Hopping Mad

So, with an adult jumper project on the go, a baby blanket to make, a smock for my granddaughter to finish off, plus several fair isle items on various needles it seemed a perfect time to get obsessed with a new project!

I'm always looking for ways to use up the scraps of yarn that gather after projects are finished and these little bunnies provided the perfect opportunity to use up bits and bobs.

I found the patterns from this website, they are a little challenging to begin with, but as I'm now on bunny no. 3 - I think I'm getting the hang of it!

Esme the Easter Bunny

Bunny No2 already for her dress

Now, back to those other projects.......

Grab a cuppa and visit to the Shetland Museum & Archives

There I was on a snowy Saturday afternoon, working on my Gudrun Johnson Craftsy Class: The Shetland Hap Shawl and watching a live broadcast of a study day on knitting at the Shetland Museum!

You gotta love the internet!!

Its now available on their website and I can catch up on the morning talks that I missed:  http://www.shetlandmuseumandarchives.org.uk/collections/museum/textiles

Put the kettle on and join me for a fascinating tour of the Shetland traditions in knitting!

What's needling me?

This blog is called Fashionably Slow for a reason....it takes time for me to get to it!!

Even though I haven't posted for a while - I haven't been lazy.  (And my blog silence has nothing to do with the fact that I may have forgotten my password for a few weeks and finally found it written down in my trusty 'password log book'.  On my desk.  In front of my nose.)

Family Heirloom in progress

Anyway.  Passion craft of the moment is definitely knitting and in true knit addict fashion, I currently have several projects on the go at once.  

Even though I love making the year-long- family heirloom-Fair Isle blanket, I have already fallen behind.  The pattern for Month 5 just arrived in the post and I am barely through Month 2. 

This project requires quite a big amount of 'head space' for me.  No talking, no radio, no tv...just quiet focus which I haven't had recently, but I feel a big wave of Fair Isle coming on..... I'll show you the cunning plan I have devised to help me better manage this project at a later date.

Getting to know the process

Knit by Numbers

In the meantime I've been working on a simple hat pattern from a brilliant blog The Craft Sessions.  This blog is a lovely place to hang out and the hat pattern Felicia posted is a great way to use up old yarn, plus I'm learning to understand the basics of construction, gauge and tension with her pattern.  

Its a quick hat to knit and I'm using the glorious Knit by Numbers, which feels so lovely on the needles.  This was the second hat I've made (my 'dog walking' hat supply is growing- as are my donations to an inspiring charity KnitAid) and now I'm ready to construct one for Son No1.  He wants his with a slightly longer rib and a longer body of hat for a slouchy shape and, I'm delighted to say, I now know how to do that.

Getting the plan together

One of my goals this year is to knit my own jumper.

I am so lucky to have a fabulous local yarn shop nearby with a great visiting teacher.  Fiona Morris is an experienced, very patient teacher and extremely generous with her time, knowledge and skills.

Whilst knitting baby garments has developed my skills and techniques I wanted to understand how to create a good fit - and to learn more about gauge and tension.  So I am doing a 'Knit Your Own Jumper' course with Fiona and learning the skills needed to create adult jumpers that actually fit.

Using a basic pattern we have custom built our jumper designs and over the next two months will create our own garment.  I am using a tweedy double knit called Harrap Tweed from Sirdar.  I don't love it but I didn't want to knit my first jumper with a yarn I really loved incase the jumper didn't work out the way I see it in my head.

This yarn is good, its workable and warm and, if the jumper works out, will be good for dog walks!!  Ah, country life!  And look at the lovely vintage buttons I found in a charity shop.  Perfect for the neck fastening.  I found large and small sizes, I think the larger ones will actually be perfect for the sleeveless fair isle cardigan I've got planned for Mr M.

 And, just in case I get bored of all the above, there is the pressing matter of the baby blanket I am knitting for a little one due early July. Fiona very kindly gave me a pattern off the top of her head when I told her the size blanket I wanted to make and the yarn I wanted to use.  Its driving me mad because I stupidly chose small needles (3.25mm).  I should have gone for 4mm as this Debbie Bliss cashmerino can take it and the blanket would have grown faster!  Anyway, the baby is still in situ and there's still time.

