Longing

It's been a couple of weeks since I was last here - longer than I normally like to leave it, but things have been so busy.

I've finally finished my course (well provided I passed the last assignment, which I am not convinced that I did). It means no more studying for me though! I can just relax and look forward to Christmas.

As you can imaging there hasn't been a lot of action on the crafting front in the last couple of weeks - I have literally been working every spare hour to try and finish my final assignment. Managed to lose about half a stone in weight doing it! Stress always does take away my apetite.

Anyway, I have managed to do a couple of things. I finished the next Kim Hargreaves sweater I was making - called Longing, also from Enchanted. The fabric is a lovely open work design, and I've chosen a dark red colour to make it.

I've only tried it on once briefly - I do like it, it just feels a little chunky. There is no side seam shaping, which is fine, its that kind of design. But, with the lack of shaping and the open work fabric it feels like the fabric should be gracefully draping. However, at the moment (probably because it hasn't been washed yet) its not draping, just being fluffy. I just feel a teeny bit too chunky - as I've said before I'm petite in size and figure (even more so than usual after the stress of the last few weeks!) so I have to be careful about clothes overwhelming. I think I'll reserve judgement on this one until after its been washed!

So, what do I do now, now that I have finished studying (at least for now)? Well I have plenty of planned crafty projects to keep me busy. Some are Christmas related, some not so much. I'll try and share them with you over the next few weeks!

Fionn finished

Phew that was a quick knit! I've finished Fionn, and I'm quite pleased with it.

The trickiest part was stitching the collar onto the body, but I managed as well as I could. Hopefully it doesn't look too bad.

It was interesting knitting this - its the first time I have ever knitted a garment which uses Kidsilk Haze and another yarn. Initially I couldn't see the point of the Kidsilk Haze - its so fine I didn't think it would add much to weight of the yarn, but I was mistaken. That single strand of Kidsilk Haze does bulk out the Kid Classic in this design by a surprising amount.

This is a very snuggly cosy knit - I do feel very "fluffy" wearing it! It's the sort of thing that I would reserve for when it gets really cold though. It feels a little bulky and warm for every day wear at the moment - it still hasn't got that cold here yet.

I'm already working on my next knitted garment from 'Enchanted' - more soon!

Kim Hargreaves "Fionn"

I have been temporarily distracted from all my various crochet projects by the publication of Kim Hargreaves' latest pattern book, Enchanted.

To me, this is one of the best of Kim's pattern collections that I have seen in the last 18 months or so. I always like her designs - unlike many other designers, her garments usually have a good amount of shaping detail, meaning that you don't always end up knitting front and back pieces which are just rectangular shaped! Being petite in stature and figure, I don't find anything too baggy or rectangular to be particularly flattering, so Kim's pattern shapes suit me down to the ground.

As soon as saw this book in John Lewis on Oxford Street on Saturday, I had to purchase both the book and yarn to make 'Fionn' the wrap over cardigan.

So far I have already knitted the back and left front, and made a good start on the right front (shown in picture above) - just since Saturday night! Acutally it is quite quick to knit up on 5mm needles.

The pattern is a lovely, simple, elegant design, which I think will be very wearable and go with lots of things in my wardrobe. True to type I have chosed a dusty purple shade to make my version - purple is one of my favourite colours. The design calls for one strand of Kid Classic yarn and one strand of Kidsilk haze yarn to be knitted held together throughout the pattern. My one complaint is that this makes this garment pretty expensive to knit, though very luxurious!

The colours I have chosen for each yarn blend with each other - you can hardly see the Kidsilk Haze in the knitted fabric, unless you look closely. I like it that way, but I think you could also have lots of fun using shades of Kidsilk Haze that contrast more sharply with your chosen shade of Kid Classic. The shades I have used are:

Kid Classic shade 835 Royal
Kidsilk Haze shade 659 Ultra

Here's the knitted up back piece! Its speedy knitting, so I hope to have this completed by the end of November or thereabouts!