knitting review: 2018 so far

As we're now over half way through 2018 (whaaaaaat?) I thought I'd do a review of my knitted projects. I have managed to knit something every month so far this year except from June which is pretty good going for me. Here's what I have been making:

January - Dr Who Fair Isle mittens

One of my best pals turned 30 in January and after seeing how much she admired my handknitted fingerless mitts at Christmas I thought I'd make her a special pair of mittens. I searched for suitable patterns on Ravelry, mostly looking for Fair Isle type patterns, then stumbled across the (free!) Whovian Mitten pattern and was like "wooahhhh, I could make her dream mittens: Fair Isle meets Dr Who."

I redrew the chart to incorporate Fair Isle patterns and made a few fit modifications along the way which I've written about on my Ravelry page. I was worried the finished mittens might not fit well as I found them quite tight and short (although admittedly I have quite large hands) but luckily my friend has much neater hands and fingers and assured me that they fit her well. Phew!

February: baby and toddler knits

In February, the same week I got my house keys and my brother got married, my friends had their second child, another little boy, so naturally I felt compelled to knit cute baby and toddler presents. The baby hat pattern is Sirdar 4806 garter stitch hat and the booties are Stylecraft 4821.

I initially knitted the hat in the round on dpns as a sneaky ploy to avoid seaming but the yarn bagged at the corners so the hat looked awful - serves me right for trying to be a smart arse. Weirdly I only get this bagging problem when I use acrylic mix yarn. After sulking for a day the hat got unravelled, reknitted flat as instructed and then I finally taught myself how to do mattress stitch from YouTube tutorials. It isn't particarly difficult to do and it gives such a smart, flawless finish so I have no idea why I have been avoiding it like the plague. Now I feel embarrassed about how badly I seamed my early knitted items, haha! 

With my newfound confidence in seaming I happily went ahead with the toddler hat, the Pointed Pull On Hat, also from Sirdar 4806 pattern and knitted flat. Is it wrong that I want a bigger version for myself, complete with tassel? It's so cute! I also really liked the wool for this hat, Sirdar Snuggly Crofter Baby Fair Isle Effect DK. It was so soft and the self-striping effect made it fun to knit. 

March: Hermione Hedgehog socks

It appears every knitter and their Mum/dog/cat/child online has knitted Hermione's Everyday Socks by Erica Lueder... and now I'm one of them. For these socks I used my first skein of indi-dyed yarn: Hedgehog Fibres Sock yarn in the colourway Genie. I’m not normally drawn to neon colours but fell in love with the bright, highlighter pen style speckles when I saw it in a yarn shop in Edinburgh before Christmas.

I cast on the first sock on Christmas Day and finished it just before New Year but sadly it felt too tight. The gauge was correct so it must just be my wide, deep feet. It didn't feel unbearable, but uncomfortable enough to know I wouldn’t enjoy wearing it and that felt like a waste of effort and yarn. I was so grumpy with the project that it got stuffed in a bag and I knitted all of the projects above before coming back to it. Eventually the guilt got to me and I unravelled the sock and started again on bigger needles. 

It felt like a major pain in the arse knitting 3 socks in order to have a pair but it was worth it. My feet no longer feel suffocated and the knitted "fabric" (for want of a better word?) also feels nicer at a looser gauge. It felt really stiff on the (original) 2.25mm needles. The socks are perhaps slightly on the bigger, roomier side but definitely preferable to tight, suffocating socks.

In terms of the sock pattern, I love the textured stitch and how the heel looks so I can see myself using both again. In terms of the yarn, I have mixed feelings. The finished socks are gloriously soft and the colours are gorgeous, however I found this merino/nylon mix yarn to be a slippy, splitty, pain in the arse to knit. I can't say I'm keen to work with it again. It's a shame, but these things happen. It's all part of the learning experience.

