M.I.A.

It appears I have gone missing again. I can't believe it's been almost a week since my last post. Sorry! Since I went back to work on Monday I've been mad busy. I also apologise to bloggers whose posts I haven't commented on. I promise to do it soon, honest!

I have gotten some knitting done, though:


Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann (all hail)
Yarn: King Cole Bamboo Cotton, 1 skein brown, about 3/4 skein turquoise
Needles: 4mm Knit Picks Options

I adore this pattern. It never ceases to amaze me how it turns out every time.
This is my first attempt at striping, I think it looks great! I did modify it a little bit, I used an Icord bind off at the end, joined the shoulders using 3 needle Icord and ran the icord around the neck. I think it gives it a much nicer finish. All I need to do now is find some cool buttons and it's all set! I started this on Saturday night and had the knitting done on Sunday. I cast off and icorded on Monday night. The icording took me as long as the jacket did to knit! Looks great though, I'm pleased with it.

I managed to finish the top part of the Ethereal top too:



I'm all ready to start the empire waistband. Yeah. I swatched and swatched and swatched trying to pick a nice stitch pattern for the bodice. Every one of the stitches I tried looked pants in the Drops Alpaca. It's so fine that it doesn't really have much stitch definition. I must have swatched half the stitch patterns in the Barbara Walker treasuries. Very frustrating. I put it down in a sulk and did the BSJ instead to give myself a break from it.

But, last night at knit night I got some brilliant ideas! Thanks girls! They put their thinking caps on, and this is more or less what they came up with:



Pardon the crappy drawing, I'm certainly no artist. Basically it looks kinda like an Irish Dancing costume :) I'm going to do some smocking at the waistband and then do panels of purl stitches which will be where the increases are to make the skirt flare out and in between will be panels of a nice cable stitch. I went through my treasuries again last night, and I have some more swatching to do to decide which smocking type stitch and which cable stitch to use. Ideally I want the cable to sort of flow out of the smocking, if you know what I mean. I'm re-invigorated about it now!

I also have another magazine review to do, Designer Knitting Winter 2010/11. That's Vogue knitting for you folks across the pond. I hope to do that this weekend, but here's a quick sneak peek at one of the patterns:



*swoon* I LOVE this pattern! The minute I saw it my heart beat a bit faster. Then I looked and saw it was Norah Gaughan and I said to myself "I should have known"! I adore Norah as a designer. Isn't it just breathtaking? Le sigh.

Good knitting!

Surprise, baby!

From this:

To this!

I think this pattern is amazing. When you're knitting it it's all over the place, but two simple folds at the end and it's a super cute baby jacket and the only seaming is at the shoulders! EZ was a total genius. Aren't the buttons cure too?

This is part two of my charity knitting, part one was three really cute petal baby bibs from One Skein, that I forgot to take a picture of! I'll have to make some more so I can get a shot of them. They were really quick, about a night each.

I've almost turned the heel on my long languishing Jaywalkers. I got 5 1/2 hours knitting on and off done on Saturday as I had to bring my Mother to hospital. Her ring finger had swollen up and I had to get her wedding, engagement and eternity rings cut off. A horrible experience. I felt so sorry for her, she was really upset and ikn a lot of pain. I've told her I can get them repaired in the jewellers, but now the rings have gone missing. I think she may have thrown them in the bin not realising what they were, and forgotten. I went through the small bin this morning (ugh) but no sign, so it looks like I may have to tackle the wheelie bin. Plus my Dad is very sick with a tummy bug since Thursday. I got him to miss playing the organ for mass yesterday as this week is probably his busiest week of the year in the Chruch, with Easter. I really hope he gets well soon, it's taken a lot out of him.

In slightly better news, it's the school holidays!!! woot! I'm off for two whole weeks of fun. Although the weather had better improve, it's lashed rain here all day.
Kids bored + rain <> happy Mammy. (sorry, nerdy programmer peeking through there)

I tried out the sewing maching at the weekend too. I bought a bed sheet to practice on before destroying the lovely fabric, but something appears wrong with the machine. It doesn't sew thread every time it goes through the fabric. It seems to skip a few holes, then sew one or two then skip another bunch. Unsure why this is, or how to find a solution.

I've decided to cast on for the Good Stripe Dress too. Swatching at the moment, hopefully all goes well!

Enjoy the rest of your week! I must resist the urge to visit a yarn store now I have the time to go during the day...