Knitting Wishlist...

We all have one, don't we? A list of patterns that we would love to try out and make. And a list of yarns to match it. 

Pretty high on my wishlist at the moment are those Icelandic sweaters with the lovely patterns around the yoke. I would love to make one, and look how pretty they all are.

The Yellow Queen Sweater

This one is highest on my list, and I just love the colour combination, but look at all the other pretties...

Afmæli

The Fluffy Feather Sweater

Vintersol

Birki

I love them all!! 

It's all so tempting, but I've promised myself that I wouldn't add more WIPs to my list before I've finished at least two of my current projects. 

I'm not on track...

Knitting and crocheting has been pretty slow recently, and if I continue at my current pace I may get to my pretty Icelandic sweater when I'm ready to retire. 

FO - Olive sweater

You know the relief when you finally get an interminable, never-ending will-this-ever-be-done project off your needles? In my case this was Olive.

This sweater, knitted from the Super Birthday Sweater pattern, was starting to be some kind of nemesis. Honestly, I think I started this last September? And it's not by any definition a challenging project - it's a top-down raglan in quite heavy aran or even bulky, on fat needles. It should have taken weeks, not months, to finish, even without putting much effort into it. 

But perhaps that was the problem. It was just not a very interesting project. Not even the yarn was interesting. I was using a non-descript single-ply yarn that I got off ebay about a decade ago. It's OK, but it's a bit over-twisted and it's a little scratchy. I do like the colour, though, and I thought it might work well for a simple raglan.

I finished this jumper on Sunday, during a Eurovision marathon (recorded the night before so the boys could watch it). When I tried it on I realised that I had somehow totally messed up the waist. Obviously, as bored as I was with this project, I had never bothered to try it on. It looked loose and baggy and it was pretty clear that I wouldn't be able to wear it as it was. 

Needless to say, there was zero chance of me unravelling this to re-knit the entire body of the sweater. 

No. Way.

I decided to take the plunge and try my first ever darts. A couple of days ago the jumper was for the chop - I marked the areas to be cut by roughly sewing them together with bright yarn and sewed the sides together about 500 times on my sewing machine. Then I took the scissors to the surplus knit and then zigzag-ed the loose ends together once more.

The result, on the inside, isn't pretty, but on the outside it actually looks OK, even though I still feel that it's a bit over-generous in places...

I'm still a bit paranoid about the cut edges though, so may do some more sewing...

Shared with:

A Year of Projects

Craft On

FO - Ink Flare

Guess what happened! I finished my Ink Flare sweater!

After pinning it together loosely to see how it fit I decided that the sleeves work rather well and I pushed on towards the finish line. That same evening I sewed up all the seams (and the strange edging does help - it makes the task a good deal quicker) and just before bedtime I added the crochet edge. I had initially planned to do this in the same yarn, but after trying the sweater on I thought that since it's quite 'roomy' anyway, meaning that there is a rather vast expanse of purple, it might be a good idea to break it up a bit. 

I've had this teal coloured alpaca lying around forever. It came to me as part of a swap, and although I immediately loved it I never quite found the right project for it. It's deliciously soft and super strong (there is no way you can break it by pulling it, as I found out that evening!). 

Look at that pretty edge! :) I think it makes for a really nice accent colour to the berry/purple tweed. 

This morning I washed the jumper, blocked it lightly (mainly to get rid of the rolling edges) and dried it in the glorious sunshine outside and then I did a little photoshoot. I nearly expired in the heat because, I'm telling you, this sweater is warm!!

It really is quite large. I think you can see just how large on the two pictures below - there'd be room for anther half-person in there at the least! 

It is ever so cozy and comfy though, so  I don't really mind. I think I'll get a lot of wear out of this. While it wasn't quite so comfortable to wear it on a hot day like today, it will be perfect for those winter days when we are out with the family, or even when I'm sitting in my office. 

I'm really happy with the result, especially considering the bodge-job it really was. Since I didn't hit the correct gauge and then nearly ran out of yarn there are a few alterations to the pattern but I'd definitely knit this one again - hopefully that time with the right gauge!!

Alterations:

I cast on 8 stitches less than the smallest size for the body and followed the pattern up to the point when I got the right length, at which point I jumped straight onto the raglan decrease for which, again  I followed the pattern.

For the sleeves I cast on 2 stitches less than required for the smallest size and again followed the pattern. Due to my yarn shortage I didn't do all the increases but stopped at a random (pattern-wise) point and started the raglan decreases instead. I followed those up to the end, at which point I had 11 stitches left on the needles. 

Shared with:

A Year of Projects

WIP update - Ink Flare

Wednesdays are for WIP updates, so I thought I'd report on my progress with Ink Flare.

It's  getting tantalisingly close to completion now - the body is done, and I'm working on the 2nd sleeve right now. I had to alter the sleeves slightly to make a kind of 3/4 length because I'm rapidly running out of yarn. This was a pretty spontaneous decision I took when I was knitting the first sleeve. When I was about half-way done I realised that there was no way I was finishing the sleeve pattern with what I had left of my ball of yarn and since I have a very strict yarn allocation for this (I only had 4 balls of yarn, so it's 1 ball and a bit for each part of the body, and the rest equally divided for both sleeves), so I just cut it short and started the raglan decreases early. Once I finish sleeve #2 I'll probably loosely tack the whole jumper together to see if the sleeves look very odd. If they do I might rip them out and re-do them with a bit of a flare...

Anyway, here it is:

Close-up of the seam allowance. I was a bit confused by this because I had never encountered this technique before, but it does actually help when it comes to sewing the pieces together so I'm glad I went with the pattern on this:

Here she is, loosely sewn together to see what the sleeves look like - I think it might just work out OK...

I shared this WIP with the lovely folks at:

Keep Calm Craft On

Yarn Along 

A Year of Projects

Cowl - FO

I have a FO to report!

The Cowl, blogged about in my last post, is finally finished.



I like the sweater. It was fun to knit, didn't take long, and is very wearable. I'm also in love with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran - so soft!!

The only negative thing worth mentioning is that the garter stitch body of the cowl makes you look a bit podgy round the middle... It's not too bad, but I think it has something to do with the way the fabric drapes, the garter stitch, and the extra-large needles it's knitted with.

Project specs:

Started: September 2007
Completed: October 2007
Yarn: 9 (8 1/2) balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in red (300611)
Needle Size: 8mm and 10mm

Done! It feels good to get a project off the needles for once...