crawling

I have finally got around to PDF-ing Rosalind and Bakerloo, and putting them up on ravelry. As an added bonus you can also find my Bottoms Up pattern and an article about toe-up sock heels (with formula/ pattern).

If you are not on ravelry, then that's your own problem, you freak. Join up.

They are all for free. Please respect (a) copyright and (b) that I'm not here to teach you to knit. By all means contact me if you think there is a problem with the pattern, but if I get another message on ravelry from a stranger who wonders if maybe they should have done a swatch (or simply hasn't read the pattern), I'll scream.

Because I'm feeling maudlin today, I've re-dedicated the Bakerloo pattern to Ken Livingstone, seeing as it was named after London transport. As I said, maudlin. Not just about the new mayor - its other voting decisions, or lack of them that really bugged me. I tried to walk it off this afternoon, so stomped up the hill to look over the view of London from the Horniman gardens. I often go there when I want perspective, I somehow feel soothed by surveying my city. But the skyline didn't work today. So I decided to hide in pretend countryside instead, and went for a muddy walk around Sydenham Hill Woods, which at least gave me a chance to play with my new birthday present (new camera). Hence the photos.

I can't believe I took these, and feel entirely justified in having 'blamed my tools' for the last couple of years.

demi-done

I've taken ages to post about this. I finished in March. It's been hard to find a time when me, a charged camera battery, a photographer and light have all be in the same place, but it's also because I haven't entirely decided whether to give it a thumbs up or down.

Its Demi, from Rowan Vintage Style made in Cash Iroha bought half-price in the John Lewis sale. All details in the ravelry page. I'd been wanting to make demi for years. Faced with a sweater's worth of aran weight yarn after the sale, I was desperate to demi-it.

I checked through ravelry for other FOs in the yarn, and again and again the same line came up "Oh, Cash Iroha, how you do grow!" I knew demi shouldn't be loose, so I asked around and was told it didn't grow that much. And I was good. Not only did I swatch properly, but I washed and seriously blocked it before taking stitch and row measurements. I went down several needle sizes and it all seemed to be on track. But, you can guess. It grew.

The pattern does work as a baggy jumper. The side-shaping and twisted rib keep the looseness of the yarn in check, meaning its still reasonably comfortable and (relatively) flattering. Most people seem to use the hourglass sweater patten with Cash Iroha for the same reason. Still, it's not the image I had of the pattern in my mind. Demi is a tight, fitted and nipped in smart garment, not a big softy-sack. And you have to remember that I've had that image in my head for years.

In conclusion, it's a thumbs up of an FO. But my craving for a demi is not sated. Next autumn I'll make another one in a more conventional yarn. It'll be re-gauged to dk, and as a top-down raglan. Because life's too short for all those back-to-front purls on the WS of the twisted rib, and I think the shoulder button detail will look cute on the raglan angle.

In the meantime, I'm looking for a stitch pattern with virtually no stretch. Any ideas?

in need of warmth

Even though it's been bright sunshine all week, the weather still feels like this:

(taken weekend before last, when it did actually snow). I seem to feel constantly chilled. And not in the metaphorical, relaxed, way either. It seems plain wrong when it's so sunny, but there is a cruel wind, and it's early enough in the year to still want a bit of cloud cover. I don't think sitting with college's over enthusiastic air-con's all day is exactly helping.

So, in amongst the shivers and sneezes, I've been comforting myself with this:

It'll be socks. It was going to be lovemeknots. Then it was going to be plain stripes. But now it appears to be slipped-stitch colourwork. A proper post will happen at some point when I've thawed enough to think of anything creative. Until then, brrrrr.

Magknits patterns

As some of you might know, Magknits has been taken off-line. Including my Bakerloo and Rosalind patterns. I will try to put them up soon (at least as ravelry downloads), but I am very busy at the moment. I have a day off on Sunday, but its my birthday, so I was planning on doing other things.

So please bear with me. I'm doing this for free. I had no notice of this - the first I heard of it was a blog comment this morning. At which point I checked out the threads on ravelry and well, let's not get pulled into that particular mess. Magknits is gone, we're all sorting replacements, some have time to do it quicker than others. End.

