Trying something new and splitting my long in episodes in half.
In this first part of episode 13, I chat about visiting Tarndie; knitting a sweater for my partner for the first time; my progress on a baby blanket, and; an addition that will be added to a sweater I made last year.
06:20 Catch Up
17:54 Handy Dandy
18:16 - Star Illusion Blanket
39:09 - Greenwich
42:33 Thanks!
Transcript
Greetings and welcome to another episode of Bobolog.
I believe this is the 13th episode of me doing these knitting focused vlogs in total, so that is counting when I started last year in 2021 and I was calling them Platypus Knitting which is the name of my channel. So welcome to Bobolog. If you are tuning in for the first time, I hope you enjoy hanging out with me. And for anyone who is coming back, thank you so much for choosing to spend some time with me again today.
My name is Bobbie Olan I am mainly a knitter - I am knitting obsessed - and I do also like to explore other crafts if I can pull myself away from knitting but that is pretty rare. As you can see, I've got my trusty fan here again today because it is a bit, it's not really hot, but it's warm and it's pretty humid. And even though I come from a tropical country, I grew up here in Australia in Melbourne and I really do not like humid weather.
Yes, so my name is Bobbie Olan. If you want to look me up on Ravelry, that is my username, BobbieOlan. That will also be in the YouTube description below. All of my project information for any knitting or crochet projects that I talk about in these books will be on my project pages in Ravelry. I don't put... if I do modifications or anything like that, I, I try to put some notes in there but because I keep a separate notebook, a hand written notebook where I write down notes as I'm working on the project, I don't really do that in Ravelry. But I do at least make an effort to link all projects to patterns and to list accurate yarn quantities and that kind of thing. I'm trying to be really good about making sure my stash and my projects are somewhat up to date on Ravelry. So please feel free, if you're on Ravelry as well, to friend me there, find me there, send me a message, check out my projects, whatever you want to do.
You can also find me on Instagram @PlatypusKnitting. What else? I, so like I said, in the YouTube description below, I have links to those profiles and I also have links to anything that I talk about in these episodes. There is also a link to my website where I put transcripts of all of these these vlogisodes. So yes.
I am coming to you from Victoria, Australia. I live here with my partner on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples and I would like to pay my respect to them and to all Aboriginal peoples across Australia.
So since the- actually before I before I move ahead, I just thought I'd note really quickly for anyone who is coming back, I didn't mention it last time but I am in a new location from where I usually film or where I started off filming. I used to be all the way in that corner of the room. So just right on the other side of this old writing bureau/secretaire or whatever you call it, there is my knitting armchair where I usually film from and I just thought I'd try something different and move to this other corner. So here beside me is a long desk where I usually have a lot of mess but my laptop lives here. For the past few days I've had my knitting machine taking up all of the space, which I'll talk about a bit later. But yes, trying out a new location and going for a bit of a different look. So that is that.
The other admin thing that I want to mention is I realised that my episodes have gotten quite long this year. The last two were almost an hour and a half long. And although I really enjoy watching really long knitting vlogs and knitting podcasts because I want them to last forever, I want to be watching these forever, I think that is a bit on the excessive side. However I don't want to, I don't kind of want to hinder myself and what I talk about here. So what I'm going to do, what I'm going to try out for the next few episodes and see how it works is I'm just going to keep an eye on the time. And if I feel like it's getting long, I will sort of wrap it up, but then continue filming and just release a part two of the same episode a week later. So this year, 2022, I've been trying to do these episodes fortnightly. So if I need to split it up, then there'll be an episode weekly but they will be filmed on the same day. Yes, I think that is all the admin that I want to do.
Catch Up
Since the last episode I... well the most notable thing that I have done is this past weekend I went and visited Tarndie or Tarndwarn- warncoort, which is a a farm in Victoria. So they've got a map on the back of this here, but you're also probably just better off looking up their website, looking them up on Google Maps or whatever map site you want to look at.
