Author: toryawintersdesigns

Designer, maker, lover of colourful sparkly things.
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Inspiration

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The good thing about clearing out all my WIPs, is that I can go through my stash and decide on new projects to knit. Last week, I sat down with my boxes of yarn and my pattern folders, and started to match up the two, waiting for inspiration to strike. Unfortunately, most of my stash is single balls, which makes it really hard to find good patterns. I love the search functions on Ravelry, as you can look for patterns using the yarn, or a similar yarn, and see how things worked out when someone else knitted the same pattern.
Eventually, I chose a couple of balls of Rowan Scottish Tweed 4ply. They were in slightly different shades of blue, but there wasn’t much yardage on just one ball, so I decided to use them together. The Skye Hat pattern on Ravelry was free, and promised to use just one ball of yarn. As it turned out, I needed to use both the balls, which was perfect! I finished it off with a wee pom pom in bright pink. This is my new favourite hat. It was a bit of pain to knit, as there were so many stitches in 4ply, and if I did it again I’d maybe knit it in the round rather than flat. However, the pattern looks lovely even though it’s quite simple, and it’s so comfy and fits perfectly.
I also dug out some Rowan Handknit Cotton, picked up for £2 a ball in the John Lewis sale. It’s the colour of sunshine, absolutely beautiful, and I wanted to knit something that would do it justice. Four balls wasn’t enough for an adult garment, so I chose a baby pattern by Sublime. I’ve knitted this before lots of times, and have learnt from experience to knit the button bands as part of the garment, it’s way too fiddly otherwise. Sewing up a garment with this cotton is hard because it’s so thick, but it seemed to work out ok in the end.
Seven balls of yarn out of the stash – now to move on to my next project!
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Clearout

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Life’s too short to knit things you don’t like. I’ve been tidying up the house recently, and finding lots of projects that I started years ago. I just don’t have any enthusiasm for these things any more, and I can’t see myself wearing the finished products. What’s the point in spending hours on a project you detest? No point, I decided, and I have charity shopped a good few items. Yesterday I got rid of a 4ply vintage sweater in progress, leaving only three WIPs. This is an unheard of situation for me, so of course I had to cast on a new project! These are the July Gloves from an old issue of The Knitter, using some Rowan Scottish Tweed 4ply in a nice rusty red colour. I got the yarn super cheap, and each glove takes a few hours to knit, so they’re quite satisfying.

I also finished some other stash projects in the past couple of weeks. I used up the last of my red All Seasons Cotton, making a winter hat and a pair of cute mitts with wee bow buttons.

I had some more Rowan wool from a charity shop, tweedy Aran, which made a quick Brick sweater. There were a few problems with picking up stitches for the neckline, but I got there in the end!

Finally, I finished off the sleeves of a rather bright zigzag sweater from an old issue of Simply Knitting. This one’s only been on the needles for a year, and I’m not sure I like it. It’s got a mistake in the patterning on the front which I can’t unsee, but I’m not unpicking it all to fix it. Although it’s a bit full-on to look at, it’s really warm, so I will probably wear it at some point.

Now to sort through the stash and find some more projects to add to my list!