If you want Bakerloo, there's a similar pattern here. If you want Rosalind, the chart's written out in knitting language here. You can cross-reference that with a standard illusion knit pattern (use a search engine). You can still get the patterns, without images, through google's cache or the wayback machine. If you have some kind of crazy knitting emergency where you need the pattern now, email me (address in the knitty patterns) and I'll see what I can do.

learn from my stupidity

When you leave your handknit socks for the winter, don't just leave them at the bottom of your washing pile thinking "yay, I don't need to wash them for six months". Dirty socks attract moths a lot more easily.


Yeah, that is my middle finger sticking out of the hole - the munching, flying little beasties. I've washed the socks anyway, and once they're dry I'll see if I can darn the hole, but it's pretty big. In my some of my favourite socks, too (the lovemeknots). Next spring, I'll remember to wash them all, carefully fold them and put them away securely. Possibly sealed. For the time being, I'm remaining vigilant, and Kirsty invested in a few anti-moth herb sachets (which are strong-smelling, and I haven't stopped sneezing since she opened them up, but at least won't make the flat stink of mothballs).

the guilty pleasures of the academic

I tend to get my news from the internet, but there is something wonderful about a physical copy of the Weekend Guardian. In my defense, it lasts two of us (sometimes more) at least a week. The excessive piles of paper get used.

Today was a good Guardian day. I knew it would be before I even got my hands on a copy. There had been some animated post's on a few online communities this morning. Crafters were excited about the 90 page booklet linked to this book: make a doormat out of clothes pegs, turn an old roll-neck jumper into a hotwaterbottle cover! Academics have been delighting in reading the guilty pleasures of notable clever-cloggs: Steve Jones has a thing about estate agents, Elaine Showalter loves Trinny and Susannah!

I've got a horrid cold and had just a rubbish day yesterday. The short version is that I discovered it is going to be yet another week before my grant comes through - that's over a month waiting for my pay. So, feeling in need of some self-indulgence but also feeling pretty poor and full of the cold, I pulled on my new mittens* and went down to the shops in search of vitamin C and the newspaper.


Aside from the sections on craft and academic gossip, the true delight of today's paper was discovering that the balaclava has been big on the catwalks (see picture at top of post). A prediction I made here months ago. Though I should note that the article comes out in favour of the bobble hat.

So this (highly frustrated) academic is sitting hiding in her college hoodie, slowly burying herself in tissues, about to spend the afternoon with her own guilty pleasures. I have the pile of weekend newsprint to get through, a cheesy musical on the telly and my knitting. I'm making a voodoo doll to focus my grant-rage upon. Expect a pin-filled FO post sometime next week.

* Yes, new mittens. A secret FO hidden in my cold-addled rambling post. It's based on this pattern (which I found through Mettetations), though I made them more chequered than honeycomb. I used brown Opal Uni (two strands held together) with Noro silk garden for the MC, knit tightly on a 3mm circular. It was cold and I couldn't wait for the Anemoi's to be done so whipped them up on the bus to and from work this week.

a tale of two sweaters

Let me take you back to Christmas Sales 2005. Cue weird time-travel music (I'm thinking radiophonic workshop).

My flatmate and I got up very early, managing to be some of the first into the John Lewis* wool department. We'd never done sales properly before and hadn't anything particular in mind. We keenly bagged some very cheap Debbie Bliss merino chunky. It promised a super-warm, super-quick knit and I picked out a jumper's-worth in an icy greeny-blue.

Kirsty had been itching to make a fairly-easy fair isle cardigan. It turned out so well, I thought I'd copy-cat, stealing her leftovers for the colourwork. The result.

But the shape never worked, no matter how I blocked and re-blocked (and re-blocked). It hung oddly. It looked bad. Worse, it never felt comfortable. Loathe to waste the yarn, I resolved to re-knit. I decided on a top-down raglan, and looked for a few balls of a less scratchy yarn for the yoke area where my skin is most sensitive to wool.

