FO: Stripy!

these where mega fun to dye and knit, and lovely to wear. verdict, HAPPY

FO: Jacket for Bryn

DONE!!! finally!!

This jacket orginally knitted up very quickly but then stalled on the last sleeve and it became my most shameful UFO for many months.

Well shame become my motivation and I finally completed it. I am mostly happy with it, could have been a little longer, but then again maybe had I finished it in decent time this wouldnt have been a problem

I combined two wools, alternating rows, to get the colourway.
The pattern is an adaptation of Debbie Bliss' 'Gilet'

3 Quilting Generations..

.. and I am soo proud :D

After 10 years of parading yummy fabrics and patterns infront of my mother and her mother (Nanna), and just as many years of them 'going' to make a quilt.. 'one day'.... I think today was the day.

Mum started a quilt a few weeks back and is about 1/2 way there with top, and Nanna was wanting to start, so we had a quilting day at mums.. Both mum and nanna are very skilled sewers and their quilts are looking ace!! (why didnt I take pics!!!!???!!! next time, next time)

Cant wait to show them, once they are done..

In the mean time I finished the top of my "Shoyoen" quilt. Named after the Japanese gardens here in town that are just magnificent.

The quilt was designed to be a quick and easy project, as I just wanted a quilt for around the house, and soon.

So what did I do?

Firstly all the fabrics for the background were hand dyed by me.... I am still unsure about the purple and pink, but well, dying can be a unpredictable art form.. it was this time. so I dyed the fabric..

To make the back ground, I cut 125 6 X 26cm pieces of fabric. Sew together (long sides together) in 25 lots of 5, making 25 26 x 26 cm squares. sew these squares together in a crosshatch pattern.

For the applique (which I discover is not one of my strongest areas:P) I freecut the shapes and appliqued them down, Note... I never use iron adhesive, it stiffens the quilt, bubbles and generally... I hate it! I beileve it should never go near a quilt. So I use a glue stick! yep simple supermarket UHU glue stick, put it on the back of your fabric and iron down, does a great job and washes away afterward.... :D

I lookeed high and low for the right fabric for the border.. i wanted pebble fabric.. but alas this was the best i could do... not 100% h appy with it but well... like i said this was just a 'quicky' and I just dont care enough to keep searching.

So my quilting planned for it...

For the 3 applique peices, some simple outlining and highlighting lines.
For the 'water' I will quilt in some catfish and waterlike stippling (still thinking what tis will be)
And the border will be lots of circles I think to try get that pebble look that its just not giving atm

Heres the top finished (not that happy with it but sharing anyhow)

What Grandma made...

Grandma asked if Bryn would like some Crocheted blankets.. well who wouldnt!!! nothing is better then grandma-chocheted blankets.

THANK YOU Grandma!!

(ohh and note the lovely quilt stand, made by DH some time ago :D)

What Ive been knitting

After i awas able to con the lovely Kris of monster knits into dying me up some yummo self stripign FBF wool, I knitted myself some much wanted socks.... I am very happy with the result

I havent stopped there tohugh, i did some self striping rainbow myself and here is the first sock from it

and a little secret something I have been working on

PART SIX: the legs, final installment

Ok sorry for the long delay, here is the final installment, the legs

SOAKER

Place the held stitches from one side onto a 30cm circular or DPNs in size 4mm. pick up 5 stitches along the side of the gusset, placing a stitch marker after the first 3, this will become the start and finish of your rounds.

work 1 row in stocking stitch.

row 2: k2,p2 to end

repeat row 2 another 11 times

cast off loosly

repeat for second leg.

SHORTIES

Place the held stitches from one side onto a 30cm circular or DPNs in size. pick up 6 stitches along the side of the gusset, placing a stitch marker after the first 3, this will become the start and finish of your rounds.

work in stocking stitch continue till the work measures [5-8-11-14]cm (or personal deisred length of shorties less aprox 3cm)

Begin cuff.

cuff row 1 - k1 *p1, k1* to end
cuff row 2 - *p1, k1* to end

repeat rows 1 and 2, 4 times

cast of loosely.


LONGIES

Place the held stitches from one side onto a 30cm circular or DPNs in size. pick up 6 stitches along the side of the gusset, placing a stitch marker after the first 3, this will become the start and finish of your rounds.

work in stocking stitch continue till the work measures [15-20-25-30]cm (or personal desired length of shorties less aprox 3cm)

Begin cuff.

cuff row 1 - k1 *p1, k1* to end
cuff row 2 - *p1, k1* to end

repeat rows 1 and 2, 4 times

cast of loosely.


FINISHING

run in all threads, add elasstic and cording where needed and wash,block and lanolise.

PART FIVE: finishing the crotch.

I may fumble around this bit a bit, lol like I havent already with all the other parts.

FINISHING THE CROTCH

looking between the start and finish of the provisional cast on, you will see the end of your yarn (not the waste yarn) is looped through the first stitch, pull it out.

the stitches need to captured in 4 different lots, so recapture the stitches grouping them as such

place The 13 stitches between and including the yarn marked stitches(markers were placed in the first row) which are at the centre back of the body on a stitch holder, the 13 at the front on working needles. (both these lots will become gusset stitches)

place the remaining [33-43-53-63] stitches either side (these will become the leg stitches later) on seperate holders (placing them on waste yarn works best).

