Yarning about Yarn

I had (and still have) lots of yarn leftover from my special Doctor Who scarf. Now, I'd had my eye on Marilyn Phillipi's Tilting Tardis Cowl pattern for a long time but had never had the right yarn before, but since I now had plenty of TARDIS blue (Patons Decor Mallard), I knew it was the right time!

I only made one change to the pattern this time...the seven repeats of the pattern made a cowl that would have been far too tight for me, so I made it eleven instead, one for each Doctor!

Here's the final result. You can see the TARDIS-es really well:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For buttons, I used five handmade buttons I'd picked up at a tent sale. They're in the shape of owls, reminiscent of drawings by the illustrator Quentin Blake.

It's quite a bulky cowl, and I likely won't be able to wear it until next fall, now that the weather's getting warmer. But there's something satisfying about finishing a project you've wanted to do for a long time!

November 23, 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, everyone's favourite Time Lord. If you've read other posts in this blog, you'll already know that I'm a big Doctor Who fan or Whovian. And I love to knit Doctor Who related things. The most famous knitted thing to come out of Doctor Who is, of course, the enormous scarf worn by the Fourth Doctor, who was played by Tom Baker (also my first Doctor). Now, I've already made one of those for my husband for Christmas a couple of years ago (see this post), but I wanted one for myself.

Since it is the 50th anniversary year, I wanted to make a scarf that honoured all eleven doctors. The solution was fairly easy - assign a colour to each Doctor, and of course use blue for the TARDIS, the Doctor's travelling machine (disguised as an old-fashioned blue Police Box).

The next challenge was the pattern. I originally thought of creating numbers and appliquing them on, but I soon realized that it would be much cooler to actually incorporate all the colours into the actual knitting. I found a pattern on Ravelry that was what I was looking for: the Textured Window Scarf by Jan Lewis (pattern available through Ravelry, but you have to have an account).

Next, it was off to Wool-Tyme to fetch the yarn. I already knew I wanted to use Patons - it's good quality, relatively inexpensive, and there's a good colour range. I did preliminary work to determine what colours to use for each Doctor:

First Doctor (William Hartnell) - Light grey (Patons Canadiana Pale Grey Mix), because Doctor Who began as a black and white television show, and because of the First Doctor's white hair.

Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) - Pale blue (Patons Canadiana Cherished Blue). Although the Second Doctor episodes were also filmed in black and white, colour photos and later appearances show that he wears a blue shirt.

Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) - Burgundy (Patons Classic Wool Burgundy). At last, Doctor Who's adventures were being filmed in colour, and the Third Doctor's burgundy velvet jacket made quite the impression!

Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) - Dark Brown (Patons Classic Wool Moonrock). Brown was a prominent colour in the Fourth Doctor's wardrobe until Baker's final season (Season 18). I think it's because it was the 1970s.

Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) - Light Green (Patons Canadiana Cedar Green). While I could have gone with red, it made sense to go with green for the celery stalk the Fifth Doctor always wears on his lapel ("an excellent restorative from where I come from").

Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) - Gold (Patons Canadian Fools Gold). The Sixth Doctor could have stolen his coat from Joseph, it has so many colours, but I chose gold, since no other doctor has yellow as a prominent colour. It also matches his curls!

Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) - Red (Patons Decord Barn Red). The final Doctor of "old Who" often had red as a highlight of his wardrobe. It provided a great contrast to his dark hair.

Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) - Dark Green (Patons Decor Deep Aqua). The Eighth Doctor, who appeared in the 1996 television movie) wore a dark green frock coat as part of his costume, though the colour is hard to see in stills.

Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) - Purple (Patons Canadiana Dark Amethyst). The Ninth Doctor kicked off new Who in style, with a modern wardrobe. His purple jumper helped him stand out from the other incarnations of the Doctor and added to his darker look.

Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) - Dark Brown (Patons Decor Chocolate Taupe). This was a tricky choice, because the Tenth Doctor wore both blue and brown suits. In the end, the royal blue suit of the Tenth Doctor wouldn't have gone well with the blue I wanted to use for the TARDIS, so brown won out.

Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) - Tweedy brown (Paton Classic Wool Moss Heather). Although I was going to use brown for the Tenth Doctor, I decided the tweed was best for the Eleventh Doctor. I couldn't go with burgundy as in the Eleventh Doctor's bow tie, because that was already taken by the Third Doctor.

And then, the most difficult colour to match, that of the TARDIS. She's had different shades of blue over the year, as you can see here:

So, I tried to find a shade of blue that sort of matched them all. I lucked out in the sale section (Patons Decor Mallard)!

I was all set, so I pulled out my 4mm needles and began. I quickly discovered that the count for the window section was off and wouldn't work, so I replaced it with seed stitch throughout. I kept the garter stitch border, though. For the fringe, I alternated: TARDIS + Five Doctors for one tassel, Six Doctors the next.

