FO: chunky sweater jacket

I have finally got around to taking a few pics of the chunky sweater jacket. When I first saw the pattern and looked for the yarn back in February I intended this to be a proper jacket to use in the Winter. Once I saw that the colour of the yarn was more yellow than cream I decided it would be used inside for those chilly days and the finished jacket has already had some use thanks to the typical British weather.

This was my first knitting project for over 20 years and I made a few mistakes but all in all I'm pretty happy with it, apart from the size that is...

I got gauge widthwise but not lengthwise. Now correct me if I'm wrong but that just means I have to knit a few more extra rows to get the required length. If that's so then why is it so enormous??? I understand that as I made the medium the jacket was going to be a little big on me but this is gigantic. I could almost wrap just the back all the way round myself and lets face it I am not a little woman LOL.

I believe I have mentioned a fair few times how much I hate sewing, this was my first real foray into using mattress stitch and I suppose it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, it did improve with practise but the seams on this are far from professional LOL

Overall I am satisfied with it. I did toy with the idea of frogging it because of the size and there's still a possibility that I will but I decided to try it out in the winter over a few big jumpers before I decide if it's really too big.

Fuzzy slippers

As predicted I finished the fuzzy slippers this afternoon. Total knitting time around 4 hours - I do love instant gratification LOL.

I used one strand of DK cotton chenille and two strands of the fuzzy yarn I got cheap from ebay. It worked out very well and I am happy with the result.

I intend to use the same three strands to knit up The Bear by Alan Dart for one of my (in my heart) nephews. I say in my heart because they aren't my nephews by blood and I'm making the distinction for the moment because my brother has just informed me that he and his wife are having their first baby - Yaaaaaaaaaaay!! Guess who is going to be knitting lots of cute baby stuff from now on LOL.

The laundry soap is done, I just have to grate and mix it up now then it's ready to use (costs me about 2p a wash and does a great job so its well worth the effort). If the revision pressure gets too much in the next week I may pick up the needles or just make a few batches of soap to keep my mind off it...

Keep your fingers crossed for me next Monday please.

Second bunny blankie

I gave the blankie to Finlay the other day and of course big sister Eloise (going through the jealousy stage) wants one too so here it is LOL.

Can you see where I missed two rows on the left ear? I'm pretty sure she won't notice ;-)

Bunny blankie

Didn't even have time to add this as a wip as I cast on and finished in one night...

A very quick and relatively easy knit - the most difficult bit for me was embroidering the face LOL. This was my first attempt at double knitting (face), short row shaping (ears) and diagonal knitting (blankie). I think it was pretty good for a first attempt and I'm sure the baby will love it when he is a little older

My Ravelry notes:

Doubled up with my chenille d.k. and it worked great.

Next time I will use a little more stuffing in the head, do the face before I stuff the head and get the nose the right way round LOL.

FO's of 2009 - 3. my everlasting bagstopper

As usual I messed up with this one and if you look carefully it shows hint: I seem to have missed a stitch in the lace parts which made the lace pattern off slightly. Hence the four rows of stocking stitch in the middle so I could sort the pattern out - then of course I managed to do it again LOL.

I use this bag to store my mohair and a few odd cones. I really wish I'd made it longer but as usual, I was impatient...

I am actually very happy with this and intend to make at least one more this year and a few next year.

FO's of 2009 - 2. Waffle Stitch Fingerless Gloves

My second FO this year was my Waffle Stitch Fingerless Gloves, an extremely quick knit. If I remember correctly I needed them for the next day and knit them up in 2 - 3 hours, the sewing, as usual, took a little longer LOL. My Ravelry notes say that I should have checked the gauge first as they were a little baggy. It was my fault really, I have the good fortune to knit to a standard gauge and for these gloves I upped the needle size from 4.5 to 5mm as my 4.5 needles were in use already with some test knitting.

I do like these gloves and will knit them again, hopefully with some gorgeous and relatively expensive yarn as they take so little ;-)

FO's of 2009 - 1. Felted WIP basket

I learned to knit when I was little, my Nan and my Mum taught me although I don't think I ever finished anything LOL. I picked it up again when I was pregnant with my second son back in 1988. I made 2 baby jumpers (one of them was very complicated) and a large intarsia jumper for myself. Then I hung my needles up until February this year when I got the urge to knit again. I got some needles and yarn and started knitting my (so far unfinished) chunky sweater jacket. Then I got the bug...

This was my first FO, my felted WIP basket/bag. My notes on Ravelry say:

"Basic knitted bag, co 40, garter stitch for 15 rows (first ball of wool). Pick up stitches from the other sides and knit in the round until its about 1/3 taller than you want it to be after felting or in this case until I literally ran out of wool :-).

Not great but still not too shabby for my first fo in 20 years LOL"

I used Freedom 100% Wool from Twilleys of Stamford in 408 Moorland and really enjoyed it. Of course the wool was super bulky so it didn't take long at all - just what I needed to get me into knitting properly. I quite literally used 5 balls to make this (you may see on the photo that I had to use a small amount of acrylic to finish the binding off. At some point I managed to lose the stitch marker for the beginning of the row so I had to guess where the handles went, and of course I got it wrong and then I bodged it when I made them larger but it was bound to happen.

I am still happy with it even if it was a bodge at the end and it gets daily use :-)

Its amazing how a walk can floor me

I walked to the post office on Monday to post my first ebay sale, it wasn't a long walk - maybe 1^1/2 miles there and back but a few hours after I got back my sore throat started and it felt like I had the flu.

This is the part where I admit that I have M.E. and obviously crashed from walking... Monday night was spent in bed, Tuesday I managed to sit at the PC for an hour, yesterday I actually managed some washing up, put some washing on the line and worked with a client on their web site. Today I'm still feeling awful but I'm trying to do as much as I can.

On the bright side I made a very quick bed caddy with some of the Sirdar Bigga in my stash, it knit up in just a few hours and I'm using it already.

Here are my notes on Ravelry:

CO 30 stitches. Stocking stitch for approx 2/3 of the drop from the bed, change to reverse stocking stitch until it’s long enough to start under the mattress, garter stitch for at least the same length of the reverse stocking stitch (to hold it under the mattress). Sew up the sides of the pocket and make one or 2 small pockets for the front.

I am not a fast knitter but I knit this up in less than four hours.

amendments - if I do it again I will do a small garter stitch border at the beginning to stop the curl - this time I accentuated the curl and stitched it to stay like that

It took three balls of Bigga and there is a second pocket but I haven't put it on yet

I have also cast on the dreaded baby blanket again, this time using the white Juicy DK. By the way I dread it because of the reason I am making it, the pattern is easy to make.

Finally!

Finally got my Drops felted slippers finished. I would definitely do things differently next time but I am happy with them.

I have also finally put the baby wool up on ebay and if they go OK I've just about convinced myself to put all of the click up too.

With the baby blanket frogged for the moment because I read the pattern wrong, I only have the sweater jacket and curbing bag in progress at the moment. I'm in the middle of the hood for the sweater jacket and I'm on the sixth lot of curbing for the bag so I suppose I'm not doing too badly.

Whats the betting I will start another project in the next seven days LOL.