30th November - Organising an Advent Calendar

Tomorrow's the day! For the Advent calendars, of course.

I was given this one last year as a birthday present so that I could enjoy it through Advent

A little cardboard doll's house. It came as several sheets, one had to carefully remove the floors, walls and roof pieces and build the house ready to furnish it and add the occupants day by day.

Last year it was a simple matter of looking through the sheets of cardboard to find each day's pieces. This year I just had a large envelope for the house and a smaller envelope of bits. It seemed a bad idea to have to tip everything out each day, but neither did I want too many envelopes.

I've sorted the bits into days 1-8, 9-16 and 17-24 and collected them into just three envelopes.

Tomorris also the start of the Advent cowl project.  I have scheduled the first instructions to hit the blog at 6.30. Hopefully I have understood the scheduling process.

I have finished the embroidery picture for the Postcard Project. Now to find the 'flat present' - although it is a bit buggy this time, and get everything wrapped and ready to post... probably Friday as tomorrow is a bit fraught with activity and I don't want to rush things.

Now, it is chocolate o'clock and time to open the chocolate box.

Advent Cowl Preparations - these are the final instructions

 Here are the final instructions (I hope!) for getting ready for the Advent Cowl project. I have finished knitting up the prototype, and am about to start knitting another as a daily Advent project (can one have too many scarves and cowls?)

The first instructions should appear in this blog on 1st December, and the blog post will be headed 'Advent Cowl'

I will repeat the warning - this is the first time I have attempted to do something like this, as in designing and writing up a pattern, and it has been a bit of an adventure. I hope I have incorporated all the lessons I learned along the way but apologies in advance for anything... !

These photographs show the wrong side of the cowl, and my gauge;

21 stitches to 10 cm on 5mm needles (more than the ball band suggestion of 17 stitches for 10 cm - this could be due to stranded colourwork making a denser texture). Second time around I shall try and knit a little looser. This is the back of the cowl.

and the front, showing stitch count.

here's the row count; 26 rows to 10 cm on 5mm needles (ball band reckons 22)

So, in other words, if this matters, do a swatch, preferably using two colours. You can try a simple pattern such as alternating main and colour yarns, as in M, C, M, C or MM,CC,MM,CC etc. But measurements are not critical - so long as it will go over your head and cover up all your face...

INSTRUCTIONS FOR ADVENT COWL - 2-colour fair-isle style.

Finished size – 15 cm by 56 cm. This fits like a fairly loose collar of a jumper. For an even looser fit around the neck, add stitches in multiples of 8  

YARN AND NEEDLES

I used 45g / 65m of Drops Alaska Aran weight in dark blue for my main colour, and 20g / 42m of Drops Alaska Aran weight in off-white as my contrast colour.

Gauge on ball band was 17 stitches and 22 rounds over 10 cm.

The ribbing was worked on 4mm circular needles, changing to 5mm circular needles for patterns. The needles have to be 40cm or 60cm long. (the stitches are a ‘cosy’ fit on 40 cm, and more spaced out on 60cm needles). You could use dpns; I personally find circulars much easier.

You will also need a marker to mark the beginning of a round – I use a loop of entirely different yarn.   

You can use a mix of colours for main and contrast to use up scraps – just join at the beginning of the round, and weave in the ends at the end. If you don’t have enough of the main colour, you could use a contrast for the ribbing.

KNITTY GRITTY

Read charts from RIGHT to LEFT starting at the bottom.

Each day has one or two rounds. Always slip the beginning of round marker. I find it convenient to stop one stitch short of the round, otherwise the marker falls off the needle overnight.

Blank squares are main colour and * squares are contrast colour.

Repeat the pattern to the end of the round. Patterns repeat over2, 4 or 8 stitches.

Do not break off the contrast yarn between patterns but carry it up between rounds. Usually the floats, where the yarn is carried loosely along the back of the work, will never be more than 3 or 4 stitches.