So, Christmas 2006 and the sales come round again. Again, I'm one of the first through the door of John Lewis. But this time I come armed with a bit more common sense (and a piece of the green merino, to colour-match). A load of extra fine merino chunky was on sale. For some reason my skin doesn't mind this yarn. They even had a gorgeous dark green.

And so my chunky jumper is re-born.


I used the same design I used for the hot-water-bottle cover. It would have been a lot neater if I'd charted the colourwork increases properly, but I was expecting to just wear it around the house - I didn't know it'd would come out so well. It's not super-glamorous, but it's a perfectly respectable garment. Best of all, it feels nice to wear. It just hangs right, which that cardigan never did.

* Literary side-point. This particular John Lewis is built on the birthplace of Lord Byron.

problem with t'noggin

I knitted a hat.

Using Wormhead's ingenious Whirly Rib pattern, I striped Kureyon with a solid purple Cashmerino. To avoid itching from the wool, I worked cashmerino only for the rim, then striped in the gradually. The yarn and the pattern worked so well. The colours; gorgeous. I finished at the end of last week and already had compliments from non-knitters and knitters alike.

Lack of photographic evidence?

I left on the bus this morning. I was tired and frustrated by seeing the bus I was going to change onto pass us. I might be able to try the London Transport lost property office, but don't hold out much hope.

Grump grump grump. I was planning on blogging about it this evening and really looking forward to it.

But in good news I drunkenly made my boyfriend wear my pink scarf on saturday night (went surprisingly well with his yellow tee-shirt). Now smells of him. Which is comforting considering the lack of whirly wool hat to keep my noggin* warm.

*Brit slang - I mean head. Though you probably worked that out.

My washing machine hates me

I'd been working on a cardigan with some deep red Matchmaker DK. The yarn had haunted my stash for a while. Once upon a time it was my First Knitted Sweater. It had turned out badly (surprise surprise). I frogged it and re-balled and it had sat waiting for a decent project for over a year. At first it was destined to a jumper like this, but as Matchmaker is 100% wool I worried about getting an itchy chest and tried to find a non-sweater use for it.

I designed a cardigan/ shrug and it worked. Really well. Bright red and covered in large cables - how very this season. I didn't blog about it because it was going so well I thought I'd submit the pattern.

Anyone who read the post's title can probably guess what's coming. I carefully set to a minimum spin cycle. But the machine decided otherwise, and spun the thing so hard it felted. Felted machine washable wool. I didn't know one COULD felt Matchmaker, in fact I've tried and failed to before.

If I'd wanted the felting, it did do it beautifully. There is something pretty cool about a felted cable. My flatmate got me to try blocking it into a shape that might be wearable, but it wouldn't work. The design required elasticity.

Grump grump grump.

I would stomp around while grumping but when I tried this I stomped into the washing machine and scraped my leg so bad it bled. I told you that thing hates me.

I do have a plan to save the fabric into something beautiful, functional and generally happy though. News of this will follow.

on the line

Pictures of my current WIP.

Veronique sent me this gorgeous yarn a while back. She remembered me saying I wanted to make an exchequered for myself, and that she thought the yarn would be perfect. The colours are amazing. The blue is like a jewel and the brown is a great match for it - it's rich enough not to dull it's glow.

I started playing with it and decided the rectangles-based pattern wasn't what I wanted. I think I was just bored by it and wanted to try something else. Something more delicate. So I played around with about 100 different arrangments of squares/ rectangle (plus a few more complex fair-isle designs) and settled on this diamond pattern.

Still, I'm not sure about it still, maybe I should just go with the exchequered pattern afterall. I might frog.

But the frogging isn't just because the pattern.

*clears throat*

I have a slight allergy to wool. It's only really an issue round my neck and chest. It's fine while I'm knitting, touching my hands - I'm thinking "mmm how lovely and soft this is". Then I swing it round my neck and oh how it itches. I just need to admit (properly) to myself that this is a problem and avoid 100% wool for certain garments. Scarves. Jumpers.

I really want a good project to use this yarn with. The colours really are just yummy and it was just a thoughtful gift. Legwarmers? Fair-isle legwarmers?