Aran Yarn Arrived!

I don't have a teapot, so here's a picture of the tea cosy draped around a lamp.

The new yarn came quickly! It looks stone, rather than wheat-coloured in reality, but m-i-l has cool colouring so it'll look fine. nice big exciting parcel, but packed by a smoker, alas!

I struggled to begin the pattern, despite doing a test swatch and writing out the instructions before I started, I kept coming out two stitches wrong. I hunted on the Internet for 'People's Friend Country Casuals Patons Diploma Aran Errata' and all variations upon, but couldn't find any notes at all. The mail order chappie said (in a fruity Essex accent) that he'd sold at least 50 packs of the yarn since that pattern came out (People's Friend issue 7250 dated January 17 2009)but I guess they are all non-blogging knitters. Expert, non-blogging knitters, so they knew what to do!

Eventually I realised that the two missing stitches were the ones that should be a line of two knits running down in between the cable pattern. Once I'd added them (although I still can't find the bit in the pattern that tells you to do that) everything made sense and I was off.

I'm trying to cable without a needle, and mostly managing it now - although the crotchet hook has to stay close for the escape attempts. It's harder on Diploma Aran because it's a very smooth yarn. The vintage Aran was fuzzy and the stitches clung to one another, making me think I was getting the hang of it - I wasn't!

Because one can't email small knitted objects, I'm sending my test or prototype teapot cosy (now known as PROTOCOSY) to friend in the post.

Heave Ho!

I started trying to frog Cloud 3 and gave up after half an hour. I couldn't undo the seams so I cut off the buttons and put the whole thing in the bin.

Then I threw away my third attempt at the Aran shrug - the one made by knitting together four strands from a cone of 2-ply wool. It looked rubbish. I won't do that again. (One strand with another yarn can look OK, though.)

I would have thrown away the garter stitch jacket I made such a mess off as well, being in a kind of bury your mistakes mood, but we are decorating so I couldn't get into the cupboard.

Then I got out the yarn I'm collecting for a Ralph Lauren ski sweater. I keep picking up odds and ends of brown and orange yarn, and I still don't have enough! I pulled back my first attempt. I'd done a back and a sleeve which were wrong in so MANY ways. I did these before my Lucy Neatby DVD's arrived, and I can see that I'm improving. I threw away all the small lengths of yarn. I did keep the brown background colour. I can wash the wrinkles out of it if I need it to finish the garment.

Ended up with two piles of yarn and realised that they fell into warm and cool colours. The reason I don't have enough for one jumper is that I only like the cools together and the warms together. They don't look right mixed. Put it all away. Will carry on collecting odd balls. One day I'll have enough!

Then I finished a tea cosy in mistake rib. The teapot lives 30 miles away, so it's a test item in an odd ball of brown tweed. Mistake rib is lovely. It would make a good man's sweater.

Cloud Three Meltdown

Cloud Three is complete rubbish! It is far too big. I suspect the tension/fabric/material is correct, but I've made the wrong size. I knit the large and it should be medium. I can't decide what to do. Give up. Throw this one away and risk the real yarn (£90? NOO, I'm not up to it!), look for some more practice yarn or frog this one and try again.

The sleeve that I made an inch longer by mistake shows AND affects the way that sleeve sits in the shoulder. It looks all wrong.

And look at the buttons. The first three are sewn on close to the edge and look all lumpy. The last three are sewn on further away from the edge and look fine. That's interesting and a point to remember.

I did some of the lace trim while watching Yellowstone on TV last night. I did quite well, considering I had to be alone in the house when I first did it! I went wrong after about two inches, so I put it away.

Rowan never replied to my query, I think because I mentioned I was making a test garment. It is very short sighted of them, because if I can't master the pattern, there's no way I'm buying Calmer!

Monday morning Coates got back to me straight away and they gave me the number of a mail order stockist. He said he knew exactly which pattern I meant, he'd sold about 50 packs of yarn for that jacket and would make sure I got the right colour. Very exciting. It might seem rash, launching in with the real yarn, given my track record, but if you look closely at the pattern, it is not very fitted so I think it should be right enough within several inches of tolerance. Fingers crossed anyway!

Office Chair Wearing a Shrug

With washing in the background! At last I have finished a garment which looks like the picture in the pattern and fits me. Fourth time lucky! This has got to be a mile stone! The shrug looks better on a person, but I don't think I will make a 'real' one. It's maybe a tall person's garment.

Using progressively bigger needles to make the collar worked very well. One sleeve is wider at the bottom than the other one, which is odd, because the stitch count is exactly the same. I had to frog the I-cord edging three times and they still don't match exactly, but good enough.

Swatch and Frustration

Friday night I got some old Aran out and made a swatch. It's a clever pattern - not hard even for me. The only problem is that on the picture I can see a line running up in between the two chains of cable, and I somehow missed whatever bit of the instructions tells you to do that, but I'll know that when it gets to the real one. They are only two stitch cables, so I'm going to make the whole garment without a needle!

Another Request

We went visiting at the weekend and this magazine had been saved for me. 'That's a lovely jacket,' said m-i-l. The only trouble is, can I find the yarn anywhere? Not a chance! Finally rang the manufacturers, who don't work at the weekend when people might have time to knit, and left a message.

The requests are piling up, but I've had very little time for knitting and none to photograph progress this week. The Aran shrug is nearly done, and it fits!! I just need to undo one of the I-cord edgings on the sleeve. I put on too many stitches and it bells out too much.

Finished

Blogger looks funny today - no little buttons to post photographs so I'll just record that I've finished the cable panels. I need to sew it up to be sure, but I think it will fit.