If, just if, KnitWrong is still clinging to your feed reader - or if you've kept checking in occasionally, just in case I've picked up my needles again - if you are that hopeful person, then I have good news. KnitWrong has relocated to WordPress and I am reinvigorated knitblogger.
See you on the other side!
Saturday 20 June 2009
Thursday 15 May 2008
I am not stitchy and I will not sew a seam
Oh horrid words:
Luckily, I have learned some things in my time knitting (even if I haven't learned not to be a baby about seams). Remember Matilda Jane? Remember my delirious joy at her seamlessness? And remember that she has button bands? Knitted in button bands, no less. Adding a chain selvedge by slipping a stitch purlwise at the neck edge is a minor alteration of the pattern - but when you are the sort of pouting child that I become when faced with a bit of slightly-challenging making-up, it's an alteration which makes the difference between ending up with a wearable garment, or ending up with a sorry heap of knitted pieces.
FINISHINGAttaching the band as you work it is really the only way to make a neat job of Bridie's asymmetric front detail. Still, the idea of knitting one long snaky strip of ribbing and simultaneously wrangling needle and yarn sounded too fiddly to me: as soon as I read that part of the directions, I knew that I just didn't want to do it, and realised that unless I worked out a sew-less way of getting the band in place, poor Bridie would be going back into the knitting bag with sad naked fronts.
Block all pieces to measurements. Sew Shoulder seams.
Left Front Band / Neckband
Note: to ensure a perfect fit, sew piece AS YOU WORK IT to Left Front, Back neck shaping, and Right Front neck shaping.
Luckily, I have learned some things in my time knitting (even if I haven't learned not to be a baby about seams). Remember Matilda Jane? Remember my delirious joy at her seamlessness? And remember that she has button bands? Knitted in button bands, no less. Adding a chain selvedge by slipping a stitch purlwise at the neck edge is a minor alteration of the pattern - but when you are the sort of pouting child that I become when faced with a bit of slightly-challenging making-up, it's an alteration which makes the difference between ending up with a wearable garment, or ending up with a sorry heap of knitted pieces.
Tuesday 13 May 2008
Pick up stitches
Ever since I first bumped into Bridie on Anna Bell's beautiful, eloquent blog, I've been anxious to knit it. The pretty stitch pattern, the striking shape of the fronts - the details of this design make it both pleasurable to knit, and lovely to look at, while its quietly classic beauty mean it is likely to play a regular part in my wardrobe for some time. Anyway, KnitKnit arrived as a Christmas present, the mountain of Wool Cotton I'd been collecting urged itself as a summery sub for the Karabella Aurora suggested by the pattern, and I cast on.
In the world of some knitters, casting on at Christmas would mean a cardigan by, ooh, Easter. Not me. I made it almost all the way up the back before filching the needles for another project:
Meet Quilty. Quilty is bottom-up tank knitted in twisted rib and smocking stitch. Quilty is the product of my own beknighted brains. Quilty was racing along to the shoulders until the moment that my husband said, "so, what are you wearing to the wedding in two weeks time?" At which point I remembered Bridie, hunched in the knitting bag waiting for someone to supply fronts, bands, buttons, sleeves etc etc. So the plan for the next fortnight it to finish her - not a wildly overambitious plan, but still pretty daunting given that she'll be my first major seaming job.
In other news: my knitblogging skills are now in the pay of Yarn Forward Magazine, where I'm posting behind-the-scenes news and work from readers. If you're reading this post after my massive internet hiatus, do come over and say hi...
In the world of some knitters, casting on at Christmas would mean a cardigan by, ooh, Easter. Not me. I made it almost all the way up the back before filching the needles for another project:
Meet Quilty. Quilty is bottom-up tank knitted in twisted rib and smocking stitch. Quilty is the product of my own beknighted brains. Quilty was racing along to the shoulders until the moment that my husband said, "so, what are you wearing to the wedding in two weeks time?" At which point I remembered Bridie, hunched in the knitting bag waiting for someone to supply fronts, bands, buttons, sleeves etc etc. So the plan for the next fortnight it to finish her - not a wildly overambitious plan, but still pretty daunting given that she'll be my first major seaming job.
