A finish! Freedom Spirit Chevron Jacket

I'm back and I have a finish to show you. Actually I have a few but I'll post them later when I have better pictures. So where have I been? Manchester again to see my sister. It was half term and so we jumped in the car and disappeared for a lovely few days. I forgot to post on the blog before I disappeared. Oops. Had this jacket been in the smaller size, I might not have got it back as Hazel loved it. In fact, she'd quite like one of her own! I think I might have to track down some washing machine friendly yarn and make her one.

So back to the pattern - I loved it! Can you tell? I have actually deigned to be in one of the pictures of my finished projects, I'm usually the one behind the camera. The yarn is superb to knit and the design shows off the patterning within the yarn perfectly. Although I checked my tension before knitting, I have used more yarn than the stated amounts in the pattern. About 1.5 balls extra in the end. I also made the collar shorter by about two inches but I think it is more than long enough as it is. I made the medium but as the sizing seems pretty generous, I think I could possibly have got away with the smaller size. It does make me look a bit like a chunky monkey but as I love both the colour and the pattern, I really don't care.

Will I knit it again? Almost definately.

It's Monday so I'm rambling

I have said time and time again that I really should try and blog more regularly but for some reason I never seem to manage it. I have so many things that I want to share but I never get around to posting them all and it always seems a bit silly writing about something two or three weeks after something has happened. I'm a bit embarrassed but I've actually made myself a list of things to remind me that I'd intended to blog about them. I've discovered I'm a real list writer, I write lists for everything. A bit obsessive maybe? Possibly but I do know that if I go shopping and don't take a list, I always come back without the one vital thing I need.

So what's been happening over the last couple of days? Where shall I start? Well, I mentioned my gran briefly last time. She's been staying with us for the last week and as much I as I am always pleased to see her, a week is too long. Probably for her as much as for us. She has a different way of doing things and of course, her way is always the right way. Regardless. I would suggest that it's just because of her age but I think it's more of a cultural thing. My dad's family are from the north east and my gran is the epitomy of that north eastern stereotype of "strong" women. She's opinionated and not frightened of sharing them, which of course doesn't make for an easy life. She just can't help herself, she has to interfere. There was obviously a good reason that my dad put three hundred miles between him and his mum at the age of seventeen!
Anyhow, along with everything she disapproved of though, she did fall in love with the amigurumi bears. So I made her a little one to take away with her. Isn't he cute! and a definate improvement on the first one. I hope she likes him - I tucked him into the box of bits she was taking home.

On the amigurumi front, I'd like you to meet my little girl. Currently she's been christened "fugly betty". The name's kind of self explanatory really - I think she's going to need a bit of work to improve her looks. Actually, I'm quite pleased the computer's working this morning. I told mum what she was called yesterday and she laughed so hard she threw her coffee all over the computer!Hehe. Ugly face aside though, I am quite pleased with the adaptation of the bear pattern. I think I'll have to consider her a work in progress. lol.
I've just searched the whole house, fugly Betty is mia and I didn't get a chance to photograph her. I think Granny took her home with her. Who knew!

Back to the knitting - I thought I'd finished my Chevron jacket this morning. Yes, the sleeve is finished at last. I stitched up the shoulder seams, picked up the neck stitches that were on the holders ready to do the last couple of rows. Then I reread the pattern - I have 8 inches of collar to knit. Doh! So, the hemlockring will be waiting a little longer.
It's a good job I picked up a spare ball of yarn last week or I'd definately not have enough wool. It's official, the pattern needs an extra ball of yarn to complete so after all that umming and arring over yardage, I was right all along.

Chevron Jacket - increasing

Hi guys this is for MurrayandLiz who stopped by my blog yesterday. I wrote these instructions for the Chevron jacket to help out another knitter on the Angel Yarns Knitting Forums. We've got a little knitalong going on for this jacket and you're more than welcome to come along and join us :)

When you are about to start the increases on the back you should have the rs facing you and you should be about to commence the purl row (K1, p15 to last st, K1) It doesn't matter which size you are doing as the pattern each size has one additional chevron repeat so you would be increasing by the same number of stitches no matter which size you're doing.

ok the chevron pattern is based on 15 stitches with one stitch either end to contain it. So to increase at the edge, you want to be adding an additional stitch outside the existing pattern repeat (chevron). Usually when you M1, you knit a stitch and then pick up the next loop and knit into it but as we are increasing right on the outside edge, you don't have a stitch to do that with. So, what you want to do is what I said before:

(rs)p1, M1, p15, *K1, p15 rep from * to last stitch, M1 p1

the (p1, M1) at the start of the row makes your new stitch at the edge (the p1) and the M1 becomes the K stitch that would be the normal first stitch of the pattern. When you turn to start the next row you now have an additional stitch outside the pattern repeat and as this is the pattern row (ws row) you will knit that stitch, then commence the main pattern.
(ws) k1, (main pattern as written to last stitch= p1, M1, k6, sl2.... etc), k1

Making sense so far?
So when you get to the next row that you want to increase on (4th row), which is a rs row again (so another purl row) it becomes
(rs) p1, M1p, *K1, P15 rep from * to last 2 stitches, K1, M1p, p1

So long as you keep the main pattern going (the 15 pattern/purl stitches with a stitch at either end), you should be able to continue to add more and more stitches at the outside edge until you get the required number.

Hope I haven't complicated things further. You might find it helpful to find some scrap wool and cast on 17 stitches (one chevron pattern) to test it out.
Shout you need more help.

Ticking along

Just a quick update on progress, my Chevron Jacket continues to grow. The back is all done and I'm started on the first front. It's actually a little bigger than this now as I've been meaning to post this for the last two days (yes I know I'm slack). I'm still loving this yarn and finally getting over my misgivings about the yarn quantities. The back took a little over 3 balls so maybe I will actually only use the number stated. I love the fact that you knit the front borders as part of the front - no picking up hundreds of stitches at the end. Yay!
While I had the camera out I thought I'd post an update on my Ivy. Yes, it is still a WIP. I've only managed the back and the first front but it's looking quite good. One day I will actually finish it (hopefully before the winter) but I can't help feeling that I might actually be knitting this for mum rather than myself. I think it might be a little short in the body for me after all. I think this is probably the main reason I've been getting so easily distracted from it. Bit of a shame that, needless to say, mum rather likes it. Hmm, Christmas present maybe?

Chevron Jacket

This is a lovely pattern and I'm really enjoying knitting it up. So much so that I have already gotten over the guilt of not finishing off my Ivy. I promise I will get around to it sooner or later but I love knitting this yarn, it is so soft and fluffy! So here it is draped over my knitting bag in the sun this afternoon. It's actually quite difficult to get a true picture of the colour as there are so many shades of red, pink, brown and orange. I can understand why the shade is called fire, it's fab. I'm really looking forward to being able to wear it and I'm not even halfway up the back yet! The pattern has such a lovely texture it's going to look great. I am still a little concerned about the amount of yarn that I am using but on the whole, it seems to measure very close to the dimensions quoted on the pattern. Will have to wait and see.
Regardless of that, the yarn is great - it's my first experience of using it and I can definately see me using it for something else again. Maybe even another of these jackets. It obviously felts very easily as I did my first ever felted join when it came to adding the second ball. Something that will obviously have to be remembered when it comes time to wash it. The last thing that I will want to do is to shrink it!