Yellow Peril 2021

 Yellow Peril 2021

Sometimes things just don’t go right.

Wrong Left Glove

 

I have made lots of these Gloves in a variety of Colours. However for some reason this time I have gone wrong. If I am reading the Patten correctly I should have worked on the Thumb then the Finger next to it.

Somehow or other I have ended up doing the Little Finger first. This means all the Rows are wrong so I am now going to have to do it by eye. This means keep trying the Glove on to see how it fits.

Sew Up Glove

 

I have managed to finish Knitting the Glove and Sew it up. I tried again with the other Glove and it happened again. Not only that but to my Horror I realised that I hadn’t changed Colour. Not much I can do about it at this stage.

Yellow Beret Set

Here is the Yellow Set. I have added the Mustard Yellow into the Scarf and made a Mustard Brooch to add on to the Scarf. I may be able to add a little detail onto the Gloves but for now they are going to have to stay like that.

Out of Zone Accessories 2020 Part 3

Out of Zone Accessories 2020 Part 3

On to making the Brooch.

Brooch Edging

 

I took a piece of black material approximately 3 inches Wide. It was quite long so I Folded behind and Hemmed it all the way around. I took my Copper Wire and made a Knot.

I Sewed through the Knot to secure the Wire. I then Sewed through the Copper Wire Links all around the Edge.

Brooch Timepiece

 

Amongst the items that my friend Laura of https://www.alyssa-rose.co.uk/ was a delightful little Button Timepiece. I Sewed this into the middle of the Cloth.

Brooch Cog 1

 

I started in the Bottom Right Corner and began to Sew some of the Copper Wire onto the Cloth towards the opposite Upper Corner.

I Sewed the 1^st Silver Cog into place then bent the Wire around it and secured it.

Brooch Cog 2

I continued Sewing the Copper Wire and placed a Bronze coloured Cog on the Material. I Sewed the Cog in place then manoeuvred the Wire around it and under the Button.

Back Brooch Pin

 

At this point I thought it would be a good idea to tidy up the Back of the Brooch. I used a Backstitch along the two Edges.

I Sewed the Flap and added a Safety Pin after I had finished adding the rest of the Cogs and Copper Wire.

Brooch Cog 3 & 4

 

Starting from the Upper Left Corner I added another Knotted Copper Wire. Using the same technique I added two more Cogs. 

Finished Brooch

 

I had found one more Cog hiding amongst my bits and pieces. I had Sewn the Copper Wire in place and slipped it into place and secured. I now had a Finished Brooch to add to my collection.

 

Wrap Up Winter! It is now Spring 2018 Part 2

Wrap Up Winter! It is now Spring 2018 Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 - The comparison

Merino Black

This time I am knitting the Hat, Gloves and Scarf set in King Cole Merino Blend DK Superwash Shade 48 Black on the same 4mm needles.

Aran Beret 6 Inches

When measuring the Aran I forgot to do the height as well as the width. It is 6 inches.

Black Beret

I need to measure this but the tape has gone walkies.

Scarf Width

The Scarf width is exactly the same at 3 Inches wide.

Scarf Length

The length is roughly 18 Inches long. I cannot be anymore exact due to the kinks in the tape measure. By my reckoning it is half to one inch shorter. I believe that this is due to my tension rather than anything else.

Brooches

I made these Brooches at the same time. Somehow or other when knitting the Black one I made a huge mistake. On the last increase row I entirely forgot to put the yarn forward so I was about 30 stitches short

I’m cutting this blog short due to illness I will conclude next week.

Wrap Up Winter! It is now Spring 2018 Part 1

Wrap Up Winter! It is now Spring 2018 Part 1

We changed the clocks at the weekend and it is Good Friday tomorrow. Therefore I thought I would write a blog wrapping up a few winter projects.

Two Tone Scarf Extension

http://lady-jane-quirky.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/autumn-cape-long-term-project-inside.html

In the link above I was discussing my attempt at making a Two Tone Set. As you may recall I ran out of wool knitting the Scarf. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the Kingfisher Blue as it was discontinued so here is the finished item extended with the Petrol Blue Wool.

Merino Wool

I realised whilst finishing the Blue Scarf that I have difficulty remembering how much wool to buy. One of the reasons is because I have never really sat down and worked it out. Yes I am using a pattern but I am not using the yarn stated plus I have also adjusted it.

Therefore I thought I would measure and note as I go. The yarn I am using is King Cole Merino Blend DK super-wash wool. It is Shade 46 Aran 50g and approximately 115 yards in length.

Aran Beret

I am using 4mm needles and when finished the Rib measures approximately 7 inches wide when flat.  The height from Rib to apex is 6 Inches. This is when following the pattern correctly and using my usual tension.

Aran Gloves

The Gloves are made with the correct cast on and needles. However I tend to adjust the pattern by eye towards the finger tips. I usually deduct approximately 2 rows stocking stitch per finger depending on my tension. The end result is 9 inches from Rib to end of Little Finger. The Cuff is approximately 2.5-3 Inches across.

Aran Scarf Width

It is always when it comes to the Scarf that I get really lost trying to work out how much yarn is required. This is due to the fact that although I use the correct size needles (4mm) I don’t cast on the same amount of stitches each time.

The cast on amount is always divisible by 4. In this case 44 stitches and it has in this case resulted in a 3 Inch Rib.

