YOTD: Sirdar Snuggly DK

One thing I love is the beautiful British Springtime, complete with lovely bright daffodils and cute little lambs. Do you know what else I like? That's right, beautiful British Sarcasm. I have just ventured out to put the lock on my motorbike in a hailstorm, yep hail, thunder, lightening, the lot. I thought about putting it off, thinking that there cannot be any motorcycle thieves who prefer working in the rain and hail, but knowing that, there will be a anorak wearing scalliwag waiting around the corner to nick it.

So I thought I would cheer you and me up with a soft baby yarn available in every colour under the sun (let me know if you actualy see the sun) and a good review too. Yesterdays was a bit down on what I presume are the nice people at Tivoli, so today Sirdar will get a nice review. (I obviously know that all the people at Sirdar are waiting on baited breath for this review!!!!)

Anyway, onto this yarn. I have two colours of this yarn to share with you today and I have had to wait to review it whilst I knitted up the second one. I love to review all the colours I own to get a good sample and you get different batches, different dyes and a better review- hopefully!! Today, I have chosen also to mention MCA Direct as my yarn shop as they have a great selection, and a great shadecard for their yarns so you can have a good look. They also offer free postage on orders over £10. There are so many colours in Sirdar Snuggly DK that if I described them all we'd all be here all week, and frankly that would eat into my knitting time!!!

So let's get on with it! Sirdar Snuggly DK comes in both 50g and 100g balls, but the bigger ones come in fewer colours. The blue came in 50g balls and the cream in 100g.  Ok, on your average 50g ball, you get 175m of a 55% nylon and 45% Acrylic yarn with a tension on 4mm needles over 10cm of 22sts over 28 rows. A 50g ball will set you back around £3, so pretty reasonable for the meterage. I got my little blue cardy from one ball, but it is a newborn size. My 100g ball has 330 meters on and costs around £5.50 so again reasonable money for reasonable amounts of yarn, I still have about 20g left from my ball from knitting the larger cardigan below.

This has to be one of the most beautiful blues I've knit with. I love this yarn, it is probably the softest thing I've knit with so far, it is just fab. It knits up well, and to a regular tension, and I found no problems with the yarn.

It is washable and tumble dryable on cool which is another fantastic thing about this yarn for baby knits, and it does come in a wide variety of colours too. I like both of these that I have used.

It has blocked very well. As you can see by the Evelyn blue cardy above, you can see how Lace has blocked and the picture below is not blocked at all, and I apologise for the lack of buttons. I absolutely love this little pattern, and I finished late last night so the cardy isnt totally finished up, but you get the idea. I can't wait to share this pattern for POTD.

So, at the end of the day, would I buy this again? Oh Yes I would. In fact many of the colours are really calling me. I would completely recommend this as a great baby yarn, at a reasonable price.

I would ask the Blattman about his review, but he is at work, and very happily too because he passed a pretty important exam yesterday and he is really on cloud 9!!! We are really very proud of him in my family, and he really worked hard to achieve this, and it means great things for our future, so all its good in the Blattcave.

POTD: Pattern of the Day! Baby Wrap Cardigan

Hello everyone, now for all of you tuning in for YOTD, its coming I promise! I am at work today, and I only finished the last of the review last night late, so I have yet to take all the pictures. It is coming later today when I get home. Its one of my favourite yarns too so I'm excited to share that one. I know you are all on the edge of your seats!!!!

I am introducing another little OTD sideline today, as I have so enjoyed doing the YOTD, but have discovered that I cannot knit to demand on that one!!!! So I am adding POTD too so I can keep up updating you all daily, but with different things. I have also discovered that in reviewing all these yarns, I am knitting an awful lot of new patterns and experimenting, and I am lacking on giving you the information on the patterns I'm using. I know, rubbish! So I am addressing this balance and adding Pattern of the Day.

Today's pattern of the day is going to be one of my new little favourites. As you can see, I am pretty much loving knitting the baby clothes and have learnt so much about garment construction and raglan seams, and enjoying every minute of it. This first pattern is the first garment I knit and is a little wrap cardigan.

This cardy is knit using DK and 3mm needles for the ribbing at the bottom and 3.75mm needles for the body itself. The original of the pattern was knit in Sirdar Snuggly, hang on for the review, but mine is knit in Patons Trentino in Orion. You are going to need about 250yrds for this one, which is about 230 meters. You are probably going to have no problem getting one of these cardigans from a 100g ball of DK.  

