Perfect Day

That's exactly what it was - a perfect day.

Birthday Boy decided he wanted to get some sea air in his lungs, so we headed for the North Devon coast.

Blue skies, warm sun, gentle breeze, pub lunch, stroll along an uncrowded beach...

and, yes, he's wearing the Weskit!

As I said, a perfect day.

Weskit

Evidently the origins of the waistcoat go back to King Charles II when it was introduced as part of the correct dress during the restoration of the British monarchy. Originally called a vest, the garment was much longer and only became known as a waistcoat or weskit when it was shortened to waist length.

History lesson aside, today is MDH's birthday and, this year I've knitted him a waistcoat. MDH loves waistcoats and this isn't the first one I've knitted for him. The last one was a multi-coloured Kaffe Fasset design, so this one couldn't be more different.

I'm using up the last of my stash of Kate Palmer's organic wool, (produced from sheep reared on pastures less than six miles from where we live) and decided to go for a classic, traditional-style waistcoat as I thought this complemented the yarn.

I started by knitting the two pointy bits at the lower front, then joined them at the bottom edge to knit the body all in one piece up to the underarms before dividing  for the front and back. This means the only sewing up involved is the shoulder seams.

The edging is worked in double crochet. Elizabeth Zimmerman wouldn't approve (she didn't like the idea of mixing knitting and crochet) but I find working edging like this so much easier and neater than picking up stitches and knitting them.

The Rowan buttons are from the recycled button box - not exactly 'recycled' in this case because they've never been used. They came with an unbelievably complicated Rowan multi-coloured cardigan kit (a Paisley design - I ask you!) that I bought many years ago. I managed about four inches and gave up. 

Anyway, as I'm nearing the end of my stash of Kate's yarn, I guess my 'grey phase' is all but over. Now spring is just round the corner, I shall be able to get out into the workshop and do some more dyeing, so colour will be back on the menu soon!

Asymmetry

The knitting projects are stacking up now. There's the Seamless Hybrid Sweater that I want to make from the recycled wool and then there's MDH's birthday present (only one week away - eek!) which has to be top priority. So it's just as well that I've just finished my latest project. Hot off the needles, this is another 'not for me' item - an asymmetrical cardigan.

I love garments that have unconventional construction or quirky features. This pattern by Sirdar has a modicum of quirkiness with the right front knit sideways. The garment however has totally conventional construction. You know the sort of thing - a back, two side pieces, two arms and a collar all knitted separately and requiring sewing up.

As I was knitting this I kept thinking it could have been made virtually without seams and if ever I were to knit this again I would certainly adapt the pattern to make it so. Seamless garments have so many advantages: not having to sew up the garment being the most obvious one. I hate sewing up knitwear and, by all accounts, I'm not alone in this. It takes care to get right.

Also, as Elizabeth Zimmerman (who so strongly promoted the idea of working seamlessly) pointed out, there are no seams to split apart or come undone. The finished garment looks neater, there are no loose ends to weave in and it's so much easier to give your garment a professional finish.

And last but not least, in these eco-conscious days, ripping back the garment to reuse the wool becomes a breeze!

Green cone

Those nice people over at Mid Devon Council have given us a present - a green cone. This is a food waste digester (not to be confused with a composter) which takes the sort of kitchen waste that normally gets thrown out and ends up in landfill.

Now, we already have three compost bins and four chickens which, between them, do a very good job of recycling most of our kitchen waste, but the green cone is different; it is designed to deal with meat, fish, bones, dairy produce and even animal poo, the sort of stuff you can't feed to chickens or put on the compost.

Whereas a composter sits on the surface of the ground, a green cone has a basket which needs to be below ground level and that means digging a big hole.

Once installed, kitchen waste can be added with a little organic activator powder to get the bacterial action going. This breaks down the waste to water, CO2 and a small amount of 'residue' which will need emptying once in a while (they reckon every few years with average use.)

In warmer weather the action speeds up, in colder weather it slows down and may even need the occasional dose of activator powder to keep things going. For this reason the cone needs a sunny site in order to work properly. This is a slight problem for us. In our north-facing garden sunny sites are at a premium and tend to get used for fruit and vegetable growing. However we've managed to slot it in between the raised beds and it's installed and ready to go.

The producers of the green cone reckon that it should be able to cope with all the food waste produced by a family of four. They do say, however, that it likes 'a balanced diet' which means that, while it takes meat, fish and bones, it works best when combined with a certain amount of vegetable matter. 

Obviously the hidden agenda behind this freebie is that the council hope eventually to reduce our weekly rubbish collection to a fortnightly one, which is fine by me. Anything that helps to reduce landfill and keep a few more lorries off the road has to be worth giving a try.

ADDIction!

I'm a huge fan of circular knitting needles and don't use anything else these days. In particular I love my Addi Turbo circular knitting needles. For me they live up to their name, the smooth metal needle tips and the ultra flexible cords really help the knitting to glide along.

Knitting the throw last month would have been much harder work on straight needles as it got so heavy and bulky towards the end. By using a circular needle the weight of the knitting was distributed evenly and caused much less strain on the hands - making for easier, quicker knitting. 

The one downside of circular needles is that, depending on the size of project, you not only need different sizes of needle tip but also different lengths of cord. This can add up to an awful lot of circular needles and, if using Addi, a big dent in the bank balance.

Enter the interchangeable circular needle - a set of needle tips in different sizes interchangeable with a number of cords of differing lengths. 

