Mammoth crafty update part III

Hello everyone, I hope 2014 is going well for you so far!

This post just about completes my update of crafty goings on in December. I managed to finish two other projects at the end of 2013.

Firstly this Kim Hargreaves sweater, called Longing, from the book Enchanted.

Sorry about the slightly rubbish quality of the photo - this was a really difficult garment to photograph. Perhaps it's because its cream, or perhaps it just the really awful lack of daylight here at this time of year!

Anyway, I hope you can see the picture well enough to be able to make out the stitch work and overall idea. I'm quite pleased with how this came out. I tried to make this sweater last winter, but had trouble because the sleeves on the finished garment were waaay waaaay too long! This time around, I decided to shorten the sleeves from the length specified in the pattern by about 5cm. It was a little nerve wracking as this was a bit of a guess based on other things I have made where the sleeve length has been ok, but I seem to have guessed well because the sleeve length is perfect this time around!

The other make I completed, on the very last day of the year was this little scarf.

Again, I'm sorry for the awful light in these pictures - it was really overcast when I took these, so the colours are all wrong.

The yarn I used for this was Madeline Tosh sock yarn, in shade Olivia. I used a basic leaf lace pattern that you can find in most stitch dictionaries of knitted lace. This post, from when I started this scarf waaay back in June last year will give you a better idea of the actual colour of the yarn! Now that I've looked back through this blog to find when I started this project, I can't believe that it was so long ago and that six months has gone so fast!

***************************************

Well, I'll be back to normal posting with my next post, we're pretty well caught up now! I have to share one very exciting thing though, which I'll go into more detail on in my next post. I think I have mentioned before, one of my very favourite independent yarn and haberdashery shops is called Mrs Moon, in St Margarets, near Richmond upon Thames. Well, Mrs Moon have an annual Christmas prize draw, and guess who won this year! Yes, it was me! I am such a lucky, lucky girl, and prize is an absolutely amazing haul of yarn-y goodies! I will share full details in my next post!

Green cardigan

In my last post I mentioned that I had finished my green cardigan. So, here are the pictures!

The pattern is Kitten, from Kim Hargreaves' book Smoulder.

The pattern gives two options for yarns, you can use Rowan Angora Haze or Pure Wool 4 ply. I love angora but the fact that it fluffs everywhere drives me a little crazy. My clothes always seem to be covered in fluff as it is (I don't know where it all comes from). So, I choose to use Pure Wool 4 ply for this project.

Generally I'm pretty happy with how it worked out. I made a longer version of the cardigan than was directed in the pattern. I knitted until the back and sides were 39cm in length rather than the 28cm specified in the pattern, as I wanted a full length rather than a cropped cardigan. As there is no side shaping in this pattern, it was easy enough to increase the length.

I'm quite happy with the way the body of the cardigan fits. It's a bit roomier than the yellow cardigan I knitted recently, but the pattern is made that way. The only thing I was slightly unhappy with in my finished garment was the sleeves - they are a little more loose than I would have liked. If I were to make this pattern again, I think I would probably go down a needle size to 3mm, just to make the cardigan a little bit more snugly fitting.

I think it looks pretty nice next to my yellow cardigan!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Mustard seed

Hello fellow bloggers and blog-readers! I'm back after a little bit of a break. I can't believe it's already halfway through September and this is only my second post of the month. There is no particular reason for my absence - I've just been busy. I was away, travelling for work last week which all in all meant a couple of nights away from home, and a late return on the third night. Also business related to my flat purchase has gobbled up some of the chunks of free time which I might normally have used for blogging.

There has also been a third reason for my not blogging. I've been knitting! Not in itself a reason, but I mentioned in my last post that I had started working on knitwear for Autumn. Well, seeing as I was so busy I decided that I would wait until I had completed my first project for the autumn before sharing anything about it with you. 

I've been stitching away on a lovely classic cardigan, with moss stitch edgings. I choose a mustard yellow yarn. I decided back in the summer that I really, really, really wanted a mustard yellow cardigan for autumn/winter. I duly scoured the shops and my favourite online retailers, but could find nothing that matched my mustard vision. "So", thought I, "I'll just have to make one myself". And that's what I did!

I finished it yesterday - it was a pretty quick knit really, and I was very faithful to this project. I haven't been doing any crochet in between, just focusing on getting this done because I so wanted to see if it would fit well, and have it ready to wear.

Yes, here it is below, with me in it. 

I love, love, love the finished result! Can you tell that from all the pictures?!

Also, it turned out I rather wildly over-estimated the amount of yarn that I would need for this project, and so now have 3 balls of gorgeous mustard yellow yarn left over to add to my stash!

