A Twist In The Tail 2025 Part 11

A Twist In The Tail 2025 Part 11

The final furlong of this Project.

Cast Off Fin

I have finally Cast Off the Fin. I now need to Sew in all the Ends.

Inside Out

For the next part I needed to turn the Bag Inside Out. 

Attach 3 Places

To get the look that I want I needed to Attach the Fin correctly. I Sewed in three places. Two of them were in the Outer Edge and one directly in the Centre.

Sewing Folds

Sewing the Folds in Place was difficult. I needed to make sure what ever I did on one Side I matched it correctly on the other.

Frilly Fan Fin

Once I had Attached the Folds at the Bag I next continued the Fold to the end of the Fin. I sewed along the Fin to make sure that the Folds stayed in Place.

So there we have it. A Mermaid Blanket complete with with a Frilly Fan Fin.

N.B.

I know it could look even more Finny but I didn’t want it to be a Trip Hazard.

A Twist In The Tail 2025 Part 10

 A Twist In The Tail 2025 Part 10

I am continuing with making the Fin.

Blue Continues

I have now started on one Side with a Blue Colour. I am Continuing with the Increases. When I have finished doing the Blue on this Side I will do the same on the Opposite.

Light Blue Marker

After the Blue I added another Red and a Light Blue. This Light Blue is a Marker. After this I will start Decreasing at the Outer Edge.

Annoying Stitches

I have noticed that  the Pattern I have created is leaving an Extra Stitch on the Returning Row. I find this Annoying so will have to see what I can do about it.

Sewn Over

I have Sewn over the Extra Stitches with Red Yarn. This not only has Covered Up the Stitches but has also helped Define the Edge.

A Twist In The Tail 2025 Part 8

A Twist In The Tail 2025 Part 8

Now I have finished the Tail and broken the back of the project I am quite looking forward to the next Section.

Fin Begins

Here we have yet another Yarn. The Tail Bag had been reasonably muted colour wise. I am going to go all out for the Fin.

Red Start

I had been toying with the idea of picking up the Stitches of the Bag and carrying on. However I have decided against it as it is already so Heavy. Consequently I have Cast on 120 Stitches.

If my memory serves me the Tail was 180 Stitches in total. That makes it 90 each side. These extra Stitches should help create a wave look. This should be accentuated by using a Plain Knit Stitch.

Knit Front and Back

I thought a Bright Yellow would go nice next to the Red. I have Knitted a two Rows. I am Increasing with a Forward and Back at each end.of this next Row.

Which Way

Hell. I had finished the Yellow and started back with the Red when the Stiches came off. I don’t normally just use a Plain only Stitch so not sure which way to Pick them up.

Sneaky Pearl

Lots of rude naughty words!. Now I am in better light I can see that I have Picked up wrongly. A couple of Pearl Stitches have Sneakily snuck into the mix. I need to try and sort this before continuing.

A Twist In The Tail 2025 Part 7

 A Twist In The Tail 2025 Part 7

Finally getting to the End of this Section.

Double Increase

I need to Increase it even more. I decided to do a Double Increase in the White. I should have around 320 Stitches

Double Check

I didn’t Increase anymore in the Grey. I have now changed to my last colour which is the Multi I knitted one Row and then Double Checked the Count. 

It is 321 so I am going to have to Decrease by 1 by Knitting 2 together. Otherwise I will have the wrong amount of Stitches to start the Rib.

Cast Off Rib

I have made the Rib roughly half the size of the other Stripes. I then Cast Off then removed any spare bits of Yarn and Sewed in any tails.

Stripey Bag

By now you must all be curious as to what the hell this is supposed to be. The reason I hadn’t said is because it is a Birthday Surprise for my Boyfriend.

This Stripey Bag is the top half of a Mermaid or should I say Merman Blanket. He is six foot two hence the length. Next is the Fin part of the Tail.

