I've made a goddamn hat.

I've made a hat. It actually fits on my head. I'm making a noise only dogs can hear, I'm that delighted.

Proud of hat, ashamed of hair

I noticed someone on Tumblr (If it was you, thank you!) trying out The Vermonter Hat and had managed to finish it over night. I took a look at the free pattern on Ravelry made by Abi Gregorio, realised I could probably do it with a few small purchases, and it worked a treat. It took four hours, no tears and only some minor hesitation when changing from the circular needles onto the double points when closing up the top. I highly recommend the pattern for a first attempt at a hat.

What I did do wrong was fail to check the gauge/tension of the yarn I was using so it came up a bit small, which I expected after the first round as it seemed a bit child-sized . So, check your gauge, knit a square and measure it to make sure it matches the pattern gauge.

Now, what the hell next...oh yes, the sweater is on hold, not a quick enough knit :/

Cross Stitch - takes bloody ages!

I'm having a break from cross stitch. It's wonderful, fun and good results come easily if you use all the tips on offer on the web, but results are slow and I just got a new piano that I already love dearly and am excited to get home to at night.

Piano and cat

In light of this, I've picked up the needles again in quieter times, as even piano practise has to stop to allow the practise to sink into your finger muscles (finger muscles?). Well, for me it does.

I'm currently practising garter rib on a fully loaded needle and have decided to turn it into a pillow when it's big enough.

Garter rib.

How to:

Cast on a multiple of 8 stitches plus 4 extra stitches.

Row 1: knit 4, *purl 4, knit 4 repeat from * to end.  (in English, just knit 4 purl 4 alternately to the end!)

Row 2: purl to the end

Repeat the above two rows until the piece is as big as you want it.

Cross Stitch Tales: Episode 1 - A Break From the Wool

It's so damn hot. So hot. Wool does not even get a look in. 

The lacklustre sense of blah following the last knitting project has led me to my first cross stitch project. I've purchased a pattern and the required equipment, which mainly comprises of another embroidery hoop, lots of needles, Aida cloth (14 ct) and lots of thread. I went for the higher quality fabric as this apparently keeps its shape better.

Ignore my veiny blue legs

Here's a little snippet of how far I've got with it..not very. The pattern is a great one, purchased from Etsy, and will not be what it appears to be right now. 

Taste da Rainbow

Tips for cross stitch so far :

1. Buy good quality fabric

2. Buy and load up a few needles to save time re-threading

3. Always do every cross the same way i.e \ then / for uniformity (that old shit bag again!)

It does take a lot of time to do a project of the size and amount of colours I have chosen, I realise that now. I don't think a smaller project would've inspired me to pick up the craft though so I'm keeping on with it.

That's all I've got for you right now but I have plenty brewing.

Serious Project No. 1 - The Cassette Purse

I'm getting cocky again. I can now knit, purl, cast on and off, I've sampled moss stitch, I've attempted a simple bootie that came out actual foot-shaped which means I've 'decreased' with some success. Now to try something I think looks cool.

The 'aspirational' Tech Knits book mentioned in my second post is calling me, probably in a mocking tone, but I'm going to give one of the easier projects a good go. I've chosen the cassette purse. I need a purse. Who doesn't need a purse?! I'm using, size 4 UK needles, DK yarn, a press stud and a sewing needle.

Tech Knits  - Cassette Purse

I've been through the pattern and all of a sudden seem to understand the pattern speak (there's that practice thing working again). Stockinette - can do! Change colour mid row- watched a video, can do! Follow a pattern chart - looks easy! Sew some shit up and install a press stud - we'll see!

Any way, to avoid tears and tantrums I decided to practice the pattern in some cheap wool I have..it started to look like the pattern and I was effing DELIGHTED.

What I learned from this bit of practice was that changing colours mid row leads to having floating threads at the back. As in this picture below.

These I discovered are called floats. I also discovered that if you change colours while your knitting is all bunched up on the needles, the floats are too tight because they only span the bunched work. Tip 1 for changing colours - ALWAYS STRETCH THE WORK OUT TO ACTUAL SIZE WHEN CHANGING A COLOUR. This allows the float at the back (wrong side) to span the work when flat and not bunch or pucker up the pattern into obscurity. I have no idea what else you can do about the floats to make the wrong side neater but maybe i'll find out eventually.

