Such a scary time to be living in for so many people. I really appreciate being in a country where the government is doing everything it can to support everyone.
I've been working from home which is not the simplest thing when much of what you do is paper based!! Many of my colleagues are also working from home but actually gardening and sunbathing... I'd like to be knitting more and working less but there you go.
It almost seems pointless now talking about my next step in my Foray into Fairisle, as I have progressed so much since my last post that this needs to probably be part 10!!
Having made the grey and gold affair, I then hunted out the 4 ply I had safely tucked away for the day when I was ready to knit with it myself. I had asked a friend to make me a pair of mittens several years ago and there was a lot of yarn left over. I took the precaution of buying an extra ball of the background colour so that one day, far into the future, I could use it myself.
Well, the day had come and I got it out, bought the hat pattern that matched those mittens and tentatively got started!! On what felt like very tiny needles...
It turned out to be easier than I thought and grew surprisingly quickly. Although, I will admit that I had made the first pattern repeat of the little flowers before I decided maybe I should have gone back and re-read that tutorial I mentioned weeks ago by Julie of Little Cotton Rabbits. It was at that point that I realised I'd been doing it wrong all these weeks with all my Baa-ble Hats! I'd been holding the dominant yarn in the wrong position... So if you're just starting your own #forayintofairisle , then please, go and read this tutorial first.
Anyway, I corrected the way I was holding the yarn (no, I didn't unpick...) and finished that hat and was absolutely GOBSMACKED that it looked just liked the photos in the pattern!! Remarkable! I couldn't quite believe it had come from MY HANDS! Here it is, along with the mittens my friend made -
I then started looking for more gorgeous hats I could make.
There are quite a lot of lovelies on Ravelry when you look.... The first one I chose was called Sea Pinks and was made in pure Shetland 4 ply, which I ordered from Jamiesons of Shetland. Yes, actually in Shetland, yet it arrived very quickly. I thought it might make a slightly rough feeling hat but once washed it has this trick of 'blooming' and becoming beautifully soft and slightly fuzzy. It also blocks very well and as I have quite a tight tension, I was pleased to find I could stretch it a bit too!!!
(I decided to try and redesign the centre of the crown, so what you see below differs a little from the pattern.)
Then I looked for the next pattern and chose Harriet's Hat, a gorgeous pattern designed especially to raise funds for an MRI scanner for the Shetland islands. Currently, they have to travel to the mainland.
I only had the colours I had used for the Sea Pinks hat and again, I had taken the precaution of buying an extra ball of the background colour. This one progressed a little slower as I was having to decide on what colours to use together as I went along, rather than simply follow the pattern but it worked out just fine and I was very pleased with it. And her crown design is to die for!
Then I wondered whether a hat made with merino would work just as well. I hunted out some leftovers of merino 4 ply in ivory for the background and a beautiful hand dyed yarn called 'Rose Gold'. I had another hunt for the perfect pattern and found a lovely one called Cadha. Again, I had to make some minor adjustments to the design as I wasn't convinced there was enough contrast between my yarns but all was well in the end. I'll make another like this one day - one yarn for the background and a single variegated yarn for all the colourwork.
Then I decided I was ready to DESIGN MY OWN!!!!!!! I had quickly realised that all the 4 ply beanie style hats I had made had the same number of stitches (144) and pretty much the same number of rows (about 70).
I ordered a really good book full of different motifs and borders and set to work putting them together. I also spent a ridiculous amount of time choosing new colours online to make it with...
The number of stitches truly is a magical number. 144 can be divided by 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 18, 24, plus an awful lot of others. I opted to stick with patterns that would all fit into a 24 stitch repeat to make the charts work better together.
The possibilities are endless but eventually I settled on a large motif for the main body with a narrow border below and above, then a fancy crown.
Crown's are quite tricky to design though!! You really need to be able to visualise what's going to happen with the decreases in 3D - you can create starts, arrows, flowers and allsorts!! I just need to find a really good book that explains the principles clearly, or a website. Not found one yet apart from this one by Kate Davies Designs but that only explains how to work the decreases and draw the chart shape.
It took me quite a long time to draw it all out, although that process was speeded up ENORMOUSLY by using Stitch Fiddle. If you've never used it to help design your own, go take a look now!! It's a free site but you can pay a small fee to gain access to extra tools, on a monthly basis if you want to, or like I now have, get 50% off by paying for a full year.
After a lot of faffing, I had my design ready and started knitting it using the new colours that I had ordered, including some lovely blues.
It didn't all go smoothly though... I kept putting progress pics on instagram and everyone said they loved it, including the crown. But I wasn't completely happy with it myself. There was something about it that really jarred with me...
I couldn't quite put my finger in it but there was something about it that was just wrong. Then someone very kind left a comment saying the pattern for the body was fine and the pattern for the crown was fine - but they were different styles. That was it!!! The body was very floral in style and the crown was geometric!
So I got the scissors out and cut it off! (I made a video of it as I don't plan on repeating it!)
