Yeah baby - all done!

Here you go all! My (or rather M's) lovely new vest - my first attempt at cable! Am so proud! It was from a pattern in Knitty i think. I used a paton's dark raspberry wool mix pink yarn -reasonably cheap - from Dave's of course. Only needed 250g. I did have abit of a problem with the straps as they weren't long enough the first time - so having totally finished it I had to undo all of it (arm holes and straps as well as the collar border) and start again - but it was OK - no biggy. Anyway, hope you think it's as wonderful as I do! M loves it too - which I guess is the main thing! Hrmm - what to do next!??? xxx

My Fininshed Bag!!

I used yarn Christina gave me to knit up a Saturday Market Bag.

This fantastic bag was knit in a few days, though it took some time for me to do the finishing touches (though I tackled those in our staff meeting!). I used it for the first time last week and it held up well. I put the details on my Ravelry page, but the highlights are that I loved it. :)

I will bring it along the next time I attend a meeting. I won't be around next week as I will be flying back to the states! Enjoy the cakes for me! :)

Cables

Right. Cables. Well, you should not need to add or subtract stitches when you make cables in the design, BUT you must keep your tension even. Another must, if you want well defined cables, is that there should be at least two stitches either side of each cable that are different from the cable and the border; i.e.

5 stitches garter. 2 st. reverse stocking st. 8 st. st.st.[cable] 2 st. rev st st. 5 st. gart.st.

I hope this helps, but if it's as clear as mud, I can demonstrate at our next meeting, which is next week. Also, remember that if you are doing a main ground of something like moss stitch, you need to have an odd number of stitches to get good border definition.
Have fun!

A question re the squares and tension etc

Thanks L for all the info re the squares and tensions etc...how does it work if you want to make a pattern? For example - if I decided I wanted to cable the square, would I put more stitches on, or would it not make a difference?
Confused and unravelled
Steenie

Good reasons to knit

Finished. The little cardi whose sleeves I forgot to shape. It is also the first knitted object I have ever designed. It is in superwash double knit pure wool, from Hayes wools [of course].Made for a friend's new baby girl.
Ness and I were discussing the OXFAM squares project last night, and realised that a number of our newer knitters may be wondering how to decide on needle size and stitch numbers for each square. We will do a little workshop at one of the meetings, but for now, I suggest this;
Use double knit wool, size 4 mm needles and cast on between 47 and 54 stitches.If you are a loose knitter, try the lower number.If a tight knitter, go for the higher end. If you are still on the big size having used the lowest number, you can go for even fewer stitches or use a 3 .75 mm needle [or both if it's really big ] and, obviously, the reverse [more stitches, 4.5 mm needles] if your knitting is still too tight/small. I hope you enjoy making your square, it's such a good cause.

Got some stash?

Hello, all.

I'm looking to tackle my next project and am hoping someone might have some unwanted cotton balls to spare from their stash. I'm looking to knit a bag on 10 and 6 mm needles, and was hoping to use some wool that needs a loving home before buying some new stuff. I'm hoping to find some cotton or cotton wool mix, not too stiff type of stuff. If you have anything that you don't mind parting with, I don't mind about colour, then let me know! :)

Tea Cosy!

I am so excited to say that my teapot cosy I've been working on is now finished! I started it at our last meeting, but frogged it all in order to make it better.

I decided awhile ago that it would be fun to create a tea cosy. Having never had a tea cosy, or a teapot, growing up, I wasn't quite sure what I would be creating. I looked on the internet, and a coworker even gave me a fantastic old knitting pattern for Gollywogs and tea cosys. But that still wasn't quite what a I wanted.

I set out and found a teapot for the cosy (though most people likely go about this the other way - cosying an existing teapot). I then spent some time sketching out what I wanted to make and actually did a gauge swatch to make sure it would work. I then knit it up. And it's fantastic! It looks like a corncob (or ear of corn as people say). Just as I wanted it to. And I adore it! :) When I get the camera working, I will go ahead and take a picture. :) Until then, anyone want to come over and share a pot of tea! :)

Another Oxfam update

Each square should be 9 inches in size and preferably made using double-knitting weight yarn. Please make sure that you use make a 9 inch square – odd sized squares can be very difficult to piece together.
You can use any type of yarn, provided that it is washable. All colours are welcome. Superwash wool or washable cotton yarns are particularly suitable.
Plain stocking stitch always curls up at the sides. You can prevent this by knitting a narrow border of garter stitch all round the square. To do this, just knit the first and last five rows (no purling!), and always knit the first five and last five stitches of every row with your stocking stitch in between.
Many people like to make patterned squares. You can find a dictionary of stitch patterns available free at each of the sites below: http://www.knittingonthenet.com/stitches.htmhttp://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/directory/stitches.php
Others may wish to use up different coloured odds and ends of yarn to make striped or multicoloured squares. Some ideas and examples are available here:http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/afghans/sampler.htmhttp://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/directory/motifs_squares.php

More haste, less speed..

