February Socks

 

This year is starting well with a pair of socks completely knitted in each month. (I won’t be able to show off January’s pair until later in the year.)

For February there were two designers and two techniques/themes. The latter were repeats and design your own, neither of which I was especially interested in. So I was hoping that I had at least one of the designers’ patterns. And I had five patterns that I had not previously made by one of the designers – Caoua Coffee. Next to pair up yarn with one of the patterns. I chose an orange yarn that I had purchased in the closing down sale in 2021. (Dizzy Blonde Studios Lambie Toes)This was not as tonal as I was expecting but still worked well with the pattern. Caoua Coffee’s patterns are always interesting but well written and not hard and this was no exception, with the start of round changing on several rows.

This yarn was really hard to photograph and capture the true colour. It is a deep orange but my phone wanted to capture it much lighter. And before I forget the pattern is Canon by Caoua Coffee which I had added to my Ravelry library in December 2019. I used about 75g of yarn with size 2.25mm double pointed needles.

 

Anytime of the Year Pi.

 

I have made a number of shawls that I have started on Pi Day. Either March 14 or 22 July. The aim with these projects is to start on a Pi date and finish on the next Pi date. This has not always occurred and the latest Pi variant is a good example. I started it in July 2022 which would give me more than seven months to complete; if I hadn’t run out of steam. There were two main problems:-1, I didn’t like the yarn; 2, the border chart was completely wrong.

I had got the yarn in a swap and it is totally not my colours. I should have just put it in the thrift pile but it was Noro and it wasn’t that bad. It could have stayed in my stash but I was determined to use it. I the end I just didn’t have the enthusiasm to finish the shawl until I decided I would give it to my Mum and then I was eager to work the border. Except the chart for the border was completely wrong. This was a free pattern and the designer was deceased, so no asking for help. It wasn’t a case of one row being incorrect - none of the rows matched up with the previous row. Rather deflated I eventually went through my pattern books until I chose something that was similar to the original intent. Imagine my stress when I found a mistake in that pattern too. At least that was an easy fix.

Although I had decided to give this away, I wasn’t going to rush to finish it ahead of other projects. In fact I wasn’t even going to touch it during the WIP Along. Except I calculated how many rows per day I would have to work to finish it by the end of the year and suddenly finishing was doable. In the end I completed all the knitting before the end of November and blocked it and sewed in the ends by the end of that month. It felt great to have it finished and not have to think about it anymore and I gave it to my Mum so I didn’t have to think about that either.

 

We are coming up to Pi Day. Will I, should I start a shawl? Part of me says yes because it is fun knitting to arbitrary deadlines. But a bigger part of me says no because I don’t want another shawl plus I don’t really have suitable yarn to use. But you never know what the future holds.

A Quick Project

 

Don’t ask me why I cast on, but I had a quick make this week. I saw a cute hat pattern and that the designer was having a knit along. I have finished all my year-long projects for February and had time to work this and I knew I had yarn in my stash. So pattern was purchased and project started on 14 February and the knitting finished on 20 February , with it being blocked on 21 February, the last day of the knit along.

The main yarn is Cosette by Dream in Color, a Christmas gift in 2022 and the pink is MadTosh DK from a friend’s left overs. I  used just under 50g of the Cosette and about 7g of the MadTosh.

One thing I have decided for this year is to be true to myself when rating books – I need to give more 5-stars and more 2-stars. And I need to continue to be honest about yarn and knitting patterns.

This pattern is Lonely Hearts Club 2024 by Becky Beagell, AKA GoGlitterNinjaGo, a previously unknown to me designer. Usually I would check out other designs and comments before purchasing a pattern by an unknown designer but a hat pattern being poorly written is a small annoyance.

The hat comes in five sizes from Baby to Adult and overall the pattern is well written and easy to follow including descriptions and video links to the special stitches. I just have a couple of minor comments; one about the written pattern and one about the design.

