The Art of Crochet
Posted by: Vicky on: 24 January, 2010
Regular readers of my blog will know that when I first got into knitting, I collected the weekly partwork magazine The Art of Knitting. Well that series has finished now and the publisher have just started publishing the Art of Crochet instead. That’s excellent timing as I one of my aims for this year is to get good at crochet. I wasn’t the only to see this magazine – a couple from Knit and Natter bought the first issue too.
Just like with the knitting magazine, you get a ball of yarn each week and the instructions for knitting a blanket square.
There are the first two squares:
I can’t get the hang of holding the yarn in my left hand and the hook in my right. I just can’t seem to control the yarn as it runs through my fingers. So I hold it in my right and wrap it a bit like you do when knitting English style. My tension is quite loose when I crochet and I had to pull tight to make sure that these squares turned out the size they were meant to. But these squares don’t look too bad. I don’t think I’ll be collecting the whole series, but I’ll buy them for a few weeks to give me some crochet practice.
My Birthday Cake
Posted by: Vicky on: 21 January, 2010
- In: Knitting
- 3 Comments
It’s my birthday today and I just had to show you the beautiful knitting birthday cake that my Mum made me today! Isn’t it brilliant?!
My Knitter's Birthday Cake
My brother also gave me an Ashford drop spindle beginners kit as a present today. There’s a book, two lots of roving (one purple and one white) and of course the Ashford drop spindle. Not sure how I’ll get on with it, but there’s someone on Ravelry who might be able to show me. She goes to a knitting club not too far from where I live.
I also got some books, a new watch and some new wii games and I’m having a wii party on Saturday with some friends. Should be a bit of fun!
FO: More socks
Posted by: Vicky on: 11 January, 2010
I finished this pair of socks last night for my best friend’s Dad. Medical treatment means that his feet have swollen so he needed them to be larger than normal.
I used some Regia 4 ply we had in the stash and each sock took pretty much a whole 50g ball.
He’s very pleased with the colour of them and they are large enough. The only thing is that the ribbing at the top might be a bit tight for him, so I’m going to look through other sock patterns to see if there is a way of doing the top slightly differently.
Also looking at getting some Crystal Palace yarns for the shop, as an alternative to Noro, which I think is so scratchy and rough that I’ve never wanted to knit with it.
Next up… not sure… Got some things to finish off. Knit and Natter starts again on Wednesday so I need to have something to take along. Perhaps I need to make some serious attempts to finish the scandinavian blanket.
More sock knitting tips
Posted by: Vicky on: 6 January, 2010
I write this, as a note to myself more than anything, because twice in the past couple of days I’ve heard mention of this casting off technique for stretchy tops of socks (when knitting toe-up)
Jenny’s surprisingly stretchy bind off - http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall09/FEATjssbo.php
I will try this when I do my first toe up sock.
Learning the theory of sock knitting
Posted by: Vicky on: 5 January, 2010
I’ve only ever made two pairs of socks in my life – a pair last year for me (which were a little bit big if truth be told) and then a pair for my brother for Christmas. Both times I followed the simple sock pattern exactly and it is so clearly written that I just did what it said and it worked.
However I’ve been asked to knit a pair of socks for my best friend’s Dad and they need to be larger than normal, which means I have to modify the number of stitches of the pattern. Now the pattern author has been helpful in that she adds some notes at the end explaining that the heel flap is knitted using half the total amount of stitches, and the stitches picked up for the gusset is always a quarter of the total.
I came a bit stuck though, when trying to shape the heel. There was no note about how many stitches to work before turning on the first row of shaping. Fortunately a kind person on Ravelry explained that it is half the number of stitches plus 1. This was quickly followed by another tip from another Ravelry member that the number of rows worked in the heel flap is usually the same as the number of stitches in the heel flap. I hadn’t asked about this, but she saw my question and added it as a useful note. That’s why I love the Ravelry forums. There are so many helpful people!
So the “theory” of sock knitting is finally starting to click. In fact I’m really enjoying sock knitting right now. I discovered last night there are all sorts of different ways of doing heels and toes and knitting from the the toe up is very popular too. So I might try a different pattern at some point soon.
Would you pay £200 for a scarf?
Posted by: Vicky on: 5 January, 2010
Bit expensive? Well what about £78 for a beanie? Hmm… I don’t think so! But that’s what the knitwear costs on The North Circular – a business started by model Lily Cole and friends whereby all the items on sale are handknit using wool from rescued Wensleydale sheep, housed at a sanctuary in North Yorkshire. Each item is knit to order by a team of grannies.
I guess that when you factor in the cost of the producing the yarn and paying the knitters a reasonable price for their time, plus all the other expenses involved in running a business, the knitwear does end up being quite expensive. And I do like the ethical idea behind the business. But even so… I’d rather buy some ethically sourced yarn and knit myself a scarf. I could do it for a lot less than £148 and I’d have the pleasure of creating it myself.
The other thing that frustrates me about this is that the knitters are referred to as grannies. Yes, they might all very well be grandmothers but it doesn’t do much to shed the image that knitting is a hobby for old women. Another company that it trading on this image is Grannies Inc. who knit beanies (and now tea cosies too) to order. By all accounts the business is doing well. The woman behind the company has certainly got a good business brain. She’s had lots of publicity in the press and I even heard an interview with her on national radio. From the photo on her website she doesn’t look much older than me and is an avid knitter herself. It seems a shame to me though that she’s gone down the “granny” route. As a younger knitter I’m always having to tell people that knitting is no longer for grannies, that it’s actually a really popular hobby with women and men of all ages.
