Yvaine

Link to new aranbrew.com site.

I love Neil Gaiman. Though you guys already know this after the presenting Neil Gaiman with a crocheted bee incident. I've read almost all his books at this stage. I do like to space out the reading of Gaiman as when I've finished them all I'll be bereft. I still have Good Omens left to read. A recent read was Stardust which I really loved, it's a great all ages story. I watched the film too and loved that as much as the book which is rare for me. I prefer books to film versions of books and also if I've read a book I know what happens so why see a film of it too? Stardust was an exception as they really captured the spirit of the book and there was some great acting too. I loved the section with Robert De Niro most of all.

Anyway all this rambling brings me to the Yvaine shawl that I mentioned briefly here. I saw this pattern when I used Ravlery's snazzy search feature to search for patterns that used about 330m of sport weight yarn. It's really useful to be able to search like that especially when knitting with handspun as you only have a limited amount of it. You can't go and get more of the yarn if you run out.  Yvaine is a versatile pattern and I thought it would suit the texture of the handspun well. Also since there is no lace or patterning I could just keep knitting until I ran out of yarn. There are supposed to be moss stitch panels on the shawl but I was lazy and just did some garter ridges instead. I have a problem with moss stitch even when knitting it in a rectangle shape I usually get it wrong. I tried a row of it but couldn't work out how to deal with moss stitch and increases so I just left it. I think it looks fine without the moss stitch. I finished it this week so that's another quick knit. At this rate though I think there might be another force at work. I think after all this time and practice I might be getting quicker at knitting. It certainly seems so. I'm pretty happy about that as I've always been a slow knitter. Even as a kid I didn't get my regulation tea cosy done in time for parents night, I think my Mum finished the last few rows for me!

I liked this pattern a lot, it taught me how triangular shawls are constructed, it's always nice when it clicks in your brain how it works and I'm pretty sure I could knit a shawl with no pattern now. This project perfectly filled the gap between finishing my Easkey wave wrap and going on holidays next Thursday. We're off to Chamonix and the Alps and I can't wait. The Yvaine shawl is blocking so hopefully I can get some nice photos of it with mountains in the background. I've picked up a nasty lung infection of some sort and that's why I'm here blogging instead of busily packing for the trip. I'm on antibiotics and strong painkillers so I'm ensconced on the sofa. I've started watching Doctor Who though so that's cheering me up. I've also made a sneaky start on a project I was saving for the holidays, the Rasta Kitty hat from Aoibhe. Maybe I'll finish that in time for wearing on my trip to the Mer de Glace.

Easkey Wrap

After finishing up Annis I started knitting away on my summer cardigan. I think it should be finished just as we come into the autumn which is fine as for once we're enjoying summer weather in Ireland. It would be too warm to wear the cardigan just now. Since I'm in no rush to finish the cardigan I started thinking of projects new and decided to cast on using some old stash. I feel I'm doing quite well with my stash recently. I've been working with what I have and giving away stuff I definitely won't use. I had five balls of salmon pink mirasol cotanani that I got on sale in This Is Knit ages ago  and was planning to use for some sort of vest. Plans changed however when I spotted Carol Feller's captiva wrap on her blog just after she published the pattern. I fell in love with the pattern and there was just enough cotanani to make it so I ear marked the yarn to make the wrap.

I cast on last week and am in love with the pattern and the yarn and how it's all working up. The pattern is wonderful, it's just so cleverly put together. It's worked side to side and the edging is worked along with the pattern. It's a very satisfying knit as you see the lovely scallops emerging and it's going so quickly. The yarn is lovely too, the mix of wool and cotton give a lovely crisp stitch definition. It's probably the perfect antidote to the intricacies of Annis. I love how it's turning out and can't wait to see it finished as I think it will be really wearable.

The scallops along the edge of this pattern and the shape of the wrap remind me of a wave as it’s just about to break. So I’ve named my version of this pattern Easkey after the famous wave break in Sligo. There’s a famous Irish surfer called Easkey Britton who was called after the wave so maybe it’s no wonder she grew up to surf. I’d imagine her throwing on this wrap in a casual way to warm up after catching a few waves in the cold clear water off the west coast. I might use it for the same thing even though I'm really terrible at surfing. I usually flop around the place on my boogie board getting odd looks from the real surfers, probably because my wetsuit is a state as it's more a canyoning wetsuit. It's got holes and is ripped from catching on rocks while abseiling down waterfalls.    

