What's WIPing and a new challenge

Not much new is happening on the crafting front here at the moment, I'm either plodding along on the same projects or in the preparation stages of new ones.

In knitting, I'm nearing the home straight on my Nathalie. I've finished the main body, which is great news because it was starting to get a bit unwieldy. I've just got the sleeves left, which I will probably do two at a time just to be sure they're the same length. I'd been worrying a bit about the size of this thing, it's always looked sort of massive, although I think it is because the lace part sort of crumples up when you wear it and takes up less space than it seems. I thought it was time to put Headless Hannah to good use and pinned it on her and see what I thought.

Not bad huh? Roomy, but not enormous. I'm happy with that.

In sewing, Cassie's little hat hasn't really had much of a look in. I finally got the hat top and sides of the lining to come together in a way I was happy with but I keep catching my eye on less fiddly projects. I really should get on with it though because we're heading off on our holidays in a couple of weeks and it would be nice for her to have it. We're staying in England though, so maybe I should be making her a raincoat!

I'm also just about to start cutting out for my first proper overlocker project which is a jersey dress from an old Burda mag (2/2007 to be precise). It's taken me a while to get round to tracing it because the pattern pieces are much bigger than my table and I'm too lazy to deal with that sort of nonsense, on top of which I need to add seam allowances. I do like a lot of the patterns in the Burda mags, but sometimes I wonder why I do this to myself!

And finally, in addition to all this I'm also preparing for the upcoming Outfit Along, which is basically a challenge to knit an item of clothing and sew another to make up an outfit. If you fancy taking part head to either of the blogs in the banner above or the Untangling Knots Ravelry group. I've already cut the pieces for a muslin for a dress and I'll be swatching for a cardigan soon. I'll share the details once I know whether my chosen patterns are a go. The fun starts at the beginning of June!