In other news: my knitblogging skills are now in the pay of Yarn Forward Magazine, where I'm posting behind-the-scenes news and work from readers. If you're reading this post after my massive internet hiatus, do come over and say hi...
Tuesday 9 October 2007
Change of address
Hello from Bath, where the Webbo family is happily unpacked and ensconced. From now on, I'll be using knitwrong as a secondary blog. All knitting content will still be cross-posted here (so if knitting's all you're after, you can leave your bookmarks as they are with no fear of missing out on another exciting installment of my yarny travails), but my main self-publishing outlet will be Paperhouse, where I intend to parade my ignorance on a whole range of topics.
There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, it transpires that I can't generate enough knitting content to maintain an active blog, and having a knitting title left me feeling apologetic every time I digressed into other matters. The "wrong" part of the title ended up as a bit of a burden too - everything that didn't turn out to be an unmitigated disaster seemed to demand an explanation. So, it's on to Paperhouse, where my first post should be up in a few days time. It's about some knitting that didn't turn out so good...
There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, it transpires that I can't generate enough knitting content to maintain an active blog, and having a knitting title left me feeling apologetic every time I digressed into other matters. The "wrong" part of the title ended up as a bit of a burden too - everything that didn't turn out to be an unmitigated disaster seemed to demand an explanation. So, it's on to Paperhouse, where my first post should be up in a few days time. It's about some knitting that didn't turn out so good...
Wednesday 29 August 2007
Farewell to yarn
Knitwrong is taking an enforced absence from the internet in order to effect the sanity-shattering relocation of the Webbo family from from Sheffield to Bath. By Sunday. (And I know that this is not so much an "announcement" as a "statement of self-evident fact", but I thought I should put some gloss on the cryptic pronouncements of the last post.)
Moving means purging. I am taking uncharacteristic pleasure in divesting myself of Stuff - that inchoate accretion of objects which seems untouchable until one is faced with the prospect of hoiking it into a van and lugging it across the country. Goodbye, books I never really liked! (Lunar Park, The Human Stain, Infinite Jest, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit - you will not mock me from my bookshelf in Bath.) Goodbye, ugly vase we got for Christmas and kept in a cupboard! And goodbye, amazing jumper from a charity shop in Oxford! I bought this out of a curiosity to see Fair Isle close up, a love of the colours, and a fascination with the label (it was handknit in Oxford, apparently). I am re-donating because it's so warm it makes my face sweat even in midwinter, yellow makes me look peaky, and the floats are brazenly too long (several have snapped and it's beyond me to fix them). Oh, and it's got drop shoulders which give me monkey arms.
As this is like my fiftieth post or something, I suppose I could be ungenerous enough to give it away as a prize. But I'm not even resourceful enough to think of a competition right now. Perhaps by post #51, I'll have come up with some decent loot and a way for you to win it.
Moving means purging. I am taking uncharacteristic pleasure in divesting myself of Stuff - that inchoate accretion of objects which seems untouchable until one is faced with the prospect of hoiking it into a van and lugging it across the country. Goodbye, books I never really liked! (Lunar Park, The Human Stain, Infinite Jest, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit - you will not mock me from my bookshelf in Bath.) Goodbye, ugly vase we got for Christmas and kept in a cupboard! And goodbye, amazing jumper from a charity shop in Oxford! I bought this out of a curiosity to see Fair Isle close up, a love of the colours, and a fascination with the label (it was handknit in Oxford, apparently). I am re-donating because it's so warm it makes my face sweat even in midwinter, yellow makes me look peaky, and the floats are brazenly too long (several have snapped and it's beyond me to fix them). Oh, and it's got drop shoulders which give me monkey arms.
As this is like my fiftieth post or something, I suppose I could be ungenerous enough to give it away as a prize. But I'm not even resourceful enough to think of a competition right now. Perhaps by post #51, I'll have come up with some decent loot and a way for you to win it.
Saturday 18 August 2007
Getting down to it
Here it is, just in time to avoid getting rumbled as not-a-proper-blogger: the obligatory trying-on post. Shiny face? Check. Unflattering pose? Check. Unbrushed hair? Check. Well-fitting jumper? Check, check, check! The only reason you're not getting this via the bathroom mirror is that my boyfriend nobly stepped into the breach. (I say nobly, but looking at the state of me, I can't help suspecting that his motives consisted less of chivalry and more of, "let me watch MotD in peace, woman.")
