Knitting & Crochet Blog Week 2015 announced

Not sure there is much more to add to the title!  Blog week has been announced and I will be taking part again for sure.  Check out this link for more information.  I always really enjoy the week and end up discovering loads more blogs to add to my reader, never a bad thing during night feeds.  Hope to see you there!

FO: Simplicity 1325

This one is a bit of a meh and I wasn't sure whether I'd bother posting about it. However, I made it and it is a successful garment including some firsts for me so I'm proud of it even though it's kinda not awesome. Also my photos suck because I wasn't really feeling motivated to show this off too much. With that out of the way, let's go!

Simplicity 1325 is one of those pattern I just had to have as soon as I saw it, just for the dress though, I probably won't make any of the other garments. After I cut out the pieces for my Moss Mini I had loads of fabric left so I cut all the pieces for this too. I went for the tunic length of the dress, which in hindsight was my first mistake. It was winter and I could see me wearing it with leggings and boots and the dress length seemed too long for that.

This was pretty straightforward to sew, the bodice is lined so no messing around with floppy facings. Getting the v neck perfect was a bit fiddly and mine isn't quite right, but next time I'll do better. The instructions for the lapped zip were a bit lacking, but as always You Tube was my friend. I'm really pleased with how the dress itself turned out and I'm keen to sew it again soon, but longer and in a smaller size.

Essentially I need to be less lazy, the perfect length for me is really halfway between the tunic and dress length. I need to trace the whole thing again one size smaller, so I'll take the time to get the skirt length perfect. I'll also line the bodice in a matching fabric instead of pink polka dots, because as careful as I was it does show through. Onwards and upwards, hopefully I'll have a really great version of this to show soon.

 

FO: Nymphalidea

I don't knit a lot of shawls because they take forever to knit and it's not worth it because I'll never wear them. Or so I tell myself every time I stick one in my queue. "Hmm, pretty" says my brain," but you know you'll never knit it". Well, take that brain, one shawl done in just over a week and it's super dooper wearable. Ha.

I know I mentioned in my last post that this was a very simple and compelling knit and that held true right til the end. I was even considering throwing in a few more repeats, just for fun (well mainly because I had a bit of yarn left really) but I have lots of projects that I'm itching to start so I didn't. I'll totally knit this again some day and I will probably make that one a bit longer and follow the instructions to make the top edge a little straighter from the extra pattern PDF that I, typically, didn't discover until I'd nearly finished. The blocking instructions are on the same PDF so I vaguely followed those. I could have got the top a little straighter, but I'm lazy and I'll mostly wear this like a scarf so no one will ever know.

Anyways, there's not much for me to add here. I loved knitting this and I love the finished item, it's so bright and cheerful how could I not?

Pattern: Nymphalidea by Melinda VerMeer

Despite having loads of projects I want to crack on with I have actually had a bit of trouble deciding what to cast on next. Really I should be getting on with my first Christmas knit, which was due on 28th Feb. I'd procrastinated about yarn for ages and kept changing my mind but I think I've settled on something from my stash now, so I will start that soon. I considered starting another shawl, Stratigraphy again by Melinda VerMeer, but unlike Nymphalidea that starts with casting on a buttload of stitches and I wasn't really in the mood for really long rows so I actually picked up my Greenwich socks instead and knit on them while I did some more procrastinating. And now I've finally finished the first one. It's only taken me since June! I wonder how long the second one will take?