The pattern is 19 rows and a six-stitch repeat and is presented as a chart and written. I love having the choice as sometimes I find the words easier to follow and sometimes the symbols. In this case I was following the written directions and wondered why it didn’t say when to change colour. Because at the start of the written directions it says:- “NOTE: If you are working from the Written Dip Chart directions, be sure to refer to the chart for color changes.” Ack! If I wanted to follow the chart I would, plus as I was following the pattern on my phone, the written directions took up the screen, so I had to scroll across to see when to change colour. (Although, to be fair, it is obvious when to use the contrast color.) But how much easier to have written:- “use contrast color only on rows x, y and z?

My comment about the design concerns the decreasing at the crown. There are only two decrease rows; one with a double-decrease and one with a normal decrease. Then as is pretty standard for tops of hats, you gather up the remaining stitches to close the circle at the top of the head. Except there are way too many stitches to close the hole. The smallest size has 17 stitches and the largest has 25. The pictures on the pattern show a hole at the top of the head, which is fine if you are going to sew on a pom pom. Otherwise why do I want a hole at the top of my hat? I’m guessing that as for all sizes the stitches left after the second set of decreases is not divisible by 2 or 3, the designer didn't want to work an uneven set of decreases. This is not a big deal and it is perfectly acceptable to work a round of decreases and have one stitch left. I worked one round of rib and then a round of double decreases with one normal decrease in the middle of the row before making my nicely closed gap.

 

As I said these are minor complaints but does make the pattern a four-star and not five.

 

My Japanese Jacket

 

In my last post I had said I didn’t like the cardigan with jeans. I didn’t mention that I had donned it to wear to a Superbowl party, but having changed my mind, I now had to find a different top or bottom. In the course of trying different things, I popped on this jacket to show my husband as he hadn’t seen it on me and he said I should wear it and no, I wasn’t going to be cold. 

 

I call it my Japanese jacket as the designer is Japanese and the pattern is written in the Japanese style. Once I realized that the numbers were for the entire back of the garment but the schematic was just half the back I was good to go. The garment is knit sideways in three pieces – back and two fronts. Except I worked the back in two pieces as I wanted each piece to be the same. After the cuff stitches are increased for the sleeve shaping and stitches cast on for the body. If I had worked the back in one piece I would have been binding off and decreasing stitches on the second half. This did mean I had a centre back seam to sew. I decided to make this a feature of the garment and worked a 3-needle I-cord bind off. I also worked this on the top of the sleeves. The side and sleeve seams were mattress seamed. 

 

The kit (yarn and pattern) were given to me by my friend who had been given it. She also had purchased the kit a number of years previously and started hers at the same time – she just hasn’t finished it yet. The project uses two strands of Habu mohair and one strand of Habu linen paper held together. People said the linen paper softened on washing but I didn’t notice that mine did but as it is an outer layer that is not really a problem.

This was an easy project that I only worked on when I wanted something easy and sat for months waiting for the seaming to be finished. Many people added buttons but I like mine as it is. Now that I have worn it once I can see myself wearing it more frequently.

 

My Christmas Cardigan

I might not have anything to show for this year but I still have a few finished items from last year that have yet to make an appearance. I haven’t posted about them as they are garments that I wanted to photograph with me wearing them.

For Christmas 2022 I made myself a skirt. It is definitely a Christmas skirt and is very likely the only time I will wear it. I used the same pattern as here but did a better job with the waistband, this time it all made sense. Also I cut out the size larger to make the pleats bigger but I’m not sure that was necessarily a good idea. Having made a skirt for 2022, I decided to make a garment for 2023; especially as I had red yarn in my stash. It just would have been better if I had started it earlier in the year. I started the project on 1 August. Plenty of time to finish for Christmas if I hadn’t had so many other projects on the go which I wanted to finish. I finished the cardigan in time for Christmas although I did not have any buttons I could still wear it. I do have photos of the cardigan and skirt taken at Christmas but they are not very good and the cardigan does not have buttons so does not count as finished.

