16 ply slippers

In May, when Bendigo Woollen Mills offered a 16ply yarn, made by recycling their leftover wool, bamboo, silk, cotton and alpaca, I bought three balls to experiment with. At the same time, I had bought a copy of Pauliina Kuunsola's Soothing Stitches: knits for a quiet mind,  which included a pattern for slippers - in 16 ply.

I gave up knitting slippers over ten years ago, when those I had been knitting in quantity kept slipping off the heel. This pattern  extended well over the ankle and invited me to try again.

My brother's birthday is in early May and I had not sent a present, so I took up my needles.

The pattern is relatively simple. You knit from the toe, in the round to the ankle, then flat to the heel, cast off and join the back seam. The pattern leaves the turnover loose, but I thought it better to stitch it down. Although I worked the largest of the three sizes given in the pattern, my brother. whose feet are average size for a man, reports them being a bit of a stretch.

I bought a pair of wooden sock blockers from the Yarn Trader. I'm sure, had I blocked my brother's pair, they would fit perfectly (when it's warmer, he can, of course wet them and wear them until dry!).  

My next pair, still knitting the largest size, was for a friend's July birthday. Her feet are, I'm sure, still smaller than mine, although it's decades since we compared. I tried them on the blockers, but didn't actually block them. The colours are not intended to indicate gender - just following what I thought the recipient would like. They are both of the colour intensity I like.

I've used up the remainder of these two balls for scales of justice on the beanies, but I am up to knitting more should these prove a hit. I love working in this Elixir 16 ply yarn

I can post this now that both pair are delivered to (notice I’ve avoided in the hands of, wouldn't want to invite puns) the intended recipients and hopefully doing their job in this winter weather.

More knitting

I've been on a bit of a knitting binge of late.

I had the best part of a ball of wool left from the jacket and hat I knitted for myself. It was  Bendigo Woollen Mills Bloom - a heavy 8 ply and very warm. (It is now on special until the end of the financial year -tonight!)
As I am trying to use up wool as I go and there were a couple of simple things I had wanted to try for a while now, I used up the left-over wool to knit, first, a headband for Veronica.

I was well into the swing of cables, so stuck with that, measured her head and knitted this simple headband, secured by a button.

I'm not sure she will ever wear it, but I have at least tried it out - and used a bit of wool!

My second project was a messy-bun hat for Niamh. I have always wanted to try one of these too. Again, I stuck to the cables. This was harder to get right.

Before I congratulated myself, the hat turned out to be much too long, so I undid the last rows and shortened it. I think I am more enamoured of messy-bun hats than Niamh, but again, I've made one, satisfied my curiosity, learned a bit - and used up all the wool!


I then launched into using up some of Bendigo's Mystery (no longer available) with a pattern for the Brindabella Cowl from Australian Alpaca Yarn. It's more a poncho than a cowl, and I could see it in this wool, so thought I'd try it out before buying any more alpaca.

Even though Mystery was listed as 8ply and I had 100gm more than the pattern recommends, it felt more like 10 ply and did not reach the length needed to pull over the head as a hood.

It nevertheless looked fabulous - such great texture. I love the really chunky cables and it knitted up quickly in the round.



After some consultation with, and modelling by, family I brought it in at the top to keep it snug around the neck and shoulders.
It is very warm.

I'm so pleased it proved to be useful for Katherine at the Netball carnival this morning - and the girls are through to the semi-final!

Knitted vest

In spite of all my good intentions not to buy ANY more wool until I have knitted up what I have, last year I succumbed to the temptation of Bendigo Woollen Mill's special lot of Bloom wool.

I ordered enough to make myself a jacket/cardigan in the 'wine' colourway, along with this pattern.

My agreement with myself was that if I bought it, I had to get on with it straight away. It was not to join the three drawers of unknitted yarn I already had.










I began well. It knits beautifully. I finished the back.



