I’ve already done what I set out to do with this year’s knitting resolution – using up odd balls of yarn that had been hanging around the house for far too long –  but I’m in the way of always having a small project on the go and so I’m still knitting from my small bags.

Seven of the twelve  are gone now, and I may knit up the contents of another bag or two before the year is out.

Here’s project 8:

The Pattern

I remember being very taken with a pattern for an entrelac pattern in one of my mother’s magazines, years and years ago. And so when I spotted scarves and shawls using the technique, and knitters getting great results using yarns with long colour changes, on Ravelry I decided that I had to make one.

I downloaded a free pattern ….

Once you know how it’s done, entrelac knitting is simple and logical, but I’ve learned that you need to be very careful with the edge stitches and with how you pick up stitches.

It’s easy to do but not so easy to make the results look polished.

The Yarn

I spotted Lang Mille Colori in my local yarn shop, and I was smitten with the bright, jewel colours. They would be too much for a whole garment, but they would make a lovely scarf.

Now I’ve knitted with it I can say that I love the colour and the softness, but the thickness of the yarn is quite variable and the balance of the colours is a little off. Green was very dominant in one skein, purple was dominant in another.

I don’t regret buying it, but I wouldn’t but it again.

The Result

One scarf – five foot long by eight inches wide – from four balls!

I like it, but I’m not thrilled with it. I’ve already mentioned the balance of the colours, but when I look at the right-hand edge I can see a few places where I wish I’d been just a little more careful.

It’s not a scarf to examine too closely, but it will be a nice splash of colour for dog walks on dark winter nights.

Coming Soon

An Aran sweater for him (hopefully by Christmas!) and a colour-block sweater (easy knitting!) for me.

And – because I need a small portable project for nursing home visits – a simple scarf, using some Mini Mochi that I found in the bag with the Mille Colori ….

I’m sorry to have disappeared, but I’ve not been entirely well – it’s been nothing too serious, but it’s been leaving me too tired spend much time with the computer, or even to face reading very much, at the end of the day.

I’ve just been doing a little bit of knitting and browsing back issues of the Rowan Knitting and Crochet Magazine.

And I’ve crossed the finishing line of this year’s knitting resolution. I made up a dozen bags of single skeins and leftover yarn and I vowed to use at least half of them before the end of the year.

I now have six and a half bags of yarn used!

Here’s project 7 ….

The Yarn

Fyberspates Scrumptious DK. It’s lovely, and Project 5 used a single skein of the very same yarn.

I bought two skeins in a lovely shade of blue with a shawl in mind. I changed my mind about the pattern, and so I put the yarn to one side and waited for the right idea to come along.

The Pattern

I’d always meant to try my hand at a Clapotis one day

It’s a free pattern, it’s hugely popular – at the time of writing there are  21, 604 of them on Ravelry, and it’s more of a scarf/wrap than a shawl, and definitely the sort of thing I would wear.

I didn’t have quite enough yarn, but the pattern is simple to adjust – I did five repeats of the increase rows instead of seven, so I lost some width but I kept the length.

It’s a very clever pattern,  much easier than it looks or reads, and once I caught on to the logic I hardly had to look at the instructions at all.

The only two things I’d say to someone thinking of knitting one are:

• You’ll need a lot of stitch markers.
• Because there are stitches to drop and ladder you’d do best to chose a slippery yarn.

The Result

I love it.

My Clapotis  grew when it came off the needles, and blocking really paid dividends.

I’d definitely knit another, in a different colour and weight, one day ….

Coming soon

I have an entrelac scarf in progress, and I’d like to use up a little more of my project yarn before the end of the year.

But I’m working on a much bigger knitting project now, and because it’s rather special I’ll write about it …. one day soon ….

I’m still making progress with this year’s kniting resolution. I made up a dozen bags of single skeins and leftover yarn and I vowed to use at least half of them before the end of the year.

I am very close to my target: six projects knitted and five and a half bags of yarn used!

Here’s project 6 ….

