Tag: silk

Silk summer dress

Burda 7808

As promised a couple of days ago, here’s an almost-finished Burda 7808. Just the hand-sewing and thread-neatening to go, and then it’s done.

As it turns out, I followed the instructions more than I expected to – although there are a few things that I’ll change next time. I added extra gathering to both the front and back panels, to make the skirt more full. I also added longer and wider ties, and attached them to the front panel rather than the back. I decided to make the sleeves, but left off the cuffs because I happened to like the shape of the sleeves left loose.

I think the only additional change I’d make is to round off the neckline and also raise it a little. I have a favourite necklace which is my guideline for where a neckline should sit, and this one’s just a little bit too low.

Half way through putting the dress together I had a worrying moment. I looked at the dress and suddenly panicked that I was accidentally making a dress for an eight year old bridesmaid. Thankfully I think the sleeves and the collar have rescued it from looking too much like a child’s party dress. I’m hoping that the ivory dupion looks summery without being too weddingy – although my own wedding dress was bright pink chiffon, so this doesn’t seem terribly bridal to me!

I’m sure that making a dress with a collar and sleeves during the hottest day of the year must seem quite mad, but I have a lot of walking in the sun to do this week, so I need to be cool but covered in order to avoid frying myself. This should do the job very nicely indeed.

Laura’s beaded wedding bag

Laura's beaded wedding bag

I don’t like showing other people’s wedding things in their entirety before the wedding, so this is just a little snapshot of Laura’s beaded wedding bag.

The ivory silk dupion was already beaded and embroidered. I removed some of the clear beads, and replaced them with red ones. You can also see the pretty flower shaped iridescent button, there in the bottom right hand corner.

Laura and Rob are getting married in September.

Congratulations!

Stained Silk.

Stained silk

I’d always wondered why you weren’t supposed to wash silk. I bought three metres of ivory dupion a little while ago, but it had a dirty mark on it, so I knew I was going to have to clean it somehow. In a fit of “what the heck”, I chucked it in the washing machine, on cold, with a bit of Ecover wool & silk detergent.

The dirty mark came out just fine, but unfortunately a couple of strands of bright pink silk had made it into the washing machine, stuck to the ivory.

The reason you don’t wash silk dupion?

It isn’t colour fast.

Oops.

As it turns out, this isn’t a disaster. I’m planning to make a summer shirt for myself, so I don’t mind if it has a couple of pink squiggles on it. Although I’m kind of hoping that the next time I wash it, the pink marks will come out again.

Feather and Fan.

Feather & Fan sock yarn

I have no idea what this is going to be, I plan to just keep knitting it until it’s finished.

I was reading the third issue of The Knitter, and there was an article about hand knit scarves, with a recipe for feather and fan stitch. It looked pretty. I had some silk yarn left over from knitting socks. A plan came together.

I’ve been feeling inspired by lacy neck warmers lately, to fill in the gap left by the enormous neckline of my flamingo coat. But I’m not much good at knitting lace, so I figured a simple feather and fan stitch would be an excellent place to start.

I haven’t got all that much yarn (about 35 grams, I think) so this piece is going to be pretty short. I’m thinking I might make buttonholes when I get to the other end, to make a little polo neck without the jumper. Pretty!

Making progress on a wedding dress.

I hope this isn’t giving too much away – I just wanted to show a little snapshot of what I’m working on at the moment.

Socks? Don’t talk to me about socks.

A sock and an ex-sock.

These are the silk socks from Simply Knitting Issue 43. Yes, they’re still going!

The first sock, now completed, has two mistakes in it. Well, okay, three if you count the fact that it’s at least two inches longer than my foot.

The second sock… well. Let’s just say that this little heap of curly unravelled silk is in a much better state now than it was as a knitted sock!

I made my first mistake on the cuff – I wasn’t paying attention, and two of the cables ended up twisting the wrong way. (This is the danger of knitting whilst watching tv. Sometimes the telly wins.)

I made the executive decision to ignore the cable error, and knitted all the way down the leg to the heel, where I made my second mistake. Or, more accurately, I knitted the heel exactly as per the pattern, and then discovered that the mistake was actually in the first sock. Oops.

