Keeping warm

So far this year has brought lots of bugs/lurgy and thus lots of time at home on the sofa knitting - which doesn't lend itself to interesting blogging, at least until I get around to taking some pictures of my FOs!

I can, however, show you a couple of my most recent projects in use - the Noro hat from Saartje knits and (briefly glimpsed) Maine Morning Mitts from The Knitter's Book of Yarn, both knitted in Noro Kureyon, colour 161 - 3 days for the hat and 1 day for the mittens/handwarmers. Furthere details on my projects page on Ravelry. Yep, there was a lot of sitting on the sofa and knitting going on for a while there...


Oh, and the picture is me and my Granny, who came up to visit us in London at the weekend - her first trip to London in 35 years!

Kiri

Finished weeks ago, but only just photographed:




Kiri (pdf pattern here)

Isn't it lovely? Completion was a bit delayed when I ran out of yarn (and accidentally bought a ball of the wrong colour - there are two shades of Kidsilk haze that are very close in colour, and my memory failed me - I was using shade 592, Heavenly, but picked up 636, Mist) but took about 6 weeks in total. I used just over 2 balls of KSH and reduced the size by a couple of pattern repeats as I was concerned it would be too big - once blocked it was ok, but could have benefited from just one more repeat I think (typical!)

With my crochet bag, a new dress and my white fakenstocks, it completed the perfect outfit for a slightly rainy wedding. I was amazed at how warm KSH is, given it is such a thin/fine yarn. And I didn't find it too difficult to work with either (I avoided frogging as much as possible though!). I've even bought some more with my Liberty tokens...

Blue crochet bag

Having finished my beautiful Kiri, and found a lovely dress to wear to my friend's wedding a couple of weekends ago, I was almost sorted. Problem was, I didn't have a bag to complete the outfit. I'm the kind of person who likes everything to match, so that was a distinct issue for me... I trawled Oxford Street in search of a suitable bag, but to no avial, at which point I decided I'd have to make my own. Easy, right?



I popped into Liberty and picked up a few balls of Rowan Handknit Cotton and half a metre of fabric for linin (I think it is a Kaffe Fassett/Rowan print), with a vague picture in mind of a shell crochet bag with stripes of colour. After a couple of redesigns and a quick bit of work on the sewing machine, I came up with this:



































(Please excuse the bad quality pictures, I'll take some decent ones with my camera soon, these are from my phone!)


The bag design is my own, and the flowers from Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet

and The Encyclopedia of Crochet Techniques. The lining contains a couple of pockets for my oyster card and mobile phone, and plenty of room for a purse and other assorted junk (aka things that might come in handy...)

All in all, it took about 2 weeks to complete (I was a bit too relaxed about it to begin with, and could have worked much faster, so in the end I was sewing the lining in on the morning of the wedding!) and less than half of the 4 balls of yarn I bought, so there's plenty left over for another project. Plus plenty of fabric, but I have plans for that...

May...

Another month, another two finished objects!

After about eight months, Seraphim is finally off the needles:

I'm really pleased with it and have worn it a couple of times, although I'm still trying to figure out how best to wear a triangular shawl...

I also completed a feather and fan/old shale lace scarf for a friend, in Rowan Tapestry (approx 3 and a bit balls)

In may we also took a bit of a road trip to visit friends and family - 9 nights in 6 different places, London to Leeds to Durham to Newcastle to Kettering to Cottenham to St Ives (the Cambridgeshire version) and back to London again. Phew!

Took our 6 year old nephew to the Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre in Washington in the rain - which neither he nor the ducks minded, so the trip was a success! Also managed to sprain my foot chasing him around a playground, I think we underestimated how tiring it is to look after a child, never having had to do so before...

No knitting related purchases in May, there's a wedding to save for!

March...

This was bit of a mad month.

First off, there were the dreaded MWoCs. Which at least led me to get on with applying fo ra new job! Then having gone to the doctor with what he thought was sinusitis, James ended up in hospital for a week. All is well now and he is feeling fine, but life was a bit crazy for while, and I spent as much time as I could visiting. On the plus side, it meant that I managed to knit myself a Forest Canopy shoulder shawl in about 2 weeks!

