janewilliams20 | Entries tagged with knitting

I got an email to think me for my order, and a link to say i could track progress if I wanted to. So I clicked.

Date/Time	Order Status
27/08/2013 11:56	Order Created
27/08/2013 12:08	Order Submitted For Payment
27/08/2013 12:01	Payment Authorised
27/08/2013 12:08	Stock Allocated
27/08/2013 12:09	Order Picked at Store
27/08/2013 12:09	Order Packed at Store
27/08/2013 12:09	Order Despatched

Wow. 11:56 I started dithering, and 12:09 the order left the shop. They even managed to authorise my payment seven minutes before I submitted it - and yes, since, they hold my credit card number,. that's possible, they could have checked it as soon as I logged on.
Thank you, iKnit - we'll see if the needles turn up tomorrow morning.

edit: they did! First post.

Crossposts: http://janewilliams20.livejournal.com/312822.html

That's tidied up another WIP. I started this back in 2009 on a course Gwen was running, teaching us how to do jumper design with very small models, and got stuck on the sleeves. Then I lost the bag it was in, found it, lost it, found it, looked at it and felt confused, lost it... you get the picture. Recently I've been doing a bit more knitting, and got my confidence back, while also having some free time, and on the "found it" part of the cycle. It had got as far as having done one sleeve, but not made notes about where I'd done the decreases. Before I tried to work out what had been done, I tried it on the bear, and a good job too. Decreasing down to 50% of the armhole at the wrist might work for some bears, but not this one.
Here's a picture I took back in 2009 and had forgotten about till I started setting this up on Ravelry.

So I took the one sleeve off completely, and redid it. Goldie's upper paws are more or less the same width all the way down - no decreases needed.
Two sleeves have been knitted, the neck has been picked up and knitted, and I have a Happy Bear.

Crossposts: http://janewilliams20.livejournal.com/302366.html

One easy one to report - in my last post on this subject, I asked among other things for a good supplier of pure wool 4-ply. I ended up going to Great British Yarns for some of this, and placed an order at about 13:00 yesterday. This morning, first post delivered wool!

The other project that's just of the needles is a solution to a problem I hadn't thought of before: this one:

Cold toes. The cast is nicely cushioned and padded, and the instructions urge me to keep the leg cool. Trouble is, if the rest of the leg is cool, the toes are often freezing, especially at 4am. So, I wanted to try out a glove pattern anyway for gauge purposes. The ribbing and the start of the plain would be the same... I couldn't reach to measure the cast or my toes, but I could look, and estimate. And I could take some DK and a 3.5mm circular needle, and produce this

Which fits, even if I do need help to put it on.

I think I'll run a bit of shirring elastic through the cuff, it tends to come off in the night (redoing it with about 8 less stitches would be better), but as a first try with no measurement, that's not bad, and it gave me a reminder of sloped decreases, too, which will come in handy on finishing the next WIP (the sleeve and neck of a jumper for a bear).

Crossposts: http://janewilliams20.livejournal.com/301992.html

One for the knitters and reenactors among my friends.
I'm working with an ACW knitting pattern for gloves.
"For a lady's size use black Penelope yarn and four steel knitting needles, No, 17
For a gentleman's glove, Balmoral yan or fingering wool will be suitable, and No 16 needles."

It has me cast on 56 stitches and do some rows of k2p2 rib, then continue plain for 12 rounds.

I want to do gloves for a man. I'm trying the rib in DK and 3.5mm needles, after doing some sums to work out probable gauge and resulting probable size, but the resulting rib looks a bit big to me (and to Dave). Does anyone know what size those needles would actually be?

Crossposts: http://janewilliams20.livejournal.com/301018.html

Up early (well, for a Saturday) to be re-measured for the support stockings, only to be told that the instructions to rest my legs before arriving should have included "and don't put the existing stockings on". So I have a Form to fill in before I get out of bed tomorrow morning.
Onward to the bank to check out some ancient critical illness plans, expecting to cash them in and start again, only to be told that they're excellent plans, and we should be looking at adding things to them. (And getting the address right, ten years late. Oops.)
The craft stall on the market had some fun fringy yarn that might turn into a scarf, and a promise of much finer "eyelash" yarn next week - sounds like I'll be clearing out his odds and ends at 50p a ball.

Dave went out again to the optician, and in his absence I got all daring and climbed the ladder into the loft for the first time in a year (ooh, you don't want to do that, it's hard work, you'll never make it up and down, you know you have to kneel to get off the ladder and that hurts, and...) well, yes, some bits do hurt, but not for very long, and the Yarn Stash was at the far end. I now have some eyelash yarn, and some DK that matches it, and a few other fun bits that again may well become scarves.

