A Finished Object and lots of plans.

Been enjoying doing lots of painting and having all the lovely Christmas decorations out, the little smoking man in particular!

I finished my Juveler cardigan! I'm really pleased with it, it's an open-fronted cardi, reminds me of a bolero or shrug, something to pop on over dresses in the Summer or if you're a bit chilly.
It was really quick to knit and took less than 5 balls of Noro Silk Garden (on 5mm needles). I knit the medium but could easily have made the large and been comfortable, I didn't do any sleeve decreases till I was past my elbow as I worried my sleeves would end up too tight.

I'm currently working on a testknit for a knitter whose work I love. It's going ok, I was really worried it wasn't going to fit how I want it to but it seems to be alright now. I'm working hard on this testknit as I'm keen to cast on a couple of cardigans... The first is Leitzel by Alison Green (pattern from Twist Collective, Fall 2015).

I fell in love with this one afternoon while I was idly trawling Ravelry... I then spent a fun evening looking at yarn and chose Jamieson's Shetland Heather in the end, and after much debate over colour I went for Mist.

Mist! It's a subtle lilac/grey/blue with pink flecks - I LOVE it. I was saying to Rich that I wanted to get back to buying yarn for a project, then knitting it up fairly quickly (he raised an eyebrow when yarn arrived the other day!).

Another pattern I decided I want to cast on soon is a pretty colourwork cardigan. I was watching The Box of Delights with Rich (a family tradition, every Christmas!) and Miss Maria was wearing a corgeous colourwork cardigan, it had moss green, dark blue and red... BBC production so I'd not be surprised if the cardi lives in their wardrobe department and has made an appearance in other 1930s/40s period programmes. I've had a bit of a google and I can't find any images so I'll snap one on my phone this evening when we watch episode 5. Here is the cardigan I chose last night...

I like the fit on this one, also the fact that the sleeves are knit separately and seamed, I'm not keen on steeked sleeves. I think that I'll not make the shoulders quite so wide, I'll make it more like my colourwork cardi (below). Most of the versions on Ravelry have fairly big shoulders (true to the pattern and the style of the time), there are some fab versions on there - here if you're a Raveller.

By the way, I bought the pattern from this lovely lady - the Vintage Knitting Lady - she has so many gorgeous patterns to choose from, her site is a real treasure trove!

The other pattern I've been resisting (because it is massive) is Find your Fade by Andrea Mowry. Definitely a good pattern for subscribers to yarn clubs! There's a lot of knitting in it though, I think about 1400 metres which is nearly the amount I used for my colourwork cardigan above. A month's solid knitting for me as I'm slow, also, I have 3 shawls and don't wear them as much as I wear all my cardigans. Sorry, this is me telling myself that I don't need to cast on Find Your Fade (although I have enough pre-wound Life in the Long Grass yarn)...

It's so pretty though!!!! Let's see how I do over the Christmas period, like I've said before, I really don't do so well with multilpe WIPs...

Wisteria cardigans

I signed up to test knit the new pattern by East London KNits, Wisteria Blossoms. It was my first top-down cardigan and a fun and quick knit. I had a couple of issues with gauge (which changed from what I had swatched as I was knitting it), that's why the cardigan is pictured 'buttoned' at the neckline - it pulled too much across my bust.
The yarn is Hedgehog Fibres Merino Aran, the colourway is Construct.

My lovely Rav friend Herbscat said my photos & grey cardigan reminded her of the film Howard's End (a modern version), such a kind comment! I was making do with the camera's timer and had the camera itself propped up on a pile of boxes.

So I made a second one, in Hedgehog Fibres again, but in Silk/Merino Singles, on larger needles, also cropped due to yarn constraints! I'm really pleased with both of these, they're both really wearable and pretty.

The pattern will be released next week, I'll link to it if I remember!

Watching the rain

I'm sitting in my studio just watching the rain as I do a bit of procrastinating, James is watching a programme about the history of the diesel engine (on BBC4 last week, it's fascinating!). He turned 5 yesterday and we had a nice quiet day with the family. James had asked for a fish after seeing them used as props in Sweaterspotter's Pengiun knitting book.

Couldn't find an image via google so I did a screen shot. You can look at and buy her lovely wares here - Jo Waterhouse. I'm very taken with her beautiful lino prints and her cushions. LOVE.

I recently finished a pattern from the Penguin collection, the Aptenodytes Cardigan. I still haven't repositioned the buttons, I do need to do that as it's pulling because of where I placed them in haste, also they make one side appear longer than the other. Here are some dodgy photos of me wearing it, dodgy because I took them myself and my self-taken photos don't often come out very well. The garden fences look so rough but just imagine them as they will be in a few months' time when all my flowers have grown (hidden!).

It's so pretty and was a really interesting garment to knit, I loved its construction. I'm back to working on my small WIP mountain, there are 4 blankets which Will Be Done. I mean that, I'm doing it. I'll post some photos of these soon.

Another dress

I'm making good progress with my Christie Johnstone dress! The hem is curling like crazy but I plan to do some applied i-cord all around it to stop it doing that while I'm wearing it, it shouldn't be so bad after a good block in any case.

I'm currently resisting the urge to watch Downton Abbey, I fancied collecting a few episodes in the box and binge watching them... Not sure if that's going to happen though!

Other than knitting I'm nice and busy in the studio with some commissioned work.. There's a load to do in fact, I have all these pretty circular paintings that I need to get photographed and uploaded. I'll chip away at it :)

Hashtags

I keep seeing the hashtag 'yarnporn' everywhere and wonder if I'm the only person who finds it a bit creepy, like people are supposed to be literally getting off on gorgeous yarn like those people who are in love with and have relationships with inanimate objects? I know I'm definitely reading too much into it, it just sounds so gross to me, like it could be a specialist section on an actual porn site. Sad, stuck-up old me, I use the hashtag 'lovelyyarn'!

Feeling much better about painting in general, the commissions are finished and it's time to move on to getting some pieces done for a lovely lady in Australia. Fun!

Here are my greeny-blue skeins, much more greeny-blue-deep plum than pictured. Can't wait to see how they knit up (these are my own hand dyeing efforts).

 And on to the expert dyeing... This is a Rose City Rollers sock I'm knitting in Hedgehog Fibres sock (24 Carat colourway), I have never knit with anything so soft before in my life, it is absolutely amazing, not to mention the wonderful brown/gold of the yarn (it's got quite a 1970s sort of vibe to it).
This sock should be quick to knit, technically I should have finished the pair already, but I've lost one of my wooden dpns and am using a smaller metal one in its place (yuck) and I'm also feeling quite focused on my colourwork cardigan, more of which I will share on Wednesday.

Throwback Thursday

Lovely knitting from 2011, I was wearing this cardigan the other day and it's worn well over the last 4 years. It's a cardigan version of one of the patterns from A Stitch in Time, the wonderful vintage pattern book by Susan Crawford, pattern page here - It Cannot Fail to Please.