Too much to knit, too little time....

I am in love with Clockhouse. Look....



This is also gorgeous....


I feel a knock-off or three coming over me!

I promise there will be scarf pictures soon. The camera is misbehaving. It's getting quite long though, I've nearly used one ball of yarn.

Beautiful Things...

I'm knitting an accidental scarf. I say accidental, because this yarn was never meant to be a scarf at all. I bought it to be contrast ribbing on a cowl neck sweater, but unfortunately the day I went yarn shopping I forgot my swatch. This led to the colours being completely warped in my mind in the shop, so although I have a beautiful greeny-blue chunky courtelle it doesn't go at all with the rest of the sweater. It'll make a lovely scarf though. It's also accidental, because I was going to do a common-or-garden cable along the centre, but got distracted and put stitches at the back when they should have been at the front. I couldn't face frogging it and I think it actually looks nicer, so it's like that now! I will put up pictures next time I post, it's pretty though.

Vague Instructions for Black Sweater!

Right, I'm going to try and write down as much as I can remember of how I made this. It's knit in 100% double knitting wool on 4mm needles.

This fits me, I have a 36inch chest and 28inch waist.
Gauge: 20sts x 30 rows makes 4 inches square in stocking stitch (when blocked)

Front:
CO 90 sts
Work 2 inches in K2-P2 rib
Work in stocking stitch, decreasing 1 stitch at either end every 9th row, until 70sts remain.
Work in stocking stitch, increasing 1 stitch at either end of every 9th row, until there are 90sts.
Work 2 inches in stocking stitch, ending with a purl row.

Armhole Shaping:
I used the same armhole shaping as Knitty's Dragonfly in the smallest size (the eight rows after the subheading "Shape Armholes" for the front). You should end up with 72 stitches.

Work 5 rows stocking stitch.

Next row: Sl1, p35. Join a second ball of wool and p to the end of the row.

The neckline shaping is now formed in the same way as Knitty's Dragonfly, but with two sets of 36 stitches instead of 24.
Work the first four rows shown under the subheading "Neckline and Armhole Shaping" four times. 16sts remain on each half.
Then work the next 4 rows twice. 6sts remain on each half.
Work the following two rows twice, leaving 2 sts on each side, and then work the final row.

Back:
CO 90sts.
Work 2 inches in K2-P2 rib
Work in stocking stitch, decreasing 1 stitch at either end every 9th row, until 70sts remain.
Work in stocking stitch, increasing 1 stitch at either end of every 9th row, until there are 90sts.
Work 2 inches in stocking stitch, ending with a purl row.

Armhole Shaping
Again, this should be worked as shown in Knitty's Dragonfly. Work the 8 rows after the subheading "Shape Armholes" for the back in the smallest size. You should end up with 72 stitches.

Work 4 rows stocking stitch.

Work Decrease Row as shown in pattern.
Work 3 rows stocking stitch.
Repeat these four rows 3 times more.

Work Decrease Row once more, and then P one row. 64sts.

Work Decrease Row.
Next Row: Sl 1, p2tog tbl, p to last 3 sts, p2tog, p1.
Repeat these two rows 3 more times. 48sts.

Next Row [RS]: Sl 1, k2tog, k11, BO next 20sts, k to last 3 sts, ssk, k1.

Next Row [WS]: BO first 13 sts. Break yarn, draw through last st of left shoulder and pull tight.

Reattach yarn to sts of right shoulder with WS facing and BO remaining 13 sts.

Sleeves (make 2):
CO 46sts
Work 2 inches in K2-P2 rib.
Next Row [WS]: P23, m1, p to end.
Work 2 rows stocking stitch.

Right, this is where I started doing the Catherine Wheel pattern. You can find it in this book, or otherwise you could use any other lace panel that takes your fancy. I worked 10 repeats of the Catherine Wheel along each sleeve, there are 16 rows in each repeat. Each Catherine Wheel is worked over 13sts.

As well as working the Catherine Wheel pattern, I worked the sleeve shaping at the same time like this:

Work in pattern until sleeve measures 10inches from CO edge.
Next Row [RS]: K1, kfb, continue in pattern to last 2 stitches, kfb, k1.
Work 3 rows stocking stitch.

Repeat these four rows 4 more times. 57sts.

Continue in pattern until work measures 18inches.

