On Tuesday night, my progress on the baby heirloom wasn't too bad. Finishing it for the show on Saturday morning was within my grasp. It was only a sleeve and the collar and placket, so how long could it possibly take?
Do not under-estimate the time that that it takes to work those cables. These are proper cables, not the twisted Austrian variety that goes fast. These cables on 3.00mm needles.
Last year, the judges criticised me for mattress stitching a baby garment. I supposed that they thought seamless was probably better, so this year, I made a few changes to the orginal pattern.
1. Knitted the body in the round
2. Knitted the sleeves in the round.
To reduce sewing, I picked stitches on the armhole of the body of the sweater, and did a 3 needle bind off to cast off the sleeve in the armhole. It makes for less sewing and less ends to weave in.
But where the pattern was let me down was in the collar and button placket. I haven't done one before (yes I should had read the instructions before started knitting and getting advice if I was concerned, but I didn't and it was 9pm on Friday night when I got there) and the instructions were in a word 'PANTS'. If I picked up at the edge for the collar, the bit that wasn't sewn up, what happens, does on leave it with a nasty raw edge (and give the judges more ammo on me)? It also gave instructions for picking up the total number of stitches but none on how many for the front, back or the edge. Hello....? I expect better from an Interweave pattern. Although perfectly normal for most Norwegian patterns that I have seen, American and British patterns usually spell it out (and at 10pm on Friday night wondering if I'll fall asleep or finish this thing, it was a bit annoying).
So I improvised. I picked up stitched on the placket where the buttons were to be sewn and did a 1x1 ribbing. Then I picked up the stitches on the edged of that and did a 1x1 ribbing for the collar.
The one thing that I'm not entirely happy with, the button placket. It said something about using a crochet hook. My mind went blank. It's been about 2 years since my last crochet lesson with Sue and at midnight, I didn't have the heart to call Jacinta or Rowanette Jill, so I improvised. I picked up 25 stitches , did 1 row garter stitch, then k2, cast off 3, knit 3, etc. Next row, I cast off, and when I got to the gap, I knit into the stitch on the needle. If it wasn't yet 12:45, I would had ripped it and did it again just to make it neater, but my eyes were closing
Let's not begin to talk about how long it took to find these buttons. I went to John Lewis and Liberty. I manged to find these in Peter Jones on Friday night. I was considering at the point to sewing 2 flat pearl buttons together to give the buttons a bit more height. Yes desperate times means desperate measures.
Yes, button 3 looks slightly off kilter, but I could had sworn that it looked perfect when I went to bed on Saturday morning.
Double moss stitch, is very pretty.
The finished sweater.
with an artistic arrangement
Honestly, knit this for a very special child. It might be small, but it takes ages to do and you find any inattentiveness will result in a rip-fest. I used a cashmere silk blend that I got from School Products years ago. It's a heathery light blue eventhough it photographs grey-ish.
The pattern is from Interweave Spring 2004 and the designer is Lisa Lloyd.
Photos of mostly winners in the Kew Horticultural Society's 62nd Show .
First the rest of the crafty entries. By combining some of the classes, you'll see how difficult it was to judge. I think a lot of the soft toys got pushed to the knitting class, that's why you had toys with garments.
Class 78 - Hand-made garment
Class 84 - Item made of mainly soft material eg lampshade, hat, cushion, soft toys
This is the problem with reducing the categories, you have so many medias to select the prize winners from the you can't do justice to the different techniques
Class 82 -Patchwork or quilting
From previous experience, this is a really tough category. There's even enough quilting enthusiam to sustain a local quilting shop...and this year the intricacies did not disappoint. Whilst quilting is not always to everyone's taste, the time and effort that went into these items really demonstrated the skill involved
Class 80 -Hand or machine embroidery item, including cross-stitch
Class 81 -Tapestry or Canvas work
Class 86 - Hand-made Greeting Card
Fruits, veggies to follow. I didn't take any photos of the artwork or photography but the stuff submitted was fabulous.
Class 26 - Apples - 5 dessert
Class 27 - Apples - 5 cooking
Class 28 - Blackberries 18
Class 29 - 2 bunches grown outdoors
Class 30 - Pears - 5 ripe or unripe
Class 31 - Plums - 9
Class 32 - Raspberries - 18
Class 52 - Posy of flowers not exceeding 125 mm in diameter arranged in a bowl
Class 59 - Gift from my garden - display of flowers, fruit and vegetables grown in the open and arranged for all-round effect
Class 58 - Best outdoor grown flower in the garden
Class 43 - Dahlias - 6 in a vase pompoms, no more than 52mm
Class 41 - Dahlias - 3 in a vase, no more than 220mm (cactus or non semi-cactus
Class 40 - Dahlias - 3 in a vase, no more than 220mm
Class 46 - Mixed Flowers
Class 37 - Annuals of one kind other than asters
Class 36 - Perennials - hardy 3 or more different kinds
Class 10 - Marrow 1 - the heaviest
Class 5 - Cabbage 2 with at least 4 cm of stalk (washed>
Class 2 - Beans French - 12 other than green
Class 1 - Beans French - 12 green with stalks
Class 25 - A collection of vegetables of any 5 distinct kinds, one variety of each
Class 5 - tomatoes 5 medium with stalk
Class 75 - Tea Loaf
Class 74 - Onion Tart
Class 70 - Victoria Sponge - 3 eggs, 20 cm tin
Class 72 - Ginger Biscuits - 6 on a plate
The results of the Kew Horticultural Society's 62nd Show are in. Let's cut to the chase, I'll show the knitting entries now. I'll put more photos up later in the week, cause the tent cause a yellow-y light on everything, so I'm going to have to adjust all the photos.
Sadly, many of the categories on show last year were not included, probably because there weren't that many entries last year. The crochet category is gone.
Knitting Entries
This year there was much more vigorous competition.
Here's the winner.
The second place winner, my madli
The third place winner
The fourth place winner, my heirloom aran
Highly Commened
Commended
I want to thank everyone for visiting and leaving me suggestions to deal the Geek. Don't we all love a little practical joke? It really made me laugh to think of this poor man being pranked by the knitting world and so many geeky pranks too. I would had thought that someone would suggest knitting him some socks out of the itchiest wool known to man or something in glow-in the dark acrylic...but the keyboard and mouse tricks could be just the ticket.
I must point out though that any actions requiring touching his underthingies will best be left to his missus. I'll probably send her a link with all your suggestions... hehehehehe.
Some of you also noticed that it was my birthday recently.. .too true.. another year (gulp), bring on the Nice 'n Easy, I say ... I'm not quite ready yet to throw away my mini's and most certainly am not ready to flaunt my silver hair (I've been greying since I was about 13, but it's gotten so bad that I can't pluck them out faster than they are showing up!)
oh and the blog birthday drawing winner ... is Dr Judy. Congrats Dr Judy! I've sent you an email.
In just 3 days, Alltangledup aka atu celebrates its 3rd blog birthday. In honour of this occasion, I thought that I would highlight a few lesser known fact-lettes.
1. If you'd found me via a search engine, you were probably searching for
- kiri
- p*lly knitting
- prague yarn shop
- istanbul yarn shop
- Rowanette exchange
- chinese+wedding+hair+brushing
See, it's not all about shopping here!
2. The 2 posts with the most image images hotlinked are: this one (lai-see and gung hay fat choy) and this one (double happiness).
Does this mean that chinese people are more likely to commit bandwidth thief?
3. 3 projects where greater than 10 people asked me to send them the pattern.
Tango - I told them to email Rowan for the pattern, as it's out of print and Rowan will send it to members at no/minimum cost
Baby booties - from Debbie Bliss baby book, I modified it slightly
This poncho from Maryland - I honestly have no idea, I just took the photo.