Working with the 13 stitches (front gusset stitches) on the working needles, join yarn and work 5 rows in stockingette stitch, begining and ending with purl rows

taking the 13 stithces from the back gusset, using kitchener stitch, join these together, end yarn.

PART FOUR: Waist band

OK now for the waist band, pretty simple..

ELASTIC WAIST

knit 8 rows
purl 1 row
knit 8 rows

Bind off loosly and whip stitch the band closed, leaving a 1 inch section open for insterting elastic of your choosing.

Alternativily, and my prefered method. when completing the last row, stop 4 stitches prior to the end of the row, cast off 8 stitches, kitchener stitch the lives stitches of the waist band to the inside of the body, This gives a much stetchier finish.

RIB WAIST

for sizes medium and Extra large only
k2tog,k[39-59], k2tog, k to end

change down needle size to 4.0mm or appropriate size

for all sizes.
row 1: *k2,p2* repeat to end

repeat row 1, 4 times

row 9: *k2, yfwd, k2tog* repeat to end

Repeat row 1, 5 more times.

bind off in your prefered stretchy method, double yarn or sewn bind off work well

using your prefered method, create a cord [60-70-80-90] cm long and weave through the waist band

PART THREE: body

This section will knit to the where we start the waist.

All sizes have 5 rows where the shaping is worked. decreases across the front and short rows across the back, I have not written any detail regarding shortrow methods but instead will allow you to just do your own and maybe then we can work out what method best suits.
The centre front/back markers are not essential but handy when doing shaping to check where you are up to, back more so.

ok lets go..

work [1-2-3-4] rounds

First shaping round:
k[6-9-12-15], k2tog, k[20-24-28-32] sl1,k1, psso, k[29-39-48-58], turn p[10-14-16-20], turn, k to end


work [3-5-7-9] rounds

Second shaping round:
k[6-9-12-15], k2tog, k[18-22-26-30] sl1,k1, psso, k[34-45-56-68], turn p[20-26-32-40], turn, k to end

work [3-5-7-9] rounds

Third shaping round:
k[6-9-12-15], k2tog, k[16-20-24-28] sl1,k1, psso, k[39-52-65-78], turn p[30-40-50-60], turn, k to end

work [3-5-7-9] rounds

Forth shaping round:
k[6-9-12-15], k2tog, k[14-18-22-26] sl1,k1, psso, k[34-45-56-68], turn p[20-26-32-40], turn, k to end

work [3-5-7-9] rounds

Fifth shaping round:
k[6-9-12-15], k2tog, k[12-16-20-24] sl1,k1, psso, k[29-39-48-58], turn p[10-14-16-20], turn, k to end

work [2-3-4-5] rounds

PART TWO: cast on & crotch shaping

This pattern is knit from the middle out, firstly we knit from the crotch up then from the legs down, we are starting at the crotch and knitting up the body of the pants.

Firstly here is a tutorial on provisional cast on.
PROVISIONAL CAST ON: video tutorial

abbreviation:
PMY: place marker on yarn:
there will be four of these placed. they serve to marke the 4 sections when you recapture the stitches from the provisional cast on and split it for the legs and crotch.
Place a removable stitch marker OR piece of scrap yarn onto your working yarn and then continue as instructed keeping marker between the 2 stitches

PMN: place standard stitch marker on needle


Using contrasting scrap yarn cast on [92-112-132-152] stitches.

Ensuring no twists in the cast on, changing to main colour, begin working in round, in stockingette stitch unless otherwise stated.

ROW1: k1, PMY, PMN, k12, PMY, PMN, k[34-44-54-64], PMY, PMN, k12, PMY, PMN, k[17-22-27-32], PMN. This becomes the start and finish of the rows, there will remain [16-21-27-31] stitches not knit for this round, that is correct.

ROW2 (all even rows): knit till end, slipping all markers on needles.

ROW3: k[17-22-27-32] slip marker, k2tog, k8, sl1, k1, psso, slip marker, k[34-44-54-64], slip marker, k2tog, k8, sl1, k1, psso, slip marker, k[17-22-27-32]

ROW5: k[17-22-27-32] slip marker, k2tog, k6 sl1, k1, psso, slip marker, k[34-44-54-64], slip marker, k2tog, k6 sl1, k1, psso, slip marker, k[17-22-27-32]

ROW7: k[17-22-27-32] slip marker, k2tog, k4 sl1, k1, psso, slip marker, k[34-44-54-64], slip marker, k2tog, k4 sl1, k1, psso, slip marker, k[17-22-27-32]

ROW9: k[17-22-27-32] slip marker, k2tog, k2 sl1, k1, psso, slip marker, k[34-44-54-64], slip marker, k2tog, k2 sl1, k1, psso, slip marker, k[17-22-27-32]

ROW11: k[17-22-27-32] remove marker, k2tog, place marker(centre front), sl1, k1, psso, remove marker, k[34-44-54-64], remove marker, k2tog, place marker(centre back), sl1, k1, psso, remove marker, k[17-22-27-32] leave the marker inplace that has indicated the start and finish of rows, this will continue to be same for the entire body.

leaving [72-92-112-132] stitches.
that completes todays installment.. please let me know if anything doesnt make sense, remembering this is my first ever time writing up patterns for other, so please let me know if it is hard to follow, or I have abbreviation booboos or anything else.. cant wait to hear from you all