Flinders Sweater Vest

I had some balls of Sean Sheep Flinders yarn in my stash from a Big W sale way back, so I thought I would try a top down sweater vest for myself. As I was knitting, the yarn had a really nice, soft silky feel to it ... but ... as soon as the knitting was finished, it started to go baggy and feel kinda lifeless :( I'm not too sure how it's going to bear up to being washed (think I do sort of know the answer though!), which is a real shame because I love the way that it turned out ... and... I'd already started another one the same in pink (I might have to wash the grey one before I decide whether or not to finish the other) ... oh well, it did give me chance to work out a cool sweater vest pattern (and it did only cost me 50c a ball :D)

So for future reference, and a different yarn, here are the specs:

4.5mm circular needle

3 balls of Sean Seep Flinders ... maybe?!

17sts to 24rows to 10cm

Aussie size 8/10 (32/34")

Cast on 62 stitches

K1 place marker (pm) k15 pm k30 pm k15 pm k1

Purl 1 row

Knit increasing either side of marker

Purl

Repeat last 2 rows until there are 9/31/46/31/9 stitches ending with a purl row

Knit to 1 stitch before marker, increase in next stitch

Cast off 30 stitches

Knit back stitches to 1 stitch before marker, increase in next stitch

Cast off 30 stitches,

Knit to end

From here, work with 3 separate balls of yarn

Purl first set of stitches, rejoin yarn and purl second set of stitches, rejoin yarn and purl third set of stitches

Knit, increasing at armhole edge as before until there are 11/50/11 stitches

Purl row

Increase at front edge as well as armhole edge on every knit row until there are 21/60/21 stitches

Now increase at front edge on every row as well as armhole edge every knit row until there are 25 stitches

Cast on 10 stitches, work to end and join fronts

Knit in the round without increasing until work measures 11cm from underarm

Knit 21 pm k20 pm k42 pm k20 pm, knit to end of round

Knit to 2 stitches before marker k2 together, knit to marker, pass marker and ssk (slip 2 stitches purl-wise onto right hand needle, insert left needle into front of stitches and knit them together) repeat the k2tog and ssk at the next 2 markers, knit to end of round

Knit 10 rounds and then a decrease round

Repeat last 11 rounds 3 more times

Knit 2 purl 2 rib for about 4 rows

Cast off

Rejoin yarn to neck edge, and pick up 108 stitches and work 4 rounds in k2 p2 rib

Cast off

Rejoin yarn to sleeve edges, and pick up 58 stitches and work 4 rounds in k2 p2 rib

Cast off

Still de-stashing

...yes, the de-stashification process is still going strong :-) It has been hard to stop myself from adding to my supplies (I came very close to caving in at Spotlight this morning!)... buuut... so far, so good :-D
It took me a while to figure out what to make with my two lonely balls of Sean Sheep Armytage. It's too scratchy for baby things, and far too prone to accidentally felting for a teething, drooly bub (although it would have made an awesome looking earflap hat!), so in the end I settled on my old faithful,' go to when in a knitting funk pattern', the One Skein Wonder. I followed the pattern without modification, phew!!, and it pretty much saw all of my two balls :-)

I made a few pairs of toe-up socks. The white pair here were made with some old 'no label' acrylic, and the pink ones were Lincraft Cosy 8 ply wool. They're basically the same sock, 8 ply yarn with 4mm needles. Turkish cast on (12 sts) increasing to about 24 (or whenever the sock fits snuggly over your toes), work straight in any stitch (on my lace pair, I did plain stocking stitch on half the stitches, for the sole). I tried a Short row heel this time, instead of the Afterthought one, and really surprised myself with how easy it was, although I do need to practice it more to eliminate the little holes on either side. After the heel it was just ribbing on all stitches until I was happy with how they felt on :-) I found this elastic bind off, which made a heap of difference to getting the socks on and off!
....and finally, I attacked my fabric stash, and started making random quilt blocks...not sure what I'm making with them yet, but I'm pretty sure that a baby quilt will be following shortly ;-D

Just using what I've got ...

