FO: Abate

Ignoring the siren call of more intricately cabled socks I nobly cast on a sweater for Felicity at the beginning of last week.  Abate, by Alicia Plummer is a pattern I've been meaning to knit for absolutely ages and teamed with sparkly Cascade Hollywood yarn has turned out wonderfully.

This was a very quick knit, taking only 6 days (it was also the half term holiday, so I had both kids home the whole too) out of my sock knitting schedule.  It wasn't a particularly exciting knit after all those cables but sometimes you just need to zone out and go round and round and round without thinking.  The sleeves and waistband are both cast off using EZ's sewn bind off which was new to me and therefore a little exciting and the collar is turned in on itself and the live stitches sewn down on the inside to provide even more excitement.  I may have to revisit the collar, however, because it keeps flipping to the outside and I can't tell if it's because of the way I sewed it or if it's just because it comes up a little too high for little Lissy and it's getting pushed down by her face.

I made the smallest size, age 2 and expect this to last a good long while.  The sweater is designed to grow with the child which is brilliant.  It is very clear that Lissy has loads of room to grow in to it but it doesn't actually look like she's wearing a too big sweater.  I was a little worried that she would be swamped by it because she is very tiny (still only 23lb) but she looks great.  She also seems to like it, which is very important now that she's hit the age where she has an opinion on what she wears. I was fairly sure I couldn't go far wrong with purple and sparkles but I never presume to know the mind of a 2 year old, that way madness lies!

FO: Knotted Pine

Ok, I'm not even slightly going to beat around the bush on this one, I freaking love this hat and I think I may actually just live in it from now on.  I love the central cable panel and the way it is surrounded by more cables and a cute rib column.  The short row shaping on the brim is completely delightful and I'm even rather enamoured by the half twisted stockinette which adds a lovely texture even though twisted stitches are kind of annoying to knit.

The pattern is Knotted Pine by Alicia Plummer, a designer who has multiple patterns in my Ravelry library and favourites but this is the first one I've actually knit up.  A few knitters had remarked in their project notes that they found the pattern hard to follow, but I can safely say that I had no trouble whatsoever.  The pattern is very brief and to the point but all the pertinent information is there.  I used KnitCompanion, as I usually do, and really I should have stitched the charts together on there instead of flicking between them but I'll leave that for next time.

I actually cast on for this for the first time when I was on holiday in December, but I'd forgotten my smaller needles and then I got lost on the charts and decided it was best to rip out and try again at home.  Luckily I did because it turns out that my gauge swatch had been telling me some whopping great fibs.  According to my swatch I needed to go up a needle size, so that's what I did and after dithering about what size to choose I went for 22" because that's how big my head is.  It was quite clear before I even finished the ribbing that the thing was going to be massive so I went back down to the suggested needle size and changed to the 20" size.  It fits really nicely now so I definitely did the right thing.

The yarn is Lang Yak, which was sent to me from Switzerland during a recent swap, and I'm a big fan now.  It's really smooth and warm and the colour is lovely.  I haven't washed it yet because I was so desperate to get this hat on my head, but apparently it gets even lovelier after a wash.  I only used a little more than one ball so I have the larger part of the second ball left to make a hat for a small person.  Hmm, now which pattern to choose.....