5... Jumpers that I want to knit this autumn or 5 Sweaters I want to knit this fall!

I haven't knit a sweater for myself - a proper sweater, not a cardigan - since the Docklight sweater I knit at around this time last year. It sort of killed my sweater mojo - for one, it took a lot of hours of knitting, and two - it's unflattering. I think this is partly due to the size I was last winter and now I've lost a chunk of the weight I was carrying, it just looks big - and it makes me look big. Which isn't something anyone really wants in a jumper. But now the night's are getting chillier and I want a hand knit sweater to snuggle up in. These are just a few that I've had my eye on lately...

Image copyright Brooklyn Tweed

Cascades by Michelle Wang, from BT Fall 15. This isn't a million miles away from Docklight (by Julie Hoover) which was featured in BT Fall 14. I like chevron panels down the front and I love the texture of the overall sweater, but I'm worried that knitting a worsted weight sweater might be slightly too bulky for my body type? I think this is just lingering doubt from last winter, but bulky knits can make you look bulky - and I don't need a whole lot of help in that department!!

Image copyright Melanie Berg

Again, I love the texture on Threshold by Melanie Berg - Melanie's patterns are all beautiful and this one is no exception - especially photographed in this gorgeous pale grey colourway - be still my beating heart!

Image copyright lilalu

It wouldn't be a 5... post without me reiterating my love of striped sweaters and Seashore by Isabel Kraemer is another one I just love. Knit out of a fingering weight yarn I think this has the potential to be both comfortable and flattering to my body type. I would probably knit it out a combination of grey yarns - because grey goes with everything! - and I may eliminate the button detailing on the back of the neck.

Image copyright Judy Brien

The Cosi sweater by Judy Brien is a showstopper. I'm not entirely sure I could get away with something this structural, but the fit on the model is glorious - even if the reverse stockinette stitch detail on the sleeve is a little distracting in my opinion. This is something I can see Cosima from Orphan Black totally rocking - in a regal purple shade, but I have some way to go until I reach such a level of cool! (Also Cosi is totally short for Cosima, right!? Coincidence, I think not!)

Image copyright Amy Herzog

Last but by no means least is the Pescadero cardigan by Amy Herzog. I think this would be perfect over a checked shirt in the autumn - the collar peeking over the top. I love the grey-green shade it's been knit up in - seriously, we need more neutrals like grey - I can't get enough of it!

Now I just need to put some more work into my Pomme de Pin cardigan so I can justify casting on another big project... D'you have any good sweater recommendations? (because I clearly need to feed my ravelry queue...)

♥

Fibre Friday #33

-yawns sleepily- Happy Friday everyone! This week seems to have been a long one and I'm tired ;) I haven't finished anything substantial at all this week - but I've put a fair amount of work into a few projects - gotta keep busy!

Last week I'd cast on for my second Prickly Thistle Mitten - patten by SpillyJane - and this week I've finished mitten number two! I just have one afterthought thumb to knit and then they're done and ready for the cold weather! I'm so pleased with these - colourwork always looks impressive, even if it drives me crazy. These are being knit out of Eden Cottage Yarns 'Oakworth DK' in the 'Midnight' colourway and 'Bowland DK' in the 'Steel' colourway.

Something else I'd just cast on for last week was the second Dyad sock from Sock Architecture by Lara Neel. This got a fair amount of work this week - I knit the heel on a car ride and have been knitting away on the foot during my lunch breaks at work this week. They should be finished by next week, which is good as I'm getting bored of them! These are being knit out of Malabrigo Sock in the 'Abril' colourway.

The back of my Sirdar Divine cardigan is finished! And I've cast on for one of the fronts. Enjoyment is at a minimum as this yarn is driving me crazy - if you're looking into casting on a project with Sirdar Divine I'd say think twice about it - one of the balls I've been using has had 4 knots - and for a 50g ball with 150m, that's a lot of knots. The cardigan I'm knitting is 7176 by Sirdar and it's a commission knit for a friend of my mum's. These needs some more work this weekend, as I've avoided it for the latter part of this week!

On a more pleasurable note - I've been working on my Hitchhiker shawl by Martina Behm, using my handspun. I'm at 29 points now, so that's 3 more since last week. Slow progress is still progress!

