I've been quietly working away on the
Apres Surf Hoodie for a couple of weeks now, after I joined the
mini KAL that started on Ravelry recently. I've also been working on the
Leyburn sock. Although in a fit of cleaning I tucked it somewhere safe and cat-proof, and when I was taking photos, I couldn't find it. You know how it goes.
I knit, every day. So you'd think I'd be making some good progress, right?
WRONG. I have no idea what's up with my knitting at the moment. I was having a lot of difficulty with the Leyburn sock, so I frogged it, decided to give it a couple weeks so I could cool off, and then I'd try it again. I've recently cast on for it again, but it is currently little more than a toe pocket.
As for the Apres Surf Hoodie, which I'm calling my Reading Hoodie (I don't surf, but I have read 5 books so far while knitting it...), I made the decision to knit it in the round instead of separately front and back. I figured I'd save myself an evening of seaming in lace, which seemed so clever at the time. But then my brain decided to have tremendous difficulty in adapting the pattern for working in the round (possibly because 4 of the 5 books I was reading were the Twilight series...bloody distracting books!), particularly when it came into increasing in the pattern. Le sigh.
So in the mean time, I decided to churn out a quick knit just to keep my knitting morale up:
Pattern: Mary Jane Booties
Needles: 3.5 mm
Yarn: Stash DK weight, fingering weight for embroidery details
Mods: I went up .5 a needle size, since they seem to be very small. I'm glad I did, I think it helped a bit. And, of course, the embroidery- just a little extra detail to make them extra pretty.
Notes: These were a very quick knit. I knit both booties in the same day, and then embroidered on the details the next day. buttons were harder to find, but ta-da! I'm really pleased with how they turned out.
With all the people I know who are pregnant, one of my goals this summer/fall is to stockpile some baby knits, as I know of three new babies that will be coming into my circle of family and friends between August and October of this year. Hopefully one of them will be a girl, so they can receive these lovely little mary janes. And if not- well, I know that these are not the last babies that will be coming my way. I'll just stockpile!
I'm wearing a long sleeved shirt underneath this, and I'm absolutely roasting!! Don't let the lace fool you, this is a toasty sweater indeed.
(apparently I'm just showing off my underarm seaming skills, while putting my hair back)
Pattern: Apres Surf Hoodie
Yarn: Knit Picks Bare - Merino Wool/Silk Fingering Weight
Needles: 3.25 mm circs
Mods: Adjusted pattern for knitting in the round, instead of knitting the front and back separately.
Notes: I spent a lot of time reading while knitting this, so I thought Reading Hoodie was a good name for it. I love the pattern, I love the final result. The experience of knitting it was a lot like knitting Thermal- it took a lot longer than I wanted it to, but the results were perfect. I will say that I regret knitting it in the round- I found that doing increases and decreases while keeping in the lace pattern really challenging (although I will consider that it may be due to all the reading while knitting...). When it came time to do the sleeves, I knit them flat and seamed them. Much faster; but then I've never felt put off by seaming.
I never wear hoodies with the hood up, but here's the hood up back view.
I found these photos on my camera, and thought I'd share. Here's one of my cats, Yarn, contemplating the hoodie in progress:
"Hmmm, how hard is this whole knitting thing, anyway.... I'm sure I could do it!"
"a long sleeved lace hoodie on 3.25 mm needles?! You must be nuts!"
Erm, yup. But being nuts leads to lovely white lace hoodies!!! Now excuse me, I'm going to frolic with more ponies.
