The Wool Palace

Basking in the glory

One of many.

I promise this will be the last post about the mittens.

When I was thinking about a project for the Olympics I knew that I could not undertake a challenge based purely on volume  ie. knitting a jumper in two weeks.  I have mild Carpal Tunnel problems which don't respond well to long periods of knitting and I certainly didn't want to come out of the Olympics unable to knit.  Hence the decision to do the mittens - technically challenging but not too many stitches.

Since the goal of the Olympics was to undertake a project that would challenge me as a knitter, I thought I should review which parts of the project were a challenge for me.

Definitely the biggest challenge was the stranded colourwork aspect.  Apart from the briefest flirtation (a border on a baby jumper) when I started knitting again 10 years ago I have never done any stranded colourwork.  Why?  I'm not really sure.  Maybe because I like to wear quite plain designs so didn't really look at patterns involving these techniques.  Anyway, I am pleased I tried it.  I ended up going for the 'one yarn in each hand' method, although I did try carrying them both in the same hand as well.  It definitely got easier with practice.  The patterning on the second mitten looks more uniform I think and the knitting was definitely quicker.

The other techniques were challenges as well, but lots of fun.  I've already written about the yarnover braids which I would happily use again - I think they would look good on the cuff of a sock, perhaps.  The nupp stitch was interesting but not something I'd go crazy over.  The other technique I hadn't tried before and really like is the double decrease technique used to shape the top of the mittens.  I've tried to photograph it but it doesn't really show how neat an edge it makes.  Another good technique for socks I think.

If you are thinking of doing these mittens, be aware that there is an error in the chart.  I found it pretty obvious, once I'd completed one mitten.  Incidentally, am I the only person who doesn't think to check on the Internet for errata before starting a project?  I really should start doing that.  When I did check the errata it seems as if this book is fairly good, I just chose the only project with an error on the chart.  The thumb chart has no errors per se, but it is printed the wrong way round.  Once again, no problem for me once I'd done that first mitten.

So what else have I learnt from this project?  Well, I think that I might need to invest in some (oh the horror!) metal dpns if I plan on doing Estonian mittens again.  I think the Brittany's found it a bit of a strain.

I should also have listened to the voice in my head which told me I really wouldn't need over 200g of wool to knit a pair of mittens. 

Photo finish

I've finished with enough time for me to let my hair down and enjoy the closing ceremonies.

Here they are resting in the bathroom sink after a soak in some Eucalan.

More pictures and a full post tomorrow (actually tonight, as it's past midnight, but you know what I mean).

Whew, where did the week go?

I had a bit of a glitch with Typepad not forwarding the comments for the last post, so I'm afraid I haven't replied to any of them.  It's all fixed now so normal service and communication will resume.

Jill was asking about the yarnover braids and what I thought of them.  She also asked for some closeups.  Jill, I've done my best but my camera does not want to take a closeup of these mittens.  Maybe the patterning confuses it but for whatever reason it is very difficult to get a good picture.  I even braved the cold and the curious stares of the neighbours to stand out on my balcony this morning in the hope that some natural light would help.

Not the best picture I'm afraid but hopefully it will give you an idea of the finished effect.  The braids are simple to execute, a yarnover followed by knitting two stitches together through the back of the loop, then slipping the resulting stitch back onto your left needle and repeating the process until you fall asleep finish the round.  It is slow going and requires concentration to make sure you don't forget a yarnover or slipping the stitch back onto your left needle.  I think that two colours make it easier to spot your mistakes, plus I like the effect. 

Nancy Bush doesn't say you have to, but I prefer the look of the braid if you knit the next round through the back of the loop as I think the braid sits a bit more neatly, but that may just be me.  If you look at the photo above, the brown and white braid at the bottom of the photo has the next round knitted normally while the one towards the top has the next round knitted through the back of the loop and looks, to me at least, less droopy.

The cuff is definitely the slowest bit (as I think I said before).  Now I'm about halfway up the last pattern repeat before I start the finger shaping, then it's just the thumb to do.  I hope to finish the knitting tonight, which gives me tomorrow to sew ends in and block.  This is of course, if I am correct in thinking the Olympics finish on Sunday.  If they don't, can someone please tell me quickly, especially if they finish tomorrow.

Brighton rock

Sure enough, my yarn arrived bright and early on Saturday morning.  Credit to the postman, he knocked as well.  I couldn't cast on straight away as I had a train to catch to Brighton, with Jill and Dawn.

We were off to the Creative Stitches & Hobbycrafts Show, where a good time was had by all.  We did a couple of hours on the Knit n Knatter stand, so Yvonne and the other volunteers could get a well deserved break.  Yvonne had made herself the most fabulous Knitting Olympics shirt - hopefully she'll put a picture of it up on her blog.

There weren't a huge number of knitting stands at the show, but it was a case of quality rather than quantity.  I hardly bought anything - sock yarn doesn't really count does it?

