Project: Fuss Free Festival Shawl

 

Fuss Free Festival Shawl

I've been a fan of Louise Tilbrook's for quite a while, she's actually pretty local to me, was until quite recently a scientist like me, and her designs are simple and beautiful. I was a member of her Everyday Knitter group on facebook, although it soon became a bit too big to keep up with (and FB algorithms never help) but when she said she was setting the group up on Mighty Networks I was happy to join up there too. The Mighty Networks layout is really clean and easy to follow (no ads!) and it shows you stuff in chronological order, which is nice. To celebrate the new group we held a Knit-A-Long, although this time it was no mystery, it was Louise's Fuss Free Festival Shawl (FFFS).

Not a sponsored post.

This is a nice, asymmetrical triangular shawl. Really good for one skein of fancy hand dyed yarn your not sure what to do with. There is also an option to have stripes. You could probably work it in any weight yarn to make it really big and squishy if you wanted.

Yarn:

Witch fibre co. - Dream Country (75% merino, 25% nylon) Fingering weight (400m). I brought this from a fellow knitters destash, I would share the link to the shop but I can't find it.

Needle/Gauge:

4mm. There's no gauge given, just instructions to make a fabric you're happy with. As it's a shawl you don't want anything too tight, like you would have for a sock, but also doesn't want massive holes in like lace (unless that's what you want!)

Difficulty:

Very easy. This is all garter stitch, knit every row. You need to know how to increase and decrease, but once you've got the hang of the pattern repeat then the tricky bit is remembering which side is the right side (and I stick a stitch marker on the right side so I remember). The cast off is a picot cast off which can be a bit fiddly, but some people in the group did an I-cord bind off instead or even just a regular bind off.

Worth Repeating:

Definitely. I've made this one as a Christmas gift and it's so easy to make I'll probably make more at some point. It took something like 3 weeks to make, but I was also working on something else at the time.

Kitchen

Its not a pan, its a cauldron.

After finding that massive marrow in the garden, I found a chutney recipe for it. I don't know what sort of courgette this should have been, but the skin was really tough, it's not the sort I usually grow. I haven't tried eating this yet, but when I made it I expected it to break down more and it hasn't, so some of my jars have a lot of stuff but not much fluid in. The jars were properly sterilised before filling so I'm hoping that they won't spoil, I've had them on the side to keep an eye on and they're ok so far.

I did find a slightly smaller marrow in the garden the other day, so I'll have to find something to do with that.

Art

Since Covid and lockdown started a million months ago, the Natural History Museum (London) started a weekly #NatureDrawingClub. I've really enjoyed joining in when I can, but this morning I just felt like doing a quick drawing of my little carnivorous plant Errol the Engulfer. It's a small sundew, which has really flourished since I moved it to the front room window where it gets a lot of light. It's sent up loads of flower spikes recently and they're just so pretty and delicate. I wanted to try doing an ink and watercolour (although mine are watercolour pencils) and apart from the pen bleeding slightly I'm really pleased with it. Someone suggested using a dip pen and ink, so maybe I need to add one of those to my wish list as well as proper watercolours.

Errol was very impressed with his portrait.

Project: Gnicki the Gnome

 

Project: Gnicki theGnome (mystery Gnome KAL)

I've mentioned this project before but as it is now finished I feel it should have a proper round up. As this was a summer gnome I picked colours that I felt resembled a mountain wild flower meadow or pasture. The sort of place Maria from The Sound Of Music would take all those kids, or where Heidi might take her goats so they make delicious cheese. I realised last night that I had no idea if the area I imagined Gnicki to live (Alpine meadows) even had gnome stories, which I refused to look up last night, but a quick check this morning reveals that of course they do, although there is a story of Swiss Gnomes that caused a landslide in 1618 because the town that benefited from their gold became corrupt, and to be honest, fair enough. 

Gnicki in her natural habitat.

 

Yarns:

4ply/fingering weight. Pattern calls for 20g mini skeins, but I used well under 20g of each colour.

Squeaking moth – Mothy and the Squid (5g used)

Wild flowers – Mothy and the Squid (10g used)

Rainbow speckles (can't remember exact name) – Belinda Harris

The forest began to Sing – Sparkleduck (no longer available)

Needles:

2.25mm DPN for picking up stitches

3mm DPN (pattern calls for 3.25mm but that seems to be the only DPNs I don't own)

Gauge:

The pattern does give a gauge but as it's a stuffed decorative item I didn't worry about it. As long as my stitches were tight enough to not show the stuffing then it was good, and I didn't have to worry about not having the right needle.

Difficulty

I found this to be a quite easy pattern, but then I've been knitting for quite a while and was familiar with the techniques used, but even then I managed to fuck up some where because the purl ridges which you use to pick up the front pocket were not underneath the centre of the hat, so there was a bit of fudging and my pocket is longer to make it symmetrical. There are short rows and picking up stitches, and working in the round can be a faff if it's not something you've done much of. The instructions are well written with diagrams and links to techniques.

It has pockets!

Worth repeating?

Maybe? I don't necessarily need another one for my self, but I could see myself making one for someone else. I'd have to get some plastic beans or something to weigh it down because mine is just stuffing and it's hard to get her to stand up. I might buy a different pattern to make one at Christmas, I did have a basic gnome pattern on Ravelry but I was checking through all the bits I downloaded before I deleted my account and I seem to have the German and Swedish versions but not the English *slaps forehead * Maybe I need to practice my German...

Anyway, I'm happy with the finished product which is always good with mystery knits.

 

 

Gardening:

Ok, I've still not done a lot of gardening, and you can tell because I found this fucking monster of a courgette hiding yesterday when I went to get form rain water for my Sundew, Errol the Engulfer. I need to get some jars and turn this into chutney. 

A weapon dealing D6 damage

We became the surprise guardians of a butterfly last, I was prepping some kale and found a chrysalis inside one leaf. I wasn't hopeful because it'd spent a week in the fridge, but a week or so on the window sill in a brown bag (I was told somewhere warm but out of direct sunlight) and yesterday I found it had hatched. Just in time really because not long after I found it it started walking about and when placed near an open window it flew away. No warm ups, no practice, just straight out of the window.

 Aint nature magic.

 

Our Smol Friend

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baking:

Chocolate crinkle fudgebiscuits.  Make them, they're very easy and you can thank me later.