Weasley Jumper Pair

You may have noticed that I have more than one daughter. This frequently means that I need to make more than one jumper, and the Weasley jumper was no exception. This doubling of the knitting project however, was nearly entirely my idea, as I found the idea of having daughters with the correct intials for Harry and Ron jumpers quite amusing. They are kind daughters, and are humouring me, just not in public. Naturally, I had to make the H version in green. Once again I used free pattern by Alison Hansel, this time in the textured Ivy, with a little Willow, from the lovely colours of Jo Sharp Silk Road Aran Tweed

 

 This version, although the same size in circumference, had to be lengthened slightly in the arms and body, and I used an extra ball of the main colour (10). With the contrast yarn (1 ball) I again put a few lines at the neck, and also at the sleeve cuff. I also made a slightly higher and doubled over neck for extra warmth. I had to wait a long time to get a paired shot, as one of my daughters now lives in Brisbane for university, and I am pretty sure they have a pact to not both wear the jumpers on the same day, but here are my Weasley jumper pair.

The occasion is a family trip to the newly opened pick-your-own-strawberry fields at Cooloola Berries. The strawberries are delicious.

 By all reports, these are excellently comfortable and luxurious feeling knits. I wonder why my son doesn't want one? I suspect it is too cute to all have matching jumpers!

Weasley Jumper

It is not often that I get a detailed knitting request from my family, usually its something like "Do you think you could make me some gloves/a scarf/ a beanie from this yarn" and I get to pick the pattern myself, but recently, I had a very precise request from my younger daughter. She wanted a maroon Weasley jumper with her initial on it - this being the same initial as Ron Weasley's from the Harry Potter series.

 

Fortunately for me, I was able to show her the free pattern by Alison Hansel, which met her requirements perfectly - even to having the beautifully soft and luxurious yarn used in the pattern, Jo Sharp Silk Road Aran Tweed, in a gorgeous shade of a deep, dark maroon with flecky bits that looks great with jeans (colour now discontinued, sorry).

I made the size Child L/Adult Small, using 9 balls of the main colour, and 1 for contrast, and found it a very easy and quick knit.
The pattern does not include an R initial, but it was not difficult to adapt the included H.
I used a knitting graph paper from this site to make the R
 I knit this in, using intarsia, rather than doing duplicate stitch afterwards, and I also adapted the pattern to knit the bottom in the round up to the armscyes, and the sleeves in the round on double pointed needles. This meant that I had to break off the yarn after each line of the initial intil the front/back division, but as this is only a 1/3 or so of the initial the weaving in was not too painful afterwards.
There is an extra few lines of the contrast yarn in my version at the neck, as this idea took my fancy as I was finishing off the jumper.
The only other thing I can say about this jumper is that it is in terrible danger of wearing out in a single season due to overuse!

Luxurious Mitred Blanket

I have incredible delusions about my knitting. When I started this blanket, from Jo Sharp Knit 9, I seriously thought that I would be finished in a month or so. What could be nicer than sitting in front of the television with a very simple knit from luxurious yarn? Hardly anything of course, but I failed to consider several important points.



1. I don't watch much television
2. I have a lot of works-in-progress, all sitting next to the couch and keen to be worked on.
3. A 5 square blanket is not very big, and lends itself to expansion.
4. Sewing up is not my favourite thing.



I've ended up with a 8 square x 6 square blanket. Clearly it is no longer according to the pattern. I do wonder if this is what always happens to mitred blankets, as there are a plethora of patterns for them on Ravelry - everyone must make their own version!



It is beautifully soft and snuggly. I feel quite decadent wrapped up in a mix of wool, cashmere,mohair, silk and alpaca, and would never have thought of making such a luxurious blanket without Jo Sharp's pattern. She uses alternating strands of Alpaca Kid Lustre, Silk road Aran Tweed and Classic Double Knitting Wool in her version, with the same colourways throughout, but my version slips in a bit of DK silk road tweed, and uses a few more colours for some subtle variation between the blocks.



I am sorry to admit that it took me nearly 2 years of patchy work to finish this project, but the good news is that I have already started another one - in cottons!

Scarf Series 4: Jasmine Tea in Paris

This rather fanciful pattern name is due to the felicitous combination of two yarn names and colours in this quick knit scarf. I have used Jo Sharp's Rare Comfort Kid Mohair in colour Jasmine Tea with her Silkroad Aran Tweed in colour Parisian. It is a shortish scarf, with a tassel fringe made from the mohair. I like the colour variations in both yarns, and think the two of them knit toghether are a terrific match.

The Anita wrap

Some time ago, I wrote a pattern with my mother, so that she could knit a wrap inspired by one my sister had seen in an expensive boutique in the Dandenongs. The wrap turned out fabulously well, and because my sister will be getting the original wrap, I wanted one too. Unfortunately, I had to knit it myself (are you reading this Mum?).


With great luck, I have managed to make one that I like even better than my sister's - and she has to wait for hers until her birthday. I feel sibling superiority (are you reading this Anita?). It is a bit sad that I have not grown out of enjoying this feeling. :)

I have been able to wear the wrap a few times, even though I knit it in Spring, which is usually far too hot for luscious mohair and alpaca.

I knit the wrap from Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed and Jo Sharp Rare Comfort Kid Mohair. I am writing up the pattern for the shop - it looks simple, and ended up being easy to knit once I worked out the kinks, but picking the right tension and the right combination of yarns to get the texture I wanted took a lot of test knitting. I love this wrap. I think I will knit another one in a different yarn combination.