Sunday 23 September 2018

Ranunculus - Sort of...

I decided I needed a jumper to wear while sitting in bed and I'd noticed Raveller DutchJacky had made one fairly recently in a lovely ochre shade. "Ooh, lovely!" I thought.

The idea percolated as I finished up my St Catherines cardi (which I've not blogged about yet). I decided to re-use this Hedgehog Fibres Silk/Merino Singles yarn (discontinued base) which is a vibrant and very pleasing shade of yellow called 'Pollen'. I'm not sure if they still dye Pollen, they have a few newer yellows, none of which are quite my cup of tea, this one just has such a richness to it!



Yes, I butchered the poor yoke. I was away for the weekend, no internet access and I didn't understand the instruction for making the pretty stitch pattern so I just went into yarn-over mode.
I omitted the short row shaping because I really hate short row shaping/shaping in general. So much piddling about!


Because I love i-cord cast offs.




It's oversized but not too oversized. I'm not at all on board with the current oversized trend, it often just creates bulk and then Rich says to me "You look like you're wearing a bin bag". Probably there's a lot to be said here for yarn choices, some are more skimming and drapey, also, it really depends on a person's general style.


One other thing, I separated the sleeves/body earlier than instructed because I really do not like the poncho/penguin arm style. I want to be able to move as I wish, unencumbered by my jumper! Arms in the air without the jumper rising up as I lift.

Anyway, I love it. It's cosy, colourful and hasn't the yarn re-knit well? It was unravelled from a pair of well-worn cardigans and while it does have bobbling here and there, it's nothing major, they pull off really easily. One other note about re-knitting frogged yarn, I just wind it directly into a ball and knit it straight back up, no re-skeining/washing or anything. It's never been a problem for me but I'm very much an "it'll do"/bodge it kind of a knitter.
Probably worth re-skeining/washing if you need to know how it will behave and have a bit more control over it, especially if you're a swatcher!

Peerie Clews

Blimey, Peerie Clews... I started this project back in April, and no, I haven't finished it yet!
For any knitter who is unfamiliar with Peerie Clews, it's a pattern from the Vintage Shetland Project, a fab book of Taschen proportions, and by that I mean that the thing is heavy and feels like more of a coffee table book (that said, Vol. 2 of A Stitch in Time was big too). The pattern for Peerie Clews was scanned immediately as I didn't want to spoil the book! Below are a couple of photos I snapped of the original garments from the archive (I had to re-sell my copy of the book as I'm low-income at the moment).



The book is beautiful, it's a real labour of love. Here's Peerie Clews (the original). I love the collar, the length and the big sleeves. My sleeves have come up a little small but I've bodged a fix for that. I'm not casting on anything else till this one is finished.


Figuring out colours. This took me AGES, I started and re-started and after I think 3 goes I got just what I wanted, using hand-dyed singles/strands of kidsilk mohair and a little coral coloured Spindrift. I needed the colourwork to have just enough contrast and also enough 'stick' (no superwash sock yarns in sight).

The cuffs are my favourite, they're a beautiful grey hand-dyed merino single yarn held double with an even more beautiful Hedgehog Fibres Blue Faced Lace yarn in an extremely subtly flecked fawn colour (Sparrow's Egg).




Knitting outdoors in May & June this year. Sitting on my lovely old quilt which was made for me as a going away present when I went to university in 2002.

Anyway, my first task is to complete the sleeves. I'm then going to complete the ribbing for the bottom of the cardi and take each little section at a time until I'm done. I really do hope I'm able to finish it, I keep putting it off. Probably the knitting will speed up once I'm knitting the colourwork in the round. Wish me luck!

Tuesday 18 September 2018

College

I mentioned in my previous post that I had started back at college as a mature student. I decided to enrol at Leek college as it's the closest to home and also I really like Leek as a town, it's full of old buildings and is all wonky/higgledy-piggledy. By some miracle it retains many of its original cobbled street surfaces - I love cobbled streets a lot. It's always a source of enjoyment just visiting Leek and now I'm at college there I get to explore even more!

