The Orange Thing Complete

The orange thing was indeed orange and thing looking when I cast it off. It was a pleasant project and quite a sociable knit when I got into the feather and fan section. (Well, I thought it was sociable because I was able to carry on a conversation while knitting - I have no idea what the other side of the conversation thought!)

The pattern is a vintage doily brought back to life by Brooklyn Tweed's suggestion of knitting it in chunky yarn.

I used 5x 100 gm skeins of Posh Yarn Amelia DK. I knit the yarn double on 6mm needles to get a chunkier effect.

As I had a limited amount of yarn (and no hope of getting more) I did lots of yarn weighing as I went along to determine when I should cast off. Luckily I'd got a bit lazy and decided against another repeat when I was on the last 70gm of yarn. The edging/cast off row used 5 times as much yarn (55 gm) as the previous row (11 gm)!

I blocked it out to 48 inches diameter. If I were to make the pattern again I'd add another foot on to that at least.

Superhero to the Rescue!

As they are born to do, a superhero (the Caked Crusader) has stepped in to save my Innocent hats from being too dull for exotic smoothies. Taking time away from baking gorgeous cakes, this superhero has volunteered to make pompoms for the hats. Wahey!!!

Pattern? Check. Needles? Check. Yarn? Check.

We have blast off! I arrived home from work today and found the much anticipated Lyra yarn had arrived. Eeeeeeeek!

I'll wind it up tonight and tackle casting on over the weekend. Those of you who kindly offered assistance with the pattern will no doubt be hearing from me sooooooooon.

The Orange Thing Resurrected

In the meantime the orange thing is once again on the needles. This time I'm knitting it double and that is much more the effect I wanted. Knitting it double also tones down the variegation but does still let the richness of the different shades shine through. Can you tell I'm much happier with this attempt? I also decided to use the Hemlock pattern Brooklyn Tweed originally used. I do still love the Azalea pattern from Modern Lace Knitting so expect to see it crop up here again.

Ravelry. Gadzooks!

And in other news I've now been added to Ravelry. I can see why it gets rave reviews but I confess when I logged in the first time I felt a little bit like I'd walked into a huge party that was in full swing and I did't know where to go or who to speak to or what the 'done' thing was. So I logged off.

Happily when I logged back in that evening a few friendly fellow bloggers had added me as a friend and I thought -- phew - eventually I'll find my way around here. But I hope this blogging community I've just gotten into continues despite Ravelry. Blogging and visiting blogs feels more like small gatherings of a few friends in my living room. Comfortable.

Just when you thought you'd heard the last of the Mystery Stole from me......

When I posted my Swan Lake Stole/Mystery Stole 3 picture someone asked how I would keep the stole draped over my shoulder. Well, I'm happy to report that the answer arrived yesterday. This beautiful swan pin from Romi was specially designed for the stole and I love it.

In Which the Orange Thing Take a Step Backward

Last night I took a stiff drink....and this











became this.


But fear not fans of orange I've not given up yet! I'm going to try doubling up the yarn. This will give the thickness I'm looking for, and will (I think) help with the variegation of the yarn as the colours will become blended. (That's the theory anyway.)





Thanks so much to everyone for their input....it helps to know others share your pain!


Tonight was a better night. I took my gorgeous goddaughter (is goddaughter one word?) to see










Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dream Coat. This is perhaps not entirely knitting related but I thought I could include it as my Kaffe Fassett coat has always been fondly referred to as the coat of many colours (and many Joseph songs have been sung while knitting it as a result) AND I did a lot of productive knitting watching Lee Mead win the role of Joseph in BBC's Any Dream Will Do.

In celebrity spotting - Michael Parkinson sat 2 rows in front of us (for North American readers Michael Parkinson is the godfather of the celebrity interview here, anyone who is anyone gets interviewed by Michael Parkinson). G was most impressed when I confirmed that Parkinson had more than likely interviewed Justin Timberlake. I'm sure it was a highlight of Parky's career as well.

The show was a joy. I defy anyone to watch the finale without wishing they were up on that stage - they looked like they were having so much fun.

And finally in the world of socks. The Kaffe Fassett socks are almost done - just need to complete the afterthought heel on the second pair. I've attempted to outline in pictures the process, but for a better outline check out the Knitting Biologists explanation.

