February Lady Sweater is done!

It's done!

Amazingly, I'm finished knitting the February Lady Sweater! All up, it took me 2 weeks.

Pattern: February Lady Sweater
Yarn: 9 balls of Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran
Needles: 1x 5mm 80 cm circular for the yoke and body
2x 5mm circulars for the sleeves
1x 6mm for bind off
Crochet hook for picking up stitches
Tapestry needle for sewing in threads (there were only 6 all up!)
Size: XS to fit 35 inch bust





I loved every part of this pattern. It is extremely well written, easy, fun, beautiful, enticing and addictive. Sometimes I just couldn't put it down! I love the way this yarn looks with the lace pattern, it reminds me of blackberries. Yummo!

FO and next project

Show off time!!!!! Here is the latest project off the needles.

One Noro Silk Garden Mitt (Please excuse my dire need for a manicure.)



I knit this on 4.5mm needles with approx 1/2 skein of Noro Silk Garden. It fits like.... well.... a glove. It's perfect, warm, pretty and a very quick knit at only 3 hours. I will knit the other one soon, I promise!

Pattern found here.

After I finish the Feb lady sweater, I am planning to knit this sweetie:



It is called "Short Sleeved Cabled Pullover." I am calling it my selfish cables, just because. :p The yarn is Filatura Di Crosa "Zarina". I really like the silver colour, so I might have to see if there is any in stock at Simply Stitches this weekend. The pattern came from the 2008 Special Edition of Creative Knitting (It has a baby boy on the front, wearing a blue striped jumper).

February lady sweater update & a bit of life

I am on day 9 of knitting this sweater and it's really coming along fast! I am up to ball #7 of yarn now, which is mindblowing! I have never done a project this big before, let alone knit a project like this in such a short period of time.

From 9 balls of this:



Yoke:



Body done:



Lace closeup:



Now I am on to the sleeves. Since they are knit in the round, it is a lot quicker. I am planning to knit up 1 ball of yarn per sleeve, then see how long they are. I want it to be elbow length, since when I am wearing a sweater or cardigan, I push the sleeves up anyway.

Just to prove that I do things other than knit, here's a cake that I baked on the weekend:



It's called gugelhupf. It's a German cake, therefore hubby loves it. It's rich, buttery and very very nice. Because I am also nice, I will share the recipe with you.

Ingredients:

250g unsalted butter
250g caster sugar
4 eggs, beaten
500g self raising flour
125mls milk
few drops of vanilla exxence
handful of chocolate chips
handful of sultanas

Cream butter and sugar. Add beaten eggs. Stir in flour, milk and vanilla. Stir sultanas and chocolate chips. Place into a gugelhupf pan & smooth top. Bake at 180 degrees celcius (fan forced oven) for 40-50 minutes. Dust with icing sugar and eat.

Traditionally, this is served at breakfast. In our house, this is often the case. :D

In case my weekend wasn't busy enough with knitting and baking, we took the little man around for a playdate. He had a ball bouncing on the trampoline, squealing with joy.



See his pants? They were a gift from the awesome Ali. They fit him wonderfully and they are so soft to touch. They are woolybottoms and are made from wool and cashmere. Fancy that? Cashmere for a baby! Lucky boy!

Starting the February Lady Sweater

Ok, I've started reading through the pattern tonight and I am going to cast it on and get as much of it done as possible before midnight. I am determined to get this project underway now. I have set myself a deadline for finishing this project...... 12th June 2009. Why the 12th of June? I want to be able to wear it to the World Wide Knit in Public Day on the 13th of June. :D Oh yeah!!!

Alright, here's a list of all the helpful links that I've sourced. I'll need all the help I can get with this pattern.

I am knitting this in Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran in the "Quartz" colourway. It is a gorgeous purple colour... the colour I originally thought that I bought (instead of the brown yarn).

February Lady Sweater Pattern on Ravelry
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/february-lady-sweater

Spacing increases evenly along a row calculator:
http://www.thedietdiary.com/knittingfiend/tools/IncreaseEvenlySpace.html

How to knit the best buttonhole
http://www.knittingonthenet.com/learn/bh5.htm

Raglan Maths
www.cosmicpluto.com/blog/?page_id=397

February Lady Sweater KAL group on Ravelry
http://www.ravelry.com/groups/february-lady-sweater-kal

Right, better get knitting!

Water Sprite Shorties!

They're finished!!! Yay!!!


I actually finished this project last week, but I procrastinated knitting the i-cord for the waistband. I find i-cords too easy and therefore boring. Anyway, I sat down this morning and told myself that before I start knitting a new project that I have to finish an old one first. So I chose the Water Sprite Shorties. They look amazing and they fit Jayden perfectly!




Pattern: Ladybug Loops on Ravelry
Yarn: 92 grams Knitspirations 12 ply in "Water Sprite"
50 grams Cleckheaton Country 12 ply in "Sage"
Needles: 4mm and 5mm Addi Turbo Circulars (30cm in 5mm for legs and 40cm in 4mm and 5mm lengths for everything else)
5mm DPN's for I-cord
Mods: 2x2 rib waistband with eyelet holes for the I-cord drawstring. Medium rise and legs. 4 rounds of garter stitch for the cuffs.

I used every last scrap of yarn for the whole project. I finished the body, and before I started knitting the legs, I divided the yarn that I had left in half. Then I cut it and wound it into 2 balls. I knit until I ran out of yarn for one leg and then trimmed it with the cleckheaton yarn for the cuffs. Did the same for the other leg too.

Yarn shopping, planned projects and finished objects!

