The next blanket

There is little to say about the next blanket, #198.  It is another in red blue brown grey colours.

One of the yarns is a Pingouin angora blend in a nice blue shade.

Account for 2018

Unexpectedly 2018 became the year when I stopped buying yarn.  More or less.  The decision was made, without prompting, on 1 May when I sorted the yarn store and the amount of yarn there became overwhelming.

I allowed myself a small allowance, of 100 gr per week, and I even managed to keep within it having 750 gr left at the end of the year.  Not buying became quite effortless in the end.  Looking at yarn I would think about what I would do with it; in most  cases I already owned similar yarn, and, if I bought it, it would end up in the yarn store for years to come.  Instead of finding nice yarn cheaply my objective has become to knit the yarn I have.

I continued to knit at a similar rate to previous years.  I used 22.4 kg.  For the first time, since I started keeping records, I knitted more than I bought, in fact twice as much. (I bought a lot before 1 May.)  It feels good.

I hope I can continue not buying.  The 100 gr weekly allowance adds up to more than three blankets per year, so I have reduced it to 75 gr.

Two pictures of nice yarn that I did buy, both American.

The next blanket

The next blanket, #197, has the colours I like, no bright shades, no discordant shades.  I continued with the random coloured Lister Tahiti mohair from blanket #196, and here it fits much better.  In other words, it adds to the total by being barely noticeable.  The other yarns are brown, beige and grey with some touches of blue and green.  It really appeals to me.  When I have used up my bright yarns all my blankets will be like this.

Frosted rose sweater by Sarah Hatton

This is the sweater I spent most of this year knitting.  Knitting anything other than blankets is a slow business, especially if it involves following a pattern.  It was the yarn that led it.  I am going through my yarn spreadsheet with the aim of using yarn in the order I bought it, and the sweater uses two of the next yarns.

The first is Rowan Kidsilk Spray, a random coloured version of Kidsilk Haze.  It had brown, my favourite, with cream.  The second is Rowan 4-ply soft, all wool, in a lovely ply in mousy brown.  I have used these before in different shades, so I knew I would like the fabric.

The pattern came from The Knitter 118, Frosted rose by Sarah Hatton.  I liked the simple construction, knit front and back, do three needle bind off at shoulders and pick up stitches for knitting the sleeves downwards in rib.  Sarah's version was in Kidsilk Haze doubled.  I did a tension square with the Spray - singly because I had not read the pattern carefully - and I wanted something thicker, so I added the 4 ply soft.  I didn't do the lace pattern because I thought it would disappear in the random colours.






Because my tension was now different I recalculated the stitch count.  

The knitting was slow, but no problem.  The neckline in the pattern was too wide for my liking, and I tried to make it smaller, with little success.  I wanted long sleeves, so I lengthened them.

It turned out to be a lovely warm sweater, and now it is colder I wear it a lot.  As can be seen from the pictures.  I have not yet washed it.  It is a shame about the pooling on the front.  There is a slight puff sleeve effect because of the way the stitches were picked up, but it is probably more me and the yarns than the pattern.

Frosted rose sweater, Sarah Hatton, The Knitter 118

Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Spray 70% mohair 30% silk, Rowan 4 ply soft 100% wool
Needles: 4 mm, rib 3.5 mm

Tension: 20 m and 30 rows stocking stitch with one strand of each yarn

Knitted:  4 December 2017 to 29 August 2018

Weight:  425 gr

The next blanket

The next blanket, #196, is a light one with white and pastel colours.  I decided to add this Lister Tahiti mohair, random coloured white beige dark brown, and it does not really fit.  But it used up quite a lot of the yarn.  The white yarns will never run out.  I come across more and more.

This time I unravelled a cardigan, large white Esprit in the 1980s oversized aran knit style that is becoming fashionable again.  I bought it because of the yarn, an aran weight unplied wool.  This is so useful as background in the blankets giving them stability.  I used to buy them - garments in this type of yarn, especially Jigsaw did some nice ones - but with buying less I gave up.  I couldn't resist this one because of the low price.  Unravelling was a dream.

Sock yarn blanket 4

I started the next sock yarn blanket two years ago, and the knitting took some seventeen months.  Then it lay ready waiting to be finished, and I picked it up again in this summer.  I have forgotten a lot, so I rely on my notes.

This is according to the pattern set for the other blankets.  Garter stitch knitted on the diagonal, with 4 ply sock yarn and plain wool sock yarn knitted together.  I used 4.5mm needles.  Among the yarns used were Wendy Roam, Elle (SA) Sockwool 4 ply, Red Heart and Woolcraft Sock yarns, Sirdar Talisman 4 ply dark green.  The bright blue green yarn came without a label, but I think it may be Debbie Bliss sock yarn.

I did the knitting on the bus as usual with no problems.  This time I decided to crochet the blocks together, and it was easily done.  I did it with one strand of yarn, so the join shows from the right side, and the blocks open to lie side by side so there is no ridge.  I'm not sure if this is a good way of doing it or not.  It is interesting.  I did one round of double crochet as edging, followed by one row of crab stitch.  It turned out to be heavy warm blanket.  The colours are dour.

Sock yarn 4 blanket C34

Wendy Roam and sock and other 4 ply yarns doubled
size 4.5 mm needles
125 cm by 175 cm, 1500 gr
Knitted 4 September 2016 to 1 August 2018

The next blanket

The next blanket, #195, is another dark one.  It contains the usual black, navy, brown and green yarns, and I added a regular stripe of various dark red and burgundy yarns.  The black mohair yarn is nice, adding softness and texture.  An odd picture - too light showing the fussiness of the mohair.  The black yarn is prominent.