Pimlico take two

I first made one of these three years ago - looking back I see pleasingly that it was finished around the same time! It's a great pattern that's free to download from Ravelry and is quite easy to make as long as you can knit in the round. It takes a couple of balls of 4-ply to make - you can probably get away with anything between about 60g and 100g in total.

Last winter I dropped it somewhere during a day out and was rather pissed off - I'd really come to love it, it's great for wearing inside a buttoned up jacket or coat, particularly if you have a funnel-neck coat like mine. 

But it was near the end of the winter season and I didn't bother making another one, so I didn't realise quite how much I missed it until this year when it got cold enough (briefly) to need a scarf again. Cue frantic scrabble for yarn and needles, and casting on again for a new one. I chose Debbie Bliss Rialto 4-ply in grey; beautiful wool that really suits the lacey pattern and is super soft on the skin.

A few car journeys later and it was ready for blocking. Now I'm enjoying having my cowl back on. Just got to make sure I don't lose this one - perhaps a piece of string to tie it to my collar?!

New jumper on the go

I cast this on last year but have only just got to the really (really!) easy bit - acres of knitting, not even any purling as I'm going round in circles on my lovely Knit Picks needles!

I've used the Drops Alpaca yarn before some years ago when I made hats and scarves for the niecelets one Christmas, and it's a lovely fine yarn that relaxes quite dramatically when washed. Hence I'm trusting that the neck is going to be a bit looser than it is at the moment when it's finally done and blocked. I did make at least three swatches for this (washed and blocked too), so I'm fairly confident it will work out.

Of course the great thing about doing a top-down circular knit is that you get to try it on as you go along. The bad thing is that by the time I get to the sleeves it's not going to be a very portable project.

The pattern is Hannah Fettig's Lightweight Pullover which you can buy as a single pattern on Ravelry or it's available in this book if you're not a Raveler (if not, why not?!)

Slow hoodie progress

It's been ages since I've written about knitting on here - but that doesn't mean I'm not doing any! If truth be told it's very slow progress, however, as I just don't get so much time to do it any more.

I no longer get the train to work, I rarely sit and watch TV in the evenings, and my spare time seems increasingly taken up with going out walking, and getting involved with campaigning on local issues.  It's getting to the point where I almost welcome the arrival of a rainy or cold and gloomy weekend as it means I have an excuse to stay in and do crafty things.

My new Central Park Hoodie has reached the point where it is ready to be sewn together so that the stitches can be picked up for the hood - and it will be too big to take anywhere, so the rest of the work will have to be carried out at home. The fact that the new season of Borgen is well under way is helping, although it's not the best choice since I have to keep an eye on the subtitles so that I know what's going on.

This is the third CPH I've made (the second one for me), and I still maintain it's a bloody excellent pattern and very easy to follow - also the aran yarn knits up very quickly which means gratification is rapid, if not instant. My first CPH (renamed the Deptford Park Hoodie, natch) is still going, but the cuffs have been darned a few times and are looking a little worse for wear, so a replacement will be very timely.

Getting a bit threadbare

I'm also using exactly the same yarn as the last one - gorgeous aran wool from Coldharbour Mill in Devon, but in dark green rather than claret.

The fact that this is my third time knitting this pattern makes it all the more embarrassing that I messed up on the neck shaping - messed it up on BOTH of the front panels, and did not notice even through washing and blocking the pieces. It was not until I went to sew the shoulders together that I was rather confused to find the neck decreases seemed to be on the armhole sides of the pieces! Clearly a bit out of practice!

Still knitting!

Just thought I'd show you the socks that are currently on the needles: yarn was donated by my friend Caterina, she got it in a yarn swap but doesn't really knit socks so she passed it on to me. It's a basic toe-up pattern, the stripy yarn does all the work.

For some reason the colours remind me of chocolate limes, or some minty toffees or something. Some kind of hardboiled sweet, anyhow. Makes my mouth water when I'm knitting!

Finished objects

I am still making things, I just keep forgetting/running out of time to take pictures, or to blog about them!

The sock is the Falling Leaves pattern from Knitty; been meaning to make this pattern for ages but I assumed that, because it has 72 stitches on the round (and I normally use only 60) it would be too big for my feet and I would have to mess around with gauge. In fact, even with all the lacework going on, I can only just get this sock on! Either I've knitted to an uncharacteristically tight gauge, or my feet have ballooned - but I think I would have noticed the latter.

I picked up the lovely bright green yarn on special offer from Natalie at the Yarn Yard, who seems to like green almost as much as I do! I see she has another great colourway 'sprout' on there at the moment!
With the colour and the pattern, this sock makes me think of the fresh young leaves that should be peeking out just about now in beech woods all across the country. Must get out and see a few!

Meanwhile here's a bit of crochet bunting - star pattern courtesy of the Royal Sisters (you need to block the stars out with pins to get real pointy points) and joined to a long crochet chain on the second row of single crochet. The stars are made out of sock yarn leftovers, the crochet chain out of DK cotton.

I hoping this will bring some quirky glamour to a friend's Highland hoosie.

Sunshine socks completed!

With apologies for the gloomy pics - the greyness is back and it's been impossible to take any decent photos of these socks.

However there's a very sunny story behind their completion! As I got closer and closer to the toe of the second sock I started to get worried about whether or not I would have enough yarn. Every time I picked up the knitting I felt a little sick at the prospect of running out so close to the end, to the extent that the closer I got, the less I wanted to carry on.

Eventually I forced myself to knit until the yarn ran out. It ran out with about six rows to go, but it very definitely ran out. (That's one of the reasons why I prefer to make toe-up socks, so much easier to adjust!)

I threw myself on the mercy of fellow Ravellers; having searched for this particular yarn and colourway, I found a couple of possible donors; Lisa (aka Frownybaby) and Polly (aka pollykerenza). Despite the fact that I was approaching them as a total stranger, begging for the leftovers from their stash, they both reacted with typical Ravelling kindness and were willing to send me their leftovers to enable me to finish my socks.

With Lisa's yarn, I finished off the second sock in about 10 minutes, washed and blocked it.

She would not accept any money for the yarn, even for the mailing, so I resolved the best way to show my appreciation was to make a donation to p/hop.

Sunshine socks

Ironically we have seen little sunshine since I started knitting these socks on Christmas day. Boxing day - which we spent driving to visit my parents in Derbyshire - was glorious but since then it has been grey, grey, grey.

Luckily the pattern and yarn has brought a little sunshine into what is turning out to be a rather gloomy period, and I have already finished the first sock and cast on the second.

The pattern is Sunshine from the Sock Innovation book by Cookie A - a fairly simple top-down pattern which I've enjoyed knitting even though I prefer toe-up as a rule.

The yarn is UK Alpaca's sock yarn, which comes in five beautiful colours including this vibrant mustard (the picture doesn't do it full justice).

Tea cosies

I love to make tea cosies. As someone who brews up a large pot of tea every weekend morning and proceeds to drink several cups in succession, I am well aware of the importance of keeping the tea warm while it continues to brew.

I reckon I've made at least a dozen in the last few years - from special old-fashioned granny-type cosies for my granny to cosies based on the construction method used in Ysolda's Urchin hat. I've whipped them up during stays in holiday cottages and left them as my legacy, and I've even made a couple where the pompom on the top was almost as big as the teapot!

I wanted to make a new one for granny - the previous version is looking a bit tatty and stained and it's a bit too big for the teapot she now uses. I also wanted to make one for my sis who lives in Austria. I know she misses English tea (Tetley tea bags usually form part of any gift that gets sent) and I figure a tea cosy might be welcome too.

But with Christmas fast approaching there was little time to knit them up. So instead I dug out an old wool jumper that I'd bought off the junk market for £1 and felted in the washing machine, and I 'up-cycled' bits of it into two rather jazzy new tea cosies. I think they are rather successful, especially given the time it took me to make them. Stitching the words 'Short' and 'Stout' onto my sister's full-size cosy was the longest operation.

First get your raw materials. Felted jumper, and some odds and sods of Rowan Kid Classic in contrasting colours.

A bit of blanket stitch later and some i-cord for the top. Ta-dah.