Continuing with projects being knit out of my handspun - this week I knit my first (and then second) Bluebird of Happiness. The Bluebird of Happiness is a free patten by Sara Elizabeth Kellner and is very different from the things I usually knit, but I thought they'd make great little gift additions or Christmas ornaments. The first one (above) is pretty lumpy, I knit it using magic loop as I didn't have any 3.5mm (US 4) DPNs and it was super awkward. The second one (below) is much more bird-like, this time I used some slightly thinner handspun from deep stash and 3mm (US 2.5? I think so) DPNs. I will definitely be making more of these - and maybe purchasing more DPNs!

Spinning-wise, I wound off the Wensleydale I shared last week, soaked and thwacked it and left it to dry in the shower - as it was thunderstorming like crazy outside. I got 96 yards of a 2ply - which isn't really enough to do anything with, I need to do a wraps per inch count on it, but I don't think I'm going to have enough for a hat, like I'd hoped. However, this was my first attempt at spinning from the fold and it's a lot bouncier and loftier than anything I've spun before.

Finally, I spent a couple of hours spinning the silk that's currently on the Matchless - progress is slow here, but I've heard silk can take forever to spin due to it's long staple length, so we shall see ;) I'm aiming for a 2ply with enough yardage to knit something lacy.

I haven't worked on my Pianissimo Scarf or my Pomme de Pin cardigan at all this week and that makes me sad. Must try harder next week!

Something else fibre related that I did want to mention this week is the Super Summer Knitogether (aka: SSK) that's organised by the Knit Girllls. SSK is an annual retreat in Nashville, TN full of classes and knitters and incredible teachers and vendors, and I entered the lottery for a place (it's always oversubscribed) for the first time this year - and I got a place! I'm going to Nashville next July and I can't wait. I don't live in the US - I live in a tiny seaside town on the south coast of England if you didn't know - so that means a transatlantic flight and £££ - but who cares!? I'm incredibly excited, I've been to the US twice before - Florida when I was a kid, and NYC last year, and I cannot wait to go back. America has so many things England doesn't!

Okay, on that note I need to skedaddle and do something productive (aka. knitting - either of the cardigan of doom or finish that pesky mitten thumb...) have a lovely weekend everyone! And Gail - if you're reading, let me know how the drop spindling is going!

♥

Fibre Friday #32

Hi everyone, another Friday and the sun is out here in my corner of the world - only very briefly I'm sure, but it's pleasant. This week it feels like I've had my finger in a lot of different fibre 'pies' if you will. If you're looking for project monogamy, you won't find it here!

I had a huge urge to knit something little and cute out of my handspun - so I cast on a Luuk hat by Annis Jones - the keen eyed amongst you may have noticed I linked to the Luuk hat in my fangirly Orphan Black knitwear post and as it was fresh on my mind, I cast on one in the Toddler size. I used my Autumn Sunset handspun from fibre by Taylor Made Yarns and I love the way it's knit up. I have enough left for at least two more kids hats, so I'll definitely be working my way through the rest of the skein soon. I did make a minor modification to the pattern - it called for 5mm needles (US 8) for the entirety of the pattern, but I decided to go down to 3.75mm (US 5) for the ribbing so it wouldn't fall off the recipients head. I think this will probably go to my friend's daughter as part of her Christmas present, as she is the only toddler size person I know!

I've made a good start on my Pomme de Pin cardigan - I'm on the third repeat of the lace pattern and I am in love. Pomme de Pinne is a pattern by Amy Christoffers, that I'm knitting out of Madeline Tosh Pashmina in the 'Leopard' colourway. It's such a soft and beautiful yarn to work with - which you'd expect for a 75% Merino, 15% Silk, 10% Cashmere blend. I would have put a lot more hours into this if I didn't have more pressing projects calling for my attention!

One such project is the cardigan I'm knitting for a friend of my Mum's. I don't knit on commission as a rule - too many hours, too much hardwork blah blah blah. But to be blunt, sometimes you need the money! (Remember money Amy? That papery stuff we trade for yarn with?) So I'm knitting pattern 7176 by Sirdar (which is as inspiring as the name suggests!) out of Sirdar Divine in the colourway 'Lucia', which is a sparkly blend of polyester and acrylic. I'm trying not to be too down on it - but it's not MadTosh Pashmina that's for sure!! Still, I'm up to the armholes on the back so progress is being made. It's a simple stockinette cardi and I'm knitting a UK size 12 so it shouldn't take too long!

I finished my first Dyad sock! This is a pattern from Sock Architecture by Lara Neel, that I'm knitting out of Malabrigo Sock in the 'Abril' colourway. It was my first time knitting the Sideways Toe - which is exactly what it sounds like, a toe with the decreases in the centre of the top and bottom of the foot, rather than at the side. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but it's good to try something new once in a while! I cast on for the second one yesterday and put a little dent in it on my lunch break at work - hopefully the second one won't take me as long to finish!

