New Pattern: Tangence

It's here!  This lace top has been in the making for many moons now, and today is the big one - out into the wild it goes!

Though winter is edging it's way into my life here in New Zealand at the moment, I'm thoroughly enjoying all your lovely sunny photos from Scotland.  Now seemed the right time for the summer top to come out to play.  Saying that - it was still warm enough here this week to model a lace top!

Tangence is part garter, part lace.  Worked from the back, over the shoulders and down the front this top is interesting and relatively quick to knit. Seamed with a three needle bind off and finished with applied i-cord, there are also a few very satisfying finishing touches which introduce ways to customise your own creation. 

Yarn is merino/silk from The Wool Kitchen, which was wonderful to work with - it's shiny and drapey, and the Punch Drunk colour way is just... amazingly orange.  

Head over to Ravelry for the pattern and more details, and hit The Wool Kitchen for your yarn!

Until the end of 27th May, you can use code 'Orange' on Ravelry for 50% off :)

 

  

Spinning Pre-Tour & Star Wars Marathon

Maybe it's because I figured out how to run my wheel without it squeaking quite so much; maybe it's because I've been getting excited about the Tour De Fleece, but there's been quite a lot of spinning going on!

Firstly though, after several recent conversations and a twitter encounter, Star Wars arrived in my flat.  Being reliably informed episodes 1-3 are not worth watching, I plan to start my marathon of knitting and sci-fi with Episode IV this evening!  It'll involve fizzy pink and some microwavey popcorn.  All good things.   I'll let you know how it turns out.  I'm scared I won't like the star wars.

It has already been quite a film filled day - Edge Of Tomorrow is currently in the cinema and it is gooooooood!!  Not usually a fan of the Cruise man, I was under duress by the boy, but it was definitely worth it.  Now, watching Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt on the Graham Norton show - it ties in so nicely, and they both seem lovely.




Pink alpaca, brown massam & white bamboo, from my epic carding session (and the subsequent spinning session).

BFL / silk from Hilltop Cloud

Merino from Malabrigo

I've no idea what I'll be making this lovely lot into, maybe they'll just be sitting in my smooshing stash for a while... 

Acorn Capelet

Knit Now; Dan Walmsley J

It's out!  My second paper pattern published in Knit Now; The Acorn Capelet.  

I planned to knit a garment with two weights for a little while, and this KnitNow call came at just the right time!   I'm terrible at keeping shawls in place, and end up looking like I'm falling apart at the seams, so a sweet little cape was the obvious choice!  

Having never knitted with Debbie Bliss yarn before, this 'Cashmerino' was lovely!!  With 55% merino wool, 33% acrylic and 12% cashmere, it's a yummy little number!

You can find more details on how to buy the magazine either in print or e-copy here on Ravelry. 

The previous pattern was the Will-O-The-Wisp hat, which is now available as a ravelry download (or nosey at it on the blog here).  

What're you planning on knitting next?

:)

Dyeing Spree & Too Much Fluff

As you've probably noticed from the many (many) previous posts, I've been experimenting with dyeing for months now, and have finally reached the stage where there is no way I'll ever use it in my lifetime.

I've been so restless today - probably something to do with the excitement of my hat in the Knit Now Magazine!!

I love the different effects you can achieve just by adding the same dye to different types of fibre.  The following fibre is an over-dyed humbug oatmeal BFL / Tussah Silk blend.  This was dyed in exactly the same way as the Alpaca / Tussah Silk blend after, but the effect is totally different!

The next example is the difference in uptake between wensleydale top & yak!  Ohmygoodness Yak is amazing.  Why does no-one use it more?!  It's amazing!!  So fluffehhh.   Yakyakyakyakyak  I looooooove it!!

The blue Merino/Bamboo 70/30 mix at the bottom of the page was dyed in several colours of blue, which didn't take to the bamboo and came out wonderfully crisp - like icebergs in the cold north sea!  There may have been some more info posted about it yesterday :p

And since I have far too many - there might be a few piles of fluff for sale on etsy :D

BFL & Tussah Silk

Alpaca & Tussah Silk

Wensleydale

Wensleydale

Yak

Merino & Bamboo

The Little Yarn Detective Agency

My first days off in ages - and all the pretty new books I ordered have arrived in the meantime!!  

After settling down to flick though my parcel, I couldn't put this lovely book down - Icelandic Handknits, by Helene Magnusson (There were lots of little extra symbols in there, but our british keyboards do murder them).  It's filled with gorgeous knits I'd want to keep forever, along with stunning little items I'd be happy to make as gifts.  

