Filmknitter

Cocoon mittens

What a very speedy project this was, after the weeks that I spent on the Rosalie scarf! I bought a ball of Rowan Cocoon at Christmas and it has taken me this long to decide what to do with it. Cocoon is my favourite yarn at the moment, it's the softest yarn I've ever felt, and the colours are so beautiful and vivid, and it's so heavenly to look at and knit with. If God could knit (and existed obv.) he/she would knit with this yarn!

I wanted to find a project that would only use the one ball of wool, would show off the yarn to its best advantage, and would mean I could feel the stuff against my skin as much as possible. The solution - mittens! I've tried knitting mittens for myself before and have had trouble finding a pattern to suit me. I have skinny hands with long fingers so most patterns were too short and wide and just felt like I had my hands in a couple of bags. I decided to invent one myself so that the mittens would fit, and also so that I could use moss stitch, which suits this yarn down to the ground as the texture really shows off its jewel-like colour and shine.

 

Apparently it's really difficult to take a good photo of your own hand in a mitten, I have discovered. Doesn't it look cosy though? Now if the weather could just get a bit chilly again...

Rosalie Hale scarf - completed at last!

Finally, it has been blocked, and it had its first outing on Thursday. I had two meetings at work and found it remarkably difficult to resist announcing to the room at large that I had knitted it myself, inviting them to stroke and admire the handiwork. Fortunately for my career, I did resist, and my colleagues remain unenlightened about the wonder and beauty that is the Rosalie Hale scarf. Here it is, however, in all its glory:

It's based on the scarf worn by Rosalie in the film 'Twilight' in the first cafeteria scene. You can see an image of Rosalie wearing it here (stoopid IMDB won't let me copy the picture). My scarf is slightly different in that it's knitted in 4-ply as I wanted it to be very lightweight and diaphanous, whereas I suspect the film version is knitted in DK weight as the horseshoe pattern is larger. The yarn I used is RYC cashcotton 4 ply and the scarf took 4 balls, though it could easily be made with 3 - it would just not be quite as long as Rosalie's version. This yarn is beautiful and very soft and warm, with a lovely colour, just the correct shade of cream. It's a little fluffy up close but doesn't shed too much, and has very good stitch definition, perfect for lace. I blocked this one to make the stitches lie flat, and emphasize the points on the end of the scarf, but you could get away without doing so. For picture of the unblocked scarf see my previous post.

The pattern I used is Horseshoe Lace, though I changed it slightly from the book I took it from so that the 'horseshoes' were longer and more like the Rosalie version. As you can see from the picture above, the important thing to remember is that the scarf has to be knitted in two halves, and then seamed together. I used a three-needle (seam) bind-off but actually I'm thinking I should have used Kitchener Stitch as it might have removed the rather obvious seam on the other side. Knitting it in two halves mean that the horseshoes all point the same way when you're wearing it, rather than one side being upside down. I'm immensely proud of it, as it's the first time I've knitted lace on a project so large, and it's turned out beautifully well. I'm not much of a scarf-wearing person in general as I worry that it's more of a middle-aged thing, but I'm determined to persevere and wear this one despite my preconceptions.

Rosalie scarf - the latest

I've finally finished knitting the Rosalie Hale scarf, as seen on Rosalie in the film 'Twilight'. It's been a joy to knit and I actually feel a bit sad to be done. This is my first proper lace knitting project using 4-ply and I've discovered how truly addictive it is. It's a bit like crack, except, you know, less harmful and with a much more lasting effect. However, this scarf is not yet finished, as it has now to be blocked. That will happen on Sunday or Monday night so that, fingers crossed, it will be wearable by the end of next week!

 

Scarves

I thought I'd already blogged about this, but it looks like I didn't so I must have dreamt it (curse that dream-blogging). Anyway, I finished this scarf a couple of weeks ago now, it's the pattern 'du jour' - Striped Noro Scarf, which I started just before Christmas. It then had a hiatus of two weeks when I ran out of wool and had to source two more balls. I can't remember the shades I'm afraid but it's four balls in total: two of the blacky-brown colourway, one of a greeny/bue colourwar, and one of a rainbow colourway that had all sorts in it. To be frank if I'd chosen the second two balls from a shop I wouldn't have gone for the rainbow one, but I had to get it off the web and it looked ok in the photos. It still looks ok, and I do like the more rapidly changing colours, but if I could knit the scarf again I'd have gone for something different.

