An Ethereal Girl

"Some boys kiss me

Some boys hug me

I think they're ok

If they don't buy me lots of yarn

Then I just walk away"

I couldn't resist the pun on Madonna's Material Girl. Sorry.

Hot off the needles, it's finished! The Ethereal top is finished!

What'cha all think? I'm not wild about it, but I guess it's ok. It looks nothing like I had planned it to.
The sleeves are shorter, the body is much more fitted and there's no real stitch pattern to speak of.
Pattern Deets:
I used the basic instructions from Barbara Walkers Knitting From The Top and  the rest just kind of evolved as I went along. It has a square neck, and I tried to give it an empire waistline. I placed a couple of rows of purl stitches in two bands under the bust to create that and mirrored it at the hem and sleeve ends. Then I increased both sides every 5th round to make it flare out a bit. It's a good thing I did, otherwise it would have been too tight!
Overall, I suppose it's ok, but I'm a bit disappointed if I'm honest. I should be happy as I really did wing it, and it could have been so wrong, but I had hoped it would be a bit more flattering.

Whatever the result, it's ready in time for me to wear to the yarn tasting tomorrow night at This Is Knit. It's going to be so much fun! Samples of all the new season yarns, chatting with the girls, the book launch of Carol Feller's new book Contemporary Irish Knits, an appearance by Kate Davies the designer of the famous Owls sweater and the gorgeous Paper Dolls and special offers & prizes! I cannot wait.

Good Knitting!

Taking fugly to a new level

I'm sure you're all aware of this yarn:

Rico Can-Can. If you're not, then I envy you. This stuff has been taking the knitting world "by storm" recently. And by "storm", I mean not in a good way. It truly is evil stuff. But ladies of a certain demographic seem to love it. It produces a ruffle effect, and is mostly used for scarves like this:

Mm. Isn't is classy? Can't you see youself wearing this to all the hottest parties hosted by the Ambassador, or to the first night at the opera? Yeah. This is what the word fugly was invented for. Not a nice word, but apt all the same.

So how come I ended up with some in my stash? Granted it's not the real thing, but it the same thing. I have no idea what came over me the day I bought it. I call it "Only a fiver" syndrome. You know, when something is so cheap (e.g. only €5) that you just can't not buy it. It stank up my stash for a while as I tried to pretend it wasn't there. I should have gifted it to a charity shop I guess, but somehow I didn't, which worries me. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I was heading out to knit night and I had nothing I could bring with me. My Aeolian shawl is too complicated to knit while chatting, and I had no socks on the go (gasp). So I ran upstairs, opened the woolrobe and stuck my hand in. This is what came out. What could I do.

I cast on 9 sts and got going. It's a fiddly mother to knit with, let me tell you! Here's a link to a YouTube video on how to knit with it. I finished this in my Mam & Dads this morning, and my Mam went positively nuts for it! Bless her heart she thought it was only gorgeous. So I've decided to give it to her for her birthday in October.

As you can see, Alice has taken quite a shine to it too and has begged me to make one for her. Jeeze Louise, I have to make another one??? *sigh* A mothers lot is never an easy one. I have two more balls of it left, so I suppose I'll just look on it as stashbusting.

In other, more respectable knitty news, I cast on for a cardigan last week to go with my new dress.

The pattern is Decimal, from Knitty Spring 2009. I'm using some teal cotton I got recently for it. I think it's coming along nicely!

I also picked up my Ethereal top again. This one is going on too long for my liking. I'm about 75% done on one sleeve with one more to do then I'm done. I hope to have this finished soon. I'm also halfway through my Aeolian shawl. I've finished the main part and am ready to start the edging. According to the designer it uses 45% of the total yarn and I have half left so I'm good to go on the full edging version.

I'd like to have them both finished in time for this. This Is Knit is doing a yarn tasting and hosting the launch of Carol Feller's fantastic new book, Contemporary Irish Knits on Sept 8th. That's 12 days away. Hmm. Maybe I won't get the shawl done., but I really hope to have Ethereal done. I'd love to wear it to the party!

In sad news, my 6 weeks of bliss are over all too soon. Back to work on Monday. I haz a sad.

