Girlfriend Swing Coat – Knitting Box

Swing!

Pattern: Girlfriend’s Swing Coat by Wendy Bernard
Yarn: Malabrigo in ‘Marine’ colourway, a little under 3 skeins
Needles: 5mm circulars for body and hood, and dpns for sleeves

I added a hood instead of the wide collar that’s in the pattern. I love the look of the wide collar too, but Annette just loves coats/cardigans with hoods, so hood it is.

Another enjoyable project. The yarn is really lovely to work with, soft like butter. The pattern is nice and simple. It’s all worked in one piece from the neck down, so I was able to get Annette to try it on at various stages to check the sizing. Excellent! (I made this coat just a bit large for Annette, so that it can last for a while.) And there was no seaming too, just had to weave in the ends. Great! I did add the attached i-cord edging around the bottom edges, fronts (with i-cord buttonholes too), and around the edge of the hood. The technique was new to me, but I found excellent instruction for it in Nancie Wiseman’s Knitter’s Book of Finishing Techniques. I’m glad I did, because it looks good and is not very difficult after all.

My favourite feature is the buttons, though. They really brighten up the coat. Belinda gave me those buttons, aren’t they adorable!

When I showed the coat to Annette after the blocking, she said, “Oooohhh, it’s BLOCKED!!” That kid knows the lingo already. 🙂 Just the other day she said to me while I was knitting (and I quote), “Mummy, can you make me a sandwich after that row?” Definitely the child of a knitter. Just let me assure you, no child, husband, or goldfish has ever been starved during the making of this coat!

More photos here.

20 April 2007

Forecast: Chance of socks

Indeed, here’s a pair of Pomatomus socks done…

… with plenty of yarn to spare.

Pattern: Pomatomus Socks by Cookie A, from Knitty.
Yarn: Celia‘s handpainted sock yarn in Bougainvilla colourway, 1 skein with plenty to spare.
Needles: 2.5mm DPNs

The second sock actually progressed faster than the first one, perhaps because I already ‘got’ the pattern. However all this thinking that I’ve got the pattern down got me rather smug, that I stuffed up the foot and had to rip back 10 rows for like 3 or 4 times. Grrr. But no matter, they’re done, and I love them. I think the stitch pattern looks so pretty…

I’m officially converted into sock knitting now, and there sure will be more handknit socks in my future. I thought getting sock yarns would be a good start, so I splurged and got these:

Socks That Rock!! My first STR yarns ever, and I’m definitely not disappointed. From left to right: Obsidian, Chapman Springs, G-Rocks, and January One colourways. How good are those colours! I absolutely LOVE the colour combinations in each skein, they just look so good together. So much so, that I’m almost afraid to wind the skeins into balls and knit them up. Almost.

And in non-sock-related news, I’ve made some progress on Annette’s swing coat. It’s knitted in one piece from the neck down, and I’m enjoying this very much. I’m looking forward to very little seaming too 🙂

I’m using some Malabrigo worsted, in the Marine colourway, which is kind of a mix of navy blue, indigo, and steel blue. The variegation is very subtle.

13 February 2007

Blue, White, And Grey

So yeah, I decided to join in Project Spectrum, and while thinking about February/March theme colours, I realised that hey, those were my school colours! In fact, let me show you my high school jersey.

In Australia, in the final year of high school (Year 12), it’s tradition for the graduating students to produce a jersey, typically in the school colours, as a memento of their high school years. Typically they show the year of graduation at the back, and when you’re just graduating, it’s cool to wear these everywhere you go. It’s like, look! we’re graduating!! Of course, when one had graduated from high school more than a decade ago, it’s not so cool anymore.

Anyway, I have casted on for my new projects. My brother in law asked for a scarf. A white scarf, of all colours. And he picked the Here and There Cables scarf from the Scarf Style book. I’m using Filatura Di Crosa Zara yarn. It’s soft and nice to work with, and you can just put the item in the washing machine and it will come out even softer.

And these lovely skeins of Malabrigo will become a swing coat for Annette.

5 February 2007