Hitofude in Curry!

Happy Birthday to me!!!*

 *my b-day was yesterday, but I did finish all the knitting before midnight!

Holidays made me too lazy to write a long post, so let me do a quick list:

• Yarn:  Mirella by Włóczki Warmii. 100% virgin merino, hand painted. I cannot describe how gorgeous, soft and overall wonderful this yarn is! I'd say I prefer it over the Malabrigo Sock!
• Colourway: Curry. Mirella is made in small dye lots, there's no telling if there will ever be a "curry" batch again.

• Needles: 3,5mm - all the way.
• Pattern:  Hitofude Cardigan by Hiroko Fukatsu. Very well written!
• Size made: M
• Changes to pattern: I did 10 repeats for sleeves (less than in pattern), because I was afraid to run out of yarn...

• ...which did not happen and I squeezed in 32 extra rows.
• I used 274grams in total.
• Additional rows were added by continuing increases in the same fashion as in charts B-E.
• It took me 37 days to complete :)

As always - thanks to my husband, who accompanied me into the garden, despite the dreadful weather. Easter was quite beautiful, but so cold, and unpredictable this year!

Now I can wait for warmer days, to show my best-looking-cardi-so-far to the world!

And while I wait I have 1500 metres to wind...

It is scratchy and smells of oil, but it will turn into an amazing... something. I'm not sure yet, but I'm definitely going for narrow stripes!

Happy Easter to y'all!

And have a nice afternoon!

Gosia.

The Annual First Bee Day 2017... was three weeks ago!

I knew it! Apparently First Bee of 2017 was waiting for my previous post release... and showed up just one day later - on March 5th.

Ok, this may be considered cheating, because hyacinths were bought in a flower shop. But we have other flowers as well:

I mentioned buying fancy yarn in my previous post. As a 100th post celebration, or simply because I deserve some squishy goodness after this horrible winter! After hours of picking, calculating, terrorizing my husband with countless links I finally found what I was looking for - Mirella by Włóczki Warmii. Fingering weight 100% virgin merino wool, hand painted in Poland. Colorway "Curry". Yummy!

Shipping was really fast. I ordered on Saturday night, and the parcel was delivered on Tuesday afternoon. Luckily  I had a day off after a night shift, when I came back home to this:

Since skeins were a bit too long for traditional one-chair winding I had to create a Wind@tron 2.0. I swear one day I'll try winding my skeins with hand mixer!

It took me about two hours to wind all 1200meters into three neat balls.

Being done with all that I was finally able to start working on the Hitofude Cardigan by Hiroko Fukatsu. I decided not to slip any stitches at the beginning of each row, and I consider it to be a good decision so far.

 

I'm working simultaneously with all three skeins - that forced me to cut thread twice after joining sleeves. No regrets though - yarn is an absolute pleasure to work with, and result is just gorgeous! It has tiny specks of red and green - just like real curry! 

So far I manager to finish sleeves (did 10 instead of 12 repeats), and start body increases. I still have 160g of yarn left, which should be enough to complete the cardi as intended.

I hope that my next post will be one of those "ta-daaaah" posts! Also, my birthday is getting closer, and I might get myself something... nice :)

I'm running back my to knitting! Stupid daylight savings time took away a precious hour of my free weekend!

Have a nice afternoon!

Gosia.

Cleaning up my project bags.

It's my first summer without summer brake... It is kinda hard, because usually July was my busiest knitting month. I'm not giving up this year, though!
In last few weeks I completed one big project and two smaller ones. And today I received long a awaited parcel - a skein of Malabrigo Sock yarn. I also got a free project bag, since the postage was seriously delayed. Oooh my!

But let's get back to my former -WIPs. I present to you.. my brand new Syna Shawl. Pattern Syna by Mary Renji.

For this shawl I used Cotton Soft by YarnArt and I was really pleased. This yarn is almost unspliatble! Perfect for crocheting!

The only modification I made was finishing work after a solid section. Last row was crocheted using a crab stitch. I still have some yarn left, but I decided it's big enough:

Now I have to buy a matching dress, because we've been invited to a wedding.

My other no-longer-WIPs are not that big, in fact they are tiny! It's a set of newborn-size cardi and a matching hat for my friend. She's expecting her first baby, and I still need to make a pair of small booties.

Free patterns: Marianna's Lazy Daisy Top-Down with sleeves  and eyelet baby hat, both by marianna mel.
For those I used what I had left from Never Again Blanket, which was made for the same baby-to-be.

Now forgive me, but I can hear my lovely, soft, delicate skein of Malabrigo Sock yarn whisper... "wind me, wiiiiind meee!". I just have to trick my hubby into being a skein holder for a while!

Have a nice afternoon!

Gosia.

All-Terrain Awesome-Tank!

Star Wars project is ready!

It took me 20 days (from second cast on) to finish.

I don't like the see-through effect around AT-AT's. I think it's because I used needles bigger than recommended. On the other hand - doesn't it look exactly like falling snow? :)

I am 104 days ahead of my schedule! So I started knitting a cardi for myself. It's in rather thick, creamy acrylic.
We're leaving this afternoon for our weekend to the land where the crow flies backwards. Please, don't tell my hubby half of my backpack is packed with yarn!  

Until next week! 

Have a nice afternoon!

Gosia.

Ugly but Snuggly... (Sn)uggly!

I discovered my main problem with knitting sweaters. I never wear them. Seriously. My Fourteen Alpacas Tunic is too warm, Autumn Mess pullover is cute, but leaves my undershirt all fuzzy...
My striped cardi is awesome, but the yoke is kind of stretched out...

So I thought about making a sweater that I WILL wear. Something to throw on myself when evenings are chilly. And I came up with an idea for the Ugly but Snuggly Sweater aka (Sn)uggly.

 Luckily I already have sufficient amount of yarn. I found it while renovating my attic bedroom. It's a 54%Acryl 46% PA bouclé mix made in Czech Republic. Since I cannot find it in Ravelry's database and I'm pretty sure it's been discontinued.

Once I even stated working on a big simple sweater then but I never finished even one part of it.
Funny thing about this yarn it's that it is extremely efficient. This piece was made in garter stitch from one 100g skein:

Hand for scale

Now I'm off to mindlessly knitting my first sleeve!
Have a nice evening!

Gosia.