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Busy July

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I haven’t blogged in a while, as I’ve been super busy – working, knitting, sleeping and generally trying to keep on top of everything. The weeks seem to be flying by, but luckily I’ve managed to be quite productive and get rid of a substantial amount of stash. I finally knitted up the rest of the yarn from the little selection I’d pulled out, making another Fuss Free Cardigan.
It’s a great pattern, and then I bought more yarn and made another one, which found a home with a friend’s new grandchild, along with a wee Felix cardigan. I’m really enjoying top-down knitting, and trying to avoid seaming as much as possible.
I still had some Drops Merino left, so I ended up knitting a Gidday Baby, finished off with strawberry buttons. Baby knits are so quick and satisfying!
Unfortunately my own children are way past the baby stage, and I took a long time to knit a Granny’s Favourite for my daughter. She’s very tall, so top down patterns are ideal for her, as you can knit the arms and body to the right size and extend them if necessary.
After all this baby and child knitting I finished up a commission for a friend – some Iron Man mitts which were super quick to crochet with DK yarn held double.
I also finished my own winter mittens, using Drops Lima. They’re a bit baggy, but they should be quite warm. The moss stitch feels lovely and textured, but it’s my least favourite stitch to work. I don’t have the patience to learn Continental knitting, so moss stitch just seems very cumbersome to do.
After all that knitting I did a wee bit of crochet for a change, working up a couple of dishcloths. These are in Anchor Style Creativa, which is nice and solid when crocheted. I used an easy pattern with a V stitch, created with half trebles.
Then I started looking at my stash again, and pulled out a packet of Rowan All Seasons Cotton that’s been sitting there for years. I picked the Deauville pattern by Nick Atkinson, and decided to make it two sizes too big so it would be nice and baggy. The crossed stitch pattern was way too complicated, so after a few disastrous attempts I decided that I couldn’t be bothered, and substituted a garter stripe instead. This made the sizing all wrong, so I had to rewrite the raglan shaping to make it all work out. I’m happy with the finished sweater, but I might have to reinforce the neckline so it doesn’t stretch.
There were still four balls of yarn left, so I knitted up some really cute owl mittens from an old issue of Simply Knitting – these only took two hours to make! The rest will become some kind of hat.
It’s reassuring to see how much I’ve actually managed to knit in a month, as sometimes the stash pile seems invincible!
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Star Wars Crochet

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There’s a fabulous new crochet kit out, featuring 12 characters from Star Wars, and designed by Lucy Collin. I had a couple of requests to make some of the characters, so I spent a few days frantically crocheting and managed to complete five of them. The patterns are pretty easy, and like most amigurumi, if something isn’t clear you can generally fudge it and still get a good result. They were really quick to make, each one taking about three or four hours in total.

Here are Luke Skywalker, Yoda and a storm trooper. Luke was made with my own yarn, but the yarn for the others was included in the kit. I used DK acrylic, which seemed to work out perfectly. 

I also made Han Solo and Chewbacca, using my own DK yarn and the safety eyes from the kit. I wasn’t 100% happy with Chewie’s look, as his head seemed a bit funny shaped when I’d finished with him. I loved making him furry though, you just use a wire brush to fluff up the yarn – simple but effective! 

The kit also includes patterns for Princess Leia, Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett, C3P0, R2D2, Darth Vader and Wicket the Ewok, so I’ll probably go back and make some more another time. They’re so quick to complete, and small enough to make good last minute presents for a Star Wars fan.
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From Yarn To Garment

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This little pile of yarn is the latest selection I pulled out of my stash. There’s some purple Drops Lima, oddments of Patons Diploma Gold DK in purple, green, pink and white, and also some Drops Extra Fine Merino DK in blue and white. Lots of bits and pieces, only really enough to make baby garments and accessories.

With the purple and green Diploma Gold, I made a Gidday Baby sweater. I’ve got really into top down construction recently, and I wanted to try this sweater because the garter stitch yoke in contrasting colours looked so lovely! The sweater is quite narrow in the body, but I think it should fit a 3 month old baby. The baby version of the pattern comes free, which is an advantage, and you can also buy a version with children’s and adults’ sizes. 

With the rest of the Diploma Gold I made another top down garment, a wee baby dress. This is designed with a back opening and a simple feather and fan patterned skirt. The skirt was supposed to be knitted flat, but I adapted it to knit in the round to save me the bother of sewing it up. This project was really using up every single scrap of yarn, so the stripes aren’t completely even, and the skirt is probably a bit short. However, I think it will work well as a longer top for a small baby.

I’ve also knitted up the Drops Extra Fine Merino, but will have to go and buy some more buttons before I can blog about that. The stash is decreasing, slowly but surely!