Stripy Shellseeker cycling hoodie - DONE!

She sells sea shells?

It's finished, and I love my hoody, although my Shellseeker is not perfect, I learnt a lot. including my first attempts at off piste knitting, aka designing the hood. Other knitting techniques new to me were; 3 needle bind off, magic loop for the sleeves and applied i-cord! Next time I'd make a far better mark II hood now that I have worked out the construction! The top down construction of the whole sweater is ingenious, look mum no seams!

I blogged the start of my Shellseeker here. I used Drops Merino Extra Fine, and I can't recomend this yarn enough, I can only wear superwash, it's a far better price than other 100% merino brands and the colour spectrum is beautiful. I did order turquoise too, but a good knitty friend said that was not needed as too bright, funny how I have a turquoise T shirt on today! Perhaps I can use a colour like that for my next one? *

I was pleased with the red applied i-cord edging, I used 3 stitches so it's not too fat. I cannot get it to lay flat, I tried sort of blocking and sort of holding it flat whilst applying steam from the iron, but not touching.

I had not known about three needle bind off before either. what a quick and simple way to cast off and "sew" knitting together at the same time. Look how neat the seam is on the inside, you can also see how neatly the red applied i-cord attaches too.

This is the seam from the right side, every stitch perfectly matched up. 

Heidi's shellseeker just had a rolled unfinished edge but I picked up and added some 2x2 rib, I decreased a fair few stitches at the armhole seams on the first couple of rounds by starting k4 p4 on the sleeves and then reducing to k2p2. I then cast off the central front stitches and continued for the hood. I haven't blogged the mods as it's not great! 

I loved my stripe sequence but I did not like the evening spent sewing in three lots of all these ends, body and two sleeves, and then there were all the hood ones too! 

Self striping yarn would be my choice next time for many coloured stripes. The increases and decreases were harder as I didn't do the 2x2 stripe sequence recommended, if I had there would have been no need for a row counter and no ends. Heidi is so clever making the knitter's life easy.

The out takes! The back "flap" is a stripe longer than the front, I tried freestyling it to be much longer when on my bike but forgot the unseamed edge would just roll in, so it had to come out and I had to follow the pattern. These pattern designers do things for a reason!

The kangaroo pocket is a really useful value added feature of this pattern. I had flu really badly as I got to the pocket, and after 10 days I came back to working out the pocket construction from the pattern and was stumped. I couldn't picture it from the pattern. I thought I was wrong so I undid it. Stupid me, it was right! I searched Ravelry and found it wasn't just me, and the advice was to trust the pattern, do as your told and it will work out. The advice was spot on.

This is a sweater I'll take everywhere, abuse and love! If found abandoned on a garden bench please return to owner!

She Sells Sea Shells finished 20th February 2014 (took about 5 weeks but time out in the middle being ill)

YARN: 
Drops Extra Fine Merino DK 100% merino wool.
Light Grey Mix (05)
Denim Blue (13)
Light Grey Blue (19)
Green (18)
North Sea (28)
Red (11)
Mustard (30)
Pistachio (26)
Marine Blue 27
Purchased from Wool Warehouse

NEEDLES: KnitPro Symfonie circular 4mm

PATTERN: Heidi Kirmaier's Shellseeker

HAPPY KNITTY INDEX: 9/10 

PS *I love it so much I have cast on the next one in cotton bamboo, the morning after finishing She sells sea shells.....She's still seeking shells. See the turquoise was singing to me!

Betsy Bunny - my Little Cotton Rabbit - DONE!

Meet Betsy. She is just about to be packaged up and sent off to Durham to be cared for by my nearly 4 year old niece as it's her birthday next weekend.

Betsy is my first attempt at knitting any kind of toy, Nellie the elephant was crocheted! Most of the pieces are knitted flat so there is quite a bit of sewing up but I decided to half do the body, the legs and her dress in the round on dpns. Now I know how to do  magic loop I think I would use that to knit another bunny, easier and neater. The body is knitted in Rowan Felted Tweed in camel and Kidsilk Haze in pearl worked together and the dress, tights and shoes in Drops Baby Merino 4 ply, the colour range is just beautiful.

Julie's pattern is very precise and gives a great result, even for a beginner bunny maker. Lots of tips on sewing up and the all important stuffing and facial features. I made the dress a bit longer to cover up dodgy workmanship on Betsy's legs.

