Stash Avalanche

Little brown cardi

It's been a while but I hope I can get back into the swing of blogging. I have a few projects to show you and I want to try to get them posted in chronological order – that is, if I can remember what order I made them in.

 First up is this cardi which I knitted a couple of months ago after the lovely blue cable version sadly turned into a cropped top.

 Stashlet seems to be bean-poleing at a rate of knots. At 16 months old he's now 12.5kg and  getting taller and taller (I need to measure him again – her was 80cm on his birthday but I reckon he's put on a few inches since then). So another cardi was definitely in order.

 This was going to be knitted with two strands of yarn but I soon realised I wouldn't have enough so I started again. It's another one of my make it up as you go along cardigans, and frankly I'm in two minds about it.

 I hmm-ed and haa-ed about doing another cable version but in the end, thinking I'd be quicker, I opted for a garter stitch stripe. As it turned out, my efforts to be quick were all in vain: somehow I managed to make a mess of the sleeves and ended up pulling them out and reknitting them twice. What a pain!

 The hood was another experiment in short row shaping and what I learnt there was that garter stitch stripes and short row shaping don’t really marry that well – the stripes seem to make the short rows a bit too obvious. Another note to bear in mind for next time.

 

The yarn is San Marino from Lidl. It was reasonably nice to work with although it did tend to split a bit if I wasn't paying attention. Made up though, I do find the colour a bit on the dull side.

 The fit worked out pretty well. It's certainly long enough, and there's room for elongation in the sleeves too, although the cuffs ended up a bit tight. Wearing it has not worked out so well. The yarn seems to catch a lot and there have been more than a few occasions where stitches have got pulled. I'm not sure if that is something to do with the yarn itself, or my knitting tension.

 The weather being what it is, it's still getting some wear but I hope it will still be big enough to wear  in the autumn, bean pole factor not withstanding.

 

Notes:

ball band gauge info: 21 stitches and 28 rows over 10cm/4” on 5 mm needles

my tension: (agh! I can''t remember, I'll have to measure again) over 10cm/4” on 5mm needles

yarn composition: 55% pure new wool and 45% polyacrylic

 

 

Oh, and one other thing

I've been hmming and haaing for a while now about getting the Wicksten vest top pattern.

It seems a great way to wear fabrics that I only have small amounts of, and I would like some vest tops that are slighly more formal than cotton jersey (if a vest top can ever be formal, that is). But buying a pattern for something apparently so simple seems a bit over the top. I have read several blogs praising the top so I really am torn as to whether to get it or not.

Any views, anyone?

I ain't dead...

I know, I know, it's been ages since I managed a post. Every day I think either "perhaps I'll get some time to post today" or " bugger, that was another day I didn't get to the blog". Sigh. You'd never think that working three mornings a week would make that much difference. And poor Stashlet has been suffering too, getting him into bed has got later and later these past few weeks, although Mr G and I are now making a concerted effort to rectify this.

I have been doing some crafting though, and have plenty of posts in my head to get on to this blog. I hope that this post will be the kick start to resume blogging  - that is, assuming you haven't all upped and left in search of someone more reliable!

So as to not be a photo-less post (always a bit dry, I feel), here is some recent Stash Towers weirdness....

... a tomato whose seeds had already sprouted (never seen that before!)...

...carrot seedlings in the patio (we have carrots coming up everywhere this summer and I have absolutely no idea why) and...

... what Satshlet eats in one morning when he is with the childminder. My father commented that the wee S had lost weight after a recent week of gastro-enteritis so I sent him this photo to show him it wouldn't be long before the chubby baby cheeks came back. I still marvel at the Tardis that is Stashlet every time I empty his lunch bag and find everything has gone.

And finally, Typepad has introduced what they call Recommended Links where it automatically detects certain words and provides links to sites like Wikipedia - in the case of this post, it has recommended links for "Tardis" and "gastro-enteritis". I'm in two minds about using this, on the one hand it seems like a good idea to enable readers to look up things they might not be familiar with, but on the other hand I can't help feeling that it makes the post feel very cluttered. I wonder if anyone else is using this and how you find it.

That's me done for the night. I feel so much better now I have actually managed to get a post done. Fingers crossed for more of the same in the much less distant future. Happy Staurday everyone.

Little stripey cardi

The little brown cardigan has been temporarily put aside for cooler weather so here is yet another make-it-up-as-you-go-along cardigan, this time in Tivoli Cruise 100% cotton DK (white and navy blue).

I was inspired by a wonderful dusky blue and white stripey top that Stashlet has, and while the cardigan's blue does not come close to the inspirational blue, it does satisfy my need for stripes. I've probably said it before but babies and stripes are made for eachother..

I was in need of a quick fix so I knitted two strands together using 5mm needles for cuffs, waist band and neck band in garter stitch, and 6mm needles for the stocking stitch body. The ball band says  22st x 30 rows on 5mm needles (for a single strand) and my tension was 14st and 20 rows.

I'm not entirely sure about the garter stitch cuffs and hem, and as with the brown cardi, the cuffs could be a little bigger, but apart from that I'm happy with it. Also as with the brown cardi (which I forgot to mention) the sleeves are a bit on the long side and have been turned back, but I'm ok with that as I want this cardi to last a while. Oh, and the red zip was a last minute bit of divine inspiration which I think works rather well.