Fabulous Fleece Artist merino from Kangaroo.  They had a basket of this when the three of us descended in a sock buying whirlwind - that basket was almost empty when we left 5 minutes later.  The Regia and Opal goodies were from Web of Wool, as was the Limbo DK, destined for some thick socks for Toby.

This was the sky when we came out of the show.  Pretty isn't it?  The pier was destroyed in a fire a couple of years ago.

Despite all the sock yarn purchases there will be no sock knitting at the Wool Palace for the next 15 days (or maybe it's 14 already?).  I am concentrating on my Knitting Olympics project.

Concentrating is the right word too.  I am knitting Maimu's Mittens from Folk Knitting in Estonia as my Olympic challenge.  And boy are they challenging.  I feel like a complete beginner again.  So far I've had to master a double-start cast on, yarnover braids, nupp stitch and the whole holding 2 yarns at once and stranding without pulling too tightly.  I've also had to master the complete stupidity that led me to think that even though I'm knitting in the round I will still read the chart back and forth as if I'm knitting flat.  Here's where I'm at after 2 days of Olympic coverage.

I should point out that even though I have sat in front of the television for 2 days of Olympic coverage, that is,  2 days of the highlights on BBC2, I have seen very little of it.  I have heard quite a lot, but most of the time my eyes have been firmly fixed on my knitting.  I heard the men's downhill, which seemed quite exciting but I was deep in yarnover braids at that point.  I also heard a lot of a film we watched last night about skateboarders in the 70s but that was when I was in the middle of the whole ripping out the rows that I'd done while reading the chart wrong.  I think I'm getting into the swing of it now so maybe I can actually watch ER tonight rather than just listening to it.

How is your Olympic experience?

Bitty

I've been off work for the past couple of days with a mild bug.  Not pleasant but not so severe as to prevent me from taking advantage of daylight to catch up with photos.  Today is going to be a bit of a wrapping up loose ends sort of post.

I realised I hadn't photographed the penultimate pair of socks for 2005.

These are for me, done in Fortissima Socka Color, shade 2420 - at last I've managed to remember to keep the ball band!  Done in a twin rib taken from Sensational Knitted Socks.  They are done over 66 stitches on 2.5mm rather than my usual 60 but fit perfectly and feel wonderful.  I am very fond of the Fortissima yarns for an 'everyday' sock as they feel softer than Regia or Opal but wear very well and stand up to the rough and tumble of the washing machine with no problems.  I bought this colourway from Web of Wool at Ally Pally and am beginning to wish I got more.  There is however a noticeable difference between the two socks, even though the balls were from the same dyelot - I don't know if you can see it in the photo but the sock on the left has quite a bit more yellow than the one on the right.  Not enough to bother me, but if the socks were a gift I might feel a little vexed.

I had some lovely post on New Year's Eve.  A parcel arrived from Morgan, who was my Stitch Ya Neck Out partner.  I had requested Branching Out in some Silky Wool I had left over from the shrug I did in the summer. 

As well as the scarf, Morgan also included 2 skeins of luscious Koigu and some Opal, to feed the sock habit and a copy of the Yarn Harlot's latest book.  Thank you very much Morgan, I think this will be a perfect early spring scarf, light and delicate but warm as well.

Speaking of exchanges, Josie received a parcel just before Christmas that was torn open before any photos could be taken.  It was her final parcel in the Secret Pal Kid's Exchange, in which she has been totally spoilt.  We were able to find out that Lauren had been Josie's pal, with a bit of help from her mum Andrea, who was kind enough to send me a little something as well.

A big thank you to Andrea and Lauren for making this such a fun experience for Josie.  As well as the packages, Lauren and Josie have been exchanging e-cards and emails which I know Josie has really enjoyed and hopefully they will keep in touch.  Unfortunately Sam's Secret Pal never made contact, which he was rather disappointed about, but that's the way these things go sometimes.

In the comments on the shawl the other day, Jill asked about the yarn I was using.  It is on a cone and says nothing other than 'Lambswool'.  It looks very much like the old Rowan Donegal 4-ply, which I used to knit Birch a couple of years ago.  I don't think it is oiled as I washed my tension swatch and nothing much happened, so I think it will knit up fine.  I compared it to some J&S laceweight that arrived the other day.

What do you think?  The lambswool is at the top and the J&S at the bottom.  The lambswool does have marginally less give, but as I am knitting on a larger than recommended needle I think this will compensate for some of that.  I was very happy with the way Birch turned out, so hopefully I will feel the same about this shawl.

Coming up next time.  I've jumped on the bandwagon with one of the most popular patterns around at the moment.  Any guesses what it could be?

Emily Ocker, I want a word with you

I've had a hard time decided on which project to do from my Book of the Month, A Gathering of Lace.  I knew I wanted to do a shawl, but couldn't settle on which one.

