GAAA Wordless Wednesday: Meredith Morioka Square

  
Loved this one – it looks complicated but was really easy to get it’s rhythm.  For more information, visit my Great American Aran Afghan Squidoo Page

Seal of Approval

At least now I’ve found a recipient for my blanket!  Poppy is almost 9 months old now and still absolutely tiny!  She loves my handknits but has an annoying habit of trying to lie on them whilst I’m still knitting!  She also has a bear I knitted as a test which she carries around by one arm.

 

It’s amazing how big this blanket gets without any real effort though.  It’s now got to about the size where I can lay it on my lap instead of leaving the weight of it to hang annoyingly from it’s ten stitches on my needles.  I’ve already knit up all the yarn from my failed project and have almost knit up a further 50g ball as well.  I have 250g left to use (which is only half of what I bought) but I’m worried if I’ll have enough to make a big enough blanket!  At the moment one 50g ball goes around about one and a half times so I’m looking at maybe another sevenish revolutions, maybe less.  Watch this space!

GAAA Wordless Wednesday: Julie Levy Square

The bobbles were pretty annoying, but at least there were only six.  For more information, visit my Great American Aran Afghan Squidoo Page

GAAA Wordless Wednesday: Ginette Belanger Square

The first on my list for the Great American Aran Afghan, and one of the easiest.  For more information, visit my Great American Aran Afghan Squidoo Page.

Ten Stitch Blanket

This is what a Prosperous Plum Tank Top looks like when it’s been undone and reknit into a ten-stitch blanket.  I’ve had to quickly learn how to do short row corners and they’re coming out pretty well, even though I’m still a bit under confident about doing them.  The pattern gives a really easy method though so that’s really helped things along.

The yarn is Sirdar Denim Tweed in Hyacinth, which I bought from Dianne’s Knitting Yarn at a great discount, since the colour had just been discontinued.  It looked great in the ball, but horrendous knitted up (especially in stockinette stitch) although the colours haven’t pooled as badly in garter stitch.  Some of the yarn has gone to waste as it barely survived a first knitting, let alone a second.  The yarn has a tendency to unravel as you knit no matter what you do, and even worse is that the plies break rather easily.  In my balls I found little hard bits of cotton, a bit like you sometimes find in cotton wool, and you can’t remove them without breaking bits of the yarn.  This was probably just a dodgy batch because Sirdar still produce the yarn in other colours besides hyacinth, so they can’t be all bad.

On a Roll

Ta-Da!  I’m on a real roll with finishing stuff, and this is the latest to breeze off my needles.  I think I was right in my decision to change the collar, and it’s worked out pretty well.  It’s quite loose so I shouldn’t have worried that it wouldn’t fit over my head!  After a good wash, the whole jumper relaxed a little and now even the cabled waist isn’t quite so tight.  I’m quite proud of this one - I played around with the sweater recipe I found and then added the pattern, so it’s now technically my pattern!

Swatching for my dad’s scarf ground to a halt shortly after I started.  The logo I was going to have at each end didn’t turn out well in colour work so that idea got scrapped.  My other plan was to use cabling instead, but I hit on some problems:

1. I’m using Double-knit not Aran or Worsted like I intend on using
   
2. I don’t want the curleyness of  stockinette/reverse stockinette so I’m trying to use garter stitch with two stitches either side of the cable in reverse stockinette. complicated isn’t the word
   
3. The pattern for the logo is too big, and finding/making something smaller is far too much brainwork for me right now!
   

I’m sure it’ll get done soon, and I know i keep saying that but it will!  I’ll just have to sort the logo out, and then there will be an excuse to buy more yarn.  I have after all just finished TWO new things, so it’s not like I’m not using it up as I go!

Not much to say on mum’s knitting front except that she’s working methodically if not particularly quickly.  She’s done about two inches so far, but each to their own.

Remember that yarn I bought ages ago that was on offer, the pink, purple, blue and white “denim” cotton mix that had me in a twist about this?  Well I’ve finally found a use for it! I’m knitting a Ten-stitch Blanket (link to PDF File) which happens to look relatively ok with a variegated yarn.  Mine is certainly turning out less like pink camouflage so it’s all good.  Pictures when it’s a bit bigger!

Knitting discipline

You may notice that my cream jumper is getting nearer completion – this is because I have been disciplined!  As soon as mum’s jacket was finished and sewn up, I set to and finished both sleeves. Now all I need to do is sew in the ends and the small underarm holes.  I’ve worn the jumper around a bit and have realised it’s actually really warm, so I think a big polar neck is going to be just too much.  I’m going to do something like an extended crew neck which hopefully won’t be as bulky either.  I’ve also decided to use plain ribbing as the cabled affect is going to be too tight to go over my head!

My mum is getting on with her toasty arm warmers as I write this and so far so good.  She cast on,  although I knit the first two rounds to show her what to do (she’s never knitted on DPNs before) and she’s done about an inch so far.  I’ll take pictures as soon as there’s something more to show!


I keep eyeing up this little fella here with a view to knitting him.  He’s by Jean Greenhowe from her “MacScarecrow Clan” collection, and he’s called Scamp.  I acquired a number of her pattern collections quite a while ago, but apart from Blue Teddy I’ve not used them yet and I’m looking forward to having a go.  FunkyKnitter over on Ravelry came up with a bigger version by both doubling the stitches and the rows, which looks like it has turned out well so i may try that.  This I think will be one of my “no purpose” knits, but with Christmas coming up i don’t think it’ll stay that way for long!