26 June 2012

Blue daisies

I've been working on two things since I finished the Pink Ginger.  The first is my Lundish jumper, a bottom-up Fair-Isle yoke jumper which was inspired by ... well, you can probably guess.  It's on Ravelry here.  I knitted about 7" of it and then decided it was April and time to knit summer things.

So for the last couple of months, I've been working on a very light top-down raglan cardigan, made in Zitrone Filligran:




It's a skinny little top-down raglan with a very simple daisy lace patter. The idea was to make a very light little wool cardigan that could be stuffed into the corner of a bag and easily layered under light summer jackets, which is what I do with all my cardigans.

Tragically, that is 100% of the two skeins - well, I have about 2.5m left. This is a problem as it definitely needs a neckline knitted onto it, and probably a buttonband as well. The plan was to finish it off properly, with a double-layer neckline and buttonband for structure. Unfortunately … there is no more yarn. And I can’t think of anything that’ll go with that petrol blue. I mean, I can - obviously red, orange or bright yellow would be the natural choices, or else a slightly lighter grey-blue - but I wanted it to be a plain and neutral cardie that would go with anything. I’ll probably wear it with lots of colours.

Currently thoughts are to get a cream/natural yarn in a similar weight and use that for a neckline and buttonband, or to do get some natural-coloured lace trim, or to get some very light silk-scarf fabric in a similar dark blue, cut it into bias strips and use that to face the neckline and buttonbands. My concerns with each course of action are:

  • Can I get natural lace weight yarn in the right weight? And if so, would I sew a solid neckline and buttonband or find a lace pattern?  (Answer: yes, Purl City Yarns has the exact same yarn in cream. Hm.)
  • If I use manufactured lace, will be too heavy and change the hang and fit of the garment?
  • So very Jigsaw-circa-2008.
  • So I don’t know. Thoughts?

    25 June 2012

    Pink Ginger, finished

    It's been so long that Blogger's user interface has completely changed.  Hmm...

    Anyway, some finished objects!  First of all, my Pink Ginger jumper.  I am slightly alarmed at how precisely the finished jumper matches the original MS Paint picture!




    (OH GOSH I wish I was better at taking pictures of myself.  I would love to be one of those bloggers who always posts beautiful pictures of what they've made and how they wear it, but I never know what to do with my face or arms.  And I'm not a very good photographer either.  Perhaps I will get better now we've got the fancy new camera!)

    I finished this sometime around March, I think, although it’s taken me ages to get some photos of it. It hasn’t quite found its place in my wardrobe yet - it wasn’t quite warm enough for most of the winter, and I assumed it would be too warm for summer. But we’ve had such a rubbish summer that I’ve started wearing it a lot - it’s the perfect light jumper to pull on at weekends with cotton trousers and a vest top.

     Lots of the astrakhan left - I keep thinking it would make a lovely soft toy for a small child, and then imagining the hell that complicated increases and decreases would be in bouclé…