Fair Isle Wristwarmers, Some Assembly Required

I've become obsessed with fair-isle knitting, particularly using a solid and a varigated yarn, rather than two solids.

I blame Natalie and Jane for this, mostly.

Well, that, and I had no idea what else to do with rainbow yarn that's likely to be too busy for anything other than stockinette, and maybe too loud for even that.

Luckily, I remembered that Nikki bought me some black alpaca for my birthday last year (on condition that I use it for something for me), so I dug it out and spun it up (it was lovely), and hopefully, there'll be enough of both to make a pair of wristwarmers.

Now though, the fun part - making up the chart!

Conferences Are For Learning

...even if it's not the kind of learning the conference organisers expected you to do.

I went to a web conference at the beginning of the week, and for reasons I'm not quite sure, when I was leaving the house, I grabbed two balls of yarn, not just one, with the intention of knitting a pair of wristwarmers.

So, there I was, listening to presentations about javascript, when I was overcome by the urge to learn to knit fair-isle, and before I could help myself, out came the moleskine, scribble went the pen on the squares, and (very quietly) click click click went the needles, working on creating a pair of not just plain wristwarmers, but fair-isle wristwarmers.

My tension was a little tight and my stranding a little uneven til I figured out how best to wrangle the two strands, but all in all, I don't think it was all that bad, for a first attempt.

...and for those of you who like that kind of thing, the money shot.

New Books, New Scarf

At the end of a week the likes of which I hope I don't have too often, it's nice to have a productive weekend.

The weekend's productivity started on Friday night, at the I Knit London film night. Although I had a project in my bag, I'd been thinking about something soft and fluffy for a couple of days, and when stash-raiding, had come up empty.

When I got to I Knit, I must have spent a full half hour stalking the shelves, trying to decide on the perfect yarn, and just as the film was about to start, I stopped ignoring the call of the Kid Silk Haze that I'd picked up and put down at least six times.

With a skein of KSH in one hand, a crochet hook in the other, and a glass of wine on the table in front of me, I started making a long foundation chain, intending to make a lengthways scarf while watching Sideways.

Somehow, after more than 200 chains and a fair amount of trebles (the crochet stitch, not the alcoholic shots), I found myself ripping it back (not the easiest thing with dark purple mohair yarn in the mostly dark) and starting over.

Without any real thought, I found myself doubling the yarn (taking the risky but successful step of using both ends at once) making a ring, then another, and then another. One flat circle followed by another, and another, and so on, and when the film ended and the lights came back up, I had six flat circles joined together and a good head start for a new scarf. Not wishing to tempt fate, I bought the other ball of purple KSH before I left the shop.

I crocheted at the bus stop, on the bus home, and for a while at home before K got home from his night out, and kept going over the weekend, til by the end of Sunday I had a pile of ends, a few yards spare (phew!) and a beautifully soft and fluffy purple crocheted Kid Silk Haze scarf.

I didn't even really stop to read the new books which the Amazon fairy brought me on Saturday morning: The Gentle Art of Domesticity by Jane "Yarnstorm" Brocket (whose domestic life I've been coveting for a long time now); 200 ripple stitch patterns and 200 crochet blocks by Jan Eaton and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off by the Yarn Harlot (I did read a little of this in the car on the way to and from the supermarket).

I'll be posting the pattern for the scarf, which I've christened Ynez (after Santa Ynez, the area of California where Sideways is set), just as soon as I can get enough time while it's still light to take a decent photo of it so check back in a couple of days if you're interested.

Tea Scarf

Since coming back from Crete, the days have got colder and more wintry, so I turned my red merino handspun yarn into a crocheted scarf.

It's about 4 inches wide and long enough to double wrap and pull through, and it's so snuggly soft it's like my neck is wrapped in a hug.

With this scarf, and the powers of rooibos tea, I'm sure I can keep the autumn chills at bay.

Recipe for a Tea Scarf

approx 200yds soft fluffy worsted weight yarn 7mm crochet hook

Row 1: chain(ch) 140 Row 2: ch3 for turning chain, then double crochet (DC) (UK: triple crochet (TR)) in each base chain. Rows 3-5: ch3 for turning chain, DC(TR) in each chain Frilly border: ch3 for turning chain, ch1, DC(TR) in (same) turning ch, *DC(TR), ch1, DC(TR); repeat from * in each chain around the entire scarf, ending where you began.

Finishing: weave in ends.

Wear with pride. Tea drinking optional, but I can heartily recommend trying Rooibos Tea.

