First FO of 2009

Something of a stealth knit, but I have finished my first Personal Small Item. It's Ava from the Rowan Ribbon Twist booklet, a mini asymmetric poncho. I finished it a few days ago, and have been pleasantly surprised to find it gives just the right degree of warmth around the shoulders when sitting around at home. The only slight irritation is that the fibres shed, so it's not great over a light coloured top.



Pattern: Ava from Rowan Twist collection

Yarn : 4 skeins of Rowan Ribbon Twist for smallest size

Alterations: Knit in the round, so altered shoulder shaping slightly

Speed /ease: A quick and easy knit

The other main WIP is a Noni felted bag. I ordered the yarn months ago, but it was out of stock when I wanted to start knitting it, so yarn and I were re-united at Christmas. I ordered the specified amount for the main bag, but it became clear when I was about two thirds through that I wasn't going to have enough. Pretty annoying as the yarn was ordered from overseas, and is categorically not available in the UK. What to do? Hmm...



While sorting out some small projects for the Personal Small Items Club, I located a bright yellow ball of Irish tweed. When I tested the colour against the bag, it was a close match, but it had red tweedy bits in it, and the texture and plies were different. The top part of the bag folds in to the lining, so I figured I could substitute the tweed there and it would be less obvious. If it shrinks differently to the main yarn, hopefully I can fudge it on the inside of the bag. I used the entire extra ball of yarn, so definitely think the pattern yardage is skimpy. Hope that's not true for Noni bags in general, as I've bought yarn for a few other patterns already.

Stashbusting challenges 2009

Time for the annual set stashbusting resolutions.

The credit crunch turns out to be good for one thing: it doesn't feel right to be spending money on more yarn. I've deliberately avoided the John Lewis and Liberty sales, and don't feel the worse for it.

I've signed up for two challenges on Ravelry this year; the Personal Small Items Club and the NaKniSweMoDo. For the Personal Small Items Club, you make up brown bag combinations of yarn and pattern for small items, seal them up and pick one at random every month. The idea is that you get the surprise of not knowing what you'll knit each month, and attack the stash at the same time. National Knit a Sweater a Month Dodecathon is way more ambitious - 12 adult size garments in a year. Gulp. But it's the only way to make significant inroads into the stash, and the DH is already making noises about another sweater. The main reason I signed up for this one though, is that UFOs count, and I have plenty of those. They are mostly at the 75% stage, so I don't actually have to do a huge amount of knitting to get a number of wearable garments.

Personal Small Items Club projects -first batch

Calorimetry with Filatura di Crosa 127 print
Jaywalkers with bamboo yarn
Miss Potter mittens - need to remember to use the errata posted by others
Gherkin tea cosy from the Natural Dye Studio
Felted clogs from Fibertrends
Ava poncho

NaKniSweMoDo projects - half existing UFOs, half new
Moonstone cardigan - UFO
Prepster jacket - UFO
Jolien - UFO
Sahara- UFO
Erin - UFO
Sunrise circle jacket - UFO

The new projects may change but initial thoughts are:
Concentric vest by Teva Durham
Lauryn waistcoat from Rowan club
Wicked in Artyarns supermerino
Twilleys tank top
Cable guy

Christmas unwrapped

I can now show off the Christmas knitting, which was gladly received by all. My sister was even plotting to take my mother's socks...

Mum's socks - Opal stockinette on 2mm needles.

Fetchingly shown off with her red clogs

My brother in law's mittens



Now he very patiently submitted to lots of remote instructions before Christmas about measuring his hand. He even sent back a clearly annotated picture with his measurements!

Same pattern, different colour for my husband.

The shrek ears scarf and matching mitts for my sister: