Book Review - Jane Blonde: Sensational Spylet

I find there is something a little special about going back to a book you loved as a child, and reading it through adult eyes again.

When moving out of my parents house, I had a chance to go back through my belongings and sort out what I was going to take with me and what was to go and find a new home. I have always had a love for books, so had a good few to look through to see what I wanted to bring with me. Among those books was the series of books about a school girl spy, Jane Blonde.

These books caught my imagination when I was a young girl at school, and from the little I remembered of them, they were fun and exciting to read back then. These feelings were brought back to me when I pulled the books off the bookshelf and I decided to read through them again, in order from the beginning. My memory of what actually happened in the books was very clouded, only remembering little bits here and there, so I was excited to get reading. Once I had started I really was hooked and chapter after chapter just kept on coming. What I enjoyed was that the book, by its nature written for children, was incredibly easy to read and was finished quite quickly. 

The story line, while a little bit far fetched for the real world - but who really cares in a children's book, or one about spies in general! - it did have some really touching parts which brought about emotions that I don't recall feeling when I was reading the book as a child. I enjoyed the way that you could see the story developing, and every next twist and turn you could see being built up and drawing on the things that had happened already. Because of this I feel even more attached to the series, a book written seriously about something completely unserious.

I really have enjoyed reading this book back through as an adult, and am going to love working my way back through the series. Even for a book aimed at people a lot younger than me, it will be an enjoyment for sure.

Finished Object - A Leftover Shorty Sock

After Ripping out my Arbor Vitae Jumper, I felt like I needed something new to work on. I wasn't really feeling like I wanted to make much of what I already had on the needles and was itching for something else. The thought of a family weekend away looming, got me thinking about train knitting and knitting that could be done when chatting to other people and being social. So I decided on a sock. In the back of my mind I was still feeling the need to work through what I had, so I decided it was time for another leftovers sock.

The leftovers sock is something I have been doing with the leftover yarn when I have been knitting other pairs of socks, be them for myself or other people. I will make one shorty from the yarn, the remainder of that ball will be wound up and put with my other scraps. I find it's a nice way to have a reminder of all the socks that I have knit before, especially if they have been for a gift.

So in my draw of bits of projects and things, I found the leftovers of the pair of socks I knitted for my Dad (Ravelry Page, Blog Post). I then had a look at what needles I had free and my set of Knitpro 2.5mm DPNs were empty, so that was the plan made. They were packed up into a bag and taken with me when I set off on my journey to see my family.

I cast them on in a coffee shop whilst waiting for my train, with 60 stitches, and I started on the cuff. I worked them top down and knit an inch of 2x2 ribbing. I had forgotten to bring a ruler or tape measure with me, so I knitted the length of the top portion of my thumb, I measured the length of the ribbing when I got home. It's nice to know I have an inch long thumb section - makes for easy quick measuring!

I knitted a plain knit round after the ribbing before starting on the heel. It was a german short row heel, the easiest I find to remember. I knitted the foot until it was about an inch and half below the top of my big toe then I started the toe of the sock. Quite a few of the shorty socks I've made before have a habit of slipping down my foot during the day, which is probably down to them being a little too short. So after I finished the toe decreases, I added two straight knit rounds, and then grafted it together.

Overall I am pretty pleased with the outcome, it was made really quite quick, (less than a week!) and the fit is really good, better than previous attempts. Maybe I should play around a little bit more with my leftovers socks. I'm feeling the creativity right now, so I may have to go cast on another!

A Lesson in Gauge - The Arbor Vitae Jumper

My Best Friend Trying the Jumper on.

The progress I've been making on my Arbor Vitae Jumper has been stopped and the jumper almost completely ripped back, and on purpose too. The jumper had a complete body, and I had started on the first of the sleeves, having done the short row sleeve cap and just started to work in the round for the main part of the sleeve. When I got to that point I decided to try on the jumper to see how the sleeve was doing. I had tried the jumper on before when I had completed the body and the neckband, but back then I didn't think much about the bottom ribbing of the jumper being a little loose - Admittedly when I tried it on the first time I was on the train and at risk of looking more then a little odd, so didn't keep the jumper on that long!

This time I really noticed the loose-ness of the jumper, and it got me thinking about how I wanted the jumper to sit, and how often was I going to wear it if it didn't have the characteristics that I wanted. It was then that I decided that it was too big for me, and it might be an idea to start over again. Now I didn't know that much about gauge and swatching. I did swatch for this project, and I knew that my gauge was larger, but my inexperience with it all lead me to believe that it would only be an inch or so larger than it was meant to be. I also didn't really know what to do with the gauge information once I had got it.

Luckily when doing some research I managed to come across a few websites explaining gauge swatching in more depth then I had really looked for before. The For Dummies website (here) was more of a help then anything I had found before. It gives a brilliant run down of what you need to do, followed by a little bit of maths to work out the size of the knitting using the gauge and the stitch count. This came in really handy, and had my little geek brain all excited to be doing a little bit of maths to help out my knitting.

My best friend tried on my jumper when I was working out a little bit of the maths before I started frogging. She is a few sizes bigger than me and it fitted her almost perfectly. Shame it wasn't for her!
I worked out in the end that the jumper was about eleven inches too big, just a little too large for my liking. The second gauge swatch I did with a 2.5mm needle, which was the smaller needle size used for the ribbing and such in the pattern. My gauge was a little closer, but unfortunately not as close as it needed to be. We were looking at a gauge of 7 stitches per inch pattern gauge and 5.5 stitches per inch my gauge. With the maths all worked out, if I knit the smallest size, the outcome would only be a little bit bigger than it should be (actually an inch bigger, not eleven!) so I went with that, worrying that any smaller of a needle and then I might end up with a fabric which has a feel I don't like as much.

The Arbor Vitae, three months in progress, and only an hour to frog completely. I wasn't as sad as I thought I would have been ripping it out. I know that the yarn is a nice yarn that has a meaning to me, and the pattern is one that I feel I will enjoy wearing. So I am quite pleased to be able to have a second chance at getting it right, one of the things that I love about knitting.

So as the phoenix rises from the ashes, I have cast on and started the Arbor Vitae again, this time on a smaller needle and in a smaller size. But also with a much better understanding of gauge and how it affects the knit, and what to do about it when it isn't what you want. I feel so much better for finally understanding gauge, and I think I do feel a little bit differently about swatching now. I think I will enjoy it a lot more.

Book Review - What If?

This Christmas the boyfriend did good, with a selection of books which I am pretty excited to get my teeth into. The first being the book What If? by Randall Munroe. I wanted to finish reading this book in the new year, so it would become my first finished book of the year. But I had several long train journeys and it was a rather addictive book. Sam told me I was cheating anyway...

The book is based off the authors website https://what-if.xkcd.com/ (it is brilliant, go check it out) which was a favourite of mine a few years ago, but had slipped out of my mind. The basis of the website is that people submit their wonderful, whacky and hypothetical questions, that get answered with science  and research from across the globe. I find them very amusing and love the nerdy science part of it as well. The book takes some of the best questions that have been asked and puts them into print, with a couple of strange and unanswered ones for good measure.

It was a really enjoyable read, it made me laugh out loud and was really quite educational, without being too confusing or patronising. Broken down into individual questions and answers it was perfect pick-up-put-down book that was readable in bite sized chunks. Always perfect for any occasion.

I've decided to give number rating books a miss for now. I'm struggling to work out an intuitive system that works for every kind of book. I've decided that I will just give my thoughts and opinions for now, until I find the right thing.

Crochet Blanket

Moving house recently has been a little bit of an adventure, and a huge throw into the adult world for me. I've finally moved out of my parents house and into my own place, which has sparked a need in me to finish off the projects I've got and start making more from stash then I might have done otherwise. With starting at a new knit group, my mind was drawn to a blanket I was making with my old knit group to give to a local hospice. So it only felt right to give finishing this one a go.

My old knit group took in donations of yarn to make blankets to give to the local hospice and old people's home. Many people took the yarn and knitted squares, they then pooled their efforts into one big blanket. I however fancied a bit of crochet at the time, so started making granny squares. I would make a few then go and collect another set of colours to create a scrappy style blanket, which I enjoyed. The donated yarn was mainly double knit, of all different shades and colours. I used a 3.5mm hook and made squares that were more or less 6". A couple of the squares were significantly larger, mainly due to the yarn being more aran weight then DK. Seeing as most of the yarn was donated as used balls, it was par for the course.

