November and Creature Comforts Cardi

November was a month of hope improvements. We had to get the plumbing replaced in the bathroom, to make sure we had hot water this winter. Besides that and some electrical work, we decided it was time to throw out are old, nearly crumbling, carpets and have new flooring installed. That, of course, involved a lot of moving around of furniture, and a lot more of cleaning. But in the end, it was so worth the effort. We are now able to breathe and live in much cleaner and dust-free space, alhamdollillah. And in my effort to keep it that way, I have turned into something of an obsessive-compulsive, cleaning up the littlest of particles and mopping, all day long. And my husband has a thing going for doormats and shaggy rugs!

 In the middle of all the mayhem, I found time to finish my cardigan. To be fair, it is a shrug, knitted as a rectangular piece, so it did not take much time. The aran sweater sleeve that I am knitting for my son's sweater, has probably taken more time. Anyway, I had wanted to knit this pattern for a long time, even though I was uncertain about the shrug style. And I am happy that I did. The leaf pattern was fun to knit. And even if it is not the most comfortable and coziest thing, the cardi does look nice and is a break from the usual, run-of-the mill styles. I have been wearing it for two weeks now. The only issue is the ribbing everting, but that just may be because of the yarn being acrylic and not blocked.

Now, I am trying to complete my son's sweater. As I mentioned, the cables take a lot of time, but hopefully I will have a finished sleeve soon and can finish the other one over the coming week. That is, if I get some time off from the cleaning. I have some windows and sofa cleaning planned for this week.

Bulle

It must be the longest a finished project of mine has taken, to get posted on the blog, but life has been very busy lately, and I survive by triaging my to-to list. So this is the sweater for my eldest daughter which got done last week.

 The pattern was a pleasure to knit, easy and super fast.  I even took it on a car ride, which shows just how desperate I was for some knitting time, because I almost never do that. Only modification was that I lengthened the sleeves to full-length. I used red yarn for the pockets. It turned out very cute.

 

 It was very well-received too, she loves to wear it and pockets always clinch a deal with the kids. My husband suggested I also knit one for our middle one.

I am already well into my next project, which is to be a cardigan for me. And yes, I am still avoiding that baby dress on tiny needles.

October Update

I have no pictures of any wonderful FO (finished object) yet, but my knitting has picked up speed lately. I started this month with a dress for my daughter. Fingering weight yarn on 3.25 mm needles, made ten days of knitting equivalent to this:

At that point, I decided to take a break and start something else. Almost-worsted weight yarn on 5 mm needles made a for much faster knitting and this sweater has come this far over a few days:

I have finished the sleeves since I took that photo and hopefully there will be a FO within a day or two, insha Allah. Which means, it is time to pick my next thicker yarn project, to knit alongside the toddler dress.

Green Baby Dress

This year, I find myself drawn to little baby dresses to knit. I am currently knitting one of my youngest and I got one off the needles recently. This post is about the latter.

 Like several knitters on Ravelry, I took the hybrid approach for this dress, taking the yoke pattern from one pattern and the body pattern from another. As I was using finer yarn, I had to do many modifications to the yoke, adding rows to the leaf pattern and simultaneously increasing the stitch count. For the body, I did eleven repeats of the flora dress pattern. I ended up doing rib border instead of moss stitch one, as it looked neater in this acrylic yarn. It all sounds quite complicated but it turned out quite easy to execute. I think it is a fine dress, though I am not sure about the color and acrylic is not the best choice of yarn for this dress.

Eid Sewing

 

 The only sewing project I did this Eid was a dress for my eldest daughter. She wanted something fancy, with glitters, sheer material and whatnot.

  She chose the style herself while I got to pick the materials. The sewing itself was pretty straight forward. A simple bodice out of sequined fabric and a full skirt made of tulle panels with a lining. The bodice is lined too. The brown ribbon at the waist brought everything together.

 

 Needless to say, she loves wearing it.  And I love that twirl.

Eid Mubarak

Wishing you all a happy, peaceful and all-around wonderful Eid!

Prairie Fire

 

The second attempt at a toddler sweater with the yellow yarn, was a success.  This time, I went for a pullover rather than a cardigan. Interestingly, this pattern has the same lace pattern as Lucille cardigan, which I had tried earlier. 

 Again, I had to recalculate for finer yarn and needles. I went up to a size 8T to get a size 2T but it was easily managed and I had enough yarn to finish it comfortably.

photo taken in front of a mirror

The pattern was a pleasure to knit and went fast. It fits our toddler wonderfully well and after nearly a month knitting with this yarn, I am more than eager to take on a different one.