I just hope I'm not still saying that end-June!

A touch of Startitis

Heirloom Blanket Section 1

Even though I TOLD myself I'd only knit a couple of rows of my Heirloom Blanket before Christmas.

Even though I SHARED here the project I have planned for the NEW YEAR.

Even though I meant to focus on the 3 hats and 2 pairs of mitts I still have to make for Christmas, I came down with a dose of Startitis.

For me the first symptoms are a rumbling in the tummy.  A kind of excited bubbly feeling that I call 'the Christmas feeling' (which can take hold at any time of year).

Then fingers start to itch and a strange restless energy takes over.  I find myself desperately wanting to get organized; photocopying patterns, gathering yarn, sorting out files, needles and setting up a 'project bag' (more on those another time).

Once the virus takes hold I can do nothing but surrender to the creative process - casting on stitches and happily playing with the new yarn, feeling how it works on the needles, enjoying the movement of the fabric being created and absorbing the colours in the yarn.

Don't touch - highly infectious waistcoat yarn!

This time, however, I think I've managed to get on top of it before it wreaked havoc.  I did a little sorting of yarn for Mr M's waistcoat before I rallied.

I've still got the tail-end of a section of heirloom blanket but once this bit is done I should be well and truly back on track with hats and mitts.

This little dose was very yarn related...but I am also susceptible to the fabric and needlework startitis strain too.

I'm mindful that there's always a lot of Startitis around at this time of year and aim to keep myself strong by maintaining a healthy focus on the work in hand.

A couple of post-Christmas days quietly working on new projects should have me feeling much better.

A healthy addiction?

Its not often you walk into a Chinese restaurant and get transfixed by a knitted tank top!

Its official.  I am addicted to Fair Isle and Colour Strand knitting.

I spotted a young man in said restaurant wearing this and had to ask him if he would mind if I took a photo!  

He was very obliging and told me his grandmother had made it for him and that he would pass on my admiring comments.  What a good sport.

His girlfriend was also wearing another GrannyKnit tank top but I was laughing so much I only managed to photograph the table!?

I have three Fair Isle projects on the go right now.  I'm on pair no 3 of the mitts I've mentioned. The problem is that with each pair my technique improves and the previous pair end up the dog-walking glove basket!

I'm hoping my standard gets good enough so that some will end up in the Christmas-present basket!

My first ever attempt at Fair Isle was earlier this year making this hat with a great teacher, Fiona Morris, at a class in my local yarn store.  I'm so proud of that hat, even though now I've had more practice, I can see all my mistakes and am a little embarrassed about the shape.  Still, it works and I made it.

Heirloom Blanket 2016

Now I am motoring on and have joined designer, Marie Wallin's, Fair Isle Club.  Each month she sends out a pattern and, armed with the right colour combination of yarns (lovely Felted Tweed from Rowan), we are to knit a 'sample'.  Eventually all the samples will be joined together, edged with ribbing and, as Mr M commented, an heirloom blanket will exist.

January's project

Talking of Mr M.  He's been so intrigued by my immersion in Fair Isle and interested in the creative process (especially as I've been borrowing his computer to watch videos and download tutorials as my ancient machine won't play along), that I asked him if he would like me to knit him a jumper?

And, reader, he said yes!

I know I know, I'm supposed to be making one for me first.....but I had signed up for this class and thought he might like a version of it.

I like the colours but want to knit it as a waistcoat and also make it longer...and if it doesn't fit him, well I could wear it!

I've just ordered the yarn and will start this project in January.

Looks like I'm losing the battle against the reducing the wool stash!

Stitch and mitts

@mjmucklestone

In anticipation of the cardigan I going to knit, I need to build up my skills. To relieve the perfectionist pressure I am putting on myself I've taken the advice of brilliant knitting guru Karen Templer and put myself in training for the Big Knit by making hats and fingerless mitts.