It was going so well. A cardigan for a very new arrival. Colours chosen, basic pattern was simple, made the back. Oh, this is sooooo easy. I was within an inch of finishing both sleeves [You can see them both on the circular needles], when I realised -I had not done any shaping! So I had to frog back to the cuff....on both of them. Note to self -don't get carried away with your own cleverness!

More knitting challenge thinking

Lin has had a fabulous idea (hope it's OK to post it on here). We could organise a day/event/fete etc inviting people to come and knit a square. I've emailed the organisers to ask for publicity material but I'm running away with the idea now and was just thinking if we could organise local celebrities/dignitaries to come along to knit. Obviously there would be cake! Maybe we could we could have it in a local park if anyone has those sort of connections?!

Did someone mention UNravelry?

Just a very quick one to let you all know that after much knitting, unknitting, cabling, uncabling, purling and unpurling and even more unravelling, I am finally on the way to achieving my first cable knit sweater (FIRST! did you get that? F I R S T!!)...OK - so it's for M and not very big, and being done on 4mm needles, but its damn cute and a brilliant colour...and its a vest - so no arms! Excellent! Anyhoo - I just wanted to show you all how I am getting on...I guess it is safe to say that this weekend I shall be mostly 'cabling'...teehee!

Lazy-lay-about wraparound jacket not to be worn outside!

Morning all - a picture of my sheep - or what was a sheep - or at least a sheep's coat at some point! My lazy-lay-about cardigan' which I have finally finished! I did the front and back pretty quickly with some wool left I bought at the fibre fest - but although I thought there was enough, there wasn't! So - I waited for about 6 months and finally got some Rowan Big Wool for the arms...it is ever so slightly a diffferent colour and ever so slightly a lighter weight yarn, so I have been thinking about dyeing it another colour, so if anyone has any success stories in doing this, I would love to hear about them!

You may notice that I look rather tired and like I have been actually shearing the sheep myself - I hadn't - I had just cooked for about 3 hours and had eaten a huge meal with good friends...no change there, thank goodness!

Anyway - I hope you like it. It is almost too big to wear outside, so I am turning the heating off and sitting calmly and quietly, wearing it on the sofa, of an evening. This is fine, as long as I don't knit, as any form of exercise in it brings me out in a sweat. I must just mention that it came from a book that Pam has, which I can't remember the name of (I will find out) and was knitted in super chunky wool, with a pair of 10mm needles. It is called a Wraparound Jacket...but even the picture of it is a lady in her PJs on the sofa, wearing it. It should definitely come with a health warning, as it can't be worn if it rains, as this might result in being weighed down so heavily that one would get stuck in the mire. Should there be any mire near by...

I definitely recommend knitting one of these...I love big needles and as long as you have all the wool to hand and don't have to wait for ages to get it, then you can probably whip one of these up in a couple of days. Instant gratification knitting - perfect.

Oxfam challenge

Oxfam is calling on all knitters in the South West to purl together and support a new campaign to help reduce the numbers of women who die needlessly every year in pregnancy and childbirth. Millions of mums in poor countries get low-quality health care or are forced to go though pregnancy and childbirth without it altogether, meaning that, every minute, a mother dies because she doesn’t have access to the medical care she needs.

The campaign is being launched in partnership with the parenting website http://www.mumsnet.com/ and knitters across the UK will be asked to make 9-inch squares for a giant baby blanket, with each knitted square representing a mother who did not survive pregnancy or childbirth to be able to care for her baby. Some Stitch n bitch groups are also involved already (http://stitchandbitchlondon.wordpress.com/ ).

Our aim is to get 250,000 squares by September, the number of mothers who could have been saved in that time if decent healthcare had been available. The giant blanket will be handed over to the UK Government just before world leaders meet in New York to discuss progress on the Millennium Development Goals, aimed at halving world poverty by 2015. It will represent a demand to global leaders to act now to ensure that everyone in the world has access to free basic healthcare. After the giant blanket has been handed in, it will be dismantled and sold in Oxfam shops and at festivals, with the money raised going towards Oxfam's work to fight poverty.

If this is something you would be keen to get involved in it would be fantastic to have your support.

Meet Ronnie

This is Ronnie, he will be a present for K when we meet her. The pattern is one Linda kindly gave me, a Mary Ann Gebhardt classic teddy bear pattern from interweave knits.com.

The main colour is another beautiful eco wool and the coloured parts are odd bits and bobs from my stash.

He's got some curvature of the spine issues but his jaunty little twist gives him character!