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Scrummy!!
Posted: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 by Laura
Filed under On The Needles
This tumbled out of my stash this morning and landed right at my feet...clearly it's a sign I should knit it right away!
I can’t believe that it’s July already! This year is whizzing past and making me feel all together dizzy!! The start of a new month always makes me want to get organised and turn some of those pesky WIPs into FOs.
I thought the best way to do this was to tot up all the WIP *deep breath* here goes…
The Bold & Bulky Mini Cardi is waiting on buttons. While it’s wearable without it’s simply not the same – surely I can get this finished without too much drama?!
The Secret Lace project – This is seriously in the final knitty furlong, I want to get it cracked as soon as I can – there are some tricky making up instructions that I’m not looking forward to. I’d better learn my single fold bias from my bias binding and pronto!
I have been working on a couple of cheeky little designs for LK – after a change of heart about colours late at night I have been frantically working to get them finished. So, save a couple of rows of rib and weaving in some ends, these are nearly done!
Finally, the Falling in Love Socks – what can I say? One day.....!
All in all (FiLSocks aside!) That’s isn’t the huge WIP mountain I thought it would be, perhaps I should cast on with this lovely rediscovered yarn! Mmmhhh but what to make?
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Now you see it…
Posted: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 by Laura
Filed under On The Needles
Now it's frogged!
The major WIP at the moment is the Bold & Bulky Mini Cardi that needs to be finished by next weekend. I dedicated the whole of Sunday to this beauty and completed the entire body section. Woop Woop!
The great thing about knitting from the yoke down is that you can try it on as you go. In theory you can test it for size as you work, well this is what I thought I was doing!
I got to the stage where all that needed to be done was work the sleeves and the neckline border and thought that it was a good time to have a quick size check – and also show off a little (read: a lot!!) that I had achieved so much in an afternoon.
It was then that I was struck with some kind of knitting karma! The pesky thing wouldn’t meet up around the front. Seriously no amount of button band was going to make these two edges meet – such a cruel injustice!
So I thought I was being smart and substituting the yarn in the pattern for the scrummy Mirasol Sulka that I got for my birthday, but i should have checked the tension fully. I knew that it was a lighter weight yarn than was recommended but did some maths (clearly a wonky variety) and decided it would all be good.
Did it really not dawn on me that it would be quicker to knit a tension square than to make the entire thing to find out the gauge?!
Now it’s been frogged and I have started again, this time I’m making a size bigger to accommodate the substituted yarn. Fingers (and toes crossed) ‘cos I still didn’t work up a tension square!!
The moral of this story…
Don’t get too smug about knitty achievements because it can unravel all too easily!!
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What’s on the needles?
Posted: Friday, May 30, 2008 by Laura
Filed under On The Needles
From 15mm to 1.5mm - I've gone from one extreme to the other!
Having just cast off from the 15mm needles (you gotta love how quick projects knit up on these bad boys!) I have started working on the teeniest-weeniest needles in the universe - 1.5mm - for a mini lace project!
So, why no WIP pics of this little lacy number? Well, truth be told I got half way through the second stitch repeat and nothing adds up any more! I can’t begin to explain the frustration of going wrong in lace knitting. So, it has been put out of sight for a while, I figure it best we take some time apart, I’m hoping when we get back together I might be able to unknit my mistake...if not then it’s getting ripped and started over!
How do you bounce back from a lace related tragedy? Pick something else to knit until you’re calm enough to try again! I have finally decided which garment to make for myself. I have been a long time fan of Stefanie Japel – I just can’t get enough of her super elegant shaping – but because I adore so many of her designs I have been really stuck for which one to knit.
Having seen this Bulky Mini Cardigan as FOs on heaps of my favourite blogs – I have decided this is the one for me!
So, this weekend will see me scampering off to my LYS in search of some scrummy new yarn – YeeHaw!
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Supersize my knits
Posted: Friday, May 23, 2008 by Laura
Filed under On The Needles
As soon as these awesome 15mm wooden needles arrived at LK HQ I just had to get my hands on them!
These fab needles will be FREE with Let’s Knit Issue 9 (on sale 11th July) and I simply couldn’t wait to try them out!
There is something very exciting about BIG needles – of course there is the appeal that you can whizz up something really quickly. And, with all the delicious chunky weight yarn available you really are spoilt for choice!! But what I love most about supersize needles is the wide range of knitty-possibilities that suddenly open up. I love experimenting with different weight yarns to see what effects can be made!
I have had this hand-dyed skein of silk and merino blend in my stash for a while but had no idea what to use it for. It seemed that this lovely yarn was destined to spend the rest of eternity being taken out of the yarn mountain sporadically, given a loving squeeze and then put back. Then it hit me...why not use this luscious yarn with these mega big needles? Well, I couldn’t think of any reason not to, so I have something new and exciting to work on!
What’s better than chunky new needles to play with?
Having a three day Bank Holiday weekend to cram in stacks of knitting time – WooHoo!
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