I put the whole thing down for about a fortnight while I started work on a giant cardigan. I kept thinking that maybe the sock would be okay. Is it really so important for socks to be an identical pair? Would anybody care once they were hidden underneath a pair of shoes and trouser legs? The answer turned out to be, yes, I care, so I bit the bullet yesterday afternoon and unravelled the dratted thing.

Now I just need to remember the mistakes that I made in the first sock, and knit the second one to match it without making any more. Which is what I thought I was doing the first time!

Ah well. At least the miniature ball of unravelled wool is keeping me amused. Isn’t it cute?

Regia Silk

Silk socks and a passionflower.

I have a confession to make.

I am in love with my new socks. And they’re not even socks yet!

I honestly thought I’d be bored by the monotony of knitting every single row, but the self-striping yarn is absolutely fascinating to watch. How wide will my stripes be? Which colour’s coming next? I also thought I’d get cross with faffing about half way through every row, but I’m so relieved not to be wrestling with a set of double-pointed needles that Magic Loop is wondrous by comparison! The yarn is beautiful, the little needles don’t hurt my hands, and I believe I may have found my new vocation. Sock knitting is brilliant.

 Silk sock in a passionflower...

My knitting friends are turning out to be such a bad influence. Who’d have thought it?

We’ve been talking about socks, and hyperbolic crochet, and lace patterns knitted in aran weight wool, and teasing one another with links to the most beautiful yarns you’ve ever seen.

I have a comparatively small yarn stash, thanks to a comparatively small yarn budget, but I am now fighting a desperate urge to buy ALL THE SOCK YARN. You know, in case there’s a shortage, or something.

And, of course, you don’t have to use sock yarn just for knitting socks! I went to have a look through the pattern archives at Knitty, and stumbled across this amazingly beautiful pattern that I hadn’t spotted before.  Reversible lacy cables. Knitted in sock yarn. Wow.

I might need some help to decipher the chart, but that one’s definitely going in my Ravelry queue.

I knitted on my sock yesterday while I was waiting at the hospital to have some scans and x-rays done. When I sat down I realised that I’d forgotten my cable needle, and my next row was full of cables! Being a resourceful type of person, I pulled out the toothpick from my Swiss Army Card, and cabled with that.

In the course of two waiting rooms I overheard at least six older ladies talking about how on earth I was knitting a sock on such a peculiar needle, yet not one person came over to ask me about it. Usually people are keen to chat about knitting, especially when they see a strange woman with pink hair doing it. Perhaps it was the look of intense concentration and the toothpick that put them off…

Get Knitted!

I would like to take a moment to sing the praises of Get Knitted. I ordered some yarn and needles from them on Friday, and they’ve arrived today. (Tuesday.) Their postage rates were extremely reasonable, and they threw in a free pen and a sweetie!

I ordered from Get knitted because they’re a UK supplier of Addi Turbo knitting needles, something impossible to find in any of my local yarn shops. I needed a 2.5mm needle with a 100cm cable, and Addi are the only brand I’m aware of who make this size. I needed the needle to knit a pair of socks.

Regia silk and Addi needle

Yes, that’s the yarn for the socks!
The toes and heels are cabled in the plain red, and the rest is self-striping in the bright colours.

The pattern is in the current issue of Simply Knitting magazine (Issue 43), and thanks to the generosity of a friend I am actually using the exact yarn specified in the pattern. This is something of a rarity for me, as I usually like to make things up as I go along.

This will be the first time I’ve used the Magic Loop technique (although I did spend Friday evening learning it with a spare ball of cheap acrylic and a big needle), and the first time I’ve knitted anything in 4-ply yarn, I think. If I can properly get the hang of Magic Loop and it doesn’t drive me as crazy as DPNs, I’ll be thrilled to bits. Bring on the socks!

I also treated myself to a little something:

Rowan Cashsoft DK

The colours aren’t the greatest in this picture, but the ball of yarn that I’m holding is Rowan Cashsoft DK. 57% merino, 33% microfibre, 10% cashmere. Mmmmmm, soft. What I’m planning to do is unravel these Fetching mittens (also in Cashsoft), and combine these two colours to make something soft and stripey. Probably gloves or arm-warmers of some description, so I’ll probably save that project for a bit later in the year.

Now, do I wait until I’ve finished my Colinette Madelene jumper in Neptune Banyan, or start on the socks straight away…