Working My Way to Gold

How are you?  I hope that life is treating you well.  Have you been watching the Olympics?  I've tried to catch as many events as I can but it's a pretty packed programme so it's difficult to fit everything in.  There's been some very impressive performances, you've got to take your hat off to the dedication and hard work that all the participants have put in.

I thought about trying to have a themed knitting and crocheting event to coincide with the Olympics, but in the end I decided I just needed to get my works-in-progress progressing!  As it turns out, I'm actually doing a triathlon.  I have three projects I'm working on.

The first of my triathlon projects is a knitting one.  It's my Fair Isle cardigan.  I'm trying to get this off the needles because it's a summery cardigan and I'd like to be wearing it sooner rather than later.

It's slow going but I've reached the armholes on the body and one of the sleeves.  I need to work out my shaping of the armholes and hopefully hit the home straight soon.  I have a horrible feeling that I'm going to run out of my main colour but I'm putting that to the back of my mind at the moment and just concentrating on getting as much progress made as possible.

My second triathlon project is a crocheting one.  My Mandala Madness blanket has been hibernating for quite some time now.  I put it to one side whilst I had a sock blitz and then there was the stash busting blitz, so it has been sadly neglected.

Having picked it up again, I'm loving working on it.  At the moment it's my project of choice.  Such fun picking the colours for each round and seeing how it all comes together.  There's still quite a long way to go with this project, but it's a super way to use up my acrylic yarns, so it all helps to reduce the stash.

Finally, the third triathlon project is a crochet pattern I'm hoping to publish shortly.  It's for a colourful mandala that I designed last year.  Grace kindly tested the pattern for me  but I've been very dilatory in completing the pattern.

At the moment I'm working through the pattern again and taking round by round photos to support the pattern.  Every time the pattern has been worked, the variety of colours used creates a unique interpretation of the pattern.  It's such fun to play with the colours and see the effects produced.

All these projects will take some time to complete so there will be nothing off the needles for some time.  They will eventually make a significant dent in the stash, so that's good news.  I did finish my August socks last week.

Again these are toe up socks - firmly established as my favourite way to knit socks.  The pattern is called Fine and Dandy and you can see full details of this project on my Ravelry page, here.

So, now I'm back to my triathlon projects for the duration of the Olympics.  I hope you have a good week and I'm looking forward to picking up my gold medal shortly!

Happy Sunshiny Days

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's blog post.  I hope you all had a lovely weekend.

I've had a great weekend.  Plenty of knitting got done and we had a lovely day out.  I have also been lucky enough to have two patterns gifted to me over the weekend.

First of all, I'd like to share with you my lovely finished shawl.

I can't begin to tell you how pleased I am with this.  The beautiful gradient yarn was a gift from Grace and it's called Antarctica (she picked it deliberately for me because she knows I'm interested in anything to do with the South Pole).  It's very hard to get a picture that reflects the true colours.  It starts as a deep teal, lightens and changes to dark grey, which in turn lightens to cream.

I used a pattern by Helen Stewart called Spindrift.  The pattern is a paid for pattern, but you can sign up by email for a free workshop and the pattern comes as part of the package.  The link to the pattern page on Ravelry is HERE.

It is a well written pattern and is great for assessing your yarn usage.  I particularly wanted to maximise my use of the yarn so that I got the full splendour of the gradients.  It's also a nice quick knit.

So now I really, really do need to get back on track with my other works in progress - until the next distraction!

Yesterday was such a lovely day, weather-wise, that my husband and I decided to have a day out, so we drove up the coast to Lytham (about an hour and a half away).  As my husband is retiring later this year, we called this our practice retirement day!

There isn't a great deal to do in Lytham, but it was lovely to just walk along the coastal path.  I hadn't adjusted the exposure on my camera, so my pictures are very bleached, I've used some pictures I found online so you can see what we saw.

pic from www.lythamtowntrust.org

We called into the windmill to see the museum run by the local heritage society.

pic from www.lythamheritagegroup.co.uk

And we had a picnic in Lowther Gardens (these are my pictures - it had clouded over a bit so the exposure isn't as rubbish).

A very relaxing day and it's always nice to visit somewhere new.

When I got home, I was watching one of my favourite podcasters, YarnderWoman, Melinda from Perth in Western Australia, whilst doing some sewing.  I was absolutely thrilled when my name was read out as a prize winner for her Hat Knit Along that ran last month. My prize is a beautiful shawl pattern and I'll show you the details when I receive the copy.