There are several sets on the market and Addi, bless 'em, brought out their own version last autumn, Addi Click, which uses Turbo needle tips. How could I refuse such temptation? Well, I did hold out for a while on account of already owning a set of Denise Interchangeable needles, but a few weeks back I finally succumbed and now, having used both sets I thought I'd share with you my view on the pros and cons of each.

The Denise set retails in the UK for under £40 (I got mine from Kangaroo Yarns) and contains 10 sets of needle tips, 6 cords and 2 connector pieces, allowing you to join cords to make even longer cords.  It also contains 4 end pieces. These allow you to use needle tips and cords as 'straight' needles should you wish to do so or to use the cords as stitch holders, a feature that I find really useful. All this is very neatly packaged in a case 22 cm x 33.5 cm (7" x 8.5") making the set easily portable.

The Addi Click set also contains 10 sets of needle tips (but not the same range of sizes as the Denise set, see below), 3 cords and 1 connector. There are no end pieces but the set does contain a dinky little gold heart pin - to my mind a bit of an unnecessary gimmick. The set comes in a black box which is smart but rather bigger than it needs to be (sort of A4 size) and, at £89, it doesn't come cheap either.

With both sets of needles the connecting mechanism is fairly straightforward if a little fiddly at first.

So which do I prefer?

Without doubt the Denise set is well packaged, extremely versatile and offers good value for money. But (and this is a big 'but' for me) everything in the set is plastic including the cord and needle tips. Some people like knitting with plastic needles - indeed, some people even prefer plastic. I don't. Quite simply I find that plastic has a 'drag factor' which slows down the flow of knitting. Plus the cords are quite rigid and tend to retain the kinked shape out of the box.

On the other hand the Addi Click needles are just like Turbo needles - same smooth metal tips, same ultra flexible cords. A completely different knitting experience!

So by preference Addi will always be my first choice, but, as the Denise set gives you more options, I won't be putting it up for sale on eBay just yet!

Here are some 'knitty' gritty details for you.

The Denise set contains the following needle sizes: 3.75 mm, 4 mm, 4.5 mm, 5 mm, 5.5 mm, 6 mm, 6.5 mm, 8 mm, 9 mm and 10 mm. There are no 3.5 mm or 7 mm needle tips.

The Addi set contains: 3.5 mm, 4 mm, 4.5 mm, 5 mm, 5.5 mm, 6 mm, 7 mm, 8 mm, 9 mm and 10 mm. There are no 3.75 mm or 6.5 mm needle tips.

The cords in the Denise set are the following lengths: 6" (15 cm), 9" (23 cm),  12" (30 cm), 14" (35.5 cm), 16" (41 cm) and 19" (48 cm). The Denise needles are made in the US so all sizes are in inches. I've given the nearest metric equivalent.

The cords in the Addi set are as follows: 60 cm (24"), 80 cm (32") and 100 cm (40"). 

The Denise needle tips are 4.5" (11 cm) in length and the Addi needle tips 13 cm (5").

One final thought - the shorter needle tip of the Denise set allows for the use of a shorter cord. This means that you have the option of using a circular needle for working sleeves in the round, something not available with the Addi set where the shortest cord is 60 cm. 

Thrifty knitting

A serious case of eco-consciousness has taken hold of me just recently. I have unraveled a ten-year-old sweater that has seen better days in order to reuse the wool.

Yes, honestly!

'Reuse, recycle, repair' as they say.

The sweater in question was lovingly worked by me for MDH from wool bought one holiday on the Isle of Skye.

It has to be said it was not one of my better designs - I was still in my 'four rectangles sewn together' phase.

Still, MDH, bless him, wore it proudly.  Over time though the sweater has sagged and bagged and was being relegated 'for garden use' - the end of the road for all our sweaters - but the wool is still good and, despite its rustic appearance, nice and soft, so I am determined to give it a new lease of life.

I only wish I could remember what breed of sheep it came from. It's probably a traditional Hebridean variety, given where I bought it and the dark brown colour sprinkled with flecks of grey (typical of Hebridean breeds, evidently).  I hope so. 

Anyway, what to do with all this wool? I feel an Elizabeth Zimmerman project coming on - something like the Seamless Hybrid Sweater. Having just spent hours carefully unpicking the seams of the old sweater,  I can definitely appreciate more and more the distinct advantages of seamless garments.

Cusco (almost) completed

I actually finished this yesterday but decided the whole thing was way, way too big, so immediately set about taking it in.

Fortunately that's not as much of a pain as it could be because of Cusco's simple construction.

Essentially the jacket consists of two identical halves, each made from a rectangle folded in half and joined leaving a number of live stitches which are then worked on a circular needle to create the sleeve. The two halves are then joined by seaming up the back using three needle bind-off. No sewing up required - always a plus in my book!

To take in this garment all I've had to do is unravel the sleeves and some of the body to reduce width then redo the sleeves. 

I've included the photos of the jacket with its second sleeve still unfinished because it gives a better view of its somewhat unconventional construction.

I have to admit, though, I was having serious doubts about how this was going to turn out as I was knitting it up.

However, now I've resolved the size issue and tried it on again, I'm really pleased with it. I like the drapey fit which works well either worn open or fastened with a brooch or pin.

The Cusco jacket is featured in Cheryl Oberle's book, Knitted Jackets. 

The pattern actually uses Cascade Pastazza but I used Kate Palmer's organic wool instead which knits up as a light aran. I therefore had to rework the pattern for a yarn which knits up (for me, that is) at 17 sts over 10 cm rather than 14 sts as in the pattern.

The pattern also calls for a simple edging which I may or may not do - I haven't quite decided yet. I'm worried it will stiffen the edges and spoil the drape - but I might try it and see. After all, it can always be taken out if I don't like it.