I also crocheted up a quick phone cover using some Kilcarra Donegal tweed for my husbands new phone. Crochet covers are great, so quick and easy. This one was done by chaining the right number of stitches to go along the bottom of the phone then double crochets all around the chain and working in the round until it was big enough to cover the phone. I've been crocheting some small things recently and have enjoyed getting my crochet mojo back. I think I'm ready to move on to something bigger. I'd love to do a shawl or something but I'm going to keep searching until I find a really nice pattern. 








Here's some dyeing I did recently. It's 100g of shetland top I got ages ago and was hoping to dye. I think it turned out really well.  I think it will look really cool when I spin it up.

Get Your Knit On!

With the title of the last post I couldn't resist. So why should you get your knit on? Well it's world wide knit in public day tomorrow. I'm going to the event in Stephens Green hosted by the wonderful Sinead of Knit Inc. I've even baked a batch of cookies, they're pecan, sultana and cranberry and hopefully they'll be gobbled up. WWKIP is great fun so come along, it's a chance to meet lots of knitters. It's also fun to see everyone stop to ponder why a load of people are sitting round knitting.

While at WWKIP day or knit night a nice easy project is a must. My current large cardigan, Summer's end, isn't suitable for social kntting at all. With all the talking I do I know I'd come home and have to rip it all back to fix the many mistakes I'd surely make. Enter the scribble lace stole by R of She Knit Up That, this must be the perfect mindless knitting project. It's garter stitch on large needles using kidsilk haze and noro blossom. Even though it's a simple project it's massively effective producing a gorgeous stylish stole that is perfect for summers evenings. I'm hoping to have mine done soon.

I've also been crocheting the odd block from 200 crochet blocks for blankets throws and afghans. This book is great, I like to pick it up and a make a quick block from it. This particular rosette was supposed to continue to become a square but after this much I decided I liked it and finished it off. I have a plain white jumper and think this would brighten it up. I also think a load of buttons sewn on to the jumper might be nice too. Maybe I can do both.   

In my last knitting post I was telling you all about the Summer's end cardigan and I was hoping it would be my main project for a while but I've been distracted! This Is Knit are running a summer knit a long (link to ravelry thread). I really enjoyed the last one where I finished my owls jumper in double quick time. This time they're knitting the annis shawl from knitty. It's a lovely pattern and there's even help sessions in the shop to help everyone with any tricky bits. I'm hoping I won't get too badly stuck but that's the beauty of a knit a long, there's always someone who is ahead of you so they can help you out. The yarn on the left is Malabrigo lace in the olive colourway. I have a skein of malabrigo sock in rayon vert but I thought it was a little too variegated for this lacy shawl. I also had this idea that it should be green so when I saw this fabulous dark olive with hints of brown I had to have it. The cast on is huge, 363 stitches! Thankfully there is only one repeat of the lace section and then it's short row stocking stitch. So look out for progress on that in the coming weeks.

Lastly I'll leave you with the latest batt to come from Louie the drum carder. It's called Ondine and was inspired by mermaids and the rusalka. It's blue alpaca with various sea and seaweedy colours of merino. There is sparkle and ribbon to represent the turn of a wave. There is also thread and netting to catch the mermaid in a wool woven spell. I'll spin it into a special yarn. 

 

Summer Cardigan

My latest knitting project is a cardigan called Summer's End (Ravelry Link). I can only give you a Ravelry link as the designers website doesn't seem to be working anymore. It's a cardigan worked bottom up all in one piece then the sleeves are knit and joined on. It's a simple enough design but it does have a lovely lace section that will add a nice bit of interest. I'm hoping it will be a nice wearable cardigan for the chilly summer evenings we get here.

I'm knitting it with blue aran wool I got ages ago in the Woolen mills in Clare. I had originally thought I'd make a crochet blanket with the wool but now I think it will be nicer as a cardigan. I made enough crochet blocks from this wool to make a large cushion cover and I must get around to finishing that off some time soon.

