Serial Project Starter

I planned on just working on my Iceland sweater but I couldn't help myself! My friend is having twins (a boy and a girl) so I just had to cast something on for them! I am knitting his and hers Baby Yoda Sweaters (the proud parents are big Star Wars fans!). I am knitting them in Patons Washed Haze, each in a different shade of green.

This is proving very simple and quick to knit. There is very little shaping involved, which is great, so hopefully they won't interfere too much with my sweater!

I have also cast on Bud Baby Booties from Let's Knit! Issue #1. The girl's version is knit in Patons Fairytale DK, I'm not sure what the boy's will be in but I think I have a few balls of baby DK sitting in my stash. My friend says she expects knitted booties from me for the twins, so I felt I should oblige! She's 22 weeks gone, since she is having twins, I'm giving myself 10 weeks to get the baby things finished as twins tend to be early. The Baby Yoda Sweaters are rather big, so they might not actually be suitable for the twins from birth if they are smaller than a normal newborn but at least they will have something to grow into.

I haven't made a huge amount of progress with my Iceland Sweater. I was having problems with the stitch pattern and couldn't get past row three. I eventually worked out where I was going wrong (after frogging it 5 times!) and have now completed one repeat of the pattern. I think it's looking good. I'm just waiting for the yarn for K's sweater to arrive (it really should be here by now, I should have just brought it back from the UK with me) but I think I will have to hide it when it arrives as K says I have to knit it fast and I'm not allowed to work on anything else! Right, like that's ever going to happen!

More Swap Bot

I'm signed up for a few more yarn related on Swap Bot.

I knitted this little cup cozy for my Knitter's Treasure swap partner. It's called Hugger and is from Let's Knit Issue 1.



I have also knitted Portia from Louisa Harding's Venezia recently.


Nothing to report on my Iceland sweater. Hubby now wants me to knit him the Rugged sweater from Rowan 42 and says when the yarn arrives I'm not allowed to knit anything except for that and he wants it done in a week! He'll be lucky. I will have to hide the yarn and say it's been delayed in the post!

Finished!

I finished my Debbie Bliss Francesca bolero from the Rialto book! I am pretty chuffed with it at the moment. I was a little worried after I finished knitting the ribbed edging as it was bunching up a bit where I picked up the stitches and wasn't hanging properly and I thought I may have to redo it. Then I thought to myself 'hey, I know what I should do - block'. I have never blocked anything before (such a rebel!) and was skeptical as to what effect it would have on my strange looking knitting. I vow I will now block everything!

(Sorry about the picture, I was so excited that I just had to take the photo and get it up as soon as I could).

Now to cast on the Portia hat by Louisa Harding in Venezia.

Lots of Stitches

My Debbie Bliss Bolero is coming along nicely. I did think that I was almost finished until I realised that I have to pick up 408 stitches around the entire edge and knit 34 rounds of ribbing, that could take me a while *sigh*. I'm determined to get it finished within the next couple of days. The cast off is also really fiddly as I have to cast off with a crochet hook and crochet at the same time (I'm not the best with a crochet hook) to create a picot edge. It does look pretty and I'm glad I've done it as I did consider doing a normal cast off but I think it looks much better this way. I'm just not looking forward to casting off all 408 stitches of the body!

I have some pictures of some of my Christmas presents. Having a mother who works in a yarn store means I always get spoiled with knitting goodies for birthdays and Christmas!

I got this really cute cupcake tape measure. I just hope I don't lose it as I have a habit of losing them all the time, either that or my cat eats them, which is why I have to have retractable ones. There are lots of different types of these. She gave me a sheep one to pass on to the owner of my LYS, Tricolaine, as she loves all things sheep.

Something I got which is more cool than cute are these fantastic Knitlite knitting needles that light up, how cool is that??! I imagine they will actually be quite useful when working with dark coloured yarn. They are surprisingly light but are a bit bendy. I haven't used them yet, they're 5.5mm, which isn't a size that I use that often but I will have to find something as I want to give them a go!

I went off to my Stitch 'n' Bitch group last night, all ready to show off my goodies but I arrived to find that Starbucks was closed, grr. If I had been on time, I probably would have been able to see if they went elsewhere but never mind, there's always next week and by then I should have finished my bolero, yay!

Christmas is Over

Well, Christmas is over and I managed to get all of my Christmas knitting finished. I was particularly pleased with the Snowflake Slippers. I only finished them yesterday, but they are going back to england with my mum for my brother. I can't remember the yarn I used as I lost the ball band, but it was an aran weight wool from Manor. I used an aran weight on 5mm needles as the pattern was only sized for children or women. The thicker yarn and larger needles worked perfectly. I just hope he likes them!

I was also pleased with the socks I made for my mum's partner, which I designed myself as I sent along. It's the first time I have ever knitted cables and I was pleased with how they turned out and I managed to get them finished first thing Christmas morning after having to undo my toe grafting the night before because I had grafted them vertically instead of horizontally! I guess I must have been pretty tired!

Lastly there were my mum's Synesthesia Socks. They turned out OK but I did make quite a few mistakes on them. I knitted the heel wrong and there seem to be some extra holes in the pattern. Mum mum still loved them and has worn them about 3 times already! I've been trying to teach her to knit socks but she just doesn't seem to have the patience. I know that she can do it but she doesn't seem to see the point to it all! I have to say that I have gone off knitting socks for just a little while!

Now that my Christmas knitting is over I can finally do some knitting for myself. I have started to make good progress with my Debbie Bliss Rialto bolero and I hope to have that finished in a week or so. Also, I finally got my Rowan Cocoon in Shale so I can knit the Iceland jumper from Rowan magazine #42! I have been waiting since before my birthday for this yarn but neither my mum or the knitting shop in Carouge have been able to get hold of it. As soon as I finish my bolero I will be casting that on.

I have a little more time on my hands to knit now as I lost my job a couple of days ago, I was working on a temporary contract and they have decided not to renew it, which is a bit of the pain as I could do with the money but I didn't like it there too much and I have been a bit poorly lately too, so at least now I have some time to get better. If I can get my confidence up enough I will go and teach English for a while as the hours are flexible so I can look after my health and by bank balance at the same time!

Knitting Pal and Knitting Socks

I got *the* most beautiful parcel yesterday from my Swap Bot Secret Knitting Pal. It came from Italy and contained 17 (yes, *17*!) balls of Italian yarns, a pattern book and some other little things that my partner knew I would adore from reading my profile, I am so lucky! I can't believe she sent me so much yarn! I will have lots of fun trying to think of new projects!

It was so nice to get the package yesterday as I was feeling a little down in the dumps, not to mention a little hungover but I managed to drag myself out of the apartment in the rain to go and collect it from the post office. I was really surprised when I saw how big the box was, so I knew that I was in for a treat.

I also got a good response to the package that I sent out as part of the swap, I'm so glad she liked what I sent her.

I can't believe it's only 2 weeks until Christmas now. I'm still not doing too well with my Christmas presents. I've only done a small part of Nigel's socks, I just hope that I can get them done in time and I still need to finish off my mum's gift. I'm making up the pattern for Nigel's socks as I go along. If they turn out well, I will post the pattern. It's just a simple cable and rib pattern. At least I have the hot-water bottle cover finished so hope to get that in the post next week.

Quick slipper vent

Ohh, I'm so annoyed, I was just 12 rows from finishing my Snowflake Slippers when I realised at some point during knitting the top of the slipper I forgot to turn my short row so the top of the slipper ended up at the side. I ended pulling out the whole slipper in anger! How irritating.....