100th post! And one less WIP!

Yay! Here's my 100th blog post!
I promised something special for today, haven't I?
And what can be more special and appropriate for celebration than...
A FINISHED ADULT-SIZED GARMENT? For me?!

Pattern is called  Ahelad (Chains) by Anna Kuduja. It's available for purchase on Ravelry. Very well written, easy to follow. After one repeat I just tossed the chart in my project bag and worked on my own. It is also easy to modify.

I wanted to make size M at first but ended up with S (both sizes start with the same no. of stitches - lucky me!). It's a wise decision since cotton is quite heavy and it grew faster than I knitted! :)

For this project I used  FibraNatura Cottonwood  in bottle green - 100% organic cotton, DK. Ravelry marked this one as "discontinued" but in Polish yarn shops there's still plenty left! I fell in love with this dark, rich green.
It's very pleasant to work with, splits a bit but nowhere close to what I expected.

What surprised me was the needle size. When I started my knitting adventure I was a tight-knitter. Now I worked DK weight yarn with 3,5mm (flat) and 4mm (in round) needles... and fabric is soft and drapey!

Also.. the stitch definition is just amazing!

I used almost 7 skeins - 350grams. I'm keeping the last one in case I would like to add some length to it after washing.

As always thanks to my husband who took all the pics! This time Korek seemed eager to help...

But it turned out he was just in it for cuddles!

Oh, you!

Now that I completed 2 WIP's over just two weeks I can finally buy more yarn!

Have a nice afternoon!

Gosia.

PS.: Spring is nigh, I tell ya! I'm already on lookout for The First Bee of 2017!

Making the beginning is one third of the work.

Tropical heat finally left us for a while, and I started thinking about returning to my Star Wars Project. The longer I thought about it... it seemed less and less successful.

Let's face it! I'm not skilled in Fair Isle knitting, and Fair Isle in round is even harder for me. I'm one of those so called "tight" knitters. My floats get shorter and shorter and my garment starts to feel stiff like a plank.

I decided to give it a thought, when we went for a small road trip on Thursday.
We drove to the same place we visited on first May weekend. Here's the post I wrote back in spring.

Is it just me, or do the leaves start to turn yellow?

After a long relaxing walk I made up my mind...

... and frogged whole thing. 

I decided to start over with another, decent tension square. I was hardly surprised when my gauge turned out to be off by 2 sts per 10cm. Yay me! 

I also re-designed the motifs on front, and divided my work in two stages. Front and back will be worked separately. Here's the current state of front piece:

I used classic snowflakes chart this time. And I have to admit - I like the result. 

As I'm getting nearer to the intrasia part I'm also starting to feel a bit anxious about it... but hey! I can always start over! 

And making the beginning is one third of the work! 

Have a nice evening!

Gosia.

PS.: Guess who got to pet alpacas today? :)

Throwback Thursday: The Tale of Lost Alpacas

Throwback Thursday! I'm waiting for my exam results so I need to keep my mind busy... Here's the story of my  Fourteen Alpacas Pullover. It was based on this Drops pattern - "Autumn Flurries"

Long long time ago, in December 2012, just when the world was about to end (again).. my sister called to ask me what did I want for Christmas?

What could I say? Yarn of course! Drops Lima, one of my favourites.

We agreed that she will purchase 8 skeins of the main colorway and I will top it up with 1 skein of natural white & 2 skeins of moss green. Drops just had a big alpaca yarns sale (what an unforeseen coincidence!) and online yarn shops were low in stock. I ordered my part from another supplier  and got it just after New Year. My sister's part however hasn't arrived.

And here starts the fun part:

She emailed the shop and found out that she already accepted the delivery... in Warsaw. Over 330km from our home town. What happened? While she was filling in a form, another Anna X. also filled hers. Two different purchase orders were recorded within less than a minute. Shop workers somehow overlooked the fact that email addresses didn't match and contacted my sisters double to ask if she wanted both of packages sent together. She did. Well, who wouldn't accept it?

