Best Year Ever CKAL: April–June 2017

This year I am taking part in the Best Year Ever CKAL hosted by Nikki of the Tea and Possibilities podcast, and as we're half of the way through the year, here's how I'm getting on so far.

The aim of the KAL is to knit or crochet four things that you love over the course of the year. I had a definite plan at the start of the year, but as you'll see from this post, that plan may have wandered a little...

1. Sara Elin socks

When I last updated you on my progress I had already finihsed one KAL item: my pink socks, which I christened my Sara Elin socks after my blog-reading friend Sara Elin (hello!), and wrote up the pattern for shortly afterwards (the pattern is available from my Ravelry store). I loved knitting these, even though they presented many challenges along the way. And the colour?! How could they not make you smile!

2. A squishy purple shawl
Not the shawl I set out to knit at the start of the year, but I do now have a squishy purple shawl: Dotted Rays by Stephen West. This shawl was a triumph and I adore it! I am still to photograph it properly (the weather warmed up as soon as I cast it off), but will do before autumn, and then it will be added to my regular wardrobe.

3. Sincerely Louise reindeer head
I have wanted a Sincerely Louise faux taxidermy head for a long time, and finally it is going to happen! I signed up to the Sincerely Louise mailing list a few months ago, and when she had a sitewide sale on a little while ago I jumped at the chance to grab a kit. So at some point over the next few months I will be knitting a reindeer head. Woo hoo!

4. A garment for me
There are a few options for this category.

First up we have the Antler jumper. Actually this isn't an option any more. My Antler jumper was a total fail. The gauge was wrong, the yarn was too itchy, and last month I sold all the yarn on eBay. Goodbye Antler.

A Pavement sweater. Amy of the Stranded Podcast knitted a Pavement sweater a few months ago, and it is gorgeous: lightweight, seamfree and a nice shape, this jumper is a top contender. I have three and a half skeins of Araucania Ranco in my stash that is a perfect cornflower blue, but will that be enough, and will the yarn be toon scratchy? Hmm...

A Lush cardigan. This cardigan has been on my to-knit list since the pattern was in testing. I have the yarn (Rowan Baby Merino Silk DK*), but it might be too lovely as I am feeling a little intimidated. Maybe I should grab some less precious yarn (possibly something merino by Drops) and just get on with it.

Something new. The final garment option is something else that may be a little out of my comfort zone: my first adult garment design. I have the yarn (Cascade Superwash 220*), I have the idea, and I know how to write the pattern. But that doesn't mean I'm not nervous about it.

Watch this space to see what I finally decide on...

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Have you been joining in with the Best Year Ever KAL? How are you getting on? It's not too late to join in the fun; if you want to know more, head over to the thread in Nikki's Ravelry group.**

*Affiliate link.
**Ravelry link, you must be signed in to Ravelry for the link to work.

A wedge too far?

For the past week I have been working on the final wedge of my Dotted Rays shawl, hoping to finish it this weekend. On Friday evening I got to the end of the final wedge, leaving just two rows and an i-cord cast off. I knew I was cutting it a little fine with the amount of yarn I had - the penultimate wedge used a little under 50g, and the final ball of yarn (which I started on the second row of the final wedge) weighed about 54g, so it was going to be tight.

I weighed my yarn, then knitted the final two rows. I weighed the yarn again. The i-cord cast off meant that for every stitch cast off you have to knit three stitches; I did some quick (late at night) maths and concluded that I would not have enough yarn. I stuck the shawl back in its bag and went to bed.

The following morning I rummaged through several bags to stash to find 11g of purple yarn that would finish the shawl off nicely. I had lots of purple, but it was either too sparkly, too variegated, too speckled or too pink. I had a think and decided that rather than buying more yarn (and risking it not matching), the final two rows before the cast of weren't critical, and that I could get away with pulling them out, then doing the cast off two rows early.

I sat down and carefully tinked back the 525 sts of the previous row, then, for no particular reason, weighed my yarn again. Never trust maths done late at night: there was enough yarn! I swore a bit - delighted that I had enough yarn, annoyed that I can't do basic maths (I'd missed out a factor of two - I did think 11 g was a bit much for a cast off, even a 500 stitch I-cord cast on).

I carefully re-knit the row I'd just unravelled, and over the course of the day cast the shawl off (mostly while sat at soft play while my son was playing). And by the evening I had cast the whole thing off, with just a little scrap to spare.

An out-and-about cast-off

The final few stitches

The shawl is beautiful, the gradient is perfect for it, and there was virtually nothing left from any of the shades (the shawl weighs 270 g and there was 1.93 g of scraps left at the end). I'll share proper pictures later in the week (if it ever stops raining), but here's a little peek for now.

Cutting it fine? Or a job well done?

Have you finished anything this weekend?