I'm hoping the name of the design won't be too prophetic and that I will manage to finish this before the summer ends. I'm quite a slow knitter and this isn't great when you write a knitting blog. It's hard to write lots of posts about the progress of the same garment and I'm sure reading about the endless slog to finish a cardigan wouldn't be too entertaining for anyone reading either.

The lace is going well and I'm finding that with practise I don't need as many counters and I can remember what I'm supposed to be doing more easily. I find the lace keeps me knitting a little faster as there is a bit interest from row to row, I get bored if I have miles of stocking stitch to do with no breaks. 

I have to show you a close up picture of the cutest stitch marker ever. It's a lemon cupcake! It's from K at Chocolate Bunni Crafts and is part of a set of four terribly cute lemon cupcakes. She makes loads of really cute stitch makers so check her shop out. You'll be supporting an Irish crafter too which is full of win. These stitch markers really do cheer me up each time I move them from one needle to the next.




I made a pair of baby booties recently as a present. I crocheted these from some purple cotton and they turned out to be very cute. There is only one problem, I think they may be too small to fit the baby! I may still give them as a present anyway and see if they fit. If not I can always make them again, it shouldn't be hard to make them in a bigger size. The pattern is available here.

A little storm cloud

After my success at the Ravelympics with the Ishbel shawl I decided I wanted to knit another shawl. I had some gorgeous purple mohair boucle yarn from Cushendale woolen mills in my stash. I was on the look out for the perfect shawl pattern that would suit the yarn.  I decided anything too lacey wouldn't show up and I also wanted a quick enough knit.

I think I found the perfect pattern in the storm cloud shawlette. It's a semi-circular shawl that knits up really easily using an elongated garter stitch pattern. To add some interest I decided to use some of the core spun art yarn to add a bit of interest every couple of rows. It's much bigger now than it was in this picture so I should finish it soon. After that my plans for summer knitting include many more shawls.
 

When I finished the Ishbel shawl I promised I'd take some better pictures of it. The picture of it blocking doesn't do it justice at all what with the mad background of my blue yoga mat. So here it is looking like it's supposed to. I've worn the shawl many times now and I really love it. It's not too big and it's just perfect for keeping the wind out when I wear a coat. There's always the satisfaction of wearing something that you made yourself too.

Some Spinning

Currently spinning a batt called Betsy Doodles by Laura Hogan from her etsy shop. Beautiful blue merino and soft fuzzy grey shetland. It will be 2-ply and about fingering weight when it's done.

Ravelympics Winter 2010

Who am I to fight against weird internet memes? The knitting Olympics has been run for many years by the Yarn Harlot. Then Ravelry got in on the act setting up the Ravelympics. The idea is that you cast on at the opening ceremony and finish a whole project by the closing ceremony challenging yourself in the process. I was on holidays during the last olympics so I didn't quite get my mittens knit on time and missed out on a medal.

This time there would be no mistakes, I had put in the training and I was going to get a medal if it killed me, well perhaps not kill but major RSI was a risk I'm telling you. I decided to do two challenging projects, one spinning and one a lace shawl.

The lace shawl would be the famous and fabulous Ishbel by Ysolda Teague. I cast on the day the olympics started in The Bull and Castle pub with a pint of Galway Hooker to steady the nerves. I was there to meet the wonderful Irish members of the all conquering Ravelry group, Lazy, Stupid and Godless. I love that group of crazy beatchs. I got to meet my fibre dealer Laura Hogan too, go to her Etsy shop and she'll sort you out with a fiber fix. Kneehigh brought a date, her Mmmmalabrigo scarf, she knows how to show yarn a good time. The distractions of great conversation, a rugby match and beer were all too much and I had to start it about five times before I figured out what I was supposed to do. I then had trouble with the purl yarn overs so I put the knitting aside and concentrated on the fun day out part.

It transpires that I'm not the only one who had problems with the yarn overs and this helpful post explained the problem. I used the large holes solution and that worked perfectly. The yarn is a lovely merino, cashmere, nylon mix from Old Maiden Aunt that I dyed myself during the course I did with Lillith in Scotland last year. The stocking stitch part went really quickly and then I got into the lace. I haven't done much lace knitting before so doing a big project with charts was a challenge. When I figured out how the charts worked I found the charts much easier to follow than written lace directions. In future I'll definitely be doing all lace from charts. I really enjoyed knitting the lace. I made a couple of mistakes but I noticed them and was able to either tink back or in the case of a missing yarn over a row down I used this handy method to fix it.