Once I had got my squares out after moving, I laid them out to see how many I had and what I needed. For a small lap blanket I needed two more squares. Which I managed fairly easily, they took a couple of days of a little crochet after work. Most of the previous squares had been made at my knit night. Once I had them I could think about how they were to go together. Which was a fun process of laying all the squares out on the floor to see how they would best go together. It really is my favourite part of blanket making!

After deciding the lay out, I then had to figure out how to join them together. I decided that I would try and crochet them together - because who can stand sewing up... - so I had a rummage in my stash for something to join them with. I had a large amount of cream yarn, mostly unlabelled given me by my grandmother, which did just the trick. It made me feel pretty good about using more yarn from my stash. I think the cream was a little on the thicker side as well, more aran then DK, so was a little stiff to work with and did create a thicker gauge, but it held together quite well. I ended up picking up one stitch on each of the squares and then crocheting them together as if it was a crochet decrease. I feel that it worked well, and created a lovely ridge between the squares. It wasn't a planned effect, but I'm pretty pleased nonetheless.

I finished off the blanket with a double crochet border, which I thought brought the whole thing together. Weaving in the ends did not take that long, and within a few nights the blanket was done, and I am very pleased. It's one less WIP in the pile and one less project in my house. It will be making its way to my old knit group, to then be given away to the hospice lined up for it. It is far from perfect but I really hope it brings a little bit of warmth and happiness to its new owner.

WIP Wednesday - Arbor Vitae

This picture is a little washed out.

Over the Christmas period I made quite a few presents for my close family, so I decided that it was time for a project for myself. I had swatched for the Arbor Vitae and it had been on my to make list, so it felt about right.

The pattern is by Joji Locatelli from the Pompom magazine issue 27. The yarn I've decided to use was three skeins I picked up when I was on a weekend adventure with my other half. We had a lovely weekend in Bath (where we had our first date many years ago, which ended in a rather unpleasant happening...) where I dragged Sam into A Yarn Story and picked myself up three skeins of Arranmore Donegal Heritage in the Rauri colourway, a 4-ply in a lovely dark red colour with little neps of different colours.

These were my holiday skeins and reserved for something nice for me. This jumper seemed perfect for it. I just have to hope that it will be enough.

Unfortunately with the Pompom magazine they tend to give the yardage for a given project in the number of skeins of the particular yarn they made it in. It's somewhat confusing, but can be worked out. I just wish it was a little bit easier.

The jumper was an odd construction, at least one I am not used to. I know I haven't knitted many jumpers, and the ones I have are either yolked or raglan but this one has the back knit separately from the front until the under arms, and the front knit in two before being joined. I'll admit I did enjoy the odd construction. It gave me something to concentrate on, and learning new things is always interesting and somewhat fun.

Trying it on, on the train.

The front and back yolk of the jumper went by pretty quickly, as I find nearly all of the jumpers I've knitted do. It gave me a lot more practice at cabling, and I'm really inclined to do more as I have really enjoyed the process. Maybe it's time for a cabled hat. I got most of the body done on my christmas holiday around the place, with plenty of long train journeys to get a good chunk done. I used the jog-less join technique for alternating my skeins. There is a brilliant tutorial on YouTube by Grace of Babbles Travelling Yarns, she explains is brilliantly and was where I first heard of the technique. I used it on the body of the jumper where the yarn changes, and is a great way to avoid sudden tone changes and to fade colours.

I finally finished the body of my jumper as well as the neckband on the train home after my Christmas and new year celebrations, so I am on to sleeve island for the foreseeable future. I'm okay with that, sleeves I find are just like really long socks, and they aren't that complicated. I found all the stocking stitch on the body hard going however, it felt like it would never end. I'm rather glad it did though. As I'm starting the sleeves I really do hope that I have enough yarn for this jumper, it's getting a little too close for my comfort. I was never a fan of yarn chicken, at least I do have a gauge swatch to undo if things get really desperate!

Christmas Knits

Christmas is over for another year, and however you are celebrating at this time of year I hope you had a lovely time.

I like many other makers, made a lot of my Christmas gifts this year. I made sure I didn't give myself a million and one different things to make this year, as I know there is a fine line before I end up getting overwhelmed and loose my mojo all together. I did however manage to get one present started and finished in the summer, so I was well on my way. I thought I would give a run down of the things I've made for gifts this year, even the questionable ones!

