Monday, August 13, 2007

FO: London Skyline Scarves

This was knitting by request. Some friends of my old flatmate, Anne-Marie, are emigrating to Canada, and she commissioned a couple of scarves. One for a young girl, the other for her mother. Anne-Marie specified: London Skyline, Big Lettering, Pinkness and No Sheep.

I thought I'd do the skyline at the bottom, as a sort of visual 'frill' and then a rain-like pattern through the scarf to (a) go with the London theme and (b) break up the screaming pink a bit. The letters (the recipant's initals) are only on one end, floating into the end of the 'rain' section.

M&G

I knitted them mainly on the bus - it seemed appropriate, plus I have to look at the work the whole time with doublekntting, and when I knit at home I like to watch tv/ surf the net/ talk to people. When commute-knitting, I tend to use circs, even for knitting flat. Because they are shorter, my elbows won't annoy people sitting next to me. But with the extra balls of yarn for double-knitting, the wire can be annoying, so I used a pair of dpns with point protects at the end to turn them into a set of short straights. This also meant I could use an especially pointy pair we had (a good point being very important for quite double-knitting).

wip - doubleknit scarf

Anne-Marie and I choose the yarn together and, though I was a bit concerned about quite how pink it'd be, it worked out ok. It's Debbie Bliss Cathay, which I normally avoid because it's so splitty but, as long as I was careful (which you have to be with double-knitting anyway) it worked really well. A neat, defined look and lovely sheen over the finished piece. Plus they feel really silky. I was worried it wouldn't be warm enough for a Canada scarf, but with the two layers it feels pretty cosy.

doubleknit scarves

Before anyone asks, I'm not posting the pattern. But you are welcome to try to transcribe the chart from my pictures - it's pretty straightforward. If anyone wants advice on double-knitting. I said all I have to on the topic here.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

the weekend

Yesterday was about celebrating fruit at the Innocent Fate; listening to music in the sunshine while perfecting my ability to knit backwards.

entrelac

The yarn boucle. And verigated. And, er... 93% synthetic. My excuse? (a) I was on holiday. (b) It was on sale. (c) I knew it'd look amazing in entrelac. I'm going to have a lovely, super-soft, stupidly long scarf with pink-green-purple fairy-scales.

So far, today has been about sleeping, burning toast, enjoying the flowers my boyfriend surprised me with this week and filling in surveys on YouGov. But it is going to be about hoovering, cleaning the bathroom, finishing off the quilt and blocking the doubleknit scarves I've been doing for an old college-mate:

doubleknit scarves

EDIT: both scarves are my own design, there are no patterns. I'll do proper FO posts about them when they're properly done and dusted.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

results

Despite working pretty hard since I got back from holiday, and slashing a crucial knitting finger while cutting bread this week (not to mention the various addictions of facebook) I've managed some craft output.

tufo socks

A pair of socks - toe up jaywalkers with a short-row heel, using Tofutsies. The yarn smells funny. Really funny, to the extent that it makes your fingers smell. And I don't like the colour nearly as much as I thought I would (bought it online). That said, it feels nice enough and it is exciting to have socks with chitin and soysilk in it! I still have 45g left. I suppose I could use it for a slightly psychedelic baby-top.

The top of the quilt's done. I was going to finish it today, but I think I might use a sparkly top thread, which'll require a shop trip. I'm plugging along with a couple of double-knit scarves a friend asked me to knit (you can see a sneaky WIP shot here) and cast-on a tweedy Rosalind yesterday.

I have a question with all these scarves. I hate fringes. Hate them. With the double-knit ones I really don't think they need them, so (like exchequered) I think I'll leave it fringe-less. But with Rosalind I think I need something. Am I alone in this hatred of fringes, and does anyone have an idea for an alternative?

Sunday, July 15, 2007

3-2-1-cut!

No, I'm not off to the seaside (tried that last week, it rained). I'm about to start my very first quilt.

fabric for quilting


I'm not a master sewer by any stretch. And I hate following instructions so am winging it a bit (I did do research first, promise). It's going to be pretty simple though, stripy. We'll see how it goes. Wish me luck

Monday, July 02, 2007

squirrely top-down raglan

squirrely top

So, it needs a block. And buttons. And, er, to have the ends woven in*. But this is done and I love it and I'm too excited to put off posting. Plus I'm about to go on holiday till the weekend. It's for a baby. A tiny top-down raglan, made with leftovers (and based on the pattern for) these mittens.

squirrely back close up


*Though only a few because I was good and did them while I worked.