Rosy Hibiscus....

Janine Bahus, aka Feral Knitter, recently did a post on recolouring a fair isle design - and she chose my "Hibiscus Cardi" pattern as her example.

I must say, I love this new colourway!

Janine goes into great detail about the process on her Feral Knitter Blog and is offering this new colorway, as well as my original colourway......here!

It's fun to play with colour - the more shades you have on hand, the easier it is to play!

Happy Knitting!

Snowy Friday......

It's a good day....if you like snow.  It's been a while since Daisy and Lackie popped in to say hello.

Daisy LOVES the snow......

She loves to show Lackie how to play in the snow....

See all of the snow that she has nosed through, rolled in and generally cleaned herself on?

Yup, when she comes in from a snow adventure, once she's melted off, she is so nice and white.
She takes her ball with her up onto the chair in the window to watch the world go by....

Eventually, they settle down for a nap, planning their next great snow adventure....
probably in about 15 minutes - I love these snow days LOL!

It's a lovely winter day here.....really wet sticky snow and the potential for freezing......and I'm going to knit and maybe sort out some more stash!  Have a great dat everyone, stay safe, stay warm and happy knitting!

Rowan California Cotton is.......

Going to a new home in Michigan with Kathy B!  Please get in touch with your address details Kathy to me at a.featonby at gmail.com - and I'll get a quote on postage to you.

I have just set my blog to allow replies to comments......this is a new feature that blogger has implemented.

So if any of you ask a question in a comment, I'll do my best to reply there.....and if someone else knows the answer to your question, well, they are more then welcome to jump right in and reply also.  By using reply, rather than another comment, it keeps the conversation intact....makes it easier to keep track of things.....so I hope that this becomes part of the conversation of this blog.

Now, just so that you don't think I'm ONLY finding unfinished knitting projects in my ancient stash cupboard, well, let me tell you - I'm NOT!  I'm also finding attempts at being a beader.  I'm cracking myself up right now because the only thing I have ever finished from a bead kit that I bought, well, someone else, Vall (Hi Vall!) finished it for me.  That didn't stop me though, I proceeded to buy a tiny bead bracelet kit, and a beaded amulet bag.....what the heck do you put in an amulet bag you say?  An amulet silly!

am·u·let  (my-lt)

n.

An object worn, especially around the neck, as a charm against evil or injury.

---

[Latin amultum.]

Well, if I'd ever finished the bag, I could have put a few stitch markers in there, Or maybe my leisure centre pass?  No, I don't think so.

Anyway, I'm not going to get the chance......my bead projects are going to a new home on Friday....and although Vall is a bead person - well, she's on a stash diet herself and resisted my beads....but Vall is taking a small stash of roving and a drop spindle I just found.  Vall is also on a yarn diet, and you can read about it here.

Back to Boreal knitting....

Boreal swatching.....

It is interesting to me, that many accomplished knitters don't swatch, have never felt the need to swatch, and don't really know how to swatch.

I meet one of these knitters on the Norway cruise....an accomplished knitter......Kaffe Fassett Tumbling Blocks throw, Kaffe cushions, Debbie Abrahams mystery blankets......all done without swatching.

We discovered that we shared a great admiration for the designs of Kate Davies.  (I've mentioned her before and I'm going to mention her again because I'm sort of on a Kate Davies knit quest these days LOL!)  When discussing Boreal via e-mail since our return from Norway, my friend (name withheld to protect the innocent !) admitted that she really didn't swatch, and didn't know how to "read" her swatch.

So this is for you........and anyone else who doesn't swatch and wonders why they should.

Make a swatch - knit enough stitches and enough rows that you can measure over a 4" square. Wash your swatch in one of the great wool washes that are available - I LOVE Eucalan (no affiliation).  Stretch out gently, patting here and there - leave your swatch to dry.  Once it is dry, you MIGHT want to lightly press on the back - depends on the content of the yarn you are using....this is wool so I gave it a very light steam press on the back.  You'll need those long knitters pins, and a measuring tape to accurately measure your swatch.

I'm looking for a gauge of 5 stitches and 5 rows to the inch.....so I insert the pin horizontally across the top of a row of stitches.....count down 20 (4 x 5 rows).......insert the pin at the bottom of that stitch row.  (Each stitch forms a V inserts the pins at the top and the bottom of the V.)

