Coming along nicely

My Leaf Edge Shawl is coming along very nicely - although I do now have quite a bit of pain at the base of my left thumb. I think it's arthritis and I've been getting twinges on and off this year. I  think perhaps it goes hand in hand with the hot flushes!
Anyway, using the circular needles has set it off again. Why don't manufacturers make them with a longer needle part when you buy a long set? I can understand when you're using the short ones but why would I want 6 inch long needles when the full length is 39 inches?!
So I might have to rest it a little today and crochet instead perhaps. Which is a pity as the shawl is going so well. Want a look?  I took some photos. Naturally!
It's been Very hard trying to capture the colour of the yarn in a photo, so some of these look different. I think the first is probably the closest.

I'm slightly concerned that the leaves won't hold their shape when they're blocked as there's a springy twist in the yarn that might make it bounce back to its original shape. I'll have to check that with Barbara, the lady who dyed it.

And I forgot to show you my finished waistcoat. It was just waiting for a fastening of some sort - I settled on a small snap fastener at the top edge, with a button as well for decoration. I'm very pleased with how it turned out and can't wait to wear it. Hot flushes permitting...

There was the tiniest bit of yarn left - I even unravelled the test square rather than waste it! - and I made this little zipped purse. And I'm wondering what I can do with the last 12 inches left in the needle rather than throw it away. A tiny flower to decorate the purse has been suggested,or maybe a tassel on the zip!

Seriously, 12 inches of yarn...

That's all for today - enjoy your Sunday, T xx


PS  Fancy that! I've just noticed that on the same day last year I wrote a post that was also titled "coming along nicely ", with a picture of a cotton cardigan that went into hibernation shortly afterwards. Maybe that's a sign I should get it out for another look? ?

A Double Ta - Dah!!

It dawned on me this morning that I never did a proper Ta-Dah moment for my Tooty Stripey Blanket in Stylecraft Special rainbow colours. So here it is!!

Bright isn't it?? You wouldn't think it was the same pattern as the first Tooty Stripey Blanket would you? Just goes to show how much difference changing the colours can make. I can't wait to see how the next Stripey Blanket turns out. I haven't started my adult size yet as I want to crack on with my knitted shawl first but I reckon I'll need nearly 220 stitches, not just 92!!

And my second Ta-dah?? You'll never guess - well you might actually! I've finally, yes

F I N A L L Y 

published my you-know-what!! If you look at the top of the screen you'll see there's a new Tooty Tab there, which has all the extra notes you need, along with the link to the actual "thing" itself. Sorry, I'm trying really hard not to actually use the P word that all the little robots come looking for!!

I've uploaded it to my Ravelry Store - yes, I have my own Ravelry Store now too!!!!! - as I wanted to see how many times it gets downloaded (over 300 views and 80 downloads in the first 9 hours, without me even telling anyone it's there!). It looks like I might be able to add a link here that will still record numbers in Ravelry for me but I've not had time to have a proper look at that yet.

So what are you still doing here?? Scroll up and go and have a look!!!!! And please feel free to offer whatever feedback you think it actually deserves either here or in Ravelry, whether it be good or bad.
If I don't know that everyone thinks it's rubbish, I can't do anything about it!

This is quite exciting! I've never had my own P before!!! So to speak!! 

Back again soon,   T  xXx    😍

Leaf Edge Shawl

I spent a very pleasant hour winding my beautiful Wild Flower Merino wool from RingaRosie Yarns on Friday. First I spread out the skeins for a closer look to see if the colours were the same across both of them but I could see that one had more cream than the other - can you see what I mean in the bottom skein? That's not a problem at all, it just means I'll make sure I use both skeins at the same time and swap from one to the other every couple of rows.
I had great fun mixing it about like coloured spaghetti - it was almost a shame to have to wind it into balls!

I knitted a couple of tiny test pieces to see what it was like, first in moss stitch and it looked amazing! In fact, it looked so amazing I was very tempted to completely change what I had planned on making.

But luckily the stocking stitch piece also looked good!

I got started on my Leaf Edge Shawl almost straight away - after a little photo shoot!!

(I must admit, I'm really enjoying my little photo shoots!! Silly I know but very satisfying.)

