Brand New Bumper Boucle

I am absolutely overwhelmed by the response to yesterday's post. It was really hard to write and it was a long time coming but the amount of people that have read it it astounding and the people that took time to comment and come up with suggestions really made my day. I must admit, everybody around me is pleased that I did it, Chris in particular. He gets the brunt of hungry, tired, overworked me and I'm pleased to be able to do something for him. So far it's worked! Only one lady was here when I got in a few minutes early and she's not a blog reader so... we can but hope that this is for the long term. Fortunately we've also been pretty busy in the shop so the tidying isn't where I hoped it might be but I have managed to get something pretty cool on t'internet so let's move this on shall we??

WHAT DO WE WANT?! MORE BLOODY WOOL!! WHEN DO WE WANT IT?! NOW!!

Okay!

Cygnet Bumper Boucle!

How cute is that? It's got to be the most beautiful colour that I've ever seen in my life. So beautiful I had to cast on a jumper:

It's taken like.... two days? Spread over a few days because of how manic the shop is and teaching a lesson and... stuff. But seriously. 12mm needles? Cropped jumper? No excuses not to get in done in less than a week, no matter how slow you are.

There's no pattern for this and I don't suppose that these photos make you want to jump up and cast on straight away but if you want to know how it was made. Well, my gauge was 2 stitches per inch. I measured my wrist and multiplied that by two to get the amount of stitches to cast on. Then I measured the top of my arm and multiplied that by two to work out how many stitches I should end with. And I knew I ought to get my increases done pretty quick, so I increased at each end of every 4th row. When I got to the length that I wanted on my sleeve, I cast off three stitches at each side and then decreased a stitch at each end of every right side row until it seemed like the right length for a raglan. That turned out to be 7 sets of raglan decreases. Which meant that once I'd made my other sleeve, I could start the body really easily. Measure my bust, multiply by two for the cast on, rib a bit, knit a bit, cast off three stitches at each end and then work seven sets of decreases for the raglan. For the neck I cast off a few stitches in the middle of the of the row when I first started my sleeve shaping, then decreased on every right side row at the side of that and at some point, between the neck shaping and the sleeve shaping I ended up with no stitches and I fastened that off and boom. Then I sewed up a sleeve to the front and the front to the next sleeve and that sleeve to the back, basically everything but one raglan seam, and then I picked up stitches all around the neckline, decreased a little bit on the first row of rib (thought I wish I'd decreased a little bit more), another row of rib and it was ready to cast off. Sew up the final raglan seam, sew up the sides and sleeves, sew in the ends, take some stupid photos. And boom.

Anyway, that's the jumper and it's lovely and warm and I can't wait to wear it with a skirt that it actually suits and maybe get some proper photos (me and Chris are going on a date on Saturday so maybe I'll persuade him then...).

Back to the wool. This is super chunky. This is super bloody chunky. And I love it! If you've worked with the Gypsy then it's a similar sort of weight to that and actually, the texture and colours are not dissimilar but it is very much softer. OOOOOOOOOH. Soft. This is the thing that sells this wool, how bloody soft it is. Like a cloud! Like a baby's bum! Like an angel's armpit hair!

Bluegrass - Cracker - Frisee - Tea

Kale - Waterweed - Dock - Willow

How cute are those colours? But so much richer and more gorgeous in real life, I'll try and show you:

Phwooooooooar!

I think lots of experienced knitters are almost a little scared of superchunky. Metre for metre it's not the most cost effective way of knitting, but it is super satisfying and sometimes we need satisfying. Like a good kebab or a bottle of wine or a second bar of chocolate. It's naughty. It's not right. But sometimes it's just what we need. So I've done a rav search for you which you can find by clicking here.

But here are a few that I think stand out:

Quick Slip Cowl

 

Broomstick Lace Infinity Scarf.


Hanging Basket.

Sentiment Shawl

Oohoohohoh. It's been a while since I took some time to wander/wonder around ravelry. That website really is bloody good isn't it??! Especially when you know how to do it well - have you seen out vlog about it?

So that's it! A brand new super chunky - Cygnet Bumper Boucle - 100g - 60m - £4 - beautiful colours - stupidly soft - boom!


Love Eleanor. xxxx