casting on Madragoa

A few months ago Mum was given a bag containing a half-finished project and the accompanying balls of yarn. 

It was of interest to me because the yarn felt really special. I've temporarily misplaced the other balls and can't check a label but it has a good percentage of real wool.

The natural first thought was to complete the project but there were some problems with that. Several patterns were present but we couldn't establish which was being used. There were some mistakes in the work, and it was obviously being made to a specific size which would be unlikely to fit either of us. 

So I decided to use the yarn to knit a similar cardy in a style and size to suit me. I'm not sure how far the unopened balls will go, whether I'll have to also unravel the unfinished work, or even whether there's enough yarn to finish what I've chosen, but I've started anyway! (I have chosen something very open and light, so I think the yarn should go a long way.)

The pattern I've chosen is Madragoa by Filipa Carneiro. By coincidence the pattern shows one in a very similar colour but the style is one that I'll want to wear. The construction isn't straightforward but this is a plus because it keeps it interesting.  You start with the lacework at the back of the collar with a provisional cast-on, work so far one way and hold the stitches, then work from the provisional cast-on the other way for the same distance before adding picked-up stitches along the side of what you've done. That's where I'm at, and you can see that I'm about to add the markers.

'jelly roll' placemats finished

 I fell in love with this project when I saw it:

Schact's pattern is here.

I'm not a sewer and wasn't familiar with the term 'jelly roll' but the idea of weaving scraps of fabric cut into strips with a thin cotton warp appealed to me.

Mum had been given some cotton which she had tried to crochet. I felt it was perfect for my project and the quantity seemed about right, so she was happy to pass that on. After a rummage in my rag bag and not finding the colourful fabric I thought I might find there, she also sent me some scraps including a skirt which was perfect.

I'm not one for following patterns to the letter. I used the heddle that seemed most suitable which I think is an 8-dent. My rigid-heddle loom is the smaller (12") width. These pictures show the warping and the cotton.

I had to learn to hemstitch and I'm glad I have that skill under my belt now.

I wasn't particular about cutting the strips of fabric. The pattern gives 5/8" as the width of the 'jelly roll' strips, so I tried to bear that in mind but in reality it varied a bit. Of course it was going to roll so I didn't think a rough edge would matter, and it didn't.

I enjoyed the weaving very much. My selvedges became neater and the pull-in became less as I got through the four placemats that I'd planned. When I lost track of whether the heddle should be up or down, it was soon obvious, as you can see in the picture above, and was easy to backtrack.

The palette and pattern in the skirt played out nicely in the weaving. Most of the time it was compliant and rolled nicely so you see the right side of the material whichever way up the mat is.

More by luck than judgement, both the warp and the weft lasted almost exactly for the four mats, which 13.5", a size I decided on when the first one looked about right.

Here they are finished and in use. 

Spellcaster socks - finished

When Pantone announced the colour of the year for 2024, I realised that I had to get a wiggle on and finish these socks before Viva Magenta stopped being the colour of the year.

I love the colour and the pattern. The problems have been distractions by other projects and a new craft and the fact that spinning a 3-ply yarn by spindle took a long time. (A habit such as #spin15aday could have really helped here.)

The fibre is 'Aries' from the Fibre Hut, a wool/silk mix (which I can no longer see on the Fibre Hut site but is available from World of Wool). It was the closest colour I could find at the time to Viva Magenta. Hopefully the silk will give the yarn some strength. It's 3-ply and I tried to spin the singles more tighly than usual.  

The pattern is Spellcaster Adventure Socks by Clair Wyvern. Many of the pattern choices are made with the roll of a die, so no two pairs will be alike. This is a great idea which I enjoyed very much and I'll look for more such patterns.

I did make a mistake on the second sock, the very last of the triangular patterns isn't the right one. That's not very obvious and I was so keen to get them finished in time for the holiday that I didn't want to rip back and repeat so many rounds. 

A tip for anyone making these socks is that if you roll the 'added chaos' option of knitting the charts upside-down as I did, then the cable crossings as charted don't work. It's kinda noted in the pattern and obvious with hindsight but I didn't spot that when I started. I *think* left crosses have to be right crosses and vice versa, but it makes my head hurt to try to visualise it.  Either way, I didn't reverse the direction of my cables and they didn't really work as intended. I didn't realise this until halfway down the first sock and continued with what I was doing. 

West of House, a cross stitch pattern by Clue of the Broken Needle

 I wasn't able to share my progress with this because I made it for my partner's birthday. He now has it, so I'm free to tell you all about it.

