Still Knitting

Yes, I am still knitting, although it's not always easy. Anything complicated is too tiring but some of the knitting that should be easy has been giving me problems too. Earlier in the summer, I knitted a cowl based on my Nick's Boring Scarf Pattern.

This turned out to need too much concentration so I was glad to finish it. Then I went back to sock knitting. Now sock knitting is one of the things I count as automatic knitting - the sort of thing I can do while reading. It turns out that that's no longer the case. There's an awful lot of dropped stitches and sloppy tension behind these socks ...

I shall just have to persevere until sock knitting becomes automatic again.

I decided that what I needed was some simple knitting that would keep me going for a while but not be too boring but couldn't find anything that appealed to me. Then, when I was clearing out some old projects, I found this pattern from Woolly Thoughts.

Double Vision is a blanket that looks like it's made up of lots of colours but, in reality, you only need ten different colours. They are worked together in different combinations to give the finished effect. The original blanket uses bright, rainbow colours to give a stained glass look but I decided to use shades of yarn that I already had plenty of.

As you can see, the blanket is made up of right angled strips and I've knitted three so far. the colours look much better in real life; I had trouble taking a halfway decent photo. I'm enjoying knitting this blanket although I have to watch that I'm not dropping one strand of yarn - another automatic thing that isn't quite so automatic anymore.

I seem to be able to manage other crafts better than I do knitting at the moment. I've been enjoying exploring loom knitting, inspired by a very generous gift from a new loom knitting friend on ravelry.

This little lot arrived one day and was then followed up by this ...

This all-in-one loom is the one I'm using at the moment for my experiment with lace knitting. I started with a 'proper' lace knitting stitch pattern and then changed it around to make it easier and quicker for me to knit, while still giving me a texture that I liked. The result is a not-quite-the-same-on-both-sides fabric that still lies flat (and both sides are nice). The wrong side looks like a slightly flattened out version of the right side.

I'm enjoying knitting this. The yarn is James C Brett's Marble Chunky, shade 84 and I'm hoping not to have to buy another ball before the scarf is long enough. If I do though, I'm sure such a lovely colour will come in handy for something else - mittens to match perhaps?

Before settling on a lace stitch for my loom knit scarf, I played around with a slip stitch rib. It worked but was taking me ages so I translated it into a needle knitting project instead. This counts as my first new design since being ill. I know it's only a simple scarf but still, it's a start.

This will be the first year for a long time when I haven't published a big series of Christmas patterns. I still have the idea I had planned to use  this year so maybe next Christmas? In the meantime, we are having a Christmas KAL on my ravlery group so that we don't miss all the normal chat and support. People are knitting any of my old patterns that they haven't yet made and we are all sharing pictures and chatting about our progress. 

I wanted to join in but, obviously, I've knitted them all so I decided to make a variation of my Woodland Wreath. I'm going to make a more Christmassy version, picking out appropriate patterns from my other Christmas projects. I must have designed at least half a dozen little snowmen for a start! So far, I've covered my polystyrene wreath and made a start on the leaves.

The lighter leaves are the smaller, basic leaves from the original pattern and are intended to represent the honeysuckle that thinks it owns my garden. The darker ones are a slightly more rounded version and are the Irish Ivy which is working on the parts of the wall not already dominated by the honeysuckle.

This is the ivy that would traditionally have been used to decorate homes at Christmas as those spikey flowers would throw snowflake shadows in candle lit rooms. I'm going to add the flowers to my ivy leaves with embroidery - lots of french knots.

I'm going to knit some holly leaves too before I get on to the really christmassy stuff. I may even add lights to my wreath as you can get such nice little ones now. Do come and join us on this knitalong. If you want to knit a Christmas pattern not designed by me, that's fine too. Its just nice to have lots of people to chat to as we prepare for our lockdown Christmas.