Cyn at Half-Assed Knitblog, because I will never tire of her knits' propensity to turn into monsters. Also, because she has been knitting for about the same length of time as me, but has a design sensibility (and an ability to put that sensibility into actual yarn-y practice) which I find inspirational.
Badger. She makes me laugh, she knits neat stuff, she has some entertaining business with a soft toy. As do Little Missy and Wheezy (well, barring the soft toy bit, but with a bonus point for Wheezy because I do so often feel the truth of her blog title).
And finally, an honourable mention for my New Favorite Blog, which is neither by a girl nor girly: my friend Joel's blog about fighting, which is more entertaining and more humane than I would ever have expected a fightblog to be.
It's been a busy week of life-changing decisions, extensive travel, and lots of catching up with friends and meeting new people, so my blogging and commenting game has been weak. I can't say when I'll be back to full strength: in personal and professional terms, August is a wicked month for me. But even if I'm keeping quiet, I'll be around, and keeping in touch one way or another. My email is up there, so feel free to use it.
In other things-down-to-which-I-should-have-gotten news, the ever-lovely Seahorse gave me one of those Rockin' Girl Blogger awards at the beginning of the week. Coming from someone who blogs with such insight and eloquence, and who reads blogs with such diligence and generosity, this is definitely an appreciated honour. It also means I get to come up with my own list of people who rock:
Caroline M, because she spins and knits with a technical aptitude and eye for colour I can but dream of, and writes it all up in a self-deprecating manner which belies her many talents, but not her modest and generous personality.
Cyn at Half-Assed Knitblog, because I will never tire of her knits' propensity to turn into monsters. Also, because she has been knitting for about the same length of time as me, but has a design sensibility (and an ability to put that sensibility into actual yarn-y practice) which I find inspirational.
Badger. She makes me laugh, she knits neat stuff, she has some entertaining business with a soft toy. As do Little Missy and Wheezy (well, barring the soft toy bit, but with a bonus point for Wheezy because I do so often feel the truth of her blog title).
And finally, an honourable mention for my New Favorite Blog, which is neither by a girl nor girly: my friend Joel's blog about fighting, which is more entertaining and more humane than I would ever have expected a fightblog to be.
It's been a busy week of life-changing decisions, extensive travel, and lots of catching up with friends and meeting new people, so my blogging and commenting game has been weak. I can't say when I'll be back to full strength: in personal and professional terms, August is a wicked month for me. But even if I'm keeping quiet, I'll be around, and keeping in touch one way or another. My email is up there, so feel free to use it.
Monday 6 August 2007
Raglan, I have had to kill you
You do not do, you do not do, anymore, black shoe raglan, in which I have lived like a foot torso for thirty years five minutes, before I realised that the ease I'd worked into the pattern was unnecessary. But I'm not at the "raglan, raglan, you bastard, I'm through" stage: I've frogged the yoke, and I'm halfway through reknitting it. Which means that you all get a (temporary) reprieve from the obligatory trying-on shot. And you don't want to see another picture of a heap of yarn, or a could-be-anything mass of fabric sitting on a circ, do you? So let's have a look at something pretty.
This is the fabric for Matilda Jane. Get Knitted took my garbled email instructions, and found me a great match to my Wool Cotton from their Amy Butler range. Unfortunately, my sewing machine has packed up, so this has to be forwarded to my sister, who will run it up into a lovely ribbon for the lacing panel. And once I've got that sorted, and found my buttons and attached them, and sewn up my hems, that will be that for Matilda Jane. I'm almost resisting the last stage of finishing because I'm so very happy with this cardigan as a work-in-progress.
This is the fabric for Matilda Jane. Get Knitted took my garbled email instructions, and found me a great match to my Wool Cotton from their Amy Butler range. Unfortunately, my sewing machine has packed up, so this has to be forwarded to my sister, who will run it up into a lovely ribbon for the lacing panel. And once I've got that sorted, and found my buttons and attached them, and sewn up my hems, that will be that for Matilda Jane. I'm almost resisting the last stage of finishing because I'm so very happy with this cardigan as a work-in-progress.
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