Podcast Episode 44 – Veronika!

July 14, 2017July 14, 2017Leave a comment

Housekeeping

2017 Stash Down going on in the Ravelry board
Our sponsors for the MAL so far are myself, Caroline of Clothesline Designs, Tamara of TamsCraftyKnits and Erin of Remade by Hand Designs
Please note that Tamara has closed her Etsy shop, she will still be selling on Facebook, more details will be forthcoming, check out her podcast for more details
Please contact me via Ravelry PM or at julieannec@mymuddlings.com if you’d like to sponsor a prize or go to PayPal to donate towards prizes

Finished Objects

Veronika Cardigan Test by Shannon Cook, my project page
Lovebird Lane Yarns Nyasa Aran in ‘Canopy Shadows’
5.5mm (US 9) Hiya Hiya Interchangeable Circular
1,348 yards/1,233 metres
Lacy Mitts by naganasu, my project page
Knit Picks Comfy in ‘Whisker’
196 yards / 179 metres
3.25mm (US 3) Hiya Hiya 9″ circular & generic DPNs

Works in Progress

Mini-Skein Cowl, my project page
Lovebird Lane Yarns Mini-Skein Sets in Tonal & Variegated
3.75mm (US 5) generic 24″ circular
In Dreams Vanilla Socks, my project page
Unwind Yarn Company Journey Sock in ‘UnTEAL We Meet Again’ & Rendezvous Sport Sock in ‘In Dreams’
2.5mm (US 1.5) HiyaHiya 9″ circulars
Shawl Prototype, my project page
Lovebird Lane Yarns Peachface Fingering (Old) in ‘Blushing Rose’
4.0mm (US 6) generic circular

WIP Wednesday: Pomme de Pin Cardigan

January 11, 2017January 11, 20177 Comments

This story is the knitting equivalent of ‘A Tale of Two Cities’… “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” Only really it should be “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, and then it was the best of times again”. ‘A Tale of the Two Pomme de Pins’. 😉

I have knit this pattern once before back in 2015 and I was in love. The pattern is lovely to knit, and I loved the yarn I used (although no longer in my preferred wardrobe colour palette). Here it is:

Not a great pic but she was gorgeous

I loved it so much. I wore it over and over for the first week before I’d even given it a wash and block. The arms were the perfect length, it was long enough to almost cover my butt and it was beautiful. I thought that after that week of continual wear I should probably give it its first bath. The yarn it was knit in was KnitPicks Wool of the Andes Sport and I’m well aware that that yarn is a fabulous felter so I was being extra gentle. I washed it in lukewarm water, no agitation, a small amount of gentle swishing followed by a gentle squeeze out. You can see where this is going, right? As I usually do, I popped the cardigan into a delicates bag and put it into the washing machine to have a spin (on the lowest speed setting), as I have done a million times before (well, it feels like it! 😉 ) with all different types of yarn, both superwash and non-superwash, and guess what (you’ve already figured it out right?) it shrunk and felted slightly. It was now too small for me to wear. The armholes were far too small for me. I was crushed. It had been my favourite knit to that point, and now it just made me sad to look at it. 😦

So, of course I vowed to try again. I almost immediately jumped onto KnitPicks to see what they had in the way of sport weight superwash yarns (I wasn’t risking that again!!!) and I found that my only option was to get some bare Stroll Sport. At this point I didn’t know how to dye yarn so I purchased 7 skeins of the yarn along with a Greener Shades starter set. I used one of the skeins to test different dye formulas but I couldn’t settle on one. So I put the whole lot away for over a year.

At the end of 2016 I created a colourway called ‘Wisteria Arbour’. I had it. This was my colour. So I dyed up my 6 remaining skeins in this colourway and I used the project as my Christmas Eve cast on. I was worried slightly that the colourway would be too variegated for the lace in the pattern but I needn’t have concerned myself. As an Instagram friend commented, it seems I have the perfect mix of colour and pattern:

I just love this. It’s all I hoped for and more. And I can’t wait for it to be completed and for the cold weather to come around again. I’m gonna wear the crap outta this cardigan. 🙂

Have you ever had a disaster happen to a beloved hand knit? Let me know in the comments.
Pattern: Pomme de pin by Amy Christoffers (US$7.00 Ravelry download)

Knitting WIP: Pomme de Pin Cardigan

April 19, 20154 Comments

I was thinking that I haven’t regularly posted any of my craft projects lately, and I had just taken some photos of a current WIP so I thought I’d share. 🙂

This is the Pomme de Pin cardigan by Amy Christoffers. It is available as a Ravelry download for US$7. My project page can be found here.

I’ve never knit a cardigan with this type of construction before. It is knit from the bottom up; body, then separate for the sleeves, knit the back, then each front including the back of the collar. Then sleeves and pick up the button bands. All my previous projects have top-down but I think I like bottom-up better. You get all the boring body knitting out of the way while you’re still excited about starting something new. Then the rest of it is interesting enough, and you’re close enough to the end to actually work on it instead of getting bored and moving onto something else. Or is that just me that does that? Guys…?!! 😉 I must say though, the pine cone pattern is pretty fun to work. It is easy enough once you memorise it and it’s more interesting than stockinette stitch. Although, I do love myself some stockinette.

I’ve found the pattern to be very well written and easy to follow. And even though this is my first bottom-up project, I’ve had no problems understanding the process. That being said, I’ve yet to seam the shoulders, the back to the collar or the sleeves in so we’ll have to wait and see when it’s finished how I go with those instructions.

I’ve been listening to the Knit Picks podcast all over from the beginning lately and Kelley was speaking about knitting socks two-at-a-time (TAAT) on two circular needles. So I figured, if socks can be knit TAAT, then surely sleeves can be? So, that’s what I’m doing. I’ve never done this before, so I jumped onto YouTube and found an awesome tutorial by VeryPink Knits where she teaches you how to knit a full pair of socks with the TAAT on two circ method. I had two balls of yarn left so used one each for the sleeves. I’m going well with my ribbing and enjoying getting both done at once. No second sleeve syndrome! 🙂

What the colour actually looks like

I am knitting this out of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Sport in the Bramble Heather colourway. I must say, for my first project in Knit Picks yarn, I’m extremely happy with the value for money it provides. This yarn is soft but robust feeling. And the yarn for the whole project (~1200 yards) was only AU$31.50. Bargain. And the colour range, colour descriptions and pictures are just phenomenal. I’m a fan.

So that’s one of the things I’m working on at the moment. What’s on your needles, please? 🙂