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Yes! I've managed to knit as much as I had planned to knit for March.
I finished the second half of chart 7, and am now decreasing down the charts again. Chart 6 is finished (all seven rows!) and I'm a third of the way through chart 5. Then there's two little charts and the last biggie one.
Chart seven knitted twice.
and the total progress so far.
Still looking good!
ld
Pattern: Moonstone by Jean Moss
Yarn: Manos Silk Blend, about 3.5 skeins
Needles: 3.5mm
Started 1st March, finished 27th March.
Modifications: Longer sleeves, longer length (by about 2"), 4 buttons instead of 3 to accommodate the extra length.
I can knit anything and don't normally moan about patterns, but this pattern really annoyed me right from the start. Nothing major. I'm a mattress stitch person, so I ignored the instructions for knitting a selvedge stitch and then using backstitch for seaming. Why knit the bottom border in one piece, and then divide for back and fronts, so you have extra seams to seam and bits flapping around? Wish my brain had been engaged when I followed that instruction blindly. The shoulder shaping has you k7, put on holder, knit to end, knit 1 row, k8, put on holder ... it's a short of short rowing but without wrapping and using holders! Blah! And then you cast off! I did normal short rows and wrapping, and a 3 needle cast off. I couldn't even understand the weird collar instructions (which seemed to have an error over ws/rs. Did my own thing!
And if that wasn't bad enough, my tension was out (silly me ignored my tension square and went with measuring it on the needles, a few rows after finishing lace bit and decreasing), so it's about 3" of negative ease!
Mind you, that negative ease has helped with the sleeve caps, which were really baggy and I thought I'd have to redo them. They're still not 100%, but I can live with them.
On the plus side, the yarn, Manos silk blend, is lovely to knit with, and it's wonderful to wear.
This is my third garment for IntSweMoDo2010, so I'm keeping up!
Because these are the two things I've been working on since Friday.
Moonstone knitting is done. I knitted and finished both sleeves over the weekend. I loathe knitting two sleeves at once, but am so pleased when both are finished together. I didn't fancy elbow length sleeves an a warmish cardigan, so I've made them bracelet length.
Monday evening I started the collar, a quick bit of knitting, but the instructions are so confusing that I just did my own thing. Same with the shoulder shaping. Have you ever heard of 'knit 7 sts, put on holder, knit to end of row and back. knit 8 sts, put on holder...' a sort of short row shaping, minus the wraps, and then she has you cast off. If I'm doing short row shoulder shaping, I'm doing a 3 needle cast off! Can you tell that I'm not at all impressed with this pattern? Why not knit the body in one piece up thte armholes as well?
The front bands have a knitted facing, which has to be stitched down, and the buttonholes are twh thicknesses, so have to be stitched together. Just rather fiddly, which is why I'm procrastinating about finishing it. I've just had enough! I'm going to have a few evenings break and concentrate on other knitting. See if I can get the motivation to finish it.
This is a late night shot of the cardigan, a bit blurred. I tried on (half) of the cardigan last night and am not impressed with the fit of the sleeve cap! it looks baggy and horrible and doesn't fit me properly. I will finish seaming and then try on the cardigan again, fingers crossed it looks alright! On ravelry all of the projects look great!
Ulmus is going well. It's my carry along knitting, very easy slip stitch pattern (once you get around the confusion of the chart). It's just a k3, sl1 wyif pattern. I like the way it's knitting up and am very pleased with the colour combinations I went with.
Again, this is with a flash. The colours are a little deeper than shown. Greens and blues/pruples. No yellow (as on my monitor).
I fully intend getting back to my third shawl, Creatures of the Sunless Sea, next week, otherwise this may change to UFO status!
Oh, and I cast on another garment last night. There'll be no problems with the setting in of sleeves, because it's a top down cardigan. Knitting Pure & Simple's Neckdown Wrap Cardigan # 263. A bit of plain, mindless knitting. I'm using Dream in Color, Deep Seaflower (I think, the label's not with the wound ball!). It's a blue/purple mix, lovely.
this brings the number of WIPs up to a grand total of six! A pair of socks (on hold), a scarf, two shawls and two garments. Yikes.
Although I manage a pair a month, I feel like I'm not knitting many socks these days. The 12 garments and 10 shawls this year seem to be taking their toll!
My favourite socks to wear tend to be fairly plain, but they're a bit boring to knit!
Pattern: top down plain socks with a 2x2 ribbing, heel flap and gusset, 2.25mm needles/
Started about 15th February, finished 17th March.
Yarn: Austermann Step in bright stripes (I had no idea!)
It's taken me a month to knit these, but they were just commuting and carry along knitting, so not bacl. I've even managed to get the stripes to match!
I'm leaving Mr C to do man things this weekend (beer, tv, Dave, sport, vodka, late nights, takeaways) whilst I go and visit the family. Knitting will be the sleeves of Moonstone (which I'm going to knit two at a time, and make full length not elbow length) and Ulmus. Hope to get a stack of knitting done!
I have reached the half way point! Ok, I'm excluding the side borders and the extra chart on the other half, but it's a psychological milestone. The centre chart (half of it) is very quick, a few evening's work.
A close up of the central piece. It's a bit scrunched up of course, being unblocked.
I've had a break this week, and have spent the past few evenings playing with colour variations for Ulmus.
My first choice was this:
The green Casbah in the middle and the green and yellow koigu on the right. I didn't like it on Monday morning when I had a look in daylight.- a lot of yellow flashing going on.
My second attempt was with the same green Casbah but with some Fleece Artist Sea Wool in Peridot. It's a light sage green colour. The photo this morning showed it as a mucky grey colour - which is how the two mixed together. Horrible.
