Wicked Eyelet Rib Vest aka Wicked fushia

While we are still waiting on the yarn for Urchin - I know, a week waiting already - I've been getting on with a few projects, this lovely eyelet vest pattern and pair of stripey socks with my new noro. The noro socks are a whole story in themselves which I will save for another day but its fair to say there have been trials and tribulations with those socks!

So back to my wicked fushia. It's a lovely pattern with twisted stitches mimicking cables which develops into twists and eyelets up the ribbed section which flows into lovely eyelet detailing on a st st background. It's a simple pattern to follow and each pattern section is charted clearly. Once this is blocked the eyelet detail will be more obvious and as this is a 35" size for my 36" it will be stretching a bit anyway! I plumbed for this size as its meant to be a neat fit and the next size was a 39". Well, if it doesn't fit, it can always be a present!

But this is such a me colour! It will already be fitting well with most of my wardrobe:-) I don't usually wear shirts but this style does look nice on the model. I'll wait to see if I can carry it off!

I've got a little further than the photos show. The back panel is complete and I have started the first front panel. It knits up relatively quickly and the pattern is easy to remember so this is an excellent tv knitting project. So far, I have watched Sleeping murder - miss marple - and Star Trek Insurrection. Now I'm about to start the Lord of the Rings trilogy - extended version. Well, that's a good 12 hours of knitting right there!

See you later!

Buttercup and serendipity

Wow! I didn't mean to be away so long. Five days? How did that happen? Well, that's what happens when you get bitten by the buttercup bug. Sounds addictive - and it is! But you will be pleased to know that Buttercup is now officially finished, bar photos of me wearing it in good daylight - if you are very lucky. I may use the dummy instead if they look too awful to post:-) Today the weather is rainy, dull and misty - did I say dull? No light whatsoever to take decent photos of the lovely buttercup. So, we'll have to make do with the slightly bleached photos I took after blocking. But it's the details we want to see!

Okay. First up we have the gorgeous feather and fan neckline which you saw modelled before on my dummy (in a slightly brighter yellow). On the flat, you can see how the eyelet pattern aligns with the edge of the feather and fan stitch. I blocked the crap out of all the lace edgings so I could get nice stitch definition but maybe I went a bit too pointy on the neckline?! Hoping once this is on it will settle into more gentle curves:-) This pattern is noted for being a bit 'low' on the chest so I will probably wear a long sleeved tee underneath anyway.

Nicely blocked feather and fan lace edging at the bottom - if I say so myself:-))) Love, love, love it! I really hope this does keep its shape as I like the ripple edging. Not bad matching with the vertical eyelets either. I didn't manage to complete the whole of the increases that the pattern stated though as I knew once I got to the sixth out of the seven increases I was running out of yarn big time and the full length just wasn't going to be. So I sat down and thought of lots of alternatives:

1 - reducing the rows between the increases - but I thought it could go out too much too quickly and look a bit bell-like:-)

2 - knit as long as I could and then knit a simple edging that would match the pattern of the sleeves. Not a great option but maybe the only realistic one.

3 - Alter the feather and fan repeat. It uses 18 stitches repeat (6x3).

The main problem was that 18 could only be divided evenly after the full seven increases. So I was stuffed, I thought. Then while knitting closer to decision time, it dawned on me to change the 6 to a 5. 5x3=15 stitch repeat. And guess what? I was on 240 stitches which divided by 15, sixteen times. Evenly. What are the chances of that? Serendipity!!

So that's what I did. And I decided to go with the flow and add a few more rows of feather and fan for the bottom edging. I was aiming for 4 repeats but as I was rapidly running out of yarn, I thought three was pretty good and looked nicely balanced. Just as well as this was all the yarn that was left.....

A very, very close thing indeed! I couldn't have planned it better if I tried. Knitted as long as I could have with the yarn I had and just enough to cast off - with all my modifications. I'm thinking that watching far too much miss marple has stirred my brain into gear on this one:-)

Right in or write off?

The pink slouchy 'beret for all seasons' is now finished. The question is whether it will stay a beret or not. This was knitted in aran weight deliberately, rather than the double knit stated, and seemed not too bad as I was knitting. A little bigger, which was to be expected but not too big to be a write off. Problem is, now it's finished, I'm thinking 'write-off'.

Slouch it definitely has! I know slouch in your beret is really 'the thing' but this is a bit too much! This is so big my biggest dinner plate was too small to block it properly! With this portent of doom, I was apprehensive about trying it on when it was dry. I mean the pattern is lovely, the eyelets swirling in a lovely spiral from the centre and it's clear as a bell using the solid pink colour.

It also has a nice chunky feel - warm to the touch and snuggly. BUT it is huge! I really don't think it's meant to look like this on!? Even for a big head, this is BIG...

So, I don't know. Do I know anyone who loves extra, extra slouchy berets in pink who would wear this? Or do I rip it back and make a nice pink cable waistcoat out of it? Or a cabled bag for me? I don't feel precious about it. It was a quick knit and as it just won't get worn by me maybe it should just be assigned to the 'frogged' pile.

Or maybe I could thread a ribbon through the rib and make it into a little drawstring bag?! Or felt it into a bowl?