Pattern: B-Side cardigan by Laura Chau

Yarn: Sublime Angora Merino

Needle: 3.5mm Knitpicks Harmony

Mods: Worked a larger size at a guage of 25 sts instead of 24 (as specified in the pattern) and knitted sleeves from the top-down (vaguely outlined in this post).

I worked the fluffy yarn at a tighter than reccomended guage to try to control the fluff factor and prevent it pilling too badly. I’m not entirely sure how successful this is going to be. This yarn doesn’t just have a halo – it’s more like an aura.

I’d only worn this for a couple of hours on Saturday night before taking these photos yesterday morning and you can see it’s starting to pill slightly already.

Despite that I’m incredibly happy with the finished item. It fits almost perfectly and I love the collar.

It kept me lovely and warm on the station platform while I waited for my train this morning!

Hurrah, I finished my socks!

Pattern: Pomatomus by Cookie A

Yarn: Natural Dye Studio Merino/Bamboo

Needle: 2.75mm Knitpicks circular

Mods: None (although several mistakes!)

I enjoyed knitting these socks. As with Monkey, the lace pattern was intuitive so I knew what was coming next and didn’t need to look at the chart much. Apart from the foot. There was a fair bit of frogging and tinking on the foot because the lace pattern changes a lot there to compensate for it only being on the top of the foot and I kept getting it wrong.

Cookie A socks make my brain hurt a bit. I’ve come to the conclusion that I shouldn’t knit any of her socks back-to-back.

For my next pair of socks I wanted something simple and fast. I promised my mother-in-law ages ago I would make her some socks. I even dyed up some yarn in colours I knew she’d like. I came up with a simple but lacy design for her. I’m liking how the yarn is knitting up (‘Quickset’ colourway) and if I like the finished socks I’ll be publishing the pattern.

B-side cardigan is finished and blocking. Just needs buttons and a semi-sunny day to take the FO photos.

Well the title says it all really. It’s been three years since I picked up knitting needles and crochet hook on the same weekend and learned how to crochet and re-learned how to knit.

It’s completely coincidental that last night I decided to cast on for the Ivy League vest. Hopefully this project will conquer one of my remaining knitting fears – steeking.

This is just the first three rows. I’ve been trying the norwegian purl technique for the contrast colour in the corrugated ribbing which seems to be working OK for now. I love the sproingy woolen-spun shetland yarn – I’m using the Harrisville shetland specified in the pattern.

I still feel a bit uneasy about the idea of cutting my knitting, but that’s a long way off so I’ll concentrate on the knitting part for now.