesting in a handspun or multi-coloured yarn, but I thought it would be nice to make a “matching” gift for each of Paul’s grandmothers, and I was really enjoying working with the Cashcotton.

In fact, I was enjoying it right up until I came to knit the edging. That yo row (the decorative holes near the bottom) doubles the stitch count, at which point I thought my head might explode with boredom. I didn’t count the stitches on the final row, because I didn’t want to know!

The only thing I don’t like about this shawl is the way that the edge curls up. It’s a natural feature of stocking stitch, so there’s not much I could have done to prevent it. The pattern suggests knitting the ruffle about 3” long, which probably helps, but I was running out of time and patience. I could also have cast off on the wrong side, which would have turned the edging inwards, rather than out. But the shawl itself is a lovely size, and the fabric drapes beautifully.

I still don’t have any real need for a peach lace shawl, but I have quite a lot of this yarn left, and The Knitter seems to be going through a phase of showing me lots of lovely patterns that I really must knit as soon as I possibly can! I’m resisting the urge at the moment though, while I knit my fifth Clapotis – a nice simple one in Rowan Silky Tweed. After that, perhaps I’ll cast on for something a little bit more complicated.

A couple of scarves

Loopy Cowl

I think this is the last project I finished in 2011. I started knitting it on Christmas Day, having been asked by my mother-in-law to bring a pair of 5mm needles to dinner with me. Somewhat confused, all became clear when I opened my gifts to find two balls of Rowan Felted Tweed and two books of knitting patterns!

This is Loopy Cowl by Rachel Proudman. It’s made up of eight strands which aren’t i-cord, they’re simply knit flat and allowed to curl up on themselves. All the strands are seamed together, then the seams are covered by another strand. I think you’re supposed to wear it with the seams at the back, but I quite like it at the side like this. Even better with a blingy brooch pinned to it, I think.

You need two balls of Felted Tweed because you’re knitting with two strands held together, although you only use around 70g of yarn. Not quite enough to risk buying only one ball, but enough left over (hopefully) to make a pair of matching gloves, or perhaps a little hat.

Moss Stitch Scarf

This enormous beast is the biggest scarf I’ve ever made, and also one of the quickest. Knitted in Rowan Big Wool and Noro Blossom on 15mm needles, I finished it in two evenings and it’s more than two and a half metres long!

Should you happen to need a pattern for a giant moss stitch scarf, I’ve added it to the tutorials section. Perfect for the silly snowy weather we’ve got going on at the moment.

Is it a skein of yarn?

Rowan Colourscape

This beautiful yarn, sparkling with water droplets, used to be my Colourscape Cabled Jumper.

The yarn was a gift from a friend, and I loved it so much that I invented a jumper pattern for it almost straight away. However, over the last two years I’ve kept taking it out of the wardrobe and then putting it back in again, because the pattern wasn’t quite right. The body’s a little bit too short, and I always end up with a draughty gap around the top of my jeans. The sleeves are very wide, and I always end up dangling them in my dinner.

While I was in hospital, I was reading Knitting Rules! by Yarn Harlot. There was a section on what to do if the hat you’ve been knitting turns out not to be a hat after all. There’s a list of suggestions… is it a bag? a tea cosy? but the last of them asks is it a skein of yarn?

That might seem like a bit of a weird question, but it did serve to remind me that what I have in my wardrobe doesn’t have to be a badly-fitting jumper in the most beautiful colours. It can be five skeins of yarn. Which means that eventually it can be something else.

I do have something of an emotional difficulty with unravelling something that I’ve spent hours and days and weeks making, but it turns out that two years of stuffing the jumper back in the wardrobe creates enough distance for me to be able to manage it. Mind you, I’m also having something of a practical difficulty with unravelling this particular jumper, because once I’ve knitted something, it’s really not designed to come undone. Not ever.

So, I’m taking it slowly. I’ve undone the giant polo neck, and one of the sleeves. Those two skeins of yarn are now wound around a clothes-airer in my sunny back garden, drying gently. (I did briefly consider not wetting-and-drying the yarn, but it unravelled looking like a telephone cord, and whilst I might be lazy I don’t want my next jumper to be crap.)

I can’t quite face tackling any more of my own indestructable seams today, so once these skeins are dry I can wind them into balls and start knitting the next jumper. I’ve found a terrifically 1980s pattern, knit sideways on one 4.5mm and one 12mm needle. That should give me vertical stripes and a nice airy jumper, which is what I fancy this time around.

And if I fancy taking it all apart in another two years’ time and starting again? That’s fine.

Noro Clapotis

Noro Clapotis

Every time I knit a Clapotis, I complain all the way through.

“It’s boring!”
“My hands hurt!”
“Maybe I could make it shorter…”
“How much further?”

But every time I’ve finished knitting a Clapotis, I can’t wait to start another one.

This one was started in July, as a birthday present for my mother-in-law. But her birthday came and went, and I was still knitting, so it became her Christmas present instead. It’s made from five skeins of Noro Cash Island, a lovely soft blend of wool and cashmere. It’s beautifully soft and drapes beautifully.

Thankfully it was extremely well received – my mother-in-law is also a knitter (and a much better one than me!), so she appreciates the time and effort that goes into making a gift like this as much as the finished piece itself.

And I may have had a little accident in the John Lewis sale, and bought five skeins of Rowan Silky Tweed, to make a pretty grey one for myself…

Colinette Cate Cardigan

Colinette Cate

I knitted this cardigan at record speed, so that I could wear it to a wedding back in June. The yarn is Rowan Polar, and it had a previous life as a tank top from Teva Durham’s Loop-D-Loop book. I love the colour, but I have to confess that I’m not a huge fan of the yarn itself. It has a halo of alpaca fluff that sheds all over the place, and you can see that it’s already gone very bobbly under the arms.

I do like the style of the cardigan, although I usually wear it untied as the knot is quite bulky. I also want to add a piece of ribbon across the back, to stop it from stretching and slipping off my shoulders. I’d like to either amend the pattern or maybe find one that’s already written for DK yarn, to make a lighter weight cardigan. I’m not sure I have the attention span to knit this style of cardigan in a lighter yarn though – the draped fronts would take forever!

Finished jumper, and a free pattern!

 Colourscape jumper - finished!

I finished the Colourscape jumper yesterday, deciding that a big polo neck was just the thing to use up every last inch of this lovely wool.

I’ve written up the pattern, which is now available for free in the shop!

I’ve only written the pattern out in the one size for now – it fits up to 40″ chest, which you can make from 5 x 100g balls of Colourscape.

It’s a very simple pattern – no shaping, and perfect for getting the hang of cables and rib.

It should also work in any chunky weight yarn that calls for 6.5mm needles. Give it a try!

Colourscape jumper – finished?

Colourscape jumper

I sewed up the Colourscape jumper and wore it to Progress Theatre on Thursday, but I’m not entirely sure that it’s actually finished.

I have about three quarters of a ball of wool left over, which is tempting me to make a big cowl or polo neck in the same 2×2 rib as the hems and cuffs.

When I’ve decided for definite that it’s finished, I’ll write up the pattern. This would be a great jumper for beginners who want to try out cables. All four pieces are rectangles, with no shaping anywhere, so all you need to concentrate on is which way your cables are facing. Easy!