WIP Wednesday (4)

Thanks to Tami's Amis for hosting WIP Wednesdays

Let's see what's hot on our needles this week =)

Susi: 

Daybreak

Not much progress on this one. Last week my needle broke and I didn't have another 3mm handy so I had to order one and it arrived today. Meh. So the Daybreak lay around most of the time. I got some more stripes done. But that gave me time to finally finish my cardi. YAY

Summer Bolero

I started this one after I finished the cardi. I needed something fast and wearable for next weeks convention. I love the color and well it's sooo summery. *g* I got the yarn at a supermarket sale. 4 skeins 100% cotton for like 3€ so it is also a really cheap project, too. It's my second Ribbed Lace Bolero and I really love it.

Caro:

Juliet Cardigan

(on my mom)

(On me)

I've been knitting a lot of Shawls this year and Susi knitting her cardigan made me realize I needed to knit something more than just a shawl. I planned on knitting a Juliet cardigan for the convention so here I am halfway there. My only concern is that I think it'll be too large. Well maybe not too large but it should have a 5" of negative ease and it shouldn't close in the front (that's how I liked it) and mine already closes in the front. That + blocking I think it'll be too large to please me. *shrug* First pic is on my mom (and yes we cheated coz it's actually way too large for her). Second pic is on me. It's knitting up very fast, I started on Saturday and by Sunday I was already starting the lace. BTW my mom wants one too so I'll make her one in her size but maybe I'll knit the yoke in stockinette instead of Garter. I find garter to look messy. Wish me luck I need to finish it before next week.

That's where we stand this week =)

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WIP Wednesday (3)

Thanks to Tami's Amis for hosting WIP Wednesdays

Let's see what's hot on our needles this week =)

Caro:

Taygete

Looks like an Aries sign! (or I'm just crazy)

Close up of the lace with the MANY markers

Last week Susi convinced me of guinea-pigging knitting a Taygete shawl. It's been in my Favorites for months and I never got to knitting it. So after the usual 2 days of deliberating on which colors to use I finally chose: Madelinetosh Merino Light in Teddy Bear color  and Madelinetosh Sock in Fawn color.  I know most people uses more colorful yarns with greater contrast (with a fantastic result I must say) but since this is going to be a Mother's Day present I tried choosing more 'neutral' colors my mom wouldn't hate  LOL.
Knitting all these stripes was a bit boring but not extremely so. Picking up the right amount of stitches on the other hand was a freaking pain in my a*s! I don't know why but I just never had the right amount on each side. They I realized I'd forgotten a YO in the middle. It took me hours to get it right, so right-ish ;) And I should know better than knitting with a migraine because I had to unravel twice!  I only just started the lace part but I'm excited about it. I put markers everywhere (18 on each side) and now I'm hoping it'll knit fast.
My only concern is running out of Fawn yarn. =S I already went down 2 needle sizes to compensate my loose kniting. Wish me luck!

Susi:

Daybreak

I started a Westknit! YAY. Well I hope it will be one I actually finish. *ahem* I chose some blue sock yarn I had on hand and planned to combine it with black but the dark blue in the sock yarn looked exactly like the black so after first row I ripped it back and started again with a sparkly violet yarn. This actually had a kind of subtle contrast but the yarn has a weird structure. It's kind of crinkly and the stitches looked awfully aymmetric so I ripped out around 6 rows and started again with a gradient sock yarn. It's really light gray-ish blue-ish. So far I like it. We will see if I will keep it.

Shapely Boyfriend

I resumed knitting this one for 20 rows or so. I'm a bad cardi knitter cuz I'm so easily bored so I only knit it at work- when I have the time and well my other knit is too complicated for work knitting. But I started the waist-shaping. YAY! Well after that I tried it on at home and realized that I shouldn't have started yet cuz my boobs are in the way. So I made some more plain stockinette rows after and resumed. It's going great but sloooooow. Perhaps I will be done before the next winter comes. *wink*

Susi's bf: 

Chevry

Isn't it AWESOME???Without kidding, I'm the MAN!! 

Now for real: because I haven't developed the proper knitting muscles in my left hand, I decided to skip one repeat of this tedio...ahh quite interesting shawl. I think it's big enough already. So all that's left to do are the nice stripes at the edge. And I'm really looking forward to see it blocked and... spread wide.  

