January 2015

Snail Hat Pros:

• snails slow to flee when approached with knitwear
• less able to put up a fight than traditional pets
• small in size = quick to knit
• look festive in groups

Snail Hat Cons:

• availability of snails in present weather conditions

25/01/2015

Bits and Bobs and COLOURS

I reknitted the Grid Mitten on 3.75mm needles and it fits much better.

The pattern is written up here as a Design-It-Yourself Knitting Challenge. With a blank grid just begging to be filled in you can knit any fingerless mittens you like. I personally am halfway through a Harry Potter inspired pair.

In other news I spent some of my Christmas money on an excessive amount of 4ply cotton (from Wool Warehouse). It turned up Friday and look at how pretty it was in its shiny little bag.

Lookit.

Also, yes, I have been experimenting with different coloured backgrounds for my photographs.

18/01/2015

Grid Mitten

This week I made a first attempt at knitting a square that, when folded in half and sewn down the side, would fit my hand.

I wanted to cast on a number of stitches that was easily divisible so that different repeating patterns would be straighforward to design. In the end I chose to cast on 37 stitches, which is a prime number and not at all what I thought I wanted. The fact is though that 36 + 1 is actually a really good number to fit a lot of repeating patterns. For example the grid pattern I knitted has a repeat of 6 across, but to balance it out it needs an extra grid line (the extra +1) to make the design symmetrical. Also if I do find patterns that only fit into 36 or 35 stitches it's not going to make much difference to the size of the mitten.

Here we go. I cast on 37sts on UK size 8 (4mm) needles, worked 49 rows of pattern and cast off.

The mitten is plenty snugly but just a little loose which makes it awkward to wear. I'm immediately going to try again with the same design, but on size 9 (3.75 mm) needles.

On a completely unrelated to anything note my Grandad bought me some Tête à Tête Narcissus bulbs last weekend. They were only just sprouting so I left them outside on my front step. Wednesday night it was getting windy so I bought them in. Left inside for just 24 hours they doubled in size and started flowering. Like I said this has nothing to do with knitting except, possibly, as inspiration for next months project.

11/01/2015

Awkward

Well this is awkward. I actually have a few patterns ready to go, but they were all things I gave as Christmas gifts and I still haven't had confirmation that all presents have reached their destination. I'll keep the designs in reserve for the end of January or beginning of February as part of my get-ahead resolution.

In the meantime lets get started on a new project for the new year. I'm planning to make DIY (Design-It-Yourself) fingerless mittens.

Artist's impression of my hands if I had a) fingerless mittens and b) purple nail varnish.

I've seen fingerless mittens before that were just rectangles of garter or stocking stitch sewn up with a thumb-hole. I'll be making similar ones using the double-knitting technique for added warmth and because it makes colour-work easier to plan. I'll provide a plain grid in the pattern for anyone who wants to take up the challenge of designing their own!

04/01/2015

Happy New Year

I looked back at last January's blog entries to work out what my resolutions were for 2014. Unfortunately I can't find them. The fact that I can't even remember what they were does not bode well for my success.

At a stretch I could count the entry on 03/01/2014 (“I will soon have awesome but impractical elf slippers.”) as a resolution. In which case I succeeded by uploading this photo to my tumblr on 20/12/2014:

The pattern now has an update in the variations section to make it easier to knit in two colours.

My Resolution for this year is to get ahead of myself some. Today I've uploaded one cartoon and written one blog entry but I've drawn two cartoons and written two blog entries. Hopefully this will help me get into a better schedule with my updates.