FO: chunky sweater jacket

I have finally got around to taking a few pics of the chunky sweater jacket. When I first saw the pattern and looked for the yarn back in February I intended this to be a proper jacket to use in the Winter. Once I saw that the colour of the yarn was more yellow than cream I decided it would be used inside for those chilly days and the finished jacket has already had some use thanks to the typical British weather.

This was my first knitting project for over 20 years and I made a few mistakes but all in all I'm pretty happy with it, apart from the size that is...

I got gauge widthwise but not lengthwise. Now correct me if I'm wrong but that just means I have to knit a few more extra rows to get the required length. If that's so then why is it so enormous??? I understand that as I made the medium the jacket was going to be a little big on me but this is gigantic. I could almost wrap just the back all the way round myself and lets face it I am not a little woman LOL.

I believe I have mentioned a fair few times how much I hate sewing, this was my first real foray into using mattress stitch and I suppose it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, it did improve with practise but the seams on this are far from professional LOL

Overall I am satisfied with it. I did toy with the idea of frogging it because of the size and there's still a possibility that I will but I decided to try it out in the winter over a few big jumpers before I decide if it's really too big.

Doubling yarn - the sequel

Guess what - I've been coding, now isn't that a surprise LOL.

This time I decided to expand on the doubled yarn sizes, lets face it the little chart I put up before wasn't all that helpful... So I decided as I seem to be coding helpful little calculators/gadgets that I would expand on the theme.

I can't seem to find a calculator like this one on the net although the math itself is relatively easy to find. I only put up to four strands in the calculator because I figured anyone up to using more than four strands:

1. Is a braver person than me
and
2. Can probably do the math for this in their sleep LOL

There is no need to put the third and fourth gauges in unless you need them and you can put any combination of yarns (except eyelash and similar novelty yarns). I tested it properly but if you see any problems give me a shout

Once again this will be ugly until I do a proper design for the blog and sort the styles out properly

Yarn 1 stitches and rows over 4 inches
Yarn 2 stitches and rows over 4 inches
Yarn 3 stitches and rows over 4 inches
Yarn 4 stitches and rows over 4 inches

approximate gauge = stitches and rows per inch - ( stitches and rows over 4 inches)
weight

I have finally finished my chunky sweater jacket so I should have an FO post as soon as I get round to taking a decent photo

Summer break...

Did my exam yesterday and now I am officially done with Uni until October 3rd yaaaaaay

So what am I going to do with all this extra time? Well to start off I am taking this week to relax and watch some TV, Virgin has Mutant X season 1 on demand and I've got hold of seasons 2 and 3 so I'm going to sit down and watch them all week. I will be getting some knitting done too, the shawl on the left was going to be done with DK but I managed to get hold of some 4ply in white so I've decided to use that instead. I have also got hold of some interfacing for my swag bag so hopefully I will sort that out this week and have an FO to show off. For now I am getting away from the PC for a while and relaxing.

How many stitches - simple squares or rectangles

I've written another little time saver for myself to help out with a little top secret project I'm doing for my Dad. I haven't started it yet but when I do any Ravelry members can see it (can't see any of my family joining Ravelry when they don't knit or crochet LOL) but you won't see it on the blog til after xmas - just in case...

Plug in your gauge, approximate size required and any stitch/pattern offset you need and it calculates the number of stitches to cast on, rows to knit and number of pattern repeats needed. It also tells you the actual size that any stitch/pattern offset will enlarge the finished shape by.

Once again it's ugly for now but it works like a charm

swatch gauge = stitches by rows over 4 inches
approximate size required = height by width (inches)
pattern offset = multiple of + stitches by rows

cast on stitches and work rows ( pattern repeats)
finished size: height by width (inches)

I seem to be in the swing of coding at the moment. Maybe it has something to do with all that revision I've been avoiding LOL. If any of my family does manage to find this blog - don't worry I am revising - I am just doing this when the revision gets too much. :-D

How big will it be if I use a different gauge

So I'm making a baby blanket, a large one. The original pattern is in 4 ply and I want to do it in DK. I figured out what the new size would be and then decided as all I wanted to do was punch the numbers in, I would write a little javascript function to add to my references. It isn't pretty because I can't be bothered with pretty (except for with knitting) at the moment.

original gauge = stitches by rows over 4 inches
swatch gauge = stitches by rows over 4 inches
original size = height by width

new size = height by width

Looking at the preview it really isn't pretty so sorting out a new blog design has been added to my list of things to do after my exam LOL.

