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August 28 A proper design!Okay so I originally set off to make a plain top down ragaln vneck pullover from my green cotton that I used for the cabled sweater that I ripped out last week some stage. Well all that changed yesterday. Actually it changed in the first couple of rows I started the sweater on becuase I changed Vneck to princess cut, or whatever its called, you know the square cut in look?... So alright everything was going great I was 8.5 inches into it and I thought I dont want it just plain stocking stich all the way down Im going to go for a bottom half design... all knitting got set to the side and I pulled out my Ultimate Sourcebook of Knitting and Crochet Stitches and had a look at all the lace ones they had. I selected a couple different ones and in my very serious stern face/voice I said to Mark "you have to help me decide which one of these you think will look best" Everything was great he HELPED ME!!!! And we both decided on one out of the like 6 I originally picked. So the next day I casted on the stitches and started swatching to see if I really did love the way it was going to look after about 4 repeats I hated it. Alright not a problem! So I went back to my book looked some more wrote down what I wanted and then I looked more into the book and found panels... hmmm I thought theres a possibility that I didnt think of, instead of having an all over the bottom design lets break it up into sections but only use one panel design and then have that also go down the center of the arm... Oh that would look lovely! So I picked out ONE panel that I instantly fell in love with and all over lace effect was forgotten about!
So last night after working in the day on test swatch I ripped out the 8.5 inches I had worked on for the past two days balled it back up and casted BACK on so that I could place the panel down the center of the arm. Luckily my gauge for the panel was SLIGHTLY and I do mean SLIGHTLY over the gauge for the whole sweater. That means not much thinking was needed on my part! :)
Dont worry when I measured it I had that all the way stretched out!.. anyways as you can see theres a weaving like vine that goes up the center but as the whole pattern is worked over 24 stithced I decided to just do the weaving vine until I managed all 24 stitches on the needles so it looks like this now: And as its a panel they said the best thing to make it pop is put it on reverse stocking stich background so Ive given it a 3 stitch boarder each side. Thats going to be the center panel for the sleeve. Im already in love with the sweater! :) You can also so the easy slope for the front neck in the picture Ive not got it deep enough to connect thats why you dont see it all in the round just yet... There it is all planned out using for the very first time since I got it probably 9 (if not more) months ago in my Stitch n Bitch Knitters Design Journal. The Ultimate Sourcebook of Knitting and Crochet Stitches do not have grids of the stitches so I translated the written (which I do prefer for the first go round) over to the grided paper As you can see that took a bit of redoing! OOPS! I pened it in before taking markers to colour it in. I prefer it that way so I can see what colour is coming for when Im sitting in a rather dimly lit bedroom while watching telly... And once I drew it on the the girl (in green for the yarn!) I fell in love with it even more.. silly I realise but it helped me picture it even more. Not to mention I have the test swatch sitting on her half of the page while I knit to make sure its looking correct. This is my first actual planed out sweater I really am ever so proud of it. We will see once its all finished if I want to crochet a picot edge to it or not I know its going to need something around the neck line Im just not sure WHAT at the moment! And to finish off here is the full sweater (all about 3.5 in!) and book in all their glory Oh yeah as a side note, I was thinking of putting a center panel down the back but I thought doing that would ruin the sweater. I think I am right and am soooo glad that I didnt do that now! :) The panel pattern is called "Spiral and Eyelet Panel" Basic Top Down Raglan formula was found from http://www.woolworks.org/patterns/raglan.html August 25 I love wool!I got my parcel yesterday from Getknitted.com I just love them btw! So polite and speedy!!!
I was very excited even though I missed the postman due to our doorbell batteries being dead, I swear I just put them in there the day before and they were working! oh well I think its more our doorbell doesnt like us.. ANYWAYS!! I couldnt wait until I got home that I ended up walking down the street opening it up! Good think I only live 5 minute walk from the post office.. :)
So heres a picture of it all together (its not much, but its mine!!)