The heel can be knit in either toe up or cuff down socks. When you reach where you want the heel to be, simply knit 30 stitches (for a 60 stitch plain sock) onto a piece of smooth contrasting scrap yarn.

Then knit those stitches again with the sock yarn and continue knitting through the cuff or toe of your sock. When you are ready to work the heel you can either remove the contrasting yarn by cutting it and then pick up the stitches, or (if you are cautious like me) pick the stitches up before you cut the contrasting yarn.





I use a smaller needle to pick up the stitches (2mm here, the socks are knit on 2.5mm needles) which makes it easier.










Cut the contrasting yarn (I've used a seam ripper because I can't find my small sharp scissors) (sigh). Remove the bits of contrasting yarn from the stitches and you now have 60 stitches ready to shape into a heel.










Join your sock yarn, and start knitting across your stitches. You can pick up 1 (or more) stitches at each end of the needles if you are worried about holes. I'm a dpn sock knitter, so I'd spread the stitches across four needles.

The good news is that it seems that the standard decreasing used for toes works equally well for heels. Simply decrease 1 stitch at the beginning of needle 1, the end of needle 2, the beginning of needle 3 and the end of needle 4 every second row until you have about 24 stitches left. Here's one I made earlier.




Kitchener the stitches and heh presto an afterthought heel!





(Heel flaps are still my favourite.)

(But these work well for patterned yarn where you don't want to disturb the pattern for the heel.)

Right. It's late now, and I've sung all the Joseph songs so it must be time for bed. Any dream will do.....but one involving a handsome stranger and a lottery win would go down particularly well.

Good News and Bad News

Good news first. I found a local knitting group! I met up with them tonight and had a great time. Laughed a lot and even managed to get a bit of knitting done.


The bad news is that although I've made some pretty serious knitting progress on the orange blanket/throw I know it isn't really working. In fact I think I realised that quite a while ago (pretty much after the first pattern repeat) but as usual I go into denial about these things and just keep knitting in blind faith that somehow the extra knitting will sort out the problem.


This approach has never once resulted in success. It only ever means more wasted energy and more knitting to frog when I finally do admit the truth. But still, I cling to the hope. As there were so many stitches (over 500 by this time) it was a squashed up blob on my needles and I tried to blame all of my reservations on that. But in my heart....


When I got back from the knitting group I knew it was time to get serious about the orange thing. So I slipped the stitches onto some cable and pinned it out.



Sigh.



I hate being right.



The yarn is too thin for the effect I want, and the variegated orange just doesn't help. The pattern is fighting it and losing.


So, I'll leave it pinned out just in case by some miracle it looks more like I want it to in the morning (it won't) and then I'll frog it tomorrow night.

Obsessive? Me?

A couple of weeks ago I hadn't heard of Herbert Niebling, and had never considered knitting a tablecloth. A few trips to eBay and Amazon later and my Herbert Niebling/Lace Tablecloth cup runneth over.....



I did manage to avoid bidding on any more Niebling patterns last weekend and I take that as a positive sign that when I die they won't find me buried in German Anna magazines (although I'll probably still waiting for that dang Lyra yarn!!!)

I realised as I flipped through these magazines that it is quite possible that I'd bought the english editions in the 80s! Anna was one of the few magazines to feature bobbin lace patterns and so I often bought it around that time. Although I was a knitter then the knitted tablecloths wouldn't have interested me or caught my attention. I was a Kaffe/Sasha Kagan big jumper with all over colour or cables type girl.

Some of the patterns I particularly like in these editions..... (If you click on the pictures you can see more detail.)













While waiting for the Lyra yarn I've decided to steal a great idea from BrooklynTweed and begin work on a small blanket based on this doily design using this very squishy Posh Yarn yarn. (Why orangey colours? I have no idea. It doesn't go with anything in my house. But I like it.)

The pattern is from Modern Lace Knitting.






And finally, I've finished (almost) the first Kaffe Fassett sock. I decided to try afterthought heels on this one - and I like them better than the short rows - despite the need to graft TWICE. (Gadzooks!) This one will need a little after grafting surgery as the stitch pick up wasn't quite as tidy as it should have been. More details when I finish the second one. (Do I know how to keep you coming back or what?)