A second batch of Autumn/Winter goodies has arrived in.
Nina
Some of you have probably already seen the post I put on the Facebook page about the new scarf yarn from Wendy – Nina.
The caffeine had started to take affect.
I’m a little smitten with it myself and have been seen on several occasions sporting one of the scarves.
There were new shades in some of our favourites, of course I only remembered to photograph one – this was after the photo at the top of this post.
Wendy Merino DK
A lovely new sock yarn or 4ply depending on what you prefer – Wendy Roam Fusion. It’s available in 5 lovely shades, at least 3 of which have been subliminally singing my name since they arrived.
Celtic has also come in: 8 shades of tweedy, chunky yarn with great pattern support. It’s a blend of 30% wool and 70% acrylic. Knits to a tension of 14sts x 24rows on 6.5mm, the ball is 50g/85m.
Wendy Celtic Chunky
I’m hoping to knit this up if I can find the time?
Hopefully, they’ll be a lovely delivery of Merino DK and Alpaca Silk Aran today or tomorrow. I’ll take pics and post them up for you all to see.
I have no idea where the time this week has run away to, I feel even more behind than usual and it’s only Monday? Having promised to post this pattern up a good while ago now I thought I should finally try and get round to it.
I think it is one of the simplest and most effective lace scarf patterns which lends itself so well to lots of different yarns however, I think it looks prettiest in a mohair. Rowan’s Kidsilk Haze is beautiful, but to be fair it is a little expensive. Kid Silk from Austermann is the same great yarn but a little kinder on our ever-suffering pockets.
You Will Need
1 Ball of Austermann Kid Silk
5mm Needles
Darning Needle
Scarf Dimensions (unblocked)
Length 140cm/55″
Width 20cm/7.9″
Tension
There’s no specific tension for this piece – you want it to be looser than you would usually work the yarn. For example if you’re working with a double knit and your tension is usually 22sts on 4mm (average) you would need 5mm’s. The Kid Silk has a ‘haze’ which means it will hold much more than some other yarns, allowing you to use much larger needles than you would do normally.
I have a friend who makes this same scarf but on 8mm’s and it looks really pretty so you can experiment with your needle sizes.
Abbreviations
k – knit
p – purl
st(s) – stitch(es)
ws – wrong side
y0 – yarn over
k2tog – knit the next 2 stitches together
Pattern
Cast on 40sts loosely and work 4 rows in plain knit, this creates the garter stitch border.
The garter stitch border
1st Row – Knit
2nd Row – Purl
3rd Row – Knit the first 2 stitches, (K2tog) x 3, (yo, k1) x 6, (k2tog) x 6, (yo, K1) x6, (k2tog) x3, knit last 2 stitches.
4th Row – Knit
These 4 rows form the pattern work until scarf reaches your chosen length, remembering to leave enough yarn to knit the 4 rows of plain stitch at the end of your scarf.
Cast off loosely and sew in ends.
The garter stitch edge
By knitting the first and the last 2 stitches on every row the garter stitch border runs the whole way round the scarf.
Block if desired.
As I already mentioned I love this pattern and one of my favourite scarves was made for me by my good friend Sandra. She used exactly the same pattern but knitted with Rico Essentials Cotton DK.
Old Shale Scarf in Rico’s Essential Cotton DK
This version was knitted in Baby Alpaca by King Cole.
Baby Alpaca from King Cole
Have a play with different weights of yarn remembering to keep your needles at least 1 size larger than the size given for the yarn. We’d love for you to post pictures of your finished scarves up on the Facebook page www.knitinmidleton.com
Yes, it’s that time of year again and as loathed as I am to encourage you to become distracted from knitting for the Irish Premature Baby Charity, the hats are quick and fun to make. Best of all Innocent give 25c to Age Action for every behatted bottle sold. The campaign also runs in the UK and the funds raised go to Age UK there. To be fair the ones pictured above probably aren’t the quickest to make, as lovely as they are. It’s the basic little ones I’m on about:-
Basic Innocent Smoothie Hat Pattern
4mm needles and double knit yarn
Cast on 28 stitches
Work 2 rows of 1×1 rib (knit 1 stitch, purl 1 stitch)
Work 12 rows of stocking stitch
To decrease
K2tog to end (14sts)
P2tog to end (7sts)
Cut yarn leaving approx 20 cm tail.