I knit most of the shawl while actually watching the Winter Olympics on BBC2. I love the winter games, as a kid we had Eurosport and I got obsessed by watching ski jumping on it and I still love it. This time I really fell for the new discipline of ski cross. The first set of obstacles are called Wu-Tangs after the Wu-Tang clan, bringing some much needed gangsta to proceedings. I also got to dream about being as cool as Amy Williams and throwing myself at race car speeds down an ice slope on a glorified tea tray. In fairness the closest I'll get to emulating the athletes is by trying my hand at curling in Chamonix later this year. Here's the Ishbel blocking on my bright blue yoga mat. When it's dry I'll take some glamorous shots of it and post them up. I've been looking at it not quite able to believe I knit it in just over two weeks. I love it.

 

The spinning part of my Ravelympics was a challenge too. I wanted to spin up the lovely merino/tencel fiber that I dyed as part of my dyeing course at Old Maiden Aunt. I had ideas about what I wanted this yarn to be. The fiber is a grey/purple mixed with white. Tencel being a plant based fiber doesn't absorb the acid dyes one uses on wool based fiber so it stays white which gives a fantastic effect.

I wanted to corespin the fiber but my last corespun yarn ended up very over twisted and not looking too happy. There's a great group called Novelty and Art Yarn Spinners on Ravelry where I found a link to JazzTurtle's fantastic blog post about core spinning. I tried her technique and it worked much better this time, it's almost balanced in the end. I wanted this yarn to be bulky and thick and think. I also autowrapped the yarn with black lurex thread. Autowrapping is a fun technique where you leave a thread to do it's own thing while you're spinning so it wraps around the spun yarn at the wheel's orifice. The yarn ended up bulky weight and I have about 70 metres of it. I think it will look fab as a funky hat or cowl. I might combine it with some left over black Hulda from my Owls jumper. I named the yarn Bill Compton as I've been watching rather a lot of True Blood lately. I think it suits, it's dark and twisted and all that.

Crafty donations and a mysterious crocheted tache

It's been busy around here recently. I've been doing a lot of study for college and I'm still crafting away but the blog has been neglected. Progress is going well on my owls jumper. I've finished the main body and one sleeve and I've got about halfway through the other sleeve. I finally figured out how to do a make one properly with this project. I'm finding the sleeves hard going but I'm sure I'll start knitting much faster when those owls start to appear on the yoke. It's a very clever pattern as just when you're beginning to get sick of it along comes the yoke with a nice cable pattern with owls. I love how it looks so far. I''m also almost finished my Montego Bay scarf, I need to have it finished so I can wear it in Jamaica for christmas.

I've also been collecting free crafty stuff in the last few weeks. Has anyone noticed that when you do a craft people who used to do said craft decide to unload stuff they don't use on you? I've had yarn donated to me before and it usually doesn't work out. I tend to end up with a load of yarn I don't know what to do with and it sits there making me feel guilty about not using it. However this past two weeks I've had some donations of a crafty nature that were really wanted and useful.

A friend of mine mentioned to a friend of hers (in a complicated chain that always brings random stuff) that I was into spinning and she said she had a load of fleece and spinning equipment that she didn't want anymore. So I called to my friends and found a bag with some old fleece that I had to throw out as it looked past its best. There can be problems with old fleece if it hasn't been stored well as it can contain moths. Moths plus fiber equals bad. They lay eggs in the fiber destroying it. Ick! So I wasn't taking that chance. But the rest of the stuff was great. I bagged a lazy kate with two bobbins, a set of hand carders and a niddy noddy. What on earth is a niddy noddy I hear you ask.

A niddy noddy apart from sounding cool is a nifty device for making a skein of yarn. You wrap the yarn around the niddy noddy and because the ends are perpendicular to each other it makes it easy to wrap the yarn and to take it off. Much easier than using the back of a chair. The yarn I have wrapped is a silk merino blend that I left as a singles yarn. I'm really happy with it, its consistent and not over twisted even though it isn't plied.

