It has been a while

Finally getting down to posting on my blog.  You would think that with the COVID shutdown I would have all the time in the world to write blog posts but I just haven’t felt like it.

I have found some sense of normality this week as the Tour de France is on the television, albeit a month later than usual.  I have enjoyed staying up to watch it at night and getting to bed at about 1.30 – 2.00 in the morning.  Those of you who have followed the blog for a few years would know that when I watch the Tour it is also the time for me to get quite a bit of knitting done.  This year I have chosen to knit something for myself.  I chose a fairly complex pattern as I wanted to give myself a bit of a challenge.

The wool for this jumper is Bellissimo.  I bought the pattern and the wool from the local wool shop, Stitches ‘n Things in Lakes Entrance.  So good to be able to support local small business during this difficult time.

The jumper is fairly slow to knit as you are required to constantly be using a cable needle and that slows progress down a bit.

This is what I have managed to complete after the first week of the Tour.

The Tour has been really enjoyable to watch and I am happy that the Australian based team, Mitchelton Scott, has been able to wear the leader of the general classification yellow jersey for four days on the back of Adam Yates.  It was unexpected as they had gone into the tour hoping for stage wins and have ended up with having had the yellow jersey.  They no longer have the yellow jersey so perhaps they will get a stage win in the remaining two weeks.

The Australian Caleb Ewan was successful in winning a stage so that was another good aspect of the Tour.

Tonight is a rest night so I will be able to get to bed early.

Are you someone who watches the Tour?  I love watching the scenery as well as the bike riders.

A great blog to follow for an entertaining summary of each stage of the Tour is this one.

Finally a Fair Isle Fisherman’s Kep on the go.

I am part of the closed group on Facebook for The Fair Isle Fishermen’s Kep Page and if you are a member of the group you can purchase a pattern for the kep.  The pattern is provided by Anne Sinclair and it is very easy to follow.

This is a kep that we saw at the Shetland Museum.

The colours I am using are not the same but hopefully the result will look good.

I am enjoying knitting in 4 ply as it gives such a neat finish. This is just the turn over border, there is a long way to go.

A finished fluffy

I am not sure if this is a successful knit.  I feel sure that it will stretch with use but as the only real cost was the buttons the actual cardigan is a bonus.  I hope my granddaughter gets some use out of it.

The pattern I used was Patons Classic Knits, high buttoning cardigan.  I wrote about it in a previous post here.

An adult baby surprise

If you are a serious knitter you will probably know immediately what I am talking about and for the non-knitters I am not talking about an unexpected pregnancy!

Elizabeth Zimmermann is the guru of knitting.  The first article I knitted using her instructions was a Baby Surprise Jacket.  If you link to this Pinterest page you will see various versions of this jacket which is knitted in one piece and joined with a woven seam across the shoulders. The next image is from Pinterest.

I have used Zimmerman’s book The Knitting Workshop which I bought when I knitted a baby surprise jacket for our grandson. I also have a copy of Knitting Without Tears.

The Adult Baby Surprise Jacket I have just completed was knitted as a request from my elder daughter.  She knew I had loads of scrap wool in my stash and she selected a few colours she wanted to include in her jacket and I set about my next project.  I bought the pattern from Schoolhouse press.

The two markers show where the decreases have taken place up to the point of the underarms then the increases happen.  Unfortunately I didn’t start the increases correctly and ended up with a bit of a hole.

I decided I really should unravel what I had done and so I undid the couple of hundred stitches and started the increases again, this time correctly.

This is at the point where the front flap stitches are put on holders and then you knit backwards and forwards on the bottom stitches.

Once the bottom section is knitted then a border is knitted around the edge before the single piece is assembled into a jacket.

At this stage the sleeves have not been joined and the collar hasn’t been added.

To join the sleeves I used two stitch bind off for the first sleeve but was not happy with the result as the colours showed through in the middle so I tried three stitch bind off for the second sleeve and it was much better. You can see the difference in the next picture.

The front sleeve is the two stitch bind off.  I undid that sleeve join and redid it with three stitch bind off.The dummy is bigger than my daughter but it gives you some idea of how it will look.

Working on the collar.

This was an absolute joy to work as I was getting rid of some of my stash and it was all garter stitch, the easiest of all. I sewed in the many ends and searched for some suitable buttons.  No luck with the buttons so I have sent it off to my daughter so she can choose buttons to finish it off.

A thoroughly enjoyable project.

I have since found the post of the original jacket I made.

 

What animal is that?

This is the reverse of a jumper I finished recently.  My daughter had specifically asked if I would like to knit this for her so I jumped at the chance.

The reverse shows you how untidy the back of the item is but fortunately the front looks much better.

I tried it on to see how it looked before sending it to my daughter.

I think she was happy with the finished result.

The pattern was from this publication.

It was good to try a new type of knitting and take me out of my comfort zone.  I certainly learned a few new things.

I don’t think I will be doing another Intarsia project soon.

Something I haven’t tried before

I have embarked on what I think will turn out to be a real challenge for me.  Intarsia knitting.  I have knitted a fair bit of fair isle in my time but have never before tried intarsia. For those of you who are not acquainted with intarsia this link will give you an idea of what it involves.  Intarsia for dummies   I used this site to get a general idea of what to expect.

The project I am working on is this.  The character is Animal from the Muppets.

That is him on a tee shirt.

My daughter asked me if I would like another project and I am always happy to be knitting something that someone would like.

This is the progress so far.  I am a bit daunted by the number of strands on the back but have been assured by the lady in the wool shop that once you weave the strands in it will look fine.

I am happy with the progress so far.

An update since I last drafted this post.

I think the stitches will look more even when all the ends are woven in.  That is what I am hoping.