B517 - A new design full of diamonds and purls...

My youngest went back to school on 7th September and my eldest started her 'A' Level Maths along with her specialised course that is the equivalent of 3 'A' Levels at her chosen place of further education on 16th September and I wasted no time in getting on and getting back to being creative.

To begin with, I kicked off with some lovely bulky soft 55% Cotton/45% Acrylic yarn from Rowan.  I think I need something that will work up quickly and provide me with new stuff to add to my shop as quickly as possible.

I chose a new design, that means one that I've not made before not one that is newly published, and as I realised that I was running out yarn I had to leave one row off the end and I still had a very panicky game of yarn chicken and you can see in the photo below that I had less than 6 inches left as I done the final cast off stitch.  

And now for the final product photos...

A little bit of A2

Design A2 is a good design for using up single skeins of aran weight yarn or left-overs from a larger project.  It is a versatile design that is really adjustable once you have the main part of the shawl worked, after that it is dependent on what yarn you left as to how big it can become.

I have a few single skeins of varying length of aran weight yarn that I can't really do anything else with.  Maybe I could look to see if I could work it with something else and make something with stripes but these are completely different texture and colour to anything else that I have, in most cases, and so a versatile pattern like this is a lifesaver.

I have a single skein of Rowan Summer Tweed in shade Sprig.  Its not a huge skein and is quite textured.  Its 70% Silk, 30% Cotton and I have 120m of it.

Ok, I was just one row short of the main part of the pattern but it has made a cute little scarf, ideal if you don't like much bulk.

Baby Jackets made with Eco-Friendly yarn

Some time ago, when mooching through the "end of line/end of batch" baskets at House of Fraser on the rare occasion that I travel into Birmingham City Centre, I came across an interesting yarn called Rowan Purelife Revive and I bought a few balls of it in two different shades.

From Rowans' website : Recycling is becoming increasingly important in a world coming to terms with the challenges of environmental, economic and climatic change. Rowan Purelife Revive is made from used garments which have been selected according to the silk, cotton and viscose content. These are then carded to make regenerated fibre, which is then spun into this beautiful, high quality yarn, which gives life to new hand knitting designs.

I like the idea of this yarn because I recycle as much as I can myself.   The yarn is 36% recycled silk, 36% recycled cotton, 28% recycled viscose and is a double knit weight yarn.

 

The pattern that I chose to use with this yarn is a vintage Wendy Peter Pan pattern and I got started on 28th June with the first one.  It wasn't until I had finished and sewn it up that I noticed that one sleeve was darker than the rest of the jacket.  Not knowing what to do at this point I carried on with the other colour yarn and made another one.

As you can see, the sleeve to the right in the picture is darker than the rest of the jacket.  Meanwhile, the jacket made with the darker shade has turned out lovely.

Because of the varied fibre content of this yarn and the fact that I only have dyes intended for use with animal protein fibres I was not sure what to do with the first jacket.  Do I bin it, do I dye it, if so what dyes do I use?  After much deliberation I decided to just try dyeing it with the dyes that I have and see what happens and if it goes wrong it can't get any worse than it already is.  I made up some dark blue dye and just went for it.

I have to say that I am seriously liking the result.  You can no longer see that the one sleeve is darker than the rest of the jacket and because it has only dyed the animal protein fibres in the yarn it has created a marl effect.  Fantastic!

If I ever have a problem like this again, or fall out of love with a yarn colour that is a mixed blend or don't like the way it knits up I will have no hesitation in getting the dyes out because I really love this effect.

Chunky Lace Capelet - Design SB168

With the wedding season upon us, and in hopes of increasing sales, I decided to return to a really quick knit that is really pretty as well, that is in a much lower price range than many of intricate shawls.  I bought in some yarn in the right thickness and quantities and got knitting.  They are all the same design, in the same size, and I made them one after the other so will just put them all in the same blog post.  They are all made from Twilley's Freedom Super Bulky 100% wool, which is a single ply yarn, except for the green one which is made from Rowan Amy Butler Sweet Harmony which is 100% merino wool, which is a chainette ply yarn and is a discontinued yarn.

