A little reinvention

Posted on March 4, 2015 by The Little Room of Rachell

I know it’s now a saga, this honey cowl. As you know, I disliked the feel and look of the Stylecraft Special DK when it was knitted, so swapped to a lovely soft DMC Creative World merino I had in my stash.We all know swatching is important, even vital, but it seems a drag – not that I’ve ever actually done it before. The honey cowl is meant to be 12″ in width, but mine was actually looking like 10″ which meant I was knitting a neck brace! I didn’t think blocking would make 2″ difference so after pondering the inevitable I undid it all. It is best to do this quickly, rewind the yarn into balls and stuff it into a bag out of sight, out of mind!

It’s not great undoing your knitting but I have to admit this was accompanied with a measure of relief – since I found the alternate slip a stitch purl-wise, then purl pattern was really aggravating my golfer’s elbow.

But last night I fancied a quick make while I listened to the last hour of The Minotaur by Barbara Vine. I don’t need another pin cushion so this will go to one of my friend’s charity craft stalls.

I can choose a new audio book on Friday when I get my new Audible credit, do you have any recommendations?

What are you up to this week? What are you reading?

Begin again

Posted on February 22, 2015 by The Little Room of Rachell

It was obvious I had to start the Honey Cowl again wasn’t it? Thank you for all your comments here, and elsewhere. I was kind of hoping someone might suggest I could wave a magic wand and transform the yarn into something else, without having to undo all my knitting, but no go!

I’m on a yarn diet at the moment, I’ve sent a bag of never-gonna-use-this balls and oddments of yarn to the charity shop and have others I’m planning to use before another big purchase. I’d forgotten I still have some merino which DMC Creative World sent me last year. I used some when I made my needle roll. It is PERFECT, the yarn slides along my wooden Knitpro needles with ease, it’s soft and the stitch definition is great. Now I can see why it’s called the Honey Cowl, see those little honeycomb shapes?

Before I kept hearing the refrain: ‘Poor Old Michael Finnegan begin again’, I was reluctant to undo what I’d knit so far, but this has been a fast catch up even for a relatively slow knitter like me. It’s the merino, nothing to do with me!

What are you up to this weekend?

On a random note: have you ever tried tatting? I was thinking that I could maybe use some of the fine DMC crochet thread to learn.

Dilemma. Knitting.

Posted on February 18, 2015 by The Little Room of Rachell

So, I’ve knit a bit more of the Honey Cowl, it’s described as a slip stitch honeycomb pattern which explains the name, but am caught in a bit of a dilemma. It’s not big as the world goes; but enough to make me pause. It’s the Stylecraft Special DK, it’s really fine for crochet blankets. It’s lightweight, soft, washable and can be tumble dried (not that I’ve ever tested the last two but it’s comes highly recommended by so many others that I believe them) and is inexpensive. The trouble with knitted stitches more sleek in appearance than crochet, is that suddenly the yarn seems to be too shiny, too light in weight and just very acrylic looking and to the touch too.

I’ve knit too much to undo it without a thought, but am not sure that it’s wise to carry on when I already know that I won’t want to wear it. What would you do?

Mostly ends with one beginning

Posted on February 16, 2015 by The Little Room of Rachell

See the golden coloured ‘square’? I took this photo to: “You’re in the way of the rugby!” Well, the light was best in front of the tv and it was Valentine’s Day, sheesh! Even so this isn’t the clearest photo, but we’re trapped under iron skies here. I didn’t notice that I’d pulled it out of shape arranging the piece on the carpet. When I went to add more hexagons to fill in the gaps I realised it was in the wrong place completely and it would be far too fiddly to add one in with all the sides to be joined. Bye Bye Goldie.

I finished the Vanessa headband, it’s blocked and posed to be mattress stitched up. This is my issue with knitting; joining crochet with crochet is not a problem, because it’s crochet. Sewing knitting up makes me start yawning even at the thought of it.

I have until a few days before 28th, then it needs to be posted to its new home because it’s then flying off to Austria skiing for a week. Clever headband!

Yet more ends to be sewn. I have another boxful of motifs ready to JAYGO to my William Morris inspired blanket, but they must be darned beforehand. I’ve set myself a 5-a-day plan like last time. But oh it’s boring. Crochet a motif, darn that motif is a great idea, but I enjoy the flow of making them and seeing little stacks pile up.

I started this circular Honey Cowl while listening to the last part of The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins audio book. It seemed pretty obvious early on who dunnit, although I still found the story quite gripping overall.

So, there’s going to be no sewing up! Which is a Baldrick style cunning plan, I think. It’s not posh yarn and I did wonder how I’m going to feel about wearing Stylecraft Special DK; but it’s really soft and consistent for knitting. I’ve only ever used it for crochet blanket making, but I just didn’t want to start with a nicer yarn (I have some Tosca Light left over from Brian ) and run out mid way.

Do you use Stylecraft for wearable knitting or crochet? How do you find it?