Friday, October 30, 2009

Sharon's Handwarmers

Some of you may know that Sharon, who works here, has just been to Japan in order to await the arrival of her first grandbaby. At last she is back! (I really missed her).
Now I do not yet have photographs of her gorgeous grandson modelling her knitting, apparently he needs to grow a little first, and the weather needs to cool down in Japan, but I do have some photographs of some of her other gift knitting.

Sharon made several pairs of these handwarmers - her own pattern, using Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed yarn. These are made from shade Imagine, 145. She makes one pair from a 50g ball. Don't you love the cables?

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Sirdar Denim Tweed DK Jumper

I started this jumper because the pattern is terrible. That sounds strange, but a lovely Dutch lady came into the shop a few months ago, asking for help with a free pattern she had collected at Spotlight. She thought that maybe her English-as-a-second-language was the reason for her confusion with the instructions. She booked a lesson to work on this pattern and to learn how to do cables.
Her English was just fine. I did wish my Dutch was better (ie existant) though, as she whipped out some really interesting Dutch pattern books with cable charts for me to demonstrate to her.
The Spotlight pattern was simply full of mistakes. However, I am not good at picking up every mistake just by reading a pattern, I have to knit it. Once I had worked out the kinks, I loved the wave ruffle at the bottom of the jumper sleeves and body, and my daughter adored the subtle pink and purple self striping of the yarn.As I had not planned this garment in my winter knitting, I put the started ruffle and a bit of Sirdar Denim Tweed away for a while, but have just finished the jumper ready for next year.

We like the horseshoe cable up the front. I have changed the dimensions of the cable panel to fit the wave border.

The all over rib makes this a sung but comfortable fit.


I changed the picking up instructions for the neck, and the transition of the cable to the neck ribbing.

This jumper used 5 and 1/2 50g (170m)balls of Sirdar Denim Tweed DK, shade 651 Lavender.
Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Starting young


Here is the youngest member of our Monday night stitch and knit group. Doesn't she look happy to be here?

Monday, October 12, 2009

Smocking, AS&E 84

I do not usually smock from a pattern plate, as there are a lot of my own designs lurking in my head, that I would like to make into real garments one day, but this pretty design by Kathy Dykstra caught my eye in issue 84 of Australian Smocking and Embroidery, and I had started it before I could be sensible about my project list! I am not very good at being sensible about my project list.



I am making this size 2 dress in pink imperial batiste fabric (the dress in the magazine is in blue dotted Swiss voile), so changed the colour of the background smocking to green, but have used the same shades of pink for the flowers as published in the magazine.

At this point I am leaving the smocking to mature for a little while whilst I decide whether or not to trim the dress with entredeux and 4 strips of lace as shown in the magazine. I love the look of heirloom clothing, but I also like the garments I make to be worn at some point - so maybe I will choose a thinner lace to make the care of the garment more simple for the undoubtedly busy mother of a two year old.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Monday Knit Night Scarf

This is possibly the most popular scarf pattern at StitchBliss. The original idea arose from a collaborative pattern design session one Monday night at sit and stitch, when Margaret wanted a "next level up" scarf to make after her gorgeous garter stitch stole. Margaret has shipped off her first scarf as a gift, and unfortunately I did not manage to take a photo in daylight of either her first or second version of this pattern, so I am showing you a later version, made by Hannah.

This scarf alternates a few rows of garter stitch with a row of spider stitch (a.k.a twisted drop stitch), and is a very quick knit. So far we have seen at least 10 versions in Aslan Trends Class, as well as a few other 8ply yarns. The scarf looks very different with varying tension in the spider stitch row, which makes it a terrific group project.

Hannah's version here was made as a birthday gift for a friend. She used around 3/4 of a 100g skein of Class in colour "tomato".