Flushed with success I hit out for a larger version. This time I decided to add some decoration since the expanse of the larger cosy looked rather bare without. The loop at the top is made from the seam that I cut off the jumper.

Azure socks

These socks were my portable project for the last few months while the Sweet Pea Coat was my home knitting project; they suddenly reached completion after a couple of long train journeys and the clocks going back. Knitted in Yarn Yard toddy.

They are the Azure socks from Knitty, designed by Deb Barnhill - a lovely pattern that became quite hypnotic after a while. I very much liked the design of the heel with the cables extending right down it, very clever and pleasing to knit, also the fact that you launch into the cables almost immediately after casting on at the toe.

Straight after finishing these I cast on for a pair of plain and simple socks using some self-striping Regia yarn - they are flying ahead and after just a few nights of TV knitting the first one is nearly done! Knit, knit, knit, knit....*sigh!*

Sweet Pea Coat

One of the first yarns added to my stash when I got back into knitting about ten years ago was this gorgeous, super chunky,  Rowan Harris Tweed. I started several projects with it and ripped them all back, never finding the best use for it.

Then a couple of months ago I finally managed to match up Kate Gilbert's Sweet Pea Coat pattern from Twist Collective's winter 2008 issue, which was in my Ravelry queue, with the yarn, which was languishing in my stash.

There was only one problem - although on paper I had enough yarn to make the coat, in practice I knew that I was likely to need more. In the intervening years, not only had the yarn been discontinued, it had been discontinued some years ago, making it very difficult to find any remaindered balls hanging around at online retailers.

I started knitting while retaining an optimistic outlook, somehow believing that this might be sufficient to solve the problem.

With the back and one side completed, I realised I was going to need more than optimism to solve this problem. This was another challenge for Ravelry!

Do you remember the story of the Nordic sock yarn? Contacting (almost) total strangers on Ravelry to beg yarn off them and making new friends?

This time it was a similar story, although I suspect me and my benefactor will never meet, since she lives in the USA. I could find no UK Raveler with the right yarn and colour, but happened upon Kat from Boston, MA (MyOwnOpus on Ravelry). Crazily enough she not only had the right yarn and colour, it also turned out to be the same dye lot! She was not at all offended by my unsolicited request to buy her yarn, and we agreed a price for the yarn and shipping which I was able to send by Paypal.

So the coat is now finished, and I just spent the weekend wearing it and loving it! The colour is sufficiently neutral to go with everything, yet the flecks of turquoise, yellow and red save it from being too bland. Warmer than the Central Park Hoodie and roomy enough to wear several layers underneath, I think it's going to keep me going quite a way into winter. The only thing I don't really like is the buttonholes - a couple of them are a bit too loose and they might have to undergo a bit of alteration.

Knit Nurse in knitting shock

On Friday night I joined Deadly Knitshade and the Stitch London crew for a Friday late at the Natural History Museum. We taught people to knit and helped them to make knitted squid. Or should that be squids?

Loads of people turned up to see the 8m-long knitted squid that Lauren had crafted using old carrier bags, as well as some of the smaller specimens that had been made by other members of the team.

I even managed to make something myself - my very own knitted squid who came home with me later to meet Croc and Herdy. The squid pattern is very simple to do - you only need the knit stitch and a couple of stick-on eyes to make it (or you could just sew eyes on if you wanted). The pattern is available here.



Meanwhile I have cast on for something a bit more substantial. Last week I bought the Sweet Pea Coat pattern from Twist Collective with the intention of buying some yarn to make it.

Instead I dug out this beautiful Rowan Harris Tweed Chunky from my stash where it has been languishing for some years. I've cast on various garments with it, over the years, but they have never succeeded. Hopefully this one will endure.

It's going damn quick and looks good so far - my main worry being whether I'm going to have enough yarn to finish it!

Norwegian star earflap hat

The hat has finally been presented to its recipient - only to come back home again with me for a little alteration. That's the problem with making something as a gift, although I had the measurements I couldn't try it on for the full effect until it was finished. It ended up being a bit too pointy so I'm adjusting the rate of decrease on the crown.

I used the Norwegian star earflap hat pattern by the awesome Tienneknits with a bit of adaptation (the pompom was a must, the ties were unwanted). It was simple enough to use, and I made it in Rowan cashsoft 4ply, which I used double.

