Account for 2019

My resolve, made in 2018, to buy less yarn worked well at the start of the year, and I regularly kept within my allowance of 75 gr per week, so much so that I could buy some reduced on the internet.  This lasted until the first week of June when I couldn't resist over 1 kg oddments of random dyed sock yarn, very reasonably priced.  The picture shows about a third.






After that there was no going back.  I continued buying, and at the end of the year I find that my purchases amounted to more or less the same as the previous year.  I have refined my selections now.  I no longer buy yarn that will go straight into the blankets.  As a result I have ended up with a lot of lace weight yarn, so much so that I will have to make a start knitting with it.

An expensive item was Marie Wallin British Breeds yarn, some that came in a presentation box at an unbelievable price.  Charity shops often price their goods using the internet as a guide.  I bit my teeth and told myself it was all for charity.  The yarn is so nice.

Another good, and expensive in comparison to shop price, purchase was two 240 gr hanks of Estonian minimally processed and dyed wool.  Was this 8 ounce hanks?  (The brown yarn is Greek goat's mohair, bought at Alexandra Palace.)











As to the finished projects they amounted to more or less the same as in previous year, 23.1 kg.  And 2020?  I will continued buying yarn.  It gives me pleasure.

The next blanket

The next blanket, #209, combines two of my less favourite colours, bright red and yellow.  The yellow, in a regular stripe, came from two boucle yarns, the first an unlabelled wool, tightly spun and very bright.  The second was a ball of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Astrakhan, quite pleasant with the microfibre and cashmere blended with wool.

If you look at the blanket from a distance it looks quite cheerful.  I was pleased to use up the yarns.  Boucle is awkward knitting, but it does add a lot of texture.

For this blanket I unravelled this cardigan.  It is a Kaffe Fassett pattern, Wentworth, from Rowan 46.  The pattern is completed in numerous shades of Rowan Kidsilk Haze.  The knitter here included several shades of a non-mohair yarn, I think it is Rowan Felted Tweed.  It adds stability to the garment.  In the blanket the short lengths of Kidsilk Haze add a surprising amount of softness, in addition to the Debbie Bliss Angel mohair that I also included.

Sock yarn blanket 5

This is the next bus knitting, another blanket using sock yarn.  I bought the yarn, Regia 4 fädig Multieffekt Color in a pack of 10 balls, half price in a sale with the intention of knitting a sweater for myself.  When I came to use the yarn, some eight years later, I really did not want to wear light blue, so it became this blanket instead.  I knitted the yarn doubled with Jaeger Matchmaker 4 ply pure wool from a charity shop, in a deeper shade of blue.

This was satisfying bus knitting in my usual bias garter stitch blocks for over a year.  I stopped knitting when I ran out of the sock yarn.  I did three more blocks using a grey yarn to get a rectangular shaped blanket.  Then it took me another six months to get round to joining the blocks and doing the edging.  I did it by crochet.  I am not pleased with this way of doing it because it looks crude.  Next time I might do it by knitting instead, even if it takes longer.

The blanket feels heavy, but it will no doubt be warm and practical.  It will be machine washable too.  I like the way the striping forms crosses at the corners.

Sock yarn blanket 5

Yarn: Regia 4 fädig Multieffekt Color and Jaeger Matchmaker 4 ply pure wool
Needles: 4.5 mm
Size: 100 cm by 140 cm

Weight: 1120 gr

Done 21 January 2018 to 23 September 2019

The next blanket

The next blanket, #208, is the next dark ones.  They are all the same now.  I use the same black wool, and there is a lot of green to go through.  This one has navy mohair, navy cotton and brown and dark grey wool.  It is much darker than the pictures.  The white bits belong to a nice black white marled alpaca, unlabelled.

To add to the green I unravelled a neat light short green cardigan.  The yarn turned out to be lovely.  It is a flecked thin tweed yarn, a pleasure to knit with.

Rau sweater

The next yarn to be used was Rowan Lenpur Linen, bought in sales some eight years ago.  I had 10 balls each in two shades, Cocoa - brown and Tattoo - grey.  The pattern that I found was in Knitscene Summer 2017, Rau sweater by Quenna Lee.

It is a simple design, stocking stitch body and sleeves with a garter stitch yoke with lace detail on the front.  I knitted the body and the sleeves in the round.  The front and back yokes are joined at the shoulders with three needle cast off.  I didn't do very well doing it in garter stitch - a good thing it doesn't show in the pictures.  The stitches for the sleeves are picked up and worked downwards.  I did full length sleeves, having cold wrists.

