Knitting socks with Marlene

Rehearsals finished early today - I was only needed for 30 minutes. So already home and thinking about starting my second sock. I've been working on Stripe Tease sock pattern from Ravelry designer General Hogbuffer. It's a bit of a deconstructed pattern where you begin with the cuff in the round and then you work on 10(+1 slip stitch) to create stripes that go down the body of the sock, rather than round and round and round... which when making a pair of socks can become a bit laborious. I'm using 100g of Zauberball 'crazy' in autumnal colours, brown, grey/greens and pumpkin orange. What I like about this pattern is the geometry behind it. The pattern author must have a real visual mind to be able to work such. It knits up pretty quick. In between rehearsals (and sometimes during whilst I'm waiting for an entrance) it has probably taken me a couple of days to complete just the one sock. I have a page of notes to ensure that the second comes out the same length/size - row counting is not my most favourite part of knitting and one that I rarely do, I'm more inclined to measure (in Imperial inches) but for the stripes I need to row count. Listening to Marlene Dietrich record I just bought from the second hand market in Amsterdam, that should help (and the coffee on the side).

 

Happy knitting!

Test knit for poncho

Here is a swatch that I've just made for my poncho. The original pattern for the poncho has charted stripes running diagonally through the body but I've decided to replace these with a classic cable worked over 16 rows. The yarn I'm using is Cascade Eco Wool purchased from Penelope Craft, Lange Leidsedwarsstraat 99, Amsterdam - a great yarn boutique! I'll keep you updated how the Mancho comes along...

Edgar: 2

So the back, left and right front of the cardigan are now complete (just all those ends still to sew in). I've begun working on the first arm. I'm having to adjust the pattern slightly to fit the yarn that I am using but I'm happy with how it is going at the moment.

It's beginning to get colder in Amsterdam now and this top will be perfect for winter, and especially Christmas with it's greens and reds!

I can't wait :D

Nanny's Buttons

I spent weekend with my family in England - got to see my nephew and have a play in the garden with him :-D Anyway... whilst I was there I thought I would ask my Mum for some buttons for the "Edgar" cardigan I am working on. I could just go and buy 6 buttons from the sewing shop but since I like vintage things (being raised in a family of antique restorers) I thought that some old, used buttons would age the cardigan nicely.

There was always a tin of buttons hanging when we were younger and I used to love looking at them - all those colours and forgotten clothes that they had come from - and it was also where old Scout and Girl Guide badges ended up too. Unfortunetly Mum had given her tin of buttons away (to a local knitting group), but she had a collection that belonged to my Nan Eva that they hadn't given away.

So out came the old tea tin, battered. Dad took the lid off, and we poured out the "gems" on to a tray. Wow! what a nice collection. A real mix of ages - from early 1930s-present. There was pearl buttons, and green glass buttons, and red plastic buttons. And I found 6 cream, cracked buttons that will work great on "Edgar" giving me the finish I desire.

I've taken some pictures for you to see the few that I brought home with me for future projects or just to keep in my sewing draw to make me think of my Nan. Enjoy!

Temple Socks

The other project I'm working on at the moment is socks for HG Dhananjaya Prabhu, my temple president, as it is getting close to winter and for a Dutch winter a good strong pair of woolen socks is just what you need!

Using Regia 6, on 4.5 needles, in a neutral colour.

"Edgar" - 1920's cardigan

The project I am currently working on is using a vintage Patons & Baldwin's pattern No. 324 which I bought from eBay. It is an original 1920's pattern with full colour chart on the inside (I would imagine this would have made it a pretty expensive pattern to purchase at the time).

The pattern is knitted using 2-ply Real Shetland wool (made by P&B themselves) but since this doesn't exist I had to supplement a yarn that would knit up to the gauge correctly - that being 6 1/2 stitches to the inch (in old money) or 26 stitches to 10cm on No. 8 needles (again old Imperial money) or 4mm (US 6) in stocking stitch.

A couple of months ago I went on a trip to Hoorn with my friend Donna to Schouten Handwerken to ask the advice of Wilbert Schouten, and to also see what wonderful yarns he had on offer for me in his shop. After showing Wilbert the pattern, and some quick iphone searching for English knitting conversions he suggested that I use Lana Grossa "Cool Wool". It's 100% Virgin Merino wool, washes at 30.c and gave almost the correct tension even though it was a 5-ply. Selected 4 colour combination of grey, red, green, and dark blue and left with a smile on my face...

And after a couple of weeks knitting on this project this is where I am with it so far. The first image at the beginning of the post is the back, wrong side facing, being blocked. I usually use this towel to block as I can pin it out and use the squares to give myself a straight edge to measure against to make sure that the piece is laying equal. I was worried that the colourwork was perhaps too tight but once blocked it lays perfectly, and I think this is also helped by the wonderful spring that is in the Lana Grossa yarn.

The second image shows the ends that the colourwork creates. I have been trying to keep this to a minimum and carry the grey/red up the side as much as possible without having lots of yarn running up the side of the work! And the third image shows detail of the right side of the cardigan, the great colour combinations of the yarn and the pattern of the colourwork itself.

I have also worked the left front and blocked that too, but the images are pretty much the same (lots of ends, orange towel for blocking..). The only difficulty with the front piece is the grey band that runs up the centre of the cardigan - I am trying to use intarsia interlock but I will still need to go over the piece at the end and just tighten it together to the body with a few stitches. May be on the right hand side this will improve!

I'll keep you updated with how it comes together.