I even managed to be organised and knit Betsy in plenty of time for the birthday girl. I went to find her to package up and post and spent the whole weekend getting more and more desperate as she had run off. Eventually I found her on Monday night really buried in my yarn box under the bed. Phew, I didn't have time to knit another. Yes I had already looked in there several times! Betsy is having a breath of fresh air in the sunshine before a few days under wraps until being released into the wild in her new home next Sunday.

Next I will have to knit Betsy a brother, I think his name will be Bert!

Betsy Bunny finished 2nd February 2014 (knitted in a couple of weeks)

YARN: 
Body: Rowan Felted Tweed DK (157) in Camel 50% merino wool, 25% alpaca, 25% viscose and Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Pearl (590) 70% super kid mohair, 30% silk  Purchased from the ever wonderful Get Knitted in Bristol. 

Dress, tights and shoes: Drops Baby Merino 4 ply fingering 100% merino wool. Dress in Blue (30) and Light Sky Blue (24) Tights in Light Sky Blue (24) and White (01)  Shoes in Red (16) Purchased from Wool Warehouse

NEEDLES: KnitPro Symfonie 2.5mm 2.75mm and 3mm dpns

PATTERN: Little Cotton Rabbits' Bunny Girl in a Dotty Dress

HAPPY KNITTY INDEX: 8/10 (next one will be 9.5/10 as I know what I am doing now)

Shellseeker cycling hoodie or hoody - in progress!

I have made some more progress with my sweater, I am knitting Shellseeker by the talented Heidi Kirrmaier. I am using Drops Extra Fine Merino. I love this yarn, I used it for my French stripey throw and promised myself a sweater for me in it. Grey plus 8 colours, a ninth one has been rejected as being too bright. It's a superwash double knit yarn, so no hint of lanolin or itchy wool-itis, and it comes in lots of gorgeous natural shades and it is relatively affordable!

Shellseeker is a clever top down in the round construction with neat shaping...

..as you can see below, which cleverly incorporates the kangaroo pocket. Decreasing in the centre and increasing at the sides so the sticth number doesn't actually change but shaping happens! Now that pocket was a bit of a challenge, I had had flu badly and been in bed for ten whole days with no hope of knitting, and however hard I tried I could not fathom out the pocket logic. I googled and found others had the same problem. The solution...

...is to stop trying to imagine it and just follow the instructions exactly, and then it works. Even post flu befuddled brains can do it. I was so annoyed with myself as I undid it once when I had done it correctly...duh! Follow the instructions exactly as written and it works.

I am so proud of myself as, about a zillion years after everybody else, I also taught myself Magic Loop. I thought it was some extremely complicated clever technique for super advanced knitters requiring multiple classes to learn. It is extremely clever but super easy, knit anything in the round on one size circular needles. Google and watch a You Tube video for 2 minutes and anyone is an expert! I have just picked up the sleeve stitches from the holder in the pic above to knit magic loop. Now just to work out how you knit two socks at once.

The only problem with all these luscious stripes are the ends......I have sewn them all in except for the second sleeve I am just finishing off. 2 ends per colour stripe for the body and each sleeve Far wiser to use just two yarns as the pattern advises so the yarn can be carried up neatly! 156 ends, never mind a few grey ones too.....I have endititis.

Knitted Puff Daddy pouffe footstool - DONE!

I know, it might not be pc to call a pouffe a pouffe but in the same manner that fairy cakes have always been fairy cakes then squashy footstools were always called pouffes. I can't remember if it was the chicken or the egg that came first with this. Anyway a Puff  Daddy is a Very Fast Make! I think I had admired the Puff Daddy made up on Clicky Needles' blog or did I see the Sirdar Indie yarn in the exact colours of our curtains and cushions as bargain of the day on Get Knitted's website and then went looking for a knitted footstool pattern?

It was the colour combos in the yarn that did it. There were 13 balls left at sale price, and although the pattern called for 20 balls equivalent, I calculated I'd be OK with 13.

I cast on at Knit and Natter at Get Knitted on Friday 31st Jan 2014 and finished the knitting on Sat 1st Feb and sewed it up and stuffed the blooming thing on Sunday 2nd Feb. A record make, I wasn't knitting that much either!!

