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Motherhood might be supposed to confer serenity on the mother. Not on this one, sadly. However, that’s not something I want to dwell on in the blog, given that I blog so less as it is.
I did achieve Serenity, though, in the form of this blanket.
Pattern: Serenity (direct pdf download) by Laura Wilson-Martos (Rav link here). I think it was my largest knit lace, one that had been on my queue for a while (in my mind if not on Ravelry). It went very well, with only one or two unimportant typos (such as a misplaced bracket). I only flagged slightly in the eyelet section, tiring a bit of the endless-seeming yo k2tog, yo k2tog. Otherwise I like the pattern and wouldn’t mind a re-run. My project page is here. I like working lace from the centre. It gives you better control over how big the final product is, especially when your yarn is limited.
Yarn: Aslan Trends Class, a cotton-acrylic blend which has worn well in use and two handwashes. The yarn was a gift from a Rav friend who I met when she visited Kochi with her husband. White may be seen as foolhardy for a baby blanket, but we are using it as a show blanket, only used for public occasions. I like the feel of the yarn and the stitch definition but was not enamoured of the way the shiny strand causes the other strands to twist around it, creating what is called worming, I believe. Also, I had an issue with my stitch markers snagging on the yarn (for which I am close to a solution now, having found some neon-coloured smooth rubber bands; they are rather large, perhaps I will find some smaller ones at some point). I used nearly all of 4 skeins.
Needles: 4.5mm. I believe I was supposed to do the first few rows in a smaller gauge and then move to the larger, but I couldn’t be bothered. It doesn’t seem to have made a difference.
Size: 44″ square. It’s a good size for swaddling.
Time: Thick yarn makes for fast lace! About 3 weeks, perhaps because of the eyelet zone.
Extra: I’m proud of this FO. It’s gotten me several compliments as well.
I’m considering a crochet blanket but cannot settle on a pattern. I have this one and another knit blanket and feel my other craft should be represented as well. Either regular crochet or Tunisian…I have a sportweightish cotton which I lugged back and forth to Hyderabad a couple of times already. The days of travelling light are far behind me, I fear. The last two times I paid enough for excess baggage to almost buy another ticket.
Oh yes, I’m now at home in Hyderabad. Anyone dropping in?
I’ve been making baby stuff for years now, as you will know if you’ve been reading my blog for a while. Rarely do I get to see the things I make on the intended recipient. Indeed, I have no way of knowing if they fit or are useful, even. But now I have a model for any knit/crochet objects I make in the future.
She’s called Chandra and was born on November 10th, as most of my Internet friends know by now, via Facebook or Ravelry. She’s wearing Pebble, which I made a couple of months ago.
Pattern: Pebble (and on Ravelry). Easy, quick and satisfying. I used some of the Russian cotton I still have and ended up with this size, which I could call newborn, I suppose. (My project page here.)
Yarn: Kamtex Khlopok (khlopok meaning cotton) from St. Petersburg. I got 6 balls of it with a lot of yardage and still have odd amounts left. Other projects from it include my Chakra purse, a Fat Bottom Bag, a cabled baby bib, another bib I find I didn’t blog about that I used the crochet trinity stitch for and improvised, and yet another baby bib that I made up from a pattern I saw somewhere (again unblogged). This yarn is a bit splitty, but looks fine when worked up and the yardage is enormous. Pebble’s been washed a couple of times and has worn well in the handwash-with-hot-water-and-Dettol plus dryer cycle.
Needles: 3.5mm (I use circulars whenever possible, my straights are mostly decorative now, I’m afraid.)
Time: Overnight.
Size: My newborn (who is on the petite side).
Extra: I learnt garter Kitchener to graft the one shoulder seam and was quite happy with the outcome. Not that I remember how to do it now, but it’s not scary any more.
I made it in blue, because well, the cotton yarn I had was blue, also, a teeny weeny bit of superstition in me, I suppose, that if I made it in the western boy tradition, I’d not jinx my chances of having a girl! It seems to have worked anyway.
I leave you with a picture of the unmodelled Pebble so you know how it looks. There’s another photo of Chandra in it on my Ravelry page or my Flickr stream.
I came away to Hyderabad at the beginning of August, where I’m not online all the time, hence the long blog silence. I shall be here a few more weeks, but I thought I’d better show you some stuff I made. Although I didn’t make this one very recently, but a few months ago (finished it in April, to be precise).
I joined one of those KALs on Ravelry for a semi-circular shawl. I keep getting attracted to knit lace and mostly those patterns are for shawls. Sadly, there isn’t much call for shawls where I live, so I thought I’d try making this circular. I was also inspired by one of the other KAL-ers who was going to do the same thing. So here is my Vernal Equinox Shawl Surprise (I called it Hopeful, since I wasn’t sure I’d be able to pull it off).
It isn’t perfect, and you can see the ladders where I switched needles from the magic loop, as well as a botched picking-up I did for a stitch I dropped. Most of my step-by-step progress is on my Rav project page, but here are the salient details.
Yarn: Common or garden acrylic sold by the hank, about two hanks. I’d called it a fingering weight.
Needles: 3mm single circular, using magic loop.
Pattern: Vernal Equinox Shawl Surprise (Rav page) by Lankakomero, available as a free Rav download.
Time & Size: It was 54″ when pinned out to block, and took me about 9 weeks to knit. Part of the time may have been because I was discouraged by the mess I was making of the picking up.
Extra: My notes on Rav give the details. In the end, converting this from semi-circle to circle wasn’t very hard. With help from the designer, I began by dropping the edge stitches from the charts. So basically you work just the central block of stitches, and remember to double the stitch count that you must have on your needle at the end of each clue. Towards the end, I was quite happy, because the pattern is such that you know where in the chart you need to begin your next clue so that the design remains centered. No breaking your head over that bit.
This would make a lovely tablecloth if worked in thread, and of course I’d be much happier without those flaws, but learning-wise, I’m content. I need to tackle one of those triangles and turn it into a square one of these days. Which I hear there’s a group for on Rav (what is there no group for on Rav??!!).
Here in Hyd I’m happy reading, eating and occasional shopping, although that hasn’t included any yarn-related purchases. Before I forget yet again, I’d like to show off some gorgeous yarn I got from Deneen ages ago in the Three Prizes giveaway. Here it is:
Isn’t it lovely? It’s made of corn fibre and I love the colours. Sorry I haven’t blogged about it before, Deneen! I’m trying to see what sort of pattern it will suit.
My blog stats software tells me I still have visitors to this blog. Despite my lackadaisical attitude to posting. Thank you, all of you.
I recently went on a small bag binge (the binge was small, not the bags) and produced two violently coloured samples of knit bags with cables. One was a quick knit and the other had to suffer from my neglect for a while, but both came out fine. So I’m clubbing them together to present to you.
Here’s a very popular pattern.
Pattern: Brea by Norah Gaughan, free on the Berroco website (Rav link here). The sides went very quickly, as they start along the long edge and every other row is a decrease row. I almost confused myself with the moss stitch in the interstices, before realising it was double moss stitch. The gusset took a while longer, but the handle the longest. The pattern has you use a leather belt, but I didn’t have a suitable one. Although I got some D rings, the belt I had wouldn’t fit through and even if it did, how would I fasten it? After much agonising, I decided to do a knit handle, a simple 9-stitch cable from one of the Harmony Guides. That worked fine as far as it goes, but I think I shall have to unknit one or two repeats, as it has predictably stretched and I’m much happier with shoulder bags rather than long ones. Attaching the gusset to the sides was also difficult. I’m never happy making the horizontal knit match the vertical one. This one I managed with stitch markers, and starting and ending the seams at several places. Getting the lining to fit was another problem, as my cutting and sewing skills are absolutely zero. But it’s been finally done. My Rav project page is here.
Yarn: Woolcraft New Fashion Double Knitting, which a friend from the UK sent me, worked with two strands held together. Generic acrylic, I wouldn’t want it next to my skin.
Needles: 5.5mm
Time: The bag went by in a flash, the sewing up and lining took ages.
Size: 13″ x 7″
Extras: Loved the ingenuity of the side pattern, could have done without the separate gusset. I used 3 magnetic closures to close the top, my first time using the technology.
And here’s the second bag.
This one went on my Rav queue as soon as it entered the database, and I even cast on for it a few months ago. Then it went into hibernation, for reasons I discovered when I picked it up again to finish it.
Pattern: Quinn Cabled Bag by Yvonne Kao (Rav link here). It’s got plenty of cables, as you can see. Though there are some very interesting projects on Rav which modified it to work without the central panel or a different body. Those are on my favourites list, but obviously I haven’t got the ingenuity to make any such modifications. I’d made the top loop quickly enough, and then miraculously picked up stitches for the body without any undesired pleats. And then I took the needle tips off (I was using Denise circulars), placed the bag on stoppers and dumped it. As I discovered when I picked it up again, this wasn’t because of a problem with the pattern, but with my materials. The acrylic yarn on the Denise cables and the tight fit of the stitches on the needle made each row a struggle, not helped by the cables wanting to come off every time I tugged the stitches around. With a circular needle that has a thinner cable, you shouldn’t have a problem. There is a slight discrepancy between the top loop pattern as charted and the one that is shown in the pattern picture, but that isn’t something that makes a difference. It’s just a matter of whether the cables are crossing over or under. I bound off the body using a three needle bindoff, having no grafting ability to speak of. Also, I was in no mood to make 4×4 feet of 2-stitch I-cord, so I chose a slipped moss stitch pattern for the handle instead. It does curl a bit, but I’m ignoring that. Lining was mostly straightforward, as there was no gusset to worry about, but I had to think a bit to figure out how to attach the handle and sew the lining over it. I used a single magnetic closure, but I think I am going to add a zip so things don’t fall out. My Rav page here.
Yarn: Generic acrylic, the same that I swiped from Jaishree and made the Lambe bag with. I don’t know about wearables, but it’s good for bags, especially when held two stranded and worked at a slightly tighter gauge than usual. I still have two skeins left. Another bag perhaps.
Needles: 4mm. That at least was the size I ended the bag on, having forgotten completely what size I began with. Perhaps it was a different size, which might explain why the body seems to swell rather than remaining square. I think also that I am falling out of love with my resinous needles. Having the sizes all in one box is neat, but the cables are too thick.
Size: I haven’t measured it at all, but I should think about 13″ long and a few inches less wide. Whatever, the thing fits even my bulky sunglasses case and a book or a project quite nicely.
Time: The knitting itself didn’t take too long, but the effort of pushing the stitches round on the thick cable will stay with me for a while and made me push the project into hibernation for a few months. I think I actually thought that as the body went on, it would become easier, but it didn’t. Did I mention that I found the cable too thick?
Extra: The husband actually approves of this bag, which must make it unique among all my projects so far. It’s become my regular bag, which leaves the Brea free for me to give away perhaps. Let’s see.
I used iron-on interfacing for lining both these bags, a thicker version for Brea and a lighter one for Quinn. It does add structure to the bags, although it also adds time and effort to the cutting of the lining.
I haven’t got a third bag to show you, but a metaphoric bag went empty this morning when I got a cryptic email from a company I freelance for saying “Please don’t do any more edits.” Just that. You notice there are no specifics about whether they are talking about this day, this month or this life. So, it appears I have no career. Hence, only two bags full 😉
Oh, and I wanted to add, I tried a swatch with the small amount of stripey Sugar’n’Cream I’ve got left, and it wouldn’t work for the Ten Stitch Blanket. Let alone that these kitchen cottons don’t wash well, the colour lengths are too long. So that’s that. At least I seem to have inspired a few of my friends to add the pattern to their queues!
This particular pattern is very popular and I see that Ravelry alone has 647 projects made from it. My customisation was to make it a shoulder bag and add a knit thingummy.
Details:
Yarn: Acrylic that Yasmin sent me and I used for my Tunisian baby jacket a while ago. It’s squeaky and fuzzy, but works fine for a bag. Plus the colours go well together. I used up the pink completely, but have amounts of the white and purple left over.
Pattern: Haekelbeutel (PDF link, German also available), of course, by Inga Joana Mertens. The Rav page is here. Instead of making the 16 squares, I made 6 squares and 4 triangles, because it was fairly obvious that the number of rows I chose to make them would give me a huge sack and also, I was feeling too lazy to make so many of them. Since I had an even number of pieces and an odd number (3) of colours, I did my best to randomise the order of the colour changes, and then make two of each so the opposite sides of the bag would match. You could choose any square pattern, solid or not, as you wished, which is the beauty of this pattern. And the size of the square would determine how big your bag is. Nothing would stop you from knitting the squares, either. Although then it would be a Strickebeutel, I suppose. (Mine is just a Beutling, should have been a Beutchen).
Hook: 3.00mm
Size: About 13″ x 8″
Time: About 4 days to finish the bag and as many weeks months to actually line it. No, about 2 months to line it. Seriously, I’m terrified of sewing, whether by hand or machine.
Extra #1. I used the polka dot fabric from the dress I blogged about almost a month ago. Nobody could ever accuse me of having an eye for colour or taste. (Polka dots with stripes! In non-matching colours!) Luckily, my revulsion of feeling after the lining was done was not matched by everyone and I gave the bag away to the MIL who took a shine to it. I also made a tiny pouch for a cell phone with the leftover bits of fabric. More pics on either my Flickr page ( click through from that photo) or my Rav project page.
#2. Even with such a simple construction, I confused myself when crocheting the pieces together and had to frog once not to end up with an unidentifiable 3D object like one of those hyperbolic art pieces.
#3. My favourite part of the bag though is the two-colour thingummy I made at the top. Due entirely to my tight gauge with two yarns, the thingummy (is a technical term, I swear) drew in on itself, thus making an opening smaller than the actual bag body. Neat, what? I went around on a circular needle after picking up stitches around the top, knit in stockinette for as long as I wanted the thingummy to be high, then purled one row with a contrast colour, knit for the same number of rows again. Folded it over at the purl row (which forms a natural hinge) and knit the final row together with the back of the first row. Voila, a nice neat thingummy. Makes me proud, it does. The actual knitting involved knitting the stitches of one colour on one pass while slipping the stitches of the other colour, and then doing the reverse on the second pass. I must strand very tightly, hence the thing drew together to become smaller than it began its life. On the inside I just used the white and left the purple out. Perhaps I slipped stitches again…how did the inside end up as small as the outside? Maybe a different size needle. Hmm.
#4. The handle was a lengthwise chain followed by sort of tapestry crocheting (crocheting over the unused colour), attached to curtain rings with their hooks broken off and crocheted over.
That’s it, really. And I don’t even have to carry it around.
What just happened has shocked, angered and pained all in this country and a good many in others. There are no words in which I can describe my feelings. Bombay and the places affected have so many memories for us, that even thinking about it makes me tearful. A friend lost her mother in the attacks. I cannot dwell on it, so you will understand if I don’t talk too much about it, ok? I’m fine, not personally affected.
To divert all our thoughts, I thought I’d finally showcase one of my testing projects. I test knit this shawl a month ago but was waiting for the designer to put the pattern up for sale, and then of course we travelled. But here I’m showing it off finally.
Sometimes routine helps:
Yarn: Common-or-garden acrylic, fingering weight, limper than foreign acrylic and softer. It’s usually what we use for baby stuff. A friend got it for me from Bombay. After finishing it, I “killed” the acrylic, using a damp teatowel and an iron. This way, the acrylic retains its shape. That probably shocks all the purists. First, I shouldn’t have been using acrylic, and second, no point in blocking it, and none at all in killing it. However, I was quite pleased with the end result. It seemed to have better drape and the stitches were nicely defined. And I’m defiant.
Needles: 4mm
Pattern: Aiwara (Rav link) by Elke Weinstroer (Ravelry profile). My Ravelry project page is here.
Time: About a month, but I took a while off in the middle. The pattern itself is pretty straightforward, and the edging is knitted with the body, so there isn’t any fiddling around with picking up stitches and adding it later.
Size: 65″ x 42″
Extra #1 My largest lace project so far, and my first full knit shawl. It isn’t very complex as these things go, but I liked the experience. My only quibble is that perhaps I don’t like triangle shawls too much. They seem a bit inadequate somehow.
#2 No issues with the pattern, however. It’s good when you need a soothing repetitive design to work on.
#3 I liked my yarn experiment. And I will repeat it. That’s a dare. I can’t see the convenience in having to reblock something each time you get it wet. So if the acrylic will maintain its shape, why not? As for warmth, if it is really that cold, a flimsy shawl wouldn’t be much use, I should think. Whatever it’s made of. You may try convincing me. Yes, I’m feeling obstreperous. As someone who lives in warm climes, I need sometimes to travel to places where woollens are needed, and even then I’m so cold myself that I cover myself in thick sweaters and coats. (coward) Perhaps for an elegant evening out where you travel in a heated vehicle and enter a glittering warm theatre or something…Yes, then this pattern would do very nicely.
There’s a lot of loose ends to tie up. Well, not exactly, but my mind is all scattered in the past few days. I’ll tell you all about it, but let’s get the knitting out of the way first, shall we?
Me and bags…
I stole some yarn from Jaishree to make this bag. It’s now living with its owner in Australia happily, so I can blog about it now.
In the usual fashion:
Yarn: Common-or-garden acrylic, pinched from Jaishree’s stash. The recipient said she liked blue and this was what I found. I used two strands held together. I’m happy to report that despite being acrylic, the yarn shows off the cables quite nicely. Perhaps the tight gauge helped. This is light-worsted weight, the usual size.
Needles: 4mm, 6mm and 6.5mm
Pattern: The Lambe bag from Berroco. This came in a newsletter with four cabled bag patterns and I had in fact queued one of them when I read in the Rav RAK group that someone wanted this one, so it sounded ideal. The other one’s still on my queue, but will probably be made later. My project page on Rav is here.
Time: This took a while to make, because after starting it and finishing a repeat or so I realised that I’d miscrossed a cable, and had to rip. That kind of put me off a bit, but this was the only knitting project I took with me to Hyderabad, to ensure I would finish it. And I did.
Size: 9″ x 13″ across at the widest point, going down to 11″ across at the top.
Extra #1 I was glad to have the bamboo handles, which were almost identical to the ones the pattern called for. I bought them right here in Cochin.
#2 I like cables and bags. What can I say?
#3 I didn’t line this bag, because I felt the fabric was dense enough…Should I have?
#4 I had yarn left over and couldn’t resist the temptation to begin another pattern on my queue. I cast on almost immediately I got back and even finished part of it, and then found myself wondering if I had enough yarn. So of course I demanded that Jaishree send me more, which she has, the poor thing. So keep your eyes peeled for yet another blue thing in the future, ok? I know you can’t wait.
………………
Other stuff. Warning: will be hodge-podge-y
- There’s this new job I’m doing (job? contract? assignment? whatever) and I have a couple of files to attend to.
- Yesterday we had two separate meals out at the hospital, one a traditional Onasadya (Onam meal) for lunch served on a banana leaf, and the other a dinner in the evening to dine one of the doctors out. I got told off after the first one by the male in-law for waving my hands about when I talk. It isn’t ladylike, apparently. Not if I’m dressed in a sari. I wonder if I have a banner on my head that says, “Yes, I’m 34 years old, but I need to be told how to behave.” In a suitably tasteful font, of course. Needless to say, I tried to be very demure at dinner and did not go over to talk to the men which I normally do. Mustn’t blot my escutcheon further.
- We are hoping to go to the UK/Ireland/Italy in a few weeks time, and now that The Man has been given approval from his headquarters, the visa process has begun. Last year I thought getting a visa to one country was bad enough. I don’t know what made me think trying for 3 at a time would be any better! If they had all been within the Schengen zone, it would have been nice, but alas, no! All three countries have minds of their own, so we need a UK visa, an Irish one and a Schengen one from Italy. Just the UK form has 21 pages.
Of course, a lot of it we don’t have to fill, because it’s full of sections for all categories of visitors, but the bulk is still intimidating. Also, finding answers to questions like “How much money will you need for your accommodation and food while visiting the UK?”, “Have you ever done anything which might make you not a person of good character? If yes, please give details.” is quite exhausting (I wonder if waving my hands about would qualify). And so much of it is plain terrifying. The Italy visa requires a long list of “mandatory documents” including a confirmed air ticket…what if we don’t get one? Then we’d have to add the visa fees to the cancellation charges as lost money.
- Bright spot? I posted for advice on the Rav forums and found a great new friend who’s promised to put us up in Rome. Best of all, she has 3 cats!!! No wonder she’s so kind as to offer a bed to almost-total strangers.
- Italy sounds more and more like India every time I go to a different website or source of information. The potholes, the pickpockets, the 60-day train bookings, the refusal to accept credit cards…But the men should be handsomer, no? 😉 And I always have been drawn to Rome and Egypt…Perhaps Rome because my parents and sister went there as part of their farewell tour (actually they were relocating from Canada for good and decided to cover Europe on the way back, touching London, Rome, Venice, Paris, Amsterdam, Belgrade and Egypt in 1972). Anyway, they had a photo-rich book on Rome I still have memories of.
- Another India-like feature? The Consulate site tells me the VFS (Visa Facilitation Service) has a centre in Cochin, but the VFS-Italy site says there isn’t. This sort of confusion feels so Indian! I’ve sent a mail asking for information. I’m hoping not to have to travel to Chennai or Mumbai for the visa, sigh. Anyway, we need to get the visas in order, so nothing to be done until the other two come through.
- Looking once again for help/advice on accommodation in London. And do any of my mostly silent readers live in any of these places and could we meet? It would be so much fun! This would be in late October, early November. Last time I didn’t actually get to go to a knit/crochet meetup. Or a real yarn store. Though I’m thinking that would be too tempting/depressing/dangerous for my credit card. So, anyone out there in London/Manchester/Belfast/Dublin/Rome/Venice-or-Florence?
- Another example of the unexpected kindness of people: I saw someone queuing or faving the Ten Stitch Blanket (Ravelry link) on Rav and discovered the UK’s Knitting and Crochet Guild were selling copies of the past issue of Slipknot which had the pattern. I wrote to them to enquire whether they’d send a copy to India and the lady was sweet enough to send me a copy free! Gives you a nice warm feeling inside. The pattern itself is written in Elizabeth Zimmermann’s chatty style, not the row-by-row detailed style.
Thanks for listening! My mind is flitting from one topic to another these days, and the table at which I work is in a royal mess. Which is reflecting the other I am not sure, but the likeness is astounding.
Don’t mind me, I’m just a sloth.
I promise my next blog post will be different! It’s just that once I actually finished making something with the Russian cotton, it was like I found it eminently suitable to lots of things. Actually, having spent a small fortune on having it imported, I thought I had to make a wearable out of it and was not willing to admit that I didn’t like the non-glazed, non-mercerised look of it when worked up. Now I’ve decided that since the ice is broken, I can use the yarn for whatever I want, just so my stash is reduced. So here’s another thing I made out of it.
Yarn: Kamteks Khlopok from Russia (Khlopok = cotton), just over half a skein. (Each skein had 250m yarn). Held two strands together.
Needles: Size 3.50mm (US 4)
Pattern: Modern Cabled Baby Bib (it’s a free Ravelry download) by Andrea Pomerantz (gibsongirl on Ravelry). I can’t see if it is available outside of Ravelry, though. Here’s my Ravelry project page.
Time: Overnight. I had to make a gift in a hurry for a colleague/neighbour’s baby (I thought the mom had left with the baby for a vacation, then discovered she hadn’t just two days before I left for Bangalore, so I needed to whip this up in a hurry. I had been considering a bib anyway and found this on Ravelry.)
Size: 7″ x 7″ not including the strap, of course.
Extra #1 Nothing much to say. Nice easy and elegant pattern. Suitable for either gender, perhaps slightly masculine. That’s good, though, because so many patterns tend to be suited for girls.
#2 I wanted to put a much larger wooden button, and even sewed it in, but then I found it was too large for the buttonhole. Duh. So I unsewed it and sewed on a slightly smaller one. (I’m calling the buttons wooden, but I think they might be coconut shell.)
I must warn you that I have (had) a total of 1500m of this yarn in my stash.
Here’s my Ravelry project page.
Yarn: Generic scratchy acrylic. (Don’t ask me why). It’s about DK weight, and I worked this sweater with two strands held together.
Needles: Size 6.00mm (US 10)
Pattern: Riverstone. It isn’t up yet on Ravelry (but you can see the designer’s Ravelry page for it here). I tested this pattern for Justine. I made the 12 mths size and really enjoyed the unusual construction. I wish I’d used better materials, though. Next time perhaps. Increases and decreases keep your interest going in the yoke area, while the body went pretty fast because I wanted to put on the buttons :p
Time: About ten days, but only because I got into a funk midway thinking I wouldn’t have enough yarn to finish. In the end I had enough to finish, plus a good amount left over.
Size: 20″in the chest x 12″long unstretched. The ribs provide a lot of room for growth, although mine are possibly worked at too dense a gauge.
Extra #1 What is it about baby sweaters? I prefer them to babies, actually :p No feeding/cleaning.
#2 I’m very happy with the buttons, which I bought here in Cochin. I think they are coconut shell or wood.
#3 One more baby sweater and not an infant in sight.
Thank you everyone for the warm messages assuring me I am not boring you to death. I hadn’t meant my last post as a call for reassurance (more like an observation), actually, but you still made my day 🙂 You must really love me 😀
Well, not really (more like a run-of-the-mill show and tell), but this one is a Debbie Bliss pattern, which I had an urge to make and providentially a CAT PAC arrived with some suitable yarn in it. I cast on almost as soon as I opened the package.
Here’s my Ravelry project page.
Yarn: Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice. Another Red Heart Supersaver clone. Nothing to recommend it especially. I used about a skein and a half for this project.
Needles: Size 4.00mm (US 6) for the ribbed button band and 6.00mm (US 10) for the body of the sweater.
Pattern: Ribbed Baby Jacket by Debbie Bliss. (Ravelry link here). It is also available free here.
Time: Over two weeks. I think I took a while to weave in ends (so what else is new?), but otherwise it is a simple enough knit.
Size: 26″in the chest x 10.5″long
Extra #1 The stockinette does make it curve in at the bottom and cuffs, but I’m letting it be.
#2 Another reckless and pointless knit for me, no babies targetted, but I was compelled to make this one. I don’t know what it is about baby sweaters and me, but they draw me like a moth to the flame. You can learn new techniques without having to spend the rest of your life knitting on something. Also, they have no shaping, usually, and will fit some baby at some point. Now all I have to do is find some babies. (I’m happy to say I gave away my February sweater to my maid, who wanted it for her great-nephew. What use they will find for it in tropical Kerala, I do not know. But it lessens my baby sweater inventory by one).
#3 I’m happiest about the way I picked up stitches for the button band. Rather than picking them up in the last stitch of the exposed rows, I went behind them and picked up the stitches from the inner column. It made for a very neat finish, especially because I had a chain selvage (slip the first stitch of every row knitwise, knit the last stitch). So that was the learning from this thing. I wasn’t very happy about the picking up around the neck (instead of binding off as the pattern advised, I held the stitches on a spare circular). The whole “pick up evenly” thing continues to baffle me and reduce me to scrambling for closure. Otherwise the whole thing is an average project, nothing to write home about.
So why blog about it? Partly because my other projects are test ones which I cannot yet blog about. And partly to squeeze in another post before the end of this month.
I realise my blog has become rather dull and monotonous. Where’s the wit and variety gone, you must be wondering. Perhaps it’s just old age. Or something.
I stopped blogging about books, because I realised no one appears to share my taste in them/find anything new in what I say. And I really don’t feel the need to journal all the books I read. Which pretty much leaves me with only craft to write about. And since I usually don’t like showing works in progress, all you get nowadays are staccato essays following a rigid and predictable structure.
Which makes me grateful for the people who do continue to read. Thank you! I can’t describe the thrill I get out of seeing comments from you. Please continue to visit 🙂
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