It took my sister a while to explain that she not only didn't get the yarn, but hasn't even been to Warsaw lately. It all turned out well eventually, as my alpacas arrived on January 12th,

Arrival of the Alpacas, forgive my shaky hands :)

You can find my work diary on Ravelry. It took me a month to finish it. I made also some modifications. I started with provisional cast on around waist and continued up, and came up with my own yoke design. Here's the chart:

And 16x16 square version:

It has it's own pattern page on Ravelry.

Sadly, I don't wear my pullover too often because it's too warm. Maybe this years winter will change that!

Have a nice afternoon!

Gosia.

Autumn Mess & Springtime in Winter

Springtime! 6°C in the evening and lovely sunny days!

Even local chickadees started avoiding my balcony. Nevertheless I managed to take a picture of one of them checking out my Pinterest-inspired bird feeders.

Since we already have seasons all mixed up... why not go back to Autumn?

Lovely warm evenings in my attic, with a cup of hot coffee.

I present to you:

My favourite knitted pullover so far!*

*it's my third pullover, so I'm not really that far...

Autumn Mess

Make sure to read ENTIRE pattern before you start.

I used the percentage method, but you can also check out an online pattern generator, like this one.

I strongly recommend making your own swatch and adjusting numbers :)

GAUGE: My gauge was approx 12sts x 20rows for 10x10cm(4x4inch) square in stockinette stitch with 7mm needles, but I'm not good with swatches, so you probably shouldn't trust me.

I PATTERN

Body:

Cast on 60 st on smaller needles (5mm)

Rows 1-5: knit

Change to bigger needles (7mm) & set up markers:

Row 6: k10 PM k20 PM k10 PM k20 (sleeve, front, sleeve, back)

Rows 7-46: increases!

Increases will be made on even rows only by increasing one stitch on each side of every marker. This will give you additional 8 stitches. I prefer kfb increase (knit thorugh back&front loop of the stitch next to marker), but any increasing method will do.

Continue until you have made 20 increases (46 rows). You should now have 220sts in total divided as follows: 50-60-50-60

Neckline with first couple of increases

Row 47: Remove markers as you go. Set 50sts aside to a piece of yarn, knit next 60st, place next 50 sts on a piece of yarn, cast on 8 sts, knit 60, cast on 8 sts, join. (136sts)

Continue work. You can either work the sweater straight, or do some waist shaping.

When you reach desired length make at least 5-6 rows of seed stitch to prevent fabric from rolling up and bind off.

Edgeing - 5 seed stitch rows

Sleeves:

knit 50 sts from scrap yarn, pick 4 sts from body, PM, pick 4 sts, close circle

decrease every even row on both sides of marker (I used k2tog and ssk here to make decreases lean neatly towards the marker) – the more times you decrease the slimer your sleeve will be. I did 7 decreases in total, so my sleeves are 44sts each.

End your sleeves with seed stitch band, at least 5-6 rows long. Mine has 14 rows. Bind off.

Weave ends in, You're done!

II BEADS

I used wooden 8mm beads with 2mm hole. Make sure your beads are good quality! Cheap ones often have multiple, tiny splinters inside that might drive you crazy. Also, look for varnished beads since you will one day need to wash your pullover.

Not into wooden marbles? Try something else, but remember they shouldn't be too heavy.

You can also arrange your own pattern.

Mine starts in increases section and goes all the way to bottom across the chest.

It took 130 beads. I placed them with 1.3mm hook. Took me some time to learn how to catch aran yarn with hook this small but it was worth it!

I never placed beads on adjacent stitches so they wouldn't stretch the fabric too much.

Enjoy!

© Copyright for pattern remains with the designer. Intended for personal use only.

Not for commercial use.

Selling items made from this pattern is not permitted.

© Copyright M. Machowska - Escherichia, November 2014

PDF version, as usual, available on Ravelry- here.

Have a nice evening!

Gosia.