And buying buttons was not too hard even though I needed nine and I had to go to JoAnns. I managed to get five sets of two each. 

Now that it is completely finished I’m not sure how much I like it. I am not sure if it is because I have been wearing it with jeans and it doesn’t go with jeans, or if I have been wearing it buttoned up and it doesn’t look as nice buttoned up. I will have to try it with a skirt and see what I think buttoned and unbuttoned.

Let’s talk about the pattern – Fickle Heart by Justyna Lorkowska, a Polish designer. The pattern is written for worsted weight yarn and I just so happened to have some in my stash. My gauge was slightly different from the pattern so I made a size larger to make up for this. The pattern is knit from the top down with stitches picked up for the hood. I didn’t want to make the hood, I felt it was a design feature that would cover up the wonderful cables on the back of the cardigan. The cardigan is knit in the round from the top down. Top down is not my favourite form of construction and this cardigan emphasizes why. The shoulders are too narrow and the armholes are too deep. Although they are the correct size based on my measurements in the pattern. If I had been knitting from the bottom up, these parts of the garment would have been easy to correct. Because the shoulders are a little too narrow, the sleeve head puffs up. My friend and I have been discussing different ways to rectify this which will have to wait until the weather is less wet! The sleeves are worked by picking up stitches around the armhole and then working short rows. I was lucky and able to check out from the library Elizabeth Doherty’s book on set-in sleeve design which explained very well how to pick up the stitches and work the short rows. The other feature that fits perfectly well but I do not like on me is the waist shaping and is probably why I do not like wearing the garment with jeans.

I said the yarn was in my stash and has been waiting for a very long time. It is Patons Decor that I purchased some time before 2005 and I was going to make a baby blanket as a gift but changed my mind and never used the yarn for anything else. The yarn has moved with us twice and now was its time. Because I wanted a red garment and this was extra appropriate as the colour name is Christmas Red.

This is the back of the cardigan before the neck band was added but shows the pattern well and you can see why I wouldn't want to cover it up.

 

And this picture shows me wearing the finished item but standing at an angle so you can't see the pronounced waist shaping.

Let’s Talk Yarn

Yesterday I was winding yarn for my February sock cast on and when I unwound it, it looked different than it had appeared in the twisted hank. This wasn’t a problem as it will still work with the pattern I have chosen, but it was a surprise.

So let’s talk about how to buy hand-dyed yarn.

Hand-dyed yarn is a delight (mostly) to behold and it is very easy to be drawn in by the prettiness of it all and end up with yarn you have no idea what to make with or are too scared because you need just the right project for this oh-so-pretty yarn.

Hello socks and shawls. A basic pattern for either of these will show off the yarn. 

 

If possible, buy your yarn in person. Then you can see the colours and are not subject to the vagaries of your screen and the effort of the dyer to capture the true colour. But the yarn I wound was purchased in person but still surprised me. (The whole skein was dip dyed which wasn’t apparent in its twisted state where it looked slightly tonal.) How do you deal with this? Unwind the skeins of course! BUT ask the shop owner first. They do not want their lovely yarns left in a mess.

If you buy hand dyed yarn on line you have to trust that the colours shown are a true representation. To see how true your own electronic device is, look at yarn you have in person and how it looks on screen and take any differences into account when looking at websites. If you are able, look on Ravelry at other people’s photos. Do they all look the same or is there a big variation; do they look the same as the dyer’s shop?

Does the dyer dye the same colour on different bases and do they post a photo of all the colours on all the bases? I know this can be a lot of work but colours look so different on different bases. For example, ontheround shows her color of the month on each of four bases and has a knit swatch and a crochet swatch.

 

I have not ordered from this dyer and have not seen her yarn in person but this effort makes me more likely to order from them.

However you buy your yarn enjoy using it and the process of making something.