I finally got around to knitting a Swallowtail, a pattern I have been wanting to try for a while. I started it while we were on a beach camping holiday between Christmas and New Year. If it hadn’t ben for the solitude, I’m not sure how far I would have got. I found the knitting very challenging and had to concentrate on every row.
The yarn is Misti Alpaca lace weight on 3.75mm bamboo needles.
I love it.
This scarf is a really long time coming. I think I started it in May of last year. It was a really long, boring knit. One that made me question, on more than one occassion what possessed me to start it. One that made me beg (the much more level headed) Donna to ‘intervene’ if I ever suggested I would start another such ill-conceived project ever again. Still, I love all 7 foot of it and now it is done, I’m pretty pleased it is mine.
The pattern (such that it is) is on Ravelry and the yarn is Noro Yuzen. 4.5mm bamboo needles.
Last Wednesday at Knitting Meet Up, Emma was making a really simple but cute baby hat. With a few baby presents on my horizon, I decided to give it a go. She used this (Rav link) pattern but I found this one which works top down instead of bottom up. Since then, I have made both a couple of times and although the bottom up gives a neater fabric at the top, I like the top down a bit better because you can increase until you get the right size. Here is one being modelled by my son.
Because the increase rows create bumps in the fabric, I chose the yarn to make it look like it was supposed to be like that. I’m pleased with the result, particularly as they only take a couple of hours. They also look really different when made out of different yarns. Thanks Em for solving baby gift problems (over the winter months at least!).
Fortunately for my bank balance, not fabric this time. I went to visit my sister for her birthday on Saturday at Sherwood and dropped in to Threads and More. I really could not find one skein or ball of yarn that I liked until I found some of Linen / Cotton / Silk blend. It is in a sport weight and quite stringy but I can’t wait to crochet some little flowers which I will then sew on to my linen. I have ordered a couple of Nicky Epstein books from the library to get some inspiration for flowers and edges which I think would also look nice on my linens.
So when will this all end?
I know that my blogging has been less than regular lately but I am trying really. Part of my problem is that if I can’t easily take and transfer my pictures it all seems too hard. When I get together with all the very clever bloggers at Sew It Together this weekend, that will be one of the questions I will be asking… How do you blog really regularly? Anyway.. I have been busy and have been making some lovely things. Here is a vintage cape that I found through Ravelry. I love the construction of this and grabbed some BWM 8 ply Rustic in Damson because I had about the right amount in my stash. It has worked out really nice and quite striking. Perhaps too striking for wearing to the playground but I could see myself wearing it in the evening as something a bit different. A big thank you to iKnitt for putting it up on her blog to keep the pattern alive.
I have also been working on Boneyard – a Stephen West design which is really simple but very nice. I used the Jo Sharp Silkroad Tweed DK that my sister bought me for Christmas and went up a needle size to create a very drapey shawl. This is the one I put on first thing in the morning to keep my shoulder warm now that the nights are a bit cooler her is Brissy. I love it. I decided not to block it but I have been wearing it so much, I think it might need a bit of a wash soon. Ah well.
Yep that’s me, still in my jammies. No pride really.
I know I have been and there is just no excuse. I have sooo much to catch up on, I will just have to take it one step at a time.
My daggy jumper is a real hit.
not so daggy really!
Yes, that’s me with wet hair and a messy bedroom. Still, the jumper is great. I started out with a yarn crisis when I just couldn’t make my first choice yarn work but this is just fabulous. I love the yarn (not even sure what it is, I bought it at Wangaratta Mill some time ago), love the colours and love the fit.
The pattern of course is not called the Daggy Jumper, Donna and I just called it that for laughs. She now has two and hers are lovely too. We knitted together on this one and again it was really fun. The pattern is really Jo Sharp Loose Textured Sweater (Rav link) knitted on size 9.0mm needles!
Lots going on. More soon.
When I saw Donna’s Noosa Sunset Shawl I knew that I had to have one. A simple design with just enough interest in the yarn to make it really wearable. She told me she wore it over a white T shirt to the movies and I thought ‘just perfect’. I didn’t have any gorgeous yarn in my stash that was going to work so I decided (inspired by Kelebek- scroll down to the end) to overdye some dodgy Moda Vera sock yarn. So here is the yarn dyed first in Rasberry Ice Kool Aid (also thanks to Donna) and then overdyed again with an eggplanty purple.
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I was really pleased with the yarn and also with the finished shawl. I wasn’t so pleased when I found (when weaving in the ends) that I had dropped a stitch and then not picked it up properly so had a hole but I sort of just fudged a little repair job and so you can’t see it now. I think I am over shawlettes for the time being and it is great that the next little KAL with Donna will be a vest. Just in time for the cooler weather.
I’ll try for better pics soon – this really doesn’t do it justice.
My lovely sister took me shopping for a belated Christmas present yesterday – yarn of course! Here it is.
This has been a busy week for me, with really not enough time at home to achieve what I really wanted to get done. I am a bit behind in my ‘Around the Block‘ blocks and really need to get them done but most of my crafting was done away from home this week.
I was able to finish my second pair of French Press Slippers (Rav Link). They are not as good as the first so these will actually become my pair. The other pair just might be gifted as I have no idea why on earth I would want 2 pairs. These were made with Moda Vera Mousse (a wool, bamboo blend) and they felted very nicely in my Mums top loader. The yarn was a bit chunkier than the Cascade 220 and the results follow.
More importantly, I have been preparing for my next couple of projects by dyeing some yarn. I overdyed some Moda Vera Socks for a Noosa Shawl (eggplant and light electric blue) and overdyed some Bella Baby Sugar in Lavender for my Daybreak (red, purple, blue) last night. The bright red / purple / blue will be paired with a navy blue solid yarn. I am very pleased with the Noosa Shawl effort (although there is more light blue than in the photo) and will reserve judgement on the Daybreak combo until after I have knitted a bit. For the Noosa Shawl, I used the KoolAid Donna gave me last year for Christmas (the light blue Rasberry) and then overdyed in a light eggplanty purple. I think it will look nice – because it was going over that variagated brown sock yarn, there is quite a lot of different shades. Pleased that more stash yarn is being used.
It feels good to use stash yarn and be happy doing it.
I am four repeats off finishing my Saroyan… feeling that excitement you get when a project is nearly done but you are loving it so much, you don’t want to finish. It will be lovely to post a picture soon. I am already thinking about how I would make this project again.