Fuzzy slippers

As predicted I finished the fuzzy slippers this afternoon. Total knitting time around 4 hours - I do love instant gratification LOL.

I used one strand of DK cotton chenille and two strands of the fuzzy yarn I got cheap from ebay. It worked out very well and I am happy with the result.

I intend to use the same three strands to knit up The Bear by Alan Dart for one of my (in my heart) nephews. I say in my heart because they aren't my nephews by blood and I'm making the distinction for the moment because my brother has just informed me that he and his wife are having their first baby - Yaaaaaaaaaaay!! Guess who is going to be knitting lots of cute baby stuff from now on LOL.

The laundry soap is done, I just have to grate and mix it up now then it's ready to use (costs me about 2p a wash and does a great job so its well worth the effort). If the revision pressure gets too much in the next week I may pick up the needles or just make a few batches of soap to keep my mind off it...

Keep your fingers crossed for me next Monday please.

Sewing frenzy

I've been on a bit of a sewing frenzy in the last few days even though I hate sewing. I also hate having so many unfinished (for lack of sewing) projects lying around too LOL.

First I have sewn up the sides on my felted slippers - I hated the way the flaps stuck out at the sides. I also darned and refelted them because I'd worn a hole in the sole because I wear them so much...

Next I put the handle on the swag bag, it's a bit floppy so before I put the lining in I am trying to decide if I should use some interfacing as well to make it less floppy.

Last but by no means least I have sewn all but the hood on my chunky sweater jacket and I should finish the hood this week :-)

I now need to go downstairs and make some laundry soap as my youngest has just given me a load of washing he has been hoarding in his room (typical 18yo) and I have no washing powder left LOL

My final exam is on the 15th so I will be busy studying next week and can't promise an update but I also have a new short project on the needles - some fuzzy slippers which will probably be finished by Monday so hopefully I will have time to post them on here

Swag bag update

I’ve finally decided on a handle for this - three strips of 4 stitch wide garter stitch plaited together knitted with two strands (one of each colour). I really like the effect :-). All the knitting was finished on Saturday, since then I have sewn the bag section and I just have to attach the handles (I know they look attached in the photo but they aren't), popper and lining.

I know the picture is pants and you can't really see the effect of the different shades but it is 1:40 am and my flash is a pain so I rarely use it - I prefer to photoshop photos lighter than darker LOL

A new fo and wip

OK so I have been bad and not blogged for a week. In my defense I have been fairly busy with Uni and life in general, and the needles have been pretty busy too LOL

First a finished object - my shaker cushion cover. I finished this in 24 hours, my first time with bobbles and it was fine. The only problems I had were that I messed up the top centre bobble and threw the pattern out by one stitch and that after I finished it I realised I'd done a 14 inch cushion cover and had an 18 inch cushion!!!!! Typical of me really LOL

I made it from the same yarn I'm using on my bedspread so I will get a 14 inch cushion before I finish the bedspread (my very looong term project LOL).

My second new project is a bag - have you figured out I love bags yet? Its a nice knit, pretty simple but not so simple that I don't have to remind myself which row in the pattern I'm on before I start the next row. The bamboo gives it a luxurious feel and I'm seriously considering adding some beads to it later. I'm also doing a different handle to it, the original pattern made it a hand held bag and I like to throw a bag over my shoulder so I'm going to make a long strap for it instead.

The bag and the shaker cushion are both from my recent acquisition of lets knit magazines - can you tell I'm loving them? :-D

Other updates:

• The sweater jacket is slowly getting sewn together, both shoulder seams and one top sleeve seam so far - well I did say I hated sewing...
• I have just sent in my last assignment to my tutor - yay, just one computer marked multiple choice assignment to go on that course and an exam on the other and then I'm finished with Uni til September.
• I have run out of my home made washing powder so I really HAVE to make some soap very soon...

