WIP Wednesday 40: Dilemma

I have two I want to talk about today: firstly, I'm devising a new scarf pattern, as I couldn't find one that I liked for DH's middle brother's birthday present. I spoke about the yarn (Sublime Baby Cashmere Merino Silk DK) already .... I love this stuff: it is soft, smooth, stretchy, and this 'Button' colorway is one my mother would have labelled as classy, and I would have labelled boring. I am older now and can begin to explore the concept that maybe bright is not always best, although I hasten to add that I am still a long way from being able to appreciate shrubs: I do not care about 8 million different shades of green, I want real color.

Inky thinks that this should be a Seekret Projeckt; but I am 90% sure that this BIL does not surf the interwebz. Certainly not this blog.

















So watch this space for a new free pattern release when I've all finished and done ....

The other WIP has really been hibernating, and now I need some help deciding what to do. It is the Willow Leaf Stole (Rav link) by Linda Choo. I'm using 1150 yards of 4ply silk 8/60NM from Colourmart - and I still don't really get what that means - on 3.25mm needles. I like the pattern, although the repeats are large enough to be unwieldy; I like the yarn. I'm just not liking them in combination. But. I have got quite some way, even though, with the best will in the world and some anticipated severe blocking, mine will be a scarf, not a stole ....



So, here's the dilemma of the title: do I

a) frog it and find something else (that will be a proper stole size) to knit with this yarn ? If so, what ?

b) continue on because I will love the feeling of pious righteousness when I've completed it ?

c) some other really logical option, so obvious that I haven't thought of it yet ?

Don't forget to hop on over to Tami's Amis for other mainly fibre-related blog posts as part of Work-in-Progress Wednesday ...

Free Pattern: Cabled Hot Water Bottle Cover

Isn't it a crying shame that through the etheric medium of the interwebs you cannot distinguish exactly quite how incredibly pleased and satisfied with myself I am ? Which, on a scale of 1 to 10, today is about eleventy-twelve.

I took a notion that I wanted to knit a hot water bottle cover/cozy for my MIL for Xmas from the lovely yarn I picked up from Twist recently .... however, do you think I could find a pattern for what I wanted ?

Well, as it goes, I could - in some Patons booklet that I could not work out how to buy/download since it didn't like that I am not American. I believe most of the world, indeed, is not American. Google informs me that only 7% of the world's population lives in America. I do love some individual Americans, but as a nation, sometimes they frustrate me beyond belief with their egocentricity, and apparent insistence way past rational, that nothing 'real' exists beyond their borders.

Still, let's abandon that somewhat grumpy digression and return to the fun stuff: a new pattern by Me, an example of necessity being the mother of invention.

It's for Aran weight yarn, knitted on 5.5mm (US size 9) needles; I think I used approximately 210 yards/ 192 meters. Gauge is not awfully important, as long as your pieces when sewed together, fit over the hot water bottle - and remember that blocking can be your friend here.



I made mine stripey, because I could: each wide stripe is 16 rows, each narrow stripe ie. at the bottom and top, is 8 rows. I used 2 and a teeny bit skeins of Rooster Almerino Aran in shade 303 (rose pink - Strawberry Cream) and shade 301 (cream - Cornish). This Peruvian yarn is 50% baby alpaca and 50% merino wool, which equals 100% soft and squooshy; I paid £4.35 per skein, which I thought was reasonable value. The yardage is 103 yds/ 94m per 50grm skein.

The other side has alternating stripes to the first side - again, simply because I felt like it.



There is one other, minor, difference, that I improved for the second side (1st photo).

So without further ado:

Abbreviations:
C6F : place 3 st on cable needle to front, knit 3 st, knit 3 st from cable needle
C6B : place 3 st on cable needle to back, knit 3 st, knit 3 st from cable needle
T5F : place 3 st on cable needle to front, purl 2 st, knit 3 st from cable needle
T5B : place 2 st on cable needle to back, knit 3st, purl 2 st from cable needle
WS : wrong side
RS : right side

Materials: approx 210 yds/ 192 m aran/worsted weight yarn
1 pair 5.5 mm (US size 9) knitting needles
and do not forget, the hot water bottle itself


Cast on 55 stitches.

