Scarf with Striped Border

Pattern: Scarf with the striped border from Weldon's, Volume 5, 1890
From: Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby (page 80)
Yarn: Hipknits cashmere fingering weight - pressie from the sticky lovely Super Monkey, thanks!
Used: About 400m (40g)
Needles: 4.5mm
Mods: none


This is probably one of the simplest lace patterns in the whole of the Victorian Lace Today book but I think it's very pretty, and the simplicity makes it more wearable for everyday than most of the designs... although maybe not actually today, given that it is the hottest day of the year so far. I'm sure that 28 degrees would not be considered very hot at all just about anywhere else in the world, but here in north west England we are definitely not used to it. But I am not complaining, oh no, not me. It's a fine excuse for eating icecream, buying new sandals and speculating on when it might rain again.


I really don't know what I want to make next. I have been thinking about making a felted bag for my Mum, as she really admired the Booga Bag that I made a while back, and there are a lot of cute looking bag patterns about. I am tempted by Nicky Epstein's Floral Felted Bag but the lining instructions are scary. There is also nice Drops pattern with a sort of filigree crochet flap thing going on that I quite like the look of too. I shall have to have a think.

Neat

This is making me very happy indeed. It has a very simple pattern and a really neat way of joining the border sections. Hopefully will be done in less than a week, which I think could be a record.

Scarf with the striped border from Weldon's, Volume 5, 1890
from Victorian Lace Today

PS. I might have done something stupid. I have agreed to run next year's Race For Life in York with my sister-in-law and niece. Ha!

Corset Pullover

So, to prove that I am not a complete wastrel, I have returned as promised with my finished Corset Pullover. Despite it not being the black that I really wanted to make this in, I am very pleased with it indeed. I think it may be the first to-be-worn-by-me garment that I've ever knitted that has actually fitted me properly without needing to be vigorously blocked or stretched about. I decided to keep the arm cinch straps as I like the D-ring details and sewed them into position with a single strand of the cotton yarn, as despite my best efforts with the iron and spray starch (a new and exciting introduction into the Sheep Happens Laundry Room) they kept curling up.

I have been very impressed with the Paton's Washed Haze yarn, it is lovely to knit with, feels soft and appears to be tough as old boots. All good. If they do this in black, I would most definitely buy more to make my next Corset Pullover in.

Corset Pullover on

We are still going out walking a fair bit (armed with obligatory hayfever tablets, insect repellant and a goodly amount of balsam tissues) and I have decided to try and make a note of some of the interesting nature around me. Like pretty flowers. I shall be attempting to post photos and identify things, using my not-very-handy-weighs-a-tonne book of the countryside. If you see that I have got something very obviously very wrong, it doesn't really matter but you can feel free to leave a comment letting me know if you want :)

Yellow Flag (iris) growing in (disused) Hollinwood Branch Canal

How do?

*blows dust off blog and settles down to type*

Ahem.

I've been planning this post for a long time. I was going to post when I finished my next knitted project, so that I had something intricate and amazing to show for my time and have lots of other excuses prepared, but quite frankly I don't.

I finished (sort of) making something!

Pattern: Corset Pullover by Robin Melanson.
Yarn: Patons Washed Haze Cotton DK (January sale bargain from Kemps at 49p per ball)
Shade: Sand
Size made: 35 1/4"
Amount used: about 10 x 50g balls (I think)
Needles: 5mm straight, dpn and circs.



Mods:
Made the length longer in the lower body, working an extra 1" before starting the shaping and decreasing every 6th row rather than 3rd.

However, before it is really finished I'll need to undo the seam at the tops of the shoulders and shorten the neck probably about about half an inch front and back to the shoulder shaping as it looks a bit baggy around the top. I will do this at the weekend, block it and then take a photo of it being worn as it's quite fitted and looks better on than laid out flat.

I also have to decide whether to keep the cinch straps around the arms, as I think they might be a bit too much??

And lastly, before I go - with a promise to return soon, maybe even with some more knitting! - here are some pictures of yummy yarn and cute lambs.

Posh Yarn June sock club yarn, Daisy

Lambs in May at Floors Castle in Kelso

Strata

Fingerless gloves
from Knitting New Mittens and Gloves by Robin Melanson
Yarn: UK Alpaca Superfine DK in Rose Pink
Used less than 50g
Needles: 4mm circs

Traditional gloves
Yarn: UK Alpaca Superfine DK in Black
Used about 80g
Needles: 3.25mm circs

Mods: none

Very nice, warm double layered gloves. I might make another pair of the fingerless mits, I'd probably make them in the smaller size as they are a little too big to wear on their own.

PS. Thanks for the birthday wishes!

Another year older

Ooh look at that... yet again, considerable time has passed between my posts. I have been thinking about blogging for a couple of weeks now and each time I think of something I should mention, I promptly forget about it. I doubt I am the world's worst blogger as there seem to be millions of single post blogs that start off so hopefully with an introduction and statement of the high aims that person has for their blog and then complete silence ever since... so that award is out of the question, but I must be up for a almost-near-death-blog award. Maybe I shouldn't draw attention to it – there might be some kind of blog police or RSPCB that will come and get me.

So, moving on...There has been snow. You might have noticed.

This was taken last Saturday, almost a week after we'd had any significant snowfall.
The drifts are still over a metre high up on the tops.

The back garden got a decent covering - about 6" or so

There has been a birthday (I've had enough of them now that I'm starting to lose track of how old I am) and I got some very nice presents, which included the Vogue Stitchionary books and some very lovely Manos de Uruguay Silk Blend yarn.

We went to Warwick Castle for the day and had fun exploring the battlements and towers. As it is February they weren't doing much outside (how I always longed to have a summer birthday like my sister, whose birthday is in July and got parties in the garden and presents of roller boots and bikes – whereas by birthday was usually spent indoors and involved board games) but they did put a very entertaining falconry display on. Maybe it's wrong to be amused by a man in not very warm looking green leggings looking half frozen in a blizzard while trying to stop an eagle from clawing his finger off. There was birthday scone with jam and butter and clotted cream and we bought some mediaeval toys and soon will be having a great trebuchet vs ballista face off! When the weather is nice enough to play in the garden, as battles are not permitted in the living room apparently.

In other knitterly news, I bought 12 x 50g balls of Patons cotton for less than £10 delivered, which is planned to become a Corset Pullover. I had really wanted to make this in black, having seen a beautiful finished one on Ravelry, but now I might make two!

And the first of my Posh Yarn sock club yarn has arrived and is utterly gorgeous.

Raglan Jumper

Pattern: V Necked School Jumper by Rita Gulliver
Yarn: Jaeger Matchmaker DK
Needles: 3,25mm and 4mm
Mods: None

The yarn for this jumper was given to our knitting group by a local teacher who had to clear out a cupboard in the art department at her school and wondered if we could make use of it or it was all going in a skip. There were bags and bags of stuff, some of it not useable but a few real gems. There was 350g of this Jaeger Matchmaker yarn which, after I had washed, dried and rewound it, was as good as new.