I'm Back

This blog has been badly ignored, almost abandoned, for the last seven months. I have nothing better in the way of excuse other than that life got in the way.  I put away my needles for the summer and all the other crafts also took a back seat to my family obligations. The next few months are also going to be busy but I hope to put up a few posts now and then.
In knitting news, I only restarted knitting last month and have knitted only two pairs of fingerless gloves.

The first one was a DROPS design that I made on comission. I always enjoy colorwork so it was a breeze. Once it was done, I wanted to knit another.

This design was reverse-engineered from an pin on pinterest. It has some embroidery too, in the form of a flower an the back of the wrist, and I add some pearl beads for good measure. I guess my eldest daughter will be claiming this pair.

  In other news, my biggest project of the year (fourteen months to be exact), the dollhouse, is nearing completion. I just need to add a few minor things and take pictures.

  Other than that, our life has been most ordinary and routine, Alhamdulillah. The weather is slowly turning milder and I feel knitting beckoning me once more. Letvus see how much I can manage in the coming months.

Winter Fantasy Cardigan

After a summer-long hiatus, this project was recently picked up again.  At that point, it needed a few inches of knitting on the body and both sleeves. A few rows on it every night and it is finally done. I sewed the buttons on it last evening and wove in the ends this morning.

I like stranded work so this was a good, fun project. Knitting top-down meant reversing the instructions and doing some recalculation to adjust gauge. The cardigan is on the smaller side, because I was tired of baggy sweaters (and perhaps am a bit deluded about my actual size). All-in-all it was a satisfactory project and just the thing to bring back the knitting mood.

Craft Break

The final examinations are over and the school is out for the older kids, so I have a bit more free time, Alhamdolillah. I have been putting that time to good use by expanding my craft horizons. I have been indulging in clay art and jewelry making. Only a beginner in both, I have had a lot of fun with both. My oldest daughter joins in the fun and has been enjoying herself a good deal. We made some fridge magnets, candle holders and heaps of jewelry.

 Besides all that and a bit of sewing, I also managed to start the colorwork cardigan that I was hoping to, in the last post. I have never made a colowork sweater for myself and had been wanting to for some time.

 The pattern is a DROPS free pattern, but I decided to knit it from the top down. The yoke is done and I am halfway down the body now. It is looking good, though the progress has been slow on 3 mm needles. I am thinking of adding the colorwork to the sleeve cuffs. That should keep it interesting.

Selina Tunic

The March sweater got finished on Friday.  What can I say about it, it was just my kind of project _ a yoke full of colorwork, and stretches of plain stockinette stitch for mindless knitting. And it turned out pretty cute as well.

The pattern is another DROPS free one, the yarn, our local acrylic. My daughter did not want crosses in the center of colorwork,  so I replaced them with some flowers.

I have selected the pattern for the next kids' sweater, but the yarn for it still needs to be wound. While I wait for that to happen, I have started a vest for myself.
And as it is spring already, I have many sewing projects lined up.

March Sweater Progress

My knitting resolutions for 2016 include knitting at least two full-fledged sweaters for each of the four kids, plus a couple of vests and a sweater and vest for myself, insha Allah. It roughly amounts to a sweater a month. I finished one sweater for my son at the start of the year, and completed the second one for him, last month. Now I am working on the third sweater.

  It is to be a tunic/dress for my second daughter. Now that the fun part of knitting that is colorwork, is done, I feel my progress slowing down. But with half a month left, I am optimistically hopeful that it will be done within my set deadline.

Meanwhile, I am shortlisting patterns for another five sweaters for my girls. Do you have any favorites to recommend?

Endpaper Mitts

Life has been very busy lately. March is the month of kids' final examinations. So on top of all the drudgery of routine housework, I also have to help them with their exams preparation. At the same time, I am also fighting a case of common cold. Not an ideal time for crafty pursuit, but colorwork made this project to interesting enough for me to make steady progress.

Modelled by my oldest daughter 

I had wanted to knit this pattern for a very long time.  The yarns are leftover Knit Picks Stroll Solids (barn red) and Knit Picks Stroll Tonal (Springtime).
I enjoyed colorwork so much, that I have cast on another project involving it. That is to be a tunic for my middle daughter. 

