Jennie's Heirloom Vest

Possibly our most prolific knitter, Jennie, has been knitting up her stash lately, and made a cabled vest for her daughter. She liked the vest so much, that she was inspired to make a vest for herself, but being Jennie, instead of finding someone else's pattern in an adult size, she wrote a completely new and individual pattern, using several new-to-her stitches, in order to get the vest she was after.

She has made an impressively smart outfit - the yarn is Heirloom Celtic, colour 949, an alpaca and wool blend, 8ply/category 3, knitted with 2 strands at once to give 16 ply/bulky weight.



Jennie is planning to write up the pattern to put on Ravelry. I think it will be popular.

Ballet Leg Warmers

Making a ballet wrap meant that a request for the matching leg warmers was almost inevitable, as the wrap is really for dance class, not just fashion (although it has been worn with jeans and a t shirt down the street already).



I was not unhappy about this request as there was about 90% left of my fourth ball of #58 Sirdar Crofter DK from making the wrap.
I started out making the legwarmers from Sirdar book 349, but used double pointed needles and knit in the round, to avoid the sewing up at the end that I like to leave out when I can.
Once I had finished the rib cuff, I decided not to change to stocking stitch, as I felt this would make the legwarmers too floppy for my daughter. The high cotton and acrylic content of Crofter is terrific for wash and wear, but means the yarn has less elasticity and recovery than those with a higher percentage of wool content.
The legwarmers are quite successful made entirely in rib, showing the fair isle effect pattern well, and used not quite all of the two balls called for in the original pattern.
I finished these legwarmers with a stretchy cast off - picking up one stitch from the row below every 15th stitch or so, before slipping a stitch over to bind off in my usual manner.

Ballerina Wrap in Sirdar Crofter DK

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter break. The weather was so gorgeous here that I spent much more time cycling than knitting (what a terrible admission for a yarn addict, just forget I said that), but I do have some finished objects to show you.
This is the Ballerina Wrap , Design D, from Sirdar Crofter DK pattern book 349. I have knit it in shade #58, Moorland, and it was very quick to make.



I made a few minor changes to the pattern. My daughter wants this wrap top primarily to wear to dance class, and felt that the pattern was a little too long to wear over a leotard, so I have made it 5cm shorter in the body. I also knit i-cord, rather than making a garter stitch tie, just because I really like i-cord. I crocheted 2 rows as a neck finish rather than picking up stitches and knitting an edge, as I really need more crochet practice, and am taking every opportunity to get some!
I found the yarn delightful to knit, soft and cosy, and am very pleased that this is a machine washable yarn (great for active wear knits). However, I did have a small yarn problem. There was one knot in 4 balls, not the end of the world, but unfortunately, the knot made a pattern break that was rather strange. I kept knitting, expecting the pattern repeat to come around so that I could (curses)reverse knit and match the two fronts, but it didn't seem to match the other knitting, even after 10cm. I eventually worked out that the post knot yarn was wound in the opposite direction, so the pattern repeat was upside down! Probably most other knitters will not be as slow as me to work this out. All I can say in my defence was that at this point I was knitting late in the evening after a glass of wine....

International model

Personally, I feel that Sirdar Baby Bamboo is the perfect weight for Queensland knitting. However, I should not be Australiacentric about this yarn, Sharon has been knitting delightful jumpers and cardigans for her gorgeous grandson Tiaga, who lives in Japan, and fortunately for me, Tiaga's mum says he is allowed to model these on the blog.



Here is Tiaga in a nice manly cable cardigan from a now out of print pattern book that Sharon happened to have in her stash, in the colourway Tom Thumb. Apparently it keeps him beautifully warm, even in wintery Japan.
Maybe we will have some spring in Japan photos later (Sharon has been eyeing off all the new colours). Doesn't Tiaga do a great modeling job? I think he needs a spring jacket, not that I am enabling you or anything Sharon. :)

A-line cardigan, Jo Sharp Knit 4

After my long post about working with Lumina, I thought I should leave the actual garment for another post.

I am very pleased with the finished garment.It is a beautiful colour, and a perfect weight for this time of year in Queensland.
This is the shorter version,# 1 from Knit 4, with the closure from version 2, albeit with 5 loops on each side instead of 3.

I did change the construction slightly. I made the main body of the cardigan in the round, to reduce seaming, and when I did seam, I used only the cotton strands, splitting these out from the yarn.
The pattern called for separate, short crochet chain loops. It seemed to me, that these short loops would increase the sewing required, and also increase the risk of the rayon strand in the yarn unravelling.
Instead I made one long chain for each side of the front, and couched the chain to the inner edge in between the loops.


Unfortunately, although I made this cardigan for myself, the A-line shape is not really flattering on me. I should have altered the shaping to be more fitted at the waist.

My daughter is quite pleased with my mistake, I don't think I am getting this cardigan back.

Working with Lumina

I like to work with a variety of yarns. I am always interested to try different blends and fabulous new colours. I notice from reading knitting blogs and Ravelry that this is not a universal affection. Some people are very disparaging about any yarn that does not behave like wool. I don't think this is a reasonable requirement unless you are prepared to only work with wool.
Off my soap box now, but this common disparagement is why I am writing this post about Jo Sharp Lumina.

Lumina is an eyecatching, beautiful yarn, and it does not behave like wool. It requires some care to knit, but is truly lovely and unique. It has a strand of a tube knit structure, that appears to be mostly viscose twisted with two strands that appear to be cotton. The yarn is liberally threaded with gold coloured sequins. This beats threading hundreds or thousands of beads onto the yarn for a beaded effect IMO! The composition of the yarn is 62%viscose, 36%cotton and 2%polyester.


The twist of Lumina is quite loose. This means that a sharp, hard needle is likely to encourage the yarn to split. I would not choose metal needles for this yarn. I used bamboo needles with a slightly rounded tip, but casien or wooden needles would also work nicely.
The sequins in the yarn are not hindering to the knitting, as they are small and soft. I do not find them at all scratchy to wear when they end up on the inside of the garment.
The only extra care I needed to take with the knitting of my first garment from Lumina was to deal carefully with the viscose strand when joining a new ball. I found that the knit tube tended to unravel. I tied off the rayon strand with a reef knot whenever finishing or starting a new section of yarn, and the unravelling was tamed.

I did not stitch up the garment with the full yarn. Initially, I simply removed the sequins from the yarn by snipping open each sequin, as sewing with sequins would be just asking for catching and pulling. Despite this preparation, I had to remove some stitching, as knotting the rayon strand for sewing proved insufficient to stop the unravelling. Instead I fully untwisted the yarn, and sewed up the garment with the cotton strands, which was quick and effective.
The garment I knit was the A-line short sleeved cardigan from Knit 4. Photographs of the finished garment will be displayed soon.

The Fatal Attraction of Sock Yarn, and some sock blockers

I tried (albeit in a half-hearted sort of way) to wait a little while before starting some socks from the Sante Fe , but when the sock blockers from a local craftsman arrived as well, I was gone. I felt it was my duty to try out the new things :). Its a hard job, but someone has to do it.

See how nicely the Monkey sock by Cookie A (free pattern from Knitty magazine) looks in the deliciously vibrant Tango Reds. I altered the rib band (operator error, um individual design feature) and used my usual reinforced heel, because I think I will wear these a lot.