Tweed + Cables = Love

Despite having been confined to the couch for the last 24 hours, I've managed to make a little progress on my Martha Cardigan, with the back now finished. 

While the pattern itself is easy to follow and very well written, I got somewhat confused when I had to continue the cabling beyond the arm shaping as I had to fiddle with my odd number of stitches.  Nonetheless, after a lot of frogging, re-reading, re-calculating, and reknitting, the back was completed - but not without some niggling "i could've finished the front by now" thoughts!

And while I'd love to continue sitting on the couch while knitting to endless episodes of gossip girl and grey's anatomy, my boyfriend's parents are staying with us for the weekend so I have to be useful and get things prepped. *sigh*.

Oh how I wish it was just me and the couch...

PS. Check out that little widget on the bottom of my right column... it tells you all the knitting books that are being released, and their release dates. Genius!

Thicket : The road home

For the last 36 hours, I've been feeling like a squashed mushroom on the side of the road, sick with a fever and a flu, and yet, despite feeling so sick, have had to catch three planes in the last three days. NOT a recipe for getting better :(

As soon as I got home, I did the mandatory "coughing-on-the-boyfriend-to-share-the-germs" thing and then basically collapsed onto the couch. To my surprise though, there was a little envelope waiting for me addressed from Thicket. 

As I opened it, out propped three remnants of Jo Sharp yarn, a free pattern and a little note from the lovely ladies at the store. 

[In the photo (from back to front): Alpaca Silk Georgette, Summer Soho DK, Summer Soho DK]

While Thicket don't have an entirely large range of yarn, I just wanted to give them a little free press by saying that they have been absolutely delightful in their customer service, happy to field lots of questions, and the best thing of all - happy to help with pattern interpretation! 

So anyways, if you have a chance, pop over to www.thicket.com.au , join up on their mailing list, and support a very lovely online LYS :) 

Hello Martha!

Following my "colour" purchase recently of 5 balls of Grignasco Tango, i embarked on a little mission to find a summer cardigan to knit. The only characteristic that I wanted from my cardigan was that it had to look nice in a tweedy yarn.

What better option than to search for patterns using Rowan Felted Tweed - almost the exact composition as the Tango that I bought.

I hit jackpot! 5 balls of Rowan Felted Tweed is needed for Sarah Hatton's Martha Cardigan, featured in Rowan Studio 2 , which is exactly the same amount that I had in my little stash.


So I've cast on, and the yarn is knitting up similarly to the colour I used for my Patti Cardigan, and I'm so looking forward to seeing how it goes! It's also been awhile since I've knitted using cable needles, but I do hope it's like riding a bike.. that is, once you get back on, it comes naturally.

Colours vs. Neutrals

I was looking through my yarn stash the other day when I realized that I really only knit in a few colours - red, teal and purple. And then I looked in my wardrobe, and realized all my clothes were either grey, pink, white, or black. Where did this dissociation between my real life wardrobe, and my knitting wardrobe come from? At what point did they become two separate beings?

Take case 1 - the non-coloured wardrobe... From a functional point of view, my normal wardrobe means that everything can be easily matched, and can take me from day to night. Everything matches with grey, white or black , and the colour infused by my pinks means that I don't just look corporate, dull, or uncreative everyday.

Case 2 - My knitting wardrobe however, is awashed with colour. The only "neutrals" i have comes in the form of a scarf, and even then, that was more to do with stash busting than purposeful knitting.

Reason? After a bit of pondering, I came to realize that the reason why I don't knit in blacks or neutrals too often comes down to a few reasons.

1. Blacks and greys - I can purchase these in abundance at any store that I frequent. Knits in these colours are everywhere during the winter months, and knitting in colour allows me to a bit more creative.
2. Knitting in colour often emphasises a pattern's details more than neutrals do. For example, when knitting cables, it is often easier to see the detail on coloured backgrounds, than on a black background (the exclusion being in whites and creams).
   
3. I knit because I enjoy it. I don't knit for the sole purpose of having something to wear. If I were to knit for the latter, it would be much easier, and immediately gratifying if i just went to the shops and bought something. Knitting in colour therefore is a bit more of a 'fantasy' thing, and is all the more enjoyable because of the previous two reasons.
   

So anyways, blabbering aside.... I went to my LYS again and picked out 5 balls of Grignasco Tango (again) in a blue colourway. Hopefully something enjoyable will be knit from it ;)

Oh knitting inspiration .. where are thee?

I'm stuck.

I have three pages of queued projects in Ravelry, and no inkling to knit any of them.

I'm looking for inspiration. I'm looking for something to knit. And my hands are getting fidgety.

Anyways, I went to my LYS the other day and picked up three balls of Grignasco Tango in a lovely red tweed colour hoping it would inspire me to knit something.
I tried a scarf, and didn't like the way it knitted up. I tried to look at cardis, but don't have enough yarn for it. I tried a beanie, but realized I didn't want to use three balls of lovely red tweed on a beanie I would hardly ever wear. So i'm stuck. Stuck in square one again. *sigh*.

Oh well , at least the yarn is nice to look at.

FO: Global Warming

Project details:
Pattern: Global Warming, by Suvi S. Ravelry link here


Yarn: Merino et soie, 10 ply Shade 107 which is a reddish pink colour. It is slightly heathery with lighter bits of pink running through it. I used 5 balls of yarn, with a bit left over from the fifth ball. The yarn was fabulous to knit with - the merino was soft and lovely, while the silk made it smooth and easy to work with. I'd definitely use this yarn again - especially since we find it quite hard to get 10ply here in Australia!


Needles: Denise Interchangeables, size 5.00mm. My gauge was slightly too big at 19.5st per 4"/10cm, which accounted for my sweater being less than fitted around the waist.

Comments and Modifications: The sweater is constructed in a raglan bottom up manner, with the sleeves worked separately first and then joined to the sweater after bind off.

The pattern is easy to follow (however, if you are an absolute beginner, you might want to work out the raglan decreases first as the instructions aren't very clear in that respect), and the sweater a cinch to knit.


Unfortunately , there is not much shaping involved in the sweater (not counting the raglan decreases), and unless you are fairly flat from bust all the way to hips, you might want to add some in for a more fitted shapely look.

The sweater is also very short. I put on an extra 4 ribbing rows but still found it too short in the end so if you are planning to knit this, you might want to add a full 5cm of ribbing before starting the stockinette area (or similar).

The puffed sleeves are very cute, but would have been cuter if they were "puffier".

Lastly, in Villapeikko's original, she has a very cute little kangaroo pocket at the front. While I did make the pocket, I didn't end up sewing it on because my sweater was too short and the placement of the pocket would've drawn too much attention to the tummy area.

In the end, I dont think this fits me as well as I would've liked, and I think i'll give this one to my sis.

Pink stockinette..

Whenever I knit something, I almost feel as if I *need* to post a WIP entry / picture so that if ever I feel the need to go back to a project, then at least I have my ongoing and current thoughts on the project to help me confirm/unconfirm my decision.

On the flipside, there are some projects that just don't really require a WIP entry as there's not much to it. Case in point? Global Warming - the cute little puffed sleeve, kangaroo pocket pullover. I tried to take some interesting WIP photos of it, but given that it's just ribbing and stockinette, was not very successful. You see, ribbing and stockinette just don't make for very exciting entries. Nor do raglans really...

However, in keeping with my "need" to post that WIP entry, here is a dull shot of the ribbing/stockinette...

Hopefully an FO won't be too long given that I'm up to the neckline bindoff and finishing (i haven't really tried it on though, so hopefully it'll fit).