Wednesday, May 29, 2013

WIP Wednesday - Interrupted by a KAL!

Still working on the "Back to the 80s" sweater. I finished the back and have started the front now :)
Haven't come quite as far as I had expected though, as I was suddenly irrevocably interrupted by a Moss Garden KAL I - completely by coincidence - happened to notice was starting on Ravelry. I love working on it, so unfortunately the sweater has been pushed to the back-burner.

I've just finished the second repeat of chart A. I'm using Candy Skein's Yummy Fingering for it. I didn't have quite enough of one colour (one skein is 425m and this needed 465) so I started off by doing the first repeat of chart A in another colour. I think it'll work out nicely... hope so anyway :)

I really like both the pattern and the yarn, but think if I were to start over again, I'd chose a thinner yarn. It does seem slightly robust (for want of better word), but I'm hoping that's just until it's been blocked.

Friday, May 24, 2013

FO Friday - Wedding Embrodiery

I finally got to give my sister and brother-in-law their wedding present last weekend, so now I get to show it off here as well without spoiling the surprise :)
I'm really pleased with how it turned out, but also very happy to be returning to my regular knitting-schedule again ;)

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

WIP Wednesday: Back to the 80s, week 2

Knitting flat seems to take a lot longer than knitting in the round. I'm not a huge fan of purling, so I'm glad that at least this isn't all stockinette :)

Still, I like that it's thick yarn on thick needles, so it does knit up quickly enough for my patience to cope with, and the pattern is varied enough to keep it interesting. I only have another 5 cm to go on the back now.
I've made a couple of mistakes here and there (which are not too noticeable on the photo, fortunately :) ), meaning that I'm glad I started with the back so I've hopefully learned my lesson by the time I make the front. I think I may sign up for a test knitting of this once I'm done though, to make sure that the pattern and the adaptions make sense to anybody other than me, myself and I ;)

Thursday, May 16, 2013

FO Friday - Swedish Elfe

I've been looking forward to showing this off ever since I finally finished last weekend. It's gorgeous, the yarn is delicious and I just LOVE it! :D

Pattern: Elfe.
Yarn: Candy Skein Yummy Fingering (so much love for this yarn :D)
Alterations: None this time. If I ever knit it again I think I'll start with 14rounds of colour A instead of 13 and end with 12 of colour B... but then again, maybe not. I'd regretted not doing it that way while knitting it, but actually like the way it looks now that I'm done.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

WIP Wednesday - Back to the 80s

When rumaging through my Mum's yarn stash awhile back I came across an ooold pattern of a sweater she knitted back in the late 1980s.

The company providing both the pattern and the yarn is no longer in business (so I guess that'd make the pattern abandonware? ;) ), so I thought it would be fun to try to adapt it to yarns currently available. My first choice was a nice bamboo-silk blend, which would look fantastic... but make the resulting sweater end up costing DKK780!!! Never mind then! I turned to good old cotton which might not be quite as soft, but is infinitely more affordable ;)

I started last week, and am presently about half way through the back.
This will be my first garment that requires seaming once I'm done (all the others have been knitted in the round, which I prefer), so I'm a bit interested in seeing how long time it'll take me to actually get the piece finished! ;)

(And now I have Aqua's song firmly stuck on my mind... ah well, never mind - it's a good song ;) )

Thursday, May 9, 2013

FO Friday - Frost Flowers

With a lot of discipline I finally finished this last weekend. It wasn't my favourite project while knitting it (I'm obviously not a talented enough knitter to have pattern on both knit and purl rows - I need a time to relax in between! ;) ), but on the other hand it was the project with the greatest transformation during blocking!

It went from this (wingspan = 96cm):
To this (wingspan = 126cm)

It was my first time blocking 'real' lace and my first time using blocking wires rather than just pins, so I don't know if it was either one of those or a combination. Whatever the case it is SO lovely soft and yummy now :D

Pattern: Harrington Shawlette.
Yarn: Teetee Elegant.
Alterations: None - it was a test knit.
New techniques learned: Picot bind off incl. cable cast on. Not sure I like that way of binding off - it takes forever... nor am I entirely sure I'm doing the cable cast on correctly. But at least I've tried them now :)

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

WIP Wednesday - Almost done...

The Elfe is a delight to knit :) I'm on round 160 of 180, so not much longer to go now :) Hopefully this will be its last appearance in a WIP post, because even if I haven't finished by Friday, something's VERY wrong if I haven't finished by next Wednesday! :)

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

WIP Wednesday - More Elfe...

Still working on the same two WIPs as last week, but they're coming along very nicely, and especially the Elfe is an absolute delight to knit. I love that yarn so much! Definitely the right choice to use Candy Skeins for it :D

So with no further ado...
I only have another 60 rounds to go here (plus whatever extra I decide once I see how much yarn I have left) so hope to finish before too long... will have to put it on the back burner for awhile though, in order to finish this:
I've bought a 120cm KnitPick needle so am able to show it off better. I can't wait to see the finished thing! Still have another 20 rows to go and less than a week to complete it :-P I'd better get cracking! It's gotten to the point where each row takes ages to complete, so it's slow going. I can make it though - just need to stop procrastinating ;)