Aran Scarf Length

Once I change the number of stitches it will affect the width. The pattern states that I should cast on 60 stitches. I found that far too wide when knitted so I reduced it. The length when knitting up one ball works out at 18.5 Inches *

So by removing 16 stitches I automatically increase the length. This means I need to buy fewer balls of wool. Increasing the cast on results on requires more balls.

Aran Brooch

The Brooch was knitted using 4mm needles. It measures approximately 2 Inches in diameter. I made a bit of a mess when sewing this up and it didn’t sit right. Therefore I had to unpick the fastening stitches, readjust the position and resew.

Aran Brooch Finished

After resewing I found a nice sparkly gem for the centre and proceeded to add Black Beads around it. Then all it needed was the safety pin added.

Comparison Results In Part 2

*

REMEMBER THESE NUMBERS ONLY WORK WHEN USING THE SAME TYPE OF WOOL AND YARDAGE!

Two Tone Blue Beret 2018 -Chock full of mistakes

Two Tone Blue Beret 2018 -Chock full of mistakes

  

As you know by now when I write a craft blog I try to include all the mistakes I have made and how I overcame them. Well this blog is full of blunders.

Two Tone Blue Beret Underneath

On a trip to my favourite wool shop Knit Nottingham https://www.facebook.com/knitnottingham/

I purchased some more wool – no surprise there. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough in either colour I liked so I thought why not knit a Two Toned Beret for a change.

Two Tone Blue Beret Mistake

The wool shades in question were called Petrol (main colour) and Kingfisher (Rib colour). I have found the last few Berets I made have been wrong on the stitch count but not as bad as this one. Instead of being flat this one looks – well I will leave that to your imagination.

Two Tone Blue Beret Corrected

I unravelled quite a few rows and tried to compensate – it still isn’t right but far better than before. I worked out where I had been going wrong. Instead of counting how many decreases I was supposed to do on each row I decreased to the end. This led to losing stitches and having to compensate.

Two Tone Blue Gloves

The last pair of gloves I made was uncomfortably tight. It was like the thumbs were in the wrong places. When I got to the thumbs on this set I could have kicked myself. As with the Beret I had just gone on my merry way instead of Checking The Pattern!

There is more than one way to add stitches KFB (Knit through front and back of loop) and M1 (Make a stitch by picking one up). I hadn’t checked which it one it was. Therefore I didn’t have enough stitches in the right place.

Two Tone Blue Scarf

I had no technical problems with this scarf. I started with the Petrol then added Kingfisher then carried on with the Petrol. The Scarf is a little shorter than I would like so hopefully I will pick up some more wool the next time. I would prefer more Kingfisher but Petrol will do.

Blue Brooch

Since I had more Petrol than Kingfisher I used that to make the Brooch. I may make one in Kingfisher if I get some of that to finish the Scarf.

Purple Bamboo Cotton Brooch

Whilst I was sorting out some craft stuff I came across something I had completely forgotten. I had knitted a Purple Brooch in Bamboo Cotton a long while ago and had put it aside, with the bead tin at hand I finished this one off too.

Hopefully the next time I knit one of these sets I will remember to Check the Pattern!

N.B

I ended up making an unexpected trip to Nottingham Bus Station to retrieve my mobile phone which had fallen out of my pocket on the bus. So whilst there I took the opportunity to nip into my favourite shop.

Unfortunately after Eleanor rang the suppliers we discovered that the Kingfisher has now been discontinued. Therefore the Scarf will have to be finished in Petrol Blue.

So now I have to wait for it to come into stock and be posted to me. On the bright side I have bought additional wool to carry on with my ever growing collection of Beret, Scarf and Glove sets.

Other Bits and Bobs 2017 Part 4

Other Bits and Bobs 2017 Part 4

In Other Bits and Bobs 2017 Part 3 I wrote about the Pink Beret I knitted. This blog covers the rest of the set and a couple of extra items.

Pink Gloves

After the Beret was finished I knitted a pair of Pink matching Gloves.

Pink Scarf

To complete the set I knitted a Scarf. A couple of snags occurred whilst knitting it. If you look at the photograph you can see a bump on the left side. This was a miss-stitch that I didn’t notice until far too late.

Also I inadvertently started a new ball of wool on the last section. It was only later that I found half a ball of wool tucked away in another part of my craft box – very annoying.

This meant when I reached the desired length I had two part balls left. It was this when I had an idea.

Pink Flower Brooch

A couple of years ago I made a top which was fastened with a knitted flower.

I thought this would be a great idea to do in some of the Pink wool I had left. I knitted the flower then proceeded to sew Pink Beads on it.

Brown Flower Brooch

Now the Pink Set was finished I started on another set in Brown Wool. Again I made a Flower Brooch. This time the centre bead was white and the rest were gold.

Back of Brooches

All that was left to do was to sew safety pins on the back.

Brown Beret

I am not exactly sure what I did whilst knitting this Beret but I kept getting the stitch count wrong. Therefore I had to make considerable adjustments whilst knitting in order to get it finished.

Brown Gloves 

Another mistake was made with the Brown Gloves. For some reason one glove is smaller than the other. I have either missed a couple of rows or picked up wrongly. Whatever the case the thumb on one glove is very tight and makes it difficult to move. I am hoping that when washed I might be able to stretch it a bit.

I still have the scarf to do but it will have to wait as I have other projects on the go.