Using a blunt ended needle pass the yarn through the remaining stitches and sew the hat up.
Hopefully, your little hat will measure approximately 5 – 7 cms along the bottom and be at least 5cms high.
Add a little pompom to the top
Basic Little Hat
If you fancy it you can of course make some fancy ones and even try for Innocents ‘Hat of the Week’, which means a picture of your hat gets put on the website.
At the moment there isn’t a pattern available on the innocentdrinks.ie website but there are pattern ideas everywhere.
As most of you probably know by now, we have moved premises. As it wasn’t the first time I’ve done this you’d have thought I’d have known what the relocating would consist of – yes and no is the easiest answer there.
In all honesty my previous moves have never included the sheer volume of yarn that we now stock and packs of yarn are quite big, especially when you have as much of it as we do. Then there’s the little matter of dyelots and we won’t even mention split packs – nightmare!
Anyway, we’re in and we did open as planned on the 9th August, however to be frank the lights have been on but there’s no one at home. I’ve been running on autopilot for the last fortnight and I only realised how bad it had got when I failed to notice something really important in a friends text message on Saturday evening. Fortunately, I did spot it on Sunday when I re-read the text and rather red faced I explained my predicament and her being such a good friend was cool with it (phew).
So we’ll ease back into this gently, I have some great ideas to try and bring to the blog in the future including a run down on the latest magazines, a look at the books I love and possibly even the odd video, which will carry a warning ‘unmanicured hands’ my nails are far too small and grow upwards (I’m special I know). In addition to that I still intend on trying to bring you some of my designs and keep you up-to-date on what’s happening in the shop and the greater woolly world. I’d like to try and make this blog an interactive platform too, so if there’s anything knitted related you’d like included let me know and I’ll try my very best to accommodate you.
We’ve also decided to stock the odd bit of giftware and a few fat quarters, items that I hope will compliment the yarn goodies. We intend to expand the haberdashery ranges too in the coming months and will be running a children’s knitting group and (hopefully a crochet group too.
We’ve already added to our giftware range since opening and have now taken delivery of some very unusual and pretty fairtrade gift items. We’re aiming to ensure that most of the items we stock will be €15 or under with many under €5 so they can be picked up as and when you see them.
I seem to be constantly knitting hats. They are, I suppose, my ‘go to’ project. I have many friends whose default dial is stuck on scarves and even one who loves to make socks, but they’re too time consuming. True, I always have at least one rib scarf on needles for easy cinema knitting – yes I do take my knitting to the cinema, and no, you can’t hear my needles clicking, they’re wood. So, as you might have expected for our Chernobyl Children’s Trust collection I knitted up quite a few hats.
This is my pattern. I’ve knitted it up in several sizes so you have a few alternatives. I researched loads of size charts to check and double check the relevant sizes and in truth find the largest hat, which is meant to be for an adult woman, rather big (see my previous post, ‘Where Has My Creativity Gone‘). I know I’m vertically challenged but I definitely don’t have a small head, having even managed to hide some stash yarn in there somewhere, sshhh.
You can make the hats in the round if you prefer, just remember to place a marker at the beginning of your row when you join and to knit all of your rows when you change to your larger needles instead of plain and purl. My hats are all worked in 4 row stripes but you can chose to do yours plain or have some fun and make it as multicolored as you like.
Hat Sizes
Child 3 – 5 yrs
Child 6 – 8 yrs
Teen
Adult Woman
Tension
14 stitches x 19 rows
Abbreviations
k – knit
p – purl
st(s) – stitch(es)
kfb – knit into the front and the back of the next stitch
k2tog – knit the next 2 stitches together
Materials
2 x 50g balls of any standard chunky
5.5mm & 6.5mm needles
Darning needle
Pattern
Using thumb method and 5.5mm cast on 62 (66, 70, 74) stitches.
