Monday, November 22, 2010

What does that Birdy do?

This Birdy has been a busy little one with lots of reading, writing and studying in general. I have been fitting in some making though, a stitch here and there and have made progress on several projects.

First is the striped grey & brown alpaca neck-warmer I made for the Mr. Its really soft and warm, ideal for these days as they creep steadily towards the minuses. We've not had much snow yet, but it is getting very snowy about the ears (as Pooh would say). The Mr. has been coping so far with some of the other hat and scarf I have made him, but the change of weather is expected soon and he will no doubt be wearing this often. It doesn't photograph well as the wool has a soft halo that the camera finds hard to focus on. I experimented with jog-less stripe techniques for knitting in the round here and it worked a bit but its still not perfect enough for my liking (though it is pretty nice!):


The next is something I'm still working on, the Its Cold Outside Cardigan. This is a replacement for the unruly Twinkle cardigan that refused to fit in my suitcase. I'm making up my own pattern here as I go along, inspired by various ones I've seen in knitting magazines and in wandering around window shopping. It's hopefully going to have a soft folded ribbed collar and some pockets (must have pockets!). Progressing so far up to the lower middle back where I'm putting in a couple of darts (knitted decreases) to give it a little shape around the waist. The wool is a wool/acrylic blend from Bernat but has a nice colour depth with light grey flecks through the brown (makes it look more 'expensive'!):


Ahh, the beautiful mitten of loveliness. From this pattern in Debbie Bliss that I wrote about earlier. Strangely, no dramas here. And for my first attempt at knitting with more than two colours and in an intricate design, I must say I am pretty pleased with myself. I have taken to wearing my single mitten around the house to admire it. It will soon be joined with its friend, the other hand mitten and they will dance happily together. Though given the way the temperatures are going, I'll be wearing another pair of gloves underneath. But still, aren't the colours lovely:

The Rebecca Knitted Dress. This is banished to solitary confinement in a plastic bag in the closet for not behaving itself. I have to rip out the last 3-4 inches because my decreasing stitches are not nice enough. I tried to fix them but it just turned out worse. So until I am in the mood for extensive mohair-wrangling ripping out, it shall stay in the closet. The good thing about the knitting is that I have discovered that the gauge and wool make an excellently light and beautifully draping fabric:


And I have been getting a lot of wear out of this scarf, the enormous yellow one as I can bury my face and ears in it. This is particularly important in the Rare Books room of the library which has temperatures ideal for maintaining Renaissance books, but not for maintaining living people!

And I'm currently in knitting love with this beautiful cape: http://www.knittingtodaymag.com/pattern-previews/woods-girls-cape
Yes, its a children's cape, but its so nice, I don't see why 10 year olds should have all the fun. Luckily I'm pretty little and can fit into child's sizes so I'm considering making this one. The dilemma though is whether I'll indeed look like a child in it or just silly or it will look cool. What do you think? Make or not?