My Favourite Easy Lace Scarf

September 17, 2012October 13, 2012 LeftFootDaisy4 Comments

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.

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.

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.

001 — Old Shale Scarf in Rico’s Essential Cotton DK

This version was knitted in Baby Alpaca by 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

Happy Knitting!

Autumn/Winter Goodies Are Starting To Arrive

September 5, 2012 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

We took delivery of some of the new yarns we’ve been expecting in last week including Folksong and Faroe from Sirdar.

Folksong Chunky is a multicoloured yarn made up of 51% Wool and 49% Acrylic
There are 75metres/82 yards in every 50g ball. It’s a standard chunky and knits to a tension of 14stitches to 19 rows on 6.5mm needles.
There are 8 fantastic shades all of which are very wearable, my favourite is the orange blend.


There are 8 lovely designs to knit with the yarn including accesories however, you could use the yarn as an alternative in most chunky patterns. Our favourite design is this great basic jumper, which really highlights the beauty of the yarn.

Faroe from Sirdar is a new super chunky made from 60% Acrylic, 25% Cotton and 15% Wool and for each 50g there are 43metres/47yards. Faroe knits to a tension of 9stitches to 12 rows on 10mm and will work as a substitute yarn for many super chunky patterns.


There are 6 gently blended colours and 8 patterns that have been designed especially for using Faroe. All of the designs are quite simple and would make very quick knits. Our favorite is this lovely waistcoat with the cable detail around the neckline.

In addition the the 2 new yarns from Sirdar we also received 4 new shades in Click Chunky – Brown, green, silver grey and dark grey, all have a tweedie fleck.

4 new shades of Bonus Aran

and 2 in Bonus Tweed

There were also 4 new shades in Snuggly Baby Double knit and we took 2 of the new shades in Baby Crofter as I wasn’t too keen on the others. There was also 3 new shades in Bonus DK and more stock came in in all of our favourite shades including the missing purple Snuggly DK that you all love.

As always there were lots of new patterns and books to come in from Sirdar too, we’re particularly fond of the 2 new books The Big Book of Little knits – Knit Christmas and Knit Pretty.

More about these books to come in a separate post. I’m sure like me you’ll be eager to get knitting with the new yarns, the only dilemma is which one to start with?

Happy Knitting!

The Knitter: Lace Collection

August 29, 2012August 30, 2012 LeftFootDaisy2 Comments

I thought this special edition of The Knitter would be the best way to kick off looking at the various different knitting and crochet magazines that are available to buy. At present (to my knowledge) there are six different UK publications for knitting and one for crochet, including:

Simply Knitting

Knitting

Yarnwise (formerly Knit and before that Yarn Forward)

Let’s Knit

Knit Today

The Knitter

Inside Crochet – title speaks for itself methinks

All of the magazines have something to offer and what works for one knitter might not be what another wants from a magazine. They all typically contain approximately 10 patterns and tend to have a similar format of: letters to the expert, a rundown on certain yarns and a look at ‘what’s new’ in the world of woolliness. Some of them will have an interview with a designer or perhaps a shop owner or knitting group organiser.

The Knitter is one of my personal favourites and since January 2009 when the first issue came out I haven’t missed an issue. The magazine is aimed at the intermediate to experienced knitter or for those that want to take their knitting a little further. The patterns are at first glance a little more intricate but the magazine includes both written and charted instructions.

Back to the Lace Collection – This ‘special’, as the cover highlights, contains 24 gorgeous patterns for every season. Sadly, for me, they have all been in previous issues. However it does present them all in one handy publication. In addition, if you’re new to The Knitter or missed several issues, the collection would be a good addition to library.

Of the patterns inside, some of my particular favourites are the Deco Lace Jacket by Teva Durham.

Rather unusually the lace jacket is knitted in a super chunky on 9mm. The design was originally in issue 22 from August 2010.

I’d also previously added the Mulligan Stole by Tanis Gray to my ‘to do’ list as I think it’s truly beautiful and very wearable.

