Copy-cat knitting

It's not often you see me knit a garment in the recommended yarn, never mind in the same colour as the published pattern, although some people swear by it.

This case is the exception, I'm making "Feeling Good" by Sarah Hatton, published in Simply Knitting August 2010.

Thanks to Ravelry I know that there are errors in the published pattern, such as the lacy panels on the fronts are identical and not mirrored. These are the kind of helpful things that are easy enough to fix if you know in advance to look out for them, so thank-you Rav.

I'm making it in Rowan Purelife Revive in shade Quartz. I have used this yarn before in a Montego Bay-type scarf which I've yet to show you.

I've bought extra yarn because I agree with the designer when she says in the magazine article that she thinks

it would be nice with kimono sleeves.I've never had great upper arms, and now I'm forty, well... they ain't gettin' any better, so, cover-up it is.

And thank-you for your kind comments about Swoony Multnomah. It has had a nice bath and I hope to have some modelled shots to show you over the long weekend.

That is, if I get a long-weekend, curse you Jury Service. x K

Breezy and Bunchy

That wind would blaw the buckles aff yer shin!

(shoes)

Here are some shots of my latest finished object.

Sirdar Jacket 8750, supposed to be done in Country Style DK, in fact done in Twilley's Freedom Spirit , colourway 506, eight balls.

It has been on the go for some time because I was not feeling the love for it anymore. It started when I didn't like the way the variegated yarn was pooling and striping. I mean, I know you can expect a degree of that but I didn't like THE WAY it was pooling and striping, not the fact.

I persevered through this and got ready to knit up all the rib stitches round the back, fronts and neck. I didn't have the pattern with me (you can see where this is going, can't you?) so I didn't pick up the appropriate amount of stitches. If any of you are writing a knitting book, call on me and I'll give you some pictures of how not picking up enough stitches causes bunching, pleating, puckering, the lot. Don't waste your money on getting a photographer in.

If I wanted the cardigan for something special I would've ripped and rectified, but I just made do. I know the thought of that makes some of you readers' flesh creep, but I can live with it. Maybe some day I'll feel enough distance to go back and fix it, but it's quite a big job.

In the meantime I am needing something nice to close it with. I haven't seen anything in the shops which ticks the boxes so I'm endeavouring to make my own with some leafy and flowery shapes I've cut out from the swatch, felted. If it turns out well, I'll show you in a couple of days' time.

Happy Bank Holiday wishes from a very breezy Galloway district! x K

Dragged through the mire

I know I told you I wasn't looking forward to doing yards of rib on this little number, but I'm sure you'll agree that's no reason to start dragging it through the mud at the municipal dump!

I know this isn't the clearest picture ever, but if you get the idea that there's this knitting and it's caked in dirt then you're pretty much up to speed.

This is what happens when you unwittingly let your yarn and knitting get tangled around your legs as you step out of the car to help unload packing materials into a skip. The man was shouting at me "Haw hen" ("Excuse me, my dear") "yer trailin yer knittin".

Not pretty and is delaying the sewing up operation even further. (I have to join the raglans before I do the famous rib.)

I blame our new car. Well, it can't have been my fault, can it?

Vast plains of rib

Colours are for fun, not links.


I have completed the back of this jacket in Twilley's Freedom Spirit yarn.
I have whizzed through left front.
I have successfully reversed the shapings for right front.
I have survived two and a half long weeks of not just Sleeve Island, but its more remote and more desolate counterpart Raglan Sleeve Island.
And now I have to face the biggest challenge yet- the acres of tundra known as the Vast Plains of Rib. And I do mean vast. Pick up and knit 650 odd stitches and do short row shaping on 3mm. Sounds like a great laugh.
Don't hold your breath waiting for this one to be finished!