Doubling yarn

After doubling my cotton chenille for Finlay's bunny blankie I thought it might be a good idea to make a small reference for doubled up yarn equivalents I might use so here is my very basic table:

2 strands of	equals (approx)
4 ply (Fingering)	DK
DK	Aran
Aran	Chunky

A proper explanation of how this works is here

Knit Today back issues

Today I became the proud owner of nearly all issues of knit today (issues 4 and 22 excluded) along with a bunch of supplements. Big thanks go out to scruftydog from Ravelry who offered them for the price of postage.

I would link to the knit today site but it's been down (under construction) for a long time now so there doesn't seem any point. As far as I can tell the back issues are impossible to get so it's a double YAY for me :-)

I gave Eloise her bunny blankie yesterday and I've never seen a 5 year old so happy to receive a baby toy LOL. I do love making things for people who appreciate them :-D

Second bunny blankie

I gave the blankie to Finlay the other day and of course big sister Eloise (going through the jealousy stage) wants one too so here it is LOL.

Can you see where I missed two rows on the left ear? I'm pretty sure she won't notice ;-)

Updates

The chunky sweater jacket just needs to be sewn up now and I have cast on an a-line cardi for Cerys (my friends 21 month old daughter) with the yarn and colour Cerys herself picked. I did the design in knitware, its an a-line cardi with 3/4 length sleeves and one button at the top. This should make it suitable as a summer cover up when we have those chilly summer days that England is famous for LOL.

If the pattern works out OK I will post it here

Bunny blankie

Didn't even have time to add this as a wip as I cast on and finished in one night...

A very quick and relatively easy knit - the most difficult bit for me was embroidering the face LOL. This was my first attempt at double knitting (face), short row shaping (ears) and diagonal knitting (blankie). I think it was pretty good for a first attempt and I'm sure the baby will love it when he is a little older

My Ravelry notes:

Doubled up with my chenille d.k. and it worked great.

Next time I will use a little more stuffing in the head, do the face before I stuff the head and get the nose the right way round LOL.

FO's of 2009 - 3. my everlasting bagstopper

As usual I messed up with this one and if you look carefully it shows hint: I seem to have missed a stitch in the lace parts which made the lace pattern off slightly. Hence the four rows of stocking stitch in the middle so I could sort the pattern out - then of course I managed to do it again LOL.

I use this bag to store my mohair and a few odd cones. I really wish I'd made it longer but as usual, I was impatient...

I am actually very happy with this and intend to make at least one more this year and a few next year.

Nightmare times

My emotional life has taken a turn for the worse so I'm back on the prozac for a while but I have been knitting:

I am going great guns on the chunky sweater jacket, I finished the hood and have started both fronts. I was going to do them both together then noticed that there was no definite spacing for the buttons so I am doing the left side first (occasionally working on the right side ribbing). Then its just one sleeve and a pocket to knit and I'm done.

The second style of bedspread square is started. I am using the February square pattern from Hanks Yarns, using 52 stitches instead of 44.

I've also picked the baby blanket up and knit one row, not much I know but at least its a start...

Soap wise I have decided on a vanilla scented soap as I love vanilla sooooooo much LOL. I will make that this week and post pics as soon as I'm done.

Bragging rights

Not knit or soap bragging I'm afraid but I just had to say that I got 98% in my Java assignment. Yay me!!!

It also looks like I might be able to make some soap again soon. I'm out of lavender and while I restock that I can make one of the other batches I want to try at the same time. I've just got to decide which batch I'd like to do most LOL.

Knitting wise I have only done a few rows on my curbing bag and one square but at least I haven't ground to a halt :-) Oh and of course I've added a few things to my Ravelry queue.

Now to start the next Java assignment...

Starting off simply

As I've been doing Uni assignments all week (one down, three to go) I haven't been doing a lot of knitting. I have however sorted out some of the squares for the king size bedspread. I am starting with some simple, no brainer squares to reflect the fact that my brain hurts from all the coding I'm having to do for Uni LOL.