A Twist In The Tail 2025 Part 6

 A Twist In The Tail 2025 Part 6

Ok I have to admit I am not sure what I did with the Photographs, seem to have some doubles and others missing. I am having difficulty trying to remember what I did.

Increase by 5

I have Increased after every 5 Stitches. This has brought the total on the Needle to 266. I did this by Knitting back and forward through the Loop. As you can see the Holes are far smaller.

I have also added the Grey I will Increase when I have done some more Rows

Sew Tails

I don’t want to Knit too much otherwise I will have difficulty Sewing in the Tails.

Go Over White

The Weight of the Yarn has made the Holes bigger. Therefore I have had to go back and Go Over the White. I am just doing a simple Looping Stitch.

Stronger if not Tidier

This might look a bit messy but at least it is Stronger. I will have to do something at a later date to make it more aesthetic

Multi Chunky

After Strengthening, I continued on with the Grey and Increased after every 10 Stitches. This brought me to 281 Stitches (I think).

I then changed to Multi Chunky. After half a dozen Rows I did another Increase after every 15. My final total is 297 Stitches on my Needle.  I am going to repeat all three colours once with out Increasing anymore and see how it looks.

A Twist In The Tail 2025 Part 5

A Twist In The Tail 2025 Part 5

Now I am going to have to do something I really hate - Picking Up Stitches.

Picking Up Stitches

I am now going to be working in the Opposite Direction. That means having to Pick Up the Black Stitches. This time is particularly difficult as the Super Chunky has a tendency to Split. Not only that it is a real pain trying to get all these Stitches onto the Needle.

Nevertheless I eventually Picked them Up. I had originally Cast On181 Stitches. I normally lose some when trying to Pick Up. However in this case I managed to end up with more. 184 Stitches in total.

Yet Another Yarn

I am using yet another type of Yarn. This was kindly given to me during a Craft Swap. I am changing the Colour Pallet.

First Row

I am adding the New Colour. I have marked where I am beginning from as I will need to know it for the next part.

Hole lot of Stitches

After one complete row. I start adding more Stitches. Now there are several ways of adding Stitches. You can pick up a Loop, Knit through the Front and Back of the Loop or Wind the Yarn over.

I am sure one of these doesn’t leave a hole. Unfortunately I picked the wrong one. Picking Up a Loop does leave a Hole. Since I made a Stitch roughly after every 5th Stitch there are a lot of them. I now have 210 Stitches on the Needle and I will need to increase again.

A Twist In The Tail 2025 Part 4

 A Twist In The Tail 2025 Part 4

I am continuing to add Yarn.

New Yarn

With the Super Chunky finished I am having to use other Yarns to continue. I had another Black in stock. This is an Ordinary Chunky.

Grey Wool

I am trying to keep to the same Colour Pallet. I have run out of Light Grey Yarn but I have this Grey Wool. It is heaven for my fingers after all that Acrylic.

Cast off Grey

I have completed 9 Stripes or 3 sets of 3 blocks. I have decided that it is time to Cast off the Grey.

Sew Up Grey

I have Cast Off and am now Sewing up the Bottom.

A Twist In The Tail 2025 Part 3

A Twist In The Tail 2025 Part 3

I hate this part of a project (after knitting) but it is a necessary evil.

Third Colour

I am continuing with the Striped effect. This time I am adding a Light Blue.

End of Blue

I have reached the End of the Blue Yarn. This completes all the Super Chunky of this type that I had. This Yarn and the Grey was from another previous project see below.

Tail Ends

This seemed a good time to start Tidying Tails. So I flipped it over so I could see them. 

Getting Stuck

This was a complete and utter swine to do. The Needle kept getting Stuck. With Black on Black it was almost impossible to tell which was Tail Yarn and which was Stitches. I daren’t cut it in case I got the Stitches.

Needle Change

Something had to be done. I swapped the Needle I was using to a different one. I believe this is actually a Carpet or Rug Needle. It has a bigger Eye and the Curve made it much easier to manoeuvre the Yarn.

