F.O. Stronachlachar by Kate Davies

Isn't it just lovely when you get a project off the needles that has been languishing for some time?  I am so happy to have finished Stronachlachar by Kate Davies, a pattern found in the West Highland Way collection.  This is one of those projects where I think I found the perfect match between pattern and yarn, and I am so happy with how it turned out.  Spring is still quite cool where I live, so there is still plenty of time to wear it before the weather gets too warm.

Pattern: Stronachlachar

Stronachlachar by Kate Davies

Designer:  Kate Davies

Yarn:  West Yorkshire Spinners Bluefaed Leicester DK (100% Bluefaced Leicester 223 meters):  4 skeins

Colourway:  2 Natural Light Brown 

Needles:  3.5mm (ribbing) & 3.75mm (body)

Ravelry:  see notes

After Blocking

Added Notes:

1.  Blocking is my favourite part of the knitting process.  Check out the difference:

Before Blocking

Once blocked the cables opened up and the yarn bloomed.  If you are new to blocking, all I did was soak the sweater in some water and wool wash.  Then I gently squeezed out the excess water with a towel, and laid it to out to dry, making sure the measurements given in the pattern matched the third size I had chosen.  I used a few blocking pins along the ribbing, and by the next day it looked like this:

Blocking magic

2.  One reason this sweater took longer to complete is because I made a mistake mid-body when I switched my needles to a pointier set.  Instead of the required 3.75mm needles, I started using 4mm needles and proceeded to knit many inches.  Once I noticed my mistake I tried knitting a few rows with 3.75mm needles to see if it was noticeable, and it definitely was.  I ripped out the inches I had knit and started over.  Thank goodness I made that choice as I would have run out of yarn with the bigger needles, and the sweater would have been too big.  It doesn't matter how long you have been knitting... you still make dumb errors!

3.  I bought this yarn on a family trip to Scotland at Ginger Twist studio in Edinburgh five years ago (read about my visit here).  Every time I looked at this yarn it brought back a lot of good memories and so I was super pleased to find a pattern that worked well it.  The fact that the designer of this vest is Scottish is a bonus.  

A very simple cable

4.  This pattern, like all Kate Davies patterns, is well written.  The sweater is knit in the round from the bottom up and is then divided at the underarms.  I like the way the sleeves are easily constructed. This pattern is the perfect introduction to sweater knitting with cables. The repetitive pattern is quite simple and the end result, I think, is gorgeous.   Perfect for beginners.

Gray Rose: by Thea Colman

I just made the sweetest little hat called Gray Rose by Thea Colman.  Although I had intended to knit this pattern for myself, it didn't quite go as planned. For some reason I chose to knit the hat in the smallest size.  I have to admit that I didn't bother knitting a swatch with the yarn and I ignored my inner voice telling me that the pattern was turning out too small for an adult sized head.  But I was enjoying knitting this adorable pattern so much that I decided to just finish it and put it away in my bottom drawer, as a future gift for someone special.  I definitely want to knit it again in an adult size at some future date.  Ravelled here.

Gray Rose

I loved knitting with the West Yorkshire Spinners DK yarn that I had bought in Scotland a couple summers ago.  It is a Bluefaced Leicester yarn and I find myself gravitating more often toward knitting more with sheepy yarns and less with superwash yarns.  When I was buying this yarn I thought that one could only find this yarn in Scotland or England but I soon discovered it in a Canadian yarn shop on a trip to Vancouver. 88 Stitches in Langley, British Columbia has a great selection of it both in DK and Aran weight.

WYS Bluefaced Leicester Yarn

I used my leftover Woolfolk yarn for the flowers and it worked perfectly with the WYS yarn.  I added some Tanis Fiber Arts Green Label Yarn in Tidal for that punch of colour.

woolfolk far

After knitting Gray Rose I knew that I wanted to use the rest of my West Yorkshire Spinners BFL to knit a cozy sweater.  I decided on Georgetown by Hannah Fettig in her published book Home & Away.  Each pattern in this book provides you with the option to knit a seamed or seamless sweater.  Although I haven't had much luck with seaming sweaters recently I am determined to master my skills, so I have jumped right in and chose the seamed option.

I can hardly wait until it's done.  

Gotta go...must get back to knitting. Have a great week!

Swatching: The Art of Picking a Pattern

A couple of weeks ago I was able to quickly decide what I wanted to knit with my Brooklyn Tweed Shelter yarn.  Everything just clicked together without any effort at all on my part - it took under five minutes to make a decision.  I chose to make the Farmhouse Shawl by cabinfour and I ended up with a shawl that I love and will be worn frequently.

Swatching for a sweater

Now I am looking for my next project.  I know I want to knit a cardigan or sweater but it is taking me so long to decide.  There are just so many options on Ravelry that it can be overwhelming. Plus, knitting a sweater is a huge investment of my time and I don't want to put all that effort in and not be happy with the result. It seems that the more I know about knitting, the more particular I am about which pattern I will knit. 

Madelinetosh Pashmina:  Baroque Violet

 I knew I needed a strategic plan to figure it out. I decided to focus on four different yarns that I was interested in knitting with.  I then went through my Ravelry queue and Favourites list.  I wrote down the names, kind of yarn, gauge, and needle size that would work with those yarns.  I then knit some swatches, and from there I am going to see if any of the swatches will work with any of the patterns.  This way, I will have figured out not only the next sweater I will knit but hopefully the next two or three.

Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label:  Painted Jeans

v

West Yorkshire Spinners DK

Madelinetosh 80/10/10 Sport:  Tannenbaum

So what's a girl to do while figuring this all out?  Knit socks is what I highly recommend!  I've had this beauty waiting it's turn for some time.  Julie Asselin's Piccolo, a 80% merino, 20% nylon yarn.  It is incredibly squishy yarn, so I can imagine how lovely the socks will be to wear.  A recent convert to sock knitting, I have to admit that I choose handknit socks to wear everyday over all my commercially made ones.  They are so comfortable and breathable. I never used to see what the big deal was about sock knitting, but now I totally do.

Julie Asselin Piccolo: Plume

The pattern I chose was Business Casual by Tanis Fiber Arts.  It is a cuff down construction with a simple cable running through.  As I knit through these socks, I will continue to swatch and look through my sweater pattern options.   I find sock patterns so much easier to choose than sweater patterns despite there being so many to chose from.  

Hopefully no more new and amazing patterns will be published that will divert my attention from my final decision.  That won't happen, will it?

New Year New Projects

There's nothing like a New Year to put some new projects on the needles.  First up, in my queue for sometime, is Seashore by Isabell Kraemer.  I cast this on right after Christmas and have had a hard time putting it down.  It's a relaxing knit, perfect for this time of year.  The next few weeks at work will be quite busy for me, so this is the perfect pattern to knit, without having to use much brain power.  I can't think of anything better than starting my year off with a project using Sweet Fiber Yarn Cashmerino 20 , a fingering cashmere, nylon and merino blend in the most lovely shade of grey, called Smoke.  I am pairing this yarn with Black Trillium Pebble Sock Gradient Yarn in the Undine colourway.  Just looking at this gradient yarn colourway makes me happy.

Seashore by Isabell Kraemer

Black Trillium Pebble Sock Gradient Yarn

The next up on my list is Gray Rose, a beautiful wooly hat by Thea Colman of BabyCocktails.  Her patterns are always so lovely and well written.  This one caught my eye as soon as it was published last September.  After looking around in my stash I think I found the perfect yarn to knit it with, West Yorkshire Spinners Bluefaced Leicester yarn that I bought on my trip to Scotland in 2014.  I am excited to knit a small project with this yarn as I have enough skeins to knit a sweater.  It will give me a chance to see how it knits up and blocks.  I have also wanted to knit with Bluefaced Leicester for some time as I have read a lot of good things about it.  After knitting with Cormo last year I am interested in trying a variety of yarns that are not superwash. Yarn that still smells sheepy, if you know what I mean.  There's nothing like knitting with some cozy yarn during the cold winter months.

WYS Bluefaced Leicester

And lastly, I have also promised myself to redo the sleeves on my son's Slade by Michele Wang.  I seamed the sleeves into the body of the sweater as instructed, but try as I might I just couldn't get them to fit properly.  They were just too big in the upper arm for some reason.  After several attempts to fix them, I put the sweater away while I worked on my Christmas knitting.  This is definitely not my idea of a good time, but I want to get it done so he can wear the sweater this winter.

So there you have it, my list of knitting for the next month.  What's on your needles?

Ginger Twist Studio

If you have been reading my blog for some time you know that when I travel anywhere I always visit the local yarn store if I can.  I can happily say that I was able to visit Ginger Twist Studio when I was in Edinburgh. 

This yarn store was a small, inviting place with a good variety of yarn.  The friendly owner, Jessica James, was there and happily answered answered any questions I had.  On display were the actual knitted pattern samples by the infamous Scottish native Ysolda Teague.  It is quite a thrill to be able to see the pattern knitted up in person when you have only ever been able to admire it on Ravelry.  Here are a few of her lovely samples:

Chickadee

Wee Carson, Wee Leisel and Wee Chickadee

Ginger Twist yarn was the owner's own line of locally hand dyed yarn.  The colours were just beautiful.

Ginger Twist Yarn

After much debate I came away with this beauty:  Splendor, a fingering yarn that is 50% merino and 50% silk.  A beautiful combination of blues and purples.

Ginger Twist Splendor

The other kind of yarn I had heard a lot about was Bluefaced Leicester, a drapey and lustrous yarn. (See this article which explains the difference between merino and BFL)  Ginger Twist Studio carried West Yorkshire Spinners yarn and I ended up buying three beautiful DK skeins that are 100% Bluefaced Leicester.  I regret not buying a couple more skeins because this yarn is absolutely gorgeous and I would have loved to knit it into a cardigan.

West Yorkshire Spinners yarn:  100% Bluefaced Leicester

While travelling throughout the Highlands of Scotland sheep of all kinds were always out in the fields.  It was a thrilling sight for me, I have to admit.  I even visited a sheep farm and got to help shear a sheep.  I was going to add a photo of this momentous occasion but the photos my husband took of me were far from complimentary, as I was bent over the sheep.  You will just have to take my word for it : )

These collies were directing traffic

Everywhere we went in the Highlands sheep were in the distance

I wish I had more time to find stores that sold other yarn but the locations and shops we visited were sadly lacking in this area.  

Now to find some patterns for my yarn from Scotland....