Oolong knits

In my humble opinion this pattern is begging for a better colour combination, although the original ain't that bad either. This is a free pattern with an unusual, but very simple, construction. There are no picked stitches at all, instead it uses multi-directional knitting to get the effect. It starts small, at the top "centre" and then spreads as you go along, which means you can stop at the desired size. The designer, Carissa Browning, named it, Shifting Stripes Shawl .

himmeli by eri, a Japanese designer, is a lovely, very feminine sweater. The secret of this design is that the lace detail and the double hem are knitted in mohair yarn of the exact same colour as the wool yarn used for the main part of the sweater (in addition, both yarns have a good portion of silk).

A recent pattern by Andrea Mowry, Nightshift . I love the colours! And the simple stitch patterns. She used the same (or is it similar?) stitch pattern in The Shift , compare to see how the colour choice makes a huge difference.

How did I ever managed to keep posting two posts every week and for so long? Now I cannot even imagine doing it! To be sincere I cannot find either the inspiration or the time to keep that rhythm. I wish I could because I would really love to keep this blog as active as it has always been. Completely changing the subject, my early blooming hyacinths are smelling so lovely right now. I am not sure why they decided to bloom in Autumn. It was not because I took good care of them for sure. I simply put the container outside so that the rain could water them during Summer and I would not need to. I did not even bother to feed them, which probably explains why the flowers are so unassuming. Still lovely, they look more natural this way and their scent is not so overbearing.

The Hexagon sweater by Andrey Zhilyaev is, unfortunately, only available in Russian, but can you believe how beautiful it is? So perfect in every detail. And the yarn is to die for! Filati da Collezione yarn is made in Italy, but apparently also only available in Russia. Bummer... If you would like more really sweet eye-candy look at this designer's Ravelry's projects' page . I have never seen hand knitting like that! At first sight, I thought it was machine knitting because it is so perfectly and professionally finished, but there is one photo with the work still on the needles. Unbelievable!

It has been a long time, but I am back with a tutorial on toe-up socks. I have written tones of posts on socks and even one tutorial on toe-up socks before. But that was one of my first posts and, with more experience, I really do not recommend that particular heel recipe and I think I have a few more things I can add. A note, before I begin: this post is a bit wordy with lots of details for the absolute beginner. If you only want to read the pattern, I have used coloured backgrounds to highlight the parts of the text that correspond to the pattern. Socks are knitted in the round. If you have no experience knitting in the round, maybe you should start with an easier project than socks, such as a hat. There are 2 ways to knit in the round: double pointed needles (dpns) and circular needles. For the former, you can use either 4 or 5 dpns. For the latter, you will need to use either the magic-loop method or the two-needle method. Which method to use is up to you, different people...

This post is a bit more personal than my usual posts. A bit shorter too. This is just to say that, with some effort, I could easily find something more like my usual posts to write about. I am definitely growing a few vegetables in the plot I have not posted about yet. And there are many, many plants in my overgrown garden I have not mentioned here either. What about knitting? Even though I have not been focusing on it so much as I used to, I have just finished knitting a placemat of my own design and am very happy with the result. And I could definitely find an exciting technique I have not learned before. I have just got one in one of the opened tabs in my browser. What about last weeks candy? Have you noticed I could not find the time to post one? And my book club? I confess I have read a few books since I last posted, but I never come around to write about them. And what about one of my main topics: feminism? Can you believe the metoo movement has taken hold of almost every corn...

A while ago I mentioned that three of my friends have had babies and I was going to start knitting baby stuff. And that is what I have been doing since then and the fact that I actually find it boring explains why I have taken so long to knit 5 small projects. In order words, I confess I have not been knitting much lately.

The last time I checked there were no projects for this pattern on Ravelry. Somebody should right this injustice. Personally I love the combination of black-and-white pattern almost everywhere and then an unexpected dash of colour at the end of the sleeves. Rings & Roses Mønstergenser by Bente Presterud Røvik is a free pattern for a monster sweater (have I got the translation right?). Unfortunately the pattern is only available in Norwegian, but the colour work is charted, so you can easily add it to your own sweater recipe.

