FO Friday

It’s been a while since I’ve last done an FO post, not  because I’ve had no FOs but because I’ve never got round to photographing any of them. I normally rely on Boy #1 for this now. His  genuine interest in photography has made him into a fantastic little helper, but this still requires me to actually find the time to model the knitwear.

In the end, this morning, I just decided to take a few shots in front of the mirror instead. Not ideal for photographing cowls in particular, since my hand is sort of hiding half of them, but hey, better than nothing, right? ;)

The first set is the Cosan Cowl that I did as a testknit for Ruth a while ago. The pattern can be downloaded from Ravelry HERE. I’ve shown glimpses of this, but I never took any shots of it for the purpose of showcasing it as an FO.

I really enjoyed knitting this, and I love how lush and rich the colours of the two yarns are together.

I liked it so much, in fact, that when the boys started asking me why I didn’t have a beanie yet I decide to make one to match the cowl.

I’m quite pleased with the results, even if I accidentally knitted this beanie with a smaller set of needles, resulting in a slightly more snug fit for the hat. I’ll see how I go with this. If necessary I can always re-do it in a larger needle size…

The second one is the Alban Eilir Cowl, the most recent testknit I did for Ruth. The pattern is released now and you can purchase it HERE.

Again, I really enjoyed knitting this, although I was more than a little rusty with the colour work. The first few rows on the reverse side are a bit of a mess, but I’m not showing you that bit!

All in all I think this is a good little project for anyone who wants a gentle start into colour work. Just remember to carry those strands of yarn with you rather than cut them, is all I say!! ;)

So there you go – 3 FOs in one post, not too bad, eh?

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Post-holiday FOs: Meet the Beanie Boys

I've not been entirely idle this holiday. In fact, while we were away I was downright busy. It felt like a regular beanie conveyor belt for a while!

The start was a beanie for boy #2. He'd been asking me for a beanie and scarf combo for a while now, and I thought this was as good a time as any to finally cast on for it. 

The colours he had picked were red and green. I wasn't took keen on buying lots of new wool, so I rooted around in my vast stash and found some dark green wool. I'm pretty sure it's Cascade, and I'm also pretty sure that I've had it since D's and my honeymoon, which is something like 10 years ago now. We spent it travelling New England on a Harley Davidson. I'm not your typical biker chick (or a biker chick at all, really!), and the trade-off for riding on that Harley was that we were also touring the Yarn Shops of New England. We visited many, always drawing surprised looks when we entered some little LYS in our full motorbike gear. It was a great holiday, and I brought back a whole lot of yarn - as much as would fit in the saddle bags on the bike, really. I also learned to spin on  that holiday, but that is another story.

Anyway, I still had this dark green yarn and I thought I'd use it. To accommodate boy #2's wishes I then bought some dark red Alpaca-mix yarn and I was set to go. Boy#2 told me later that he had envisioned brighter and lighter colours (something like bright red and a glowing neon- green... I should have guessed that I suppose!), but he is nevertheless thrilled with the beanie. So thrilled, in fact, that he's been wearing it most days, both during the day and often in the evening, in bed. :D

I used a very simple pattern for this. The inspiration came from Haven Ashley's Man Hat, but I amended the pattern a bit by using thinner yarn. I also went with a k1 p1 pattern on every row for this hat, which gae it quite clearly pronounced stripes. 

As soon as I had finished it, I saw boy #1's eyes light up - 'Mummy, that's cool, can you make me one!?'

Sure I can, darling, I'm glad you asked!

He chose a combination of the dark green yarn and the light green one that I still have left over from the Eyelet Yoke sweater. I love it when I find small projects for left-over yarn! 

I can tell you now, though, that one does not tolerate any procrastinating when he is waiting for something to be finished. At one point I was sitting down on the sofa for 5 minutes and he spotted me without my knitting, so he went and fetched it for me and threw it to me with a 'come-on mummy, you need to knit.'. Ha! 

That hat was finished in record time.

The next one was obviously boy #3's beanie. Since we now had three colours in the mix for these beanies I thought I'd go with the combination that hadn't been used before - the dark red Alpaca and the light green. 

