Blithe Dance - Sam's Knitting Pages

I didn't knit this...

... but I wish I had!  I don't have a 100% success rate on ebay, but when bidding for a coat for my younger son, I noticed the seller had also listed this lovely sweater, a gift she hadn't had the opportunity to use much.  It's the cover sweater from Rowan Babies, in Wool Cotton, and is exquisitely made - a good 99p's worth I think!

It's a bit sad to think of a knitted gift going this way, but whoever knitted it can be reassured it's now found a very loving home.  I know what it's like to be overwhelmed with baby clothes too, some of which you can't possibly find the occasion for, and then they're suddenly outgrown before you know it!

Remember Christmas?  I had my knitting presents out earlier this week, so I photographed them while I had the chance.  I did order them myself, but I smiled to read the Yarn Harlot's "Print at will" wishlist afterwards - we must have been thinking the same thing.

At  last, a set of Denise needles, the Breast Cancer awareness ones.

I should have photographed them open really - but they're already in use.  There was also a ball winder, perfect partner with my swift.  After 30 years I'm the ultimate gadgeted-up knitter.

The reason I had these out was to start a hat in some more Colinette - I'd bought a skein of Skye in "Dusk" but decided not to use it for the Easy Jacket.  I'm starting the Bleu Arts Boyfriend hat from the centre down, and was struggling with eight stitches on four, huge, twelve-inch long, metal  dpn's:

After a couple of rounds of this rubbish, I remembered I now have an unlimited supply of circular needles in the Denise Kit, and transferred the work onto two circulars straight away. Duh! (Only the leading needle of each pair needs to be the right size, so you can do it with one kit).

I feel as if I've seen the light at last!  The red blob in the middle is my provisional cast-on by the way.

We're off on holiday tomorrow to the Lake District, there will be no Internet so I hope to get some knitting done in the evenings.  Both the three hour car journeys will be in the dark, but I hope to manage a few rounds regardless - must go and finish the increases before I pack!

Metis, a completed item

First, an apology if I've not responded to emails or comments over the last few months.  The email address I used has been deluged by spam to the point where the mail server stopped accepting messages.  I think I've managed to divert comments to another address, so if you want to contact me, best to leave a comment at present.

Now, how do they come up with these names?  I had to google to discover the meaning of "Metis".  I suspect that what Colinette had in mind was "Metis was a Titaness who was the first wife of Zeus (Jupiter)".  I'm better informed now!

After a late night of stitching, I finished sewing Metis together on Tuesday night.  Barely any daylight to photograph it, even on a Saturday, but I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

My idea was to have an everyday sweater to brighten up my jeans - it's just perfect for that.  I've discovered it doesn't like cat claws and Velcro, but holds its size well - if anything tending to shrink rather than drop.  I wasn't sure how to block a polyamide yarn but a heavy application of steam iron and damp cloth got it to the right size before this photo was taken.

My poor husband hates taking these finished-sweater photos with a vengeance, probably as much as I'm nervous about being photographed (imagine the 19 shots I rejected). Anyone else have this problem?  It's just I feel the sweater looks much more interesting on a person.

Speaking of Colinette, I picked up one of those "Beautiful Homes" magazines last week, to find my sister a few ideas for her hotel in Yorkshire.  A picture caught my eye of a lady relaxing in a sunny kitchen with a dresser full of original ceramics and wearing an interesting waistcoat - turns out it was none other than Colinette herself, who lives in Wales.  She does have a beautiful home worthy of the title, reclaimed pine and unusual china wherever you look, and even a few knitted throws and hanks of yarn in evidence.  Strange to be knitting someone's yarn and looking at a picture of their bedroom!

Happy New Year

Well, we are still in the first week of January (or we were when I started writing this post).

I was going to describe this in the last post but ran out of time - here IS my Colinette adventure.  I bought the yarn at the Knitting and Stitching show (September 2005!), after trying on a sample garment of "Metis" from the Muse book, using Lasso yarn:

 

I'm using the "Forest" colourway.  Between Muse/Metis/Lasso/Forest it's been quite hard to remember which word belongs to the yarn or the design or the colour!

I have not found it easy to knit with Lasso - maybe that's why it's taken so long.  I could not get the right tension - very unusual for me, but had to go up a needle size.  It's a polyamide chain-type yarn with a lovely texture, but very little elasticity, so I was also worried about the garment "growing".  Finally settled on the 34-inch bust size which will fit fairly closely if it keeps to size, and hopefully won't get too baggy after a wash!  You can see the lovely green colours with flashes of blue and cherry red here:   

But oh! such a badly behaved yarn.  It sticks and snags on everything. I'd have never wound it off the hank without my swift, and it dropped off my hand-wound balls in huge bunches and then tangled around itself.  To control the pooling, I'm knitting 2 row "stripes" of two balls, so they could tangle and collapse on each other too.  I have really rough "housework" hands these days, so lashings of hand cream are needed before I can pick up the knitting.

Well I missed numerous "I'm gonna wear it" deadlines (November party, Christmas drinks, Knit'n'chat, Christmas Day), but just when I thought this might be fired into the UFO black hole - dear Santa brought me a ball winder!  I promptly rewound the working balls (tightly) into properly crossed-over cakes and have been tangle free through this last sleeve, so far.

How did I live without a ball winder for so long?

I've now finished the back, front and one sleeve and knitted nearly half the second sleeve, so it looks as if i may get it done this week.  I'm a bit reluctant to measure it but a tacked-together try-on was encouraging.  Problem is it's me, not the knitting, that did the growing over Christmas.

And here we are at the moment, on that bell-bottomed sleeve.  The next picture will be FINISHED!

I must be having  a Colinette phase at the moment, because the next project on the needles is a cardigan in Skye, which is gorgeous to knit with, like a dyed Magpie Aran.  It's Debbie Bliss's much-knitted Easy Jacket, and is flying off the needles.  Just look at these colours: Summer Berries, dyed to order:

I just knitted enough for a break from the Lasso:

I hope it knits as quickly as the last time I tackled this pattern, as it's for a friend who's shortly to move to a house with poor heating.  I'm counting on it being a design that suits almost anyone.

Finally, a few resolutions for 2007:

- Knit more regularly

- Blog much more regularly

- Knit up some of the lovely projects in stash (Wendy's Knit from Stash looked such a good idea)

- Be more interactive with other bloggers - exchanges/SP#/memes etc.

- Go to bed early. Oh dear.