Nice and Neat

Finally I was finished. You cannot see it in the photograph but I have left the Tail from Casting on alone. I may need to use this later.

Previous Blog

Vhere there is a Vill

08/08/19

https://lady-jane-quirky.blogspot.com/2019/08/vhere-there-is-vill-there-is-vay-2019.html

15/08/19

https://lady-jane-quirky.blogspot.com/2019/08/vhere-there-is-vill-there-is-vay-2019_15.html

22/08/19

https://lady-jane-quirky.blogspot.com/2019/08/vhere-there-is-vill-there-is-vay-2019_22.html

29/08/19

https://lady-jane-quirky.blogspot.com/2019/08/vhere-there-is-vill-there-is-vay-2019_29.html

05/09/19

https://lady-jane-quirky.blogspot.com/2019/09/vhere-there-is-vill-there-is-vay-2019.html

A Twist In The Tail 2025 Part 2

A Twist In The Tail 2025 Part 2

I have to confess that I have had a loss of temper. The Yarn was pretty difficult to Unravel. It got caught on itself and tangled to the point I actually threw it across the room.

Eventually I managed to get it Undone but not without having to sacrifice some of it because it was so Frayed it was unusable.

Rethink

I decided to have a complete Rethink of how to handle this. I still wanted to work in the round. Therefore I thought I would do a Row of Stocking Stitch before trying to join. I also had dropped the number of Stitches down from 201 to 181. I hoped this would make it easier to spot any Twists.

Black Yarn

My plan worked. It was much easier to join and handle. I made quicker progress.

Join New Yarn

I got to the point where I had finished all the Black and Grey Yarn and could move on to the Blue. At this point I think I should mention that originally I hadn’t been planning to do Bands of Colour or Stripes. 

I have Knitted it this way because when on the previous attempt I came to change colour and realised because I was doing it in the Round the Ends would be at the wrong end.

Mistake

I am not sure what happened here. I had to remove the newly added blue and go back to the Grey. I am not sure if I had dropped or Knitted half a Stitch but it definitely wasn’t right. 

I fixed it the best I could but there still seemed to be excess Yarn at the front. I trimmed this and hoped it wouldn’t affect the strength. I then Readded the Blue Yarn and continued.

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

Hereby Hangs A Tail 2025 Part 2

 Hereby Hangs A Tail 2025 Part 2

Now I have my Cord I can continue with my idea.

Attach End

I Attach one End of the Cored to the Bag. This is a good Thumbs Width from the Bottom Edge.

Attach Cloth

I have made a Hemmed Rectangle of Black Cloth. I am Attaching it to the Back of the Bag. I Sewed all along it.

Attach Other End

With the Black Cloth in place I Attach the other End of the Cord. I make sure that it is Secured so the Cloth will hide it when Folded.

Finished Cat

I have Sewed the Folded Material and now you cannot really tell that it was ever damaged. Also I can now hang this by its Tail.

Hereby Hangs A Tail 2025 Part 1

 Hereby Hangs A Tail 2025 Part 1

I had a lovely Xmas. One thing that struck me as funny was my friend and my boyfriend both bought me the same gift, A Cat Bag.

Xmas Cat Gift

I absolutely loved it. However I needed to get rid of the Ticket,

Xmas Oops

Oh Dear. I wasn’t paying attention whilst Cutting and I have Damaged the Bag.

Not Working

Grr. I have tried to use a Blanket Stitch to Seal the Material but it is not working. This is because the Material is Fraying as I Sew it. Time for a rethink.

Old Faithful

Okay I have an Idea in mind. First I am going to start by making one of my Knitted I-Cords.

Clean Cut

I have Knitted and Cast Off the I-Cord. I had a hairy moment as some of the Yarn had split and I had to Trim it. If I had gone wrong here I would have had to start again. Fortunately I made a Clean Cut.