Ice Baby Beanie

Not all Grey Days are Dull.......

I had less than 2 days to come up with a little gift for my pregnant friend when I realised that everything I have in my 'babywear' cupboard was either gender specific or biker knitwear. This hat was perfect, I did actually draw up the chart myself in XL but have realised, it looks very similar to a lot of other snowflake borders on kids hats but perhaps that is because in order to fit onto a little hat, geometrically this is the maximum and most simple shape of this kind that can fit. Never mind, it only took 10 mins to draw a snowflake and a couple of floats in between.

The yarn is hand dyed, Hip Knits 100% Silk in Grey and Silver donated to me by Kerrie, I only used a tiny part of each skein so plenty left for other baby stuff.

Watch out for the free pattern of this on the Hip Knits website as I donated the pattern to them in return for the use of their yarn. This could work just as well in blues or pinks if you wanted to be gender specific. It is quick and easy to do and perfect for a beginner.

Erssie's Rasta Style Beanie
(Jaeger Shetland Aran - Unrealeased and DB Aran discontinued)

I wasn't going to make one of these, thought there would be far too many and more superior versions around. However, i was shocked at the quality of some of the beanies in these colours on sale, lots of scratchy acrylics and really garish acrylics and bad styles. Obviously the nice ones I see on the streets must be made by a loving wife, Mum, Auntie, Gran because I don't see ones like that for sale. I was also horrified to see that shops sold beanies like this with false dreadlocks hanging out. Now, the reason I found those hard to swallow was that of the people I know who have committed to dreads, it has been a long term committment for them or part of their culture, not a stupid party joke. I feel the same way about those fake punk wigs as well and office workers who say "I'm going as a punk" when it's a Christmas fancy dress party. Being a punk is so muh more than hair and music, anyone who was around in the mid to late 70's will realise it wasn;t about being a circus act.




More Swatches...................
Oh yes, here are some swatches in Bamboo and soy silk. I liked the soy silk although it can get a bit crumpled but so can cotton. It seems to drape well be is firm enough for a good tight stitch definition. bamboo on the other hand seemed to feel floppy and insubstantial, at the moment I have a love hate relationship with it.

I would have to commit for a whole garment to know how I realy feel about these yarns. Also, the sheen on them does mean it is hard to make something suitable for all types of people, it is slinky and feminine though. I know it would probably be perfect for a top for me, if I had a bit of waist shaping with the drape, it could make a good alternative to the long sleeved floppy T-shirts I wear. I forgot to say about the bamboo as well, it is so stretchy! That could be perfect for a T-shirt or fitted skirt although on the recommended needle size, you can see daylight through the stitches. I think it is the unfamiliarity of the yarns that leaves me stumped for the moment as to exactly what I'd do with them. however, thanks to SWTC, I have some samples to play with.

How about a pretty baby girls hat and socks? Or some hair accessories for me?
Swatches below from left to right, Crimson 100% soy silk, Greens - 100% bamboo, Parrot - soy silk

Introducing Jonelle and SWTC...........................

I first came across Jonelle as she joined in some of the discussions on the ifthehatfits group. Later I found out that she was the big boss of SWTC who make a lot of yarns in natural fibres that are non animal based



Soy Silk, Bamboo, Tofu, Maize and Hemp

All of these and many more combinations of yarns are interesting options for the vegan knitter but also a refreshing alternative to woolly fibres. Most of them can be found on the South West Trading Company website, go and have a look at their updated website which is now more knitter friendly and less wholesale orientated.

So far, I have knitted one swatch from the variegated shade of 100% Soy Silk,thanks to Viridian who sent me samples. It has a beautiful sheen and the spaces between dyes is similar to a sock yarn. Its also very stretchy and I can imagine it being suited to T-shirts and tops as it can be worn next to the skin. I haven't knitted a whole garment with it, so I don't know how it compares with the bamboo tape yarns from other spinners which have been reported to be heavy.

I am about to receive some samples from The House of Hemp
They grow agricultural hemp which can be made into tree free paper or spun to make yarns which are then spun in beautiful colours chosen by their in house designer. They also provide retreats and weaving workshops. Just looking at their website made me yearn for a retreat, nothing to do but knitting and relaxing without those household matters staring me in the face. I will report back on their sample once knitted and introduce them properly. For now, just have a look at their tempting palette.

If you would like to be introduced on skeinspotting you will need to send me 3 JPEGS of your work if you are a designer with links to your blogs/websites or yarn samples and links if you are a spinner. Please send

1. A JPEG of a classic work which you are identified with
2. A JPEG of a quirky or unusual work (for you) that will be of interest to readers
3. A JPEG of one of your latest pieces of work

Going Green .....

I am getting more and more green these days and I'm not talking about the environment. I seem to be draw towards green shades of yarn and clothes and pull away from red and purple which are actually my favourite shades and the ones that suit me best to wear. See this beret competed in one evening whilst watching the film Hard Candy (which I do not recommend by the way due to it's drawn out obvious plot and annoying characters for whom we are encouraged to have zero sympathy).