I do not know if I am just very unlucky, or are British Horticultural Companies completely unreliable and unprofessional? My experience of buying plants from both garden centres and online retailers has been full of surprises and I can only give one advice about it: relax and try to enjoy the fun and unpredictable side of it. When I started gardening I (very naively) expected these companies would employ expert botanists who would provide their clients rigorous information on the plants they were buying. Soon I would find out that on the contrary, we are lucky if we are told exactly what we are buying,—in some cases a generic common name that could refer to many different varieties or even different species is used,—and even luckier if the name provided is correct. Let us not mention the information about plant care provided. One example (I could provide more), I bought some Anemone coronaria corms from Sarah Raven, only to find out after they flowered that they were An...

Fading Circles by DROPS design. An unusual, fun shape begging you to find an equally fun colour combination far away from the dull grey choice of DROPS design. Nice, free pattern too.

Sage is one of the strongest flavoured herbs: a few leaves only go along way. It is a evergreen, but it does not do very well in cold, wet winters outdoors. It has pretty pale blue flowers in Summer and its velvety leaves are not only pleasantly scented but quite pretty. It is also quite easy to grow at home from seed and save a few bucks in the supermarket. Follow this link for some instructions.

The Oban Sweater by Thea Colman. Just another cute cable sweater. I have a weakness for them, but I still have not found the courage to do one.

Easy to grow, healthy and delicious. Lettuces are one of my favourite allotment staples. And the truth is that you simply cannot find a proper lettuce in British supermarkets, what they sell is water packed in lettuce form. Be aware that vitamins, minerals and all things that make lettuce healthy have flavour, so if it tastes like nothing, it is probably nothing from a nutritional point of view. Considering how much I like to eat salad, I could have a allotment only to grow it. The better news is that I do not have too, I can also grow other goodies. Some lettuce are of the type "cut and come again" (that means you can cut the outside leaves and the plant keeps on growing), others are meant to be harvested whole. The latter are the perfect crop for successional sowing, in order to keep a constant supply. Because they germinate so quickly, you can also cut the baby leaves instead of waiting the long weeks to full maturity. Baby leaves are all the rage among people who thin...

Aoede by Áine Boudreau. A lovely old-fashioned lace shawl. I must admit that this is not something I would ever wear, but I still can appreciate its beauty. And the pattern is free.

Wow, I took this picture only a couple of weeks ago and what a difference it makes. My plant is now a lot more healthy looking and twice the size. And I even have already eaten one of its fruits. A big cucumber that was so small when I took the picture you cannot see it. Soon enough I will be eating more because this lovely plant is already displaying a few good looking small fruits. Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) Soil moist, fertile, plenty of organic matter Aspect warm, sunny, sheltered Row spacing 60 cm Plant spacing 60 cm Germination 1 week Time to maturity 18 weeks Sow outside May-June Sow undercover March-May Plant outside June Plant undercover April Harvest August-September Store harvest regularly before cues mature Pests/diseases mildew

Dunas by Gretha Mensen is a beautiful triangle shawl decorated with cables. Like the designer, you will want to make it using a light plain colour that allows the subtle texture to stand out.

Comfrey is an important plant in organic gardening because its leaves can be used to produce a very good potassium-rich liquid feed. This is the best feed for all fruit plants and particularly for tomatoes and the good news is that it is really easy to do and free. I have seen quite a few recipes for comfrey feed: here is one . It does not include water, which is weird, maybe they forgot? It seems that everyone does it slightly differently. If you do not want to bother producing liquid fertilizer, you can simply use the leaves in your compost or directly in the soil as mulch for tomatoes (it will take more time to act than in liquid form, that is all). Comfrey's secret is that its root is extremely long and reaches down the soil to where most other plants cannot reach. Then it brings the nutrients it has found deep down to its leaves. There is a sole disadvantage to it. Once it settles, it is extremely difficult to get rid of comfrey. So be very careful not to let it spread. To ...

I absolutely love the colour work in this pattern and it is free! Worth downloading it just to use the stitch pattern in other projects, like matching hat, scarf and mittens or even socks. It has the unfortunate name of Women's cardigan (lazy authors), by Mari Kangas and Sisko Sälpäkivi.

There are many variety of beans which include not only the one thousand varieties of delicious, cute little dry seeds of the bean plant, but also runner beans and French beans for which the whole seed pod is eaten before the seeds start growing. They are vine plants that require support and usually grow to about 2 m. The supports can be made in many shapes, but the teepee (see photo on the left) is the most attractive and also quite practical. Runner Beans (Phaseolus coccineus) Soil fertile with a lot of organic matter Aspect warm, sheltered Row spacing 45 cm Plant spacing 15 cm Germination 10 days Time to maturity 15 weeks Sow outside May-July Sow undercover April-May Plant outside May-June Harvest July-September Store freeze after blanching Pests/diseases aphids, frost French Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) Soil fertile soil, does not dry out nor waterlog Aspect sunny, sheltered and warm Row spacing 20 cm Plant spacing 20 cm Germination 10 days T...

