I love the snow!! It's my favourite weather of all :) I love the absolute silence when the snow is falling, and it just looks amazing! I've lost count of how many inches of snow has fallen on my little corner of Scotland, but I've been taking lots of pictures of it.
My flickr set with lots and lots of snow pics is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27132829@N03/sets/72157625504116036/with/5225004170/
I've been knitting something to keep me warm in this cold weather. I was listening to the "stash and burn" podcast, and heard Nicole talking about the Kerrera cardi she was making. I looked up the pattern, and decided I liked it very much :) I had just frogged my slob-about sweater (rav project page and blog post) because it was absolutely massive, and I had never worn it. Not once. It weighed about 700g, and the rib pattern I used just stretched and stretched and stretched. It would have fit Santa Claus!! So I'm using the yarn (James C Brett Aran with Wool) to make myself a Kerrera cardi. I'm up to the armhole seperation now, and it's quite warm and toasty sitting on my lap as I knit :) Just what is needed, really :)
This pullover is from an issue of Women's Weekly magazine. I'm not sure which issue - my mum rips all the crafty patterns out from her magazines and saves them up for when I visit her, so I get a whole bunch all in one go. This is the first one I've made. When I saw this one in the pile last time I went down to visit her, I totally loved it.
I used Stylecraft Special 4ply yarn in black, and a 3.5mm hook (I think). I started by making the size I would normally make but then it soon became apparant that it was going to be too small. So I went up a size, but I think really I could have comfortably gone up even another one. The arms are a little tight, but I'm hoping it'll stretch out a little with wear. Maybe even a larger hook would be good as well to open out the lace. I'm kind of thinking of making another one, which is why I'm going over what I would do differently :)
The pattern worked up really easily. It was only written, no charts, but it was totally easy to understand, and there were no errors at all in the size I made. It's kind of sad that the lack of errors in a pattern should be a plus, but there are so many patterns that I've made from magazines where I've had to check errata or just fudge bits because of pattern problems. This one though, was perfect. It was definitely a good experience making this pullover, and I'd definitely use another Women's Weekly pattern.
Ug. I resolve to blog more often, and then what happens? I get a horrible cold that turns into some kind of nasty infection, and I haven't been near the computer for ages :( Typical! Anyway, I've decided I need to blog about my IntSweMoDo2010 progress, or I'm going to end up being hideously behind. I already am, I'm somewhere around my 7th or 8th sweater already, but I need photos and to blog about them before I consider them truly done.
Pattern: Tubey by Cassie Rovitti
Yarn: Teddy Vanguard acrylic DK
Needles: 4.5mm (changed from recommended to account for different gauge)
Yet another Tubey! I love this pattern, it's so easy and fun to make, and I like the way it fits on me, and just generally how it looks. This one took a little longer to make, because I got a bit tired of the endless ribbing. Knitting 2 Tubeys one after the other meant that I got a bit burned out on the whole ribbing thing :) But the good thing about this pattern is that it's so easy to put down and then come back to later on.
Because of the different gauge that I got, I used the Medium size stitch count, but kept the 19" across the back of the smaller size. There was no problem with picking up stitches around the neckline, I just picked up the number of stitches for the Medium size, and it worked out just fine.
I think that's the last Tubey for now, but who knows? ;)
Needles: 4.5mm (changed from recommended to account for different gauge)
I ripped the yarn from my Lion Brand Cowl Neck Sweater because it was way too large. I didn't really know about gauge back then, so when the pattern told me to make it a few inches smaller than my body actually is, I ignored it and made it the same size. Since it's crocheted around, it just swam on me, and I don't think I actually ever wore it except to take photos. So it got ripped, and the yarn became Tubey instead.
I'm still in this repetition kick, making patterns that I've already made before, and this is my 2nd version of Tubey (the other one was black). I'm making another right now in purple (the same brand of yarn). Well, right now I'm not, as I've been knitting so enthusiastically on it that my index finger on my left hand hurts. So I've been crocheting instead. Thank goodness I learned that other craft so I'd still have something to do when I overdo the knitting!
Not a whole lot of progress to report on my various knitting projects. I 'm still knitting on my 3rd Tubey, still haven't got photos of the 2nd. I did manage to get my 2nd pair of Hebi socks finished, but I haven't taken any more photos of them as a pair yet. And I sewed one of Mariah's seam, and have pinned the other one, maybe that'll get sewed later on today. So progress is being made, just very slowly.
I've had to cast on another project though - I know, how awful!! ;p
I'm going to make "Miss Lambert's Shetland Pattern for a Shawl" from Victorian Lace Today (rav link) for my bf's mum's 50th birthday. Which I have been procrastinating about until it finally dawned on me yesterday that it's in 2 weeks!!! So I guess none of my other projects will be getting worked on much for the forseeable future ;)
She used to knit and had some white laceweight yarn that she gave me ages ago, along with a pattern which was for a similar type of shawl, but all written out in words. Millions of lines of "k2tog, yo, k1" etc. I just couldn't face that. So I handed her Victorian Lace Today, and asked her if she'd like one of those instead. Since this shetland lace pattern is similar, that's what she chose, which is good, because it's just an eight row repeat for the main section, and isn't too hard to memorise or work ;)
The yarn is some sort of Jamieson and Smith laceweight. I'm not sure how old it is, but I think it counts as "vintage" ;) It's sooooooo thin!! I'm using 3.25mm needles, and it's going to be super lacy and airy.
I'm having fun knitting the lace just now. I enjoy having the intricate pattern to think about and concentrate on. I can tell I'm going to hesitate when it comes to blocking (I always do!), but hopefully the fact that there's a really close deadline for this shawl will mean that it gets done!
I don't have any photos of it unfortunately (I've been really lax recently about taking photos of my knitting, must sort that out!) so here's a spring flower instead.
I've got a bunch of spring flower photos over on my flickr account. I went to Cambo gardens recently, and went a bit mad taking photos of the pretty :)
My powers of project monogamy seem to have run out :) I knit all of Mariah, joined the hood and everything, and now it's sitting waiting at the seaming stage. I just can't seem to get motivated to sew it up :( It's only a small amount of sewing as well, since the sleeves are joined to the body already at the yoke. Just the 2 side seams, the 2 arm side seams, and the zip to put in. Hardly anything, really. And yet, it's been cast to the side while more interesting projects get knit on. Poor Mariah, I really should get round to finishing it soon!
I've cast on another pair of my Hebi socks (rav link) This time I'm making them in white. I took a sudden notion for white lacy socks for some reason :)
The yarn is Regia Stretch, in white (colourway no. 1) They're knitting up quite nicely. The yarn feels different to the Regia 4-fadig that I normally use. The difference is that it has polyester in it, which you wouldn't think of normally as making yarn particularly elastic, but it does seem to have more "stretch" in it, at least in yarn form. When it's knitted up, it feels more solid somehow, thicker even. My gauge is the same, so I reckon it must be the yarn. It'll be interesting wearing them to see how they fare against the 4-fadig that the originals were knitted in.
I've knit the first sock, and I'm halfway down the cuff of the second. I'm making them a little shorter than the originals, 15 repeats this time on the cuff instead of 17. They look cute :)
I'm not knitting them monogamously though. All that knitting on Mariah alone seems to have made me want to knit on 3 different things at once. I knit another Tubey sweater, because I still seem to be on the pattern repetition kick, and then immediately cast on another. (pics of them still to come in a FO post), and I knit the Milkweed pattern by Laura Chau. Here's a pic of it before blocking:
and as it's still blocking right now, I can't post a pic of it post-blocking yet ;) That'll have to wait for another post too. I used Trekking XXL for this one, in colourway 305. I really like this colourway. The different shades of pink blend together quite well. It's kind of stipey, but not too stripey. Just right :)
I just can't seem to concentrate on any of these for very long at a time, but I suppose it means that they're all getting worked on :) I'm just having fun picking up whichever one takes my fancy at the time!
I completed my first sweater of the year the other day!