Sam's F1 Socks
These were one of the last presents I made, they were mostly made when I came to finish them off, but they spent a lot of time with a thousand ends to sew in and missing their heels. I did have a small sense of humour failure after spending almost two days weaving in ends, which has put me off a tiny bit from finishing my own pair of F1 socks, which really have taken a back seat for now.

I thought this design up after being inspired by a pair of socks that Rachel from the Crafty Historian podcast made, detailing the women throughout the Game of Thrones series. Mine however needed me to think about how to display each podium and race of the F1 season. I'm very pleased with how I managed to do it, and might even right the pattern up for future use - if I can find a way to get rid of quite so many ends! ;)

The pair of socks were mainly made up of Coop Knits Socks Yeah! in a few different colours representing the different teams. Mercedes in Chryso, Ferrari in Carnelian, Red Bull in Benitolite, Toro Rosso in Larimar, and suprising us all McLaren in Citrine. The heels, toes and cuffs break the mould being West Yorkshire Spinners signature 4-ply in a plain black colour. I made this pair cuff down with afterthought heels, cut in using a cardboard cut out of Sam's foot. The socks weren't a great fit sadly, but they were fortunately too big instead of too small. Maybe the next pair need to be on a smaller needle.

Needless to say, regardless of the fit Sam loved them and kept on telling anyone who would listen about them.

Pop Socks
This present was one of the very first I made this year, started late May and finished in July. They are a simple vanilla sock, made with my usual sock recipie, using 64 stitches.
There isn't really much exciting to say about this pair, they have German Short Row heels and are made from Austermann Step sock yarn, colour way 328.

This pair I gave to my Dad for Christmas, but I am not sure how well they fit. I didn't have a cardboard cut out of his foot so I made them to fit Sam's feet which are a similar size. I hope they are alright.

Becca Socks
The next in a longish line of socks I made this year were a pair for my sister-in-law, this was another 64 stitch vanilla sock. This one with a shorter cuff length, but still with a German Short Row heel.

The yarn I used for this one was Opal sock yarn although I don't actually know what colour way. It is interesting working with a few of the other work horse sock yarns, seeing as I have worked with West Yorkshire Spinners almost exclusively apart from the odd luxury skein of sock yarn here and there. I'm going to see how these two pairs turn out and maybe I'll work a little bit more with them in the future.

Chris Socks
Now this is where the socks become a little more interesting. I did a little more thinking for this pair, as my brother does have rather large feet but fortunately I did have a cardboard cut out of his foot to help me. I decided I would use a 2.5mm needle and 64 stitches, which is my larger go to sock recipe but to make sure they would stretch even further I decided to make the sock a 2x2 rib.

So setting out with a suitable hardy West Yorkshire Spinners signature 4-ply in the pheasant colour way. I made these with a longer then normal leg, as I know that is what my brother likes. I had to be somewhat careful that they weren't going to be too long and I end up struggling to fit them around his calf. The sole of the sock was in plain socking stitch, but I continues the rib down the top of the foot.

I think out of all the socks I've made this year, these are definitely the ones I'm most pleased with , both in style and in fit. I also believe they were received rather well.

Emma Socks
The last pair of gift socks for this year, and lets be perfectly honest, they weren't the best, but the person who got them was grateful. I've made a pair of socks for my best friend Emma before and I thought that this time I'd treat her to another pair. She had recently given me some cotton yarn, which I thought would be good for the job. Having already given me some to make a pair for her Mum. Unfortunately I didn't learn from the first pair...

So I cast on the normal 64 stitches on a 2.5mm needle, and decided that I'd skip my least favourite part of the sock and make a shortie pair. I hate knitting the leg on socks. The pair went smoothly, top down with a German Short Row heel. But my, they were far wider then I was expecting. The same thing happened with the other cotton pair, so it shouldn't be a surprise.

Like I say, they were quick, easy, and well received, if not baggy and only useful for slippers. Maybe I should learn to make cotton socks properly.

Alison Hat
First of the hats, one for my other sister-in-law. She got socks from me last year as well as my brother, so I decided to make them hats this year. Alison's hat was one I started fairly early, and was something that had been in my queue for a little while, so it was nice to make.

It did spark off a little urge to make many more hats, which I haven't quite satisfied yet. I used the leftovers from the un-dyed skein in my Fern and Feather jumper, a DK skein of Grande Merino from Countess Ablaze and a 3.75mm circular needle. The project didn't last long and was a lovely palette cleanser between other projects at the time.

