Oh how cute is that baby with the fair-isle poncho! (Even if I do say so myself… :))
Fair-isle Children Poncho
Remember this poncho? I’ve finally got around to blocking and fringing it, and now it’s done!! Tadaaa…
Project details:
Pattern: My own, inspired by the Children’s Poncho (fair-isle hearts pattern from Knitty‘s Cheesylove).
Yarn: Under 3 balls of Elle DK Pure New Wool, in Regal Purple and Hot Pink.
Started July 2005, finished October 2005.
Here’s a close-up of the fair isle pattern (taken from Knitty’s Cheesylove) and the fringes.
The fringing wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Perhaps because I spaced out the fringes quite a bit, for two reasons. One, I didn’t want the fringes to be too heavy, and two, I didn’t want to kill myself doing the fringes 🙂 Anyway it worked quite well in the end. Now lets see if we can get a model shot some time. The weather here in Sydney is warming up a bit, now that it’s spring, but there’s still the occasional cold and windy days. So hopefully I can get Annette to pose for me.
There’s an explanation…
… for why I couldn’t finish anything for a while… Ha!
I’ve come to realize there’s a Law of Diminishing Finishes. The chances of my finishing Project A are inversely related to the number of new projects I start before A is finished. It’s sad.
Source: larissa at stitch marker
I have knitting to report
First of all, startitis is still raging. Not only did I start River, I’ve also started on Liesel now. Here’s how she looks like at 2 repeats.
And this is the yarn that I’m using. It’s the Lang Moana yarn that I bought at Lincraft a few weeks ago.
I quite like the yarn, especially the colours. But I’m a bit worried that the colours are a bit too noisy for the lace pattern. It is kind of difficult to see the leaves pattern among all those colours! I think I’ll try a few more repeats and see how it goes. I’m leaning towards just continuing with this yarn, since people probably can’t see the pattern anyway when I’m wearing the scarf.
The yarn has quite a nice drape, and quite nice to wear against the skin, even at the back of the neck. It’s 50% cotton and 50% nylon. The problem with this yarn is that it splits easily if I’m not careful, because of its mesh-like texture.
The pattern is not as easy as I thought it would be. I’m used to lace patterns where every other row is just straight purls, which gives me some sort of ‘break’ from reading the chart/pattern every other row. This is not one of those patterns. So far it has been quite tiring, having to continuously look at the chart, and having to look at the knitting to watch out for snags. Well, the pattern’s designer said that the lace pattern would be easy to memorise. So maybe I just have to keep going and hopefully I’ll be able to memorise the pattern, or work out the pattern based on the rows below (like I do with Kiri).
In other news, the fair isle poncho is almost done. Here it is at the moment, modelled by Annette:
It needs blocking, and then some fringes. I’m so not looking forward to fringing it! But I think it wouldn’t look quite right without the fringes.
And here is River, after one whole ball of the Jo Sharp Rare Comfort Kid Mohair.
Not much at all, is it? I am quite disappointed. One ball only got me two repeats! And I only have 3 balls. So it doesn’t look like I can make this into a shawl after all. But still, I might still keep going and then use it as lap blanket or something. Just because something is a mistake, doesn’t mean it’s useless! Ha!
Similar But Different
Remember how I was planning to make a lace scarf? I was thinking of making knitty’s Branching Out. But then, today I found Liesel! It’s a free pattern too. Here’s what she looks like:
It features the Drooping Elm lace pattern. Compare this with Branching Out:
They look kind of similar, don’t they? It’s a really tough choice, but I think I like Liesel better. Somehow the non-symmetrical-ness has more appeal to me. More leafy look perhaps?
On another note, today I also discovered the new Kim Hargreaves winter collection — the Evergreen. Lots of Rowan Big Wool featured in this collection. I love her designs, but for now purchasing her kits are still in the ‘Wishful Thinking’ category for me. I just don’t have the budget for them. But what I wanted to show you is this. Meet Constance.
When I saw this, I thought, hey that looks kind of familiar! Now I know. It looks similar to the Sesame cardi in MagKnits! Look:
I reckon they look similar, except that Constance is in solid colour and in chunkier yarn. But I think I’d still stick with Sesame. Not only is the Big Wool too expensive for me, it is also too thick for the average Sydney climate and too thick to be the everyday cardigan that I’m after.