It’s made in double knit using a 4.5mm needle and was previously in issue 23.

The Elwood hat by Kirstie McLeod combines cables and lace in a beautiful 4ply hat and takes approximately 360 meters of yarn. Elwood was originally published in issue 16 in February 2010.

Lastly, I absolutely adore Susan Crawford’s Jan Sweater. It appeared as a supplement in issue 32 but originally appears in Susan’s book ‘A Stitch in Time : Vintage Knitting Patterns 1930 – 1959, Volume 2’. I think the boat neck and the way the lace pattern forms an increasing V is simply stunning. Truly vintage.

The Lace Collection contains a review of six lace knitting books and a Who’s Who of lace designers, which gives the reader a little insight into the best lace talent from around the world. There is also a great masterclass by Jane Crowfoot on how to create flawless lacework, which gives you tips on avoiding and correcting mistakes too. I have to admit to loving the showcase review of 24 different lace weight yarns available; it’s a great resource for me when it comes to shopping for stock for the shop.

Personally I love knitting lace but I’d be the first to say it can be time consuming and usually requires more attention than other patterns. I know many accomplished knitters that can knit cables with their eyes closed, but actively avoid knitting lace.

One of the easiest and most lovely of all lace patterns is Old Shale. It works great in most weights of yarn and it’s a four row pattern, with only one of those containing any yarn overs and working stitches together. I shall pop a pattern and some examples up here in the near future.

In the meantime I’d recommend The Knitter Lace Collection to anyone that wants to try lace or would like to go a little further with lace. However, if, like me, you already have the magazines, maybe you should consider whether the €15.12 I paid for my copy in Eason might be better spent on a different knitting book?

It’s Back – The Big Knit That Is

August 22, 2012 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

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

bigknit_blue_stripy_high_better_medium2 — 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.

Age UK has these from last year – http://www.ageuk.org.uk/get-involved/raise-money/get-knitting-for-the-big-knit/big-knit-knitting-patterns/

A Ravelry search produces all these lovely little versions, knitted and crochet – http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/search#sort=best&query=innocent%20smoothie

Knit Today has a few animal versions – http://www.knit-today.com/pattern/innocent-smoothie-hats

Lottiotta on ravelry made 1 hat a day from October 15th 2009 for the 2010 Big Knit Campaign her blog http://365hats.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/well-hi-want-to-make-a-hat/ has some really nice little pattern ideas. I like the Spirals Hat http://365hats.wordpress.com/tag/pattern/

The deadline for hats is 30th November this year and we’ll be aiming to send ours off about a fortnight before the deadline.

These are ones that were dropped off a little late to us last year so we’ve already got 38.

The hats can be made in knit or crochet and absolutely any colours are acceptable – have some fun.

Happy Knitting!

The Madness Caused a Malfunction – Sorry

August 20, 2012 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

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.

Hope to see you soon
.

Happy Knitting!

Our Donations Are Off

July 31, 2012 LeftFootDaisyLeave a comment

Wow didn’t we do well? So well in fact that this little lot completely filled 3 black bin liners.

In total there were:-

Hats – 110
Scarves/Cowls – 86
Gloves/Mitts – 39

All of you that gave your time, energy, skill, yarn and most importantly care should be so proud of yourselves. When Deena from The Chernobyl Children’s Trust came to the shop to collect the garments she was honestly shocked to see how many items we had.

The organisers gave out as many woolly items to the visiting children as they could before they flew home and intend to send any that are left over later in the year. There are 2 lorries traveling over to Belarus later this year hopefully, full to the brim with everything the charity can collect in to help as many families as possible.

The charity are still keen on trying to get unwanted pairs of knitting needles in if possible. I know we’ve already sent a good few over but if you have anymore please let me know.

A big thank you once again to everyone that contributed.

Happy Knitting.