So it was a couple of hours drive from where I am to get to Tarndie and I signed up for a workshop there but I was the first to arrive so I had a little bit of a wander around. I had a look at the sheep, a lovely little dam that they've got, walked around the, their, their veggie gardens and the couple of accommodation buildings that they've got there that you can stay at. And it's just a lovely little farm. So many sheepy, woolly references everywhere which I just absolutely loved. They had these cast iron, like, doorstop type things that I particularly loved and I wish I could, I wish I could have my own but you can't have everything. So yeah, so I'll be talking about Tarndie quite a bit throughout this episode because it's kind of the biggest thing that I have done.
I have also... Yeah, I mean, clearly I went out to Tarndie and did a, did a class there like I said. So I'm sort of moving out of being such a hermit, which I have been for the past couple of years. So everything is just sort of relaxing and I'm getting more comfortable with getting out there. I've gone to a cafe, met someone for a coffee once since the last episode, I think, and I did have one day when I went to the beach, to a beach down in Mornington Peninsula. I'm not, my partner and I both aren't really much beach goers. But there have been quite a few quite muggy humid days lately. So we just went and had a bit of a nice relaxing dip in the water. Didn't really hang out on the sand, that's not really our thing. But it was nice to do something new and different that we hadn't done in a very, very, very long time.
Eye Candy
So yes, I should probably just get stuck into talking about all of the knitting related content since I do, as usual, feel like I have a lot to get through. So I'll start off with Eye, with Eye Candy.
Tarndie yarn
Like I said, I went to Tarndie on the weekend. And they, I went there for a workshop which was, I think, a four hour workshop and then you had time to just sort of hang around and browse their farm shop while you were there. So I had, last year I had gotten this shade card from them. So, so they've just got little samples of all of their colourways and the ones that I have blue highlighter marks on are colours that my partner had said he likes. So I, there's, I want to make him, I've made him quite a number of socks now and, but I would really like to make him a garment. So I had him, him pick out some colours. And I am quite keen to make him something in this one here which is called Ciderhouse Red.
So last year, I had got a few mini skeins and I had knitted up some samples. So that's the Ciderhouse Red there. This one, this is their 4ply and I knit it up on 3.5mm needles. And so when I went to, knowing that I was going to Tardy- Tarndie, I was planning to buy all the yarn I need to make him a garment while I was there. So I picked up four skeins - seems like such a huge skein - but four skeins of this, this fingering weight yarn. And I kept going around the shop, looking at it, leaving it, going back around trying to find this colourway. Because I hadn't brought the shade card with me and they didn't have, they didn't have one in the store but I knew, I knew that this was brighter, was with a more vivid red than this, just going from my memory. So you can, you can really see that there, how much sort of earthy this one is. But I thought, "Well surely it's the same colourway because there isn't anything else that's really close." So I just bought it.
And I was interested to see as well, like, this one you can see is quite a solid colourway. But then this one here - hope you can see, you can see how that, there's some sort of variation in the colour there, which I quite like. But yeah, I was a bit unsure of it but I thought, "I'm here, I might as well just buy it." So I bought four skeins of that and then I got home and compared it to the swatch that I'd done last year. And it was so different.
I should also say I did look at the tags and the tags don't have a colour on it. It just says number 40. So when I got home and realised that the colour was completely different, I went on their website and I realised that they had a section of hand dyed yarns, which I'm not sure I really looked at before. So I had a look there and I found a number 40 and it was this. So this isn't the Ciderhad Red- the Ciderhouse Red that I had intended to buy. It is one of their hand dyed yarns which are sort of smaller batch, one-off colourways that they do.
So I checked with my partner and that is a bit bright for his tastes. So I'll keep this for myself and I'll find something else to do with it. But just, it's just, love how beautifully soft and I love that sort of tonality there. So I'm looking forward to finding something for myself to knit with that one.
They they had a couple of garment samples that we could have a look at and have a feel of as well. And they were so beautifully soft and lovely to touch. So, quite excited to do that. They did also have a couple of weaving samplers, which I was really interested to see, and they were incredibly beautiful and incredibly soft as well. So weaving is something that I've sort of kind of vaguely had an interest in, but there's so many things that I want to do. It's kind of on the lower end of all the things that I want to try. But one day, one day I'll get around to weaving. So that's the number 40 hand dyed colourway from Tarndie there.
