Oh, my goodness - I'm glad this bauble is done! It was *way* harder than I expected: it's on 4 DPNs for a start - which somehow seems a lot of fuss for a little bauble - and it is basically all casting on and off . . . and has a *chart*! Fouf. Still, it looks cute now, though I wasn't feeling quite so fond of it last night, as I struggled to knit around the polystyrene ball (yes, the top segment is knitted once the polystyrene ball is in) while trying to keep track of Hunted... The ball was harder to find than I expected, too - but they had loads in Something Special in Feathers Yard, Holt (where they also sell some nice James Brett yarn and great dress-making fabrics). I was going to buy about 12 balls and make a garland - I'm so glad common sense kicked in and I thought I'd just try the one...
A bigger achievement, now: my GF's jumper is done - woo hooo! This has been on the go for a while. I wish I could say it's been a pleasure. Actually the yarn itself has been: I didn't use the Sirdar Chunky that the pattern was written for, but some gorgeous Sublime Merino Chunky which is pure wool. It feels just luscious. However, the making of the jumper was a drama! Firstly, my GF is a size 14, but I had to undo part of the back and reknit it as a 16. Then I nearly ran out of wool, even though I'd bought TWO extra balls, and the requirements were the same for the 16 as the 14 . . . I think this is a feature of Sirdar patterns as I also ran out of wool when I made my own top similar to this one: I used the proper wool, too, for that one and the lovely @SmilesALot very kindly sent me a rescue ball from her stash to complete it.
*Anyway*, also, on the jumper above: I knitted what I thought was the front, all the cables etc, only to find that it was only the back! I obviously hadn't looked carefully enough at the pattern, but I could already see that the wool situation was going to be tight ... so I had to unpick the top and shape the neck to turn the cabled back into the front, and then knit a plain stocking stitch back to save wool. It seems to have worked, although I didn't plan for the fact that cables pull the knitted fabric in rather, so the SS back is a little wider than the front - but actually, although I worried about it while stitching it up, you can't tell. I was asked, plaintively, a fair few times by my GF whether she would be able to wear it at Christmas and now - hurrah - she can. So, overall, I'm quite pleased - but I am also relieved it's worked out so well! Christmas can go ahead, after all!
No comments:
Post a Comment