Knitting AND Crocheting

 

I am yarning along again, with Ginny and the rest over at Small Things.  At least it keeps me blogging regularly ;)
This week, for your appreciation, you can see a really cool book I found in a local antique shop, Janet Marsh's Nature Diary.  The title caught my eye, and I grabbed it up to keep it.  It is similar in some ways to the Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, only a bit more modern, and set up a little different.  It is still English though :) If I didn't actually squeal when I found it, I felt like squealing!  The other book, the new Abs Diet for women, has been sitting in my library basket for a while.
As for my projects, well you can see I haven't got very far with my cardigan.  It is in LACEWEIGHT so, not really a surprise I guess!  Here is a nice closeup so you can admire the yarn.  It only took me a few tries to get a good photo.

Isn't it pretty?  That is Cousteau, from Madelinetosh's 'Tosh Lace' range.  I found a lovely online shop that I bought it from- they had it shipped out VERY quickly.  Eat, Sleep, Knit was their name :) and I just wanted to give them a shout out.

 

My other project is more experimental than anything else.  I am sure many of you who crochet have seen and admired the crocodile stitch projects out there.  Well one, very kind person sat through the videos and made up a free scarf pattern (ravelry link) to make one.  It is a fairly easy and fun stitch, with a great ruffled texture.  The yarn, which is Serenity Garden from Deborah Norville's range, is not the best for crochet, but it looks good!
Now, I finally remembered to take a photo of the 1930's lace top pattern I made ages ago.  You can purchase the pattern from the Vintage Pattern Place on Etsy.  If I were to make it again, I'd add an extra inch to the ribbing and an  extra pattern repeat because I would prefer it just a little longer ;).

And finally, I will leave you with a couple of photos from inside the Nature Diary :)  If you want to see more, you shall have to get your own copy ;)

Finished Gloves and a Vintage Knit

So I did NOT manage to get my son's gloves finished in time for Christmas day.  Not that it mattered much, because the weather has been rather warm lately, with temperatures in the 60's (degrees F, that is around 18 degrees C).  Until yesterday, when it was a good deal colder- hovering around the 40's- and today it is sticking close to freezing.  Maybe he will get a chance to use them today!

Here they are with my latest read.  Reads.  That is my Christmas present- an iPad 2, with the kindle application working on it, with several books from the local library's digital site :)  Of course the books are relatively boring looking since they never show a front page, so you have my library screen up LOL.  On the right, is my new project- a vintage pattern I discovered the other day in a small antique shop.  Some Madelinetosh yarn, and a cardigan on the needles.  The yarn is 100% merino, and OH SO soft.  I am loving knitting with it, even though it is a very fine yarn- a 2ply lace weight in fact!  My pattern calls for 8.5 stitches per inch, so this works out just fine, but will probably take me forever!

Here are the gloves in closeup.  I used St. Denis Boreale- a fingering weight wool, USA sourced, made in the USA.  The colours were chosen because they are my son's favourite.  The pattern was chosen by him- or rather PATTERNS were chosen by him.  The griffin comes from one pattern, which wanted me to knit the fingers top down.  OK that ended up being too fiddly, and they were knitting up a bit small at that.  So instead I adjusted it and used a secondary pattern, into which I added the griffin.  And mixed up the griffins and put them backwards, so they face out instead of in!  Oh well.

I tried to get a closeup of my yarn, but it came out blurry.  Instead you can have a closer look at my knitting and the pattern- I am making the cardigan from this twin set.  I have been unable to date it at all, but suspect it to be quite early.  It is a 'Target' pattern by George Lee & Sons Limited.  At some point, the company is billed as Lee Target, but I have one that says just Target.  Apparently they are a Welsh company... who appear to still be around.  I shall have to do more digging :)

Yarn Along with Ginny over at Small Things :)

Gloves and Stockings

I'm yarning along with Ginny again this week.  I managed to find my camera.  In the bottom of my knitting bag- hidden under stuff.  So now you can see what I am up to :)