Work sleeve cap shaping as shown in Knitty's Dragonfly, but with amendments:

Work the first 8 rows as shown for the smallest size. 39sts remain.
Work 3 rows of stocking stitch and then the decrease row; repeat these four rows 5 more times. 27sts remain.
Work 1 row of stocking stitch and then the decrease row; repeat these two rows 2 more times. 21sts remain.
2 rows st st.
Cast off remaining stitches.

Block all pieces and sew together.

Hope that helps somebody, there might be errors because I didn't write it down as I went along so that's all out of my memory! But if you have any questions I'll try to help.

The Black Sweater is Finished!!!

Finally, it is done! The sleeves took forever, mainly because I never did much at a time....but I love it, I love it so much! I've worn it the last two evenings when it got cold and it's so warm and cosy. And it's flattering, it isn't huge and shapeless! I love it!

Here are the pictures:





Love how the sleeves came out, the circle pattern looks really pretty. And the neckline came out really well too, that was a bit of a gamble because I was making it in completely the wrong gauge, but it turned out well! I don't think I'll even crochet around it, I quite like it how it is. This is definately my new favourite jumper!

The seaming was a bitch though, I still haven't got the shoulders quite neat enough. So, my next project is to be knit in the round! And talking of which, this morning I have been knitting a swatch. Here it is, along with my not-so-impressive arch:


I'm in love with this yarn. The colours are so pretty! It's going to be a raglan sweater. After this though, I need to start knitting things for Matt's birthday, because it's in two and a half months and I'll be at uni (woo!) for one of them so probably won't have much time for knitting!

Interesting Finds....

I have found in The Works KNITTING NEEDLES FOR 99p and YARN, TWO BALLS FOR 99p!!! The Works is my new favourite shop. They have all sorts of other exciting things too, like stickers and coloured feathers and beads, which I want to buy and hoard even though I have no idea what I would use them for.

Black Sweater will be finished soon. It will. Every day I think, I will finish Black Sweater today and then I can wear it tomorrow and be pretty, but it never happens. I have three and a half circle patterns left to do on the last sleeve, then block it, sew together and crochet around the neckline (maybe. I might just leave it, see what it looks like) and then it's done and I can knit more things!

I'm going to start getting things for Matt's birthday soon. I know what I'm doing and it'll be amazing but I'm not going to write it here because he's trying to find my blog and if he does he might read what he's getting! It's going to be good though!

So many beautiful things....

I went shopping. Look at this:


Yes yes, I'm still knitting something and I have more wool to knit other things after, but there was a sale! The blue is Courtelle, and will be a sweater for me. The gold is Wendy Melody and is going to be a scarf for my mum. For ages she's been asking me to knit her a scarf from 'that shiny wool' in the yarn shop, so it shall be done! That was me being restrained, I also want some dark red merino for a scarf, and something for at least two other sweaters.

I also went trawling the charity shops trying to find things to frog, but ended up getting distracted! I found a beautiful light purple lambswool and angora v-neck, which I think I'm going to keep as it is, it's lovely, I just think it makes my boobs look too big. The main find though was these:


These are Bloch dance trainers, brand new and in exactly my size. If I bought them new, I'd be at least £40 poorer.....I got them for £2.95. I can't believe it, they've never even been worn! So I can take them to uni with me, I'm really happy about this!

The black sweater is coming so slowly, in fairness though I haven't been knitting much. I went out last night, to a party and then the Buttermarket, so no knitting then. I saw Steph though, which was cool because I haven't seen her for ages. One sleeve is almost up to the armpit, the other I haven't started yet. I must get more done today! So now, I start knitting.....

Oh and in other news, it's finally got sunny and I have the worst cold in the world. Unimpressed!

In Which Sleeves are made....

Here is half a sleeve:

I decided to go with an eyelet pattern, just to make it more interesting really. I like the effect! Those are actually complete circles, just the camera is doing something funky. That's sleeve one, it comes to just above the elbow so far, which is quite good progress seeing as I haven't been knitting much the last few days. I really want to get this finished though, I'm thinking of about three more things I want to knit every day, which is not so good!

We did a pub quiz last night, it was crazy fun. Our team (Frog Dancing wooo!) came last, but I won the raffle so I have a bottle of wine. We think it was incredibly biased though, the music round let us down because being about twenty years younger than most of the other competitiors, we weren't even born when the bands were around. Oh well, none of them knew what a prime number was!

Me and Matt also went to Waterworld the other day, which was amazing! I'm not going to get much knitting done in the next week I don't think, these next two weekends there are lots of parties happening, and we're going to paint a house in the week in between. So I'll try and finish the black sweater the next couple of days....whether that happens or not we shall see!