Spring Brioche

At the beginning of the month I was at a bit of a loose end with my WIP's and decided I needed to cast on something new - whilst I was intent on finishing all my current projects, my mojo was fading somewhat and I wanted a challenge.

I have been admiring several brioche knitted shawls on Ravelry but had never tried the technique.  Whilst browsing I found a free pattern for a brioche cowl in DK and decided it was a good opportunity to, well buy more yarn!  I have hardly any DK in my stash as I rarely use anything other than sock weight now so I brought some lovely West Yorkshire Spinners Wensleydale Gems DK in Tourmaline (Pink) and Peridot (Green) - I've been wanting to branch out of my usual fibre comfort zones but generally fail miserably!

Yarn: West Yorkshire Spinners Wensleydale Gems DK in Peridot & Tourmaline

Unfortunately, after caking and casting on, I started getting hives along my fingers and a few rows in my hands were extremely sore so I had to abandon the lovely Wensleydale.  I dithered over whether to order in some undyed yarn but didn't want to wait so found some Merino/Cashmere DK in my stash and dyed them up - pink and green, because I'm slightly predictable and I think they go so well together!

 

  
After a quick read of the fabulous instruction on the Brioche Stitch website I found the brioche incredibly easy and SO much fun!  (Please ignore the inconsistent colours - my camera hates this shade of pink!)

 

Pattern: Tistou Cowl by Nadege Dereppe

Yarn: Kingcraig Merino/Cashmere DK (dyed by me)

I find learning new techniques really satisfying and enjoyable - this literally flew off the needles and and was such a great pattern for learning two colour Brioche techniques!  I love the texture that the brioche lends to the finished fabric and have to say I found it much squishier pre-blocking so may consider soaking again and letting this dry without any blocking for a cushier feel.  I reduced the width of the cowl pattern - only casting on 176 stitches and I think if I were to remake this I would knit an extra pattern repeat to make it taller. 

Pattern: Tistou Cowl by Nadege Dereppe

Yarn: Kingcraig Merino/Cashmere DK (dyed by me)

I can't wait now to cast on the Sizzle Pop shawl that I have had on Ravelry queue for ages.  The plan is to use a skein of the Merino/Yak/Silk singles that I dyed green and another I've dyed black - because matching your shawls to your hair is totally acceptable hehe!

Dye all the things green...

I completely forgot to blog about my latest dyeing adventures - both my hair and yarn!

It's been almost two years since I decided to change my hair from red to black and pink.  I LOVED the colour but my hair had started to break from colouring and bar regularly trimming it myself I haven't had a decent chop for six years!  I started chopping a few inches off every time I cut my fringe - taking it from my lower back (when straight) to about bra strap length - whilst I pondered whether I had the courage to cut it short, which I had wanted to do for a few years,   The week before Christmas, with badly faded pink, roots and lots of white in my black, I shut myself in the bathroom for a few hours and chopped it all off.  A bit of bleach and a couple of pots of dye and I really rather love the results!

Before...

After...

(Excuse the twatty face - it is, however,  the best picture of the haircut!)  I've since trimmed it again and it was much less nerve racking the second time round - I have a rather odd fear of hairdressers (amongst many other things!) and since I cut everybody else's hair in the house as well as a few other peoples, figured I may as well carry on doing my own too!   I do have a dog grooming qualification and years of experience in that and people are much easier LOL!  I love having it short - it has to be literally level with the bottom of my ear lobes to not curl - and the green makes me SO happy!  

On to the yarn dyeing...I saw this amazing base from Chester Wool Company and had to grab a couple of skeins.

This is Yak Singles - 65% Merino, 20% Silk, 15% Yak, single ply with 480 metres per 120 gram skein of lushiness!  The undyed grey base in itself is beautiful - the silk means this really shines.  And after a dip in Chartreuse and Kelly Green Jacquard Acid Dye, they turned into...

There's not a huge colour difference in the two skeins and I'm still debating giving one skein a dip in something a bit darker.  I have absolutely NO idea what they are destined to become but it's such a gorgeous, luxury base that I am very likely to be getting more!  

The hugely long catch up post!

Apparently it has been forever since I wrote, completed and published a blog post!  I could have sworn I blogged just after Christmas but apparently I dreamt that.

Soooo...what have I been up to?  Well, obviously there was Christmas which flew by, as it does,  I was indeed lucky enough to get the Westknit's book that I had requested as well as copious amounts of marzipan chocolate, new sparkly body jewellery (I have expensive taste in that as well) and a beautiful felted picture from Carla.

I've been trying extremely hard not to start any new projects until I had completed all (well, maybe most!) of my current WIP's.  I did however have to cast on another pair of gift mitts for Lee's sister as part of her 40th birthday present (if I love you, I will knit for you!  And hand knit gloves are one of my go-to gifts!)

