That was fast...
I finished the one wristwarmer last night. It didn't even take two full evenings! It's very pretty! I have yet to weave in ends (oh, what a
loathesome task!!!! though there's not that many for this project) so it wasn't worth taking a photo of just yet. I really do like it though. I threaded the beads for the second one last night, but didn't even finish casting on becuase I was too tired.
Mrs Beetons
They've been started. The beaded cast-on was fun at first, but got tedious as the yarn started curling on itself from all the pulling. Something happened with my join I think, or something got twisted because the first row sort of disappears into the main colour. I can't figure out why, and if it weren't for the beads, I'd just cast on again. I might be able to fix it though...I was too tired to figure it out rationally when I did do it. They're grey and lilac-ish. I ordered the grey from Knitpicks and was hoping they'd be more bluey-grey than they are (there is the slightest green tinge), but it actually looks fine. The small beads are a dark purple, and the larger beads are a clear crystal. I'm excited about them...I'm wondering if they'll be surrendered to my sister or if I'll keep them for myself! Only time will tell. Watch this space....
Comments...
I did not realise that I had this blog set to only accept comments from registered users. I have disabled this now, so anyone can comment, but the secret word thing has got to stay to avoid comment spam. So, please comment if you were not able to before!
The Shimmer
I ended up getting this done quite quickly. That's what living in a hostel can do to you.
Ok, so here we go....first, a close up of the front. The ribbing looks pretty good but I had to pick up the stitches THREE times...(long story).
Overview of the back. I love how it turned out. The colours are nicely distributed. Except for the one row of wonky diamonds, I love it.
A look at the texture.
Pulled back view of the front
The side view...this was the best way to see all parts of it together. THe sleeves are so much longer than the back that it looks comical. Love the sleeves.
All in all, I liked doing this. I thought the pattern could have explained a bit more. Skill-wise I didn't find it all that difficult, so I don't understand why a "complicated" pattern also had to be complicated to read, if you see what I mean. The thing that took the most fiddling is when you start the raglan decreases, you also have to decrease the lozenge pattern on the back. You must figure this out on your own, you see...hence the one row of wonky diamonds. Next time I attempt a pattern like this, I might try to practise on scrap yarn first.
Brief Shimmer-related mental freak out
So, I was doing great! I finished an entire repeat of the lozenge stitch, it was looking beautiful...only six more rows till I could add the sleeves! I thought I would read ahead and see how I was going to get those sleeves attached.
Suddenly, I thought I made a big mistake. I thought, "hmm...maybe I should have taken that 'piquant' rating a leeetle more seriously before I dove into it thinking I could knit whatever I wanted." I just spent the last 20 minutes or so completely panicking that I would not be able to figure out how this was going to work...
...and suddenly the light dawned. It became clear! It was one of those cases where I had envisioned it entirely differently and I just had to break away from that image to understand what was going on. Whew!
Now I wish it were three hours earlier so that I wouldn't have to go to bed now and I could jusitfy working on it for a while longer. Boo.
So, how about a picture?
The colours are patterning themselves interestingly! I think it's going to look really cool! Please disregard the peek of horrible hotel bedspread. It's not going to be in my life much longer, thankfully. Roll on Monday!
Sleeves done!
Both sleeves are now done! It's too late to even cast on the back piece, but I'm excited that that is what I can do tomorrow!
Here is a pic of the lower parts of both sleeves. They sort of match, but not really:
I think they do look sort of cool. It's not the kind of thing where it seems important that they match exactly. She works in fashion...anything goes!
Progress...
I have finished the first sleeve on the Shimmer shrug. No pics for the time being as I have no internet connection at home. Give this a week or so and normal service will resume. I'm pretty happy with how it came out, but I stupidly was increasing every 10th row and not every 9th. I don't even want to get in to how this happened...it was sheerly my own stupidity and the fact that I can not count. But it'll be fine I'm sure. My sister, by her own proclaimation, has abnormally long arms so the increases are probably better spaced for a longer sleeve anyway. So, I'm about 4 or 5 inches into the second sleeve. I'm liking it, but I'm excited to start work on the back piece.
Sock 1 done...
I finished the first sock, I've cast on for the second one and have done about 10 rows of ribbing. I have a lot of things I want to work on, so I'll probably do this one a little at a time. I just realised how many projects I've done in the round recently. The first baby hat, the pinwheel blanket, the two shining stars, the beach cover, the sleeves for the shrug are done in the round...I'm by no means opposed to this, but I should find something flat to knit just for the sake of it! I've a distinct feeling that this will not happen soon since the other two things I've been hankering after are wristwarmers and gloves...even if I got around to doing that carry-all bag, that's done in the round too! I expect that these things will go in phases.
The beach cover
Here is is so far:
I'm doing it in the round on size 17 (12.75mm) needles...(yes, the snow melted and I was able to get them!) I've been going very slowly on it because I have had other things occupying me, but last night it made a huge jump in length and now I'm really excited about it. The main reason I was lethargic is because I was just guessing the cast-on based on a swatch done on straight needles (I know, I know, you shouldn't do that!) and I was afraid it wasn't going to fit me. So, last night I threaded a piece of waste yarn through the loops and took it off the needles so I could step into it. It's fine! So, now I know that, I can go forward.
Here is a better look at the lace stitch:
It is now going very consistently...the bottom has a few messups because some of the holes seem to travel a bit. I had considered starting again, but I sooo don't think anyone will ever notice and it probably is unaffected all in all. It looks a bit wobbly in that pic because it's very elastic yarn and, well, I couldn't be bothered to straighten it out for the purpose of this. Maybe when it's done, we'll see! I couldn't fall asleep last night because I was thinking about my next step already. I still have a ways to go with the skirt because I want it to cover my gelatnous thighs but I'm trying to fathom how I will do the top. I have some ideas, so later when I am allowed to obsess over knitting (right now, I should be studying) I will look at some patterns for guidance. I also want to do another test swatch to figure out my decreases for the waist/bodice. I might just switch to smaller needles and go from there, or I might do a few gather-like decreases. I must play with it.
Shining Stars
Ok, here is the first Shining Star. I think it took me over an hour and at least 10 tries to start this. My needles were big, heavy, shiny metal which just would NOT cooperate! Finally I caved and cast on the same way I did for the pinwheel blanket. I altered the bottom of the hat to add the pink ruffle. I did two rows of the brim in pink, and then just kfb'ed in all stitches for two rounds.
Side view: I like the laciness of the "rays". It was hard to get a good picture of this yarn because it was so shiny. I have no idea what yarn it is...I found it in my mother's stash, but if I were to guess, I'd say it's Caron Simply Soft. Yes, nasty acrylic...but this one is rather nice as far as acrylics go.
Now, for take two: observe the homemade mini knitting needles! These were fabulous, weightless, and very grabby...perfect for the tiny cast on! I must make more of these in different sizes because, hey, you never know. They're not oiled or anything, just sanded for now. But it was good enough. I worked with these until there were 8 or so stitches on each needle and then switched to the normal ones.
Top and side views of the boy's hat. Since the Bernat Cottontots worked out so well for the Anouk dress, I was anxious to work with it again. So, here it is in blueberry.
So, all in all, I love this pattern! I like working with DPN's, and starting at the top and increasing was pretty damn cool. I'd make this again, maybe in a larger size for my 9 year old cousin if she would like one. Something pretty and sparkly would suit her.
