Completed! Francis Revisited Sweater

Oooh I made another knit!   I'm getting knitting fever, I swear!

This one was a lot easier than Miette!  It's also a free pattern on Ravelry.  It's another top down raglan style.  This one is knit in the round.

It's a very simple design.  Of course that didn't stop me from complicating it!
The first thing I did was maths the hell out of it to figure out the ease!  I then spent a long time figuring out how to change the amount of stitches at various bits to get the shaping I wanted.  (Like, this took forever, lol.  I'm not saying it's hard, I'm just saying it took ME forever!)

The fact that it is top down means you can try it on as you go- which of course I ended up doing a LOT, to check the fit at every stage!
Based on my calculations, I put a few tweaks into it- I wanted it more fitted, so I added more decreases for the waist and more increases for the hips.  I decided to go with between 1-2 inches of negative ease for a close fitting shape.
However, I noticed my gauge was larger by the end of knitting it, so it was probably more like 0 inches of ease.   Well, it looks fine to me.  Phew!
I also wanted full length sleeves so I added length and decreases for them as well!  I aimed for about zero inches of ease in the sleeves (at the biceps).

I learned a few new skills- magic loop knitting and another bind-off!
Magic loop is one of those things that looks terribly scary, but once you learn it it's simple.  I used it on the sleeves and at the start of the neckline.  (Magic loop is used for knitting small circumference things in the round, with a circular needle.)  Why did I use magic loop?  Well, because I was too cheap to buy 6mm double pointed needles of course!

I learned Jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind off for the cowl as other Ravelers' notes mentioned a nice elastic bind off helps the cowl sit nicely.  I could have used Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind off like I did on Miette, but what the heck, I wanted to learn something new :)
And of course I have put my rather large stack of notes on Ravelry.

I look so smug here, lol!

The cowl is my favourite bit.  :)

Husband making me laugh!

This was a pretty simple knit and it's so cosy.  The yarn I used is Berroco Ultra Alpaca, a wool alpaca blend.  It's soft :)  I could definitely be tempted into making another in a different colour!  Now I have the shaping figured out.. it would be so fast... hmm, very tempting indeed!

Now for something a little geeky!

Here's something a bit different!
My first self-designed amigurumi- a present for my husband :)
It's a wee monster called a "ChuChu" from the video game series The Legend of Zelda- a series my husband and I both enjoy!
I think these little guys are pretty cute, although they do cause a bit of trouble for our hero Link...

Especially when they get super-sized!

  Here he is sitting proudly atop my couch:

Some Simple Scarves

After conquering my first cardigan, I decided on a simpler project or two!

I also wanted to be able to practice Continental knitting, since I have been doing English knitting.  I'm extremely slow!  I heard Continental is faster so I thought I'd better give it a go!  It felt really weird at first, like crocheting without a hook to grab the yarn.
I'm slowly getting the hang of it... I just really want to get faster!

I also learned the felted join.  It's magical and fantastic by the way :)

Here is me wearing my creation when my Mum came down to Wellington to visit.

This scarf is a simple 2X2 rib.  I've got my notes here on Ravelry:  Pidge-Podge scarf.  Fun fact- the yarn I used was actually frogged from my first scarf!

The next scarf was made from the yarn I won from Maryanne of The Hectic Eclectic (yay!!), and I made it for my husband!
This one was a bit more fancy but still simple enough. You can see my notes on my Ravelry here.
It has a neat diagonal pattern.

And I managed to capture a picture of the elusive husband-beast as he came home from work!
Looking as cheeky as always...

Sometimes it's nice to have a simpler project to work on in between the bigger ones :)

So everyone... which way do you knit- Continental or English?  Tell me about your preferences!

Bloggy meet-up achieved!

Like I mentioned, I went to a sort of bloggy meet-up recently!
I met Emily of Calico Stretch and Maryanne of The Hectic Eclectic...they are both very lovely of course and it felt great to meet people with the same interests!
We met at the store Maryanne runs- Made on Marion.  They do regular classes and meet-ups.  See the shop's blog here.
Maryanne helped me with my fitting, and we all had a good natter of course.

And look what I scored!  Emily gave this vintage gem to me- under no coercion at all, I swear!  Thank you so much Emily! 

CUUUUUUUUUUUUUTE!

 It's a bit of a lookalike of the Sewaholic Cambie dress, don't you think?  However it has princess seams, no waistband or gathered skirt view, and doesn't have the nifty plain back that Cambie has to prevent your sleeves falling off your shoulders!

What is does have however, are a few different strap/sleeve views which are cute and check this out:

Isn't that the CUTEST trim on the sleeves and pockets!?  I gotta copy this.

It's a size above what I normally would fit in the waist (right size for the hips though!).  I will have to give it a crack at some point, but first I must attend to my list which is already a mile long!  For now I will just enjoy having the pattern in my hot little hands :)

Too bad I didn't get any pictures of the meet-up, but it was so great.  Isn't it awesome how we can connect through the internet? :)