Test Knitting...

Seems the best idea to try and do something useful with the enormous amount of stuff I seem to churn out. On Ravelry there is a group called Free Pattern Testers. On their forum you can chose a pattern that's kind of advertised on their board and you can get (potentially) a new pattern for free which you knit up and then provide concise feedback and good photos. Seems like a good deal to me. So far I've signed up for a baby poncho for a 3 mth old and an adult beanie. I have till May 3rd.
So far I've done one practise poncho because it's the only way I can figure out how much yardage I use.

It is a very unusual shape but rather appealing.. The pattern is very well written. The one I'm doing proper is a much nicer colour, I swear!

Haven't got any pics of the hat yet. I've only just started that. Another excellent and interesting pattern :)

Another Seamless Shirt done!

I forgot to put up another garment for myself that I finished while I was in Canberra. I really love seamless knits and I wanted to knit something light that I could possible wear during the spring when the weather's a little iffy. So I found Silken Straw Summer Sweater by Purl Soho on Ravelry and pulled out two cones of acrylic I'd picked up at various op shops. Since both yarns where very thin (the grey one looked about 1ply!) I worked them held together which made a quite passable 4 ply yarn.

Then I got started. It's unlike most seamless shirts I've knit that it started from the bottom and finishes at the top. I modified the hem edge on the bottom and the sleeves because I hate these rolling up so I garter stitched them for about  10 rows. It grew pretty slowly for quite a while.

Then I finally got to the fun stuff while I was at Daughter's. Finished the sleeves, did the I-cord bind off around the neck line, washed, blocked and worn! Was and am so pleased with the result from two ordinary yarns that I couldn't have used alone but together made this lovely heathered grey shirt!

One yarn was light grey with a slight halo and the other one was a smooth yarn in a subdued white, almost the palest grey. And it fits which I always think is a bit of a miracle when I knit stuff because I haven't the patience to do a tension swatch and the few times I have my tension when knitting the whole garment is completely different! But there we go.

Happy Knitting :)

Brianna's top

Brianna's been looking through my knitting books (hard not to when her room is actually in my wool room!) and found a pattern for a top she liked, could I knit it?
Course I could!
And since there isn't a picture of this on the Ravelry site (although they do have the pattern) I'll be able to provide a picture when I'm finished! Cool.



















I've even bought the buttons for the straps although I'm going to join them to the actual top instead of make them with button holes and such. Most of it's garter stitch and it's taking a long time to get very far, or that's what it feels like. The yarn I'm using is some blend I reclaimed from a jumper I bought from the op shop ages ago. It feels lovely, soft and slightly silky.



















I'm really looking forward to finishing this because I think it's going to look so good.
Wish I could knit quicker!
Oh well, happy knitting :)