Redford
The sweater that I had picked out to make for him is called Redford and it's by Julie Hoover. It, it's one of those sweaters that's deceptively simple, I would say. I haven't actually bought the pattern yet. I often try to, like, make things - I choose things and make them and try to keep it a secret but I think maybe for this one, I will show him the pattern and make sure that he likes it and that he's happy with it. So aside from that there are a couple of other kinds of designs that I'm, that I'd be interested in making.
But the main one that I've had my eye on for him is Redford. And like I said, it's a really simple looking pattern. But from what I can gather from the pattern page and from comments that other people have said is, like I said, it's deceptively simple.
The two main things that, that I sort of gleaned from what people have said is that, number one: it's a really technical and demanding pattern, which I'm really intrigued by. I would like to be challenged even though it just looks like a pretty standard sweatshirt. It- From what I can tell it is made in (2...) 6, 6 pieces and then seamed. So you've got the front, the back, and the two sleeves. But then it looks like there are two side panels that are knit up separately and then that is all seamed together. And then it's got a little triangular detail at the front of the neck to kind of give it more of that sweatshirt type look, I guess. So that is one.
The number two thing that I have seen in people's comments is that the men that it has been knitted for have loved this sweater. So that's, that's my, that's part of the reason why I chose it. My partner wears pretty simple clothing so I think it will go, I think it will suit him quite well, but I'll check with him. I think I'll check with him first. No more surprises and trying to guess. Because even though anything that I make, I know that he's gonna say that it's amazing and that he loves it, I really want him to love it and not just be saying that. So I think I'll, I'll, I'll show him a few of the sweaters that I picked out for him and see what he actually does want.
So is there anything else I want to say about that? I don't think so.
Handy Dandy
Let's move on to Handy Dandy. So I have made zero progress on the Baby Lamb pattern, on the Baby Lamb knit. I, I put that aside because I wanted to focus on other knitting projects.
Star Illusion Blanket
And the main one has been the Star Illusion Blanket by Katie Ahlquist. So I have shown, I showed a little bit of this in the previous episode. I had only done a little portion of it there, but it's the illusion knitting style which has a hidden image. So when you're looking at it front on the image isn't supposed to be really clear and then when you look at it from an angle, that's when it really stands out. So I, I've been intrigued by that. So I picked this pattern to, to make as- well it is a baby blanket pattern. So I picked it to make and I've chosen to make it in gradient yarns.
So I am using Scheepjes Whirl Fine Art and I don't - oh, here's the label. So Scheepjes Whirl Fine Art and I, I didn't think one of the big cakes, one of the big gradient cakes would be enough. So I bought their matching solid end yarns, I guess we could call them, which is the Merino Soft. So they are made to match. The colourways are the same and they're exactly the same makeup which is 50% Superwash Merino, 25% microfibre, and 25% acrylic. So this is what I have left.
So the pattern is stars on a background. So for the background colour I started with a light blue of one of these Merino Soft balls. And when that ran out, I moved to the big giant gradient cake. And then for the stars, I started with the big giant gradient cake. So what I have left is two of these and one of this. So for the gradient cakes themselves, this is all that I have left of those. And I love blues. Blues and greens are my absolute favourite. Like, teals - teals are my absolute favourite and just blues and greens I love. So as this colour has gotten darker I have just fallen more and more and more in love with it. So that, that's been really fun to see the colour progression of the cakes there.
So let me show you where I'm at with the blanket. Ta da! So you can, because the, because of the contrast of the yarns, you can see, you can really see the stars. But if you - oh, this is so hard to do. So if I can, like, show you what it looks like, like that and then tilt it. See how much clearer the star becomes when you're looking at it side on? And I just think that's magic and so much fun.
So lots of things to say about this this. This little gold stitch marker here, that needs a bit of clean. Jeez, that was gold when I put it on. I swear it was. It's bronzy now. But that, that marker is where I was at in the last episode. So you can see how far I've come. I was knitting on this constantly because I really, really wanted to get it done. My parents are flying to the UK to see my sister, to visit my sister who gave birth recently, they are flying on Thursday. I'm filming this on Monday. And I'd thought that I could get this done in three weeks. And so I've knitted on it like a maniac.
