I promised photos of the mirror, and here they are! Please pretend that my hideous lilac walls are some other colour. (I do this all the time.) The mirror doesn’t match, but then nothing in my bedroom does… however, it’s easier to store it on the wall than anywhere else.

Recently I found out about Oxfam’s giant baby blanket campaign, and I’ve been knitting some squares to send off. You can read more about it here and here (Ravelry group here). It seems really worthwhile, and I hope they make their target of 250 000 squares. (I do not, admittedly, envy the task of the people sewing them together!)

I’m really looking forward to Kim Hargreaves’ new summer collection, “Nectar”. Looks like it’ll be released soon!

Firstly, I’d like to collectively thank everyone who was so complimentary about my Cherry in the last post. It’s been lovely to read your comments, and to know that my spur-of-the-moment decision to accessorise turquoise with red wasn’t completely crazy. :)

Secondly, here are some dolls in the snow. (Yes, snow, in April, in London of all places!) This is obviously a justification for my ridiculously large box of knitted doll clothing. Some day I’ll have to get it all out and photograph it, although much of it is rubbish, and from the “early days” of my knitting (hard to believe that was only a year ago!).

I don’t think I’ll ever tire of snow. It’s rare here, and rarer to have it settle, and even rarer for it to be more than an inch thick, so in my view I’m allowed to behave like a five-year-old when I see it. When I woke up on Sunday morning to see the white blanketed view from my window, I showered in about two minutes flat, pulled on my big coat and some woollies, grabbed the camera, the dolls, and went out into the back garden to enjoy the freezing temperatures and the sheer joy of kneeling in snow (ha!) to try and get a good angle for my photos.

One of the aforementioned woollies was my new beret. When I finished Cherry, I had five balls of the RYC Cashcotton DK left over (having only used five for the cardigan). I hummed and hawed over these five balls, not really wanting to make another top, but not feeling the need for a scarf either. Solution: another hat. I didn’t need another hat, but I’m coming to realise that’s a completely irrelevant and pointless fact. I don’t need to drink tea, but woe betide the man or woman who tries to stop me! Anyway, this is what I ended up with:

Pattern: Lace Tam (from Lace Tam and Scarf pattern) by the Rainey Sisters (see “free patterns” section at the top of the sidebar, or find it on Ravelry here)
Yarn: Rowan RYC Cashcotton DK, colour #602 Pool, just over 1 ball
Size: One size fits all
Needles: 3.75mm, 3mm

I knit it flat on straight needles - I have very few double-pointed needles or circulars, so I decided to make do with what I had. This initially caused some confusion re. the seed rib, but I soon figured it out. I don’t think the seam is particularly obvious, either (at least, I hope not!). It’s a beautiful pattern, not too lacy, but just enough to be interesting. I did find that I had to sew a couple of rows of elastic inside the hem to make it really secure, but that’s due to a combination of the inelasticity of the cashcotton and the extremely windy weather we’ve been having here. (I hate having to walk around holding my hat on my head - I hate it even more when I’m doing that and trying to keep my skirt from blowing up!)

Over the past few days I’ve been churning out doll-sized hats, but I also have plans for ysolda’s gorgeous Rose Red beret pattern. I’ve bought it, but haven’t quite decided on the yarn. I’m also plodding along with the Darcy jacket from Kim Hargreaves’ Heartfelt. It’s going to be lovely, but knitting seed stitch in thick cotton yarn is really not my idea of fun. I’ve got a slightly sore elbow, too (too much computer and knitting, I suspect) so I haven’t worked on it much. At this rate, maybe I’ll finish before the autumn…

I’ve got quite a lot to catch up on, and more than a few draft blog posts to finish up and share, but I’ve had five hours sleep for the past two nights (the Formula 1 Grand Prix was in Malaysia this weekend), and I’m completely knackered. At the moment I think I’m running on caffeine, adrenaline, and chocolate. (Easter chocolate, of course; specifically Green & Blacks and Mini Eggs. Mmmm.) So, I’ll go for the easy option: another finished knit.

Pattern: Cherry by Anna Bell
Yarn: Rowan RYC Cashcotton DK, colour #602 Pool, 5 balls
Size: 34″, no modifications save for working 1×1 rib as half twisted rib
Needles: 4mm and 3 1/4mm

This is a lovely pattern. The fit is very nice, with the waistline hitting exactly where it needs to be on me. The instructions make perfect sense, are easy to follow and won’t lead you astray, although you might want a little experience in certain areas (e.g. knowing to place waist shaping a stitch or two in from the edge, what sort of decrease to use where, etc). In this way it’s very much like the Rowan patterns - they aren’t hard, but they don’t state the obvious at every stage.