Good knitting!

The hard slog

This week has been a hard slog. I've been plugging away at this:



My Ethereal Top. I've gone beyone the empire waistband and am on the skirt. I struggled to find a stitch for it, so I decided to stay plain. I just did some purl bands for the waistline:



I don't know if you can see the two bands of purl stitches. I'm increasing 4 sts every 5 rounds to flare out the skirt part, I hope it will be enough to give it some flare. I'm not so sure, but I'm giving it a go!

It was Alice's birthday yesterday, she was 10. TEN! What the hell? A decade old? I have NO idea where those ten years have gone.
I made her Alton Browns Sour Cream Cheesecake from Good Eats. We love our cheesecake here. It was delish:



Needless to say, there's not much left!

Hubby is away until Friday, so I'm having a girly couple of nights. Slushy movies & tv await! Yipee!

Good knitting!

Speedy Knitting & Spring Cleaning

So I decided to give the blog a bit of a spring clean. Do you like the new look? Let me know what you think, and if you would prefer anything changed.

ándale ándale, arriba arriba! (as Speedy Gonzales would say). I knocked out this baby in a couple of hours last night & this morning.



I figured since I bought hubby the Kindle for his birthday I should make him a cover for it too.


Pattern: Cables for Kindles by Paulette Wright
Yarn: Araucania Nature Cotton, about 3/4 of a skein
Needles: 5mm dpns

A grand easy pattern, but knitting on such big dpns is a pain. Plus, I think I'm never going to find a way to prevent the loose stitches either side of cables. No matter what I try they always come out loose. Still, hubby loves it so it has done its job. :)

So I don't know if I said I'm off to Maastricht on Monday week for an EU seminar, but I am. I checked my wardrobe, and found it to be sorely lacking in decent respectable formal wear. I went to the shopping centre this morning to get some shirts and came home empty handed. It's SO hard to get decent larger size clothes in this bloody country. I'm going to look a right state when I go. :(
Right. Pity party over. This has steeled my resolve and I'm damn well going to finish the Ethereal top before I go so I can wear it and blow their Dutch socks off at the seminar. Oh yes.

While I was at the shops today, I found this cardigan on sale for €30. I love it. It drapes at the bottom a bit like Carol Fellers Adrift, but has long sleeves and lovely lacy stitch panels all over it. It's really fine knit. I tried to get some pictures of the stitch panels.

This is the sleeve cuff. You can also see a bit of the panel at the elbow:


This is the top of the back:



This is the front chest:



This is the empire waist at the back:



And this is the bottom front:



There's also a "buttonband" of the above stitch all around the front. Isn't it cool? It looks lovely and drapes really well. I wonder could I incorporate some of the panels into the Ethereal top? I might see if I can deconstruct the panels and try some of them out.

Good knitting!

Motivation

It's amazing what you can do when you're motivated.

I finished Dads socks on Thursday night, as planned. I was really delighted to get it done, and the pair were re-united this morning when I went round to Dads:


Pattern: Made up out of my head plain 64 stitch socks
Yarn: Zettl Zockenwolle Cortina
Needles: 2.5mm dpns

Talk about bargain socks. 4 balls of this yarn for €4.99 in Lidl, and these socks took a ball and a half. That's what, €2.50 for a pair of socks? I decided to photo them on Dads piano, as they are black & white (duh) but also because you may remember that the birthday card I made him was piano themed too. I like things to be matchy-matchy. It's the inner OCD in me.

Then I said I wanted to knit Alice a jumper for her teddy for her birthday on Tuesday. Done!


Pattern: Brother Bear One-Piece Sweater from the Knitting Pattern A Day Calendar 2011
Yarn: Random yellow acrylic from the stash
Needles: 5mm Knit Picks Options

I picked this pattern as the bear in the pattern photo is the very same as this one. This is Ben, one of Alice's bears who normally wears a wizard outfit to keep bad dreams away. I'm sure he'll be glad of the change of clothes, but he does look a bit like a bumble bee. Ah well, hopefully Alice will like it. That's two outfits for her bears now for her birthday. I'm happy with that.

