Enough rain!

OK I've had enough of grey cloudy days and rain. We need some sunshine and warm days on the beach!

One, two, three, go!

OK so now I've swapped the crochet hook for a darning needle, and I've now got not one, not two, but THREE FOs to show for it! Here's the info on the first of the trio - the Beachcomber Tunic:

This is a pattern from Interweave Crochet Spring 2007 using Garnstudio Silke Tweed yarn. I managed to drop on that exact yarn in the pale rose shade I wanted on ebay.

Although I started this back in March 2008, this has taken an age to finish - but purely my own fault. I just couldn't face seaming for a long time and I don't think there's much point trying to do it when you feel like that.

I lengthened the top knitted bodice as I wanted thew whole thing longer and wasn't keen on the knit/crochet split being right across my bust - the model in the original pattern is fairly neutral in this area.

I've been noticing this a lot recently - garments modelled on fairly small-busted women, which makes the finished item look very different on me - and not usually better!

Other than that, it's a great pattern, and very easy to do.

Now I want to wash the tunic a couple of times to soften up that silk/lambswool yarn before I actually wear it.

Playing catch-up

Oh, hi there! I'm still here - life just took over for a while. So, lots of news:

I have a new niece! Sara was born on 3rd April, weighing in at 6lb 10oz. I'm saving up lots of special auntie cuddles for her until we next go up country to visit. :-)

I've also had some of my family come to visit - for the first time since we moved to Cornwall!
My dad and step-mom flew over from Alicante and we collected them from Newquay Airport - so handy. They stayed with us for 2 nights then flew on to Glasgow to visit other relatives.
We visited Falmouth (my dad loves boats) and had dinner back in Perranporth at the Watering Hole - absolutely gorgeous food including warm goat's cheese on a roasted red pepper and rocket salad with crushed new potatoes - mmmm!

On the knitting front, I've been progressing slowly with the Beachcomber Tunic.

This is getting to the tedious stage now, as I've done nothing else for 3 weeks. I do still love it though, and finally feel like I'm getting to the home straight.

Just one more sleeve to go, then the crochet part of the front and the seaming. Shouldn't take too much longer!

Admittedly I have succumbed to stash enhancement to relieve my WIP frustration.

Here is the latest to be ordered - and the first to arrive, from Scandanavian Knitting Design.

There is 200g of aran-weight Big Fabel sock wool in reds for a pair of socks for me, 200g of the same wool in greens for a pair of walking socks for a work colleague (he's making us some chilli olives as a trade!), and 50g of Muskat mercersised cotton in black for another colleague to crochet a phone cover with.

More on the way from various sources!

Working down the list

I wasn't too enthralled with Ravelry to start with. It seemed like an awful lot of work to log details of all my stash, needles, hooks, books,magazines, FOs, and WIPs. I'm still a very long way off; I'll probably never get it all in there.

Since then I've wandered around the site for a few hours, and it's grown on me like ivy up a wall! I'm finding it fascinating and inspiring to look at how others have used the same yarn, to read notes regarding patterns on my waiting list, to discover new patterns for an old stashed yarn, and so on.

I still haven't found a local knitting or crochet group, but then I guess you can't have everything.

It's also finally given me the incentive to actually work through my project waiting list and ridiculous amount of stash. After all that IS the point of buying the yarn... isn't it?!

As for the current WIPS:

Beachcomber Tunic: progressing daily.
(The colours don't really change like that - I took the photo with my mobile at work!)

I've done the 3-needle cast-off to seam both shoulders. I'm now working on the lower back - the crocheted part.
The pattern is easy enough, but takes a while to do a repeat thanks to all the double treble clusters. I really love the effect though.
Fingers crossed that it ends up looking and feeling good when I wear it!

Bamboo Top: on hold.
I just have to seam this and oversew all ends with needle and thread as the lovely bamboo yarn is slippy. I need some warm weather to inspire me!

And finally a FO - a new member of the family! DH's cousin gave birth to a beautiful 6lb 2oz daughter Aimee Louise at the weekend. Well done Karen! That means that the Lucy cardigan should be in use soon. :-)

New loves

Knitting makes me so fickle. As soon as I decide on a new project, I see yet more fantastic yarn and designs to lead me astray. Oh well, such is the crafter's life.

This Sirdar Just Soya yarn in shade "Hot Pepper" led me astray when I found it on the Black Sheep Wools website. Together with the accompanying 15-pattern booklet, I couldn't resist.

This is the particular design that I'm going to make - first. I'm sure I'll be buying more of this yarn to make some of the other designs too; many of them come in womens and girls sizes, which my DDs are VERY impressed with.

They've already shown me several that they like. I guess I'd better get them knitting soon!

In the meantime, this is the project I had started whilst waiting for the Just Soya to arrive.

It's the Beachcomber Tunic from Interweave Crochet Spring 2007, and somehow I managed to buy exactly the right yarn from ebay a while back - total fluke. That's Garnstudio's Silke-Tweed in "Rose" - a lovely dusky pink shade.

This is the pattern that inspired me to take out a year's subscription to Interweave Crochet - not something I tend to do much.

This piece is the right front - which I've now frogged and re-knitted. Here we go again! I'd already modified the neckline and edging as I didn't like the way it stuck out by the throat. Sound familiar?!

Anyway I ended up re-knitting it as I wanted it to be longer. The bottom half of the front is crocheted, and at the original length the dividing line would have cut across my boob - not a good look. ;-)

So now it's longer, and also has a friend - the left front, which is finished to match. The corresponding back is in progress as you read..

BTW, we escaped the snow of course. We did see a little snow fall, but it melted as it touched the ground. We were in Falmouth at the time, enjoying a leisurely walk around the harbour and shops on Easter Monday. Ah, life is hard in Cornwall. ;-)