The pictures inside were just so captivating, all the snow & ice & warm lovely jumpers.  After thinking about them all day, I sat down to hand-dye some fleece to spin & knit into this heirloom shawl.  I'm so happy with the result!!  It's a merino/bamboo mix and, though I'd hoped the bamboo would only absorb a little bit of the colour for an icy effect, it took in none at all, staying gloriously crisp & white - like little icebergs on a deep cold blue sea!   

The little foxy stitch markers have been stolen from the shop stock - they were too adorable to resist.  Mine.  Mineminemine.  Oh, and the little blue milk jug?  It's another of the lovely little wren pottery collection.  

As ever, I may have spent far too many hours bothering the lovely people at The Yarn Cake.  And I fear I may have scared some customers - though they did stay for coffee so I really think I helped, in the end.  

So they walked through the door. Cautious, wary, the intrepid novice yarn explorers.

Quicker than a spinner to a pile of silk I was upon them. In retrospect, it may have been a tad overwhelming. Discounting the fact that I don't work there, I had within a couple of minutes elicited who he was buying for and found her on ravelry. It's not stalking if it's helping.  We shall not discuss the fact that Antje and I may or may not have been stalking detectiving educationally & helpfully looking people up earlier in the day.  

None of this happened within five minutes... It wasn't a whirlwind of two scary ladies getting really excited over someone else's birthday present...

I blame the coffee.

Panda x

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Dent-de-Lion; pretty words and a call for test knitters!

Did you know, that our Dandelion (y'know, that oh so pretty weed children everywhere love to blow the seeds of all over town), is named from the french 'Dent-de-lion', meaning 'Lions Tooth'?

Etymology (thew study of the origin of words) is very interesting, I'm always so intrigued as to how some of these words came about!  Anyhoo, I did ponder all of this lots whilst knitting up my new hat!

As with any new hat, I am of course looking for test knitters.  I will apologise in advance for these provisional photographs because my camera is still in the fixing shop :(

The stitch I used is one which caught my eye from my new stitch library book "400 Knitting Stitches by Potter Craft" - it's a gorgeous little book with good written notation and clear charts, along with lovely photos of large swatches of each and every stitch.  I would highly reccomend it!

My favourite part of the hat, the main feature and it’s namesake, is the part approaching the crown, as the yarn overs draw together to form one last large dandelion, with yarn loops reaching out as if you could just blow them off the top of your head!

TheDent-de-Lion hat is very slouchy, knit from brim to crown in the round, using two colours.  It comes in 4 sizes (toddler, child, adult and large adult).

To knit the hat, you would need:
Needles:  3.5mm DPNs
Yarn: Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply superwash
200yards of main colour (oatmeal)
100yards of alternate colour (gold)
 You don't have to use this yarn, any 4ply/sport weight would be lovely, I'm sure :)

Competencies:  knitting in the round, colourwork, the following stitches: knit, purl, yarn overs, twisted stitches, decreases.

Feedback :  I'd really appreciate some constructive feedback;  how easy did you find the pattern to follow? Could anything have been clearer?  What needs to be added and can anything be removed because it's unneccesary?  Also, it would be brilliant to havesome photos so they can be uploaded to your projects on Ravelry once the pattern is published :)  It would also be ideal if this could be within the next 2-3 weeks.

EDIT:  There are now enough test knitters for the adult sizes.  If you'd like to knit up a childs version, please do get in touch and I shall send you the pattern.  Email me at owlprintpanda@gmail.com, including your Ravelry username :).

Love! x

Custom Blended Merino Fibre

This is the prettiest bundle of fluff I have ever laid my little eyes on.  And it is MASSIVE :o



It's from World of Wool, which is a brilliant online store which lets you blend your own fibre choosing from different breeds, fibre types, colours and 'passes', which is how many times it is mixed through the carder.

I popped the contents of this lovely bundle up in my Ravelry Stash.

Minimum order was 500g, so I just *had* to get it...  I'm gonna try a couple of sample methods of spinning it and then perhaps attempt to make myself a little (or large) cardigan :D

Or I might just sit it beside me on the couch and pet it for the rest of the night.  Or just snuggle with it.

Plan of action:  stop staring at the massive mound of pretty fibre.  Go eat some food because it's already way past dinner time.  Spin my night away!

This is another first - spinning colourful dyed yarn!  I spun my first bobbin and dyed my first skein last week :D  see here and here.  

I did learn how to braid fibre the other day.... perhaps I'll just go braid all of this too.

Scratch that "maybe".  I did it.  I just typed about it and found the irresistible urge to go back and braid all the yarn.

It's dark so my photos are not brilliant (I shall put up more tomorrow), but look at these pretty pretty braids!

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