Because I really love simple sweaters with a little bit of texture to make them interesting. Mira by Justyna Lorkowska is just perfect. Even though I am so lazy that I am not absolutely sure that it is worth the effort of working the bee stitch all over the body.

I know what you are thinking, what a lame photo. I confess I messed up when I planted them out and then the birds finished the job. Nearly. Amazingly, these little poor things have mostly survived their ordeal and are now recovering under the protection of a net. These are technically mangetout (snap peas, I think), not peas, but it is just a variety of Pisum Sativum. Pea (Pisum sativum) Soil plenty of organic matter prevents drying out Aspect sunny, but slight shade can help in hot summer Row spacing 30 cm Plant spacing 10 cm Germination 10 days Time to maturity 15 weeks Sow outside March-July Sow undercover February Plant outside April Harvest July-September Store freeze after blanching Pests/diseases aphids

Oblique by Veronik Avery is an unusually well finished cardigan if you consider that it is a free pattern. Its construction is also unusual. The buttons are on the side so that the two sides overlap at the front when when buttoned up. The idea is that it looks like a slouchy, comfy cardigan when used unbuttoned, but it smartens up when buttoned up. Two looks in one piece if you need them on the same day.

When I first visited my plot with the Allotment Site Secretary, Celina, I was depressed. I did not want to refuse it, because I feared I would be taken off the waiting list, but the site looked daunting. Celina showed me how the soil was mostly clay and told me that I needed to work on raised beds, because she believed this would be the only way to grow anything on clay soil that partially floods in the rainy season. I told her that I wanted to think and discuss it with my other half before accepting to rent the site. But when I took him to the site, my husband (did I ever told you he is a genius?), who has zero experience with gardening, had a completely different approach to Celina, who has been gardening on the allotment for years. Instead of looking at what the previous renters had done and how they had failed, he looked around, noticed how the the entrance is higher than the end of the plot, ignored the latter and started looking at the former closely, removing trash that was l...

The Frieze Shawl by Lisa Hannes uses mosaic knitting to very nice results. It is said to be a lot more easy to do than it looks. The photo is taken from Cathri's project, which includes some nice notes too.

I got my allotment at not the best of times, just the time of the year when most of the sowing and planting out that happens in Spring is done. Which means that I should have to wait for over a year before harvesting most crops. Sure enough there are exceptions to this rule: fast growing crops like salad that can be planted all through summer and even autumn, and even a few winter crops. However, my nice neighbours have come to my aid and kindly offered some of their plants. And that is how I found myself the proud owner of 10 courgette plants! I have read somewhere that four are enough to feed a family of four and we are only two, but they so much insisted, obviously a bit guilty for not having anything better to offer, I could not refuse them. Courgette and marrow (Cucurbita pepo) Soil moist, fertile, plenty of organic matter (compost or manure) Aspect warm, sunny, sheltered Spacing between plants 180 cm * Germination 1 week Time to maturity 15 weeks Sow...

La Maison Rililie is one of my favourite designers and the BlueSand Cardigan is her most popular pattern. A must for stripes' lovers.

I applied for an allotment site, but, there was such a long waiting list, I expected it would take years to get one. I was very lucky and I got one in less than a year. It is not a great plot. There is nothing but weeds, grass and trash in it. It is small, because, in order to accommodate more people in the waiting list, they have divided already relatively small plots in half. Part of it floods and its soil is pure clay, part of it is half pebbles half soil, most of it is not flat but very irregular. But, some of it has surprising good soil under the grass. So not everything is bad. We have already dug and dug for hours and managed to recover some soil and plant some things. I have found that my initial estimate of one meter square per hour of digging per person is actually optimistic. It is only a good estimate when the soil is in good condition with not too many stones or trash or hard to remove weeds. If I sound a bit negative, it is not that I am, just realistic. The truth i...

A lot of shawls and scarves look great stretched out, but all the beautiful lace or colour work is lost when wrapped around the neck. Not true for Russel Street by Megan Doherty. A very simple idea, but not so easy to execute. Kudos for the designer. I love the result and may try this one for myself.