The pattern is the February Fitted Pullover by Amy Herzog, available on ravelry here. It's based on the February Lady Sweater, which if you're on Ravelry, you'll have seen went totally viral as soon as it came up. I made one of those myself in purple, and I totally love it, so when I saw the pullover version come up, I had to put it in my queue.
I bought the yarn last year off of ebay. As soon as I saw the colour I knew it would look great in this pattern (it's Woolcraft Aran yarn, BTW.) It comes in 400g balls (875yards/800m), and I used nearly a whole ball making this sweater. I had a tiny little ball left at the end. I had bought two balls of it, just in case, so now I need to find something else to make using the other ball! :D
I saved the actual knitting of this sweater till after the new year, becauase I wanted it to be part of my IntSweMoDo2010 project. It's my first sweater out of (hopefully!) at least 12 this year. It knit up very fast, and the pattern was very easy to follow. I had to do a bit of thinking around the shoulder and neck area to keep the lace pattern going, but it wasn't too hard to figure out, actually.
The top photo is actually one of my project365 photos as well as one of my photos for self portrait Tuesday, and 52 weeks of self portraits! I'm such a multi-tasker ;)
I really like this sweater. I think it looks very cute, and with the shirt underneath, it's really warm. Just right for this weather, lol!
Oh, and the top picture also shows my new glasses! I decided to get my eyes tested since my right eye was really getting quite blurry. Turns out I have an astigmatism in that eye, so it's a funny shape, and that's why my vision in that eye is blurry. The left eye is nearly perfect, it's practically plain glass in that side! But it's great being able to see without squinting and straining my left eye. I was getting headaches from the strain of it trying to compensate, and it's fantastic not to have had any headaches for the past week or so! I can play my DS again, yay!!!
About a year ago now, I "finished" my BPT jacket (the pattern is from knitty.com and can be found here). I wore it for a while, but then stopped because there were some aspects of it that I didn't really like. I had used a yarn which was really too thin, so the fabric was quite drapey. I had elected not to do any waist shaping, so it kind of just hung there, looking all loose and floopy. And because I had used acrylic, the I cord edging rolled like nobody's business! (apparently I cord edging doesn't work on acrylic according to someone on ravelry. So it must be true ;) )
It sat in my cupboard for ages, and I contemplated just ripping it back totally, but never really got round to it (my laziness turned out to be a good thing actually). Then I got the idea, what if I made it shorter, into a cropped cardi? It's knit top down, so I could just pick out the bottom part and rip back up to the chest. Then all I would need to do is add some ribbing, and it would be fine. That would solve all the above problems. The drapey fabric wasn't really a problem at the top of the sweater, just at the waist where there was no shaping, so it hung loose. And ripping the bottom would get rid of that I cord. So I went ahead and did it!
I like it much better this way. Before I could rip out any of it, I had to take the zip off, and I still haven't gotten around to trimming it and putting it back on, but I actually kind of like it without the zip. I wore it when I went to Jewel of Yorkshire in October, and it was great for that time of year, keeping my top half warm, but because it's cropped I wasn't too hot.
I kept the cable on the back running down into the ribbing:
I like the little detail it adds. :)
This is the first sweater I've modified so heavily, and I have a couple of others that I'm not so happy with that I might change in some way. This mod turned out really well, I think, so it's given me some confidence to change some of the other ones.
Another sweater for the bf. This one is take 3, the final one. The other two I made, he said were fine, but then it turned out the ribbing pulled in too much, and it felt too tight, and the arms were too tight, and the armholes were too small, so he didn't wear them. Being a complete glutton for punishment, I decided to try make him another one. This time out of DK yarn, not fingering/4 ply!!! But it's still taking forever!! K2, P2 rib has to be the most boring pattern on the planet if you're making a full sweater out of it.
I'm using the raglan pattern from Ann Budd's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns, but I'm making a few changes this time. I'm using the 6sts per inch count for the body of the sweater, but the 7sts per inch count for the arms, since they seemed to be too small width-wise the last couple of times. It means I'll need to do a bit of number fudging when I get to the yoke of the sweater (it's knit from the bottom up), but I'm sure it won't be too hard. I'm using Teddy Vanguard DK with 3.25mm needles. I like the tighter fabric the smaller needles makes with ribbing.
The body of the sweater was actually not too bad to knit. Even though it was K2, P2 ribbing, I could feel which stitch was coming next so I could knit and watch movies or something. Now I'm on the sleeve though, and I have to mark off every round so that I can increase every 8 rounds, and oh my god, it's boring! My mind has to be focused on some level where I am in the round, and where I am in the number of rounds, and it's so tedious. Luckily I'm not one of those people who can hide it very well when I'm bored - usually people find out because I'm yelling OH MY GOD, I'M SO BOOORRRREEEDDD! at them ;) So the bf isn't expecting it to be finished tomorrow or anything. Just as well!
When I get too bored, I've been making small projects, so I can start and finish something quickly, and it distracts me. I've made these two skulls:
Yarn: small amount of white acrylic, and red cotton
This pattern crochets up so quickly and is so much fun to make! I'm going to sew mine onto something, but I'm not sure what yet. I was going to sew the white one onto my denim jacket, but it turns out I put that into the charity shop a while ago, and simply forgot that I had done so, so I'll need to find something else to sew it onto.
I also made this choker (I haven't sewn the buttons on yet, but I have blocked it - a minor miracle for me!):
Pattern: Zigzag Choker by clarabelle This is a very lovely pattern, quick to knit up and very pretty. I made mine from red cotton that I had in my stash, but I don't know what brand it is.
I also finished a bunch of gloves and mittens, but I'll write about them later. I just wanted to get this post up, and get back to blogging. And to have something to do besides that ___ sweater. Never again, I tell you, never again!!
I have 3 FOs to show off today. My ravlery profile page is slowly being removed of all those photoless entries! :D Of course, I had to decide to catch up just when the weather is turning cold and rainy and cloudy, and the light is absolutely terrible! Typical!
This is my Simone sweater. (pattern: simone by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes, from the book "French Girl Knits". Yarn: Stylecraft Special Aran with Wool, about 500g. Needles: 4.5mm, 5mm, 5.5mm, 6mm) It's no exageration to say that I got the book specifically for this pattern, I just love it! I'm really pleased with the finished object too, except that the sleeves are a bit short (they've been pulled and tugged quite a bit to get the photo). But I figure it won't be too hard to snip above the lace, knit some rows, then graft together again.
I have to stress that I love this jumper!!!! I love the flarey sleeves and the lacey cowl neck, two things that I'm really into right now!
This is my 9 to 5 Shrug, a test crochet for Nicole Carmen. It's taken me absolutely ages to get these photos up, which I feel really bad about :< beats self over head with ball of yarn in penitence The shrug is fantastic, and the pattern is very easy to follow. My gauge was a bit off, which was totally my fault, either my gauge or much more likely, I’m a bit larger than Nicole! So I substituted trebles for doubles, and all was well :) I love this shrug, it's definitely going to get a lot of wear!
And finally, I learned a whole new knitting technique for this one, double knitting!! For the Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup over on ravelry, this month's arithmancy class task was to make something showing binary. One of the options was to knit something reversible, so double knitting immediately came to mind with that one. This pattern (which is the Double Knit Headband from Knit Hats!) seemed like it had the easiest to follow instructions out of all the ones I had, so I decided to make that. I would normally have made the large size because of my huge head, but I was using thicker yarn, so I made the medium (and I liked the leaf pattern better than the ones given for the large size).
The first row where you put the front and back stitches together on the same needle was quite hard and fiddly, and so was seperating them at the end of the leaf pattern. The actual double knitting didn't go too badly, although my balls of yarn kept getting twisted round each other. I'm sure there's a tutorial somewhere for how to avoid that, but I just untwisted them at the end of each round, and it wasn't too bad. I'd like to try more double knitting, it seems like a really good technique for making these picture, almost intarsia-like, images on a thick warm fabric. And I'm counting this towards my Year of Colour, as it's a colourwork technique! :D
And now after all that, here's funny pictures of Tupac wearing my headband :D He normally hates wearing anything knitted, but he doesn't seem to mind this. Especially if he's being bribed with a treat for posing!
