Askews me shawl!

My first attempt at Brioche stitch. I've been eyeing Stephen west Brioche stitch mania designs for a long time but was somewhat discouraged by my lack of knowledge.
It took a lovely day at Yarn Story, Bath to finally master Brioche. The tutor Renee from East London knit was very patient with me - I was developing a bit of a fever which didn't prevent me from travelling to Bath but significantly dimmed my brain power..
I chose Askews me shawl as I've seen some amazing FO's. But decided of using stash so chose lots of 4 ply  weight sock yarns to be knitted with a 3.25mm circulars.
My work was slow as I was conscious not to have mistakes which I knew were very difficult to amend in this particular stitch.

The fun bit was to choose the combination of yarns for the dark and light sides. I used a lot of hedgehog fibres speckled sock yarn for the light side and some dramatic, clashing, bold choices for the dark side. My colour choices raised a few eye brows with my knitting group ladies and family but I feel that it all pieced together in the end and now I have a pretty unique grown-up shawl to cherish.
 

Dubai Shawl!

I held the shawl photo in my Pinterest for couple of years. It reminded me of a popular middle eastern type of head and neck cover usually worn by Arab men. perhaps without the tassels :)

 The Dubai shawl can only be purchased as a printed Danish book collection 'Around' by Susie Haumann. There is no English translation as far as I know. Luckily for me I happen to know a dear knitter who speaks Danish fluently and helped tackle the way of increasing stitches in the shawl. The chart is really self explanatory.

I used the original yarn for it, double held Isager Alpaca 1, a soft alapca lace in light gray and French blue. The cast on to the shawl took few days, there are a lot of stitches to cast on and I wasn't happy with how big the shawl was so eliminated about a quarter of the stitches and also change the cast on border to a garter band to prevent it from curling. The shawl is still very big and incredibly warm with all that fair isle.

I wish I had mastered the holding of two yarns in one hand when fair isle knitting so instead it became a slow labour of love. and the results are indeed so worth it.

Big old grey coat!

This design is my favourite piece from Joji's  Authentic collection.
cozy, oversized sweater coat in worsted weight.  I knitted it with uncommon thread lush worsted in 'cumulonimbus'- grey with some random blue and dark blue spots.

It feels really comfy, springy and warm. I loved knitting it , the basket weave pattern is flowing effortlessly together with the ribbed shawl collar.

Here is a close up of the stitch detailing;

I chose a shorter version (6 skeins exactly), which is more versatile and flattering to me. I finished the sleeves with a small ribbed hem and tubular cast off. I like my sleeves' hem secure onto my wrists.

very, very pleased with it, knit one you won't regret it just make sure you've got enough yarn.

The Doodler!

I Joined the visual world of Instagram not long ago (My Instagram name is as my Ravelry's- 'bespokeknits') which is a fantastic way to get updated and inspired.

I am following of course Stephen West and was participating in his 2015 KAL - The Doodler.

After booking my holiday to Israel in December, Stephen released photo of himself in a knitting shop not too far from where I was to stay. A real shame to have missed him by few days only !

Any way I visited the Gourmet Yarn Shop and was impressed by the stock quality and attentive and friendly stuff.

This is the shop's doodler sample which I loved.

Those lovely ladies partly obscure a very decent stock of Madelinetosh vintage and Freia Ombre . Not that easy to get hold of where I come from! 

Here is my Doodler- I've used uncommon thread merino lace in toast which I had in stash and variegated yarn were purchased from Stephen's Amsterdam yarn shop- some lovely hedgehog fibres skinny dip in pink(forgot the name) and boom box. Knitting it was great fun- happy to have joined the KAL.

Even Flow!

I've been knitting it on and off throughout Autumn and now got the time to actually write a post.
It was designed by the talented Joji which by the way published another striking collection of which a certain black coat is being eyed closely..

I was drawn the the texture of the fabric and intrigued how to create that elongated slip stitch-so easy once you knit it. I'd like to knit more pieces with that stitch pattern such as those hat and gloves.

I love using kid silk mohair together with a smoother light weight yarn to achieve knit tension of heavier weight yarn. You are left with a cosy, light weight fabric that takes in and blend the two colours together. In this case I chose Tosh sock in 'Rose', a very delicate light pink with Hedgehog fibres kid silk lace in 'Tea cup', white with gentle splashes of brown and neon pink.

Here is a close up of my shawl pin head- a ewe staring sheepishly upwards :-) A great find from Kettle yarn & Co.

I made the cardi shorter than stated in the pattern but it still looks long and lush, I know that mohair is not to everybody's taste but when its cold it feels ever so cosy and snug..

Destashing-Nehalem!

Nehalem is a graphic, eye catching design which compliments most body types. I admit that my chosen colours aren't the most suitable to highlight the bold section but nonetheless I'm happy with the result and wear it regularly. I may have to knit this again just to show of that lovely fair isle.

I was inspired by the colours blocks of this poncho below. I have a feeling its one of Rowan patterns. I had in stash very similar colours- spud &Chloe sweater worsted in olive green, Rowan Felted tweed Aran in navy blue and Rowan cocoon in light blue/grey.

No Steeking for me I'm afraid, I'll go the extra mile just to avoid cutting my piece and using the dreaded sewing machine (hey, the spud & chloe is super wash, no much felting is going on hence the need for sewing machine).

I love the relaxed fit and the garter short row shaped shawl. Jared Flood does not disappoint.
Also learned a new and interesting yarn increases. Recommend !

 

Ingrid !

I was in a mood for some fair isle and this pullover fitted the bill. But after noticing this test knit, wow, my heart just went faster and I went stash diving. I was using fingering weight yarn, a bit thinner than requested so went 2 sizes up. I have tons of sock yarn and I tend to hoard all my leftovers 'just in case..' so was happy to reduce (ever so slightly) it.

Quickly casting on I managed to somehow omit about 50 stitches, and only at arms point did I notice that the fitting leaves much to be desired- way too tight (see pic below)-no room for arms.

The 2nd yoke attempt went a bit better. I put some modification as I went along- lowered the fair isle band and omitted some of it's pattern. I didn't bother with the sleeves and hem fair isle. I used some Orkney white angora and rowan kid silk haze in grey to give some halo to the fair isle band. My colours are almost all neutral except the dark purple and some dots in peach.
So easy to wear but still draws the eyes despite the simplicity.