Managing the cold

The weather is beginning to cool here, which means Winter is on it’s way!  We had a pretty hot (ok, scorching hot!) Summer, so many people in Adelaide are looking forward to some cooler weather.  Personally, I’m torn.  I do love a rainy day but I also have kids at school which means school pickups in the rain (with whiny children) and Winter colds.  However, whether I like it or not, Winter will come and we need to be prepared to keep ourselves warm.

This week, I am sharing with you a beanie pattern that I found in my internet wanderings.  It worked up so fast and I like that it has a bit of texture, and isn’t just a plain stitch. Also, it’s not too fancy, which means men can wear it too!!  I found the pattern here https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/simple-blue-beanie-3.  I ended up making two of these beanies, one in a denim blue Bendigo Woollen Mills 8ply wool that I picked up in their mill end store and one in a black ice yarn that I had left over from another project.  That yarn was thicker than an 8ply, so the hat worked up fractionally bigger, but, as  you can see from the photos, both comfortably fit on my husband’s head!

As I said, I loved this pattern – it’s cosy and warm and can be spruced up with some contrasting stripe colours as well.  I chose to go for a single colour as I am going through a phase at the moment where I hate having to change colours!

Swatching

I don’t mind telling you – I hate swatching! That pressure of having to get my tension exactly the same as someone else so that when I knit or crochet a garment it doesn’t end up with weird dimensions. I do it though, because wasting so much time on something that won’t fit is a worse option!

I have had a couple of yarns in my stash for awhile now that were purchased with the plan of making myself a cardigan. I’ve figured it’s high time to actually start them!

I’ve found two patterns I really like. The Staycation cardigan by the Make and Do Crew (https://makeanddocrew.com/staycation-womens-crochet-cardigan-pattern/) and the Sylvi cardigan by Mari Muinoen (https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sylvi). I’ve got both patterns, so it’s time to swatch.

I started with the swatch for the Staycation cardigan. With a bit of trial and error, I have managed to get my tension spot on using the Bendigo Woollen Mills “Chunky Merino” in teal. Yay! Such a good start, it encouraged me to keep going!

The next swatch was for the Sylvi cardigan. I decided to use the red “Stylecraft Aran”. Sadly, my swatch came out way too small. As my children are fond of saying at the moment – sadness!

My next step was to swap the yarns around and hope that somehow, it would all magically work out. Sadly, neither worked! The red makes too small a swatch for the Staycation and, although the teal comes closer to the size required for the Sylvi, it’s still too small.

So I’m left in a bit of a quandary. Do I go ahead with the Staycation in teal, or keep trying to make it suit the Sylvi using bigger needles?

I think at the moment, I’ll go ahead with the Staycation with the teal and keep looking for a more suitable yarn to use for the Sylvi cardigan. I want the weave to be nice and tight to keep me warm on those cold Winter days!

Do you have any hints for making swatching a less frustrating experience?

