Altering a Finished Garment

I have rediscovered the jumper shown below which I had never been completely happy with.

 

It is made from L-shapes using one shade of my favourite Sirdar Escape yarn (0178).  It was not the design nor the colour that I was not happy with – it was the sleeves – they weren’t quite long enough.  As the ribs were added afterwards – the problem was easily sorted.  I ripped out the ribs and added a bit more knitting at the end of the sleeves before reknitting the ribs again

I am happy with the finished sleeves but ironically when I tried the jumper on again I thought it made me look fat.  I will have to lose some weight before wearing it!

My Favourite Yarns

In my last post I mentioned that Colinette’s Fandango was one of my all-time favourite yarns – this started me thinking about some of the others.

 

The photo shows one ball of each of my favourite yarns:

·         Colinette Fandango

·         Sirdar Escape dk

·         Rowan Tapestry 

·         Sirdar Country Style Highlands and Islands

·         Noro Kureyon

Only the last yarn is still readily available – although it is possible to find odd balls/skeins of the others.

Colinette Fandango (100% pure cotton) – you can still buy the odd skein of this from Colinette – but please don’t because I might want to!  It is available in both bright and more muted colours – but produces a lovely firm fabric when knitted in stocking stitch using much smaller needles than those recommended.  I tend to use 4mm needles rather than 7mm.

Sirdar Escape dk (51% wool, 49% acrylic) – I have bought a few balls of this only the other day but it is officially discontinued.  It had 20 shades – which was too many as several were very similar to each other – but it knitted up beautifully being the perfect mix of wool and man-made fibre.

Rowan Tapestry (70% wool, 30% soya bean protein fibre) – this is a strange yarn but I liked the muted colours.  I liked using most of them in the same garment.  There was a grey/black shade which didn’t fit in very well – but it was OK if you used it on its own.  It was easy to knit with and very soft.

Sirdar Country Style Highlands and Islands (45% acrylic, 40% nylon, 15% wool) – this is very old but you can still buy plain Country Style dk yarn but Highlands and Islands was better quality and available in very subtle colours including tweeds.  If I am fortunate I can still find the odd balls in a charity shop.

Noro Kureyon (100% wool) – I have bought several different Noro yarns but this is the best in my opinion.  It is good for felting but if you are careful – it is good for other projects which need bright colours.

Colinette Arizona Dreams – Mojave Throw

For the last week or so I have been knitting a throw for Colinette yarns.  It is called Mojave from their Arizona Dreams collection.  This colourway is called Desert Stars.

 

I love Colinette yarns – the colours and the yarns are so beautiful.   I had forgotten how good they were.  I used to buy a lot of Colinette yarn when they produced Fandango (cotton chenille for those who don’t know it).  Why do I always seem to like discontinued yarns? 

I was looking through my stash for some plain black double knitting and I realised that I still have quite a bit of Fandango in various colours, as well as Colinette mohair, Zanziba and some very old double knitting.

Knitting this throw has reminded me that you can make amazing items by mixing yarns.  I have become a bit conservative – tending to stick to double knitting or chunky – when mixing or blending yarns can produce wonderful results.