...seriously, I need to stop buying yarn and fabric! I do know that I have tried this before, but this time I'm going to try really, really hard!! I have got so much stuff that it's gonna take me forever to use it! I'm on a definite mission to drastically de-stash - use what I've got as far as possible without going to the shops. I guess the only exception will be to buy buttons and things to finish off items, but I will try my hardest to make do :-) (I'm slightly worried that Big W will do one of their annual yarn sell-offs soon to make room for the summer stock, and if that is the case, I'm not sure that I can resist buying 50c balls of yarn!!!... but, we will see) :-D


...so, to start me off, I made a couple of things from my stash :-) The sweater actually started off as a Bad Penny, but after wearing my other one for a while, realised that I didn't like the wool so close to my neck ... too itchy, so I frogged and used the yarn to make this basic top down, scooped out neck version instead (this time I just made the pattern up as I went along). I still love the Bad Penny pattern, but just not with the Sean Sheep Armytage that I was using. I thought that I only had 5 balls of yarn, so I just knitted down until I ran out (I then found another ball in my stash, after it was finished, but by then, I couldn't be bothered to lengthen it. I just tend to tug at it now if it rides up :-D) The bag was made with some fabric oddments that I got from a local sheeting seconds outlet (Talking Textiles at Christie's Beach) ... at the time, I think I got 10 various sized pieces for $1. Not bad, a bag for $2! The free pattern is here. The only thing I will change on it next time, will be to place the internal pockets nearer to the bottom of the bag. Other than that, it's perfect ... comfy to carry, great size, especially since South Australia banned all plastic check out bags from supermarkets. My everyday bag now has to be big enough to fit in my small shopping bags and my Woolworths roll up ones ... oh, and I quite often have a nappy, bottle and dummy to carry as well :-D

Doubling up!

Considering that I haven't blogged for a few weeks, you'd have thought that I could have come up with something original ... but no! ... all of my knitting has been a complete repeat of my last two projects :-) I loved knitting my first Bad Penny so much, that I started another one! (I just love using this Sean Sheep Armytage wool ... in my stash I still have 9 balls of white/blue and 2 balls of mustard/yellow. This Bad Penny only takes 5 balls, so I should have enough of the white to make a long sleeved jumper, and maybe get a neckwarmer and wristies out of the yellow).

The other 'repeat' knitting was another pair of winter socks ... I tried doing the Afterthought heel on two thirds of the stitches this time (as per EZ's instructions), but thought they looked a bit odd, so I went back to using a half ... they're still better than the last pair though, because this time I didn't forget to pick up a few extra stitches at either side of the heel, to avoid holes (I did 4 on each side) ... think I may be adventurous next time, and try a different heel :-D

Bad Penny

This is my slightly shortened version of Stephanie Japel's Bad Penny. In keeping with my stash down plans for this year (of course, this will only last until Lincraft or Spotlight have their next big yarn sale!!), I used 5 balls of Sean Sheep Armytage (yep, the reason for the shorter length is because I just knitted down until my yarn ran out...couldn't do that if it wasn't knit from the top :-)) I added a bit of waist shaping with the help of Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top and omitted the lacy increases and edgings....but other than that, I pretty much followed the pattern ;-D
I started knitting this top before Christmas, but it was just too hot and sticky to be knitting with a thick wool at that time of year (trying it on all the time to get the fit right was just the worst!!) ... we had a couple of cooler days last week, so I made the most of the change, and finished it off...all in all, it probably only took a few days to knit. I have another 5 balls of the same yarn in a different colour, so I think I may be starting another one soon :-)
I'm liking the layered look again for this winter...just perfect for Adelaide :-)

Power to the Pinny

...As promised, a modeled shot of my pair of matching(ish) aprons :-)
Meet James...he was the only member of this household who didn't have a problem modeling a pinny with me! :-D
I really should edit the photo, and have a thought bubble coming from Mighty (the dog)....he's looking at our daughter who's taking the shot, and thinking "what the hell do these two think they look like!!?!!" :-D
The pocket on James' one is maybe a bit low...I did it like that because I quilted it with the idea of using it as an oven glove, and I thought that lower would give it more flexibility...I haven't put it to the test yet though.

Instant knitting gratification!!...I have a new Nintendo DS lite(yay!), which I really don't want to get scratched in my bag, so I made it a cosy (to go with all of the other ones that I made for my phone..ipod..keys..sunnies...my handbag contains nothing but cosies!).
I used the same basic pattern as with the phone socks, but cast on extra stitches (30 in total), and just knitted until it was the length of the DS. The yarn is Daisy by Seansheep, the same as I used for my Unbiased bag, but this time in a brown...(yep, I'm still working my way through my Seansheep stash :-))

....and as for my fabric stash, I laid out a couple more bag blocks for my handbag quilt...now I just need to get working on their embellishments :-)