Anke Telschow's Loop 66 is a cowl, but what really attracted me to this pattern is the very unusual stitch. It is not done with slipped stitches, it is a type of tuck stitch. I love the way the right and wrong sides look so different and both so beautiful. Hard to decide which one is which, isn't it?

Soil, water and sun are the three most important things in gardening. Where I live, water is taken care of naturally and gardeners never have to worry about it. If plants do not like a lot of water, they will not thrive and there is nothing one can do about it, except keeping them undercover. Sun is another matter as there is not much to go around, not even in south facing gardens (not even if the sky is blue!). But most plants still do well with what is available. Although my garden is north facing, so I am always on the look out for plants who do not mind a bit of shade. Soil can be more tricky. To begin with, there are different types of soil, according to the RHS : Clay soils are heavy, high in nutrients, wet and cold in winter and baked dry in summer Sandy soils are light, dry, warm, low in nutrients and often acidic Silt soils are fertile, light but moisture-retentive, and easily compacted Loams are mixtures of clay, sand and silt that avoid the extremes of each type...

Corrosion by Julie Nandorfy is a very simple textured cowl. It is really the lovely yarn that makes it stand out. But I do love texture and I sometimes simple is just the best way to go.

In this post I am going to give you some reasons to invest your money on your own and some reasons not to do it. Bookshops are full of books that promise to teach how to become rich by investing your meagre savings on your own. And so is the internet full of webpages. There is one good reason for this: very low interest rates. Usually finance advisers charge a percentage for their services. In the past, it was relatively easy to make returns that were well above this percentage and hence most people did not consider it necessary to go to the trouble of learning about investment themselves. However, in the last decades, getting high returns has become a lot more difficult. It is already non trivial to simply beat inflation and it takes a lot more to "beat the market". The result is that, except if you can afford really good advice, you can see your returns being significantly diminished after paying the fees, that is, if you are lucky. If you are unlucky, you may even loose...

I love the idea behind the construction of this sweater: a lace panel (knitted sideways) and a very visible 3-needle bind-off in the middle. Bolan by Leila Raabe.

Recently I have been reading a bit about finance again. I actually really like the scientific/mathematical side of finance a lot, mainly because I have always been fascinated by random processes and complex systems and the stock market is a pretty neat realization of these mathematical theories. The thing that stroke me in my last reading is how similar finance and knitting are: both involve mostly elementary algebraic operations, including a lot of percentages. It is funny how differently they are perceived, however. The former is supposedly only to be understood by the most intelligent of male minds, the latter is supposedly a mindless activity pursued by mentally disadvantaged women. Financiers have been using dirty tricks to make their business seem very, very mentally challenging, when it is not. The main one being a completely ridiculous use of jargon. Jargon per se already has a bad reputation for reasons well known, but financiers have taken it to a whole new dimension by usi...

I seriously love the colours of these socks. That is the main reason I chose them for eye-candy this week, but the stitch pattern used helps create the effect. Hidden Change by Dieuwke Schack-Mulligen.

Because these socks have no heel—one simply goes on knitting, changing colours on a whim, until reaching the desired length—there is not much to add pattern wise. There is, however, a choice at the end: no cuff, just continue working in spiral ribbing to the end, or a k2p2 cuff, done by stopping the spiral and working in plain rib for one inch or so. After that, we need to bind-off and for best results we will work a tubular bind-off. I have been having trouble finding a good tutorial for this technique. The ones I have found do the following: First, in one round, redistribute the stitches in such a way as to obtain a k1p1 rib. You can use a cable needle to help avoiding dropped stitches. What you do is crossing the second knit stitch in front of the first purl one. Then work the normal tubular bind-off. However, there is a way to avoid redistributing the stitches and work the tubular bind-off directly. I found it in Montse Stanley's book and after going through a...

I just love the mosaic-like work on this shawl. I also love all the textures, which are more subtle and difficult to see in the photo, but will surely stand-out when you see the shawl live. Mare by Natasja Hornby.

Helical stripes is a very easy (and a very clever) method to obtain jogless stripes when knitting in the round. This method is not more often used because it has the great limitation that you can use as many colours as you would like but you can only knit one round of each colour at a time. So say, for example, if you would like to knit 3 rounds of blue, then 3 of red, then 3 of yellow, you can do it, but you would need to threat each round as a different colour and thus use 3 bobbins of each colour. If you take a look at the video below, you will better understand what I am trying to say here. You will also realize that very fast this becomes a bit dreadful to do. I am using 3 yarn ends for three-colour stripes in my socks and it is already a bit of a pain as it is. So this is a method that is really OK if you have a 2 or 3 round repeat but not much more. That said, helical stripes still deserve to be better known. I see a lot of patterns where people use one round stripes for socks...

