WIP Wednesday

I am working on a baby cardigan this week, trying to come up with a prototype for a top down raglan sleeve baby cardigan that can be made in 4ply or sock yarn, preferably in under 100g, so that I can use some of my stash of machine washable sock yarn for baby knits.  After a bit of a wrestle with standard baby sizes, positive ease and Barbara G Walker's invaluable book Knitting from the Top I am a good way through the raglan increases.  I started this project this week because I needed some simple stockingette stitch knitting with which to relax, all my other projects were getting a bit too complicated.  It also makes a handy project to take out and about with me as it requires relatively little attention at this stage, providing I don't go on knitting it longer and bigger than it needs to be!



Although it is blue the cardigan is for a little girl and will receive flower buttons and hopefully some flower style eyelets around the bottom of the cardigan, before the hem, something like this.  I was inspired by the forget-me-nots in the garden, though I could not get a blue that was quite right, this Sandnes baby wool was the closest appropriate yarn.

The green scarf I started ages and ages ago is finally finished.  Well, I say finished, I still have to Kitchener stitch on the end and then block the whole scarf.  The Kitchener stitch (in garter stitch just to make things more interesting) is my next task when I have finished writing this.

WIP Wednesday

Nothing that exciting to show you this week, sometimes that's how life goes, just working away on the same projects.  I've this minute finished the purple lace socks and they are currently in the sink having a soak, I also finished the turquoise Wollmeise lace socks and sent them off to their recipient (in the Ravelry group British Banter's first ever sock swap).  Since I seem to be very much into socks at present I can see a new pair coming into my future very soon, possibly Cookie.a's Thelonious.



Meanwhile I am working away on a cardigan in turquoise Drops Alpaca, in the shade (prosaically named 7240m) I have been dreaming of using for ages, making Pomme De Pin cardigan by Amy Christoffers, a cardigan I knew I had to knit immediately as soon as I saw it.  At times it felt as though the 24 rows of K1P1 ribbing with which the body commences would defeat me, but I am through it and beginning on the lace pattern, although prepared for it to be a long haul project.



The weather has suddenly warmed up, inside two or three days I went from cold to too hot and my body is struggling to keep up with the change in temperature.  But the roses are thriving on it and have finally flowered.  I am out everyday photographing them and watching their progress, while in the pond a group of frogs have emerged from the undergrowth and are sunbathing, part submerged in the water.

WIP Wednesday, after a hiatus

Sorry for the break in blogging, we were left for two weeks with no Internet thanks to BT's incompetence.  I'm feeling rather pleased with myself for managing to sort things out with them, though it has meant a lot of time phoning call centres in India.

No Internet has meant getting more knitting done, I've made some more stay on baby bootees, this time in Drops Baby Merino.



And I've made a start on some purple lacy socks, a variation on Duckies, in Sandnes Garn Perfect (bought at Scandinavian Knitting Design), a yarn I am highly impressed with.  It is soft, soft enough for baby clothes, but also feels hard wearing, thanks to the 15% nylon it contains.  It is the sort of yarn I would use if I were making a jumper for a small boy as I think it would be soft enough not to be proclaimed itchy, but tough enough to survive tree climbing, mud pie making etc.



I have invested in sock blockers and I must say they do make socks look good in photos, very pleased with them, they're by Knit Pro and weren't too expensive, among the cheapest I've seen.

Finally I have mainly been working on these socks for a sock swap I'm taking part in on ravelry, they are Edgewood by Rebecca Blair in Wollmeise Twin, a yarn that looks good and makes a lovely fabric, but is very inelastic and not that much fun to knit with I have to admit.  Thankfully I've almost finished the second sock so should be done in time to post them.