Sleeves to go

Work on the mottled blue jumper is progressing, though slower than usual due to other priorities (non craft related). The back and front are finished and one sleeve has been started. One thing that I didn't consider when re-designing from rib to stocking stitch was that the front "overlap" would curl. D'oh. It's salvagable without having to re-knit the whole piece, just annoying that I only thought of the consequences halfway through the second front neck section. Managed to restrain myself at Spotlight today - even with Jet, Inca and Caressa Express on sale. Must finish other projects before buying more for the stash.

The "brainless" knitting project is also coming along - about 20cm so far. This is the easily portable scarf in the multicolour self-striping wool. Would definitely use the stitch combo again on a scarf in nicer wool as it knits up prettily.

Piggle MkII

It's being given away today, so I thought I'd better take a photo (or two). Knitted in Cleckheaton 8ply country in a pinky mauve colour. Photo above with flash, below without.

60's makeover

Ok, so I didn't quite manage to finish anything off before I started on the jumper made out of blue mandorla (pictured above). I couldn't find anything that grabbed me, so went searching back through the old knitting patterns (I inherited both my mother's and nanna's knitting patterns and I have a fantastic selection from the 30's through to late 80's, especially the early 60's stuff when mum was at the height of her knitting). Waaalaaah! Change a fisherman's rib collared pullover to stocking stitch without a rib edge, keep the toggle neck opening & wide collar and a modern style emerges!
What's even better is that you knit this on 7mm needles so it knits up really quickly. Have finished the back and I'm up to the neck shaping on the front now (though that's lower than usual).

I've also finished Piggle Mk II - knitted on 3.75mm needles with Cleackheaton country 8ply. Much nicer to work with. Have also planned a few small mitten/beanie projects as pressies so have bought 2 balls each of Cleackheaton country 8ply in a light green, mauve & grey. Also bought a bunch of enormous diameter needles to play around with for scarves. And 2 balls of a mottled acrylic/wool mix called 'Spell' which is meant to be self-striping. Have started a kids scarf in Andelusian stitch to try that out and it seems to be working, though the proportion of acrylic is too high for my taste. The colours are really cute though.

The finished summer cardi

Finished the crochet etc last night... Here is the cardi:

I'm quite happy with the end result but would not knit sleeves in the round again. Hopefully after a few washes, that will even out a bit.

Photos - recent and historical finished projects

The piggle Mk1 (above), the blue jumper knitted at Uni (before I learned mattress or running stitch method for sewing up seams - below)

The summer cardi in white cotton knitted at Uni with tulip pattern detail close up below.

Cardi knitting finished

The actual knitting part of the white cotton cardi is finished. I ended up using a variant of old fan lace (from Nicky Epstein's Knitting on the edge book) to give the bottom edge some interest (it's knitted from the neck down...). Now I just need to crochet around the front & neck, weave in the ends and it's done. Will definitely need to block the cardi - which will also be a first as i am a bit slack about that usually. I'm a bit nervous about the crochet as I'm nowhere near as neat or as confident with crochet as I am with knitting.

Photos of the finished project to follow...

Also rummaging around in my jumper drawer, I came across the summer cardi and the plain winter jumper I made for myself when I was at Uni. Need to take photos of these + the piggle Mk I and post them up.

Must finish next piggle and then move onto cleaning up some of the old projects...

Knitting history

I thought if I were to make this a proper record I should add the older stuff. Completed between 2002-2006:

Large photo: pink jumper for 3yr old - Pattern from Patons, in Totem.

Small photos (down):

Red mittens in Cleckheaton 8ply wool

Blue jumper in Cleckheaton 12 ply wool (for 3yr old)

Feathers beanie and 8ply fingerless gloves

Ladies pink jumper in Paton's Jet (pattern from Paton's Jet book)

Men's red jumper in Cleckheaton 8ply wool (pattern from Magnum classics, modified to fit)

Girl's pink/purple jumper in Paton's Caressa (pattern from Cleckheaton macro classics, modified with lace edging)

There's also a number of things made & given away before I took photos including many pairs of mittens, a light green mohair beret, a girl's cardigan in navy blue , boy's vest in blue. Must see if anyone has any photos of them...