Phew! I managed to help in 2/3 cases without violating copyrights
4. Photos demonstrating extreme knitting ... or wtf, is this girl nuts ...?
5. Top 3 referring sites in July/August
myspace.com - no idea why, it can't be 'em hotlinkers cause I'm barring them in my .htaccess
knittersreview.com
mimknits.com - probably because of the Icarus
6. Finally.... the annual blog birthday drawing... this year, it's going to require a bit of thought on your part ... all you need to do is leave a comment on this post with your name and email contact (use an anonymous one like hotmail or yahoo if you're afraid of being spammed to death) and a harmless trick that you think that I ought to play on the Geek for his birthday. You have until Sunday, 20th August, noontime EST, when my random number generator will randomly select a winner
I must admit that Geek and I have agreed to a ceasefire this year to avoid mutually assured birthday joke destruction, but should he even consider reneging on that, I want him to see the ammo that I have. You don't have to be original, so don't worry if someone else has suggested it. I have threatened to send him a singing gorilla-gram in the past but given the litigious nature of workplace harassment lawsuits, have decided against that... not to mention that chance that my company's security guards might refuse admit a masked person at these security conscious times Please do not suggest anything that might land me on the front page of the Times, there is a big difference between fame and infamy.
So the prize .. . 10 balls of Jaeger Pure Cotton in .... (now where did I put that yarn ..) This is a lovely yarn and 10 balls gives you 1250 meters, enough to do many of the Rowan designs.
The Pure Cotton has been discontinued for some time. It's the right tension to use to substitute the Rowan Glacé as well as the old debbie bliss wool cotton. I've had this yarn in stash for a long time and have been keeping it particularly for children's clothing. When I gift yarn, I want to make sure that there is enough to do a project and with 10 balls of the Pure Cotton, you can make up to the largest size of Crinkle from Rowan 39 What colour? Probably an off white. I'll post a photo tomorrow, cause I can't find the yarn right now.
PHOTO ADDED.
The colour is ecru and the dyelot is 6J0
I thank you all for continuing to visit whilst I record my knitting, yarn shopping and travelling adventures. I also wish you good luck and look forward to reading about how you would torture my friend ;-)
A long, long time ago (possibly when I was ..ahem... much, much slimmer and could get away with knitting the smaller sizes), I used to love knitting cables. The twining, windingness really appealed to me, eventhough I had to buy a new cable needle with each project. (My cable needles are in that alternate world where the socks that get lost in the wash all go to.)
Cable knitting can be a labour of love, cause it can just take FOREVER + 1 day. However, I saw the Heirloom Aran by Lisa Lloyd in Interweave Spring 2004 and thought, it's just a little baby thing, how long could it take.
Never mind that it's on 2.5 mm needles.... No, I didn't have the right yarn either, but I did have some yummy laceweight cashmere, merino, silk in stash so I thought, yeah, I can ply them up to the right thickness so I did.
The Heirloom Aran is so gorgeous that I thought to not even take any shortcuts. I started with a tubular cast-on. Who would had thought that there were so many ways to do a tubular cast-on?
I used this one by Mary Ellen Meisters, cause that's what I've always used before, but a quick google also showed that Amelia Raitte, Siow Chin and Fluffbuff had excellent tutorials. What did one do in the days before the internet and google?
The cable combination is really sweet.
But unfortunately, I think my tension is too tight. The stitch definition is fine, the texture really pops but I think that it's a bit too dense for a small baby. So after 4.5 inches done in the round, I ripped it. That's right, all this was ripped. (sniff)
I really should had ripped it 2 days ago but I kept telling myself that it would be ok. I really ought to listen to that little voice inside my head more often.
..and a hearth.
It's always worth the wait and I never get impatient waiting for my Rowanette Exchange thingy. One of the nice things about it, is the surprise factor. I mean, if you knew it was going to be finished and sent by a certain date, what kind of surprise would that be?
The theme this year is Home and Hearth. Lots of really, really love things were made. It looked like everyone went out of their way to make something special that their recipient would love.
So when I got the package slip from postie on Thursday, I thought that it was likely to be my Rowan #40. (OK, if any Rowan people are reading this, please find out where my #40 has gone. It's really, really late!). So imagine my surprise when I saw that it was my thingy. Naturally, I ripped into it the moment that I got my hands on it.
Isn't it gorgeous?
So many wonderful, wonderful things. I adore all of it. The cushion is just fabulous.