On the fronts, it holds the cable really well.
It is a great pattern to knit. The cable is easy to remember. It's a great pick-up-put-down project.






Admittedly, because I have had a number of embroidery projects to finish, it has been put down more than it has been picked up!  Not a lot got done over Christmas period but I made good progress in February, finishing the first front.













I am now working on the second front, but have just begun to wonder if the variation in the colour rotation in the balls of wool is going to matter. This is the variation between the two fronts







and between the three pieces. The huge difference wasn't apparent to me as I knitted each piece.

I'm certainly not going to stop now, but it may look a bit odd when put together. 

We'll see in a week or so when I finish. Maybe it will prove to be a(nother) declaration of an eccentric old woman!

Canberra Shawl

I'm was on a bit of a roll with shawls this winter. It is, at the moment, my favourite thing to knit. This one was a birthday gift for a dear friend who is in the process of relocating to Canberra. I wanted this one to be soft and warm; a little bit lacy, but not enough to let the chill through.
I found a Bendigo Woollen Mills Alpaca blend that is very soft but as warm as toast.

The pattern is Sierra Breeze from The Prayer Shawl Companion.







I had plenty of wool, so kept knitting until it seemed a good length.

I blocked it lightly, to give it shape and allow the pattern to show without compromising the warmth. It took up the  length of my dining table!

It wasn't easy to get a photo of the finished item, but Veronica helped out.




Then it was off to the birthday girl, and its eventual life in Canberra.

Knitting: Shetland tunic

18 months or so ago I was inspired by a friend who had knitted herself a couple of lovely tunics to wear. I was staying with her when Bendigo Woollen Mill purchased a bale of Shetland wool to spin and offered the resulting Aran weight yarn to their regular customers. I bought what I hoped was enough to make myself a tunic. As I was travelling in the UK for much of the last Australian winter, I got going this Winter and knitted away for several weeks before my knee operation, trying to finish it.

The pattern I chose is great. It gives texture and interest but is predictable and memorable once you have worked a full sequence. I've been able to work without constantly consulting the pattern, and can tell very quickly if I have made an error. I would, however, have been better off allowing an extra ball of the yarn. The bale sold quickly and I have no chance at all of getting more. I want the tunic to be loose and comfortable, so it needs to be quite large.
This is the back - which would make a decent baby blanket!

It was lovely to knit - so soft on the hands.

The pattern is an easy one. It was easy to tell if I  had made a mistake and to retrieve it before I went too far. At the same time, there was sufficient need to concentrate to make it interesting to knit.

It took me about a month to knit the front and back, finishing the front while watching the long vote count on election night with friends. I knitted the first sleeve on my recent trip to NSW and the second on my return, finishing in time to go to hospital for my knee reconstruction!

Although I  had been worried that I had ordered enough wool, I did want this to be quite long and roomy, so made it to the prescribed body length. I rang Bendigo Woollen Mills and discussed substitutes, consequently ordering a couple of balls of 10ply merino. The match wasn't perfect but I thought I might be able to be creative with bands on the sleeves.

In the end I didn't need to supplement it and finished with a small amount left over.

It  could, I think, be a smidgen longer but, although it is clearly longer on the skinny pattern model, it is the length recommended in the pattern.  It is very warm and cosy - perhaps rather more than required in Adelaide but I have worn it all day a couple of times and found it comfortable - beautifully soft. It would go well with the alpaca hat I knitted a few years ago - if I could find it!

The imbecilic look in the photo is the result, not of the tunic, but of the need to focus on looking ahead rather than on the camera button on my phone.

Blackberry tea cosy

This is another pattern I found in a magazine - this time Patchwork and Craft- and that the friends with whom I sit and stitch every couple of weeks decided we should make together. It is by Bianca Kingham of Wolfberry Knits and called Blackberry Teacosy. Patchwork and Craft describe it as " a teacosy with knitted blackberry and leaf applique , giving the effect of embroidery". Bianca's Ravelry  page has a vest using a similar technique.

