Work in Progress Wednesday - 19 Dec 2012

I nearly didn't have anything to report, but I've just finished re-stitching the head section on the rabbit piece and also added in the eye.  I think it looks a little odd at the mo, but feel sure that it'll look much better when all the rest of the shading is done.

Probably the main plus is that I actually got it going again!=)

I also finished off the mittens for my green baby layette this afternoon and just need to get ribbon and buttons for that and the matching jacket, which won't happen before Sunday, but I'll be able to show off something anyway.=)

Feels good to get things moving forward, esp. as both of the above mentioned projects are on my to complete in 2012 list and there are only 12 days and 6 hours left of the year....  That's also part of the reason why I haven't been doing as much textile work - I've been trying to complete some of the study tasks too!

Of course, next year's list is already done and ready to go live in 1 January and contains a few things that won't get done, or finished, this year.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

The Sunday Yarn - 16 December 2012

Today we proudly announce:

THE COMPLETION OF THE YELLOW CARDIGAN!

OK, not 100% finished, as I've yet to buy and attach some buttons and it could use a press etc too.  I'm hoping to get some slightly novel ones, maybe flower shaped, but it's getting something both small enough and without any sharp edges that little Vivienne (I don't know yet how they're spelling it, but this will do as a guess for now!) could hurt herself on.

Here's the process of picking up and knitting all the borders.  First I'd to part assemble all 5 pieces and then pick up along the cast (bound) off edges.  Here's a terrific video on picking up and knitting stitches on YouTube.

When that was done, the right hand border came next including the buttonholes.

Then, finally, the plain left hand border. I don't know why, but I struggled to pick up as many stitches on this side and actually ended up with six fewer than on the right hand border.  I doubt it matters though.  I do wish I'd got one or two lower down though as it looks a little bit 'pulled' up to the border from the edge of the front pieces.  You can see the 2mm crochet hook I used to pick up the stitches in this shot.  The yarn is quite fine (4 ply) and the stitches quite small, so I really couldn't put the knitting needle through to pick them up that way.

There's nothing like enough yarn left for me to attempt any of the other things on the pattern (mittens etc).  In fact, I was quite tense to see if it would even stretch to finishing the cardy itself as I only had two balls and I did a size that said it needed three.

The green cardy is also now complete, but I'll save that to show you next week.=)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

Work In Progress Wednesday - 5 Dec 2012

I've done a couple more rows on the centre part of the 'Sunshine and Flowers' sampler over the last day or so.  Oh, and I also added in some cream beads that I'd missed before - 4 of them!  There were actually 2 missing on the chart, but I missed two myself, so equal blame share!!!  Things are progressing fairly well with this piece now, although it takes a while to get the hang of each row.  Next will be 2 long satin stitch rows, or rather boxes, down the sides of the middle and that's a bit of a concern as there's quite some potential for miscounting there...

This afternoon I've also been trying to make some progress with the shading on the stumpwork rabbit, but I really need to come back to this in daylight and have a thorough review of the brown shades.  Two are far too close together to be of any real use in differentiating between shades (and the project isn't meant to be so realistic that it needs such gentle changes), and two are much too far apart.  I'm actually using the prescribed thread brand (it was designed in Anchor, for a wonder!), so I can't blame thread conversion problems.  Anyway, that's something I want to get a look at in the morning, when there's good light where I'm working.  I've already picked out a shade between the two far apart ones, but that now seems too dark....

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012

The Sunday Yarn - 2 Dec 2012

As you can see in the photo above, I messed up the shaping of the cardigan's left front!  I'd sewn it in place and pinned the right front on before I realised that I must have read the pattern wrong at some point and ended up with the shaping the wrong way around at the top.  Duh!

Thankfully, there were only a few, short rows to pull out (once I'd detached it from the sleeve again, that is) and it's now back on the needles waiting for me to feel up to tackling getting it the right way around.  I can't think how I managed to do this, (must have missed a row somewhere and there was also at least one error in the pattern - a rogue purl row - that someone else had spotted and warned me of), but I did think it looked a rather odd shape and wondered how it would sew together....

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2012