Tweedy cable hat

After telling anyone who would listen that I was planning on finishing Wicked EVEN though it was going to be too small ie. I was ready to move onto other projects, I could not stand the thought it was not going to fit me, especially because I love the yarn so much.

So...I frogged back to the the armholes, added a couple more increase rounds, and resumed! I'm very pleased with the fit now. So excited, I took time out to do the sleeves, and the pocket. Currently I'm doing the shaping on the body...it's very easy knitting now, but I still have Christmas knitting to do and feel kind of guilty working on this! Besides which, I am waiting for one more skein to arrive for finishing off this bad boy.

So, a little break I will take.



Here's a little cutie cap I whipped up using some leftover Gedifra English Tweed. I used this pattern from the Yarn Harlot (her free pattern on her website), with one modification to make it bigger since my gauge didn't match the pattern's. The pattern is very fun to make, but I still had to block it bigger because all the cables really pulled it in. It's still a bit small, but sure fits this model rather nicely! I wasn't sure if this would suit my intended giftee, so I started these:



This will end up being a New Year's present, but I know will be gratefully received no matter when I finish them.

This and that

Since the last hat streak, I thought I would work on Classic Cable, ready for something more challenging. I took the pattern out, read where I left off, then sighed heavily and returned it to its little bag....I just don't think I can immerse myself in this attention-needing pattern! I feel kind of bad since I imagined myself wearing this nice cosy red turtleneck at Christmas. C'est la vie, there is always Valentine's!



So I thought I would work on Wicked.



This was ticking along jim dandy when I started to doubt the fit. I knew the gauge was not perfect when I started, but at that point I was so ready (yes, that would be at cast-on) to just whip it up and get on to the next project...I thought I would go for it. Well, ahem, the sweater may turn out to be rather snug. I have not started the sleeves yet, but I think I'll pick up a few stitches when I start (at the armpit) which I find I have to do anyway with a raglan. Then if that doesn't help ease up the fit, I'll block it out a wee bit. If that fails, well, little miss M will hopefully wear it in a year or two! I am down to near the bottom and now I have this bad feeling I'm going to run out of yarn. In a panic I worried about them not having more of this colourway, so off I went and ordered more, yep, one more skein! That should arrive later this week. So, while waiting for that, I churned out a couple more things.



Here's a close-up of a Christmas gift which is just finished!



Here's something else - this little vest was a happy surprise. The yarn is Grignasco Karma, made up in Blue Sky Alpaca's ribbon vest pattern. I did not use ribbon, and the vest turned out to be a little big for me overall (not because of the lack of ribbon, but because I was too lazy to play with the gauge). So after about a year of wondering how to make it smaller, I psyched myself up to bravely put it under the needle of my trusty Bernina. That was fun! I turned the vest inside out, hand basted the fit compared to something else that fit me well, then seamed it on my machine a couple of times (same seam), then repeated this 1/4" away into the seam allowance. Then, with my trusty Janome, I serged off the new seam allowance to about 5/8" and voila, a perfect little vest with some fun colour and little bobbly things! There's deal on this yarn at Urban Yarns this week!