I went with a k1 p1 row followed with a knit row for these two, which gave a slightly different look and shape. They are less stretchy and wider, overall, and for boy#3's beanie I altered the stripes by knitting 3 rows with red and two with green, which, together with the pattern, produced an interesting effect of one solid green stripe and one sort of dotted stripe... I quite like it. :) 

I obviously didn't want to leave out D, and in fact, this is the hat that started it all. I knitted it with a ball of Noro that I have had for ages. The pattern for this one is made up, and as you can see I ran out of yarn right before the end so I finished it with that dark green Cascade. 

So you see, I wasn't that idle on holiday, not at all!

4 boys - 4 hats! :)

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FO - Eyelet Yoke

What a week this was! At one point I thought I couldn't possibly get it all done, and then I discovered errors on the computer system at the very last minute, and then... Well, enough said about that, it's all done now. Today I spent a bit of time attending to things that I haven't been able to do recently, such as going to the bank for example. Nothing exciting, but it felt good to re-connect. I also dropped off and picked up boy #3 from preschool and he was delighted and so excited that I was picking him up. That felt good too.

I have also finished the Eyelet Yoke. I didn't do that today, though, although I did sew the ends in just now, while 5 (!) boys are playing Super Mario on the Wii all around me (the noise level is pretty awesome...). We have been watching a new drama on TV, Humans, and it's gripping enough that it let me completely forget how boring I find sleeve knitting.

The sleeves are still sort of short - but I like it that way. It fits really well and the yarn is oh so soft. 

I also quite like how the neckline has turned out. 

Although if I wanted to quibble I'd say that I would have been better off with a less stretchy cast-on (I used the stetchy German cast-on). With less stretch the neck wouldn't be quite so wide, which doesn't matter at the front, but gives me quite a generous dip at the back too... It doesn't gape, though, so it's OK. 

Pattern alterations:

Well, I re-sized the pattern so it would fit me. 

I also changed the hem. The original has quite an interesting short-row hem that makes the sweater longer at the back than at the front, and I was quite tempted by it, but while I thought it'd be great for jeans, I knew that I'd be wearing this sweater a lot with skirts and I don't think that kind of hem would look that great with those. 

Overall I'd give this top marks - the pattern, that is, not my knitting! ;)  

Rav page is here, but it doesn't really say anything I haven't discussed in my updates on the blog. 

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That muddy-brown raglan: An 'Ugly Duckling' kind of a tale...

I've got another FO to show you! It's the Easy Raglan V-Neck by Stefanie Japel, knitted in my not-so-loved brown GGH Savanna.

I didn't have particularly high hopes for this project, mainly because I didn't love the yarn. It seemed drab and, with its mottled brown colour, kind of ... messy-looking? Since it is a soft yarn, though, I thought that perhaps with the adorable Stefanie Japel v-neck pattern it might make a good home / allotment jumper that would keep me warm and cozy, even if it was never going to look very stylish. 

Half-way through I started to panic that I wouldn't have enough yarn, so I decided to add some orange half-sleeves to make sure I didn't run out. To create a more coherent overall look I added the stripes at the bottom of the body and reversed them at the bottom of the sleeves. I initially just added a thin crochet border to the v-neck edge, but because my gauge had been slightly off the neck came out a bit large and the thin orange band didn't look right so I ripped it out and added a ribbed edge.

You know, I'm actually really really pleased with how this jumper has turned out:

In fact, I think I kind of love it!

It fits so well, and it's so very comfy and you know what - I think, if you squint a bit, it's downright stylish! Who knew the drab brown GGH Savanna had such untapped potential!

Since I said I would, and also because it's so snuggly and warm and it was a cold day, I did wear it to the allotment last weekend, and I have also been wearing it quite a bit at home because it keeps me warm when I'm working in my office, but I'm planning to wear this jumper A LOT, and I'm so happy with how it's turned out, I don't think I'll have any qualms about wearing it 'in public'. 

My photographer, as has been so often the case recently, is boy#1 (aka The Bean). He's actually started to direct me on where he wants me to stand and how he wants me to pose and look. Clearly he is taking his new job very seriously! ;)

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