I knitted the hat first, then picked up stitches and knitted the earflaps from the top down, reversing the instructions and decreasing rather than increasing.

It was very well received!

Knitting

Not much knitting of late, I admit.

But now I'm ready to start the next project, which is a birthday present for a friend who had his birthday quite a while ago.

He wants a hat with earflaps, probably with some kind of Scandinavian motif on it, something 'a bit different'. I've got a couple of ideas, just wondered if anyone else had any tried and tested patterns?

A tale of two mittens - part II

The second mittens tale has a happier ending. It relates to a project I have been meaning to knit for some time - a pair of fingerless mitten wristwarmers to separate my delicate wrists from the cold desk on winter mornings.

I suffer quite badly from RSI symptoms in my wrists, elbows and upper arms, caused mostly by computer use but aggravated by knitting, crochet, cycle riding and various other things. Regular deep tissue massage keeps the worst of it at bay but I have noticed that in the winter my wrists stiffen up quite quickly when exposed to the cold desk top for more than half an hour or so.

With winter fast approaching and a bit of a lull in knitting projects, I decided I really should get on to this one.

The pattern is the Fishtail Wristwarmers by Alexandra Brinck (can't get away from the fish!) and the yarn is a ball of something hairy and squeaky that I bought for £1 in the bargain box at IKnit a year or more ago. I bought it for its glorious colour, it had no label but I think it's probably a combination of manmade fibre (the squeakiness and lack of stretch I notice when I knit with it) and mohair (the hairiness).



The end result is extremely pleasing - looks great, fits like a glove (sorry, couldn't resist!) and keeps my wrists lovely and warm.

The pattern is not as clearly written as it could be so if you are a beginner or a novice knitter, you may need someone more experienced to help you with it. But this is not a criticism at all - it's pretty close to the type of instructions I would give if I was writing out a free pattern - just to say you need to know what you are doing, and take a chance at times.

I managed to knit wristwarmers with two different details at the thumb, misreading the pattern the second time. I couldn't be bothered to frog the second one because of the squeaky, sticky yarn, and don't think it's any the worse for that.

A tale of two mittens - part I

Some time ago, even before I went on holiday in September, I took a notion to knit a pair of mittens for a friend's birthday. Since I had a bagful of leftover sock yarns I decided to do something cute and colourful, and I chose these lovely Swedish Fish mittens from Spilly Jane. I decided to cut the top off and make them fingerless, which I thought would be more useful for my dog-walking friend.

My first attempt, using a slightly larger needle size than recommended (cos that's what I had handy), turned out far too big. I got a few rows in and then I frogged.

I decided to go right down to 2mm, as recommended. I didn't have any with me on holiday so I went out and bought some - luckily there was a yarn shop near to hand, Knit & Natter in Carmarthen, as seen by Brenda Dayne.

So I tried again. I got all the way to the top of the first one before I decided it was still a bit too loose.


I know it doesn't really look that big on the photo, but believe me, my hand was swimming inside all those little fishies, and I think my friend has even smaller mitts than me, so I was a bit anxious about sizing.

I decided to try and make the second one a bit narrower by leaving out some of the fish. If it worked, I would frog the first one and knit it again to the narrower design. Ideally I should have just dropped one of the fish, but that would have made the whole thing a bit lopsided, one of the fish would wrap around the side of the hand and it would all be a bit crap. I decided I should leave out one fish on each side of the mitt. That would do the trick.

By the time I started getting close to the thumb position I had already lost hope - I could get the mitt on but it was a tight squeeze. What would it be like over the wider bit of my hand?

Ideally I should have frogged and cast on using the same adapted pattern but the larger needles. By now, however, my friend's birthday was just days away and I was sick of fish. And everyone likes champagne, don't they? (I know that's not true, I learned it from bitter experience at a 50th birthday party. That's what you get for trying to help out a loved one who's too lazy to go to the shops. But that's another story).

Maybe I will come back to the fishy mittens in due course, but right now I never want to see them again.

Nordic star socks

Well, what do you think?!

I love them!