 

Rainbow colourway on left, bluey/green on right.

It's about 6 feet in length so I can wrap it round my neck twice and it keeps my chin and neck warm all at the same time. As expected with Silk Garden it's a wee bit scratchy, but I washed the scarf as soon as it was finished which softened it up somewhat. Generally though I can get past the scratchiness and this scarf has already had a lot of wear. Especially in the crazy arctic weather we've been having.

Moving onto my newest project, which I am officially half way through, here is the Rosalie Hale scarf that I also started over Christmas. It's based on the scarf that Rosalie wears in the first canteen scene in Twilight (yes, I'm obsessed, don't judge me). More details to come once I've finished it!

Christmas knitting

So for the second year running I did my level best to make as much Christmas stuff as possible, which this year meant a few more Christmas decorations for the tree and two gifts. Decorations first:

Two mini-stockings, knitted from a pattern found on Ravelry, though I'm afraid I can't remember which one. Aren't they cute? When I was little my mum made one each for me and my sister and crocheted our initials on each one, then she'd put a little chocolate bar in each one, which we weren't allowed to eat till Christmas - it was torture!

However, my favourite 'discovered' pattern of the holiday season was for the adorable 'Jultomtar' gnome from the genius that is Alan Dart. I'd seen these little guys usually sitting unobtrusively somewhere in yarn shops, never for sale, just keeping an eye on proceedings from on top of the yarn shelves. Anyway, I was browsing the internet at work back in November, one particularly boring afternoon when our systems had been well and truly buggered and we couldn't access anything except the internet (honest!). I think I was just looking for Christmas patterns on Ravelry and spotted this one, linked to the Alan Dart website. So, here in all his glory is my first 'Jultomtar':

They're gorgeous when they're done but let me warn you that they're tricky to make, especially for a beginner. The sewing up of the hands and feet nearly beat me, they're very fiddly but because they look so good when they're done it's worth taking the time to do it properly. I would also recommend using the eyelash yarn doubled for the beard as it makes it look much bushier. This is the wee guy halfway through manufacture, looking remarkably like a cuddly skittle:

I also made one for my mum for Christmas, which she was delighted with. Here he is making friends with the elderly angel who lives on top of our Christmas tree at home:

Note the bushiness of the beard (this is gnome mark II)

Finally, the other gift I made was a pair of 'Dashing' mitts, the male version of the 'Fetching' pattern. These were for my sister's fiance, who plays lead guitar in a rock band in his spare time (Freedom's Cry, check them out on Facebook here). He's been after a pair of fingerless gloves which he could wear whilst playing the guitar and I very sneakily decided to make him a pair as a surprise. I had to phone my sister back in December to check his hand-size, her reply was "oh, about the same size as mine", which while not very flattering to Mike was very helpful in deciding on the sizing as I have the same size hands as my sister. Here they are on the receiver's hands:

I love this pattern, it's a bit heftier than 'Fetching' and the random cables look fantastic. The pattern does have them very long though, practically up to the elbows I would say, I took a couple of inches off what it said and they're still pretty long.

So after all of that I treated myself to some yarn for a couple of scarfs, first of which is the Noro stripe scarf, now completed (pictures soon), and a scarf copied from one Rosalie wears in the Twilight movie. A full blog post on both coming soon!

Noro scarf

Once again the latest knitting craze has swept me up. First it was Fetching mitts now the current obsession is with knitting single rib striped scarfs in Noro Silk Garden.  First I saw them here on the YarnHarlot blog, then all over Ravelry. Finally I gave in. I adore Silk Garden anyway and the idea of combining two shades to produce maximum colour combo glory was irresistible to me. As soon as I got back to Lichfield I headed over to The Knitting Corner to buy the yarn. Using this guy's pattern I cast on on Saturday and I'm now about 1 1/2 feet into it.  Unfortunately I realised I need 4 balls and I only bought 2.  Evidently this scarf isn't going to come cheap, but it's so pretty...  As soon as the yarn shop's open next week I'll be over there for the next two balls.