Here's the finished project in daylight (above) and in the dark (below)

If the location 'West of House' and the hidden warning about being eaten by a grue mean nothing to you, this is all from a text adventure game called Zork from 1977.  

The pattern is called West of House and is by The Clue of the Broken Needle. 

This is my first foray into cross stitch. Luckily I had a couple of cross-stitching friends who were willing to give me lots of advice and of course Youtube has all the help you need on any subject.

I did buy things that I didn't need though. After buying a hoop and then buying a q-snap frame I then heard someone use the phrase 'stitching in hand' and discovered that you don't need a hoop or frame at all and that holding the fabric in your hand is way quicker and easier.

The title and first few stitches seemed to go very quickly and so I entertained ideas about finishing it in good time and then making another for myself. 

However, there are 4083 stitches altogether and I only just managed to finish it in time for the birthday!

The hidden message is very clever. You can buy glow-in-the-dark embroidery floss, which looks white in daylight. 

Then as you fill in the space using regular white floss, the letters disappear! 

I loved doing it. I became better at the stitching as time went on and will definitely do more cross-stitching!

Leaf Cravat by Teva Durham in handspun yarn

 This can be made to wrap once or twice around the neck and worn tied or untied.

This is quite popular with handspinners and there are some examples here.

I have some yarn that I spun for socks. The details of the fibre are lost to time but I think it's a wool/silk mix. I spun the singles finely and made a three-ply, aiming for sock-weight but it's probably closer to DK and this is probably the reason that two attempts at making socks from it failed.

This pattern calls for a sport-weight ('5-ply'). My yarn probably isn't far off and I think I have the right amount - we'll see when I reach the end. 

The leaf cravat has a shaped leaf at each end and to make them match you knit the first one from the blunt end and then pick up stitches at your cast-on end. The scarf section isn't a quick, plain knit but requires some concentration. I appreciated the more interesting knit and it certainly makes a more attractive scarf. 

For these unusually short rows I tried three types of needle before settling on the 8" Knitpro Zing DPNs. SPNs were unnecessarily heavy and unwiedly. A circular was awkward because the cable had nothing on it and kept springing into the way (I should have tried a shorter cable). The Zing dpns are perfect, they're very light, just the right length and the rounder points work well with this yarn.

Note that this is knitted lace and my pictures show unblocked pieces. There will still be some shape / curl to them after light blocking. 

It is a quick knit. I'm not a fast knitter but expect to finish this in four or five evenings.

Spellcaster Socks - a milestone

At the start of the year I was really inspired by the colour of the year, viva magenta, and also by the Spellcaster Socks by Wyvern Knits, a pattern that allows you to "Embrace spell casting whilst playing with the chaos and magic of the dice". Yes, you throw a die to determine various pattern choices, so no two pairs of Spellcaster socks will be the same. 

I decided to spin the yarn. I looked around for some magenta fibre and the best (bearing in mind socks) was this merino / silk from Fibre Hut called Aries. Soft and (hopefully) strong.

 

I didn't rush! I took 6 months to make a good skein. In my defence, it is a 3-ply, so whatever the yardage was, I'd spun three times that much in singles.

The knitting went more quickly than the spinning. I wasn't sure whether I'd have enough yarn for both socks or not. In fact I had almost enough to make the first. I ran out of yarn when on the toe decreases!

As I'd made a true 3-ply, I naturally had some singles left on two bobbins, so I navajo-plied a few yards to finishthe first sock.

This isn't blocked, I think it'll look better still after a soak and a set on the sock blocker.

Remedial work to the handspun BBC Micro jumper

 A while ago I finished this project,  

You may think the neck looks a little odd or a little wide. It certainly felt that way to me. The truth is that I ran out of yarn with maybe a a few rounds left to go. I'd used all of the John Arbon fibre and didn't think it worth ordering another 100g just for that tiny bit of extra yarn.

I haven't worn the jumper much, and I think that's because I wasn't entirely happy with it.

One great thing about the John Arbon blends is that they are very consistent. So I was able to order another 100g and it's an exact match. I didn't snap a shot while I was spinning the singles, but here's the plied yarn. 

It's a 4-ply with one of the plies being this pink silk. I probably had enough on the bobbin but still had some of the fibre and enjoyed using my John Brightwell wheel to spin a little more of that. 

And so onto the remedial work.... 

Here's the neck as it was. There are only two or three rounds of 2x2 rib there and it needs a bit more. It was easy to retrieve the woven-in end, undo my final knot and pull out the bind-off giving me a round of live stitches. 

Here's the result. You can see that the new yarn is indistinguishable from the old, and that the neckline looks much better. I decreased a couple of stitches at the point of the V.