FO - The Garter Yoke Cardigan

Two FO Fridays in a row! This hasn't happened in a long time!

The Garter Yoke cardi is finally finished. The buttons arrived this week, were sewn on, and I've even already worn the cardi. :)

This cardi has been soooo long in the making. Seriously, there were moments when I thought I'd never finish it, lol. It's not that I didn't enjoy knitting it, and the pattern is great, but those sleeves really got to me. With that DK yarn it just seemed to take ages, you know?

That said, I'm really happy with how it's turned out. I ordered these buttons for it because I thought it might be nice to go for some yellow ones to complement the yellow flecks in the yarn. The alternative was wood, but I wanted something a bit more eye-popping than that. I was going to order some normal round ones when I spotted these elongated ones. I wasn't sure it was going to work but seeing it all together now I think it does!

I can already tell that this cardi is going to get a lot of wear this winter because it has long sleeves (hurrah for not giving up on those) that are going to keep me warm, but with the dk yarn it's not heavy and bulky but instead drapes really nicely and will fit under my slim-line coat.

So there you go the Garter Yoke cardi is finally finished - tadah! ;)

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A Year of Projects

Happy Monday

Well, happy Monday, everyone.

Despite a rather so-so weekend including a trip to the 7-day surgery because of my body's rather excessive reaction to a red ant bite (my whole arm basically became one of those balloon animals) and further exciting adventures in summer colds and sinus infections, my Monday was actually quite happy. I went into work and was quite content to be in my office, tinkering and getting things done, and this evening D went off for his Banjo lesson and I went up for an early bedtime. Boy #1 pounced on the chance of some mummy time (a rare commodity in a household with two younger brothers) and is snuggled up next to me, inspecting my knitting.

Which gets me to the image for today - the first tentative beginnings of the Garter Yoke Cardi! I cast on this weekend and have been knitting slowly but steadily. Even so, since this picture was taken I've already managed to misread the pattern twice (!), but I'm not ripping. I think both mistakes are sort of fixable/hideable, and the thought of ripping out all these hundreds of stitches (because this is a top-down cardi there are a LOT of stitches) fills me with despair. I'll just have to try and hide the mistakes.

Anyway, here is is, next to some more flowers from the garden. It looks innocent enough, just lying there... ;)  So flowers + new knitting project + pretty yarn = happy thoughts for a happy Monday, right?

A Year of Projects

I've signed up for A Year of Projects. Since my aim for this year was to a) get back into a regular knitting and blogging routine and b) to knit from stash, I thought I might as well make it official and join up.

I've since done some thinking about what I can rationally achieve this year. The idea is to not buy any yarn, so that limits it somewhat, but with a stash as huge as mine it doesn't really limit it very much!

This is my ideal list:

The Garter Yoke Cardi
Yarn - natural wool/cashmere yarn from stash

Ink Flare
Yarn: that unruly purple yarn that never gets the correct gauge

Ink Flare
Yarn: the huge hank of green Fleece Artist hand-dyed mohair that I've had for I don't know how long.

Socks for boys
knit one pair of socks for each of the boys. They've chosen their yarn already, so:
Yarn: Regia Crazy Color self-striping 4-ply.

Bulky Moebius Cowl
Yarn: Berry Handspun (by me)

Shalom cardi
Yarn: Olive wool/cashmere blend

Ubernatural
Yarn: orange and yellow handspun

Dietrich
Yarn: sock-weight feltable yarn from stash

Socks for me
Patterns: Conwy or Whitby
Yarn: any number of possible yarns from my huge sock yarn stash

Sideways Grande Cloche
Yarn: Single skein purple Cascade

Easy Raglan V-Neck
Yarn: GGH Savanna

Granny Square Blanket
Yarn: all the left-overs and the single balls and skeins that I have lying around in dk and aran.

I'll update, create links and images and add to the list in the days to come, but it's a start!

Yarn Along - Garter Yoke Cardigan

One of the projects that's been on my list for far too long is the Garter Yoke Cardi from Knit1. It seems like an age since I first spotted this pattern and decided to knit it. 

Well, about a week ago I decided that since I had finally finished Tea Leaves it was finally time to give this a go. I even started a KAL for it - if you're planning on knitting this in the next few months, join us!

And that's how far I have got.

I've been swatching all week but I cannot seem to get the right gauge. I've tried different needle sizes (even down to 3.5 mm when the pattern suggests 4.5 mm) and I've tried different yarns. My first choice was the purple yarn on the right but the gauge is so off for that there really is no chance. Even with 3.5 mm needles I only get the gauge down to 11 cm rather than the required 10 cm and the resulting fabric is really far too dense and stiff for my liking. This yarn has been in my stash for ages for that very reason - it's not a true aran but rather a sort of thin bulky yarn. 

Next on the list, the dark olive coloured yarn on the left. No such luck. The gauge was nearly as far off as with the purple yarn.

I then toyed with the idea of using Rowan Calmer but I didn't like the colour for this project. In my mind that light green wants to be a jumper rather than a cardigan. Why? No idea, but the conviction will not budge so I'm going with it.

I'm currently trying the light beige yarn. Not my ideal choice but I'm determined to make this from stash. The 4.5 mm needles yield a 11 cm swatch, so if I'm going down to 4 mm then perhaps, perhaps... 

I'll keep you updated. 

PS: I'll miss out on {this moment} this week I think, but I'll substitute for {Simple Things Sunday}. :)