Op Shop Top

Finally....I have a knitting FO to show :-) (and just in time for Adelaide's cold snap!)
This was a jumper that I started in December after buying a bag of grey yarn from the Op Shop....it was just a mixed bag of assorted yarns in different weights and textures, that only cost a few dollars.
With knitting it top-down (thanks as always to Barbara Walker's 'Knitting from the Top'), I was able to knit each stripe until the yarn ran out. The first one I used was Patons Cottage Knit, which was a chunky, slubby mix - this determined the gauge (very roughly!), and the needle size. With the rest, I then just doubled or tripled them to give a similar gauge. I added some shaping through the waist, with 4 darts, and by using a slightly thinner yarn. The neckline had a 'roll' happening that would have been annoying to wear, so I just crocheted a row of htr's around the top to pull it flat...it still needs blocking to help it to sit better, but hey...that can wait until the jumper needs washing ;-D


....and of course, as ever!...for every one FO, there are one or two!!! UFO's waiting in the wings....;-D

Book goodies!

...so...not a lot of blogging has been happening these last few weeks due to my rapidly failing camera...but I'm back, armed and ready with my new Fuji Finepix Z5, which (oh yeah!) has a blog ready photo setting :-) What to photograph first?...aaah my new book goodies :-D
I took a trip to Dymocks to see what new craft books they had...just browsing you understand ;-D (apart from these two, which just looked too good not to buy!).
To be honest, the Sew What! Fleece book wouldn't usually have gotten a look, but because it was in the same format as the Sew What! Skirts book, and knowing how awesome that book is, I flicked through it. If you look past the fact that everything is made of fleece (!!), there are some really nice, basic patterns (like the skirt book, they are based on your own measurements and marked directly onto the fabric). I was hoping that there would be a pants, tops, sleepwear edition in the Sew What books, but really, this book has a pattern for all of them :-)
now...off to find some pants fabric...more piccies to follow