Work 5 (5, 7, 7) rows in 2×2 rib – (knit 2 stitches, purl 2 stitches repeat these 4 stitches )
If you want to work in the same strip sequence as me knit the next 4 rows in the same shade as the rib and then switch to your other shade. Continue to knit 4 rows with each shade until hat is the correct height. If your hat finishes with slightly more rows than the 4 you may find it looks better to finish off with the colour you completed the last stripe in. Carry the yarn up the side of your work if possible rather than cutting.
Work in stocking stitch until work measures 5″ (5.5″, 6″, 7″)
Crown
For 2nd, 3rd and 4th sizes work the following rows
3rd Size – Work across row as follows k7, k2tog to end (64sts), work 1 row purl
4th Size – Work across row as follows k7, k2tog to end (64sts), work 1 row purl
All 4 sizes
Decrease Row 1 – k6, k2tog to end (56sts)
Next and every wrong side row purl
Decrease Row 2 – k5, k2tog (48sts)
Decrease Row 3 – k4, k2tog (40sts)
Decrease Row 4 – K3, K2tog (32sts)
Decrease Row 5 – K2, K2tog (24sts)
Decrease Row 6 – k1, k2tog (16sts) – For 3rd and 4th sizes leave approximately 12″ of yarn, cut and thread through remaining 16sts using a blunt tipped darning needle to secure. Sew seam
For 1st & 2nd Sizes – Work 1 more decreasing row k2tog to end (8sts). Leave approximately 12″ of yarn, cut and thread through remaining 8sts using a blunt tipped darning needle to secure. Sew seam
It’s a disaster again. I just haven’t found as much time to knit as I would have liked this week. Perhaps that’s not strictly true……I’ve signed up to Carol Feller’s KAL Ravi and had been merrily knitting away, when I had some sort of brainwave that resulted in me frogging my work. I’d managed to convince myself that I could hide my wrapped stitches better and set about casting on again. Because if you’re going to do something you should do it right, right?
WRONG. I discovered I had already been working my stitches the right way and after much playing realised it was indeed the best way (for me anyway). My epiphany was anything but and I had ripped three completed wedges out for no reason……..
Undeterred, I have set to work again.
Ravi Yoke So Far
This is Carol’s 100th pattern. The yoke is knit using short rows to shape from the neck down, with the lace band falling at the top of the bust. Stitches are then going to be picked up around the bottom of the lace and worked to form the body and sleeves. The pattern is being released bit by bit. So far we’ve had three parts. The initial download contained information on the suggested yarn and tension, etc. Clue 1 is where I’m at, I have another four wedges at least to do before I have to pick up my stitches. The joy is to come; if I remember correctly it’s some 200 stitches, hence the stitch markers, I’m hoping they help?
Clue 2 has just been released which has the instructions for knitting the body of the cardigan. It looks like there’s a couple of helpful sections on possible modifications, but I might stick to the original as I think it’s lovely. If you’d like more information on the KAL pop over to Carol’s site Stolen Stitches http://www.stolenstitches.com/pattern-shop/cardigans/100th-pattern-kal-ravi/
My main reason for knitting the cardi is the yarn, I’m trying it out for the for the shop. It’s Cadenza by Colinette and although I’ve knitted with it before, it was some time ago now and it was only a wee little cardi for a baby, so Ravi has given me the perfect excuse. As you can see the colours are beautiful, too beautiful in fact as I’m going to have a nightmare trying to decide which ones to stock. It handles well and has great stitch definition when knitted up (see the pic below of the lace band). It frogs well, as we’ve already established, and it’s 100% Merino. And if that wasn’t enough, the 50g hanks contain a generous 120m. I think it could be a winner.