Snowflake Gloves

These days, my son is really taken with all things frost-related. So it came to me as no surprise when he wanted me to make him a pair of gloves with snowflakes on them. But it was taking a things to far, when he decided he wanted the color of gloves to be light blue. I tried to talk him into navy blue, but there was no dissuading him. Also, he handpicked the snowflake and all.

   Though not my first choice of color, the light blue has slowly grown on me and the finished gloves do look quite cute. And, of course, they make him very happy, so much so that he has worn them to school for two days straight (and brought back an intact pair).

By the time these pictures were taken, the gloves had seen two days of  wear.

 For the actual knitting, I took elements from a couple of patterns, with a bit of improvisation thrown in. The patterns are listed on the ravelry project page. I ran out of blue yarn with an inch of thumb left to be knit, and the extra few yards that I managed to get from the yarn shop, were not an exact match. So, I did a bit of striping, alternating both yarns at the left thumb, in an effort to blend them. All in all, this pair for a pleasure to knit, and I think I love knitting fair-isle more than the cables.

Neville Sweater

I started this sweater in March and worked slowly on the body. Then it remained mostly untouched during the summer, only to be taken out last month. At the time of my last post, two weeks back, I was working on the first sleeve. Continuing on, I knitted both sleeves and joined them to the body and knitted up the fair-isle yoke to finish up the sweater.

 The yarn is our local acrylic, the pattern is a Garnstudio DROPS free design. I chose to make an adult size sweater for my ten-year-old, because it is a bit tiring when kids grow out of the handknits after a single season. My son can wear this one with rolled cuffs this year, and hopefully will last him a few more years.

The plain black part was boring and tedious stockinette st, and it was extremely slow-going, but the things looked up with the yoke. I loved knitting the fair-isle part. And the end result was totally worth all the slog.

The sweater has been well received, my son did not want to take it off, regardless of the fact that it was 32 C today. My husband also thought it was outstanding. And as a bonus, I think I got my knitting mojo back with this one.

Little Blossom Cardigan

 

I got the buttons and finished up the intarsia sweater. I had to make something for my toddler as she was keenly waiting for something to fit her, trying on all the little baby projects while I worked on them, recently. So I promised her a sweater with flowers. It took care of my need for some color work too, as well as using up some of the leftover yarns. I made a few changes to the pattern, omitting the side slits, doing garter rib instead of seed stitch and added a crochet trim around the collar cuffs and bottom. I knit the 3-4 year size, so it is a bit large on her for now. However she is quite happy with it, flowers, pockets and all.

Intarsia Preview

I did start a little intarsia project to appease the unusual craving I had for some more color work. It is a cardigan for my toddler. It is nearly done, however, I still have to find the right buttons for it. So it will be a few more days before I have a FO photo. Here I leave you with a small preview:

Initially, I was planning a hat to go with it but all this color work has apparently taken care of my craving rather too well. And I can not wait to get it finished and start something new and different.

Another Start

After the sizing problems with the first design, I thought I was going to try something different in monochrome.But I could not get colorwork out of my head. So I looked around and found this chart for mittens. A little adaptation later, I was able to put it into my new pullover.

 

This chart was just the thing to get my interest back into knitting. I am enjoying this sweater and already planning ahead for my future projects. And I must replenish my stash too, so I'll be shopping for some yarn soon!

Spring Sewing Part 2

 It has been ten days since my last post. Looking back, I know I indulged in some sort of craft activity, most of those ten days, still there is not much to show for it. I did sew a couple of my shalwar kameez but that does not make for interesting blog content. I also sewed a dress and a top for my five-year old:

Both have almost identical draft, just variation in length and placement of elastic gives different results. 

  Sadly, on the knitting front, my color work project did not go very well. I had started Dance of Robots for my son. The pattern is for 3-7 year olds and my son is eight. I was hoping to get the right size with larger needle size but my optimism was unrealistic. It makes me sad, because I quite loved the pattern.

 So I have ripped back and will start with something quite different. No color work this time, unless someone has any suggestions?