Saturday 18 September 2010

Autumn knits.

This week the weather has turned decidedly autumnal and the woolies are coming out of storage. But I'm getting prepared early this time and getting the needles clicking on the warm, cosy jumpers. This is the latest woolie to be finished:


Started on Tuesday evening, quickly knitted up in Wendy Chameleon chunky wool/acrylic mix shade 522. The wool was on special at Hobbycraft (I think it was £1.49 a ball) so I picked up a pattern too which was also in the offers section. The pattern is no. 5380 and specified 6 balls in Cain's size. However I ended up not having enough despite buying an extra ball AND working to the correct tension. Usually I don't bother with the tension as I am far too impatient but this time I wanted to make sure the shortage wasn't down to my error ;-) so I measured up.


I thought there would be a problem after knitting the back so moved onto the arms next whilst I formulated a rescue plan just in case. By the time I started on the front I knew I needed to put the plan into action and so rifled through my stash looking for co-ordinating yarns. Luckily I found an odd ball of Twilley's Freedom in dark green and so I added a band of this just above the ribbing. The rescue plan worked and I had just enough yarn to finish the project:


I am thinking that the stripe still looks added in rather than part of the design so am considering different embellishments to bring it all together. I'll be back - as someone once said ;-)

Sunday 12 September 2010

Yet more socks!

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Helen admires every pair of knitted socks I make and I keep promising to knit her a pair but always get sidelined by other projects. So as today was her birthday I had a very special mama-made gift for her - a pair of chunky cable knit socks complete with tassles and ties!


These were knitted on a set of 4 5mm DPN's and I used a pattern that was free in the latest issue of Let's knit magazine.


The DPN's were also free with the magazine and I really didn't enjoy the feel of them so they may well be getting rehomed very soon. Anyone on the hunt for a set of five neon coloured plastic needles?
The wool specified was Sirdar supersoft aran but I thought Helen would prefer the Sirdar Click aran instead as the colours were much hers. The picture doesn't show the cable twist to the sides of the socks very well unfortunately, but they are there ;-)


These were really quick and easy to knit up and only took a couple of nights, between teething poorly baby and never sleeping small boys.

Wednesday 1 September 2010

Just a quickie....

This little top took just hours to knit up and is a perfect cover-up over long sleeves on cooler days:


Knitted from less than 2 balls of Sirdar Balmoral DK which I bought in the charity shop, just under three balls for 60p, so a super cheap make. I have just short of a ball left which I am thinking would make a nice little matching bag for the little girl who is loving putting things inside bigger things at the moment.



Garter stitch hemline, stocking stitch main body, garter stitch button band, neckline and cuffs. Just need to block it and find some nice buttons to finish it off now.


This was such an easy and quick knit and fab for stashbusting that I might just have another go but with different yarn and maybe for a bigger girlie too.