That blue and orange thing is my son's glove.  I started out with one pattern, which was so incredibly fiddly (I had to knit the fingers first) that I gave up.  I took the graph I needed for the back and added it to another glove pattern (with slight adjustments).
The thing with my name on is a stocking.  I am not sure if they will both be finished by Christmas- the glove set me back a bit because of the re-do.
As for my books- well there are three fun reads: a mystery (the Alys Clare book), a sci-fi (Linnea Sinclair) and a romance (Jennifer Skully) and two Advent presents from Mum and Dad on cooking English specialities :)  I was really excited to see these!  Plans for the week involve making cookies and finishing gloves- I'm hoping to finish this one in the next day.

Oh, and before I forget... many of you have been asking about colourwork in knitting.  It can be fiddly in small projects like the glove, but really easy in bigger projects like the stocking.
For more information you can follow along with Tasha's series at 'The Vintage Knitting College' where she is going through the process of knitting a fairisle sweater.  She posts as she can manage, so you should check back often, but the first couple are a good place to start :)

A Pattern and a Sweater

See the other yarn along participants over at Ginny's place :)

So I finished my 'Quick Knit 1940's Style Jumper'- the day after I wanted to!  I wanted to have it finished for last week's yarn along, but a couple of silly mistakes that meant I had to frog the sleeve, meant that it would have to wait a week.
So then today I wanted to show you that AND the other projects in my bag.  Such as the stocking for me and the colourwork gloves for my son- but my camera is missing!
Instead you shall just have to look at the jumper and maybe next week I can find the camera and actually have more than a tiny part of a tiny finger from the glove done :D

You can see my ravelry project page here for details.

There is only one thing wrong with it.  The wool gives me a rash on my neck!  ARGH!  I shall have to try a blend or a merino next time.  It is awfully comfortable and warm though!

 If you click on this image you can see some of my knitted ornaments hanging from my garland.  OK there is also a tatted ornament in there- but they should eventually appear on a proper garland if I ever get around to making it.

The hat I am wearing here is also a hand knit- and I almost lost it!  It is a blend of alpaca and silk I think (I forget now) and the pattern is an early 1900's one (1904), with a most fascinating stitch.    I shall have to dig it out and scan it in for you.  Anyway, I left it behind in the restaurant we ate at- we had to go back and get it the next day!  I would give you  a close-up... but as I said, my camera is MIA!
And through the instant magic of me writing ahead of time, here you go :)  Just click on the image and save it.  I would make it a pdf, but the hosting of that gets squiffy, so images it is for now.

I THINK this is the pattern.  I made it a few years back and now I can't remember- and I am not 100% sure.  All I know is that whatever I did made a most interesting looking stitch!  This particular one though, comes from a knitting pattern book dated 1904.

Christmas Stockings

No change in my reading matter since last week (well except to add a few things) since I have not had much of a chance to actually READ between homeschooling and knitting!  I did have to return Outliers to the library before I got to finish it though- hopefully I will be able to get it back again soon!  I shan't put a hold on it though until I have finished what I have in my list- starting with the James Garner biography, which I have been enjoying :)

My knitting has been doing quite well though.  I finished the second stocking (the red one) for my son.  It turned out rather larger than the first because I switched to a circular (16") to knit it- mainly because I had tension issues with the double pointed needles.  You can see the changes I made to some of my charts in action on his stocking- such as the slightly larger gap between snowmen.  You can also see that I plan to go back later to do the stripes on the candy canes- although I am not entirely sure this bought me much time (if any).  I tried out one or two new patterns there too.
Underneath you will notice my 'Quick Knit 1940's Style Sweater'- to which I have added a sleeve today.  I shall start knitting the front next, while I wait for my wool for my son's Christmas gloves.  I shall probably start my own stocking soon too!

Yarning along again with Ginny this week- take a gander at the other participants!