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FO Friday (2)

Thanks to Tami's Amis for hosting FO Fridays

It's Friday! That means it's time to share pics of our Finished Objects (FOs).

Caro:
Last Wednesday I told you how close I was to finishing my Catkin. There you are it's now done and blocked. Ok I still have to find pretty buttons but the knitting part is done at least ;)

The Graphite looks blue-ish on the pics because my camera sucks. It's very dark gray and flashy pink. I'm really happy with the result. =) It was an intense knit. All the charts nearly killed me. I had to unravel a bit because I wasn't reading the charts right =P But it's still pretty awesome. 

Susi:

I finished my second Color Affection. I love the colors and the Malabrigo Lace is soooo soft. The only problem I had with this yarn was in the short row section with all 3 colors. The yellow stitches from the previous section started to felt together a bit from the up and down on the needles. That was a bit annoying but it's hardly visible now. Just a pain to knit. LOL
Next time I really should make an extra YO between the first and second stitch though and drop it on the next row. The edge is pretty tight. I really like how soft it is- can be worn even now that it's gettting warm outside. LOVE!

Bf finished his first project- a sleeve for our tablet (pattern was originally for an iPad). *g* We changed the pattern a bit. For the flap he did an icord bind-off and added a short icord loop in the middle for the button.  It looks great for his first real project. There are some mistakes and tension problems but oh well I adore it and he's unbelievable proud- as he should be.

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WIP Wednesday (2)

Thanks to Tami's Amis for hosting WIP Wednesdays

Welcome back to WIP Wednesday where we show you what's currently on our needles.

Susi: I finished my Color Affection last weekend and desperately wanted to started a lace shawl and was again caught in I-can't-decide-what-to-knit-next-hell. *sigh* I spent hours looking for a new knit and at some points had a bazillion tabs in my browser open and couldn't decide. So what did I start? A shawl I already knit in the past.

I started a new Ziggity by Kirstin Kapur because the first one I made was a gift for my mom. I loved that one so much that I actually considered keeping it for myself. But I was a good daughter and made her happy with the pretty. So I cast on again. This time I was a bit daring and knit with Malabrigo Lace in Marron Oscuro and Sapphire Green. I hope it won't come out too small as the pattern is made for fingering weight. We will see. And if it's still tiny after all the lace panels I can always add an extra lace panel. Or so I hope.

Also my bf started knitting a week or two ago and he already finished his first project. After that he started a Chevry by Stephen West because he loved  Caro's so much. I'm unbelievable proud of him and well his progress is scary fast. A really clever knitter if you remember that he touched knitting needles for the time just 2 weeks ago. LOL God, I love that guy.

Caro:  First I'd like to say I'm super proud of Susi's bf and I love his project already. Go bf!! *cheers*!  So last week I only had a few stripes on my Catkin shawl but I've been working on it a LOT and I'm just a few rows from the end. I was really scared of running out of pink yarn and believe me it was a close call. I only had a few yards left.

I'm super happy of the result. I was scared of the charts and it's lucky I had Susi to explain how they worked LOL Hopefully I'll have finished pics for Friday's post.

Here's what's on our needles this week. 

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FO Friday (1)

Thanks to Tami's Amis for hosting FO Fridays

Today it's finally time to show off some of our recents FOs (finished objects). Let's say we are pretty excited.

Susi:

Cladonia

I adore Kirsten Kapur's designs and the first time I saw this one I knew I had to make one for myself. Hell, it has stripes and pretty lace. *g*

I combined 2 self-striping yarns. One has some beige and green tones and the other one is a bit pinkish till orange. Was a bit of a dare but I like it.

I pretty much followed the pattern on this one. I just added some beads in the first Eyelet section.

The Picot bind-off was a close call. I had like 10cm of the yarn left when I was done. 

The Candy Striped Bag

This bag actually was only a filler project I started while I waited for the new yarn to arrive. The pattern on ravelry (Garter Stripe Square Bag by Ishi-knit)is in Japanese but thanks to all the other notes I got the gist of it without actually knowing any Japanese. LOL It's made of 22 more or less square garter patches sewn together. The knitting was easy peasy and fast and well I like how the colors work together. The sewing was a pain- I HATE sewing but I survived the sewing day from hell. At the top  of the bag I added an I-cord edge to make it a bit neater. The lining is an old blouse and surprisingly the stripes work with the stripes from the squares. At least for me. The straps are made of 6 crochet chains each and are simply braided together. 

