FO: Honeycomb Vest

I finally have a photo of my finished Honeycomb :D I am very very happy with this project, not least because I finished it within the Ravelympics deadline. The yarn is Rowan Purelife Organic DK - my birthday present from the BF, a mere 300g of it. I knit it pretty much to the pattern, apart from adding an inch at the hem, and it fits wonderfully - better than in the photo in fact. It looks somewhat lumpy around the middle for some reason. I swear it's not. Nor am I (My lumps are beginning to position themselves on my hips instead - too much cake). I think this is probably a result of it being scrumpled up into wrinkles at the foot of my bed. I CAN'T HELP IT! It gets very hot in this bedroom, there is much flinging off of jumpers.



Also lookee! New haircut! I got a fringe cut last Tuesday for the first time in about 8 years. I regretted it so much when I first had it, probably just because I felt I didn't look like me, but I really like it now. It has a bit of a split personality too, sometimes it's wispy (as above), sometimes it's straight. I prefer the wisps, they are more friendly to people who miss being able to see their foreheads, but I'm getting used to the straight fringe as well though (it's more fashionable - I'm not accustomed to being fashionable). It looks cute with hats too :D I think I may be brave enough to knit a beret next time.

Watch this space for me experimenting with more wooly hats and passing out because the sun has now decided to come back to England.

Whoosh

I'm not really quite sure how I've managed to knit this so fast, but I no longer have any worries about finishing this before the end of the Olympics (of course, I've now jinxed it, so four of my fingers will fall off today). Admittedly I haven't been watching much of the Games. I had planned to but, egad there are a lot of different ways to move over frozen water. I got behind and it was clogging up the Sky Plus box, so I've given up and I'm just watching the twirly girly ice skating and ignoring the rest now.

Since I've been zipping through the vest so fast, Iive also entered the Aerial Unwind event to frog old project fails (getting a headstart on reknitting later in the year too). I already frogged Rapunzel earlier in the month, with the intention of starting again from scratch (sob), and last week I demolished Chloe and the Snapping Turtle skirt.

These sad and weary projects are no more.


This was something I was designing myself, but I didn't touch it for ages, kinda lost track of what I was doing, and the yoke's looking somewhat funky. It'll probably be re knit into something vaguely similar, but starting from the top.

This was all but finished, but YACK, so unflattering. FAIL. This will be something completely different, possibly a stripy hoodie.

Better luck next time

Gunpowder, treason and superheroes

Happy November! I love November. I get to wear lots of knitwear, I get to be excited about Christmas without people thinking I'm weird, and I love the way November smells. Is that normal?

Best of all, here in the UK, we get Fireworks Night :D Martin and I went to watch the free display over Poole harbour last night. I didn't take my camera since I was fairly sure I wouldn't be able to get any good fireworks shots, but I really really wish I had, because we were entertained by Bournemouth Carnival Band while we were waiting. 24 men, mostly a little on the chubby side, marching in formation....all dressed as Spiderman. Brilliant.

I also have a FO! The blog's been fairly slow on finished objects in the last couple of months while I've been working on Christmas gifts, but this one's for meeeee!

I was about 80% finished with my Dad's jumper by the end of October when my Mum rang up to say the measurements I was knitting to were wrong. I don't know whether she measured wrong in the summer or I wrote it down wrong from the phone conversation, but it turned out I was knitting about 5" too big, and since it was knit all in one piece with the sleeves, there wasn't anywhere I could steek it without messing up the stitch pattern. I felt like crying. I also felt like finishing it anyway and giving it to my Dad with a big tub of lard and instructions to grow into it. But, I ended up ripping it all out and starting again anyway. *sob*

In the mean time however, I took a couple of days out of my frantic Christmas knitting schedule to grumble and ignore presents and make something just for me. Stuff the consequences.

This is a Plaited Cable Cowl in Colinette Cadenza which I picked up accidentally in the yarn shop in Scotland. (yeah, the photos are pants, natural light is a bit non-existant today) I never really thought much of cowls before now, but it's very useful to have a warm neck without trailing ends while riding a motorbike. And yep, it kept me suitably toasty outside last night.

Back onto gift knitting for the next couple of months, but I'll try my best not to abandon the blog completely. The vast majority of my knitting is being kept secret from prying eyes :P, but there are still a couple of things I can show off...

2 days to go!

I am two days away from the end! Not, I hasten to add, two days away from poncey gowns and mortarboards, I still have a little while to mentally prepare myself for that anguish, but my final deadline of the degree (CVs, portfolios and a lovely long evaluation about how wonderful the course is) is on Thursday. I had my big scary finished garments hand in 2 weeks ago, so this one isn't worrying me half as much, and I've been able to knit away to my heart's content in between preparing my portfolio and rather half-heartedly looking for jobs.

Ooh! And the costume I just handed in? Not only is it by far my best work, but I've been told by my Head of Costume that it's one of the best pieces he's seen ON THE ENTIRE COURSE. I am slightly swept away in a tidal wave of Smug right now. (Photos to come in a few weeks, gotta get a good photoshoot for this one)


And onward to knitting...


I have actually cast on at least 6 new projects since I last blogged, but in an effort not to make this post explode with images, I may leave those until later and catch up on some extremely late finished objects.



I finished my stripy jumper! About 6 months ago! (this is how behind on blogging I am) This marks a milesone for me. It isn't the first full size garment I made (that was the blue green and purple acrylic blob), nor is it the first jumper I've made that fit me (that was Tempting), but it is the first full size jumper I've made that fit me and STILL FITS AFTER BEING WASHED!! Huzzah, success at last! I love it, as you can probably tell from my out of focus grin. Ms. Walker is a genius and I look forward to making more garments from Knitting From the Top, though probably not any of the various styles of knitted trousers.