Ravi Lace Border
In addition to Ravi I’ve also knitted a couple more hats for Chernobyl. I’ll post up the pattern I use over the next couple of days. I’ve also been working on a new scarf design for the shop. It’s in Rico Merino Aran, which would probably have to be one of my favourite yarns, and as you can see it’s a reversible cable. Rather spookily, I was sent a similar one last week by Meike for the Chernobyl Children’s Trust collection, which just goes to show nothing is original.
I think you’ll agree it’s looking lovely.
Reversible Cable Scarf
Having said that it’ll look so much better when it’s finished. Knitting anyone?
Have you ever had one of those weeks when you just have sooooooo much going on that you just can’t seem to find the time to be creative?
Yes, I have had an extremely busy week; first there was the two assignments that had to be in for Tuesday and two assessments that also took place on Tuesday. A friend was also in hospital so I went to see her – she’s out now thankfully. Apparently it’s OK for a hospital to discharge you and send you home even when they have no idea what’s wrong with you?
Then of course there was the Stash Dash. It worked, I think. Yippee! All the feedback we’ve had has been really positive and I think those that were a little unsure of what it was all about will be better prepared next time. I intend on trying to do two Stash Dashes a year so they’ll usually be a little more seasonal. I had to try very hard not to add to my stash – I’m not sure I have anymore room – I don’t think the odd pack counts. At least one pack of Twilley’s Spirit Chunky may have worked it’s way into my stash. I don’t have to feel guilty though as my friend knits for me (as I can never seem to find the time) and the yarn is earmarked for this rather nice waistcoat/short sleeve cardi.
One for Jill to knit – hopefully.
I’d also become quite stressed over the robe I’d made for the Naming Day ceremony of one of my good friend’s baby. I was pretty sure her and her hubby would like it but you never know. I’d designed it before the baby was born and we were unsure what kind it was going to be. Boy, girl, possibly martian (only because their massive geeks, pretty sure they also won’t have a problem with me saying so either). I’d put off giving it to the proud parents as the truly beautiful Emily was a little dinky when she was born – 6lb 12oz – and the naming ceremony is happening a month earlier than I first thought. They love it though, they really do, and I am over the moon that I got it right and that I could do this for them. It’s so great when a plan comes together (A-Team fans anyone, I mean the real one circa 1980s. Yes, I am actually that old).
A sneaky pic of part of the robe
The rest of my week has thus far been spent cleaning, tidying, washing, cooking (two hours today – madness) and generally being very non-creative. I have managed to make a delightful little pair of preemie booties, but they’re so small I’m not sure they count. I’ve also knitted the hat in the first picture, to add sizes to the hat design I’ve been using for the Chernobyl Collection.
It’s meant to fit an average woman’s head – proof if ever it was needed that I’m not your average woman!
The €3 sale day will take place on Wednesday 20th from 9am until 7pm
Due to the size of the shop, only a certain number of customers can shop at the same time, this also means ‘shopping time ‘ is limited to 15 minutes for everyone (no exceptions, sorry).
Time slots can be booked from today (Monday 4th June). There is no charge for the event but we would love it if everyone could make a €1 donation in the collection box in the shop for The Chernobyl Children’s Trust.
Times will be issued on a first come first served basis, all customers will be given a ticket with their allotted time written on it. This is the only way we can ensure everyone who wants to avail of the day can.
We will have a limited number of times available for customers that turn up on the day.
The only items available to purchase on the day will be the discounted yarn. We will not be selling from our general stock. This includes patterns, needles, notions, or collection of yarn that is on lay by, sadly we just won’t have the time to offer our usual service.
Come prepared – Have a rough idea what kind of yarn you’re after. What weight, colour, fibre. Pull out your patterns and work out your amounts before that’s why we give you over a fortnight to plan.
Remember you only have 15 minutes.
Every customer that purchases 11 balls or more will receive a raffle free raffle ticket. If your ticket is one of the lucky ones you will receive a gift from us. It could be a magazine, a pair of needles, a crochet hook, just a little extra to say thank you for your support.
