Jaden

Last week, I was rummaging through some bags looking for something to use as a core for some more crochet vessels when I came upon my stash of hibernating works in progress. Ahem! These were all nicely hidden out of eyesight, crammed into bags with patterns all patiently waiting to see the light of day. Although it's not really a bad thing to have a few outstanding projects on the go, every time I see these older ones, I do feel that pang of guilt - like I know I should really have persevered and not got sidetracked by something else newer and shinier.......

But, I've realised I've got a bit of a pattern going on with hibernating projects. Any problem knit that has to be ripped out more than 3 times means it goes in a bag to cool off for a while. In my head this means a few weeks till I finish something else and then I'll have regained enough grace to finish the damned thing (see? not a good knitting relationship going on!) In reality, at least for these bags anyway, it's been about a year... oops! So, I've decided to have a bash at getting a few of these finished off this time around.

Two projects seemed interesting enough to get my knitting needles back out - the Wicked Vest and Jaden. More on the vest to come but today, is the turn of Jaden. The pattern is designed by Ruby Lo and can be found free in the spring issue of knitty 2008. Now, since the top picture is probably all I showed you of Jaden last year, you probably won't remember it - all I remember is that the lace pattern kept going haywire on me and I gave up in disgust and, I think, knitted my lovely buttercup tunic instead.

But look! I've been knitting away over the last few days and we have some progress!! The scallop lace on the back is complete and I've shaped the waist so now it's onto the mindless st st for a few inches before shaping for the arm. I must say I was not enjoying this when I first restarted this. I ripped back the few rows I'd done and knitted some gauge swatches as I had no idea whether I was knitting to gauge or even what size I'd decided on a year ago. Then I started again and true to form, the lace pattern messed up LOTS of times - I'd rather not say just how many, just be astounded at my perseverance:))

Once I twigged what I was doing wrong, it did begin to get easier. In my defense, the pattern does presume you know to automatically start the lace pattern one stitch over in every section to account for the decreases for shaping - as I am a literal person when it comes to patterns, I was expecting the pattern to tell me that step ....:) But now I have the hang of it, I made a good bit of progress, yesterday especially.

Yesterday was TV knitting Jaden fest:)) I think I may have watched and knitted for nearly 10 hours on and off - so for those of you who are interested, I ended up watching:

'The mirror Crack'd' with Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, Kim Novak and Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple. I really enjoyed it! It's nice to have a change from Joan Hickson or the more recent ones with Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie. And although I knew the plot, it was still a very enjoyable 2 hours.

Next up was the recent CSI trilogy that featured Miami, New york and Vegas all linked to the same story - a good 3 hours there - although I was exausted after that and had a bit of a break for my evening meal:) After that, I settled down to watch....

Carry on up the Jungle:)) as it was on and a nice change from too much intense CSI. Always good for a laugh and Frankie Howerd was especially good in this - 'never has his gast been so flabbered:)) And then I caught a few more csi's on the tv as it was CSI sunday. I was totally tv'd out and actually getting a numb bum from sitting down so much, lol! But the Jaden had grown to the waist - yay!

Now the lace is done and I'm not making so many mistakes when I'm tired, the rest of the body should knit up quickly - well, as quickly as 4ply/fingering can at my average speed of knitting. This is when I wish I could speed knit. I think I would probably make more garments if they progressed quicker!

Well, back to Jaden and some boring stocking stitch - I wonder what's on the TV?! .............:)

Food for thought

I've spent a lot of time lately surfing Ravelry looking for patterns for my lovely magenta yarn. There are so many out there that are lovely that it's hard just to chose one but I am pretty slow at garment knitting so I only want one complex cable knit on the go at a time. I've narrowed it down to three, problem is, I love all of these:-)

The top right is Ysolda's 'Vivian' cabled hoodie - just lovely with its complex cables and the shaping is to die for. I'm not saying I'll look like that wearing it but the pattern is certainly designed to flatter, isn't it? I've read up on Ravelry that it is a lovely knit, complex but rewarding so I'm excited to try this one out. Ysolda writes such well designed patterns this could be a real treat.

The orange jacket is designed by Classic Elite - the montera embroidered button jacket.  It is lovely too but I think I love the colour more than the style - although the buttons are definitely cute. But a possibility.

And the last one is the Fireside sweater designed by Amber Allison, that I considered knitting recently too. I love the chunky cabled look and how fitted and snug it looks as well. The collar is a nice touch too but I'm finding it hard to imagine in Magenta. Or maybe this would look lovely extended into a longer coat - over the hips? I'll have to see if it's knitted top down. If so, I can just continue with some increases over the hips:-) and knit till I run out of yarn.

But if I'm going to go to all the trouble to knit a long coat, then I have to bring Sylvi into consideration. I've been waiting to knit this since it came out as it is a big commitment of time, yarn and effort! But absolutely gorgeous! Even after looking at lots of other colour variations on ravelry, I just can't get past loving this red. Even loving magenta as much as I do, do I want a full length, in your face, magenta jacket when it could be knitted in this luscious red? Sigh. I don't have enough magenta to knit this either but I could get more before it's sold out..... Food for thought.

Buttercup, Buttercup

A little peek at what I've been furiously working on over the last week. I found this tunic pattern called buttercup, knitted in a soft pale yellow with feather and fan lace detailing. I thought the style was one I would wear a lot, although I don't normally go for yellow, and I impulsively cast on! It was literally a matter of have pattern, have buttercup yarn, will knit!

My main reason for not wearing strong colours of yellow is the jaundiced look it tends to give me - positively ill looking! Like how buttercups under the chin reflect their colour. But I've found the softer tones are much better and mean I can get that colour of the spectrum back into my wardrobe:-)

It's knitted top down, which is good because if I run out of yarn I can just lop a bit of the length off the bottom:-)) It's the first time I've knitted a garment this way and although it makes for heavier knitting being all in one piece, I feel now I'm past the sleeves that the bulk of the work is done and I'm just knitting round and around till I get to the desired length. The pattern itself is a simple A-line tunic with slightly puffed cap sleeves, raglan shaping and feather and fan lace detail over the front neckline.

The vertical eyelet detail I added myself as I tend to suffer from stocking stitch boredom after about an inch of plain knitting:-)))) Round and round... the eyelets just help break up the monotony and make a pretty feature on the front while I'm at it! If I have enough yarn - eyes the ball nervously - I would like to add the feather and fan lace detailing to the sleeves as a lace edging as well as a longer lace detail on the bottom. But we'll have to wait and see. Fingers crossed the yarn doesn't run out.....