Another second object I cast on was the second Prickly Thistle Mitten. The ribbed cuff is done and I'm ten rows into the chart. Prickly Thistle is a pattern by SpillyJane, that I'm knitting out of Eden Cottage Yarns 'Bowland DK' in the 'Steel' colourway and 'Oakworth DK' in the 'Midnight' colourway. I want to have these finished by the Knitting & Stitching show on Oct 9th, as that's where I bought the yarn last year, and I'd feel better about buying more yarn, if I'd knit with some of it already!

I also put a cable repeat on my Pianissimo Scarf but you can't tell, so I'm holding off on photographs until the progress is more obvious. Pianissimo is a pattern by Thien Kieu-Lam from the Autumn 2015 issue of Pom Pom Quarterly.


Finally knitting-wise, I put two more points on my handspun Hitchhiker shawl by Martina Behm. That brings me to a total of 26 points so far. Each row is getting longer and longer but I love working with my handspun yarn, so I shall keep plugging away at it!

I did a little more work on my crochet granny square blanket - I now have six finished squares and the centre sections for three more. I'm using this tutorial for the Starburst granny square and Cascade 220 in a whole variety of colours.

I finally finished the spinning and plying of my handdyed Polwarth! It's Navajo plied - not the most balanced n-ply I've ever done, but it's the first non-practise fibre I've spun on the Matchless and I love it! I predrafted the heck out of the fibre before I started, splitting it down the middle vertically to create two skeins of nearly matching yarn. The part I'm most proud of, was one bobbin had 250yds on it, the other 256yds! Usually I'm over by 50-100 yards on one bobbin, so I'm pleased that both skeins were so close. These will be cast on as toe up, afterthought heel socks - to maximise yardage, at some point in the not too distant future.

I also spun some natural Wensleydale that I picked up from a local wool fair last month. This was my first attempt at spinning long draw from the fold - instead of my usual short forwards draw - and oh my goodness it was a learning curve. This is definitely a bouncier yarn than I usually spin, but it's very over spun and thick and thin in spots. More practise is needed, although maybe on the Matchless rather than the Ashford - as it was a pain in the backside to ply on the Ashford - it kept catching on the flyer. This needs winding off and setting, I'm hoping there's enough to knit my Dad a hat with, for Christmas.

Finally, I started spinning some silk that I picked up from the K&S show last year, on the Matchless. It's my first time spinning silk - there are a lot of spinning firsts this week! It was hard to get started, but it's going okay now. I think this is going to take a while to get through, but I'm hoping to 2ply it and maybe knit a small shawl or something lacy out of it.

Phew. That seems like quite a lot of progress for one week - hopefully next week I'll be closer to finishing something - anything! But for now, I'm going to put a few more rows on the Sirdar cardigan.

♥

Fibre Friday #31

My work week seems to have sped by this week - so I'm not entirely convinced that it actually is Friday! haha. I thought today was going to be a short post, until I sat down to photograph everything - it turns out I actually did quite a lot this week!

Firstly, I'm on to the foot of my first Dyad sock. Dyad is a pattern from Sock Architecture by Lara Neel, I'm knitting the top down version of the pattern, out of Malabrigo Sock in the 'Abril' colourway. I'm not sure what the heel used in the pattern is called - this could probably be remedied by me actually reading the book properly rather than just skimming it, but I'll go back and look at some point, as I love how the heel knits up - all the shaping is done with increasing and decreasing instead of a normal heel turn. I'm trying to challenge myself to use different techniques and I'm looking forward to the sideways toe that compliments this heel.

Please excuse the photography quality of my Pianissimo Scarf - trying to photograph the ribbed pattern without it being blocked is very difficult! Also the burgundy colour played havoc with my camera. Anyway. Enough excuses. I have knit a fifth of my Pianissimo Scarf by Thien-Kieu Lam from the Autumn 2015 issue of Pom Pom Quarterly.  I've just started the main cable section and I have four skeins of Cascade 220 sport left and I intend to keep knitting this section until I have one skein remaining - because I'd like to use up as much of the yarn as I can. Whilst knitting this I'm trying to learn how to cable without a cable needle - as slipping one stitch onto a cable needle every other stitch is seriously slowing me down - so I'll report back on how that works out...

