My newest favouritest yarn
I admit to being about as fickle as they come. Having said in the past that Rowan's Cotton Glace was my favourite yarn ever, then having said the same about Debbie Bliss' Cotton DK, and Koigu KPPPM, I am now going to declare that Prime Alpaca is my favourite yarn. Well right now at least. It's not quite versatile enough to qualify as 'favourite yarn ever' but it's a close runner up.
The Stick ya neck out knitalong started recently and I am making the Turtleneck Shrug for Diana in Prime Alpaca.
"20 sts and 22 rows (rounds) = 4"(10cm) in k3, p3 rib with ribbing slightly stretched."
You what?? What's slightly stretched? What if my idea of slightly is completely different to your idea of slightly? I cast on the day that the girls were over for the afternoon and they all agreed that I should just wing it. So I did. Blame them, not me. I never wing anything. I am far too much of a scaredy cat.
You can see my progress on the shrug here. I actually think that it's working out quite well and I like the way it looks. Phew.
Oh, and of course I have been looking for Kid Classic sweaters that could be knitted up using the Prime Alpaca. Rowan don't have any facility on their site which allows you to search for a pattern by yarn (which is just daft if you ask me) but luckily The Woolshack do. Sadly they are in Oz so I am highly unlikely to ever use their site until they open one here in the UK but they nevertheless get a good grade from me.
Here are the patterns that might be appropriate. Argh the temptation is just too much.
My last post was my 100th. That seems a lot and not a lot at the same time. I forgot to celebrate my blog's birthday back in May so I am celebrating 100 posts instead. And we all know that any kind of birthday demands a present, right? So here's what I treated myself to:
It's love. It's probably also crazy and will take me about 10 years to complete. After all, I cast Fruity on back in April (April?? what have I been doing all this time??) and Jenny that I cast on in June and who is still waiting for button bands and a neck band... But I have been drooling over Mermaid for 3 months and love has not lessened so I am meant to have her (Sharon did help convince me that this was an excellent idea, so I am blaming her...)
So Mermaid is my blog birthday present. And here is the final round of my birthday presents (only about 2 months late). From Jill I got Branching Out in baby alpaca silk from Du Store Alpakka (she had given me some of the yarn on a previous occasion and I still haven't decided what to do with it, although it does get stroked on a regular basis).
And this is from Yvonne.
I am not sure where the pattern is from but it's very pretty. Here's a close up of the shape in the center.
And just so I could take the wool theme with me absolutely everywhere, Sharon gave me this nightdress.
Finally here's the latest piece of installation art on Hampstead Heath.
A lot of fun was had this weekend. As it was Miss Polly's birthday, we had a little get together at my house.
Polly decided to hide away behind the dishcloth. And would not be persuaded to come out.
Someone such as the Alpaca Woman.
She's concentrating very hard because she's teaching herself to hold her yarn differently. And, as I well know, it's really hard to start holding your yarn/needles differently and takes quite a long time to get used to.
My neighbour Tanya also came and played with us.
We went for a tour of Loop, the new London yarn store and then retired to a nearby wine bar to a raise a glass to Polly's health. Here we have Polly in the wine bar hiding again.
I have a bit of a history of stressing out about my knitting. Ask Polly. So having sworn that I would not put myself under any more pressure, knit to any deadlines or join any more knitalongs, I went and signed up to the Stick ya neck out one.
Well, how could I help it when it was Kris and Jac organising it. We are all knitting scarves from the "Scarf Style" book and I've been wanting to make one from there for such a long time.
I have been very lucky in the draw as I am knitting for Diana (go over and say hello) and she has sent me the most gorgeous yarn to knit with.
It's Prime Alpaca and it's gorgeous. As I said I am lucky. You can go to Diana's blog here and read a bit more about it.
She has asked me to knit the Turtleneck Shrug which is lovely and another thing I was thinking of knitting. After all when you have done acres of moss stitch for Palm, what's a little ribbing? Except that it calls for 4.5mm / US 7 30cm circular needles and I don't have any. And they're not available online in the UK, trust me I have tried.
Kris assures me that she knit hers on a 40cm circular and it worked fine. Polly has suggested that I use two 4.5 circulars and get around it that way. Any suggestions as to which is a better idea? I think I will probably cross my fingers and try Kris's way.
I am not doing this on DPNS before anyone makes that suggestion...
On the other side of the knitalong, here's what I sent out to the person knitting for me.
5 balls of Muench Touch Me in Olive green, shade 3633 (although some sites call it Forrest Green) which I got from Jimmy Bean yarns last month. It's not the cheapest yarn around (especially when you add shipping to the UK) but it's so so soft to the touch that I have not doubt that it is worth it.
I have a feeling that this is going to be a lovely knitalong.
As promised, here is the last blanket update. I know that some of you will miss your alphabet updates but I am sure that others amongst you will be very glad to see the back of it...
So here goes.
D.
C.
B.
A.
Here it is blocking on the floor of my mother in law's house.
I like to leave all of my knitting to the last minute. The very last minute. So if you know that you are seeing your sister in law the next day, with your beautiful new nephew, it makes sense to finish knitting and block your blanket the night before at 11:30pm right?
I have to thank the husband for being willing to get down on his hands and knees and help me pin it out. I married a good man.
The blanket dried surprisingly fast (the knitting Gods were clearly on my side). And here it is on the table. I couldn't get high enough to take this shot (I needed the dark background) but luckily my father was there and at 6ft. 6, he was able to take the picture from very high up.
And then here is a picture of Brychan wrapped in the blanket.
And finally (last one I promise), here's my "artistic" shot of the blanket. OK, I admit, I am no David Bailey!
What did I think of the blanket and learn?
It's not as boring to knit from a huge chart as I thought it would be. I actually enjoyed following the pattern and there was great pride at the end of pretty much each row. Well, on the rows where I didn't find that I had forgotten to do a yarn over at least. There were a fair few of those.
The yarn, Debbie Bliss Wool Cotton was mostly a pleasure to knit with. It's soft and it's quite easy on the hands. The only downside to it is that it does split a tiny bit and I had to keep an eye on it.
When knitting the edge, I forgot to change knitting needles when I had completed the first part of the edging. And the edge ruffled a bit. Note to anyone knitting it: don't forget to change needles.
But I would knit it again. So I must be mad. And here ends the tale of the Alphabet Blanket.
Well, like I said, I am running rather behind with my blog posting and I have loads of pictures just waiting to be let lose.
So guess what happened a few weeks ago?
Yes, it was the Liberty sale. I love Libertys (obviously) and I love a sale. The Liberty sale is just heavenly.
Here's what I got. (oh, and yes it is rather a lot. and yes I am meant to be on a bit of restricted spending spree but hey, you're all my friends, right? So you understand...).
Full points to anyone who spotted that it is Jaeger Chamonix. The colours don't show particularly well and there are a lot more balls than the 3 on the picture. The colours should be a dark mossy green, a stone colour and a very light cream. I basically have enough to make this:
I loved this pattern when I first saw it but was very confused when I realised that what looks white on the picture is actually yellow. But a little clever substituting and I think that I have the makings of a sweater that I will love.
And then I just couldn't resist this:
I just fell in love with the colour. I tried not to. I pointed out to myself that I wasn't a huge tweed fan. That it was 4ply and I have a huge amount of 4ply in my stash. But I didn't stand a chance.
Especially when I 'accidentily' opened the Rowan Vintage Style book and saw this pattern.
She's called Joy. But the book says that she looks like she comes out of Amelie and I have obvious affiliations with that film so I took it to be a sign. I admit that twisting my arm is not hard.
Finally (well not quite but nearly) I bought some blue Chamonix for Hampstead.
Well it's called Hampstead. And I live in Hampstead. And the Chamonix was in the prettiest slate blue colour than I just had to have it.
A few more alphabet letters, I really want to be able to show you the blanket but I feel as though I have to go through the letters first. It's just like countdown!
Gimme a G!
And then an F!
And finally the E!
One last blanket update and then I promise that I shall lay it to rest!
I am seriously behind in my blogging. Not that I have any rules that I stick to when it comes to the blog, rather that my folder of pictures ready to be posted on the blog is getting out of control. So for this posting you are going to get rather a lot of pictures.
Just for Kris, here are a few more snaps of the blanket. Next week, I will post the last letters as well as the finished pictures. How exciting is that?
I seriously debated doing the diamond edging for the blanket. Polly had suggested that I do a garter stitch border as that would save me a lot of time (I now know how much time it would have saved and trust me, it's a lot). But I decided that Brychan would be worth every second of the time invested in it and I went with the diamond edging.
Which was the right thing to do as it definately makes a difference. And now for a few letters.
And another
And again
Bored yet?
Still with me?
And the last one.
I have joined the Stick ya neck out knitalong. This knitalong is a little different in that we are all buying our own yarn and chosing our pattern and then sending it off to someone else who will knit it for us. I really like this idea as it means that you are bound to get something that you really like. In fact it's one less thing that I need to knit off my 'MUST KNIT' list!
Finally, I gave the blanket to Brychan at the weekend. As soon as I have worked my way down to the beginning of the alphabet, I shall be sharing pictures.
I just had to let you all know that I went out with my friend Jacqui the other day. She of the beautiful Debbie Bliss sweater in Polar (if you click on this link, scroll down to the 6th of February). Well we had a belated day out for her birthday as I had promised to buy her some yarn for the project of her choice as her present.
She came over to my house and we poured over the Rowan magazines to find her something that she would like to knit and wear. I did, by the way, let her have a bit of a peek at the stash - She knew that I had a fair amount of yarn but I don't think that she had realised quite how much. She finally agreed decided that this is what she would like to knit next:
It's "Peace" from Rowan 25, to be knit up in Cotton Glace.
Can I just add, as an aside that I love Rowan 25? Which looks like this:
I know that it is out of print but I do think that it is by far one of the best magazines to date. Admittedly this is probably because I like small, shaped garments. But there are at least 5 things in there that I really want.
Such as the cardigan on the cover and:
But I digress.
So we traipsed off to Liberty's to get the yarn for her and to have a huge cream tea whilst we were there. She chose the cotton glace in this colour:
And then she succombed and also bought the Rowan denim to make Jess from Rowan 31:
On her way down the stairs as we were leaving, she just said, unprompted by anything I had said, 'I want to have a stash.'
She'd be my best friend anyway but that just cemented it.