So, what's left on my needles? The Ethereal top. Yeah. Not feeling the longing to take it up again, but I really should. I found these two patterns on Ravelry that gave me a couple of ideas for what I might do:
Liuhu Alpaca Tunic
Empire Waist Pullover

Sorry about the Rav links, but I don't know where else to link to them!
Hopefully I'll get it done soon, it'd be nice to have it to wear while it's still Spring like weather.

Oh, and I also found this pattern:
A nice Kindle Cover Ravlink Non RavLink for hubbys Kindle I got him for his birthday.
I have a skein of Araucania Nature Cotton I bought forever ago in a sale that should fit the bill. Maybe I'll do that first before the Ethereal top.....

Good knitting

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!

Busy Day (and more yarn)

Phew! Today was a busy day. Alice & I did loads!

First we went to the shopping centre where I tried to get new glasses, and failed miserably. Why are all glasses big thick frames nowadays? They make me look a right plonker. If anyone knows an optician in Dublin with a good selection, let me know!

We moved onwards to the bookstore where I got the new Simply Knitting magazine. I know, my third knitting magazine this week, but I am on holidays... I got Alice a card making magazine too.

Then we hit Penneys where I grabbed an absolutely gorgeous Owl umbrella that SheKnitUpThatBall found recently. I'm developing a bit of a thing for owls. The sheep won't be very pleased.

Then we went to the Bear Factory where Alice got a grooms outfit for her bears to match the bride outfit she has. I had made her a priests outfit before, so now she has the whole wedding ensemble! It's gas watching her marrying her bears, good job there's no bigamy laws for them!

We had a very naughty lunch in McDonalds (ssh), then I got coffee in Starbucks for home. A must have if there's to be a happy atmosphere. No coffee in morning = Godzilla Mammy.

After all that spending, you'd think I was done. Oh no. I decided that I needed to see some yarn so I headed to Springwools.



I will admit that I went primarily for this:



Lang Jawoll Magic sock yarn. Mmm. They have loads of lovely shades, but this one called to me, the fan of autumnal colours I am. It's lovely shades of brown to goldy-brown. Yum!

Things were going well. I had got what I wanted and was ready to go, but then I had another accident:



4 balls of King Cole Bamboo Cotton, 2 brown and 2 turquoise. In my defence, I have two babies coming up this year to knit for. I'm thinking stripy BSJ's. Also, we were talking on Twitter yesterday about cute colours for baby stuff that isn't traditional baby, and I remembered I love the colour combo of turquoise & brown. Gender neutral and flattering to almost everyone. I'm actually itching to cast on for one of these, it'd be a nice break from the Ethereal Top.

Alice found this, and I couldn't say no. She's such a huge Hello Kitty fan:



It's a kit to make a Hello Kitty hat. Aw. I'm such a sucker.

When we got home, after a quick cup of tea to refresh us, we got busy cardmaking. It's hubby & his sisters birthday next week. Being leap year babies (no, they're not twins, there's 8 years between them) they don't really have a birthday, but we use March 1. I got these kits in Michaels in Florida last year especially for them, as they both love to cook.

This one is for my sister-in-law:



And this one is for hubby:



Featuring his favourite kitchen appliance, his Kitchen Aid mixer. He's going to love it.
Alice is dead proud of them.

In Ethereal top news, I fixed the armholes! Yay me! I got enough done to try it on again, and it fits great now. Just another few inches of booring stocking stitch to go before I get to pick an empire waistline design. *sigh* No wonder I'm itching to cast on a BSJ.

In other non knitty news, tomorrow is voting day in our general election. I'm dreading thinking of who will be elected. If it's who the polls are saying, it's going to be really grim in work. Really grim. I'm very undecided, I don't think there's a clear alternative at all, but I do know one thing: I will be voting. It drives me mad when people don't exercise their vote, when so many people all over the world would die for the right to vote to select their government. At least that's one thing we can be thankful for here at the moment. So, USE YOUR VOTE!

Good knitting!

Making it Fit

I've been knitting up a storm the past few days, trying to get enough knit so I can try on my top and see how it fits. Sorry about these photos, they were taken by Alice.