The Yarn

Fyberspates Blue Faced Leicester DK. It’s discontinued now, but it was a good traditional wool dyed in lovely rich colours.

I bought a pack in a sale, I knitted a cardigan, it was lovely, but I put it  in the washing machine on the wrong setting. When it came out it had felted beautifully but it was toddler size.  Now it lines Briar’s bed.

I had a hat knitted from the same yarn on a different shade and it was one of my favourite hats, but I lost it.

And so I began to look for a hat pattern ….

The Pattern

I started knitting Erica by Woolly Wormhead last autumn, when it was a mystery KAL in her Ravelry group, but the yarn I has chosen wasn’t working and so I put it to one side.

I loved the pattern, it just needed different yarn.

I didn’t have enough yarn for the peaked cap – and I wasn’t sure that it was me anyway – but I had just about enough for the beret version.

The Result

I had to cut corners just a little as I came to the crown to make sure I didn’t run out of yarn, but I got there with inches to spare, and I don’t think it shows.

I blocked my hat just enough to make it beret shaped, and I’m very pleased with the end result.

(The first picture is closest to the true colour.)

Coming soon

I’ve finished the straight section of my  Clapotis, so that should be done very soon. That takes me over the finishing line of my project, but I have one or two ideas for the remaining bags, so I’m going to carry on.

And I have another knitting project – similar but different – in mind for next year already ….

Back at the start of the year I made a resolution. I made up a dozen bags of single skeins and useable oddments of yarn and I vowed to use at least half of them before the end of the year.

With five projects knitted and four and a half bags of yarn used I’m rather pleased with my progress.

Project 5 was a simple one: I’d bough the yarn with a pattern in mind, I hadn’t change my mind, I just had to knit ….

The Yarn

Fyberspates Scrumptious DK in olive green. It’s a gorgeous mix of merino wool and silk, and the colour has such depth.

The Pattern

I loved Everglade by Woolly Wormhead as soon as I saw it.

The Result

I love it.

The pattern was well though-out and  clearly written, and the yarn was lovely to knit with. I would learn that it needed blunt needles to make sure it didn’t split. And that it wasn’t the kind of yarn that took kindly to a border terrier sitting on it ….

I gave the body of the hat a light pressing to open out the pattern.

And now I could wear in with a lot of slouch:

But I think I’m more likely to wear it with the brim turned up and just a little slouch:

Coming soon

There’s another hat on progress.

And I have two more skeins of Scrumptious DK (in royal blue) that I have in mind for a Clapotis. It wouldn’t be quite full-size, but it would be big enough ….

Back at the start of the year I made a resolution. I made up a dozen bags of single skeins and useable oddments of yarn, and I vowed to use at least half of them before the end of the year.

When I reached the half-way point I decided that I had to tackle one of more the difficult bags. The yarn I would have given away if only it had been in complete balls with ball bands ….

The Yarn

It was Debbie Bliss Soho. I bought a pack of ten balls in a sale and I had about four left.

It was yarn that taught me a lesson. I loved the colour, it looked lovely in the balls, but:

• Beautiful colours aren’t always the most wearable.
• Thick and thin, loosely plied yarn doesn’t lend itself  to many projects.
• Neither do very short colour repeats.

Ravelry came to my rescue – lots of knitters had made My So-Called Scarf with this yarn, they looked lovely and the pattern was easy. I made one and I love it.

I tried making a hat with the remaining yarn, but I didn’t like it, I didn’t like the colours of the yarn so close to my face, and so I unripped it.

The Pattern

I decided to make another scarf and give it away.

My So-Called Scarf eats yarn and I knew that I didn’t have enough to make one a sensible length, so I ruled out making another one. I experimented with a few others,  but I just couldn’t find the right pattern. It didn’t work stranded, it didn’t look right in seafoam, twisted drop stitch just looked messy ….. in the end I gave up, I tried plain, ordinary garter stitch;  that looked better than anything else, and so I went with it.

It was quick, mindless knitting!