Beginning on 26th April 2016, the first one I made was in Pearl, an off-white and I made a few in this colour.  I didn't take any work-in-progress photos other than the Pearl shawl and the Blossom shawl.

I started off by making these in pearl and they have a natural light coloured wooden toggle button fastening.

 On 10th May I started knitting a black version, which has black wooden toggle button fastening. 

I began making 2 green ones on 28th April, these are the ones made with Rowan Sweet Harmony and they have a green wooden toggle button fastening.

I also made two in shade Bluebell on 12th May, which was a discontinued colour when I bought it.  I mixed up some of my eldest daughters artists acrylic paint and painted the wooden toggles to match the shawl.

 Onto garnet next and I made this on 13th May, painting the toggle button to match., 

. Fuchsia pink next, on 16th May, again with painted toggle button fastening.

I had a little break whilst I done other things and then came back and made some more.  All the blues are muted tones, so on 18th July I made one in Misty Morning and one in Moonlight, again painting the buttons to match. 

On 19th July I made one of these shawl in Blossom, a baby pink and painted the buttons to match.

Next up was one in a very dark pink called Vintage Rose and one in Ice Blue, both on 20th July, again with painted buttons to match.

The final one of these that I had the supplies to make was in Amethyst and I made it on 21st July 2016, again painting the buttons to match.

The photo below shows some of the buttons on plastic chopsticks, the perfect thing for popping the buttons on and holding whilst you paint them so you get a nice smooth finish, having being painted they are then stud in clean empty jars to dry.  The once dry the colour was checked again against the knitted item.  They were usually given at least two coats of paint and then finished off with a clear varnish to seal the paint so that it can't rub or wash off.  The coat of varnish has made the buttons a little bit darker but they still match with the shawl.

In waves of green - Design A193

After a very beautiful but intense knit of the beaded lilac shawl I wanted to make something a bit simpler and a bit thicker as we are heading into Winter and its getting cold outside.  I have some really nice Rowan Summer Tweed in various shades of green..  The yarn is aran weight and 70% Silk, 30% Cotton and is no longer manufactured so I have to be very careful and precise with my maths to ensure that I don't run out of yarn.  Maybe a motif design or something in stripes, or at least something that could be worked in stripes to produce an interesting effect.

I got out the skeins that I have of this yarn in five various shades of green and sorted them from dark to light.  There is obviously a cuckoo in the nest that was a completely different tone and just didn't fit in with the others and this was put back into my yarn stash and I proceeded with the four remaining shades.

Using a 6.5mm crochet hook I started this on 9th November with a row of foundation single crochet.  This is much easier than working a long chain of stitches first and then crocheting into them as you make the foundation chain and the stitch at the same time.  Here is a very good YouTube video on how to work a foundation single crochet.

The photos below show it laid out on my blocking boards before a soak and after a soak and pinned out.  I knew that the wrap would not grow width ways but I did expect it to grow length ways as the lace pattern was opened up.

Its a lovely soft shawl that is versatile and can be used as a wedding shawl or equally would look good casual with shirt and jeans or a summer dress.

Languid - Design SB168 large

This is the last of the Rowan Spray that I have and it is called Languid, a kind of pastel colour with blackish spots and splodges on it.  Quite pretty really but I just never knew what to make with it.  I am still using the same design as well.  I started and finished this on 16th June 2014.

This is a really pretty result from a not-so-sure-of-it yarn.

Steel - Design SB168 large

Onwards and upwards to the next without stopping.  Once again this is Rowan Spray but this time in shade Steel and again it only took me one day to make it, 13th June 2014.

I like this colour and its nice and soft too.

Glade - Design SB168 large

Getting on with using up the thicker yarns in my yarn stash I moved onto the next shade of Rowan Spray which is Glade.  Not the prettiest colour in the box and I have no idea what possibly possessed me to buy such a weird colour of yarn.  Camouflage wedding anyone?

This again only took me a day to make, starting and finishing on 12th June 2014.

