Back to Square One

I have heard this phrase a lot recently.  It is quite appropriate to use to refer to my knitting.  For many years – since I first saw the book – I have wanted to knit the cardigan on the front cover of Patricia Werner’s – Dazzling Knits.  It is called Dream Coat.

I have tried it before and unravelled it because my version looked too dull.  I think there is a need to strike a balance between knitting something interesting and knitting something that is too garish to wear.  I am attracted to using pinks and oranges but they are too bright for this and I tried to just use Noro Silk Garden but that looked too bitty.  Unusually – I have taken a photo of some of the squares (or more accurately diamonds) which I have rejected.

I decided that things would go better if I had a main colour and so I combined some yarns that my sister bought me a couple of years ago with a few skeins of Silk Garden.

I think things are now going better.  I haven’t made as much progress as I would have liked but I am happier with how things look so far.

I had wanted to get this cardigan finished to wear in the next week or so – but that is not going to happen.  I might have managed it if I had not had to knit 14 more tea cosies which were not in my original schedule.  I  have also been knitting a present  which is almost finished now and which I will show you next time.

Knitting for Remembrance

Today is Remembrance Sunday although the original name was Armistice Day and this seems more appropriate this year on the centenary of the end of World War 1.

Normally I knit poppies or something including poppies to remember my great granddad Thomas Wade who was killed in 1917, but this year as many of you will know – I knitted a Memorial Quilt to remember him and the other now 77 known men lost by my family.  I am including below the best photo I have seen of the quilt which was taken by Karen Draisey of Oxford Yarn Store.

The quilt was hard to photograph because it was so big (note to self: make something smaller next time).  In the photo the quilt is being held up by 2 men standing on chairs.

If anyone wants to see the quilt “in person” – it is on display in Oxford Yarn Store until the end of the month.

I have started thinking about my next eccentric project but I have nothing coherent to write down yet.  Several people have asked me about how I come up with designs – so I will try to put down my workings rather than just the end results.  I could just mention that I am thinking about a project which I will not start until January at the earliest. 

Noro Kureyon – Seashell Ripple Shawl

Last week I was away for a few days and wanted to take a portable project with me.  I decided to take the yarn for this Seashell Ripple Shawl.  It was supposed to require 6 balls of Kureyon but it only just needed 5.  I only used the 5^th ball for the last 2 rows and casting off.

This pattern is from the Noro Kureyon 30^th Anniversary Collection and is by Susan Ashcroft.  Unusually for me – I didn’t change it much.  There was one row when it told me to purl the last 11 sts and I thought I ought to knit them (it may have been the opposite) but that was all.  The pattern was easy to follow.  

When I had finished knitting I had a screwed up ball of knitting but after I had washed it and stretched it out – it turned into a shawl.

The shade of Kureyon I used is 368.  It was from my stash.  I think I have finished knitting the Kureyon jumper that I have been knitting for the last few weeks but I haven’t sewed it up yet.  

I visited Oxford Yarn Store twice last week and I managed to leave without buying any more Kureyon.  I am glad to see it back.  They have not stocked it since the previous supplier went out of business.  It is so lovely – it won’t be long before I buy some more.  I am already looking at patterns and thinking – that would look good in Kureyon!