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:-)

Magenta in bloom

All of a sudden, a little sun and somehow, everything seems to be coming out in bloom. When I parked the car on my way to the library the other day, I couldn't help but notice this magnificent strong magenta coloured rhododendron. There were so many flower heads it was really quite stunning.

Unfortunately I only had the camera on my phone so the pictures aren't as crisp or as tonally balanced as I would have liked, being such a bright day, but they manage to capture enough of the colours and the grandness of this plant. I had forgotten how BIG these can grow if they have the room - me walking backwards into the car park to get more in the photo (no zoom - sigh).

But it doesn't stop there, it keeps on going....... I think I was at the other end of the car park by this stage :-) It was slightly bigger than I could fit in but truly an impressive glory in pink.

I wished I had worn my magenta ishbel beret and I would have blended right in! But being pink inspired after so much sock green, I'm now working on a matching magenta Ishbel scarf - the small version first in 4ply/fingering weight and then I'll work my way up to a larger matching teal 2ply/laceweight version. I've nearly finished the first stocking stitch section and I'll soon start the vine stitch section. Now I'm familiar with the pattern from the beret, I'm hoping this will flow easily straight away - well, here's hoping:-)

I think this will be a warm scarf/shawl but not too bulky for spring. Not much to photograph as yet but I'll keep you posted.

Finally, I'd like to wish my sister a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! and I hope you enjoy wearing your chic, stylish, terribly fashionable teal ishbel beret:-))) Enjoy!

Magenta Ishbel Beret

At last the magenta Ishbel beret is finished and blocking. This one has really fought me all of the way, I'm telling you. And I was wondering why when the laceweight was such a pleasure to knit. But I think, after a few days taking back lots of botched up knitting, and trying to reknit that I've worked it out.

Everything was fine until I started to decrease. Then I moved down to dpn's as the stitch count got too small for the circular. It seems the YO at the end of the last dpn kept 'dropping' the last stitch and when I went around the lace row, the pattern was out by one stitch. After all the ripping back, I carefully started to re-knit the pattern keeping this in mind and damn if the same thing didn't happen again! Even when I was looking for it! This got to really frustrating levels of crapness by late evening but I persevered and eventually got it cast off. Whew.

So why was the green teal beret not such a pain? Because I used two circulars instead of 4 double pins and the stitches couldn't fall off. Lesson learned.

I made one modification to the band - a picot edge instead of the straight edge. If you want to try it, just substitute the purl row with *YO, K2tog* for the whole row and you get the picot edge when you fold the band over. I thought it would work well with a bold coloured beret. If its going to be in your face anyway then why not:-)

Now all the hassles are over, I am beginning to warm to it again. I do love the colour and the picot edge and although the lace looks more dense in 4ply, it is still a very elegant pattern indeed - despite my sabotage attempts!

Although this is pink - and I love pink - I still think I like the green version better. I never really got into lace shawls and scarves before as they seemed to be long term projects and very time consuming at that, but I can see the appeal of delicate 2 ply yarns stretching out into wonderful cobwebs of pattern that are so elegant and sophisticated in their design and finish. A lovely sheen of silk and maybe beads? Mmm. I can see some more lace in my future.....

Planning for Ishbel

As I was looking out for some yarn to start Ysolda's Ishbel patterns, I realised I might be kind of in a bluey/green phase. I was trying to find either enough of the same yarn or enough of the same colour for both the beret and the scarf and suddenly my table was a sea of greens. With my Vivian aran yarn still out, there definitely seems to be something going on. My original intention had been to frog the evangeline mitts and knit the beret with the plum coloured merino as I know I have some laceweight silk dyed in the same colour. Maybe I'll save it when I do a second one - you know I never manage just to do one of anything! (okay, except the second sock, glove....)

The ball is my dyed merino from a while back and although it is DK, I remember thinking this should be knitted down a needle size so would do for 4ply. But there isn't enough for both the beret and the scarf. So I rummaged some more and found this lambswool hank dyed at the same time but much finer in weight. It's a slightly darker space dyed mix and I think would work well in the scarf. Both are from the same dye batch so to speak so they are close enough for a pairing.

I also treated myself to a set of bamboo circulars in both 50cm and 100cm. They range in size from 2.0mm - 10mm so I should be able to knit any pattern now.

Thank you to Karen for reminding me this shop existed. I got a full set of dpn's there last year but had somehow forgotten about them. The one problem I did have was not having a certain size of circular to do the job and either ditching the pattern for another day or struggling on with a too long needle - not a happy knitting experience. So now I should be totally sorted.

But the Ishbel beret pattern is OUT! I have loved the look of this since the preview on Ysolda's blog and now, at last, we can knit our own. So, now I must catch up on some sleep and get ready for a Ishbel beret knitting session tomorrow. Night night......