There was strong support for this one from some people, but I decided against it for now - just too big to take on for the first one I thought.

In the end I narrowed it down to the Shetland Tea Shawl and the Feather and Fan Shawl but I still couldn't come to a final decision.  One night, when I was flicking through the book yet again, I decided to turn to Toby for help.  Why, I'm not sure, call it a moment of madness.

Me:  Which one of these shawls do you think I should do?

Toby: Hmmm?

Me:  Look, I'm trying to decide between these two...

Toby:  (Taking the book from me).  I like that one (pointing to Frost Flowers and Leaves)  What's she wearing under the shawl?

Me:  I don't know; that's not one of the ones I want to do, look...

Toby:  Do you think she has clothes on under there?

Me;  Look, let me show you which ones I mean.

Toby:  (Scrutinising photo closely)  Hang on...

Me:  You know I'm going to blog about this don't you?

Eventually, after I shone a bright light on the photo to show that the model was indeed wearing clothes and not just underwear, we were able to move on and actually take a look at the patterns in question.  With Toby's (minimal) help I decided on the Feather and Fan Shawl.

I decided to use a cone of brown lambswool that I bought from Uppingham Yarns at Ally Pally last year.  I went up to 4mm rather than the 3.75mm specified, which was handy as I didn't have any 3.75mm dpns.

Then I tried to do a circular beginning.

In the book, it states blithely, 'using a circular beginning' as if it's a lovely simple thing to do.  Well.  The air in the Wool Palace was blue for an hour or so that evening.  Dpns were flying round the room.  Toby started to look worried and suggested I, 'just leave it'.  'I can't, it's my New Year's Resolution' I cried.  In desperation I turned to the Internet and found these wonderful directions which calmed me down and got me through the devilish process.

Not perfect, but I couldn't face doing it again.  Knitting 8 stitches on 3 dpns is not something to dawdle over.

Once that bit was over I was off and flying. 

I do enjoy lace - it's nice to have to concentrate a bit but to also have the break of the plain row every second round.  I got the first 60 rounds done over the weekend, which is the floral bit in the middle finished. 

I'll try and get some photos on a longer needle - that way you can see the mistakes better.

Now I am onto the feather and fan bits.  I am trying very hard not to think about the crocheted edging.

If you are doing Book of the Month, why not leave a comment and let us know how you are getting on.  I'd love to hear what your Book of the Month is - all the more ideas for my choice next month...

New beginnings

I don't make a lot of New Year's resolutions - I prefer to set goals and work towards them throughout the year.  However I think it would be good to set some knitting related goals and where better to talk about them than on my knitting blog?

So, 2006, what shall I do?

Well, looking through my completed objects for 2005 (which are shamefully out of date by the way - there's a good resolution, stay up to date with blog photos) I see it is a bit light on the garments and rather heavy on the socks.  So 2006 will be the year of the garment for me.  I won't stop the socks but will definitely try and get some more jumpers and cardigans in there as well.

Some more colour work is in order I think.  I did quite a bit of lace in 2005 but no fairisle at all, also not much cabling.  I need to branch out and do a more complex project.

There is one resolution that I have settled upon and am determined to stick to.  It may also help me to achieve the previous two.  Lots of people are talking about stash reduction, so I have set upon a stash reduction plan of my own.  But this is stash reduction with a twist.  Not a yarn reduction, more of a pattern reduction.

No, I am not about to start selling my knitting books on Ebay but I am going to start making better use of them.  I am sure I am not alone amongst you, gentle readers, in having a rather large collection of knitting books.  I love them all and have carefully stored them in all in the bookcase overlooking my 'immediate' knitting stash.  The shameful fact is though, that although I love them and take them down and read through them, there are quite a few of those books from which I have not knitted a single thing.  In fact, sometimes I see things on other people's blogs, wonder where they got the pattern from and then realise I have the same book sitting on my shelf.

This has to stop, I have decided and I have come up with a solution.  I am going to draw up a list of 12 books from my library that I have not knit anything from and each month I will nominate one of these as 'Book of the Month' and knit at least one project from it.  I may not finish the project within the month, but hopefully by the end of the year I will have at least 12 completed projects and 12 books that have seen some action.

I am not going to be exclusive to the books - how could I?  There will still be other projects out there to tempt me, plus new IK and Rowan mags to drool over and new books to buy.  I see this as an enhancement to my knitting in 2006 and am looking forward to getting started.

I haven't drawn up the final 12 yet but I have decided on the Book of the Month for January.  January's book will be... A Gathering of Lace.  I am in the process of deciding on the project (and let's face it, it's not going to be finished in January) and I should be able to let you know in the next couple of days which new project will be gracing my needles for January.

Coming tomorrow - last FO of 2005 and first FO of 2006 (if I get it done in time)...