Everybody Keeps Asking Me –

July 23, 2012July 23, 2012 LeftFootDaisy3 Comments

Since we had our Stash Dash Day soooooo many people have expressed their dismay at missing it, or not being able to attend. I thought I’d been fairly proactive with the advertising and had done my very best to let everyone know, but like anything new it takes a while for these things to filter through.

So just to keep you up-to-date………

The Stash Dash Days will take place twice a year: one event in March and one in September

That means that about in about 4-6 weeks, after we’ve moved into our new premises, the second Stash Day of 2012 will take place. It will probably be on a Tuesday or Wednesday and we will be sticking to the ‘book your place’ method, although I think the time you have to shop will be increased to 20 minutes rather than 15 minutes.

How to Prepare

Most people got the hang of what we were suggesting before, but for those of you that were a little unsure here’s a little more help:-

You can see from my notes the patterns that I have in my ‘to do list’. Next to each I’ve written the approximate amount of yarn I’m going to need to complete the project and the weight of yarn I need. If I’m yarn shopping when I’m away (madness I know) I always have a rough idea of my go-to projects. I love knitting hats and baby garments although sometimes seeing what you can knit out of one ball/hank of yarn can be fun and it’s much easier with Ravelry.

The best bit of advice I can give any knitter buying yarn for a project, particularly if it’s in a sale, is to buy at least one ball extra. If you don’t end up using using it in the garment you can always use it to make a tiny item, like a baby hat, and if you’re super organised you could knit a square(s) using your remaining yarn. Collect these squares up and sew them together to make cushion covers or a blanket – great for those pesky tension squares too.

Get planning now while you have the time. The Stash Dash Days will become relatively seasonal with the lighter more summery yarns being cleared in September and the warmer ones in March. However, there are bound to be exceptions when I decide to clear a range or two based on yarns I’ve ordered for the coming season.

As you can see from my notebook the In Leaf Cardigan is up there on the top of my list, I’m sure you’ll agree it’s lovely.

Happy Knitting!

Hat for Preemies

July 20, 2012July 23, 2012 LeftFootDaisy2 Comments

After being contacted by The Irish Premature Baby Charity I went off looking for ‘basic’ knitting patterns and was bogged down by how many were out there. Many of them seem to be perfectly lovely, but some of them needed to be paid for or had a suggested donation and we’re already making them for charity aren’t we?

So I grabbed some needles and some double knit and knocked one up myself. You will discover that the hat is a little higher than we would usually knit, this is to accommodate the little babas’ heads, which can sometimes be a little oddly shaped.

Hat Dimensions

Height 5.5″/11.5cm

Width 4.5″/14cm

Tension

22sts x 28 rows

Abbreviations

k – knit

p – purl

st(s) – stitch(es)

ws – wrong side

k2tog – knit the next 2 stitches together

Materials

A little squidgy, soft double knit

4mm Needles

Darning Needle

Pattern

Using thumb method cast on 56 stitches.

Work 4 rows in 2×2 rib – (knit 2 stitches, purl 2 stitches repeat these 4 stitches )

In stocking stitch work until hat measures 10cms ending with a ws row.

Crown

1st Row – K6, k2tog across all sts (49 sts)

2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th rows – Purl all stitches

3rd Row – K5, k2tog across all sts (42 sts)

5th Row – K4, k2tog across all sts (35sts)

7th Row – K3, k2tog across all sts (28sts)

9th Row – K2, k2tog across all sts (21sts)

11th Row – K1, k2tog across all sts (14sts)

Cut yarn leaving approximately a 12″ tail, using your darning needle thread the yarn through your remaining stitches and remove them from the knitting needle. Fasten off and sew up using yarn. Sew in ends.

The Purple and White Knitting Initiative for Irish Premature Babies

July 18, 2012July 18, 2012 LeftFootDaisy2 Comments

As some of you are already aware, we were contacted back in May by Mandy Daly the Family Liaison Manager with Irish Premature Babies, Ireland’s only charity supporting families in Ireland with premature babies.