Seascape - Design SB168

Ok, so I have come back to working my way through my yarn stash starting with the thickest of the yarns that I have.  I have some Rowan Spray yarn in various shades, which is a slightly felted single ply super bulky yarn of 60% Wool, 40% Acrylic and no longer manufactured.

I have decided to make the larger version of a design that I have already made a few times before, the morocco capelet and the twilight capelet, but this one has a second row of leaves, making it longer.

I cast on 11th June using size 15mm knitting needles, yes they are huge and its like trying to knit with a Mars bar or some similar chocolate bar.

This didn't take long to make at all, its thick yarn knit on thick needles and knits up super fast.

I really like the colour of this one, its a really nice blue.

White Romance Bridal Shawl - Design B144

I decided that I wanted to work through my vast yarn stash using up as many of the now discontinued yarns as I possibly could, starting with the thickest of the yarns, as I was running out of storage space for my yarn and this method would potentially free up the most space in the shortest amount of time.

I loved how Betty's shawl had turned out and I had only used about half of the white Rowan Romance that I had.  I decided to make another one.  I started knitting on 27th February and finished on 28th February 2014.  I then soaked and blocked it.

This is a really dreamy shawl, its not a pure brilliant white but more of a soft warm white with a hint of glitter and is so soft and warm too.  If I could still buy this yarn I would and I would make more of these shawls because I think they are perfect for weddings.

The lovely lady who went on to buy this shawl for her wedding very kindly sent me a photograph that I could use.  She looks stunning.

Twilight Capelet - Design SB168 Small

I loved working with the Rowan Romance so much that I stayed with it for my next projects only this time I used some blue that I had in my yarn stash called Twilight and I decided to make the small capelet again that I had previously made using Colinette Point 5 in shade Morocco.

I wasn't entirely sure if I had enough yarn to make two of these but as it happens there was just enough to finish them both and both were made in one day, 25th February 2014.

A Wedding Shawl for Betty - Design B144

I was contacted by a relative in the U.S. to ask if I could possibly make a soft, white wedding shawl for her mother as her parents, Betty and John, were renewing their wedding vows after Betty was diagnosed with a terminal illness.  I immediately set to work and was able to get it on its way to the U.S. within a couple of days.  Inevitably it got caught up in the Christmas Post but it made it to its destination with a couple of days to spare before the ceremony.

I made the shawl using Rowan Romance in shade Glitter, a super bulky yarn of 36% acrylic, 27% nylon, 26% mohair and 8% polyester.  The yarn is no longer manufactured, which is a shame because it was so lovely.

Betty was given the shawl on New Years day but was too ill to sit up and so she snuggled it like a blanket and was able to appreciate its softness and how beautiful it smelt, as I soak all of my shawls in a product called Soak.

The renewal of vows ceremony took place on 4th January at their home with all of their family around them and Betty passed away in the early hours of 5th January holding hands with her loving husband of more than 55 years, John.

Red/blue shawl - Design B144

When I saw the pattern for this shawl I fell in love with it.  The photographs were beautiful and the shawl looked like it had wonderful drape.  I used the same yarn as recommended in the pattern, Rowan Linen Print in shade Crush.  Rowan Linen Print is a bulky chainette yarn and is 70% Rayon/30% Linen.

I began this knitting project on 26th August and finished it on 27th August 2009.  It was an easy knit, the pattern was simple and the yarn was soft.  I was so happy with it when I finished knitting and got on with the soaking and blocking and that is when disaster struck.  During the soaking process lots of dye leaked out of the yarn, not unheard of especially with blues and reds shades of yarn, but it did change the colour of the yarn quite a bit.  I pinned it out to open up the lace stitches and left it to dry out of direct sunlight or any kind of heat source.  When I unpinned it when it was dry I was so disappointed.  It was very stiff and rough feeling.  Instantly thinking that I had not washed all of the soap out I redone the whole soak and block process again, omitting any soap, it leaked even more dye and it still dried stiff and rough, like a towel that has been washed with no fabric conditioner.  For the high price of the yarn, I was not very happy.  Rowan discontinued production of the yarn shortly afterwards.