Thursday, May 19, 2011

Knitting progress

I got the tank top blocked, and I'm feeling rather pleased with it now. And it's in good time to be parcelled up ready for posting off to my nephew.

I've also made some progress with Isabella - got the back and the front done now, and have three-needle-bind-offed them together. Still think this is impressively fast considering it's 4ply yarn. I love the stripes and the way the colours work! Just the sleeves to go now, but I might put them on hold for a while whilst I tackle some other project(s). I've used almost two whole balls of the yarn now, so have one ball left to do the sleeves. Not sure if this will be enough or not (the whole jumper was supposed to take 300g for my size, but I have made the body slightly longer). But, I'm not overly keen on long sleeves, and I'm thinking about using my kitchen scales to divide the ball in half before I start them, so it will probably be OK. This is why I did the picking up stitches and knitted the neck already so I knew I just had the sleeves left to knit.

And my summer 2011 copy of Interweave Knits has arrived. Some really nice patterns this time.
 I've realised that although I often admire the IK patterns, I've never actually knitted one. Possibly because it's harder to get the yarn called for in the pattern over here, and although I don't mind subbing, it's harder with an American pattern because sport/DK/worsted/aran tend to not quite match up. I have bought some yarn in the past for IK patterns, just not knitted it up yet though, so I should probably do something about that. (The yarn was for the Essential Cardigan, bought whilst we were on honeymoon, oops nearly a year ago now!).

Anyway, this time round, I really like the Coral Cardigan and Greenhouse Tank.


And the Adriatic Cardi.
The Dockside Cardigan is really cool.

And I also like the Pebble and Reed Tunic, but forgot to take a photo. The Swirl Skirt is cool too, but I'm not sure if I'd wear a knitted skirt?

I suppose I could write down all the yarn requirements and take them with me when we go on our second honeymoon (coming up shortly, to the same place as our first honeymoon!) I might find a yarn shop (or six) to visit? Just like on the first honeymoon! Because that would be really sensible to arrive at a yarn shop knowing how much yarn I might need for a pattern...

5 comments:

Desiree said...

Just a short message to tell you that I love your blog, I've been reading it for about 2 years now. Ashamed to say I've never left a comment, but I also want to thank you for the reading tips. At the moment I'm reading Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant, and I love it. Enjoy your 2nd honeymoon :-). Desiree

Mary Anne said...

You have been busy with the knitting and both the tank top and jumper are impressive. I can see you have your second honeymoon well in hand for the knitting expeditions (and hard to believe it's been a year already!).

Victoria T said...

Busy, busy girl! We are discussing where we will go for our one-year anniversary, but aren't sure we'll go back to the same place. We went to a state park, and as our anniversary is in August, and August is the hottest month here.... hm! We may wait until late October to take an anniversary trip!

Anyway, all of those patterns look great. And your projects look great too! I haven't yet knit a garment (other than socks), but would like to someday. I have a hard time finding sweaters that fit me well, so I think making my own is wise.

erasercarver said...

Lovely to see what you've been knitting recently, very nice knits. Definitely a good idea to turn up at a yarn shop with all the requirements you have - I'm never that organised!

Liz said...

Two lovely projects! A third of the yarn should definitely be enough for slim sleeves - the rule of thumb for a reasonably straightforward sweater is a third for the back, a third for the front, and a third for the sleeves with a bit more for neckbands etc., but I see you've already got that done!