FO: Ribbed Lace Bolero

After my disappointing morning in Boulder looking for the LYS, I managed to find the telephone number of the LYS in the directory and discovered that they had moved a few shops down and across the street. How blind I was! So I promptly went back, and bought myself some little wool needles to seam my almost FO's. Here's one of them.... the Ribbed Lace Bolero

Recognise the shot? It appears I've run out of photography ideas with me myself and the camera. If only I had a little tripod or something, then you wouldn't have identical photos all the time to look at !

Project Details:

Pattern: The pattern is Ribbed Lace Bolero, by Kelly Maher, available here

Yarn: Bendigo Woollen Mills, 10 ply Aran in Woodrose. I had originally ordered 3 balls for what was going to be a Phildar sweater, but having changed my mind, I knitted up my little pink vest with 1.5 balls and needed a stash buster. It wasn't as stash busting as I hoped, and I used about 1 ball of yarn with about 0.5 to 2/3 left of yarn.

Needles: I used US 8 and US 10.5 as per the pattern. The pattern shows you how to calculate cast on for your shoulder width based on your gauge, so I just used the required needles.

Comments and Modifications: My shoulder width is 16 inches wide (i think?) + 8 inches for the sleeves and my gauge was 4 per inch. Therefore, I cast on 94 stitches to begin with.

I read the lace pattern wrong and was doing all kinds of funny things, but after re-reading, I finally understood my error.

The pattern is extremely easy to follow, and takes absolutely no time whatsover. I think it took all of 3 days of knitting to finish the knitting part.

My only issue with it is that my sleeves are a little bit loose on my arms. I'm going to seam it a bit higher and hope that works, but otherwise, I will block it and hope it shrinks just a wee little bit. All in all, a very easy free pattern, and great for stash busting!

Stuck here with nothing to do...

So, I'm here in Kalgoorlie on my third day of doing absolutely nothing, and I am literally doing absolutely nothing. And I don't like it. My bf reckons I'm addicted to being busy, and to work, but really, I just like to keep busy and have the time go by.

Here in kalgoorlie, it is currently 38 degrees celcius (more than 100F by American standards though I'm not quite sure what the actual reading is), and I have no knitting left to do. I finished the knitting parts of both my socks, and the ribbed lace bolero, and only need to block/seam them up - which I haven't been able to do because my little drive to the LYS came up short given that they had relocated - to where, I do not know!

[ Just need to graft the last sock part ]

[ just need to block and seam this - the lace pattern makes the whole thing twist to one side.. hopefully blocking with make it straight again ]

Anyways, because Quan is so busy with his project at the moment, I have to keep myself occupied. I might go to the local Kmart or Target and see if they have any knitting supplies available. Wish me luck! (Otherwise it's going be to a very SLOW three days!)

Fruits of labour

My workmate makes beautiful jewellery, but because I am not a big fan of metal against my skin (yes, i've been told i'm rather odd.. ) I always marvelled and played when she brought stuff in, but never ever purchased.

Then one day I decided to ask if she would make me some stitch markers.. Being a non-knitter, she had no idea what they were and spent awhile researching them and asking me how many were in a "set", what they were used for, what I'd like etc...

The conversation was left at that for awhile, but yesterday she came in and presented the stitch markers she had made for me! Knowing that I loved sets, and adorable things, she picked out a little fruit set..

I thought they were sooo lovely, that I've decided to order myself a few more sets (not just of fruits, but other ones) and I'll be sending these off to my secret pal (i'm pretty sure she doesn't read this blog, so i'm safe for now!). Hopefully she'll get her second package sometime next week.

Besides that, I've only done some basic knitting - simple ribbing, simple stitches, no seaming, no finishing. I've cast on for Kelly Maher's Ribbed Lace Bolero as a stashbuster for my Woodrose coloured aran yarn leftover from my little pink vest (An FO I keep meaning to blog about but haven't yet done).. I love the colour, the pattern is simple, and it's going so fast!!

Anyways, this is my last week at work and then I'll have one month off before taking up my new role. I'm really looking forward to that time, and I'm pretty sure there will be lots of knitting to be had *WOOT*