As you can see I've started with a simple moss stitch square with a garter stitch border. I will do two of each colour and then go on to some more complicated squares. I fully expect this project to take a very long time as its one of my TV projects and I don't watch a lot of TV. One day I'm going to get the knack of knitting and reading at the same time, until then I will make do with the large collection of audio books I have accumulated. I'm listening to Eragon at the moment and enjoying it more than I did the film.

My stash has exploded LOL

For someone who only started knitting again towards the end of February I seem to have collected quite a stash of yarn. I know I'm bad but there's all those bargains out there and all these wonderful things to knit and I suppose I am getting ahead of myself when I think "ooooh that would be nice to make such and such". Especially since I have so much yarn for so many projects as it is, some secret, some not.

I know I am throwing myself into only one hobby because at the moment I have so much soap that I can't justify making any more. That and I need a hobby that can take me away from the soap opera that is my personal life but I have decided that enough is enough and I can't buy any more yarn until I have used up at least a quarter of my stash.

This could be difficult because I adore buying new yarn, the looking at all different types, the ideas that I come up with for patterns to use the yarn with and even the excitement of going to the LYS or having packages arrive in the post but

1. I really can't afford it
2. I have to downsize from a three to a two bedroom house soon and I won't have anywhere to store it.

With this in mind I am designing a king size quilt/bedspread, all made from squares I like the look of and mostly made with my collection of Sirdar Click. I think 50 balls should go a long way towards making it don't you?

For those Ravelry members here is a link to my stash. For those who aren't Ravelry members or on the waiting list - what are you waiting for - get your backside to Ravlery and sign up, its a great place to be!

Curbing bag rescued!!!

I know I said I was going to frog it but I left it on the needles for a while and yesterday I decided to see if I could rescue it. To my surprise I actually managed it - Yay me!!

The picture on the left shows it ripped back with a new row started. I'm excited about starting this again because its such an enjoyable project to knit. I just won't use any more 2 ply on it because I really hated the hole where the row started.

FO's of 2009 - 2. Waffle Stitch Fingerless Gloves

My second FO this year was my Waffle Stitch Fingerless Gloves, an extremely quick knit. If I remember correctly I needed them for the next day and knit them up in 2 - 3 hours, the sewing, as usual, took a little longer LOL. My Ravelry notes say that I should have checked the gauge first as they were a little baggy. It was my fault really, I have the good fortune to knit to a standard gauge and for these gloves I upped the needle size from 4.5 to 5mm as my 4.5 needles were in use already with some test knitting.

I do like these gloves and will knit them again, hopefully with some gorgeous and relatively expensive yarn as they take so little ;-)

FO's of 2009 - 1. Felted WIP basket

I learned to knit when I was little, my Nan and my Mum taught me although I don't think I ever finished anything LOL. I picked it up again when I was pregnant with my second son back in 1988. I made 2 baby jumpers (one of them was very complicated) and a large intarsia jumper for myself. Then I hung my needles up until February this year when I got the urge to knit again. I got some needles and yarn and started knitting my (so far unfinished) chunky sweater jacket. Then I got the bug...

This was my first FO, my felted WIP basket/bag. My notes on Ravelry say:

"Basic knitted bag, co 40, garter stitch for 15 rows (first ball of wool). Pick up stitches from the other sides and knit in the round until its about 1/3 taller than you want it to be after felting or in this case until I literally ran out of wool :-).

Not great but still not too shabby for my first fo in 20 years LOL"

I used Freedom 100% Wool from Twilleys of Stamford in 408 Moorland and really enjoyed it. Of course the wool was super bulky so it didn't take long at all - just what I needed to get me into knitting properly. I quite literally used 5 balls to make this (you may see on the photo that I had to use a small amount of acrylic to finish the binding off. At some point I managed to lose the stitch marker for the beginning of the row so I had to guess where the handles went, and of course I got it wrong and then I bodged it when I made them larger but it was bound to happen.

I am still happy with it even if it was a bodge at the end and it gets daily use :-)

The dreaded baby blanket strikes again!

Today was supposed to be about my few FO's but yesterday, just as I started on the second pattern for the baby blanket I realised I had 126 stitches instead of 128! With four stitches each side as the border I now just have to design the rest of the blanket myself because there's no way I'm starting the damn thing again. Cables are out because this project has pissed me off enough already but I'm sure I will find something that works well.

