WIP Wednesday: Cables and Stockinette Stitch

Same two WIPs as last week, because while I have also been working on the surprise for my husband it's too far along to show photos of (on the off-chance that he'll see this), but not far enough along that I'm ready to give it to him any time soon. The really curious Ravelers can check out my progress there though ;)

That aside, I absolutely LOVE working on the two sweaters that are currently on my needles! If you're reluctant to start knitting a sweater because you're afraid it'll be too difficult or too time-consuming - don't be. Of course there ARE sweaters that are both difficult and time-consuming, but there are also SO many that aren't. Find one that's knit in the round, and preferably top-down, and you will see that they're much faster and easier than many of those elaborate shawls you've been making ;)

The Botecelli Blue is coming along swimmingly. I wish I could have figured out how to adapt it for knitting in the round, because I'm a slow purler, but then I would have had to knit the top-front and top-back back-and-forth anyway, which would have made for an interesting change in tension, so actually it's probably just as well.
I've just finished row 114 of the back, which is the last row before casting on for the bat-sleeves, so now I have to put it on hold (or start on the front) while I make the calculations necessary for my different gauge. I absolutely LOVE the colour! It's going to be just PERFECT for my sister.

While getting properly started on the Botecelli Blue, I put the Red Chocolate Passion on the back burner for awhile. I think I was getting psyched out and making it a much bigger deal in my mind that it really ought to be, because once I picked it back up, I was - once again - surprised by how difficult this pattern really isn't. It looks a LOT more complicated than it is. Of course, now I've reached the point where I have to do three things at once - one every row, one every second row and one every fifth row - so it's once again been delegated to "at home"-knitting, rather than "on the go"-knitting.
I still love it though. It might not look like much, but I'm half-way through the back piece. I'm REALLY eager to see how this thing turns out - the colour is just gorgeous. I'm slightly worried about the final seaming though, as that looks extremely elaborate, but I guess I'll wait and cross that bridge once I get to it. Like the rest of this pattern, it may end up being a lot easier than it sounds.

FO Friday - Musical Score

Yes, it's finally DONE! And I'm so happy with the end result :) Not that I have any idea what to use it for - it's huge! 27x180cm ~1x6 feet

Full length, with me by its side for comparison - I'm 168cm/5'6"

Just slightly too big to use as a scarf ;)


It does look nice as a tablerunner though :)

Ravelry Project Page

It'll probably be awhile before I attempt any double knitting again though - this took forever! I'm very relieved to have time to knit other things again :)

Finally a request... I'm looking for a skein of yarn in a very particular colour-wheel, and have been unable to find it anywhere, so I figured - where better to ask than in a group of yarn-addicts :)

This is probably the colour-wheel that comes closest. It doesn't have to match it completely (I don't expect it to have all 8 colours - perhaps just red, yellow, green and blue). Preferably long stretches of each colour (no repeats would be perfect!), but it's not a must. I've been searching all my usual haunts and online yarn stores, but haven't been able to find it anywhere. Might any of you have seen it somewhere? Preferably somewhere that'll ship to Denmark ;)

WIP Wednesday - Red and Blue

Two new sweaters on the needles, and neither one for me ;) But that's okay - it means I get lovely yarn to play with that other people have purchased for me!!! :-)

First, for my oldest sister, Boticelli Red Blue. The yarn is a cotton-bamboo blend and I love it :)
The colour is slightly off - it has more of a greenish tint in real life.

I found a pretty significant error in the pattern though - the row count suddenly jumped 100 rows for no apparent reason! I checked with the designer and yup - typo :) The only reason I even noticed is that I'm using yarn with a different gauge than the one given in the pattern, and rather than moving down to teeny-tiny needles to obtain correct gauge (which I doubt would look good anyway), I'm attempting to change the pattern to fit my yarn. It's the first time I've ever tried anything of the sort, so I'm very curious to see how it'll work out - and taking copious notes while knitting the back, so I can replicate it for the front. Maths FTW ;) I wish I could have figured out how to work it in the round though, but that's slightly above my abilities yet.

Second up is a sweater for a dear friend of mine. We first started talking about me knitting her a sweater last year, but things got sidetracked by our move. I recently brought it up again, and we spent a couple of delightful afternoons looking through Ravelry for the perfect pattern. I think we found it too with Drops' Chocolate Passion. We found her some GORGEOUS deep red yarn (the colour here is way off - it doesn't look orange at all in real life!) and I finally got to cast on :)
Definitely the most elaborate thing I've tried knitting yet! But I've tried cables before and know that they look much more difficult than they actually are :) The only problem is that I'm really not a fan of Drops patterns. They seem to go out of their way to write them in as convoluted a way as possible. Not to mention that the charts are much too messy for proper printing. I'm reading through it carefully, trying to make sense of things before I start knitting them (which is pretty much the opposite of what I usually do, because I find it easier to 'make sense of things' when I actually have the needles in my hands, but there's so much of "while you did that you should also have done this" that I have to with this one). I'm still learning how to count rows from the cable stitches, but think I'll manage alright once I get properly going.

FO Friday - Lilac Bookmark

A very quick FO this week. I'm going to a bachelorette party tonight, and all participants were asked to bring a small gift for the bride-to-be. It was supposed to symbolize either us or our relationship with the B2B (or both!), so I figured that a knitted bookmark would symbolize "me" very nicely ;)

The No Wrong Side Bookmark has been in my Ravelry queue for quite a while, so I figured this was the perfect opportunity to make it. I sat down with it Tuesday afternoon, and it took me no more than 2 hours from start to finish. As usual blocking it did wonders to open up the pattern :)


The colour is slightly off - it's a darker blue IRL. I used scrap yarn - blue sock yarn and a strand of lilac cobweb as the B2B's favourite colours are blue and purple :) The pattern called for 10 repeats of the feather pattern, but I thought it was a suitable length after 9 repeats :)

WIP Wednesday: Musical Score

Life intervened and I ended up not getting nearly as much knitting done this past week as I had expected to or hoped to. My goal was 80 rows a week - this past week I made only 40! That means I now have another 60 rows to go, and at 5 minutes per row that translates to an even 5 hours. I hope to be finished within the next week which is completely doable, as long as I don't find myself getting sidetracked again ;)

But it is now too big for me to take photos of it at full length by myself! Once I'm done I'll have to get my DH to help me take some.

Still don't know what I'll use it for once I'm done. It's kinda too long for a scarf by now... A table-runner perhaps? Or to hang up on the wall over our piano?

WIP Wednesday: Nearing the end...

Still knitting the musical score. I have less than 100 rows to go now! I'm slightly behind, but should be able to catch up :D I am looking forward to getting to knit something else without feeling guilty though!
This photo doesn't do it fully justice though - I forgot to put something by it for scale. It is HUGE!!! The finished thing will probably be just around 2 meters! Absolutely no clue what I'll use it for.

Oh, and for those still curious - the music is the "So-Do-La-Fa..." part of "Do-Re-Me" from The Sound of Music - one of my all time favourite movies growing up.

I've also been working on something else while I was away for the weekend (which is a big reason why I'm slightly behind). The result is still a surprise, so current progress photos would give away too much. Instead I'll just post this cute photo of my youngest nephew using the very top as a hat! ;) (hint - it's not a hat!)