We spent one session knitting the base. This is mine - using some leftover Bendigo Woollen Mill Murano- the only roughly 10 ply wool I had to hand.  As you can see, I forgot when I started that this wool develops a slant unless you knit into the back of the stitch! I switched as soon as I remembered but decided not to undo, relying on the leaves and berries to distract from the slant.

At our next meeting, the two of us who were there decided to embroider the leaves and berries rather than knitting them. We used reverse chain stitch for the leaves and stems

and straight stitches at different angles for the berries. We could have used French Knots but found the straight stitches gave a better finish on the surface of the wool. I used only oddments of wool I had in my stash so the leaf colour is a bit limited.

This was a pretty simple project and a lot of fun to do together. It lends itself to endless variations and play.

A Second Cardigan

I had bought enough of Bendigo Woollen Mill's Harvest wool to knit a second Cardigan with lace front detail for my other daughter. This time the wool was in a dusty blue. This proved to be a fortuitous colour as most of it was knitted in the Blue Mountains, just west of Sydney while staying with friends.

We had a lovely time knitting, especially in the evenings, inside their warm houses with the mist and rain outside.








I also got a bit done on the train journey back down the mountain.


By the time I came home I had the back, one sleeve and one front finished, but competing demands slowed my progress once home. I have been helping my eldest granddaughter with her chosen project of making herself a Tudor costume as part of her research into Queen Elizabeth I. As she has to create a blog within the school as part of this, I am not posting myself, but will give you a summary and peek when the project is over.


Nevertheless, I've really enjoyed knitting this, and have finally finished it. The wool is lovely to knit. It feels good in the hand, is firm and takes a pattern well. I like the natural fleck, which adds interest. The colour in the photos is all over the place - the colour on the train and in the last photo are truest.

I initially selected blue buttons, but swapped them for smooth wooden ones. I have stitched them on back to front - hiding the flower transfers at the back and showing the smooth wood.

It's a little late in the season for an 8ply cardigan, but will get a bit of a run on cool mornings or evenings. This has been a great project - soothing and easy to pick up and put down.

Knitted Hat

I had been nursing a pattern for a while now for a hat, looking for the right circumstances to use it. It is called Fan Vaulting Beret, and was published in the Canadian magazine, A Needle Pulling Thread in Spring 2013 p50. The design was based the fan vaulted ceiling of Bath Abbey in the UK.

I decided to make one for the Canberra winters, to go with the cardigan I completed for my daughter. She recently visited Bath.

It is knitted around an i-cord - a useful variation on the usual ribbed band.

The pattern is not as distinct in the yarn mixture as it would be in pure, single-colour wool, but it still provided texture.



As you can see, it goes well with the cardigan. It is also toasty-warm.

                                                                                                                   

Knitted top

I couldn't resist trying Bendigo Woolen Mills' Harvest when it was available earlier this  year. It is 82% wool, 10% alpaca, 4% bamboo and 4% viscose. I bought Spring Mix (purples) and  Dusk (blue). I also bought a copy to their pattern 8349, Cardigan with lace front detail and three quarter sleeves.



 I love the way this yarn knitted up. It was very soft on my hands and held the pattern really well.

The pattern was also nicely balanced - the plain back and sleeves knitted up quite quickly and the front had that bit of interest that prevented boredom.


I have a debate with myself about the best method of joining knitted pieces together.

I am not a great fan of backstitched seams in knitting. It always seems to create a very heavy seam for me. When I am feeling very patient, I go for ladder stitch, but mostly I stick to my grandmother's method of top stitching, which, once ironed, I find sits flatter than backstitching. It is strong - provided I finish off very carefully and securely (which, I admit, my grandmother rarely did!).

I used some small flower shaped buttons - a good colour match.

As this wool is a little chunkier than Classic Luxury for which the pattern was originally designed, I made it a little less form fitting, so an extra layer can go underneath.











This one is for my daughter facing the chilly Canberra winter.