Time for a nibble - ah, those bananas are definitely past their best. This could be a cause of wailing, lamentation, and gnashing of teeth, or it could be a cause of Banana Chutney. From an old Abel & Cole newsletter:

Peel & dice 2 bananas

Mix with a pinch of salt, a splash of cider vinegar, black pepper, ground cloves, a hinr of cinnamon, finely chopped fresh chilli, a little grated ginger and a pinch of sugar.

Mix thoroughly

Taste and adjust as needed.

This was five bananas rather than two, so the splashes, pinches, and so on grew a bit, but the results look and taste good.

Onward to the remains of the Mutiple Bird, which have met a large onion and some mushrooms, and are now simmering away becoming stew for lunch. (And dinner, and quite a few other meals, from the look of that. Over-catering? Me?)

A new side-table for the lounge has been acquired from Poundstretcher and assembled, and looks good.

I'd better get Dave to tell me how to get the new Wii working with the Fit before he leaves (it look AGES and much hassle to get the thing to talk to the Virgin Media router), but at half-way through the day, we've already got quite a lot done.

Eleventh day, pipers.... maybe a Scottish CD is called for? Or the one with carols on panpipes? I don't think I have any carols on bagpipes, I should correct that.
Edit: Spotify delivers! http://www.amazon.co.uk/Christmas-Carols-On-Scottish-Bagpipes/dp/B00AS7HC2Y/

Crossposts: http://janewilliams20.livejournal.com/274228.html

Nothing very big, or complex, but I was rather pleased with that.
I'd seen some Gadgets at a Xmas market last weekend - knitted cylinders, intended to go round the neck like a scarf, but with less tendency to fall off or entangle themselves in something. Nice idea, but they were a tenner. Looked to me like they were done on Great Big needles, and with four strands of DK worked together.
I had Great Big needles. I had several boxes of yarn stash. I wasn't paying a tenner.
After a bit more thought, it also occurred to me that the neck is not a uniform cylinder, It has varying width, and there are things such as shoulders to consider. I should make it with a fastening edge, and some buttons and loops.
Today, we were in Hobbycraft anyway, and there was this "shaggy scarf" yarn in a mix of greys that would go nicely with the black office coat (the one with no collar, that needs a scarf).. I got home, and proceeded with a very complex and meticulously-designed pattern:

Cast on some stitches. More then ten. Yeah, about that many.
Do garter stitch till you run out of yarn.
Swear, unpick last row, use the released yarn to cast off.
Wrap it round neck and shoulders. Note where one top corner intersects the top edge on the other side. Apply loop to corner, and nice button (obtained from Hobbycraft) to appropriate place on top edge.
Wear. Enjoy.

And I did that while watching some daft film we'd recorded yonks ago and failed to watch ("300" in this case, and what a waste of time that was - deleted). That's my size of knitting project!

Crossposts: http://janewilliams20.livejournal.com/272883.html

I said I should do more of this, because it's good for my mental health, so how did I do?
I took knitting on holiday, and got quite a few more repeats of the edging for the lace shawl done.
I finally mended the strap for the drum bag, adding big pieces of thick leather to the soft (torn) leather where it's supposed to join the bag. So far, it's staying on one piece.
What I've been spending more time and thought on, though, is cards. I've picked up magazines and looked at the freebies, I've bought bits, and I've made things. Finding a reason to make them is harder than expected, since I don't make useless things, but it's rather fun.

( Read more... )

We'll see what excuses I find to make more cards, but I have 3D butterfly-shaped ideas. What still puzzles me, though, is how to get thme into envelopes without squashing, and how to get them to survive in the post.

Next up, back to army painting, I think. There's these trolls.... and I have a to-do list to improve the Orlanthi, and the Lunars... and I'd like to get the Dragonnewt one done for Berkeley....

Current Mood: creative
Crossposts: http://janewilliams20.livejournal.com/259777.html

Not mine - this is my sister ( xuebaochai on LJ) ringing me up for advice.
Stocking stitch. I rarely knit anything so boring, but she does, and has problems with the edges curling up. Yes, they can be uncurled when you assemble the finished item, but it's a pain. I'm sure somewhere I've seen a technique to stop the curling, but I can't remember where, or what it was. Do any of my knitting friends have any advice?

(Due to the way I crosspost, this will start on Dreamwidth, crosspost to Livejournal, and from there to Facebook. She's only on LJ of those three, so replies there would be ideal, but I'll copy across anything particularly helpful in any case).