Month: January 2010

  • twice as nice

    I’ve got two new cowls off the needles and around my neck! Well, not at the same time or anything. Both are my own pattern, which I’ve named the Beauchamp Cowl.

    Fingering Weight Beauchamp Cowl

    Fingering weight version in lots of colours of Koigu.

    DK weight Beauchamp Cowl

    DK weight version in 2 colours of Handmaiden 4ply cashmere – which, by the way, is really one of the most beautiful cashmeres I’ve worked with! I love it so.

    The pattern is done and is just being proofread and test knit and all that good stuff. I’m just itching to get some new stuff out to you all!

  • more pretties

    I’m not sure I’ve hit the ground running this new year, but I have hit the stranded colourwork!

    YIP 004/365 - pretty pretty

    A fresh off the needles wee colourwork project, designed to use up bits of yarn. I used Koigu in about 18 colours! They weren’t all leftovers; the main background colour is one full skein, and a bunch of them I bought as mill ends (a couple grams of each). I’m hoping to have this pattern up very shortly.

    YIP 009/365

    And it’s so nice, I knit it twice! Well, technically this is a slightly different option of the pattern. But it’s basically the same. Also, can I say hooray for daylight-spectrum bulbs? I put one in my office and now I can take photos like this one without having to massively colour-correct.

    I’ve also been hard at work writing up a bunch of patterns in the backlog. Here’s hoping it gets flowing soon – I have a few with test knitters and some that need new photographs too. It’s a bit tricky to take photos outside in this weather though; it’s pretty chilly out there!

    Hope you’re staying warm.

    YIP 010/365

    (Sunday morning breakfast: chocolate chip yoghurt pancakes and coffee. Mmm.)

  • first FO of 2010

    And it’s a good one!

    finally off the needles

    I finally picked up a project I started back in 2008 (yikes, thanks to my Rav page I actually know when I started it) with yarn that I’d received for Christmas 2007. It’s gorgeous yarn, Handmaiden Swiss Mountain Cashmere and Silk. And since I have people who know what I like, I received 2 skeins from one person and a third in the same colour from someone else!

    I decided on a simple tube scarf and to just knit until I was done the yarn. Turns out that wasn’t quite enough to capture my attention, I suppose, because I put it down for a loooong awhile and just recently unearthed it from the (okay, a) bin of unfinished projects. I had less than half a skein to go!

    YIP 005/365

    Okay, I know I don’t look that pleased, but I am! I finished it right up, wove in the ends and now I have a new scarf. It isn’t actually warm enough for right now, but hey, whatever. It’s still awfully pretty. I knit it as a stockinette tube with a purl stitch at the beginning and midpoint of the round, but after I’d finished I decided I like the purl side out better!

    And I finished with just a teeny amount left over. Satisfying, eh?

    YIP 002/365