This is part of the leaf edging. The pattern calls for 41 leaves, then you pick up 260 stitches along the top edge and work in short rows to form the crescent shaped shawl. I decided to actually make it on 4.5 mm needles, rather than 4 mm but I'm wondering know whether I should have stuck with the 4 mm??.... I've only made a dozen leaves so far, so I could unpick them and start again. They only take 10 minutes each so it wouldn't be a huge job.

If you want to keep up with its progress I'll be posting regular updates on Instagram and Ravelry. And if you'd like to make your own, then you'll need to download the free pattern from Ravelry.

I was also very naughty during the week and bought this -

I've been wanting to start a big blanket for a few weeks now and have decided to make my Tooty Stripey again but this time in an "adult" size and have opted top go with Lucy of Attic24's original colour pack of Stylecraft colours. There are 17 in total and she's currently using them to make a blanket with lots of multi coloured squares. The pattern is her "summer harmony blanket" .

I decided to trust her colour judgement and popped down to my local store to see if by chance they had all of them, before I ordered online. It took a bit of hunting on the part of the lovely assistant but she did indeed manage to find me all 17 colours!!

Some of them I have used before but a lot are new to me. Some I would never have chosen myself. But I trust Lucy's colour sense. Here they are, all laid out for a little photo shoot of their own - 

Naturally, I needed to try them out, so used the "random selection" method of grabbing colours and just using whatever came to hand first and produced these -

I don't think I'll be using that method of colour selection for my blanket!! I'll be following Lucy's carefully worked out colour recipe.

My working name for this blanket will be Tooty Harmony (what else??...) although I probably won't start it immediately as I think I'm going to get quite engrossed with my shawl!

That's all for today - it's going to be HOT again and I want ot get the shopping done while it's still bearable. I was up at 6.30am to colour my hair would you believe??! I had visions of streaks of sweaty dye running down my face if I did it later and I'd end up looking like a zebra!

Oh, and my P*a*t*t*3*r*n is just about ready, I just need to scan and upload it. I think I will put it on Ravelry rather than here, so I can see how often it's downloaded. I'll be adding a page of notes to the blog very soon with all the extra instructions you'll need, so keep an eye on the tabs at the top of the page.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! T  xXx

I won a prize!

You'll never guess what?  My tea cosie full of flowers and biscuits was picked as a runner-up! That's SOOOOOOOO exciting!!!!
I never actually expected to win anything, so I'm very happy with runner-up.
The prize will consist of "yarn goodies" I'm told and I'm a firm believer in never having too much yarn! Which is lucky because I bought this yesterday -

17 shades of Stylecraft Special DK, as chosen by Lucy of Attic24. It's her original colour pack which she's currently revisiting with her Colour Harmony Blanket. (Apologies for the lack of links today.)

I'm going to use it to make my Tooty Stripey Blanket again but in a large size. I've never used some of these colours before and others are shades I wouldn't have chosen at all but I will trust Lucy's colour sense - although I might go and look at her original project and see if she lists the order she used the colours - that could help prevent some frogging!

I've nearly finished the p*a*t*t*e*r*n for my blanket - just the border to write up.
(Please excuse all the ***. I've noticed every time I use the P word I suddenly get hundreds of views from Russia. Can't imagine why. ..)

Before I start this new blanket though, I need to finish my waistcoat.
It very nearly got frogged at the weekend. It had become clear that my 2 skeins of hand dyed yarn were not exactly the same.

 Can you see the colour change just over half way down? I agonised over whether to unpick the lot and start again, and alternate which skein I used every 2 rows but I knew there was a risk it would never be finished if I did. Luckily the first skein just finished the top part of the bodice and I started the second skein for the lace panel. Had the first skein run out sooner it would have been more obvious but as it is I think I'll get away with it.
That's the beauty - and the risk - of using hand dyed yarn I suppose. You can't expect multiple skeins to be identical.

So I've worked the edgings and neckline - even unpicking the tension square to use it for the armholes, as you can see above.

It's now washed and undergoing blocking. And how much dye came out during washing?  None. Absolutely none. That's better than commercial yarn!

I'm really looking forward to wearing it too - just as soon as the weather cools down! It was 30 degrees in the shade on the patio again this morning!

My next project will be knitting for a change as I'm going to make a shawl from the beautiful hand dyed yarn I bought from Barbara of Ring a Rosie in Whitley Bay. And I now know that it might be wise to use both skeins at once!

More of that next time though! Enjoy the unexpected return of the summer heat!  T xx