FO: From Frog To Duck

I decided to go ahead and frog the Hot Water Bottle cover I had been knitting at the saddest of times and try to find something small and frivolous to re-use the yarn on. As the yarn that I had been using was cotton, I decided to make a couple of small face cloths for one of my sisters who happens to collect rubber ducks.

Wrapping the face cloths with some hand-made soap will, I hope, make a nice, small, secondary gift to give with her Squaffle scarf.

This cheerful motif has a partnering design which I’ll post with a downloadable PDF of the pattern when I get to a more stable internet connection as I am currently experiencing the joys of Virgin Trains’ wireless internet service, which is more temperamental than a hormonal teenager.

30 Days, But Who’s Counting?

A few weeks ago I took note that it was on it’s way. A small, almost whispering voice that told me not to leave it too late, that I should start preparing now, but obviously I told that voice straight back that it was ages away, that I had plenty of time. Yet, without notice, it creeps up on you whilst you have your back turned on it, until you look over you shoulder and it is staring you in the eye…
Huh? 30 days? But, but… that can’t be! It’s even worse than that as I actually have an operation and subsequent hospital stay between now and the actual day of gift-giving. Oh, and of course I will have to allow time for Royal Mail to lose all of my gifts as my entire family are scattered throughout the isles. Oh, yes, and I’m supposed to be seeing one of my sister’s on Monday, and I am supposed to bring gifts, etc with me then… The same sister who, three days ago announced how much she and her other half would like a scarf each. That’s OK – I have a couple of newly knit scarves! Hurrah! Oh, but you want one in white and one in black? But I only have green and orange.

Well, I made Squoffle for my sister

Which was a quick and easy knit, so that’s one knitterly problem out of the way, but as for her partner… I don’t have any black yarn, nor any money to buy any with, so I’m a bit stuffed as far as that is concerned, so I will push it to the back of my mind and pretend that the problem isn’t there. That always solves things.

Still. Looking at the tab I have organised my Christmas knitting under in Ravelry I haven’t done too badly.

The thing that worries me most, though, is that these projects are all for the women in the family, and I realise that I have so far totally neglected to knit for any of the men. I’m going to try and knit a couple of hot water bottle covers to then felt for my brother and my brother-in-law, but as for my other sister’s boyfriend, I have no clue. I am going to see if I can gather enough yarn to make a pair of fingerless mitts for my mother’s husband, something to complement her Yarr! Boney mittens, but with half-fingers perhaps, and without the beading (I don’t think he would be that ‘into’ beads). I have no idea where I am goign to find the time or yarn for any of this from, but I shall just have to hope that an answer makes itself apparrent soon.

Pattern: Squoffle Scarf

Squoffle is a short buttoned scarf, made with a single skein of bulky/chunky weight yarn. Though it is a very easy pattern every sixth row makes a departure from the established garter stitch to add a row of interest with knitted eyelets, some of which are later utilised as button holes (an additional boon to those who do not enjoy making buttonholes, of course!)

This scarf lays completely flat with no curling, so whether you choose to block your finished piece or not is a matter of personal choice, not necessity.

The name Squoffle comes courtesy of a friend, who phoned me whilst I was travelling to say she had picked up something special for tea. As she poured through descriptions of gorgeous starters and a sumptuous main course and what wine we might enjoy, I of course only had ears for what was to be for dessert. Looking at the packaging, she said over the phone in a confused voice ‘Squoffle?’ A Small tear in the cardboard had partially obscured the ‘o’ of ’soufflé’, and so the word squoffle was born.

I like to think of the squoffle as meaning a ’squishy waffle’ and with it’s frothy texture and grid of eyelets, it’s a name that seemed to suit this little scarf quite well.

Download the PDF for Squoffle

Scared Of Lace?

Lace knitting is like a regression. It essentially harnesses and brings under control the one thing you try to avoid as a new knitter – holes. Terrible when created accidentally, some crazy knitters make these holes on purpose, arranging them into intricate and beautiful patterns.

I have dipped my toe into the frothy pool of lace knitting before, but only a little. A simple feather and fan scarf is the most complex piece of lace I have attempted so far, but I have decided not to be afraid of any knitting techniques anymore. What’s the worse that can happen? I take my toes back out of the frothy lace pool and instead visit the frog pond. So, armed with two absolutely gorgeous skeins of Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn, I had a look through some lace patterns and found a design which I liked the look of, Ailsa Daly’s Red Emperor scarf, freely available for download from her website ‘Knitabulous‘.

I have so far completed one of the edge panels of lace, and have enjoyed the knitting very much. I haven’t found the knitting too taxing – I can still listen to an audiobook whilst I knit, I can even listen to my sister without waving my hand in her direction in the internationally recognised knitter’s gesture of ’shhh! I’m counting!’

Looking at the edge panels on the knitabulous site I realise how much comparative length is given to the stole by blocking. The lace portion I have knitted so far is completely different in its dimensions to the finished stole as pictured, which I think is a slight shame as I like the almost 3D appearance of the cockleshell shaped motifs in the border and I now have vague concerns about having enough yarn to make an adequately long stole, but I have sworn not to get too upset if I end up with a short but beautiful rectangle.

Either way, whether this stole is due to become my favourite knitted object ever, or simply an exercise in learning another aspect of the knitting tradition, I am no longer scared of lace. It’s just a series of yarn-overs and various decreases, reined in with a little bit of concentration.

