Fair Isle Headband / Hat

One of the things I do when I'm starting work using a new technique is to develop little prototypes. Something I can use to ensure my stitching, colour work and shaping is all OK.

Well this time I was going to work in fair isle stitch , combining 2 and sometimes 3 colours together in colourful designs.

I had done some fair isle work before, but always chickened out when it came to knitting in the round. I wasn't sure I could control the pattern when it came to the point where the round joined and so steered well away from it. But recently I had been to a fair isle work shop with my new knitting group, here we had learned all about steeking (I'm sure I'll cover this in a later post) and the lady running the workshop had shown us some of her lovely fair isle knits that had been worked in the round. I couldn't for the life of my see where the round started and finished so I took my trust in this technique and decided to give it a go.

Last week I knit a fair isle headband. I liked the pattern I had designed on paper and loved the colours I had chosen. The stitching work was ok, but not brilliant BUT the headband , even though I measured it when I started) was too small:( . 

I quickly sussed out the problem , I had worked on the wrong needle size, picking up the incorrect circular needles to use (why don't they have the size on the needles?)

This had caused both the stitches to be a little tight and the size of the headband to be too small.

Today I set to, to create yet another prototype. This time working on the right size needles (just 0.25mm bigger) I set off working in the same pattern. I finished the headband off, tried it on and then realised I had created it too wide ! 

Golly gosh , why don't I put my brain in gear sometime!

Ha ha , so my headband is now a hat ! I used my experience of knitting hats for the Wool and Gang and shaped the top of the headband / hat as I went along. 

I think it's rather cute, don't you?

The final stages of the "Tree Breeze" Blanket

My daughter Michelle has been working on her knitted blanket for what seems an age. When I asked her this last weekend, she reckoned 3 maybe 3 1/2 years. Well it has been sat in her craft box waiting for an opportunity for me to help her decide the best way of sewing all the square blocks up. She didn't want to spoil it right at the very end. 

The blanket itself has been knit in squares, 20 in total I think. She had used the "Tree Breeze" pattern out of Nicky Epstein's "Knitting Block By Block" book , taking her time knitting each block in the lovely Sublime yarn she had chosen. 

This last weekend we got together and embarked on the sewing up project. She sat out in the garden, our lovely German Shepherd Dog Cain at her side.

 It's not quite finished! , but when it is I'm sure I'll be showing yo the finished result.

Etsy team collaboration

This week launches an exciting collaboration between Steph from Perran Yarns and myself. Myself and Steph met on Etsy the on-line selling site for all things handmade. 

She hand dyes and then sells beautiful scrumptious yarns that knit up gorgeously!

I was utterly surprised when she approached me to ask if I was prepared to knit up and re-work one of my new patterns in some of her hand dyed yarn.  Her idea was to sell the patterns at craft fairs and in brick and mortar shops alongside some of her yarns. We also discussed the possibility of selling the pattern and yarn in kit form via her Etsy shop. 

Above you can see the transformation from the Noro yarn I chose to show off the lovely flower pattern to one of Stephs yarn , a lovely Knit in Perran Yarns (50% baby alpaca, 25% linen, 25% silk) in sweet pea shade. You can buy the finished scarf here if you don't fancy the knit. 

Well the kits are ready folks! All for £20. Of course you can buy the knitting pattern and yarn on its own but there is a saving if you purchase in kit form.

Its a lovely knit for a christmas gift or just for you.

We are hoping to get together in the near future to bring you more exciting collaborations. 

See you soon from Steph and I