I've been on Ravelry browsing this week and I've decided that it is time I knit something for me. I want to be able to wear something that you can't go out any buy in the shops, something that is hand crafted with love, something special.

1. February Lady Sweater - gorgeous lacy cardigan - using 9 balls of Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran for the smallest size




2. Clapotis - French lacy shawl - using 4 balls of Noro Silk Garden


3. Calorimetry - head warmer

& 4. 2nd pair of Fetching fingerless gloves - using Knitspirations hand dyed yarn in "Boysenberry Swirl".


Should be enough for Calorimetry and a pair of fetching - there's 186 grams of this!

5. Knucks - gloves with fingertip less gloves - using 1 ball of Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed



Now, in order to stop myself from changing my mind about these patterns, I went out and bought all the yarn for the projects. I think Faye was very pleased to see me today... coming in and buying up half of her store!

I've started to knit a pair of Noro Fingerless Gloves, which I promise to finish. :p I am using the pretty pink Noro Silk Garden from the last post. I started knitting them last night and they are lovely and squooshy. I did try to knit another pair of fetching with them, but the yarn has only 10% lamb's wool in it, and it was just huge. Silk behaves totally differently to wool. Can't wait to put them on my hands though... it's lovely to knit with.

I finished knitting my second Fetching glove, and they look fantastic together. The second one took less time to knit, because I already knew what I was doing. It also helps to have a big block of time free to simply knit. ;)




Speaking of buying yarn, my custom dyed Knitspirations yarn came in the mail today!!!!!!!!!!

First lot is called "Mocha". There is 250 grams of this and it is a 12 ply.




Second lot is called "Beachcomber". Again, 250 grams of 12 ply.




I LOVE how this turned out. The colours are so vivid and gorgeous. Jen did a fantastic job! I ordered this for Jayden and I am going to knit some more longies out of them...... after I knit something for me. The boy has 2 pairs of longies, 1 pair of shorties and 1 pair of soakers..... enough for now. Me, I have zero hand knitted sweaters and besides, it's getting cold. :p

I had some requests for action shots of the felted slippers from my last post. Well, here they are.







I would have taken these photo's earlier, but the slippers were still drying. They took 3 days to completely dry, they're so thick and warm!!! They fit him perfectly and will work well keeping his feet warm this Winter. The only problem is keeping them on his feet. Lol! The joys of having a toddler. :)

Finally, I leave you all with some photo's of my creative space. The place I knit is usually the computer, because all the patterns are online or on the hard drive...... so the desk gets.... adorned a little. :D Enjoy!












Like my 'decorations'? :D :D :D Thought you would!

Felted Footies

I finally got around to finishing the felted slippers last night. The pattern was a really easy one, to the point where it was just getting boring.

Details:

Pattern: Felted Slippers by Midnattsol on Ravelry
Yarn: 1x 100g ball of 8 ply Cozy Wool from Lincraft in various blues and greens
Needles: 6mm - Yes, it was knitted really loosely
Time: Started 30th April, Finished 12th May

I felted these by hand, and it was much quicker than I thought it would be. I'm really pleased with how these turned out. I can't wait for them to finish drying so I can put them on Jayden.

Oh so fetching!

Yesterday, I started to knit my Silver Twist gloves.

Details:

Pattern used - Fetching
Yarn used - Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran, 2 balls in "Opal" colourway.
Needles - 4.5mm Addi DPN's.
Other - Thumb cast on method

I LOVED this pattern! It was the first time that I have knit cables, and it was honestly easy peasy. I don't know why I've been putting it off for so long, it was waaaay easier than I thought it would be.

I am going to attempt to get the other one done tonight, but it is a pretty big call.

From this:



To this!!!

My silky darlings and a WIP update

I went to Canberra today. Incidently, I also went to a yarn store. Oh yes! I originally went there to buy some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, but unfortunately they did not have any instock. Instead, I bought some Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran/10 ply. Not quite as much silk, but the yarn will hold up a lot better with wear. I am going to knit some fingerless gloves and this yarn is just sooooo soft. Yummy.






However, I was distracted by the lovely display of Noro Silk Garden, and this pretty yarn caught my eye. So I bought it too. I guess I will be making 2 pairs of gloves! I am going to knit up Fetching. Mmmmmm, fun with cables.






Noro has also released a new sock yarn, Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn, so I had to snap up some of that while I was in the store. My feet are craving some loving. They will be spoilt with this. :D I have yet to decide on a pattern.






Knitspirations has had Boysenberry Swirl stocked for a few weeks now and it has been taunting me. It arrived in the mail on Thursday, along with my free stitch markers. This one is a worsted weight/12 ply yarn. I might have to make something for myself with this yarn, as it is quite purple.






In case you were thinking that this shopping trip was all a big impulse buy, I reassure you it was not. I wrote myself a list in my phone last night. Incicently, my phone does not recognise the following terms:

Cashmerino
Merino
Microfibre
DPN
Noro

I am dissapointed in my non-yarny phone. :p I should knit it a sock to keep it warm.... perhaps then it will realise that it is important to know yarn terms. LOL!

WIP update:

I started knitting Jayden a pair of slippers last weekend, as it's been cold and I don't want his little feet to catch a chill on the tiles. Here is the first slipper. It has yet to be felted, so it is just huge at the moment! I have done about 25% of the second one and I am hoping to finish it and felt them both this weekend.






The Water Sprite shorties are coming along nicely. I have started doing the gusset, so it won't be long before they are finished too. I love the way that this yarn is knitting up, however the dye is coming off the yarn just a little bit when my hands get clammy. I have pretty blue fingertips every now and again. :D





Alright, I am getting off the internet now. I have a lot of knitting to do this weekend, so I'd better get started.