And although it does look big, it looks quite big, I, I did lay it out and measure it. So the pattern says that it should be about 80cm by 100cm and it is not at 1m long yet. It's- I'm using a different weight yarn than the pattern calls for. I figured it's a blanket and it doesn't matter too greatly. So my width is 70cm. So I still need to get it a bit longer and then I'll try to like block it out and stretch it but I'm not too fussed really if it's not going to be that full size because I think that's going to be, you know, big enough to put in a pram or stroller or, or, you know, just to have the baby lie on. So I'm really happy with how this has been turning out.
I love the colours, especially up here where it's getting more vibrant. I think they're just so vivid and fun and they just, it just brings me so much joy. And it's so much fun when I'm working on it, every time I adjust it and I have to shift it around and I see the stars, like, come and go as I'm waving the fabric. It's just so much fun.
There are a few other things that I want to say about this one is let me check my notes. So yes, this, this is- the yarn that I'm using is, is a giant gradient cake. So you can see where, you can see how light the blue started off and how dark it's going to get. The thing about this is how they-they've done the colours is, it's not, it's not dyed in a gradient. So let's just say for example, this - I don't actually know how many plies this is but let's just say it's 8 plies because it's a DK - so let's just say 8 plies of yarn. So at the start, every ply, every strand was this same light colourway. And then when it moved to the next colour, it would just be seven strands of the light colour and then one strand of a darker colourway. So that's how they have done the gradient.
But because it's been done that way they've sort of knotted... It's like half knot and half felted, the joints where different, where a different shade comes in. And I haven't wanted, I didn't bother cutting them because it was just one strand. I wasn't worried about the yarn falling apart or anything. But it has meant that there are these sections. I mean, they're mainly at the back. But , let me see if I can find one for you. Oh, all of a sudden I can't find one and I feel like this is obvious when I'm working with them. But they just have these big - that's not a good example - they just have these big, fluffy bits that look like - there. There's a bit there that looks like they're not, well, not fraying, but - where'd it go? - See that yellow? That yellow bit there? It's, like, it's just, it's more apparent than I would have liked it to be. Especially when it comes through on the front. And I bet I'm not going to be able to find a good example now. But I guess that's a good thing if I'm not able to find you an example of it now. It mustn't be as obvious as I think it is when I'm knitting it. Anyway, that's just something to consider if you're looking to use this yarn.
What else can I say about it? Um, what do my notes say? So gradient yarns... Oh, yeah.
I have, I noticed one mistake already when I laid it out to block and again, I bet I'm not going to be able to see it. And it's such a little thing. The recipient is definitely not going to notice. Like, I can barely notice. But the illusion is sort of achieved using, in the way that it uses knit rows and purl rows. And there's just one section where, there, where a little section of it should have been purled and I knit it. And now I can't find it. I should have marked out this mistake. Oh, there it is. So you're not even going to be able to tell but can you kind of see how these, this, this row here, it's not receding? This little bit here isn't receding, the blue bit isn't receding from the brown in the same way that it is in the rows above and below it. So far, that's the only mistake I've found and it's, you know, close to the corner, close to the edge. And hopefully I don't spot any others but even if I do, I'm not going back to fix them.
There are a few other little errors in here. I don't know if it's the way that I'm knitting or if it's because the yarn is so loosely plied, but I have split the yarn in places. And if I notice it and I haven't gotten too many rows past it, I will ladder down and scoop up the bit of yarn that I hadn't caught and try to fix it. But there are a few examples where it's too far down and I'm not going to bother trying to ladder down that many stitches and keep track of what is, what should be knit and what should be purled. And again, I cannot find examples.
There's another example there though, if you can see it, of where they sort of knotted the yarn together. But where is an example of splits?
Because I think it's, you know, it's important that, that, you know, we share when we make mistakes and we talk about mistakes and and how they happen and living with them. Because, you know, crafting is full of mistakes and errors and not have everything, like, perfect and it isn't really fair to sort of try to portray that.
Here we go. Here's an example of a split stitch. They're - not a split stitch, where I split the yarn when I was knitting it - so, yeah, there's, there's a couple of those dotted here and there and, you know, I just hope that they're not big enough for the baby to catch a finger in it. But I think it's gonna be fine.
