Purring happily - new yarn

I got my hands on a whole lot of new yarn and I'm a very happy creature indeed.  If you happen to be a fellow knitter, you must know the satisfaction of enlarging your stash and if you're not - take my word, or better still, become a yarnophile and experience the feeling yourself :)

Here are my spoils:

Three shades of red may look the same but believe me, it's my camera lying again.

This little baby will join another four skeins already in my stash and one beautiful day they will become a pullover (I think). 
Shade:  beetroot red 
Fibre:  acrylic

Another prospective pullover, or a warm weather vest (depending on whether I have 3 or 4 more skeins stashed away).
Shade: dark magenta
Fibre: acrylic

I love bright colours, but this orange is too bold even for me.  As a one-tone garment it would never do, but I can quite clearly  picture it combined with something more reasonable in a fair isle knit. 
Shade:  eye-blasting orange
Fibre:  acrylic

Another random buy, with no clear idea what to use it for.  The stash must grow, right?  Right?
Shade:  capuccino
Fibre:  acrylic

Finally, my most precious loot in this batch:  500g of pure cotton in my favourite colour of all time.  At some stage it will become a tank top (hopefully before the summer is over...), but for now I'm simply happy to look, touch and sigh in blissful admiration. 
Shade:  red wine
Fibre:  cotton

I'm purring happily, because looking at new skeins and dreaming up patterns for them is probably my favourite part of knitting process.  Anyone out there feels the same?

Knitted vest in (awful) electric blue

Would you like to see the very first garment I ever designed?  Yes?  Your wish is my command.  There you go:

When I was about 8 years old, I decided I want to knit a sweater.  My wonderful Mum took me to a yarn shop, let me choose whatever materials I wanted and patiently guided me through the knitting process.  As far as I can remember, I almost finished the back of my sweater before I lost interest and the project was abandoned. 

20 years on I asked Mum to share some of her stash and that very same yarn arrived in the post.

One thing I know for sure - the eight year old me had the most awful taste imaginable.  I almost wept, because there was no way in hell the adult me would wear anything in this horrible shade of electric blue, oh no. 

Luckily, my partner's Mum, who was staying with us at the time, expressed moderate admiration for the colour.  On a blonde like her, she said, the shade would look great.  On the spot I promised an electric blue garment just for her.  That's what you get for being polite, hah hah. 

My passion for knitting freshly rediscovered, I decided to design my own pattern.  I got quite ambitious, and even though I had never knitted cables before I chose the most complicated one in my book*.

The cable was a bitch to knit - please don't choose it for your introduction to cables, unless you like challenges - but many swear words later the vest was complete, embellished with buttons (ah, buttons...  There will be a post about buttons, I promise) and gifted away. 

It may not be the most beautiful or intricate design in the world.  Still, for the very first design in my portfolio, I dare say it's pretty decent.  Would you agree?

Oh, that weird neckline is not something permanent, it's just how the vest was laid out for the photo :)

PATTERN:

My own but most likely unrepeatable, because I have no clue where my notes to the project might be. 

* The book, if you're interested, was called The Knitting and Crochet Bible.  I've outgrown it since but for a beginner knitter (or crocheter), it is a fabulous resource. 

What's in the works? Wednesday update

I've been showering you with finished objects for a while, it's time to report on what's cooking right now.  I still have a shelf full of old creations, but they will have to wait their turn.

I hate having more than one WIP.  If something is hanging on my needles, I simply won't start another piece because I know that enthusiasm for new knit will turn working on the old one into a chore.  Having said that, I currently have two projects going on *:)*:  one not quite finished, one not yet begun.

Negativium is my own design.  It's a warm weather top, knitted with pure cotton yarn and I only hope that Irish summer this year will let me wear it once in a while.  If, that is, it fits - strange things can happen if you are careless when calculating your gauge.  Initial observations seem to point in the 'too tight' direction, but cotton is very forgiving on that score.  Keep your fingers crossed with me.

Negativium is stretched out for blocking now (who needs a blocking mat if you have carpet?) and it's drying sooooo slowly.  It needs a few more finishing touches before being officially declared complete, but as I can't progress with it right now, I started plotting a new design.

