WIP wednesday :: Puerperium Cardigan

Inspired by nicsknots, who was in turn inspired by Tami Amis I am going to start sharing with you my wip's (work in progress) on a wednesday and my fo's (finished objects) on a friday, this is an attempt to get me working through all those unfinished items and all that stashed yarn, and trust me there are many of both to share with you!

However today I have a very newly begun project (around about 10pm last night) worked in some newly acquired yarn (purchased yesterday around about lunchtime). As you can see this practice is really going to serve it's purpose!

Also inspired by nicsknots I am knitting the puerperium cardigan by Kelly Brooker. This pattern has been in my favourites on ravelry for quite some time now and as I have a cousin expecting early summertime, I thought it the perfect opportunity to cast it on.

I am loving both the yarn (Debbie Bliss, baby cashmerino) and the patten so far, Kelly's patterns are written out so clearly in a real step by step way, which is great. I knitted (though I then frogged) her vanilla soaker a while back, though the finished item wasn't quite right, I'm not sure that was the fault of the pattern or the knitter, but I do remember the pattern itself being very easy to follow.

I'm thinking this may well be friday's FO at this rate!

my ravelry notes :: here

the pattern is available for free :: here

the yarn is :: here

Cardi in 4 days? Day 1 ::

So I am going to a wedding on Saturday, for which I have decided to make myself a cardigan to wear with this gorgeous dress from digforvictory :

Of course I have left it entirely to the last minute and started yesterday! I did purchase myself some Aran weight yarn to try and make the whole process a little quicker and I also intended to crochet it. However after doing a little swatch, crochet on the yoke with the Aran was just much to bulky, so now I am knitting the yoke (I'm working top down) and going to crochet a lace pattern on the bottom and arms.

I have oh so nearly finished the yoke, but with 3 days left, I must admit I'm not feeling all that hopeful!

Wish me luck!

mustard hearts for me ::

 

my newest short sleeved sweater is finished!  It still needs blocking (which I'm really hoping will give it a bit more length as it's a teeny bit short) but otherwise it's all finished and I'm quite in love with it.

I made a few silly mistakes with the fair isle pattern, but for a first attempt I think I did pretty well.

I have to be honest I didn't knit it all in continental style as I had intended, in order to get some practice, it was too easy and quicker to slip back in to my old habits, but I did do enough to just about justify knitting myself yet another sweater!

• owls pattern available to download as pdf for £3.50 :: here (although this is fairly modified)


• my ravelry notes :: here  

 

continental style ::

last week I attended my first neighbourhood 'knit and natter' gathering, it was lovely and there were fabulous cakes!

Whilst I was there I was taught to knit continental style (essentially holding the yarn in your left hand rather the right).  So far, so good, I'm not quite as fast as I am english style yet, but getting close.  I'd love to be one of those super speedy knitters, you know where the needles are a blur of motion.  I guess it just takes a whole lot of practice.  But I'm fairly convinced that I can be a lot quicker with the continental knitting than I am currently.  I just need a bit of practice, which is the perfect excuse to knit myself another sweater I feel!

owls for me ::

I was asked to knit something for a twitter friend.  I've never been asked to knit something for someone before (normally I just inflict my creations on others) so I was hugely flattered.  

The pattern in question was owls by Kate Davies.  I had never heard of Kate Davies and her blog needled before, but my am I glad I now have, she has some beautiful patterns!  I completely adore these gorgeous paper dolls.

So anyways...as I have never knitted anything on request before, I thought it a good idea to make one for myself first (just as a practice run of course!).  Off I went in to town on saturday morning (sans baby, bliss) and headed straight for the yarn shop!

Since my last visit they have had delivery of some utterly delicious new chunky yarns, which I was oh so very nearly tempted by, but having promised the Mr I wouldn't spend too many pennies and after a quick calculation, 14 balls of beautiful teal tweed at £3.10 each just wasn't going to make its way in to my basket on this occasion when compared to 7 balls of the 100% acrylic, fairly soft, a lovely colour and a snip at £1.99 each.

I cast on Saturday afternoon and I knit and knit and knit, quite solidly, breaking only for a little sleep and to occasionally tend to the toddler.  At around midnight on Sunday I was so close to finishing, as I started on the neck ribbing I decided although I was eager to get it completed, I would be furious at myself for making a foolish mistake because I was tired, so I put it aside and headed to bed.  I finished off the neckline and stitched the the underarms, plus weaved all the ends in, whilst watching Milo play on Monday afternoon and put it on straight away!

I don't think the pattern is perfect, there appears to be some flaws in the shaping on the back as I have a bit of a back bulge!  But otherwise I really love it!  The pattern suggests buttons for eyes on the owls them selves, but I have yet to decide whether or not to add these.  I'm thinking I may just put them on one?

I'm afraid the photos of the finished item aren't fabulous, I'm rubbish at trying to take photos of myself! 

• pattern available to download as pdf for £3.50 :: here


• my ravelry notes :: here  

 

another placket neck ::

I made Joelle Hoverson's placket neck sweater for Milo back in the summer and I loved it!  The pattern was so easy and quick to knit (it does come from last minute knitted gifts after all).  It also introduced me to some new techniques, including knitting on circular needles, which is now by far my favourite way to knit.

So at when time was running out for all the holiday handknits I had promised myself I would make, I figured I'd revisit this for my youngest (and only) nephew.

I used sublime organic cotton, as he has fairly sensitive skin, I thought this would be the best bet and added stripes to the pattern.  Adding the stripes meant a whole lot of weaving in at the end, which was fairly painful, but other wise all was well!

I'm afraid, it was so last minute that I didn't have time to photograph it properly, but I did get this one snap of him with my mum, whilst wearing it!

• pattern available to download as a pdf on ravelry for free :: here


• my ravelry notes :: here

loveheart pixie ::

I have been admiring Meg's lovely version of the stella pixie hat on her boy for a while now.  But somehow it didn't seem right for Milo, plus I think that boy has quite enough hand knits for his head for the time being!  But when my step sister went in to labour a little earlier than expected with her baby girl, I knew that this would be the perfect little hat for her.

In retrospect I should have tried to alter the pattern to make it smaller than the 3-12 month size, but at least it will last her a bit (though of course she probably won't fit in to it until the spring!).

I used some beautiful hand-dyed merino from snowberry and lime, I already had.  I love the colours and the way it knitted up, plus I still have some left over.

  

I used one of my own loveheart buttons for the fastener.

• pattern available to download as a pdf on ravelry for free :: here.


• my ravelry notes :: here