A ten-day pullover

So many months ago I bought a lot of kettle dyed pure wool from Manos del Uruguay simple because I couldn’t resist that particular colourway–bright pink, lemon green, orange, purple, and brown! (and I won the lot cheap, cheap like VERY cheap). But these skeins were since put in some plastic bags because I simply have no idea what would be the best combination of variegated yarn and a pattern.

I had learned my lesson hard and young. This scarf is one of my earliest FOs, done when I was 12:

The moment I went into a yarn shop to purchase some balls for the knitting class, I was drawn immediately by this blend of cream and orange and had to buy them for the class! Yet, when the practice sessions were over and time for a scarf came, the simple knit and purl pattern, meant to be zigzagging vertically, was just disappeared amidst this melange of honey! Not that I didn’t like the FO but I was not quite pleased by the overshadowing of colour variation.

This is not saying that I dislike variegated yarn ever since. There are indeed quite a few skeins in my stash at this moment, most of them lace weight and their colourways are more or less semi-solid. This lot of Manos del Uruguay is the wildest I would say.

Now 2010 began with snow, so it seemed I should do some stash burning while I could. Who can resist a colourful swatch like this, in the snow?

I then choose a pullover pattern from Lana Grossa’s Linea Rossa 1, and made this top in 10 day!

Still, I am not a big fan of variegated yarn, but this pullover stands out from my closet because it has crazy colours! Anyway, the top is warm, and I am mildly pleased. 🙂

Aran Skirt, My Second 2010-FO

When I picked up knitting again in 2006, one of my biggest entertainment was buying back issues of Vogue Knitting from ebay just to look at those beautiful pictures. I fell for some designs ever since but didn’t knit the majority of them, such as this Aran Skirtt from Winter 2005/6, which was always on the top of my Ravelry queue as long as I could remember. I’ve even designated a lot of yarn for this “project” very soon: Rowan’s Soft Lux, a much disliked yarn that mixed lurex with wool.

Maybe because errata were marked on the ravelry page for this pattern, but never an addendum was posted by VK, so I dreaded to start knitting it just because I hate to do the detective work. Or, maybe because I’ve knitted with Soft Lux before, and know by heart that it wasn’t the best yarn out there though the fabric would be warm and cute (or overtly cute for some), so an opportunity to work with the yarn again was far less than exciting to me. So the skirt pattern was always the first one in the line.

But on the first of December last year, when a pair of Herringbone Opera Gloves were all done and no project was planned for me–except a black shawlette my friend Y had commissioned me some months ago and I intended to leave it for the last minute because the light in winter is simply too dark for a dark lace project–I thought I should give the skirt a start!

The knitting was actually fun and I couldn’t stop doing it (again, except some days before the Christmas, I had to knit the black shoulder warmer for my friend)!

I did make some changes to the skirt pattern. The biggest one was that I made it as a one piece, not knitting the back and front separately. I just do the short row shaping twice in a row (in reverse shapes of course) to work the front and the back continuously. Then, I made the “front” narrower than the “back”–4 repeats for the front but 5 for the back. The result is quite pleasing-it is more curvy in the back so it would suit the shape of my hit better. As a result, seeing from the front, my FO is nearly a pencil skirt rather than an A-skirt, and it becomes more flattery for me to wear!

Just after I uploaded the picture on my flickr, I looked at my flickr archive for a photo of the design I took. There were notes on the shot, indicating certain things I shall avoid (had I knitted the skirt). In one of them, I surmised that bobbles along the waist line wouldn’t be appropriate–whoa, I should have read these!

Anyways, it’s done, though it’s girlish and childish, I love the skirt. 🙂

ps. as for my first 2010-FO…I am not sure what to do with it but hopefully it would be revealed soon.

Herringbone Opera Gloves

Happy New Year, every one!

Now the Christmas is gone, it’s now time to knit for yourself! That’s why I choose to debut the complete pattern of Herringbone Opera Gloves via Ravelry. I do want to finish up the pattern much earlier, in November, so some of you could probably knit them as Christmas gifts. Yet, I believe, as you knit it, the desire to keep them would be stronger than to wrap them up as gift! So why not just start offering the pattern at a perfect timing such as today, as a way of saying goodbye to 2009 and welcoming a new year, too?

I used Rowan’s 4 ply soft to knit these gloves. Sadly, I only learned about it this week, Rowan is now discontinuing this yarn! 4 ply soft is amongst the first yarn I knitted with when I picked up knitting in 2006, and it remains to be my most favourite! Rowan’s own pure wool 4 ply would be a good yarn substitution, but 4 ply soft doesn’t have the superwash touch at all, so it is more comfortable knitting with it. There are about 3 sweater-worth 4 ply soft in my stash, but I know I shall miss it greatly!

For those of you who consider buying this pattern:
They are knitted from fingertip to elbow, or to desired length, so it is not like cuff-down method used in most of gloves patterns. I should also warn you that the pattern is for ONE SIZE only, and they shall fit hands/arms of general women– ways of making it bigger are given in the instruction though. And the pattern is written for magic looping. 🙂

I will upload more photos in the future.

Happy New Year once again!