Forays in to french knitting
Posted by: Vicky on: 3 January, 2010
One of the Christmas presents I was given this year was a french knitting kit from Ingrid de Vane. The kit consisted of a Wonder Knitter (gadget for doing the french knitting with), a length of ribbon, 2 large beads, 2 strong magnets and a necklace clasp.
I had bought myself a french knitting kit ages ago, to make a beaded wire bracelet, but didn’t really understand the instructions so didn’t do anything with it. However Ingrid’s instructions were much clearer and I quickly got the hang of it. The Wonder Knitter tool makes it easy too.
Wind the ribbon round the spokes
Pick up the ribbon and pull over the spoke
You can see the magnet on the end of the ribbon which helps to pull the ribbon down as it grows.
The finished necklace
I didn’t bother to put the clasp on and am happy just to to tie the necklace at the back. I’m definitely going to buy some more ribbon kits.
I also did some experimenting with some glittery yarn I had, which worked quite well and would make a nice bracelet and some wire. The wire needs beads on it really and some sort of cord in the middle of it, because it’s too fragile on its own. It would just bend out of shape. But it was good to try it.
I’m going to make the bracelet from the old kit I bought next, now I know what to do. I like this french knitting lark!
Happy New Year!
Posted by: Vicky on: 2 January, 2010
Happy New Year to you, and Happy Blogiversary to me.
It’s funny to think that I started this blog 3 years ago when I was a newbie knitter and now I own an online yarn shop which is soon to have a showroom for customers to visit in person and somewhere I can hold workshops.
Starting the business has been very exciting and I have loved every minute of it. But working full time and running your own business does impact on the amount of time that I’ve had to knit this past year. I was looking on Ravelry at projects I’ve got in my list and I haven’t actually finished much during 2009. I had hoped to get the Scandinavian blanket and Sparkly Bolero finished before the New Year came in, but it wasn’t too be. I didn’t go out on New Year’s Eve this year – we stayed in and had a West Wing marathon (7 episodes back to back!) and I was able to whip up this beanie for a friend during the evening. It was nice to be able to squeeze one more FO in 2009! I hope she likes it. She’s not really much of a hat wearer but did ask whether I could make her one just before she went home for Christmas.
I’m not very good at keeping new year’s resolutions, so I don’t bother to make any. However I do like to try and set some goals to achieve during the year:
- Re-learn and get to a reasonable level at crochet. There’s a new Rowan crochet book coming out in the Spring and having seen the previews, there a couple of tops that look really nice. So I want to get good enough at crochet to be able to make them!
- Learn continental style of knitting.
- Make some patchwork bags that I bought kits for ages ago, but still haven’t made up.
- Write and publish the retro cardigan pattern that I’ve wanted to do for AGES.
- Finish more projects that I did in 2009!
Let’s see what 2010 brings us eh? Happy New Year and Happy Knitting!
Yarny Christmas
Posted by: Vicky on: 29 December, 2009
- In: Knitting| Yarn
- Leave a Comment
Thought I’d show you what knitting related presents Father Christmas brought me this year…
Two skeins of Mirasol Hacho. Mum actually picked this up for me when we visited Get Knitted a couple of months ago. I’ve never used Mirasol yarn before but I loved the colours of this particular one. Don’t know what I’ll use it for.
Mirasol Hacho yarn
Then some Fleece Artist Slubbby Blue which is a 100% blue faced leicester wool. Again I knew about this as we picked it up at Ally Pally. It was the colours again that drew me to it. One skein is called Angel Fish and the other is Peacock.
Slubby Blue
Finally on the yarn front is a 250g skein of Fleece Artist Blue Face Aran. It comes with a pattern to make a felted bag. I’m not all that fussed about felted items but I think a bag would be a good thing to make with it, so maybe I’ll look around at other bag patterns.
Fleece Artist Blue Faced Aran
I also got a Yarn Harlot desk calendar, so I can have her “purls” of wisdom every day at work next year.
The socks I knitted for my brother fitted – thankfully! And my best friend’s Dad has asked if I’d knit him some socks too. So I’ll probably start those soon. I just need to make sure they’re big enough as his feet have swollen due to medical treatment he’s having.
Our homemade Christmas
Posted by: Vicky on: 24 December, 2009
If you’re in the UK you may have seen a mini series called Kirstie’s Homemade Christmas. For those who don’t know, the presenter, Kirstie Allsop usually presents a property show, where she and her co-presenter help people find their ideal house. But she also likes crafts and interior design too. So earlier this year she had a series called Kirstie’s homemade home, in which she was renovating a holiday home in North Devon and she decided to “make” a lot of the little things such as lampshades and fire pokers and a knitted draft excluder. However I’m not entirely convinced how much she actually made herself! Anyway, last week she had a Christmas mini-series, making Christmas decorations and things for the Christmas table like crackers and embroidered napkins and place settings and candles etc.
Well we’ve been doing our own version of a Homemade Christmas and we think ours in much nicer!
Firstly there’s this Christmas tree ornament – a little padded star. Just two lots of 6 diamond shaped pieces sewn together with a little bit of wadding in between. Ideal way to use up those little scraps of material that you might have in your stash.
Christmas tree star
Then there’s the Merry Christmas banner. It only took 5 fat quarters (you can get about 3 letters out of a quarter) and then strung up with some ribbon.
Merry Christmas
She also made these amazing card hangers. They have pockets in which you can put the cards.