My first Prickly Thistle Mitten - sans thumb - is done! The thumbs are afterthought and I'd like them to match, so I'm going to wait until both mittens are done before adding them in. These are being knit out of Eden Cottage Yarns in Bowland DK and Oakworth DK in 'Steel' and 'Midnight' respectively. The Prickly Thistle Mittens are a pattern by SpillyJane and I love how the first one looks. I'm hoping to get them finished in the next month, as I bought this yarn from the Knitting and Stitching show last year, and the show is coming up again soon!

On a bigger project front - I finished the swatches for my Pomme de Pin cardigan by Amy Christoffers and blocked them both. I'm using Madeline Tosh Pashmina in the 'Leopard' colourway and I got gauge with the needle size the pattern recommended so I cast on last night and have knit the grand total of 4 rows of ribbing done so far - darn work for getting in the way!

Now, because I really need more projects, I started a new granny square blanket. The last crochet blanket I made was fabulous (if I say so myself) and I gave it away to someone who did not deserve it - but I learned my lesson and I will not make that mistake again! So my mum and I decided to start blanket projects for the winter, we went halves on a big order of Cascade 220 and found a granny square pattern that is slightly more interesting than the basic squares I'm used to making. It's the Starburst Granny Square and I used this tutorial from SimplyDaisy to create the above tester, and the finished and work in progress squares pictured below. I am an amateur crocheter - I can only make blankets, but that works for me.

Spinning-wise I'm still working on my rainbow Polwarth, I put a few hours into it this week while finishing up Orphan Black season 3. I'm hoping to get the singles done this weekend and maybe start plying next week...

A little stash acquisition has happened lately - the above yarn doesn't really count - I ordered 6 balls of Sirdar Divine which is a polyester acrylic mix yarn, to knit a commission for one of my mum's friends. I'm not sure how much fun this is going to be to work with, but it shouldn't take too long. I'll talk more about the pattern when I cast it on.

Now for some stashing that's more my speed - I bought Coop Knits Socks vol II by Rachel Coopey and a skein of Life In The Long Grass 'Weathered' in the 'Estate' colourway from YAK in Brighton a couple of weeks ago. I also picked up a ball of Sirdar Heart & Sole sock yarn last week from a local yarn and fabric store in town - I'd gone in for emergency needles after my Knit Pro Symfonies snapped on me at work and they had a minimum card spend and this was the only yarn they sold that I was slightly interested in, so I bought it to push my spend up a little!

I did a little dyeing this week - I have three skeins of fingering weight merino nylon in the above colour - I'm not sure what it's going to grow up to be, I'll probably knit another pair of Dyad socks out of one skein, but who knows!

Okay. I'm going to go and work on a cardigan - not sure which cardigan, but a cardigan! Have a lovely weekend everyone!

♥

Eye Candy Knits - Orphan Black

Can I fangirl for a minute? A couple of weeks back I discovered Orphan Black and became instantly addicted. I'm not really a television person, I'm more of an audiobook person, but lately as I've been doing more spinning and have become a more competent knitter I've found myself watching more Netflix, as I don't need to pay as much attention to what my hands are doing. 

Hold tight - I'm bringing it back to knitting, I promise ;)

If you haven't seen it, you've probably heard about it - I'm always late to the party! It's a show about human clones - being hunted by a variety of organisations and the lead role is played by Tatiana Maslany, as are her clone 'sisters'. It's worth watching alone for Maslany's performance, each character is incredible. Warning: this is not a family friendly show! There's violence and death and lots of squeal worthy moments, but it's an incredible show, full of strong, empowered female characters - and goodness knows we need more of those on television.

The icing on the cake of what is already one of the best shows I've ever seen (am I selling it to you yet?!) is the amount of knitwear the cast wears. Not since Catching Fire have I squealed this much over knits on screen. There are some fabulous hats and several sweaters - and one of the characters is a knitter - it's only referenced fleetingly, but I'll take my knitting references where I can get them!

Here are some spoiler-free examples from season one...

Wurm by Katharina Nopp and Luuk by Annis Jones are patterns for hats similar to the one Kira is wearing above - both available as free downloads on Ravelry.

Felix's mustard yellow jumper is a favourite of mine - a simple stockinette jumper in Donegal Tweed maybe?

I finished the third season last night and they continue to up their knitwear game on par with their storylines!

There are so many good hats in the show - which may be why I've been on a hat knitting kick recently. It definitely inspired my Slable Hat of a couple of weeks back and I have several other hats lined up to cast on in the not too distant future. After all, autumn is coming and you can never have too many hats.

