Star crossed berets

After a little break, I'm back with some knitting for you. Not an intentional break, more one of those breaks where you suddenly go, I haven't blogged for week? No! That can't be right, but you double check and it is. Well, all I can say is time sure moves quickly when you start DIY! But I have a nice newly painted kitchen now. All the 'lovely' acid yellow paint is finally gone - not painted by us, I hasten to add. I like colour but even I struggled with this tone - bleh!

Anyway, after 4 days of DIY, I've been recovering from the knitting deprivation by knitting some quick projects - instant gratification:-) After I knitted the red star crossed beret in chunky yarn which turned out on the big side, I decided to drop down to aran weight and smaller needles to see if I could get the perfect fit for this pattern. And, voila! Nice weight, handle, drape and just enough slouch without drowning me in beret! If you want to try this smaller version, I used 5.5mm needles for the rib and 6.5mm for the cables and no modifications to the pattern. I did try cutting out some of the cable repeat and got a beanie look so I ripped back and knitted the pattern as is and it works just fine.

This yarn is a soft cotton mix from my stash, wendy fashion aran - long out of production I'd imagine - but it has a wonderfully soft feel and gives excellent drape. This pattern is very quick to knit up. I would say overall it took me about 3-4 hours watching tv so it could be knitted quicker if you were very focused!

I finally got some dry weather yesterday to get hat wearing photos taken. The red star crossed has been waiting a long time. You can see compared to the pale purple one the red beret is a lot bigger generally and has a LOT of slouch! But, it's still fun and being 100% wool is very warm. Being fuller, I can also get it to cover my ears for wintertime weather:-) This one is staying mine. But I don't think I suit the purple tones as well so I'll save that one for a present. Yes, I am starting to think christmas - well, the weather is definitely saying Autumn to me so I'm automatically looking for warmer, chunkier yarns to knit with, which is a bad sign when you haven't really had much of summer yet! (in the UK).

But looking on the good side, all this rain means I can stay in and do more knitting. I have also finished another hat - pics tomorrow - and I have been dabbling with a mini tote and some stripey socks - yup, more of them. But they are more experiments than definite projects. If I like them then you may see them soon!

Until then, happy knitting!

Star crossed and Red tote

I've finished a couple of things over the weekend for you to see. It's all been knit, knit, knit for the last few days. The red star crossed beret is now finished - yay! It wasn't actually a slow knit when I got going - it was just the getting going that was the problem:-) The pattern is very easy, the yarn is chunky so it knits up quickly. You could knit it in a day or a couple of evenings at an average knitting speed - not like some of those videos I posted before! I could only find the pattern on Ravelry, I'm afraid, but if you are interested in a quick project then go join if you're not a member already. If you are, pop over and say hi - I'm tootiefruitie:-)

The other project I have been working on is a crocheted tote bag. The weather has been so rainy lately that it has been really difficult to get decent pics for you. I waited till today but it wasn't much better, so we'll just have to make do for now.

The original bag pattern was called summer sling tote, but as we aren't having enough nice weather for me to be needing a summer bag, I thought I'd knit a warm chunky one instead. The only problem is that the pattern has way too many stitches and increases so I once I got the gist of how the bag was made, I adapted it as I went for chunky yarn. I did remember to write the pattern down as I went though as I had to duplicate it for the other side of the bag:-) I'll put my notes together and write it up if anyone is interested.

As my bag was going to be chunkier, I wanted a denser fabric so I crocheted it in a smaller stitch to get rid of the holes. The pattern uses a double crochet, which I used, then realised this is a US pattern where a DC is the equivalent of a UK treble - or it that a half-treble? I'll check. No, definitely just a treble. ( Heres a handy chart if you need to convert.) - keep in mind denser stitches will need more rows to make up the same length.

The other addition I made to the pattern was to add ridges to the front panel of the bag. The ridge detail was added every 2nd row on the right side and all you need to do is crochet into the back of the chain instead of both the front and back loops of your chain. Simple. I really like the texture it gives although this chunky yarn is textured enough! A smoother yarn would show off the ridge details better.

I do love big bags and this is as big as would like to carry in this pattern but don't you think a smaller dinky tote would look rather funky? Smoother yarn, ridges, maybe stripes? Or embroidered or 3D flowers? Or knit it up with a loose stitch in wool and felt it so it shrinks into a dinky tote:-) Then decorate it!

I could play with this shape forever. It has such a nice v-curve that flows well and it is an excellent blank canvas to work on. You may be seeing more of these in the future.