You will find that the pattern will not match neatly where the rounds meet, because you are knitting round and round in spirals rather than rows. Once you have finished the whole cowl, you can sort of gently pull and encourage the knitting at that point, especially if it is wet, and persuade the pattern to line up better.

ABBREVIATIONS

K – knit.     P – purl

K2tog – knit two stitches together to decrease.

Ktfbl  – knit through front and back of stitch to increase, or use any method you prefer.

Thursday 24th November - averting catastophes; the slow cooker, the cat and the knitting

 Here's my Plan of Attack - I always include things that I can tick off straight away - doesn't everyone?

Although maybe I shouldn't have ticked off  'BLOG' yet as I am in the process of doing it.

This is an attempt to go paperless - I have used something - an 'app' maybe, called Bamboo, on my tablet as I  tablet to write up the plan. Although there isn't much point in going paperless for this as I have most of a pad of 'plan of attack' post-its left.

The beef goulash was supposed to be for today's lunch, but the pot is fuller than the 2/3rds recommendation so I want to cook it on low for 6-8 hours instead of high for 3-4 hours in the hope that it will not bubble up and over and everywhere. We shall see if this tactic is successful, and in the meantime eat tommorow's lunch (fish) today.

The Catastrophe - you may remember that McCavity (our nearly 20-year-old cat)went through a phase of falling off things a few months ago. She's not to steady on her legs these days. One of the first places she fell from was the back of the settee. This was a favourite perch all through last winter, as there is a radiator behind the settee. So it was a little alarming to discover this when I walked into the sitting room;

(that strange brown thing by her head is a small teddy bear with a magnet in its back.)

We fetched down this ancient rug - I know it is over 50 years old because I took it to boarding school when I started there back in 1971 - boarders all had to bring a travel rug from home to put on their beds. And an eiderdown. I was very glad of both, indeed I used to wear my PE sweater, socks and dressing gown in bed as well. No central heating back in them thar days.

The rug needed going over with the vacuum cleaner to remove a few layers of dust, during which process I discovered that the other side of the rug is mostly holes! However, one folded, it has made a fairly solid pad to fill the gap between the settee and the radiator.

I am engaged in some rather sweaty sweater surgery at the moment; It is  possible to remove the cast on edge of a knittted hem - say a cuff, but entails picking up stitches all around the knitting, and then - oh horrors - CUTTING through stitches between your picked up stitches and the ribbing. I have embarked upon this Awfully Big Adventure in order to reknit the ribbing in such a fashion that it won't curl up the whole time. Fear not, if you were planning to join the Advent Cowl Knit-Along - I am doing all of this so that you won't have to! 

The white blocks are pencil rubbers which I have stuck the ends of the needles into to prevent stitches disappearing while I am wrangling the rest it. I am unravelling the cut piece of yarn and should end up with all the main stitches happily on the needle, ready to be knitted into the new ribbing.

Monday 21st November - Positive Procrastination

 

I'm hoping writing today's blog post can be considered as 'positive procrastination'. I have just invented this term (but maybe someone has got there first without telling me) to cover those situations when you have made your list, and then you go and make a cup of tea and rattle in a quick blog post before bringing yourself to the point of actually starting it. 

The first section on the 'plan of attack' is labelled 'Most Critical', and writing a blog post isn't written there. Everything else MUST be done today, especially as it wasn't done yesterday, or the day before, or the day before....

The second section is 'would be nice'. I have written 'Emma Bridgewater Christmas Decoration'. This refers to the wee little jug on my tea tray - it holds exactly enough milk for one mug/cup of tea plus a top-up, or the amount of water Himself likes to put in his single malt Scotch when he has one.

The matching mug is upstairs in the bathroom with Himself's electric toothbrush head inside. We have a Phillips electric toothbrush and they have stopped putting a colour coded ring on them, so we can't tell which is which any more. I'm using my favourite tiny coffee mug at the moment, but I would rather have it for coffee. So I'm considering getting another one 'Emma Bridgewater Christmas Decoration Tiny Mug' - now which pattern to choose, and personalised or not? 