Each year, over 4,500 babies are born pre-term, and many require very long hospital stays and suffer lifelong complications as a result of their early arrivals.

The charity works hard to raise public awareness of premature birth and arranges several public events every November 17th to celebrate World Prematurity Awareness Day. This year the charity is participating in a global initiative and is hoping to turn many Irish landmark buildings purple (the worldwide colour of premature birth). It also wants to engage in a photography project where it plans to photograph a washing line of baby socks in front of these landmarks.

The charity also wants to donate preemie baby clothes (knitted and crochet hats, socks, cardigans, etc) to the various neo-natal units countrywide. This is where we come in.

Our collection for The Chernobyl Children’s Trust has come to an end; items are being collected later this week. This means we can put all of our efforts into this campaign now. Items can be worked in knitting or crochet and the charity has said all colours are acceptable. Of course they have to be soft yarns, that goes without saying, but the items really can be every colour under the rainbow. Fantastic, if like me you get tired using the same colour, if however, you do have any purple or white yarn lurking around in your stash the charity would love the odd item in these shades to follow their theme.

There are obviously quite a lot of sites online with patterns for preemies in addition you might already have some paper patterns that include preemie sizes. 16″ is newborn and 12″ and 14″ are classed as preemie.

Pattern Sites

While looking for free patterns on the web, I discovered lots of broken links and many sites suggested a ‘donation’ for their patterns.

Ravelry contains well over 2,000 knitting/crochet preemie patterns, with approximately 1,500 of them available free. I assume some of them can also be found on the other sites listed.

www.ravelry.com

This pattern from Ravelry is the one we’ve all been busy knitting as it’s so simple and lovely to knit. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/paxton-preemie-and-newborn-jacket

These are the booties we’ve been making too. They take more time to sew them up than they do to knit! http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/f310-100-angora-baby-booties

I think this site is one of the best for free patterns, it has links to some of the more popular patterns on the net. There are hats, booties, cardigans and blankets. I had a good look through the patterns and the yarns used range from 4ply through to aran weight. They are all knitting patterns though

http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/directory/preemies.php

This site has a good few knitting patterns. I particularly like the Sideways Sweater which I’ve added to my ‘to do list’

http://www.carewear.org/index.cfm?pid=patterns/knit/_knit_patterns.cfm

This site has a mix of crochet and knitting patterns for preemies, lots of them.

http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/preemies.html#bevs

These are crochet patterns and again there seems to be everything from booties to blankets.

http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory/preemies.php

This site has quite a few crochet patterns on it.

http://project-angel-kisses.150m.com/1memberpatterns.html

I found this little crochet hat pattern on the Red Heart website and it looks fairly easy and quick to make (says she who doesn’t really crochet).

http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/preemie-hats

Lastly (for now) this is a blog one of my friend’s Lucy discovered for preemie crochet patterns.

http://preemiehats.blogspot.ca/

I also discovered this page with baby measurements on it for those of you that ‘go with the flow’ in your knitting/crochet.

http://tlcforangels.tripod.com/sizing.html

Hopefully, there are a good few patterns there for you to get busy creating for the latest charity collection. Ideally all items need to be in for around the second week in October to enable them to be sorted out and dispatched to the hospitals for November 17th. You can forward them on directly to the charity or hand them to me at the shop to go off with ours.

If you need to know any more information please email me.

Happy knitting!

Quick Chunky Hat – Great for Charity Knits

July 6, 2012July 9, 2012 LeftFootDaisy6 Comments

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 )

Next Row

For 1st size – Rib 20, kfb, rib 20, kfb, rib 20 (64sts)

For 2nd Size – Work row as before

For 3rd Size – Rib 23, kfb, rib 22, kfb, rib 23 (72sts)

For 4th Size – Rib 23, k2tog, rib 24, k2tog, rib 23 (72sts)

Change to 6.5mm needles

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

2nd Size – K20, k2tog, k22, k2tog, k20 (64sts), work 1 row purl

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