More Garden City knitting

I just could not help myself… I had to knit another one.

Yes, I’m not sick of my new Garden City Scarf pattern yet.  I decided to knit a 4ply scarf, rather than another 4ply shawl. And it’s lovely.

Light  – knit on 4mm needles, in snuggly Vintage Purls Vintage Sock yarn.  This was from my stash. I bought it last year right before it was discovered that the yarn was not properly superwash treated. I loved the colour so much I didn’t want to return it. And so I had to find a non-sock project to make the most of it. I adore my other Vintage Purls shawl, so squishy and delicious, so this seemed an ideal use.

Long – over 1.9 metres using 80g of yarn. 

Versatile – I’ll be able to wear it wrapped once, with the ends out, or twice, or even more if it’s seriously cold out there.

Christmas Knitting

I’m not knitting too many gifts this year, but I did want to knit some things from stash. So, first up are a couple of gifts for my husband’s family.

For his mother, a lovely scarf. Not my kind of colour at all, but just perfect for her. I snapped this skein of Malabrigo up from a swap box recently, trading it for a colour I had in my stash which I am sure lots of people will love. But MIL has the perfect colouring to carry off a orange scarf!

My father in law has been up visiting, so I asked him if MIL would prefer a scarf or hat – given it’s summer here, the correct answer is probably neither – that aside, he thought a scarf would be good. I decided on the very popular, and free, pattern Drop Stitch Scarf.  I wanted a quick knit as I hoped to send it back in his suitcase.  I needn’t have knitted so fast – his flight was cancelled this morning due to rather inclement weather, so he’s here with us for another day. The kids will get a lovely surprise when they get home from preschool!

Anyway, back to the scarf. I knit this up starting Thursday night, and finished Sunday.  In between I did a good few hours each day.  Including knitting through a staff lunch and farewells on Friday.  So, in maybe 7 or8 hours knitting it was all done. It is lovely and squishy knit up on 5mm needles, and blocked it reached nearly 1.5m long – I was worried it might be too short to wrap, but it’s not. Superb!

For my sister in law, I knit a cowl last year. At her suggestion – so I know she wears such things. For this year, I wanted something similar but different, and I found the Dandy Kerchief on Rav which seemed to fit my criteria – fast in 8ply, fit within the amount of yarn I had, and a little bit edgy. Cool! A complete bonus was that it’s a free pattern.

I used more stashed yarn for this – a Cleckheaton Country 8ply I took from a swap box to make the contents fit a smaller box. I had no clue what to make with it.  And to be fair, a neckwarmer could definitely do with even squishier yarn, but this is certainly acceptable.  I used two balls – and about 1.5m from the third ball.  Which took me three days to find. So, completion took a bit longer than planned! (The ball was on the coffee table the whole time too!)

You can’t really see the cute lace patttern too easily in this picture – but it is lovely and super easy as well.  Here’s an example.

You put a couple of buttons on the long sides of the triangle, and button it up around your neck.  I put on two seriously cute owl buttons – a hint of whimsy, but I think she’ll like them.

Wrapped up and in the suitcase, these will be off to Christchurch in the morning. Where it has been nearly 30 degrees this week – maybe they will get lots of wear next winter though!

FO: Clapotis

I think it might be official. I suspect that my DH now suspects me of total madness. It is a glorious early autumn day here. We had dropped DS 11 off a a friend’s house to play (yay, he’s making new friends at his new school!) and decided to walk along the walkway and take the girls to the park. I have to admit I’d packed my claptois in the car along with my camera in case a photographic opportunity arose. And so, amongst the play and exploring over rocks, looking at ducks, discovering a new cafe along the way – but sadly not indulging – I made DH take some FO photographs. Yep, he thinks I’ve lost it!  Not content just to knit in the car, I now have new ways to humiliate him in public. And, while I thought we could have some nice pics with sea in the background, he tried to pose me against a railway bridge. Sigh. Not exactly what I had in mind dear!

So… My Clapotis.

It was knit from about 140g of handdyed Paton’s Bluebell yarn, which is a 5 ply. The yarn was part of the last yarn swap I particpated in,  blogged about here. Knit on 4mm needles (Knitpicks Harmony interchangeables)

I had a good look around Ravelry to see who had done a sock weight Clapotis before, and there were plenty of inspirational FO’s.  For mine, I decided to do the full number of repeats for increasing – and in fact ended up with 14 instead of 12 because I got a bit carried away. Instead of increasing the straight section to 14 repeats, I stuck with the 12 in the pattern as I didn’t want to run out of yarn – I had three balls, so was trying to end this section equivalent to where I’d begun it on the previous ball.  Then I did the 14 decreases and had a small amount of yarn left over – maybe 10 or 15 grams.

I like the extra width, it makes it snuggly.  And the length is good too – not so much it’s clunky. Finished size is 40cmx 110cm. Blocked. As you would have noticed from the previous post, blocking is pretty much essential for making the finished item look finished!

A friend asked me if I’d enjoyed dropping the stitches.  Oooh yes! I have to say that since you knit about a third of the pattern before you start dropping them, there is quite some anticipation that accompanies the dropping.  Well worth it for the result I think.

The Clapotis got its first proper outing last night too – Nyree invited me over to knit with her, and it was a tiny bit chilly so I thought it could come too. I am pleased to say that it survived (intact!) a slight altercation with a rather cute, overenthusiastic black lab puppy- I’d forgotten just how cool I was until she reminded me 😀  Only one of many chances to wear it I hope!