Little red shoes

At long last I've got around to finishing these little red shoes. The pattern is 'tiny shoes' by Ysolda and they really are tiny! They're only 6cm /2.5" long and very dinky! I'm hoping they will fit straight away but I may have to knit an outfit to match them as they are a lovely bold red.

The original pattern doesn't have ribbon but as the design has a little row of lacey holes around the top as a detail, I thought I could use them to thread the ribbon through. I stitched the bow in place too just for stability although it also makes it possible to gather the edge in too to emphasise the shaping.

The pattern is very cleverly designed using an I-cord for the strap and then the shoe shape developing from picking up stitches from the cord itself. It's much more unusual to knit the shoe from the top down but it flows very well and only needs a little garter stitch grafting on the sole and you are done.

I had a little difficulty choosing buttons for these as the back fastening loops were quite deep and seemed to leave too much of a bump from the inside and I don't want to be bruising little feet now, do I? So I ended up going for a lovely bright daisy and I'm thinking some lovely stitched daisy flowers as a hem on a little red dress could be lovely. I think I likey:-)

Dear Vivian,

Saturday

I collected my new chunky yarn for Vivian, hoping this time I will get gauge so we can get started. Isn't it nice? It looks even better than the picture on Ebay. (I always worry that the pictures online will be wrong and I'll end up with a really BAD colour:-)) But this one is lovely - just what I was looking for. And as the seller lived just down the road - coincidence or what? - she let me collect rather than pay a lot of postage and have the 4-8 business days wait, which was much appreciated as time is a-ticking for this here Vivian:)

So I started knitting pronto to see if I would get gauge....... YES:-)) First time too. Right size of needles and perfect gauge in both st st and seed stitch. Whew! The pics are a bit luminous as it was very late saturday night when I took these but proof positive before the big knit begins.

Of course, being impatient, I started casting on late saturday night, thinking it's only just a couple of rows and I'd feel a lot better knowing I've at least started. Ahem. Anyone who has already knitted Vivian or read the discussion boards on Ravelry regarding Vivian (which I had, no excuse), will know that the first 2 rows need a lot of concentration to set up and to get a feel of the structure of the pattern as this is knit in the round (i.e. back and the two fronts all at once on the needles with no seams).

Shall I show you the results of saturday nights hard work? Yes? It's quite impressive....:-)

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Ta Da!!

Yup, a big pile of ripped back knitting. At this point, I went to bed! But I did learn a lot although at this point it doesn't look like it. I learned that the pattern starts on a WS row!!  (as well as don't start anything this complex when you are tired:-) Fresh day on sunday......

Sunday - sunshine!

Hiatus for Mothers day here in the UK on sunday. Very nice day visiting, lots of food and conversation - a nice break from knitting:-) I'll get back to vivian on monday, promise!

Monday - positive mood:-)

Cast on again, 188sts using the long tail cast on on 5mm circulars. This cast on is perfect for this pattern as it automatically sets the knitting up for a ws first row. Cast on fine, check. Row 1 WS row - I remembered:-) - followed each chart along the cast on row. Done. Go to start row 2 - problem.......

As you know, I'm a bit of a perfectionist! But I also like a bit of a challenge as well as a new project that pushes my learning skills. I haven't knitted a lot of garments using charts so I'm not really in practice as it were but I like to think I know the basics. Today's lesson in humility is refresh this knowledge often - or, to coin a very apt phrase,  use it or you lose it!

I had a little problem with row 2 as I had to start two of the 6 charts on row 2. But this didn't make logical sense as the rest all cable on row 4 and this would cable on row 5. Ysolda is a very logical and considered designer so this wouldn't happen. But I rechecked row 1 and it just doesn't mention these two charts. Hmmm. Time to call in the big guns - ravelry!

So yesterday, I spent a very pleasant afternoon chatting on the Vivian KAL on Ravelry where I got so much help! I was right, the cables do all cable on  row 4 - whew! BUT I realised that I'd been reading the charts from the wrong side and all the pattern  would be backwards.

Note to self: WS rows read from left to right

                              RS rows read from right to left

Yes, you know what's coming, don't you?

Yup. Another pile of ripped back knitting. But more lessons learned. See how positive I'm being?!

Monday - later on.....

