A Knitted Tea Cosy

As the weather has been so horrible in the U.K. lately, I decided to pass the time by knitting myself a new tea cosy.  If the bad weather continues, I should soon finish it!

What am I working on today?

I am knitting for my grand-daughter, Ruby. She was born in June and is growing fast.  I have made two dresses.  This is the first one.  I am rather in love with these purple yarns at the moment and they blend so well together.

I like the yoke on this dress. It's so pretty, but rather an illusion because it is not separate.  It is all part of the same thing.

This is the back view.

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This is the second one. Now I need to find a pretty top to go underneath it.

and the baby? Here she is, looking sleepy.

Have a lovely Sunday!

A New Project for a New Year - Button up cardigan using handspun yarn.

When Larry and I were at the Festiwool wool fest recently, I bought some interesting rolags. As you can see from the picture, the rolags are multi-coloured. What you can't see very well are the sparkly bits running through them. I've been spinning them up lately, mixing them in with some of the white Polworth yarn that I spun from an original fleece in the summer. I intend to make this cardigan:

 

which is available as a button-up or zip-up version. I shall make the button-up version this time. I have made a start, knitting the back, up to the armholes, in a purple yarn which I had spun up ready. I don't have enough of the sparkly rolags to make the whole cardigan.

If you would like to see more of the Festiwool get together, you can click here.

For my new project, I am using a selection of yarns. The first is a combination of the rolags I bought at Festiwool, Hitchin and some grey merino I had in my stache.

I am also adding in some of the very white Polworth fleece, which I hand-carded recently:

 

I also have some purple and grey merino which I will work in.

This is how the finished project will be: a short waisted button-up cardigan with a large collar:

So far I've done the back up to the armholes in a plain purple merino. First picture gives the true colour and the second picture shows the detail with the flash turned on:

The flash sure makes a difference, doesn't it. The first pic is very accurate.

This project will not be finished quickly. I am still spinning the wool into yarn and in between I am working on other projects. However, I will come back and show you as and when I finish each section. I don't have enough of the purple to finish the back so I may use the mixed purple and grey from the armholes up. Let's just wait and see shall we.

Meanwhile, five weeks to go until my new grandchild appears. It's getting exciting. Pity they are in South Carolina. We won't be visiting very soon!

Spinning and Knitting Project Finished

The above four yarns were spun by me during the last year.  Question was: what to do with them when they are finished? Answer: find a pattern that you like and adapt it.  Easier said than done.

Then I saw this pattern in an old 'People's Friend' magazine. I thought it would be just right. It was just right for someone short-waisted, like me, and lots of opportunities for using more than one colourway.

My spun-off merino knits up like Aran so knitting with 5mm (u.k. needles) I began.

...and here is the finished result. I'm pleased with it.  It's not at all itchy and very comfortable to wear.

The colour panel at the back breaks up the vast expanse of lavender yarn and compliments the front panels.

I like the way it sticks out at the front.

Now on to my next project, but first I need to make something with the left-over yarn from this one. Any ideas?

Star

What am I knitting today?

I saw the pattern for this lovely jerkin in the window of my local haberdashery shop last week. The baby looks a little like my grandson, Sam, so of course I had to buy the pattern, didn't I!

I had just the right yarn to make up the jerkin - some of my handspun, which has been sitting in a basket for a while now. Do you like the colour? Being handspun, it varies from dark to lighter shades. I like that. I like a bit of variation.

 So now I'm doing the V-neck of the front and it won't be long before I'm on to the borders.

I love knitting. It's very relaxing in the evenings after all the chores are done. 

I like to put my feet up, watch TV or listen to the radio and knit. Bliss!

Hand-spinning and a little bit of knitting.

JANUARY 28, 2013 BY STARPROMS

Hand-spinning with alpaca/silk and a little bit of knitting.

I’ve been spending my time over Christmas and during the cold weather, spinning, knitting and reading. I made this pretty little dress for my new grandchild, who is bound to be a boy now that I’ve made a dress! However, I enjoyed using the fairisle wool. It is unusual in that it is designed to knit up like a fairisle jumper, just so long as you make it the right size.  As you can see from the pictures, it works on the skirt part of the garment, but on the sleeves and the yoke, it goes all stripey. It gives an interesting look and it’s a case of ‘you never know what you’re going to get’ until you do it, of course.

When my own children were babies, the colours were mostly muted, but these days anything seems to go so these rather bold colours (to my eye) give a more modern look.

Now for the hand-spinning. I have been practising with the alpaca/silk combination. It is a dream to hold, very soft and silky, much like human hair, but not so easy to spin with. I think it requires a lot of practice. On the lazy kate below is a merino wool on  the left, alpaca/silk in the middle and a tarhee roving spun up on the right. All very different to spin with.

I think I got a bit too much twist in some of it, but that will work out when I ply two strands together (I hope).

I’m knitting with the merino yarn at the moment.  It is very soft and so far, my favourite. I’ll let you see what I’m making in a future post.

After tea I have to clear out the kitchen, ready for the horrendous job booked for tomorrow (see previous post) on my Wordpress Blog.

Wish me luck.

Star