FO - Rustic Owls Sweater

Today I wove in all the ends, grafted the underarms, sewed the collar and am pleased to say that the sweater is perfect! It fits well, and the finishing is great if I do say so myself. I'm particularly pleased with the collar, once turned over it had a wonderful clean and finished look. The owls definitely need blocking which I will get to soon enough. For now however, I'm pleased to present my Rustic Owls:

Almost finished owls

Last week I finished the knitting for my owls sweater, now I just need to weave in ends, sew together the underarms and sew the collar. I have made the collar long enough that I can roll it over and sew it down, a much nicer look in my opinion.

I was going to do all the finishing last weekend, but with having to go to bendigo, it wasn't going to happen. The new plan is next weekend. The sweater fits well. I'll try to get a photo of me wearing it! But for now you'll have to settle for this:

About to join the sleeves

I have finished the second sleeve and am about to do my favorite part, join the sleeves to the body and begin the yoke. The first few rows are difficult, with the tightness between the sleeves and the body, at least until you have worked a few rounds.

I'm still planning to wing the yoke with the owls motif, try and get the pattern nicely in the middle and keep the fit nice. I'm also hoping the sweater will still fit, I have put on a few kilos over Christmas, but haven't most of us?

I'm working on a dishcloth at the moment, the sweater will be a settling down project now. Once I finish the dishcloth, I look forward to casting on another sock.

Loving my Owls

After finishing the "Ugly Socks" I got back into knitting my owls sweater, even though the season is completely wrong! I'm wearing strapless dresses due to accidental- but severe- sunburn. It is hot! So knitting a jumper seems a bit silly, but after finishing my February Lady Sweater, I remembered how much I love knitting sweaters.

I had two unfortunate projects, a grey and black striped sweater and my basic black cardigan, which kinda turned me off sweater knitting for a while. I am also a little unhappy with the fit of my Seneca sweater, I do not like the extra fabric in the back, and I should've made it longer.

So it was these projects which took away some of my enthusiasm. But I have realized that as long as I knit to fit me, and add in the design elements, I seem to be happy.

My owls sweater has nothing to do with the pattern so far, knit out of dk and not a bulky weight, I have had to do a lot of recalculating for the body and sleeves. My first attempt at the body was too big, second try a perfect fit. The sleeves are a perfect fit as well, although I did not take into account wearing a long sleeved top underneath. But I'm not going back now. I should finish the first sleeve today.

The yoke will obviously have the owls pattern in it, but it will be significantly smaller than the original design. But I think I'll prefer that anyway. Once I join the sleeves I will probably knit for a few rows, then do a decrease round to set up for the owls pattern. Follow that with 2 more yoke decrease rounds after and it should work out to plan, I hope. Looking forward to the challenge either way.

FO - Chunky Cabled Beret

Last week I spent an entire day knitting this:

A nice, thick and very warm beret for the days I am outside all day in the freezing cold.......which is every day at work lately. We are setting up a new store and my days are spent checking stock as it comes out of the shipping containers. The building is not finished yet either, so no office, no seats, and no heating. I have never been so grateful for my warm woollen handknits!

This hat seriously only took 1 day. 1 day of knitting it exclusively all day. But in the end so worth it. And I really loved the pattern and I knit it out of some left over 10ply I had from making my father-in-laws vest and my dad's christmas beanie and fingerless mitts, which I am very pleased to say are being worn.

I plan to knit this hat again, but there are so many in my queue, that phase 2 may be a long way away.

This weekend is about finishing for me, so hopefully I will have a few more FO's to post about, and if I can actually get on rav, then hopefully i can update my project pages. For some reason unknown to me, my laptop will not let me on rav, which is very frustrating!

FO - Chloe's Posidon

So today I finished Chloe's Posidon and it fits her beautifully as you can see here:

Today I spent the morning sewing in the zipper, and I am really pleased with how it looks. The zipper and the cardigan. The zipper has been installed so that it cannot be seen while the cardigan is closed, as the fabric cover it. I really like this look. 

The cardigan fits her perfectly, plenty of room for it to be comfortable and for her to grow. As you can see the back cable pattern has not been blocked, but there was no opportunity, she barely allowed me time to tie a knot in the sewing thread before she had it on, and it hasn't come off since. So happy she loves it and so happy it fits her well.

Now I am getting hassled for little man's "button jacket". I'd better get back to work!