Thursday, January 18, 2007

Thirteen month dress




Finally it is done! Not in time for Kittycat's birthday, but for her 13 month birthday :)

In the first picture she is pointing at her books on the shelf. She is addicted to books right now and is always asking for them (using the tried and tested "point and whine" method of communication). It's funny because she is speaking a few words now and we're also teaching her sign language; she knows about 20 signs, but book apparently isn't one of them. In the second photo you can see the buttons - I have a button stash as well as a yarn stash, and I actually found these vintage white glass buttons in the stash. In the last one she is sleeping - I didn't want her to nap too late so went in and opened the blinds and turned on the radio, but she slept through all that AND having a camera flash at her. Most unusual. She must be tired out from looking gorgeous in her new dress :)

Having finished that I should be on to the mousie pants which need finishing. So of course, I took out the ball of Kureyon that I added to the stash last fall and started knitting it up on 7mm needles. I didn't want to swatch and waste the yarn, so I just dived in. In theory it's going to be a felted needle case, but I'm a little doubtful it's going to end up the right shape. That's fine - I think I'll knit it up, felt it, and then see what it wants to be. It's all about trying out felting, rather than having a specific project in mind. Sorry no photo today!

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Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Nifty neckline and the sweater from Hades

Neckline

I decided to try out this technique for avoiding steps when casting off for a neckline.
The directions said to cast off 10, then 2, then 2 more stitches for the neckline. Instead, I used short rows. Instead of casting off 10 stitches, on the previous row I left 10 stitches on the needle and turned the work. I did the same for the 2 sets of 2 stitches. On the next row I worked all the stitches, then on the next cast off all 14 stitches at once (continuing to work on the remaining stitches up the side of the neck). For the short rows, I worked wraps.

I still need to put the decorative edging on but you can see from the photo that I now have a nice smooth curve to work off. I like it!

This sweater has given me so much grief - but it is now finally finished! It is a Phildar pattern, and it's really nice, but I started it when my husband was one size, then he started working out, his shoulders got bigger, and the rest is a tragic history. Really, I know I should have frogged it... but I couldn't. Instead I made armhole gussets (which I thought was quite ingenious of me!) and then also ended up having to add to the sleeve length (I knit an extra cuff piece then grafted it onto the cast on edge... yeah, my grafting needs practice).

It is now DONE and if he asks me to change anything else about it I am SO frogging it and making something for ME.