AFTER you have inserted your pins designating the number of rows you want....THEN you measure!  Lay your measuring tape over the pins -- you can pull the pins out a bit so that you can see where the pin shaft is.......it's even easier to do when counting stitches....

So looking at my swatch measurements - I'm getting exactly 20 sts per 4 inches, so that's 5 stitches per inch, and ever so slightly less than 4 inches for my 20 rows.  I'm comfortable with that as I can either add an extra row or two in length somewhere, or block my finished garment more vigorously for length.

Swatch until your counts are right - saves a lot of aggro in the long run.  If you are the kind of knitter who is always running out of yarn for your projects....you have to go back and buy more....well, it's probably just a matter of gauge.

Happy Knitting

I am learning.....

That I don't really like to rip things out.  In the past, I think this might have been what caused the stall, or complete dead stop, of a project.

Last night I figured out that I'd made an error in my current project, Boreal by Kate Davies, and I had to rip back all of my lovely stranded work.......it pays to read the pattern people!  I had omitted to do the underarm increases - imagine that - I had just ASSumed that you continue straight up to the underarms.  I should have known better.........

So, now that I KNOW that I don't like ripping things out....(I always knew this, I just didn't want to admit it.....)

well, that's made my mind up about the Rowan California Cotton Fox Fibre - free to a good home - well not FREE, you have to pay the price of postage......

There are 4 untouched 50 gram skeins
the knitted fabric and leftovers weight 422 grams - so that's equivalent to 8 more skeins....sorry but you'll have to rip this out yourself!

So that you know what we are talking about.....postage.......max. $16 just so that you know!

If you'd like to give this vintage Rowan California Cotton Fox Fibre a new home - leave a comment here with your first name, last name initial, and what province/state you live in.....ok?  If more than one new home steps up.....I'll have a draw next Wednesday.

Back to my knitting.....

Rowan California Cotton

I see a pattern already.......body knit, shoulder seams done.....full stop - laughing out loud!

I seem to remember this was a pattern from a magazine....not a Rowan pattern.... 

It was an interesting knit - needs blocking obviously.

The two body pieces are done - and joined at at the shoulder.
There are 4 full untouched skeins.....plus a couple of leftover partial balls
and the body - what's a girl to do?

I think that while I definitely don't want to figure out how to finish this - it would take ages to find the original pattern, and looking at it, nope, I don't want to finish this design.....but I must say that this yarn is lovely.

Rowan California Cotton - DISCONTINUED
Fox Fibre - Naturally grown cotton
50g - approx. 115 yards
Shade 005 - Honey

I think this can be recycled......but I need to rip it out, wash it, rewind it......and find just the right pattern for it.  At 22-24 sts to 4 inches, that's a DK weight isn't it???

Do any of you remember this stuff?  It was quite a scandal at the time - Sally Fox "invented" natural shades of cotton and the big cotton growers weren't happy.  I'm not sure how long Rowan offered it as one of their yarns.

Sally still grows and markets this organic natural shade cotton - it's called Fox Fibre.  On the entry page of this web site - go right down to the bottom to a link to "Inventing Modern America: the Sally Fox Story" - click thru there and read about how Sally battled to bring naturally coloured cotton to the marketplace.

Why do we.....

start projects, get almost to the end, then ?!?!?!? we just abandon them to start something else.

In my current mode of cleaning out my "stash"......I have found two almost complete projects. The first one is from this book.

Jaeger Handknits - Six Jaeger Handknit designs using ODESSA

Odessa was from my peach stage....I've always loved peach - and still have a touch of it in my decor.
In this photo it looks more pink.

I put it in the sunlight to catch the glimmer of the polyester "metal" 

Having knit the body pieces, the two sleeves and the collar - I joined the
shoulder seams and for some inexplicable reason, quit.
WHY?
Who knows.....

It's interesting to look back at this project - one thing that I did on this project that I NEVER DO now....I joined in new balls of yarn in the middle of a row!!!! Now I always frog back to the seam edge.  In a cardigan like this where the front button bands are knit as you knit the front pieces - you would always join the new yarns in at the underarm edge, so that the front band edge is perfect.

On projects knit in the round, I prefer to keep my joins at the virtual underarm seam.


Yarn:  Odessa - DK 50g  (65% mohair, 31% acrylic, 4% polyester metal)