Vintage yarn knits

Fair Isle Beret by Fiona McTague

Way back when Grace Brothers had a yarn department I bought wool to make a fair isle jumper. It was a jumper for Paul so I bought heaps (this was before yardages were printed on ball bands). Needless to say I have been hauling it around the state since. I have finally used some of it knitting Dad's knee rug and a beret for me. The colours look fantastic if I do say so myself and I am very pleased with the way both projects have turned out.

Princess squares blanket by Pam Allen

Bags of Bows

Finally made up the bag I finished knitting in April. I am quite pleased with it. It's made from Moda Vera Tucano a wool/bamboo blend sadly discontinued. A simple rectangle folded, the pattern is the Mallory Bag in Creative Knitting.

Stash busting...no really!

Ros was really pleased with the stole - it even co-ordinated with the dress she was wearing when I gave it to her so she wore it straightaway. One successful present. Then she put in an order for the shrug I was wearing (the frilly lilac one) for Christmas so I'm on a winner with the knitting presents idea as far as she is concerned.

I am now working on a rug for Dad which is a huge stashbuster, using up yarn I bought to make Paul a fair isle jumper back in the 90s some time. It is the Princess squares rug from Designer Knitting and I think it's looking pretty fabulous already (this picture is how it looks after 5 days knitting).

It is proving to be a very quick knit all in garter stitch and a little a time as it's modular. The really horrible thing will be the ends at the end (won't think about that). The original pattern calls for 6 contrast colours but I had 8 so that's what I'm using so I used my own schematic and I'll have to do more rows I think to make it suitable for a knee rug. I'm planning to add a border with Dad's name in it so it's obvious for the nursing home.

Lace

Have completed a stole for my sister for her birthday. I chose a stitch from my stitch dictionary that looked pretty similar from both directions so I could knit it one way and didn't have to graft to get a symmetrical look. It's knit in Spotlight's kid mohair blend (not for the first time I wish that they hadn't discontinued this yarn this year, the beautiful colours were what largely inspired my wholesale return to knitting and foray into lace shawls). I did think to dye it a more vivid pink but Mum persuaded me that the original pale pink made it more versatile as it is more neutral (it's also in keeping with the 'nude' or 'blush' colours which are supposed to be in this season).

The Bos Comes to Call

This is what I put into the box

This is what I took out of the box

The month of September was marked by the arrival of the travelling tea and yarn box from the "anyone for tea" group on Ravelry. It was an impressive array of exotic tea and yarns which was so tightly crammed in the box it was daunting to get the stuff out to look knowing that one had to get it back in. I was too sick at the time to enjoy tasting the teas (couldn't taste anything) so I took a few to try later and it was very difficult to choose which yarns to keep. Watching over everything was the mascot: Rooibos nicknamed the Bos. I showed him Lake Macquarie, managed to get everything into the box, and posted it all on to its  next destination.

The Bos checking out the garden

A shower of shawls

Well that title may be a bit of an exaggeration. A couple of shawlettes would be more accurate but not alliterative. I have used a couple of the special yarns from my stash and made a couple of small shawls/triangular scarves. One is made  from Filatura Di Crosa's Superior : rose coloured cashmere/silk blend and the other from Collinette's Jitterbug in forest. The former is a bottom up birch lace pattern and the latter a garter stitch shawl with an eyelet edge that I called rick rack because the garter stitch in the variegated yarn looked a bit like rows and rows of rick rack.

Frills and thrills

The frilly theme continues with my swap gift for my swap partner in the Australian Knitters group on Ravelry. My partner said she would like a tea cosy and that she liked strong jewel like colours. I created a frilly tea cosy in Needleworks Luxury Gold Seal Mohair from my stash. I used black as the main colour and knitted in rows of frills in red, purple and pink. I have christened this design "Cancan tea cosy" as the frills reminded me of the frills on a cancan dress.