October 03, 2008
Tiggy pattern
Sizes S (SM, M, ML, L)
Finished size: 39 (43, 47.5, 53, 59) inches
A drop-waisted jacket with gathered pockets, three-quarter-length balloon sleeves and applied ribbon detail. A lightweight top layer in spring and early autumn, a cozy layer in winter (to show off those long gloves or wristwarmers).
Knit in an aran weight wool blend. Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed is a wool/silk/cashmere blend with a stated tension of 4.5sts per inch. 50g (95m/104yd) 14 (15, 16, 18, 19) balls.
Gauge: 15 sts and 22 rows in St st, to (4 inches) using 5mm needles.
£3.50 - you will be sent a link to download the pattern as an electronic (pdf) file, approx 0.67Mb
There are lots more photos of this jacket here.
Posted by Anna at 07:58 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
September 18, 2008
Possibilities - the Chart
I love those Mason Dixon girls. I love their books. Their books make me wish I had only just learned how to knit, so I could experience the wonder of all those knit possibilities opening before me. But what am I saying? I've been knitting for by far the greater portion of my life, and their books still have that effect on me.
December 2006 I went to meet Ann on New Years' Eve, she was visiting London, and I was completely honoured when she invited me to come up with a pattern for the new book, published yesterday. I received my copy a week ago and have been wasting hours of valuable time, poring over the pages when I could be knitting. It has had me visiting online yarn shops, filling my virtual basket over and over again, before sternly reminding myself that I have far too many unfinished projects awaiting attention to justify any more new beginnings, and navigating away.
The Errant Socks, which you will find on page 48, were originally conceived as fraternal twins, a non-matching pair, but space limitations brought the eventual published number of errant sock possibilities down to one. But in the wonderful world of web, there are no such limitations! So here is the prodigal Chart 3. To make your Errant socks even more errant, complete Sock 1 exactly as written in the book, for Sock 2, replace the second paragraph of instructions under the Foot section thusly:
Gusset
Round 1Work row 25 of Chart 3 across instep stitches, on sole stitches, k1, m1, knit to last stitch, m1, k1 - 2 sts increased.
Round 2Work row 26 of Chart 3 across instep stitches, knit all sole stitches.
Repeat these 2 rounds, following Chart 3 for instep stitches, until row 53 of Chart 3 has been completed - 94 sts.
Work row 54 of Chart 3 across the instep...
&c from pattern. Enjoy the mismatchiness - which is after all the nature of handknit socks; and the movement from chaos to order - the nature of knitting.
Posted by Anna at 07:39 PM | Comments (11)
August 22, 2008
Other sources of fibre
On a whim, I bought a sewing machine. (My whims have not yet caught up with the reality that our savings are now spent and the end of maternity leave and going back to the office (not yet, but soon), while tinged with regret, are tinged more strongly with relief at the promise of a monthly paycheck.)
I have a torrid history with sewing machines - when people who cheerfully coexist with their machines ask, I say I haven't the patience. Which strikes them as odd, coming from a knitter. But truly, nothing drives me to fury faster than that atonal groan ('nehhhh - nehhhh') which is the sound of a sewing machine chewing up my beautiful fabric and knotting it's bobbin into a birdsnest. Knitting I can, at least usually, control. Two pointy sticks give minimum opportunity for atonal groaning. Of course your experience may vary.
But motherhood is evidently doing strange things to me. First, I want to make the boy a patchwork quilt. I have a stack of pre-cut 'I Spy' quilt squares which I will piece in a chequerboard with white to make a quilt that can be both a game (two of each fabric, find the matching pairs) and a prompt for improvised bedtime stories. I fully appreciate that there will be a minute window of opportunity for this, between him being in the big bed (at least another year I expect) and ungraciously eschewing his dear ma's handicrafts in favour of a spiderman duvet - at which point I will reclaim the quilt and cuddle up to it when I feel sad and remember how I would sit under it and tell stories to my sweet tiny boy at bedtime. I may even return it to him at some point in the future, if he's very good.
Then there were those Oliver + S patterns. Having had terrible girl clothes envy it was all I could do to not to dress Stanley in a little frock all summer long. Instead I dealt with it by making a pair of shorts. I thought the bloomeriness would fit well over his cloth nappies. The shorts were, indeed, gorgeous but alas my tiny boy is actually huge for his age and, even though I made a size 18-24 months, he barely got to wear them (he was eight months in this picture) before they were too small and in the bag marked 'baby clothes to save - in case'. Nevermind. They were fast to make and satisfyingly sweet and a good use of an old linen dress. And the next baby to wear them will look adorable.
Last, for now, was a new pushchair liner. Stanley had been sitting on the underneath part of his winter cositoes (for the uninitiated, it's like a zip up sleeping back with holes for the harness through the back part) but being navy blue it got very hot when the sun came out. This decrepit, ragged, perished and falling apart quilt has been sitting in my fabric cupboard for absolute years, but I've been unable to throw it away. It is fit for nothing, really, but I just cannot bring myself to bin all those hand stitches. So I used the winter liner as a template, and cut out one from the patchwork (reinforced with straight lines of machine quilting) and one from an old quilted cotton mattress protector, sewed them together with some home made bias binding, and used the buttonhole feature to reinforce the holes for the buggy harness. The work of an hour or two.
It may only last a year, but it's soft and pretty and it's some kind of use for that poor old raggedy quilt.
I do hope you're all well - please tell me what's inspiring you? I can't start every entry with resolutions to do better or apologies for my absence; that would be too tedious. Instead I will just do what and when I can, and content myself with composing endless posts in my head between times.
Posted by Anna at 08:11 AM | Comments (37)
June 19, 2008
Five days shy of seven months
Sitting up... starting to feed himself... trying to give his mummy kisses
Posted by Anna at 01:00 PM | Comments (47) | TrackBack (0)