Category: finished object

what I made while I was away

I took just 3 projects while I was traveling – a sweater (which isn’t very far along still), a shawl and a blanket.

A blanket? That doesn’t seem like a good traveling project! Well, that’s true, but my blanket is made up of many many individual crocheted hexagons. So they were actually great for going around – the yarn didn’t take up a lot of room (two 100g skeins) and the individual pieces were easy to start and finish. Plus, I mailed the completed ones back home as I went! I’d made over half of the hexes in the last several (okay, many) months, but the deadline is approaching and I needed to step up my game.

Of course, now I have to put the whole thing together! I’m not sure if it’ll be quite as big as I wanted, but it’ll be fine. I’m out of yarn, so it’d better be!

The other main project I worked on was a shawl, out of two colours of Handmaiden Casbah. It really makes such a lovely fabric, and this texture stitch is easy and fun.

I’m hoping to get this shawl pattern out to you soon – just have to find some time to block it and take photos.

When I got home, I picked up a project that I started before I left, a pair of Conwy socks (from Knitting on the Road). I substituted my usual toe, not really on purpose but because I didn’t read the instructions very carefully! I made these as a birthday present for my dear friend Jane. I missed her birthday while I was away, so I wanted to give her something special!

1 skein of Socks that Rock lightweight in “Ruby Slippers”, 2.25mm needles. Fun! I’ve had tons of socks on the needles lately – they’re such nice comforting, soothing knitting.

June 6, 2011
FO: Diva!

It’s been a long, long time coming, but I finally finished my Diva sweater a few months ago! Took me ages to get some decent photos…

Pattern: Diva by Hanne Falkenberg, in Dark Olive and Cyclamen – I think I bought the kit from CucumberpatchUK on ebay.
Needles: 3mm
Yarn: kit yarn; it was a pretty delicate two ply lightweight wool, slightly scratchy, something like Jamieson’s.

Thoughts:
This sweater took ages, but it was kind of nice to knit a sweater from someone else’s pattern for once. The shaping is unique and very interesting to knit! It took me ages to figure out what the heck was actually going on with some of the shaping. The collar was a LOT of knitting but it’s shaped with short rows in a really interesting way.

Cons: It’s a little big. I knit the smallest size, which was supposed to 37″ – it’s a pretty good jacket size, but a little looser than I usually like my sweaters.

The sleeves are WAY long, about 4″ too long, and the collar kind of hits at a funny place. It’s difficult to find a good place to pin it closed that isn’t directly on my boob (which I have much more of than the pattern model), but it doesn’t really work worn open. From a design standpoint, the armholes are a little weird fitting – they’re not quite set in and not quite raglan.

I shouldn’t have seamed with the main yarn – it’s just a little too delicate for the task. I found this hole in the sleeve seam after washing. I should really fix that up.

Overall? Fun to knit, interesting construction. It doesn’t fit perfectly but I’m still happy I made it.

April 30, 2011
hey! it’s an FO!

I haven’t done much this weekend, though I did book a few hotels for Leeds, Cardiff, and Swansea. Still need to do trains, and Ireland! Only 7 sleeps left…yikes.

This weekend I made scallion pancakes, and had them in a Chinese feast along with egg drop soup and some broccoli. Nom. It’s a good thing I only made half a batch, because I would’ve just eaten them all.

I worked on a shawl in Spud & Chloe Fine. I love it, and I think I’ll be making another version on my trip as one of my take-along projects. I need to block this one so I can see what the finished dimensions are – this is the larger version, and I’ll be doing a smaller scarfy one next.

And for the first time in what feels like forever, I finished something! This is the simple lacy cowl that I started on my trip to NYC. It was great carry around knitting, just one ball of yarn and working in the round.

I used one skein of Socks that Rock Silkie in “Walking on the Wild Tide” (rockin’ sock club colourway). The lace pattern is just one round knit, one round yo, ssk, with the beginning of the round shifting one st to the left every lace round.

I have some more FOs to show you this week too – I’ve been pretty bad at taking photos of my finished sweaters, so I finally just up and did them all in one fell swoop!

April 24, 2011