I think that’s one major plus point with having the shop too – I have so much opportunity to observe and subsequently learn from knitters who are far more skilled than I am. Every Monday we have a social knitting meetup at the shop and it’s great to watch what other people are creating. My friend Jenny R has got me “picking” rather than “throwing” and has corrected my inside out circular knitting. My friend Purple Jen has got me casting on using the continental longtail method (which you can learn here) which has meant that instead of taking a half hour to cast on 60 stitches it takes me two seconds and has become the cast on that I teach, too.

I’ve always been quite comfortable with new techniques in knitting, mostly because the patterns I use are pleasingly explanative so when I decided to make the short row sideways hat (about halfway down the page) I thought I’d jazz it up a little by using a provisional cast on and then grafting the cast on and cast off edges together. I’m pleased to say that it’s the best grafting I’ve ever done despite it being my first attempt grafting garter stitch! Topped with a pompon the size of a cricket ball, Erica has absolutely fallen in love with it and I think it suits her crazy personality perfectly!

Ravelry project page: here
Yarn: Colinette Skye in colourway ‘Jamboree’
Needles: Brittany Birch 5mm

I took a hiatus for a little while because to be honest, I think I had a bit of a breakdown over everything that was going on and I genuinely had no idea whether I was coming or going. I had no positivity, I couldn’t work out if my reactions were valid and I was angry all the time. Things with my Father’s estate became extremely complex and the minute I handed everything over to a solicitor it suddenly got much easier. I have been able to focus on work again, I’ve found joy in my family and I’ve been positive again. So, back to blogging.

I’ll leave you with a wee spoiler for my next blog post.

There are an estimated 100million women missing from the world today.

There are an estimated 100million women MISSING from the world today

Doesn’t that figure make your stomach lurch? Because when I heard it, it make me physically nauseous. And angry. Really, really angry. I know that it has made some other people really very angry too. Right here in Glasgow, two young women have got SO ANGRY about that figure that they’ve decided to highlight it on the Centenary of International Women’s Day this year on March 8th with 100 events taking place on the same day in Glasgow’s Tramway Theatre.

To highlight the estimated 100million missing women, the project are trying to have an estimated 100million stitches knitted into a blanket. This blanket will then be displayed in the Tramway. To construct the blanket, knitters and crocheters are being asked to make a square measuring 6 inches square (although as squares have arrived it has become apparent that six inches varies from knitter to knitter!) which will be sewn together. When I heard about the strides that the Garterstitch100 project is making to highlight this horrific statistic, I knew I wanted to be involved and I’ve been delighted to support this campaign by providing meeting space at The Life Craft for “Sit and Knit a Bit” meetups on a Friday from 6-9pm and Sundays from 1-5pm.

Why am I telling you this? Quite simply because with less than two weeks to go until the deadline, more squares are needed. Lots more, and I know you guys can help.

All the details about the project are here but what you can do is:

1. Knit or crochet a square and send it in.
2. Teach someone else to knit or crochet in return for a promise to send in their square
3. Tweet, Facebook, Bebo, MySpace – use all the social media you can – and just talk about the project. Talk about International Women’s Day. Talk about the missing women. Tell as many people as you can.
4. If you live in Glasgow, join us at The Life Craft on Fridays from 6-9pm or Sundays from 1-5pm to knit. If you can’t knit, someone will teach you. You’ll be supplied with wool but please bring your own needles (or buy some from us).

If you don’t live in Glasgow, why not host your own “Sit and Knit a Bit”? Have it at home, or ask a local cafe or library to host you. Do it at school or college or uni or work.

Mass participation enacts change. Be a part of this change.

It’s the cowl I’m going to tell you about, now.

I have been looking for new patterns to knit. Something interesting but not needing masses of concentration. Something that I could knit for myself, perhaps. Something new that hasn’t been knit by EVERY KNITTER EVER (Clapotis, I am looking at you). Something bang on trend because although I could never be described as fashionable, I do like to try sometimes.

