Colourwork Blanket

Last year I had a long night in hospital after a painful minor operation. It was fairly grim and I spent a lot of my night lying awake staring at the celing tiles and thinking about Marie Wallin's Fair Isle Club. With Marie's club you get a pattern a month to knit a square of a stunning blanket, it runs over 12 months and I was lying there trying to think of ways to justify the price of the patterns to myself (around £120 I think, this year's is cheaper but still out of my price range). I kept returning to the conclusion that although it looked as though it would be fantastic to make, I couldn't do it. I ended up buying her other gorgeous pattern, Sage Throw, which I will make at some point (Sage Throw isn't on Ravelry).

Anyway! I'm a massive Kate Davies fan and had the happy thought (while I stared at those celing tiles), that I could make a Kate Davies colourwork blanket! Yes! I was very excited, it really helped as I tried to get myself to go off to sleep, I played a game trying to remember how many colourwork designs Kate had on her pattern page on Ravelry.

As always, I had a backlog of WIPs and I made myself clear as many as possible before I finally cast on the blanket. Had a fun few months of working on it and then took a break at 6 and a half squares. I decided to try and finish it during this year's run of the Great British Bake Off. I like a challenge, just to help keep me focussed when I become distracted by other new projects! I managed to stick to it and got it finished a few days after the final episode was shown.

It's really difficult to get a photo of the entire blanket in one piece - I'll try changing to the wide lens on my camera and will add more photos tomorrow.

The response to this blanket from Ravellers has been absolutely amazing, everyone has been so lovely!

Spindrift Shawl again

I made another Spindrift Shawl (pattern by Helen Stewart). This is for my mum's birthday because she hinted that she would like one after she saw mine. She also hinted that mohair might not be a fibre she wanted me to use! I saw an amazing shawl knit by Tinkhickman on Ravelry - here. I really loved the gradient yarn she had used and promptly bought two cakes of similar from the Etsy shop Bilum. It was lovely yarn to knit with but I was worried about the colours and about the shawl possibly coming out too small. I blocked it really aggressively and was thrilled with the result, the colour and the drape are perfect.
It is a bit wafty and floaty and looks perfect with my wafty floaty fancy frock (an ebay bargain at £12 - it was £130 new!). Mum likes wafty scarfy shawly things and will wear it well.

Hedgehog Fibres Blanket Photo Overload

 Sometimes all I need is a deadline and I'll get things finished. This blanket was pure joy to work on from start to finish, all down to the yarn of course! I love Hedgehog Fibres so much (as does James!).

 It's entirely knit in Hedgehog Fibres Twist Sock held doubled with a strand of laceweight (BFL & Merino Lace, HF again). James calls it his rainbow blanket, his favourite colour in it is the pink shade (mine too, colourway is Kitsch, June 2015 Twist Club).
The photos below were taken just after I had given it to him; he wouldn't wait for a wet block so I gave it a light steam.

I wrote a decent amount of notes on my Ravelry project page, here. The main issue I encountered with this project (apart from my basic crochet knowledge being entirely wrong!) is detailed below.

So, I managed to gradually ‘lose’ about 5 stitches (10 in total) either end of the blanket between the first lot of grannies and section 5 (Fill the Gap). At that point I realised I’d lost said stitches and hastily added them back in, then carried on (taking great care not to lose any again). I got near to finishing the blanket, but the section with the missing stitches was bothering me with its hourglass shape, I was quite sure I wouldn't be able to block my way out of it.
After a lot of research (and finding nothing to fix the loss of so many stitches) I sat down with my hook and my yarn and simply started at the bottom of the grannies (where it began to curve inwards) and crocheted my way up along the edge vertically, following the pattern as set and working the 1, then 2, then 3, then, 4, finally 5, stitches back and forth, joining each row to the existing edge using slip stitch. I decreased back down by eye and ended up with a straight edge.
You can see this visible mend in the front-facing photo where James is wrapped up. The section I’m taking about is visible on both front-facing edges in the photo and is worked in orange.
After the edges had been squared off this way, I worked the finishing edging.

Wisteria cardigans

I signed up to test knit the new pattern by East London KNits, Wisteria Blossoms. It was my first top-down cardigan and a fun and quick knit. I had a couple of issues with gauge (which changed from what I had swatched as I was knitting it), that's why the cardigan is pictured 'buttoned' at the neckline - it pulled too much across my bust.
The yarn is Hedgehog Fibres Merino Aran, the colourway is Construct.

My lovely Rav friend Herbscat said my photos & grey cardigan reminded her of the film Howard's End (a modern version), such a kind comment! I was making do with the camera's timer and had the camera itself propped up on a pile of boxes.

So I made a second one, in Hedgehog Fibres again, but in Silk/Merino Singles, on larger needles, also cropped due to yarn constraints! I'm really pleased with both of these, they're both really wearable and pretty.

The pattern will be released next week, I'll link to it if I remember!

Moder dy photo overload

So it went from this WIP (above), to the FO that you've seen in the previous photos! I'm extremely happy with this knit, it was such a good project to be working on.

Now it's back to my WIP pile, I've picked up my Bohus cardigan again and am over halfway through the yoke! The Bohus yoke is nice, quite fun but a little fiddly and slow. I'll have it done soon though, I want to wear it.

Moder dy

Moder dy, one month on! I had secretly hoped to finish it on the 15th of July, you know, because I had started it on the 15th of June.. Daft, yes, do-able, probably (if the boys hadn't had chicken pox!). 

I have REALLY enjoyed knitting this. It's been a great pattern for the single skeins of variegated sock yarn I have rapidly accumulated over the last year. I used Life in the Long Grass sock yarns, I love their earthy colours and the flecks of brighter floral colours in the yarns. People on Instagram and Ravelry have commented that the blanket has seashell tones, I can really see this. It's been a very happy project, not to mention the fact that this yarn has made me want to paint again!!! Yes, three exclamation marks were needed there, it's been MONTHS, I never thought I would want to paint ever again. So, for severe creative block, I prescribe rest and yarn. And sunshine. England has been FOUL over the last few weeks, bad weather (even by our standards), amongst other things. The Leave vote and weird racism was bad enough, but the weather has been the icing on the cake. Knitting and tea have been a great help though.