Thursday, December 22, 2016

WIP Thursday: Meet Bimbi

Haven't been doing much crafting this past week, but did manage to finish two things :-)

We celebrated "mini-Christmas" with Nina, Christian and the kids last Sunday, and since Miriam had seemed to love the other doll clothes I made her so much, I decided to make a few more ;-) Of course I figured this out Wednesday, as I needed to have them ready the following Sunday, so I suddenly got a tad busy ;-) Managed to finish them all in time though. So Rosita (the doll) now has two extra pairs of socks, a t-shirt and a skirt :-)


And after a 6 month hiatus I finally finished Bimbi the Elephant, and once again reminded myself that though crocheted animals are cute, sewing the pieces together is a hassle and a half! I somehow managed to get the head on crooked this time! Fortunately Lars talked some sense into me, and reminded me that it really didn't matter - it just meant he was looking to the side, rather than straight at you. And besides, it also meant the trunk was out of the way when you went to hug him! Good point...
I have a recipient in mind, but we'll see what happens ;-)

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

WIP Wednesday: A bit of w(h)ine...

I've been doing a bit of knitting on a lot of different things this week, so I'll refrain from spamming you, and just stick to posting the projects that have seen significant process of some kind or another.

First of all I finished an entire hat since last week! Rebekka asked for a Simple Beret like the one I'd knit Nina a few years back, and of course I was happy to oblige. She'd asked if I could add a bit of colour to it, so I played around a bit with pattens and ended up adding three rows of diamonds on the straight part :) I'm rather happy with how it turned out myself, but worry that it might be just a tad too large. We'll see when she gets it (Sunday, hopefully)

I finally, finally, FINALLY got my act together and stopped procrastinating on sewing in the grosgrain ribbon and buttons for my Paradise Cardigan. Once I got the hang of how to sew in the ribbon, I didn't mind that too much (although hand-sewing will never be my favourite), but I am NOT a fan of sewing in buttons :-P It does look a LOT nicer with both things done though!


One day I may even fix the two buttons that ended up a bit crooked compared to the button hole... that day is NOT today though.

My Skew Sock is coming along nicely :) It's a tad too big as I completely ignored gauge (usually not an issue with socks, but due to the unusual construction of this one... I should have known better), so I briefly considered passing them on to somebody else... but they're SO warm and comfy (and knit with NZ wool I'm not likely to get my hands on again), so I'm keeping them for myself after all ;)

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

WIP Wednesday: What's an Auntie to do?

I finished the HamilKnit Hat last Friday! I absolutely LOVED knitting it, although the star at the top was a bit of a hassle. But now it's done, and looking gooood :-) It gave me a really good introduction to two-handed fair isle. I still think it's faster to just keep both strands in one hand, but this way of doing it certainly made it a LOT easier to wrap the floats and made it look nice and even. I'm still not sure that I'm ready to start a full size fair isle sweater, but a few more of these and I might be ;) Besides, it was a FUN knit, and definitely something I want to do more of.

Saturday I had a good friend over for some "knit and chat" quality time. Always a pleasure to spend time with her, and I got quite a lot done on my Skew sock while she was here. I've been wanting to knit this pattern forever, and finally found the perfect yarn for it :) This is a merino, alpaca, possum nylon blend and will make for SUCH lovely warm socks once they're done.
Unfortunately I had a slight #whenknittingattacks that same evening, as I accidentally broke one of the needles! :-/ Fortunately I have a spare set, but still...

Last week sometime my 7-year-old niece sent me a text message asking me if I'd knit some clothes for her doll! Of course I said yes :) It was actually quite a fun challenge, as I had to design the patterns myself (the doll's an odd size, so I couldn't use any of the patterns I found on ravelry), and I ended up making a skirt, a cardigan, a dress and a pair of socks! The items are currently blocking, so I can get them dry and the ends weaved in by Saturday.