Finished object file: Waterlily Tee | RRHY Cherie Gold sock

It's been a while since I've had a finished object to report about but today I proudly got to wear my newly finished Waterlily tee so I feel it's only appropriate for me to write a bit about it. You can also look at my Ravelry notes here.

This project was my spring knit and thank goodness that I finished it with one and a half months of the season left to enjoy it. Back in August as we approached the end of the winter I had this itch in my hands to work on something for the warmer months. I began trawling Ravelry for tee patterns and projects that were knit with linen, silk or cotton blends. In my pattern stalking adventure I saw some beautiful finished objects of this Waterlily tee from Pom Pom Magazine's Spring 2014 issue.

It is a lovely tee with lace over the shoulders and bust area, then stockinette stitch down the rest of the body and finished with a garter stitch hem. Knit from the bottom up it was a breeze to whiz through the stockinette and while I was working on that part the project was my perfect travel knitting for trips in the car or while at swimming lessons. However, once I reached the lace section it became my 'need to concentrate' project so sadly it got a little less attention then.

The lace pattern was not overly complicated but with a high number of yarn overs I really had to be a bit more conscious of my knitting to make sure I didn't miss one. The other tricky part with the lace was to pay attention to when I needed to do a K2tog or a SSK decrease because that affected the direction of leaning in the stitch pattern. Also, when I was working the neckline for the front panel I had to play around with the decrease to ensure I decreased 1 stitch at a time. To maintain the pattern some rows I would do a sssk or k3tog to do a double decrease and other rows I didn't decrease at all due to the varying stitch count produced by the pattern. I also followed the advice of other knitters and alternated p2tog and p3tog when knitting the back of the neck so that it wouldn't be too saggy. 

I stashed dived for this project and found 2 skeins of Red Riding Hood Yarns Cherie Gold Sock that I had purchased in a preorder last year. The colour way is Princess Leia from Hannah's Star Wars theme and I had originally purchased it intending to make something for Miss L but this tee was calling and I don't regret using it for myself. I am so in love with the colour and the sparkle and I think it works well with the Waterlily pattern. The dominant colour is purple with some subtle bronzey variegation which is not swallowed up in the lace section.

The yarn being a merino, nylon and stellina blend is probably a bit warmer than the Kettle Yarn Co. BFL/ silk blend that the pattern was designed for but I'm wearing it today when it's 23 degree Celsius and I'm comfortable. I want this primarily as a Spring top but I think I can pull it off as an evening top on a mild summer night too.

I am quite happy with the fit of this top on me. It is such an achievement for me to have a well fitting handmade garment in my wardrobe; actually this is the first time I have hit the mark for myself. Love this tee and I'm going to love wearing it.

Finish object file: Moto Vest for Woolful KAL

No shots of me wearing it yet because I'm just no good with selfies.

In my last post I wrote about my progress on Shelli Wescott's Moto Vest and today I'm pleased to say the vest has been finished, blocked and worn. 

I took on this project as a quick knit after I finished all the projects I listed for March on my making list. Ashley Yousling's Woolful blog was hosting a knitalong with this pattern and I wanted to take on the challenge and join in for my first knitalong.

I thoroughly enjoyed knitting this and I also enjoyed looking at the other finished objects as they were posted on the Ravelry discussion thread and instagram (via #woolfulKAL). Each person who has knit this vest has done it with their own flair. Though the pattern was originally designed for bulky yarn Shelli also posted many mods for different yarn weights on her Knitterly blog. Other ways that it could be adapted were the length of the vest, the width of the back and even doing away with the K2, P2 rib and knitting an entirely different stitch pattern.

The length of this vest falls at the hips beautifully.

I knit scarf styled front to about 52" long and went for a thinner back that was about 8" wide. In my last post I mentioned that I wanted to make the bottom of the back wider by doing some increases but with Miss L being very sick this week and needing a lot of attention I went with the mindless knitting option and kept it at the same width. Once I seamed the back together with the front it pulled the ribbing out wider anyway and I found that pleasing enough.

In my humble opinion, the combination of 1 strand Isager Alpaca 2 and 1 strand of Sport weight RRHY worked really well. I like the marled effect that the grey alpaca yarn gives to the handdyed blue yarn.  Gladly, I think the colour is very wearable with jeans and many of the tops in my wardrobe.

This spot of 'me' knitting was very satisfying and I am pleased to be adding this item to my handmade wardrobe. I want to be making more items for my wardrobe in the near future and trying to wear more handmade in the everyday too.

Now, onto my April knitting - read my making list post to see what I've got set out for this year. I've got a few birthday presents to whip up this month for family members and as we approach winter I look forward to knitting some warm woollies for them.

On my needles now - Moto Vest

Moto Vest on my needles 

Today I've got a little sickie in the house so no 'What to knit Wednesday' post today but I thought I could quickly share my current project.

A couple of weeks ago when I posted about the Dragon Aviatrix that I made for Sir S I briefly mentioned at the end that I was taking some time for a bit of 'me' knitting and had cast on the Knitterly's Moto Vest for the Woolful March KAL. The pattern is for a beautiful trans-seasonal open cardigan styled vest that is knit with bulky yarn. I was hoping that it would be a quick knit since I started mid-March after I had finished the birthday knits for the kids.

It has truly been a nice feeling to be knitting for myself for this project. The last object I finished for myself was months ago; even before I started the gifts for last Christmas. As much as a love knitting for others, and it was the desire to knit for my baby that motivated me to rediscover the craft in the first place, I do recommend a bit of 'me' knitting as necessary in the making schedule. Knitting something for yourself can be a form of therapy. It can bring pleasure and excitement to your day when you work with beautiful materials that you have hand selected for yourself, on a project that you are personally crafting for yourself.

So, for this Moto Vest, I have selected some sport weight/ 5 ply superwash merino that was hand dyed by Red Riding Hood Yarns in the 'Gone Girl' colourway and I paired it with a grey fingering weight/ 4ply alpaca/wool blend from Isager. By holding one strand of each yarn I am creating a thicker yarn that will knit up quicker and the grey paired with the blues of the RRHY gives the piece a marled look. It was a total experiment and I wasn't sure if it would work out but as I kept going I really liked the effect.

'Gone Girl' Sport weight RRHY and Grey Alpaca 2 Isager yarn

When I saw the pattern for this project I noticed that it has a very similar shape to a vest that I bought last winter from Metalicus. It is a beautiful drapey cardigan vest that can be worn right way up and upside down to give two different looks. This is a favourite piece from my wardrobe despite it being store bought and containing only a small percentage of wool. As I knit this vest I am drawing inspiration from that vest. The Moto Vest designer, Shelli Westcott herself has knit this pattern multiple times and made it differently each time. It is such an easy pattern to adapt and change to the knitter's liking.

Wearing the vest right way up

Now wearing it upside down and open

Upside down buttoned up gives it a snuggly cowl like collar

I have just started on the back section after knitting the scarf to 52" in length which will give me a vest slightly shorter than the Metalicus one. I want a narrower back between the shoulder blades but am toying with the idea of adding some increases as I work further down to widen the bottom. I haven't quite worked out how I will do this but I'll explain all my MODS in a finished object file later on.

Now I'm off to give my little sickie a cuddle. Happy knitting, friends. Tell me, what's on your needles right now?

What to knit Wednesday: Shawls

The 'Mara' shawl is a great staple wardrobe item

It's time for another 'What to knit Wednesday' post and today I thought I would talk shawls because I was recently asked by a church friend to knit a shawl for her - a commissioned project. To be honest I have only ever completed 2 shawls and I currently have one in the works but here are some patterns that I love.

1. You can't go past the classic style of the Mara shawl. This is a free Madelinetosh pattern that is designed for DK weight yarn but gauge is not as important with shawls so you can easily adapt it for another yarn weight without needing to swatch.

I knit it with the suggested yarn and followed the guide, buying 3 skeins of Madelinetosh Tosh DK. I must have misread my measurements because I ran out of yarn to bind off and had to patch it with some scrap yarn of a similar colour but the same weight.

Regardless, I love this shawl and I love this yarn. It's simple garter stitch pattern makes it a perfect everyday item and a staple of my wardrobe.

I knit this Hyla Brook for my mum last Christmas

2. The second shawl that I knit was for my mum last Christmas. I knit her a 'Hyla Brook' designed by Paula Emons-Fuessle using some Quince & Co. Tern. However, I was short of 2 skeins so the shawl turned out more like a shawlette. I love this pattern because even though it is a fingering weight knit it worked up pretty quickly with an easily memorised pattern. Another great thing about this pattern is that Paula has also created a checklist to help keep track of row counts and the percentage completed. So, because I didn't have a full 2 skeins I could use the checklist to track how far from the end I was and judge whether I needed to cast off early since I was running out of yarn.

3. On my needles right now is a 'The Age of Brass and Steam' shawl by Orange Flower Yarn. I'm pairing this with 1 skein of Australian independent dyer, Augustbird's gradient 8ply. This is my third attempt to use this yarn because it is not easy to find a pattern that will showcase a gradient yarn best. I'm hoping that this shawl will be a good pattern because according to Ravelry it only needs up to 240 yards/ 219 metres of DK weight yarn. 1 skein of the Augustbird 8ply has 258 yards/ 236 metres so theoretically when I knit up this shawl I will be able to go through each of the gradient colour transitions.

