SUSAN STITCHES

Here we have a picture of my latest project, a shawl woven with Tencel yarn from the Natural Dye Studio, sold as sock yarn but it told me it was going to be a shawl..... spot the error in the weave.... which I've now corrected

Will get a better picture of the shawl when more work has been done.

I've also been doing socks.... and a couple of tops, pictures to come up soon.

I haven't updated my blog in ages, been very busy recently though with projects, a couple of pairs of socks, a knitted doily (my first knitted one in years), some crochet and clearing out and de-stashing, okay I did buy 22 balls of Sirdar Salsa yarn for £22 but plan to make a couple of jackets with that, I love the 3/4 length sleeve jackets out at the moment.

Will have some pics lately once I get the new battery for my camera - they're trying to talk me into getting a new one but I can't afford it until I get my new laptop, then I will upgrade the camera.

Here are some pics of some Irish crochet, the first two are pieces I have made
myself - I have found that Gutterman topstitching thread makes for a lovely crochet thread, comes in lots of colours and is relatively cheap. However I have been buying boxes of thread from eBay and had some real bargains, including a box where somebody gave me 10 very fine short metal crochet hooks. The piece hasn't been blocked yet and the pics aren't that clear but it gives you an idea of the texture





The final piece is some antique lace found in a shop in Broadstairs, Kent, the piece is about 4ft long and I paid £1 for it....I am fairly certain it is machine made but it is so pretty and unusual, based on Irish crochet rather than the more familiar torchon style machine laces...

Well, maybe a resolution this year wiill be to update my blog monthly....

Here is a pic of a modular scarf I did from a pattern in Knitty.com - Noro Silk Garden this time, have another ball for a matching hat.



And another scarf done with some old acrylic varigated yarn I had lying around



Some more pics will go on later this week - I have some new projects and some work in progress - NOT UFO's you may note (well only one is, the second one of the blue socks which never got finished).

The other day I found an odd ball of Noro Kureyon (which is Japanese for Crayon) and knitted this, which will go very well against my black winter coat.

I also finished the hat and scarf set on an earlier post

The gothic lace socks are almost finished, just the toe to be done now, and I have started on a P90 top, pics to come later... oh, I've also signed up for http://secretpal9.blogspot.com/ so I will see what happens. I've been in a couple of swaps before, one of them was a disaster as my partner vanished into thin air and the other one was okay, we had to swap yarn of equal quantity and I ended up with some lovely orange yarn which I still have to knit up.

I've been finishing off some projects, here is a loom knitted scarf and it's matching hat (still to be finished but only started this morning



I've also been finishing off some socks, and doing some more tri-loomed squares and triangles using up odds and ends of yarn. I have also done one side of a shawl but need to get another skein of yarn to finish this. This was done on a three foot tri loom - haven't got a pic as yet but should have one soon.

Here is a picture of a modular bag from Iris Schrier's Modular Knits book. I used Noro Silk Garden colour 225A and a button from my stash. Instead of knitting the I-cord for the bag I made the cord using a lucet, much stronger and much faster than hand knitting I-cord.



Here are some pics of some tri-loom weaving, the first is a practice triangle done on a small tri-loom and the second is a neck scarf I am doing on my large 3ft tri-loom.



I am using some yarn from the Colinette mixed packs they do - don't know if I will have enough to completely finish it but I have a small amount of red and a small amount of green to use... this is practice for a shawl I want to do later on using some proper Harris tweed yarn in red and green.

Here is a pic of the Maple Leaf socks from the Townsend socknitters knit a long. I haven't done much knitting as it has been very hot here in the UK (97 most days). One row of the pattern has a K7 tog - I do any more than K3 tog through the back of the loop. I find it makes it much easier and visually there is little difference




The yarn used in this is STR Clay, I love the colour, I will do three pattern repeats and then a garter heel (I only have one skein of this yarn). I have done garter heels before and they suit my short fat feet very well.

I have been quite busy lately but have managed to do some more knitting and spinning, here are a couple of pictures of the old spinning wheel I got last year on holiday in France, cost me all of 50 Euros (about £35.00). It does need some work but it spins very fine yarn. This is the front of the wheel, it still needs a good clean but I wasn't going to spend hours of time and money on it if it didn't spin...
This is a pic of the flyer, it needs some new leathers but otherwise is working extremely well. I had a lot of shaking and creaking when I first got the driveband on but there is only a slight rattle from the bobbin now.
The flyer has obviously had a lot of use in its time, and is being put to use now with me being able to spin finer yarns than on the Ashford Kiwi wheel I have. I'm getting about 22 wpi yarn at the moment with an even consistency throughout.

