What I made, by Sharon

This week I finished the Tracery vest. I must have been planning the vest for 8  years, when I first saw it in the Unofficial and Unlicensed  Harry Potter Knits , a book that cracks me up by waltzing along the edges of what is copywrite infringement. Here is the picture from the book: Here's what I knit A little bit different! Except the shoulders, they are the same. And yes, we had a lot of fun trying the reproduce the photos from the book! I had some issues taking this from the "I want to knit it stage" to completion, which is why it took so long. The pattern is written FLAT from the underarms up. I knew I wanted to steek it. To do that I needed  to find a non-superwash wool in the right colours. I couldn't find the right yarn. In 2016 I bought wool to spin it, but somewhere along the way I decided handspun wasn't gong to be the best for this vest. I ended up dying it myself in July last year. I was very specific in my head about what I wanted, and actu...

In the middle of our "longest weekend ever" we heading up to my favourite relaxing place in the world, Marysville. On the way we stopped and took photos of my just finished Stranachlachar. It was a really fun knit. I changed nothing at all - except ignoring all the weird directions when Kate Davies says to "push the stitches aroun d the needle" Makes no sense, so I skipped it. I even knit it to the length specified in the pattern - very unusual for me, because I'm fairly short. I also made a pair of little mitts a very clever pattern by Martina Behm, that took me one evening to make, and like the vest are a very clever construction.  The outfit kept me warm and comfortable during a very relaxing weekend, which involved much sitting on the deck looking at this view: Quite a lot of drinking tea form the ugliest tea pot in history, on said deck,  And some trail running to the top and bottom of waterfalls.  I love my urban life, wit...

I finished the vest on Tuesday, blocked it and wore it on Thursday. We saw Puffs (a Harry Potter play, with the premise of  what were the Hufflepuffs up to while all the stuff that went on in the books was happening. Brilliant) and took the opportunity to get some photos. I really like how this came out. It's deliberately a little bit looser than my other vests, I'm currently going through a positive ease stage in my life.  The Kate Davies pattern was typically brilliant, easy to knit but still interesting. The only mod I did was to lower the neckline by starting it when I started the underarms. All in all a very happy making project.

When I started k nitting Carraig F hada I bragged about how beautiful my tubular cast on was. When I got to the neck, I used the matching tubular cast off. After all, I keep reading about how stretchy it is, and I love the look of it. It's a bit of a pain to work, 4 rows of slipping stitches, then dividing the stitches onto two needles and kitchenering them, but I kept telling myself that the extra hour or so it took me now would be more than made up for by the joy it would give me. Fail Fixed Once I'd cast it off I tried it on: and the collar cast of was tight and binding. It made the whole vest sit wrongly. Pulling it out was nearly impossible, in the end I had to cut out the cast off. So frustrating when I thought I was being so clever!

I've flirted with the tubular cast on before - it gives a stunning edge, but can be a pain over a large number of stitches. For the Carraig F hada vest I wante d to do a cable cast on, and I finally found a fairly easy wa y t o do so over on C rafts y . The only thing is, the pattern then goes in to twisted rib, but I think the non twisted s ide looks better so I' ve flipped the kni tting so it flows th rough nicely.  The vest is named for the lighthouse at Port Ellen on Islay - the thing is it's a square lighthouse, so I hope it doesn't make me look blocky! We spent 4 nights in a hotel overlooking  Carraig Fhada, w atching the lighthouse flash a cross the bay , and seeing the pictures with this pattern bring back sweet memories. And, if you are wondering when I'm going to stop talking abou t that holiday, proba bly about the same time I finish knitting all the patterns from Inspired by Islay and The West highland Way .  

I finished my not-so-deep V Argle vest, and I am very pleased with it.  I used Kate Davies' yarn, Buchaille , and I can't rave about it enough. It has a beautiful hand, and a beautiful  sheepy smell, and is really sticky, perfect for steeking. The knitting proceeded with very little drama, it was an easy to knit, easy to follow pattern. Once I'd finished the knitting and the steeking I tried it on and discovered a very strange thing: the straps were too long, but only at the front. Which makes no sense, since the whole thing is knit in the round. Anyway, I cut the straps shorter, and did the finishing, which, like on all steeked projects, seemed to take a really long time. I am so, so happy with how this came out. I'm really glad I raised the neckline: I'm REALLY glad I went up half a needle size, since it's pretty fitted, bordering on tight: And I'm really glad I finally knit this beautiful vest. I'm pleased until I waited ...