Welcome to my blog. I live, knit, crochet, spin and craft near the Northumbrian Coast (but not too near – the waves won't be splashing my yarn!).There's a story in every stitch, every grain of sand, every blade of grass. I thought I'd blog about it…
The group have continued to meet online every Friday throughout August. This month we’ve mostly been making blankets.
A crocheted this one.
L completed this one in shades of Lilac and purple.
She’s now moved on to this black and grey one with a touch of sparkle.
R completed her Aztec Blanket. This was knitted to twice the final size, then folded in half and stitched together,. She finished off by adding a fringe. As it is double thickness, this is going to be really warm and cosy.
The rest of us have been working on sweaters. Y has been knitting this raspberry pink cable design – it’s a commission using handspun yarn (not her own). Unusually for Y, this one is knitted in the round – she’s usually a two-needle knitter!.
I finally completed my striped sweater in alpaca yarn from fibre that I prepped, spun and dyed myself…..from the animal’s back to my own! I just need to block it now.
It’s been lovely watching everyone’s projects take shape over the last few weeks.
At the turn of the year I made some knitting-related New Year resolutions (for the full list click here). One of these was to make a Christmas jumper. For several years running, as the Festive Season arrives, I’ve thought about how great it would be to have a really nice hand-knitted Christmas Jumper and promptly forgotten about it until the following year, when it’s far too late to do anything about it. With this in mind chose a pattern and ordered yarn a while ago. With social activities and trips out curtailed in the current lockdown, what better time to get started?
I found the Frosty’s Christmas pattern for a snowman jumper on the Drops Design website – one of thousands of the free patterns on the site, which also includes tutorials, hints and tips, an online shop and list of stockists.
Photo by Drops Design
It also has a yarn converter – all the Drops yarns are divided into groups: every pattern will recommend a yarn and provide alternative yarns – all yarns from that group can be used, sometimes using a double strand – the converter works out the weight/number of balls needed in your chosen yarn. That’s what I did. I fancied treating myself to something more luxurious than the 100% wool Drops Eskimo recommended but found that I could also knit this design using two strands of Drops Brushed Alpaca Silk (a 77% alpaca, 23% silk blend) so I bought that. This means that I’m also sticking to my “green” resolution to try and buy natural fibre yarns whenever possible.
The sweater is knitted in from the top down in stocking stitch, with raglan sleeves, constructed with separate front and back, rather than knitted in the round. It uses nice chunky needles (7mm) so it should take shape quite quickly. The details on the snowman’s face and the snowflakes are added afterwards. You have the option of knitting the snowman on the back too – you just don’t add the nose, scarf etc so you get the back view of him!
Now I’ve cast on the back and got started I’m really enjoying this. I did spend some time before I got to the snowman design rewinding the black and white yarns – the pattern only uses one ball of each and it is to be used double-stranded. The yarn is feather-light and super soft. I like the way it’s knitting up.
I’m really looking forward to wearing this at Christmas….and let’s face it we all need something to look forward to right now!
No “Scone of the Week” post today – my fellow scone eater had a prior engagement so I made a big pan of broccoli and stilton soup and had some of that instead. Then I had a think about some of my past projects and decided to share this one on the blog.
Here in Northumberland, throughout the summer, there are agricultural shows held most weekends. We go to quite a few and there’s always a lot to see. Immaculately groomed livestock are judged; horses and ponies compete in showing and jumping classes; talented crafters bring their work to exhibit and try to win a prize; gardeners show their fruit, flowers and unfeasibly large vegetables! Barnacre Alpacas attend many of these events, bringing some of their cute alpacas and selling alpaca yarn and hand knitted items.
A couple of years back I bought some of their alpaca yarn, in a creamy beige colour – I couldn’t resist any longer! It is sooooo soft! I didn’t have a project in mind at the time, but decided it would make a wonderful warm hat for the winter, so I had a look for a pattern on line.
I love knitting cable, and when I found the 14 Cable Hat pattern I couldn’t wait to get started – it is the busiest cable hat I’ve ever seen, with 14 different cable designs running up the hat. It’s the perfect one to knit if you are a cable fan. It’s a free pattern and includes a very colourful chart. Some of the featured designs I’d never seen before and are quite complex. It made for a really interesting project. I used double pointed needles, which wasn’t great – I’d definitely use circulars next time.
I bought a furry pompom to go on the top – it is attached with a press stud to remove for washing (or changing on to other hats). I wear it often during the winter months – it is delightfully warm and cosy.
Stitches by the Sea 