The Puff Daddy pattern is not overly taxing, but stuffing it is. For British knitters of a certain age (in your 40s at least) then you can liken the process to wrestling with Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks on a Saturday afternoon! The pattern is to cast on 35 stitches, knit tripled in garter stitch until the yarn runs out. As I had two thirds of the yarn I decided to knit with two strands, on 15mm needles, it worked out fine. Sew up the short seam and run running stitch around the bottom and draw up, shove in an old duvet rolled up and a pillow down the middle to fill it out a bit and I felt like I had gone 10 rounds with Frank Bruno! With a great deal of huffing and puffing and pummelling I finally managed to get a sort of cylindrical ball shape.

Now I can knit with my feet up, total cost £25 as opposed to £80-£150 on trendy websites.

PS I have been delaying posting this to take some better pictures but as it hasn't stopped raining for 2 months I have given up, so here is Puff Daddy

Brioche for breakfast

Brioche for breakfast

Fresh home made brioche for breakfast is so easy with a bread machine. I have had one for 15+ years and very rarely buy bread as it takes 2 minutes to weigh out the ingredients, as I go to bed, so we wake to a fresh loaf in the morning. I always feel like I am cheating, and not an ethical hands-on baker, but we eat fresh preservative free bread that is a lot healthier/tastier and cheaper than bought. Panasonic are the best bread makers, my first/ current one is 12+ years old (Panasonic SD-252), and I really really want one with a raisin dumper but the basic model just keeps on going! Previous to that I had 3 different cheap ones that all lasted 1-2 years, two were replaced twice under guarantee.

I have known Karen for years on twitter, we have never met, but she owns a beautiful award winning Hopton House B&B on the Shropshire/Welsh borders that I'd love to stay at one day. Her tweets, about the funny side of her life as a BnB landlady, keep me amused. However, it is her pics and descriptions of the breakfasts she serves her guests that always make me drool. Karen is kind enough to share many recipes and I stashed away her brioche recipe and make it in muffin tins as she advises. So here is her recipe, with the brands I use for failsafe bread:

Hopton House Karen's Orange Brioche recipe

1tsp Dove's Farm Quick Yeast (the packets are orange and 125g of yeast lasts a couple of months, keep in fridge in an air tight container, sold in Waitrose)
400g White bread flour (Waitrose Essential Strong White Bread Flour gives brilliant results and is reasonable price for great quality)
1 tsp salt
4 tblspn sugar
Finely grated zest of an ornage
100g butter roughly diced
4 eggs lightly beaten
80ml milk
Extra milk or egg yolk for wash

At least 3 hours before bedtime layer the ingredients in the bread machine pan in the order they are given and put into the machine and set the machine going on the regular dough setting , which takes 2 hours 20 mins on my setting. Go off and knit for a couple of hours!

Once the machine has played its part remove the dough and knock back and divide into 10-12 portions. this is easier said than done as it is VERY sticky! Do not be tempted to add too much flour. Shape and fill a greased 12 hole muffin tin. I weigh them out so they are even.

Place the muffin tin in a carrier bag and "puff up" and tuck the handles underneath so the dough doesn't stick and has room to rise without drying out. Place the tin in the fridge or cold place (garage, cellar, larder) to rise, or prove, overnight. This slow proving makes for holier holes and a very light texture.

The first peep at your brioche dough in the fridge the following morning

Brioche ready for the oven

The next morning pre heat fan oven to 180 degrees C. Carefully wash the brioche tops with milk or egg and bake for 12-15 mins. Cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack and serve with even more butter and home made jam.

Brioche fresh out of the oven

A lovely variation is to enclose a square of chocolate in the dough balls before baking, and you have your own home made pain au chocolate! Sainsburys Basics plain chocolate is fabulous for baking.

Close up of open brioche crumb

After breakfast the weather didn't seem as bad as forecast, in fact it was clear blue skies if windy, so we jumped on our bikes and pedalled down to Bristol Harbourside to wander through the Harbourside Market to browse the stalls and have a coffee (him) and Earl Grey Tea (me). It was a very quick 4-5 miles downhill with a following wind so we worked a little harder coming home. We even stopped off and got some groceries in the village Co Op on the way back, how green were we?! My new panniers hold a lot! After packing the panniers the rain returned, luckily it's only a few hundred metres home from the "coop." Leek and potato soup was quickly made with the stock I made from last weekend's roast chicken, and a cosy afternoon of blog writing, knitting and 6 nations rugby has ensued listening to the wind howling and the rain lashing, again.

Here is a sneeky peek at a very quick knitted project I started yesterday at Knit and Natter and I should finish today or tomorrow. The yarn is Sirdar Indie and super bulky, and I am knitting in garter stitch, doubled up, on 15mm needles!

