A Twist In The Tail 2025 Part 1

 A Twist In The Tail 2025 Part 1

Apologies if this blog might be a bit wordy in places. I had such a struggle that I didn’t take as many pictures as normal.

Lots of Balls

Right. After doing so many projects for myself and others I have ended up with Lots of Balls of Yarn. I say Yarn in this case as although I use Wool for myself I do use Acrylic or Blended for other people.

First of all I sorted all the Yarn into there respective materials. Since I might want the Wool for a project for myself I put that aside.

Adding Grey

I am afraid that I have jumped a great deal here. The Yarn was so tight that I was really struggling to Knit at all. So to Back Peddle naturally the first stop after sorting the Yarn was getting a suitable Knitting Needle.

This was my first problem. I decided that I would Knit in the Round so needed Circular Needles. I had several large Needles but unfortunately these were all accompanied by extremely short Circular Cords. Therefore I had to go down to a Smaller Size. 

I believe the Size I was using was 5 or 5mm. This was better but the Cord was still shorter than what I would like. This was because I was Casting on 201 Stitches. It is an uneven number so I would not lose any Stitches when I joined together.

Six and a Half Cm

I started off with Black Super Chunky Yarn which was left overs from projects where I had made my boyfriend things. See below for details. I Cast On 201 Stitches.

I immediately found that apart from the amount of Stitches on the Needle I was also was having problems with the Yarn itself. It liked to Split and even when Knitted it had lots of Fuzz all over the place.

This made extremely slow progress and the Needles were digging into my Fingers. To my mind it wasn’t so much Knitting as Alligator Wrestling. However I got to the End of the Row and Knitted 2 together to make the Join. After a long while  I finally got to the End of the Black Yarn and started with the Grey. This was the same type and just as difficult.

I decided to measure how far I had got. It was only 6.5 Cm but I decided I was going to start Decreasing anyway. I Decreased roughly every 4th Stitch until I reached 180 left on the Needle.

Argh a Twist in the Tail

I carried on Knitting a few more Rows then held it up to see it properly. To my Horror it was Twisted. One Twist I could cope with but with this I had no chance. The only thing I could do is Undo it all and start again!

Previous blogs

Nott’s County Hat

24/03/2022

https://lady-jane-quirky.blogspot.com/2022/03/notts-county-hat-2022.html

31/03/2022

https://lady-jane-quirky.blogspot.com/2022/03/notts-county-hat-2022-problem-with-pom.html

08/04/2022

https://lady-jane-quirky.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-problem-with-pom-poms-2022-solution.html

Crawling Creatures 2025 Part 7

Crawling Creatures 2025 Part 7

Continuing with my Star Project

Fill White

Taking some White Clay I fill in the Depression.

Black Balls

I Roll some Black Balls

Eye Eye

I pop the Balls on to make the Eyes for the Starfish.

Add Smile

I have Rolled a little piece of Orange to make a Smile as I want a happy Starfish

Dash of White

Again I am adding White Highlights to the Eyes.

Sort Red

Now I am going to Sort that pesky Red Mark. This was a bit tricky to remove without making a Mess. So I hit upon the idea of accentuating the Arms by Scouring them with a Knife.

Crawling Creatures 2025 Part 2

Crawling Creatures 2025 Part 2

I am slightly altering the photographs from what I actually did to make it simpler to follow.

Small Red

I took a Smaller piece of Red clay.

Knifed

I chopped it in Two with a Knife. I managed to break this one cutting a swede and decided to keep it for Craft.

Mini Red Balls

I rolled these into two Mini Red Balls

Mini Red Flattened

This time I used the Knife to Flatten the.

Cut Out

I Elongated the Balls so they were like a Cartouche. Then using the Knife I Cut Out a section like a Cheese Triangle to both of them.

Claws

Finally I moulded them into a Pair of Claws

Vhere there is a Vill there is a Vay! 2019 Part 5

Vhere there is a Vill there is a Vay! 2019 Part 5

I really hate picking up Stitches. It is even worse when you have to unpick a Cast On first.

Fluff Balls and Waste

This Acrylic Yarn is awful. Apart from Fluff Balls everywhere all over the carpet it is Splitting all over the place.

Bottom Rib

I finally managed to get the Bottom Rib done. Top Rib. I had to undo several rows before I managed to Pick Up the Stitches.

Unfortunately because of the amount of damaged Yarn it is Shorter than the Top Half of the Blanket both on the Stocking Stitch and the Rib. It is one of those times when I can do absolutely nothing about it.

De-fluffing Tools

This is a bit of a new experience for me. As the item is for a Dog I need to make it as safe as possible. First I started cutting off most of the loose pieces of Fluff.

Then I used a Razor to get off the fine pieces. I had to be very careful when I did this as otherwise I might cut through some of the holding Stitches.

VW Finished

After tidying up the Fluff I washed and pressed the Blanket. I must admit that despite the flaws I am quite impressed with the end result.

Charlie 1

 

The above photograph shows the recipient of the Blanket. This is my neighbour’s dog Charlie. He seems a bit hesitant at first.

Charlie 2

Looks like he has got the hang of it now. I think the best moment of the project is when my neighbour asked me where I bought it from. – I was so proud.

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project - Front Daytime

Part 3

Last time I left talking about the adjusting the Fox’s spindly legs. Did you spot the - ahem ‘deliberate mistake’?

Fox Spindly Legs Mistake

When altering the chart I accidentally put one of the lines on the far hind leg the wrong way around so the shape was far too full. Compare that leg shape with the other hind leg and you should spot the difference.

Fortunately this was spotted and corrected before the knitting was done.

Fox Pre-tidying Spindly Leg

 

The legs are now fuller and more proportional the body. I only now need to do some tweaking to redefine some of the shaping. I will say one thing my Fox is certainly well fed by the looks of it.

I have come to a little bit of an impasse. I have been toying with whether to add a pocket or not to the cape. I would like to but I have had a word of caution about dragging the rest of the work down.

Since I have never tried to put a pocket on anything my first reaction was to do a test piece. I decided to do this on my old summer cape to see what it would look like.

Summer Cape Pre-Pocket

 

I intend to kill two birds with one stone here. There is a slight fault in the knitting so if I place the pocket here it should disguise it.

  

Summer Cape Pre Pocket Marker

 

I have placed a marker just under the spot I want to cover up. This will be where the bottom of the pocket will be. I am going to attempt to do a pocket using the cast on method.

Summer Cape Pocket

 

As you can see I have added the pocket. It is slightly wonky due to the fact that I forgot which row I was picking up on. The pocket itself looks a bit untidy but that is purely because I had to add more yarn and pulled it a bit. However it is a pocket and it works as I have carrying my mobile phone in it.

In an unrelated item I have finally managed to ply some wool. I have had it absolutely ages but never seemed to have the time to do it. Let’s face it trying to spin yarn with a cat around it just asking for trouble. There are so many knots in it bumpy isn’t the word.  See what you think

First Ever Balls Of Hand Spun and Plied Wool