Monday 30 April 2007

Zip-Along

I've been merrily working away on the zip-along that Melody posted about on the forum. I used Sirdar pattern 8830 & used 3 x 100g balls of Sirdar Spree. I've never inserted a zip in my life & found Chicknits Zipper Tuturial invaluable.

Here we go, all ready...

Front edges basted together with waste yarn:

Zip pinned in position, needed a bit of 'tweaking' on the right sides to get it in the correct position:

The zip is now tacked into position:

Finished! I spent about 2 hours altogether including the hand-stitching. I've since been out & bought a new machine as mine was donkeys years old & has completely died (probably due to neglect!)


And here is the happy recipient, my 3yr old. As long as her knits are pink, she's generally very happy!


Thursday 26 April 2007

Martha & me!

Here she is, all ready to wear, this was taken indoors, so the colour is not 'true'.

I dug out my best (only) frock for these shots, dh has told me to get a professional photographer next time, as I'm too picky! This is more like the real colour:

I lengthened the cuffs by 1" & worked less straight rows to compensate, as I liked the longer lacy bit! I pinned the points out on the lacy bits & I'm pleased with how they now lie flat.



I found the little buttons at my local indoor market, a snip at just 15p each!

Wednesday 18 April 2007

My Friend Martha!

I've got a new friend, her name is Martha!! I'm glad the Sublime are 'Rowanising' their patterns by calling them by women's names! I've loved every minute of this knit. The yarn sheds a little bit, & tickles my nose when I'm knitting with it! I'm working the garter stitch bands (yawn!) at the moment & hope to finish those today.

I'm not sure how to block the lacy bits, they're curling upwards at the moment. I might try & flare them out a bit to make the most of the pattern. The one in the book, doesn't look as if it's been blocked at all, it's still curling.

Wednesday 11 April 2007

S.E.X. for Socks!

I've had a splurge on sock yarn this week. I found these on ebay.de, the only place to go for sock yarn imo! They are abo/development yarns by Opal. I've no idea if they'll go into production, or what they'll knit up like, but I'm going to have fun finding out! Some of them have even got TEAL in them, how exciting is that LOL! A few are a bit masculine & as I don't do socks for the males over 13 in my house, I might have to sell those few. The colours look a bit wishy-washy as this was taken in the sun, they're more vibrant in real life.


Ivy is Completed!

I've been waiting since Saturday for dh to get a piccie of this & here it is, all finished. I've enjoyed this project & will be making another one, one day! The colour is most 'true' in the top picture.



I had to undo loads of rows of the ties as they were way too long! For the sleeves, I went straight in at 69sts & just did one lot of decreases as I didn't want them too flared. I grafted the neckband together & I'm quite pleased with the finished result. My very first me-sized knit using dk, but I'm already working on the next thing, I'm hooked!

Thursday 5 April 2007

Ivy Progress

Here she is, all ready for sewing. I finished the ties for this on Tuesday & boy did my fingers ache afterwards!!! I've never blocked anything before sewing up so, hopefully I got the pieces all the same size! These were taken at night, it's not quite as dark as the pics suggest. Hoping to start sewing up today, now it's all dry.




For anyone pondering on the instructions for the fronts, here's what I did. I had 3 columns on a sheet of A4, headed up - front decreases, front increases, sleeve decreases. I then went through the pattern & wrote down the row numbers under the relevant column, that each inc/dec would appear on. On the same page, I also wrote down the twisted rib instructions for the 10sts, so I had those to hand aswell. That way, I only had to glance across each column to see where I was at, it worked for me!! I also had 2 row counters going, one for the total row count, the other for the twisted rib sets of 6!

I've been itching to cast on the Martha cardi, but I want to get this out of the way first & I needed to give my achey fingers a day off!


Tuesday 3 April 2007

Cor Su-blimey!!

I'm soo excited, the postie just landed with a scrummy bag...here's what was inside...


It must be eye-candy Tuesday, this is too much excitement for one day. This little lot came from Wolle Hartmuth. It's all Sublime Angora Merino & I have, 550g of Chilli, 600g of Clover, 570g of Dusky & a lonely ball of Husk (well I couldn't leave it on its' own!). 2 of the balls even have ball-bands, in case I was ever in doubt as to what it was! Some of the balls have visible knots & are different weights, but that doesn't worry me.

I can't believe the price I've got this for, 34 balls for £54.00 & that includes delivery! If I'd got this over here, it would have set me back £170 & frankly, it would be out of my price-range! This is the kind of price I like to pay for my S.E.X.!!!!!!!!!!

I've got the Angora book & first up is going to be the Martha Cardigan, in the Dusky blue I think, but not sure, it might be Clover or Chilli LOL! I also want to make the Pirouette Wrap Top. I've got 7 balls of Chalky blue from a previous order to make that!

I'm building up quite a stash (ie mountain) of Sublime (yes, there's more!!)

Ivy is almost complete, just the ties to make (I might cheat & try some ribbon first!!!) & half of one neckband to finish, then I can attack this lot!