The lazy kate and bobbins baffled me a bit at first. I have a lazy kate for my wheel and the bobbins from this one wouldn't fit my wheel, so what to do with them? Then it dawned on me, I could use it for my spindle spun yarn. I've been spinning this falkland top on my spindle for months now. I'm getting a bit bored of it at this stage and I wanted to spin something else on it. So I unwound it all onto the bobbin. I used a shoe box to make a support for the spindle to make it easy to wind the yarn off. I'm chuffed with it as it's incredibly thin and even. I might be good enough at this spindling lark to go treat myself to a shiny new spindle.

It gets a bit boring spinning top that is all one colour so I decided to dye the rest of the falkland top. Now this would have been a problem if it wasn't for the other crafty donation of the past two weeks. The rather wonderful Wyvernfriend mentioned she was getting rid of some pots that were no longer suitable for her new cooker. So I asked could I take them to use for dyeing. I called over and picked up the pots and a had a great chat with a fellow knitter. Much more fun than buying pots.

Today I had finished my projects and a literature review so some fun dyeing was in order before I start studying for my exams. Even Westley tried to get in on the act. Maybe he harbours ambitions to dye himself. I'm now imagining a blue, green and purple Westley. I dyed the top a blue colour from a pot of landscape dye I got by mistake in an order from Wingham and I also threw in a bit of green food colouring. It seemed to work. Santa is bringing me some proper dyes for christmas so I'll do a post with a tutorial about dyeing when I get them.
When dyeing with acid dyes you have to use separate dye pots that aren't used for food. That's why I needed the donated pots.



 
And finally I leave you with news that Sherlock Holmes is alive and sleuthing away in London...

One of my random conversations with Ais resulted in me promising to crochet a tache for her. I think she may have been feeling left out with all this talk of movember. Or perhaps she just gets cold cycling round London. How and ever I made the tache and extracted a promise that she would send me a photo of her wearing it. It winged its way through a postal strike and I was sent this great photo. All she really needs is a pipe to complete the look.
Anyway I think that's quite enough rambling on for one evening. This is getting to be a bit teal deer.
 



   

Knitting fever and a parliament of owls

I mentioned in my last post that thoughts of winter always make a knitter happy as it's time for them to take out their needles once again and wrap up in cozy hand knitted clothes.

I seem to be taking the coming cold days very seriously this year and I've knit lots of things in the past few weeks. I knit a calorimetry headscarf to go with my merino wool mittens. It's a lovely pattern and just perfect for small amounts of handspun wool. It gives you just enough warmth without being too big and bulky, just the thing to wear while walking the dog in the current weather. I know my Mum would love one so I might have to get spinning to make another. 

I have another finished object to show off, yes show off as I'm really pleased with this and how it turned out. It's a cabled beret, the Rangoli hat. I knit it using handspun blue faced leicester, I had just about enough yarn to finish it, there was very little left over. I love the flower pattern on the top. It's a well written pattern with a great chart. I haven't used many knitting charts and I think this one is a good one to get started with them. I was worried when I first started this hat that it was a bit white aran Clancy brothers looking. The pattern saves it from that fate and makes it into a more modern take on a white aran hat. I think it looks quite chic when on especially as it's a bit slouchy. I can imagine me wearing this with my long black coat and boots in the winter.

As if all these new finished objects weren't enough I've started yet another new knitting project. It all started with this thread on ravelry (log in needed) where someone said they wanted to knit the owls jumper. A few other people said they wanted to knit it too and the idea of a knit-a-long formed. A knit-a-long is where lots of knitters knit the same pattern so they can help and encourage each other to get it finished. I've wanted to knit an owls ever since I saw Aileen's owls and everyone is fond of owls aren't they?

So it was that I found myself in This Is Knit buying balls of Louisa Harding's Hulda yarn for an owls jumper. I'm allegedly not spending money on yarn at the moment, if I want yarn I use my stash or spin it myself, thems the rules. The get out clause was provided by tea and cakes who had the great logic that if I really wanted the jumper and cast on for it straight away then it was ok to buy yarn for it. I figured it would cost about as much as buying a nice jumper in a shop so that was ok then. By the way the Hulda yarn is really nice, it's a wool, acrylic and linen mix and is really soft when knitted up. I'm using the black colourway as the flecks of white linen in it remind me of feathers.

