Pippi's party presents

Some leftover Lorna's Laces Swirl Chunky makes a cosy sleeping bag for a little stuffy: miss M is going to a birthday party for her buddy's Webkinz, a pig called Pippi, and this is the gift! A crocheted "P" makes it nice and personal. Leftover pink yarn got transformed into a pig puff, and what good is a party without hand made party hats put together from craft bits and pieces? All of Pippi's Webkinz guests will be very festive, indeed.

Fitted Tank, round 2

Presenting...the re-knit Fitted Tank!


This yarn used has been knit up once (same project), washed as a garment, hibernated for a year or so, frogged, then re-knit, this time according to gauge. Ahhh, experience, it's a wonderful thing. While knitting this project I read many posts about it on Ravelry - so helpful! They confirmed the trouble I had the first time with the neckline - it was quite wonky indeed. So this time, I re-wrote the neckline instructions and re-knit it as follows. Note I knit size small on 4.5 mm needles to get gauge..

Shape neck (for both front and back) :
k16 sts, put remaining sts on holder. Next row: purl.
Next row: k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1. Next row: purl. Repeat last 2 rows two more times (13 sts). Continue until piece is 20.5" from beginning. Keep centre 22 sts on holder, and transfer remaining sts to needle (16). Join new ball and knit to end. Next row: purl.
Next row: k1, ssk, k to end. Next row: purl. Repeat last 2 rows two more times (13 sts). Continue until piece is 20.5 " from beginning.

Finishing
Using 4 mm circular needle, start at left shoulder seam, pick up and knit 18 sts down left front, knit across centre front 22 sts, pick up and knit 18 sts up right front, 11 sts down right back, knit across centre back 22 sts, pick up and knit 11 up left back. Cast off loosely purlwise.
Using 4 mm circular needle, pick up and knit 70 sts around each armhole, then cast off loosely purlwise.


I'm much happier with it this time around. If I had had more yarn I definitely would have added about 2 inches to the length. As it turns out I squeaked this out with probably less than 10 yards short of 3 skeins. Done!

Latest sock

Finally I started Cherry Tree Hill supersock merino which I was curious to try. I'm knitting along, happy as all get out, but check out the pooling starting in the midfoot section. It could be rather charming, showing off the beauty of the colours..... or it could be not working for me. Ah well, keep on knitting. I'm making Cat Bordhi's Rushing Rivulet Socks in the same book I've been using for awhile. I like the texture.



This pattern uses the Riverbed pathway where the increases are made on the sole of the foot like this:



The pattern is very simple to do once you get into the groove. I think the first sock turned out quite well. Rather springy!

on a Blue Sky roll

A couple of years ago I knit this tank in Blue Sky Alpacas dyed cotton. I loved the picture on the pattern (I think I imagined I would be painting, just like the model, wearing my new tank), I was crazy for the colourway Flamingo, and I was into the softness of the yarn. So I knit it up very fast without paying too much attention to anything important, the gauge, for example. My project turned out to be very big, very unflattering, and very disappointing. It languished in my closet, and every couple of months I would try it on, hopeful I would change my mind, or it would change its shape, but it always looked pretty bad. Last year I frogged it finally to at least salvage the yarn, and since then it's been hibernating in a ziploc bag.

Now it's Spring (at least on the calendar) and time for new beginnings, re-birth, renewal and the like. So after using all that dyed cotton for Tomato, I thought I would keep a good thing going and carry on with this yarn. I'm making the Fitted Tank again, this time using the right size needles (4.5 mm) to get gauge (18 sts over 10 cm). I am sure I used 5.5 mm the first time around as suggested in the pattern, but at that point in my knitting career I was completely unconcerned with gauge and fit. Live and learn :0), this little tankie is cruising along and and looking much more promising this time! I'm almost done!