Yep, I'm posing again!! (actually these were taken at the same time as the Tamarai ones. I must have been in a very pose-y mood!)
I put new buttons onto my February Lady Sweater(rav project page, since I don't seem to have blogged about this before. Very strange!)
I wasn't wearing it as it was, the buttons were too big, and purple, and plastic. They made the sweater look like it came straight from the 70s. (The buttons probably did come from then!) So on my regular trawl through the local charity shops, I found a set of three buttons which, when I bought them and took them home, looked much nicer next to the fabric of the sweater. So I snipped the other ones off, and sewed these on.
I think it looks much more sophisticated now, and I'm more likely to actually wear it. There's nothing worse than a handknit that stays in the cupboard, is there? But now this one is freed, and can be worn with pride! :D
And while I was taking photographs, here's a gratuitous macro shot of the lace
I've started the first of the projects off my big list of doom :)
My cold seems to be all better, and after a thundery, rainy day on Monday, the weather seems to have settled down a little here. So my knitting mojo has returned!! I hardly knew what to do with myself, I hadn't knit for days - I just couldn't concentrate on anything! Knitting seems to be such a large part of my life, I actually felt kind of lost without it (that's really a bit sad to admit, isn't it!)
But yesterday, I went to my bookshelf o' yarn, and picked out the yarn I'd been intending for Tamarai by Kai Mistry (go check out the pattern, it's fab!). And I cast on and proceeded to knit for 5 hours. This is my progress so far:
The yarn is an acrylic - Teddy Vanguard DK, and I'm using 5mm needles. It's knit a bit looser than I would normally knit a DK yarn - 18sts to 4in, but I checked and rechecked the pattern, and it specifically calls for a DK yarn knit at that gauge. It's turning out quite nice and drapy, actually :)
I love how it's turning out. I can't wait to get past the armhole seperation so I can try it on! I think the light purple of the yarn will work quite well with the pattern.
According to Ravelry, I'm the only person to have cast this sweater on! I couldn't believe it, it's such a pretty pattern! The moment I saw it come up in the magazine, I knew I would have to make it. In fact, it's so pretty that I wrote a note to myself in my rav queue ("love this pattern, must make soon!") Well, it took me nearly eight months, but I'm finally doing it, and I must say, I'm very excited about it! :D
It seems like it's not very often these days that I post about a work actually in progress. I always seem to leave it till it's finished, and then write one post about the FO. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with that - after all, it means that I'm busy knitting - but it's nice sometimes to write about something that isn't finished yet.
I've been obsessed with this sweater since I first bought the book, and have been desperate to make it, but I never seemed to have enough suitable fingering weight yarn. So, on the way back from my parents' house last week, I popped into the wool shop at Glenrothes, and bought some :) I went in looking for navy, since I'd used navy Stylecraft Special 4 ply for my CanCans, and figured that would be a suitable yarn. But they didn't have enough navy to make the armwarmers as well, and that's really what makes the whole outfit, I think. So I looked around, and they had this Stylecraft Life yarn in a pink heathery type colour. I know, pink! It's soooooo not me. Usually. But recently I've been kind of drawn to making things in pink (I've no idea why, and I hope this new found girlyness goes away soon, it's just not right, lol!). Anyway, it's working up quite nicely, and it'll be a change to have something in a pastel-y colour.
The yarn seems to be spun exactly like the Stylecraft Special, it has that same splittyness :( My crochet hook keeps going through the plies. But it's soft and makes a nice fabric, as does the Special. The only difference between the two yarns is that the Life has a wool content, and you can feel it in the fabric :) It's an affordable, nice yarn for a sweater or other garment, you just have to watch what you're doing or you end up with split stitches. But it forces me to relax, and slow down, and do the whole zen knitting/crochet thing, which can't be bad really!