The same evening, Grace got in touch with me to say that she was gifting me a new pattern by the Sockmatician.  He has written a toe up sock recipe that incorporates a heel flap and gusset.  This is exactly the construction I want to try next.  So I'm really delighted to receive this.  Now I can't wait to cast on for my next pair of socks - but didn't I just say, no distractions!!!

So everything is wonderful here in Yellow Pink and Sparkly land.  I hope that the sun and happiness are shining down on you, wherever you are.  And if there are clouds, both literal and metaphoric in your life at the moment, I hope that they pass over as quickly as possible.

Have a good week. X

Mini Sock Yarn Sweaters

Following on from my previous post, I'm pleased to say that the knitting pattern for my mini sock yarn sweaters has now been published on Ravelry. As with all my patterns, it is free for everyone.  

You can download the pattern direct from Ravelry and save it to your library.

You can also download the PDF without using Ravelry, HERE.

And I'm including the full pattern instructions in this post, below.

I hope that you find the pattern fun to make.  I'd love to see your finished objects on Ravelry.

Enjoy the pattern.

Mini Sweaters

These decorative sweaters are worked in one piece, top down.

You will need –

Approximately 5g of sock yarn

A set of 2.5 mm double pointed needles

A stitch marker to indicate the beginning of the round

A small amount of waste yarn to temporarily hold stitches

Abbreviations used -

st(s) – stitch(es)

DPN – double pointed needles

k – knit

p – purl

p2tog – purl two sts together

m1 – make one st by picking up the loop between the two sts and knitting into the back of it

inc – increase

RH – right hand

Instructions

Cast on 28 sts with 2.5 mm DPNs, join for knitting in the round.

Round 1: knit all sts

Round 2: purl all sts

Round 3: [inc round] (k1, m1, k7, m1, k1, m1, k5, m1) x 2. (36 sts)

Rounds 4 & 5: knit

Round 6: [inc round] (k1, m1, k9, m1, k1, m1, k7, m1) x 2. (44 sts)

Rounds 7 & 8: knit

Round 9: [inc round] (k1, m1, k11, m1, k1, m1, k9, m1)x 2. (52 sts)

Round 10: knit

Split for body and sleeves

Round 11: k15 (for the back of the sweater), cast on 4 sts, place the next 11 sts from RH needle onto waste yarn (first sleeve), k15 (for front of sweater), cast on 4 sts, place remaining 11 sts from RH needle onto waste yarn )for second sleeve).  (38 live sts for body, 2 x 11 sts on waste yarn for sleeves)

Redistribute the sts evenly over your needles.

Rounds 12 & 13: knit

Rounds 14: [inc round] k16, m1, k19, m1, k3. (40 sts)

Rounds 15 – 24: knit

Round 25 – 27: (k1, p1) to end.

Cast off in rib.

Sleeves

Place the 11 sts from the waste yarn onto 2.5mm DPNs and pick up 4 sts from underarms, distribute evenly over the needles ready to knit in the round.

Knit 15 rounds.

Round 16: (k1, p1) x 6, k1, p2tog. (14 sts)

Round 17: (k1, p1) to end.

Cast off in rib.

Repeat for other sleeve.

Tidy all loose ends. 

Handy Dandy Sock Yarn Bags

You will recall that I recently treated myself to a yarn winder, so that I could make lovely 'cakes' of yarn.  The novelty hasn't worn off yet!

I received lots of helpful ideas about using these 'cakes' as centre-pull balls.  With these ideas in mind, I decided to use my Jolly Little Goody Bags to hold the yarn.  These bags were made with DK weight yarn and proved a bit loose so I thought about making some new smaller bags.

Now that I'm making a monthly pair of socks, I find I usually have about 40 g of sock yarn leftover after the socks have been completed.  So putting the two things together, I came up with these Handy Dandy Sock Yarn Bags.

Made from leftover sock yarn, they snugly hold a 50 g ball of sock yarn that can be centre-pulled through the top of the drawstring.

The bags are even stretchy enough to hold a 100g ball of sock yarn.

They are great fun to make, only taking an afternoon or evening.

If you'd like to make a bag or two, the pdf of the pattern can be downloaded for free by clicking HERE.

Alternatively, you can download the pattern into your Ravelry library from the pattern page, HERE.