I have cast on again, got past those tricky first two rows and feel like I'm making some progress, finally. I can actually see the pattern emerging now and I am much more confident about progressing. In reality, just minor blip in my memory! At least I had some really good help on Ravelry to make this a lot less painful than it could have been.

Now here is some progress for you:-) 14 rows of no mistake knitting. All cables slanting the right way, all present and correct. Soon there will be decreases and increases to shape the waist:-)) Just don't ask me to watch TV with this one, ok?

I've done some more detailed notes on Ravelry if anyone is interested - the kind of stuff we think we should know and don't want to ask if we can help it, but in truth would prefer a reminder of, kind of stuff :-)) If you're not in ravelry and want to know more details, just drop me an e-mail, happy to help. (But ravelry is such a lifesaver for projects like these, it would be worth joining (it's free) just for their help and support, never mind access to all the free patterns!!)

Back to Vivian now, nearly time for another cable row:-)

Red Ripley...or 32 days till christmas!

So, we're back to monday again - did you have a nice weekend? The weather here has been pretty awful - lashing rain and gales howling outside with very dark days:-) - so just perfect for snuggling inside with your knitting!

I had a bit of a mini crisis when I read a blog this weekend that blatantly stated 34 days to christmas -34??? Well, today's count will be 32 if you include christmas day. And then I started thinking about all the things I am intending to make as presents and then I started thinking how long each of these would realistically take to make and then I had a mini panic!!!

So, the result of this was, my new red ripley hat - tada!

Quick, easy and looks good when finished = christmas solution:-) This is knitted in chunky/bulky yarn - Paton's solo mohair mix, which I think I can safely say is discontinued as this came from my stash and I remember having a very warm batwing top knitted out of this in the late 80's:-))

Anyway! Moving swiftly on:-) The pattern is another lovely one by Ysolda called 'Ripley' which is part of her new 'Whimsical Little Knits 2' collection. (Both the green veyla mitts and the snapdragon beret patterns that I've knitted are from that collection too). Its meant to be knitted in heavy worsted or aran weight but I had this chunky yarn to hand and loved the colour so I just made a size bigger than stated. In hindsight I maybe should have knitted the large instead of the medium as it is a bit neat on me but it will fit someone else with a smaller head  I'm sure;-)

The pattern itself is very cleverly constructed but simple to make. The initial band can be plain or lace. I chose the lace which is knitted sideways with the slipped stitches picked up along one side to knit the rest of the hat in the round. This construction idea is the same as in the velya mitts so I found it familiar and easy.

The next lovely detail is the extra pleats. In the picture above, I have just finished one pleat just above the lace border - a large tuck created by picking up some stitches from further down and I still had two pleats to go at that stage. This really helps shape the slouchiness of the hat so it doesn't pool messily at the back of your head! A clever way to gather the extra fabric and make it a design feature.

I knitted the less slouchy version and I think it still gives a nicely fitted hat without having that stretched-over-the-head look:-) But the extra slouchy version looks good too and some people have added a pompom!! So, all in all it's a very festive hat indeed;-))

So, 32 days to go and one present down..........

Buttons for Veyla

At last all my buttons have arrived for my green Veyla mitts. It's quite hard to gauge online whether the greens will accentuate or get lost in the lace detail and some that seemed small enough on paper, now seem a bit too big for the cuff. I got a mixture of plain and funky - well, you can never have enough buttons;-)

These first ones fit the buttonholes well and are solid but relective in colour. I quite like these as they are small enough but the shine keeps them interesting. Subtle for me, I know but with these the lace is more dominant.

Next up, not so subtle nice, bright daisy buttons. They are certainly funky and not too big for the cuff but they don't lend themselves to an elegant feel:-) These would have to be decorative only as they get caught in the buttonhole but I think I can slide these mitts on without undoing the buttons anyway.

Next up, these lovely apple buttons. These are super funky but a bit bigger. I can only realistically get three on without squashing them up close together. Again, these would have to be decorative rather than functional. I'm thinking the paler green colour isn't working and the lace is obscuring the apple shape too much to make everything gel.

Ah, the green flower/star shapes. These are a no-no straight away. Gorgeous buttons though but the green flower is totally lost and the sparkly centres look like little dots. Waste of a lovely button on these. I have enough to use them on a larger project so no worries.

Hmm. I like these buttons a lot but they are a bit bigger again - maybe verging on too big? Enough pattern without killing the lace and the right tone of green though. Running near the top of my list these.