Hmmm, I feel a granny blanket coming on! Seriously, I wouldn't normally consider having a large stash of yarn in the cupboard to be a problem, but I am thinking, with my move looming now would be a good time to start de-stashing! Simply because I know my soul will shrivel and die when I have to empty out said cupboard and am forced to confront the vast amount of unused yarn which has built up over the years - oh the shame!

And of course there's still the granny stripe blanket to be getting on with.... and my next cardigan project (already started - this one's green :o) ).... too much crafting and too little time!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Oh, I nearly forgot - if anyone is interested the cardigan pattern I knitted was Alexi by Kim Hargreaves, from the book Winter Blooms. I used Rowan Pure Wool DK in colour 051 Gold, and 2.75 and 3mm needles

Yellow roses

Hello world and fellow bloggers and crafters, I am back. It has been another busy couple of weeks, resulting in my not having the time or energy to post (some evenings, I haven't even had energy to craft).

Well, I'm heading off for a week's holiday next week, so this is a quick catch up post before I go. I don't have a great deal to report on the craft front - just that I have been enjoying making the Rowan T shirt pattern 'Kos' from this month's Simply Crochet.

It's a long time since I have attempted to crochet a garment, but this time I think I have got the hang of it!

xx xxx xx xx xxx

In general in life, I am realising lately that you can not control every situation you are in - sometimes things will happen and you just have to figure out what to do as you go along. You can never plan for every eventuality, and you should never hold back from trying to realise your dreams just because you are afraid that things won't work out.

To anyone reading this, wherever you are, whatever you're doing I hope you have the courage to chase you dreams, and find happiness!

So hears to making dreams come true and going for what you want in life!

xx xxx xx xx xxx xx xxx xx xxx xx

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!

Summer top and bag

I have assignment deadlines looming and I've been staring at my computer screen for so long today that my eyes feel so strained I can't even look at it without my glasses on! A week tomorrow is my deadline for my two last course assignments for this academic year. Part of me wishes next Tuesday would hurry up and get here so I can hand them in and be done with it, part of me wishes I had more time in case I spot a glaring ommission or error somewhere that I need to correct! I'm the sort of neurotic student who can't leave assignments alone, even if really they could be called finished. If I have time left before the deadline I feel obliged to go over and over things, fiddling with them, picking holes, looking for things to improve and generally driving myself (and probably everyone around me) crazy!

Despite the craziness, I've still found a little time over the last few weeks to relax with some making.

I've finished the raglan T-shirt Spice, from Indigo which I've been working on. Its quite nice, but definately a very relaxed stye - probably not suitable for work except on Fridays.

I've also made another little crochet bag, this time a little zip-up striped purse. I embellished it with some buttons and a suffolk puff (a.k.a a yo-yo).

Really I can't wait to hand those assignments in so that I can enjoy more guilt free crafting!

Jasmine in pink

Finished this project on Sunday night, and I'm very pleased with it. Previously I made this using a 4 ply cotton, and found that it felt a little scratchy and tight fitting under the arms. I also wasn't keen on the button placket in the yoke. This is Jasmine, from the Kim Hargreaves book Nectar.

So I've reworked this in a 4ply wool cotton mix, which feels lovely and soft, but still light enough for cooler summer days.

I modified the pattern by:

Making it longer - I added an extra 24 rows after the moss stitch band at the bottom of both front and back.

Leaving out the button placket - Instead I made 2 identical pieces following the instruction for the back. When making the neckline, I sewed up only 3 of the raglan seems leaving the fourth open, and then worked the neckline instructions accordingly.

Christina cardigan - in progress

After a brief period of indecision last weekend about whether to push on with summer knits or give in to temptation and knit a snuggly textured cowl which I had an idea for, I choose to push on with the summer knits, and now I'm glad I did!

So I thought I would share with you my progress on the Christina cardigan from Kim Hargreaves' 2011 summer book Whisper. Its coming along pretty well: I now have the back and both front completed and am about half way through the first sleeve. I hope to have it finished in a week or so.

I have made this using Rowan Wool Cotton in shade Frozen, which is a lovely grey-lilac shade - I'm not sure how well that comes through on the pictures. I havent' changed the needle size recommended - wool cotton is quite a stretchy yarn, and I think it will be fine once blocked and washed. I'm making a size extra-small, as usual. Small always comes out way too big for me.

I can't wait to have this finished and wear it - I'm sure it will look lovely with a little lace trimmed camisole, or perhaps a pale coloured chiffon blouse I have - maybe with a little sparkly brooch. More pictures when it's finished!