April: my first shawl

As well as buying the Hedgehog Fibres skein when I was in Edinburgh, I also bought a skein of Malabrigo Sock in the 866 Arco Iris colourway. To say I was besotted with this skein is a complete understatement. I fell hard for the mix of pink-purples and flecks of yellow and green. It's a good job I was shopping with my best friend who is fully aware of my eccentricities as I spent the rest of the day petting the skein and squealing with delight. We also went to Cuckoos Bakery for cupcakes, to a fabric shop where I bought some ribbon and to the Christmas market in the evening to ride the carousel. BEST DAY EVER.

After another month's petting I decided to turn the yarn into a Nurmilintu shawl, a free pattern by Heidi Alander on Ravelry. This was my first time knitting a shawl and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The pattern is a satisfying combination of mindless garter stitch with enough lace for a bit of interest without being overly taxing.

I genuinely could not be happier with how this shawl turned out. The colours knitted up beautifully and I’m delighted to have created something I absolutely love from this yarn as it felt so special. I now understand why people go nuts for Malabrigo yarn!

Unlike the Hedgehog Fibres yarn I've found the Malabrigo (100% superwash Merino) an absolute joy to knit and wear. In fact I was so pleased with this shawl that I didn't get around to washing and blocking it for 3 months. I cast it off one morning and started wearing it... then kept wearing it! Oops, shame on me.

I feel bad for wearing it unblocked for so long as it looks *SO* much nicer for being washed and blocked. It completely transformed the shawl! The yarn bloomed and opened up the lace sections beautifully. It was well worth pinning out the picot edge too as it makes such a pretty, delicate detail. I love how intricate and fiddly it looks but it's relatively simple to achieve as most of the work is in the blocking/pinning.

May- early June: self-striping socks 

My Mum started knitting a pair of socks in May and eventually I got sock-envy and had to cast on a pair too. I had bought a ball of Stylecraft's Head over Heels yarn in the colourway Everest earlier in the year and it came with a sock pattern so I went with that.

I initially tried knitting these with the magic loop method but found it incredibly annoying having to shove my stitches back and forth along the cable and needle, especially since they kept catching at the join. I suspected my cheap Pony needles were the main problem as they have a fairly thick, inflexible cable so I unravelled and went back to knitting on dpns.

Other than changing the toe I followed the pattern and I'm pleased with how they turned out. The colours look great and the self-striping yarn made the socks rather addictive to knit. I'd be knitting late at night (usually whilst watching old episodes of Taggart, A Touch of Frost or X-Files) and find myself thinking "ooh, just one more band of stripes" before heading to bed.

I really like the effect of the twisted rib on the cuff/leg and I find the fit comfortable. I've discovered that I prefer the fit of a 60 stitch sock to a 64 stitch when I'm knitting with 2.75mm needles. 64 is fine for slouchy bedsocks but it's nice to have a slightly neater fitting pair.

July: another Nurmilintu shawl

Another one of my best pals turned 30 and I felt she was also worthy of a lovely handmade present. Given how much I love my Nurmilintu shawl in Malabrigo yarn I thought she might like one too. This time I picked a lovely deep blue shade called "Impressionist Sky."

I knitted this shawl at a slightly slacker tension compared to my first one, as I think I knitted mine slightly tighter than usual for some reason, which resulted in a slightly bigger, airier shawl. I was so pleased with how this shawl turned out and almost felt reluctant to let it go but I know it has gone to a good home.

I genuinely cannot get over how much I love lacework, it's just so pretty. I often think knitters either fall into cable or lace camps and I'm definitely team lace. I'd be interested to hear how other fellow knitters feel, which camp do you fall in?

I also can't believe we're entering August tomorrow. Crazy! I've got my next knitting project lined up: another pair of socks in Stylecraft's Head over Heels self-striping yarn. However this time I'm going to try my newly purchased Knit-Pro cable needles to have a second attempt at knitting in magic loop. I'm open to being a magic loop convert, but so far I'm still feeling very much in the DPN camp. We'll see!

birthday cakes and other bakes

Hello! How's it going? I'm currently feeling a bit run down. I had a sick bug last weekend and this weekend I have a massive coldsore. I look delightful. In an attempt to not run myself into the ground further, I'm going to chill today with some knitting and catch up with blogging.