To knit this little cardy, you start at the bottom of each of the sides of the front of the cardy, knitting them each on two needles, then knitting across all the stitches of both sides of the cardy underneath the sleeves. Then you cast on for sleeves and away you go. I apologise if that description has scared you off but please read the pattern, it makes so much more sense than my ramblings!! Now, I am totally allergic to picking up stitches, I hate doing it, and would go via lands end to avoid them. The bonus of this cute little pattern is that all the bands and edging are knit in as you go. Hooray!!

This is a great little starter pattern for garments. The pattern is very easy to read, and comes in PDF form so is really good to work from. There are also lots of pictures to refer to, which is always a winner in my book. It is also completely and utterly free for your own devices.

I really enjoyed knitting this, it uses basic knitting and purling, easy techniques and no buttonholes either for all you beginners. It is a great pattern, and although there are not many other patterns knit in the same way, so you aren't really learning construction, you are going to get a fabulous little cardy in the end. Win!

So haven't knit clothing before? What are you waiting for? Give it a go. As my mum always says, its only knitting and purling!

YOTD: Tivoli Pearl DK

Hi everyone!! Bit later today, because me and the Blattman have been out and about. Today is a actually a yarn I used last year and bought when we went to Shropshire for my birthday last year, (when I was all young!!) I thought it was time for a bit of glitter frankly, there is not enough of it on this blog yet!!

Tivoli Pearl DK is a glitter yarn and is made from 95% acrylic and 5% wool and has a lurex glitter strand running through it. These come is fab big 100g balls and you get 300 metres. A ball costs around £3.85 too so you get a lot of yarn for your money. Tension over 10cm is 22sts over 30 rows on 4mm needles. It is machine washable and tumble dryable on cool too, so a great yarn for anything really.

Now my swatch is on slightly bigger needles than it says because I was making a shawl, so the tension square above is bigger, and creates a slightly looser fabric. I have made some toys with the yarn left over and the tension has been fine. Because of the way the yarn is made, with a twist in the spinning, it creates more of a slubby yarn effect, which I am not a fan of really, but for shawls its fine. I dont think I would use it for clothes really, but my christmas angels liked it and the shawl looks great.
On most of the websites I've read, they describe it as a soft baby wool. I would not want to be the baby wearing this. It is so very very itchy. The lurex is not soft, its really quite scratchy when you are knitting it, and if you are in contact with it for a lot. It has got no softer with blocking.

Now for the question- would I buy it again? No, I wouldnt, unless I needed knitting for toys. I dont mind scratchy yarns for toys so much, because a lot of the toys I knit arent for holding, like the nativity. There are much nicer yarns out there for glitter and softness, like Rowan Romance.

I am using the white glitter (160) and there are 5 pale colours in the original line up of Pearl, and now another 4 deeper shades have been released too. The others include pale baby yellow (161), baby pink (162), Baby blue (163) and lilac (164) in the pale shades, and Purple (165), Navy (166), Black (167) and Bright Red (168). Today's website of choice is the fantastically named Togs and Toggles!! I liked the name, and they have a lot of good information about each of the yarns and some new yarns I havent seen so they are worth a look at.

And Finally, as always, the last word from the Blattman: Scratchy.

YOTD: Sirdar Summer Stripes

So todays YOTD is Sirdar Summer Stripes. This yarn was released last year and is a 60% cotton 40% acrylic number which knits up in DK, tension over 10cm is 22sts by 28 rows . It hopefully then should make good knitting for summer this year too. Here are the facts, then Ill get down to some actual reviewing. You get 158m on a 50g ball of this yarn, which is pretty good meterage and it costs normally around £3.50 a ball, but todays shop of choice is Black Sheep Wool and they have it on offer for £2.99 a ball. (On a side note, Ive ordered from BSW before, they are fantastic, great customer service and very quick delivery.)

The yarn is another self striping yarn, and the colours are muted and more washed out than others, they look like they might have been washed a few times first. There are a few of my stitches without colour at all. The colours are quite pretty, and the cardy knit below was from one ball. This yarn is a bit hard but it is very easy to knit with. It doesnt split like the normal cotton yarns that I have been testing and I enjoyed knitting with it. The stitch definition is good and creates a nice knitted fabric. I blocked the cardy, and it didnt get any softer, but the colours didnt run so I was impressed. It is not like a normal cotton yarn, it holds together well and isnt heavy. I like it. I am not a fan of self stripers- im way too fussy about matching for that, but this is probably one of the best. I did enjoy it for this pattern where I didnt have to worry about matching anything up, and I enjoyed seeing the ball unravel and the colours reveal themselves. This yarn is also machine washable! Hooray for machine washable yarns! So would I buy this one again? Actually for a one ball knit, yes I would.

