Birkin sweater

When I saw a picture of this sweater (which I shall call a jumper from now on) in the 2nd edition of Laine magazine, I knew I had to buy the magazine and make this jumper!  Those flowers!  Firstly I scrolled through the hashtag and the ravelry projects to get ideas from the colours and yarns chosen by other knitters.

Violets are my favourite flower, and as soon as I saw someone's Birkin jumper with purple flowers in the middle row I knew immediately that I had made a start on my colour choices!

I used the Knit Picks yarn called "Palette" with the main colour called "Oregon Coast Heather." I bought 3 shades of each of the other colours so that I could swatch and decide.  I ended up knitting all the way into the purple flower when I decided it was too yellow and so had to unravel it back and added in an orange flower instead of two rows of yellow flowers.  I also added another purple to give the big flowers a bit of extra depth. 

This is the only other alteration I made.  I added a row of the green leaves to each sleeve, as well as kept knitting the arm decreases until I got to a full length sleeve.

LOVE this jumper! I really enjoyed knitting it and am very happy with the end result! I wore it to the Edinburgh Yarn Festival and had a few kind ladies compliment me on it.  My first ever yoked, top down jumper and I am already planning another yoked top down !

Baa-ble Hat

To promote Shetland Wool week Donna Smith has designed a free knitting pattern for download.  As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to give this a go, as I love sheep and especially these little black faced sheep which I get to see quite a lot where I live in Perthshire, Scotland.

I have only ever knit one other hat using this stranded colour work technique, and I am happily surprised that once I had the needles in my hand it all came back to me and I hadn't forgotten anything!

Technique

I used a short length circular needle for the entire hat, but when I got close to the crown and there weren't many stitches left I used the 'magic loop' technique where I just pull some of the needle cord through any gap in the stitches to make the knitting into a triangle shape.

I also keep the main colour I am using for each row in my right hand and knit as normal, and the additional feature colour I keep on the left side.  When I enter my right needle into the left to start a stitch I simply loop the yarn over from the strand on my left.  When it comes to a gap of more than 5 or 6 sttiches all I did was pick up the ball of yarn from my left side and take it under and over the looping strand on my right side.  (I should have taken a video I guess).
Here is what the inside ends up looking like:

Perfect for Scottish weather, as it almost acts as two layers!  I used the recommended yarn and colours, and bought it directly from Jamieson's of Shetland.  But there are already so many other gorgeous Baa-ble hats to be seen in an array of colours using the hashtag #baable on social media.

This will be the first pom pom I have ever worn!  And I don't feel one bit silly, instead wearing it makes me feel proud of my ability to make such a fun pattern with such beautiful wool.

Bird's eye view

Gamboling sheep in all their glory, front and back.

Peerie Flooers, A Fair Isle Finish

I have completed my first ever Fair Isle knitted item and am so pleased with it!

I had no idea the crown would look so lovely once finished

I learnt how to do Fair Isle two-handed stranded knitting at an evening workshop with Deborah Gray, which I have posted about here.  Now a couple of photos of the hat inside-out to show the stranding.

  

Deborah has made up these kits that include an original Kate Davies pattern as well as the exact measurements of wool required to complete the hat.  Such a good idea to buy it as a kit, as I have already started looking into creating another Fair Isle hat but having to purchase entire balls of wool just for a few rows of colour really makes the total cost add up!

The pattern is called Peerie Flooers, meaning small flowers and is by Kate Davies, a stunning blog if you enjoy knitting design and Scottish landscapes.

I knitted the medium sized hat which is slightly slouchier than the one Kate wears in the photos on her blog.

I loved knitting in the round and using the 'magic loop' idea.  Stranding the wool in two hands was easy and I didn't have any tangling problems at all!   Thanks so much to Kate for such a pretty pattern.  I am hoping to start the Scatness tam next!  And Thanks to Deborah for teaching these techniques to me.  She even talked me through the pattern over the phone when I needed help starting on the crown!  

Learning Something New During Wool Week

Firstly a warm Thank-You to those who voted for me after my last post.  I came third!  I am very grateful for your kind support.  Now on with my new post:
Last week there were many events across the whole of the United Kingdom to celebrate the wonderful fibre of wool, as can be seen here on the events page from the Campaign for Wool website.  But there were also a number of local events here in Scotland to participate in.  The John Lewis department store ran workshops, which you can read about here on Alison's blog.  One of my favourite Scottish blogs is by Kate Davies and that was where I first read about Wool Week on the Shetland Islands.  One day I would love to visit Shetland wool week, as they have so many events on offer, plus the Mister would be kept amused with all the photography, hiking and fishing opportunities!

The closest event for me was a one-day event offered by Deborah Gray just 3 villages away.  Deborah teaches wool spinning,dying and all sorts of other wooly skills, running workshops in both Scotland and sunny Italy!  Plus she had just been to Shetland to teach workshops and was offering to show photos from her trip.  You too can see some of her photos and read about her time on Shetland here.  Apart from spinning, dying and felting she was also offering an evening workshop to teach and improve the technique of Fair Isle knitting.  Now this is something I am VERY interested in learning.

So here is my first ever attempt at Fair Isle Knitting:

Here's a shot of my stranding on the back:

Three new techniques I have learnt

Deborah taught me how to use a 100cm long circular needle to work this 40 stitch wide sample in the round by pulling the cord through my work about half way around, a technique she called the Magic Loop.  

I also learnt to knit with the background colour in my right hand and the pattern colour in my left and when I wanted to knit the pattern colour I did this using the continental or picking method.  It will make the pattern sit up high like the background colour.

When knitting the ribbed section, I did the purl stitches with the pearl colour in my right hand and used the picking method with the background colour in my left.  This makes the pearl stitches sit up just as high as the knit stitches.

The Result

I have only made a little sample to test out my knitting tension.  So far I think I am knitting too tightly so I will buy a needle one size up and try another knitted swatch to see if I can get the tension to match the pattern.  Which leads me to my next wonderfully woolly treat.  Unbelievably, some of the kits that Deborah had available to learn Fair Isle knitting were designs from my knitting idol Kate Davies!

Peerie means little in the Shetland dialect, and you can read about Kate's design and see some lovely photos of her wearing it here.

...AND the wool I am using is spun and dyed on Shetland with wool from Shetland sheep!

Such a serendipitous workshop for me - three things I have long admired all coming together in one evening!  Shetland wool week, Kate Davies pattern and learning to do Fair Isle knitting!

If you did anything for Wool Week I would love to hear about it!  Feel free to post any links about your Wool Week experience in the Comments box below.

I have now finished this lovely hat - you can see it on my blog by clicking here.