The pattern, Irma Hat by Aneta Gasiorowska, was nice to work through and used simple methods to create a lovely pattern. It really was a joy to knit, and lovely to see it enjoyed when gifted.

Colin Hat
This hat was  I think the present that brought me the most joy in making. A somewhat ridiculous panda hat for my brother, I was tempted to make a matching one for his son, but seeing as the sizing started at 8 years old, his 5 month old would have a long time before it would fit. So I only made one

It was the first time I used my book on knitting animal hats in earnest. I've used it once before to get the basic hat pattern to make a walrus hat a little while ago for a friend of mine. I've found the book intuitive to use, and I was quite pleased with the hat once I was done. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the finished hat, but when I do I will add it in here.
I used a simple acrylic chunky yarn as I wanted it to be easy maintenance. There was a fleece lining to the hat as well, which kept it snuggly and warm and ready for the winter.

Leo's Jumper
For my baby nephew I decided to make a christmas jumper. He's small enough that knitting a jumper for him isn't a huge undertaking. I wanted the jumper to have a Christmas-y feel, so decided on a red jumper with some colour work. I decided to use the Flax pattern by Tin Can Knits. It's one I've used before to make a jumper for Leo when he was born. I made the 1 to 2 year old size, which given my gauge has come out slightly large, but he'll grow into it.

I took to Pinterest to find some charts and get a little inspiration to hack the Flax pattern. I found a snowflake chart and a polar bear chart, that I thought were lovely. I'm a sucker for a polar bear, I used the Flax pattern for the bare bones of the jumper, leaving out the garter stitch panels on the sleeves. I planned out the number of stitches on the body and the charts I had found to try and work out the best way to fit the pattern into the jumper.

I used the first part of the jumper before the sleeve separation as a gauge swatch and whilst the width of the jumper was going to be fine, the body would be a little long. The length of the body I wasn't really worried about, he is a long baby. For my first major colour work project I am glad that it was a baby jumper. I am also quite pleased with how it turned out. The jumper did turn out a little bit on the large size, but I am looking forward to seeing my little nephew in his new jumper.

Wallace and Gromit
This present was one which warmed my heart when I gifted it. The person who received it was made up, and it felt so good. I made a little amigurumi crochet Wallace and Gromit, which were far from perfect. The pattern and yarn came from a kit that was given to me, with the person I made them for in mind. The pattern was quick, like most crochet, and was easy to follow. I wasn't too keen on all the sewing up though.

I have to admit the individual pieces got made up quite quickly and then spent a good few weeks in a box waiting to be joined together. I finally got myself together and joined all the pieces up and my least favourite bit, sewing on the faces. The faces left a little bit to be desired, but we got the general effect. Terrifying. The faces weren't the only far from perfect bit. Wallace's jumper was a little too short, showing a little part of his midriff, not to mention the problems with Gromit.

Gromit started off so well, but things got a little wrong when I ran out of yarn for Gromit's legs. Gromit sadly ended up with rather short front legs. I then had no yarn left for his back legs. I used the leftover yarn from Wallace's head, as it was the closest colour I had left, so he now has slightly off colour, and slightly longer back legs. Despite all things that were wrong with both Wallace and Gromit, they were absolutely loved. It does go to show that no matter how many flaws we see in our own work, the people we love, who love us, will always see the best.

Bag and Bunting
The last present I made was a sewing project, and one I finished fairly early. I had the task of turning three pieces of material into a present. I had three very similar pieces of fabric, they had a sheep design on them, but in three different colours. The person they were for loved the material and I had got my hands on three oddments of them to make something. I settled for one piece of bunting and a bag. I wanted a small quilted bag, and managed to find a free online pattern and tutorial for one.

The pieces were an awkward size and I had a fun time trying to jigsaw puzzle the pieces on what fabric I had left after making the bunting. I managed though, and I am pretty pleased with the outcome. The pattern was from The Fabric Mutt and includes a brilliant walk through tutorial, which really does hold your hand from start to finish. I'm happy to say that this present was loved by the person I give it too, but unfortunately I haven't got many good photos of it. I have also managed to get no photos of the bunting either.

That is where all the hand made gifts ended for this year. I felt quite pleased that I managed to get quite a few presents done, and they were really well received which made me all the more want to make gifts again next year.