These lovely buttons arrived late and are a lot bigger than I thought but lovely. Looking at them on the glove, they are maybe a bit too busy or weighty/heavy looking for the cuff. But they are so nice... Maybe I should keep them for a funky cardigan, or something instead.

The last idea I tried was to move away from green altogether and try white. Although they are more pearlescent than in the picture, the white is just too bright and has too much tonal contrast to work, I think.

So, that leaves the little green buttons in picture 1, the bigger green buttons I liked, the japanese ones and the green and white daisies..... What do you think?

Snapdragon!

Well, I didn't manage to get around to sewing buttons on the green veyla mitts last night because I was busy trying to finish this lovely snapdragon beret. The design is by Ysolda and as you can see it is gorgeously intricate with complex cables and petal shapes. I love how her beret patterns always flow to the centre without looking as if the pattern has been squished to fit:-)

I never really intended to use a bright sunshine yellow - not really my favourite colour to wear - but when I saw the original knitted up in this colourway, I had yarn to match and just had to cast on. The pattern is written for worsted weight and I think you could get away with a DK yarn too but my yarn was a bit fine being fingering/4ply sock yarn so I decided to double it up as sock yarns are usually rather generous in length.

This yellow is Schoppel-wolle's admiral ombre colourway 1959 and I knitted it with two strands. Each ball has 420m per 100gm and this was just enough to knit the medium size. I emphasise 'just'! In retrospect, although I even tested the gauge, this knitted up a bit big so the small size would have been a much better idea - and I would have worried less as the yarn was fast disappearing towards the end there! A very close thing!

I do like the variation the two strands gives the beret, not too much variegation but not a solid colour either. I think I'd like to try this again using a thinner yarn, maybe in a bright magenta! The pattern is easy to follow and very enjoyable and knits up very quickly once you get going. A hand spun yarn would be really good for this too. Shame I've already plyed the bright pink jelly jelly roving as it would be interesting to have used it with this design. But then again, it may have had too much colour contrast. I'll have to have a rummage through my stash and see what I can find.... :-)

Green Veyla Mitts

Over the weekend, I've been knitting up these fingerless mitts by Ysolda. The pattern just came out friday and I've been just dying to try this pattern since we got a sneek peek of the mitts on her blog. The mitts are knitted up with fingering weight yarn and only use up to 185yrd/170m of yarn. This worked out overall about 28gms of yarn!! Amazing! These green mitts are knitted up using a 50gm tester of semi-solid green supersock yarn. I think I dyed it at the same time as the green stripey for week 2's giveaway.

The pattern is a very cleverly constructed glove with a lace cuff knitted flat then cast off. You then pick up the stitches for the 'hand' of the glove from the side of the lace. Very neat and elegant. You can see in the cuff close-up the lace is now sideways. There are meant to be buttons for fastening and added detailing as you can see in the top picture but I didn't have any that worked very well, so I had to hunt on Etsy and Ebay to find some I was happy with. Problem is I'm still waiting on them to arrive. I really thought today was the day but, no. Maybe tomorrow.

To knit both mitts only took me a weekend, and not solid knitting at that. Visited a car boot with high hopes of quilting material or books but only found a few little things this time - a long bright burnt orange skirt and some nesting dolls, which are lovely:-) I'll try and take some photos of the dolls to show you when it brightens up a bit. But we have been promised 4 days of sun!!! 4!! No cloud, dull days or rain - apparently! So if that holds true I can get on and get my shed transformed into my dyeing workshop.

This has been an ongoing saga this summer:-) and I have some progress photos for you but as we haven't made that much progress, don't expect the Ritz or anything quite yet! I'm just really pleased we have a door and windows for now! It still needs electrics, dried and painted inside and out but this will just have to be as and when I can afford each step. But it will be weather tight and the rain will be back soon, I'm sure!

So, there may not be quite as much knitting going on with all the DIY needed this week but I am hoping to squeeze in some dyeing experimentation for new colourways so I'll keep you posted on those and you can tell me what you think:-) HA, see? I've now committed to a deadline:) Best way to keep my ass in gear!! See you soon!

Winners!

Well, today is the day to announce the final winners of the week long giveaway. So straight to it, again all names have been selected totally at random:

The winner of the Peacock yarn is............. Ertanthes

The winner of the Butterscotch yarn is............ Rachel G.

