Coraline

For those wondering about the drapey stuff that I wrote about (ah, such a long time ago!) you’ll be glad to know that both had become FOs. The first one is Coraline cardigan for my mum, which I finished sometime in July, and sent to her in August just before her birthday.

Mum and I are about the same size, so I’m modeling it here just before I sent it to her.

Coraline cardi for mum

It’s a beautiful pattern, and a joy to knit. Even the stocking stitch sections are strangely soothing — probably just what I needed — and the lovely little details make it even better.

coraline-back

The smocking pattern around the yoke was new to me. It’s very interesting, though. It does require you to pay attention, but it rewards you with that ‘ahh so that’s how it’s done’ feeling.

Smocked yoke

The button loops were added after all the knitting was finished, using sewn button loops technique, which was new to me as well (tutorial here). I really like how it looks, and will be using this technique again in the future I think.

Sleeve

The only modification that I did was on the sleeves. I usually like my sleeves full length, but my mum likes 3/4 lengths, so I’ve shortened the sleeves here. It’s not bad, I have to say. I might even try making 3/4 length cardis for me in the future.

Coraline cardi for mum

The yarn, Bendigo Woollen Mills Cotton, is great, and I’ve mentioned how much I love this yarn (drapey!). It really makes a nice fabric for garments, and shows stitch definitions so well, which is great for this pattern.

So, a great knit overall!

Pattern: Coraline by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Bendigo Woollen Mills Cotton 8ply in ‘Latte’, 2 balls
Needles: 3mm and 3.5mm

15 October 2009

Another day at the markets

At the market

Annette and I watched Ponyo this morning, thanks to some free tickets from Energy Australia that we got a while ago. We both loved it! It’s a very endearing story I thought. Annette is still finding cinema-going a novel experience (this is only her second time), so she had lots of fun.

The story has similarities to The Little Mermaid, it’s about a goldfish (Ponyo) who wants to be a human girl so she can be with Sosuke, a five-year-old boy who rescued her when she was stuck in a cast-off jar. There’s an environmental message in there too. Such a charming movie, I highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it.

Banana and chocolate crepe

After the movie we pottered around at the EQ Markets and had some yummy lunch. The flowers were looking stunning too, such a feast of colours!

Colourful

Yellow

Green

Tulips

14 October 2009

Like sunshine

… on a dreary day.

Aestlight wip

One of the WIPs, an Aestlight scarf using a new favourite of mine, Knitabulous merino sock yarn. I don’t usually go for yellows, but this one is fabulous, just like sunshine.

8 October 2009

Flowergirl

Thanks everyone, for the well wishes for my dad, and for the lovely comments in the last post. You sure warmed my heart, and I’m chuffed that you still drop by my little blog after all this time. I am excited to be back, I miss coming here and talking knitting.

So here we go! This is my latest finished knit.

Flowergirl shrug

I made this to go with Annette’s flower girl dress for the wedding two weeks ago. The bride had chosen pink as the theme colour (Annette did not mind one bit), and Annette’s dress was sleeveless. The wedding being in September, where we still get cold spells or windy days every now and then, I thought I’d make her a shrug to put on just in case it gets chilly. Well the weather turned out to be glorious, but Annette wore it anyway (after her official flower girl duty).

Flower girl

I didn’t use a pattern for this, although I didn’t start out wanting to design something myself. I did look around for shrug/bolero patterns out there, but nothing that fits my requirements, that I could find. I do like this one and this one (Ravelry link) but I was a bit concerned about whether I would have enough yarn to make Annette’s size. I had a skein of pink Lush Yarn Bamboo/Silk/Wool blend yarn that I thought would be perfect for a shrug. A skein is 300m (328yd) and I’d like to use just the one skein, so I thought the shrug should be lacy, to make the most of the yardage. So, some number crunching later, together with an arrow lace pattern from a stitch dictionary, this shrug was born. I added picot edging too for that extra girly frills. Hehe.

I’m very happy with it, and I think Annette likes it too. 🙂

Flower girl

3 October 2009

Oh look, a new post!

Greens

Hello! And it’s only been… oh, four months?? Hehe… it does look like my blog has been hibernating over winter… Sorry to disappear like that. There had been… well, some stressful things that kept me away from blogging (got myself a freelance job, and then my dad had a severe stroke), so things had been up and down here.

But it’s not all bad…

Flower girl bouquet

Last Saturday was our friends’ wedding, where Annette got her first flower girl gig.

And there had been some stash enhancements…

Loot from Stitches & Craft show

These are my loot from Stitches & Craft show back in August, consisting of Lush Yarn and One Fat Slug yumminess.

And this lovely sock yarn sampler from Knitabulous.

Knitabulous sock sampler

So yeah, not all bad. And there had been lots of knitting too, so will be posting about those a bit later. In the meantime, I hope you’re having a nice weekend!

27 September 2009