Chronic illness, crafting and cake.
I’ve finished my first Fair Isle project, Saudade! In my last post, I mentioned I’d been struggling to achieve consistent tension as a beginner to stranded colourwork. You guys assured me I was on the right track with my technique of spreading and holding in place the stitches on the right needle before knitting on the left with a new colour, and that any imperfections would come out in the wash.
I gave you a sneak peek of my Solas hat in my Indie Pattern Month post – now here is the full review. Solas is an unusual design and one that didn’t catch my eye when it was first published for Ysolda Teague’s Knitworthy 3. But as I was in need of beanies this winter and wanted to experiment with different styles, I figured I’d get my money’s worth from my Knitworthy purchase and give it a go.
When I did my write up on my Merino Blank Canvas jumper, I mentioned that I had knit it both top-down and bottom-up, by casting on in the middle of the project. Here’s how to do it. Continue reading “How to knit a garment in both directions”
This post has been a long time coming. I started this project in August 2016, and completed it in November of the same year, or May 2017 depending on how you figure it. So a blog post is well overdue!
Knitting colourwork has never been my strong suit. Besides my complete inability to choose cohesive colour schemes, the technical skills involved in stranded knitting and intarsia always seemed beyond me. Recently, I’ve decided to challenge myself and take on a colourwork project to broaden my skill set.
The pattern that tempted me was Ysolda’s Saudade. With a traditional Fair Isle pattern and the colours already selected for me in a kit in her shop, it seemed the perfect way to dip my feet in.
When my beloved Peter Alexander slippers hit the dust this summer, I decided to try my hand at making my own. My previous attempts at crafted slippers were not at all successful – I’d crocheted some slippers a few years back, which remain mostly unworn due to the pain of the crocheted fabric cutting into my foot, and the less said about my countless failed sewn slippers the better.
This winter, I knit a pleasingly large number of accessories. Most were from stash yarn, meaning I spent basically no money and received hours of fun and some fab hats and scarves. What I knit (click through to the Rav project page for more, you can follow along at shibz):
Continue reading “Winter knitting and what’s on the needles”
