Father's Day Tie!

My Dad is impossible to buy for.  He's they typical Dad that says "Oh, I don't need anything, I have everything that I want."  Sweet but so frustrating!  He also likes to dress pretty dapper with jumpers matching his socks.  Naturally then he has a jumper in every single colour possible and endless ties and cufflinks.  This is why my Dad is impossible to buy for.

But wait, hang on, a knitted tie...my Dad doesn't have a knitted tie!!  Hurrah!  Present problem solved!

I decided that I wanted a 100% silk yarn, ideally 4 ply, to make it from.  Unfortunately, internet searching and a visit to John Lewis revealed that 4 plys were all silk mixes.  The only 100% silk I found was Debbie Bliss Luxury Silk DK.  Yup, double knit.  This would have to do and I just used smaller needles to cast on with.  The recommended size was 4mm so I used 3.25mm so the stitches came up smaller.  There wasn't really a pattern either, 12 stitches wide in a seed/moss stitch.  A stockinette would have just curled up at the edges and not looked very nice.  Using the whole 50g skein, the tie measured up as 53" long.  I had wanted it to be 58" as most of his ties were this length :(

I decided to let my Dad be the judge of the length and thankfully he said it was fine!

So here's the tie that I made for my awesome Dad!

Frogging Advice

You may know that I currently working on a jumper...annoyingly the pattern was unclear for the front shoulders and I messed up a little and ended up a few rows short.  Having realised my error, I didn't have the heart to rip (or frog) my work as there were about 10 rows to undo and so I've left it as it is :(

A few days later I came across THE most helpful article ever!  How to undo multiple rows without laboriously doing it stitch by stitch, I wish I'd known about this article earlier!

Anyway, I'm sharing it with you all as it's pretty darned useful stuff...enjoy!

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter03/FEATwin03TT.html 

A Rosy Intarsia Foray

I took a break from my current wip (a baby pink jumper) to practice some colour work for the first time.

I recently posted about a jumper that I'm currently obsessed with making called "Santorini" by Rowan.  It's so amazing, but does require some pretty detailed intarsia work, which frankly, was way out of my knitting capabilities.  But I really want to make it so I've decided to do some practicing.

I found a really cute (free) pattern on Ravelry for a 5 colour intarsia chart which I thought would be perfect.  Luckily, being the yarn hoarder that I am, I already had 3 different pinks and 2 different greens.

I did a little bit of research and everywhere said that I had to use little bobbins which had a little bit of yarn from each colour of the pattern.  I didn't have any so I went all A-Team like and made my own from a bit of stiff card.

At the time, I had posted a pic of the bobbins and chart to instagram.  I was already 10 rows into it and finding the tangled mess of yarns a bit tedious.  A lovely lady (who is also going to be my knitting partner when I knit Santorini) told me she'd watch a tutorial once and they recommended just using short bits of yarn rather than bobbins.  I tried this and wow, it was sooo much easier!  I definitely would have struggled later on if I'd stuck with the bobbins!

After a few hours, I'd completed the little 30x40 chart.  Lots of lessons learnt and techniques discovered about intarsia knitting.  I got told once that you can carry the main yarn every couple of stitches so you don't have a huge bit at the back once you get to the other side.  Of course in the beginning I either 1. forgot or 2. didn't leave it slack enough.  By the end I'd got the hang of it pretty well.  It didn't stop the back looking like a hot mess though.

I was pretty pleased with how it all turned out, it's looks so pretty!  By no means perfect, but I think it's a pretty good first try at intarsia knitting :)

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 :)

Santorini

No, not the idyllic holiday destination in Greece. Instead, this amazingly gorgeous drool-worthy jumper pattern in Rowan's latest knitting and crochet magazine (Number 53). I saw the picture on their website and completely fell in love with it. So much so, I went out and bought the magazine with no real intention of making it - but to perve over the pictures like a teenage boy reading Playboy. The more I looked, the more I had to have it. And when a particular online yarn store had a 15% discount on all Rowan yarns, I took this as a sign to make it. 

Only a couple of minor problems though:

1. I've never knitted an adult jumper before. 

2. I've only ever done basic intarsia with two colours. 

As you can see this particular jumper has about 20 bazillion colours, so one may say I need more experience. 

Experience, schmexperience. 

When I took up running I went straight in for a full marathon and totally disregarded any 5k, 10k or half marathons. No really, that's what I really did. 

So, I'm gonna do it. But seeing as the yarn was pretty darned expensive, I'm going to at least do a practice adult jumper. Just a basic, plain stockinette stitch but just so I know I can at least do that. Then maybe practice a swatch or two of intarsia charts involving more than two colours. Then I'll be ready. 

Santorini, here I come. 

Braided Necklace

It was my sister-in-laws sister's birthday back in February.  I was really rubbish and abroad for her birthday...I managed to send a card but then completely forgot to get her a gift when I got back, now she's having a belated party, uh oh!!

I racked my brains for something to get her.  She literally just started a jewellery making course this weekend gone and so I thought I'd buy her a book.  Seemed good but had this niggling feeling that it wasn't quite enough.  So I did what I usually do when I need some inspiration - browse the patterns on Ravelry!  After a couple of minutes I came across this pattern (click here) for this gorgeous yet simple necklace design, and seeing as I only had a week to make this, it would be perfect!

I started it late last night and managed to finish it today, button and weaving ends in included!  It's so pretty and perfect for the summer.  Also, hopefully something quirky enough to tie in with her jewellery making course :)

PS I used the 'projects' bit on my Ravelry page for the first time ever for this necklace! If you're interested you can read it here.

Granny Square Baby Blanket

First of all, I can't believe it's been almost two months since my last post :/  This year is going WAY too quickly for my liking!  I have been fairly busy too and I've not had as much time for my yarn creations as I would have liked but I've managed to find some time for it!

I've got another friend who's currently got a bump and her baby shower was today!

I decided to make her a blanket.  So I put my thinking cap on...hmmm, I've never made a granny square anything...hmmm what if I made a granny square blanket?!  Genius!!

I've never even made a little square for a blanket let alone one huge square that would be a blanket in itself!  So I found a pattern on Ravelry by Lion Brand Yarn.  I ordered the yarn and seeing as I had a long return  journey to the Philippines the following week (18 hours in total; 12 hours, 2 hour stop over, 3.5 hour connecting flight) I thought it the perfect opportunity to kill that flying time.

I loved the airplane seats on Singapore airlines, as well as the main pocket there were little ones on the front of it which came in handy as little yarn holders!

That's all the background story - after lovingly doing double crochet after double crochet I finally finished it!  I just hope my friend and her ickle baby boy like it :)