Doing the Impossible

I believe I have said once or twice that I am not a patient person.  Most things I make are small and easily finished in a fairly short period of time.  I have made some clothes for small people, but was NEVER going to attempt to make a piece of clothing for an adult.  That would take way too much time, making it take years before I finished it.  That was until I married my husband…..and started buying his clothes…..and learned how fussy he is about jumpers.  I will agree with him that unless you want to pay serious money for a jumper, the ones readily available in store are not particularly thick or warm, and as someone who has to do a substantial amount of walking to get to work, he needs something warm for those cold Winter morning and evenings.  So, I set about making him a jumper.  I bought some thick yarn, so it would make up as quickly as possible and I started knitting (yes, I knit too!).  I am forever grateful that he is a slim man, so I usually have to make one of the smaller sizes on the patterns and that helps a bunch!  The result was this jumper (I didn’t get a photo when it was first made, so it’s a little loved here!).  He was thrilled, and (more importantly) warm.  He got lots of comments on this jumper, and it gave me the confidence to make another one.  Once again, thick yarn, but this time, I chose a more complicated pattern, and attempted to knit cables for the first time.  I love this jumper.  It would have to be one of my favourites that I have made him.  It didn’t go without a hitch.  I made up the whole of the front and back and tried it on him and it was WAY TOO BIG.  With tears in my eyes, I went through every way in my head that I could possibly make it smaller.  The answer in the end was to rip it all out and start again.  It was hard, but I’m so glad I did it!  The end result is much, much better than it would have been if I had altered it somehow!  This one is actually starting to come apart on the neck and cuffs, so I am going to have to learn how to recuff it! (I’m actually excited to learn a new skill!).  After knitting two jumpers, I had the thought that crocheting one would be a lot quicker, so I set about doing that.  The pattern called for a thicker yarn than I could get my hands on, so I bought dk yarn and just made it with a double strand.  This jumper is VERY warm.  A little too warm.  It’s not my favourite in that it is just so big and bulky but he still wears it with pride (he’s a rare gem!).  This year, jumper 1 and 3 were out of the picture for wearing to work (too worn and too warm), which left him with one jumper.  So, I decided it was time to make another.  I found a pattern I loved for a crochet jumper, I ordered the yarn from Ice Yarns in Turkey.  The yarn was super cheap, the postage was super expensive but it all equalled out to a normal cost in the end and was here in 4 days, which still has me staggered when things coming to me from another state in Australia can take longer than two weeks!  Anyway, I made the front and back without too much trouble but when it came to the sleeves, I could see that they were going to be really baggy and awful (I can never get my tension quite right!).  So it went in the naughty corner for awhile.  My biggest problem was that my husband was always wearing the jumper that I needed to use to compare it to!  I finally took an outline of the sleeves so I could work on it without the jumper and decided to just try and fudge it so it was the same size!  A couple of weeks ago, I told him that I would need his blue jumper on a weekday to take to the knitting and crochet group that I go to so I could get some assistance with the repairs.  His reply was that it was the only jumper he had to wear, it’s cold and I couldn’t have it!  I felt that now was a good time to finish the other jumper.  I figured out the sleeves and was happy with them, sewed it all together and tried it on him.  Unfortunately, the neckline was going to be way too low.  I looked at it and had the thought “I wonder if this stitch is forgiving enough that I could just join the yarn in and fill the hole in a little?”.  I figured it was better to try that than to start all over again, so I did.  I’m thrilled at how it has worked out and (to be honest) that I was clever enough to do it.  If I point it out, you can see a slight difference, but on the whole it is not noticeable and it means the jumper is finished now and not back at the start again!  So, my next challenge is to find a nice pattern for the yarn I bought to make another jumper for him at the Bendigo Woollen Mills.  And then to really challenge myself – I want to design a cardigan for myself from the ground up!  I’ll let you know how that goes!

Raindrops Cowl

Here, we are in the middle of Winter.  It has been cold and a bit wet and everything that Winter should be!  Thankfully, Winter has been put on hold a little this week – just in time to coincide with the school holidays.  Although it has still been cold, the rain has taken a back seat and the sun has come popping out through the clouds enough to allow my girls, who are on school holidays, to go outside and to remind me that Spring is on the way!

In the midst of this cold weather, I decided to try my hand at designing a textured cowl that is thick and warm and cozy to wear!  I am happy with the result.  It didn’t photograph as well as I would have liked (yesterday was NOT one of those lovely sunny, dry days we have been having!), but I trust that you are able to get the picture of how the design works.

The added bonus of designing this cowl is that it forced me to master the Chainless Starting Double Crochet.  This is an easy stitch once you get the hang of it, it was just one of those stitches that had me stymied for awhile.  If you are unsure about how to do a Chainless Starting Double Crochet, Moogly has a great tutorial on her blog http://www.mooglyblog.com/chainless-starting-double-crochet/.  It’s a great alternative to the very obvious ch 3 at the beginning of a row.

For those of you wanting to give this a try, the pattern is as follows:

Raindrops Cowl – US terms

K/6.5mm Crochet hook

“Shiver” yarn by Moda Vera – I used two balls

Abbreviations

ch – Chain

sc – Single Crochet

dc – Double Crochet

sl st – Slip Stitch

4dc puff stitch – 4 double crochet puff stitch

csdc – Chainless Starting Double Crochet

 

Chain 177.  Join to make a loop, being careful not to twist.

R1:  Ch 1, sc in back loop only in each stitch around.  Join to beg sc with a sl st.

R2: Ch1, sc in each stitch around.  Join to beg sc with a sl st.

R3: Repeat round 2.

R4: Csdc, dc in next 9 stitches, 4dc puff stitch *dc in next 10 stitches, 4 dc puff stitch in next stitch* repeat in between ** 14 times.  Join to csdc with a sl st.

