Projects finished and projects in hand

Blogging has been suspended recently for reasons of illness and being in Portugal for work. Knitting, however, most definitely hasn’t. So here’s what I’ve been up to.

First, I finished the sample for Knit Now magazine and managed to send it off in time to meet the deadline. I will of course let you all know when the magazine is in the shops.

I also completed the baby cardie commissioned by a friend. She was very happy with the finished product and I hope the final recipient will be too. I made this in Rico Superwash Merino, a lovely soft yarn that’s (the clue’s in the name) machine washable – a somewhat important consideration when it comes to baby clothes. I also made a baby hat using the leftover yarn.

Hat and cardie. The buttons are tiny blue teddies.

This swatched up slightly bigger than the recommended Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, even knitted on 3.75mm needles rather than the suggested 4mm. But I figured it wouldn’t really matter if the finished piece was a bit bigger than anticipated. The baby will grow into it after all. I actually much preferred the tension achieved with the smaller needle. I think the Superwash tends to knit up a bit too loosely on 4mm needles. So an experiment that paid off.

Finally I’ve been knitting Champs-Elyssees handwarmers for my niece. These were meant to be for her birthday which was last week, so I’ve missed that. Oh well. This is really quite complicated lace pattern, which has been a lot of fun to do but I have made several mistakes and had to undo it a few times. On the plus side I’ve learnt how to make a thumb hole using M1 increases. This is the benefit of following other people’s patterns – you learn new stuff.

This is just the first handwarmer. I've still got number
two to make.

 All photos my own.