More Louisa Harding love

Last off my needles is Louisa Harding's Reef from Ondine. Knitted in Adorn Yarn's Cotton Cashmere DK. This is an easy knit with minimal sewing up as you knit up from the underarm on one circular needle. I did quite a lot of adjustment to the fit, to make it a bit longer and to account for my broad shoulders. I have been calling it my high-vis jumper, and it is a really hard colour to photograph, but it's nice to have something fun and bright to wear on dull days!

I started these ages ago when we went away for the weekend, rashly casting on four garments at once, and now I've finished them all. Previously I finished Breaker, also from Ondine and also knit in Adorn Yarns Cotton Cashmere DK, but I struggled to fin the right buttons. Again I lengthened the body and the sleeves as well as making it broader across the shoulders.

I've just cast on Louisa Harding's Tea Cup from Queen of Hearts, using Filatura di Crosa Golden Line Superior which is a bit of a splurge, but it was on sale at Clegs. Knit with a double strand is making it progress quickly, helping me catch up a bit with my aim of finishing 12 adult garments by the end of the year. Six down; six to go!

I've also got to cast on Michael's birthday jumper (due in 13 days...well maybe not). I'm going to make him Erika Knight's Deep V Sweater from her Classic Knits: 15 Timeless Designs to Knit and Keep Forever, making a few adaptions for the male torso. He's chosen the same Antique Red as the ribbing in my Reef, so we won't be able to wear them at the same time, that would be way too matcy-matchy.

Oh, and yes, I do own a sewing machine and I do buy material all the time (especially in remnant sales), but somehow I'm just not getting anything done...

Am I insane?

Most probably, yes. I've signed up to IntSweMoDo 2011 (International Sweater-a-Month Dodecathon) in June with only one finished object for the year under my belt. Here are the next two, with two more well underway and plans for five more which takes me up to 10 for the year...yeeks!

First is the most recently finished, an easy knit from Louisa Harding's Blue Monday, the Tuesday tunic. Knitted in Adorn Yarns Silky Merino DK, colour Ash. I'm hoping this tunic will help me combat our rather bleak winter weather.

Again, for those of you who care...these are my first images with my new point and shoot camera the Fujipix x100. Set on raw (and having to use Adobe's DNG converter which is very annoying) and Velvia simulated saturation for a bit of film nostalgia. The lens is super, but it is quite clunky and slow just as this review says, so I for one am hanging out for a firmware update.

The other is Mandarin from Louisa Harding's Chinoiserie. This was a much slower knit...mainly because of the colour work on the cuffs and peplum. The rest was plain sailing and I used Adorn Yarns Cotton Cashmere DK, knitted a bit tighter on 3mm needles instead of the recommended 4mm on the ball band (as a loose knitter I always go down a size and for cotton I need to go down two sizes). I was a little worried that it may create too firm a fabric that would go stiff on washing, but it's just fine.

I wish my sewing was progressing as smoothly...

Weekend Knitting

I went away last weekend and I might have overdone casting on new projects, without finishing anything!

Clockwise from left: Reef from Ondine, Tuesday from Blue Monday, Breaker from Ondine, and the sleeves of Mandarin from Chinoiserie, all by Louisa Harding and all in Adorn Yarns Cotton Cashmere, except Tuesday which is in Adorn Yarns Silky Merino DK. Now I just have to finish them!

Skipper!

Well, it's been a while and I have been knitting, but I've also been doing plenty of unpulling. This yarn started off as Kim Hargreaves' Patsy from Touching Elegance, and I had knitted quite a bit of it, but I just wasn't happy with knit, so I unpulled it. And then I saw the new Louisa Harding books and I fell in love again with her patterns and bought a pile from the UK. The first project is Skipper from Ondine, which took quite a bit of tweeking to get the fit right and hence more unpulling. The body to the underarms is a size 10, the fit across the front and back (the same) is a size 12 and the length of the arm hole is a size 14. I also lengthened the body and the sleeves until they felt right for me. Here's the outcome:

The three big cable up the front and back (I reversed mine to that they were on my right hand side) are very dramatic (and easy) while showing off the beautiful yarn from the Wool Baa (Adorn DK wool/silk mix). 

And for those of you that care that's what a canon 135mm f2L lens at f2 and closest focussing distance (0.9m) looks like. New favourite lens...thanks Roo!

Next project on the needles is Louisa Harding's Mandarin from Chinoiserie, another beautiful pattern and one I've been thinking about knitting for a while. As the body is knitted in one piece to the underarm, the bottom fair isle pattern is knitted in one piece, that's 217 odd stitches of fair isle per row and I'm managing one row a day! Lucky is a cotton cardigan, I should have it finished by summer! The yarn is from Wool Baa, this time DK Cotton Cashmere and taken with that new lens again...

Lily

Remember those red jumpers I knitted all about 18 months ago? No...well, here's the film, and here's the news from the Berlin Film Festival. Congratulations Julia and Kasimir!

Finding the time...

...to finish both sewing and knitting projects is difficult at present, but here are two I've managed to finish and photograph. First is my favourite summer top (just as it's long sleeved partners was my favourite winter top). The knit is from Tessuti and the pattern is from Wendy Mullins Sew U Home Stretch, called Get the Scoop, cut on the bias (not matching stripes) and without elastic in the neck and waist. I just used the twin needle to finish the neck, sleeves and bottom. Easy!

Then I finally managed to finish Kim Hargreaves' Haze from Misty, a generous boat neck jumper with big raglan sleeves and a lovely trim bottom band. Knitted in Adorn Yarns' Cotton Cashmere DK, it's a cuddly jumper for chilly autumn evenings. 

Finally...Fay!

I started knitting Kim Hargreaves' Fay (from Precious) in October last year in Jaggerspun and didn't like the lace pattern; didn't like the gauge; just wasn't happy. I started again in Leonie's yarn (Adorn Yarns Silk Cashmerino 4ply) and it's taken me an age to finish it and then to sew it up...not sure what all the hoopla was about, it's fabulous now it's finished. I left off the buttons on the lower edging as I realised I'd scratch my camera when working.

The stitch definition is great with this yarn.