I'm a really, really lucky girl, cause Rowanette Kate also sent some fabulous recipe books and a mini version of the cushion as a potholder.
Naturally, I immediately read through the recipes and am fascinated by these...
Squabble Pie...
Pond Pudding
Whitpit
Suddenly, I feel an overwhelming desire to cook and how appropriate as Somerset cooking seems to use lots of apple and it'll be apple season in a few week's time.
Thank you Kate....!
cause Madli is done!
And so the blocking begins... first thoroughly wet it. Then lay it out and pin to shape with approx 500 or so quilting pins (It may be less than 500 but it felt like at least 500 when I was pinning in on my hands and knees).
I soaked it for about 20 minutes to make sure that it was *soaked*.
Then I realised that it ws wiggly. So I *sigh*, unpinned it and straightened it again. There, looks straight, right?
She worked out a wee bit longer than I had intended...about 84 inches instead of 72 inches So long that on the chair, she dragged.
So I had to repose her.
See how nicely the tips get scalloped with the blocking?
and the body of the shawl comes alive.
Here's the final arty shop. 2 strands of laceweight together gives a far more substantial shawl, She's not fluttering in the breeze.
Voila Madli's Shawl from Interweave Summer 2004.
Mine done using 2 strands of Knitpicks Shadow in Lost Lake.
I used 4.5 balls altogther for a shawl of approximately 22 inches wide by 84 inches long.
So in response to , Farrah's question: Yes I think it would work as a laceweight, but I would recommend that you add more repeats to make sure that it is wider. If it's too narrow, you'll end up with a pretty scarf. If you do it nupp-less, you'll use less yarn too.
Thanks to Laura for point out that the shawl is actually called Madli not Madil...and sorry for having you all google and not find the right pattern!
The problem with knitting scarves and rectangular stoles is knowing when to stop. Grumperina told me when I was making her, her scarf for the Stitch Ya Neck Out Exchange, to stop when I got to a certain length, even if there was yarn left, cause there's nothing more disturbing than an overly long scarf.
By subbing the yarn and omitting the nupps, I knew that I had more yarn than the pattern called for and I did want to make mine a tad bit longer than the recommended 60 inches. I think 60 inches is a bit mingey for a stole and I'm not knitting to a schedule, so it was going to be a more generous stole.
Anyway, so I kept going. I did 36 instead of the 31 pattern repeat. I think that this was a really fun project. The knitting was interesting while not being too complicated. I a great part of this while watching The Godfather trilogy on dvd.
So, she's nearly ready for a dip in the sink and then a pinning we will go.
Ever since I first laid eyes on Madli's Shawl, I've wanted to knit it. It's elegant. It's lace. It's feminine but it had NUPPS. I just wasn't sure that I would ever use a stole with n*i*p*p*l*e*s on it. (that ought to get some interesting hits from google)
I hasten to add that I used to never mind knitting bobbles, but so many knitters complaining about bobbles being slow and not knitter friendy, made me reappraise how I felt about. Suddenly indifference became dislike. Did bobbles suffer a reputation assasination at the hands of knitting blogland?
Then there was an issue of yarn. I actually didn't have the right yarn in stash. Should I go out and buy some? with the stash spreadsheet baring my indiscretions to the world? So somehow, I have put off knitting this shawl that I really like for... 2 years!
Whilst leafing through my Interweaves, I saw it again and thought I still like it. I still don't have the yarn in the right weight, so I dug through my stash and found some Knitpicks Shadow in Lost Lake. That's one great thing about lace weight yarns, you can always ply upwards to the weight that you need.
In just a few days, I got this far.
It goes a lot faster without the nupps and once I got the repeats memorized. I'm aiming to do 3 repeats a night.
I almost went of the rails when Meg showed her Baltic Sea Stole, another project that I've been considering. Isn't it just gorgeous? Fortunately, I'd misplaced the pattern so it had to be Madli.
How does one do Madli without the nupps? Just ignore the instructions for the nupps and knit on the right side and purl on the wrong side of the fabric where you are supposed to purl 7 stitches together.