Just what I needed....

After Spring Things I needed a quick fix, instant gratification, restoration of faith call it what you like in my lace knitting and this was just what I needed.... Evelyn Clark's Shetland Triangle

A simple straight forward pattern; I was slightly dubious I may get bored with it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and from start to finish it took me 3 days! It may be a simple pattern but it's very effective.... It's served a couple of purposes one I've already mentioned and the other I needed a birthday present for a friend whose birthday is looming on the near horizon... plus I used the yarn from my stash....

So from this....

to this in 3 days.....

Close up's for the more demanding of my readers....

It' s used virtually all but 4/5 metres of 2 skeins of Rowanspun DK (a lightweight DK IMHO - 200m / 50g) in Sugar Almond (no 746) and I included one extra repeat of the body pattern (9 instead of 8) just to use the yarn. I used 5.5mm needles as I do like to have stitch definition were there isn't meant to be holes....

The finished size a generous 72" across the top and 32" down the spine... just right for snuggling up in this coming autumn.....

I can heartly recommend this pattern if you need a quick fix....

R.I.P - Spring Things

I got to the end of the 13 repeats and it wasn't very big and I'd 80 out of 100g of yarn left and I really couldn't face doing anymore repeats of the body pattern... so I frogged it and re-wound the yarn and put it away for another day.... and feel much happier...

I wanted the shawl to be a decent size and it wasn't showing any sign of being that at the end of the stated 13 repeats and seeing those 1st 13 repeats were hard work, I decided I couldn't face doing anymore, it even put me off doing the edging.....

I have finished my 'Splash' socks which are for Paul aka DH and this was my first successful hand spun sock yarn last year :o) The fibre was from The Yarn Yard (see my sidebar) and is my favourite fibre from Natalie BFL Superwash being the ever practical gal I am...

He must be pleased they're on his feet today:o) I'm also pleased in the fact they were my first toe-up pair too.. a definite necessity for hand spun to ensure there's enough yarn to do the feet ;o) I have to say they remind me of the Trekking Ombre range....

I will hopefully show you more of the 'green square' from a previous post next week and also my Shetland Triangle by Evelyn Clark I cast on last night in Rowanspun DK.....

Edge-to-Edge...

Remeber this from my last post?

Well it turned into this (rather quickly I may add)

and finally into this (after several hours of on/off sewing yesterday) - the front view shows the colours (your monitor permitting) in their true form

and as I'm not modelling it, to show the shape and style to it's best advantage... here's how the pattern booklet shows it

This was an enjoyable and relatively quick knit and the garter stitch shows the yarn off to its best advantage as does this particular pattern.... although there are some other nice patterns in the book too.... which is Patons 1263 - Shadow Tweed

I have to say I'm pleased with this chunky yarn, as most of you know I don't really do chunky but I ended up with the short straw; 4 new yarns for Patons this season, 3 DK's and one chunky of course I let my other 3 knitters choose which yarn they wanted to knit with first and I got left with this one... but I have to confess to being very pleased with both yarn, pattern and resulting garment

This was knit on 6.5mm and used 750g of yarn and is fairly lightweight as the yarn is a blend of 56% wool, 40% Acrylic & 4% Viscose.... it's a loosely spun single which is actually fairly strong to kinit with and doesn't just drift apart like some yarns of this type do.... The yarn is interesting as it's a bit like self striping sock yarn as the colours do repeat through the ball but only every 60g out of the 100g ball, so I think it would make for a really simple garter stitch scarf or a scarf with a simple textured pattern such as my My So Called Scarf

On other front's knitting/crocheting is progressing and I'm getting my head round that I'm going to knit a sweater without a pattern so have been reading up on EZ... I'm trying not to think too far past the armholes at the moment when things will become interesting/difficult or I may never get to the armholes.... I think too much at times!!!

I have to say thank you to Fleegle for saying "I love your blog" am touched that someone that writes as well as she does considers my humble blog worthy to put on her sidebar.....

Next time I shall enlighten you as to what the green square was in my last post...

Of things to come...

I thought I would be a bit mean and do a Brooklyn Tweed style taster shot of things to come (not that I'm in the same league of course!!!) of what I've been working on and the yarns I've been working with...

Item 1:

Item 2:

More at a later date ;o)

The Shame of it....

not blogging for the last few weeks that is, I've really no excuse for not posting, it isn't as I've been sitting on my hands since my last post... I just couldn't seem to motivate myself to blog :o( anyway rather than do a massive post with what I've been doing and buying... I thought I'd start with a small post and not over tax myself and set blogging progress back!!!

So we'll start with the knitting that keeps me sane and just gets picked up and put down as I feel without guilt... the socks....

I completed these for my friend Mike's birthday at the end of August; there a rather nice denim blue colour and are Opal Fantasie 1912. As always with Mike + Socks they went down well, as apart from myself & DH, Mike is the biggest beneficiary of my sock knitting and to quote him the other day "I can't remember the last time I wore shop bought socks"... this is the type of friend a knitter should have ;o)

Days later off the DPN's came these Regia Galaxy 1557 (Ocean) these are for SIL for her birthday in October... I am being organised this year!!!

Now despite being nearly finished this is my 1st ever toe-up sock so just to prove it's toe up I thought I'd take it's photo on the needles.... I've been after trying to do one of these for ages, in fact probably since the beginning of the year but I just couldn't master the Turkish Cast On until through a blog of a blog I came across this post by FluffyKnitterDeb which just made the light bulb click on for me with this cast on....

I really wanted to do a toe up not just to add to my repertoire of skills but because the yarn is my own hand spun Superwash BFL "Splash" from Natalie of the The Yarn Yard. I've already knit a pair of socks from my hand spun and sweated all the way from top to toe so I was determined that as I'd spun the yarn into two balls for two socks I was going to do a toe-up sock so at least as long as the foot was knit (Size 10) then the amount of yarn could determine the length of the leg... so I started with the smallest ball. I should have enough yarn left for another 3cm of rib....

And for the final sock round up this is the start of my 2nd pair of socks towards my Christmas knitting and is Trekking 84 - a very unimaginative name for a very pretty yarn with a very big pattern repeat but as this is only a size 4 you will not see all the patterns in one sock before the yarn repeats; if my memory serves me right there is only 2 full patterns repeats on a 100g ball with a 3rd partial repeat!!!

And finally to lace.... the Spring Things... I have to say I've not been inspired to knit this and the first section has been a labour and certainly not of love... I have plenty of handspun but I can't face doing anymore repeats of this first pattern to make the shawl bigger... I have 80g of yarn left and I started with 100g... so by the time it's finished I will probably have enough left for a Swallowtail or a Forest Canopy or some other simple shawl... I wish I'd taken the gamble now and done Laminaria with it!!! Ah well hindsight is a wonderful thing as they say...

I'm pleased with how my first handspun lace yarn is knitting up though... but the shawl isn't going to come out as big as the pattern stated, but never mind....

I will be back soon, with other my other yarn related exploits....