I decided to use some of my stashed Scheepjes Stone Washed and after falling in love with a stitch pattern, but finding the pattern didn't work with my yarn, I concocted a pattern on the go using quilted lattice stitch.

I can however recommend double checking your needle size - I managed to pick up the wrong circular needle for these which probably explained why they took me longer than expected (2.75mm oops!)  Luckily they turned out fine and the recipient seemed to like them as well,

Pattern: Christmas Lattice Mitts - my own pattern

Yarn: Scheepjes Stone Washed in 806 Canada Jade

Pattern Notes on my Ravelry here 

I then spent most the Christmas holiday's working on my Doodler.  It had been on the needles for a while and it was one of those WIP's that, once I picked it back up again, I LOVED knitting!  The Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light makes for such a smooshy knit and I now need to knit all the things in single ply yarn!  I added 2 rows of black in between each wedge of Colour C in Section 3 - because Edison Bulb is shit scary bright!

Pattern: The Doodler by Stephen West

Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in Twig (overdyed black), Fluoro Rose & Edison Bulb.

Full pattern notes on my Ravelry here

After I'd cast off the Doodler, it was back to gloves and finishing my Sod Socks (Warm Fingers).  After a bit of scribbling and calculations the pattern was adapted to add fingers and they have proved SO useful these last few weeks as the weather has cooled right down again,

Pattern: Sod Socks (Warm Fingers) - my own pattern, to be published

Yarn: Knitterly Things Vesper Sock in Witchy Woman 

Pattern notes on my Ravelry here

Before I decided to complete all my current WIP's I couldn't resist purchasing Knitvent 2016 from Helen Stewart (Curious Handmade) and cast on the completely gorgeous Alpine Sunset Shawl.  I'm using two skeins of Easyknits from my stash - Deeply Wicked in Keylime and Dusted Dreams in Neon Nights - which I think look amazing together (and Jon is one of my absolute favourite UK dyers!)  This is next up on my complete list - I'm currently half way through - so fingers crossed for a FO soon!

Pattern: Alpine Sunset Shawl by Helen Stewart

Yarns: Easyknits Deeply Wicked in Keylime and Dusted Dreams in Neon Nights

Right, I think that's enough waffle for one post!  I shall be back with some yarn dyeing, beta test knitting and FO's soon.  

New Yarn, Patterns and WIP's

New yarn purchases have been very much scuppered of late as my usual Yarn Fund (aka sell the things to buy more things!) is currently also my iPhone 7 fund as well as tied up as a "just in case" household budget.  Not only that but I had the misfortune of purchasing a couple of skeins of Wollmeise a few weeks ago only for the seller to disappear with my yarn and money!  Thankfully the joy of PayPal meant I got my money back this week but it always makes me a bit sad when someone from a community taints it by being so dishonest.

I have had a few skeins arrive though and, whilst purchased weeks apart, they are rather similar!  The first was a skein of Easyknits Dusted Dreams in the Halloween colour way "Betty Boo"

The second was a skein of Hedgehog Fibres Sock in "Pinky Swear"  which goes beautifully with the skein of "Jelly" I have stashed away!

I think it's safe to say I like pink and speckles!

There has been a huge amount of fantastic new patterns released just lately that I am totally itching to buy and cast on.  The two that I am really lusting over are the latest MKAL from West Knits - Building Blocks which is so unique and cleverly constructed!  I'm also very much hoping if I'm a good girl, I will be getting a copy of Best Knits for Crimbos :-)

And the latest release from Curious Handmade - Hundred Acre Wood (with kits available from Little Skein in the Big Wool) which is not only my favourite shawl shape but I was a massive Winnie the Pooh fan right up until the kids were born (and still have a boxed up collection of Winnie the Pooh bits that used to adorn the house!)

I have a rather important project to finish before I start anything new though (including Knitvent 2016!) as the husbeast has commissioned a knit after conceding that fingerless gloves are indeed the bomb. Mainly because he is down in our unheated, freezing cold garage alot!
So, he wanted fingerless mitts, in blue or black. I let him stash dive. I was thinking some nice but cheap acrylic blend because he’s not a fan of woolly feels and he’s very likely to get these filthy.
He has instead decided it needed to be a cashmere blend. He quite fancied some of the Wollmeise.  He was even asking about me buying in a skein of Blend - and he says I’m a yarn snob!!

Instead, I persuaded him that this was a good option:

This Noro Cash Iroha has been stashed for years, is a good dark blue (he’s an Everton fan!) and meets the cashmere criteria - plus it’s aran so these fuckers will be warm and quick to knit!  I refused his request for fingering weight yarn as his hands are HUGE! I never realised this before LOL

I'm one down and now just need to remember what I did for the first and write up the pattern (Man Mitts!)