I actually have more of the alpca but I thought 3 was enough to show off. :) closer inspection of the stash... 2 balls of purple Rowan 4ply cotton shade 127 if you wanted to know its slightly more lavender in person then on my screen but thats going to be turned into some socks me thinks! :) 10 balls of Aresano Alpaca Inca Cloud in Charcoal (I think it MAY be shade #10) Ive got enough hopefully to make a simple v neck sweater for myself. Ive never felt Alpaca before, OMG I think I am in love!! Its so soft!! I cant stop petting it!!! 2 balls of Rowan 4ply Soft. I know that Rowan 40 has some socks using 4ply soft but thats not what I will be making (obviously as the pattern calls for 4 balls not 2!) I have issues with knee high socks since I have fat calfs so instead Im going to find a nice sock pattern online for these. And I will probably end up using 2 circular needles instead of 4 dpns... but we will see how I feel when the time comes. :) Now this is Noro Ganpi Abaka Surabu (if you can say that properly bless your sweet cotton socks because I know I cant!!) I have only 1 hank of this its 235 meters and 50 grams. I was planning on making a hat but not feeling it until now I have changed my mind!! as you can see its rather different... feels like a mix of paper and plastic. Its 40% Ganpi Abaka and 60% Rayon. They say use it to make belts scarves and other accesories on getknitted but I wouldnt make a scarf out of this stuff! Its softish but I think I would find it highly irritating around my neck. So I am thinking instead of making a bag out of it... we will see.. Ill sit and play with it a bit more before I make final plans for it. So theres my newest stash enhancement photos. :) I am very happy with them. Im not going to start any of it yet because Im knitting the green cotton from the ripped out sweater into a new sweater. I started it as a top down Vneck ragaln but instead its turned into a princess cut top down ragaln and I am thinking of making the bottom half lace like with big juliet flowing sleeves. Im not entirely sure yet we will see!! This is my first ever pattern free top down sweater Im making as well. Slightly nervous in making this but hey the worst that will happen is I have to rip back! Ive already done it once it wont hurt so bad if I have to do it again! haha. :) Alright speaking of that Im off to knit a couple more rows on it, I gotta get out a needle and yarn as well as I want to try this sucker on and see how its looking so far, mind you I havent even finished the top yolk bit thingy yet but I justwant to see how its looking... you know, the whole excitement bit!! :) August 23 rippit rippitThere I was yesterday knitting away on the sleeve of the green cabled sweater when I thought lets just check to make sure this is going right so I knitted half a row so that I would then be able to wrap the knitting around my arm and to my horror it was TIGHT not just a little but like trying to get into a wet suit tight! (I have never gotten into a wet suit mind you, but Ive seen it on tv and they look rather small and hard to get into and make sucking noises when coming off, my sweater made no noise but was still tight!) So then I thought oh thats easy Ill just knit them longer but wider becuase if they are longer then that means Ill fitinto the sleeve and just have a LONG sleeve, thats alright with me! But hold on, if the sleeve is already tight whats the body like??? So I pin the shoulders together as a good person should and fling it over my head then I appeared to have ANOTHER problem.. no I didnt prick myself in the eye with the pins as amusing as that would have been for you guys... I could hold one side together with my hands but could get the other side under my arms, alright I thought Im just not bend enough to get my hand to grab them... so I go for mid stomach area, now I dont claim to be some stick thin model, pictures prove that I aint! But the stupid sweater was so tight as using a phrase my step father once used on me, I looked like a rolled pork sasuage.... Now I knitted the sweater to the higher stated size which was something like 4 inches to big I took off A COUPLE of stitches to bring it down to about 2.5 inches to big and the thing was like 6 inches TO SMALL!!!! SOOOOOOOOOO I knew I werent going to gain 3 inches in the front and 3inches in the back with blocking is so I spent yesterday afternoon ripping out my sweater.. am I mad? yes and no.... yes that I swatched adn I should have been alright but wasnt and no becuase after knitting on it since before summer Im sick of the sweater and probably wouldnt have worn it to begin with... I suppose thats why it was so easy to rip it out... I still have a couple more balls to wind up and then gotta figure out something to do with it all and whatever I do decide to make its going to be nice!!! :)
On Monday I ordered some more stuff from getknitted 10 balls of Alpca in a charcoal grey colour, 4 balls of rowan soft 2 blue and 2 purple for I think some socks to lounge around the house in. :) Hopefully Ill knit those and then a skein of Noro Ganpi Abaka Surabu shade 52, its a brown toned one, not sure yet what thats going to be but Ill figure something out. :) I sent the money off for that and its been posted to me today so hopefully tomorrow if not friday I should recieve that keep me busy for a bit... :)
alright going to go rippit some more. :) August 17 Madeline Pics and cookiesThis will be an image heavy post... :) Youve been warned! HAHA
First off heres my finished Madeline Shawl Jacket in its blocked and worn state. :) I jumped on top *not literaly* of Mark when he came in tonight smiled sweetly and handed him the camera and said stand over there and take pictures of me please... Hes slowly getting the whole lets take pictures of my knitting but he still thinks Im nuts I am sure of it... :)
I was laughing at him... I think he pulled a face I cant remember now what exactly he did... But ooo look how pretty the cuffs come down over my wrists... :) and I have figured out that its not meant to sit ontop of your shoulders as much as it perfers to WRAP around your shoulders..... the quicker I learned that the better I was.. but its ever so warm and lovely!