Here's the front:



Sorry for the self-mauling, it's curling like a mad thing so I held it to show the length. I'm happy with the front, I think the neckline looks great. Exactly how I wanted it to look. There will be a border round the neckline so it won't be so wide.

Here's the back:



The back is grand, too. Fits nicely, not too loose or tight.

The one problem is the underarm:



Too big. WAY too big. *sigh* So, how did I fix it? I got out a favourite sweater and I measured it. I was actually surprised that it was smaller than I thought. Maybe I'm over estimating the size of my bust! Anyway, I measured away and then placed my work on top of the sweater. It was really obvious that the underarms were way too big. I checked the measurements and using my gauge figured out I needed to reduce the armholes by about 17 stitches each side.

I've ripped back and re-done the armholes. I can't try it on until I get a few more inches done, so I hope I've solved the problem. Then I have to pick a waistband design and a stitch pattern for the bottom. Back to work I go!

I was thinking of doing an in-depth review of Interweave Knits, from the point of view of pattern by pattern how much it would cost to knit, difficulty level and sizes provided etc. Would you be interested in reading a review like that? Let me know.

Good knitting!

Busy Busy!

I was thinking I'd been really busy this week, but now I look at the photos I've put up, I'm not so sure! It doesn't look like much, but it does represent some work...

First up, here's the beginnings of my new design. I decided to park hubby's idea and do this one first. He did a great drawing for me, so I won't forget!

I've decided to call this Ethereal, as the yarn is floaty light and I hope some of the lightness will rub off on me when I wear it!



Shocking stuff, huh? Yeah, not so much. I decided in the end to use the Drops Alpaca in my stash and to be a good girl. I love this yarn, but it's like knitting a jumper with laceweight; lots of knitting does not equal lots of inches of progress! I've done the shoulder shaping on the back and am working my way down to the armholes. The bottom of the picture (under the yarn roll) is the stitches I've put on another needle for the front. I'll probably do that tomorrow or Sunday, as I have to do the short row shaping in one go, otherwise I'll lose my place! Then it'll be plain sailing down to the armholes. (I hope).

At knitting group on Tuesday I saw some lovely dresses people had knit for their daughters/grand-daughters teddys. I know, I know, NO TOY KNITTING, but this is different. I'm not knitting the toy, but merely creating some accessories for it. Not to mention it'll be a damn sight cheaper than buying an outfit in The Bear Factory, it'll also look better too. It's Alice's birthday in just over a month, so I decided to make a dress for one of her animals. Meet Rose the bunny:



Now I know I just said I was making a dress, but I cast on 50 sts and ribbed and it was too small to fit over her damn arse, so I decided to make a matching hat too. Anything to avoid ripping back. See how I made holes for her ears to go through? I know, I'm a genius :D This knitting is strictly after Alice's bedtime knitting so she won't see it.

In other fantastic news, I got my prize from NerdyTogether today!



Rose was in the mood for more photos today. I freaking love this chain/necklace! I can't see the joins anywhere on the chain links, Amanda is one talented crafter! Thanks so much for my prize, I love it!

So, remember at the top of this post I was crowing how I'm being good and using stash yarn for my new top? Yeah.



I blame my brother for this. He's up visiting at the moment, and Dad asked me to buy a new duvet for his bed. This necessitated a visit to Lidl today. Ok, so I didn't have to go there, but in a way I'm glad I did! I was actually going to buy the duvet in another (more expensive) store, and popped into Lidl to see the yarn that went on offer yesterday. Hence the acquisition above, which I'll get to in a mo. Anyway, when I was there, what did I spy but an All Seasons Duvet (the ones with two layers) for a much cheaper price! So in a way, my buying yarn saved my Dad money. heh.

So the yarn above is called Senibel. I know, means nothing to me either, except that it's a knock off version of Rico CanCan. This stuff is apparently the latest "craze" yarn. It's kinda like netting, and when you knit it up it turns ruffly. I just wanted to try it out to see what the fuss was all about, and this stuff from Lidl is way cheaper than the real McCoy. If it turns out mad, sure I can always donate it.

So, a longer post than I thought, maybe I was right, I have been busy!

Good knitting!