For help with starting the pattern I went to Friday Fibre Fun at The Tea Garden organized by Playing with Fibre and Thread Bear. The Tea Garden is one of the cooler places I've been to in Dublin, they have lots of lovely nooks and crannies to sit in and it's very relaxed. They have wonderful posh teas, yes they're expensive but they leave you sit there and enjoy them for the whole evening. I had a fabulous darjeeling served in a lovely cute tea pot. It was a lovely evening hanging out and meeting new knitters, some of whom I'd known from twitter and ravelry, it's nice to put a face to the names. I think I will be back to Friday Fibre Fun as it's just that, fun. I get the feeling more help might be needed with my owls jumper too. 




 

Knitting for turning leaves

I thought I haven't been knitting much recently until I put up the photos for this post. I've been getting a bit done it seems. I think it's the chill in the air that has given me the incentive to start knitting again. A knitter always starts to turn to wooly things once the autumn comes in.

First up I made a scarf from the supercoil yarn I spun recently. I cast on 12 stitches on comedy 15mm needles, they're huge. I knit in garter stitch until the yarn ran out. I sewed on a few matching buttons and use them to tie up the scarf. I found the large stitches stretched out a bit so the scarf isn't as wide as I thought it would be, that's ok. I have some lilac yarn which matches the yarn in this scarf so I may make matching handwarmers if I have enough yarn.

I am a firm believer that you can't have too many gloves and mittens. I love making gloves as they're really quick, useful and pretty. People sometimes tell me that I can get gloves for a euro in Penneys so why bother knitting but you can't get gloves this funky or unique anywhere. This is my handspun merino and it knit up nicely into these lacy handwarmers. The pattern is filigree (Rav Link) from Knitting New Mittens and Gloves by Robin Melanson. I've made mittens from this book before. This pattern was really easy and well written, it's a great book. I had lots of yarn left over which I wasn't expecting. I might something like calorimetry to go with these as I don't think I have enough yarn for a whole hat but this should keep my ears warm.

Work progresses well on the Montego Bay scarf. I've been knitting it on the bus and it's getting longer and longer almost without me noticing it. I'm mostly half asleep while knitting it in the morning so that may explain it. The pattern is easy to remember and the drape and colour of the yarn is stunning. I see people sneaking peaks at it while I'm knitting.

I haven't been crocheting much recently. I think me and crochet might need a bit of a break from each other after the shill shell shawl debacle (end of post). I look at crochet patterns and feel fear it will all go wrong again. Maybe if I give it time we can reconcile and get on well together again. For the meantime I'll keep knitting as it's solid, reliable and never lets me down. Maybe crochet is that flighty friend you know, the one who lets you down but when it/they come up trumps they're awesome.

Bag Lady

So just in case you guys think I don't knit anymore here's a finished object. It's the Kemp Handbag (Ravelry Link) in Noro Blossom yarn. I saw this pattern in a magazine, fell in love and bought the actual yarn suggested which I rarely do. For this bag it would look quite plain if it wasn't for the lovely Noro with it's great colours. It was a really easy quick knit.

However it languished in the back of the wardrobe because I couldn't work up the enthusiasm to make a lining for it. Now that I have a sewing machine sewing things up isn't an onerous task anymore. I made a lining from a chocolate brown fabric my Mum had lying around. Just to explain, my Mum works in a fabric and furnishing shop so she has a lot more fabric lying around than most other mothers. In fact she wouldn't have difficulty opening her own fabric shop. I even went fancy and put a big pocket and a mobile phone pocket on the inside. I then hand stitched the lining inside the bag. The handles were ones Dave had bought for me.

It was finished and it was nice but then I decided I should really make a flap to cover the opening. When out and about using a bag it's handy to be able to close it so nobody can sneak into it and rob your wallet. So I knitted a flap and used two handmade buttons that I got in Ginger Knits, Morar, Scotland. I looked ok before the flap but I think the flap and buttons really lifts the look of the bag. I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Two Crochet Shawls and Spinning Progress

It hasn't all been spinning here at Aran Brew, I've been doing a bit of crochet as well. I decided to make a lace shawl for the summer from the lovely Handmaiden Seasilk I ordered from the US last year. I finally decided on the Shill Shell Shawl pattern and got started. When you crochet something big like this the first row is always the hardest. So I went very slowly and finally got through the first row. After this it gets easier as it's a three row repeating pattern which is interesting enough to keep me interested but it's not so difficult that I want to give up. I find lace knitting really difficult and I was glad to find that crochet lace is a bit easier. Since you're only ever working with one stitch at a time it's easier to keep track of.