Last night I started my third attempt and I'm much happier. It's the green plus some NuMi (I think, label is MIA) in purples.
Not a great photo, it was early and I had to use the flash, but I'm relieved to have reached a decison after three wasted knitting evenings!
That means I have 2 pairs of socks, 2 shawls, 1 scarf, 1 garment on the needles - and I'm about to start another garment, better watch out or I'll be in double figures!
It's coming along.
Back, one front and the other one up to the armholes. I had to frog this second front because the skein had quite a lot of white bits. I tried to fool myself all afternoon that it was ok, but the more I kitted the more obvious the white bits.
I already have the next garment lined up! Knitting friend Jill pointed me to Yarn Harlot's post about her Knitting Pure & Simple neck down wrap cardigan. Yes, I have the pattern, and some Dream in Color Classy. Ravelry did the rest! Stay tuned! I may start this before working the sleeves on Moonstone!
Ulmus is also on the list! Brigid very kindly brought both Ulmus and Daybreak and they're gorgeous! She's knitted daybreak in Kureyon rather than a sock weight yarn, and it's fabulous. I did a bit of stash diving this afternoon and have settled on two Ulmus combinations. I think I'll stick with safe colour combinations, and go for tonal rather than contrasting colours.
First choice, the skein on the left is Malabrigo and the skein on the right might well be but I've lost hte label. Browns and greens.
The middle skein is Casbah, a little bit of stash enhancement yesterday! The rest are koigu. Although theo ne on the left doesn't quite match, there's a common blue-green, but I prefer the green and yellow mix.
Not sure yet which one I'll start yet!
Did 51 rows this past weekend, so I'm past the halfway mark (of the front!) and now into the repeat of Chart 7. It was much easier to work in a daylight, on a bright day! I do like this chart, just get annoyed at how many balls of yarn it uses (about 16!) so they're scattered on the table and on the floor, makes a real mess!
Mr KF had a few surprises in store at the end of this chart - some of the colour patches had a colour change, very subtle but I nearly missed them!
and the scarf so far.
Still enjoying the knitting!
My third garment for IntSweMoDo2010! It's Moonstone, by Jean Moss, pubished in one of the UK knitter's magazines, but also available as a pattern leaflet for Manos.
It's knitted in one piece for the feather and fan border, then you divide for the back and fronts, and knit the rest in st st. The front border is just the st st, with a knitted facing.
The front bands have a knitted facing which is stitched down. My first thoughts were that I wouldn't do this, but I quite like the solid look (and it stops the dreaded curl). I'm joining the seams with mattress stitch, so will be not be doing a selvage stitch. There's a bit of confusion when you divide for the back and fronts as well. Can't say I'm smitten by the pattern instructions, they seem quite old fashioned to me, telling me to do a selvage stitch and back stitch and oh, I need straight needles for the plain knitting. Weird.
Anyway, here she is! It;s Manos Silk Blend, from stash again. Lovely to knit with.
After finishing the feather and fan bit I divided for the back, and had a sickening moment on Firday evening when I decided that my tension was waaaaayyy out! 18 instead of 22. I very nearly started over, but decided to try a smaller needle and tighter knitting. Bingo! It's spot on now I think I was a little premature in measuring the tension, just a few rows after the lace bit and after a 25% decrease which probably spread out the stitches a little bit. In fact, my tension might be a little bit more tha 22 stitches now!
Pooling a little bit, but not too much. I'm hoping that this will be an easy knit from now on. Working St st in Manos silk blend is lovely!
The last time I went home I managed to measure (vaguely) my 17month old niece. She stood still long enough for me to draw around her foot too. Motivation enough to pick up the knitting needles and knit her some socks and a cardigan.
Toddler socks:
The yarn is regia, used about 30g. I cast on 40 stitches, did a 1x1 ribbing for the cuff, a 3x1 ribbing for the leg, short row heel (the heel flap and gusset looked a bit ridiculous!) and plain foot. I must get these in the post before she grows!
And a lovely cardigan, the Ribbon Edged Cardigan by Debbie Bliss, without the ribbon.
I used about 31/2 skeins of baby cashmerino. I (shock, horror!) knitted the 9-12 month size instead of the 1-2 years size! Her measurements were so much smaller! I was a bit dubious about going down this much but having looked at the Sublime baby books (sooooo gorgeous) their sizes for Miss E's age were a bit more accurate. This is a caridigan for NOW. I'm not worried that she'll outgrow it in a few months, as long as she can use it for Spring.
Um, the shoulder seams are even! It's the way I've laid the cardigan down!
Love the colour and this pattern is great for a girly cardigan. I also like the beaded cardigan in this book, but there's no way I'll sew on all of those beads! If I do knit that one I'll insert the beads with a crochet hook. If nothing else, I'd be paranoid about the beads coming off and being eaten!
Ah, the joy of taking photos on a wet day! Not a great one from last Sunday, but I had to lay the stole on a wet path, didn't want to get it too dirty!
Chart D finished on Saturday evening, photo taken Sunday morning.
From the bottom (excluding the bottom edging) we have:
Razorfish, berried anenome, rought skate, fangjaw, glass squid and baby rough skate.
The repeat of Chart C is more fangjaw (I think!)
Chart E is hagfish and squash lobster, and then we have dewdrops.
And I managed, in just one evening, to finish this border. Terminology is a bit confusing, but the stole is made up of edgings, border and central panel. That's the bit I'll be working on next (well half of it) and then it's the other end. If the knitting goes well (no frogging or tinking back) I can get quite a bit done in one session).
Now this will look fabulous when it's blocked, at the moment it's just a crumpled bit of lace knitting.
