A sleeve, then collar

A quick update:
Blue mandorla - I finished off the first sleeve last night and cast on the second. Once that's done, need to work out exactly how I'm going to manage the collar...
Stripey scarf - it's getting longer, quite like the pattern & stripe combo...
White cardi - fits the recipient who then managed to get green texta on it - washable green texta at least. It worked very well with her pink dress over white leggings combo - very cute.

Have been doing a bit of sewing - a ballet slipper bag and a frock for miss, taking up trousers so I can actually wear them, plans for a few new bits & bobs...

Busyness other than knitting

Haven't made much headway in the last couple of weeks... Cast on the first sleeve of the mandorla jumper and have done approx 10cm of it! It's a big project to lug about though, so the far more portable scarf has been growing steadily. Must finish one before starting anything else.

Have a big bunch of mending to do as well. That must get done this weekend - it's supposed to be miserable weather so hopefully there will be some opportunity for sorting it all out. May even drag out the sewing machine and make some tops & skirts out of the material I bought ages ago.

Lots of ideas swirling about in my head at the moment but the general busy-ness has swamped motivation. I'm sure the tide will turn again soon...

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.