TIP 2. The second thing I discovered during the test sample, completely by Google-accident was that when you swap colours, you should bring the new colour working yarn (right hand) OVER THE TOP OF THE OLD COLOUR. In writing, this made no sense to me. If you don't get it, read this super blog for tips using multiple colours and avoid leaving holes where yarns are dropped for new colours.

With these lessons learned I decided I needed new yarn for my new project. To Abakhans!

Uniformity - Mega Stress (but temporary)

Spoiler Alert! Tip: You just have to knit and knit and knit..

So, following a few oblong/rhombus shaped practice samplers using the videos in my last post, I got the basics in from Abakhan. This included a random selection of yarn chosen purely by colour - a super chunky cream, a fine green, a very fine pink mohair and couple of shades of brown. I also picked up a variety of needles; some resin, some plastic, some bamboo, some circle needles, and made sure they were the correct sizes for the yarn I had chosen.

Hint - If you look at the label on the yarn, it will show you which gauge/size of needle would work with it.

I started by matching a brown yarn to some 5mm needles and cast on cocky as anything. I soon realised I was dropping stitches (missing them out), picking up several stitches (miraculously creating extra stitches), twisting stitches and splitting stitches (where you pierce the stitch rather than work around it). My samplers basically look like shit - as you can see.

Bad knitting

My problem was uniformity of the stitches and controlling the tension of the working yarn (attached to the ball). After a quick Google, it seemed all I had to do was practice and knit as much as possible. Great.

My next move was possibly the best I could've made to improve the quality of my kitting; I picked up the chunky yarn and size 10 circular needles I'd bought (needles connected with a 80cm wire) and I cast on as many stitches as I could fit on there, didn't count them, and knit every row. It was hard going as the wool was difficult to work with, the plastic needles weren't slippy enough for me and I'm pretty sure it gave me arthritis, but I kept going. When I'd hit the third ball of yarn I called it quits for a while, purely to give my knuckles a rest. It looked like this after one skein and three skeins:

One Skein

Three Skeins

It still looks like that. However, when I picked up the finer yarn and standard needles and started knitting in stockinette (One row of knit stitch, one row of purl stitch ad infinitum), it came out perfect, or as perfect as I can expect it to be. Tension sorted.

Yeah!

Tip 1: Knitting - The Shit Kind

My grandmother taught me to knit about 20 years ago. When I say knit, I mean I mastered casting on, knit stitch and casting off with absolutely no regard for the art nor any inclination to pursue it beyond the several multicoloured oblongs that littered my 'Knitting Bag' (aka a fabric teardrop with tortoiseshell handles of course). What brought me back was a combination of two things; the desire to become good at anything and watching a film called Sightseers, within which one of the characters just happens to knit in couple of scenes. Aha! She's acting and knitting! Of course! I should knit! Whatever.

Following my phenomenal self-realisation, my first instinct was to go out and buy books. Books are useful, books teach you things, books are pretty and look nice on the shelf. Being impatient and needing things NOW, I didn't buy online and get the best price, no, I went down to Waterstones during my lunch hour and bought the two books that stood out the brightest on the shelf and paid a premium.

Knit Step by Step - Vikki Haffenden & Frederica Patmore

Tech Knits - Sue Culligan

As a born again beginner, I found Knit Step by Step useful insofar as it offers tips on what type of yarn to use for what type of garments/objects. It also provides advice on needle gauge and knitting tools. However, to begin the knitting process, following a series of photographs is virtually impossible as you cannot see how the needles move nor how the yarn is worked without drowning in a sea of angry swooping arrows and blurring text. 

Tech Knits is wonderful. There are numerous kooky projects that appeal to someone like me, such as a graphic equalizer scarf or a pair of socks with an aerial intarsia on the side. The projects, although very well instructed and simplified, are way beyond my capabilities because I do not understand pattern-speak adequately enough yet to even begin.

So, tip number one for beginners? DO NOT BUY BOOKS. Purge the internet for instruction videos and try not to cry when the instructor knits and purls like a total boss. My favourite series of absolute beginner videos an be found here on the Very Pink website - try them. If you must buy a pretty book, buy one for aspirational purposes to keep you in the game.