I made this in January, but only just got a photo recently. I'm so bad at photographing my FO's!
It's the Side-To-Side Cowl Neck Sweater, which is a free pattern from Lion Brand. It's a great pattern, very easy with a simple construction, but it looks interesting. It's a great mindless project, lots of crocheting in straight lines.
I adapted the sleeves a little. I crocheted in the round, but turned the work back and forth after every round, so that it would look the same as the main body. I also moved the placement of the armholes, so that the body was longer, and the neck a little smaller.
I'm happy with the sweater, but I can't help thinking it should have a little more negative ease to look better. Half of my brain wants to rip it out to just before the first armhole and basically start again (it's the only way I can think of to make it tighter. But it would mean practically starting all over again.
I think I'll have to let it be for a little while before I decide, but I kind of feel like I've already decided to do it, you know? Sigh. Still, it wouldn't take that long to redo. It's an amazingly quick garment to crochet, and if I stick on some sci-fi series to watch I'm sure it would go even faster! Yep, I'm pretty sure it'll be done at some point, but I just can't bring myself to do it quite yet. :(
Ok, so I wasn't particpating in the NaKniSweMo knitalong, but I finished a sweater in the month of November! I started on the 1st and finished on the 25th (and I'm posting on the 30th, so I just make it with all aspects!)
It's my second Rogue Sweater. I bought this pattern ages ago, and made a red one, which I absolutely love and wear all the time. I loved knitting the pattern, it's so well written and a lot of fun with the cables and pocket. Plus it knits up pretty fast. So I decided to make a black one as well.
I used James C Brett Aran with Wool on 5.5mm needles. For some reason, even though I used the same size of yarn, needles, and pattern, this one came out a little looser and the hood is quite bigger and floppier round my head. But that's cool, I can pretend I'm a mad hoody (see 2nd definition on link if you don't know what that is)!
I changed the pattern a little to knit the sleeves in the round up till the shoulder cap, and moved the increase stitches in by a stitch, so the sleeve looks much tidier and nicer than my red one which has some quite bad seaming!
I really like this sweater. I've already planned what mods to make for the next one (3 needle bind off at the shoulder to avoid seaming that little bit, and casting off the stitches at the top of the hood cos grafting them onto the cable section is a PITA) This'll probably be the last sweater for a little while at least though, because it's absolutely baltic here! There's been frost on the ground for the last 3 days solid with no signs of it disappearing. I've been wearing my hats and gloves and scarfs non stop, and I need more warm things, pronto!
Here's a macro picture of the frost on top of my fence, so you can see how cold it is! (Also, somehow I managed to get a bokeh picture with my camera, where the foreground is sharp and the background is blurred! No idea how it did that, but I like the effect and wanted to show it off!)
Blimey, where to begin?! I've been suffering a little lack of motivation recently, which is why I haven't been blogging. I've even not been knitting for a few days! I'm hoping to change that though!
I knit this sweater:
and I haven't knit a stitch since! I don't know what's going on. I've been playing video games (the first Silent Hill for PS and Lego Star Wars on the DS when the bf's using the TV) and browsing my queue, looking for inspiration. I'm sure I'll find it soon though - over 1600 queued items now! It's almost getting to be a game with myself now, seeing just how many patterns there are out there that I would make one day. Lots of people use their queue for things they're going to make soon, but I fill it up with things that I would make theoretically, one day. Then it's easy to look through for inspiration. I also tagged each and every item in there and organised it. That took AGES! But now I have tabs at the top with seperate sections, and it's not so scary to browse any more. I just have to remember to add tags to new items as I add them, I always forget!
Anyway, the sweater. It's using the raglan pattern from Ann Budd's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns. I used a broken rib pattern (basically knit one row, then K1, P1 the next row) and James C Brett Aran with Wool. 5.5mm needles. It's absolutely huge! I knit it a size bigger than I would normally because I wanted it to be my slob-around sweater for the winter. As it's bigger it'll go over layers (and layers!) of clothes so I can be super warm.