( ** I'll com back and add tha little video later! **)
I must admit, regardless of how carefully I did it, I really enjoyed cutting it off!! (I have kept that crown and one day I might design a geometric body and graft them together.) And no, I wasn't worried about everything unravelling before I got it back on the needles. Remember I said it was a fuzzy yarn?? Well, I was confident that all those fuzzy bits would 'hold hands' throughut the cutting process and all would be well. And it was! Up until Fluffy came throught the ct flap while I was mid cut... I think I must have flinched slightly as I knew he would jump straight up on the table, which he did, so I cut the stitch on the row below by mistake. I had to then unpick that row but never mind. Still quicker than starting again!!
I set to work designing a new crown and finished the hat a second time. Now I was very happy with it, it was just perfect!!
I asked everyone on instagram what I should call it and the most popular suggestions were 'Hope' and 'Spring' - hope for a better future after lockdown and looking forward to the spring. So I joined them together and Hope Springs was born!
Then I had to sit and write up the pattern to go with it, work on the charts to get them just right and create the Ravelry listing. I had already decided to make it free during lockdown using a coupon code, with a small fee thereafter.
I published it just after lunch on Good Friday - and someone saw it and downloaded it within 5 minutes!! Then there was another and another, and another.... and lots of people were leaving comments saying thank you - I mean LOTS!
Then someone put it on facebook and everything got quite silly.... at one point it was being downloaded ten times a minute! And I got an email for every one...
By the end of the Easter holiday, it had been downloaded over 5,000 times but it just kept going. I've lost track of it now...
I'm really hoping some of those people come back and link their project in Ravelry so I can see what they made. One lady had made hers by Easter Monday and shared some pics! She chose very similar colours to mine -
I was so CHUFFED!! Someone actually made my design - and straight away!!
I've been working from home which is not the simplest thing when much of what you do is paper based!! Many of my colleagues are also working from home but actually gardening and sunbathing... I'd like to be knitting more and working less but there you go.
It almost seems pointless now talking about my next step in my Foray into Fairisle, as I have progressed so much since my last post that this needs to probably be part 10!!
Having made the grey and gold affair, I then hunted out the 4 ply I had safely tucked away for the day when I was ready to knit with it myself. I had asked a friend to make me a pair of mittens several years ago and there was a lot of yarn left over. I took the precaution of buying an extra ball of the background colour so that one day, far into the future, I could use it myself.
Well, the day had come and I got it out, bought the hat pattern that matched those mittens and tentatively got started!! On what felt like very tiny needles...
It turned out to be easier than I thought and grew surprisingly quickly. Although, I will admit that I had made the first pattern repeat of the little flowers before I decided maybe I should have gone back and re-read that tutorial I mentioned weeks ago by Julie of Little Cotton Rabbits. It was at that point that I realised I'd been doing it wrong all these weeks with all my Baa-ble Hats! I'd been holding the dominant yarn in the wrong position... So if you're just starting your own #forayintofairisle , then please, go and read this tutorial first.
Anyway, I corrected the way I was holding the yarn (no, I didn't unpick...) and finished that hat and was absolutely GOBSMACKED that it looked just liked the photos in the pattern!! Remarkable! I couldn't quite believe it had come from MY HANDS! Here it is, along with the mittens my friend made -
I then started looking for more gorgeous hats I could make.
There are quite a lot of lovelies on Ravelry when you look.... The first one I chose was called Sea Pinks and was made in pure Shetland 4 ply, which I ordered from Jamiesons of Shetland. Yes, actually in Shetland, yet it arrived very quickly. I thought it might make a slightly rough feeling hat but once washed it has this trick of 'blooming' and becoming beautifully soft and slightly fuzzy. It also blocks very well and as I have quite a tight tension, I was pleased to find I could stretch it a bit too!!!
(I decided to try and redesign the centre of the crown, so what you see below differs a little from the pattern.)
Then I looked for the next pattern and chose Harriet's Hat, a gorgeous pattern designed especially to raise funds for an MRI scanner for the Shetland islands. Currently, they have to travel to the mainland.
I only had the colours I had used for the Sea Pinks hat and again, I had taken the precaution of buying an extra ball of the background colour. This one progressed a little slower as I was having to decide on what colours to use together as I went along, rather than simply follow the pattern but it worked out just fine and I was very pleased with it. And her crown design is to die for!
Then I wondered whether a hat made with merino would work just as well. I hunted out some leftovers of merino 4 ply in ivory for the background and a beautiful hand dyed yarn called 'Rose Gold'. I had another hunt for the perfect pattern and found a lovely one called Cadha. Again, I had to make some minor adjustments to the design as I wasn't convinced there was enough contrast between my yarns but all was well in the end. I'll make another like this one day - one yarn for the background and a single variegated yarn for all the colourwork.
Then I decided I was ready to DESIGN MY OWN!!!!!!! I had quickly realised that all the 4 ply beanie style hats I had made had the same number of stitches (144) and pretty much the same number of rows (about 70).
I ordered a really good book full of different motifs and borders and set to work putting them together. I also spent a ridiculous amount of time choosing new colours online to make it with...