Again, I only have one colour today in this yarn, but this colour Tequila Sunrise (310) is one of 9 created by Sirdar. Calypso (317) is a stripy mix of reds, yellows, blues and pinks. Tropicana (316) is more blue and green but still has the pinks, yellow and white. Sombrero (315) is orange, blue, yellow, green and a number of other smaller stripes of colour too. Margarita (314) is pink primarily mixed with an aqua green and a lighter green. This colour is probably my favourite of the lot, but I am quite a pink girl. Oasis (312) is very lilac and blue. Some of these colours have so many different coloured stripes, but Oasis is much more bluey purple, like denim really. Pina Colada (311) is more beige and green, which a few yellow and purple stripes. Blue/Green/Sand (309) does not have the fantastic tropical names of its followers but does what is says on the tin, as does the two final colours Khaki/Purple/Mustard (308) and Tan/Orange/Purple (307).

I have now decided to let the Blattman way in on these. As he isnt a knitter, you are going to probably get exactly what he thinks!! He thinks this one is rough to touch and that the yarn is washed out, and makes it look a bit old before you have worn it. He says however it looks good knitted up. He is concise if nothing else!!!

Hope to see you tomorrow for another YOTD, and whatever else I get up to. Off to Westfield Stratford tomorrow so who knows what the odd ball bin in John Lewis might hold for me

YOTD: Peter Pan Sweetheart

Hi Everyone!! Hope we are all doing well. Thanks to my lovely Ladies over on Rav, I am going to get better at this reviewing malarky, and they have given me so many tips on what they want to know about their yarn and their knits that hopefully I can be the best reviewer on the web- then (pay attention yarn companies) I can get sent lots of free yarn!! Oh, and be incredibly useful to knitters everywhere!!!!

So todays YOTD is Peter Pan Sweetheart. Now the 2 particular balls I started with were gifted to me by my mum. Where I say gifted, I mean she really didnt like it. But I'll go into that later. Lets start with the essentials. A 50g ball will afford you 158 yrds and its tension over 10cm is 22sts x 31 rows on 4mm needles. This is another DK yarn, and it is a 45% cotton 55% acrylic blend. A ball of this will cost you about £3-£3.10 depending on where you find it.

Now this yarn is soft, but I am just not a fan. It is designed primarily for babies, and Peter Pan are normally my staple baby yarn but this is just not my favourite. As you can see from the swatch above the stitch definition is a bit off, its splitty and it kinda pulls as you knit it. (Watch out for all those technical terms there!!) It is soft, but not in a dreamy baby sort of way, it has a bit of a scratch to it. It blocks quite nicely, and does become softer with blocking. As you can see from below, I knit some lace with it, which is the ultimate test for blocking and it did come out quite nicely. It is machine washable, on 30, which is always a bonus. I am torn really on whether or not to like it or not.

Now I didn't buy this yarn so the major question is going to be would I? If I am totally honest, No. I just wasn't a fan. I found it too splitty and the stitch definition wasnt perfect enough for me for such a smooth yarn. The same reason it found its way into my stash in the first place. For the just under a ball I have left, I will probably use it for something Im not so bothered about keeping, maybe bibs, small hats or washcloths. I wish I could tell you all I love it, and rave about it, but above anything with this reviewing I want to be honest.

All the colours in this particular yarn are solid colours, and the one above is called Dove (1607). It is a bluey grey and is a nice colour for anyone. The colour hasn't run on washing and it seems to have retained its colour well. There are seven colours available in the range at the moment, and along with Dove, there are Primrose (1604) which is a pale yellow/cream, Blush (1603) which is a very baby pink, Poppy (1608) which is a bright red, Mallow (1605) which is a pale lilac, Cloud (1602) which is a pale baby blue and Atlantic (1606) which is a deep blue (not bright, just a dark blue).

Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow, and as always, your comments are always welcome, and thankyou all for reading and enjoying!!

YOTD: Patons Mirage DK

So yesterday's post went down well, so I am going to continue YOTD and hopefully you will find it useful!!

Today's yarn is Patons Mirage DK. (No, I'm not sponsored by Patons either, just remembered that yesterdays was a Patons yarn too- tomorrows will be different I promise!) Mirage is a 50% Cotton 50% Bamboo Viscose yarn, and knits to DK. You get 120m/131yrds on your 50g ball, and a 50g ball is around £3.90 a ball. I bought this ball in John Lewis at Bluewater, and fortunately found it in the odd ball bin, and found 4 at the end of a dye lot. I paid £1.75 a ball.

Patons Mirage DK comes in 10 different colourways, and each one is a mix of colours. The colourway I have is called Bright Blue Mix (shade 00082) and in the colourway is red, dark blue, light sky blue, white and green. As you knit through the ball more and more colours arise. This is great if you are knitting a one piece item, but for me, I just cannot have sleeves that don't match so I had to roll some off a ball to get the right pattern on the sleeves. Luckily I had spares. You can see the colours best in the cardigan I knit below. It is the Puerperium Cardigan which can be found on Ravelry. 

