The legwarmers above was one of my finishes from last week. Months ago (possible around Christmas time) I had my sister look through my sock knitting books and said I would knit her whatever pattern she chose. I also got her looking through my sock wool. She piked out tropical fish by Zauberball and legwarmers. The pattern was from "Love To Knit Socks" by Bronwyn Lowenthel. It was very easy and quick to knit. It was also very dull. I think if it wasn't for the interesting colourway of the yarn and that I was knitting them for my sister I would have given up after one. Or at least delayed knitting the other. As it was my sister has been waiting a long time for them and not a week has went by where she hasn't asked for them. Glad I did finish them as she was so excited and hasn't had them off since. If knitting these legwarmers with Zauberball I recommend increasing extra stitches at the last increase row. It seemed a little too tight to me. Actually all the cuffs of the socks in this book seem a little too narrow although I have yet to knit any of them.
A lady from the knitting group I run is pregnant with her fourth baby. She is going to have a little boy in July. This means we will get to hold a baby shower for her (we love excuses for this kind of thing). I am known for knitting blankets and so I didn't want to break from tradition. I chose Baby Tweed Blanket by Jared Flood. It's a very simple square knitted in garter stitch with a lace edging. I had wanted to knit the blanket in navy and cream as the expectant lady isn't one for traditional baby colours. My local yarn store didn't have the colours I wanted so chose the above instead. I thought this was going to be a long term project. During the Sunday knitting group though I sped through it and I have almost reached the decreases. Might just be as well since we are holding the baby shower on the second week of June.
A friend of mine is an avid sock knitter. Due to the amount of travelling she needs to do she knits nothing but socks (although in the past she has knitted jumpers, blankets, fair isle, etc). She actually inspired me to learn along with a number of others at the knitting group, including my mum. I might be the one the sock bug has really stuck to. I learned last year and I have now knitted 22 socks. Anyway, she decided to knit little squares using left over sock wool and stitch them together into a blanket. My left over sock wool is steadily growing and have decided to copy this idea. I am knitting the squares in a diamond and plan to stitch them that way. My gran knits a lot of her blankets this way and they turn out lovely. What I would like to do is a rainbow blanket and have the colours working it's way through the pallet. That's the plan anyway. It will take me some time to knit all the squares. They are so small and portable though I can do them every so often.
This long term project has been going on for about a year. It's my attempt at learning crochet. Last year I decided that I was going to have one more attempt at learning to crochet and if it I couldn't do it once again I would give up the dream and admire the work of others (maybe convince one of them to crochet me something as an exchange). I picked out Sirdar Wash n Wear double crepe because it seemed easy to work with. Thanks to the lovely ladies of my knitting group I did actually learn how to crochet and this is now going to be a throw for a double bed. I ran out of yarn and the yarn stores stopped stocking it. It was about six months before I finally got round to ordering it online (as soon as it arrived the yarn stores began stocking these shades again). It's something I pick up every now and then and find very relaxing.
I like to have long term projects on the go and do smaller ones in between. The smaller projects are ideal to take to the knitting group depending on how much concentration I need for them. I finished the latest long term project last week. It was a cable throw for my sister which you can see above. The pattern is from "Classic Knits At Home" by Erica Knight. The pattern is very easy to follow. It called for chunky yarn but I used a basic aron instead. It meant the throw turned out narrower than the pattern suggested. I also made it a little shorter by doing only 20 repeats of the pattern. It just means it won't cover a bed but was never meant for that anyway.
My latest long term project is a lace throw from the same book. It is knitted in four panels. Each panel has a different lace pattern. They are all stitched together and then a border is knitted round it. It should turn out large enough to fit a double bed. This time I stuck with the pattern suggestion and used Rowan Kidsilk Haze. It's my first attempt at knitting such a large lace project. It's also my first try at using 2 ply yarn. I thought that if I drop a stitch I might cry then toss it aside. Thankfully I came up against this challenge not long into it and survived. Mind you I am still on the stocking stitch part of the panel. I don't know how I will react when it happens once I get to the lace section (there may really be a lot of crying then). The pattern recommends that you cast on with a bigger size needle. I have to say I agree with it. It really saves a lot of frustration just on the first row. I chose red as it's a gift for my mum and it's her favourite colour. It also means it will take me quite a while as I will have to knit it in secret.