The Result

I had more than 6 feet of scarf after I added fringing on each end!

It’s not the best thing I’ve ever knitted, but it’s soft, squishy and very warm. I can’t think of any one who would like it that I could give it to, and so my plan is to donate it to one of the many Christmas fayres that I know will be looking for donations later in the year.

Coming next

I have ‘non-resolution’ knitting in progress, but I see one or two hats and maybe another scarf in the future …..

Back at the start of the year I made a resolution. I made up a dozen bags of single skeins and useable oddments of yarn, and I vowed to use at least half of them before the end of the year.

I’m halfway to my target now!

The Yarn

I bought two skeins of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino in a sale quite some time ago: two lovely, and very similar colourways – Peacock and Spanish Moss. I knitted them together, to make a shawl. It was lovely, but I never wore it. And so I unripped it so that I could make something else, something that I would wear, winding the two strands together.

The Pattern

The length, the weight and the colourway all said scarf to me. It took some time to settle on a pattern: there doesn’t seem to be a lot out there to suit a smooth, high twist, gently variagated yarn.

In the end I settled on a slightly modified version of Misty Garden by Jo Sharp, a vintage Interweave pattern from z. I just changed the increases from ‘yarn over’ to ‘knit front and back’. The pattern was written for a very different yarn (with mohair) but with just one simple change it worked very well with what I had.

It was easy, undemanding knitting – just a four row repeat, on and on until all of the yarn was gone

The Result

Approximately 5 feet of scarf!

It’ s quite squishy at the moment, and I’ve wondered if I should block it to make something smoother and sleeker, but I probably won’t. I’ve tried stretching it a little, but widthways the waves flatten out and the pattern is lost, and lengthways the waves look lovely but the colours appear pooled.

And I like it is!

And – even better – my mother liked it! She was so much brighter today, sitting up with the other ladies in the lounge and taking more of an interest in things than she has for weeks. It may not last, but I’m going to appreciate her being so much more herself for as long as she is.

This particular scarf was going to be a present, but as I did’t have a recipient in mind, and as I rather like it, I’m going to hold on to it.

I’m not a shawl person, but I am a scarf person!

Coming next

I have two hats in progress. One I love and one I’m less sure about …..

I made a knitting resolution, and I’m still working on it.

The Yarn

7 x 100 gramme balls of Patons Jet – 3 in dark green and 4 in light green.

It’s a heavy aran weight yarn, a wool and alpaca blend, and I loved knitting with it and I loved  the jumper I made. But it pilled more than any other yarn I’ve ever used. So accessories that wouldn’t get too much wear and tear were the order of the day.

The idea

A hat and a long scarf.

I’d knit the hat first, and then I could go on with the scarf until the yarn ran out.

The patterns

I knew the hat I wanted straight away – this one.

I’d had my eye on it for a while, and I realised that if I made the lighter blue the dominant colour I would even up the amounts of the two shades for the scarf.

The hat I made is lovely, and it’s been my hat of choice ever since it came off the needles, but I was disappointed in the pattern. It wasn’t at all clear, and I was glad that I was familiar with hat construction – I changed the cable a little and I gave up trying to make sense of the instructions for the crown shaping and did my own thing.

Here’s my resident hat model:

I’m afraid that once she’d had her supper and evening walk she wasn’t much interested in smiling for the camera. And I’m pleased to say that the slouch/drape thing works much better on a human head.

I so to the scarf.

I had a scarf using the double knitting technique, but I didn’t enjoy it and the pattern wasn’t as effective as it should have been – it needed shades with more of a contrast. And so I set about looking for a pattern for a stripey scarf.

There are lots out there, but I settled on this free pattern with a chevron design.

I just changed the increases – from KF&B to M1R and M1L  – because I thought it looked better. And I knitted and knitted and knitted until the scarf was more than six foot long and all of the yarn was gone. It was easy, mindless knitting.

It’s rolled up for the moment, waiting for a cold day – the alpaca makes it wonderfully cosy.