All €3 sales are final; there can be no returns or exchanges. As with all of our sale yarns, we do not offer a ‘lay by’ service, please ensure you buy enough yarn to complete your project.
If the day is a success we plan to do 2 of these ‘blowout’ days a year. Over the next couple of days I will begin to get together a list of some of the yarns that are going to be included in the sale, in the meantime get looking through your patterns and books. Slots are available from this morning.
The girls at the knitting group last night suggested that I remind everyone that we do not have the facilities to take Laser/Credit Cards at the shop – sorry.
OK. Well it’s safe to say I’m not the most organised of people. Actually that could be the first of many understatements, as organised chaos is about as good as it gets for me. That’s why I’ve put off writing a blog for the shop for so long, I’m sure I’ll get distracted, or I’ll forget or worse still my terrible grammar and umpteen spelling mistakes will be revealed. Also I suppose I’ve been a little bit of a coward. The internet can be such a positive place but it can be a bloody awful one too, with people knowingly or not ripping others to pieces and at times, forgetting that there is another person at the end of their post, blog, Facebook update.
Trying to put these concerns as far in the back of my mind as possible it is with trepidation that I’m going to write my first post –
Why a blog then?
Lots of reasons, we have a Facebook page which is a great way of interacting but there’s only so much you can do before you begin to jam up people’s feed. I hope to use the blog as a way of letting you know what we’re up to in the shop: the ongoing charity events that we’re participating in, what we’re stocking, what we’re hoping to stock and what we’re clearing. I’m hoping to eventually do a book/magazine/pattern review section, where I let you in on my knitting porn addiction – I know many of you have the same vice. Anything that’s new in the world of knitting and crochet (although my crochet skills are poor and that’s stretching it some). I also intend to upload my own designs, most of which will be quite basic as I hardly ever have the time to dedicate to this love, despite walking around with a head full of ideas. At present any designs I’ve created have only been available in the shop, so it’ll be handy to have them here in the one place. Lastly, there could also be the odd bit of cooking and/or baking thrown in. I try to bake for the knitting group every week and apart from my ever expanding library of knitting books there is an equally growing collection of cookery books.
Beginning with the shop. It’s called Knit. I couldn’t believe my luck when I discovered that there wasn’t another business with the name in Ireland. It explains the shop beautifully, although we have had the odd customer that expected something else?????
We sell yarn obviously and whilst I’d love to be able to say our premises is full to bursting with premium, designer yarns from around the globe, all hand dyed, 100% natural fibers at give away prices – I can’t. There are so many yarns I love but the reality is that most of us are no longer able to afford them, so I concentrate on sourcing the best yarns I can, whilst keeping in mind the price point. That doesn’t mean we only stock 100% acrylic, but it does mean I spend a lot of time shopping around.
In fairness to the bigger, more well known companies, they’ve realised that there is a revival in natural fibers and they’re really trying to bring good quality yarns to the knitting masses. The larger companies also have the money to invest in pattern design, but they can lack in inventiveness, which is where the independent designers come in.
One thing you will find is that I’m unlikely to stock anything I don’t really like, I’ve tried in the past and it doesn’t work for me. I find I can’t help giving the game away. If I’ve bought something because it looked nice and I’ve got round to knitting up a sample and discovered it’s awful to use it tends to go in one of the clearance baskets
At the moment we stock yarns from Sirdar, Wendy, Rico, Twilleys, King Cole, Opal, Trekking, Sublime and Schoeller & Stahl. There is pattern support to go with all of our yarns in the form of single sheet designs, collections and books. If I find a design I particularly like I will try and ensure I have it in. As I love all things Elizabeth Zimmerman we keep a few of her more well known designs although I’m hoping to eventually convince as many knitters as I can to embrace ‘uninventing’.
We stock needles, hooks and accessories from Knitpro, Pony and some from Clover. We also have most of the other things you’d expect: buttons, sewing thread and accessories, zips, bag handles, the list is endless.
I will leave it at this as I’m conscious i could start to waffle on a little…
Confessions of a Fibre Strumpet 