Caro:

Chevry

Last November I decided to join the WestKnit Shawl Club because I really love Stephen West's designs. So every month I got a pattern and April was the last. Stephen added Chevry as a Bonus pattern and I couldn't resist knitting it. I love the play of colors and shapes and textures.

One color is knitted in stockinette the other is knitted in garter. That means LESS PURLS!!! LOL (Yes like Susi I hate purling)
I admit that I got lazy and I only did 3 repeats of Section 4 instead of 4 =P But I think it's long enough as it is.

The Malabrigo sock yarn is awesome. It softens considerably after blocking. Colorway used: Arbol and Ochre.
I love the Arbol color. It's the second shawl I knit with it and it won't be the last.

 Andrea's Shawl

 My mom kept complaining that I never knitted her anything (which isn't true!). So I complied and searched for a pattern she would like. Believe me she's picky! No stripes, no 'manly' shapes, not more than 1 color. Well actually when I asked her which color to make it, she said 'White or beige or black'. Hum mom those aren't colors LOL.  And she wanted some kind of Cotton yarn. Anyway I've been a good daughter and I decided to knit her Andrea's Shawl in just 1 color *rolls eyes*.
This shawl was a NIGHTMARE! I love the result but OMG I thought I would give up a thousand times. First and only time  I'll ever knit a bottom-up shawl. The bottom lace border felt like it would never end. After hours knitting I didn't have much to show for it.  Btw I knitted the Large size because it was stated by many others that it sized very small. Good thing I didn't go the lazy way. The Large size is perfect.
Since I didn't do stripes I added Eyelets rows every 20 rows to give it structure. I really love how it ended up looking. It has a vintage/old style look that fits my mom. She loves it to pieces so YAY. Mission accomplished!

Those are our recent FOs.  =)

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WIP Wednesday (1)

Thanks to Tami's Amis for hosting WIP Wednesdays

Welcome to our 1st edition of WIP Wednesday! Let's take a closer look at what's currently on our needles.

Caro's WIPs:
 A new week a new project! I’ve been itching to knit myself a Catkin shawl. To be honest I spent 2 whole days trying to decide on the colors. It’s the most important part of it all in my opinion. I’m in freaking LOVE with these colors. I’m using Madelinetosh Merino Light in Graphite and Fragrant. It’s such a pleasure to knit I can’t stop. <3 My only problem is that I keep stopping every 5 minutes to pet the WIP LOL

 I’m also knitting a Hekate shawl . Susi made one a few weeks ago and I knew I had to make one too! *g* . But as much as it was pretty easy for the most part, I’m struggling with the last lace part. It’s even more annoying considering that Susi said it was the “funnest” part to knit =P. I should point out that she loves knitting charts and I HATE charts! Anyway, I really like how the red pops out. It’s so big I’m having trouble taking any decent pic of it while on the needles.  It's the second shawl I knit from this designer and it won't be the last I'm sure. She has such wonderful patterns!

I still have quite a few WIPs on my needles (like my Aidez Cardi!) but the others will have to wait a little longer. ;)

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Susi's WIPs:

 I started a new Color Affection last week. This time in lace weight and I’m in love with the colors and the yarn. The stripes are just awesome and the colors are way more vivid in real. It’s a little sunshine good mood shawl. The first striped section was a bit of an endurance test but I survived and I’m now happily doing the three colored stripes. *g* I’m a bit worried yarnwise though. The last full length yellow stripe from the previous section looks like it’s starting to felt. All this going up and down on needle while I’m doing the short rows seems to be taking its toll. We will see if that will be visible after blocking. Fingers crossed it won’t. >.<

My second project will probably hibernate a bit now. I started a Shapely Boyfriend cardi and I do like how it works out but OMG so many purls on the WS. >.<  I hate purling but well I will be a good girl and do a row here and there- mostly at work so the progress is always minimal. But well I can be patient with this one. (if you take a closer look at pic I just lost some stitches from my right needle while taking the pic but I could catch them all *whew*)

Here you have it! This is what's keeping us busy this week =)

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