Finished for another year...

I ended up with 30 finished projects for 2009 - lots of hats and a few gloves, a few swap projects, three adult garments! A few things frogged, a few things sitting still on the needles... but a very exciting year! 

Hoping to break that this year, or at least come out with some more quality pieces! :)

Rusted Root - take 2!

Kelly has been running Knit-A-Longs over at the tangled YARNS blog and the Ravelry group for October and November. This time, it's a summer Knit-A-Long, seeing the time of year is a wee bit hectic to fit a project into one month. A bit of a twist, it's a choice two projects from Zephyr Style!

I had said that I'd like to do another Rusted Root for my sister back when I finished mine.  This took a little bit longer... I don't know why, I just didn't have the same "omgosh, need to finish it!"like I did with mine. It still could have been a few more pattern repeats longer, although I don't think there would be that problem if she wore a singlet underneath it.

Anyhoo, finished just after Christmas - she wore it to the Outback Spectacular on Wednesday night (I was casting off as we were driving down to the Gold Coast...)

as well as to our engagement part on Saturday night.

Rusted Root by Zephyr Style (Ravelry link)
Materials: Cotton Fleece in Dusty Eggplant, 4.00mm Addi circulars for body, 3.50mm for ribbing
Used: 2.1 skeins - I had to break into the third skein for the last two rows of ribbing and the bind off.
Size: XS
Mods: I did twisted rib for all the ribbing. I forgot to go down a needle size for the bottom ribbing... but I think I forgot to do that for mine as well ;) No other mods. Ended up with 12 pattern repeats.
Started: 26th November, 2009
Finished: 30th December, 2009
Made For: Caitlin

Hitting Gold!

From skein to shirt in 10 days! :D

Rusted Root by Zephyr Style.



Materials: Cotton Fleece in Gold Dust, 4.00mm Addi circulars for body, 3.50mm for ribbing
Used: 2.98 skeins - 298g! :D
Size: Large
Mods: Main mod obviously was dropping the neckline! To do this, I cast on for knitting flat:
1 (front), pm, 13 (sleeve) pm 20 (back) pdm when knitting in the round 20 (back pm 13 (sleeve) pm 1 (front). Then I did raglan increases Kf&B until front measures 4” from cast on. Then I cast on the required stitches for the front, minus two for the two I cast on at the start. It really wasn't too difficult! :D And I only did seven rounds of ribbing at the bottom, otherwise I would have run out of yarn.
Started: 22nd September, 2009
Finished: 2nd October 2009
Made For: Me



I think I will make another one for Caitlin for Christmas. I really need to start looking at Christmas presents and what I need to make and what I need to buy.

Air Conditioning Defence

So, Ms Featherweight.

Featherweight Cardigan by Hannah Fettig
Materials: Malabrigo Lace in Verde Adriana, 4.00mm Addi circulars
Used: 1.5 skeins - 75g? I haven't weighed it yet.
Size: Medium
Mods: Sleeves were only knit to just above the elbow - 4 rows of k2p2 ribbing. 17" in body length. I haven't picked up the stitches around the front and neck... mostly because I'm lazy, but I didn't really see it add anything to it? I have 25g approximately left over, so if I think differently later on, I can change it.
Started: 21st August, 2009
Finished: 19th September 2009
Made For: Me

I enjoyed knitting this, although it did get a bit boring at the end, and I just wanted it finished! I liked using the Addi needles, and I think I might invest in a few of my most commonly used needles - 4.00mm and 4.50mm! I like how it flutters down the bottom of the cardi.

Next time... or maybe next cardi? I don't know! I want something without purling.

Yes, I have been shocking...

Yeah... hello there, blog. How's it going? :) I know, I have neglected you. In the past two months, I have:

• gone to Mackay, and have had duties of Maid of Honour for my oldest friend's wedding
• finished a few projects, including an Ishbel shawl for Chrissy for Xmas in July!, a February Baby Sweater for little miss Kaylee who turned 1!, Porphyria for a stashbuster swap, and Springtime in Philadelphia for me!
• continued knitting my February Lady Sweater
  
• played with my drop spindle!
• signed a contract on our first house
  
• gone unconditional on our first house
  
• settlement for said house is this Friday :O
  
• started packing up our current house
• donated some yarn and needles to Lifeline
• donated a lot of clothes to Lifeline
• continued to love working
  

Mum, Pop and Caitlin arrive today, so it will be busy busy again. Some quick photos of what I have finished though, and then to continue cleaning/packing. :)

Busy, busy!

Wow, it's been a while since I updated this. Lazy ass I am!

Thought I'd do a quick drive by update on what I've been doing lately. We'll start with my most recently finished knit:



Autumn Leaves by What To Knit When You're Expecting (Rav Link)
Materials: Biggan Design DK in Vintage Rose, 3.75mm needles
Used: 125g (I think? I haven't weighed it yet but it wouldn't be much more than this... maybe 150g)
Size: 6-9 months - 18cm armpit to armpit, 29cm top of sleeve to top of sleeve, 24cm top of neck to bottom of garment.
Mods: Only three buttons instead of the six. Knitted sleeves in the round, instead of flat+seaming. I stopped the 'skirt' increases about 5cm before I started the moss stitch edging.
Started: 26 May, 2009
Finished: 29 May, 2009
Made for: Baby Laura, born 24 May, 2009!

Very lovely knit, very easy, my first top down actually (that has been completed! I still haven't done the waste yarn for the sleeves yet on my FLS), and it went like a dream. I started it on Tuesday morning, was dividing the sleeves Wednesday afternoon, finished the moss stitch Thursday night, finished the sleeves Friday morning and blocked it Friday afternoon. Yummy! I think I want to start a stash of baby knits in different colours/styles so I have stuff ready when our friends pop. Just gotta make sure they'll appriciate it (and it's machine washable... ;).

