Weasley Blanket & Wedding Blanket

I am one of those insane people who think casting on for a blanket is a good idea. I keep thinking that it'll decrease my stash, and yet I don't think I've completely used up a ball of yarn in one of these projects. In fact I think I may have added to my yarn stash because of these. Add to the fact that I've learned to do granny squares in crochet *insert a victory dance here* and that I still haven't finished my bee keeper's quilt, well I may be drowning in blankets.

And yet I have finished two of these stash busting projects!

The Weasley Blanket

It will come as a surprise to no-one but I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I went on the studio tour with my husband as part of our honeymoon week.
So for me to have something Potter without outwardly screaming; "HARRYPOTTERHARRYPOTTER"  is a good thing. And it's a replica.

It's the Ron Weasley Blanket by Penguineer and here is my version.

I have loved knitting this, each square has been lovingly researched and you can knit it up with stash! I loved that aspect so stash was used.

I used 5mm needles and DK yarn. I even managed a neat single crochet border.

It's great to be curled up underneath it with my husband.

And talking of husbands! [What a great transition].

Wedding Blanket

My friend recently got married!

So since they announced their engagement I've been knitting log cabin squares to make into a colourful blanket. Pretty, huh? I almost didn't want to part with it.

You can see it's project page as there's no pattern for it.

It's been knit out of various DK yarns on 4.5mm needles.

My Peggy Sue

I've knit a few sweaters/cardigans now, my husband [yeah, we got married last month] has 4 now, my nephew has one, my mom has one and I've knit myself one in the past. They've all been bottom-up. Well, I've recently cast off my first top-down cardigan!

Woohoo!

P-A-R-T-Y? Because I gotta!

I chose to knit the Peggy Sue, with my own modifications of course. Here's My Peggy Sue (links to my project page).
It's a free pattern on Ravelry, a delightful little 1950's style cropped sweater, very feminine, very flattering. The neckline follows your collar bone whilst the cabled ribbing accentuates your waist.
And you'll notice that mine has no such effect, well except the neckline, I like that neckline. There's also the stripes, I haven't seen anyone else do stripes yet.

I did omit the shaping in the body as I was extending it.

I based the stripe pattern on one of my favourite cardigans, which is blue/brown/yellow, and I really wanted a green one.

So, below are my modifications.

Let's start with the yarns. I have 5 colourways in my cardigan. All being from the Stylecraft DK ranges.

Colour 1 - Fern (Collar, button band & stripe) (100g ball)
Colour 2 - Daffodil (Stripe) (100g ball)
Colour 3 - Zingy (Ribbing & stripe) (Will need 2x 100g balls)
Colour 4 - Charcoal (100g ball)
Colour 5 - Pebble (100g ball)

Cast on with Fern and work the collar and raglan set up row.
Change to Daffodil for 14 rows.
Change to Zingy for 18 rows.
Change to Charcoal for 18 rows.
Change to Fern for 18 rows.
Change to Zingy for 18 rows.
Change to Pebble for 18 rows.
Change to Daffodil for 18 rows.
Change to Zingy for 30 rows of 2x2 ribbing.
Cast off and rejoin for sleeves, and keep the stripe pattern (above) the same as the body.

When you rejoin for the sleeves, pick up 5 stitches on the under-arm and decrease them down the next few rounds. I chose the slp1, k2tog, psso method.

The sleeves are bracelet length on me, though still a little baggy. I decreased 6 stitches in the Pebble section as it's where my forearm starts to get narrow.

There are 8 buttons which are 15mm wide and spaced evenly along the button band which is followed by the pattern only with more stitches picked up and a little maths which meant the button holes were being worked after every 19 stitches.

I hope these notes are helpful, or just of interest to you.

A stash depletion update

Firstly, I am going to admit that I have bought yarn, I bought a semi-solid sock yarn from TheKnittingGoddess.co.uk for a test knit. I needed it as I didn't have any suitable yarn in my stash.

I am one whole ball down! Haha it doesn't sound like much, but I knit up a baby cardigan and have now knit up a 100g ball and some stash yarn on it. It's knit in James C Brett Magi-knit baby DK and Robin DK. I matched the buttons to the colours in the yarn. It's so cute.

Also used part of a ball to knit a teddy bear to accompany said baby cardigan.

I'm further along on the aran sweater, I'm now knitting the back of the jumper with a stitch pattern change as I really didn't like doing the diamonds, so I've swapped them for columns which I think give the back a nice sturdy structure. It's also knitting up a lot quicker, which means it'll get finished sooner.

I used part of a 75g ball of acrylic DK on a glasses case for my Mom, it's a nice little thing, so I may write up a quick pattern. Might.