Wraps per inch (WPI)

As I've got quite a few odd balls of yarn I needed some way to find out what weight/thickness they were so I've made a reference table to help me:

UK	Wraps per inch
2ply	18+
3ply	16
4ply	14
Light DK	12
DK	11
(US worsted)	9
Aran	8
Chunky	6
Super Chunky	5 or less

To measure the wraps per inch, wrap your yarn around a large knitting needle/ruler/pencil and measure the wraps in an inch. The yarn should just be touching comfortably, not squashed together or spaced so that you can see the object underneath. As you can see from the picture on the left, the yarn used wrapped 10 times which makes this yarn a D.K./worsted weight.

Its amazing how a walk can floor me

I walked to the post office on Monday to post my first ebay sale, it wasn't a long walk - maybe 1^1/2 miles there and back but a few hours after I got back my sore throat started and it felt like I had the flu.

This is the part where I admit that I have M.E. and obviously crashed from walking... Monday night was spent in bed, Tuesday I managed to sit at the PC for an hour, yesterday I actually managed some washing up, put some washing on the line and worked with a client on their web site. Today I'm still feeling awful but I'm trying to do as much as I can.

On the bright side I made a very quick bed caddy with some of the Sirdar Bigga in my stash, it knit up in just a few hours and I'm using it already.

Here are my notes on Ravelry:

CO 30 stitches. Stocking stitch for approx 2/3 of the drop from the bed, change to reverse stocking stitch until it’s long enough to start under the mattress, garter stitch for at least the same length of the reverse stocking stitch (to hold it under the mattress). Sew up the sides of the pocket and make one or 2 small pockets for the front.

I am not a fast knitter but I knit this up in less than four hours.

amendments - if I do it again I will do a small garter stitch border at the beginning to stop the curl - this time I accentuated the curl and stitched it to stay like that

It took three balls of Bigga and there is a second pocket but I haven't put it on yet

I have also cast on the dreaded baby blanket again, this time using the white Juicy DK. By the way I dread it because of the reason I am making it, the pattern is easy to make.

First ebay sale - Yaaaaaaay

I have just made my first sale on ebay - 250g of the cream Sirdar Snuggly Tiny Tots D.K. I know it might not seem like anything huge to celebrate but hopefully its the turning point in what has generally been a very bad week.

If it isn't then I'm going to crawl into bed and not get out til Monday LOL

Curbing Bag - frogged

I was really enjoying this knit and then I realised two things:

1. I really hadn't thought out the colours I was using very well
2. Using two strands of two ply cotton on 6.5mm needles was fine on the main part but looked awful where the round was finished (can you say BIG hole LOL)

So I decided to take it back to the row before the cotton but as this week is turning out to be one of stupid mistakes I messed it up. So the first curbed bag becomes my first knitting failure of the year and I will choose my colours very carefully for the next attempt.

That leaves me just one wip - my chunky sweater jacket. I think I will work on that for a while before I start another one. I could really do with a nice shrug at the moment. I have a blanket I use when it gets cold but it can't cover my shoulders and arms and still allow me to knit and type. Then there's the teddy I need to make for my nephew and the dreaded baby blanket! Watch this space.

More nice surprises from the postman

Yay, I finally got my Mothers day gift from my middle son. In his defense I asked for this and it did come from the States so I was expecting it to take a while :-) If you look at my quick profile on this blog you might understand why I wanted this so much LOL. Knitting got me off Prozac and also stopped me from going crazy and killing people (insert evil grin here).

Another box came with it too - my newest additions to my extra large book collection. Anne McCaffrey is my favourite author - I have most of her books, Deluge is the third book in the twins of Petaybee series and Dragon Harper is added to the 20+ Pern books I have already. As I loved the film twilight and know that usually the book is better than the film I also ordered the first three books of the Eclipse series: Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse.

I'm a sucker for a well written fantasy book as then I don't have to deal with the real world. Oh and I have a fascination for dragons and vampires too LOL

Wow two posts in one day - I am doing well :-)

Finally!

Finally got my Drops felted slippers finished. I would definitely do things differently next time but I am happy with them.