The yarn could be described as splitty, as it is quite a soft yarn, but it is nice and knits up well, the stitch definition is good. It is machine washable and again dry flat. I still recommend this for all knits, dry them flat, and lay them out, they will thank you and always keep in good shape. I was happy with this yarn, and I was surprised with the number of colours as you go through the ball, and if you have a one ball knit, then this is a great yarn. Due to my inability to have unmatching fronts or sleeves on a cardy or item, the striping was too irregular for my liking. Love the yarn, not sure I'd buy it again.

There are 9 other colours available in this particular yarn, some are very light and delicate colours and some are much more bright. Alongside my blue mix above, there are three other bright mixes. Jamaica (86) is purple, black and yellow and Exotic (80) is blue, pink, yellow and orange. Sea Mix (89) is another of the brighter shades and features many shades of blue, from a navy to a light sky blue. The rest are lighter mixes, much more muted colours. Soft Blue Mix (85) is pretty much as it says on the tin, various shades of light blues and yellows. Soft Pink Mix (83) is light shades of pink, yellow and grey. Purple Mix (84) is light shades of purple, green and blue. Lemon Mix (90) is pink and yellow and again a very light shade. Natural Mix (91) is made up of shades of light browns and greys, and lastly Violet Mix (88) is a mix of light purple, blues and greens. (Again Deramores is a great place to see the swatches for these colours, maybe if I mention them enough they might send me yarn- is that wishful thinking?!?!?!!)

I was very lucky to get to go to John Lewis yesterday too and found more bargains in their odd ball bin. As you probably know, I tend to only knit one or two ball knits, because I get a bit bored!!! This makes an odd ball bin a wonder to me. I will be sharing lots more as I knit them up.

I hope to get a YOTD every day, but because I want to knit them up first to give you all the best idea of how they knit up, the stitch definition and all the colours I own in that particular yarn it might take me more than a day.

Please please let me know if they are useful, or if there are any other things you want me to add to my reviews that would be useful to you

YOTD: Patons Trentino

So I am totally a beauty blog stalker. I love nail polishes and lip colour and everything that goes with it. I rarely buy any beauty product without checking out swatches and reviews before hand. So I figured why can't a knitter do the same thing with yarn. We do not all have the wonder that is our local Yarn store (LYS) that we can visit and feel all those beautiful yarns, so it is much better if we can see those yarns before we buy.

So this is my first Yarn Of The Day. I was so lucky to buy three of the colours of this yarn in the sales this January, so I have plenty of swatches to share.

Patons Trentino DK is a 90% Acrylic/10% Wool Blend yarn and comes in massive 200g balls, which is 660m/722yrds. It is enough to make a sleeveless top, and the pattern for that top comes on the ball band. Personally, I have been using it for baby knits, and from each ball I have made 2 garments so far and have nearly half the ball of each left so it is going really far. Each ball costs around £8.50, which is pretty good because of the amount of yarn you are getting, that would make it around £2.13 per 50g.

The yarn comes in 6 different colours. These are Mexico (a blue, pink, red mix), Brasil (brown, blue, grey), Ocean (green and blues), Melody (pinks and red), Orion (greens and blue) and Passion (purples). I have three here to swatch, Melody, Brasil and Orion. I have knit them on 4mm needles in each of the swatches. You can see and of course buy the yarn at Deramores (they dont sponser me btw, although if they feel like it they can!!!! I just know you can see it best here and of course buy.) Before you buy at deramores however, look for the discount codes, there are lots for knitters.

First up is Melody. It is a pink mix with all sorts of other colours and really does knit up in a very pretty pattern. It is primarily pink in colour. There is no pooling (which means in some varigated yarns you can get big pools of one particular colour which can look funny on a pattern or a garment) and you get a nice all round colour. It is pretty soft and creates a nice knitted fabric.

Orion is a blue, yellow and green yarn, this doesnt really have a primary colour- it is definately a mix of them all. This pools a little, but because of the varigated part of this yarn it doesn't really show too badly. Again such a soft yarn and a lovely knitted fabric.Its quite a boy colour, but it could be used as a great accessory yarn for anyone.

Brasil is a sky blue, brown and grey mix, and creates a lovely colour. It again is a boy colour, but it is not dark at all. It has created some great little baby jackets and I am pleased with the colour.

Trentino is washable on gentle or delicate in the washing machine and then dry flat. I pretty much always dry my knits flat anyway, it helps them to keep in shape.

So let me know if there are any yarns you would like to see swatched in future or what you think of the swatches, are they useful?