Thursday, 25 October 2007

Firm textured aran - 2nd attempt




These are a couple of photos of the still very rigid aran I am making for my friend's brother. The second attempt is working out well size wise but it is still very heavy going on my hands so I am going to limit myself to a pattern (16 rows) at a time. I think it will soften and loosen up with it's first wash. It's funny how dye can affect yarn in different ways. The cream aran (same brand) I used last was a lot softer in texture and easier to work with. This colour has a tendency to split so I often have to retrace my stitches to sort out a dropped strand. Since my right hand carpal tunnel operation last December I can't work too long on large or heavily patterned garments as it makes my hand and wrist ache. I try to alternate between knit and crochet in the course of the evening so have many projects on the go as a result.

My niece is coming around tonight to help me lift my knitting machine down from the loft. I have not used it for many years so it will be interesting to see if I can still remember how to use it and more importantly how to set it all up with it's ribber and lace carriage. Luckily I still have all the instruction books stored in my under bed storage drawers. I guess not a lot of knitting or crochet will be done this evening as I will be cleaning the machine and setting it up ready for use.

I don't have any projects in mind for my machine but I am sure it will come in useful if only for using up the smaller amounts of yarn. I was donated a lot of dark colours when I asked on Freecycle for any yarn suitable for premature baby blankets. I can always knit striped dog and cat blankets for the local rescue centre on the machine. I will just put a crochet edging on them to finish them off and so reduce the stash of odd balls I have accumulated. I was looking at the stash of oddments the other day and thinking it was getting a bit overwhelming. I would have to crochet for months to get rid of it so the machine will help with the plain projects and the animals will benefit.

No comments: