Man Hand's

Instagram has become such a wonderful tool in my life. I can instantly share a picture of something that I am making, and I can get advice from knitters all over the world, helping me to create the best version of my project. Not only can I do that, but I can share pictures of myself and my life, to my friends and family across the world! Even better, though, just by sharing a few pictures, I have been able to make so many new friends around the globe!

One of those friends is Kevin. We became mutual friends on Instagram, and after a little while, he asked me if I wouldn't mind knitting him a pair of mittens in exchange for one of his wonderful paintings. Obviously I said yes!

Now, the funny thing is, I'be never knitted for a bloke before. So, when I logged into Ravelry to find a pattern, I was overwhelmed with the amount of mitten choices I had before me. I already owned a couple of patterns that were unisex, but I wasn't sure what would be deemed too feminine in the eyes of a man (as you can tell, I grew up in a house of all girls, where nothing is too feminine! xD). Fortunately, though, I discovered a pattern called Man Hands by Shireen Nadir. It looked quick, easy, cozy, and more importantly, manly.

Once I had settled on the pattern I had to decide which yarn I wanted to use. I ploughed through my stash, but I couldn't find any Worsted yarn that fitted the bill. So, I had to do a bit of yarn shopping - which is always a chore! ;)

I had recently discovered a new website (to me, anyway...) through Facebook called Love Knitting. Now, I am a Deramores girl, but I do find that they can be quite expensive sometimes (especially their P&P - yikes!), and also their range isn't always as broad as I would like. So, when I found out that Love Knitting was cheaper overall, as well as having an extensive catalogue of yarns, I had to check it out - and boy was that a mistake. Thirty minutes later I had about 5 yarns sitting in my basket waiting to be delivered to my front door. For the actual project, I ended up choosing Wendy Aran with Wool in 475 French Navy, it looked like a nice budget yarn in the manliest colour I could find - dark blue!

The following morning, my squishy parcel arrived. One lovely thing about Love Knitting is that they put your yarn into white draw-string bags, which keeps them clean and looking lovely. I've been keeping the little bags to use as project bags when I'm out and about. But I digress - we were talking about Kevin's mittens, weren't we?

I cast them on the same day, and boy did they work up fast! It used a waffle stitch for the mitten, which I hadn't used for years! It was nice to revisit this stitch, I'd forgotten how easy it was! The pattern itself was incredibly simple, although at first I did think it was going to be too small, but as soon as I tried on, I realised how stretchy it was! My little hands were lost in all that material!

Two days after cast on, I was finished! (I would have been finished sooner but you know me, I get distracted so easily!) I popped them in the post, and Kevin was chuffed with them - yay! I will definitely be keeping this pattern, I can see it becoming very useful in the future (since seeing my Instagram about these mitts, I've had a few requests from my male friends for knitted goodies...). I'll also be keeping an eye on Shireen Nadir's patterns in the future, as Man Hands was such an easy pattern to follow!

While we're on the subject of Instragram, you can find me over there as @roaritscharly, I'd love to get to know you all better - so please leave a little comment on one of my pictures to let me know that you read my blog, and I'll give you a follow! :)

Thanks for indulging me today, I'll be back tomorrow too! Why? I hear you mumble. Well, I am trying to get back into blogging by blogging everyday during March! I'll also be releasing two podcast episodes during the month, as well as churning out a few YouTube videos (if I can find my camera charger, that is!) - so if there's anything you'd like to see in particular (ex. Bringing back the Ravelry tutorial series, or "This Week in Knitting" series), please let me know in the comments below! :D 

I'm Such a Rebel

Last week I promised I would be a good girl and finish Daisy's raglan before I started Tilly's cabled cardigan.

I lied.

I tried so hard to resist the temptation. Honestly. When I was nearly at breaking point I ran to instagram for support, which worked, until I started getting these comments:

This of course, made me want to knit the new cardigan even more... I had had an awful night, nightmare after terrifying nightmare, once cooled down and I had stopped shaking I decided to do some knitting to take my mind of the horrors.

And what did I knit?

I casted on Tilly's cardigan of course!!

This is my second project from my personal challenge A Year of the Cardigan, I wanted to attempted seaming again as it's a skill I would really like to improve.

The pattern I have chosen for Tilly is Hallows Cardigan by Melissa Metzbower, a rather masculine pattern, but I thought if I used a cute shade of pink I would be able to get away with it ;) One reason I chose to knit this particular pattern, was that it used Worsted/Aran weight yarn. I love, love, love working with those weights. I tend to stick to DK, so it is nice to have a change every now and again :)

Of course, you need to know what yarn I've chosen. I'm using Stylecraft Special Aran, in their Fondant colourway. You all know how much I love using Stylecraft yarn, it is cheap and great quality. Personally I enjoy using it more than some of the expensive yarns I've tried ;)

This has been a really good knit to have on the needles, I have been in so much pain lately with my Fibromyalgia that I need something simple to knit, yet it still needs to have enough complexity to keep me interested. That is where the cables came in.