The other thing that I wanted to say - what am I doing differently? Okay, so this, this chart is 164 rows long. Very, very long. But it is, how wide is it? It's, like, 56? Somewhere around 56 stitches wide. So in the pattern, she has you knit it in three panels and then seam them together. And I'm doing the same mod that most other people who have made this pattern have done, which had, which is to just knit it in one big panel instead of three narrower panels and seam it together. Because I just, I like the look of it, of this better rather than having... Well, one: I don't want the seams. Two: I didn't like as much how she had different colours in each panel so that it wasn't all, like, one smooth gradient from top to bottom like this is. So that's, yeah, that's kind of the main difference is that I'm knitting it in one rather than in three.
And then the only other thing, I believe, is that she has the edges done as garter stitch, pretty much, but I am doing slip stitch edges just just because I think it looks neater. The only thing is, funnily, so this, this edge here, when I lay it out flat, this edge is pretty much fine. But the other edge, where I'm actually alternating col- the colours, curls in. So I don't know, I don't know if that's something to do with my my tension when I'm, when I'm swapping colours or something. But you can see how that's, that's curling in there and this other side isn't really doing that or isn't doing anywhere nearly as much. That's something interesting.
And then the final thing that I want to say about this is... Oh yes, my knitting style. So I'm primarily a continental knitter, but I try to... At- Last - I think it was last year - I really tried to teach myself (for the second time) how to do lever knitting. So part of that is because I wanted to see if it was faster for me than continental knitting.
So I learned English throwing style first, and I didn't like that. I, my tension was sloppy, and it was slow. So I taught myself continental knitting and that improved both my gauge and- my tension and my speed. And now. So I've tried, sort of taught myself to do lever knitting. And I can do it, but because I'm not as confident with it as with continental knitting, I only use it in projects where I'm mostly doing knitting. What- So basically, I'm not using it where I have to do any sort of stranded colourwork or cables or lace or anything like that. So I thought I would try it for this, like, here since it's big rows full of just knits and purls.
So I did that, just lever knitting for the first few rows. And then I found out that my parents were going overseas and I wanted to try to get this done in time. So I was finding it really frustrating how slow the lever knitting was going, particurarla- par- particularly because every other row is all purl. And I wish I had sort of read the pattern through completely and then, and then, you know, reworked it so that every other row was a knit and then - was, was completely knit instead of completely purl - and then I would have just had to swap the knits and the purls for the other rows where you actually make up the pattern. I hope I'm explaining that well. Sorry if I'm not.
But basically, because one entire row of 158 stitches would be all purl - and I'm pretty slow at purling in the lever style still - I was finding that really frustrating and really slow going. And I felt like the other rows where it was a mix of knits and purls were still giving me enough practice at doing the purling so that I can improve at that. But those rows where it was all purl were just extremely, incredibly frustrating. And I did not like doing them. So, not far into it I decided that I would do the complete purl rows as continental and I would do the combination rows as - there's another split stitch there, split yarn - I would do the combination rows as lever knitting. And that, that cut my time by about a quarter.
So say, I think I was doing something like - this is gonna sound really slow, but it doesn't take into account all of the times that I had to tink back and fix things. It's a really rough calculation - but let's just say roughly I was doing, it was getting, it was taking me about four seconds per stitch when I was doing everything in lever knitting. When I switched to half continental and half lever, that went down to three seconds so it cut off a quarter of my time, which I was really happy about. And I still feel like I'm getting enough practice at knitting and purling in the lever style.
So it does just mean with every row, not only am I flipping this whole thing around, I'm moving the yarn from one side of me to the other. But in a way it helps me keep my yarns untangled because I'm constantly moving them around and never sort of, they're never really getting twisted around each other which is, which has been really good. So yeah.
I think that's all that I had to say about this Star Illusion Blanket. I'm really happy with how it is coming along. I think it's so beautiful. I love how the gradient is working out. It's lovely and soft and fun. I think it's a fun baby item to have. So - I just keep looking down because I'm really worried that I'm gonna accidentally slip my stitches off the needles - but I think the yarn is really nice to work with aside from that splittiness that I'm finding. But yeah, so that's the Star Illusion Blanket.
