Gathered Pullover the Third

January 2013

Ooooooooold pattern, but still one of the most wearable ones I've ever seen. Here are the first and the second.

This one feels a bit tight, but I think that's just because I wanted to add bust darts but couldn't figure out how, given the placing of the cable. Plus it's been a while since I made something for me, and I'm a bit bigger than I was maybe...

I added a lot of length, but would have been comfortable with another inch or so even then. This is designed to be a much shorter sweater than I would ever wear.

This might have been better on slightly bigger needles, as the pattern is intended to be pretty loosely knit and drapey. Trouble is I've had one or two projects like that which grew and grew on blocking and ended up too big, so I'm not very confident about that sort of thing, and tend to go with the recommended gauge on the ball-band.

This yarn was bought back from Peru as a present by my Mother, so I'm a bit sketchy on the details. Feels excellent quality though. Hope I did it justice.

Sorry about the indoor photography, but it's much too cold to go out today, and I think we managed to get the colour pretty accurate anyway.

This is the first adult sweater I've made since I was pregnant, well over a year ago. I really need to remedy that, although I'm not sure that the 4-ply weight stocking stitch dress I have in mind next is the most sensible way to go about it. Ho-hum.

Pattern: Gathered Pullover by Hana Jason from Interweave Knits Winter 2007
Yarn: Michell & CIA Indiecita DK
Amount: 7 skeins
Colourway: 1018
Needles: 4.00mm
Size: 36.5"
On ravelry: here

Bunnykins

February 2013

Next project is definitely going to be something for me. Probably. But in the meantime it was Rosa's birthday, and so I HAD TO.

Knitting on the cheap: I didn't have the pattern, so just sort of guessed at the chart and adapted another dk sweater pattern to fit. I'm fairly sure that doesn't tread on any toes, intellectual property wise, and I'm so over buying books of ten patterns of which I only intend to make one.

Anyway, I was rather pleased with the result. The body was knit in the round to armholes, then divided and finished flat. The waist and neck are trimmed in garter stitch, as were the sleeves originally but they looked too long, so I cut the cuffs off, picked up the loose stitches and added ribbing which could be folded back. Something I hadn't tried before, but it worked very well.

As I keep saying, I've got to try steeking soon, but this wasn’t the time. I was using an acrylic yarn and the original pattern and the one I used both had set in sleeves.

I had a brief crisis of confidence when someone thought they were reindeer, but they look like rabbits to me. White rabbits, like in Alice in Wonderland, which is cool.

I had planned to make matching toy bunny wearing purple and white fairisle sweater to match but ran out of time. Maybe for xmas if the sweater goes down well. Got Rosa a learn to count with Peter Rabbit book instead for now.

Pattern: Bunnykins by Martin Storey
Yarn: Hayfield bonus dk
Colourway: White 096 and Purple 884
Size: Smallish 2 year old
On ravelry: here