As my class is so small we occupy smaller classrooms in the old building (part of the Nicholson Institute). I was quietly delighted on my first day inside this new (to me) space, it's full of architectural interest. Sadly somebody at some point has decided the glazed/unglazed interior brickwork ought to be painted over with thick stippled masonry paint, presumably to 'brighten up' the corridors. Madness.

This clock! The surround! I bet a horologist would love to get their hands on this clock, give it a going-over, a service and a clean. It's the nicest clock I've seen in ages. On the clock face it says "I mark time. Dost thou?". I surreptitiously snapped some photos on my phone during a tea break.

I think I'll lug my proper camera in next week or at some point anyway. Honestly, this building is fantastic, it's such an inspiring place to be learning in.
Here are some photos of the rear of the building. It's a very solid, imposing structure from behind, classic Victorian really, reminds me of the viaduct* near to my parents' house.



The 'sticking out' section is a window seat if I remember correctly, that said, I think there's another on the other side, higher up. 

 I believe the large glazed room on the ground floor is the art studio. The space right at the top is the Nicholson Gallery and in the middle is the public library. I've never been into the library so I'll add that onto my list of Nicholson Exploration.


A scholar? (Looks like he/she's wearing a mortarboard). The mason's child? Who knows, what a lovely little face though.



A couple of lovely display cases as you enter the building, I believe Leek was a textile town much like Macc and Congleton were. There are lots of embroidery examples in the gallery upstairs and here we can see spinning... I need to do some Leek history research really.

Cast iron radiators!!!!!!! Lovely to sit on, I used to like it at school when they'd been glossed, they used to smell incredible.

*The viaduct impressed and scared me in equal measure as a child. I'm not sure if it was the sheer size of it, the thought of men up so high laying the bricks, that coupled with the melancholy feeling I always got down there at the edge of the woods with the damp smell of the brook running under the viaduct and alongside the field/wood edge. It certainly made an impression.


Monday 17 September 2018

Autumn

Well, it's been a lovely year so far and wow, what a fantastic summer! I love summer best of all, although each season has its own charms. We have a tree in our garden which is always the first to drop its leaves come September, and in the spring it is always the last to sprout them! The garden is currently sprinkled with leaves from this tree, it looks like yellow confetti or little petals; I like how the wind gathers them into piles and spreads them about the place. They float past my studio window, looking a bit like snowflakes and they make me smile.

I made 3 hats when it was very hot, all the same pattern (Beloved Aran), all using variegated yarns. The one above is Oliver's, brown of course. I made it using Kate Selene yarns held tripled.
Below is the wrong side of my Granny's Paperweight crochet blanket, a delightful pattern that I'm making for fun, for me really but I'll share with the family of course! Oliver wasn't too keen on it when I showed him my progress, he had requested a blanket and so I've started working on a brown version (larger gauge).


Lots of knitting plans flying around. One certainty is that I am knitting a dressing gown (pictured below), it's from a book called Romantic Style and has a fair few projects on Ravelry.
I know that I will be shortening it, I don't want it trailing behind me, it'll still be full-length though. The dressing gown is knit using Rowan's Kid Classic yarn, rather a lot of Kid Classic. Luckily I impulse-bought a LOT of Kid Classic last year from a Raveller who had a worsening mohair allergy. She was selling it all off very cheap (£3 per ball) and so I ended up with 20 balls of the colour 'Dashing' which is a lovely oatmeal shade.



Non-knitting-wise it's all change here, both my little boys are now at school and I have decided that it is time for me to do the same. I started my lessons at college last week, doing an Access course in preparation for my return to university (hopefully) next year.The college is lovely, old and very, very interesting. I'll take some photos this week!


Here are the RAF parachute team, we saw them at a family fair a couple of weekends ago! I think I enjoyed their bit the most, it was very exciting to watch although I don't fancy having a go at that EVER.

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