I have also finally put the baby wool up on ebay and if they go OK I've just about convinced myself to put all of the click up too.

With the baby blanket frogged for the moment because I read the pattern wrong, I only have the sweater jacket and curbing bag in progress at the moment. I'm in the middle of the hood for the sweater jacket and I'm on the sixth lot of curbing for the bag so I suppose I'm not doing too badly.

Whats the betting I will start another project in the next seven days LOL.

LOL

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Nice surprise in the post

I'm used to getting parcels in the post, I have an addiction to buying yarn - I'm sure I'm not the only one LOL. This parcel baffled me though. I didn't remember ordering it and was trying to figure out where it came from... Then it dawned on me (with a little help from the postage label (skmneedlecase)) that it must be my freebie from subscribing to Simply knitting. What a pleasant surprise.

Updates

I added a new column to the needle equivalent chart as I have been looking at a few old English patterns which use the old needle sizes. I've also added a bit on the sidebar that shows what I'm working on at the moment, thanks Ravelry for this great little app.

The dangers of buying wholesale yarn

I will admit it I am a pack rat. I collect sci/fi fantasy books, soaping stuff (equipment, ingredients, essential oils etc), recipes, knitting patterns, needles and yarn...

So when a pack rat like me has the brilliant idea of buying 190 balls of yarn wholesale to resell on ebay I suppose I am just asking for trouble. I now have two huge boxes downstairs full of Sirdar yarn. To give you an idea here's the list:

• Snuggly Tiny Tots (10 balls of each)
• 0932 snug (baby blue)
• 0930 bliss (baby pink)
• 0929 hush (white)
• 0931 coy (mint)
• 0933 cosy (cream)
• 0928 tender (pale lilac)

• Click DK

• 0118 blossom (peachy pink) - 20 balls
• 0117pistachio (pale green) - 30 balls

• Juicy DK
• 427 watermelon (pink) - 10 balls
• 426 nectarine (peach) - 20 balls
• 429 lychee (cream) - 30 balls
• 428 coconut milk (white) - 20 balls

Of course now I don't want to sell them, well I suppose I'm ok with selling the snuggly tiny tots and at a push the click can go but letting that wonderful Juicy bamboo/cotton yarn go is just out of the question...

I know I have to sell it, I can't afford to keep it, and in my defense I have packaged it away but I haven't taken the pictures or put it up for sale yet. I'm going to try very hard to do it tomorrow (I need daylight to take the photos). Or maybe I can just sell the tiny tots and keep the rest LOL

Needle equivalent chart

Here's a needle equivalents chart which comes in handy every so often. I have all bar 5 of these sizes (I even have the largest 25mm ones!) most in bamboo. I HAVE to have them to keep up with my ever increasing stash :-).

Metric	US	Old UK
1.75	00
2	0	14
2.25	1	13
2.5	11/2
2.75	2	12
3	21/2	11
3.25	3	10
3.5	4
3.75	5	9
4	6	8
4.5	7	7
5	8	6
5.5	9	5
6	10	4
6.5	101/2	3
7	103/4	2
7.5	-	1
8	11	0
9	13	00
10	15	000
12.75	17
15	19
19	35
25	50

Yarn equivalents

I got so fed up with trawling through my bookmarks every time I wanted to look something up that I decided to start a reference blog with all the details in one handy place.

I'm starting with a yarn equivalents table because I seem to be looking for that more than most LOL

UK	USA	Australia	Needle size	Approximate gauge*
2ply	Laceweight	2ply	1.5–2.25mm	32–34 sts
3ply	Light Fingering	3ply	2.25— 3 mm	32sts
4ply	Fingering	4ply	2.25— 3.25 mm	28 sts
Light DK	Sport	5ply	3.25— 3.75 mm	24–26sts
DK	DK/Light Worsted	8ply	3.75— 4.5 mm	22 sts
Aran	Worsted/Aran	10ply	4.5— 5.5 mm	18-20sts
Chunky	Bulky	12ply	5.5— 8 mm	14-15 sts
Super Chunky	Super Bulky		8mm and up	8-12 sts

* The approximate number of stitches over 4 inches/10cm