Tag: Jigsaws

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Mine!

This has rapidly turned into a week of finishing things.

On Saturday I plied the yarn I’ve been spinning, I skeined it on Sunday and washed it on Monday. Today it is dry and it is glorious! It’s Cambrian Wool which uses fleece from Welsh Mules. These are a cross between Welsh Mountain sheep and Blue Faced Leicester. The back of the packet the fibre came in says; “These sheep produce wool with beautiful sheen and incredible bounce and a long staple length”. The fibre came in five 20g coils, each of a different colour and collectively named ‘Mine’, from Hilltop Cloud. The colours really remind me of a trip to Parys Mountain a few years ago.

I have the skein next to me as I write and I can’t stop looking at it. The long staple means that it’s fairly easy to spin without the fibre vanishing out of your hands and it does have the most incredible sheen and is SO squishy. I think it’s about a DK weight, which is what I was aiming for, so I am a happy spinner here. 😊

Also finished is the Percy Pig jigsaw that I was given for Christmas. It’s the smallest of the jigsaws at 500 pieces, but I think was far harder than any of the 1000 piece ones will prove to be. I was convinced I’d made a mistake in it earlier on as I just couldn’t find one particular piece, but once I had placed all the pieces that were laid out on the table, that gap was still there! Perhaps there was a piece missing? I’d checked the floor already. I even swept my arm (carefully) underneath the green felt cloth the jigsaw was on in case it had become caught on the fabric as I unrolled the jigsaw. But no. And then I found it! It was upside down (of course) and wedged underneath a wooden coaster on the tablecloth. It was very satisfying to put that last piece in. I’ve left the puzzle complete until my lovely wife comes home, partly so she can see it and partly so I can be a little bit proud of my perseverance every time I go into the kitchen.

ALSO finished today… drumroll please…is the second secret project! It needs washing and blocking, but the actual construction is DONE, including a graft. I’m really pleased with it and I hope the magazine will be too. The next step is to block it, measure it, finish typing up the pattern and contact the mag to see if they want it now or if I should hold on to it until nearer the deadline (which is April). Unfortunately I can’t share pics with you yet, but it is lovely, though I say it myself.

Finally, I have finished the squares for the (full) Finishing Techniques workshop. Fourteen of them, two each for the six class members and two for me, all ready to be seamed and have stitches picked up from. They are currently blocking in the lounge. That’s seven hours work there!

There are still a few spaces on the Introduction to Sock Knitting workshop on the afternoon of Jan 22nd if you are near Mold at all that day.

A not-yet-finished thing that has nevertheless been making progress is one of my projects from Fasten Off YAL, the Water Dragon Shawl by Red and the Wolf Designs. I knitted three rows last night. That doesn’t sound like much, does it? But each row is now 1121 stitches long and takes about an hour. There are 14 rows left. I’m hoping to get it finished by the end of this week. Because it is so long I’m photographing it with the needle looped in a coil, showing all 70 stitch markers in use. Some things I knit as gifts (there’s one of those in progress at the moment too), and some things I knit for myself – this one is definitely one of the latter – it’s mine!

The blue of the yarn isn’t showing up quite right today, but that might be the light – it’s very sunny! In fact, I’m now going for a quick walk to make the most of it.

I hope you have a good week, enjoy the sunshine if you get some and keep doing what makes you happy.

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Twisting the night away!

When I woke up this morning there were so many things I wanted to tell you about, but now I come to sit and write they have flown out of my head. I’m sure they’ll come back to me. Is that another effect of lockdown, do you think?

One thing I have focused on a lot is my jigsaw habit. The main pic is part of the 700 piece one I finished yesterday. There are two others in the box of a similarly fiendish nature – one of chillis and one of zebras. Which should I do next? I’m leaning towards chillis as a break from the monochrome.

Anyway! I have news. My Beanstalk Throw is now available in its original format with the cable charts shown separately AND also (at NO extra cost) with a full chart (48 rows x 120 stitches) to be worked 3 and 2/3 times AND as a fully written out pattern. That should cater for everyone. I hope. There have been more than a handful of queries over the past four years as to whether the pattern was available in the last two of these formats and, as my most successful pattern in terms of projects, likes and sales, it pleases me that more people will now be able to knit it.

A cabled blanket
Beanstalk Throw – a cabled blanket

Cables are so fantastic. The fact that you can take a few knitted stitches and swap their position with a few stitches next to them, getting these incredibly varied ropes, braids and twines never ceases to amaze me. In fact, considering how much I love them, it’s just shocked me that I only have three published patterns (out of 40) that use cables! Three! I know I have designed more, so I must do something about getting them out into the world.

Speaking of getting things out into the world, my Heart in my Hands Cowl will be published later this week (and possibly the hat too). No cables in these as they are stranded knitting (often known as Fair Isle). I adore how the large size of the hat has turned out and I’ve charted up the small and medium sizes too. I think I will need to knit up a medium as well as I’ve had to change the pattern repetition to get the right size.

Woman with blue hair and coat standing in front of snowy holly bush wearing knitted Fair Isle hat
Me wearing Heart in my Hands Hat
Woman standing in front of a snowy holly bush facing away from the camera so the crown of her hat can be seen
The crown of Heart in my Hands Hat

The challenge now is to get photos of the cowl and the whole set that I am happy with as these are an important part of the pattern publishing stage.

The snow was quite impressive, wasn’t it? It’s still here, though melting more rapidly today as it has begun to rain a little. The pavements in the residential parts of our town are covered with compacted ice about an inch thick, so most people are walking in the roads.

The Llanberis MKAL is now complete and people are starting to show their completed hats on social media. I love all the different combinations of colours that were chosen. Anne at Yarn O’clock selected nine colours of Rowan Moordale for the kits and gave people a free choice about which three they used, which has resulted in great variety. Here are some of mine: The first is in Rowan Moordale and the second is in Shilasdair Yarn’s Luxury DK.

A woman standing in the snow, bending sideways to show the crown of her blue, silver and grey knitted hat (Llanberis Hat)
Llanberis MKAL
A woman standing in the snow, looking away from the camera wearing an orange, blue and green hat (Llanberis Hat).
Llanberis MKAL

So, lots happening and lots to do. Even before the hat and cowl for Little Orme that is also coming – the yarn arrived yesterday, so I’ll be able to get on to that later. All of which does help a bit to take my mind off waiting for a response from my last submission, although I must admit the waiting does make me a bit like a cat on hot coals!

Stay warm, dry and safe as best you can and if anyone has any top tips for keeping the neighbourhood cats off our veg patch and lawns it would be much appreciated.

Keep Knitting, K x