The magic of blocking took it from this:

To this:

My first piece of lace and I'm very pleased with it! There are a few mistakes, but they're only visible if you look very closely, and the varigation in the yarn takes the attention away from them. Overall, I'm very happy with it :-)

Project specifications to follow when I can remember them...

I also had an interview for another job, an events position for a major medical research charity, but unfortunately I didn't get it.

Thankfully, things picked up later in the month, when we took a trip to Tallinn. Things started well, when I checked my email at the airport to discover a message from my university (the one I left three years ago and have been battling with ever since) telling me I'm finally going to awarded an MPhil. Hurray! It was supposed to be a PhD, but things went so wrong and I was so unsuited to working in research that I was over the moon to salvage something out of the whole debacle.

We arrived on Thursday evening, survived a taxi journey with a driver whose English was only about 2 words better than out Estonian (which amounted to precisely zero words... always a good idea to print out a picture of your hotel and the address) and were happy to find that our hotel was lovely (never did manage to find the sauna though).

Friday we explored the city a bit and then went out for a lovely meal - Modern estonian food, quite good - then decided to climb some nearby steps to one of the viewing platforms on the hill in the old town centre, where you can look out over the city and the coast.

It was lovely to look out over the lights, and even lovelier when James asked me to marry him - I don't think the weekend could have got any better!

On Saturday we walked up to the big park and explored Kadriorg Palace. I found a yarn shop on the way, but more on that in the April installment!

Finish-itis?

Some more finished objects (mainly for me to keep track of them!) Hopefully only a few more posts like this and then I can attempt to write something interesting...

My proudest achievement so far: Clapotis!

Details:

Clapotis from knitty (link as before)

Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, colour 47, 4 skeins (I think)

Alterations: 1 increase less than pattern and a couple of straight repeats more, to make it a little longer and narrower

Dates: October 2006 - November 2006, probably about 3 weeks altogether around work etc.

Recipient: My Mum, for her 60th birthday. She was very pleased with her 'posh scarf' (her words!)

Notes; I really enjoyed knitting this, I suppose it could be a bit repetitive, but perfect for travelling/lunchbreaks/watching tv!

Close-up details:

Another baby kimono & matching hat

Details:

Pattern: M-D baby kimono, as before, baby hat from Debbie Bliss 'baby knits for beginners'

Yarn: Wendy 'Peter Pan', supposedly double knit but I used 2 strands on a 4.5mm needle for the kimono. Single strand for the hat.

Finished: January 2007 (mainly knitted over Christmas)

Recipient: A colleague at work who is now on maternity leave, due on 28 February.

Baby blanket:

Details:
Pattern: My own - simple granny squares in a variety of blues and purples witha cream edging. The colours show up terribly on this photo as it was taken on my phone before we acquired a digital camera at Christmas.
Yarn: cheap acrylic (for my sins).
Finished: January 2007 (started in the summer and sewn together in November, but it took me that long to finish weaving the ends in!).
Recipient: Another colleague who had a baby in September 2006. At least it arrived before the baby grew up completely!

I'm quite surprised I've finished so many things as it seems like I take ages to knit every row - though that doesn't alter how much I enjoy it.

Cute!

After a rather long absence, there's a lot to catch up with - even some finished objects! Can't do it all in one go, so for starters, here's a picture of BabyP in her Mason-Dixon baby kimono, my first finished item of clothing!



Details
Pattern: Heartbreakingly cute baby kimono, Mason-Dixon Knitting
Yarn: Sirdar Country Style DK, less than 1 Ball (100g) - can't quite remember the colour, a kind of purply-pink
Changes to pattern: 50 stitches cast on to account for difference in gauge (pattern uses worsted weight yarn), more stitches cast off for neck and more rows for arms
Completed: October 2006

MrsP tells me that this little top has been much remarked on (someone even asked her if it would be possible to commission one!) and her Mum was very impressed - praise indeed from one of the most prolific knitters I know!

To follow: More baby kimonos, Claopotis (another FO), Serpahim Shawl, a large amount of stash listing (in an attempt to figure out what I've got hiding in the spare room) and trying to keep track of project ideas...