I'm please to have found a use for the tiny mug - it was too small to hold an espresso coffee. or to be an egg cup.    

(His is on the left, because he is right handed, mine is on the right, because I am left handed. This may not make sense, until you realize that we pick u the toothbrush handle part with our dominant hand, so when the mugs were the other way round we kept choosing the wrong one.)

So far today positive procrastination has included 

Knitting some more Advent cowl and weighing how much yarn is left, so that I can check if I need one or two 50g balls of main (one will be exactly enough, and I have thought of a work around in case some unforseen happening happens) 

Making another rice pudding to check quantities and timings (500ml milk, 32.5 g rice comes to just over the 1oz measure and 25g sugar to just over the 1/2 oz measure on my dinky mini-measure. I have used white sugar this time, and added 2 cardomum pods (I've had three goes at spelling cardoman and none of them look right) and one fresh bay leaf)
 
Ordering 2 balls of Adriafil Knitcol double knitting wool (it is glorious stuff!) to experiment with a Lent cowl project. Which is why I probably won't order the tiny mug as well.  

It is 11 am and shall race myself to complete the following by Lunchtime (about 12 noon) 

Piano email to S

Piano email to R

Text J

Work on the December 'Print and Post' Newsletter 

On my marks, get set, go!

 

Saturday 20th November - Advent Cowl Planning (3) - The Schedule and making a start

 Final Schedule - for now at any rate!

The idea is that there will be two rounds of knitting every day Mon-Fri; 108 stitches in total, taking around 10 minutes per day. 

Saturdays and Sundays won't have a chart or instructions as they will be catch up days. I'll post the instructions early in the day - it will be a good opportunity for me to discover how to schedule posts in advance! 

Yarn

You will need Aran yarn in two contrasting colours. I have bought 100g of main and 50g of contrast because I wasn' sure how much this would take. My sample cowl which is a little smaller in width and depth weighs 35g so you might manage with 50g of each colour. I'd rather have too much and use the rest for a hat for a charity box or present. But there is no reason why you should stick to the same two colours throughout, and indeed you can use two strands of double knitting held together as an equivalent to Aran, as I did when making the (slightly too small) sample cowl below.

Needles

4mm and 5mm circular needles 40cm long from tip to tip.

SANITY WARNING - I have never properly designed and written down a knitting pattern before - follow me at your own risk! I will, however, start my cowl now, so that I keep ahead and hopefully spot problems before they go out. 

Here's how it starts, if you want to see how it goes...

Day 1 Thursday 

• Cast on 104 stitches on 4mm needles using Aran yarn in main colour. Join into a round without twisting, place start of round marker (a loop of contrasting yarn). 
• Round 1; single rib to end (K1 P1). 

Day 2 Friday

• Check your knitting carefully - if the stitches have been joined with a twist, now is your only chance to twist them back where the join is! 
• Round 1; knit 
• Round 2; single rib in main

Here's mine, half way through day 2. And yes, I did twist the stitches - I was so engrossed in dealing with the consequences of casting on using a mm needles, and then joining using a 4mm needle that I forgot to check. But, I did manage to untwist myself - hurrah. So that's the first mistake already before I even began to knit. It is a fairly forgiving pattern.... it has to be! 

Day 5 Monday (the mystery patterns begin!)

• change to 5mm needle
• Round 1; knit
• Round 2; *knit 1 Contrast, knit 1 Main* for the whole row

This is where I have got to on Friday evening; partway through round 2 of Monday. You can see the 'every other stitch' colour pattern, and also my beginning of round marker.

I shan't post any more photographs of the cowl until December. 