Ravelry has a little table in the pattern page that highlights popular newly published patterns, and when I saw the Gap-tastic cowl trending I thought, “This is the pattern for me!” Primarily because I absolutely loved that the pattern writer had gone into GAP and counted the stitches to recreate it. I picked up some King Cole Merino Blend Chunky from the shop and cast on my 131 stitches using the continental long-tail cast on. Off I went.

Now, my first issue with this pattern is that I didn’t think the difference in gauge would be noticeable between the recommended Lion Brand & the King Cole that I used. There was only 1 stitch of a difference in 4 inches, but of course over 131 stitches this did add up. Bad me didn’t gauge swatch. I ended up using 250g of the King Cole to get the cowl to measure 14″ when Jen Geigley managed to get 15″ out of 200g Lion Brand. A fairly substantial difference!

My second issue was that despite casting on to bigger needles, my cast-on edge is unbelievably tight because the moss-stitch pattern really grows once it’s being worn. For once, my cast-off edge is impressively flexible which I put down to using my new favourite cast-off.

My final issue is that I am very lazy. Using five skeins of this yarn meant twelve ends to weave in, in moss-stitch. I was really struggling with this especially across moss-stitch and after the first six I decided to cheat. I didn’t like how bulky and obvious the weaving in had become, so instead I tied the ends together and snipped them. Something I NEVER do but I was impatient and eager to start on my next project.

You know where this is going, right?

I’m usually impressed with my knot-tying ability but last night I picked up my cowl and discovered that three of my knots had become undone. The cowl is salvageable but I’ve decided that I won’t be happy unless I frog it and do it better, especially along the cast on edge. A very sore lesson learned!

That said, I really liked working with the King Cole Merino Blend Chunky. For a pure wool, it’s very inexpensive and has a pleasant drape knitted at this gauge. I definitely will use it again

I recently bought a load of new stock for the shop and amongst it was some Rowan Big Wool, a super-chunky weight 100% pure wool in a dull grey colour. Lovely wool, but not particularly inspirational colours so I dug out my trusty kool-aid to dye it. Problem was, 100g of super-chunky wool is a fair quantity and I couldn’t get good colour saturation with the kool-aid so for the first time I used Wilton’s food colouring. And it’s GREAT!

I now had six balls of brightly coloured wool to play with and next on my list was to find a project. I wanted something useful but not clothing. I wanted something interesting but simplistic. I wanted something fun but not attention intensive. I picked a log cabin blanket, a concept rather than a pattern which I’d been introduced to whilst reading the delightful Mason Dixon Knitting blog. Bright, bold, delightfully patterned without being a timesink. Perfect!

By the time I finished this, I was really finding it difficult to imagine parting with it. Unusual for me, I never ever knit anything for myself but I had such an urge to keep this blanket for Greer because I just adore it. But good Auntie Vonnie wrapped it up for baby Blake.

Alas, being in Scotland in December has meant good photographs of the whole blanket have been impossible so I’m sating you with tiny ickle 10 day old baby photos instead. What do you think?

I wanted this post to be about the gorgeous sweater I’ve just finished for Greer, but I have to preface it with the devastating news that my gorgeous, funny, delightfully acerbic and inspirational Nana passed away peacefully in her sleep earlier this week. Without her, I would be a completely different personality and the shop would never have come into existence. I am not sure that I can find the words to do her justice but suffice to say that she was a magnificent woman who overcame many adversities to raise a happy, healthy family and live a good life. I am going to miss her so very much.

What I can do is to continue to exercise the skills she taught me and to pass them on to my own children, so in every stitch I knit I know that she will still be with me.

I finally finished this sweater using the Owlet pattern by Kate Davies (Ravelry pattern link here), knitting with Rowan Pure Aran in Cedar. My Ravelry page for it is here.