I've discovered another way to knit hexipuffs; centre outwards and back in again, makes a nice little 'puff with self patterning yarn.

Yarn Review: Moonlight Sonata DK

If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen me raving about this yarn, raving about it so much that I decided I'd write up a review.

The yarn in question is James C. Brett Moonlight Sonata Double Knitting, how romantic does that name sound?

I picked up this yarn on a whim when I was out buying sock yarn, it just looked pretty and I knew I wanted it. I'm a sucker for doing this, hence my current not-buying-yarn-for-a-while thing I have going on.

I just loved the colours in it, and the way it's balled up reminded me of the sparkly Loop batts I keep seeing on podcasts like Knitabulls (which you should all go watch because Diane is amazing). So for someone who can't spin [yet] I guess this is the next best thing.

Like I said it's a DK weight, so good for scarves, but want to know what blew my mind once I checked the meterage? It's 500m! Roughly 546 yards. In one ball! So there's a nice scarf in one ball.

The ball band says it's 10% Mohair - 10% Wool - 75% Acrylic - 5% Metallic and it's so lovely to work with. I bought shade 'SM7' which is gorgeous jewel shades paired with a gorgeous olive shade, all intertwined with a golden metallic thread. I think one of the reasons why I fell for this yarn is the blues, they remind me of my engagement ring.

I'm not usually a sparkle person, but this yarn is amazing and I love it, and I'm seriously considering getting enough for a cardigan for smarter occasions, though in a different shade.

The only thing I've found I dislike about James C. Brett yarns is how they have codes not shades, that's it really, that's my gripe. The whole range is affordable. Moonlight Sonata costs around £5.20 for 500m for such a beautiful yarn, which would be about £15- £20 for a beautiful cardigan, not bad at all.

The pattern I'm knitting is the Extra-Long Stripy Scarf from Knitting Vintage by Claire Montgomerie. I've loved the whole feather-and-fan patterns for a long time, and I knew this would be the best pattern for the yarn, classic enough. Plus it's a 4 row repeat, so great for mindless knitting.

Chicest Link

You may remember in my blog post; Knitting and a Period Drama, that I had cast on for a purple cardigan, so I'm here now to post photos of said purple cardigan.
In the end I didn't knit the Chilli Pepper jumper, but a simple crew neck jumper, post soon).

Though I did cast off on this project a few months ago, I've only just got round to photographing it. The flash has made it look like different shades though it's all the same deep purple.

It's knit in Hayfield Bonus DK (produced by Sirdar) and the shade is Purple. (You can buy it from Deramores)



You can see the detail a little better here, the waistband is shaped by changing the needles to a smaller size, thus giving waist definition.

The lace was repetitive and tricky at times, seeing as when I cast on I couldn't do lace very well.
The neckline is a lovely graduating V that has simple repeating decreases so you can't really go wrong.

I didn't knit the ties (that go on the waistband) as I liked the cardigan as it was once I'd finished it, and it looks better wrapped around, almost like a kimono.

The sleeves are nice and simple, this project was the first time I'd tried a garter stitch cuff instead of a ribbed cuff, and I like how it fits on my wrist.

The pattern is from Simply Knit magazine (issue 80, I believe) which you can probably find on ebay.

Projects!!!

Given the long time in me not posting my projects on here, I am still knitting, and I've finished a big, a few medium and a few small projects.
So, here they are:

Nevada Hat

It's called the Nevada hat because that's the 'shade' of yarn it's knitted in. I used Sirdar Indie and a hat pattern that came with the yarn. I also knitted a huge jumper for myself (for those really cold days that'll be approaching) that is miles too big and the sleeves are really long, nice and warm though. The colour combinations are beautiful too, just look at that blue.

Cables and lace hat


This pattern came from an issue of Simply Knitting and is super nice to wear. The yarn is Robin Aran, i don't know the shade my nan gave it to me.

Pink Lace Scarf

This is going with something for my nan's Christmas present, as she expressed interest in it whilst I was knitting it. I cannot remember the yarn's name but (if I remember right) it's a Tivoli yarn, most likely one that is discontinued. I got the pattern for it from the back of a Simply Knitting issue, their 'Stitch Library' it was very nice to do and the yarn comes out beautifully. I knit it on 4.5mm needles.

Military Lace Scarf

This is going to be another Christmas present, and another scarf created from the Stitch Library section of Simply Knitting magazine. It's knitted in a Robin yarn, but I've forgottent he exact colour, but it is DK. It's a lovely shade of green.

So, now you're updated and I can ponder what to post next.

Until next time!