It hangs down to my knees in the back... Im not sure if thats over blocking or if perhaps I should have done the body a couple rows shorter... to be honest though I like it! :)
Oh look some Amerrato because I finished I decided to get drunk.. hehe okay I had a shot of it and that was all I made cookies tonight and 2 shots went into the cookie mix.....
MMMM cookie mix!! Green and Blacks organic dark cooking chocolate melted down and dumped into there along with the ameretto and some white chocolate chips.... I said I wanted to be Miss Suzy Homemaker tonight so I was! I think I will make some fresh bread next week....
Ready to go into the oven and make some yummie cookies now....
Baking like all good cookies should!
MMMMM Fresh homemade cookies right out the oven... Careful they are hot dont want you to burn yourself!! In highschool whenever there was some sort of holiday or some reason to have a party in school I was always begged to make and bring in some chocolate chip cookies, and I always did... I never took any home... :) Everyone else who brought in stuff 9 times out of 10 ended up taking most of it back home with them.... Now over here during christmas I have Marks niece and nephews asking me to make my chocolate chip cookies and bring them with us when we come! HAHA Mark makes some as well, or should I say he puts stuff in them for me to make for him! I dont mind they are usually very good.. I think this christmas I may take plain choc chip cookies and these chocolate white chip ameretto (I know Ive changed my spelling over that I dont know how its spelled and to lazy to look it up!) cookies..... and of course I cant forget to make a sweet potato pie.... I realise I live in England now and should get used to christmas pudding but I cant stand the stuff! so I gotta take a pie that I like.... I love baking... knitting and books and moviesI realise I still havent had pictures taken of the finished and blocked Madeline Shawl Jacket and I will... but with the weather crappy as it has been by the time Mark gets home theres just not enough light to take a good picture to show off the brilliance of the jacket.. I can promise you all though that I have wron it out a couple of times now. I had it on when I was out earlier today as well!! :) I had an american lady from Los Angles who was here in town visiting friends make comment on the jacket and how she thought it was beautiful. Now thats the sort of compliments I like!! :) I started chatting to her of course being an american myself I get a kick out of it when I run into others! :) I offered that she get the peanut butter kitkat as well because they are so yummie... like I said to her, its peanutbutter and its chocolate, were can you go wrong mixing the two together???? HAHAHAHA
So now that Madeline is done Ive been only working on my green cabled sweater from Interweave knits Summer 2005! I FINALLY finished the front and have started on the first sleeve, the cuff knitted up rather quickly and Ive worked the first repeat of the main pattern on it already as well... Hopefully I sit still long enough to finish the sleeve rather quickly and then be a good girl and knit the other one... I would like to have this finished! HAHA I started it before summer officially began in hopes to have it finished by the end of summer... Well with the way the weathers been, summers over! and Im not finished with the sweater, OOPS! So Im going to patiently knit on it and finish it because I would like to wear it! :) Even if I am starting to think the colour I picked out was a slightly bad choice I dont care! I still like it and I still want to wear it, so what if it will probably make me look like Im sick.... I obviously am hoping that it WONT but I have a feeling it MIGHT!
