Hemlock Ring Blanket

Well, it's the last day of July and already there is talk of Autumn in the air. What?!?! The weather forecast is promising grey skies and 13 degrees all week (yuck!), so it's good that I have my new blanket to fend off the coming chill!

Pattern: Hemlock Ring Blanket
Designer: Jared Flood
Source: Brooklyn Tweed
Needles: 5.5mm double-pointed needles and circular
Measurements: 120cm from point to point
Yarn details:

• Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora
• 80% Cotton, 20% Angora
• 50gr = 79m
  
• colour #15507
• 10.2 balls used = 511 grams = 800 metres
  

Knitting this was quite a pleasure. After the inner motif, the pattern repeat consists of four rounds of plain knitting and one row of lace, making this a fabulous project for those time when you don't want to have to place all of your concentration into what your hands are doing.

The pattern is from an old vintage doily from 1942 and can be found here. The original pattern does not include a chart, so our friend Jared whipped one up for us here.

I was happily knitting along and enjoying the look of my blanket when I realised that something was wrong. Unmistakably wrong. How had I failed to notice such a big mistake for so long?

At the beginning of the chart, I had somehow slipped in an extra yarn over at the beginning of the round and with each pattern repeat, that one extra yarn over increased to about seven extra yarn overs by about round 35 on the chart. How in the world did I miss all of those extra stitches?

Sigh.
Rip.
Sigh.
Rip.

Back to the beginning of the chart.

So with my spirit bruised but not broken, I stitched on (this time with careful counting, of course) with the plan of using all of the ten balls of this yarn that I had in my stash. It all worked perfectly until the supply of yarn trailed off...with only 1/8th of the cast off edge left!

After ripping back so much in the earlier stages, I did not have the heart to rip again, so I scoured the Ravelry stash pages for someone willing to part with a ball, just one little ball, of this yarn. Begging and pleading ensued.

And then, SUCCESS! A lovely lady named Anke answered my call and parted company with a ball, of which I needed only 11 grams to finish off the blanket. Thanks again, Anke!

At this stage I haven't blocked out the little ripples, as I quite like the 3D effect, however I might rethink that later on.

Currently on the needles is the Peacock Feathers Shawl and I have the horrible sinking feeling that I'm going to run out of yarn spectacularly. This time, though, there will be no saviour on Ravelry, as there is only one other person with this particular yarn in her stash, and not in the same colour. I did some very rough calculations and it doesn't look good. Wish me luck :-/

Even More Shortpaper Mitts

Wow, I haven't been around much over the last couple of weeks, but earlier on there was some knitting action in the form of fingerless mittens.

A few months back, mum requested a pair of Endpaper Mitts, but in shortened form. I happily obliged. Some time later, she requested another pair in a brownish hue, to match a winter jacket of hers. Despite inner thoughts of mine imagining making twenty more pairs to match her shoes, scarves and mood, I again happily fulfilled her whim. And here they are!

Pattern: Endpaper Mitts
Designer: Eunny Jang
Source: See Eunny Knit
Needles: 2mm bamboo dpns for cuff and 3mm for hand
Yarn details:

• Garnstudio Drops Alpaca
• 100% alpaca
• 50gr = 180m
• colours #401 (chocolate brown) #2110 (yellowish cream) #2916 (lime green) #3620 (cherry red)
• about 20 grams of main colour and 10 grams of contrast colour used

The pair for mum was worked with 20 rounds of rib followed by chart 2 and the other pair only had 17 rounds of rib at the cuff.

I made two pairs around the same time, and here they are together.

Reindeer Cloth

It's nice to be back at home after a week up north hanging out in the tent, far away from the city. So there's not much to report on the stitching front, but I did make this cute little reindeer cloth before the getaway.

Pattern: Reindeer Dishcloth
Designer: Carol Callaway
Source: Yahoo Group 'Knitted Kitty Dishcloths'
Needles: 3.25mm knitpicks bamboo circulars (yay! I'm new to knitpicks and I love them!)

Yarn details:

• Steinbach Wolle Nizza
• 100% cotton
• 50gr=140m
• about 15-20gr used

I made this using the continental knitting method for some practice, hence you can see the obvious tension problems! Bumps and lumps all over the place! But hey, that's what practice is for, isn't it?

Cute and easy pattern.

More Shortpaper Mitts

About five years ago, I made a crocheted scarf for a good friend of mine. Now, many years later, she apparently still uses the scarf, which is lovely to hear. Knowing that she appreciates my gift, I asked her if she would like an updated present and she mentioned a certain fondness for fingerless mitts. So here they are!

Pattern: Endpaper Mitts
Designer: Eunny Jang
Pattern Source: See Eunny Knit! website

Yarn Details:

• Garnstudio Drops Alpaca
• 100% Alpaca
• 50gr=180m
• colours #2916 (green) #3620 (red)

Needles: 2mm bamboo dps for ribbing and 3mm dps for mitt

Mods: worked 20 rounds of cuff ribbing before skipping chart 1 and moving straight to chart 2

I haven't sent them to her yet (but I know that she doesn't read this blog, so I'm safe!) and don't know if she likes them yet, but here's hoping that she does.