Endings & Beginnings

Happy New Year!

Right, now that’s out of the way onto the knitting!

…..and, um, some crochet. Ahem.

The works-in-progress which remain outstanding from 2011 and which are cast off & merely awaiting assembly or a finishing touch are:

The Smoothie Tee & Knit Kit.

The Tee just needs some single crochet worked around the neckline.

That will be a snap just as soon as I can find my 4.5mm crochet hook. It’s around here……somewhere…….

Whereas the Knit Kit requires some sewing and assembly. As well as the addition of a button & a loop (I think).

Still in hearty progress is Froodies Throw.

The handwarmers I began to balance out the crochet have been in hiatus, apart from an extra row yesterday, since Thursday (I think, holiday brain has me a bit lost).

Languishing out of sight is Sedgemoor by Amanda Crawford from Issue 12 of The Knitter.

[Thanks to scanning through my previous blog posts for a picture to reuse I realise I've not even added my usual starting point blog post about it. That shall have to be amended.....just not right now.]

This Is Knit was the source of the lovely yarn for Sedgemoor.

A lovely garment and a lovely yarn…..so what’s the frakking hold up?

Charts & errata (corrections) have combined to halt my progress on this project.

It shall get my focused attention later on, well, today actually, once I’ve had several hours sleep.

At least I’ve actually cast on for Sedgemoor and know what the article will look like.

Which is scant more progress than I’ve made on Token Northy’s scarf.

The scarf to be is still just a bunch of balls......

His actual name is Gerry but for the longest time I only knew him as Token Northy from Dan’s blog

Dan’s drinking the fishwater while Gerry gives the thumbs up in the post that I’ve linked to.

So there’s a scarf to be knit. A manly scarf.

Though, truth be told, a sparkly pink feather boa could grace the guy’s neck and still look like a manly accessory.

As I don’t have a pattern & have two lovely yarns in two lovely colours to work with…..I’m kind of swamped with ideas. I’ve cast on and ripped back a couple of times. Overthinking it is the problem.

Maybe I’ll just whip something up while merry on beer. Tis the season for it!

May you all have a cosy & warm craft filled year ahead.

Below is a cheeky view of Froodies Throw which very nicely graces my armchair & the Smoothie Tee which, even though it requires a finishing touch, has earned itself brownie points in my book for being comfortable & well fitted.

A cheeky New Year to you all

 

Progress – A Tee for all occasions – Done & dusted.

Smoothie DK knits up quickly

 

The tee's top-down construction makes it a doddle to adjust to suit

Well……..it’s done & dusted apart from going around the neck with single crochet.

It’s been cast off since the day before yesterday & the ends have been sewn in.

The picture of Jasmine is purely for the cute. 

The cute and the fact that both felines decided to ‘help’ me knit the hem by playing with the active yarn & inspecting my needles as I was knitting with them.

Bless.

Cats.....always where the action is

The hem of the Tee

 

Buttons, Stash & Tee in Shannon

Peek - a ....

....BOO!!

While making my way through every stack of paper in my office in an effort to find an important document……I came across this.

It wouldn’t have done to just leave it in such a state.

My poor stash!

....turned into knitterly potential

My red Tee is already starting to clock up miles.

Tee on the go in Shannon

 

A Tee for All Occasions

Since giving up on ever completing Minerets, my stash has been home to some utterly lovely red Smoothie yarn.

In my recent trawl through my knitting magazines for a scarf patterns, I rediscovered Debbie O’Neill’s A Tee for all Occasions on page 82 of Yarn Forward Issue 18.

Yarn Forward October (2009 I think) Issue 18

As is usual I’m not using the recommended yarn or the suggested colourway.

A raglan tee knit from the top down

Progress as of around midnight last night

I’m enjoying how quickly this project is starting to resemble an actual garment.

 

Project the third: Zip & Zing

Seeing that the last two projects were for gifting to other people (my offspring included). I, and the remaining chill in the air, have decided that I should benefit from my knitterly skills this time around.  So last night, after spending a lovely while poring over (a fraction) of my knitting magazines, I decided to cast on for Zip & Zing.

Simply Knitting Issue 68 Summer 2010

It’s a teen knit, but the sizes go from 8 years to size 14. A pretty unusal size range to be sure. It’s a nicely straightforward knit with very little shaping.

Zip & Zing by Ruth Maddock

As usual, as those of you who have read my blog for a while will know, my take on Zip & Zing is unlikely to look anything like the garment pictured above.

My take on Zip & Zing

The pattern suggests Stylecraft Sirrocco & I’m using a mix of  Patons Smoothie in the red colourway & Stylecraft Life in a colourway called Berries.

So far so good, apart from Smoothies usual splittiness. This minor irksome feature of this yarn is more than made up for with its crisp stitch definition and beautiful handle (i.e. it’s heavenly to touch).

Now, I’m going to get back to knitting my hoodie.

Happy crafting folks!

 

Minarets Smoothly Rebuilt

Progress since 2nd frogging

Taking into account the fact that I’ve been out & about, as well as painting a hallway & part of a bathroom, I’m quite happy with this.

Now for the ‘smooth’ part of my blog post……it’s the time of year for the Innocent Smoothies Big Knit. The link will take you to a page explaining the whys & what nots. They have a cool Big Knit Kit & I heartily suggest that you have a look through some of their Hats of the Week.

Anyhow, back to this blog, Hazel, Sarah (Froodie) and I are now on a tiny hat knitting jag.

Behold!

My first little hat

Hat the First!

I have my work cut out to match the effort of my fellow SnB’ers!

 

Minarets meltdown

After nigh on 20 years of knitting I have discovered something new about my knitterly self……..I dislike reading knitting charts. This is quite an irksome state of affairs as, not only are charts becoming more popular in knitting patterns in general, but one also figures in the Minarets pattern that I’m currently working on.

This is proving to be a challenging knit!

By about 6 rows into the charted portion of the pattern repeats I decided I couldn’t ignore how unhappy I was with the less than stellar quality of the outcome. If I’m going to plow umpteen hours of my life into a project, I want it to at least look good &, since the garment is destined to be worn by me, to have at least an 80% chance of actually being worn.

Thus, I tinked.

When one knits backwards, it is known as tinking.

K.N.I.T  | T.I.N.K

So stitch by stitch I tinked back about 6 rows.

I tried to knit up a swatch to test whether it’s the chart at fault or my processing of it. No luck.

So I did the next best thing & knit the 29 rows of the chart on one pattern repeat of the garment.

Triumphed over chart!

 

I did it!

It looks as it’s meant to.

Reading the chart still doesn’t make complete sense to me, but now at least I know I’ll get there with it.

Eventually!

 

New Project: Minarets

The Knitter - Issue 21

 

Stitch Markers Galore!

This design is by Sarah Hatton.

It’s probably the girliest thing I’ve opted to craft for myself in a while.

It goes well now that the foundation rows have been established.

The green and orange threads are stitch markers. They were required over the first few rows so that I didn’t end up in a complete heap while trying to get my plains and purls in order.

I’ve followed the pattern faithfully so far & don’t plain to adjust anything…….yet. We’ll see how it goes.

I’m using Paton’s Smoothie DK for this. It handles well & is a dream to knit with. 

It’s a bottom up design, worked in one piece to the armhole, then divided for the back and fronts.