Autumn Knitting

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This autumn I haven’t really got back into sewing properly since I returned to Poole I have only sat in front of the machine once! But I have been doing some knitting which I find fills the evening much better, rather than having to sit at a table I can curl up in a chair…

I have recently had a friend decide she wanted to learn to knit and so off we trotted to John Lewis (the only proper wool shop in Southampton town centre) to buy some wool and needles and set her up knitting a bobble hat for her lovely husband. After that, she said she wanted to knit a sweater, but we have reigned in the optimism slightly and have settled on a shawl. Trawling through Ravelry for shawl patterns for her gave me some inspiration to cast on one for myself so I have been contemplating what is in my stash to make it from.

Recently I pulled out a lot of my ‘precious’ wools to photograph and planned to try and find ways to start using them and find projects that would do them justice, so here are the special yarns that I want to get round to actually using… They all have memories attached to them so should really get made up into items that can have extra memories added, instead of gethering dust in my lovely ikea box of yarn.

1 The Drops Nepal wool is gorgeous and I have made a lovely squishy jumper from it and still need to knit some pockets for it because I keep trying to put my hands in the non-existent pockets! But I will still have some leftover after that and with the other colours, I’m sure I can come up with a good squishy pattern for them.

2 These lovely variegated yarns were bought for me by Nikki (with my money, I was just unable to find the time to look them up and buy them) so that I could make some dragon scale gloves for a friend from Pelican. I ended up using the red for them and the green was used in my first shawl and some socks but I have lots of both of them left.

3 The Mirasol Llama Una is one of my most special yarns, this is baby llama and is sooo soft. These were bought from The Wool Merchant, which is the “new” wool shop at the Shops at Dartington, and were bought for me as a birthday present from my parents. This wool appears to be discontinued so I have to find something to make the most of this super-soft wool with just these three skeins…

4 Some more Socks Yeah I have both the Malachite and Topaz colourways. Some of the green has been knit into socks already and the Topaz was bough in Ipswich when I was up there with A.
This lovely Turquoise hank is an Alpaca Fingering weight and was a Christmas swap prezzie from Sheila, I have knit wrist warmers from it but they were a tad small and need to find something for the rest of this very soft yarn.
This very lovely balled yarn (lol) is one of my first souvenir yarns purchased when Nikki and I went to Copenhagen in 2016 it is from the Hjelholts Uldspinderi on Fyn, and as far as we could tell in the shop was the most local yarn we could find. I have used some in my previously mentioned shawl, but I think I’m going to have to find an heirloom project for all these special fingering/sock weight yarns I have as souvenirs.

5 This Araucania Curaco yarn is gorgeous and was bought as a possibility for a Christmas Swap but we decided to keep it for ourselves. Honestly, I have no idea what this might turn into but I will keep my eyes opened for a suitable idea, possibly trying some basic weaving.

6 This was another birthday present two colours of organic natural dyed 100% wool. It has quite a loose twist to it so I don’t think that it will have a huge amount of stitch definition for cables or anything like that. We will have to see…

Possible Patterns:

This kite pattern is a possible option for the Lang Dégradé wool and a cream coloured sock yarn from my stash, also another Lang yarn by coincidence…
This is the pattern that my friend pulled out of Ravelry and the shape intrigued me so I decided to investigate the shaping and work it out myself.

Many hours of intense googling later I think I have understood how the pattern is constructed and am almost ready to go.

This is a lovely new pattern from Mollie Conrad which released using a pay what you can model which I think is great, because I feel reluctant to buy a pattern when I know that I am going to change at least 75% of the pattern but this way I can give a bit of money towards the designer who has inspired me, without having to pay full price to only end up changing it all…
I am considering something like this for the lovely Llama Una but I am not sure that it would end up large enough for the squishy wrap that I would like it to be as my 3 hanks are only 100m each and triangle in the shawl takes almost 300m of DK yarn!

I’m thinking that I should start making a blanket with all the Souvenir Yarn that I have been purchasing along the way by knitting a square with each different yarn. I have the Birlinn pattern (centre) but I’m not sure about the pattern, I am currently thinking that I want something a little lacier an probably less traditional, ie not a square.
I am currently scouring Ravelry and saving a load of pattern to a board, but have yet to find what I’m looking for. Who knows I might end up designing something here too…

Does anyone have any ideas for the other yarns? Or better ideas for these?

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3 thoughts on “Autumn Knitting

  1. tialys

    You have some beautiful yarns in your stash. I love the striped shawl but, after the virus one I made with my Scheepjes Whirl, I’m all shawled out.
    As for blankets, the CAL I’m doing at the moment is squares but, as I’ve made many blankets but never a granny square one, I’m enjoying it for the fact that there are different patterns on the squares and I think it’s definitely improved my crochet skills and shown me that I’m a ‘loose’ crocheter because I’ve had to go down at least one size hook (usually two) in order to achieve the recommended gauge. There are so many cool designs for granny square blankets out there now – I love the Summer Lilies one you’ve shown and lacy ones do tend to trap fingers and toes (or dog and cat paws).
    Good luck with your searching.

    Reply
    1. Pippa Post author

      yeah I’m quite lucky with the stash at the moment. I made a shawl as a christmas holiday project in Jan ’17 so I feel it was high time for another one.
      I have done a few blankets over the years but most of the crochet ones I have made have been gifted and are probably on the loose side.
      I think I have picked the pattern for the “heritage blanket” but I need to work out of the pattern is actually wonkey or its jus the way I was knitting it. If it is wonkey I need to try and un-wonkify it…

      Reply
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