Nordic star socks designed by Jan Malone from the Vogue Knitting Ultimate Sock Book.
I used 2.75mm needles; the orange yarn is Jawoll sock yarn, the grey is Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4ply (sadly discontinued).

I used a whole ball of the grey and started into a second one, but only needed one ball of the orange. My tension was a bit different on the two socks - can only just squeeze the first one on, but by the second I'd obviously loosened up a bit and it's much easier to get on!

The kindness of strangers

Some time ago you may remember me blogging about the gorgeous Nordic Star socks I was knitting from the Vogue Knitting Ultimate Sock Book.

The project ground slowly to a halt as I realised that I was probably not going to have enough yarn to complete the socks, as I had not allowed for the extra yarn that is needed with stranded knitting.

After finishing the first sock and realising that yarn was disappearing faster than I expected, I weighed the sock, weighed the leftover yarn, ummed and ahhed, then stuck the project in the bottom of the project bag and forgot about it. Head in sand stylee.

The main problem was that one of the yarns was now discontinued (doh!) and the other is not easily available in the UK. The grey Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4ply is a delight to knit with but discontinued, the orange is Jawoll sock yarn, also fab to knit with but a bit elusive - even in IKnit where I bought the first ball, they are very vague about when new stocks will be arriving. Although they are very certain that they will be getting more.

After the first sock had spent a few months languishing at the bottom of the knitting bag, I resurrected the project and decided that I should make an effort to make progress.

First step - get me some yarn!

This is where I really love Ravelry.

Step 1; search out who's got the right yarns in their stash in the appropriate colours.

Step 2; Narrow it down to people in the UK, and if possible, anyone who has it on offer for sale or trade.

There were at least half a dozen with the Jaeger, just a few with the Jawoll.

Step 3; the unsolicited begging letter. Take a deep breath and send private messages to a few likely candidates - some turned out to have used the yarn already or had it earmarked for an ongoing project, but I happened upon two lovely Ravellers who were happy to sell or gift me the yarn. The pictures of the lonely first sock proved useful in arousing the sympathies of these kind individuals.

Step 4; the deal!

Gabriella, aka YowlYY on Ravelry was the source of the Jaeger matchmaker. Having agreed a modest price, including postage, and then having been unable to post the package immediately because of other commitments, she kindly agreed to deliver it in person after a work trip to London. She then insisted on bringing me chocolate to make up for the fact that I'd already paid the postage! Who was I to refuse :-)
This was great because it gave us the chance to meet in person and to make a proper connection. I got to admire her Loop purchases, and we had a very pleasant chat for an hour or so.

Clare aka GingerknitsUK on Ravelry was the source of the Jawoll. She refused any payment for the third of a ball she had leftover from her gorgeous socks and we also arranged to meet up for the deal - at the fabulous Thai Cafe near my office in Pimlico in London. Clare and I met briefly last year at one of the open days at the Vauxhall City Farm, so it was great to meet again and spend longer chatting and getting to know one another and finding out what she's up to these days. She can tell you more about that, and I believe she has some fab news to share soon so check out her blog!

With the Ravelry yarn hunt working out so well, and two new friends made, I felt bathed in sunshine and kindness and wanted to show my appreciation somehow.

What to do?

My first move was to give a modest donation to Ravelry in thanks for the fab service the site provides us for free. While I know it's a proper commercial venture with advertising and all that, able to make money out of our very presence and the shopping we love to do, it really doesn't feel like I am being exploited at any level - quite the opposite in fact.

My second move was to pay the love forward, by donating to p/hop. Not only is this a great idea benefiting one of my favourite charities, but also the philosophy behind it fits perfectly with what I wanted to express.

Two individuals who were practically strangers to me had been kind enough to help me out, being generous not only with their stashes but also with their time and friendship. The hours of pleasure I got out of the process was not just the knitting pleasure and the joy of being able to finish the socks, it was the pleasure of spending time with two lovely Ravelers, and the warm and fuzzy feeling I get every time I think of how it all worked out.

If you haven't done so already, please drop over to the p/hop site and see what it's all about. There are some great patterns available for a donation of whatever you can afford, and you can find out more about how MSF is making a difference around the world by providing emergency medical aid to people affected by wars and epidemics, natural or man-made disasters, or those who have no access to healthcare.