I know I know, I should be working on other more urgent projects. However, I often get bogged down 7 days a week with knitting for my bread and butter as well as a lot of admin and IT (all knitting related). So I sometimes give myself an evening off in which I can swatch, experiment and take notes for further projects or I am allowed to start a project that is a weekend quickie. I have never made a beret before, always going for the chullah or the beanie and not sure if berets even suit me.

I took this Rowan country and just started a beret on 9mm needles without a clear idea of how I was going to organise the pattern. So, I just cast on those stitches and expanded at even intervals until I felt it was at it's optimum bagginess, then knitted
straight for a bit and then decreased in a circular manner
and voila the beret. Rowan country by the way has a wonderful selection of variegated shades and seems to be the replacement for Biggy Print.

I am quite happy with it although I still feel silly wearing something like this at a jaunty angle! It looks good on the poly head though.

I dried it flat around a circular place mat and in the morning it had taken on a beret shape. If I did it again though, I would change the way I increased. Increases are a difficult one, I would rather my increases don't spiral so I use the M1 bar increase and evened them up around a point but this can also have the effect of being a bit too squared off if paired like this and only 4 sets of 8. But, in a large gauge knit, if I were to add more to 'hex' or 'oct' them I would end up with a far too baggy top........ mmmm it needs a rethink. I think I might do a version with a peak on as well. This will be another pattern typed up and available as a pdf when I have time. I think it will be a free one so do contact me if you'd like a copy and it will spur me on to get it written. For the moment though, leisure time is over and it is time to get back to my Anticraft projects (which I love anyway)

To everyone who inquired after my father, thank you, he is doing fine at the moment. he is a very very lucky man having got 3 serious forms of cancer in the past year that are totally unrelated to each other and each one a potential killer. The docs seem to be keeping all 3 at bay at the moment and the last I heard was that they had removed all of the lung cancer. Usually unheard of as most lung cancers are inoperable by the time they are detected. Lucky lucky man, lets hope the other two cancers are kept from advancing as well.

Merry Xmas, Happy New Year and Farewell NZ, Hello UK

My first post of 2007!

We had a fantastic time in NZ. Just to prove I didn't neglect my knitting habits here is a pic of the magazines and books I bought in NZ and this doesn't include the ones I got for Xmas either. The book on top has designs by my knitting buddy Anna and it was a strange feeling seeing a photo of a person you know in a book on sale half way round the World.

I got some wonderful books for Christmas and my two favourites are these books which will be useful for helping my design sketches become less childish and my knitting motifs inspired from original styles but totally original as far as knitting charts go.



Here are some sheepskin slippers I bought whilst on my travels, see how they are held together with crochet? I might design some slippers of my own, a mixture of felting and crochet but for the time being I will be wearing these.

Just behind the slippers there is the view from our balcony at the Kimi Ora Resort and you can see part of the Abel Tasman National Park and the beach of Kaiteriteri. One of the ladies who works in reception at this resort is mad about knitting and so is her daughter. They love the idea of knitting clubs and have bought the Debbie Stoller Stitch n Bitch books. They tell me that the knitting trend is only just taking off in NZ How I would love to be over there and start up knitting clubs and workshops.

I did buy some NZ wool but as I mentioned before, for a land full of sheep the yarn on sale was very disappointing. However, for anyone wanting to start a business there, there are probably a lot of opportunities to be the 'first' in anything that has already been done in the UK or USA.

The 'weights' i.e. thickness of yarn in NZ varies a bit from the UK standard. They have 8 ply equivalent to our DK but their 10 ply is slightly thinner than our Aran or Worsted weight here. The yarn shops I went to did not have any of the Rowan, Debbie Bliss Jaeger etc that we are so used to seeing in our smaller yarn shops. In fact, in London we are quite spoiled for yarn despite the fact we all moan about difficulties of getting hold of stuff. The type of young and vibrant knitting community we have here is what I was very homesick for. The yarn shops in NZ were mostly frequented by 'homemakers' types who would have probably strung up garlic and a crucifix around their doorways if I had told them I was designing stuff for The Anticraft!

Talking of the Anticraft, it is no secret that they have a publishing deal and exciting that they will have a book coming out later this year.They have chosen 3 of my designs to be included in the book. These are totally original designs I have only sketched so far. Now I am home, I will be working on these for the rest of this month as the deadline for completion is end of January

New Zealand....See You Soon

Well it's not long now until I'm off to New Zealand, mainly to meet the pair on the right. Otis (nephew) and Aimee (niece and God daughter). However, I shall also be enjoying some really good scenery,travel and of course my beloved knitting. I have been trying to find New Zealand websites and blogs that will tell me what is going on down under.
It certainly doesn't seem as much of a public or networked community as we have here. However, I could be wrong. What if crafters there are luddites who are enjoying the simplicity of sticks and yarn without resorting to technology to advance themselves? What if I have got it totally wrong and find myself so absorbed with my blog, shop website that I eventually suck dry any creative enjoyment? Maybe we should abandon our keyboards, go outdoors and knit,knit,knit with nature all around?