Pattern and FO: Marram Hat

Here is my latest pattern, ‘Marram’. Featuring spiralling slipped stitches and a secondary spiral of stepped colour changes in thin, graphical stripes. I have been wearing this hat, knit in a blend of warm alpaca, merino, and even a touch of silk, quite a lot over the last week or so, now that the temperature has dipped into a cold that bites just a bit harder. I wanted to show how suited I thought it was to a man as well as to a woman, especially in the season of knitted gifts when sometimes it is a little harder to find small knitted items for male recipients that have interesting aesthetics as well as an engaging but quick project.

The name ‘Marram’ came from my last blog post where I asked if folks might have any suggestions over what I might call this hat. I was actually quite surprised by the number of kind and thoughtful responses. There were a few I have to admit that I had to google: ‘Sphagnopsida’ and ‘Sphagnum’, both meaning a type of peat moss from what I gathered, and very apt given the mossy appearance of the hat as had been noted, but they also kept making me think of bolognese. A few suggestions based on the spiralling design: ‘Fibonacci’ (another I need to check the spelling of) and ‘Ammonite’.

So I had a look at the suggestions left in the comments: ‘Sea Grass’, which could imagine spiralling in the movement of the water, and finally ‘Marram’. Similar to the Sea Grass suggestion, I could imagine the curving lines of long grass blades, and it seemed to fit perfect.

Also, it is of course a palindrome, which scores extra points as I am a nerd. These few lines of poetry seal the deal:

The spiked marram’s springy knitting-needles
Purl and entangle what concrete cannot conquer
And the green holds back the brown.
- From ‘The Rock-Face’ by Norman Nicholson

Thankyou to Linda for the suggestion, and to everyone else who took tome to comment and give me suggestions when I lost inspiration.

Download the PDF for the Marram Hat

Pattern: Marram Hat by Mimi Hill (Eskimimi)
Yarn: Rowan RYC Baby Alpaca DK, Rowan RYC Silk Wool DK

In Need Of A Name

I’m hoping that someone might be able to help me out of a quandary. I can’t seem settle upon a name for this hat. It is always the first thing I decide upon when writing out a new pattern as it helps to confirm the character of the knitted object (if articles of knitwear can have character), but I am having troubles with this new design. My first thoughts were that it reminded me of moss, probably because of the colour, and this was confirmed when I stepped in the lift with my little brother last week and he said ‘oh, your new hat looks good on, it reminds me of moss’ (I tried not to take this to mean that I must have a face reminiscent of a boulder).

When I was later thinking about writing the pattern up I wondered about the two names ‘Geology’ and ‘Palaeontology’. ’Geology’ as the slip stitch pattern and broken lines of the stripes reminded me of layers rock strata that had come under stress and fractured, and ‘Palaeontology’ as I have a version of the hat planned with an embellishment, knit in an increasing spiral in garter stitch, something like an ammonite:

But I’m really not sure if either of these ideas are ‘right’. Maybe I am just feeling uninspired these last few days. I’ve been frustrated with the lack of light when I have tried to take photos, the absence of a helpful volunteer head to model the hat (or useful tripod for self-modelling), so maybe it is because I wanted to get the pattern written up and photographed properly. As such the pictures I have at the moment are of a hat still awaiting a head.

I also love the very top of the hat:

It was, at the very least, challenging to work out a method of decreasing whilst maintaining the spiralling pattern of the slipped stitches and broken stripes, but once I figured out a formula I was delighted with the way that the two forms of diagonal patterning intersected and created the radiating pattern on the top of the hat.

So, with that in mind I am stuck, so if anyone reading this post happens to have any flashes of inspiration, please, please, please suggest away, and hopefully I’ll be able to find the motivation and inspiration to write up this pattern for the weekend.

Moss Hat

When presenting myself with the question what can I make with just 35g of RYC Baby Alpaca DK? I decided to somehow try and combine it with 45g of RYC Silk Wool DK to make a more substantial project. I had a feeling that if I was careful I could make it stretch to a hat with perhaps enough left over for some kind of embellishment. ’Stripes’ were suggested early on by Smashing Puffin, and I thought this a fantastic suggestion as a subtle but eye-catching design could be made with the slightly different green tones and the contrasting textures. Also, it was obvious that whatever was going to be knit with these two yarns it was going to feel gorgeous.

I decided to knit a simple, skinny striped hat (single alternating rows of colour), with a few slipped stitches to add interest and an almost graphical, if not quite geometric, patterning to the hat. An almost blanket covering of rainclouds during my last two days in Lancaster have meant that I haven’t been able to get a good photograph of the now completed hat, but here is a detail until I can play at being David Bailey:

Though I knit this for myself, the very subtle colour variations and gentle spiralling of the slipped stitches make me hopeful that most men would also be happy to wear a hat such as this, in what I hope is a slightly more attractive manifestation of the 1980’s idea of ‘unisex’, and I may try and knit a cute embellishment with the small remnants to make the most out of these gorgeous yarns and add some interest for an even more feminine knit. I kept comprehensive notes as I was knitting (especially during the fun decrease rounds, which were difficult to work out but which I love now they are complete) so I am gong to try and write up the pattern when I have a spare moment or two.