Sockapalooza Too

I was so late finishing my sockapalooza socks that I completely forgot to take photos of the finished pair before sending them across the world to Australia and the lovely Rose Red, who, with her love of reds and shoes could be a long lost soul sister.

I had great fun reading her blog and finding out about her, and as I did last year, I decided that none of the sock patterns I knew about would do the trick, and set about designing a pair of socks for her.

Using Colinette Jitterbug (purchased from I Knit London I followed the basic toe up with heel flap recipe given in Widdershins from last summer's Knittyand began to make my modifications.

A subtle eyelet line along the sides of the foot and continuing up the leg, joined by another subtle eyelet line from the heel up, and an arrow lace pattern up the back of the leg (for some reason, I couldn't get the image of seamed stockings out of my head when thinking about socks for her), topped off with a picot cuff.

Lovely.

I'm very proud of these, and delighted that she likes them and they fit (always a worry when knitting for other people who you can't make try on things).

They look fabulous on her too.

A job well done, I think.

Pretty Skeins All In A Row

I've been hearing about Yarn Yard quite a lot lately, and finally succumbed to curiosity and went to check out the site.

Before I knew what happened, four skeins of pencil roving were wending their way to me, all ready for spinning up into (what I hope will be) sock yarn.

The picture doesn't even come close to getting across just how soft and squishy these are, or the depth (and subtlety) of the colours.

There's one varigated in shades of yellow/pale green/pale brown and sky blue/teal, one solid turquoisey/teal/blue, one solid pale green (not ordinarily my kind of colour at all but this just grabbed me, and one solid bright pink/cerise.

What I can't decide is whether I should mix and match, or try and make a pair of socks out of each skein of roving.

What I do know is that I'm really going to need to hope the birthday fairy brings me more bobbins on Friday.

Almost Done

This is sock 2 of my sockapalooza 4 socks.

My very very very late sockapalooza 4 socks. Thank goodness I have an understanding pal.

Theoretically, I should only have 14 rounds left to do, but I screwed up 6 rounds ago and it's come back to bite me.

This second sock has been very much the terrible two. I've screwed it up so many times it's just not even funny any more. It's even more annoying because the first one was so easy and quick, even though I was ill at the time. I guess the second time I got ill I got different germs. Germs that stopped me from being able to knit.

Bad germs. No biscuit.

Anyway, I'm off to I Knit London tonight for film night, in the hope that a little Hot Fuzz takes the pain of tinking away.

Wavy Warmth

I went to SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas earlier this year, and while I was there, I was lucky enough to be able to visit Hill Country Weavers (not just once, but twice!), and amongst my haul of goodies I bought two balls of Berocco Ultra Alpaca with the intention of making a nice cuddly wrap.

Amazingly, for me, the result was actually a nice cuddly wrap (as opposed to buying yarn for a project, having it languish in stash hotel for months then doing something else entirely with it) and the yarn was so lovely that I started working on it almost as soon as I got home.

I came up with a stripe pattern that went:

5 rows teal 3 rows purple 1 row teal 3 rows purple 5 rows teal

then reversed the colour bands

Luckily for me, I had just enough yarn to make it work and finished it over Easter, on a visit to my boyfriend's parents.

I so desperately wanted to finish it so I could wear it down there, envisioning a nice crisp spring walk along the beach wearing it, that I crocheted the whole 5 hour journey from London to Devon, complete with over the ear LED light so I could continue in the dark. Whenever we drew up next to another car, I kept getting funny looks. Can't imagine why.

It hasn't had much use this year, but I dug it out this morning because it's been such miserable weather here, and this is just the thing for a horrible grey day.

Some Assembly Required

Back at work and it's predictably manic.

Rushing to try and get my already late sockapalooza socks done and on their way halfway across the world to my very patient and understanding sock pal.

Couldn't resist taking a photo of this little guy when I made a visit to Vauxhall City Farm yesterday.

We went there, because we thought my 11 month old niece would get a kick out of seeing the animals. Predictably, she slept through the whole thing, even when right next to this guy's friend, who was loud and proud to be a black sheep.

Handspun Merino Yarn

Every time I go to the Handweavers Studio I find myself with a basket full of their little bundles of merino top.

They're ickle (only 20g each), but they're cheap (50p each), fabulously soft and easy to spin, and so with a few in shades of red, I made this yarn.

I was aiming for DK to Aran weight singles, and I mostly got there, although it's a bit more thick and thin that I'd have liked.

It came out at 198 yards using half the fibre from each bundle, so hopefully I should have enough to make a nice wrap to chase away the evil air conditioning gremlins that make my desk freezing, no matter what the weather outside.