Augustbird White Gum Wool 8ply in 'Allegro' colourway and the pattern for the 'Bella' shawl in the background

4. I initially hoped to use the gradient yarn to knit a 'Bella' shawl. I even got so far as casting on and knitting the first 20 rows or so before I realised that this pattern was not knitting this shawl top down but actually starting at the bottom left hand corner and knitting across. I decided to frog it because I didn't want my gradient going diagonally up from the left hand corner. What I needed was a top down pattern for a triangle shawl if I wanted to maximise the visual effect of the gradient.

However, all is not wasted with this pattern. When I gave my friend some shawl patterns to choose from she has chosen this 'Bella' pattern. So, I'm quite excited that I will still be able to knit this and learn some new techniques while I'm being commissioned to make it.

5. My fifth shawl pattern is Alicia Plummer's 'Campside' pattern. She designed this as a free pattern for Pompom magazine's blog last year and it is a generous sized triangle shawl that incorporates 3 different lace eyelet designs. I wanted to knit this with the gradient yarn but it needs a whopping 780 yards/ 713 metres of DK weight yarn and that meant I would need 3 skeins of the Augustbird gradient. I wanted the gradient to transition once through each colour so that meant that I would have to keep alternating the three skeins every couple of rows and I in the end I was turned off by how cumbersome that was going to be.

Some 'Bubbles Darling'

For now I have queued this project and I think I might knit it up with the 2 skeins of 'Bubbles Darling' Red Riding Hood Yarns that I picked up at the Nunnaba birthday sale.

As you can see I've got some shawl knitting ahead of me. You may think when am I going to wear all these shawls but I'm starting to see a correlation between being a yarn addict and a shawl addict - it's a bit of a reoccurring trend in many of the other crafty/ knitterly bloggers that I follow.

What are your favourite shawl patterns?

I also have 2 skeins of the Augustbird gradient left after I knit the 'Brass and Steam' shawl, so, please share your pattern suggestions for gradients too.

Yarn splurge

Despite trying to stash less this year I have been a little naughty this past fortnight and splurged on a couple of bundles of yarn.

Firstly, I picked up 4 skeins of Madelinetosh DK Twist for $65 + postage from the FB destash group page, Australian Hand Dyed and Luxury Yarns Buy Sell Swap. This is a bargain for Madelinetosh and with 4 skeins I will have enough for a jumper for Miss L. 

Madelintosh DK Twist in Vermillion

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the world of yarn beyond what is stocked at Spotlight or Lincraft in Australia, Madelinetosh is a luxurious brand of yarn from the US. They hand dye their skeins of yarn into a multitude of delicious colours that are vibrant, unique and totally addictive. 

Madelintosh Tosh DK in Begonia Leaf

I knit with Tosh yarns twice last year and the yarn is so beautifully soft that it is a delight to work with and wear against the skin. My Mara shawl, knit with Tosh DK is the favourite item that I like to wear over my shoulders while I knit into the evening. Unfortunately when binding off I lost out in yardage chicken and had to patch in a different colour to finish the project. Because Madelinetosh hand dye their yarns in small batches each batch could be subtly different to other batches of the same colour. When I lost out in yardage chicken buying another skein wouldn't have been much different to just patching it with another yarn altogether since the colours could potentially be different anyway. Also, I didn't want to fork out another $25 for one skein when I only needed a few meters for the last little section of bind off.

Yardage chicken; sometimes you win and other times you lose and you just have to live with it.

The other yarn that I splurged on was from the Nunnaba Artisan Yarn's birthday suite. Nunnaba is an Australian indie dyer and her birthday suite brought together many of her indie dyer friends offering up yarns specially dyed for this occasion. I snapped up 2 skeins of gorgeous Red Riding Hood Yarns "Bubbles Darling!". Now, this purchase was seriously a splurge because it cost me $84NZD for the two 200g skeins of DK wool. 

I have a soft spot for RRHY because I have been following Hannah's weekly FB stockings for awhile and never been quite quick enough to snag the yarn before other buyers. Back in November I put in a preorder for some of her yarns and I'm still patiently waiting for it to be dyed and shipped. It might sound like a lot of effort just to get some yarn but seriously this stuff is magnificent. The colours are vibrant and unique and Hannah is so creative with the themes she uses and the colours she creates to match the characters from each theme. I'm waiting on some "Princess Leia" and "Gone Girl" skeins from the preorder which should be in my hot little hands by mid February.

Photo from Red Riding Hood Yarns

Ok, I now pledge to not buy any more yarn unless I am making a project from my make list that I cannot pair with anything from my existing stash. 

Photo from Red Riding Hood Yarns

 What tips do you have for not buying too much crafting supplies? or just going on splurges in general?