Here's what I've done so far. The silk yarn is amazing, it's the colour of the Caribbean sea.



Inspired by Jagienka over at 2 Knit Or Not 2 Knit I decided to make the Drops crochet shawl she had made. I want a triangular shawl for spring and this looks nice, quick and easy. My friend had given me some pink with silver yarn so I decided to use it in this shawl.



The spinning is going well. May I present my first bobbin of yarn.



Left to right we have white blue faced leicester, green merino, more blue faced leicester, a purple merino silk blend and a pink merino silk blend.I'm actually finding the blue faced leicester a bit harder to work with so I need to do more practice with it to get the hang of it.



I decided to spin this pink merino silk blend as my very first full project on the wheel. I got this combed top from Wingham. It weighs 100g so I'll spin it onto one bobbin until I have about 50g left and spin the remaining 50g onto another bobbin then ply the two together. It's going well. I'm finding it easy enough to get a rhythm going. As you can see in the picture there are some bits that are a bit too twisty. These will even themselves out when I ply it. I'd prefer to have it a bit too twisty than too loose and falling apart. I wonder what this yarn will be when it grows up?

To Bee Or Not To Bee?

That is the question. Tomorrow one of my favourite authors Neil Gaiman is appearing in Chapters bookshop on Parnell Street to do a reading and signing. I will be going along. I've read nearly all his books and love them. I am rationing out reading the last of his books and The Sandman series though as I don't want to run out of new Gaiman books to read.

Neil is here to promote the film of his novel Coraline which is out this weekend in Ireland. It looks amazing, everything in it was hand made and even the costumes were knitted by hand in miniature by Althea Crome. The Graveyard Book came out recently as well.

I decided I'd be extra nerdy and make something to give to him. Hopefully I'll get the chance to. I got the idea to crochet a bee inspired by Coraline. Neil keeps bees so that's where that idea comes from. The bee has mismatched button eyes which if you've read Coraline you'll understand. I've never been quite as comfortable with buttons since I read that book. Anyway here is the punk button bee. I'll post back tomorrow evening if I manage to get the bee to Neil.

Finishing things and my first design

My blog was featured in the Irish Independent! Thanks to Marie Boran for featuring it.

January seems to have been a month of finishing off various projects so that when the end of month comes I'll have no works in progress and can decide to make any new project I want. I finished the alpine frost scarf which worked out nicely. Radcliffe the bear volunteered to model it. It's very soft and lovely to wear.



I hope this scarf goes with the ceangealtas mittens I made a while ago but I'm worried now. The Yarn Harlot says her daughter asked her to make her a hat and mittens but that it wasn't to be too 'knitty'. She's right, I'm marked as a knitter with my mismatched hats, scarfs and gloves.

To remedy this I have been knitting a hat to go with the mittens from the same wool so they are definitely going to match. The Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride is a lovely wool with a nice fuzziness from the 15% mohair. I don't think I mentioned this hat before even though I've been working on it since before christmas. It's my own design and well I'm quite proud of it.

I used to have a hat with bits sticking out the top so I wanted something like that. I also wanted to try a bit of fair isle stranded knitting. I found a chart of a snowflake so decided to put a ring of them around the hat.

I cast on in the round and did a few rows of ribbing before starting the snowflakes. I even managed to do two handed fair isle knitting. I used this knit picks video to figure it out. I decreased a bit at the top of the hat then I stopped working in the round and knit all the pointy bits back and forth. I french knit a tie for the top to keep them all together while on.

One thing I didn't account for was that the fair isle part of the hat didn't stretch as much as normal knitting would. When the hat was finished it was a bit tight and it needed a bit of aggressive blocking. I found a pudding bowl in a shop that was the same size as my head, yes I tried on the pudding bowl in the shop. I hope nobody saw me, they would rightly conclude I was a lunatic. Anyway I blocked (this is where you wet a piece and dry in the shape you want) the hat on the bowl for a while and then pinned it out to dry completely.





