My lovely sister gave me some beautiful blue Merino wool roving for Christmas (with a particularly swanky pair of 35mm needles 🙂 ), and I decided to make a simple cowl.
Although the roving makes a very chunky yarn, the finished cowl is quite lightweight to wear, and lovely and soft. The large needles- and use of stocking stitch- meant that this was definitely the quickest knitting project I’ve ever completed!
I am currently weaving a wool snood/cowl, using a mixture of mohair and merino yarn. The purple and grey yarns (the weft threads) are relatively chunky (Rowan ‘Cocoon’), but weaving rather than knitting means that the finished material isn’t so heavy/thick. I have previously knitted a cabled scarf using Rowan Cocoon and it is lovely and chunky, but too warm for all but the coldest of days!
I seem to have acquired quite a few rabbit-related bits and pieces, including jewellery, stationary and small ornaments, some of which are shown here. I think I’ve always found the motif appealing, and can clearly remember particularly liking a picture of a black and white dutch rabbit in a Ladybird book when I was about three years old. Rabbits also make me think of spring, despite there being no shortage of them in the UK year-round!
I made the necklace and knitted rabbit shown above (the knitted rabbit is a great quick Easter gift); the ornaments and buttons are vintage; the blue wooden brooch is by a modern designer-maker (I am embarrassed to say that I can’t remember her name); the gold charm is modern.
Every autumn when the weather gets colder I start knitting again, and produce at least one pair of socks a year. Having hunted for properly warm socks for years previously I have decided that hand knitted is definitely the way to go- they can be as thick or as thin as you like, and you can use the softest, warmest wool you can find.
There are also some great colour ways and self-patterning sock yarns available these days, so it’s easy to make quite complicated pattern using just one ball of yarn.
I came bought this humorous cartoon at a car boot sale earlier in the year. It dates from the beginning of the First World War (1914), but anyone who has struggled with a knitting pattern will recognise the sometimes strange results that stem from ambitious intentions!
“That looks easy enough…”
“I’m sure tension doesn’t really matter…”
“Well, I suppose that it’s the thought that counts!”
“I can honestly say that I did wear them…”
I have started knitting a pair of socks using this lusciously-coloured Opal sock yarn from my stash- to make them slightly more interesting I decided to add a single cable running down the front of each sock. I was originally going to have the cable running down the back, but thought that it might rub at the heel.
As the weather is FINALLY starting to improve, and spring appears to be on it’s way (although I probably shouldn’t have tempted fate by saying that…) this may be my last pair of the season. I am definitely a seasonal sock knitter!
I have finished the cowl knitting project that a started a couple of weeks ago, using some lovely soft Artesano alpaca and wool yarn that had been languishing in my stash. As you can see, I decided to use the left over yarn to knit a bobble hat- I had just enough yarn!
The hat and cowl were both easy knitting projects, and the stripes mean that they would be great for using up yarn left over from other projects.
At least the continuing bad weather means that I have already had an opportunity to wear my newly finished items- every cloud has a silver lining!
As the weather has finally turned to a more seasonally-appropriate temperature (i.e. cold, rather than warm and wet!) I have dug some thicker yarn out of my stash and made a start on a striped, stocking stitch cowl.
The GORGEOUS (yes, it is so nice that it deserves shouty capital letters!) yarn that I am using is Artesano Superfine Alpaca and Peruvian Highland Wool, and it is sooo soft. As I am knitting in stocking stitch and using an aran-weight yarn I decided on a cowl rather than a scarf to avoid it being too bulky when worn under a coat (particularly where the knot would be if it was a scarf). Cowls also have the added benefits of being quicker to knit than a scarf, and using less yarn (so I’m hoping that I’ll have some left over for a hat too…).
I love using wooden or bamboo knitting needles- they feel warmer than metal or plastic ones, and I find them much more comfortable when doing lots of knitting. These were plain needles when I bought them, but a lick of paint later and they are both decorative, and in easily identifiable pairs (the ones shown here all have an identical mate out of shot)!
If you saw my post on decorated jewellery-making tools then you will know that I am rather partial to having tools that are attractive (and unique) as well as useful- this is a very quick DIY project, and would also make a nice personalised Christmas present for a fellow knitter.
Now that autumn has officially arrived I am spending more time knitting again. My latest project was this knitted shawl, a simple pattern that somehow takes ages to knit, thanks to the fine-guage yarn and 3mm needles! Self-striping yarn is a blessing though, meaning no ends to weave in when the knitting is finished (apart from the cast-on and cast-off tails of course).
