Lots of knitting

I got the large baby blanket for my friend’s baby finished, which means I’ve used a grand total of 1305 metres of yarn on that. I am really pleased with the effect, as the original pattern, Gansey Afghan by Lena Skvagerson was intended to be all one colour. I thought I’d get bored knitting like that, and decided I wanted to go for a rainbow stained glass effect but was a little unsure about quantities and colours.

Anyway, it worked, and I’m really pleased with the end result! The yarn I chose is Paintbox Yarns Cotton Aran, which is inexpensive, machine washable, soft and available in about a million colours from Love Knitting. The blanket is huge – it will easily cover a single bed – which is what I was aiming for as I hope it will have longevity and be suitable for  a teenage bedroom too.

I bought three balls of yarn to make a cardigan for my niece – she likes yellow and has a wool allergy so there wasn’t anything in my stash that was suitable. The pattern I’ve chosen is Lush by Tincanknits, which involves a lace panel yoke, then lots of picked up stitches to make a collar and then the body. The yarn is Berlingo by Bergère de France, which has a lovely sheen to it and a glint of metallic. It looks like cloth of gold knitted up 😉

That meant another  493 metres acquired, but my totals so far this year are looking healthier:

2423 metres acquired and 1805 metres used, which means I’ve only acquired 618 more metres than I’ve used so far.

I’ve finished another project too, although this one didn’t involve stashbusting as it was the second pair of socks I’d promised my friend before she died that I’d finish knitting for her Dad – that yarn was never part of my stash, so can’t count! The pattern was just a basic sock pattern and the yarn is WYS Signature sock in the Marie Curie colourway. I must admit it feels like I spent forever knitting these, mainly because it was at the same time as the blanket, so these were my small portable project, but also because they are size 11, so absolutely enormous!

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Knitting round up 2017

2017 turned into a bit of a strange year for knitting. I was trying to knit from stash whilst spending most of my money on childcare. The stash knitting went well, although my stash in/out totals for the year ended up the wrong way round as I was given yarn as presents (how dare they!!)

My last stash bust project of the year was another Beyond Puerperium, 6-12 month size for a friend’s baby. This used up the leftovers of my Rowan Amy Butler organic Aran wool/CottonRowan Amy Butler organic Aran wool/Cotton. I really enjoyed knitting with this yarn, originally purchased half price in the John Lewis sale when I worked in central London in 2011. Sadly the yarn is now discontinued. The recipient’s Mum isn’t a knitter but was very pleased with it!

Other projects completed this year include two rainbow jumpers for LO, one of which is pictured, using West Yorkshire Spinners Aire Valley DK. The pattern for both was Conscious. These have already had a lot of wear, as they are easy to get on and off (there are buttons at the shoulder) and the yarn is machine washable.

I also did a Beyond Puerperium in the two year size for LO, using Ella Rae Cozy Soft Prints, which again has been really useful and is a nice soft machine washable yarn.

The third Conscious I knitted was for my niece, who turned out to have a wool allergy (hence why LO ended up with both of the rainbow jumpers!). For this one I used Louisa Harding Noema, which was quite nice to knit with (I don’t normally really enjoy knitting with cotton) and has a slight sparkle to it, which my niece apparently loves!

I’ve also knitted a few dolls’ clothes. This is a dress knitted for my Goddaughter’s doll using up the leftovers from the Beyond Perperium

My stash knitting totals have also been affected by a couple of other projects. The week before Christmas I decided LO’s doll would like a hat, so knitted one out of some oddments of DK that someone had passed onto me but which hadn’t been recorded in my stash.

A close friend died in September, and, before she died, I promised her that I’d finish off a couple of knitting projects she hadn’t had time to finish – which turned out to be two pairs of socks for her Dad, who has size 11 feet! So, I haven’t added this yarn to stash, but it has meant a lot of my knitting time has been taken up with knitting these. She was using the Winwick Mum contrast cuff, heel and toe pattern, and the yarn is WYS signature 4ply, in the kingfisher colourway plus contrast.