Rest of the schedule;

Days  6, 7, 8, 9,    12, 13, 14, 15, 16,    19, 20, 21, 22, 23      follow the daily charts for two rounds of a knitting a day 

Day 22 Thursday

• change to 4mm needles
• Round; 1 Single rib
• Round; 2 Knit

Day 23 Friday

• Round 1 Single Rib
• Pick up a 5mm needle and use it to cast off all stitches. Cut off yarn and weave in all the ends

Day 24 (Saturday - Christmas Eve) Wear your new cowl!

Saturday 19th November - Plan of Attack

 There are days when it is necessary to sit down and list and prioritize what need to be done. Today is one of those days. Luckily I have a pad of post-it notes for that purpose;

Make coffee was first on the list - but knitting some of the Advent cowl while I drank it was not on the list at all.

Neither was loading our new 'mini' slow cooker with milk, sugar and rice ready for a rice pudding four hours' time.

 Now, where was I? Ah yes. Catching up with the list. All be done by lunch time with any luck, and rice pudding will be my reward.  

Friday 18th November - Advent Cowl Planning (2)

 Measure twice, cast on once....

I've measured my last year's cowl again; it is 65 cm around, and 15 cm wide. I've put it on because my neck is cold and it is a loose but not 'draggly' fit.

I know that I made it using double knitting and 4 mm needles and I must have made the large size. No gauge was specified. The alternative was Aran and 4.5 mm needles, but as I don't seem to have any 4.5 mm needles, that seems to solve the question of which yarn I used!

Each day had 8 rows of 36 stitches to do, a total of 300 stitches give or take, which took me around 15 minutes.

Now for my version;

I have knitted a trial swatchy sort of thing; and even managed to put it on! 

There is a lot to learn from it;

1. use a smaller size of needle for the rib - I didn't at the bottom edge and I don't like the way it flares out.

2.Choose patterns with an easily memorable repeat - I am slowly building up a set of 'peerie' patterns - the smaller motifs used in between the bigger motifs in traditional fair-isle (see example below)

3.Mock rib works fine for me - in the round, you do K1 P1 on row 1 and then K on row 2; repeat for 3 and 4. I did the bottom on 5mm needles like all the rest, but switched to 4mm for the top which worked better. 

Gauge;

 Gauge; I am getting 20 stitches and 24 rows to 10 cm with aran yarn and 5mm needles. he texture is quite close, like a warm jumper, but not stiff.

I knitted the trial on just 84 stitches, and that would makes it about 55 cm around. It fits like the collar on a jumper.   

 Three rounds of knitting this morning (two plain, one patterned) took me 15 mins. 84 stitches time 3 = 252 stitches in fifteen minutes.  

To get the desired width, I would need another 20 stitches - so cast on 104 stitches, (double check; 20 stitches is 10 cm, 84 stitches is 55 cm, so 84 + 20 is 104 which is 65 cm) of Aran yarn on 4 mm needles using main colour. 

To get the desired depth of 15 cm, I will need a total of 32 rounds including borders.

The top and bottom borders are 3 rows each (cast on/off plus 3) rounds, leaving 26 rows for the patterns. So the days are;

• Day 1 cast on plus one round
• Day 2 two rounds 
• Day 3 change to 5mm needles and do two pattern rounds 1/2
• Day 4 pattern rounds 3/4
• Day 5 pattern rounds 5/6
• Day 6 pattern rounds 7/8
• Day 7 pattern rounds 9/10
• Day 8 pattern rounds 11/12
• Day 9 pattern rounds 13/14
• Day 10 pattern rounds 15/16
• Day 11 pattern rounds 17/18
• Day 12 pattern rounds 19/20
• Day 13 pattern rounds 21/22
• Day 14 pattern rounds 23/24
•  Day 15 pattern rounds 25/26
• Day 16 change to 4 mm needles, single rib round and knit round
• Day 17 single rib round, then use a 5mm needle to cast off
• Day 18 weave in all the ends.

But there are still 6 days to go before Christmas Eve! So if I leave weekends as catch-up days then that deals with that.

I think I am ready to go to the next stage.....