Gold silk… made with love

A little something rolled off the needles last week…

It is always a real pleasure to knit with Amanda’s amazing Natural Dye Studio yarns, especially the wonderful Precious silk which is truly a very special experience.

This simple lace scarf (Ravelry link) was a gift for my mum, whose birthday was this past weekend. A while on the needles, it was a pleasure to turn to it when simple, soothing knitting was required after a busy day. An easily memorised pattern repeat meant not too much ‘tinking’ (although obviously I was still making mistakes an inch from the end!!) and hopefully some of the calm moments making it will stay within it… it’s been a trying year throughout our extended family with plenty of stress, sadness & worry but the safe arrival of my wonderful niece 7 weeks ago (who I finally got to cuddle at the weekend!) hopefully signalled the start of a healthier, happier, more peaceful time.

Mum ‘doesn’t do wool’ – it terrorises her sensitive skin and she can’t wear it anywhere but especially not near her neck. I think I may be able to show her that some of our finest merino wools are not the itchy, scratchy ‘wool’ that she has in mind but that’s a mission for another day! In the meantime, I hope she enjoys this touch of silky luxury…

Perfect knitting weather…

Well… the weather has been perfect this week and we’re obviously still knitting!

Aside from casting on for a chunky tweed cardigan for Chris (the first ever!) of which you’ll hear more later this week, my thoughts are turning to lighter weight, airy knits. Lace knitting will be perfect for whiling away the hours I intend to spend sipping cold ginger beer in the dappled shade of the birch tree in our garden (well, a girl can dream can’t she!) Obviously the children will be playing delightful, harmonious games (quietly) while I do this and not demanding endless drinks, snacks and falling out over what to play and whose turn it is to be Yoda (!) while simultaneously falling off bikes, out of trees and into patches of stinging nettles!

Because some of you might actually be living my dream we’ve got a fabulous offer on our favourite lace weight yarns and the needles to match… Until the end of April (Saturday 30th) lace yarns from Fyberspates, Natural Dye Studio, Austermann, Rowan, Noro & Manos del Uruguay are all 15% off. There’s also 15% off Addi Lace Circular needles, the perfect tools for delicate projects in luxurious yarns…

Not blogging but knitting!

The weeks are just flying by at the moment! As well as keeping on top of Meadow Yarn, deliveries, new stock etc etc we’ve had (more than) our fair share of coughs and colds this winter and whole weeks seem to have passed in a fog of headachey, snotty, hacking that has worked its way around the family, back to the beginning and started over!

In amongst the piles of hankies and eucalyptus there has been some knitting too though… and now the sun is finally shining and all is well again.

Last off the needles, the much anticipated ‘Hoppy Blonde Hay‘. Hay is a downloadable pattern from Madeline Tosh by Veera Välimäki whose patterns I’ve knit previously and enjoyed. I’d been looking for an opportunity to use a ‘garments-worth’ of Hazel Knits Artisan Sock yarn for a while and this seemed like the perfect project. My sort of casual cardi (I live in ‘cardis’) and 4ply to boot. My favourite combination…

Paired here with my current favourite shirt – a green floral Indian cotton number that sums up my urgent need for Spring to arrive perfectly!

The knit was fairly straight forward – although I’m hoping that some errata will be published at some point because the odd mistake in the pattern made it slightly more complex than it needed to be! The yarn is lovely! I went for Hoppy Blonde – a ‘tone on tone’ semi solid in a warm mustardy, maizey shade of yellow that is my ‘must wear’ shade for this season!

A friend spotted the buttons in a local haberdashery store and bought them on impulse for me knowing I hadn’t found quite the right thing… they are perfect, Thank You Ann!

I’ve been wearing it almost constantly since it I finished it – hence it’s not-quite-as-pristine-as-when-it-was-blocked appearance in the photos!

Just to prove it – and because the sun shone the next day too – here are some more shots. Those of you who know me ‘in real life’ may also have spotted the new hair-do too

If you’re tempted by the beautiful yarn it is (coincidentally!) our current ‘Spring Special’ and has 20% off in the store until Friday 25th March! Keep an eye on Twitter and Facebook to see what’s coming up next as we celebrate the arrival of our favourite season with some great offers…

knit.sock.wollmeise.love

I’m not sure why it took quite so long for me to invest in a copy of Cookie A’s new book “Knit.Sock.Love”… I’ve long been a fan of Cookie’s innovative sock designs and have knitted several over the years. The book is beautifully presented with great photography and I am sure I’ll knit almost all the socks at some point in the future. I have of course been immediately inspired to cast on and first up on the needles is ‘Stalagmite’ (from the ‘columns’ section of the book, which is divided up into sections determined by the style of the pattern – ‘columns’, ‘tessellation’ etc. etc.). The pair in the book are knit using Lorna’s Lace ‘Shepherd Sock’ which I’ve never used and was sorely tempted by (any excuse…) but then I remembered… Cocooned in my stash, just waiting for the perfect pattern, I had this…

No, not the foreground… that’s the Old Maiden Aunt ‘Midnight Owl’ that I used to such great effect in my recent ‘Chipmunk’ adventure. No, not that (although it would of course make a lovely pair of socks!). I’m talking about the other skein of green perfection that is the Wollmeise! Purchased last year at Knit Nation it’s been calling out regularly and has been considered for all manner of cowls, shawls, scarves and other 1 skein projects that would show off it’s wonderful shade of slightly limey, mossy green which is labelled ‘Pistazie’ (Pistachio). But hey, why not go completely wild and use sock yarn to knit… socks!?

It’s wound… and the 2.5mm Nova dpns are poised…

It even coordinates perfectly with the book cover

Let the battle commence!