I re-purposed this yarn from my ill-fated Erin, which I talked about in an earlier post. I came to the sudden realisation that an A-line cardigan was the worst possible shape for me, and the back of the cardigan was turning out to be very large anyway (I suspect I may have had gauge issues). I lost no time in ripping it out and looking for something else to make. The yarn itself is incredibly soft, with a light halo that’s probably the angora content at work (it’s a blend of 35% cotton, 25% nylon, 18% angora, 13% rayon and 9% cashmere). Wearing it is like being very gently hugged.

Because the shape is so good for me, I plan to make a few more of these cardigans with different stitch patterns, yarns, and sleeve length. Perhaps not immediately, though… I have some other things in my knitting queue, and only so much time!

Last weekend I was away visiting a friend in Cambridge, and to the right is the necklace that I serendipitously found there - it’s also pictured in the two photos above. I don’t normally go for big, bold kitschy jewellery, but I couldn’t pass up a two swallows pendant, could I? (Besides, it matches my belt.) I bought it at the Sunday arts & crafts market in the Market Square.

I hope everyone’s having a good Easter weekend! Now I’m going to go and demolish the rest of these Mini Eggs. Yum.

I’ve removed the password protection on the directory, the products are in, and my shop for doll knits is finally open! This will only be of interest to doll owners, but it’s been a slog, and more than once I’ve wondered why I didn’t just use a pre-packaged “e-commerce solution”. I think mostly I was rebelling against the notion of using a “solution”, but the result is good and all my own work. It’s based on a wordpress install, so I can’t take credit for coding a site from scratch, but I think it’s pretty good, and it does what I need it to.

There are only nine items up, but I decided to focus on getting the vehicle up and running smoothly. I have a number of things on the go, and they’ll be put up as and when they’re finished.

I’m looking forward to a relaxing weekend spent with a friend in Cambridge, but for now I need to start catching up on all the correspondence I’ve been neglecting (oo-er!). I hope to get my modifications of the Modern Lace Henley written up in the next few days, and I may have another finished knit (human-size) to share too.

Phew!

I’ve finished my Modern Lace Henley, but it’s not really a henley any more… I think it’s turned out rather well. (Please excuse the awkward mirror photos/frizzy hair.)

Pattern: Modern Lace Henley by Pam Allen
Yarn: Jaeger Matchmaker Merino DK, colour #914 Marine, 7 balls
Size: 35.5″, with waist shaping added. 0.5-1″ of positive ease at the bust.
Needles: 3mm straight throughout, with a 2.5mm circular for the neck ribbing.

Although it’s lace, this was a straightforward knit. The pattern’s easy to memorise - purling on the wrong side, and the four right side rows are really just two rows started in different places. I like the chunkiness of lace knit in a heavier weight of yarn, too.

I made some fairly drastic changes to the original pattern - I like it as written, but decided it could be more flattering on me. So, the sleeves are a lot shorter, the ribbing is a little wider at the hem, and the collar is completely different (mainly because I wanted to be able to wear it over a shirt, as in the photos). I added some waist shaping too. (I’ll post my modifications as soon as I have them written out in intelligible English.) Oh - I also changed the 1×1 ribbing to twisted rib throughout, because I prefer the look of it.

This was the first time I’ve made changes to a pattern, but it worked out well (despite nervous jitters about whether it would fit or not). I think my background knowledge of sewing patterns helped. All I can say is: trust the maths. The numbers will not lead you astray, and as long as your own measurements are correct, and you’re getting gauge, chances are it’ll be okay. In my case, it was - this top fits absolutely perfectly! It’s warm, but not too warm for the still-chilly spring days. I’ll also be able to wear it on its own, but I’ll need a flesh-toned bra or camisole before I can do that.

Verdict: I love the colour, and I wasn’t sure I would, because as we’ve already established in previous posts, I am the monochrome queen. I love the lace. I love the fit. I also love the versatility, which I was a little worried about, since a short-sleeved sweater in DK wool is perhaps not the most practical of garments on initial inspection. This one is great, though, and I suppose it’s really a glorified sweater vest that can also be worn by itself. A complete success, then!

(I’ve got the knitting-clothes-for-myself bug, and have already started on Cherry by Anna Bell. Should be perfect for summer!)