Next

My next  knitting resolution project will be to turn two balls of purple yarn – leftovers from a jumper into another hat. And after that I have a shawl pattern in mind for some yarn my mother bought for a bolero that she gave up on ….

I set myself a goal, and I’m off to a very good start.

The Yarn:

3 x 50 gramme balls of Rowan Cashsoft Aran.

Nice yarn, but it tends to pill, and so I wouldn’t use it to make anything that got significant wear.

(It’s more pink and less mauve than it appears in the pictures.)

The idea:

I’d made a hat and a pair of mittens and I had enough left for a scarf. Not a long scarf, but something to tuck into a collar on a cold day.

The pattern:

I couldn’t find one I liked that worked with the hat and mittens, and so I made it up, using the cable from the mittens
. It’s worked it rib, and so it’s reversible, which is what I wanted for a scarf.

I cast on enough stiches for three repeats, three stitches in between each cable, and a border at each end. I used the alternate cable cast on.

And then it was just knit one purl on rib, cabling every ten rows. The rows flew by, and it was wonderful television knitting.

I went on until the yarn was pretty much gone and the two ends matched.

The cast off was new to me –  the invisible ribbed cast off  which is something like Kitchener stitch – I went looking for something to match the cast on and this looked to be the best bet.

The results:

Exactly what I wanted. I haven’t blocked the scarf, because I like being able to stretch it out when I put it on, and because I like hand knitting to look like hand knitting.

Next:

Another scarf. I’m trying out the double knitting technique to make a two-coloured, double thickness, reversible scarf.

Now I have to keep the momentum going – watch this space!

I used to have a serious yarn buying habit. It was wonderfully therapeutic, and I had a head full of lovely ideas, but I had to accept that I live in a world with limited knitting time, not to mention limited money for such things.

I had to take action!

Two years ago, when I was unemployed, I sold some particularly desirable skeins on Ebay.

Last year, when I was working again, I went on a yarn diet. I knitted from stash and not one single solitary gramme of new yarn came into the house.

But I still have a fair bit of yarn, and I have decided that this year I am going to knit up the oddments. The balls left over from projects, the skeins I wound but didn’t quite get around knitting, and some yarn that I bought for specific small projects.

I went through my knitting baskets at the weekend, I bagged up the yarn in question, and I began to plan.

(The blue tinge is because I only had freezer bags!)

The top row has:

• The yarn recovered from a hat that was too big.
• Two strands of two similar but different shades of Cherry Hill Supersock Merino would together. They used to be a shawl, but I didn’t like the shape.
• A few balls of Debbie Bliss Soho. I bought a pack because I loved the colour, but I realised that the colour was unwearable, the thick and thin single play was less than ideal for knitting. I’ve made a So Called Scarf from some of it and I have to work out what to do with the rest.
• Cardigan leftovers – just about enough for a hat

The middle row has:

• Jumper leftovers that will make another hat.
• The yarn that my mother starter to make a bolero with. She didn’t get on with the pattern, so now I’m thinking that there’s enough to make a little top for her.
• A skein I wound for an Everglade hat and a ball that I don’t remember buying that I think will be well suited to socks.
• Two skeins that I remember winding for a striped shawl, but might become something else, because I’m not really a lightweight shawl person.

And on the bottom row:

• I’ve knitted a hat and mittens from this yarn, and what’s left is destined to become a scarf. Probably this one …..
• Gorgeous Fyberspates Scrumptious DK, enough to make a shawl or a cowl.
• More jumper leftovers that I think will be enough to make yet another hat.
• A few balls of Lang Yarns Mille Colori, that I bought with an entrelac scarf in mind.

I’m not going to say twelve bags in twelve months, because I’d like to make a garment or two, but I have learned that small projects work best for nursing home knitting. They’re portable, and I can show off results and ring the changes before boredom sets in.

So I’ll say I’d like at least six bags to be gone by the end of the year. That’s manageable.

And I must enters projects on Ravelry – I’m horribly behind …..