Just before finishing my (incredibly cartoonish) stripy jumper, I made a Kombu scarf from the Manos silk blend I bought in Scotland. I love this pattern, though...err...it possibly would benefit from something a little less drapey in terms of yarn.

The second scarf I made was for a two part swap over at the Monthly Adventures group on Ravelry, the idea being that we sent someone a skein of yarn (along with some presents for them), then they used that yarn to knit a scarf and sent it back. I ended up being paired with Twinsmama a second time for this one! She sent me 2 gorgeous malabrigo skeins which I used to make her a Reversible Cabled Brioche Stitch Scarf. This is another great scarf pattern, it has all the flat, reversible, extra squishy benefits of ribs, with added pretty cables all over it. 'Tis a good thing she picked pink yarn or I would have been sooo tempted to keep this for myself. But I did get a lovely lacy chevron scarf back from her so I don't mind too much!

Last minute Christmas presents! These were for a couple of my friends from university who unexpectedly gave me presents at the last minute (eep). Thems on the left are Fetchings, the most popular project on ravelry, for good reason. I think I finished those in one day. Thems on the right I designed myself :D Yup, I made charts'n'everything. I'm currently reknitting these as full mittens with some minor tweaks to the cable, then 'll write out a pattern. (Though it might make more sense if I waited until after the summer. Maybe)




Last one! This is the Limerick Moss Cap in mmmmmmMalabrigo, one of the lovely presents Twinsmama sent me in the scarf swap. According to my project page, this is the last item I finished knitting and I remember wearing it on my birthday. *sigh* that's over 4 months without a single finished item.

Hmm. So much for not having a picture heavy post.

Never mind. Just to cap it off, this is my small selection of current works in progress:

Hmm. I may be overcompensating for the last 4 months...

P.S. I did go and see the turtles at Weymouth in the Easter holidays, they are unbelivably cute! I think they're actually terrapins though. Bah. False advertising. But they are (were) about an inch long and thoroughly confused by the mirrored sides of the tank which more than made up for it.

P.P.S. I also went up to Wembley Arena the day after my final fitting to see the Prodigy play live :D (yes, I took 2 whole days off when making this costume). The Prodigy are, it has to be said, not as cute as baby terrapins, but they do set off this bizarre reaction in me that makes me dance like a broken marionette having an epileptic fit while stone cold sober. I am still on a high from this gig. Though I may remember to wear a sports bra if I ever see them again

P.P.P.S. I finally got round to casting on my second toe up sock, on the same needles, with the same number of stitches, only to find that my guage has somehow changed in the last 6 months. Well, bugger.

Hannah actually has some knitted stuff!

So, I've finally returned from Kentucky, land of yummy yarn shops and crappy internet connection, and yes, I had an amazing time, and no, I did not meet Colonel Sanders. (He's dead. Go figure.) I took off from Cincinnati airport in brilliant sunshine and landed at Heathrow in snow. Ah, welcome back to England, where Spring has a different meaning from the rest of the world. Mind you, it wasn't just in the UK; my layover in Minnesota, 'Land of 10,000 Lakes', was actually a layover in Minnesota, 'Land of 10,000 Ice rinks'.

I have loads to say, mostly about my 5 LYS trips and the $220 I spent there, but since I am hugely behind on my blogging I shall save that for tomorrow. For now, I have the 'PLURAL FO'S' that I seemed so excited about in February but never got around to blogging about for some reason.

These all seem pretty old now.

First off, the gifts I sent for the Monthly Adventurers Tops and Pots swap - in case you missed it when I was showing off my goodies in my last post (you know, the one so long ago you can't remember it), the idea was to send a knitted hat - in red, pink or white, since we started around Valentine's Day - and a recipe for a one-pot main meal.




















My hat to Paula aka TwinsMama, is the Sunflower Tam from Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature, a gorgeous, gorgeous book I bought myself for my birthday. I liked this pattern when I flicked through the book but knew I would never wear it (berets and tams look ridiculous on me) so I was quite excited to make it for someone else. The yarn is Cascade 220 from Get Knitted.










































I also did some stash busting extra presents - a cute flower brooch and a couple of beanies for her boys (she is TwinsMama after all).

She sent me a fabby picure of them modelling for me, and waving my Jambalaya recipe that I made such a mess of the kitchen creating.



















This one's an even older FO, I finished this at the end of January, just in time for a 'knit-your-chrismas-yarn' knitalong that I won a runner up prize for! Woo!





































This is the Anthropologie Inspired Capelet, rewritten to work in the aran-ish yarn my Mum span me for Christmas. It's supposed to be reverse stocking stitch, but it's reversible and I prefer the inside. It's also technically round neck but my brooch is too heavy for it. Eh, I still like it.

By some bizarre coincidence, I just received my prize for this knitalong today. I would have got it sooner, but...er...I may have given our lovely group moderator the wrong address by mistake.

Anyhoo, I got some lovely soaps, a mini book on knitting and some cartoony post-its.



















Sweeeeet.

You can't tell in the picure above, but I'm wearing the capelet with my black skinny jeans and the 'be-nice-to-me-or-I-will-flatten-you' boots. According to Lucy I look like 'a dominatrix. But the sweet and fluffy kind.' I was previously unaware that there was a sweet and fluffy kind of dominatrix. How sheltered my life must have been.