A monthly update of all the projects piling up on and under my coffee table. You can read all previous months here.
I missed October's update as I've been concentrating on my WYS Forager Blanket. It has it's own page here with lots of in progress photos and links to some helpful tutorials.
I am currently on the 3rd row of leaves in Part 3. WYS released the pattern in 4 parts over 4 weeks. There was no way I was going to keep to that schedule and I have definitely slowed down now. But I am still working on it so I'm hopeful of getting to Part 4 very soon!
One project not on the table anymore is Caine.
After 2 years of hanging about on the table and in the pouffe of doom, Caine is now in the shop.
Knitted in Rowan Felted Tweed, Caine is designed by Monie Ebner and available to buy on Ravelry or as a digital pattern in the shop.
You can read all about it here. So happy it's now finished, and it looks so good.
(And it only took 2 years because I got distracted knitting lots of other things.)
I also finished another garment but then realised I'd made a huge mistake and had to rip some of it back.
This is Holiday Sweater designed by PetiteKnit. It's a digital pattern that you can buy on Ravelry or in the Pittenweem shop.
I'm using our new King Cole Explorer Super Chunky yarn.
It's quite an obvious mistake and I'm not sure how I missed it!
It's knitted from the top down. You start by knitting back and forth before joining in the round to complete the raglan increases. Once you have enough stitches you slip the sleeve stitches on to a holder before knitting round and round to finish the body. You then go back and finish the dramatic sleeves. Finally, you pick up stitches around the neckline and knit a tall rib shaped with increases and decreases before folding in half to make a cushy neckband.
This is where I think I went wrong. I didn't pick up enough stitches around the neckline which made it skew, distorting the stripe.
To fix this mistake I had to unpick the neckline and rip back the rib. Unfortunately I had already filled in the gaps around the picked up stitches and weaved in all my ends.🤦🏻♀️
I of course unpicked a wrong end and unravelled the back stitches.
It is now safely back on some needles although I may need a few days to recover.
To give me some quick wins and to show off our newest yarn I knitted a hat and a new cowl in WYS Fable Aran.
Fable Aran is a blend of British wool, mohair and alpaca. It combines the sturdiness of wool with the drape of alpaca and it has a slight halo.
This is Barley, a free pattern by Tin Can Knits.
It comes in lots of sizes from baby to adult large. It can also be knitted in different thicknesses of yarn - 4ply, DK and aran.
I've already knitted one in our local DK Balmerino yarn. It's a great pattern with a simple texture in knits and purls and it's easy to modify. Knit it longer before the crown decreases to make it slouchier or add a taller brim to foldback.
You'll only need one ball of Fable to make any size.
And hats are a great way to try out knitting in the round too!
The second project was a cowl that looks like a circular shawl but is actually joined at the back.
No photos on the mannequin yet but here's an uninspiring photo of it blocking.
This is Dewberry Cowl by Hilary Smith Callis. The pattern is available to buy on Ravelry and as a digital pattern in the Pittenweem shop.
You start at the top and knit back and forth, combining garter stitch stripes with an easy eyelet lace. You gradually increase until you're ready to join to work in the round, continuing the garter stripes and eyelet lace.
This creates a cowl that sits round and low at the neck.
I knitted the large size which used 120g so you will need 2 balls. I think you could get a small size from 1 ball but be prepared to play yarn chicken and maybe do a few less rows.
This was a quick win (less than 5 days to knit) but I don't think I blocked it correctly.
I soaked in Eucalan then squished out excess water in a dry towel. I pinned it to the shape shown in the pattern (mine is slightly larger). But that puts a crease right down the middle of the front. I may carefully steam that out or reblock in a different way. Finished mannequin photos soon!