I have to say that although I like the way this sweater looks, I’m really not keen on the fit. This is a clingy, tight sweater and even though I lengthened the arms and body significantly I don’t feel that the style is one that suits Greer. I prefer sweaters to be quite loose and baggy so I think when I knit this for Erica, I’ll go up 2-3 sizes and simply shorten the arms & body. That said, Greer loves this sweater and I barely had it off the needles before she demanded it on and promptly fell asleep in it. A great compliment, I think. If and when I get it back off her, I may apply the buttons as eyes but I think I like it as it is. What do you think?

So, I’ve been knitting since I was about 4 or 5 – my Nana taught me when I was very young – and I’ve always prided myself on being damned good at it until last Monday! To illustrate, I’ll show you a photograph of a part-knitted sock.

It’s inside out! I’ve been knitting in the round for years and I’ve been doing it wrong all this time. A couple of the knitters at last week’s class looked on in bewilderment before managing to show me how I should have been doing it all these years. What an eejit. But it goes to show that it doesn’t matter how well you’re doing things, sometimes you can still be doing it wrong!

As I look over my progress – especially last year when I completed the ’50 things in 2009′ challenge – it’s empowering to have visual proof that I’m getting moderately better at the crafts I choose to turn my hand to, which is why I am so proud of this bookmark. Almost as proud as I was with Erica’s sweater, but in a different way. This is the first project I’ve completed following a knitting chart and blocking my work and I’m astonished at the difference this simple process makes. Any of you wondering what ‘blocking’ constitutes should run to Eunny Jang’s guide to blocking, it’s a fab step-by-step guide with lots of idiotproof pictures to guide you.

I wish I’d taken a before photograph of this sad, crumpled lump of knots because watching it become a thing of beauty as the lace opened up was just beyond words. It was like watching a flower bloom.

This is a nice little pattern (free, and available here) which I knocked out in a couple of hours in front of the TV. I did have a bit of confusion at the end of the project due to the chart – I’m not sure if I was reading the chart incorrectly as I thought knitting charts were read right-to-left – but I managed to skirt round it and still come out with a lovely finish. Isn’t it gorgeous?

Needless to say, this little bookmark has given me a boost of confidence in my own abilities especially since the last time I attempted a bookmark I failed dismally. I am truly awestruck at the transformation post-blocking and I feel somewhat embarrassed that I have never blocked before. I’m a convert!

This is why I’m quite surprised at my latest endeavour. You may have noticed that I’m on a bit of a knitting bent right now and after finishing up a bookmark earlier in the week I decided to try something a little more experimental.

That there is yarn made from plastic bags (also known by the hideously cutesy term “plarn”), a process which I promise to document with a tutorial this week sometime. I don’t know what it’s going to be yet but I’m rather enjoying the novelty of doing something a bit wacky and out there. The orange at the bottom is Sainsbury’s carrier bags and the green at the top is the wrapper from a pack of pampers. To be honest the pampers pack didn’t work so well, it’s very thick and not stretchy so it was difficult to manipulate and has become a far heavier fabric than the orange bags, but this is a learning curve and this knowledge in itself is handy to know.

So tell me – have you crafted with any supplies that are not exactly the norm? And do you enjoy the process of crafting more or the end result?

A reminder too that the sign-ups for the Little and Large swap are still open – it would be great to have some more participants!

Overall, this was a pretty simple knit and I’m really very happy with how it turned out. My sole gripe is that the neck is a bit wider than I’d have preferred but this is actually the 3-4y size and is really just a nice size for Erica to grow into.

It seems to suit her personality perfectly. I’m very pleased with how well the colour has worked because to be frank, I’m sick to the back teeth of pink right now and green isn’t a colour I’d have normally picked for her. She seems to like it anyway and every crafter knows that the sign of a good project is whether you get a chance to wash it before it’s stolen away to be used!

I don’t think I’m getting it back in a hurry