Graceful Chartwell

I finished this a while ago but only got around to blocking it this last weekend. It didn’t need a lot of blocking but it has sorted out the edges, opened it up a bit and it now drapes lovely rather than laying like a fluffy cloud.

I have a lovely monochrome flower print dress that I think it’ll look fantastic with. I’m thinking it’ll work both as a wrap for fancy evenings out or as a scarf for a bit of luxury during the day.

The yarn is Rowan Kid Silk Haze in the colour Ghost which I was lucky enough to find with 10% off. I love Kid Silk Haze, it has great colours and is so soft with such a lovely sheen. In my opinion, there’s no other yarn that can match it*. The only downside is that it sheds a lot. I could probably have spun some mohair yarn with the amount that came out of my project bag at the end!

Chartwell is a pretty straightforward pattern. It starts from the long end with a daunting 263st to cast on. But it gets better from there with decreases every other row although it takes a while before it actually feels like its going faster! I did have just one gripe with the pattern, it has one of the smallest charts I’ve ever seen! It’s not an incredibly complex or intricate pattern so it didn’t need every stitch for the first 66 rows to be printed out, a box marking the pattern repeat would have sufficed.

Overall, I enjoyed knitting it but I’ll enjoy wearing it even more!

*Debbie Bliss has recently bought out Angel, a yarn with very similar fibre content. I’ve squidged it in a shop but I haven’t tried it as I’m not so keen on the colours.

Spring Flowers Picture Post

I was out in the garden today, enjoying the sunshine with my camera.

I also used the good weather to do some blocking and photographing of some recently completed projects but I’ll put those photos up a little later. They turned out great and deseve a post of their own.

I love the combination of colours in the next two pictures, it makes me want to sit down and design some colourwork gloves.

It really feels like Spring is here now. :)

A Swift Arrival

I had a lovely little parcel waiting for me when I got home today:

It’s a vintage Swift/Yarn Winder. I’ve been wanting one for a while, not because I really need one, but simply because they’re pretty and make things easier. I’ve been looking at the vintage ones on ebay because I’ve noticed they’re often prettier and sometimes even cheaper than brand new ones. I spotted this one last week and loved it.

I’ve never seen a swift quite like it! The arms are plastic (possibly bakelite) and I won’t need to worry about finding a surface to clamp this one to as the metal post is set on a cast iron foot which will ensure it doesn’t tip over!

It was also a bargain at just £15 (+ £10 postage). :) I was surprised how small it was when I opened the box, it’s only ~9″ tall and ~6″ across so it won’t take up much space on my shelf when not in use (which may be never!). I’ve pictured it with a mini skein of sock yarn as that’s what was closest when the camera was out, but it holds 100g just fine too.

The auction only ended on Sunday, I’m so glad the seller was super quick at dispatching! :)

A Beautiful Machine

On Wednesday I spotted a beautiful vintage sewing machine on ebay. The colour was what first caught my attention, its truely gorgeous. Luckily, I won the auction and this arrived yesterday:

It’s a Cooper Sewing Machine and unfortunately I haven’t managed to find out anything about them the internet. I’ve found a company called Cooper Sewing Machines that was established in 1903 and I’m assuming they made it, but it doesn’t seem like they produce their own machines any more. Their website has barely anything about the history of the company so I might shoot an email off to them to see if they can shed any light. It seems to me that it might be 1950s or 1960s?

The seller was fantastic, it couldn’t have arrived quicker and was so carefully and expertly packed. It is in impeccable condition with very minimal wear and tear and have I mentioned the lovely colour already? Plus, it’s been serviced and is completely ready to go!

Look how shiny everything is! It has a stitch regulator with dial system, reverse-sewing, drop-feed for embroidery and darning and a self-adjusting bobbin winder.

The underside of the machine is just as shiny. This is a very well looked after machine.

The tin of accessories sits in the slide slot.

Inside the tin I got several threads (which I wasn’t expecting!) and a few feet and bobbins. Took me a while to identify the adjustable seam guide as I hadn’t seen one of them before but the rest of them are in the handbook. I’m going enjoy using this machine so much! :)

A Royale Month

Some people write 50,000 words in November while others try and knit 50,000 stitches. I can’t remember where I first heard of this, probably somewhere on Ravelry. I think it originated from knitgrrl.com who declared November National Sweater Knitting Month back in 2006 (please correct me if I’m wrong!)

I decided Royale (Ravelry link) would be a good pattern to attempt this feat of knitting with, and happily I already had some yarn in my stash that would be perfect. I started November 1st and I’m now about halfway done with the body and 16,328 stitches into my 50,000.

The knitting is very engaging and the twisted stitches and cables are lovely, I couldn’t wait to see the first patten repeat appear!

Unfortunately, I do have an issue with 2 extra stitches, I don’t know why I have them and I can’t figure out where I could have made a mistake or missed an instruction. It may be a mistake in the pattern but considering I’ve already had to rip out the cuff after doing all the cables in the same direction I’m not ruling out user error yet. At the moment I’m ignoring them and I’ll probably just do a couple fewer increases at the bust to line up with the pattern.

I’m enjoying the yarn (Rowan RYC Cashsoft Aran), it’s soft and a lovely deep purple that the picture doesn’t do justice to. I got it on sale and didn’t read the yarn page on Ravelry before I bought it, I’ve since found out that it tends to pill quite a bit but I’m hoping the tight cables and twisted stitches will help tame that. So far so good. My only complaint is that I’ve had 2 knots out of 4 balls which isn’t great, I expect better standards for the price of this yarn.

As it’s over halfway through the month and I’m no where near even half the stitches I probably won’t hit 50,000. I’m not even sure if the pattern has 50,000 stitches as I didn’t thoroughly check it before I started, but I’ll see what I get up to. I’m reasonably confident I should at least be able to finish the jumper by the end of the month.

