Mademoiselle Medic 2020 Part 2

 Mademoiselle Medic 2020 Part 2 

I have finished the items for the Body and the Face now I am moving on to the Hands and Feet. 

Boot Outline

I found an Oval to draw around to Cut out for the Boots.  These are not going to normal Boots but rather the Scrub Over-Boots.

Hemmed Boot

After Cutting out I did my usual Tacking Stitch Hem

Pin Over Cord

 

Next I put a Cord in a Horse Shoe shape and Pinned in Place. This was to make it easier to Sew a Hem over the Cord rather than to try and pull the Cord through afterwards.

I realised that I had made the right choice when pulling on the Cord a little too hard it snapped. I had to unpick a little so I could put another Cord in. This time I used a more robust type.

Scrub Boot

 

Once the Cord was near completely Hemmed in I pulled both ends and Knotted it together. I gives it a kind of Moccasin look. The black material in the above photograph represents the Marionette’s Foot.

Glove Outline

 

Fortunately I still had the templates for the Hand and Arms therefore I could just draw around the Hand part and Cut out a Front and Back for each.

Scrub Gloves

 

I Hemmed the Bottom of the Gloves but not the rest. I decided the best idea would be to Blanket Stitch them. This gave me more material to work with.

Mademoiselle Marionette 2018 Part 22

Mademoiselle Marionette 2018 Part 22

A smartly dressed lady out on the town will of course have a snazzy pair of Gloves to go with her outfit.

White Glove Cut Out

The problem with making the Gloves was two-fold. One was the curvature of the arms and the other was how to work around the Marionettes strings.

The later was the easiest to sort out. I decided to make the Gloves foldable at the Top along with a side Split. The former problem was more difficult to overcome.

In the end I placed the arm on a piece of cloth and drew around it. I then had to very carefully bend the cloth around the curve in the arm before I cut it. Otherwise when I opened it out there would be a massive gap.

Pair of Red Gloves

Obviously this is a little time consuming continually measuring every time I wanted to make a Glove. Also once the Marionette was gifted I would not be unable to more. Therefore I drew around each Glove so I would have it for perpetuity.

Trio of Glove Pairs

 

I made a trio of Glove pairs in the French Flag colours. In this photograph you can see the Top Fold and the Side Split clearly.

Blue Party Gloves

 

The final pair of Gloves were the Party ones. A touch of sparkly ribbon to add the finishing touch.

Wrap Up Winter! It is now Spring 2018 Part 3

Wrap Up Winter! It is now Spring 2018 Part 3

First on all I apologise for cutting the last blog short. It is the first time I have had to do that. In the last blog I had just reached talking about the Brooches.

Aran Beret and Brooch

After knitting the Aran Brooch it was time to add a bit of bling. All the Brooches I have made are slightly different. However this one is unusual because as well as the normal beads I add I found a sparkle and I couldn’t resist putting it in the centre.

Black Beret and Brooch

In order to cut down on endless photographs I haven’t taken a picture with the measurements but I can state that the Black Beret is the same height and width as the Aran.

As to the Brooch I am not sure what planet I was on whilst knitting it but as well as the mistake regarding the missing stitches I made another blunder. This time I got the correct amount of stitches but I did a purl row instead of a knit and I didn’t realise until I was about to cast off. Therefore I had to undo the whole lot and start again.

Scarf Mistake

I am not sure if it was the colour that was throwing me out but I also messed up knitting the Scarf. Somehow I managed to gain another stitch. Normally this doesn’t matter in stocking stitch and I can usually quickly adjust it.

However since I was knitting Rib it caused the pattern to go out of line. It was lucky that I spotted it before I did too many rows.

Black Glove

After all the problems I had it was nice that the Gloves went according to plan and though the numbers aren’t showing up very well in the photograph the sizing is correct.

Beret Collection

So to wrap up this blog (yes the pun was intended) I thought I would show you my entire winter collection. Of course the Brown Beret decided to disappear but you get the general idea.

Therefore apart from a couple of tweaks (I am still looking for some dark green wool to extend the Green Scarf).that is the end of knitting Wool Berets for now. I do have some other colours in mind but I want to concentrate on different projects.

Besides people keep asking me about my long term project and I really need to keep working on that in addition to my Summer Projects.

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.