This is a very good example of how a good colour choice can greatly improve on a pattern. The pattern is Rug by Junko Okamoto, but the photo is taken from Febr12 's project. She has good notes too.

Spiral ribbing is a very simple technique used mostly for its decorative effect, for example it looks great in hats. However, another traditional use of this technique is to knit socks without heels. The idea behind it is that if you twist the spiral in such a way as to straighten it, you will obtain a strange shape that naturally forms a heel. This is a neat trick and is particularly useful when knitting socks for someone else if you are not very sure of feet size. The rib is elastic, which covers for small differences in width, and as for length, you do not have to worry at all: these socks are just a long tube and will fit lengthwise as long as they do not reach calf height. The idea behind spiral ribbing is quite simple. You knit a few rows of normal ribbing and then move one stitch over (either starting the rib one stitch before or after) and keep on doing it periodically. There is a bit of freedom in which rib stitch and how often you move over. Citing Montse Stanley "Knit...

I absolutely love the collar of this sweater. And better yet, it has a great fit for people of all weights (just check its projects' page on Ravelry). Vesper by Heidi Kirrmaier is worked top-down, but the pleats are sewn in the end. If you do not like sewing, or do not know how to, Hiroko has devised a way of working the collar knitting only (note: it requires 4 needles, but only the right-hand needle needs to be the right size, the other 3 can be smaller ones). I used her photo too.

The mistake rib we used last week is really attractive, but I think I like cartridge-belt rib even more (strongly dislike the name though). These two look almost identical, but the latter is also a lot easier to work, as it involves no purl stitches (you slip them instead). In conclusion, a really cool rib stitch which is extremely easy to knit and very attractive two. Like any rib stitch, this stitch pattern is particularly great for men's scarves, since it does not curl and looks very manly indeed (for some reason I cannot grasp, my husbie is very worried that I intend to knit some pinky lacy thing for him, I swear I have never given him a reason for it). Yarn: 4 skeins (400g, 480m/520yd) of Malabrigo Mecha. Needles: 8mm/US11. Gauge: 20st = 10cm = 4in. Size: 180 x 25 sqcm. Notions: one tapestry needle (to weave in the ends). Abbreviations: sl1wyif: slip one purlwise with yarn in front. Pattern Using long-tail or another relatively stretchy cast-on, cast-on 51 stitche...

I expected very little from this book. I was not even expecting to finish it at all. You see, I got it from my local library, where it was labelled as romance. And, what you do not know, but I know all too well, is that, when it comes to fiction, my local library specialises mostly either in crime novels or in novels with nobility titles in the title (you know the kind...). It is awfully difficult to find anything worth reading in it. So I was really surprised to find out that Mr. Fox is a very nice read and Helen Oyeyemi a very good writer. It is not easy reading—it has a complex, very fragmented structure—but this actually makes it quite entertaining. It is formed of short stories that are connected by a single theme (at least most of them are, some seemed to me to be somewhat out of place). These stories span different times, places (continents) and genres, which, together with Oyeyemi's whimsical style, is what makes them so compelling. They are mostly fantastic, their...

Beeswax Cowl by Amy van de Laar . I love the cables in this cowl. Obviously, there is nothing to stop you from using them in another project. In fact there is a matching hat which is even better eye-candy.

This is a simple pattern for a cowl I have knitted three years ago. I love this cowl so much, I decided to share it. There is nothing original about this pattern, it is a simple all-over mistake rib stitch and you will find several very similar patterns on Ravelry. However, when knitting a cowl, getting the circumference right can be quite tricky. First of all, you need to decide if you intend to wrap it around your neck once or twice (or possibly more). I only like the look of cowls that stay quite close to the neck. They are also the most useful for when it is seriously cold and that is when I usually wear one. So for my liking there are only two options: a very, very high cowl with a short circumference wrapped once around the neck in relatively thin yarn or, even better, a cowl with a long enough circumference to be wrapped twice. So, the main reason I decided to publish my pattern, which is also the reason I like this cowl so much, is that I think I got the size super-right. It...