Top down raglan sweaters seem to be all the rage these days, but I haven't tried this technique before.  I had been reluctant to join the crowd - following fashions is NOT my thing - but I've seen too many smashing projects knitted this way to just let it go.  Plus, I feel like learning a new trick.

I have my yarn (isn't this the most glorious shade of blue?  It is, but you can't really tell from the picture, because my camera is a damn liar.  Sigh...) and I'm swatching for gauge now.  I expect to start knitting pullover  proper this evening, designing my own pattern with this and this tutorial for guidelines.  I plan for a very simple yoke and perhaps a few frills lower down, but we'll see how it goes.  Wish me luck!

What's happening in your workshop these days?

Colour Fiesta cross stitched bag

Another project from long ago, this time cross stitched.  Knitting and crocheting are my preferred fibre crafts, but once in a while I get the irresistible need to grab a proper sewing needle.

Stitching up a bag like this takes eternity.  The embroidered part clocks (precisely!) 24,336 cross stitches, so, as you can probably imagine, three or four months of intensive sewing passed by before the project was completed.  I'm not complaining, not at all.  I seem to have a natural knack for large, time-consuming creations.  I don't find them tedious at all, especially if - as in this case - pattern and colour changes frequently. 

I'm not much of a visual artist, but I can handle geometry.  Each square is composed of very simple shapes, symmetry and colour do all the work when it comes to final effect. 

A few of my favourite squares, close up:

Finishing projects off is my Achilles' heel and it shows.  From a distance is doesn't look THAT bad, but when you look up close, the imperfections are obvious.  I got better since then, fortunately :)

Back of the bag is made from upcycled upholstery fabric (an old swatch book from a furniture shop can be priceless if you know what to do with it).  Front and back are joined on three sides by handle strap - length of thick felt wrapped in lining fabric.  Lining and satin ribbon on the opening edges to neaten them up complete the job. 

Snags or not, I'm quite happy with my little bag.  Such a festival of colour simply cannot fail to lift one's mood. 

PATTERN:

I copied one little square from a schematic found somewhere online, otherwise the design is entirely my own. 

I will be happy to make it available if anyone's interested, but mapping out a diagram this size involves a bit of work and I will do it only if I know that someone wants it. 

If you would like to purchase the schematic for this project for a small fee, please let me know in the comments or email me and I will write it up for you. 

Twins - empire waist pullover in red or blue

If these are twins then they are definitely not identical.  They were knitted from the same pattern though, so family resemblance is surely there.

Red pullover was born first, a good while ago - in fact, this is one of my very first knitted garments (hence minor snags here and there and rather untidy seams).  I still love it to bits and wear it as often as I can.

It doesn't look like much on a hanger, so I decided to overlook my hatred for camera and snap a few pictures on Yours Truly. 

Did you spot my dog lurking helping in the photo shoot?

Blue pullover is destined for my sister.  I promised to make this for her over a year ago and it doesn't really matter that it took me forever, what counts is that I'm finally delivering, right?  Right?  Lucky creature, she's two sizes smaller than me and I wanted her version to be a bit fancier, so I improvised with crocheted flowers. 

This particular picture lies terribly about colour, others are more accurate.

Flowers can be moved around, or even removed.

I wasn't sure if crocheted flowers are exactly my sister's thing, so just in case I stitched pieces of velcro to the back rather than stitching flowers on permanently.  It may not be a durable solution, but for now I'm very happy with the result.

A closer look at stitches used:

PATTERN:

Pattern comes from a Polish knitting magazine, Dama w Swetrze from April 2006.  I have no idea if the pattern is available in English anywhere - sorry. 

Original instructions specify chunkier yarn but my pullovers are knitted from DK.  I had to recalculate pretty much everything, but well, little counting never killed anybody.

Crochet flower pattern comes from here.   It's free and really worth checking out - flowers are sweet and extra easy to make.

Introduction

Stitching bug is easy to catch, hard to get rid of and once you get it, you need a creative outlet to show your symptoms to the world.

Here's mine.