FO Friday

Yet again another week has flown by!

The project today has stole my heart.  I simply cannot stop looking at it.  I am in love with it, and with the style it is knit it.  If you don't know anything about Bohus knitting, but you like fair isle, you should get a hold of this book, Poems of Colour.  I now want to knit my way through most of the hat kits Solveig (click on Bohus Stickning) puts together!

On to the main event though.  Drum roll please!

I give you Wild Apple.

I first fell in love with this pattern years ago.  How could anyone not love it?  My ambition is to knit the sweater, but that is way above my attention-span right now!

There are of course mistakes, but I'm not even going to point them out.  That's how much I adore this hat!

I knit the second size up I think, casting on 180 stitches on 2mm needles.  Holy cow was that daunting!  I probably could have been doing with knitting on 1.75mm given my loose knitting, as I knit the size a bit smaller than my head circumference after doing a gauge swatch on the 2mm.   Yes, that's right.  I totally swatched!  I swatched in 4 different sizes!

Trying to capture the magnificent halo given by the merino/angora yarn is pretty impossible, but you can see all the fluffy hairs sticking out here.  The yarn is utterly soft and after wearing the hat every evening for a week, just because I needed to wear it, I can confirm it does not itch my head at all.

I absolutely adore the shape - I prefer hats to really cover my ears and forehead, and as you can see this hat fits the bill perfectly.  There is a garter stitch band that folds up inside the hat which makes it even more snug.

It is the first hat that my husband has said he is  impressed with, and he even looked genuinely excited when I finished it.  I had expected it to take me a long time to finish, but it took 12 days in the end.

Now, what Bohus kit to ask for this year....

FO Fridays are hosted by Tami

WIP Wednesday

Some readers may remember my mentioning a Bohus hat kit a few months ago.  

I received this kit for my birthday last year, and practised Fair Isle furiously until I felt comfortable with floats and two colours.  I finally started this a week or so ago.

Bohus is not for the faint hearted - 4 colours in one row in this hat, and that is not the most ever found in Bohus patterns!

 But look at it.  Isn't it just spectacular?

Words fail me when trying to describe it, so I won't.

I also have another less colourful WIP which has been left sitting unloved since I started the hat.

Different Lines

I may also have been yarn shopping recently....

 Malabrigo Worsted in Pearl Ten, 3 skeins

Drops Lace in Red, 2 skeins.

Whoops.

Visit Tamis Amis for more WIP Wednesdays!

FO Friday

Finally, a finished object to show!

A few months ago, I was browsing ravelry and came across Stripe Study Shawl, and knew I wanted to knit it.  As with so many patterns, I was at a loss to what yarn I could use.  Then I saw it.  

I bought Kauni 8/2 Effektgarn in EQ, and the solid in undyed (off-white), and in the stash box they sat waiting for the timing to be just right.  A knitalong was started in April, and I knew that time had come.

I was sure it would take me a couple of weeks at least to knit such a large shawl, and one which has very little else going on that knit stitch and some increases.  Oh, and many many short rows.  I'm not the greatest at sticking to boring projects, so it was with great surprise I finished this in a week!  I found myself really getting into the groove and zoning in on the knitting, getting faster and faster, eager to get to the next colour, the next white row.

I don't know how many stitches I had before casting off, but it was a lot.  Not as many as it should have been as I only did 11 colour stripes - I could tell it was going to be big enough, and didn't want it to be too big.

Excuse the leggings, I had just finished crawling round the floor ;)

I won't lie, the border rows were long, however, I kept on knitting just 2 more rows.  I don't know how many time's I said I was done only to keep knitting.  The border was done over the course of a day (an hour during the day, a couple at night), and I cast-off the next evening.  I washed and laid out to dry, no stretching or pinning down required.

Project Page: Stripe Study Shawl
Yarn: Kauni Wool 8/2 Effektgarn EQ and Kauni Wool 8/2 Solid natural.
Needles: 4mm for main section, 5mm for cast-off.

Isn't it glorious?  This is by far the most satisfying knit I've done in a while.  I love the mittens I have done recently, but when I can't wear an FO straight away, I temporarily fall out of love with it.  This pattern has given me a new appreciation for large shawls, and I'm now kicking myself for not buying more than 1 skein of sock yarn at a time.

The Kauni was everything I had read.  The colour changes were so subtle you didn't realise you were in a new colour until you were there!  The yarn was thin and weird looking before washing, but certainly fulled out post-washing when the spinning oils were removed.

As usual, I am joining in with Tamis Amis on FO Friday

Stripe Study Shawl Knitalong - Week 2

Sadly, I shall be bowing out of this knitalong rather earlier than I anticipated.

However, here is a sneak peak for FO Friday.

Stripe Study Shawl Knitalong - Week 1

First off, I must apologise for the blog silence!  I won't give excuses, but I hope I can post more often than I have been recently (I should also really update on my yarn diet fail!).

I started this knitalong 2 days ago, and I am loving my yarn choices!  For the Stripe Study Shawl, I chose to use Kauni EQ and undyed for the main colour.

I am not usually a fan of such glaring use of colour, and I actually chose the project before I bought the yarn having fallen in love with similar projects on ravelry!  Since then, it has been sitting in my yarn box waiting for the perfect moment to start, and what better moment than now?

As you can see, I'm on the 5th CC row.  The colour changes are so indistinct that they really do sneak up on you!  I cannot wait to see how this turns out!  It's already looking quite big, and I probably could have gone down a needle size as it's looking quite lacy, but from what I've read Kauni really fulls out when it's been washed.

Misadventures in Craft has a Mr Linky, so if you want to see some more Stripe Study Shawls being made head over to her blog.

In which there was very little progress

I am very disappointed to say I have very little real progress with this.  We had an urgent and expensive car repair which, as they do, came out of the blue, meaning our tiling and painting plans for the kitchen have had to be put on hold for a while.

Just before this however, I found the two most amazing chairs in our local charity shop.  I had been wanting some comfy chairs for our conservatory for a while, and when I saw these I knew they were the ones.

The first one is an Ikea Poang chair and footstool.  Jittterbug has been wanting one of these for as long as I've known him, and I always said 'when we have money we can buy two for the conservatory'.  You can imagine my delight when I found these for a fraction of the retail price!  The second is a stunning old nursing chair.  It is huge, and considering it is wooden is very very comfortable!  I need a small foot stool for this, but Jitterbug can make one at some point.

And you see that little basket next to the Poang chair?  I bought that last weekend at a place called The Corn Store.  I initially read about it on Sarahs (Craft from the Cwtch's) blog, so I took myself and a friend down to see what it was all about, and it was mind-blowing!  I think we will all be going at some point in the future together for some looking, touching, buying and tea-drinking!  Anyway, the basket will hold yarn eventually :D

Our conservatory is no longer a place we do not enter.  It is a comfortable room with some toys and in which we can all relax.  All we need is blinds and some paint and I am positive this room will become one of our favourites in the summer!

A Perfect Saturday

I find myself alone on a Saturday, and can think of nothing better than relaxing in the sun!  I have been a bit quiet the last few weeks due to unimaginable discomfort caused by back pain, but I am on a good amount of pain killers and I am hoping for recovery very soon!