#004 - Knitting through the years

After last month's cancellation of the Australian Sheep and Wool show, and consequently a visit to a cousin who lives in Bendigo (where the Show is held) and wanted a knitting lesson, I decide to give a demo of the various knitting methods I've learned on my knitting journey.

We also have a look at some adorable knitted toys, and I share my progress on both the Skandium socks and the Opposite Pole cardigan.

Craft for Thought - 03:08

Eye Candy - 22:48

Handy Dandy - 32:16

Stat Chat - 49:20

Heart Full of Craft - 53:11

Resources

Craft for Thought

I've been aware of the annual Sheep and Wool Show in Bendigo for a few years now, and although it's always been my intention to go I have never made it there. Somehow, I thought this year of all years would be the time to finally buy a ticket and make my plans. Is anyone surprised that it was cancelled at the last minute? I don't think so. And it's somehow more tragic because of just how last minute the cancellation truly was. The Show was set to open on a Friday, and the day before is when Victoria went into lockdown number 5.

A personal let down for me was cancelling plans to visit a cousin and her family who live in Bendigo. I would have stopped by to see her after the Show anyway, but it just so happened that out of the blue she had messaged me about knitting just a couple of days after I'd bought my ticket. The short story is she was interested in learning, so I was going to turn that visit into a basic knitting (and crochet) lesson.

Since that didn't eventuate, and since her original message was a request for a video on how to knit, I've decided to make that the focus for this vlog. Sort of.

There are so many excellent videos and tutorials out there already that teach knitting. Without any teaching experience under my belt, instead I just walk through the various methods that I have learned:

- Throwing / English method

- Picking / Continental method

- Lever knitting

- Flicking (not demo'ed as it's nowhere near mastered!)

Eye Candy

Two hand knitted lambs are sitting upright on their hind legs. The lamb on the left has white fleece. The lamb on the right has black fleece. — Baby Lamb by © Lorraine Pistorio

In the last few weeks I have discovered that two separate people who I am very close to (albeit not physically close to as one lives in another state and the other in another country) are pregnant with their firsts. So of course, after the initial shock and excitement my mind turns to knitting.

The first thing to decide is what to knit. I have made a few baby clothes and beanies and one baby blanket, but do I really want to do something like that again or should I take this opportunity to make something new? Well duh! Something new, of course.

That's when I remembered that I have a few of Lorraine Pistorio's knitted toys already favourited on Ravelry. If I were knitting for myself, hands down I'd be making something Christmas themed. But for a baby, which adorable, sweet, full of personality and charm, totally precious creature should I make? Again, the answer (for me) was obvious - as a knitter who loves working with wool, I have to make the Baby Lamb!

Shopping from my stash, my first choice is to make it out of Lion Brand Yarn's Cotton Bamboo. The other contender is a combo of Naturally Yarns NZ's Merino Silk and Debbie Bliss' Cashmerino Aran.

Two hand knitted sheep are standing on flat grey stone in front of a white brick wall. The sheep on the left has black fleece and white feet and face. The sheep on the right has white fleece and black feet and face. — Black Sheep, White Sheep by © Susan B. Anderson

If I wanted to shop the pattern from my stash as well, then I'd be making Black Sheep, White Sheep by Susan B Anderson from Making #6 Black and White magazine. This pattern had already been queued on my Ravelry account. In fact, I actually think this pattern for tiny sheep would make a gorgeous garland so I may even end up making both. Possibly one baby will get the larger toy and the other will get this garland. However, it also incredibly likely that I will want the garland for myself...

Handy Dandy

A half-knit sock is being held up above a white basket. The sock is dark blue with a white pattern on it, with the leg and heel just solid dark blue. In the background, part of a tote bag for a yarn store can be seen.

First up is the minimal progress made on the Skandium socks. Previously, I had discussed options for how to finish them after running out of the yarn for the contrast colour. In the video, you can see that I went for knitting the heel completely in the main colour. While this loses the lovely colour gradation effect that I had fallen for in this pattern, well, I would have lost that anyway using the yarns I'd chosen to work with from my stash.

Second shown, and discussed in much more detail, is the Opposite Pole cardigan. Since I hadn't shared that once since an episode I had filmed at the end of April (and published much later than that), quite a lot had been done. There was a whole segment that had been knitted, frogged, and reknit within that time.

The reason for the frogging is that I'd reached a point where I realised that I didn't have enough yarn to finish it, even with my plans to go sleeveless. Still not wanting to buy yarn (and the colour having been discontinued anyway), I shopped my stash and came up with two other colours in the same yarn. One is a grey that I didn't care to match with the blue. The other is a deep red that I initially wasn't sure about.

My main concern in matching the blue and red was that their values (darkness/lightness) are too similar and therefore don't give enough contrast, as can be seen above. So I consulted with my colour guru and crochet master mate - and she didn't think it would be an issue since colourwork isn't the point of this design anyway.

A half knit-cardigan is being held up, with only the top of the woman's head and her right hand visible behind it. The cardigan is mostly blue with a red cable running along the outer top edge. A white basket holding other knitting is visible at the bottom right, behind the cardigan.

Ergo, I frogged so that I could make one of the cables red rather than having an odd red segment in the garment. And I am very glad I did!

The only issue now is that I think I made a miscalculation somewhere. I like to calculate everything that I can when planning a project, and I am now certain that I got one of the chart's row count mixed up with the row count of the 'straight' knitting sections.

Chart 1 - 36 rows
Chart 2 - 24 rows
Straight knitting - 18 rows
Wedge knitting - 16 rows

Having redone the math, with a bit of tweaking of a couple of wedges I should end up with this:

12 full repeats of Chart 1
15 full repeats of Chart 2
540 rows total (for this section of the pattern)

Heart Full of Craft

This month, I am very grateful for the abundance of my stash! I had gone into this year believing I could not (and should not) buy yarn because I had enough sweater quantities to keep my hands and needles well employed. Thankfully, I am now also discovering that I have enough smaller quantities of yarn to plan new, unexpected projects and rescue the bigger projects.

Although, if I'm honest... I do have plans on breaking down and buying yarn. One reason for this is to 'honour' the cancelled Sheep and Wool Show and make up the purchases I likely would have made there. The other reason is that a couple of other gift knits are being planned that I don't have the right yarn for, and I don't like the idea of trying to 'make do' when it's meant to become something special for someone else.

Anyhoo. Stash! Love it.