I'm, I'm really excited to finish that one off, but it won't be going to the UK in a suitcase. I will have to mail that one. Which I realised, I think, I think I'd gotten to about here-ish, let's just say, and that was when I, I was thinking, "Oh yeah, it's working. It's looking big. It's looking good." And that was when I laid it out and measured it and realised I still had a long way to go. So at that point, I stopped knitting on it like a maniac and sort of started mixing up my projects again.
Greenwich
So one of the other projects that I worked on is, last year for the same sister I had made a sweater. I had made the Greenwich pullover by Martin Storey. And I did it, I made it exactly as he had written the pattern. So it's a fisherman's rib and it's cropped in front. It's got split sides at the bottom and then it's quite a bit longer in the back. And a few people, quite a few people, who made it had said that they made the front of it longer than written because they didn't like how cropped it was and, and how extreme that difference was.
I thought- I quite liked it. So I made it that way for my sister. So you can see how big the difference is there. But when she was here in December last year, I got her to try it on. She was pregnant, quite heavily pregnant, but it still fit. She could still put it on. But she did think that it was too short. So I said that I would fix it. So I have knit the bottom of it again.
This is, this is going to be the tricky thing with this one is that it's knit, it's knit flat in pieces and seamed together and it's knit bottom up. So to add length to the bottom, I couldn't just unravel it and join new yarn and keep knitting down. So I have cast on and knit the fisherman's rib for 10cm which is how much length that she wanted to add. And now I'm going to have to graft, I'm gonna have to graft that (where is it?), I'm gonna have to graft that together somehow.
So my plan is, I'm going to do one more set of the fishermen's rib stitch which takes two rows. So in the first row I'm going to hold a very fine strand of, probably, embroidery thread or something like that in, in a different colour - maybe red or something like that, something that really stands out - that is fine enough that it's not going to alter my tension. And then in the second row I'll do the same but with a different colour just so that I can really see how, how the stitches are sort of sitting together and how they, you know, move around each other. And then once I've got that as a guide, I'm going to try to, to graft it to the bottom of this here. So I'll graft it maybe a couple of rows above the, the, the hem bit of ribbing here. And then once that's in - and hopefully it's good and I'm happy with it - then I'll snip the yarn and remove this bottom piece. And let's hope that works.
Thanks!
So yes, there is one other item that I wanted to talk about in Handy Dandy but we are getting on in time so I am just going to wrap it up. Now for this episode that I am putting out this week, I believe on the 16th of March - I keep forgetting what month we're in - Wednesday the 16th of March, this episode will go out. And then I, after I sign off now I'm actually just going to keep filming and I'll put that, the second half of this episode out next Wednesday. So I guess I'm wrapping this up now.
Thanks so much for tuning in to another, to another episode of Bobolog and watching me ramble on and talk about my knitting and my, my fibre-y adventures. I really hope you tune in for the next episode - for the next part of this episode, I should say - because I have some really fun, exciting things that I'm really excited to share with you. The things that I did at Tarndie which was natural dyeing. So I hope that you come back and tune in for that.
But if you have stuck around this long, thank you so much for watching. I really appreciate you taking the time to sit with me or you know, have me on in the background or however you like to watch your videos. Like I said, you are welcome to follow me on Instagram @PlatypusKnitting and you can also find me and my projects on Ravelry at BobbieOlan.
So, anything else that I want to say? Oh, yes, I would really appreciate it if you could subscribe to my channel and help me grow this little thing that I'm trying to do. That would be really lovely. I'd also love to, to hear from you so please leave a comment below if there's anything that you want to say, any feedback you want to leave. I'm also happy to receive any direct messages on Instagram or Ravelry. And if you give this video a like, if you like this video and hit that thumbs up, that would be very much appreciated as well.
So that's all I have to say for now. I'll see you in another week (for you, another minute for me). Thank you for watching. Fare thee well.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Resources
Mentions
Patterns (on Ravelry)
Redford by Julie Hoover
Star Illusion Blanket by Katie Ahlquist
Greenwich by Martin Storey
Yarns (from my LYS, or on Ravelry)
Tarndie yarns from polwarth sheep
Scheepjes Whirl Fine Art
Scheepjes Merino Soft
Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic
Comments