Passing through

I’ve been a little busy with life things recently, and to be honest, enjoying taking a little break from finding things to write about.  But, by special request (you know who you are!) here are the things I’ve been working on while away.  There are a few.

In no particular order,

This baby cardigan was a dream to knit.  It certainly brought back memories, not that I’ve ever knitted very many baby girl clothes having had two boys but I did just a few for friends.

So soft.

The pattern is Sirdar S1842 knitted in their Kisses DK.  I knitted it for my LYS as a sample (which reminds me, must return the pattern, sorry!) and it took me just a few hours.  It was knitted flat on straight needles and I always thinks it’s a shame that a great deal of British pattern makers insist on patterns for flat knitting and not circular as this would have been so much better knitted in the round.  I did put in some short rows on the front though.  The pattern had you cast off the stitches in steps to shape the yoke and then pick them back up again, such a waste of time and not the neatest way either. Oh well, maybe one day. End of rant!

Next up is some Shetland top I spun and plied into a fine fingering weight.

Here it is plied but still on the bobbin.  This is about 50 g and was intended for an aran sock but didn’t hold the stitch definition well, I should have made a three ply!

It will be some sort of sock eventually and I may even spin the next 50 g to go with it!

Passing a quilting shop recently I came across some fabric covered in cats and couldn’t resist.  I bought some plain brown and some check material to go with it and turned it into a huge knitting bag.

This is big enough to put all, well almost all, my projects in it with all the notions and patterns needed to go with them.

The cat material made the pockets, the brown is the body of the bag and I used the check as a lining for the pockets and inside.  It’s all backed with the stiffest interfacing I could find so it holds itself up pretty well.  The three materials together made it a bit expensive but still nowhere near what you would pay for one.  I used to do a great deal of sewing, back in the old days! I even made my own wedding dress but it’s been years since I did more than turn up trousers or mend something so this made quite a change.

What’s next? Oh, I’m still working on this,

The Victoria yoke pullover from Knits.

I did the crochet edging while I was waiting to pick up some more yarn.  Originally I put some lovely heart shaped wooden buttons on it but wasn’t sure if I liked the look so I made some crochet ones and put them on roughly just to see.  I still can’t decide.

This orangy blob is the Auburn camp shirt from Spring 08 Knits magazine.

It’s been in the making for a while using some merino 4ply from the stash that was laying around.  I’m not particularly knitting seriously on it, just picking it up from time to time when I feel like it.

You’ve got to love the waist shaping on this, in fact the details are what really make it a special knit.

This is taking a while, as things do on 3 mm needles knitted flat, but as I said I’m in no hurry with this one.  It’s more of a process knit than anything else I suppose.

Next up are some socks that I’ve been knitting for a while.  I’m sure I mentioned them before, they’re from some merino and nylon sliver that I brought a while ago and dyed myself.  Not the softest merino, if that is what it is, but they should be hard wearing.

After dying, I split the sliver in half for two socks, then each half lengthwise and then each one, one more time giving me four pieces for each sock.  I spun up two pieces on each of two bobbins and plied them.  As you can see, the sock I’m working on at the moment has many more colour matches where one bobbins colour matched the other than the first sock but that’s the charm I suppose.

The construction for these is toe up with a Widdershins heel.  I must say that after I managed to get my head round the widdershins heel construction ( I needed a different set of figures from the original and the maths for this heel is hard, well for me it was!) I fell in love.  It’s got to be just about the best toe up heel there is IMHO.  These fit perfectly and all I have left to do is the leg of the second so they shouldn’t be too long to the finish now.

Are you bored yet?

Last but not least then is this.

It is the beginning of Slinky Ribs from Custom Knits.  I’m knitting it in a cotton/acrylic mix which has a great stitch definition.

I didn’t intend to start this just yet but was left alone to browse in my LYS for a while and the rest as they say is history!  It’s actually a really quick knit.  I’m down under the arms already and only knit on it while recovering from being in the garden on Saturday and Sunday evening.

Oh.  I thought that was the last but I’ve forgotten one.  With so many things suddenly on the go I’ve lost track.

A week or so back while doing science with my youngest I suddenly got the itch to start some colour work again and before I knew it I’d started the Celtic Lattice from Folk Vests.  Sometimes it’s not a good thing to have so many books!

I’m knitting it in Kauni yarn, and yes I did take apart the Autumn cardigan but I’m trying not to mention it as it was a bit of a sore point with DH!  So far it’s looking pretty good.  This is the front where the steek is.

In between those panels are little scrolls.

Forgive the blurry picture but I was in the garden taking these and just realised that a neighbours grand daughter was leaning over the fence watching me!  Still they know I’m strange.

That really is that.  As you can see, although I haven’t been blogging, I’ve still been busy knitting/crafting wise.  I suddenly decided last month to just go with the flow and start whatever I felt like and see where it led.  So far I’m having a ball.

Even though this has been a pretty picture heavy post, I have to add a few pictures from the garden.  Last time I was here we had snow everywhere.  How things have changed now,

I have a tulip.  Yes, just the one so far but I’m hoping for many more.

I have seedlings sprouting all over the house and greenhouse.

And I have beautiful cauliflowers.  I’m ignoring the fact that these probably should have been here for the winter but better late than never!  If I can keep the slugs off these I have another eleven just like this one to enjoy over the next few weeks.

Oh and just for you (again, you know who you are!) a picture of our largest tortoise.

This is Bentley.  He’s a leopard tortoise and roams freely in the house with us.  We have seven more but they’re all pretty small compared with this monster.  Bentley is about 11 yrs old and his shell is just over 14 inches long .  He’s big and heavy weighing in at about 9 lb.  I put him on the deck to take this, but he always has his own ideas.

This is him straight after, retreating back into the house!

Back soon!