May and June were quite intense months between work and organising/doing house renovations. Things are moving forward on the house front though. I'm finally at the turning point where deliveries are arriving and things are ready to be installed. I'm looking forward to partitions going back up and the house looking more like a home again rather than a sad, gutted shell.

Anyway, this isn't a house renovating post, we're here for cake pictures. Right? I have a lot of family birthdays crammed into a few weeks in April/May so there's always an intense period of baking. It's tiring but also kind of brilliant. Three of the birthdays fall within a week so there is loads of cake to power through!

Blow away sponge

A cake for my Aunty's 70th birthday. I haven't baked one of these before, or if I have it was so long ago that I've forgotten, but Mum used to make these a lot. It's a fatless sponge, similar to a swiss roll I guess, so very light and fluffy. I sandwiched the sponges with cream, jam and fresh strawberries. I would love to make this again as it's so fresh and summery.

Black Lego brick cake

This is what happens when you leave baking to the last minute so you have to make something simple and the only fondant icing colour you have in the cupboard is black. I kind of love the brick in its basic glory though and oddly black is probably the most appropriate colour for my eldest brother. The cake itself is a Mary Berry basic sponge traybake cut in half and stacked with jam and butter icing sandwiched in between. Mary's traybake never lets me down, it's so good!  The cute lemon meringue cupcakes were baked by my sister in law.

Minecraft cake

This is actually my second Minecraft themed cake (first was for eldest nephew here) but this time it was for my youngest nephew. The cake was another Mary traybake but cut into smaller blocks and iced individually before haphazardly stacking into a structure. Whilst I baked the sponges my Mum did a cracking job of making all the fiddly figures to set on and around the cake.

Incredible Hulk cake

As an Incredible Hulk fan, this was my favourite cake of the bunch, evidenced by the fact I took more than one photo! Unsurprisingly, this cake comprises of..... you guessed it.... yet more Mary Berry traybake sponges.

It turns out making a Hulk cake isn't as straight-forward as one would think. Have a browse through Google Images and you'll understand.... The vast majority look pretty ropey! I think because there are so many different styles of the Hulk he's not got a go-to, recogniseable face to draw, if that makes sense? There were a couple of more hopeful looking cakes though, one of which had the Hulk breaking through a wall. I thought that looked cool so I followed that idea but drew a different face. Initially Mum and I tried to sculpt a 3D face to match the 3D fists but it looked horrendous. It was so bad I almost wish I'd taken a photo. Luckily we had enough green icing to make his face again on a flat layer. I think what we ended up with was presentable and recogniseable. The fists are definitely my favourite part though!

Other bakes:

Apple and mixed berry crumble

My Mum has owned this pretty, flower shaped Denby dish for a few years yet has never used it due to the impractical shape. Whilst I partly agree about it not being the most functional dish, I've always thought it would be great for a pudding. Back in April, I finally put the dish to use and it was glorious.

The crumble was attractively colourful and tasty and I loved how the petals of the dish made perfect portion sizes. The dish might get another outing soon as last month I discovered a few sticks of rhubarb growing in my new garden! Rhubarb crumble is most definitely on the horizon. 

Chocolate chip and pink smartie cookies

A few months ago I baked these biscuits/cookies (whatever you choose to call them) to take to my brother's house for dessert and served them warm with a dollop of Hagendaaz Praline and Cream ice-cream. OH MY GOODNESS IT TASTED AMAZING. I highly recommend it. They're basically The Hummingbird Bakery's chocolate chip cookies from their first cookbook. The only difference was swapping some of the chocolate chips for pink smarties.

What have you been baking recently, anything nice and summery? I've been optimistically flicking through my recipe books but have yet to make anything. I think it's safe to move away from the Mary Berry traybake though!