Number One is finished

Finishing a pullover in less than 3 weeks is my personal record! But I've been on holidays at both of my jobs, so I could devote almost whole days to knitting. 

I'm quite proud of this sweater, although there are still some things that could have been improved. First of all - the shoulders. I should have decreased more at the shoulders as it makes a wierd sqare effect and it makes me look really wide at my arms... It's really strange why I look like a muscled athlete in this sweater, but it may also be due to the cables at the side of the sleeves that make this impression... Either way, I'm still quite happy with the overall outcome and I'm definitely going to wear it as it's perfect for these days with an opened jacket on top (hides the wierd shoulders but exposes the pretty pattern at the front) :)

Next project? I'm thinking of faily isle pattern on mittens. Yes, I think it's time to start preparing for winter, which I have a feeling will start earlier this year... I'm going to go through my stash of yarns today and pick some nice colours. I might also look for some nice pattern on the internet but most of the nice ones that I've seen before were meant to be knitted in the round, which I'm not too happy about as I don't want to do intarsia while knitting in the round (I'm not an expert in neither, so using both in one project may turn out to be disastrous). If I don't find anything I'll use my pattern for handwarmers which is knitted flat and I'll just add the covered fingers. 

Number One

I somehow knew those two patterns will not work out together, so I had to alter my idea. It's okay, I will still use those laces and cables, but in a different project. In the end I decided on slightly narrower cables and a simple seed stitch in between. I already love what I've got so far, I think it works well together :)

I really couldn't come up with the name of this project, but because it's my very first design from the beginning till the end, I've decided simply on "Number One".

Next projects

It's the time for a new project! My boyfriend asked me for a new winter hat, so I guess that's the next piece I'll be knitting. He still has to decide on the pattern though, so in the mean time I'll focus on designing the next project for myself ;)

I finally want something that will fit perfectly + I want a pattern that combines laces and cables. I saw a beautiful pullover in a shop the other day that I completely fell in love with so my goal is to knit something as similar as possible. I already found the laces and cables that I want to use:

The idea is to make a long sleeve pullover with the laces in the middle and the cables on each side of the front. I laready read a few guides to designing your own sweaters and I really want to try my luck with it. But first I'll knit up some swatches to choose the yarn and decide how I really like those two patterns together. In the past I never bothered with swatching and gauging but after taking the 'Know Your Wool' online classes at craftsy, it suddenly became my favourite part of knitting and I knitted up swatches for almost all the yarn that I have in my stash! This particular online class is for free and it's really worth to watch, even just out of interest, as it provides quite a lot of useful info about wool in general. 

Know Your Wool at craftsy.com

Two new photos

The Que Sera cardigan was finished already some time ago, but I was too lazy to take pictures. Also, the buttons that I bought for it were too small so I was planning to buy new ones and THEN take pictures. I bought the buttons today but I don't feel like sewing them in now, so the picture is taken with the small ones  (yes, I've been to the hobbycraft shop and YES I got more yarn lol!). The colour on the picture has nothing to do with the real colour of the cardigan, but the daylight in my house is so poor that I had to use a lamp and so the colour is completely distorted :(

In the mean time I managed to finish the Vanilla Lace top, which I'm not very happy with as it does not fit me :( I knitted it in the smallest size, but it's still too baggy on me. However, at least it was a good practice of knitting in the round, which I start to get a good hang of. The joining is still not perfect at some places, but I suspect it may also be the fault of the yarn because it really exposes all imperfections that may appear during the knitting process. Anyway, here is the picture, and as you can see this top has no shape whatsoever! I'm really disappointed as the picture on the pattern page looked so much different! I guess my next goal is to learn how to modify a pattern to my own shape.

Vanilla Lace

The Que Sera cardigan is finished! It took such a long time to finish it. But it's all because of my two jobs and if you consider the actual hours that I spent on knitting, it turns out that it took me 31 hours and 53 minutes... lol Where do I get this accuracy from? My lovely JKnitPro application which actually counts the real time of knitting :)
The only thing left with the cardigan is finding the right buttons. I'll take care of that on Sunday, as I'm going to a stunt show with my boyfriend and that place happens to be right next to the hobbycraft shop :D Normally I wouldn't be so excited about this Sunday, but now I really am! ;)
Once the buttons are stitched, I'll take some pictures and throw them here.

I couldn't decide on the next project and I actually started to become a bit frustrated with my indecisiveness, so I thought that maybe I will chose something another day. But nope - I had no idea what to do with myself for the rest of the day and I felt this strong urge to grab the needles and just knit, so I finally had to decide on something. The decision fell on Vanilla Lace by DROPS. I totally love this top but I wasn't very convinced with the fact that I will have to knit the body in round, especially that all my attempts of knitting in round always ended up with an ugly 'ladder'... But that couldn't put me off, could it? ;) I took my circular needles, opened youtube and followed some videos, pausing every few seconds to make sure that my retarded brain registers every single movement. And it actually worked! It's not as difficult as it seemed at the beginning and I finally realized what I've been doing wrong, so I actually managed to make a nice tube without the 'ladder' effect. I think I'm ready to make the top now :)
The only thing that I'm still not sure of is the colour of my yarn though :/ All the nice colours that I have are thick yarn which is not suitable for a summer top. I've got the coral yarn that I got from hobbycraft the other day which is much thinner, but now that I look at it and imagine the finished work, it just seems to be too bright... :(
Ah well... I guess that makes me adding another thing to my list of shopping for Sunday... ;)

And that's the link to the project:

Vanilla Lace by DROPS

Progress on the Que Sera cardigan

Like I said, it takes forever to knit this cardigan and I've got just a little piece so far. But I already love the pattern and the fact that the body is knitted as one piece!

I can't wait to finally put it on, however with this speed I may not be on time for autumn... ;)

More Yarn

I've finally received my voucher from Hobbycrafts shop, so of course I decided to spend it on yarn :D I always get so confused when I stand in front of those stashes of yarn because I feel like buying it all!!! And I would have bought more if the voucher was of a biger value, but unfortunately it was only 20 GBP  :/ But I got 6 skeins of this lovely coral Sirdar yarn so it will be definitely enough for a nice summer top. Now I just need to decide on the project :)

And the Que Sera cardigan? It takes forever to knit it as I've got absolutely no time to knit recently :( I got a new job as a freelance translator so now I've got two jobs and almost no time for my hobby... Hopefully the translating job will evolve into something more serious and I will be able to quit Camper.

And that's the pretty yarn that I bought: