Do you know what this is and what it’s used for?
If you know and own one, I’d love to hear about it. If you haven’t a clue what it is, have a guess just for fun. I’ll be back to tell you about it tomorrow.
Mystery Object
My newest sweater. Valdres in DROPS Karisma
I do love a big slouchy sweater at this time of year, with plenty of room for layers underneath when it gets cold. This was my most recent big project: the Valdres sweater from DROPS. – I took a break from it a few times to knit other things but kept going back to it. I like to start something like this early in the year, take regular breaks to do other things and work through the summer so it’s ready to wear in the winter, without having to hurry.
I found it in a magazine but the pattern is available free online on the DROPS website. I used the recommended DROPS Karisma yarn (100% wool DK) which was lovely to work with and feels quite soft against the skin compared with some pure wool yarns I’ve used. This was worked in the same main shade as the pattern illustration (Light Oak -77) but I used different contrasting colours (Dark Purple – 76, Cerise – 13, Blue turquoise – 60)
The sweater is knitted bottom up, in the round – Nordic style, and alternates colour work and texture patterns – perfect for people like me who hate sewing up. If you haven’t tried this construction before, there are three sections, knitted on circular needles: the body (large tube) and two sleeves (narrower tubes). The components are eventually combined on one large circular needle to work the yoke, decreasing to form a raglan, up to the neck (leaving out the underarm sections, which are sewn closed at the end) – love it.
I knitted it a size larger to accommodate t-shirts underneath. The only downsides were that the sleeves were quite long even though I’d shortened them to accommodate my short arms! – The pattern charts vary for the different sizes. Maybe I misread the pattern! Also the neck opening is quite large, so I usually wear a scarf with it – I have a cerise one that is perfect! You also need to make sure that the colour work sections are not worked too tight – the pattern recommends using a larger needle size to overcome this.
It was fun to make, once I got the hang of reading the the colour and texture pattern charts. It really kept me engaged as it changed from colour to texture. That also provided plenty of milestones along the way to look forward to (my heart sinks when a pattern tells you to continue straight for 40cm!). As I like to take my knitting out and about, I found the body got quite bulky to carry round as it grew, so I started a sleeve for knitting on the go – much more portable!
I’ve worn it loads, getting a lot of compliments which always feels good!
Do you have a new favourite sweater?
I really do knit by the sea!
It finally stopped raining so I joined K and the dog at Alnmouth today. I’m not good at walking on sand so decided to take a few pics for the blog. I love to sit and watch the sea (sometimes knitting at the same time). The view changes so rapidly. The carpark at Alnmouth overlooks the beach so it’s a perfect vantage point. We love it in the winter as there are fewer picnickers (Buddy the labrador is very greedy).
The sea was rough today and the tide was in. Usually there is a good view of Coquet Island from here but the weather was too murky to see it.
The waves have washed a lot of sand away and the old tank traps are easy to see here. These concrete cubes are found at lots of places along this coast – they were defences against enemy landing craft, left over from World War Two. Today some children were having fun climbing on them. In summer they are a great place to dry wet swimming towels, but nobody was venturing into the water today!
I’m on the next stage of the stash busting blues project, having done lots of maths last night to work out the transition from the collar to the body and the shaping increases for the next part of the pattern. It’s pretty straightforward for the rest of it if all goes to plan, so it was bliss to just be mesmerised by the waves and get on with my knitting!
Knit and Natter Friday #2
The knitting group at our local GP surgery was meeting this afternoon This amazing selection of hats and baby clothes have been made by members and friends of the group in the last week alone. I can’t take credit for any of this I’m afraid. I will try and make a contribution soon.
The room where we meet is being renovated, so we had no lights today. One of our group members has kindly donated some plastic crates to keep the knitted items in (we’ll send them off to the relevant charities when we have a big enough batch). Now all that beautiful knitwear will stay dust-free during the renovations.
As it began to get dark this afternoon, rather than try to knit, it was a good opportunity to wind some wool off a skein – and I had help from a lovely lady who was telling me all about how she did this as a child – she and her sisters used to wind wool for her mother, who was a very keen knitter. I love to hear her knitting stories.
Scone of the week #1- Rocking Horse Cafe
I mentioned in my last post that I drive my Mum to the supermarket on a Thursday and sit in the car, knitting while she shops . We usually go out for a snack after that. Here in Northumberland we have no shortage of places to go for a cheese scone (we both love these) and a coffee.
This week we visited one of our favourites, The Rocking Horse Cafe, at Rock Moor. We had excellent coffee and scones, which were served warm with proper pats of butter (no fiddly foil packets), It felt really cosy today: the log burner was blazing and it was the perfect choice for a cold November day (though there is a garden with plenty of seating to use in warmer weather).
It’s a small very friendly place – in some ways more like going round to someone’s house for coffee than visiting a cafe. It’s also extremely dog friendly – in summer there is even a dog agility course set out in the garden.
There is a vague knitting/woolly connection here at the Rocking Horse Cafe . There are two very friendly resident Border Collies – the sheepdog breed of choice here in the UK. It would also be a rather nice place for a small knit and natter group!
Do you think I should make Scone of the Week a regular feature of the blog?
Where do you knit?
One of the things I love about knitting is that it’s so portable – no bulky equipment required – you can take it almost anywhere. It’s easiest with a reasonably straightforward project, so you don’t need to follow instructions carefully. That way it’s possible to knit the odd few stitches or rows any time you find yourself with time to kill. It works pretty well for me, especially on circular needles, as long as I’m not using stitch markers, which have a nasty habit of dropping on the floor!
That’s why you’ll find me knitting in a supermarket car park on most Thursday mornings. That’s when I take my Mum to do her shopping – I sit and knit while she buys her groceries, much to the amusement of my daughter and her work colleagues. Their office is nearby and I sometimes see them on their way to buy lunch.
I’ve knitted on trains, ferries, in doctor’s waiting rooms and often in the car (always parked), sometimes in places with spectacular views, often in supermarket carparks!
Where do you knit? What is the most unusual place you have ever knitted?
Singing about sheep and celebrating the landscape.
It’s been a busy couple of days with some knitting connections, though rather tenuous!
Yesterday I went to a choir rehearsal – my former workplace , Newcastle City Council, has had a staff choir for several years. I am a founder member of the choir and still involved since I retired. We have been practicing for a lovely civic event. Every year the mayor of Bergen, Norway, one of the City’s twin towns, presents the City with a beautiful big Christmas tree and this year we are one of the choirs who will be singing at the presentation ceremony. Here’s more about Newcastle’s relationship with Bergen and its other twin towns .
This year’s Lord Mayor is originally from Sheffield and has asked us to sing the Yorkshire version of While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night (sung to the tune of On Ilkley Moor Baht ‘at) , so we were working on that. There are lots of verses to get through, but the arrangement is lovely (in four parts) and I’m enjoying singing soprano on this one. It’s not too high and we get some nice harmonies and echo the ‘flocks by night line’ I haven’t got a recording of us but I found this which gives you an idea of what it sounds like
After singing about sheep (or shepherds) yesterday, Today I saw lots of sheep while I was driving to The Sill – the amazing Landscape Visitor Centre, close to Hadrian’s Wall at Once Brewed. The Centre includes a youth hostel, cafe and gift shop and an interesting exhibition about the landscape and its connections to farming, leisure, industry and conservation. It also has the most stunning views across some of Northumberland’s hill country towards the Wall, especially from the roof, which is easily accessible up a fairly gently sloping path. On my last visit I spent ages using the augmented reality technology which enables you to “fly” over the local landscape and beyond .The Centre is well worth a visit.
I was meeting up with family and our friend M, who is herself a skilled knitter and has even knitted Fair Isle with the locals while visiting Fair Isle itself! We had a delicious lunch and then I sneaked into the exhibition, while the others were chatting in the lobby area – they noticed a lovely moving projection onto the floor of animal and bird footprints and birds flying by. The sheep in the exhibition weren’t very fleecy though!
To view discussion, click on the title of this post and scroll down
Another Kind of Yarn
Not a knitting day today, but very much about yarns of a different sort: stories….. tall tales of fiction!
Had coffee with friends H & D this morning. H incredibly imaginative and writes fantasy fiction. I’m the nerdy one that helps with the editing and gets it published on Kindle. Her first book, Secrets and Guardians is full of strong characters and twisty plots set in strange lands with mystical forests
More details on Secrets and Guardians are here
She has now written two more to complete the trilogy, so I’m in reading/editing mode , prior to the next two being launched on Kindle. It’s rather good getting a preview too. I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen next.
I wonder if I could read and knit at the same time …….
Stashbusting Blues
As my stash of yarn is getting ridiculous and I need the space, I’ve embarked on a new big project – I do seem to have been knitting a lot of small items like hats, socks and baby clothes recently. That’s the way it goes – at any given time I usually have about three things on the go – a large item, usually for myself to wear; something small, which could be for me or a gift for someone else or for a charity; and something simple that I can do at knitting groups when the other stuff is too complicated for me to knit and natter at the same time!
I have a really useful cape/poncho which I wear loads in the winter if the weather is dry – it’s made of fleece fabric with fake fur trim on the collar and sleeves – not waterproof but lovely and cosy – `I’m going to try a knitted version, so I’ve measured it up and done lots of calculations (my first attempt at designing a pattern really). I originally thought about crocheting it, but I don’t think that will drape as well as a knit, so I’ve acquired extra long 5.5mm circular needles and sorted out a load of oddments of yarn in various shades of blue, grey, cream and white. For the body of the poncho I plan to use several strands at once – 2 of double knitting, more for thinner yarns. and mix the shades up to get a sort of marled, stripy effect.
I’m beginning with the collar, which will be in a single colour – I’m going with a sort of button-up polo neck style, so it can be worn buttons closed right up the neck for added warmth or left with the buttons open. I’m using a deep slaty blue 4ply with a hint of purple that’s left over from a crocheted shawl and 3.25 mm needles. It’s worked in k2p2 rib and incorporates some vertical buttonholes on one edge
Whether it works out or not remains to be seen – watch this space!
How I recovered from One Sock Syndrome
About 4 years ago I ended up in hospital just before we were about to go on a family holiday. It didn’t seem right that they should all miss out, so when I was out of surgery, I insisted they went without me. Off they set for Wester Ross , North West Scotland while I stayed in hospital. We spoke on the phone every day and came back with loads of presents including a pattern for kilt stockings. “It looked challenging,” they said. “We know you like making complicated things.”
A few months later, much recovered, I bought some sock yarn, got the double pointed needles out and made a start. It was a two-colour design (the Gairloch pattern – read about it here http://ichscotland.org/wiki/gairloch-pattern-stockings ) It didn’t look too difficult, but oh my goodness when done on the double pointed needles it was a nightmare! I eventually got to the end of the first sock, but had absolutely no urge to continue.
Four years later my knitting friend, Carol is knitting loads of socks – trying to keep up with the demand from her family who love them. She’s using circular needles – I had to try it. What a difference! So much easier that double pointers.
There was no confusion about splitting a pattern repeat between needles, or wondering what on earth to do if I got to the last stitch on a needle and had to knit two together. It was easier to control the tension too. I tend to knit tightly to start with and have to be especially careful to keep things loose when I’m using two or more colours. Needless to say I finished the second stocking much quicker! Here they are, modelled by K
One Sock Syndrome Cured! I have one less UFO (Unfinished object)!
A few weeks later we were back in Scotland, visiting Gairloch Museum – the new museum had it’s official opening while we were there in July. It’s well worth a visit (read about it here https://www.gairlochmuseum.org). There’s actually a display of Gairloch Pattern garments in the museum (and they sell the pattern I used in the gift shop).
To prove to myself that I wasn’t just finishing a project and I’m really ok with socks, I recently made these.
I picked up the yarn at Alnmouth Wool Festival because I just loved the colours – it’s Opal Safari in shade Botswana – I got a free pattern from the stall and it was a breeze, despite the tiny little 2.5mm circular sock needle – . I love them – definitely cured!
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Stitches by the Sea 