As you can see from the photo, I decided to mirror the cables on the right front, just because I think it looks a lot prettier that way :)

Other mods I made, was that I downsized to 4.5mm needles, so that I got the right gauge. Other than that, I followed the pattern to the letter :)

I've switched back to Daisy's raglan for a little bit, to see if I can finally finish than dang lace panel! I am also working on a few new patterns, I hope to have them finished soon but we shall have to wait and see how things go!

A quick side note, you may have noticed a few changes to the blog lately. I've added a few new pages such as:

The Year of the Cardigan - the update page for all the projects for this personal challenge

The Flying Needles Knitting Club - I have my own knitting club!! Come and check it out, we have a Ravelry group where we talk every day, and we also do a webchat a couple of times a month.

Learn to Knit with An Accidental Knitter - Here you will find all my photo and video knitting tutorials

I've also updated my about page which is now entitled Whose Writing?

Head on over to this lovely lady for more WIPW posts!

The Non-Knittable Yarn

July of last year, when I was still in the process of learning how to knit (although to be honest, when do we ever stop learning?) I blogged about the Cable Bag I was making. I initially started knitting the bag with Patons Morocco Aran in Jade/Smaragd, a beautiful multi-textured, self-striping yarn. 

I can't get over at how messy my knitting was back then!

The first thing that struck me when knitting the bag, was that the yarn wasn't thick enough to be Aran. Sure, the dark blue aspect of of the yarn was Aran but the rest of the yarn, to me anyway, seemed slightly thinner that DK. Because of this, I realised the bag wasn't going to be strong enough to hold books etc, so I decided to frog it and try again in a different yarn.

I was then stuck with three skeins of this yarn, and no clue what to make with it. I had a flick through my book Knitty Gritty: Knitting for the Absolute Beginner, and found the pattern 'Lacy Wrap'.

When I was about halfway through knitting the shawl up, I realised that I would never wear it! So, I decided to frog that project as well.

I've had this yarn in my stash for a year now, and I desperately want to have another go with it. As I've had no luck finding the perfect pattern, I decided I would just design a pattern myself. 

I want to design something that'll not only make the yarn look great, but that is quick and easy to knit. I have a feeling I'd like cables incorporated but with a lacy twist. The only thing that I have decided on, is that it is going to be a scarf. As that is probably the simplest thing for a new knitter to create :) (plus I need another scarf!)

I'm about to start swatching for the design, and will show you my efforts tomorrow. If you have any ideas that I could incorporate into the pattern, then please let me know. Either through a comment, or a Ravelry message :)

Pattern Infatuation...

I was knitting Slouchy Bubbles, before I looked on
Ravelry and fell in love with a pattern... this beanie
ended up getting frogged! 

Searching Ravelry for new patterns despite having a WIP already on the needles is a dangerous business. I fool myself into looking every time by saying, "I'm only going to look... if I like it I'll add it to my queue. So, what's the harm?" For a few minutes it all goes well, you see a pattern, you add it to your queue then you carry on looking. You then find a pattern and become infatuated with it from the very first glance. That is when things become dangerous.

You sit there for a moment considering who you would knit it for, what yarn(s) you would use... how much fun you'd have knitting it. After that you start thinking about casting it on. You believe that you can finish your current WIP after you've knitted this little beauty, but will you, really? Will you finish this project, search Ravelry and repeat it over again? That little WIP, the one that you fell for just a week or so before, is now at the back of your mind, and in the back of your cupboard.

The photograph makes it look much more grey than it really is.

This is what happened on Sunday afternoon. The night before, I had cast on yet another beanie (Rizzle groaned when she found out). I chose the pattern Slouchy Bubbles by tshep, and was using Lion Cashmere Blend by Lion Brand. A yarn I could just sit and cuddle, it is that soft & luxurious.

Slouchy Bubbles is a gorgeous cable beanie, and I was really looking forward to knitting it. I had almost finished the brim when I realised that I might not have enough yarn to finish the project. So, I decided to look on Ravelry for a back up project, just incase I had to frog my third beanie of the week.

I found a couple of nice patterns and added them to my queue. As I continued to surf the web, I came across a designer called Sashka Macievich, and instantly fell in love with her pattern 'Horseshoe Lace Cowl'. I've never knitted a cowl, but was encouraged by Rebecca from The Cornwall Yarn Shop (honestly, her shop is heaven) to give it a try if I ever got the chance.

So, I decided to frog the Slouchy Bubbles beanie as I don't want to get 3/4 of the way through and run out of yarn, and have to frog all that work. I will knit another Slouchy Bubbles beanie when I get more Aran yarn, as it's a lovely pattern and I think Rizzle will look very cool in one ;)

I won't divulge any more information about my cowl, you're going to have to wait until tomorrow to find out more. I will let you into a secret, though, but you need to promise to keep it to yourself ;) If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram you can see photos of the cowl in progress before anyone else.

See you tomorrow folks! x