Plaited cable continuous scarf

I have always been fascinated by plaits, maybe it goes back to my time on the farm watching my grandad plaiting intricate belts out of old fashioned bailing twine.  I've never had a go at plaiting with more than three strands but I'd love to explore this to see if it is easy or something that you need lots of practice to get it just right.  

This winter has begun and it's starting to get a bit cool when I'm out walking Ruby on the beach so I dug out some wool from my stash and sat down to design a new scarf for myself over the weekend.  I find the most annoying thing about scarves is that they are really easy to lose because they fall or blow off in the wind.  I've overcome this problem by making this scarf continuous.  The idea came from a customer who visited our shop a few weeks ago, she was wearing a really long continuous persimon coloured fine woven wool scarf.  I stored the idea away thinking that was so elegant but really practical.

The scarf measures 10cm x 150cm (4"x 59")

You will need a 2 x 50g balls of yarn, the one I used was Sean Sheep Rockbank, made in China, approximately 125 meters/136 yards of very soft self striping 70% wool and 30% alpaca, a scrap of wool for a temporary cast on, a 4.5mm crochet hook (or similar), a pair of 5.5mm knitting needles and a cable needle that will hold 4 stitches.  *This wool has a suggested tension using 4.5mm knitting needle producing 28 rows x 20 stitches over 10cm (4") on the ball band.  

To begin make a row of chain stitches using the scrap of wool and the crochet hook, approximately 36 chain stitches.   *If you want to make your scarf wider then add stitches in multiples of 8.

Next knit up 32 stitches with your main wool into the back loop of the chain stitches of the temporary cast on.  This cast on technique is used because when all the knitting is finished you can remove the chain stitched crochet cast on and pickup the 32 'live' stitches and then graft them to the other end of your knitted scarf to complete your continuous scarf with an almost invisible join.  

Row 1 - Purl

Row 2 - K4, (C8B) three times, K4

Row 3 - Purl

Row 4 - Knit

Row 5 - Purl
Row 6 - Knit
Row 7 - Purl

Row 8 - (C8F) four times

Row 9 - Purl
Row 10 - Knit
Row 11 - Purl
Row 12 - Knit

Repeat these 12 rows until you finish with Row 11, leave a very long tail ready for Kitchener stitch grafting.

Remove the temporary crochet cast on placing 'live' stitches onto your spare knitting needle making sure that when the scarf is folded in half with wrong sides together that the two needles will both point in the same direction ready for Kitchener stitch grafting the stitches together.  

Here is a great video from KnittingHelp.com that shows your exactly how to go about doing your Kitchener stitch grafting.

Weave the tails in and your scarf is ready for your next winter walk.  Enjoy.

Abbreviations
C8B - Put next 4 stitches on cable needle and leave at back of work, K4, then K4 from cable needle.

C8F - Put next 4 stitches on cable needle and leave at front of work, K4, then K4 from cable needle.

An easy knit that would make a great, inexpensive, thoughtful gift for someone this winter.

Mega May catchup

Well, May has escaped me, no blogging at all.  Time to let you know what I was up to while I was absent from my blog.  Mothers Day fell near the middle and I had a great day being made very special and then my mum visited and I made a sponge cake for afternoon tea.  Nothing better than a sponge cake straight out of oven cooled, spread with lime and raspberry jam and lashings of cream.  It was delish!  Here's a link to my recipe just for you!

My children and Dear Husband gave me this beautiful mother of pearl pendant.

Eggs on a Cloud made by Darling Daughter for breakfast.  Yummo!

I started and finished this baby blanket for a very special baby girl who arrived just in time for Mothers Day.  I used almost 600g of Bendigo Woollen Mills classic 8ply pure wool in the shade Rosebud and a 4.5mm hook.  The pattern I thought I might be able to manage was Heather Tucker's, Lacy Round Ripple Blanket, a free pattern I found on Ravelry.  I'm not a very experienced crochet pattern reader and I have to say the centre nearly defeated me, but I'm stubborn and once I got to where the rippling started it was pretty straight forward as long as you meticulously cross the rows off as they are done.  I washed and blocked the blanket and I was really pleased how it turned out.  Dear Husband delivered the blanket personally and met the divine little Miss.  

My little Miss Ruby loves her bed even if it is all pushed up in a heap!

Mothers Day when you have a giftware shop means making some special little things for the kids to pop in and pickup for their special mum.  I had a great time making these little items, so nice to be settled back into making.

Little fabric tissue packs for your handbag.

 Crochet brooches from cotton and mohair with fabric covered button centres.

Pom pom flowers.  These were super easy and easy enough for kids whip up too.

I love vintage linen and these little purses are great for using up little pieces of precious embroidery, hand crocheted edgings, and old jeans.  The flaps are crochet that I made using a pattern in a book I bought recently.  I'm really happy with the finished product, a bit fiddly but worth the effort.