Yarning Along: The final wedge

This weekend I tried my hardest not to knit so that I could give my hands a bit of a rest. I managed a whole 48 hours without knitting, and haven't done as much as usual this week either, and my hands are thankful for that. Not knitting meant I had time to get the sewing machine out, and while I didn't manage to complete the two projects I had wanted to do, I did finally finish the curtains for my daughter's room, which I bought the fabric for in October and cut out in March. That project had been pushed up to the top of the to do list as the mornings have been getting lighter and I was getting bored of having to unpeg the blackout linings every morning... The curtains do still need hemming, but I'm pretending I need to leave them to relax for a few days to stabilise at their natural length before I do them (in truth curtain seams are long and by the time I had done them I was bored!).

I've been focusing on knitting for me now that all my commissions are out of the way, and my current favourite is my Dotted Rays. I have just started the final shade of purple and am on the final wedge, so this is nearly done (does anyone else speed up as they get towards the end of a project?). The project isn't very photogenic at the minute as it's all bunched up on the needle, but that can't be helped.

I finished reading After You this week, and while I enjoyed it I much preferred Me Before You. And I have made no progress on Spectacles this week, but know I will enjoy it when I next have an early night. The other non-knitting thing I am excited about this week is the arrival of my La La Land DVD, which was a birthday present (but hadn't been released in time for my birthday); I loved seeing it at the cinema and can't wait to watch it this weekend (and then several times afterwards - the cd of the soundtrack is in my car on repeat).

Linking up with Rachel for Yarning Along.

Best Year Ever KAL, January–March 2017

At the start of this year I said that I would join in on only one knitalong this year, the Best Year Ever KAL being hosted by Nikki of the Tea and Possibilities podcast. I know I haven't managed to stick to that, and joined in the Sockmatician Sockalong in March, but I did actually complete those socks, so I'm glad I did (and that yarn definitely needed knitting - the finished socks are lovely!). Now we're a quarter of the way into the KAL, so here's a little update.

At the start of the KAL I aimed to knit an Antler jumper, a Lush cardigan, a purple shawl and a reindeer head (if you want to read the whole list you can find it here). That hasn't quite gone to plan...

My list has had a complete reshuffle. Item one on my Best Year Ever KAL is now my Dotted Rays shawl. I am really enjoying working on this. The rows are now LONG - over 300 sts, though now I've memorised the pattern the stitch count isn't critical, so I have given up counting the number of stitches (I gave up when there was a discrepancy between my numbers and those in the pattern; I am certain I am correct, but don't wish to question Mr West's maths...). I am a little way into the third of five balls, and suspect that when I sit down and work on it I will whizz through it. The Easter holidays are coming up, and the amount of mindless garter stitch makes this a pretty perfect soft play knit.

The second item on my list is my pink socks. They do have a planned name for when I release the pattern, but if that falls through I might just go with 'Whhheee!!'. I struggled a bit with these socks at first; they're part of a collection of three patterns and the first two went really smoothly. This pair was meant to be the easiest, but that turned out not to be the case. To make matters worse I started these off as two at a time socks and it messed the gauge up, so I had to start again. But as soon as I had sorted out the pattern and fixed all the early glitches I started to really enjoy them; the spiral nature of the rib means it really does feel like you're going whhheee! as you're knitting them! And the pink is so wonderfully vibrant; these socks have made me very happy.

I am undecided on my Antler jumper: I had been having gauge problems, so when I got to the end of the sleeve it wasn't long enough. I could just about have coped with that, expect that I am wondering whether the yarn might be too itchy for me to be able to wear it. I fished it out this morning to photograph and I am wondering whether it might be salvagable. If not, it's not the end of the world - I am considering casting on a new jumper for myself in the next few months, possibly a Pavement by Veera Valamaki, which looks like it might be a good transitional season jumper.

Have you been joining in with the Best Year Ever KAL? How are you getting on? It's not too late to join in the fun; if you want to know more, head over to the thread in Nikki's Ravelry group.*

*Ravelry link, you must be signed in to Ravelry for the link to work.

Happy Mother's Day

Good morning! Today it is Mother's Day in the UK, and I am up bright and early (the clocks changed last night, so while they say 7.30 it doesn't feel like it!) while my daughter pootles around the living room, enjoying the first proper full weekend of sunshine we've had this year.

When I was small Mother's Day meant bunches of flowers given to the child at school and handed to their recipient a couple of days later, slightly wilted, and a handmade card. There was also usually a homemade cake, garishly decorated with as much food colouring and smarties (colourful chocolate 'beans' coated in a sugar shell) as we could get a way with.

While I was at junior school (7-11) and also a Brownie, the church in whose hall Brownies was held always invited the Brownies and their mums to the service on the Sunday (Mothering Sunday is technically a religious date, falling the third weekend before Easter); this was often a poorly attended service, which meant the chances of being designated flag-bearer were pretty high (I was always very excited about being flag-bearer; at some point during the ceremony each Brownie and Guide unit at the service would parade their unit flag to the front and place it in the special holder where they would be displayed for the rest of the ceremony). And no, being a flag-bearer wasn't exactly a gift for the mother, but it's always nice to watch your children doing things they're excited about!