The raglan pattern from Ann Budd's book is knit from the bottom up, which in some ways I much prefer to top-down. With knitting from the bottom I can see after an inch or so if it's going to be the right size. If I'm knitting from the top down, I always have to wait till it's under the arms before I can really tell, and it never is the right size. I haven't knit any top down sweater that I haven't had to rip back after the arm seperations, and it's really, really annoying! Nobody else seems to have this problem! But this sweater worked out fine. Only trouble is, now my bf's bugging me for one in black. I had a couple of balls of this orangey brown anyway, so I just got the inspiration that it would look good in a broken rib pattern, and knit away. Now I have to go and buy black for him. Oh no, more yarn shopping, whatever will I do!!!! :D
Ooooooh, speaking of yarn, check out what I got in the mail!
It's a present from Moggle for testing her liquorice shrug pattern. It's handspun BFL/angora, and it's lovely! This is the first handspun I've ever seen in person and wow! It's amazing. I can't wait to knit it up, I'm looking for a hat pattern just now for it.
I'm packing just now to go to Jewel of Yorkshire, a belly dance weekend in Yorkshire, surprisingly enough! I'm really looking forward to it. I'm taking four classes. Two with Raqia Hassan (a very famous Egyptian dancer), one with Ozgen Ozgec (Turkish male dancer) and one with Anne Kingstone - a belly burlesque one with two veils! I'm quite looking forward to that one! OK, I have to show you all this video of Ozgen:
Go to 2.25min and you'll see why I posted that one! Lol! I'm not quite sure what the shoe thing is all about. I'm not doing that kind of class with him, I'm doing a turkish oriental class, so I hope there's no shoe shenanigans in that one! He seems like a very good dancer from what I've seen on youtube so shoes aside, I'm really looking forward to learning from him. I couldn't find any vids of Raqia dancing, but people highly recommend her, so I thought I would take the opportunity to take some of her classes.
I'm leaving tomorrow, and coming back on Monday. It'll be nice to get away for a bit! :)
OK, it wasn't really a party, it was me, a sewing needle and a crochet hook, but 3 things got finished! Yay!
This is the liquorice shrug, by Megan Marshall. I love this shrug! I test knit the pattern for her, it was a lot of fun to knit, and it's now my favourite piece of clothing. :) Oh, the pattern link takes you to the ravelry page for that pattern, where you will be able to buy it later.
I used Debbie Bliss Rialto 4 ply for this shrug, I think it must be my first time knitting with merino. I love this yarn to bits, it's very soft and yummy. Black is a bit of a pain to see the stitches in, but I have lots of lamps in the house! :D
I wore the shrug to dance class last night, and got some very nice comments about it. I always have to explain how knitting is not old fashioned whenever I talk to new people about knitting though. But it's fun to watch the slightly surprised and bemused look that comes across people's faces when I say I made something!
These are crochet slippers designed by Zuleika, from life in the zu. This was another pattern testing project.
These are so super cute! I love them. I used James C Brett With Wool Aran, an acrylic/wool blend. They worked up really quite quickly and like I say, very cute when on.
Last but not least, my February Lady Sweater. The knitting for this got done ages ago, but I had to find buttons big enough. I ended up buying 2x100 button sets off ebay to get 3 the same. But now I have a growing button collection too, which is a bonus. For this, I used Teddy Vanguard. I wasn't sure about the solid colour when it came off the needles, I thought it might look better in a semi solid, but when I added the buttons and tried it on, it hung just right, and I was very pleased :)
So now I only have Laminaria on the needles and a sweater I started yesterday. Oh, and the BPT jacket is still waiting on a zip so it still counts as a WIP. How hard can it be to find a 24 inch bottle green zip? Apparantly, it's very hard. The poor jacket has been sitting there for ages! Laminaria had to wait for a bit, because my needles were too blunt, and my thumb started to ache from pushing it through, but I ordered some new ones, and it's doable now :) These needles still aren't particularly sharp, but they work. The sweater is a big cosy sweater to slob about in during winter, using more of the James C Brett Aran, and Anne Budd's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns.