Magic Loop v Just Knitting With 2 Circulars

However, if it weren't for my community at Angel Knits in London, how else would I have found out last night that what I thought was a 'magic loop' was in fact knitting with 2 circulars. Enjoyed last night immensely, even though our club was secondary to the Vintage Clothing sale and DJ/Breakfast at Tiffany's Club going on at The New Rose

"You're just knitting with 2 circulars!" they cried out in triumphant unison (they = Nikki and Ann). Here is what they explained to me regarding the two methods I had mixed up (thinking one was knitting with one circular and the other was the magic loop).

Magic Loop This is when you find a circular needle just doesn't shrink down with the circumference of your knitting in the round, your work is beginning to look a bit stretched. You pull a loop out to one side, keep that loop there and knit up to that point, then you need to pull the loop out from another place to make the next stitches slide right up against the ones just knitted so you can carry on. Your circular is too long and basically you are just taking up the slack at different places to compensate. Easy eh? Well, I tried this method when I had rubbishy circulars from years ago and if the 'wire' is brittle nylon, those stitches just want to pull apart and stretch in the wrong places and the loop isn't flexible enough.

Knitting with two circulars: I love dpns, even over straight needles and I own a huge collection with double sets in bamboo and birch. Aha, these are no good for discreet plane knitting though so I attempted to put into practice the idea of using two circulars which I thought (wrongly) involved one looping across the other with contact points but somehow used one to knit off the other. Ann sorted me out. Dvided stitches so half are on one ciruclar and half on the other. Knit half stitches on one circular with the opposite point of that circular until running out of stitches on that circular. Next knit ther half of the stitches on the other circular by bringing the opposite point of the same circular and knitting around. Then swap back to the first, repeat all of this knitting each sset of half the stitches but always usin the point of the same ciruclar so the stitches stay on the same circular throughout. Easy! Must do some photos you can download of this technique, when I get back from NZ of course.

I am not one to learn techniques for the sake of it. who would have guessed that I would need to abandon the dpns. so thank goodness for knitting communities you can see in the flesh!

Must also mention here that Ann has started spinning, Nikki has started dyeing and I am honestly impressed with their work. Ann has found she likes to spin quite fine gauge yarns which is wonderful to hear because the world has enough thick and thin candy coloured yarn around. Nikki's colours from some acid dyes are not at all 'candy' like. However they are parrot like, I've just bought some yarn which retains a wonderful sheen whilst being dip dyed to a variety of tropical hues which I loved when I saw. Look out for an adult earflap hat or beret, which I will try to make in New Zealand if I can. I will mkae the pattern available to Nikki for her Fluffenstuff clients.


You can see more of what is available at Fluffenstuff

New Yarns in my LYS

My LYS which is totally tied to Sirdar has some new yarns which should not be snubbed. There is a new yarn distributed by Sirdar, manufactured in Italy called Sublime. I knew about this as I have been working on a secret project, will tell all when it is 'out' in a new knitting magazine coming soon. These yarns are

Baby Cashmere Merino Silk DK

Cashmere Merino Silk Aran

Cashmere Merino Silk DK

Extra Fine Merino Wool DK


They also do a kid mohair which is about twice as thick as Rowan Kidsilk Haze.
My LYS also had the new Wendy Fusion yarn in variegated bright colourways.

154 - Saffron

151 - All Spice

152 - Fenugreek

I do like the new Sublime Yarns, and I will give it more of a review later when I am allowed to talk about my current project. My only criticism is the palette of colours, which I find a bit too muted, the red being the only brightest amongst them. I suppose there is a difference between the colours I like to knit with and the colours of knitwear I actually wear!

Got any yarns you think I should know about? Perhaps you are spinning and dyeing yourself. If you can spare a little send it to me, I will stick up a fair review of it. if it isn't your own yarn, do let me know about things you have 'skeinspotted' yourself.

Knitting Tips and Tricks available as pdfs

By the way, you might have noticed I am updating this blog all the time. In the absence of my website (still under development) I am making as much available to people through this blog as I will eventually through the erssieknits.com website. There are pdf tutorials and notes, see under How to.... in the sidebar Some of them are notes put together to advise either students or makers that I work with and some are personal notes from my Dsign Journal. At some point I must find time to actually knit and design though instead of just talking about it. IT stuff is so addictive!

Skeinspotted.....................................

Just in case you visit this page and you are interested in buying some yarns, I have these yarns from Hipknits still in my possession so contact me, erssiemajor@yahoo.co.uk if you are interested in buying any of them. There is a mixture of Aran weight silk, Lace weight silk and sock weight cashmere, as well as recycled Sari. I can let you know what they are going for when you contact me. Who knows, you might be able to make an offer and Hipknits might accept it. All prices are from earlier this year anyway and a lot of these yarns are not being repeated now.