Woo Hoo

I don't think that I've been so happy to finish a project in a long time. But then again, this is probably the biggest project I've ever knitted. And I wasn't too keen on the colours ( my sister's choice). Having said all that, I'm delighted with the way this mitred square blanket turned out.


I pretty much designed it myself after seeing a photo of a similar blanket on Ravelry. The yarn is Jaeger Extra Fine Merino DK in colours Rose petal (982), Cream (931), Natural (937) and Ocean (940). I was one ball of Rose Petal short so I substituted a ball of Rowan Extra Fine Merino DK in pale pink which was a pretty good match (the square knitted with it doesn't really jump out and sock you between the eyes - second from left, bottom row, below). I used a 4.5mm needle throughout.


Here are the techi bits - I cast on 55 stitches per side, per square and decreased two stitches in the middle every second row. I picked up stitches for subsequent squares whenever possible to minimise seaming. I seamed when necessary using double crochet stitch. The blanket is just over 6 feet square.


I picked up the stitches for the border on 4 circular needles. There are 1320 stitches in the border! This meant over an hour per round!
It's off to it's new home with my sister on Sunday... and I can cast on for something new...

Celestine

This was a very quick little project to occupy some time while I was waiting for yarn to arrive.


It's an dodecahedral star, knitted modularly and stuffed with toy stuffing before finishing the last point. The pattern is Celestine Sox. I used Regia Bamboo Colour sock yarn and 2.25mm needles.


I modified the pattern slightly (as ever) in that I used a provisional cast-on and then just released stitches from the life-line as I knitted the subsequent pentagons, instead of picking up stitches.


It was a really quick knit - about four evenings total and will make a great baby gift which should have a much longer useful life than a jacket or jumper because as the baby grows and becomes mobile, the star can be kicked about and chased. Each point is just about the right size for a small hand to grasp.

I have several friends having babies over the coming months, so I can see quite a few of these in my immediate future.

In my life outside of all things yarney, the Resident Radiologist and I have been making the most of the few dry, sunny, weekend, autumn days that have come our way in recent weeks by getting out onto the hills around Glasgow. A couple of weekends ago we did the Queen's View walk to the Whangie and back over the hill.

(That's Loch Lomond in the distance).


We'd been this way before but not managed to find the Whangie, which you would think was pretty strange, as a 50 foot high rock formation isn't the easiest thing to miss.


This time we realised why. I was actually standing on top of Auchineden, about 8 feet away from the top of this craggy drop before I could actually see it.

The formation is pretty amazing and is supposed to give some weird echoes if you get the spot just right.

Warning...

... this post contains a real live (knitted) FO!

My knitting has actually taken off a bit lately with progress being made on several fronts. Funnily enough, this was precipitated by running out of yarn on the major WIP I was working on, and being forced to diversify a bit.

Here is my (finally) finished Gathered Pullover by Hana Jason in Interweave Knits Winter 2007.


This was started in Feb '08 (I think) but languished without arms in my WIP box all summer. I just couldn't work out what I wanted to do with them - long, cropped, cuff-up or top down.

Eventually I picked up stitches all round the armhole and worked a short-row cap sleeve (slightly puffed - unintentional but I like the outcome). I then put an EZ applied I-cord round the edge of the sleeve and armhole to prevent rolling.

I'm delighted with the result and have worn this several times already (despite it still having an un-woven in end in one of the sleeves)!

The yarn is 100% merino 4ply from a mystery cone I bought on Ebay. The body was worked in one piece in the round to the armholes, then flat to the tops of the shoulders and grafted together. The hem is a turned hem as rolled hems round my middle just seem to keep on rolling until they sit somewhere round my rib-cage! I went down a couple of needle sizes to introduce some waist shaping, then went back up one to work the upper torso.


If I was knitting this again (which is a definite possibility) I wouldn't bother with the gather either side of the cable panel. I don't think it adds anything and just looks a bit weird.