R5: Csdc, 4dc puff stitch in next stitch *dc in nest 10 stitches, 4dc puff stitch* repeat in between ** 14 times, dc in the next 9 stitches.  Join to csdc with a sl st.

R6: Csdc, dc in next 2 stitches, 4dc puff stitch *dc in next 10 stitches, 4dc puff stitch in next stitch* repeat between ** 14 times, dc in next 7 stitches.  Join to csdc with a sl st.

R7: Csdc, dc in next 4 stitches, 4dc puff stitch *dc in next 10 stitches, 4dc puff stitch* repeat between ** 14 times, dc in next 5 stitches.  Join to csdc with a sl st.

R8: Csdc, dc in next 6 stitches, 4dc puff stitch *dc in next 10 stitches, 4dc puff stitch* repeat between ** 14 times, dc in next 3 stitches.  Join to csdc with a sl st.

R9: Csdc, dc in next 8 stitches, 4dc puff stitch *dc in next 10 stitches, 4dc puff stitch* repeat between ** 14 times, dc in next stitch.  Join to csdc with a sl st.

R10: Csdc, 4dc puff stitch *dc in next 10 stitches, 4dc puff stitch* repeat between ** 14 times, dc in next 9 stitches.  Join to csdc with a sl st.

R11: Ch 1.  Sc around.  Join to beg ch 1 with a sl st.

R12: Ch 1.  Sc around.  Join to beg ch 1 with a sl st.

R13: Ch 1.  Sc around.  Join to beg ch 1 with a sl st.  Finish off and weave in ends.

As normal, I’d love to see your cowl – share a picture on the thingsnicolemade facebook page!

Enjoy!

 

Where has the Summer gone?

Following a computer glitch last week, I am happy to report I am back on line with a more streamlined and organised computer!  Add that to a crazy week and a guilty confession from one of my children that a crocheted dragon was pushed down on to the only crochet hook I have to work on my newest pattern and has swallowed it up inside the stuffing and I am one tired crocheter!  However, todays blog post will go ahead!

The weather here has suddenly changed.  One week we had Summer, and then we quickly passed into almost Winter, and there is a definite chill on the breeze.  I feel it is time to start talking about cowls.  It’s not quite cold enough for jumpers yet but you certainly need something to snuggle into on those cold mornings and evenings.  This post is about the Zola Cowl (http://cre8tioncrochet.com/2013/07/bulky-stacked-shell-cowl-and-shrug).  I made this little lovely as a Christmas present last year.  For once, I actually expanded my yarn horizons and bought some yarn from Ice Yarns.  I love how cheap their yarn is, and, despite it coming all the way from Turkey, the delivery time is really quite reasonable (or you can pay a higher price and it gets to Australia in 2 or 3 days!  Amazeballs!).  This cowl worked up quite quickly (which was useful considering it was a last minute idea and I had to wait for the yarn to arrive – amazingly, I had it ready on time!) and I love the versatility of it.  It can be worn down to keep the shoulders warm, as a traditional cowl or many other ways I’m sure (I experimented with an off the shoulder version in my photos).  I quite enjoy working with patterns from Cre8tion Crochet.  Every time I’ve used one, they have been clear to read and easy to follow!  So, for those of you in the beginnings of Autumn, rug up and brace yourselves for the cold weather that’s coming!

Being flexible!

This blog post was supposed to be about something completely different than what it has turned out to be.  But sometimes, you just have to be flexible and go with what you have.  This week, life has just gotten in the way and I didn’t get my scheduled project finished (so close, but so far).  Instead, I ended up working on a birthday present for my daughter to take to a birthday party.  It’s a pattern that I have had on my “to do” list for awhile and this was the perfect opportunity (and weather) to complete it!  The pattern is the Cuddly Cat Crochet Scoodie by Moogly http://www.mooglyblog.com/cuddly-cat-crochet-scoodie/.  When I showed my daughter, she thought it was perfect for her little friend!  It was a little challenging in that I (as usual) didn’t quite get the gauge exact, so had to adjust a little as I went.  I’m not thrilled with the fit but with the nature of the garment, it doesn’t really matter, it’s just me being a perfectionist.  Other than that, it was quite easy to make up, easily done in a weekend, and the nicest part was….my daughter is learning to follow in my crochet footsteps and she made one of the ear insides herself, which makes it an even more personal present for her friend!  It was also a great weekend for modelling it as the weather has gone from being roasting hot to cold enough to need a jumper, and she was quite happy to wear the scoodie to keep herself warm during the shoot!