One bag takes approximately 15 g of sock yarn, that's about 65 metres.  I've tested them out already with the cardigan I'm knitting at the moment (I'm using sock yarn) and the yarn inside the bags stays tangle free to the very end.

So from my 100 g ball of sock yarn, I've made my May socks (the Watermelon socks), three Handy Dandy Sock Yarn Bags and I even had a tiny bit of yarn leftover that I used to make one of my Baby Mice.

Not bad going - no leftovers for me! I hope you enjoy the pattern.

Daisy Chain Bunting - Free Pattern

Writing up patterns never gets any quicker or more enjoyable, but I stuck at it (I'm conscious that I have two other patterns still waiting to be written up - but they'll wait for another day!).  So here it is, the Daisy Chain Bunting pattern.

The pattern can be downloaded as a free PDF, here.

Alternatively, you can visit the Ravelry pattern page where it is available as a free Ravelry Download to store in your library.

I hope you like the pattern.  It's quite simple and quick to make.

See you soon.

Portcullis Doily

Despite the initial set-back, I've enjoyed reworking this old crochet pattern.

I think it looks rather good.  The 4 ply cotton works well and I like the pink colour.  It gives the doily a modern feel.

Here's a picture of the original rectangular doily with the new square one.

You can see there's a significant difference in the sizes.  I think the original one I made was crocheted with #40 thread, so it is quite fine.

Typing up the pattern almost took as long as the crocheting - as is always the case - it's not my favourite part of sharing patterns, but it has to be done.  This particular pattern had me tearing my hair out, so if anyone spots an error please let me, but I've checked it as thoroughly as I can.

I thought that the overall pattern looked something like a gate or a portcullis - hence the name.

The PDF of the pattern can be downloaded for free, here.  Details of the pattern can be viewed on the Ravelry pattern page, here.  I hope you enjoy the pattern.

Milly - Pattern

Finally, I've managed to finish writing out the pattern for the last cardigan I made.  I've also had more photos taken - but I think the photography could be better - something I need to work on.

The cardigan pattern is called Milly.  It is a modern, easy to wear cardigan with a touch of vintage charm.  It has Fair Isle borders on the body and sleeves.

The cardigan is knitted in one piece up to the armholes, and then knitted back and forth. The shoulders are formed by short row shaping and a three needle bind off. The sleeves are knitted flat and seamed to fit.

To fit 32”/ 34” chest.

Finished measurements:

Chest 34” / 86 cm

Sleeve seam 18” / 46 cm

Length 18” / 46 cm

The pattern is now available to download for free, here.  Further details of the pattern can be seen on the Ravelry pattern page, here.  

I hope you like the pattern.  

Lucy -Resized

My Lucy pattern is proving to be very popular.

Originally, I wrote the pattern for my own size.  Having been asked on a number of occasions if it was available in larger sizes, I rewrote the pattern.  Because larger sizes hadn't been test knitted by me, I didn't feel confident in publishing the pattern.  However, I've sent copies of the rewritten pattern with the larger sizes to so many people now, and no one has come back to me saying that the pattern doesn't work, so I've decided to make things easy for myself and publish the rewritten pattern.

So Lucy is now available in sizes small, medium, large and extra large.

The pattern is available as a free download, here, and also on Ravelry, here.

Edith - Cardigan Pattern

Wow, it's amazing how much work has to be done before a pattern can be published.  But today I've sat down and got on with it and so here it is - another cardigan!

I've called this one Edith - because I started it whilst watching the Christmas episode of Downton Abbey!

It is a  loose fitting  cardigan with a decorative Fair Isle border around the body. Knitted in 4 ply weight yarn.  The cardigan is knitted in one piece up to the armholes, and then knitted back and forth. The shoulders are formed by short row shaping and a three needle bind off. The sleeves are knitted flat and seamed to fit.

It is such a comfortable cardigan to wear because it is loose fitting.  I used my lovely Jamieson & Smith 2 ply jumper weight wool that I got as a Christmas present and I am really happy with the look and feel of it.  I'm especially pleased with the colour of the yarn.  The pink is lovely and tweedy - just how I like my wool to be.  I always worry about ordering yarn online when you can't see the colour, many websites are not very good at getting a close match to the real thing.  However, Jamieson & Smiths website is spot on.    

Unfortunately I do not have any photos of me wearing the cardigan, due to a lack of photographers.  I'll try and remedy that over the weekend.  

The PDF for the pattern can be downloaded for free, here.  More details of the pattern can be found on Ravelry, here.