These days I am a mum, and Mother's Day has become a rather more commercial event, with the shops being littered with balloons, chocolates and all manner of floral gifts, and anywhere that can hosting special afternoon teas. We're not doing anything special; I know that my children have each made me a card (the one from my daughter dropped out of her lunch bag yesterday when I was tidying up), and there is promise of my not having to cook this evening. It's nice to know that I am appreciated, but equally, I am lucky enough to know that I am appreciated as a mother every day of the year.

Having said that I don't want any gifts, I would like a couple of hours peace and quiet so I can get on with knitting on my Dotted Rays. It's my current weekend project and I've just finished the second ball of five. And maybe for someone else to make me a couple of cups of coffee...

Happy Mother's Day!

P. S. If anyone is interested, I am doing ok at the monogamous knitting. I have one pink sock and my Dotted Rays is keeping me company when the pink sock is too tricky!

I feel a new shawl coming on...

A couple of weeks ago my friend Fay showed me beautiful shawl she had knitted, a Dotted Rays by Stephen West. It was beautiful, and a really nice shape, so I immediately decided that I needed to make one for myself. Fay has just started dyeing her own yarns under the name Bea and Rose (you can find her on Etsy, Facebook and Instagram) and she has some lovely colourways. A couple of weeks ago she had a little sale, so I picked up a really pretty skein in shades of purple and grey with the intention of making the Dotted Rays.

Obviously I had plenty of things already on the needles, so was never going to cast on immediately. Last week I looked on Ravelry at the projects associated with the pattern and saw this one*; it is perfect. I added it to my favourites for future reference, thinking that it was a project for one day, as I don't have anything in my stash that would work.

But then on Saturday I had a thought. I do have something in my stash that would work; it would in fact be perfect: at Yarndale a couple of years ago I picked up a 5 x 50g purple gradient set from WooSheeps that I've never found a use for. This is that yarn's moment. Suddenly the Dotted Rays shawl has been accelerated up my to do list and the yarn is wound and ready to go. I cannot wait to have it finished. It's making me so happy that I've decided that it's going to be one of my #BestYearEverKAL projects (no, I haven't decided which one I'm swapping out, but as the Antler jumper is currently on the naughty step, it might be that one).

*Ravelry link; you must be signed in to Ravelry for this link to work. Joining Ravelry is free and an excellent resource for all things yarn-related.

Best Year Ever CKAL

Last year at The Flock launch party I met a lovely blogger and podcaster called Nikki.* I have been listening to her podcast Tea and Possibilities ever since (and if you haven't checked out her podcast already, I would definitely recommend it, especially if you like knitting, books, tea and Harry Potter; it's a lovely cheerful corner of the internet). This year Nikki is running a year long knit and crochet along (might even be a craft along, you'd have to check) called the Best Year Ever CKAL in her Ravelry group,* and the aim is to make four things over the course of the year that make you happy.

I know that joining in a CKAL so early in the year is clearly a breech of my "no more KALs" rule, but this one is pretty straightforward, and I was planning on making (at least) four things over the course of the year anyway, so I'm definitely on board. All you have to do is make four things and post about them in Nikki's Ravelry group.

So what are my four happy-making things?

1. Antler jumper 

I cast on an Antler cardigan for myself last year and rapidly decided I had started the wrong size and that I wanted a jumper rather than a cardigan. This year I am going to get that back on the needles and get the garment I want.

I'll be knitting it in Sirdar Wool Rich Aran, which I believe is discontinued - I managed to snag ten balls (that's a full kilo) for just over £25 last January with this garment in mind.

 

2. Lush cardigan

I have loved this Tin Can Knits pattern since before it came out a few years ago (I think I snuck a look at it on a testing thread). The cardigan is beautiful, and so unusual. I bought the yarn for it in a clearance sale at the department store near my parents' house at some point in 2015, definitely with a plan to use it for this pattern, and haven't got round to casting it on yet, but will do this year. For a minute I thought about completing it time for a yarn retreat I'm going to at the end of February, then remembered that was a crazy idea!

3. A squishy purple shawl

Having said I only got one ball of wool for Christmas, this week's post proved me wrong when the Christmas present from my brother arrived: two skeins of Malabrigo Worsted in an amazing shade of purple. This will definitely become a shawl for me to replace the purple one I made last year that was too itchy for me to wear. I'll probably use one of Susan Ashcroft's shawl patterns as I want to use every last scrap of yarn, and the Love Train shawl I made last year gets a lot of wear.

4. A reindeer head

I have talked myself out of knitting a unicorn head as my husband doesn't want an animal head up on the wall all year round, boo. But I think I can probably get away with a reindeer head instead as it only has to be out for about a month per year (though I am tempted to leave it up in the spare room all year round and decorate it seasonally for guests to appreciate).

What happy things are you planning on working on this year?

 

*You will need to be logged into Ravelry for these links to work. Ravelry is free to sign up to, and is an excellent resource for all things related to knitting and crochet.

 

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