Alouette progress!

I've made it through two complete striping repeats on Alouette's front (or back) and things are going as they should. The entire time I've been knitting, I've been trying to dream up ways to wear it this spring. I tried on a black pencil skirt today at one of my favorite stores, but it didn't fit me properly in the waist (as usual). Any styling ideas for this one? My version is going to end up a little more fitted and cropped than shown in the photo for the book.

I've also started on a pair of mittens for myself from Mostly Mittens by Charlene Schurch with some of the Knitpicks Palette that I ordered a while back.



If you look closely at the photo, you can see that they're still needed here in Toronto. I'm not really that upset about it - the snow gives me an excuse to sit in and knit!

Distraction technique

I'm going to distract everyone from the promise I made of showing action shots of my new cardi with a picture of some socks I finished for the dude. Made with Online Supersockke 100, a basic top down pattern and lots of love!!!

And those action shots are coming, I promise...

[Edit: I don't know what is happening with my photos. This "new blogger" thing is not really cooperating with me!]

Lust for Fitted Knits

After reading this post by Zeitgeist, I know I must have Fitted Knits by Stephanie Japel. It looks like it's everything I could want in a knitting book. I hope I get to see it sometime in person soon!

I really, really need to pick this book up quickly, mainly because I'm stuck on what to knit next. I don't really want to start zipping along on Demi, because it'll be too warm to wear it by the time it's done. Ditto with respect to the Alexander McQueen Knockoff, or the bulkier version of Licorice Whip that I have planned. Maybe I should get back on track with Alouette. Now there's an idea!

Finally, success!!!

The third time was indeed the charm. This simple black cardigan was knit from the top down using less than 4 balls of the wonderful Nashua Creative Focus Worsted (75% wool, 25% alpaca) that I picked up at the Boxing Day sale at Romni Wool. I knit the body three times before it fit, but after I managed to conquer that, it was smooth sailing. This baby's features include: 1) a seed stitch collar, cuffs and bottom edging; 2) a tiny little bit of waist shaping; and 3) ten 3/4" buttons that have a little gray stripe running through them. I was going to add a seed stitch belt, but now I'm not sure I need it. Any opinions? I might have a better idea as to whether or not it's needed if I get the chance to take some action photos with some natural light in the next few days. I'm glad to finally have a plain black cardigan in my wardrobe in order to wear some of my brightly coloured tank tops during the winter. I just couldn't bring myself to buy one of those yucky cardigans from H&M or Old Navy so I did without this wardrobe staple for the longest time. Does anyone else out there do that? Refuse to buy something just because you could knit it, but more often than not, never get around to it? I'm glad I finally got around to this one.

3rd time is the charm?

I've knit a plain black top-down raglan body twice already and each time, I had to rip and start again. I'm almost finished a third attempt now and I hope with all my heart that it is going to be close to fitting my actual body and not some other body who is twice my size. I don't know what is happening - I'm measuring and calculating but nothing is ending up the way it should. I suspect it's an issue of ease. I'm still not sure how to deal with calculating ease into my patterns - do I need two inches? No inches? Negative? I don't quite get it. Does anyone out there have any suggestions of how to deal with the ease problem? Cause trial and error just isn't cutting it for me. Anyway, that should explain why I have nothing to show you - I've been knitting black stockinette for two weeks straight.

Maybe I'll take a little Demi break to calm my nerves.

Lazy Sunday afternoon

My Sunday was spent brunching, walking and knitting and that's just the way I like it. The walk was to the Toronto Public Library to pick up Knitting Around by Elizabeth Zimmermann. I didn't know much about Zimmermann until learning of her from Jess of Fig & Plum. Jess has since started up Zimmermania, and since I'm thinking about knitting some mittens from the book (and then probably buying a copy of the book to keep), I might have to join in the fun. I then played with my Knitpicks Palette for a while to try to find some mitten appropriate colours, as well as to try to figure out if I can knit the Enid Cardigan using it as well. I'm not so sure that I'm going to be able to knit the cardi using yarn from my stash, and I'm wavering on the pattern itself anyway since I would be faced with more endless rounds of stockinette before the fun colourwork on the yoke. Speaking of endless rounds of stockinette, I'm almost finished the body of my top-down cardigan knit from my Boxing Day sale score. I also managed to cast on for a pair of socks that will also be, you guessed it, stockinette. As for Demi, I didn't actually knit anything yesterday, I just took a progress photo of the sleeve. I'm finding this pattern pretty slow going, and it's unlikely that I'll be finished in time to wear it this season. I'm a little sad to think that I might have to wait a year to wear it, but it's all about the process anyway, right?

Holiday recap

I"m just going to go ahead and post a numbered list of all the things that have happened in the last three weeks in the interest of detailed record-keeping. Here goes:

1) I made this awesome pair of mittens for a good friend and I was so excited to give them to her, I forgot to take a photo. One of these days, I will reclaim them (if only for a moment) and snap a pic. I'm quite proud of them - they're a traditional cross motif done in white and gray and she loves them!

2) I received a TONNE of knit related Christmas presents from a very special awesome person. My very first pair of Addi Turbos and a ball winder/swift combo that were apparently very difficult to track down. I'm so lucky! ACTION FOOTAGE:















[Note my extreme joy on my face resulting from the fact that the entire process takes about 5 minutes to complete, rather than the 20-30 it takes to wind a ball by hand. THIS IS A LIFE CHANGING PIECE OF MACHINERY.]

3) Romni had 25% off everything in the store on the 27th of December. I only spent $75. Really. I picked up 6 balls of Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Worsted (which is quickly turning into an everyday black cardigan) and Lopi 26. This particular Lopi booklet has a pattern for a horse blanket in it - totally insane.

4) I've started a sleeve for Demi (using the Tahki Donegal Tweed I was winding above). Twisted stitches are going to haunt my dreams after this one. I might take some photos tomorrow if I can bring myself to haul it out. Here's the photo from the book for now:



That's all the knit-related news. Time for some Kenny vs. Spenny (and some knitting, of course!)