Foundation Row 1: P4, K6, P2, K1, P2 [ K3, P4, K6, P4, K6, P2] P2, K1, P2, K6, P4
Foundation Row 2: K4, P6, K3, P1, K3[ K2, P6, K4, P6, K4, P3] P2, K1, P2, K6, P4

Row 1: P4, K6, P2, K1, P2, [ K3, P4, C6F, P4, C6F, P2] P2, K1, P2, K6, P4
Row 2: K4, P6, K2, P1, K2, [ K2, P6, K4, P6, K4, P3] K2, P1, K2, P6, K4
Row 3: P4, C6B, P2, K1, P2 [ T5F, T5B, T5F, T5B, T5F] P2, K1, P2, C6F, P4
Row 4: K4, P6, K2, P1, K2 [ P3, K4, P6, K4, P6, K2] K2, P1, K2, P6, K4
Row 5: P4, K6, P2, K1, P2 [ P2, C6B, P4, C6B, P4, K3] P2, K1, P2, K6, P4
Row 6: K4, P6, K2, P1, P2 [ P3, K4, P6, K4, P6, K2] K2, P1, K2, P6, K4
Row 7: P4, C6B, P2, K1, P2 [ T5B, T5F, T5B, T5F, T5B] P2, K1, P2, C6F, P4
Row 8: K4, P6, K2, P1, K2, [ K2, P6, K4, P6, K4, P3] K2, P1, K2, P6, K4

Rows 1 - 8 set pattern.
Repeat rows 1- 8 a further 7 times (8 repeats altogether) or until length required. End on WS.

RS facing. Cast off 15 stitches.
Commence 2 x 2 rib: [P2, K2] for 24 stitches.
K or P as required in pattern until end.
WS facing, cast off 14 stitches. 2 x 2 rib as set on previous row for remaining 24 stitches. Continue until long enough to cover hot water bottle neck, approx. 12 - 14 rows or 6cm/ 2.5ins
Cast off in rib.

Repeat instructions to make 2nd side.

Weave in ends.
Wash gently and block gently to size.
When dry, sew bottoms and sides together; fit over hot water bottle, oversew shoulders and neck sides.



I feel that, in my ignorance, I may not have used some standard knitting patterns terms/conventions etc - do please feel free to comment below and educate me ...

Treats

I had some lovely times staying with my Bubicka when I was a child, but my spoiling was in the form of a later bedtime, cups of weak tea, fresh grapefruit and radishes. My maternal grandfather did not seem to be aware of our existence much, and I don't recall any gifts from him ever.


I am so glad that my father and my MIL are not cut from the same cloth as him - that my kids know, like and love their grandparents and are always keen and eager to spend time with them. Nanny always knows the best secret spots - parks, beaches and ponds; Belo allows them to help paint the sheds, rootle around in the loft getting filthy dirty, and takes them out to eat fast food. Both children are seriously excited about their week's holiday at Nanny's house, and Belo's return at the end of summer ....


This week, in celebration of their good school reports, from their Belo the children received this:



Enough candy to make me go out and buy new toothbrushes and brush their teeth myself. They had no idea it was coming and couldn't believe their luck.

Although I said earlier that I didn't plan on learning any new techniques, I wanted to knit something for my youngest nephew, and found a pattern for a cute cabled tank top. So I learned to cable this week. It wasn't difficult when I got used to it, and I only had trouble when I wasn't paying enough attention to the pattern when decreasing for the armholes.



The photo is appalling - I've decided now to wait for weekends when DH is home, so he can do the artistic creative thing, as he is so much better at photos than me. It is knitted in Stylecraft Wondersoft Pearl DK, which is 100% acrylic (and therefore machine washable), but with a cottony look and feel to it, and with good stitch definition. I liked the pattern so much I'll use it for Destructo Boy's school tank top ...

Now I have to decide what knitting to take with me to my SIL's wedding party: I can't take any of my Christmas knitting, as it's mainly all for DH's family. I need it to be fairly mindless, but simultaneousyl impressive to non-knitters. A challenge that I must rise to.