I knit some cotton washers that are a great gift with a luxury MOR soap.  Pattern here.

Crochet cotton coasters were fun and they display really well at Kindrawares.

I made a trip over to our little shop and it's looking gorgeous as usual.  Love my time over there staying on the farm with my sister, The Farmers Wife.  The winter crops are all planted now they just need a bit of rain and harvest 2014 will be looking good.

The view from my sisters office!  Not bad!  The last paddock is almost done!

Good hearty food to keep us warm and contented.  The best thing about winter.

Winter is here and the fire has been lit, it's a great place to keep the apple and berry crumble warm beside a jug of homemade custard.

Free Oroton inspired waffle washer

My Oroton knitting bag has inspired me to create a washer pattern to share with you.  It's not really a knitting bag but a beauty case too nice to get dirty with makeup and it was the perfect size to cart my crocheting all around the South Island of New Zealand in.

Working with my Nana's very old bamboo needles.

My favourite soft  Australian cotton is from Bendigo Woollen Mills.

I thought these washers would be a good gift with one of these  hand wrapped Australian made MOR soaps we stock in our Kindrawares shop.  

Okay now for the pattern.

Needles - one pair of 4.00mm, UK8, US6
Approximately 15g of 8ply/double knit cotton of your choice

Cast on 54 stitches

Row 1 - (K1, P1) repeat to end
Row 2 - (P1,K1) repeat to end
Row 3 - as Row 1
Row 4 - as Row 2
Row 5 - K1, P1, K3 *yo, sl1, K2, psso the 2 K sts* K1, P1, K1, P1
Row 6 - P1, K1, P1, p to last 3 stitches, K1, P1, K1
Row 7 - K1, P1,K2 *sl1, K2, psso the 2 K sts, yo* K2, P1, K1, P1
Row 8 - P1, K1,P1,  purl to last 3 stitches, K1, P1, K1
Repeat rows 5-8 13 more times
Repeat rows 1-4, cast off in rib and weave in ends.

My cloths measure around 9" or 22.5cm square.  If you would like to make yours larger or smaller, increase or decrease the number of stitches by 3's and adjust the number of rows accordingly.

Enjoy xo

Free hottie cover pattern

I have an old knitting book that shows a lovely woollen hot water bottle cover knitted in very fine wool so this week I took that idea and using an Australian wool that I discovered at our local Kmart store I sat down and created this hottie cover. 

The pattern was in this little book that was given to me when I was 10 years old at primary school.  My very first knitting book all of my own and it has inspired a life time love of working with wool.  Good Australian wool is my favourite yarn to work with and I love supporting Australian sheep farmers with my knitting and crochet adventures.

This next book was my second knitting book, purchased from Book Club at primary school in 1977, this also has a simple hot water bottle cover pattern. I was hooked!  I couldn't get enough of knitting.  I knit my first jumper when I was 11, admittedly it was 4 rectangles in garter stitch with a boat neck, and a pair of gloves when I was 12.

A hottie warming up the fluffy flannelette sheets in my single bed at my grandparents farm when I was a little girl is a very fond memory from my childhood. There is nothing better on a cold winters night, but remember to replace your old hottie regularly as they perish and be very careful filling it with boiling water.

You will need 3 balls of Cleckheaton Country Wide (50g, 50m, 14ply), a 6mm circular needle and a large crochet hook.

Cast of 60 stitches.

Knit one row and then join into circular knitting without twisting your cast on edge (imperative!).

Continue knitting in the round until it measures 25cm from cast on edge.

Next row K2, P2 across row.

Repeat this ribbed pattern until work measures 29cm and you are at the narrowest point of the bottle neck.

Eyelet row, *K2, P2 together, yarn forward *, repeat between *'s across row

Return to K2, P2 ribbed pattern until bottle cover is approximately 38cm and the top of the bottle neck is covered.

Cast off in rib.

Finishing

Using crochet hook work finishing tail in and trim.

Fold bottle cover flat with cast on tail on one side.

Using double crochet (single in US) join the base of the bottle cover on the outside, matching up cast on stitches to get a neat edge, crochet in all tails.

Cord

Using two strands of wool crochet a chain about 1m long, enough for nice bow, trim ends.

Thread through eyelets so bow is centered on the front of the hottie cover.

Insert filled hottie and enjoy some winter warmth.

Update May 13th 2014
Until yesterday I had always thought this pattern was my very own work but I have since had it pointed out very clearly that it was actually published in the now unavailable Notebook magazine in July 2009 of which I don't have a copy and cannot honestly recall having seen.  

The pattern is the work of knitting designer Janine Flew from Sydney.  I have always endeavoured to give credit to designers and share links to things I mention on my blog so I will do this for Janine Flew also.  Here is a link to her Ravelry Hot Water Bottle Cover  pattern.  This free pattern can also be found on the Homelife website and you can print the three page pattern from there too. 

Janine Flew is also the author of a lovely knitting book I have in my extensive knitting book collection.  Knit was published in 2006 and includes many small projects perfect for gift making.  There is also a more shaped hot water bottle cover in this book which looks just beautiful.

To all concerned in this terrible blunder I have made I apologise and am truly sorry.

Error! Error!

Evening all, I have just sat down after a long day at work to continue knitting my third Windshield Loose Lacy Neckwarmer and discovered two typos in my pattern. This is very embarrassing as the pattern has been available for just over 24 hours and it has been downloaded on Ravelry 150 times! Thank you to all the knitters out their who like my neckwarmer enough to want to knit one yourself but please download a corrected pattern. I have made the changes in the pattern in my previous post but for those who want to update their printed copy here are the changes.

Rows 17 and 27 should read

Row 17 - k2,yo,ssk,yo,k2,k2tog,ssk,k2,yo,k2tog,yo,k2

Row 27 - ssk,k3,yo,ssk,yo,k1,yo,k2tog,yo,k3,k2tog

My humble apologies. Lisa x

Free neckwarmer pattern

Long time no blogging.................I know, not good but I have been knitting a little bit in the evenings and have developed a new free pattern download over at Ravelry. As you can see my trusty photographic assistant Ruby was very helpful this morning. This neckwarmer is an essential item when walking dogs on the cold and windy beach in winter. I have loved knitting lacy pattern for so long I've decided to spend a bit more time researching very old patterns and reworking them to make them much easier to knit. If you already belong to Ravelry then you can find me 'lisajane' over there and I have two free patterns available and 8 knitted and felted bag designs for sale.

If that is too much for you to struggle with then here is the basic pattern for my new neckwarmer for you to enjoy.

 

Windshield Loose Lacy Neckwarmer

Cast On 120 stitches with 4mm small circular needle using a DK yarn (less than100g)

Work 1 row purl then join into the round, place stitch marker, work further 2 rows purl, then 1 row K.

Begin Shield Pattern as below, alternate rows are knit because you are knitting in the round. Row 28 also knit.

Work 2 and ½ repeats of Shield Pattern, finishing with a Row 14 of knit (70 rows of pattern).

Work 3 purls rows and Cast Off with a 4.5mm needle loosely.

Shield Pattern - a variation of a vintage pattern from Cornelia Mee’s 1846 book, Exercises in Knitting although her pattern didn’t have the decreases sloping in the directions that I think lie nicely and it her olde world writings were very tricky to work out. I spent some time reworking this Shield pattern so it works up beautifully and have provided the pattern in a written format below and a graph on my free pattern over at Ravelry. The pattern is a 15 stitch repeat which does increase to 16 stitches for rows 9-22 inclusive.

Row 1 - ssk,k3,yo,k2tog,yo,k1,yo,ssk,yo,k3,k2tog

Row 3 - ssk,k2,yo,k2tog,yo,k3,yo,ssk,yo,k2,k2tog

Row 5 - ssk,k1,yo,k2tog,yo,k5,yo,ssk,yo,k1,k2tog

Row 7 - ssk,yo,k2tog,yo,k7,yo,ssk,yo,k2tog

Row 9 - k1,yo,k2tog,yo,k3,k2tog,k4,yo,ssk,yo,k1

Row 11 - k1,yo,k2tog,yo,k3,k2tog,ssk,k3,yo,ssk,yo,k1

Row 13 - k1,yo,k2tog,yo,k3,k2tog,ssk,k3,yo,ssk,yo,k1

Row 15 - k1,yo,k2tog,yo,k3,k2tog,ssk,k3,yo,ssk,yo,k1

Row 17 - k2,yo,ssk,yo,k2,k2tog,ssk,k2,yo,k2tog,yo,K2

Row 19 - k3,yo,ssk,yo,k1,k2tog,ssk,k1,yo,k2tog,yo,k3

Row 21 - k4,yo,ssk,yo,k2tog,ssk,yo,k2tog,yo,k4

Row 23 - ssk,k3,yo,ssk,yo,k2tog,yo,k2tog,yo,k3,k2tog

Row 25 - ssk,k3,yo,ssk,yo,k1,yo,k2tog,yo,k3,k2tog

Row 27 - ssk,k3,yo,ssk,yo,k1,yo,k2tog,yo,k3,k2tog

Suggested yarns

For the pink neckwarmer I used 2 x 50g balls (100m each) of Eki Riva Casual 8ply (100% Baby Alpaca) from Peru.

The cream neckwarmer which was my prototype was knit with 2 x 50g balls (110m each) of Heirloom 8 ply Capri (70% cotton 30% wool) from Australia.

I hope you enjoy knitting this old world style knit and that you continue to explore lace knitting.

I love wearing my Windshield pinned with an English antique silver brooch.

Enjoy, Lisa x