Well, I have been busy lately, I have finished the Opal striped socks, minor problem as one sock has a 2 x 2 rib and the other has a 3 x 1, but as they are for me it isn't vitally important
The second picture is progress on the much frogged Gothic Lace sock - first sock nearly finished...
The final picture is some yarn I have spun, the pink yarn was dyed with koolaid and the red yarn was the shade which arrived in a grab bag - both yarns are merino, I think they will make a nice bag

I decided to Update my journal with a short entry, the Bavarian Lace socks - pattern can be found at http://www.redbirdknits.com/sotm.php its actually called Gothic Lace and is the March 2005 SOTM (although I haven't been knitting it that long!) The frogged sock went much better on 2.5mm needles, I like 5 inch DPNS myself, 7 are a bit too long for normal socks for me. The Gothic Lace is the bottom sock, and the top sock is Opal Rodeo Cotton which I am knitting on the London underground on the way to work. I've done more of this sock than in the photo

I finally finished the socks knitted in Fortissima Socka Colori Shade 9075 Lot 340174 - they came out a bit loose but I did use 3.25mm DPNS to see what would happen... I did a 3x1 rib throughout until I got to the short heel flap and then did the 3x1 rib down the front until I decreased for the rounded toe...

Now back to the Bavarian Lace socks which came to a halt as I lost the pattern (which has now resurfaced) and broke a needle, I now have the replacement needle and a second set of these needles 'just in case'. The picture isn't very clear as I had to fight for possession of the coffee table with my cat... who just wouldn't take 'Stay off here for a minute' - she has days like that where English is an alien language! I will post some pics of her later this week.

The other day I found a couple of skeins of yellow funfur yarn, don't know the make as the ball band was missing and decided to make a boa scarf on a 20 peg scarf loom, took about three hours to do in total...

The right hand pic shows the finished scarf, came out about six feet long. Goes nicely with my black coat!

Another pair of socks finished - knitted in Opal Brasil 5004 using circular needles

The next pair in progress (one sock done already, the second one is shown here, using Fortissima Socka Colori, very nice patterning in this one

The finished modular hat from Iris Schrier's book "Modular Knits" - the first one in Noro Silk Garden and the second one (for my friend Mary, Michael's wife) in a yarn from one of the Colinette variety bags

My Kiri is finished - you can see the pointy end forming already, I used a stretchy cast of, knit one stitch, knit the second stitch, two stitches are on right hand needle, insert point of left hand needle through front of two stitches on right hand needle, loop yarn round and knit together, makes a nice loose chain cast off... ideal for cotton yarn and toe up socks (I used this in the Regia cotton socks on this journal. Finished time was 3.45pm UK time on Sunday afternoon. Still got blocking to do...

The second picture is after the last cast off - the Kiri will grow about half as much again when it is steamed and blocked. I did fourteen pattern repeats and an edging, using Socks That Rock Limestone yarn. Three balls were used with about 1/2 ounce left.

I have done some more of the Kiri shawl, and luckily have managed to find someone who is going to swap a ball of the yarn with me - so hopefully it should arrive next week.  Here are a couple of pictures of my craft room, the storage system was picked up very cheaply in a charity shop which has very good furniture, the alcove is five ft wide and it fits quite neatly...
There are a lot of gadgets stored on one of the shelves, and knitting yarn, I have a shed full of yarn to organise as well. I also put some of my peg looms on the walls, still have several to dig out of boxes then will reorganise the wall into a nice pattern...
The room itself is about 8ft by 12ft and also houses two knitting machines (a Passap E600 and Brother 950i with garter carriage) and a large 4 shaft floor weaving loom, which I am restoring to sell. I upgraded to an 8 shaft table loom which is kinder to my poor arthritic foot...

Here are a couple of pics of the Kiri shawl I am doing for the Knitting Olympics, it's done in Socks That Rock yarn in Limestone colour using Suzannes Rosewood circular needles.

This shows the end of the first skein of yarn, hopefully two skeins will be enough...

The second picture shows the detail of the yarn, a lovely spring mix of lemon/lime.



I probably won't do the pointed edge of this shawl as I like the edge it has already - and I don't think I will have enough of this yarn.

More yarn was delivered today (and yesterday) and I am now sorting it out into project piles... some pics will follow when time allows.

These are pics of an aran scarf I knitted for a friend - Michael is a BIG man, built along the lines of Martin Johnson (ex-UK Rugby captain) and he was very pleased with the result. It was knitted in Red Heart yarn (I got some from an American friend) in a coffee colour... the pattern came from an old book I have which has lots of different stitches.

Next project is the Kiri shawl for the Knitting Olympics -pics to be posted as work progresses!!!

Here is a pic of the Regia Cotton Top socks I finished this morning,

toe up start with 16 stitches, increase every other row to 28 stitches on each needle (these are knitted circularly) and then a garter stitch short row heel and stretchy cast off top, fit really nicely. Next project is a Kiri for the Knitting Olympics, still haven't decided on the yarn for this one yet - I have some Crystal Palace Kid mohair in red, a lovely silky yarn (very fine) from Kangaroo Yarns, and some unknown silk mix yarn which keeps talking to me lately... will post pics of work in progress.

Here are some socks I knitted last year, I use a basic 56 stitches 56 row pattern and vary the toes and heels.



These are Regia socks, and they are quite muted for me - more pics as I get time tto upload them.