And for everyone who wanted to see more than one eye and a bit of fringe, here is me modelling my nice new red tote. I must say, this is the best of a bad lot and the only reason I'm keeping this on my blog is to remind me to seriously get on with losing weight! Either the camera is lying or I'm fooling myself ever time I look in the mirror. 'Cause this isn't what i see! What is with the hair?! I softened the colour but I didn't know it looked 'washed out'!!! Back to the dye bottle and a bit of layering:-)

I'm not trying to be vain. You can feel super-confident inside and not worry too much what everyone else thinks but sometimes you need to feel good about yourself, y'know? I try to be positive in life but the one thing I really hate about having CFS is not being able to exercise much due to my lack of energy - and looking crap in photos and realising, yes, you have that extra layer, just sitting there. Sigh. And you can't do anything about it. It would be good if you could positively think it away:-) I'd patent that and become a millionaire!!!

Anyway, moan over:-) It's much better to live in the now and enjoy life (and not take too many photographs:-) And get on with the important stuff like, knitting, crochet, dyeing, spinning, embroidery, collage, buying yarn, fleece and fabrics and enjoying the making - the doing!

What are you working on just now? What is your creative passion?

Cabled Beret - modified band

Well, the cabled beret is finished and blocked and I am much happier with my modified band. When the cables didn't match very well, and the beret still seemed on the big side after the decrease row, the perfectionist in me thought a little tweeking was in order:-) Of course, this tweeking always seems to be around midnight and then I get on a roll and don't get to bed for ages! But for once, this was a quick fix. If you have been having problems with this - the pattern instructions weren't very clear to follow at this stage - then you are welcome to try this out. Technical bit now....

Okay, you have just laboured through 51 rows of cable chart and you are looking forward to the home run. You have your smaller sized needle ready, and the first brim row reads *K2tog* . Okay, decrease - K2tog for the whole row and this leaves you with 120sts.

Here is where I have changed things.

Next row - *K2, P1, P2tog, k4, P2tog, P1* rep to end of row - 100sts.

Make sure to align your first 2 knit stitches with the first cable. A good guide is to check the placement of the large K4 stitch cable and count back to be sure:-)

Then follow the chart below:

Bind off normally.

If you feel it is a bit loose still then tighten up the bind off - works a treat.

I've never written out a chart before so hope this flows okay from the vogue one. I couldn't find the exact same symbols to use but found a free download for the cable symbol I used. As long as you carry on the same 4st cable as before - 2 st to the back on the cable needle, k2, k2 on cable needle - you should have a seamless continuation of your cable. Whew! That took a lot longer than I thought!

This is just what I did to my preference. After all that cabling, it's disappointing if you think it's been a waste of time and effort! I tried to keep it as faithful to the original overall look as I could and it's really only more decreases and a realignment. Hope it is of help to anyone in need!

So the cable beret is finished, the blue tiger socks are marching past the heel and on the homeward straight and I think it's time for another project. My blue and purple roving has arrived and I'm thinking a bit of spinning tomorrow but I also need to get started on the Vivian cabled top. Maybe I can get to do a bit of both!

Cabled beret

Progress for you on the cabled beret. When I said a lot of cables, I really did mean it! The whole thing is just full of cables end to end. I have knitted a bit more than this and will update the photos soon. But it looks so bunched up on the circular needle at the moment that the cables aren't really shown to their best advantage. Looking at the model in the picture, I have done the crown and am working my way towards the band - about 3 inches to go or maybe less, I hope.

As I said in an earlier post, the pattern is worked in five repeats and it uses 5 Dpn's to keep the pattern nice and clear. I moved onto the circular a bit quick and it was a bit tight to get the cables done. Note to self - don't do that again! It makes the knitting more of a chore and that isn't meant to be the point!! But as soon as I had done all the increases, it got a lot easier and the pattern was much easier to predict. Nice and logical.

Predictably, I think the cables complexities would look a lot crisper in a solid yarn, some cashmerino or alpaca silk maybe - mmm. Soft to the touch but holding the stitch definition well. (But I'm stash busting so that will have to wait:) I don't know if I like the pattern well enough to knit another - it's those lines inbetween the sections, they're too pronounced for me personally. And there are still more hat patterns out there to try. Brooklyn Tweed's Relm for one.

Also, par for the course, I've started another pair of socks. These are the bluey/green version of the sundae - now - tiger socks and I am about a third through the first one. They are Double knit so are knitting up quick. Well, I had to have something to knit whilst watching tv, didn't I? I will get around to working out Judy's magic cast on for the fingering weight socks as I want to to see what my dyed sock yarns knit up like.

Soon....