I thought I would make J a baby blanket for his new baby. I seem to make all their family new borns blankets. It was nothing out of this world just a Rico Pompon blanket. Originally I had bought two balls of yarn as that is all I used on the last one, but the band said I would need three. I presumed that the yarn was shorter, so sent for another one, but in the end, only used two. I now have a ball spare, but I am sure it will come in handy one day. I popped into my local yarn shop as she sells material among other crafting items and found a lovely blue ribbon with “It’s A Boy” on it, which I feel has finished it nicely as a gift.
I love a bargain, and I am sure we all do, especially a knitting bargain. Today was one of those days. We have a garden centre about 4 miles drive from home, and I pass it each day to and from work. They tend to put up adverts every few weeks showing what the latest offers are. I was not due to be in work today, however, the accounts system had two technical errors on it, and I am the only one who knows how to sort any of the IT problems, so off to work I went for all of 45 minutes. On the way back I passed the garden centre and saw an advert for two large pots of chrysanthemums for £15, bargain as I know they are huge pots. I collected M and we went to get them and have a look at the plants.
They have various sections to the garden centre as well as a restaurant, book section (not just gardening or plant books), aquarium supplies, clothes section, hobbies and a pet section amongst other things. A quick visit to the pet section, we needed the flea and tick treatment as we were about to use the last of what we have. This stuff is only used as a precaution every 4 weeks as the dogs are always in long grass, so ticks are easy to pick up, but this product is made of natural products and no chemicals. When I used to take Mazikeen to puppy training the trainer asked if we all used flea and tick treatment, most held their had up, I did not, as our dogs have never needed to be treated and we check for ticks after being out in long grass. However, I said that we did not feel we needed to and if they did get fleas or ticks I would get a product from the vet that would do what I needed immediately rather than off the shelf products. She then said to the room that my dogs are therefore treated better as the products used for flees are harsh and had anyone noticed that the instructions state “wash your skin immediately of spilt”, “may burn” and “use gloves”. She said that if it does that to us imagine what it may do to our dogs. I inwardly smiled and carried on. She agreed that she would do the same as me if the dogs were to get either parasite. However, as this stuff is natural, smells really nice and I have tested it on my skin first, we now use it.
I also happened to wander (purposely) into the hobbies section and there it was the yarn sale section. This is a rare thing that they have yarn in the sale. The packs I bought are Caron Pantone “Tree Rings”. Each collection is £9, however, the sale price was £4.50. I got the last two packs and with all the other things headed to the checkout. The woman who served us I deeply dislike as she was rude to M and me when we went to the checkout one time telling us that someone else was in front of us, which they were not, they were behind us in the queue and she refused to do anything until we let them through. She was very friendly with the couple and finished chatting and serving them saying “see you tomorrow”. Therefore they were her friends and she was throwing her authority about to let them queue jump. I hate this shit and decided to speak to the manager and tell her how we had been treated, especially since M is disabled and struggle with his mobility, never mind having to wait in line for another 8 minutes. The manager said she would deal with it and let me know the outcome. She checked the cameras and saw that we had been told to move and therefore dealt with the woman reprimanding her as this was not acceptable.
So, back to the bargain. The yarn should have been £19 for the two sets originally, and in the sale £9, but when she scanned the barcode as I had them in my hand with the labels together she must have presumed that I only had one pack and I was charged £4.50, and the receipt states only one set. Grand saving of £13.50, but it went on. The total bill for all I had bought was £65.93, according to the till until she pressed the total button and it shot down to £37.63. I paid and quickly left and checked the receipt. All apart from one set of yarn was there, discount after more discount seemed to be applied together with a final £4 off. Now, we had our face coverings on, so she had no idea who we were, and being honest, I do not think that she would have remembered us. After all the discount it showed that the pack of yarn was £4.07, therefore each yarn pack only cost me £2.03½p for each set. YAY!
This is the fabulous yarn which is a bulky yarn made up of 60% acrylic, 20% nylon and 20% Merino wool. It is luscious to touch and I cannot wait to find something to make with it all.
My friend and his fiancé have just had a baby boy, and with that my knitting needles are at it again. I have made a blanket for his brother a good few years ago and Z still loves her blanket even though it is getting quite old now.
I bought pom-pom yarn over the weekend and started it and it was a load of crap. The yarn just was not right at all. The string between the pompoms was hard and almost like string, the pompoms were long, and at the time I thought the yarn was okay, but then working with it I knew it was not going to work. The cord between the pompoms is knitted into twice, and should then be hidden but this crap yarn seemed to made a feature of it, photo below.