The winner of After the storm is ............... Jersey

The winner of Calm Horizons is ............... Carla

and the winner of commissioning your own yarn is............... EJ!

Congratulations all! If you could get in touch with me at labellehelene@btinternet.com and give me your posting details, I will endeavour to get these to you as soon as possible. EJ, you will need to get your thinking cap on now and think up your own special yarn, now it's for real:-)

Thank you so much everyone for taking part in the giveaways this last month. Its been really fun dyeing the yarns for you all and hearing all the lovely suggestions that you could knit with them. I'm sorry not everyone was able to win something but do stick around as I think I will be holding more giveaways in the near future.

On the knitting front, I actually made some progress and should have some pics to show you tomorrow of my bright green Veyla mitts - design just out by Ysolda. Still waiting on some buttons so I can't really call them finished yet. But loving the pattern so much I've started another pair;-) See you tomorrow....

Urchins!

Well, you go and upgrade your computer and suddenly you are days behind on all your blogging posts! I have done quite a lot this week - knitting, washing more fleece, painting the house:-) - but I thought I would indulge in showing you some Finished Objects. Yup, FO's!! A long time since we've seen any of those:-) Everything has been ongoing, its beginning to hang over my head a bit so it's time to clear the decks and get some of these projects finished.

So, today it is two urchin berets. The first is the lovely multi-coloured red Urchin knitted with the majorly chunky Adriafil baba that I waited ages for in the post so I could finish knitting it up. So now it is finished, I've realised it is HUGE! While I was knitting, it didn't seem any bigger in circumference that any other beret but the band for your head obviously has too many rows and the hats falls down past your nose:-) Sigh. So after all that wait, and I must say an enjoyable knit, I think it is destined for being ripped back and knitted into something else. Maybe a circular bag....

The beret is precariously balanced on the dummy's head so it doesn't slip down her nose:-) It is really bulky at the back too and unfortunately in this jumbo scale not very flattering on! But I decided to knit another urchin in a thinner yarn to compare and contrast.

Same large pattern size but look at the difference. Little baby blue and jumbo red! It's a shame as the red yarn is really lovely and warm and would make a great hat. I think if I wanted to use it for an urchin I would have to create an extra, extra small version:-)

The blue Urchin is knitted in the Paton's Symphony I was swatching with earlier. All I needed to do was use 7mm needles instead of 8's and knit the large size to compensate for the stitch reduction. Saying that I could have got away with the small or the medium hat size as it still has a little more slouch that I would like. That may be due to the tension being a little looser than I would like as well - maybe 6mm's would be the answer:-)

Anyway, this is a very quick knit and the short rows just fly by using super chunky. I finished the last 5 wedges out of 8 and grafted the seams in about an hour or so this afternoon. This fits a lot better but still I don't find the style that flattering on me. I wonder what a much finer gauge would knit up like? With a little pattern tweeking, and maybe using st. st instead of the textured garter st, it could become a whole new hat in its own right. Thinking cap on......

Well, I have cleared my work space and I have pulled out another long overdue for finishing WIP - the fushia forest canopy. I'll work on this tonight and show you how far I get tomorrow.....

Happy knitting!

Urchin

Some knitting has been going on this last weekend. In fact I'm in the middle of two new projects, Urchin and the Wicked fushia vest:-) Today, I thought I'd bring you up to date with Urchin, a lovely super chunky knitted hat designed by Ysolda. It's designed sideways so you are knitting the wedges of a pie with short row Wrap & Turns (W&T) - which are more commonly found in short row heels for socks.

Have a closer look:-) the first time I saw this I thought, that yarn looks familiar, I'm sure I have something similar in my stash that would be perfect, but couldn't find it at the time so put the pattern into my file and forgot about it for a while. Recently though, I saw some lovely finished examples on Ravelry and thought hmm, yes, I never did start that, I'll see if I have any yarn that would work. And this time I did!

My first choice was Paton's blue super chunky Symphony. I used this a lot for some crocheted cloche hats and slippers a few christmases ago and I was experimenting with the chocolate colourway for my chunky glove pattern last christmas. I knitted a swatch to get gauge and it just would not work. When I reached gauge, the knitting was so loose that it was virtually lace! So back to the stash I went. Rummage, rummage. I pulled out a range of all thicknesses for this and eventually I got gauge with this super lovely Baba yarn from Adriafil - very yummy!