Karen says that once you've learnt the fingerless mitt with a thumb gusset you're pretty much halfway to a cardigan, and she sings the praises of this pattern: the Muckle Mitt from Mary Jane Mucklestone (check out her website for gorgeous Fair Isle patterns).

See the cute thumb gusset?

Using up odds and ends

I'm on my second pair already and Karen is right, they're great fun to make; plus they're a great way to use up left-over bits of yarn, thereby helping me clear my 'stash' and the possibilities for patterns and colour combinations seem endless!

Also, alongside making cosy mitts as gifts, I finally get to be a person who can wield four needles and two yarns of wool at the same time!   I used to think that this was some kind of Dark Art of Knitting - and now I've mastered it, its a deeply satisfying, highly creative and fun way to knit.

Socks may move up the knitting leader board yet!

Its beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

Back in June my fantasy of having lots of hand knitted presents to give at Christmas seemed like a great idea and easily achievable.

It also felt a bit daft.  After all there were still 6 months to go and it was early summer.  People might think I'm crazy (or crazier).

And I didn't really feel motivated to start.

Now its late November and my plan for socks, hats, hand warmers and hot waterbottle covers galore is hopelessly behind.

I've ditched the sock plan anyway.  Is it me or are socks just really boring to make?  Maybe I need to have another go.

I'm quite tempted by the 'knitting two socks at the same time' technique.  For a start I think I'd enjoy the technical challenge and also it means I would avoid the dreaded One Sock Malaise.  Although only making one sock probably wouldn't matter in this house - the attitude amongst The Young seems to be 'the odder the better'.

Anyway, socks are off the menu this year.  So are hot waterbottle covers.  I've completed two but I have to confess that the second item gave me a touch of One Sock Malaise; once I'd done one side repeating it just didn't appeal.

Hence .....

Ta dah!

Whatever

This creative journey is revealing how low my boredom threshold is!

Baby hat knitted in the round.

Now hats are great - so many shapes and sizes and quick to do.

My problem is that to reduce the monumental stash of wool in my cupboard I'm trying to match the wool I have with the patterns I want to knit.  In order to do this successfully and not end up making things that come out the wrong size I need to unravel (see what I did there???) one of the great mysteries of knitting.

Gauge.

That means making a sample square of knitting to establish the right amount of stitches per inch on the 'fabric'.  If your sample matches the pattern requirement, you're good to go.

Everything I've read so far tells me 'gauge' is crucial and that I ignore it at my peril.  I know I have to master it, but it requires a level of maturity that I haven't arrived at yet.  I still enjoy diving in and making mistakes - then scouring the amazing online resources like here to help problem solve.

I like learning this way for now as the items I'm knitting are usually pretty small and the mistakes are easily sorted. But I do want to knit myself a jumper/cardigan as part of my capsule wardrobe and bought a beautiful pattern from the Amercian company  Brooklyn Tweed.  I can't understand a word of it at the moment and I don't want to end up making something I can't wear so mastering gauge and getting the yarn & needle size right will be a vital first step.

By the way, if you want to learn to knit and make cool, fab stuff (I do, I do!) - this blog is brilliant.  I am hoping if I read enough of it and keep practicing I can hang out with the cool kids.

Mastering Cable stitch on Handwarmer

Meantime, at the foothils of my knitting journey are handwarmers.

Quick to make, loads of different designs and even though, like the socks and hot waterbottle covers,  there is the 'second one' to make, somehow it doesn't seem to matter.

They are a great way to practice new stitches and techniques.  I've  finally got the hang of that lovely wavy pattern that was the mysterious Cable!

On the next pair I want to up my technical challenge and make Fair Isle mits with a thumb gusset.......

It may be a Happy Christmas 2016 for  someone!

PS Having just read the hilarious Yarnharlot's blog about being Christmas ready, I'm feeling a bit better about my state of affairs.  Its good to know I'm not alone!