Yarn #1 : Stylecraft Life Super Chunky

Welcome to the first personal review of yarns I’ve used!  Each review will have a title prefixed Yarn # to make it obvious.

This review is for Stylecraft Life Super Chunky. I’m making a sweater in this yarn at the moment.  It is 75% acrylic/25% wool, with 80 metres/87 yards in 100g.  It’s machine washable at 40 deg C, can be tumble dried at a cool setting, may be cool ironed and dry cleaned.  The recommended needle size is 10mm/000 UK/15 US, using which a 10 x 10cm tension square will consist of 9.5 stitches by 13 rows.  I’m using Shade 2377 (Sage)  for my sweater.  It’s wonderfully soft and works beautifully – and fast of course!  The sweater I’m making features slipped stitches and cables and these have proven no challenge to the yarn.  In several balls, I’ve only discovered one join so far, which I am delighted about.  Based on this yarn’s quality, I’d have no hesitation in recommending it, and I certainly intend to try other Stylecraft yarns.

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Baby Knits

Finished a nice set of lace pattern bootees and mittens yesterday:

Lace Pattern Bootee and Mitten Set

I used the 4-ply Lace Pattern Set pattern in Hayfield baby’s bootique booklet (#7016) but used double knit (8-ply) yarn on smaller needles.  It’s a nice, easy pattern to work.  Happily, they were very well received!

Another “Flat” Pattern

With St. Valentine’s Day looming close, I had to get inventive again last Saturday.  A card was needed for Jenny and I’d already made one using a Teddy with a heart (Flat Ted) so I needed something new.  Jenny has two loves in the realm of Fantasy – unicorns and dragons.  I’m nowhere near  being able to knit a unicorn, yet, so that left only one option – a dragon!  Draco the Dragonet was born 

 

Draco the Dragonet

 

I’ve added the pattern to the Free Patterns page here and my Ravelry “store”.

 

Knit Design Studio

Yesterday, I discovered a great piece of software!  Knit Design Studio by Savannah Winds allows charting of knitting designs, with a good range of symbols set up for your use.  You can even design cables in it!  It’s not only excellent for creating your own charts.  I have often come across charts that can rapidly become confusing when accommodating different sizes of garment, with the need to leave out some symbols when working smaller sizes.  It’s very simple to transcribe the chart, excluding the unwanted symbols, for the size that you’re working on using this software.  The printed chart (and any notes you might add in the instructions page) will make working much simpler.

I’d rate this as one of the best programs for knitters that I’ve seen, and it’s free!

Tragic News

It was very sad to hear that Trevor Bailey, the former England cricket all-rounder, has died in a fire at the age of 87.   My sympathy goes to his widow, who was rescued from the same fire.

You can read more here.

Flat Ted

It was Jenny’s birthday recently and I needed something a bit different for a card for her.  After some head scratching, I decided on a knitted Teddy bear shape holding a heart.  OK, decision made, now what?  I decided that I could use a pattern for a heart shape that I have in another pattern but the Teddy was another matter – I’d have to design one myself!  I’ve never done this before, of course, so  I could only start knitting and hope for the best.  So Flat Ted was born.

As I knitted, I made full notes, including the fact that I knitted the wrong leg first (which has been corrected in the pattern).  Because it was made from scratch, it’s not perfect, but I was pleased with the result.  Jenny was absolutely thrilled!  She fell in love with him right away!

Having made Flat Ted, I now have a desire to come up with other knitted shapes.

 

Flat Ted

 

The pattern is available from my Free Patterns page.