Yarn found, I plunged right into knitting the pattern. As usual, a lovely pattern that is very enjoyable to knit. I was steaming away with this and then realised that one ball was not going to be enough. Nope, not even with a very close margin! 5 wedges out of 8 knitted and the inevitable happened - yarn gone.

The problem with a stash is sometimes balls lose their labels and this one was label-less and bought 'somewhere' online. I thought it was a hopeless case and it was time to rip it all back and start again with another new yarn but the next day, I woke up and suddenly remembered what shop I bought it from. I had no idea the brand or how long ago I bought this, although I was estimating about three years ago? The way fashions and colours change, I wasn't expecting to be lucky but what do you know! There it was, Adriafil baba in multicoloured reds. Whew!!

So one multi-coloured red urchin can soon be finished when the postman decides to deliver my yarn..... Come on, come on! I didn't want to stop knitting this and I can't wait to start it again!

Friday favourite

Just a quick blog today to tell you about a textile giveaway going on at The Textile Blog. If you live in the US or Canada, you can enter to win a free cushion/pillow up to the value of $100! I'm so miffed I'm not able to enter:-) So get over there, have a look and leave a comment. Wouldn't it be nice to win one of these?

These two are my favourites. Something about red and white contrasting graphic patterns - yum! But there are literally tons to look at so enjoy a visual feast! You have till friday the 12th June to enter......

'Urchin' knitting is happening but I ran out of yarn and only got 2/3rds of the way through. So I'm waiting on another ball to arrive in the post and then I can get it all finished and photographed. It's just I get impatient waiting when I'm on a knitting roll:-)

Magenta Ishbel finished!

After a concentrated burst of knitting on the Magenta Ishbel, it is now finished! Once I got going the pattern was actually quite easy. I think all the stopping and starting I did actually made it more difficult to get into a flow and remember the pattern changes. In fact, I found this easier to get into than the beret. But then again I did do that in small bits too!

So after all that knitting, I had to wait to block it as I didn't have anything big enough to use. So lovely pink playmats to the rescue, home delivered from Argos in two days so I could get to block my lovely scarf.

These mats are great. They fit together like a jigsaw so I can make a square, or a long line if I'm knitting a long lacy scarf rather than a triangular one. I wasn't sure how big each mat was or how many were in a pack so I got two just in case. Turns out each mat is 60cm x60cm and you get 4 in a pack. So I probably didn't need two but you got the second half price so it was worth it. I was also thinking what if I did a really BIG shawl?! You never know!

So I pinned it two nights ago when I was tired, quite late and I didn't realise I'd done it wrong - I pinned the wrong bit of pattern as a point and wondered why it didn't work. Lesson learned - look at the picture before you start and don't do it late at night when you're tired!! Yesterday, I wet it again and pinned it correctly this time and it is fine. The points aren't as pointy as some finished Ishbels I've seen but either I didn't stretch it enough (but I did pull until the pins wanted to pop at the top), or the acrylic yarn I used only stretches so far.

But it's my first lace shawl and I like it. I can get plenty more practice blocking for my next few shawls lined up - the woodlands shawl and the forest canopy shawl. Both good patterns for beginner lace knitters that can be knitted small - same size as this - or full size that would totally wrap around you. Lovely! But a lot of knitting and a lot of yarn! I think I will work on the smaller sizes for now until I find my lace knitting feet and then I have some yarn all ready for larger projects.

But for now, I'm going to start the Forest Canopy shawl in my new fushia yarn from Needlefood as the pattern only needs one skein and it will be lovely and soft being merino. No more Acrylic for me:-)

The knitting has been quite slow this weekend as the garden has been claiming a lot of my time. It started with the bench that arrived with my playmats from Argos. We had to clear a space - imagine a BIG heap of earth, weeds and grass tufts - then pave it so the bench had something solid to sit on, and then actually assemble the bench. Sounds simple but my poor hands are complaining at all the landscaping, carrying and fitting bricks. But it was worth it. Now that's done, the surrounding bits are looking neglected and the earth path needs finishing......

But the bench looks lovely - I love the rose pattern on the backrest - and it didn't take someone long to find a new perch to sit and watch us at our toils!! Now my hands just need to recover so I can get some knitting done:-)