It was straightforward knitting.  The lace detail was an interesting and something different for me.  I managed to get the number of stitches right so it fits me well.  Mine has more ease than the pattern, deliberately.  I did the yoke in grey - and the rest in brown - because I thought there might not be enough brown.  There would have been.  I like wearing it.

The yarn, viscose 75% and linen 25%, feels nice to the touch when knitted.  But, it splits badly, so I had to be careful knitting it.  I would avoid similar yarns in future.

Rau Sweater, Quenna Lee (Knitscene Summer 2017)

Yarn: Rowan Lenpur Linen, viscose 75% linen 25%, Cocoa and Tattoo shades

Needles: 3.0mm for rib and yoke, 3.5mm for body and sleeves

Size: S

Weight: 460gr

Knitted 29 April to 18 August 2019

The next blanket

The next blanket, #207, turned out quite pleasing.  I managed to omit all discordant shades, and all blend together nicely.  The blanket is white and pink with grey and beige shades.  My only thought was that I must include more whites in the next one.

I unravelled this cardigan, from one of Kaffe Fassett's early kits.  This must be the third or fourth I have done.  It contains mainly Rowan DK wools in nice shades.  It was knitted in fairisle and was easy to unravel.

According to my spreadsheet the next lots to be added are other 1990s Rowan yarns.  One is an Annabel Fox beige DK, a total of 9.5 balls so it will last a long time.  The mohair next to it is not Rowan; it is Jonelle but nice nonetheless.

The unlabelled balls in this picture are Rowan, a 4 ply tweed often used in their kits.  It could be Light Tweed or Fine Fleck Tweed, or something else altogether.  I often find yarn from Rowan 1990s kits and I can't help buying it, thinking I must give it a good home.  My blankets seem an appropriate place.  It is lovely yarn to knit with and it adds nice texture.

CKCA7 Greenway

This is my next blanket from Comfort Knitting and Crochet Afghans, a crochet design, Greenway, by Donna Yacino.  I skipped #6 Ribbon because broomstick lace does not interest me.

Greenway on the other hand was tempting.  I had the cotton yarn in mind, and I like this kind of crochet pattern with rows in different colours.  The yarn was Patons 4 ply mercerized cotton in shades of white, cream and beige (plus one ball of similar Sirdar).  To add I had one ball of lavender and some unlabelled matt cotton in bright apricot and pink/brown.  I devised a regular striping pattern - it may be difficult to spot but it is there.

Since my yarn is thinner than the yarn in the pattern I worked out the number of stitches needed for a regular blanket, and I got it nearly right.  The pattern was clear and it was easy enough to do.  But it took such a long time with thin yarn.  I enjoy crochet but the problem with a slow project is that I am anxious to finish it because I would rather be knitting.

I decided the blanket was done when I ran out of yarn.  It was far too short for a standard blanket, but that couldn't be helped.  I did the edging, in an unlabelled cream cotton, as the pattern; one round of double crochet followed by one round of crab stitch.  It works.  I knotted the ends two by two on the side and crocheted over them when I did the edging, no other fastening.

I don't like the blanket very much.  The cotton makes it stiff compared to a woollen blanket, and not at all comfortable to snuggle under.  The best use would be as a picnic rug or play blanket for children.  It would be hard wearing and easily washable being cotton.

I do like the stripes and the colours, and I could look at it for a long time.  The apricot lifts it, and not even the lavender disturbs me.



This is where I decided to abandon my project to work my way consecutively through the projects in this book.  Now that my objective is to finish the yarn in the yarn store chronologically doing challenging patterns takes too long.  I need patterns that I can do while watching TV, and since I get most pleasure from putting yarns and colours together the patterns can be straightforward.

But glancing through the book now I keep seeing patterns that I would like to try...

I also need to decide what to do about the thin cotton yarns in the yarn store.  I had saved them for this kind of crochet, but however simple the pattern it takes too long.  I could use them doubled but that doesn't appeal to me.  Now I'm considering using them in my standard blankets.  It would add nice texture.

Greenway

Pattern: Comfort Knitting and Crochet Afghans Donna Yacino
Yarn: Patons 4 ply cotton and others
Hook: 2.5 mm
Size: 115 cm by 130 cm

Weight: 1150 gr

Done 17 March to 31 August 2019