Off to a good start

I did it! I finished my Lothian shawl, which was my Scottish 60th birthday present to myself, a whole nine days before I turn 61. I'm sure that for some people this would be regarded as cutting it fine, but for me it's a triumph. (This is probably not something to be proud of, but it's how I am, and it's unlikely to change now!)

First make of the year, completed on 3 January!

I spent both Christmas and New Year at my mum's, and a lot of the time was passed just chatting and knitting the final border rows. I still can't knit anything too taxing and hold a conversation, and this is excellent pattern for having something to do while not being anti-social. I decided early on to weave in the ends as I went, and this was definitely a wise choice.

So many ends to weave in!

The pattern for the border consists of two rows of each of the first four 'route' colours, separated by two rows of the background colour. Then one row and the bind off are knitted in the fifth 'route' colour. However, because I was using variegated wools, I decided to do something different to give the shawl a clearer edge. I knitted two rows of the fifth colour, two rows of the background, and then one row and the bind off in a plain grey.

My border

As ever, there was a bit of a difference between the unblocked and the blocked shape.

Unblocked

Blocked

One thing which only became obvious once the shawl was blocked was the colour difference between the two skeins of the background colour; the second skein is slightly lighter. Fortunately, the change occurs at the start of the first 'route', so it isn't at all obvious on one side of the shawl.

Spot the skein change

Because the background yarn is grey with dashes of yellow/gold, and three of the contrast yarns are yellows with odd speckles of grey, there is a fuzziness to the overall colouring which I really like. It certainly captures the notion of a grey Edinbugh sky with glimpses of sunlight through breaks in the cloud, which was exactly what I wanted.

As I explained here, the pattern really appealed to me because of its connection to Edinburgh buses and their routes. I wore the completed shawl today when I went over to Liverpool, and realised that its yellow and grey colour scheme is a fairly close match to that of Merseyrail, the local train network. So I have made something with links to both my birth city and my adopted city - perfect!

When you match your mode of transport

Knitting update

My sewjo is still feeling shy and elusive, and is rarely sighted. Matters haven't been helped by the fact that I've been knitting to a deadline, which was an alarming experience. But I have finished my mum's Christmas present with a whole two days to spare, so can breathe a sigh of relief!

(I should add at this point that Mum isn't online at all, so I can talk about her present here without any danger of spoilers.)

Completed, phew!

As I mentioned in a previous post, Mum had asked for a longer version of my Express Line cardigan, so I measured a favourite RTW top of hers when she wasn't looking, and worked from that. Happily, the pattern has top-down construction and no waist shaping, so it was easy to lengthen. Mum also favours more jacket-like styles, so I just did a short bottom ribbing for interest (the pattern can be knitted without ribbing, if preferred), but using the same size needles. I also fixed the slightly too short sleeves of my version by knitting two more rows, but those were the only changes I made.

Comparing the two

Meanwhile, I have continued to work on my Lothian shawl whenever I'm at Mum's. I had to stay there for a couple of days recently, to take her to medical appointments, so got quite a lot done. I've just finished the second set of five 'routes'.

Showing all 10 'routes'

After this, there is one eyelet row and three plain rows of grey, and then I am onto the border - two rows of each of the route colours, interspersed with two rows of grey. At present it's bunched up, even on my longest cable, but I'm looking forward to the transformation when it is blocked. Hopefully I will get it finished before my birthday after all, and that will be two of my three projects done!

The shawl so far

Finally, although I haven't started my Poppy jumper, I've been unable to resist practising colourwork. I've knitted another swatch, this time following an actual pattern.

This really could get addictive

This time I was more consistent about carrying over yarns at the back.

Tidier

My fabric use review of the year is going to be terrible. I think that I may need to calculate my total yarn use for the year, in an attempt to redress the balance a little!

And then there were three

As you can see from my Ravelry projects page, my plan to only have one knitting project on the go at once has failed dismally! It's actually even worse than it looks, as my slate Wondrella with cable details is set to 'hibernating' status for the time being.

Oops!

In my (feeble) defence, I always take my knitting when I go to my mum's, and I could hardly knit her Christmas present in front of her! She asked me to make her a longer version of Express Line, so that bit isn't a surprise, but she doesn’t know what wool I'm using. It's Stylecraft Special xl Super Chunky, so essentially the same yarn that I used for my version, but without the viscose flecks which provided the tweed effect. Other than the length, it's the same size as mine, so I can just follow the notes I made previously. Mum isn't a fan of light colours (like me), so the yarn options were quite limited. Fortunately, she shares my love of blue, so I know that she'll like this shade, called 'Petrol'.

Upper back

Meanwhile, my Lothian shawl is coming along nicely. I have completed the first set of five 'routes', complete with the zig-zag effect.

My five route colours

Zig-zags and termini

As this was my Edinburgh-related 60th birthday present to myself, I would like to get it completed while I'm still 60, but with so many other things to do just now that is looking unlikely. Despite this, I've taken on another project! I decided to join Susan Crawford's Colourwork KAL as a way of finally tackling stranded colourwork. My current plan is to knit Poppy from A Stitch in Time volume 3.

Poppy

Only the yoke is patterned, so it seems like an good way of easing into the technique. Plus, the pattern gives full instructions for knitting flat, which is how I will knit it. I can see why knitting in the round is so popular, but because I was taught to knit in the Scottish manner (with the right needle held against your body by your right arm), I find it ridiculously hard to hold two knitting needles. I've tried, but just can't do it. When I do knit on circular needles, I end up with the right needle end either wedged against me in some way, held in my left hand, or resting on the work. There's a lot of plain stocking stitch in Poppy, especially as I may knit the sleeves first to get them done, so that will give me plenty of time to practise working with two (stash) yarns before I have to do it with the good stuff.

And what good stuff it is. I bought the kit from Susan Crawford Vintage, and the yarn is gorgeous.

The yarn kit

So far, I've only knitted the gauge swatch, but the yellow has a wonderful depth and variation, and the knitted fabric blocks beautifully.

Blocking the gauge swatch

It is so much finer than any yarn I've used before, though - this is going to be a long project. Still, a short-sleeved jumper is not something I'm going to need any time soon.

Lothian update

Even though there is only a tiny bit left to do, my skirt still isn't finished - for some reason it takes very little for my sewjo to go into hiding at present. I have been knitting, though, and have got far enough with my Lothian shawl to merit a progress report.

The first part is just rows of garter stitch with a yarn over stitch increase at each end of the row. I knitted it on straight needles for as long as I could, but at 300 stitches I had to swap to a circular needle.

No more stitches could be fitted on the needle!

For this section, it is the yarn which provides the effect. I love the way that the occasional copper stitch appears amid the yellows and greys.

Pop!

As I reached the point where the first set of five contrast 'routes' is added, I had to think about the order in which I wanted to use the colours. Along with the main yarn, I had bought a pack of four Easyknits mini skeins from Kathy's Knits in Edinburgh, and also a single skein of Ducky Darlings 4ply at the pop-up wool show in Port Sunlight. Initially I was going to use the variegated skeins in colour order, with the plain yarn in the centre.

Plan A

This didn't feel as though it provided a lot of contrast between the routes, however. To mix things up a bit, I bought a skein of yellow from Strictly Hand Dyed, and experimented with the order of the colours until I was happy.

The final arrangement

And then, it was time to knit the first route!

We have contrast

Obviously, there is always a bit of a risk with variegated yarns, and the dark grey stitch in the 'terminus' rather dents the shape. But I don't think that will matter so much once I have knitted more of the design.

The 'terminus', with a dent at the top

Right now, it doesn't look that big. But there are another 14 colour changes to add, plus I'm aware of how much my Dahlia shawl grew when it was blocked.

141 rows knitted

Of course, now that I’m on to the colours section I’m keen to do more. It may be a while before that skirt gets hemmed!

Good in theory

When I first started knitting, back in February 2023, there was a strong possibility that my blue Wondrella cardigan would be my first and last project. But it was a success, and I got the knitting bug. Even so, I had the best of intentions. I would only knit one project at a time. There would be no UFOs or PHDs. And no yarn stash. Less than 18 months later, how is this going?

Erm. Not entirely as planned!

I am still working away on my Lothian shawl. I wasn't happy with the wonkiness of my first few rows so, on the basis that a special project is worth doing properly, I frogged it and started again.

Much neater

I was far happier with this version, and am now up to 72 rows of the 138 which make up the plain section.

Progress so far

But there is no denying that it's slow going. 4ply feels very thin compared to the DK I have mostly been using, and with the row increases 72 rows is less than a third of the plain section overall. So, I have been tempted away to the dark side of a quicky and bulky project.

Whoops

The culprit is Express Line, another excellent pattern from Tasha Could Make That. Knitted in super chunky yarn, on whopping 10mm needles, I only started it a week ago but already have the body completed.

The image above is a better representation of the colour

I would have even more done if I had picked up the stitches for the buttonhole band correctly. In such a thick yarn it's very obvious that it's wrong, but somehow I only noticed as I was about to start casting off. So again, it was a case of frogging and redoing.