So, stash in and out in 2017:

In 7256.3 metres

Out 4588.4 metres

so I acquired 2667.9 metres more than I used in 2017. However, 2660 metres of that was gifted to me, leaving only 7.9 metres over! It is safe to say that, had I been doing all of my own knitting, I’d have used up more than I acquired.

More stash

The stash diet had another wobbly in July. Not only did I end up buying the four balls of Noema to make a non-wool Conscious, which I hadn’t planned to do originally… but I also discovered some lovely yarn at Swansea Bay Yarns when I was visiting my niece and nephews. It wasn’t my longest visit ever to a yarn shop, but with two toddlers in tow we had to be pretty quick browsing. I chose three balls of Ella Rae Cozy Soft Prints in this gorgeous colourway to make a Beyond Puerperium for LO.

That makes my stash in total for July 1064 metres (oops), giving a total of 4696.4 metres acquired so far this year (double oops). Another Conscious jumper knitted in July used a total of 299.6 metres, totalling 3250.7 metres for the year so far. So, I’ve knitted 1445.6 metres less than I’ve bought so far! I didn’t get any projects finished during August so nothing new to add to the knitted up totals, although at least I didn’t buy any more stash either…

 

 

Rainbows

So I’ve been doing lots of knitting in July. In my last stash update I reported the purchase of three balls of West Yorkshire Spinners Aire Valley DK yarn in the rum paradise colourway.
This was intended to be knitted up into two Conscious jumpers for LO and her cousin, who is three months older. Three balls should be just about enough for two jumpers in 2-3 year size.

Here we are in progress. The first jumper I was really careful about matching stripes on the sleeves. The yarn is nice to knit with and the stripes are a really sensible size – would look lovely as a pair of socks!
Ta da, here is the finished jumper for my niece.

I weighed the yarn leftover and realised that I had used more than 1.5 balls of the Aire Valley DK already, so decided to use some turquoise oddments someone had given me to finish the sleeves on the second jumper. This is LO’s favourite colour so I thought she’d like it like that. I used up every scrap of the Aire Valley, hence the non-matching sleeves on this one.

Then, disaster. LO and I went to visit her cousins, and I discovered that the smallest one can’t wear wool, so LO now has two rainbow jumpers!

And I now have four balls of Louisa Harding Noema yarn (a cotton/acrylic mix) to make a non-wool Conscious. It’s a good thing I enjoy knitting this pattern…

Anyone had a similar change of plan with their knitting?!

Some knitting content

So, what have I been knitting? Well, I started a scrap jumper for LO to use up a few DK oddments where I only had a ball or two of yarn. The pattern is a free one, Scrap sweater for the small ones. The 2 year size came up small though, only slightly bigger than her current chest measurement so I got this far:

And then decided to frog and knit the next size up. This is the, ahem, four year old size, but I think it will be about right for her next winter. The yarn I’m using up is an acrylic – Rico Design Baby Classic DK, which I have in three different, coordinating colourways. With just the ends to sew in and the neckline to finish, it looks like I’ll use up all the purple and variegated yarn, but still have some of the mauve left over. Despite the sizing problem (which might be me – I never checked gauge!), I’d use this pattern again – it’s a nice, basic jumper pattern which you can use in different ways to use up scraps. The suggested pattern includes a fair isle chart, but I just went with stripes.

My other knitting at the moment includes these socks. The pattern is called Tootsie Rolls, and I chose it as I wanted to use some self-striping sock yarn but wanted a more interesting pattern that would work with the stripes. After a bit of playing around (the first go ended up with the plain colours regressed behind the grey/white bits) it worked out like this:

I call them the Very Hungry Caterpillar Socks, as they rather remind me of the caterpillar’s cocoon.

What have you been knitting in January?