WTF!Shocking look!
After starting it on Saturday and feeling very disappointed I went onto LoveCrafts.com and ordered Rico Pompon yarn which I have used many times in the past and always ended with a great result. I picked their blue and white pompon yarn which looks really nice, better than the plain white. This is it so far. I only started it about an hour ago.
I am aiming to finish it this weekend, however, the band on the yarn states that three balls are required to make it, yet in the past I only used two. I am going to finish the first ball and if required order another to make it up to three, fingers crossed it arrives soon if needed. Once finished I will post a photo of it.
Fair Isle jumper from Shetland Museum Knitwear Collection. Shetland label at neck. Tex 1990 – 541.
Over the past week, I have been looking at Shetland knitting after seeing some of the incredible items in one of my knitting magazines. I have done Fair Isle knitting in the past and do stranded knitting quite a lot, but I have never really gone the distance and made any Shetland garments. The blanket I am currently making is getting close to the end and I am doing the lace pattern edging now, so I thought I would look for something to make over the next few months, and a Shetland Kep seems in order. One that I have found that I really like is Uradale Fisherman’s Kep kit which I found at uradale.com site. It isn’t all that cheap, £42.40 including postage, in the kit you get a copy of the pattern and 6 balls of 25g each and 1 ball of 50g, a total of 200g of organic Shetland breeds wool. Not a massive amount for the money, but worth it as it is top quality wool which should knit up something special. If I get it, I will first try with other yarn to get used to the patterning again as I have not done Fair Isle for quite a bit and do not want to waste any of the good stuff.
Another project I quite fancy is home dying yarn. I have found a kit from UK Alpaca for £40.75 including postage. The kit contains 2 x 50g skeins of DK and 2 x 50g skeins of 4ply and of course, the dyes and full instructions. It looks like a lot of fun, and all I will need to do is find something that I can make with the skeins, I was thinking about socks, as that is the go-to for the 4ply, but the DK I am not too sure about at the moment.
Whilst on my Shetland journey I have also found a book that looks quite interesting and may give me an insight into the joys of Shetland knitting. It is suitably entitled “Shetland Wood Adventure Journal Volume 1”. Quite fitting I think for my latest adventures in knitting, and it has 6 patterns, recipes, walks and much more. £23.95 including postage. I am a sucker for a beautiful book on knitting and this one covers other topics that I love. Okay, so I have now ordered the book. I was writing this and thought, stuff it, I want the book. As I said, I cannot resist beautiful books. More on it when it arrives in the next week.
I look forward to showing some of the projects I will be embarking on, and if any of you have done any traditional Shetland knitting, please let me know, and as always, any handy tips and advice will always be welcome.
This is one thing I have never tried in the past as I have never needed to use that style, however, I saw a Star Wars Double Knit Scarf by Jessica Goddard on Ravelry that M really liked and I said that I would make one for him. For those who do not know, double knitting is where you knit with two strands at a time, one knit and one purl, so the knit is the front and the purl is the back
The one think I am not too sure of is what colours should I use. It has to contrast, but M will not go for garish colours, so do I just to black and white? The pictures by Yadis shows black and white yarn and I think it looks stunning and you can see the pattern with no problem. However, with Star Wars the colours are red and black (so I believe as I have never seen the films), but if black and red I feel it may not be as striking.
One of the other things that has been in my head is if using DK yarn do I still use 4mm, or drop down to 3.25 to keep it tight, or increase to say 5mm or 6mm as it needs room for the pattern to work. With all this in my mind I have decided that I will do a test run with one of the many yarns I have in my stash boxes (which are that big you could keep bodies in them and I have 6). I will post what I do on here and see what it looks like before doing the scarf for M. On saying that I want to use WI yarn as it is really nice to work with, so will have to wait until the planet resumes normal service in order to go and purchase it. I was looking at LoveCraft as there is so much yarn to pick from, but I like to feel the yarn if I have never used it, as we all know, as DK in one yarn can be different to a yarn made by another manufacturer. I love marino yarn, but working it out it would cost a small fortune to make. But the hunt will go on, well, as soon as possible that is.
Let me know if you have done any double knitting and any tips and advice would, as always, be gratefully received.
Stuck in Sydney posting old photos taken with various camera phones on my world travels. Posting in arty Black and White and includes witty commentary 🇦🇺
Stuck in Sydney posting old photos taken with various camera phones on my world travels. Posting in arty Black and White and includes witty commentary 🇦🇺
Mr Knitter 