Either way, there’ll always be next year and I’ll make a note to pick something with substantial amounts of stocking stitch!

16328 / 50000 stitches. 32% done!

Vintage Sewing Machine

Last weekend I popped into an antique and bric-a-brac shop and discovered this vintage sewing machine. I couldn’t resist buying it!

I don’t know much about vintage sewing machines, I hadn’t heard of Frister and Rossmann but I liked the decals, it had bobbins and a case, the price seemed reasonable to me and that’s all that really mattered.

So I’ve been doing some research on Frister and Rossmann. O. Quitmann was the sole importer from the 1920′s, after 1937 the badge changed to being marked ‘Little Britain’ so I may be wrong but I’m reasonably confident was manufactured in 1937 as it’s a model D not E. The serial number is 25867. There are a couple of good pages here and here that go into a bit of detail about the company if anyone is interested. Also, if anyone knows any more than me and can correct or confirm the date I’d love to hear from you.

Inside the the case were a couple of surprises, the first was evidence of a little visitor:

I’m thinking I won’t clean these off! It adds character don’t you think?

There were also the remains of the handbook, it’s only 6 and a bit pages that are very delicate but it was a nice surprise to find these inside the case when I got home.

There were quite a few accessories in the compartment too, I’m not sure what half of them do but I’ll do some research once I’ve cleaned them up.

It’ll probably take a few weeks but I’ll post some more pictures once I’ve given it some TLC.

The only problem is that I’ve now been browsing the collectible sewing and textile section on ebay and lusting after other vintage machines and paraphernalia. I’ve inherited some of my grandparents sewing threads and other bits and bobs and I’m now thinking about how I could decorate my future hypothetical sewing room (or corner, I’d settle for a corner) with vintage sewing collectables. I’ve now got a 1930s Singer sewing machine oil can coming in the post next week…

Wimblelympic Socks

I’m just past the heel on my Wimblelympic socks (confused? Look here to find out about the Wimblelympics.)

They are turning out perfectly so far! I’m very pleased with them. I love the colour, the stitch pattern and the speed its knitting up with. I have just 62 stitches on the needles which stretches nicely to open up the lace and is a lot less than my normal 68+ stitches I usually have for socks. Add that to the fact that every other round is only knitting and you get very speedy knitting!

The little details are what I think really make this sock shine, like this motif on the gusset:

I figured there was no real reason to leave the gussets plain so I embellished them, the motif is one I used as a leg detail on my Embellishing the Colour socks (which is a free Ravelry download if you want to use it yourself).

I’m still a little shy of halfway through my 50g ball of yarn so the knee high socks are looking more likely. I’ve added a little cable detail running up the back of the leg which will look great if I decide to add calf increases. Can you tell how proud I am of these socks? They’re going so smoothly that’s I’m half expecting something to go wrong soon. Maybe the problems are going to come when I write the pattern up… I haven’t started that yet! :)

Swatch This Space

Over at the Knitting Goddess (and Gods) group on Ravelry, there’s a tonne of Wimbledon themed fun courtesy of the lovely moderators. Amongst other things, there’s a quiz (of which I knew no answers but I think my mum might have done rather well) and a knit a long which is similar to the knitting olympics with various events.

I’ve entered the ‘Short Volley’ category (for Socks, Stockings, Slippers, Bootees, Leg Warmers) and I’m planning on using my semi solid gold yarn to design some lacy socks for summer.

I’m tempted to make them knee-high (I seem to want make all my socks knee-high at the moment, not sure why) but I think that might be a bit too much to do in a fortnight. Since I’m doing them toe-up I can see how it goes and decide later. I’m also going to challenge myself to write the pattern up within the two weeks.

I’ve been swatching

and swatching

and even more swatching

and now that I think I’ve decided on a design I can’t wait to start! Which swatch do you think I’ll have gone for? Pictures coming soon!

Halfway There!

I now officially have fewer squares left to do than I have done. I’m (just) over 50% finished!

As I work on it, I can’t help but ponder how I’m going to finish this. Will I really stop when I reach my target? Or maybe I’ll end up adding on a few more rows, or making it wider or adding a solid colour border. Afterall, 20 more squares isn’t much if you’ve already done over 650! I’m even wondering if I should line it. Either way, it’s going to be a while before I really have to make any decisions!

So for now I’ll just admire what I’ve done so far.

And look what came in the post today:

More additions for the sock blanket! From the left they are Evening sky, Chocolate box, Heather and Indian Summer. Next update at 75%? :)

A Bundle of Pretty

I picked up a little bundle of pretty fat quarters the other day at Jarrolds.

They had 10% off so they’re a little bargain too. :)

I’m planning on making small bags, probably sock project bags. I’m not sure what pattern yet, but I’m having fun browsing blogs for tutorials. I like the pink and brown spotty fabric best so I’m going to use the other fabrics as trial runs to practice the techniques and try out designs first.

The green fabric on the far right is the odd one out as it’s a whole meter which I bought just because I liked the print (and it was also reduced!) Not sure what I’ll make from that yet, maybe another bag?

In addition to these goodies, I also got a free bunting kit consisting of template, instructions, cotton tape and tailors chalk. I’d show you a picture but I gave it to my mum as she’s been talking of making/buying some bunting for the summer house in the garden.

I also picked up some fat quarters at Sew Creative this weekend.

Lovely colours and bold stripes that I think will also make some great bags.

Yes, I do seem to have a one track mind at the moment. Everything I see I think will make good bags! I’ve decided I’m not going to buy any more fat quarters (no matter how pretty they are) until this lot is used up and maybe with the next fabric I buy I’ll be inspired to make something other than bags… :)