It came out really well and I'm pleased to have a one off hat. Also it may save me from looking too knitty when out and about. I now have no old projects that I need to finish off lurking in my knitting bag. It's exciting thinking about what I'll do next. I have some plans but that's a whole other post.

Secret Santa Goodies

The Irish Knitters group on Ravelry had a Secret Santa swap for Christmas so of course I joined in. It was great fun finding out about and then shopping for a fellow knitter. None of my friends or family knit except my Mum so I don't get to buy many woolly presents.
The swap was started late so it was decided the presents would be sent for Little Christmas or Nollaig na mBan. This was a nice touch as traditionally it's the day women get spoiled after Christmas by their husbands and children.



I received my present and spoiled I was! Loads of wonderful goodies. Lovely yarn which with it's lovely summer colours might make a lovely lacy crocheted scarf. Lots of sweets which are now gone, the percy pigs didn't make it past the first hour. There were even doggie biscuits which Westley was very pleased about.

There's a pack of roving which may be spun into yarn or maybe needle felted into a cool accessory for a bag I'm planning to make soon. There's a pack of very nice, very very handy stitch markers. Those purple buttons are fabulous, I'll have to find something special to put them on. The little dog and cat are very cute.

Lurking there is some hand cream which is great as I have no hand cream left after this week. My allergy caused a lovely rash on my hands which has lead to them peeling. I can't crochet or knit at the moment as my hands get stuck in the wool. So the hand cream is great.

Thanks a million Secret Santa!

Westley's Winter Warmer

It's pretty cold here for the start of december. Our new dog is settling in well and we brought him for a few walks in the frost over the weekend. He's so wooly that he didn't seem to mind the cold as much as we did. We decided to call him Westley. For the nerds among you yes that is Westley from The Princess Bride. For those who don't know it, it's the best film and book ever. He's a good dog apart from a tendency to dig up and eat everything in the garden. There goes my growing hops idea.

I haven't brewed since I made my all grain stout. I bottled some of the stout and the rest is in a barrel where it's supposed to be waiting until it's nearer christmas before it gets drank. This hasn't happened, myself and Dave are supping away on the stout. It's lovely, it's roasty and it has a lovely chocolate taste to it as well. It's not quite fizzy enough so I may have to carbonate it a little with some CO2 if I ever get round to buying the attachment for the barrel. It might be gone before then.

I wanted to make a warming spicy winter beer. I pulled out my recently purchased Complete Joy of Homebrewing and found a likely recipe. Then I set to work modifying it. I don't think I've ever made a beer exactly as it was in the book. This isn't because I haven't wanted to but because the ingredients are hard to get so I usually modify the recipe to suit what I actually have.

Westley's Winter Warmer

15 Litre Batch.

Grain:
180g Crystal Malt (Steeped in 6L of water at 67 Degress Celsius for 30 minutes)
1.052g Light DME
1 kg Medium DME
About 450g Honey

Hops:
12g Centennial Hops @ 60 minutes from end of boil
10g Cascade Hops @ 5 minutes from end of boil

Spices:
10 minutes from end of boil
Rind of two oranges
10g grated ginger root
cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1/4 of a nutmeg grated
1 tsp liqurice root powder
4 whole cloves

Sachet of Danstar Nottingham Yeast

OG: 1.060



I wanted a high alcohol beer to give a bit of warmth to all those spices. As well the hops should add more citrus to the beer. I have no idea if it will be nice but that's the fun of homebrewing, making beer you'd never be able to buy. Hopefully it'll come out as a spicy warm beer.



As always I got some knitting done while waiting for the pot to boil. This is the Darkside Cowl I'm making for my Mum for christmas. I love the pattern and it's knitting up fairly quickly. The silk is so beautiful, photos don't do it justice.



I know this photo is blurred but the dog wouldn't stay still. They never do. This is Westley with his batch of beer, he tried eating the hops when I emptied the pot but he didn't seem so impressed with them. Maybe he'd prefer malt? That's one of my better bottles which I hope will make fermentation a bit easier. They have a tap on the bottom which you can adjust so it's just above the sediment so that should make racking to secondary and bottling the beer so much easier. The airlock is a dry trap which is pretty clever.