Oh yeah I FINALLY seen Memoirs of a Geisha, I really enjoyed that movie!!! Beautiful! I suppose reading the book made me enjoy it just a bit more Im not sure.. After reading the book I tried finding The Geisha of Goin and couldnt do it. I knew I was wrong in passing it up when I had seen it in Tescos way before reading Memoirs.... So anyways today I had to run into HMV and there it was sitting nicely on the shelf by the counter screaming my name so I got it... as well as it was only 3£ for that price I can never turn down a book.. Im a sucker!.... I didnt get what I wanted originally from HMV but I got me a book so it was worth it... Now just to find time to read that book because if I read I dont knit... hmm not to mention I also have Jodi Picoults Perfect Match that I want to read along with LOADS of other books.... I suppose Ill get bored of knitting this sweater and take a break but Im trying not to do that! YIKES! I just need to learn to read and knit at the same time, I mean I can watch tv/movie and knit, why not read as well?? Probably because I have to hold the book open! And I cant do that while holding my knitting needles... hmm..
Speaking of holding onto needles, I found something out last night... It hurts to knit when you have just burnt the tip of your thumb!!! No matter how much you try NOT to use your thumb, you do and it makes you want to cry.... I suppose the smartest thing to do is NOT burn your thumb but I was trying to check my chicken, I swore I had the dish towel in my hand, well I did, just it werent covering my thumb at teh time! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH Its better today, slightly sensitive and its nice and SMOOTH and WHITE, which Im not sure is a good thing, but at least theres not a HUGE blister so thats why Ive been able to knit today! :) And now Im off to do that after writting up a book myself.... August 10 ITS DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I FINISHED IT!!! I finished at 6.44pm but of course I then had to weave/cut the ends a bit and sweet talk my sweetie into taking pictures of me.... okay so here it is on and unblocked.... Im going to be blocking it here soon. :) The front: The Back: August 09 Do you like cuffs?I like cuffs at the moment! :) Because thats where I am at on my second sleeve! Now I reckon Id be finishing it up today had I not slept all day yesterday and managed NO knitting at all!! I blame the sleeping all day long on having rather rubbish night sleeps and waking up rather early and going to bed rather late.... but anyways enough of excuses! Im about to start the sleeve cuff I reckon the rest of tonight and a good bash on it tomorrow and I should have a finished jacket that only needs to be blocked! :)
Now Im in a slight pickle! Becuase I reckon my sleeves are slightly to short for my liking but I also know that it needs to be blocked and that lace stretches so Im thinking of holding off until after its blocked to make my final decision (I know I know I can hear everyone yelling I should have knit a tension square!)...
Today I won a copy of Memoirs of a Geisha off of ebay and I shall be going to post that tomorrow Im also hoping that I get my copy of Jewel Peices of You CD in the mail tomorrow I also won that off of ebay. :) As I have to go into town tomorrow I am also going to order me a copy of Rowan 40, and a copy of Interweave Knits, and possibly some sock yarn, why? I dont know I never finish socks! But I would like to make a footie thingy so that I can get some nice dress shoes for once... only problem with that is that I am going to find some like slipper sticker stopper thingies.... yeah yeah yeah Im wierd but I cant wear leather based (or any other slippery material) its all got to be canvas style bottom shoes... ugh!... so anyways I might order some sock yarn.. will have a think tomorrow when I put in my order...
Right now I updated on the jacket and rambled on so now I am going to get off and start my sleeve cuff. :) August 05 Faster than the speed of light...Okay maybe not THAT fast, but it is knitting FAST! Im already to the sleeve edge... I started to knit one of the triangles this morning and half way through I realised that the k2tog's were leaving the seam on the outside and now the inside! YIKES! So I ripped it out which wasnt to bad considering it was only like 4 tiny rows! I put it to the side as I had to get myself sorted and run into town for a couple of things like all important food for lunch and dinner so we dont starve!