♥

Fibre Friday #30 (written over the course of Thursday, Friday and Saturday...)

I've decided that the length of this week's update makes up for the slight delay in my posting it - I ran out of daylight hours to photograph projects! Oops. Anyway, onwards...

Let me start this week's post by saying I am on fire! It's the first week of September and I have finished knitting three Christmas presents. Three. (Aside from one Christmas a few years back, where I knit gifts for everyone, I don't tend to knit presents very often. However I have had a whole host of upheaval this year that's left finances tight, but I do have a healthy stash to dip in to - so knit gifts it is!)

First up is my second handspun Cocoon Hat by La Maison Rililie. Knitted out of yarn spun from Nunoco batts in the 'Oudh' colourway. This is less slouchy than the green version I knit for myself a few weeks back - but I think it's perfect for the recipient I have in mind!

I decided to knit up my grey practise yarn from my Matchless - the second skein, not the horrid curly first attempt - into a Little Fair Isle Hat, which is a free pattern from the Purl Bee blog, combining it with some mystery navajo plied gradient yarn I spun in the 2014 Tour de Fleece. I am really pleased with this little hat - I knit the toddler size, for my 'honorary niece' Robyn - it'll probably be too big, but I hear that kids grow! ;) This and my second Cocoon hat are the sixth and seventh projects knit out of my handspun yarn this year - only three to go until I hit my ten project target!

My eighth handspun project is my Hitchhiker shawl by Martina Behm, that I'm knitting out of my 'Little Owls Play Sweet Music' yarn. I currently have twenty four points knit and I love how the yarn is striping so far. I'm planning to keep going until I run out of yarn, so it could end up being a very long shawl indeed!

I finished my Strie socks from Sock Architecture by Lara Neel. These are knitted out of some yarn I hand dyed and will be a Christmas gift.

After finishing my Strie socks, I needed a new on-the-go project, so I cast on another pattern from Sock Architecture by Lara Neel. The Dyad socks, top down version, out of Malabrigo Sock in the 'Abril' colourway. I have been devouring the TV show Orphan Black on Netflix and if you've watched the show, you'll know that 'Dyad' play a very big part in it. I learnt from Lara's introduction on the pattern, that Dyad means 'sets of two' which makes perfect sense with regards to Orphan Black. Anyway, the pattern is predominantly vanilla, but with a different heel and toe. I also added a tubular cast on - because I love the way it looks.

I put a few rows on my Prickly Thistle Mittens by SpillyJane. I'm still on the first mitten as I haven't really worked on them much recently! (I'm knitting them inside out - hence the above photograph - to help stop the floats becoming too tight and distorting the knit fabric). I'm knitting these out of Eden Cottage Yarns 'Bowland DK' in the 'Steel' colourway and 'Oakworth DK' in the 'Midnight' colourway.

As I seem to be obsessed with hats recently, I've cast on for the Hinagiku Hat which is a free pattern on ravelry by 87knit. This is being knit out of some deep stash Manos Del Uruguay Silk Blend in colourway '7032'. I picked this up from the Knitting & Stitching Show at Ally Pally a few years ago, and seeing as this years show is coming up, I thought I should knit something out of it!

I swatched for the Pianissimo scarf from the Autumn 2015 issue of Pom Pom Quarterly, designed by Thien-Kieu Lam. I wouldn't usually swatch for a scarf but I had some Cascade 220 Sport in my stash and I wanted to see if it had a nice handle knit up at the gauge the pattern requires, before ordering some skeins in the Burgundy '2401' colour I was after!
After actually casting on the scarf late last night, I realised I hadn't read the pattern properly and had swatched with the wrong needle size - I'm knitting the larger size of the pattern, which requires a 4mm (US 6) needle - so that's what I've cast on with, and I think it looks okay so far. Incidentally, there are some lovely patterns in this issue of Pom Pom - I recommend picking it up if you get the chance.

Spinning wise, I'm still working on my rainbow braid - which is some Polwarth fibre I handpainted a while back. The first half of the fibre is finished and I'm making progress on the second. I'm being kept company while I spin by the season 3 boxset of Orphan Black, which is making my heart race!

I managed to get a little dyeing done on my day off - two braids of Polwarth - the autumnal oranges and the grey, and one braid of BFL in the blues and purples. These will sit in my fibre stash for a while, as it's looking a little depleted!

Okay. Now I need to go and try and finish a few of the things I keep casting on! Have a lovely weekend everyone. My weekend starts at 4pm tomorrow - so I'll kick back and relax then!

♥