Pickled courgettes

There's a reason why there's a lot more cooking on this blog than knitting of late. The cooking has been very successful, the knitting less so.

The Nordic socks I've been making have been semi-stalled for a while because of other projects, and the possible imminent running-out of yarn. The latter is due to be resolved very shortly, however, due to the kindness of Ravelers, and I'll be reporting on it when it is.

The other projects have been mixed. A couple of pairs of Saartje's booties have been flying off the needles successfully for new arrivals, while a pair of mittens destined for a friend's birthday present have been a disaster. I'm not quite sure I'm ready to blog about those yet, the frustration is still too near the surface.

So instead, I've been finding more fun ways to deal with the glut of courgettes. Damn it, I don't even grow them but somehow they keep finding their way into my kitchen!

We've heard about the chocolate and courgette muffins, which are so delicious and frighteningly moreish. But this savoury solution is just as fabulous, if you like pickles. I've just tried the first mouthful this evening and I'm not sure the jarful is going to last long at all!

I used the Riverford organic recipe linked here. There's only one main adaptation - does ANYONE know where you can get yellow mustard seeds?

They obviously don't feature in Asian, African or West Indian cooking because our local high street, where these cuisines dominate, was a desert for the yellow version - plenty of brown ones however.

The cheese slicer shown above proved perfect for slicing the courgettes thinly, although not so effective on the onion, which I had to slice in the traditional way.



The slicing was about the most difficult part of the whole recipe, which is extremely simple and straightforward. Just make sure you put a bottle of tap water in the fridge the day before to soak the courgettes and onions in.



They are ready to eat 24 hours after pickling. The resulting mix is tangy, crunchy and has a lovely sweet and sour taste. Perfect to go with cheese and biscuits, slip into your burger, or add to salads.

Liesl and chutney

I have been meaning to post a proper finished pic of Liesl for ages, since it is now my new Favourite FO and I have been wearing it more or less constantly since completion. The button is one of a set of six I bought from Nichols Buttons a couple of years ago and which suit the colour and style perfectly. I decided not to put three buttons on, despite making three button holes, as I thought it might make the cardi strain in an unseemly manner across my chest.



Meanwhile I spent part of yesterday making some spicy chutney - having noticed that stocks of pickle/chutney were low (only two jars left) and knowing that it takes at least a month of maturation before new jars are ready to eat. I get through a LOT of chutney, and the majority of it is homemade.



This recipe is the one that Sal used for the birthday chutney she gave me last year - I enjoyed it so much that I begged the recipe. It's quite different from the ones I usually make, which tend to involve fruits. This one has onions, peppers, tomatoes and aubergine, garlic, the usual vinegar and sugar as well as cayenne pepper, paprika and lots of crushed coriander seed (which I nominate as one of the best aromas in the world!). So far so good - I suspect it's going to turn out really tasty. Now I just have to work out the recipe for the Spicy Apple Chutney I bought from a WI sale in Tenterden earlier in the year. I am saving the label with the ingredients (which include fenugreek, which I've never used before and which I suspect imparted the unusual taste) so that I can always try and guess it if I can't find anything similar.



I was rather chuffed with my homemade labels, which almost look professional!

Later: here's the recipe
SPICY CHUTNEY

900g tomatoes, peeled and chopped
3 red peppers, deseeded and chopped
1 green pepper, deseeded and chopped
1 large aubergine, chopped
700g onions, peeled and finely chopped
4 large cloves garlic, crushed
350g granulated sugar
300ml white wine vinegar or distilled malt vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon crushed coriander seeds
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

Put tomatoes, onions, peppers, aubergine and garlic into a heavy-based
pan and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer, covered, for
about an hour, stirring occasionally, until tender.

Tip sugar, vinegar, salt and spices into the pan and bring back to the
boil over a medium heat, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved.
Continue to boil for approx 30 minutes, stirring as necessary, until the
mixture achieves a chunky consistency and the watery liquid has
evaporated.

Ladle the chutney into sterilised jars and seal while hot. Best left to
mature for at least a month in a cool, dark place before using.