One-a-Day 15th Jan 13 Tuesdays Tallies

Attempt at today's Tuesday's Tallies # 2. I just posted and managed to wipe the original by having multiple windows open on my phone and pc, I should know better!

Great news, the sun came out and I managed some "bathed in sunshine" shots of my French Stripey Throw. It is measuring just over 40cm, but I will need some more yarn as I have used a third of the gorgeously soft Drops Merino Extra Fine. I love the colours, and feel of this yarn. Not very much progress on that this week because...

I've been knitting! My 16yo came in from a friend's asking if I could knit her this Rowan design she had found herself. However after reading other people's experiences of this pattern on Ravelry I was not so keen but I was keen to knit her a sweater as it is the first time she has asked me to knit her something. In the end she decided she only wanted a plain stocking stitch sweater and we have agreed on a Comfy Raglan Sweater which at least is a top down pattern (new for me) and in the round too (no seams!!) We decided on yet more Stylecraft, this time Chunky in the lovely denim colourway. I bought the yarn on my first foray to a Knit and Natter at Get Knitted in Bristol last Friday. It was a lovely morning as the Friday morning session is new so the 5 of us were all new together and nobody knew anybody else. The jumper is upside down in the photo as the rib is the collar and I have just placed the sleeve stitches onto pink yarn to pick up once the body is complete. I hoped to be finished in a week as it is a winter sweater.

Comfy Raglan Sweater

Hopefully next week it will be a finished and modeled shot, and not one trying to disguise our messy living room that now has four different piles of yarn lying around in it. Hopefully we will also know by next week if/when we are moving. It will be nice to be back in a house we can call our own!

Aran Cushions - Part 1

I have a bit of a problem. Too many things to knit, crochet, sew and bake but really I ought to do other stuff some of the time, unfortunately. Part of the problem is that the girls now want me to make some things for them too, which is very flattering, but the list grows! Perhaps my knitty knotty obsessions are not as fuddy duddy as they had previously led me to believe.

Raspberry Aran Cushion

L, the middle one, has also hampered me, in a very nice way, she is home from university over the summer and when she isn't serving cheese on the deli counter of a well-known supermarket to earn pennies for next year, she is sewing. L is studying 3D Design (Product and Furniture) up at Northumbria in term time, not textiles. Since I gave her my refurbished sewing machine at the start of the summer break (thank goodness we have a proper sewing machine shop that does servicing and repairs) it has been permanently up on the dining room table, I dare not get mine out too until she is back up north for the start of Year 2. She has made some beautiful cushions, the owl one was a present that she has now sent to a friend for her birthday, but I photographed with my rainbow ripple.

Owl Cushion close up

The red patchwork one she was not as happy with and I love it, so I have acquired it by default!

Patchwork Floor Cushion

Reverse of patchwork floor cushion

The large patchwork one is her most recent creation, and she likes the stripy back better. The cream and pink linen stripe one was a bargain somewhere, and the raspberry Aran creation was me finally doing some knitting again.

Cushion Collection for a student!

I found a pattern on Ravelry she approved of, and L chose some Stylecraft Chunky in Raspberry. I adapted the pattern and added another pattern repeat to fit a 40cm cushion pad, so a cast on of 72. I used my new Knit Pro circular needles that I had for Christmas!

Cable Close Up

L didn’t want any buttons or ugly closures, they dig in when in serious lounging mode, so I just knitted a 100cm length, finishing with a few rows of K2P2 rib.  The sewing up was the hardest bit, keeping it straight and at times catching in 3 layers and hoping I had worked the structure out correctly. Phew it did!

Finished Raspberry Aran Cushion

Now she has commissioned a 60cm floor cushion in Fondant and Cream, with a bobble pattern, to go with all her other cushions, student digs were not this posh 25 years ago! Hence the plural in "cushions" in the title, and the need for a Part 2!!

RASPBERRY ARAN CUSHION finished 19th August 2012, it took me a couple of weeks mixed in with other projects!

FINISHED SIZE: 40cm square

YARN: 3x100g Stylecraft Special Chunky Raspberry 1023.

NEEDLES: 6mm

PATTERNS: Based on this cabled cushion pattern, I will write up my adaptation soon!

KNITTY HAPPY INDEX: 8/10

PS I scheduled this to post last week whilst I was away and Blogger didn't obey, so with no thanks to naughty Blogger here is my post better late than never!!