Innocent Big Knit 2008

Finally a knitting post!  I had a mini-hiatus from knitting for a while and then got back into with a vengeance when I realised it was that time of year again.

Yes, it's Innocent's Big Knit, where they request small bobble hats for their smoothies from the world of knitters.  Then over the winter for every smoothie they sell that's wearing a hat they donate 50p to Age Concern.  I made 21 this year, sadly not beating last year's total of 22.  However, that's worth £10.50 to Age Concern so not too bad really.  I plan to start much earlier next year, I'm sure the deadline's earlier than it used to be - 17th October this year.  They're aiming for 500,000 hats and the current total is 304,988.  I reckon they'll make it, they tend to have a last minute rush of hats, despite asking people to send them well in advance.  But really, people want to make as many as possible so of course you're going to keep working right up to the deadline.

This one's meant to be a strawberry, knitted from one of Innocent's patterns.  It looks pretty good but it was a bugger to knit.  I have to admit I'm not terribly good with intarsia, holding yarn in both hands just doesn't work for me, I'm not co-ordinated enough.  Mostly I just went for stripy ones, which are quick to knit but still look special.  As you can see I had a lot of leftover pink and purple yarn from a beret I made for my sister a few years ago so I used that up as well as a good portion of the collection of brightly coloured acrylic yarns I inherited from my nan when I started knitting.
So now that the excitement of the Big Knit is over for another year I guess it's time to start thinking about what I'm going to knit for Christmas presents...

Hot water bottle cosy

Back in May a non-knitting friend of mine very thoughtfully bought me some beautiful bamboo yarn for my birthday and after much contemplation this is what I decided to make with it.  My previous hot water bottle cosy was looking slightly battered as I'd foolishly knitted it out of RYC cashsoft, which I soon realised is far too delicate a yarn for such an item.  However, this yarn is a bamboo/cotton mix and is much sturdier and also looks a lot smarter.  I really like the red and cream stripes, which give it a very jaunty look, and having tested it out on one of the recent chilly nights (yes, in August!) I can confirm that it is indeed very cosy.  The pattern is from RYC 'Classic Home' and is basically the 'Floribunda hottie' pattern, but without the intarsia and the yarnovers round the neck.

My current knitting project is another knitted teddy bear, this time for my aunt's birthday in September.  Now the weather's getting colder my rate of knitting should increase again as my need for woolly cosiness returns.  I was in town this morning and was coveting some very pretty cardigans in various shops' autumn collections.  Perhaps it's time to try a larger project than teddy bears and hot water bottle cosies...

Knitting news

This is a rather random news story found on Reuters, about Socks Wars III, apparently over 1000 knitters across the world have signed up for the bloodiest knitting tournament ever:

http://in.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idINN0140149520080501?rpc=92&pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

Be afraid, be very afraid.  On the other hand, if you fancy taking part the website is here:

www.sock-wars.com

'Fetching' in Noro Silk Garden

Finally I have made a pair of Fetching mitts for myself.  Last time I went to my LYS I succumbed to the pull of Noro Silk Garden and bought a ball with barely any conscious thought.  Since I knew I wanted a pair of these mitts I thought I'd try the Silk Garden with this pattern, and I think it turned out pretty well. 

Because of the shading of the yarn they look a little like they've come from different balls, but I actually really like the difference between the two.  My favourite is the more pinky one.  I'm not usually a fan of pink but I love the deep colours in this mitt, it reminds me of Cherry Blossom and generally feels very spring-like.

I also like the other one though, I like the contrast between the different colours and the greens look very moss-like.  I can definitely appreciate why everyone raves about Noro now, there's something hypnotic about knitting with this yarn and waiting for the colour to change.  Plus each ball is pretty much uniquely dyed, which makes each project completely individual.

So my next project is another pair of these mitts, again for someone else.  This time in Natural Dye Studio's BFL/Merino Aran in colourway 'sea spray'.  I shall be able to knit these in my sleep by the time I finish this pair.