Cabled Scarf

I made this scarf for a good friend of mine who had requested it for her birthday.  Unfortunately I was a little bit late as her birthday was in the first week of April and I only finished it yesterday :/

All she said she wanted was a knitted scarf in a neutral colour - she's got a few winter coats in different colours and so we thought that cream would be best.  Other than that I had complete artistic freedom (which is a lot harder than having a straight pattern to follow!).  I suggested a few designs and settled on a cabled scarf broken up with bits of stockinette and a seed stitch border.  Pretty simple.

I used Debbie Bliss's Casmerino Aran, I absolutely adore this yarn, it's a dream to work with and is so soft against the skin.  

I haven't seen her to give it to her yet, but hopefully she'll love it :)

Christmas Scarf!

As my previous post just stated, my BFF and I always have clashing schedules and find it difficult to meet sometimes.  And so finally, yesterday we exchanged Christmas gifts!

Her's was the first project I started working on last year, think it was late September.  She's always been really supportive about my knitting and crocheting and is determined to make it go further, so I thought she deserved a really special present.

This scarf consisted of 8x50g balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran knitting on 5mm needles.  I do love knitting cables, so what better idea than to include 3 in this project!  

I didn't manage to get a picture of her in the scarf yesterday but I did take a few snaps before I wrapped it up.  

Purple Snood

©TheYarningDarling 2012

Another knitted Christmas gift!

My sister-in-law loves scarves.  She also loves purple.  So, it made sense to combine the two to make her a scarf!  I decided to make her a snood, or infinity scarf, with cables.  I wanted to break them up with a rib, but wanted to do something a bit different, so I flicked through my book of stitiches and found the brioche rib.  Seemed easy enough and I liked that it added a bit of thickness so that the scarf would be all snug and warm.

I started it in November on the plane to see my boy and originally made the edges in a seed stitch.

©TheYarningDarling 2012

This all started out fine, but for some reason, the brioche rib unravelled on the plane, luckily I managed to save it.  Whilst in LA, it happened again, but this time it was HUGE!  Silly me didn't take any tools with me, not even a crochet hook!  I had to improvise and with a safety pin I patched the area up; it didn't look great but it did the job and looked alright from the right side.

©TheYarningDarling 2012

Three balls of yarn in and one to go, it happened again!! ARRGGGHHH! I'm a bit of a perfectionist and having three fairly big mistakes annoyed me.  Like, seriously annoyed me.  The only solution was to start all over again.  It's funny how satisfying it can be to unwind 20+ hours of work :/

©TheYarningDarling 2012

Thankfully, it all went well the second time round - albeit a few minor mistakes!  And my sister-in-law loved it :)

For those who want to know, I used the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran yarn on 5mm needles.

Ukulele Strap

©The Yarning Darling 2012

I finally finished the ukulele strap for the boy!! It did take a few months, but only because I wanted to do the finishing touches to it whilst I was visiting him.

In terms of the design, it's a moss/seed stitch with a cable knit running down the middle. Since learning the cable knit I really wanted to include it in a project, so when Jim asked me to make him a strap for his ukulele it seemed like a match made in heaven!

I did make it a little too long as I completely underestimated how stretchy it would be! After a bit of improvisation, we managed to find a way of using the ribbon and two buttons I had bought as a means of attaching the strap to the ukulele. 

 We chose a ribbon to pass under the strings around the waist as its thin enough not to disturb the strings and distort the vibrations. The buttons were used to wind the ribbon around to secure it in place.

©The Yarning Darling 2012

The pattern I used for the decorative part of the strap was: (18 stitches in total)
1. KPKP KP K6 PK PKPK (the 'KP' and 'PK' either side add a sort of margin around the cable area)
2. KPKP PK P6 KP PKPK
3. KPKP KP CABLE PK PKPK (cable = slip 3st purl wise onto cable needle, knit next 3st, knit first 3st)
4. KPKP PK P6 KP PKPK
5. KPKP KP K6 PK PKPK
6. KPKP PK P6 KP PKPK

©The Yarning Darling 2012

What you could do is do the cable stitch every other block so it doesn't look so twisty. I just put that pattern up as a bit of a guide.

Anyway, my boy is pretty happy with his ukulele strap, so I'm happy :D

©The Yarning Darling 2012

Knitting with jetlag :/

So I'm back from my travels to see my lovely boy!! Had an awesome trip, but as always I'm jetlagged and missing my boy loads :(

Well, further to my last post, I took my knitting project on the flight (NB saves lots of time to tell security about knitting needles and scissors before they go through the X-ray!). Managed to do quite a lot and thought I was almost done.  But after measuring him up with the ukulele in place, I wasn't even halfway *shakes angry fist* at tall people. I managed to do a bit on the way back, so I'll get there slowly but surely.

I only got back earlier today and so my jetlag is horrendous. After unpacking and settling back in, I'm knitting to keep myself awake to get me back onto Greenwich Meantime.  I just hope I don't make a mistake in my jetlagged state.  Will keep you updated when I've finished the ukulele strap!