The number of stitches truly is a magical number. 144 can be divided by 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 18, 24, plus an awful lot of others. I opted to stick with patterns that would all fit into a 24 stitch repeat to make the charts work better together.
The possibilities are endless but eventually I settled on a large motif for the main body with a narrow border below and above, then a fancy crown.
Crown's are quite tricky to design though!! You really need to be able to visualise what's going to happen with the decreases in 3D - you can create starts, arrows, flowers and allsorts!! I just need to find a really good book that explains the principles clearly, or a website. Not found one yet apart from this one by Kate Davies Designs but that only explains how to work the decreases and draw the chart shape.
It took me quite a long time to draw it all out, although that process was speeded up ENORMOUSLY by using Stitch Fiddle. If you've never used it to help design your own, go take a look now!! It's a free site but you can pay a small fee to gain access to extra tools, on a monthly basis if you want to, or like I now have, get 50% off by paying for a full year.
After a lot of faffing, I had my design ready and started knitting it using the new colours that I had ordered, including some lovely blues.
It didn't all go smoothly though... I kept putting progress pics on instagram and everyone said they loved it, including the crown. But I wasn't completely happy with it myself. There was something about it that really jarred with me...
I couldn't quite put my finger in it but there was something about it that was just wrong. Then someone very kind left a comment saying the pattern for the body was fine and the pattern for the crown was fine - but they were different styles. That was it!!! The body was very floral in style and the crown was geometric!
So I got the scissors out and cut it off! (I made a video of it as I don't plan on repeating it!)
( ** I'll com back and add tha little video later! **)
I must admit, regardless of how carefully I did it, I really enjoyed cutting it off!! (I have kept that crown and one day I might design a geometric body and graft them together.) And no, I wasn't worried about everything unravelling before I got it back on the needles. Remember I said it was a fuzzy yarn?? Well, I was confident that all those fuzzy bits would 'hold hands' throughut the cutting process and all would be well. And it was! Up until Fluffy came throught the ct flap while I was mid cut... I think I must have flinched slightly as I knew he would jump straight up on the table, which he did, so I cut the stitch on the row below by mistake. I had to then unpick that row but never mind. Still quicker than starting again!!
I set to work designing a new crown and finished the hat a second time. Now I was very happy with it, it was just perfect!!
I asked everyone on instagram what I should call it and the most popular suggestions were 'Hope' and 'Spring' - hope for a better future after lockdown and looking forward to the spring. So I joined them together and Hope Springs was born!
Ta - dah!!!!!!!
Then I had to sit and write up the pattern to go with it, work on the charts to get them just right and create the Ravelry listing. I had already decided to make it free during lockdown using a coupon code, with a small fee thereafter.
I published it just after lunch on Good Friday - and someone saw it and downloaded it within 5 minutes!! Then there was another and another, and another.... and lots of people were leaving comments saying thank you - I mean LOTS!
Then someone put it on facebook and everything got quite silly.... at one point it was being downloaded ten times a minute! And I got an email for every one...
By the end of the Easter holiday, it had been downloaded over 5,000 times but it just kept going. I've lost track of it now...
I'm really hoping some of those people come back and link their project in Ravelry so I can see what they made. One lady had made hers by Easter Monday and shared some pics! She chose very similar colours to mine -
I was so CHUFFED!! Someone actually made my design - and straight away!!
Then another lady uploaded her pics! She used colours in her stash and must have very loose tension, compared to my tight tension, as she said she gave it to her husband. She'snow made it again, using the colours given in the pattern.
I can't descibe just how lovely it is to see other people using something I designed!
I've been designing (and re-designing over an over...) my next hat but it hasn't been going so well... I chose some more colours and ordered them, knowing they might take a while to arrive but foolishly, whilst designing, I didn't use the new colours but the old ones.... when the new colours did arrive and I started changing the charts I'd been preparing, it just wasn't working. Plus I hadn't ordered enough different colours, they were slightly different on screen etc... I finally settled on something I thought would work and cast on - only to see someone else publish their new hat that day with an almost identical main motif!! Clearly we are using the same stitch dictionery....
Anyway, I decided to knit it up anyway and I'm nearly up to the crown but there are lots of things that just aren't doing it for me - serves me right for not swatching! I hate swatching... So I've decided it will be frogged and I'll start all over again. Frustrating... needs to be right though.
But another book arrived in the post yesterday, so I might try some borders from that one instead!!
I'm adding a photo as a reminder to muself of the one that didn't quite work.....
Well, that's all for now (it's taken nearly 3 weeks to write this...) but if you like the look of my first design, just follow the link above, or the one in the sidebar, or the one on the Shop tab - and don't forge to use the coupon code Free, or you wil be charged... As I discovered, I now have to pay fees to issue a refund, so won't be doing so without good reason anymore unfortunately.)
And if you download for free but then really like it and think it's worth buying, it would be really lovely if you went back and did just that! It would help pay for the yarn in other colours I should have bought!
Until next time, take care, T x X x