Omg, I finally finished the Boyfriend Beanie.



A Hat Fit for a Boyfriend by Stephanie Likes to Knit. (Rav link)
Materials: Jo Sharp Silkroad Tweed Aran in Ivy, 4.5mm needles
Used: 0.88g, or 84m
Size: Tam sized!
Mods: *shrug* I dunno! Not much
Started: 28 February, 2009
Finished: 20 May, 2009
Made for: Tam!

That took way too long. I don't know if it's because it was on dpns, or whatever. It just was painful. I still think it needs a bit more length, and I might make another one top down. Am loving top down construction for fits. And seeing I know how to do a nice, stretchy cast off, it will fit!

And my bolero! I mentioned in my last post that I was going to make a ribbed lace bolero to wear to Megan's bridal shower thing in Malabrigo Worsted. Well, work didn't have the colour I wanted to make in the Worsted, so I went with some Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece instead!



Ribbed Lace Bolero by Kelly (10 Feet High) (Rav Link)
Materials: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Salmon Berry Red, 4mm and 5.5mm needles
Used: 115g
Size: Shoulder Width: 19 inches
Arm Circ: 14 inches
Mods: I did a k2tog, yo, yo, k2togtbl because I was lazy. Sewn bind off ♥
Started: 21 April, 2009
Finished: 17 May, 2009
Made for: Me!

I had to sew under the arms a bit more after I wore it the first day, as the cotton had stretched out a little bit. But it's okay now. I think I might do a bit more sewing, just to get it to stay in place a bit more, as it falls off my shoulders sometimes. It's nice to keep my shoulders covered, but I think I would have liked something a bit heavier in weight. Nevermind :)

I've started my February Lady Sweater in the BWM 10ply Luxury in Autumn Glow, and have another February type knit for a special little girl who will be turning 1 soon! I bought yarn for that today at the Textiles Fair - Dream in Color Classy in "In Vino Veritas", a beautiful semi solid red colour. Nom. I may be knitting this more for a special mother, but at least the little one will get use out of it too.

I think I will do another post about our fibery weekend tomorrow. Maybe I'll snap a couple of pictures tomorrow too, seeing I was too lazy to do that today.

Now, time for shower, time for bed. So glad we have electric blankets this winter.

Back to work!

So, I finished my first adult garment last week - I was so very excited!! :D



Back to School U-Neck Vest from Fitted Knits by Stefanie Japel (Rav Link)
Materials: Cascade 220 Heathers in colour 2452
Used: 2.56 skeins (515m)
Size: 41

I really enjoyed this, although I was very apprehensive about making it to begin with, as I didn't think the neckline would suit me - I'm one for the plunging neckline :) And I was worried about all the mindless ribbing, but that actually didn't turn out too bad. I did the ribbing for a little bit longer than written, and I continued the waffle stitch a bit more after doing the bust increases, and after dividing for the front and back and doing the decreases for the under arms, I only did one row of working even instead of seven, as suggested by Cripsynoodle's blog post. I also did a 3 needle bind of on the shoulders, and only one three row purl ridge on the arm holes and the neck line as it would have been too much otherwise.

I learned how to do a pretty invisible increase on the bust as well, which I'm proud of - the M1R and M1L from knitting help. And EZ's Sewn bind off!! I will be using this bind off for everything now, because it is really easy to do, and it's so stretchy. Hooray for learning new tricks! So yay.

I wore it to work last week, and I received lots of complements about it, which made me happy. And it's always nice to wear knitted object to work - especially when you work in a yarn shop :)

Looking back through my other projects in my notebook, I finished my Downtown Clutch(Rav Link) back in March, just in time to take it to my job interview (I didn't plan that at all ;).



This project is where I learned how to do a 3 needle bind off (awesome!) and I converted the pattern into a circular knit, instead of two separate pieces to be joined up. I also lined it (dodgily)



My next plans are to make a February Lady Sweater in Bendigo's new Luxury 10 ply - they've brought out a really nice dark orange/red colour that I think would look fantastic. I also bought Ysolda's Ishbel last night, and I am a bit unsure what to make it with. I'd like to make it fairly big, so I think dyeing some knittery slim sock will be in order. I also want to make a Ribbled Lace Bolero in some sort of red Malabrigo worsted weight.

The boyfriend beanie is still in time out, as I am not loving it, but it needs to be finished. And I am currently working on a Clapotis, which is going VERY well - it's in this beautiful rainbow coloured fingering weight yarn I got in a swap, 200g worth of it, so it should turn out something nice and light, but very colourful.



Okay, that's enough for one post. :)

So here we are again...

I've taken the past week off knitting - I've been working on mum's birthday present (She Wears Seashells) and last Tuesday, my hand went on strike. It was nice enough to go on strike when I got to the SnB. So there has not been much knitting happening around here.

And I'm feeling a bit ill - I ate probably two and a half muffins worth of muffin batter while making chocolate chip muffins this afternoon. Whoops.

The SnB was great last week - nice and relaxing, just listening to new people talk. And smooshing yarmmy. Err... yummy yarn! :D So I'm heading back tonight! I've also scored a great project basket from the Ferny Grove markets on Sunday - only $8, and it's huge (and lined). I've started work on my Meret again too, after finishing it last time and it being ridiculously too small. I finished off my Monkey Socks as well, last week. Or the week before. Here's a pretty picture:



I am very proud of them! And one of the first projects for a while that I've made for me. I actually don't remember the last project I made for me. Whoops. My meret is the next project just for me too. Other than that, it's everyone else :) Nevermind, not to worry.