How could I have missed this?

Not only do I have more than one project on the go, but I have had a UFO for ages. Ten months ago I started a third Wondrella cardigan, this time modified to include cable panels up the fronts. I completed the 'full width' section and all of the (plain stocking stitch) back, but put it away in the spring as it is very much a winter cardi. Now that it's autumn, I am thinking of picking it up again once I have the Express Line completed. Unfortunately, I didn't complete writing out the modified pattern, and it's a struggle to remember what I was planning. I will work in out eventually, but it's a useful note to self - don't assume that you will remember what you were doing 10 months ago!

Can I remember what to do next?

Finally, there's the small matter of the stash. A few weeks ago it was the annual Coastal Colours Pop-Up Wool Show in Port Sunlight. This was where I got the wool for my Blue Dahlia shawl last year, and it's almost local to me, so of course I had to go. I was very restrained, and went round all the stalls to see what was available before making any purchases. (Judging from the number of people who were, like me, sitting in the café consulting notes, this approach was being widely used!)

Something which really caught my eye was this beautiful set from Yarn Unique with its glorious rich colours. It was my one 'must buy' from my first look round.

Yummy!

I follow AndKnit on Instagram, and some months ago she posted her version of the Puff shawl (you can see it here). I liked the pattern, and had hoped to find some suitable wool for making my own version at the show. After much deliberation, I settled on these two skeins from Ducky Darlings.

Firepit and Cardomon Spice

The Puff shawl

It will be a while before I get round to making these purchases up, but I don't feel too guilty about making the most of a wool show that's practically on my doorstep. I find that winter is increasingly knitting season for me, so hopefully I will get some projects done before too long.

Edinburgh skies (and buses)

No sooner have I finished one knitting project than I cast on another one, and for once it's not blue!

Part of the Edinburgh bus map - this is relevant, honestly

When I went up to Edinburgh in June, I had the idea of buying myself something special and related to my birth city as a sort of 60th birthday present to myself. Initially I considered jewellery, but nothing I saw really called to me.

One of the things on my 'must do' list for the trip was a visit to Kathy's Knits in the New Town. It was fabulous, an absolute treasure trove of yarns and patterns. At which point it dawned on me that some really nice wool and a suitable pattern would be the perfect thing to buy myself - especially as I knit in the Scottish (lever) style.

The shop has lots of completed items on display to provide inspiration. My eye was really drawn to the stunning Celtic cable shawls by Lucy Hague but sadly, they are well beyond my current skill level. Maybe some day . . . Then I spotted a pattern called Lothian, by Justyna Lorkowska of Lete's Knits. Although I was born in Edinburgh, I grew up in Midlothian, so this had a definite connection. I liked the pattern and Kathy, who is lovely and very helpful, confirmed that it was a straightforward knit.

Then came the less straightforward task of choosing yarn from the mind-boggling choice available. Eventually I settled on a 4ply Bluefaced Leicester/silk mix from Abercairn Yarns, in shade Stormy Sky.

The pattern and the main yarn

For the contrasts, Kathy and I agreed that variegated yellows with hints of grey and red would give the effect of a cloudy Edinburgh sky with sunshine peeking through the gaps - something which we both know well! In fact, one evening the city almost obliged.

Grey - yes, sunshine - no

I was hoping for something more like this

At some point I probably will buy a ball winder, but there's something so satisfying about an old school round ball of wool which fits perfectly in your hand!

One skein

I've only done a few rows so far, and they are rather wobbly, but I definitely like the way the yarn knits up. The edges of the rows were initially atrocious, and nothing I tried made the messy loops any smaller, so I redid them with the first stitch slipped instead and it looks much better.

Progress so far

But what about the buses? When I looked the pattern up on Ravelry, I discovered that inspiration came from Justyna knitting on Lothian buses while travelling round the city, and the squiggly lines are based on the idea of bus route maps. This made the pattern even more perfect. Whenever I go up to Edinburgh, on the first night there I always eat in a restaurant on the North Bridge on the site of the old Patrick Thomson department store, and sit in the window so that I can watch the buses go by. When I was growing up, we often got the bus home from outside "PT's". The two routes which served my home town have been renamed/rerouted, so Rosewell and Birkenside no longer appear on the front of buses, but the destinations of the many other routes which come across the North Bridge are very familiar. I really like the fact that I inadvertently chose a pattern with a link to what has become an Edinburgh tradition for me.

PT's in the 1960s, with the queue for the bus at the bottom left

All in all, I think that this project makes an excellent birthday gift/souvenir.