(I hoping for something like this…)

May I present… Chipmunk!

Well, it’s been a long time on the needles – and even longer in the knitting bag waiting for the finishing touches – but it’s finally done and dusted and I’m wearing it as I type!

Here it is at a rather chilly beach excursion at the weekend (yes, I did grab my coat out of the car straight after this shot was fired off before heading off to hunt for beach treasure with the boys…)

It involved a few ‘firsts’ for me… My first sweater knit using Elizabeth Zimmerman’s ‘Percentage System’ (or EPS) whereby gauge is everything (scary enough in itself!) as the whole pattern is based on a chest measurement calculated using gauge and the amount of ‘ease’ required. There was a certain amount of guesswork, finger crossing and blind terror but overall I am very happy with the fit. It’s slouchy without being baggy which was my main aim. If I were to knit it again I might make the sleeves longer though. I was convinced, even after trying on the first sleeve that they were almost too long but somehow they now have a tendancy to ride up above my wrist. Hey ho!

The other major ‘first’ was the steeked front opening! Yep, I took to my sweater with a pair of sharp scissors to turn it into a cardigan. Why? Well, I wanted to use EZ’s system with as few alterations as possible and it just seemed like the best way to do it! It really wasn’t as terrifying as it could have been either. I first crocheted two chains from neck edge to hem to create a ‘channel’ 3 stitches wide and then, mainly because the yarn was Superwash so not very sticky, I machine stitched just inside the crochet chains to reinforce the cut edge. Then… scissors! Slowly and straight down the centre of the middle stitch. Picking up the button band the other side of the crochet chains meant I had a nice edge to catch over with a little blanket stitch all the way down which nicely hid the ends that I would otherwise have had to sew in at the hem edge and neck edge too. All in all a very nice way to finish a cardigan opening.

I even found the perfect little dark brown shell buttons in my local haberdashery store.

I used 4 skeins of Regia 4ply sock yarn in ‘Flannel’ and just over 1 skein of Old Maiden Aunt Merino Sock in ‘Midnight Owl’ (around 320g in total I think). The combination of wonderous handpainted yarn and cheap-as-chips Regia worked really well, both aesthetically and financially! It was a really satisfying way of using the Old Maiden Aunt yarn as I couldn’t have afforded a cardigan’s worth of that alone…

I am very very pleased with *my* Chipmunk, inspired by a beautiful project on Ravelry. I am on this occasion, happy to be a mere imitator…

Needle Candy…

There’s nothing better than a trawl around the wonder that is Flickr to boost the spirit and get the creative juice going and while I often find myself drooling over ‘finished objects’ – be they amazing quilts, knitted or crocheted beauties or simply little peeks into everyday lives with vintage treasures sometimes all I really need to see is yarrrrnnnnnn…

Colour, texture, situation, the heady combination of all of these…

1. NORO Kureyon 165, 2. fuzzy friend, 3. my malabrigo stash, 4. not true-to-color at all., 5. Untitled, 6. Prep Work: Winding the Hanks, 7. Sundae, 8. c r o c h e t, 9. Ta-da!, 10. Malabrigo Sock :: Arbol, 11. Cakes of Sundara FSM, 12. Silky Signals, 13. arauncania coliumo multy yarn, 14. stashbusting, 15. Ball Winding Noro, 16. feels like fall.

Now, if that doesn’t make you want to pick up your needles nothing will! I am feeling the vibe from honey mustard, sage green, pumpkin and deep rich red with the occasional citrus zing at the moment… What’s getting your creative juices flowing?

Just one little cloud in a blue blue sky…

Well, Enid is almost finished bar some jigging around with the neck, weaving in ends and blocking… Now we’ve hit mid-summer I wonder how many weeks it will languish before those final finishing touches are applied – ahem!!

Having worked with the gorgeous Alpaca 4 ply for so many weeks and with the arrival of some much needed summer weather I had been contemplating a little ‘lighter’ knitting for my next project. Enter Cloud…

This cake of dreamy Merino Silk lace weight from the Natural Dye Studio in a subtle heathery shade of dusky pinky beige is destined to become a gorgeous Annis shawl. As soon as this pattern appeared as a Knitty ‘surprise’ recently I knew it would be on the needles before long.  A nice, lightweight, airy knit for hot summer days spent lounging under a tree (well, a girl can dream!) and hopefully complete in time for cooler evenings when its Merino warmth will be just the thing…

Casting on 363 stitches ‘German’ style was challenging but the first few rows of the lace pattern are settling into a nice rhythm and I have a good feeling about Annis. I’ll keep you in the loop!

Are you a Hazel Knut?

‘Cos Hazel Knits is here…

Yep! A big box of Artisan Sock Yarn landed in the office last week and it lives up to (and beyond!) all expectations.

It was hard choosing just a dozen shades to kick off the range with…. but I got there in the end and there are none that disappoint!

This yarn base is custom milled for Hazel Knits and is a super tight twist yarn, the closest I’ve come across – and also from the US – is the Socks That Rock ‘Lightweight’ although I don’t believe that has the nylon content and it’s definitely a little heavier.

The colours are *amazing*! Rich, true shades that are subtly ‘tinted’ to add ‘pop’ (to quote Wendee from Hazel Knits!)

I just don’t know which shade to test knit (ahem!) first… because of course, while it’s perfect for socks we’re really really excited about the possibilities for shawlettes, scarves, mitts and all the other lovely projects that will showcase the georgous colours and amazing stitch definition that the twist will give.

Here are just a few of my current favourites… but I’m fairly confident they will have changed by this time tomorrow

'shady verdant'

'spanish wine'

'chocolatier'

'pacific'

'blacklight'

'high ocTANG'