Here's the final result!

And here it is, being worn. You can see it's not as long as the Fourth Doctor scarf. :D

It's nice and lightweight, which is also nice. I think it'll last me quite some time, though I don't anticipate being around for the 100th anniversary!

I finished a scarf about a month ago using up a couple of skeins that I had wound using my swift and winder. The pattern and colour is appropriate for St Patrick's Day tomorrow:

The pattern is Cornelia Griffin's Bella Lana Reversible Scarf Pattern, which I first found on Ravelry.

The yarn I used was a bulky llama/wool combination that I got at Wool-Tyme's tent sale last year. Unfortunately, I've lost the sleeve...Still, it's a dark green with a bright green running through it. The bright green sheds, but makes it great for St. Patrick's Day.

The pattern relies on cables....every nine rows, you either cable forward or cable back, and that's how you get this pattern. It doesn't seem at first like it'll work, but it does.

It reminds me of interlace or Celtic knotwork.

It's nice and warm, but because of the cables and the weight of the wool, it's not as pliant as other scarves I've made. Still, I really like it!

A major project I took on for our girls this past Christmas was blankets. For K's, I used this pattern from Red Heart, tweaking the colour scheme to include K's favourite colours. I used Bernat acrylic, so it would be machine washable. It took about six weeks to complete, and here's the result:

As you can see, it was a hit right away!

For S, I had originally done this blanket, but I realize it'd be far too big for her. So I looked for another pattern and found this one. 
The original pattern makes a blanket of 36 squares, which is, of course, too small, so I expanded it:

It too was a big hit:

The yarn I chose, though, wasn't the best to work with, and woven ends had a tendency to come undone, and little toes had a tendency to create big holes. So I ended up reinforcing all the seams on the wrong side of the blanket by crocheting them in long seams. That seems to have worked so far!

I hope these blankets last a while, and if not, they'll get new ones eventually, but not just yet!

This year on my Christmas/Birthday list, I asked for a swift and yarn winder. I'd seen one in action in St. John's, Newfoundland in 2011, and I'd wanted one of my own. Sadly, the Knitpicks one was definitely out of my price range. But my parents came through, and I received the Sew Mate yarn winder for Christmas, and an Estelle Yarns swift for my birthday two days later.

Yesterday, I did my semi-regular organization of my stash, and I decided it was a good time to try out my new toys!

I set them up on the coffee table like so. For those who've never seen it before, the swift is on the left, the yarn winder is on the right.

Here's how it looks with the skein on the swift and the ball of yarn being wound on the winder.

I decided to take notes as I went along, so I could share things that didn't appear in the instructions for either! 

Lesson 1 - The diameter of the skein matters. If it's too large, it won't fit on the swift. The first skein I wound on the yarn winder was too big, so I had it in my lap. Thankfully, it didn't tangle too much!!!

Lesson 2 - Rougher yarns will be a bit more difficult to wind because the fibres will stick together. It's not exponentially difficult, it just doesn't unwind as quickly, and if you don't pay attention, it may wrap around the spindle of the swift.

Lesson 3 - The yarn coming off the skein must go the same direction it winds into the ball. That is, if the yarn's coming off the skein counterclockwise, the swift will be turning clockwise. It will wind around the bobbin counterclockwise, but the handle will turn clockwise. It won't work otherwise.  

Lesson 4 - Watch out for the skein slipping or yarn getting caught in the swift's joins. It helps if you let the yarn run through your fingers at a bit of an angle to the swift and winder to create some tension.

Lesson 5 - You do need a minimum amount to yarn to make a proper ball. Here's my attempt with some sample yarn: 

As you can see, it wasn't very successful. So I tried it with a larger sample (that is, longer), which worked far better:

Lesson 6 - Even chunky yarn will yield a decent looking ball (and of course, winds up faster)

Lesson 7 - Using your hands to feed the bobbin for the first row of yarn yields smoother results (it does look a little rude, perhaps, but that can't be helped).

Lesson 8 - If the yarn becomes hopelessly tangled around the spindle of the swift, simply cut it and untangle it, then tie the ends together and keep on winding.

Lesson 9 - There will be lint, especially when dealing with rougher fibres. 

Lesson 10 - The swift and winder can go really fast when you get going, so don't use near small children or inquisitive pets! I don't actually have either, but I see how it can be a temptation!

This was definitely a great present. It is absolutely a time saver. Normally, it would take me a couple of hours at least to turn one skein into a ball of yarn. Using the swift and yarn winder, I was able to take care of nine full-sized skeins and two sample skeins in 2 hours: 

Next time I use them, which won't be too soon, since I now have yarn to work with, I'll make a video so you can really see the process in action!