So anyways I was thinking about my knitting while doing my shopping and realised I just have to go left to right instead of right to left so that my seam is on the inside... easily done and shouldnt make a blind bit of difference to the look of the sleeve either. :) its only ensuring that I have a wicked jacket once finished! I keep trying it on as well and I cant WAIT until I have it all finished!! Of course I still have to finish this edge and then knit the other sleeve, as its pretty boring progress for pictures Ill just post one when its finished otherwise I may bore you to tears of pictures of black garter stitch that in all honesty is not interesting...
Btw, while I was in town I picked up 2 movies the orginal King Kong 5£ and Casablanca 7£ for a grand total of 12£ I thought that was a real good deal I got them in Woolworths some sort of sale or another on SOME of their DVD's I had a look at the other ones but I thought they were either really crap or we already had owned them... Still cant beat the original King Kong and Casablanca for 12£.... Ill have to watch Casablanca over the next couple of days... now all I need is Gone With The Wind.. heheh.... August 04 Sleeve it to me baby.....The yarn arrived today from getknitted.... So this morning I finished the last k2tog on the armhole shaping of the green cabled sweater Im working on and started the sleeves on my madeline jacket! FINALLY!!! Im so happy to be starting them! Ive done the 3in and then the decreases and now Im to knit until its 10in long then its finishing the lacey bits to it.... Hopefully I should be able to get the 10in done quickly I want to wear this jacket already! :)
Im not sure how much Ill be able to knit this weekend as its going ot be a busy weekend... doing what Im not sure but our weekends always seem to be busy and am unable to get LOADS of knitting done like I am during the week, perhaps that has to do more with Mark being home and me relaxing with him then actually doing things... :)
Anyways off to go knit a couple more rounds to my sleeve when theres something worth showing on it Ill show it off. :) August 02 Green Cabled Sweater...Its nearly there! :)
I did 20 rows today on it which means Ive knit 2,840 stitches.. When I say I have only done 20 rows I feel like I havent done much. Now that Ive done the maths for it, I know Ive done a fair bit! :) Im 8 rows 1,136 stitches away from shaping for the arm holes but Im getting tired now and have stopped knitting for the day so I will sort those out tomorrow...
Ive emailed off for the fake a gamo back found here: http://knitlit.blogspot.com/
I dont know why... I dont really use bags but I kind of like this one in a slouchy messy kind of way.... So I requested it, recieved it, and I will eventually get around to knitting it. Im slightly thinking of doing one for my sister and send for her birthday but then that means taking time out of my knitting to knit for her. and ya know what when it comes to my knitting I am slightly stuck up and its all about me me me! HAHAA But we will see.... I got other stuff to day.. maybe shell get it for christmas.. hmmm....
Hopefully tomorrow the yarn for my Madeline jacket turns up so I can start the arms... but then I would like to get my cabled sweater done as well.... not that either will get much wearing.. acutally today it would have... and yesterday so bring on the yarn! Ill wear it! :)
Right Im off to go finish watching Sea Watch had to take a break after they showed a shark caught up in a fishing net that nearly died.... and the poor leather back turtle that died from eating a load of plastic bags.... I really wish they offered paper bags over here.. you can recycle those so much easier becuase round here they moan if you stick plastic in the recycling bin.. I do it anyways... sorry but it can be recycled! UGH! August 01 Promised PicturesThese arent the best pictures in the world... They will however have to do because at the moment its cloudy and I cant never get good artificial light, as well as black is horrible to try and photo! Anyways heres me pictures of the jacket so far... Ive posted off the money for the wool so I figure it should get here by the weekend..... fingers crossed! :)
There it is in all its unblocked glory with armholes opened! :) Once I block it, hopefully the curling on the ends of the triangles will have stopped! :) A picture of the center motif once again.. so pretty. :) And the edge in all its unblocked glory as well... :) Cant wait to have this all finished and sorted for wearing.. VERY excited, and I do say I think its beautiful so far! :) *Anna, dont worry I wouldnt rip all of this out, my mind may say DO IT but my heart and hands wouldnt let me do it... I luv it to much already!* |
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